“Dammit! Where did the Holy Maiden go?”
In the free exploration area east of the Fog Gate Plaza, after discovering that Truth had led Dilisha into the free exploration area, Nimrod and Sera, the two Ninth Rank Shadow Guards, immediately followed.
According to the Goddess’s orders, they had to keep Truth within their line of sight at all times.
But just a couple of steps into the Mist, they realized they had lost their way…
This was something neither of them had anticipated.
They never expected the Mist’s disorientation mechanic to work on them too!
Both of them were quite panicked now, having lost sight of the Saintess in an instant!
Nimrod very much wanted to cleave through the thick Mist with his Heavy Sword to cancel out the disorientation effect, but he was afraid his wide-range sword aura might injure the Saintess nearby. Sera, on the other hand, tried summoning flying monsters to scout from above, and even used various detection spells to check, but even probing from high altitude couldn’t see through the Mist…
For a moment, the two were at a loss, completely unable to find an effective way to quickly locate the Saintess.
There was no helping it.
After a brief moment of thought, without exchanging a single word, the two tacitly resorted to a sweeping grid search.
Sera kept using flying monsters to pinpoint her position, while Nimrod relied on his formidable physical strength to leap high above the Mist, using brief moments of airtime to orient himself.
Although the Mist’s disorientation mechanic was unique, no matter how special it was, it was ultimately just a Second Rank Dungeon.
Its limitations on Ninth Rank adventurers couldn’t do much…
Meanwhile, Truth was keeping an eye on both of their movements.
She was tracking the positions of her two Saint’s Shadow Guards in real time and deliberately chose routes that avoided their paths, leading Dilisha deeper and deeper into the Mist.
And these two actually managed to use aerial elevation to gain reference points and orient themselves… Hmm, this was currently a major flaw of the Mist. She would need to address this problem later…
“Um… Holy Maiden, where exactly are we going?”
Dilisha asked in confusion. Her strongest impression of the Mist so far was how cold it was, like having twenty or thirty air conditioners blasting at once.
Speaking of which, did the Mist really have such a unique mechanic that could make people lose their sense of direction?
Since everything around her was a blinding expanse of white Mist, she couldn’t tell which direction she was facing at all.
All she could do was follow Truth step by step, hoping that Truth wasn’t lost.
Although she knew it was very safe to stay by the Saintess’s side, facing a scene where everything in the Mist was unknown, it would be a lie to say she wasn’t scared.
“Um… can you hear me, Holy Maiden? Where exactly are we going?” Seeing that Truth hadn’t responded, Dilisha asked quietly once more.
“Alright, this is good enough right here!”
Suddenly, Truth stopped in her tracks and turned around, lifting her head to look into Dilisha’s eyes with a warm gaze.
“Huh? Here? This… what’s special about here?” Dilisha looked around and found nothing out of the ordinary.
Then she watched as Truth pulled out a pure black, soft blindfold from who-knows-where and held it out in front of her:
“Here, put this on.”
“Uh?” Dilisha took the blindfold with a bewildered expression, having no idea what Truth was trying to do. But as long as it could bring her closer to Truth… she’d do it!
This thing should be a blindfold, right? She tried putting it over her head:
“Like this?”
“Hmm, feels okay. It’s completely lightproof—can’t see a thing—and the breathability is pretty good too. I doubt it’d be uncomfortable to wear for a long time. But why would I need to wear this blindfold in the Mist?”
“Holy Maiden, why did you have me put on this blindfold… huh? Why can’t I take it off?!”
Dilisha was just about to remove the blindfold to ask Truth, but she discovered that no matter how hard she pulled, she couldn’t get it off!
Hehe, of course she couldn’t take it off.
The reason she couldn’t remove it was because Truth had used her King Rank strength to lock the blindfold tightly onto Dilisha’s head.
Facing the weak Dilisha, Truth didn’t hesitate to use King Rank power!
Don’t ask why—ask because it’s fun, ask because it’s about respecting your opponent.
“It’s fine, this is completely normal, and the test has already begun now.”
Truth stood on her tiptoes slightly and whispered softly into Dilisha’s ear.
Then she took the hand of the slightly frightened Dilisha and continued walking forward step by step:
“This little test is to see whether you have a pure heart. As the Saintess, I only like to be friends with people who have pure hearts, you know.”
“J-just… putting on a blindfold and walking forward like this is enough to test whether my heart is pure?”
“No, this is only the beginning. Right now I just want you to get used to it. For the next two minutes, just hold my hand and walk steadily forward.”
After adjusting slightly, even though she couldn’t see anything, as long as she was holding Truth’s hand, Dilisha felt a strange sense of reassurance.
It’s fine—the Ninth Saintess wouldn’t hurt her. Besides, the Shadow Guards were somewhere ensuring their safety. It’s just a mere Mist…
The next second, Truth suddenly let go of Dilisha’s hand! Then she kept a certain distance from the latter:
“You’ve adapted well enough, right? From now on, walk forward on your own. I’ll stay right beside you and follow along slowly.”
“Huh? Walk? But I can’t see anything!”
Dilisha said anxiously, waving her hands around trying to grab Truth’s hand again, but unfortunately, after turning in a circle, she couldn’t find anything.
However, Truth’s voice still echoed in her ears, as if she were speaking right against them:
“It’s fine. Relax and focus your mind. Now, concentrate your heart on what’s ahead and try to imagine there’s a finish line in front of you. If all goes well, you’ll be able to see a small guiding light in the endless darkness that leads you to the finish line.”
“Like this…” Dilisha tried holding her breath and concentrating, doing as she was told.
At the same time, Truth used the Mist’s UI System to place a Light Cursor in front of Dilisha…
“Oh, I can see it! It’s real! I can see a small light up ahead!”
“Amazing, I didn’t think you’d see it right away! Now try walking toward the light!”
“W-what if I run into a tree or something?”
“You won’t. That light will adjust its position at any time to actively guide you around all obstacles. All you have to do is keep following it.”
……
Under Truth’s various coaxing, Dilisha cautiously followed the light’s guidance as she walked.
Since she couldn’t tell time or her own position, Dilisha felt like time was passing extremely slowly.
And because her eyes were covered, her other senses gradually became more acute.
She thought to herself:
‘Just walking like this doesn’t seem that hard… so this is the purity test? Can this test… really measure my purity?’
“Of course it can,” Truth said with a faint smile from the side.
At that moment, Dilisha suddenly heard a very neutral voice ring out in her mind:
“The first task of the Path of Purity has been triggered: First, please remove your outermost layer of clothing!”
“Path of Purity?! What… there are tasks too? Holy Maiden! A voice is telling me to take off my outermost layer of clothes!” Dilisha was startled.
“Ah, that. That’s the first task on the Path of Purity. You have to do it—if you don’t, the test will fail.”
“Take off my clothes… what kind of ridiculous task is this? Why do I have to remove a layer of clothing here?!”
For some reason, Dilisha felt more and more that this purity test was off.
At that moment, she really wanted to interrupt the test and go back to explain the situation to her father.
But unfortunately, Truth wasn’t about to let her off that easily:
“Dilisha, you’d better do as it says. That dress of yours is quite precious, isn’t it? If you don’t comply, the Mist might forcefully tear your clothes apart. You wouldn’t want your beautiful gown to be ruined like that, would you?”
In front of the blindfolded Dilisha, Truth’s serene smile gradually took on the feel of a Demon.
Hehe, this Lord of the City Dilun really is something.
If you want to curry favor with me, you didn’t have to go as far as sending your own daughter over for me to play with.
She’s even more proactive than Wilona’s sister-in-law!
Want to become friends with me and earn my trust?
Hmph… that’s not out of the question, since I love making good friends after all.
So since Dilisha wants so badly to be good friends with me, it’s not too much for me to do the things that normal friends do together, right?
For example… playing blindfolded-deer roleplay on a little path deep in the Mist…
“N-no way! What if after I take off this one, the Mist suddenly demands I take off another layer? I don’t have that many clothes on me! What if it ends up asking me to take everything off?! And I’d definitely be seen by other passing adventurers, plus your two Shadow Guards!”
Dilisha’s voice was filled with terror.
“Then just take it all off.” Truth looked unconcerned: “Relax, the Mist’s free exploration area is huge, so we’re unlikely to run into anyone else. Right now, I’m the only one here with you.”
“I don’t believe it! Ah—” Dilisha was just about to retort, but the next second, a 60-second countdown flashed in front of her pitch-black blindfold. The Mist’s voice echoed in her mind once more:
“If the task rules are not followed, the Mist will take forceful measures to tear the tester’s clothes!”
“Don’t tear them! This is my favorite dress!” In that instant, Dilisha found herself caught in an impossible dilemma…
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.