“Goddess, the Goddess has manifested!”
“Our prayers have been answered. As expected, the Goddess never abandons any of her followers!”
In Deya City, the residents knelt down and bowed to the Goddess of Life in the sky. The students at the training grounds also sincerely gave their thanks.
“I didn’t expect it was the Goddess of Life who saved us…”
After the Dragon was driven away, Suna stood behind Truth with her hands clasped and head bowed, barely daring to move.
She still bore the Demonic Contract on her body; if the Goddess noticed, it would be over for her.
Truth, however, stood with hands on her hips, staring directly at the sky.
“Tch, there she is again. Well, that’s fine—once she acts, I don’t have to reveal my strength. Though why does it feel like she’s been watching me this whole time?”
To avoid trouble, Truth casually clasped her hands and bowed as well.
“Again her… such a special little priest…”
The Goddess of Life was curiously observing Truth. She had witnessed the battle moments ago.
This little black magic user had quite a talent—already mastering elemental power at Second Tier. Not bad, but unfortunately not suitable as one of Her followers.
Then there was the brown-haired boy, who surprisingly possessed the Heroic Constitution!
There was even someone with the Heroic Constitution in Her territory—adding him to the list of candidates for the next generation of Heroes.
Though his level was a bit low, only Second Tier… well, it’s acceptable. Giving you the qualification early—once you reach Third Tier, just report to the Kingdom of Sylvia.
Heroic Constitution wasn’t unique to Reg. Whenever someone with this constitution reached Third Tier, they would be taken in by the Church of the Goddess of Life and trained into Heroes in the Kingdom of Sylvia.
Next was the burly young man who looked a bit irritable—no need to pay him any mind.
Lastly, there was the little priest. How was she able to use a Shield at First Tier? She remembered setting the Skill Tree so that Defensive Skills were only learned at Second Tier.
And the Shield lasted so long—interesting.
Priests who worship the Goddess of Life could only learn Healing Spells at First Tier; Defensive Skills came at Second Tier. So Truth using Healing Mist at First Tier was fine—the Goddess only found her skill amusing.
There were all kinds of strange skills in the world. The Goddess recalled priests from eastern countries whose First Tier Healing Spells merely summoned an apple for the wounded to eat.
This even led to adventurers from that region frequently starting fights with an underhook to the jaw; if the opponent’s jaw dislocated, they couldn’t eat the priest’s healing apple.
“Little one, where did you learn that Shield?”
The Goddess’s gentle voice echoed in Truth’s mind. Truth quickly replied:
“I found a book in the Deya Underground Labyrinth. The moment I opened it, the book vanished, but then I felt a lot of knowledge flooding into my head. This defensive skill came from that book.”
Truth activated her passive skill: Blunt Tongue.
No choice—she had trained herself to be eloquent when she used to fake being a girl with a voice changer to scam people with Royal-tier items. But Truth had toned it down a lot now.
For one, she wasn’t even using the voice changer this time.
A book… The Goddess quickly recalled an ancient, long-lost kind of skill book. She had once heard the Order God mention that ancient humans used skill books to learn skills—it turned out to be true!
After all, the Order God’s tales of ancient humans were so absurd—pockets that could hold any item, instantaneous skill learning, infinite resurrection upon death, and wandering around in strange clothes every day…
Just thinking about it seemed impossible.
Still, the Goddess felt this little one’s potential was immense—after all, she had acquired a rare ancient skill that fit a priest perfectly, and her life element was very pure.
The Goddess examined every detail of Truth, just as she had at Suho Manor last time. Nothing unusual was found. Good—she could try cultivating her. It had been over a hundred years since a special priest had appeared.
Other deities’ followers had Heroic Constitution or elemental affinity every few years, but Her little priests were all plain. Though she didn’t pay much attention to them, it was partly because they weren’t hardworking enough.
By the way, where was the mid-level priest responsible for Deya City? She glanced at the academy—no sign of him. Probably off rescuing residents injured by the Fire Dragon. Fine, she’d handle it herself.
With a thought, the Goddess of Life sent down a divine miracle.
At the same time, on the arena, Suna was still mulling over Truth’s earlier muttering about the underground labyrinth and the skill book when suddenly, a pillar of divine light struck Reg.
Startled, Mailun backed away repeatedly.
What was going on? Was this divine punishment?
Unfortunately, it wasn’t the divine punishment Mailun hoped for, but a divine gift. The pillar of light restored Reg to peak condition, and a dim black-gold mark appeared on his right hand:
The “Hero’s Mark.”
This was the mark possessed by all Heroes throughout history, though the true Heroes bore a more radiant mark. Reg’s dim mark indicated he was currently only one of the candidate Heroes.
Only by defeating the other candidates would he become the latest generation Hero blessed by the five True Gods!
Reg was shocked. Could this be one of the opportunities Truth had given him? Letting the weakest child in the Vanguard Family become a candidate Hero? He knew he would never have been noticed back home!
Moreover, once becoming a candidate Hero, Reg would be forced onto a path of punishing evil and ridding the world of villains. Punishing evil was fine, but ridding the world of villains…
Reg glanced at his hands: his right bore the Hero’s Mark from the Goddess of Life, and his left held the Black Magic Mark from the notorious Truth… Great, he could already imagine the difficult future surviving between these two powerful figures.
“Hero’s Mark… huh?”
While the students around didn’t yet understand what had happened, Gadelia’s heart was already pierced.
How could this be? She had discovered such a promising talent first!
And now he was snatched away mid-path to become a Hero? Damn those human True Gods!
But she could accept it—there were still Suna and Truth…
“Whoosh!”
The next second, another pillar of divine light appeared, this time targeting Truth!
“!!!”
Amid the crowd’s shocked cries mixed with Gadelia’s disbelief-filled scream, the pillar gradually faded, and Truth appeared unharmed.
Everyone soon noticed the change in her.
She now wore a rare priest robe adorned with shimmering green patterns!
The Goddess of Life had bestowed Truth a brand-new Priest Robe, the patterns on which symbolized the Saintess’ Insignia of the Goddess of Life’s church!
A prompt appeared in Truth’s vision:
【Talent Acquired: Life’s Blessing (LVI)】
【Life’s Blessing: Compared to others, all life elements in the world will be more favorable toward you】
“Look! Truth has been chosen as one of the Goddess’s Twelve Saintesses!”
“What? A Saintess! Our Deya City actually produced a Saintess?!”
“Damn, Truth is so selfless and kind—if she doesn’t become a Saintess, then who else?”
Listening to the crowd’s astonished exclamations, Truth was completely dumbfounded, pointing at herself:
“What? Saintess? Me?”
You want me, someone who wanted to kill the Goddess of Life, to become Her Saintess?!