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Even so, securing the waters of Beltane was no easy feat. In the original storyline, even a Level 5 like Tsubaki ard with magic swords couldn't exterminate the toxic mucus sli polluting the spring. The outside world completely lacked the firepower to deal with it. Orario dispatched an expeditionary force once, but after suffering a complete wipeout, the Guild quietly abandoned the quest.
With Alfia handling the vanguard, the only real concern was ensuring the Spring of Life wasn't collateral damage during the crossfire. Killing the monster wasn't even a question.
"To think there are others like us out there..." teria murmured, slightly dazed.
And they had ford an entire community... Instantly, the sisters felt a deep, profound interest in this village.
"How do you know about such obscure secrets?" Alfia asked. Unlike teria, she was far more intrigued by how Lucian possessed this intel.
The Hera Familia had run a background check on Lucian, but they hadn't even been able to find a record of him entering Orario. All they knew was that he had abruptly joined the Hephaestus Familia half a month ago and currently held a highly anomalous position—he was entirely self-governed. But he hadn't been abandoned; rather, he was deeply favored, granted the absolute privilege of freedom. Knowing Hephaestus's strict personality, she would never grant such leeway just because of romance. There was only one logical reason: it was the optimal choice. He possessed a transcendent talent, and the best way to cultivate it was to leave him entirely to his own devices.
"I know a lot of things. Beltane is just one of them," Lucian said, resting his chin on his hand with a lazy smirk. "Including the future."
"The future?" Alfia raised an eyebrow.
"Without my interference, there is a very high probability you will die at the age of twenty-seven," Lucian stated matter-of-factly. "Furthermore, you will fall to evil, colluding with the rats of the dark faction, and willingly march to your own death."
Alfia's eyebrows shot up. That was a wildly shocking claim. She had built up a degree of trust in Lucian, so she didn't dismiss it outright as the ramblings of a madman. Falling to evil. Willingly marching to her death. Her sharp intuition instantly caught the contradiction between those two statents.
Under what circumstances would an executive of the world's strongest Familia willingly brand herself as a villain? The answer: a catastrophic incident within the Familia. And why would she willingly march to her death? To play the villain for a noble, overarching purpose. Completing the Three Great Quests and achieving 'Salvation' was the burning, lifelong dream of every adventurer in the Zeus and Hera Familias. In just a few seconds, Alfia had deduced the horrifying truth hidden beneath his words.
"Are you suggesting our subjugation of the Leviathan—or perhaps the Black Dragon—will end in failure?" Alfia asked, her tone laced with genuine intrigue. "And that I beco a villain to serve as a trial for the next generation?"
"Ho." Lucian couldn't help but lean back.
Her analytical skills were completely off the charts. He knew the answer because he had read the script; Alfia was literally deducing the plot on the fly.
"It seems I hit the mark," Alfia murmured thoughtfully. "A precognition-type magic?"
"There is a special type of Mystic Eye known as Clairvoyance," Lucian replied, dodging a direct answer. "Clairvoyance is divided into three branches: Past Vision, which allows one to perceive history; Present Vision, which can observe every corner of the Lower World; and Future Vision, which pierces the veil of ti to see what is to co."
"And you possess Future Vision?" Alfia inquired.
"I don't possess any of them," Lucian declared with a perfectly straight face.
"That was a freezing cold joke," Alfia deadpanned, crossing her arms and rubbing her shoulders as if she had just caught a chill.
The joke had landed with a resounding thud. He was practically channeling Cyno at this point.
"I was rely informing you that such a power exists. I never claid to wield it," Lucian chuckled. "When you hold a lot of secrets and spend enough ti interacting with gods, you naturally pick up the habit of speaking like this."
Answering a question with the answer to a completely different question, and leaving half the truth unspoken. Even if the gods saw right through him, they generally wouldn't pry into a mortal's deliberately hidden secrets unless absolutely necessary.
"You're truly a piece of work," Alfia scoffed.
After chatting for a while, the three of them grew much more comfortable with one another. Since traveling to Beltane by carriage would take several days, Lucian eventually pulled out a deck of Gwent cards to pass the ti.
. . .
Ti flew by, and soon enough, they arrived at their destination. A colossal, ancient tree lood in the distance. The surrounding air was choked with a thick, venomous miasma, and the ground was pockmarked with bubbling, toxic swamps.
"Are you absolutely sure we aren't lost?" Alfia looked at their female driver in disbelief.
"I'm positive." The adventurer scratched the back of her head. "According to the guild records, a monster polluted the water source and the surrounding land, which is why they issued the quest to Orario in the first place."
"That's correct. A highly toxic sli monster infiltrated the source of the Spring of Life. Gorging itself on the spring's vitality, it rapidly multiplied and mutated, thoroughly contaminating the area," Lucian confird. "Furthermore, the main sli has continuously birthed countless lesser clones."
"It matters little. They're just trash mobs," Alfia stated, though she quickly frowned.
Her eyes darted to teria. Her sister was far too frail; one wrong step in this toxic wasteland could prove fatal.
"I'll handle the poison," Lucian interjected.
A pitch-black sphere materialized in his palm. It rapidly dissolved into a fluid state, slithering over and seamlessly enveloping teria's clothing like a protective coating.
"What is this...?" teria asked curiously.
"[Sli Armant]. It will filter out the surrounding toxins and provide a decent amount of physical defense," Lucian explained, raising his arm. The fabric covering his forearm dissolved into liquid before surging back and reforming perfectly. "The clothes I'm currently wearing are entirely constructed from a Sli Armant."
"This thing... is alive?" Alfia's tone was indecipherable.
"You could tell?" Lucian asked, genuinely surprised.
"My perception is reasonably sharp," Alfia's mouth twitched.
She knew that smiths and mages employed all sorts of bizarre thods, but even among those eccentrics, Lucian was a complete anomaly. Still, she didn't dwell on it. In the Dungeon, as long as sothing worked, its origins didn't matter.
The four of them ventured deeper into the Kingdom of Beltane. It didn't take long for the monsters to appear. Disgusting purple slis slithered out from the undergrowth, absorbing dead wildlife as they squelched aggressively toward the party.
"Stay close," Alfia ordered, stepping in front of teria to shield her. In a nonchalant tone, she whispered, "Gospel."
The mont the chant left her lips, a series of deafening cracks echoed through the swamp. The highly toxic slis burst like overinflated balloons, obliterated by an invisible, crushing shockwave. Monsters resilient enough to tank multiple hits from a Level 4 adventurer were nothing more than easily swept trash before her might.
The commotion quickly caught the attention of the native Beltaneans. The forest hadn't completely degraded yet, so normal animals still road the area alongside the monsters. The locals observed the outsiders with a mix of intense curiosity and guarded vigilance.
"Citizens of Beltane! Fetch soone in charge!" Lucian called out.
"Wait here," one of the villagers responded hastily, darting deeper into the settlent to summon their leader.
The Kingdom of Beltane was classified as a Nation-type Familia. Familias ca in many flavors: Hunter Familias that took outside requests to slay monsters, Smithing Familias that forged weapons, Comrcial Familias that controlled trade, Exploration Familias that mapped the Dungeon, and Agricultural Familias that cultivated crops. A National Familia ant that every single citizen of the country belonged to a single patron deity. The most infamous example was the Rakia Kingdom, ruled by Ares. Despite his frequent buffoonery, Ares was the undisputed God of War; the massive campaigns he instigated had scarred the Lower World deeply. While the gods ostensibly descended to guide humanity, the vast majority were just treating the world as their personal playground.
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