Book 7: Chapter 398: Successful Conclusion of the Hunt at Sky Jungle Veblen
Book 7: Chapter 398: Successful Conclusion of the Hunt at Sky Jungle Veblen
Sky Jungle Veblen. With some trickery, Bella easily lured God Princess Suzia over to her side. This existence that seemed to hold the strength of a God King had not been in contact with other God Races in over ten thousand years and had basically no impressions or countermeasures for various types of traps. Even though it was easy to feel guilty about tricking a pure and innocent girl, Bella didn’t mind. It’s better to be tricked by her than someone else.
God Princess Suzia did not have any suspicions because of Bella’s identity as a dragon knight. During the great war more than a thousand years ago, the dragon knights of that era had always been loyal to the light without a single traitor or fallen dragon knight till the very last second. But now, the dragon knights weren’t as pure as back then. Goddess Suzia was judging the current Dragon Knight Bella from her own experiences more than ten thousand years ago, so it was no wonder that she fell for it.
Suzia’s explanation about the function of the Divine Crystals… they weren’t that special. They were just the standard food of the God Race. If a high-level existence such as the God Race wanted to obtain power, even though they could eat normal food like humans, the amount of energy it provided them was too low. This is where the Divine Crystals with large amounts of power come to play. These crystals, made of condensed energy, contained plenty of energy in themselves.
Bella herself could also eat them. There were similar Dark Crystals in the Demon World as well, just like those energy supplements that restore energy quickly. However, World Destructors can also gain a lot of energy by destroying worlds rather than eat Energy Crystals, so World Destructors didn’t generally eat them. No matter what attribute the Energy Crystals had, whether they were Divine Crystals or Dark Crystals, they all had one same similarity, and that was the extremely poor taste experience.
Energy Crystals have no taste and are almost like ice cubes. It sort of felt like you were chewing on ice while eating them. One or two was fine, but to do it often, Bella couldn’t do it. Bella looked at the large chunk of Divine Crystal, then at the attractive little cherry mouth of God Princess Suzia, and felt a strange sense of pain in her heart. What if this god princess accidentally hurts her mouth?
But she couldn’t not eat the Divine Crystal. Without the supplement of the Divine Crystal, the God Race wouldn’t starve to death, but it would affect the development of their power. The God Races that Bella had encountered and subdued in the past, second-generation Death Goddess Rowling and second-generation Water Goddess Serna, both did not have Divine Crystals to replenish their energy, which was a cause of their low strength.
“What’s wrong, Bella? You’re not regretting it, are you? Kn…Knights have to be trustworthy, haven’t we already agreed on it?”
“Uh, you don’t have to be so nervous, Suzia. I’m not going to rob you! Once you’re done, follow me and we can go meet our companions!”
Bella’s contemplative appearance caused God Princess Suzia, who was about to take out the Divine Crystal, to feel inexplicably nervous. Those fair dainty hands were pressed hard on the surface of the Divine Crystal. That cute appearance looked just like a little girl trying to protect her favorite toy or snack. This piece of Divine Crystal was quite large, but Goddess Suzia had her own storage ring and was able to put the crystal away quite smoothly.
“Hello, this is…This is my new contract Guardian Goddess; just call her Suzia!”
“Bella, your Guardian Goddess…She’s beautiful!”
Bella brought Goddess Suzia to find her companions from before, Assassin Noreya and Marionette Master Elaine looked unsurprised, as if they had already gotten used to Bella’s antics in abducting all sorts of pretty girls on a regular basis. In retrospect, their relationship with Bella also semi came from a dishonest nature.
The ones most surprised were the dragon princesses, Silver Dragon Princess Isabel and Ice Dragon Princess Mavis. The bashful and beautiful goddess had a strength far surpassing that of a God. Guardian Gods were generally ordinary angels. It was the first time anyone had heard of someone taking a person at the level of a God as a Guardian God. Seems like there really aren’t any normal people around Bella.
“Mavis, Isabel, please help me keep this a secret. Suzia has a special status so it can’t be revealed to too many people. You can’t even tell the elders in your family, alright?”
“Got it, Bella. We’ll keep it secret!”
Bella made this request to the two dragon princesses with a smile on her face. Isabel and Mavis quickly agreed, even though they were a little suspicious of Goddess Suzia. She might even be the God Princess who had been missing for so many years. The innocent God Princess Suzia had not even taken off her crown signaling her identity as the God Princess in front of the others and the dragon princesses still had a keen eye for that.
But the current Goddess Suzia was already under Bella’s watch and Bella’s strength had already left the two dragon princesses in awe. After God Princess Suzia joined the team, Bella and her hunting squad finally found themselves a reliable guide. Goddess Suzia had lived in seclusion in the Sky Jungle Veblen for many years so she knew the environment in this region well.
Your average Holy Beast in Sky Jungle Veblen no longer dared mess with Bella and her team after the previous annihilation of the forest wolves. Bella and the others planned to go and hunt for Mutant Holy Beasts while seeking out precious God World ingredients in the areas where the Mutant Holy Beasts infested. Whether Mutant Holy Beast meat tasted good or not, Bella couldn’t judge as nobody had tried it before. But at the very least, it was better than the Demonic Beasts back on the ground.
Under Goddess Suzia’s guide, Bella and the others arrived at a quiet lake in Sky Jungle Veblen. This lake was formerly known as Sacred Lake Raphael, and legend has it that this is the place where a certain archangel lived in seclusion. There were many creatures of the Holy World inside the lake that have not been mutated by the evil energy yet, so this is the place to look for ingredients. There was also all sorts of edible Holy World vegetation in the forest next to the lake. This is one of only a few locations in Sky Jungle Veblen that has yet to be affected by the mutation.
Goddess Suzia’s secluded hut was originally located here. Not only did a few ferocious mutated Holy Beasts destroy her hut when they came to hunt, they also wrecked the Divine Crystal she spent so much time and effort finding. Suzia was forced to escape and had to dig for new Divine Crystals, which is how she bumped into Bella.
God Princess Suzia did have her strength, but it was mainly because she didn’t have a single divine artifact on her. She fled in such a hurry when the Twelve Demon Kings washed the God World with blood back then that she didn’t bring a single divine artifact with her. This was what led her to be at a disadvantage now. The mutated Holy Beasts were still covered in the aura of the God Race and are immune to light and holy attacks so Suzia wasn’t able to do substantial damage to them without divine artifacts.
Bringing along two Renegades and two dragon princesses, Bella came to help Goddess Suzia find her bearings again. The territory of her Guardian Goddess is her own. Right now, bullying Goddess Suzia is akin to provoking Bella’s dignity. Among the ruins is a small hut that had been completely destroyed. There, Bella and her team saw three Mutant Holy Beasts who were here to cause trouble.
The three mutated beasts were the S+ rank Mutant Holy Beast Golden Manticore, SS Rank Mutant Holy Beast Crimson Warbear, and the SS+ rank Mutant Holy Beast Blackback Ape. The Golden Manticore is a mutated version of the Holy Beast, Golden Lion, with an extra pair of wings on its back. Its tail had also turned into a scorpion’s tail. The Golden Manticore is a ferocious creature with a poisonous tail that can easily poison Mutant Holy Beasts one to two ranks higher than it. Normally, other Mutant Holy Beasts will take the initiative to go around it once they spot a Golden Manticore.
In comparison to the Golden Manticore, the Crimson Warbear was nothing to fear. It’s just the common Demonic Bear you can find on the ground but much larger, and also with a blood red “skin” on it. Even though it was strong and was higher rank than the Golden Manticore, in Bella’s opinion, this Mutant Holy Beast is the weakest of the three. Bella wanted to express that just because you changed your “skin” doesn’t mean you can get away from getting beat down.
Bella knew by her intuition that the most dangerous of the three was the Blackback Ape. Even though this guy looks like an enlarged version of a chimpanzee, its IQ was obviously much higher. There was another important reason why God Princess Suzia wasn’t able to deal with these three Mutant Holy Beasts. All three of these Mutant Holy Beasts do close range physical attacks. Goddess Suzia, without any divine artifacts, could only attack using magic from afar, so she was at a great disadvantage, especially since these Mutant Holy Beasts were immune to her magic.
When these three Mutant Holy Beasts saw Goddess Suzia swagger in with her group, they were also stunned. The only intelligent one of them, the Blackback Ape, thought, is something wrong with this goddess’s head? Even someone at the level of a God could do nothing to them, so aren’t they just here to send them gifts by bringing three normal human warriors and two dragons?
“I…I’m warning you again, get out of my house! Otherwise, I’ll fight you!”
“Girl, you’re trying to fight us with just the few of you? You must be dreaming still!”
Without waiting for the Blackback Ape to finish speaking, the Golden Manticore at the side couldn’t suppress its ferocious nature anymore and pounced over, blindly rushing towards Bella, who was standing at the frontmost of the team. Bella was wearing Dragon Knight armor and would stand at the frontmost of her team out of her professional habits. This is out of the need for her to act as her team’s “meat shield” as a knight should. In the event of a surprise attack, she can buy precious time for her teammates at the back by protecting them from the front.
The Crimson Warbear on the other side also rushed over at the sight of the Golden Manticore rushing over so as not to lose out. Its target was Noreya, who was standing not far away from Bella in her assassin gear and bow in hand. In its eyes, this beautiful woman was just a weak woman that was easier to bully than Bella.
Silver Dragon Princess Isabel and Ice Dragon Princess Mavis, who had seen Bella’s strength, were relaxed instead, almost with a look of gloating. Naturally, there was no need to mention Bella. Her other two girlfriends weren’t soft either so those two S rank demonic beasts were unlucky.
A glow appeared at Bella’s hand and a pair of purple crystal gloves instantly formed on them. Bella threw her fist at the Golden Manticore that had pounced its way over and the Golden Manticore wasn’t able to dodge in time and got hit right in the head. It was, after all, an S rank Mutant Holy Beast so Bella’s hand did shake a bit from the impact. If it were any ordinary Demonic Beast, Bella’s punch would have possibly blasted its head off.
The Golden Manticore was only sent flying. However, its face was splattered with blood and was badly injured as it let out an angry howl. As the Golden Manticore was just about to flap its wings to rise into the air, its tail, similar to that of a scorpion’s, thrust down in an attempt to poison its attacker before it left. Bella turned sideways to avoid its stinger.
“You think an ugly lion like you can pull a fast one on me? Get outta here!”
Bella grabbed the Manticore’s tail with both hands and with a hard swing, she tossed the Golden Manticore like a shot put, directly hitting the Blackback Ape that was still watching them from afar. They were Mutant Holy Beasts above S rank so their bodies were quite sturdy. This hit landed in a loud crash. Whether these Mutant Holy Beasts were alive or not were indeterminate, but they disappeared in a cloud of smoke and dust.
The Crimson Warbear had no idea that it had just been “sold out” by its two teammates. It pounced at Assassin Noreya, striking down its thick bear claws, intending to smash this dainty little assassin to death. Noreya’s body flashed and easily escaped from the attack, reappearing at the head of the Crimson Warbear where she used her dagger to pierce through the Warbear’s head.
After a hole was punched through the originally hard and tough head of the Crimson Warbear just like a human’s skill, a large amount of red blood splashed out. Noreya promptly jumped off the Crimson Warbear’s body to avoid the embarrassing scene of her being drenched in blood.
The Crimson Warbear realized the dangers too late. After its head was pierced through by Assassin Noreya’s special dagger, the heavy paw that was about to swing down was stopped in place by countless puppet wires. After a minute in this stalemate position, the Crimson Warbear’s body collapsed to the ground. Just like that, a fearsome SS rank mutated Holy Beast died.
The Crimson Warbear’s eyes were round with shock when it died, clearly unable to believe in the fact that it had died in battle. It never dreamed that the dagger held by Assassin Noreya would be a special dagger that ignored defensive properties. Even if it was an SS rank Mutant Holy Beast, its defense could not hold up against Noreya’s lethal attack.
God Princess Suzia’s face was filled with surprise. Bella was clearly not at the level of an ordinary dragon knight; neither were her companions. To be able to repel two Mutant Holy Beasts in a short time and kill off one, this rate of efficiency was terrifying. They could no longer find the Blackback Ape and Golden Manticore that fled. As expected of a Mutant Holy Beast, even their escaping abilities were top notch. Except for the corpse of the Crimson Warbear left on the ground, nobody else could have thought that three Mutant Holy Beasts were actually defeated by three ordinary human beauties.
After the battle was over, Bella came over to the body of the Crimson Warbear and took a closer look at its corpse. Assassin Noreya, who had the talent for hunting, lowered herself to examine the body. As Bella was about to crouch down as well, Noreya stopped Bella with a hand gesture. She had already finished examining the Crimson Warbear’s corpse.
“Bella, this Mutant Holy Beast’s meat is inedible. It’s already spoiled. It may be fine for us to eat it, after all we…But, the other girls can’t eat it.”
“Is that so? What a shame. I was thinking of taking back the bear paws and gallbladder!”
After hearing Noreya’s explanation, Bella felt a little disappointed. She had no idea for the time being whether Mutant Holy Beast meat tasted good or not, but humans can’t eat it. If a human eats the meat of a Mutant Holy Beast, it is possible for them to die or spawn a second mutation. It was fine for existences like Demon Gods and Demon Kings to consume it since they were of the dark attribute to begin with, but not humans.
Olsylvia Academy’s Campus Festival was open to all students and most of them didn’t come from dark camp attribute backgrounds like Bella and the others, so Bella dismissed the idea of using the meat of Mutant Holy Beasts for the time being. Fortunately, after the Mutant Holy Beast was defeated, Sacred Lake Raphael returned to the hands of Goddess Suzia. Under her guide, Bella and the girls fished out a good number of God World lake fish that weren’t contaminated and also collected a lot of edible special ingredients by the lakeside.
After they were done gathering ingredients, Bella and the girls dug up more God World soil that hadn’t been contaminated by the evil aura. As for the demonic core of the dead Crimson Warbear, Bella had Assassin Noreya destroy it. Since the core had already been contaminated by the evil aura, it won’t be good if it leaks out to the ground.
After taking care of everything, Bella didn’t immediately mount Silver Dragon Princess Isabel, who had morphed back into dragon form, but went to the ruins of the hut by Sacred Lake Raphael and reached her hand towards God Princess Suzia who was looking troubled and distracted at the ruins of her hut and hugged her from behind. Suzia misunderstood and thought that Bella wanted to do something strange and was taken by surprise for a moment.
“What’s wrong, Bella? I thought our deal was over, right? You’re not serious, are you? That Guardian God contract of ours isn’t valid. It was only a lie we told to those two dragon princesses.”
“No, Suzia. I know. Are you going to stay here in the future?”
“No. The Mutant Holy Beasts have already found my location so I have to move. Otherwise, many other Mutant Holy Beasts will come to find trouble.”
“Is that so? Then…I’ll be taking off now. Take care, my great goddess!”
Bella had wanted to keep God Princess Suzia but she withdrew her words. Suzia’s battle power was now close to that of the Ancient Twelve Devil Kings. If she was brought back to the world underneath early, she might attract the attention of the Twelve Demon Kings and they might have an early clash.
In order to keep her plans from being disrupted, Bella had to give up on bringing God Princess Goddess Suzia back for now. Instead, she would just ask Suzia not to head back for the time being, and then she’ll secretly arrange someone to protect her.