The Villain of Ancient Greece

In the cave, Lorne fiddled with the serpentine-patterned twelve-sided die in his hand, looking at it with a gaze full of love and hate.

To defy fate, to overturn Olympus, to drag that so-called Father of the Gods down from his throne, this was nothing less than a near-impossible gamble.

But for a gambler, without chips, there’s no right to sit at the table—let alone a chance to turn the tables with a small stake.

And these badges were the chips Hecate had promised to give him.

More precisely, they were the chips given to him by this ”Accidental Die.”

Of course, everything comes at a price.

To get these chips of various grades and values, Lorne had to complete the divine decrees issued by the twelve-sided die.

After half a month of exploration and study, he had roughly figured out how this thing worked:

First, the decrees issued by the die were divided into three types based on difficulty:

[The first type refreshed every day at midnight, with a 24-hour deadline, a danger level below his current strength.

These were labeled as ”Tasks”—typically brainless, as long as you had hands and feet, you could complete them easily.

The reward: a bronze badge.]

[The second type refreshed every Monday, with a one-week deadline, danger level roughly equal to his own strength.

These were labeled as ”Trials” and they were moderately difficult, requiring careful planning to get through safely.

The reward: a silver badge.]

[The third type had no fixed refresh time, no fixed deadline, and a danger level far exceeding his current strength.

These were labeled as ”Blasphemies”—full of danger, demanding a life-risking effort, practically a one-in-ten-thousand survival chance.

The reward: a gold badge.]

Judging by the rewards, it was a bit like the three-tiered medals from the ancient Greek Olympic Games: gold for champion, silver for runner-up, bronze for third place.

However, as someone who once worked for a game company, Lorne was more accustomed to using game terms based on refresh times and difficulty: ”Daily Dungeon” – ”Weekly Dungeon” – ”High-Difficulty Dungeon.”

(Trials or Dungeons...??)

Typically, at each refresh, the twelve-sided die would randomly roll three times.

Based on the divine emblems shown on each side, which represented one of the Twelve Olympian Gods—the game would decide which gods were getting screwed today.

For instance, the targets chosen in today’s ”Daily Dungeon” were Apollo the God of Light, Zeus the King of the Gods, and Hera the Queen of the Gods.

But as previously mentioned, the difficulty of Daily Dungeon was quite low, and the task conditions were quite generous.

Shouting insults from a distance, spitting at a temple, stealing godly offerings… all of these would count.

If you didn’t want to think too much, just messing with someone under their divine protection could work too.

For example, scooping some seafood for soup without a prayer was considered an act of disrespect toward Poseidon.

Stepping on flowers or crops could be counted as insulting Demeter.

Shooting down a few birds for a barbecue was an insult to Zeus, the god of the sky…

Even killing a few doves, swans, laurels, and other things symbolic of the gods would usually count toward completing the task.

Moreover, for daily quests, Lorne didn’t need to complete all three tasks, and just needed to complete one out of the three would do, which lowered the difficulty even further.

In theory, as long as he didn’t act like an idiot and charge headfirst into danger, like provoking some demigod heroes, hidden bosses, top-tier magical beasts, or divine incarnations, such daily quests posed little real threat to him.

As for weekly dungeons, now those were another matter entirely.

Each one came with specific conditions and objectives, and whether they were manageable or deadly depended entirely on luck.

Take this week’s quests, for example—one involved fighting those crazed Atlantis bastards, another risked exposing his identity, and the last one practically crippled his own power just to increase the difficulty of escaping.

Any of them, if handled carelessly, could get him killed on the spot, very much living up to the name ”Weekly Dungeon.”

By the way, although the [Weekly Dungeons] only require one to be completed each week, you can voluntarily crank up the difficulty and complete up to three in a single week.

Of course, the risk factor skyrockets, and the cost can be brutally high.

Lorne had been running himself ragged this whole week, barely managing to complete two of them right under the noses of those rabid Atlantean hounds, and nearly got turned into a pincushion by their Orichalcum secret arrows.

If he hadn’t kept a few escape plans in his back pocket out of habit, his memorial service would’ve already come and gone.

As for the final tier, the so-called [High-Difficulty Dungeon], its activation mechanism was still a mystery.

So far, Lorne had only encountered it once, right after the twelve-sided die helped him ascend to demigod. A little ”welcome gift,” so to speak...

And since it’s called High-Difficulty Dungeon, naturally, the contents were just a tad… inhuman.

More torture than trial.

Whether it was defiling Athena, solo-raiding Apollo’s temple, or taking on the Atlantean Royal Guard head-on, any one of those was a god-tier nightmare.

”If it weren’t for the fact that Lorne himself was so tough that even after being stricken by the light from the God King and thrown into the sea, even after being taught a lesson by Hecate and raised as a monster by Circe for sixteen years, he was still alive and kicking and had cultivated a tenacious vitality and extremely high adaptability from it, he estimated that eight out of ten of the other demigod heroes would be sent to eat.

Fortunately, these [High-Difficulty Dungeons] seemed to require some kind of special trigger and didn’t show up too often, maybe once a month at best.

At least he didn’t have to worry about one shitstorm rolling in right after another.

Clearing his thoughts, Lorne raised a hand and pinched the bridge of his furrowed brow.

Then he opened his eyes and stared at the two silver emblems and the serpent-patterned twelve-sided die in his palm.

High risk, high reward.

These emblems he nearly died to earn—these weren’t just decorative tokens.

They were his gambling chips.

His leverage to flip the table and change the game.

Taking a deep breath, Lorne rubbed the die between his fingers, muttering under his breath:

”Come on, Dice Lady... don’t screw me this time. Blessing of Hermes would be great, I I’m in a hurry to run away, or Athena and Zeus will do. At worst, I can use Ares to directly blow up the bastards to hell.”

As he said that, he held his breath and threw the dice in his hand.

The grayish twelve-sider spun and clattered across the stone floor, rolling in a few tight circles before finally coming to a stop, showing a delicate pattern of rose petals.

At the same time, one of the silver emblems in Lorne’s hand vanished, transforming into glowing silver script that floated above the bronze altar in his mind.

”[Aphrodite’s Blessing]: The Goddess of Love and Beauty grants you irresistible charm toward the opposite sex.

Duration: one week.”

”...”

Lorne was speechless and cursed in his heart.

You’ve gotta be kidding me.

Things were already burning down around him—what the hell was he supposed to do with this buff?

Was he supposed to pray that the entire Atlantean Royal Guard were gay, and he could seduce them by shaking his ass?

After silently cursing the heavens a few more times, Lorne took a deep breath and forced a crooked, bitter smile onto his stiff face.

Don’t be angry, don’t be angry, there is still one chance.

Go big or go home.

Bracing himself mentally, Lorne picked the twelve-sided die off the ground, gave it a shake with trembling fingers, and with a final resolve, threw it again—the die of fate, his last chance at salvation.

The grayish die bounced a few times over the uneven stone floor, then rolled into a shallow dip in the rock, and finally came to a stop.

A few flickering flame patterns came into view.

At the same time, the last silver emblem in Lorne’s hand vanished, transforming into divine script that appeared on the altar in his mind.

[Blessing of Hephaestus]: Grants one instance of restoring a damaged artifact (up to demigod-grade).”

Lorne nearly exploded.

Are you kidding me?! You two—husband and wife—are screwing with me on purpose, huh?’

At a time like this, what the hell was he supposed to do with a blacksmith god’s blessing? Use it to fix up his grave? Engrave his own tombstone in advance?

Seeing that out of all twelve gods, fate had dealt him these two pieces of crap, Lorne finally broke down.

He looked at the twelve-sided die in his palm, face full of anguish and despair.

My friend, I really lost big time.