“There are so many people…”
On the walls of Deya City, Edwin, the President of the Deya Adventurers Association, sighed as he looked at the prosperous scene before him.
He had thought he would spend his life in this stagnant frontier region, guarding a mediocre association.
Unexpectedly, a Saintess had descended from the heavens and single-handedly revitalized all of Deya City.
Following the two updates to the Mist, Deya City had become the most popular place on the entire Dea Plateau. Anyone with eyes could see the massive market here.
‘Maybe focusing development around the Mist is the right move…’
Tia had visited Edwin the previous night. She wanted him to establish a branch of the Adventurers Association within the Mist.
This would relieve the growing pressure of the crowds and provide convenience for the adventurers. However, Deya City currently lacked funds, so the responsibility for financing the branch would fall on Edwin.
Edwin had hesitated. Establishing a branch was a major investment, and the main association wasn’t actually that far from the Mist — only a 30-minute journey. Furthermore, he didn’t have much money himself; the profits in this area were pitifully low.
Seeing Edwin’s hesitation, Tia didn’t try to persuade him further. Instead, she gave him 3 days to consider.
“In 3 days, the Holy Maiden will look for other partners. I know you’re worried about a failed investment, fearing the Mist’s expansion is just a flash in the pan, or that you can’t handle the financial pressure of two associations. But I want to remind you of one thing: don’t forget the Holy Maiden is the Goddess’s representative on earth. Her thoughts are the Goddess’s thoughts!”
There were plenty of people who wanted to curry favor with Truth. Edwin, as a mere association president, was nothing special.
Truth had chosen him for the new branch simply because he was a local with experience in managing an association.
“An opportunity… The High Priest was reminding me to seize the opportunity…” Edwin hadn’t slept for 1 night. He had been standing on the wall, letting the wind blow against him as Tia’s reminder repeated in his mind.
Indeed, that was the decision of a Saintess. Behind that decision was the shadow of the Goddess. If they wanted the Dea Plateau to develop, it certainly would!
Moreover, now, barely 1 month after the Ninth Saintess had taken her position, Deya City had already become so lively. ‘Maybe this is the turning point of the era…’
“Fine! I’m in. I’ll go find someone to borrow money from right now!” After thinking it over for a long time, Edwin looked at the massive number of adventurers at the city gate and finally made up his mind.
He planned to set out immediately to find old acquaintances in other cities to borrow money.
5 minutes later, Edwin’s carriage drove out of Deya City. However, as he was leaving the gate, his peripheral vision caught a familiar figure. Pink hair and silver eyes… wasn’t that the Saintess?!
Edwin was startled. He had thought the Saintess had been buried in work lately, but she was out adventuring under a hidden identity!
It seemed that even after becoming a Saintess, an adventurer couldn’t suppress the adventuring soul within… By the way, her teammates didn’t seem like much.
Why didn’t she keep Karen as a teammate? Wait, what were they doing now?!
When Edwin looked away from Truth, he saw a clean-looking novice female Mage kneeling in front of her for some reason.
Under the curious gaze of the crowd, the female Mage remained in a kneeling position, her face flushed red.
She lifted her shirt under her long robes with both hands, revealing her fair, white belly…
‘Is this some kind of strange ritual?’ Edwin thought. He really wanted to stay and see what was going on, but if he stopped here, he would likely be stuck for 3 or 4 hours.
It wasn’t worth it; borrowing money was more important.
Meanwhile, at the city gate, Alice felt like she was going to die of shame from Truth’s strange request. Her heart was pounding in her throat…
‘Exposing your belly to apologize… where did such a vulgar custom come from?’
“I-I’m sorry!” Alice shouted, turning her head away in shame as she lifted her clothes. She would do anything to join a party with a Tier 2 Priest.
“Oh, oh, oh! What’s this? Are the young people nowadays so open?” Passing adventurers stopped to admire Alice, asking if she could lift her clothes a bit higher.
“Get lost! There’s nothing to see!” Alton became inexplicably irritable and started driving the crowd away.
“Hmm… there’s enough shame, but it’s still missing a bit of resentment and anger. Barely passable. 6 points.” Truth naturally admired Alice’s expression from up close and gave her a score.
“Fine, I forgive you. You can get up. Now, let’s head to the Mist.” Truth reached out and pinched Alice’s cheek before leading the team forward.
“Hey, wait for me!” Alice hurriedly fixed her clothes and caught up to Truth, hovering behind her with endless questions and small talk.
Alton followed behind as well. Only Anderson asked the three of them:
“Wait, there are so many people at the Mist’s entrance right now. How are we going to get in?”
Because the Enforcers hadn’t maintained order in time, the entrance to the Mist was currently a mess.
Trampling incidents occurred from time to time.
Everyone wanted to take the safe main road where they wouldn’t lose their sense of direction, rather than walking straight into the Mist.
If they just walked into the Mist, it would be hard enough to find the first bonfire, let alone the entrance to a Dungeon.
“We’ll just take the other main entrance. Anderson, go rent a carriage.” Truth replied emotionlessly, walking straight toward the southern side of the Mist.
“The other main entrance?!” The three were completely bewildered.
Since when did the Mist have another entrance? Well, even though Senior Zhendi looked young, she was a genuine Tier 2 and had surely seen much of the world.
They decided it was best to just follow her, Alice and Alton thought.
Anderson felt the same. He didn’t dare cross the Second Miss, so he dutifully went to rent a carriage.
About 20 minutes later, the open-top carriage Anderson had rented for 8 silver coins slowly came to a stop at the southern side of the Mist under Truth’s guidance.
While the three on the carriage — excluding Truth — were still confused as to why there were a fair number of adventurers here as well, a wide entrance created by Mist-Dispelling Mushrooms appeared before them, looking exactly like the one on the eastern side.
Because the news was slightly delayed, there were fewer adventurers entering the Mist from here compared to the east.
Some kind-hearted people had specifically gone to the Deya City gate to promote the new southern entrance, but most adventurers had merely smirked.
“Heh, trying to use a ‘lure the tiger from the mountain’ trick to fool us? No way!”
“There really is a new entrance…” Anderson carefully examined the south entrance of the Mist. When did this pop up? The update announcement didn’t mention it.
“Lead the way, Anderson. I want to challenge the Abandoned Cellar.” Truth snapped her fingers, signaling for Anderson to lead the team.
“Huh? I’m leading?”
“Should I, a lowly Priestling, lead the way? Or should your two juniors do it? You are a Tier 2 Ranger, so leading is your responsibility.”
“Fine, fine…” Anderson had a bad premonition, but he still led Truth and the others into the Mist.
At the same time, many other adventurer parties were around them; they had all discovered this new entrance on their way to the eastern one.
‘Very good, I can finally start the test…’
A slight smile flashed across the corners of Truth’s mouth as she followed behind Anderson, venturing deeper into the Mist.
First, she used God’s Perspective to observe the Levels of the surrounding party members.
Hmm, they were mostly between Level 13 and Level 20, which was perfect for testing the new variety of Tier 2 slimes.
In the next second, with a thought from Truth, a large swarm of multi-colored giant slimes bounced out of the Mist without warning. Immediately following that, a notification appeared before everyone’s eyes:
[Sudden Event: Slime Raid!]
[A swarm of slimes has launched a surprise attack on you!]
[Task Objective: Eliminate all slimes within 1 hour.]
[Reward for Success: Everyone receives a Party Card.]
“Huh? A Sudden Event? The Mist has this kind of thing now?!” Alton and Anderson immediately drew their weapons and began to face the enemy alongside the surrounding adventurer parties.
Originally, most people wanted to run the moment they saw the slime swarm.
However, once they realized it was a sudden task from the Mist, they immediately turned back. In an instant, the scene turned into a fierce battlefield.
“This is bad! There are too many slimes here; we need to retreat to the right first!” Anderson shouted to Alton. The two immediately ran toward an area with fewer slimes.
However, at that moment, Alice’s cry for help reached their ears.
“Help! Help me! Senior Zhendi and I are surrounded by slimes!”