Salrie froze, unsure of what to do, this was entirely outside of the scope of what she planned for. What did she do, how did she screw up already? She had no idea what she had done in the 10 seconds she was summoned to draw such hate from the hero. But she knew whatever reason he was looking at her with such ire was purely her fault, it couldn't be a problem with the hero after all. He was the chosen one picked by the Goddess to save the entirety of Altera. Sadly, she was not aware the hero in front of her was haphazardly chosen and had a few screws loose.
"I apologize sir hero for whatever I did, if you could allow me to know what I did wrong I can surely correct it."
"Correct it? Well, then you'd have to correct your entire being, starting with your stupid ass hair and dumb little eyes."
"Eeek!" Salrie was shocked, she ran through her head multiple times trying to figure out what about her made the hero hate her so much that it made her dizzy. Her previous calm facade instantly broke as she became more and more nervous and her face began to turn red.
"I'm sorry sir, whatever I did I can make up for it!"
As Loren saw the girl shrivel up like a tiny hamster in fear he started to feel uncomfortable, it wasn't her fault he was in this situation, but her likeness to the goddess instantly put her on his wrong side. He decided to at least let her know why he was so mad instead of leaving her thinking it was her fault.
"Sigh... Salrie right?"
"Y-Yes"
"Can you see that screen?" Loren pointed at the system.
"Of-of course as the system guide I can see the system screen so I'm able to help you with whatever questions and inquiries you have rega- HUH?"
Noticing that the entire screen was greyed out except for the tab that summoned her, Salrie's eyes widened.
"Can you guess why I'm mad now? Other than you, I have no access to the rest of the system. In fact, I won't ever have access to it since it's not even there."
"WHAT?! That's impossible, I know the system front to back and the only way that could happen is..."
"If that stupid Goddess chose more than one hero making the system shatter into pieces?"
'H-he call the Goddess stupid?!' Salrie was both floored by the system not working and that the hero called the one and only Goddess Salferia stupid.
"No! Something else has to be wrong, there's no universe in which the Goddess made such a mistake!"
Loren was silent, he just stared at the poor girl who refused to accept the reality.
"Well, you can believe it if you want, but you just said there was only one way the system could be broken like this. And sure enough, all I'm seeing is grey."
"Impossible, this is utterly... impossible."
She was utterly flummoxed, how was it possible that the Goddess that all of Saltera believed in, the person she was made in the image of, made such a... stupid mistake? Salrie could do nothing but stare at the ground in disbelief, she felt like all the common sense she knew just flew out the window. Tears the size of grains of sand began to form in her eyes.
"Hey hey, don't be too sad, she's a goddess, right? So she has to be a few thousand years old. The old crone's mind must be waning, don't worry it's natural."
'Even if she made a mistake, how can he be so rude to the Goddess?' In her panic, Salrie was still annoyed at Loren's disrespect, her brows forming into a cute little frown.
"Anyway, what's done is done, I just spend the better half of a day being depressed about this, I don't need you to be as well. What I want to know is if there are anyways you can help me now that your job as a system guide has become pointless. Plus you have no reason to be so sad right? You're just in for the ride, even if I die because of that idiot's mistake, it's not going to affect you."
Loren's last sentence made Salrie freeze up as she realized something.
"Actually... Since I'm part of the system and the system is linked to your soul, if you die... I would also perish..." She weakly uttered as the tears in her eyes began to fall and turn into a stream.
"Oh..."
'Damn, she was screwed just as much as I was.' Loren looked at the poor girl having a nervous breakdown with pity.
"Well, I guess we're in this together then huh, that b*tch f**ked the both of us over pretty hard, hahaha!"
Loren patted Salrie on the shoulder with his hand, actually index finger really since she was too small. But his poor attempt at consoling her fell flat, Salrie was still processing that she could die at the moment, she spent her entire life in the safety of heaven after all, and the thought of dying never occurred to her. She was too young!!! She was barely an adult, only 143 years old! Salrie hadn't even noticed that Loren called her idol a female dog, that how anxious she was.
Loren, on the other hand, felt slightly better, having someone share his dread took some weight off his shoulders. It wasn't like he was taking pleasure in seeing someone who looked like Salferia cry, probably.
A few minutes passed like this, with Salrie in a manic state and Loren unsure what to do or how he could get her to stop crying.
'Was this how I was before?'
"OK, I understand how feel, I understand more than anyone in Altera, I was just in the same situation as you a few hours ago. BUT! We need to move forward and see how we can avoid ending up in the underworld, or whatever hell is in this world."
The motivation in Loren's words shook Salrie out of her stupor, he was right, they needed to figure out what to do in the future. She wiped the tears off her face and tried her best to look confident.
"Well... while no one knows when the calamity is going to occur, we know at the very least we have until you reach adulthood. The Goddess wouldn't make a 9-year-old fight to save the world."
"I'm not 100% sure on that... But it's a safe bet. Also, do you know any way we can find the other heroes? While I'm not sure we can trust them since we haven't met them, they're our most likely allies in this since the system confirmed no one can steal the system from others and we all have the same goal. We at least need to form a connection"
Salrie shook her head.
"I have no idea, sorry. I was made the system guide before any of the heroes were chosen, so I have no information on any of them, other than that they should be in the Saltera continent since that's where the Goddess' dominion is. I don't even know any information about you. At most, they would all be the same age since that's the only scenario where the system would... Sigh"
'Damn, that's one plan down. At least I don't have to look all over the world.' Loren scratched his chin, trying to think of a way to find the other heroes. Looking at the system screen he said.
"Well, first we should keep our ears out for any geniuses my age appearing in the next few years. Can you tell me what each part of the system does? We can at least figure out what each of them might do in the future."
Salrie lit up! Yeah, they didn't know where they were but they knew what the system did. Each part of the system had a certain way of progression, sure, it was better to have every piece, but having only one meant you had a definite and sure way to get stronger.
"OK! The other 4 parts of the system are levels, quests, skills and the store. For levels, if the hero kills something, whether it be a person or a beast, they'll absorb a small part of their essence as experience, the stronger the opponent the more EXP they gain. Once they gain enough EXP they'll level up and gain stat points, these stats points can be added to their attributes, which are strength, vitality and intelligence just to name a few."
'F**K, That's so OP!' Loren gritted his teeth in jealousy.
"If the way they gain EXP is through killing, there's a high chance they'll decide to become a mercenary, there are other occupations they could choose but I doubt anyone would get more chances to fight and kill than a mercenary."
"Correct, that's also what I would personally recommend them to do, It's a dangerous job but it would ensure the fastest way to growth for someone with only that part of the system." Salrie nodded her head, beginning to find a rhythm with Loren.
"Next are the system quests, this part is fairly simple, depending on where you are and what you're doing, the system can generate optional quests for the hero to complete. These quests can range from helping a group of merchants being attacked or stopping a herd of beasts from rampaging through a town. The quest rewards also vary a lot, they give attributes, potions, weapons or even artifacts."
'The rest I get, but artifacts? Really?!'
"This one's obvious, they'd be an idiot not to become an adventurer, adventurers already do quests daily, the chance a quest they take could turn into a system quest is too good to pass up."
Salrie only nodded, this was the easiest to guess there was no need for more input.
"Skills are more tricky, there are a lot of ways to gain skills. How they work is that once you learn something, the system records it as a skill, from spells to a type of swordsmanship, as you continue practising a skill your proficiency increases from 0% to 100%. Skills are scored with stars the more stars the better, once a skill reaches 100% proficiency it can evolve and gain another star. You can technically make a 1-star fireball spell equal to a 5-star explosion spell through this."
'Holy shit really?!' Loran clutched his chest in pain.
"What happened are you ok?"
Loran waved his hand.
"I'm fine, I'm fine. You're right it's hard to pinpoint a job that could help someone learn as many skills as possible, but I know the perfect place they can go to grab all the skills they want, and it's right here in Belmond Kingdom."
Salrie didn't know where Loran was talking about at first but quickly understood. He could almost a light bulb light up above her head. Oh wait, that was her halo...
"The Belmond Academy! it's perfect! But, don't other countries have renowned academies? Especially the Alphonse empire..." Loran shook his head.
"I may only be 9, but I've spent years nagging at every merchant that came to Rito asking about all the academies around our continent and I know for a fact that while other countries have great academies, they're all focused on a singular thing, like magic academies, knight academies or beast taming academies. Except for the Belmond Academy, they teach everything, from how to wield every weapon imaginable to how to knit a sweater for your girlfriend haha."
"And why would the hero not go there, they can learn as many skills as they want! Why only learn magic when you can learn it all!" Salrie was beaming, it was almost like she had forgotten she just learned that she had a good chance of dying in the future.
"Now for the last one, I don't even need to hear you explain it, anyone that has a shop would become a merchant. That is if you can use real currency correct?"
"Yep! The last part of the system is the shop, which allows you to use the currency of any country or empire, of course, it changes it into points that belong to the system, but you can also take points out into any currency you want. Using the points you can basically buy anything in existence. There's also even a spin wheel that you can use for free weekly that gives out random items or money."
"For free? Sigh... Why did I get you..." Loren whispered.
"Huh? Sorry, I couldn't hear you." Salrie cutely tilted her head, not hearing Loren's insult.
"Err, I said I know exactly what to do now! Other than becoming stronger myself, our first goal in finding the heroes is..."