Chapter 51

A week later.

Evening.

In Divine's cave.

Nola was trying herself at meditation, while Divine was flicking through the giant book ‘The Demonic Path of Immortality, a Cultivation Journey’, comparing the information about the different healing techniques.

After much consideration, Divine finally decided on which technique to purchase.

[+1 Miracles of Light, Novice Compendium] [-180 Blood Qi Essence]

In the end he chose this one because according to the Demonic Path of Immortality it contained the basic knowledge necessary to develop light Qi spells in three different directions.

Divine took the book out of the system inventory and started to leaf through it.

Starting with poetic descriptions of light Qi and general theory about its control, the book branched out after a few pages.

There was a standard light spell described that let you hover a ball of light above you.

Divine could already do that.

But if he got that right from glancing through the book, that spell could be developed into some kind of solar flare attack.

Then there was a basic healing spell and much information about healing with light Qi in general.

It promised Divine some much-needed direction for his forays into light Qi healing.

And the final miracle of light described in the last pages of the book was the reflecting, bending and breaking of light to create illusions.

After the first rough glance, Divine was very happy with this purchase.

The part about healing looked useful and everything else was a great bonus to his original intentions.

"Divine...?" A sultry voice called out to him, making Divine look up from his reading.

"Are you coming?" Nola lifted the fur blanket invitingly, presenting Divine her gorgeous nakedness.

Nola was laying on the side, propped up on her elbow, her nice long legs crossed.

Wandering up her body with his supernaturally good eyes, Divine could catch a hint of the peachy slit above her contiguous thighs, making his body temperature rise.

Her nice flat belly and her firm breasts with the delicious pink nipples called for his touch.

Then she had that flirtatious smile on her kissable lips and that come-hither-look in her beautiful eyes that Divine liked.

She made his blood pump heavily.

Nola slowly lifted one leg from the other and bared her pink treasure to him.

His Qi surged.

Divine let the book fall from his hands and jumped Nola.

They passionately tussled for quite some time.

And then again, and again, until Divine was satisfied.

Afterwards, Nola lay in Divine’s arms and they basked in the afterglow together.

"By the way, Divine… how old are you?" Nola was in the mood for pillow talk.

"Why do you ask? How old are you?" Divine asked back, a little hesitant to answer her.

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"I'm twenty-two years old. Oh, no, by now I'm actually already twenty-three. I almost forgot… I'm just asking because I'm curious. So, how old are you?" Nola really was just asking because she wanted to chat.

"This is the third winter I remember." Divine confessed. He didn’t like lying about things that could be easily disproven.

"Wh-What?!" Nola was flabbergasted. "That's so young. Even younger than..."

She looked at him with a mix of surprise and horror.

"Relax. A goblin's natural lifespan is only around nine to eleven years. With three years, I'm an adult, completely grown up, with a third of my natural lifespan already behind me. In relation, you told me humans who come from a noble line and practice a knight technique can live at least until a hundred, right?" Divine waited for her to nod in confirmation before continuing. “So, with twenty-three you haven’t even reached a fourth of your lifespan. So, don’t measure me with your human standards.” Divine’s argument made some sense to Nola and calmed her down.

It still felt weird that he was actually so young, especially since Divine gave off a much older and experienced impression.

He was always so calm and composed, outside matters of lust.

Divine was also very taciturn.

Most of the time, Nola couldn’t even imagine what was going on inside of that terrifying mind.

But one thing she knew, the best time to get him to converse with her, to get to know him, was after sex.

When they talked during the day it was either him teaching her about the demonic knight technique or her teaching him writing Cathalish.

“And how old are your children? You must’ve been very young when you fathered them.” Nola roughly calculated and was shocked by the result.

“My children?” It took a second for Divine to wrap his head around what she was saying, but then he laughed. “Haha, no. I’m not their father. I am their master and they are my disciples. I chanced upon them last winter. Their parents were dead and they were starving, so I took them in.” Divine decided not to tell her that their parents had been cannibals, who had been killed by him.

“I really thought they were yours… You take care of them well…” Nola looked at him with a new shine in her eyes and caressed his shoulder.

She made a pause.

She looked like she was hesitating to say whatever had come to her mind.

In the end, she broke eye contact and stayed silent.

Nola lowered her head and nestled into Divine’s small but very strong chest.

Divine felt a little like he had just dodged a bullet.

A bullet that continued flying through the air and was bound to hit him in the future anyway.

Since they had made their deal, they had never again talked about accompanying Nola out of the forest to get her birthright back and what would happen afterwards.

Divine was content with that. Somewhat.

At least, he didn’t have to think of excuses for delaying it.

But it was something that silently stood between them.

----------

Scarf… No! Her name was Lilith now! …Lilith had investigated.

The goblings were already sleeping and Lilith was sitting alone in front of the fire, staring into the dancing flames.

The last time her servant had been seen was at sleeping time, seven sleeping times ago.

Five sleeping times ago, she had noticed him missing.

Three sleeping times ago, she had started to investigate.

First, Lilith had toured the territory of the Lost Tooth Tribe once, but she hadn’t even found one trace of her servant.

Then she asked the minions, because they were the ones to pass by the cave, that she had kept her servant in, the most.

The two woodcutters had used that cave in the past and acted suspicious during her questioning, so that she had gotten the impression they knew something.

Something they hadn’t been willing to tell her.

Since they were master’s minions, Lilith couldn’t just burn them until they talked, so she had worked them to the bone since then.

She had given them monotonous job, after disgusting job, after exhausting job until one of them had finally cracked today.

Knorky had not been able take it anymore.

With shaking knees, Knorky had confessed that they had kicked her servant out of the cave and that he had left in the direction of master’s cavern.

After that, the woodcutters had never seen him again.

Now, Lilith was contemplating if she should ask Master Divine about him.

Even if no one else of the cavern’s inhabitants had noticed him, if her servant had really come to the cavern, Master would know.

But she was a little scared to annoy the master with questions about her servant, but on the other hand she had noticed that she liked challenging Master Divine.

The fire in front of her blazed at that thought.

It wasn’t like the servant was important to her.

If she wanted to, he could be replaced immediately.

What was important was to punish whoever was responsible for the disappearance of something that belonged to her.

That couldn’t be tolerated if she wanted to keep her place under Master Divine but above everyone else.

The woodcutters would definitely continue to suffer for a while for their fault in it.

And Lilith wouldn’t stop until she found and punished either the servant, who had dared to escape from her, or the goblin, who had dared to take what’s hers.

The fire in front of her burned down quickly in a blazing heat.

----------

The next day.

After Divine’s morning routine, he went to check on the tunnel leading to the outside.

Beorn and his workers had been diligent and the tunnel was already cleared to its dead-end.

Only a last layer of earth and stone separated the tunnel from the outside.

As Divine was standing there, a line built up behind him.

His disciples were the most excited since they had never seen the sky in their lives.

Beorn and Torm stood not far behind, followed by the minion prospects, who didn’t care about another exit, but liked the lively and exciting atmosphere.

“Master!? What are you waiting for?” Third disciple Lubia whined impatiently.

Divine gave her a look that said it was a futile to rush him.

Deliberately slow, Divine put his palm forward.

With a loud crack, the last wall slowly and safely crumbled down, completing the tunnel to the outside.

The sunlight lured, and Divine stepped outside.

The temperature was still very cold, especially with the harsh winds up here on the mountain, but the snow had already melted and the sun was shining brightly.

Spring would be upon them soon.

The new exit was on the another side of the mountain than the two others.

The climb down to the forest was doable and not too steep, but there was no existing path, so it had to be stomped with time.

The four disciples followed on his heels but cried out in pain when the brightest light they had ever seen hurt their eyes.

Stubborn as they were, they didn’t flee back inside right away.

No one wanted to be the first to back down.

So, they stayed their ground and tried to adjust, complaining about the sun and each other the whole time.

Beorn and Torm had followed them outside, too.

Beorn just silently stood there, closed his eyes and enjoyed feeling of the sun on his skin.

Torm made a big show of finally seeing the sunlight again.

He was really gleeful.

Torm knelt on the ground and prayed to the sun. “Great Lumos, bless me and give me strength. Let your shining Light liberate me from this Darkness and light up my path to…”

“What weird thing is that guy doing again, Master? He does that often…” First Disciple Jemisha was curious, like always.

“He is practicing his faith. Fanatically.” Divine answered with a sigh.

“What?” Jemisha didn’t understand.

“Just ignore him. He is stupid.” Divine simplified it after she hadn’t understood his first explanation. “Let’s go back inside.”

“What?!”

“No!”

“We want to visit the forest.”

“I want to get used to the sun.”

His four disciples were worried when their master would let them out again and wanted to stay longer, even if they got a headache from the brightness.

“Next time. Wait a little. When spring is here and it has gotten a little warmer, I will take you on an expedition into the forest.” Divine promised, but his disciples were still very reluctant to go back inside.

“If you behave yourselves well the next few days and don’t try to make a trip outside on your own, I will take you on a tour through the mountain, through the whole territory of the Lost Tooth Tribe.”

They grumbled and complained that it would take an eternity until that happened, but in the end, they went back inside.