Gods Among Us (9)

PREVIOUSLY

Scary.

And now, we were going to go on a short quest to bring her a step closer to that level of power. Only after, can we focus on me.

B Ranked Quest. Collect [100 PhantomGrass]. Location: Heart Of the Outerforests. Time spent for the quest? Approximately, 3-5 days. Reward: 10 Silver.

Food? In Stock.

Equipment? I bought a new, sharper sword for Raegis, one that was made out of a wind wyrmking's claws. Now, we're broke.

Physical/Mental State: Absolutely peak after a week's worth of rest.

I waved Illya goodbye, before catching in the glimpse of my eyes how she turned back into the cheerful illusionary person of hers as I pushed the doors open, leaving the home of ruffians for a couple days in order to achieve the next step of my plan.

But then, Raegis decided to ruin the moment by saying she needed to pee.

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"Grr. . ."

The OuterParts or the outskirts of the Mystical Forest didn't really contain that many dangerous monsters, and usually only held wild boars or the like. But, the Mystical Forest ran on the premise that the further you went in, the more you were likely to encounter stronger monsters. The stronger the monsters, the more likely they were going to be of the higher grade, and perhaps if you were deep enough in the Mystical Woods, you would be able to catch an ancient monster, or a high-grade chromatic elder dragon.

Raegis and I didn't have to think much about those pesky, old fat lizards though, since we were definitely not venturing anywhere deep enough.

No, we only had to collect [100 PhantomGrass] and we could dip but that wasn't what our, what my true goal was.

Picking up the last annoying Phantom Grass, I ignored the sounds of Raegis's wild breathing as she sliced apart any of the WildMonkeys who dared to come near, but then I felt pity for them since we were basically encroaching onto their territory since the WildMonkeys happened to feed on the PhantomGrass.

"Alright, that's the last one." As I stood up, I heard multiple pops in my back which was pretty satisfying to hear since I had been toiling away, trying to capture these annoying PhantomGrass for the past few hours. No wonder, no-one wanted to do this task even in the game, since to catch even a single PhantomGrass, you would have to bait them with your energy signature, wait and pray that at least one of them bit the line.

Basically fishing, with a few arduous magical steps.

"You done over there?!"

I called out to Raegis, as she sliced a Wild Monkeys neck cleanly off it's shoulders. Sometimes I found it amusing that I wasn't even bothered by such things anymore due to my training with Ivanka and that fateful night with the Demon God.

Catching a sniff, my nose scrunched in disgust. I was still bothered by the horrible smell of dead monster flesh though. Jesus, how could any living being live in such a crude, horrible lifestyle? Sure they were monsters, but they should have enough sentience to fucking take a bath.

The branch that Raegis was holding onto broke, unable to withstand the silver energy of steel she had bestowed upon it. Raegis shook her head, and threw the branch away, before walking over to me.

"Willow, will the sword you give me break if I use [Bestow]?"

I petted her head to thank her for protecting me and shook my head. "No, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, I chose the sword specifically just for that to not happen but do be careful, a sword is still a tool."

"And, like every tool, if you use it too much," I mimed the branch that had just broken into two. "They break."

Raegis's ears fell. "I understand. I'll make sure to treasure the sword you give me so that it doesn't break."

"No, what I'm trying to say is-" A quick look into her determined eyes, and I knew whatever I said would just fall on deaf ears. "Nevermind. Anyway, how are you feeling?"

Raegis put her hand over her heart. "I feel. . .hot. I don't understand why, but I feel. . .something is calling me. I feel the need to. . .find out why."

"A burning sensation inside your chest, and the need to investigate," I whispered under my breath before smiling.

I had been right in choosing to come here. Although I had confidently marked the area 'X', I wasn't 100% sure that the first [Gate Of Steel] would be here just like in the game. After all, I was a personal testament to the fact that this world wouldn't just follow all the events like the game.

The Mark of the Demon God, and the Moon Goddess throbbed under my skin. Oh, I definitely learned that the hard way.

"Don't panic. This is all to get you stronger," I said. "You want to be stronger, don't you?"

Raegis furiously nodded her head. "I want to get stronger!" Her eyes clouded, and the righteous vengeance that had been hiding inside her started to come out. "I need to get my revenge."

Before it could fester, I bonked her on the head.

"Mmp!" She held her head with both of her hands, and looked at me questioningly.

I tutted at her. "Don't let yourself get consumed by your anger. If you get stronger, it's only natural that you will get your revenge. Until then, all you have to do is listen to me, isn't that right, little Raegis?"

"Mmp. . ." She pouted, and I smiled.

Pinching her cheeks, I complimented her. "That's a good girl."

Her mood immediately switched, burying her vengeance back into her heart, as she swooned at my compliment. I could already see her wolf-ears and tails swishing back and forth from the attention I was giving her.

How adorable.

But, back to the matter at hand. If Raegis was feeling hot, that meant that we were pretty close to the first [Gate Of Steel]. Before we could think about anything further, we had to first figure out how on earth we were going to find it.

Huh, we would have, if I hadn't already thought of a plan. Okay maybe, it was still too hasty to really call it a plan as it was more of a hypothesis than a concrete plan.

But, it should work!

"Alright Raegis, I'm going to need you to listen to everything I'm about to say, okay?" I told her.

She nodded her head, as her eyes sharpened seriously. "Imm."

"What I'm about to do requires you to have absolute trust in me, alright?" I held onto her cheeks and made her look me dead in the eyes. "That means you can't, under any circumstances, fight what I'm about to do to you."

Without a moment's waste of time, Raegis answered in an instant.

"I trust you."