142

Rescue Mission

Walking down the road, Forseti couldn't help but bow his head and reflect.

The act of madly slaughtering low-level demons with holy light had been reckless. This had cost him two confrontations with Zatanos previously. This time, he had encountered a greater demon, and he wondered what might come next.

More importantly, if he hadn't attracted the attention of the demon, the team might have retreated completely unscathed, but now three people had died...

He resolved not to recklessly slaughter demons on the battlefield in the future.

The battle was over, the enemy troops had retreated, and the soldiers in the camp began to rest.

"Captain!" The team members gathered around him.

As Forseti counted, there were twelve people left. Three of their comrades had been killed in the battle, those who had fallen to the demon.

This realization darkened his expression, and he was silent for a moment.

"Well... you all did well. Take a good rest," he said, nodding, covering his bruised hand, and turning back to his room.

"What's wrong with the captain?" Someone was puzzled. "I think we won a great victory this time. We killed so many enemies and even held off a demon for a while. Why does he look unhappy?"

Arroyo responded, "I have to correct you. Most of those achievements belong to the captain. Especially against the demon, we hardly did anything."

"But he also attracted the demon. If he hadn't, none of us would have died," someone argued.

Arroyo replied, "Without Captain Forseti, or if we had the same captain as before, we might have lost more than three in the first wave."

"Arroyo, you seem to admire Captain Forseti too much."

Arroyo said calmly, "My only advantage is knowing who is worthy of respect. There is no doubt that Captain Forseti is such a person."

Several people continued discussing.

Haldo glanced at Elito beside him: "What do you think?"

"Arroyo is right," Elito said lightly.

Haldo smiled: "I remember you didn't like the new captain at first. When did you start respecting him, after seeing him fight the demon for so long?"

"No, just now," Elito said without further explanation, then turned and left.

---

Forseti went back to his room.

"Buzzing." The little stone sprit, Shilut, waved at him while eating stones. Seeing Forseti's weak appearance, he was stunned, a little overwhelmed, and his raised little hand stayed up for a long time.

Forseti lay down, closed his eyes, and breathed silently for a long time until his divine energy recovered.

Shilut thought he was asleep and lowered the sound of her stone eating.

Forseti twisted Shilut's head, sat up to heal himself, and the divine energy circulated in his hands, making the injury heal quickly.

After a while, the injury almost fully recovered. He moved his body and cleared his emotions, then looked at the spoils of this battle.

First were the rewards for defeating the demons, more than twenty, similar to last time.

He obtained [Standard Space Grid], [Hammer of Justice (Shard)], [Sacrificial Aura (Shard)]...

Most were still spell fragments. Forseti confirmed that revenge rewards mainly consisted of spell fragments, and like a lottery, fragments couldn't be obtained across tiers. Of course, Divine Shield, being an ultimate spell, was an exception.

The luck was very bad this time; he didn't get anything substantial, not even a shard of the Divine Shield. Only a few flashes of holy light and the King's Blessing made Forseti feel somewhat satisfied.

With the demon slaying this time, he had completed fifty-one instances of revenge, with forty-nine to go to reach his goal.

Although Forseti had decided not to recklessly slaughter demons anymore, the war in Vanaheim would continue for a while, and it shouldn't be a problem to reach a hundred.

Once a hundred revenges were complete, unlocking the remaining two requirements of the third-tier spell would be much easier.

In addition to revenge, Forseti's biggest gain this time should be the broken arm of the demon.

As a great demon, the demon's strength was roughly equivalent to a second-tier divine power, a very powerful existence. Only the Holy Light could restrain the demon; otherwise, Forseti wouldn't have lasted long against him.

The tissue of any powerful creature was a treasure, whether dragon or demon.

And Forseti had just learned how to make demon statues, which was where this would come in handy.

He drained the blood from the broken arm and collected it, then processed and preserved it.

Identifying it, Forseti put the demon's blood on the recipe for the demon statue.

**[295% Replacement for Demon Blood]**

295% replacement degree!

This result made Forseti a little excited. The demon's blood was indeed of higher quality than ordinary demons!

If he mastered the art of making demon statues, the strength of this statue might surpass the average first-tier divine power.

Forseti wanted to practice making demon statues again, but it was already early in the morning, so he rested.

At noon the next day, just after dinner, an Einherjar found Forseti.

"Senior Forseti, the commander wants to see you," said the Einherjar.

Forseti hurried to the command post and met Odin, the camp's commander, in the conference hall, as well as Hela and Tyr.

"Lord Odin, Your Highness Hela, Lord Tyr," Forseti greeted each respectfully.

Odin approached, patted him on the shoulder, and nodded approvingly. "I wasn't wrong about you. Your growth is better than I expected."

"With your blessings," Forseti said.

Odin smiled, then his expression grew serious. "I called you here for a special mission for you and your team."

"A few days ago, a maid from the palace was chased by a troll. You and Hermond caught the troll chasing her, right?"

"Yes," Forseti nodded, recalling the incident.

Odin continued, "After interrogation, we learned that the maid served a prince of the Vanir. The prince's name is Hogan, only two years old, the youngest son of the King of the Vanir."

"The most important thing is that Prince Hogan is still alive but in the hands of trolls."

After a pause: "So, the task I want to give you is to rescue Prince Hogan. You caught the troll, and Tyr and I recommended you. I don't think anyone is more suitable."

Hogan?

Hearing this name, Forseti couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, but he felt it sounded familiar.

After a while, he finally remembered.

Isn't Hogan one of Thor's three best friends?