The Rise Of A Porter

Although Arnold was happy that he was given the first place just like that, there were other things troubling him. One of which was his ascension quest. He still needed to kill four Vassals and nine Paladins before War of the Worlds was over. Although there wasn't a punishment for failing the quest, Arnold didn't want to lose out on all the EXP and other rewards he could get by completing the ascension quest, especially the chance to be trained by the Immortal one himself. 

Also, ever since he had been there, he hadn't seen the Immortal one. He knew he was there somewhere but even with his enhanced eyesight, he couldn't see where Shiva was. He even used a wide-scale Probe skill to see if he could find the god he wanted to see in real life, but even that plan failed.

In the end, even System Sama told him to drop it as if the Immortal one didn't want him to see him, then no matter what Arnold did, he wouldn't be able to see him. Arnold wasn't someone who would give up that easily but this time, he had other things to worry about so he left it at that. 

The second thing that Arnold was concerned about was Nicole's safety. He was confident that as long as he was participating, no one would have dared to harm his sister. Even if they tried he could have stopped them, because fck the rules, no one would ever be able to harm his sister in his presence.. 

But now that Arnold was seated among the gods, Heimdall informed him that he would not be allowed to interfere in the matches for any reason whatsoever. If he did, it might give all of the gods the perfect opportunity to get rid of him and he was nowhere strong enough to defend himself against hundreds of gods. 

Arnold didn't like being threatened but what Heimdall told him wasn't a threat. It was a piece of advice for him to not do anything unnecessary. Although, Arnold did not like it... he knew it was wise to do as Heimdall said.

"Okay... if I can't do anything, maybe I can let my summons become her companions? That much should be allowed right?" Arnold asked Heimdall hoping to aide Nicole in any way he could.

"I'm afraid, I can not allow that." Heimdall shook his head, "If they had accompanied her from the start, there would have been no issues. But I can't allow you to give her your companions now."

"I understand." Arnold nodded and went back to watch the match between a bluish humanoid creature from planet Occuna and an abnormally large black Ogre from the planet Draror.

Arnold was never into watching others fight even back when he was a porter. But thanks to all the fighting he had been doing over the years, he had learned to appreciate the art of warfare. If nothing else, it would be a learning experience for him after all, it wasn't every day that he got to see a monster tamer fight.

While he was watching them fight, his mind once again drifted towards his own worries. Although he was set to become at least a lesser god after winning the first place. He wasn't so sure that he wanted to ascend like that.

So far he had been ascending ranks and pushing through his limits all by himself. Thus, he was more confident in levelling up on his own rather than having someone reward him that. His biggest concern was that the reward he would receive might even nerf his powers.

For example, there was a normal levelling scale and a cosmic levelling scale. According to these levels, the normal SS level for humans was equivalent to the cosmic C level. This meant if he broke through the barrier and there was another levelling scheme, there was even a chance that he could be robbed of his levels. What if he was assigned to godly D level as his next rank? He would become less powerful than he was now.

'I can not let the gods assign me a level.' Arnold thought, 'They would most certainly lower my rank and level to keep me in check. In order to prevent that from happening, I need to complete the ascension quest myself.'

[Maybe investing so many attribute points to increase your intelligence wasn't a wise choice.]

'What do you mean?'

[You think too much.]

"..."

[Do you even know only 3 gods had ever been able to cross the cosmic realm?]

'I did... not.'

[Of course, you didn't because, except Shiva, Zeus and Odin, none of the gods has ever crossed the cosmic realm in their lifetime and are probably not even aware of such a thing. Crossing the cosmic realm is not something one can do easily.]

'So you're telling me, I was about to fight someone as strong as the Immortal one?'

[Zeus and Odin are no longer on that level anymore. They died once, remember? And once a god dies, their levels are reset.]

'So only the Immortal one has crossed the realm in the current time?'

[Yup. Still, your concerns are valid. These gods would certainly limit your power if they are allowed to grant you godhood and the Immortal wouldn't be able to do a thing to prevent it.]

Arnold nodded and went back to watching the match. It was no surprise that the gods most of the gods were chill even after he literally humiliated a lot of them. They would have their revenge by limiting his level as a 'reward'. 

[You need to complete the ascension quest somehow if you want to ascend to the next realm.]

'Yeah... I'm thinking how to do that...'

Just as he was thinking about what he could do next, the giant ogre accidentally slipped on some greasy substance left behind by one of the creatures tamed by the Occunian. The next moment the ogre was dead... no one was sure what happened but Heimdall declared the blue-skinned alien the winner. The match wasn't as interesting as Arnold had expected it to be, but it was thanks to the match that he got an idea.

'Looks like I found a solution to our problem.'