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As Chris went to purify the lake, suddenly…

SPLAAASH!

A massive Nessie-like monster emerged, looking like an ancient maritime dinosaur with a long neck; however, it was completely black in color and with red eyes and tentacles.

“T-That’s…!” The beetle fairy man gasped. “That’s the Lake Guardian! What happened to him?!”

“Lake Guardian?!” Chris asked, noticing the giant monster seemed already dead, overtaken by the mold and turned into some sort of Undead. “Uh, sorry to tell you this, but your guardian might be dead…”

The thing was reeking, probably what was also polluting the entire lake so much; its immense body was also quite the issue, especially now that Chris didn’t have Argentia or Paul to help him out.

In fact, his weapons were also gone; he only had his magic to do everything with them!

“RAAAARRRGGH!”

The Lake Guardian didn’t wait for them to try to find a solution though, rushing towards them while opening its jaws and unleashing a powerful downpour of infected water towards them.

SPLAAASH!

The water rushed down as Chris desperately raised his hands, conjuring a barrier of Arcana combined with Heavenly Ki, protecting himself and the beetle fairy man, alongside the entire village behind them.

“GRRRHHH…?!”

The undead monster groaned, noticing its attack didn’t do a single thing against them, beginning to swing its massive tail, hitting the barrier constantly.

CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

“Uaaagh! T-This is serious! The Lake Guardian is dead, and now he’s an undead!” The beetle fairy man screamed. “I have to tell the rest of the village!”

“Go!” Chris let him quickly escape back to the village as he glanced at the thing. “Hey ghost, how do I beat this thing? What is even its Tier?”

“I have no idea, but it doesn’t look strong,” the Heavenly Emperor said. "Also, don’t ever call me a ghost again, or I will stop talking with you forever.”

“S-Sorry…” Chris sighed. “But what can I even do? I don’t have my weapons here that Paul made with so much effort, and Paul isn’t here either! Nor Argentia! I need Paul at least! Paaaauul!”

Chris started growing desperate as the monster continued hitting the barrier. The Heavenly Emperor sighed, smiling a bit.

“You’re truly hopeless… Relying so much on your consort,” he sighed. “He is indeed very handsome and good-hearted, Chris, but you also need to work on your own! Sometimes, he won’t be there to do everything for you, you know?”

“A-Ah…” Chris muttered. “I didn’t mean it like that!”

“It is quite clear to me you’ve grown very attached to him,” giggled the Heavenly Emperor. “It’s very adorable... I think that soon enough you will be able to fulfill the penalty conditions; you must marry him and then embrace him in bed! Then you can form a big family together.”

“W-What nonsense are you talking about?!” Chris grew more and more flustered.

This was definitely not the time to talk about such things right now!

“Don’t worry about the family part; I’ve perfected an ability that could have allowed me to give birth to my beloved’s children, although I never used it because-”

“Shut up, shut up, shut up! Stop talking weird shit!” Chris screamed.

“RAAARRRGH!”

The monster kept hitting the barrier until it gained countless cracks.

“YOU SHUT UP TOO, STUPID NESSIE KNOCK OFF!”

Chris screamed as light emerged from his eyes; a massive beam of light surged from the skies, piercing through the clouds and impacting the Lake Guardian with a massive explosion.

BOOOMMM!!!

“Gryyaaaeerrghh!”

The monster screamed in agony as its entire body was purified and exorcised, turning into ashes; the entire lake suddenly was purified at the same time, becoming azure-colored and completely translucent.

“H-Huh?”

Chris glanced at the scene in disbelief, shocked.

“Oh my, I was about to tell you how to do it, but it seems your anger triggered the technique…” laughed the Heavenly Emperor, materializing a golden fan and waving it gracefully. “You’re so entertainingly cute sometimes, my unruly reincarnation! Hahaha!”

The worst part was that he didn’t even laugh like a normal man but like some rich young lady from some sort of Otome Game or Anime.

“We’re here! We’ve brought reinforcements to…”

“Huh?”

“W-What happened?”

“The Lake Guardian is gone?”

“The Lake! It has been purified!”

The Beetle Fairy Warriors arrived quite late, as Chris had completely eliminated the threat before they could help him in any way possible.

Stolen novel; please report.

“S-Sister priestess, was this your doing?” One of them asked.

“A-Ah… Yes!” Chris nodded. “It has been eliminated and the lake purified… You don’t even need to thank me; I’m going! Byeee!”

Chris had no time to waste; having secured the safety of this village, he decided to just fly away towards the next, only leaving the Beetle Fairies more confused.

However, they instantly kneeled and started worshiping him as he left, calling her the holiest of priestesses to ever exist.

“Phew, done with that… Dammit, what was that technique though? Or spell?”

Chris wondered about this as he noticed a new system notification.

Ding!

[The Trial Quest: [The Blackened Lake of the Beetle Fairies] has been Completed!]

[You have earned the Beetle Fairy People’s Devotion and Gratitude for your great deeds!]

[Because you’ve also defeated a mighty Undead Creature, you’ve earned bonus Points!]

[You earned +50.000 Score Points.]

Two out of four! Two more to go and he would be done.

He now had... two hours and a half to complete them, though!

“Shit! I’m late, I gotta hurryyyyy!”

Chris continued flying, feeling a bit tired, but somehow, something within him was developing, allowing him to breathe in and instantly recover Arcana from the environment.

“What the hell?”

He raised an eyebrow, feeling something within his heart slowly beginning to blossom.

It wasn’t there quite yet, but he could feel it.

And with this power, the Spirit Energy of the forests down below helped him recover both Arcana and even his Ki.

“Woah, what this feeling?”

“Hmm… This Trial is indeed helping you in more ways than I imagined. Well, the good deeds you’re doing will also help your Heavenly Core improve.”

The Heavenly Emperor surveyed his surroundings, looking for an entrance to a cave.

“Over there.”

He pointed at a small hill in the middle of the forest, which had a small entrance leading to some sort of underground system of caverns.

“The next quest is about an underground Mushroom Forest, is it not? I see mushrooms.”

“Oh yeah! Thanks!”

Chris rushed down as the Heavenly Emperor looked at him in silence, admiring his cute smile.

Perhaps in the past, if Chris had been another person, he would have adopted him and turned him into a disciple of his sect.

He found him cute.

But at the same time, Chris was his reincarnation, so wasn’t this a bit weird?

“The technique you used was an advanced form of Spiritual Arts,” said the Heavenly Emperor. “It’s called {Heaven’s Repulsion} and it summons a ray from the white heavens that obliterates dark, demonic, or evil beings.”

“Ohh…” Chris nodded. “Sounds strong! I’m going to spam it!”

“You can’t down there though, unless you want to blow up the entire hill and bury yourself with the people down there.”

“A-Ah…”

“Worry not, there are many ways to wield Heavenly Ki and combine it with this Arcana energy of yours…”

The Heavenly Emperor was already creating new techniques for Chris as the half-fairy boy descended, entering the cave by barely squeezing in.

“Ugh, why is this avatar so damn fat?”

Chris buttocks had gotten slightly stuck as he tried to get inside, but after he pushed enough, he managed to sneak in.

“You have large hips, like a female.”

“Shut up!”

“I can tell why your lover finds them very attractive.”

“I said shut up!”

“By the heavens, boy, I am simply trying to talk. What’s wrong with just a little talk every now and then? I also had quite a few admirers when I was alive, you see. Many men and women desired me.”

“Then why did you never choose any as your consort?!”

As Chris groaned, he explored the dark caves, evading the giant mushrooms that popped up in the path. He created small spheres of light to illuminate his path forward.

“That’s because…”

The Heavenly Demon remained in silence as Chris suddenly saw a strange vision, as if sharing the same memories with the Heavenly Demon.

The appearance of a handsome, unruly man appeared, wearing black and red robes, with long black hair and red eyes, laughing maniacally.

And smiling defiantly.

“Huh? Who’s that guy?”

“Hm? What are you talking about?”

“I saw him! Some black-haired, red-eyed guy… in the vision!”

“So you shared the same vision I had?! Forget about it!”

“Tell me who he is!”

“H-He’s only a monster! A depraved demon that needed to be defeated!”

“Uh-huh… You looked like you missed him or something. Did you like him? Hm?”

“Silence! I could never like a demon like him!”

The Heavenly Emperor grew all flustered, blushing, as he averted his gaze from Chris while crossing his arms.

“What a drama queen.”

Chris was completely unaware of the drama queen he was.

His eyes widened, however, as he glanced at the forest of mushrooms opening before him.

“Oooh!”

He noticed there were hundreds of gigantic, colorful mushrooms growing across a large open area within the cave.

Below the mushrooms, there were small houses where small, mushroom people walked around.

They were like… one-meter-tall mushrooms of various colors, with tiny legs and arms and small, cute faces.

They carried stuff around and talked, some children played around, and there were even some mothers there.

Who, funnily enough, had children growing out of their bodies as smaller mushrooms.

“These must be the Myconid, they’re much more peaceful than the Beetles…” Chris said.

“No time to waste, my reincarnation, look,” the Heavenly Emperor pointed.

Above the giant mushroom caps, there were large growths of black mold that were infecting several mushrooms.

The Myconid seemed unable to do anything about it, and Chris quickly noticed a pair of them were carrying another person on a small bed.

The affected person seemed feverish, with his vibrant colors darkened, and with red eyes, their mouth was constantly drooling some black goo.

“I guess I should go help!”

Chris jumped off the cliff, using his wings to maneuver his descent, and then…

BAAAM!

“Uwaah?!”

“What the…?”

The two Myconid carrying the sick one gasped in disbelief as he descended very dramatically into the ground; they almost dropped on their own backs.

“I am the priestess of the heavenly emperor, and I’ve come to heal everyone!”

“I-Intruder!”

One of the Myconid screamed as the rest ran away in fear while larger ones appeared, pointing spears made of magic ore and crystals at Chris.

“E-Eh? Wait, calm down! I didn’t mean to scare you guys! Look!”

Chris waved his hand as the Myconid panicked. A ray of light hit the sick Myconid.

FLASH!

“Huh?”

And then, instantly, the mold disappeared, making the Myconid slowly wake up, refreshed and rejuvenated.

“I-I’m alright? What happened? Wasn’t I sick? I don’t feel any pain anymore.”

“S-See?! I am good!”

The warriors still didn’t stop pointing their spears at him; it seemed the Myconid weren’t very trustful anyway.

“Lower your weapons.”

The voice of an old man echoed behind them as an elder Myconid appeared, with a big beard made of white mushroom roots.

“Are you truly a priestess, young lady?”

“Yeah, I came here to heal everyone; that’s my… I mean, I’m a priestess in training! My trial is to heal and help as many as I can, sir…”

“I see… and you said your god was the Heavenly Emperor? Such a grandiose name, yet I’ve never heard of such deity… However, what you’ve done was genuine.”

“Elder, is it really okay to let an outsider we’ve never seen before inside the village?!”

“She looks dangerous!”

“She healed someone, but it might be just a façade to lower our guards!”

The guards were actually very wary of Chris; it seemed they had been tricked before, causing them to become more reclusive and suspicious of strangers.

“Silence, young’un,” said the elder. “No evildoer would go this far trying to convince us; we are merely small mushroom people; anybody could crush us if they wanted… She is probably being honest and good-hearted; I can feel it within her Psychic Aura.”

“P-Psychic Aura?” Chris wondered.

“We Myconid are blessed with Lesser Psychic Abilities, we can communicate through our minds, lift small objects, and also sense the Psychic Aura of someone, their Emotional Spectrum,” said the Elder. “Now, come with me; we don’t have much time. Prove you’re truly a priestess.”

The elder quickly led Chris towards a small room full of infected Myconid, the miasma infection had gotten so bad on them they were covered with the mold, some looking almost completely dried, like mummies.

“Leave it to me!”

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