Chapter 178 - The Prank War Begins

Arthur waited in the car for roughly ten minutes before a truck drove by. The truck's clanging next to the driver's side of the car seemed to immediately rouse Donovan from his sleep.

Donovan stretched with what little room the car afforded him while letting out a long yawn. It took him a few seconds to realise that Arthur was sitting right next to him with a bored look on his face.

"Morning sleepyhead," Arthur said right before yawning himself.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" Donovan asked, "How long have you been waiting?"

"It's only been a couple of minutes, who am I to ruin a guy's nap?" Arthur said, before a grin formed on his face, "Oh, and I didn't draw on your face, I promise."

Donovan immediately pulled the driver side sun visor down and checked his face in the mirror. After noticing that there wasn't anything scribbled on his face, he breathed a sigh of relief before folding the sun visor back up.

"Woooow, how distrusting of you," Arthur chuckled.

"You cheeky brat," Donovan said while shaking his head. "I'll get you back for that."

The car started up moments later, and Donovan started driving Arthur home.

"Oh? Well then you better not fall asleep in the car again," Arthur taunted. "You might find yourself walking back into the lab with a curly moustache."

Arthur mimed out the action of twirling a moustache with a grin on his face.

"It sounds like you're challenging me to another war," Donovan said. "You remember what happened last time?"

"Yeah sure, why not?" Arthur remarked, remembering some of the fun he used to have with Donovan. "But I wonder if you still remember any of your old tricks. The last time we did this, you were struggling against a fourteen-year-old kid, right?"

"You were fifteen at the time... And I still won." Donovan corrected him. "Do you remember the rules?"

"No bodily harm, no damage to property, and absolutely no glitter," Arthur repeated the phrase that had stuck with him for so long.

"And no fart spray," Donovan added another rule. "It took weeks to clean that stuff out of the seats."

The two continued talking until the car arrived at Arthur's house, where Arthur promptly hopped out of the car.

"Let the games begin," Donovan said with a comically evil laugh before driving off.

Arthur spent the rest of the day performing his usual routine before eating with his family and then playing games with his friends before going to bed. The next morning he decided to work out some more before finally getting a message from Donovan saying he was on his way.

'Right, we started the war yesterday, what were his usual methods? It has been a while...' Arthur thought to himself, 'His first move isn't going to be that destructive, surely.'

He decided to pack a couple of tissues, just in case.

A little while later, Donovan had arrived. Arthur left the building, locking up behind him before approaching the car.

'First trick, he sometimes hides ink behind the door handle.' Arthur remembered, pulling out one of those tissues and rubbing it behind the door handle. Fortunately, it came back clean, meaning this wasn't trapped yet.

Arthur opened the door and sat down on the passenger's side of the car, he immediately took notice of Donovan's cheeky grin.

"What, no whoopee cushion?" Arthur asked.

"I couldn't figure out a way of hiding it." Donovan retorted.

Before putting his seatbelt on, Arthur closed the vents for the air conditioner on his side of the car and then ran a tissue over the seatbelt buckle and eject button, but both of those came out clean too.

Arthur put his seatbelt on, and Donovan started driving him to the facility.

Arthur noticed that Donovan kept sneaking glances at him while he was looking around for traps. Donovan's smirk was growing the longer Arthur took, so he quickly realised what was going on.

'He's playing mind games with me...' Arthur thought to himself.

As Arthur sat still and stopped looking for traps, Donovan's smirk seemed to fade, seemingly confirming Arthur's suspicions. The two eventually arrived at the facility, but Arthur caught a twitch on Donovan's face as he moved to unbuckle his seatbelt.

Arthur pulled out another tissue and ran it along the inside of the car's door handle, the one place he hadn't checked yet due to not wanting to accidentally open the door while the car was moving.

He immediately felt a somewhat sticky resistance from behind the handle, and pulling the tissue up revealed a blue ink-like substance on the tissue.

"How sneaky, better luck next time," Arthur said with a smirk as he balled the tissue up while making sure not to let any of the ink spread to his hands. He wiped the excess ink off before leaving the car.

'That was a close one.' Arthur thought to himself as he walked towards the facility.

The morning briefing was short, but the most important piece of information that could be taken away from it was that the fourth wave was going to start in the next session. This meant that Arthur wouldn't be the only streamer anymore, so his numbers would likely take a massive loss as those with an established fanbase took back their respective audience from Arthur's pile.

But this also meant that Holly and Quinn would be joining them pretty soon, which Arthur was looking forward to.

The briefing ended and the first group was led towards the capsule room to log in.

Merlin found himself located at the temple in Macedonia, right where he left off last time in a comfortable area located in the shade.

He quickly started his stream before doing anything else.

"Right, for those early birds. Today's plan is to get a quest at the temple before heading over to the wizard college." He said to the stream camera before making his way up the temple steps.

He was quickly approached by a priest upon entering the temple.

"Good evening, what has--" The priest began his usual introduction speech, but Merlin cut him off.

"I was told to come here for the next part of my training. At least, that's what Archbishop Ferdinand said to me." Merlin said with an uninterested tone, "Where would I go to do such a thing?"

The priest's facial expression distorted as he was cut off, but Merlin didn't seem to care.

"Very well, follow me to the room of enlightenment." The priest said before walking off.

Merlin followed the man into the room full of statues of gods, but before he could ask what would happen next, the priest cut him off, seemingly getting revenge for what Merlin had done only a few moments prior.

"The next task is to acquire your first blessing," The priest said, "Choose which god you would like to dedicate yourself to, and then improve yourself until you meet their standards. Then, and only then, may the gods decide to bless your mortal flesh with their divine gifts."

A quest window appeared moments after the priest finished talking.

┌───────────────────

[Common Quest]

Bless You!

To utilise the powers of the gods, you need to be first blessed with a god's power.

Your next task from the temple is to acquire your first blessing, this can be achieved by meeting a diety's requirements and then requesting guidance while equipped with a soul with the ⟪God's Blessing⟫ passive.

Receive a god's blessing.

• Reward: 100 EXP, 400 Cleric Soul EXP

└───────────────────

Merlin quickly accepted the quest before turning towards the statues he had in mind.

"Artemis and Gaia..." Merlin muttered to himself. He decided to approach the statue of Artemis first.

"Artemis, grant me your guidance." Merlin chanted.

After a couple of seconds, the statue brightened and an information window appeared before him.

┌───────────────────

Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt

God's Blessings: ⟪The Huntress' Mark⟫

Abilities: N/A

Origin Soul Bonus: N/A

Requirements:

• You must possess a ranger-related soul that has reached level 3. (26.25% Complete)

• A minimum of 40% favourability with Artemis.

• You must sacrifice an animal that you've hunted to Artemis.

Favourability: 75% Artemis looks upon you favourably.

└───────────────────

Nothing seemed to have changed on the window, and the other window that appeared beside it last time was still there as well.

┌───────────────────

To receive a blessing from a deity, you must equip a class with the ⟪God's Blessing⟫ passive.

└───────────────────

"So, I'll need to level up my ranger soul to level three and then sacrifice a hunt to her." Merlin muttered, "That's not too bad, I really should start using that soul more."

He then made his way over to the statue of Gaia to repeat himself.

"Gaia, grant me your guidance." Merlin chanted. After a couple of seconds, the statue brightened even brighter than the statue of Artemis, and an information window appeared before him.

┌───────────────────

Gaia, Primordial Goddess of Earth

God's Blessings: ⟪Nature's Wrath⟫

Abilities: N/A

Origin Soul Bonus: N/A

Requirements:

• You must possess a nature-related soul that has reached level 5. (12.90% Complete)

• A minimum of 60% favourability with Gaia.

Favourability: 90% Gaia is incredibly curious about your future actions.

└───────────────────

Unlike Artemis' information box, this one seemed to have changed ever so slightly.

"It seems I need to level my rose wight soul to level five... That's going to take ages." Merlin said to himself.

'I could always swap blessing around at a later date if I really wanted to.' Merlin thought, finally deciding on Artemis.

As he was walking back towards the statue of Artemis, the statue of Hecate caught his eye.

'Although I am still very curious about Hecate... I don't know why my favourability with her is so high, or what has happened to her, why did she vanish for so long?' Merlin continued to think to himself, 'I had so many things to ask Bibar earlier, but I lost my chance when he decided to turn himself into a pin cushion.'

"Alright, I've decided..." Merlin announced, "I choose Artemis."

"Very well. You may return to this place once you've met your requirements or wish to refresh yourself on the god's requirements, or even pick another god to worship.." The priest said as he made his way out of the room, leaving Merlin alone with the statues.