It was a dilapidated temple.
The tablet with the symbol of Mother of Nature and elf script had long been destroyed by sharp weapons and was splashed with dirty blood of profanity.
The original statue of the goddess was smashed and had long been replaced by a wooden male god statue wearing a fur jacket while holding a tomahawk and a longbow in his hands.
That was Ullr, the God of Winter and Hunting.
Under the statue, an old hunchbacked goblin prostrated himself to worship him.
On his body was a shabby mage robe that was snatched from a human caravan and on his head there was a nondescript felt hat. At the front of the hat, there was a crystal shining with pale green light.
"The great God of Winter and Hunting, this is the third divine blood crystal I found this month. I will find seven more to add up to 33, the minimum quota for sacrifice. And then I will sacrifice them to you together."
He bent down, his eyes turbid, his face covered with deep wrinkles that were almost engraved into his bones, with his expression being fanatically pious.
As Ullr's body was in heaven, a transborder sacrifice would cost a great amount of energy. In order to save divine force, He could only have His followers collect enough tributes to have them sacrifice all the crystals together to Him later. Usually, He only had simple communication with His believers at most.
As the goblin prayed, the statue emitted a faint golden light that caressed his body slightly.
In an instant, the old goblin felt that his aged body got younger.
"The God of Winter and Hunting be praised!"
The old goblin rejoiced slightly and bent his head even lower.
After praying to the god, the old goblin stood up.
He straightened the felt hat on his head, carefully picked up the skeleton staff inlaid with huge orbs from under his body, wiped it in his arms with care as if it was a treasure, and then walked out of the dilapidated temple with satisfaction.
The old goblin's name was Guru. He was a level 11 goblin priest, a Low Iron creature.
However, Guru preferred to call himself a high priest. Because among all the goblins that entrenched in the ruins of Florence, he was the most powerful. The other three goblin priests could not match him and therefore had to bow down before him.
The reason why he was so powerful was not because of Ullr's favor, but because he had experienced adventures, obtained a magic staff and became a rare goblin magician before Ullr recruited him.
Moreover, he had also mastered mysterious undead magic!
It was through his mastery over the undead magic that he was able to suppress the other two level 11 goblin priests.
Nevertheless, he was still very old.
Normally, he would not be able to live for three more years.
Fortunately, the appearance of Ullr gave him hope. The great god had promised to give him a new lease in life if he was able to collect 33 divine blood crystals of the World Tree within this year.
Guru's luck was not bad.
For some reason, in a thousand years after the War of Gods, people forgot the World Tee's divine blood crystals that were lost in the forest of elves. Ullr had only recently launched a secret search task for them.
Therefore, it was not difficult for the believers to collect some crystals as long as they worked hard.
With all the goblins' effort, he had managed to already collect 26 crystals within a few months.
"Power is essential for one's status in this world!"
Guru caressed his skeleton staff as he muttered to himself in intoxication.
Outside of the temple, Guru came to the street of the ruins of Florence.
But as he looked at the empty broken walls, his old eyebrows gradually furrowed.
"Why are so many missing?"
Guru looked around and saw a sleeping goblin.
Guru snorted, walked over, and kicked it.
The awakened goblin was furious by the sudden disturbance. It picked up its stick and was about to fight back. But when it saw the source of its disturbance clearly, its fury instantly deflated. It bent over on the ground like a well-behaved little chicken, while muttering "Oh oh oh" and kissing Guru's toes…
There was a flicker of contempt in Guru's eyes.
He looked down on his low IQ peers.
In his view, although they had the same appearance, they were completely two different species.
This group of weak good-for-nothings could not even speak the general language!
If it wasn't for his undead summons not being able to touch the divine blood crystals, making them unable to meet his need for crystal hunting, why would he make use of this group of good-for-nothings?
Nevertheless, in order to achieve his own goal, these dumb goblins' power was still indispensable at this moment.
Thinking of this, he kicked the goblin on the ground and asked,
"Where are the others? Why are so many missing overnight?"
On hearing Guru's question, the goblin looked dazed. Then it suddenly realized something. It quickly yelled "Ah ah ah" and gestured to Guru.
"Huh? You are saying they saw a human woman passing by outside the ruins? And they went to catch her?"
Guru frowned.
The goblin nodded repeatedly.
Getting its confirmation, Guru's eyes narrowed slightly.
"A human woman?"
They were hundreds of kilometers away from the nearest human kingdom. And human caravans only passed through this place in the summer. Where did a human woman come from?
This group of good-for-nothings went crazy for a female!
In a fury, he flung the goblin that answered his question and walked towards the edge of Florence.
As Guru advanced, its face became increasingly gloomier.
Because he found that the number of goblins in the ruins had decreased more than he thought.
"I'm afraid that at least two hundred goblins ran away…"
He gnashed his teeth.
While Guru was thinking of a suitable method of punishment for these deserters, a commotion sounded out in the southwest of the ruins of Florence.
Guru raised his eyebrows and walked there quietly…
…
The southwestern exit of Florence.
Demacia, who had changed his appearance, was making poses as usual.
Moreover, in order to lure more elite monsters, he walked inside the ruins boldly.
"Come on, you little cuties!"
Demacia sneered from within as he saw that the goblins were gradually lured out by him.
However, his instincts smelled danger all of a sudden.
Demacia got nervous, as he felt that he was targeted by a vicious snake…
The perception of an elf was very keen.
Demacia subconsciously turned to look at the source of danger.
And when he saw the source of danger, he instantly felt his scalp turning numb.
On a broken stone tablet in the ruins, a goblin shrouded in a dark robe was gazing at him coldly.
It was Guru, the goblin high priest.
Demacia could perceive the eerie aura around him even at a distance of tens of meters.
"Ah… Bad luck. I must have attracted the boss!"
Demacia groaned secretly as he perceived his gaze.
"I'll slip away…"
He turned and ran away without hesitation.
"A human woman…"
Guru let out a chuckle.
At first glance, it recognized that this so-called "woman" seemed to be under some transfiguration magic.
Could it be a mercenary?
Guru had some guesses.
However, since he discovered the female human, he did not want to let her run away.
Two hundred missing goblins were not a small amount!
He would definitely catch this nasty bastard!
Guru gritted his teeth from within.
He did not worry about whether there was any hidden mercenary group behind the female human. Since the female human did not dare to appear before him aboveboard, the female human must know she was not as powerful as him.
The female human even had to resort to insidious methods to deal with goblins, which just indicated that the female human was unconfident!
Thinking of this, he decisively wielded the huge skeleton staff. An incomparably cold energy emanated from the orbs on the staff.
With bouts of weird energy fluctuations, big skeleton hands stretched out from under Demacia's feet and forcibly moved towards his legs to catch him…
At the same time, Eve, who was watching the players' live-stream in the space of His godhead, was shocked and instantly felt palpitations that emerged slowly.