Eternal Forest, the Divine Domain Core of the Goddess of Life.
As the apex of life in this world, the Goddess of Life’s daily task was to nourish herself with Faith Power.
She lounged lazily by the spring, her jade-like fingers idly stirring the water, looking utterly content.
Unless a special message disturbed her peace, this was just another ordinary day for the Goddess of Life.
Every deity had their own duties. The Goddess of Life’s assigned duty was to use her class advantage to suppress the Demon forces and prevent them from rising…
In the past, the Demon-Hunting Campaign required the Goddess of Life to personally lead it, but now it could be entirely delegated to her subordinates.
After the Demon-Hunting Campaign began, all Demon Hunters within Sylvia’s territory mobilized.
The Church also gradually started propaganda, suppressing the increasingly arrogant Demons back into the shadows.
One could say that unless the Original Demons showed themselves, the Goddess of Life had no worries at all.
So now, the Goddess of Life’s daily routine was to soak in the spring, idling while converting Faith Power into experience to try to level up.
Since advancing to the Twelfth Rank, she had spent a full two hundred years just to improve one level.
Moreover, based on traces left by the Players five hundred years ago, the gods speculated that above the Twelve Divine Ranks there might exist a Thirteenth Rank called ‘Creation.’
Although it was just speculation, all gods had started a leveling competition openly and secretly, afraid someone might secretly grind and break the current Era of Equilibrium…
Buzz—
Suddenly, a special notification marked by the Goddess of Life stirred her divine sense.
“Truth?”
The trigger came extremely abruptly.
The Goddess of Life only felt that her blessing had suddenly disappeared from Truth, but after a moment, the blessing came back online, and the Goddess of Life re-established contact with the Saint’s Bracelet.
‘That girl took off her bracelet, but put it back on again… What is she doing?’
Then, with a thought, she made that special notification descend into the spring water.
The water slowly reflected a pitch-black image filled with Mist. In the center of the dark image, a bright bonfire was very conspicuous.
And beside the bonfire, the Ninth Saintess, Truth, was sitting quietly, raising both hands to warm them by the fire.
The Saint’s Bracelet on her right hand looked very holy in the glow of the flames…
‘This little one, what game is she playing?’
The Goddess of Life looked Truth up and down. Hmm, the Element of Life was very peaceful; she found nothing unusual.
‘Maybe she just took it off out of habit and put it back? That must be it. After all, I never told her that once she takes off the bracelet, I can immediately locate her.’
‘So what is she doing now? Got separated from her companions?’
The Goddess of Life spied on Truth for a little while longer, discovering that the latter was simply warming herself by the fire, doing nothing else, extremely boring.
So the Goddess of Life also casually scanned the Mist with her divine sense, trying to find traces of that little white snake, but unfortunately found nothing. The Mist Core remained as silent as ever…
‘Hmm… Forget it.’
The Goddess of Life found nothing interesting, so she reluctantly withdrew her divine sense.
But just then, the Saint’s Bracelet cut off contact with the Goddess of Life again!
She looked back at the bonfire in confusion and saw Truth, who was curled up hugging her knees, take off the Saint’s Bracelet and start playing with it.
First she placed the bracelet on the ground and spun it around, producing a clear metallic sound.
Then she spun it with her index finger. After playing with it casually for a few minutes, Truth put the bracelet back on…
But just a few minutes later, Truth took off the bracelet and played with it again…
Over the next period, the two notifications of ‘Contact Lost’ and ‘Contact Re-established’ kept ringing in the Goddess of Life’s mind, like system prompts of a USB drive being repeatedly plugged in and unplugged— very annoying.
‘This little one, she took off the bracelet just because she was bored?’
A flicker of displeasure crossed the Goddess of Life’s face…
Meanwhile, by the bonfire, after playing with the bracelet for two minutes, Little Mist put it back on again and again and again, thinking:
‘This should be enough, a way to keep the Goddess of Life from peeping at me anytime…’
Truth had given Little Mist this plan before turning into Blood Mist and leaving.
She knew the Goddess of Life had added some trick to the bracelet, and Little Mist had no Anti-Surveillance Skills at all, making her unable to detect the Goddess of Life’s spying in advance.
So Truth planned to repeat the same trick, just like before when she used prayers with no useful information to constantly generate pop-up ads for the Goddess of Life.
Now Little Mist repeatedly taking off and putting on the bracelet was also to annoy the Goddess of Life.
Otherwise, after putting on the bracelet, Little Mist couldn’t do anything shady.
She could only honestly act as the gentle and kind Ninth Saintess, or else she might be caught by the Goddess of Life accidentally…
“What are you doing?”
Suddenly, the Goddess of Life’s voice rang in Little Mist’s mind through the bracelet.
Little Mist wore a look of confusion mixed with slight grievance, and with Truth’s exquisite face, she looked adorably pitiful.
“Huh?!”
Little Mist was startled, but quickly calmed down and replied:
“Reporting to Lady Goddess, I accidentally got separated from my companions. I’m waiting here for them to find me…”
‘Phew, the Goddess of Life is my superior who can peek at me anytime, and I am the Ninth Saintess under the Goddess of Life…’
Little Mist let out a long breath, constantly reinforcing her persona in her mind.
“Report?”
The Goddess of Life frowned.
‘What’s up with this little one today? Why is she suddenly so formal? Where did her usual playful spirit go?’
The Goddess of Life continued to ask:
“Why have you been playing with the bracelet I gave you?”
“Because… I’m bored…”
‘Tsk, just because she’s bored?’
The Goddess of Life felt like slapping this little one, but she still had to maintain her image in her mind, so she decided against it:
“Do you need me to take you out of the Mist?”
“No… it’s fine…”
Little Mist waved her hands repeatedly in refusal.
‘That’s true,’ the Goddess of Life thought.
‘The little one said she wanted an ordinary adventure. If I interfere now, it won’t be ordinary anymore…’
‘But if I don’t interfere, the little one might die here. That would be a loss for me, since I haven’t figured out her special Skill Tree yet.’
The Goddess of Life noticed that there were no Adventurers around Little Mist at all, meaning she could hardly wait for her teammates to rescue her. Since that was the case:
“I’ll help you this time. Follow my guidance and you’ll be able to avoid all Monsters and reach the place where the Adventurers gather.”
“Well… okay.”
Little Mist replied.
Truth had said that if it was the Goddess of Life’s request, as long as it wouldn’t expose her, she should agree first.
So Little Mist slowly stood up and began to follow the life-like light points ahead.
Then, in the next second, the Saint’s Bracelet on Little Mist’s hand suddenly transformed into a beam of light that swirled around her!
Just as she was puzzled, the Life Bracelet turned into a silver-glowing anklet and clasped around her right ankle!
“Huh?!”
Little Mist stumbled and nearly fell, not knowing what happened.