A master / The upcoming child

During one day when it was quiet in the inn, Iloton asked Jes a question "How strong is that guy Galen?" Jes responded "Strong enough to cause you trouble." Iloton says "Elaborate."

Jes then takes a deep breath and then says "Two of his most powerful qualities include an infinite mana pool and a skill called "Defiance". HIs infinite mana pool can run out, it just has the capacity to store infinite amounts of mana. His defiance ability can defy any cause and effect as long as he has enough mana. And when I mean any, I mean any. If fire burns, the material that is supposed to be fuel can increase. If the water boils, instead of steaming, it can start to freeze. Instead of dying, he can live through any attack. If he receives damage, the damage can be transferred to something else instead or completely negate the damage. So in short, he is basically unkillable as long as he has enough mana. His tier is 16 in terms of power, but his ability can easily topple the strongest of them all."

Iloton asks "Can he defy your ability as well?" Jes answers "As long as I don't give him the time to use his skill or if I drain his mana enough, then I can take him down quite easily. Making my ability to erase someone to target me instead is something he cannot simply do since the amount of mana required is immense. He can still shift the erasure to something else with enough mana."

Then there is a moment of silence. After a while, Iloton asked "Then how about the strongest people Iloton has met? What is their tier?" Jes then says "Levil is tier 27. Dikaio is tier 16. Polemos is tier 17. Bellum is tier 14. Teko is tier 31. Kin is tier 24. Am I missing someone?" Iloton then says "Iloton wonders what are the tiers of the women that like Jes?"

Jes is taken back for a moment as he tries to think of the possible people Iloton might be referring to. Then he says "As you know, Diane is around tier 8 and so is her father. Elision… She is around tier 11 and bordering tier 12. Does Ilina count? Anyways, she is around tier 9. I suppose Eve qualifies as well so she is tier 6 at the moment. Aia… she is bordering around tier 4 but she is still tier 3. Then there would be Gnosi to some extent, but she is tier 13. Rilli is about tier 6 or maybe even tier 7. And… I guess your Iloinen do prefer to take the appearance of a woman when they visit a world. They also have shown great interest in me at some level in the past. In terms of this world's tier system, she would be classified as tier 33."

Iloton thinks for a moment as she mutters "Iloton sees. Iloton sees." Then she looks back at Jes and says proudly "So even the strongest in this world can't defeat Iloton's parent." Jes responded with "While the tier system does give an indication of a person's strength, a lower tier can beat a higher tier. It is quite common when adventurers go about hunting things. For example, a tier 2 adventurer can be tasked to take down tier 4 boar by themselves. The tier indicates raw power, but it does not take into account a person's techniques, perception, adaptability and so on. Galen is a prime example for this. Even if he is tier 16, he can easily take down someone who is even twice his tier if he plays his cards right. And then there is Gnosi who is one of the weaker gods in terms of the tier system, but the knowledge she has can be used to outsmart her opponent if given enough time."

Iloton is silent for a moment. Then Jes said "I have a tale about a master swordsman who once bested even me in terms of techniques. He could never physically hurt me since I'm close to impervious to any damage that doesn't come from tiers below 26. I can choose when I have it up, though it doesn't matter most of the time. But that time when I fought that master swordsman, who was old for a human and he would have been tier 6 in this world, if I didn't have my toughness back then, he could have severed my head during the battle."

Iloton asks "What happened to the master swordsman?" Jes answers "He came to find a worthy opponent to die against. In the end, while I was capable of killing him, I didn't see myself as someone worthy enough to end his life. In the end, he committed suicide right infront of me while saying "This is as far as I go. I'm finally deserving of death's grasp after a worthy defeat. I have no regrets." I made sure to bury him in his hometown."

Iloton says "Iloton doesn't understand. How could someone who was only tier 6 defeat someone who has had an unimaginable amount of time to hone their skills?" Jes says "Don't say that he was "just" tier 6. That was a high tier for a human to reach. As of how he was able to defeat me… well, once you get used to a certain level of wind, a gust of wind that is much stronger than the initial wind can topple you."

Iloton says "So what Jes is trying to say is that Jes was careless?" Jes says "To some extent." Iloton asks "So if you would have known how skillful the master swordsman was, could Jes have defeated him?" Jes says "Defeating the master swordsman was easy. Overpowering him however, well that's a different story." Iloton saw Jes have a warm smile on his face that she did not understand.

Then Jes starts muttering to himself "In all honesty, I'm not fond of the tier system in this world. Power level systems in those other worlds however, well they were something that made things clear."

Then there was silence in the inn for a while. After a while, Iloton read something in a book that made her ask a question from Jes "How does Jes feel about death?" Jes answers "Death is the end of life. Quite self explanatory. End of consciousness on the other hand, that's a different topic."

Iloton asks "What does Jes mean by that?" Jes answers with "End of life is death. When life ends, it can no longer affect the outside world. When the consciousness ends, then all ends. For me, death is but a setback for a moment. At the beginning when I died a lot and I had trouble creating a physical body again, I spent a lot of time just observing things. But one day something ended my consciousness and that me was no longer. Eventually the law of the forgotten grew another consciousness that became a new me. That me had all the same memories of the previous one and it did not register that it was a different entity. The end of consciousness happened several times until I realized that when my consciousness ends, it is the end of that me and the new me will take over the memories eventually."

Iloton asks "How did that make Jes feel?" Jes answers "I was shocked for a moment. But then I realized that in the grand scheme of things, it did not matter. Even if I want to end my consciousness again, I know that I will just shift the burden to the new me that will eventually come. That is why I stopped caring."

Iloton says "But didn't you choose to die back then?" Jes says "You are referring to my last death. Yes, even though I knew that I would only shift the burden to new me and it won't end, that consciousness of me decided that it couldn't take the pain anymore and made it necessary for others to kill that version of me."

Iloton says "Iloton doesn't know how Iloton would handle that." Jes says "Some people can handle it, but there are those who would become insane if their lives were like that. Though if their life was like that, they would eventually grow to understand that it truly doesn't matter."

Time passes and one day when the inn has some customers including Diane, Rilli, Elision, Aia and Lili. Then one moment when Jes is talking to Elision, Iloton tugs Jes' shirt and says meekly "Jes?" Jes asked "What is it?" To which Iloton responds "Iloton thinks that Iloton will have a child." All who heard it were stunned after hearing this.

Jes just responded "Oh, ok." Elision then says "I ummm… Didn't expect you two were that close." Jes says "What?" Then Aia says "I mean, she still looks like a child, but she is mature for her age and all, so I suppose it is okay. I heard many nobles marrying people under the age of 13." Then Diane says "And I mean, she has looked the same for over five years now. I don't think that her appearance matches her age, but still."

Jes is confused as to what they are talking about. He almost blurred out "But she is an outer god. It is normal for her to become a parent, even though I personally think that she is still immature." But stopped before he blurred the "outer god" part.

Then gears started to click in Jes' head for a moment. And eventually he realized and became flustered. He says in a panic that "It isn't my kid!" To which Rilli comes, puts her hand on Jes' shoulder and says "It's okay. We understand that you feel ashamed. But we are your friends so we will support you two."

Jes removes Rilli's hand from his shoulder and says "I'm not the father of the child in any sense of the word. Just believe me on this." Then a random patron of the inn comes, smiles, puts his hand on Jes' shoulder and says "We understand you man. You are one of us." Jes recognises this man. He was someone who married a 12 year old and has multiple concubines of similar age.Jes shouted "I'm not like you!" and removed that man's hand from his shoulder.

Jes thought "This is bad. I can't say that she is an outer god or that will break my cover of being a simple innkeeper. But if I let everything go on like this, people will think I'm a god damned pedophile. How do I salvage this?" He thought for a moment and then said "Diane! You know that Iloton isn't like the rest of us, so you know that I'm innocent!"

People look at Diane who then says "I do know that she is… of a different race, but I don't know anything else about it." Their looks get back to Jes, who is sinking in despair. He thought "There is no other option. I will not go down with this ship and I will rise."

Then Jes says "I didn't want to reveal this to anyone, but Iloton is… different. She comes from a race that can live for a very long time and they can reproduce asexually. I have not, and will not have any sexual relationship with Iloton as long as I live."

People looked at him for a second, thinking whether or not he was telling the truth. Jes added "I have not told a lie in what I just said and I'm willing to bet my life on it."

Then Aia says "Okay, I trust you. But since you are in charge of Iloton, you need to also take care of the upcoming child. Are we understood?" Jes says "Yes mam." Aia then gives a giggle and says "Why did you call me mam, you silly." Jes says "It just felt like the right thing to say."

Then other people begin to believe that Jes was telling the truth. Some reluctantly and some more willingly. But the rumor then became that the innkeeper of the Unseen Moon Inn might have a sexual relationship with someone who looks like a child and the upcoming kid of the alleged child may or may not be his.