“What a joke, what a joke, what a joke……”
After Truth said she’d been nearby the whole time, Omili gritted her teeth and unleashed her ninth-tier Elemental Power to its limit, causing all six great elements within a one-kilometer radius to collide violently!
It was like an angler losing his temper and draining the pond when he couldn’t catch any fish— Omili’s unleashed Elemental Might swept through every corner nearby.
As long as Truth hadn’t run far, it didn’t matter where she hid, she would inevitably be affected!
But to keep from accidentally scattering Truth’s frail little body, Omili thoughtfully controlled the elemental intensity to around the second tier.
As long as she could force her out or make her use a skill, that was enough.
Yet two more minutes passed, the Relic was already utterly changed beyond recognition, but Omili still couldn’t even spot a single hair of Truth.
Then, the latter’s voice rang in her ear once more:
“Small fry.”
Small fry? Was that an insult? Omili frowned, then let out a cheeky laugh in mid-air:
“Little Truth just called me names… Wait, this isn’t the time to be happy!”
She had to find Little Truth as soon as possible. Once she did, Truth could insult her all she liked!
With a fierce resolve, Omili pushed the Elemental Collision intensity up to the third tier.
“Boom!”
Inside the Territory of the Thorned Carp, the three people tightly hugging the tree trunk noticed the natural disasters around them suddenly becoming even more violent.
The Grand Tree, which had stood firm even in the hurricane, now began to sway violently.
Except for Karen, who was almost at the third tier, Anderson and Kovado were both already being lifted into the air.
If they let go, they’d be blown sky-high.
Thankfully, the roots of the Grand Tree dug nearly twenty meters underground—though it shook, it still offered a sliver of reassurance.
“Boom! Boom!”
With the ground shaking violently, a massive Rift tore through the Relic, exposing the Grand Tree’s roots. All the other trees toppled over with a thunderous crash!
The Tornado and Fire Sea entwined, with fire and water elements tugging at each other.
At the bottom of the giant chasm was the Dust of Chaos; fall in, and there would be no return.
Unsurprisingly, Karen and the others plunged right in:
“Waaaahhh!”
Life flashed before their eyes as the three of them fell, but after just a few seconds of freefall, another violent gust swept them up and formed a tornado, making them spin wildly inside it as they screamed, the world spinning out of control.
Just then, as she was swept a hundred meters into the sky, Karen suddenly caught sight of Omili, standing at the center of all the disasters:
“That mage from before?!”
“Almost forgot these three weaklings were nearby.”
Omili used wind elements to set Karen and the others down safely for now, then continued searching for Truth. Eight minutes had already passed.
So strange, extremely strange… Omili thought. How did Truth pull this off?
Wasn’t she just a first-tier priest?
She should have been scared to tears by these skills long ago, wailing, ‘Stop, you’re cheating!’ or something!
But now Omili couldn’t help feeling it was Truth who was cheating… So she silently increased the intensity to the fifth tier.
Now, the air pressure alone in the Relic could make adventurers below the third tier bleed from every orifice and collapse!
Once again, Truth’s voice sounded:
“Only 60 seconds left.”
“Iron defense! Did you run far away already?!”
Omili didn’t really believe Truth could escape such a vast Relic in so little time, but she believed even less that Truth could remain unharmed and unnoticed within range of her skills!
“I’ve always been right nearby.”
Fifty seconds left. Omili pushed the elemental intensity to the sixth tier.
Not far away, inside the blazing Fire Sea, Truth’s petite figure flickered briefly, her expression calm and serene.
Her pink hair was lifted by the heat waves, now tinged with crimson highlights.
“Buzz!” Omili instantly moved over with Instant Movement, the violent spatial tremor almost collapsing the whole Fire Sea.
But she still found nothing, her expression growing more and more twisted:
“I’m being toyed with by a first-tier priest? What a joke!”
Forty seconds… Omili cranked the elemental intensity up to the seventh tier.
“Tsk tsk, now you see how high the upper limit of Herbalism can go?”
Truth’s figure appeared again nearby, and Omili once again tried to catch her with Instant Movement, the two figures flickering about:
“I don’t believe just chewing a random weed gives you such ridiculous stealth!”
“Actually, the World Quality isn’t always conserved. Sometimes all it takes is an opportunity, or a few simple Symbols to gain the power to change the world.”
Like ‘/gamemode 1’… Thirty seconds left.
“How could that be? Even Alchemy must follow the principle of Equivalent Exchange, and so does your Herbalism—the stronger the effect, the harsher the side effects!”
There’s always a price—this was what Omili believed.
“Then what if I said the weed I ate was actually the Key of the Treasury? If you put it in the right place, you can obtain a treasure far beyond the weed’s value.”
Twenty seconds, elemental intensity… eighth tier.
Truth spoke words Omili couldn’t comprehend for a moment.
She was right: anyone could write ‘/gamemode 1’ down, just like anyone could taste a weed and say, ‘It’s bitter and astringent.’
But what if you typed ‘/gamemode 1’ into the console?
At that moment, a true God would be born in this world!
Ten seconds… Omili unleashed her full power: ninth tier! Now, everything in the Relic was breaking down into the most basic elemental particles.
“This…”
Though Omili still didn’t quite understand what Truth meant, she couldn’t help thinking, ‘So amazing—was this taught by that old lady inside me?’
No, actually, all this was just Truth spinning a tale to fool Omili.
Come on, she was an eleventh-tier assassin—if she didn’t show herself, even a God couldn’t find her!
“Even a mere weed, if placed in the right spot, can produce value beyond itself?”
Omili murmured, wait… The more she thought about it, the more this sounded like empty platitudes?
“Seems you don’t understand this world at all.”
In the end, Truth reappeared inside the Crimson-Backed Centipede’s territory, looking up at Omili’s version of ‘Van Gogh’:
“I’ll put it simply: in this world, you don’t need Equivalent Exchange. All you have to do is use some special method to tell it what you want, and it will unconditionally give it to you.”
And just now, I used that weed to tell it I needed the power to evade you, so it gave it to me… All right, time’s up.”
Just as Omili gritted her teeth and instant-moved before Truth, spreading her arms wide to scoop her up, the ten minutes ended… Her hands froze in mid-air, her gaze blank.
Lost? She actually lost?! And in such a landslide, too…
It’s over—my promise, my pride, my little loli…
“Ugh…”
Omili’s lips twitched, barely holding it in. Ninth tier losing to first tier? How could she show her face now?!
Eh? It’s just a lost bet. Besides, she hadn’t even done anything outrageous this time.
Why was she about to start crying little pearls? Seeing this, Truth sighed, then stood on tiptoes and hugged her.
Omili was startled at first, then suddenly relaxed, collapsing against Truth.
Meanwhile, the world that had been unraveling into elemental particles finally stopped collapsing, then slowly reversed:
“I l-lost, ehehe…”