“Chaotic Demon?”
By the Meteorite Crater, Truth and Ariel were looking up at the sun, which had just returned to normal.
They had witnessed the entire process — from the giant purple pupil replacing the sun to the Goddess of Life shattering that pupil.
After a while, Truth vaguely sensed her anti-surveillance skill being triggered, so she pressed Ariel about the identity of that Chaotic Demon. Ariel quickly guessed it was Soros, the Primordial Demon.
She had heard from her teacher before that the Heavenfire Lord had a demon ally — this had to be Soros.
So cautious, huh? He even sent other demons to scout first. No wonder the Incarnation of Firefall Island was so fiery…
“Tch, boring as hell. Looks like your master won’t be coming to save you anytime soon.”
Truth shot a disgruntled glance at Ariel’s backside and planned to deal with the Mist first. As long as the Heavenfire Lord didn’t show up, she wasn’t letting Ariel go.
“Ow, hey!”
……
Deya City, Law Enforcement Bureau. The place was bustling.
Because Soros’s [Omniscient Eye of Chaos] had just covered the entire Deya Plateau, the city’s residents panicked, rushing to the Church of the Goddess of Life to pray. Some even came to the bureau demanding officials investigate.
“If I had the power to investigate something like that, would I still be stuck here as a low-level chief? Go play somewhere else!”
Chief Koster shouted at the crowd from the bureau’s entrance.
“Not having the ability is your own problem! The bureau should be handling this! What if something’s targeting the Holy Maiden who only appears once every few centuries in Deya City?”
“Then go pray to the Goddess herself! Anyone who dares target the Holy Maiden is beyond what we can handle!”
“But the church is so packed we can’t get in, so we’re coming to you as a last resort.”
“So you think coming to the bureau makes you second-class citizens or what?”
The argument dragged on until a tall hooded woman appeared at the back of the crowd and signaled to Koster. Only then did he step inside and leave Vice Chief Huaen to deal with the crowd’s shouts.
The tall woman entered the bureau and pulled off her hood. It was Gadelia, who had come specifically to remind Princess Wilona of her imminent departure from Deya City and to urge them to strengthen city security.
“Aren’t you going to arrest the one who disgraced the Royal Family’s honor?” Koster asked.
Before Gadelia could answer, another hooded figure entered. Compared to Gadelia, this newcomer was much shorter and quietly stood aside, listening.
“Already… already handled. The one who disgraced the Royal Family’s honor was executed on the spot inside the Mist!” Gadelia replied evasively, though her tone remained cold and aloof.
She rarely lied, but what happened in the Mist was too humiliating. Telling the truth would mean a second blow to the Royal Family’s dignity…
“Wow.” The short hooded figure clapped in admiration of Gadelia’s words.
“J-Just do your job properly.”
With that, Gadelia left. Koster then turned to the hooded figure and asked:
“And what are you here for?”
The figure slowly removed their hood. It was Truth, dressed not in the Priest Robe of the Goddess of Life, but in casual clothes.
The priest robe had been left with Ariel to wash after it got soaked in blood.
“Huh? The Holy Maiden?!”
Within two hours of Truth becoming the Holy Maiden, her image had already spread throughout Deya City—silver hair and pink eyes. Who else could it be?
“I’m here to ask about a second-tier wanted criminal named Adams…”
Adams was caught by the enforcers just half an hour after shouting about his freedom. He was now locked up in the dungeon. Truth didn’t care what crimes he’d committed; she wanted to know how he had escaped the underground dungeon beneath Deya.
Soon, an enforcer who had helped capture Adams responded:
“When we chased him to a dense forest, Adams suddenly fell into a pit. Then we discovered a long underground tunnel. We tried to investigate, but the Mist was thick inside, and we quickly got lost.”
“Since we were already in, we decided to try catching Adams. We searched for a long time, but just as we were about to catch him, a meteorite struck and pierced through the entire tunnel…”
Tunnel?
Truth furrowed her brow and immediately used her god’s-eye view in her mind to locate the tunnel the enforcer had described. Upon closer inspection, she realized it wasn’t man-made—it was natural!
Why… would a novice dungeon with a difficulty no higher than second-tier connect to the Mist, which had the difficulty of a king-tier dungeon?
This puzzled Truth. Usually, connected dungeons had similar difficulty levels. It was unprecedented for there to be such a huge gap.
Though she couldn’t understand why, the connection between the Deya underground dungeon and the current Mist was probably a good thing…
Currently, the Mist’s energy could only repair it to about seventy or eighty percent. Creating elite monsters again was out of the question, and its appeal to adventurers would plummet.
But if news spread that the Deya underground dungeon had reopened within the Mist?
That was a complete dungeon with everything it should have. The only downside was its low difficulty and meager experience gain. A team of first-tier adventurers could probably reach the boss room easily.
Still, compared to the Mist remodeled by Truth, newbie adventurers would likely prefer the Deya underground dungeon.
At least the treasure chests there wouldn’t spawn a little monster.
So once the news got out, adventurers would swarm back into the Mist to enter the Deya underground dungeon. It was just a matter of conditions for entering the dungeon, dumb dumb dumb dumb…
“Ah! Help! There’s a fight nearby!”
Suddenly, Ariel’s voice rang in Truth’s mind. What was she up to this time?
Ignoring Koster’s various attempts to engage her, Truth immediately pulled her hood up and walked out of the bureau.
By a pond near the Meteorite Crater, Ariel’s ankle was tied to a tree trunk with a bloodline formed by magic. She held the priest robe she’d been washing halfway in the pond.
She was panicked. Nearby, several rough-looking men were chasing a young man who looked like a student, cursing loudly.
After the Mist’s “Lost” feature dissipated, Anderson had once again become the target of Evans and his gang.
With the sound of swords and knives unsheathing, Ariel feared being accidentally hurt.
Tied up as she was, she couldn’t run, and her mana core was suppressed by the Blood Demon, making magic impossible. She felt completely unsafe!
So she tried using the Hunting Mark on her body to summon the Blood Demon:
“Hurry up and respond! My life is in danger!”
But the Blood Demon seemed too lazy to reply…
“Boss, look! There’s a woman talking to herself by the pond.”
Evans was warned by a subordinate and looked toward Ariel, immediately ordering his three men to stay away from the pond.
“Be careful. The Mist is strange around here. Don’t know what’s wrong with that woman. Ignore her. The dragon egg is priority!”
Anderson, Evans, and the others circled the pond. Since no one knew its depth, they dared not cross recklessly. Instead, they tried to split up and catch Anderson.
But just when they were about to corner Anderson, he climbed a tree, grabbed the vines, and swung above the pond. He even swooped several times over Ariel’s head, startling her.
Then Evans climbed the tree, Anderson got down, ran around the pond, climbed back up—both sides circling Ariel again and again…
……
Deya Magic Academy, Candidate Hero Reg was discussing endorsements for his family’s products with several nobles when his right hand’s black magic mark pulsed:
“Looks like Anderson’s getting attacked in the Mist. Go rescue him. Once inside, send your coordinates, and ask him where my dragon egg is.”
Truth didn’t want to deal with such small matters personally. Her priority was to check out the Deya underground dungeon beneath the Mist.
“Sorry, everyone, something urgent came up. Let’s continue this later.”
Despite the nobles’ protests, Reg dashed out of the academy, making them anxious:
“Listen, do whatever it takes to secure the Candidate Hero’s endorsement before that Suho guy does, or we won’t make any money and it’ll be a loss!”
They knew Reg was close to the Suho Family’s heiress and feared he might side with them.
Within twenty minutes, Reg was sprinting into the Mist. Anderson’s live coordinates appeared before him.
Not far from the pond, he saw Anderson swinging wildly on vines like a monkey, while two men below were shooting arrows at him.
Beneath the tree, Evans unleashed his level 25 strength, working with another man to chop down several large trees. A girl in strange clothing was shouting loudly:
“Don’t shoot arrows this way!”
“Then dodge!” Evans shouted back.
“Can’t dodge! Ariel’s still tied up by Truth’s bloodline!”
“You really are stupid!”
Hiss… What was going on? Reg looked bewildered. The black-haired man chopping trees was strong. At level 22, Reg knew it would be hard to beat him, especially since the man had help.
“Boss, this is tricky. I can’t handle it alone.”
Reg tried summoning Truth.
“You’re not that far behind in level, only three levels difference. Pay attention to details, you can finish them. Keep it up.”
Three levels difference… Reg didn’t know what to say. Usually being just one level higher was enough to crush an opponent. Did Truth often fight above her level?
“Boss, I really can’t fight above my level. Can I get a little little little little help?”
“Weak!”
After thinking, Truth decided to try the blessing ability that consumed faith, to see if she could grant Reg some early-stage warrior skills.
Reg admired her so much, he probably counted as a half-believer by now. So she tried remotely using [Blessing] on Reg and found she could indeed teach him some small skills:
“Alright, I’ll teach you some quick-learn skills on the spot.”
“Great! I’ll learn!” Reg’s face lit up. Didn’t expect a top-tier expert to actually teach him skills.
“I’ll teach you Killing Intent Perception and Prediction Art. How’s that?”
Killing Intent Perception? Reg thought he didn’t really need that. He couldn’t use mana and was sensitive enough to detect others’ emotions:
“Uh… boss, Killing Intent Perception and Prediction don’t seem very useful for me. Can you teach me something else?”
“Then I’ll teach you Invulnerability to Blades and Spears, and Stacked Tenacity Art. Sound good?”
“But my Heroic Constitution already includes those… um, another?”
This guy was picky! Truth sighed and moved on to combat skills:
“Alright, I’ll teach you Dead Angle Strike and Lightning Swan. How’s that?”
“Need speed?”
“Yes.”
“Speed techniques? I’m just a clumsy second-tier brute warrior. I can’t do that. No thanks.”
“Brute… then how about Drink Water to Weaken Tenacity, or the simple but unpretentious Lion Slash?”
“Need strength?”
“Yes.”
“Would love to learn, but I’m only second-tier with little strength. No, no…” Reg shook his head. Truth’s earlier skills were all new to him.
Hmph, no this, no that. Guess I have to bring out the big guns.
Truth glanced at the greatsword on Reg’s back:
“I’ve got two advanced combat techniques—Invincible Roll and Attack Endlag Cancel. Which do you want?”
Attack Endlag Cancel? Reg’s eyes instantly brightened.
What was Invincible Roll? Who rolls during combat? Not even glancing.
With Reg’s mindset, he only understood how crucial shortening attack recovery was. So he definitely chose the latter.
“I’ll learn Attack Endlag Cancel!”
[“Blessing” activated. Target: “Reg”. Granted combat skill: “Light Weapon Attack Endlag Cancel”.]
A holy light shone on Reg, and he instantly mastered the combat skill Truth bestowed, grinning ear to ear. Truth’s voice sounded again:
“Sigh, if you cause trouble later, just don’t mention it was me who taught you.”