Merus spoke of how he destroyed the world many times in the past.
This world existed for as long as the gods saw equilibrium in it, and once it reached an unrecoverable point, which seemed to happen every few tens of thousands of years, the gods would reset everything.
That meant mass-murdering all the people living in it, and Merus had helped with that in the past.
While the party listened in horror, Allen was thinking of something else.
(So it's like a major reset that happens almost periodically. I wonder what happened to the world where I used to live though.)
There were civil and international wars, religious and racial conflicts, famines and poverty, large differences in wealth, environmental issues, and many more problems that plagued the world. One issue would get resolved while another popped up, but people continued developing and learning.
Many countries could not meet their expectations for the future, but somehow humanity had survived for millenia, thriving in a way.
But who was to say that maybe in a few more centuries that world would have fallen apart as well?
'Allen you said you were brought here from another world, right?'
Allen had told him to talk, and Merus did so.
"Yes, though it was pretty forceful, or more like I wasn't even given an option."
(I just wanted to play a game, but after I created my character instead of the game starting I was born here as a baby.)
'Your presence here isn't against Elmea's wishes, he chose those with suitable aspirations.'
"That makes sense. Wait, you mentioned Eight Heroes? Was that a plan to get eight people with a similar mentality as me from my world then?"
"There are eight Allens somewhere then?!"
"Cecile, why do you have to word it that way?"
"Oh, I just thought that sounded like an interesting situation."
Merus had mentioned in the past how there were issues with Allen's rapid growth, even after he had filed many complaints with Elmea. Cecile wondered if things were going well in the Gods' realm.
Though she also imagined it could be fun to have eight Allens around.
'Eight people were the plan, yes. If a mistake hadn't happened when calling the first one, Allen.'
"You mean when I almost chose to be the Demon King?"
'Yes, you were about to choose Demon King, so we prepared the Summoner Talent instead, an 8 stars class. But that also meant giving up the ability of calling in anyone else afterwards.'
"So that's how all the power Elmea had reserved was spent just to get me here."
Allen recalled he almost chose to be a Demon King when he was still Kenichi.
Elmea knew that was a bad idea, so he quickly prepared the Summoner class instead, giving it 8 stars. The Spirit God had mentioned that in the past too.
'Yes, the power prepared to bring in eight people was all spent on only one. I'm sure you can understand what that means seeing everything you've achieved and the battlefield you've conquered.'
"That was all thanks to his own efforts."
Kurena finally chimed in.
She knew Allen had been busy throwing rocks at trees since even before he invited her to play knights.
She did not like seeing all his efforts being chalked up to a god's power.
'You have a point. Allen's actions were certainly odd...more like insane...no...'
"""..."""
Merus tried finding the correct words to describe Allen's usual disposition, but he kept mending his own words, unable to find a positive description.
Regardless, it's extremely rare for a demon to become a Demon General. Just one is considered a blessing in their race. I'm sure you understand how unnatural it is for Allen to defeat someone like that with one of his ridiculous strategies.'
"So now you have a different plan than the one with the Eight Heroes."
Allen summarized what he had gleaned from the conversation so far.
'Yes, the plan changed. We don't have the power to call in anyone else now.'
He finally got an answer for something he had been wondering and questioning for a long time.
Usually most of the people in this world lived in Normal Mode.
The Gods and Demon Generals, of which there were very few in this world, were on what the developers called Extra Mode.
There were plans of calling in only eight people to live with six stars and in Extra or Hell Mode.
But the power for that had all been used up by Allen.
(So I'm guessing it was going to be impossible to send me alone to defeat the Demon King.)
There was no way of getting other suitable people from another world, so they decided to look for capable people in this world.
The others in the party also began to nod, realizing what that meant.
After all, Allen had somehow managed to gather a well-rounded and balanced party.
"So you decided to gather talented people around me."
Allen asked something else he had noticed before.
He felt like many of his questions were starting to clear up.
'Pretty much, yes. We just made it easier for similarly skilled people to be born in the same time period, to be precise. Though if we overdid it, the Demon King's Army would've noticed.'
Kurena had the Talent of Sword Saint since she was little.
Then the daughter of a feudal lord was a Mage.
That was no coincidence.
"So God wanted me to fight the Demon King's Army."
'It's you who ultimately decides that. But we thought that was going to be the natural conclusion if you met and became friends. We just weighed the possibilities. After all, even if we got the Eight Heroes as planned, there was no guarantee they would all want to fight the Demon King, so that plan also relied on chance.'
Merus answered Cecile's question.
It was everyone's own choice whether they wanted to join the party or not.
Even if eight Extra or Hell Mode players were gathered like initially planned, there was no guarantee they would fight the Demon King together too.
Their plan relied solely on expecting them to want to fight the Demon King.
"Then Peromus' absurd [Valuate] Skill was also prepared by the gods?"
Allen began talking about Peromus, the son of Kurena Village's mayor.
There was one more person who was of Allen's age, and had a Talent alongside Kurena and Dogora during the Appraisal Ceremony..
That was Peromus.
With his Extra Skill [Valuate] he could determine the value of anything.
"Peromus? So everyone in Kurena Village was always so weird?"
Kiel said as he thought of Peromus.
Everyone in the party knew of the merchant Peromus, even though he had not attended the Academy.
"That's rude. I'm not like them."
"""..."""
Everyone stared at Allen, as if saying he was the weirdest one.
"Oh right, wasn't Peromus going to marry Fiona?"
Cecile seemed to remember something when Peromus was mentioned.
"Ah, maybe. I think Viscount Grandvelle mentioned Chester was on board with the idea."
"That pretty much decides it then. Did he say when the wedding is going to be? They really should invite me. I want to be there for Fiona's wedding."
It had been a while since Cecile last saw Viscount Grandvelle, so she asked Allen, who had left a communication summon in the capital of Latash.
This had happened just before Allen went to the Academy. Apparently Peromus had fallen in love at first sight with Fiona, the daughter of the wealthy merchant Chester.
Chester was the wealthiest man in the Grandver region, and he owned many luxury inns in many cities and even the capital around there.
The son of a developing village's mayor and the richest man lived on essentially different realms.
When Peromus went to talk with Chester, asking for his daughter's hand, he replied saying "Become a worthy merchant first."
He then went to attend the business school in the capital, while opening his shop so Chester would accept him.
"Peromus is getting married!"
Kurena shouted excited, joining the conversation.
The reason why everyone there knew of Peromus was simple. During the two years Allen spent in the Academy, Peromus would constantly come to visit in a Magic Ship, wanting to consult Allen on various things.
"Wait, not yet. Even if the father is okay with it, Fiona herself said that she's still not interested."
Allen said in a sad voice.
Peromus had spent many years working hard, even the wealthy merchant Chester had approved of him, but Fiona had rejected him.
"Huh? I thought Peromus was going to a Dungeon now?"
Merle seemed to remember Allen mentioning something like that about Peromus' whereabouts.
Even after being rejected by Fiona, Peromus refused to give up.
"Yeah, apparently Fiona said something like 'I'm only interested in strong gentlemen'. So now he's trying to clear Dungeons, Raven is helping him and stuff."
(I did lend him rings and other equipment too, for a price. Though I introduced him to Raven for free.)
In the end Peromus had asked Allen for advice not only for trading, but also to become stronger, and was visiting Dungeons now.
Allen was also letting Peromus basically rent his old equipment from his Academy days.
He also introduced Peromus to the adventurers that he met in Granvelle, Raven, Rita, and Milsy. Together with a few mercenaries they were going through Dungeons now.
Allen was impressed with how businesslike he handled everything, paying for equipment and party members.
Allen also had planned on suggesting the name Popolo for the son of a merchant who fought in Dungeons.
"Oh my, it's so wonderful seeing a man work that hard to win over the heart of a woman!"
Sophie was excited thinking about that, her usually white cheeks flushed red, and her golden eyes twinkling.
Everyone in the group had become adults at the age of 15, and the one who seemed more likely and willing to get married first was Peromus.
They all discussed his love story with much interest, hoping he would get married by the end of the year.
"H-hey! That's enough about him!!"
Dogora's potato face was red with anger.
He had tried to endure that conversation, even though that time was supposed to be for his own issues, but he had reached the limit of his patience.
"Okayyy, no need to glare at us like that."
(It's Merus' fault for not stopping us. Okay, where were we...right, my friends, we were talking about my friends.)
"..."
Dogora was glaring angrily at everyone, so they quickly tamed it down and returned to the previous topic.
"Mm? So it wasn't as simple as just gathering other seven heroes in that village, or like a lot of Saints and Swordmasters popping up, right?"
The Demon King's Army was already gathering a lot of information from the human countries.
If something so unusual were to happen, they would know instantly.
'Basically that. Anyway, you wanted to know why Dogora can't use his Extra Skill, right?'
Merus finally looked ready to talk about the main topic of the entire conversation.
"My Extra Skill?"
'Yes. Your stars couldn't be increased, so instead your Extra Skill was changed.'
"So you gave him a more powerful Extra Skill?"
Allen seemed to catch on, pushing the conversation forward.
'Precisely. There's basically an endless amount of Extra Skills, so a suitable one was chosen. Well, for everyone except Dogora.'
"Huh? Wait! So I was left out?!"
His potato face seemed about to burst.
'Not exactly. A suitable Extra Skill wouldn't have been effective enough, at least according to Elmea.'
(Hm? Ahh, I see, so that's why he was hesitant to talk about this.)
"Is this about the limit of three Extra Skills per person you mentioned before?"
'...Yes, basically Dogora's Extra Skill is a King Rank one.'
"""King Rank?!""
No one had heard of that before.
Everyone's voices overlapped.
Merus waited a bit before continuing.
Extra Skills are extremely varied, some more effective than others.
While there is a limit of three Extra Skills per person, each of those has to be from a different rank.
Those ranks go in ascending order, General, King, and Emperor.
"Allen aside, everyone here has an Extra Skill. They're all General Rank, but Dogora's is King Rank."
(Even Cecile's Small Meteorite is General Rank then. If I assume that as the ceiling of General Rank Extra Skills, then Dogora's must be a step above that.)
"O-oh, huh, so only I got a King Rank one."
Dogora looked pleasantly surprised.
'Well, your objective is to kill the Demon King after all. Elmea thought that no matter what Extra Skill you were given, it would not be good enough for a battleaxe warrior, so he forcefully gave you a higher ranking one.'
So in the end, Allen was not the only one helped along by the God of Creation Elmea.
"Hm? Is that also why I can't use it?"
'Essentially yes. There are others who got a King Rank Extra Skill as their first one, but it's extremely rare. But basically none of them were able to use it right away. So at least I feel like it's normal that you can't activate it yet.'
Merus continued explaining.
A King Rank Extra Skill packed an immense amount of power, but even seasoned warriors, or those who trained for a long time, still needed many decades before they could use it.
So Merus saw Dogora's struggle as something completely normal.
In a way, he thought it was a miracle Dogora had activated it just one time in the past.
"Isn't there some way to make it easier to use?"
"Like a condition you must fulfill to use it? There's nothing like a shortcut pill you can drink to use it instantly. Extra Skills are like a representation of their user's life. You need to live more. To be honest, I wouldn't be able to tell you how long it'll take."
Extra Skills varied between each person, and activating them was complex on top of that.
"So I'm special."
(Oh? Merus, tell him he's right.)
Even though Allen and Merus could share their thoughts, Allen still stared at him to do so.
Merus just shook his head.
'Listen Dogora. Just like how Elmea gave Helmios power to fight the Demon Generals, you also have a special power. But whether you learn to wield it or not, depends solely on you.'
"I have a power...just like the hero's."
'Power befitting a hero.'
"A hero, huh. So I can become a hero too."
Merus had told him it all depended on him, but Dogora was looking at his palms, his mind overtaken by new feelings.
