Magnus here, I'm afraid I don't have much to share this time, except maybe our servants, the angels. A species of heavenly creatures only second to us, the true gods. They're supremely powerful with the weakest angels rivalling the strongest mortals while the highest angels even trump the high gods. My siblings will send summoned heroes for now but if the situation becomes too dire... They might start sending angels.

"Priestess Laira! The effects are working!!"

The sexy and beautiful sorceress, called Karim,  is calling out to Laira, who is currently meditating while her body is submerged in the water spring. 

Laira opens her closed eyes with a refreshed feeling on her face. 

She stands up revealing her bare body. Karim smiles and retrieves an expensive-looking robe neatly folded on the ground. 

She hands them to Laira with a respectful gesture. 

Once Laira receives them, she starts to cover herself despite not wearing any clothes beneath it.

"Thank you Karim. Now show me, how are the effects manifesting."

Karim nods and leads the way.

While walking the two engage in small talk.

"Milady, you've been spending the whole day inside the spring. Are you okay?"

Laira stretches and accidentally reveals her beautiful and stunning body.

Despite her position as a holy woman, she is truly a jaw dropping beauty.

"Yes Karim. I feel extremely refreshed. The mana pool has raised my magic power by leaps." 

Karim nods hiding the jealousy within her. She admits that while she serves Laira, she wishes to increase her power as well.

They continue their walk in the forest, eventually reaching a nearby cave they found.

"The transformation is going very well and the spring water is allowing the process to move smoothly... unlike before..."

Karim shudders, while remembering the time she was subjected to the transformation. She was with 50 other people and she was the only survivor.

To think that this water will allow the transformation to go without any problems. 

Karim subconsciously frowns. 

'Why are these worthless servants allowed to gain power without suffering!...'

"Karim calm down... I know it seems unfair but with the help of the water spring, we'll be able to make more powerful servants like you."

Karim loses her frown and bows.

"Yes Priestess Laira."

They enter the cave with Karim in the front.

The cave is lit with torches hanging on the cave walls. 

As the two women go deeper, sounds start to reverberate through the tunnel walls. 

At first it's an indistinguishable sound but as they go even deeper, the sounds become distinct.

The animalistic sound of men and women moaning in pleasure is now all around Laira.

The sound of meat slapping on flesh is everywhere.

They reach a wooden door separating them from the loud noise within.

Karim opens it but immediately wrinkeles her nose as the smell of sweat, blood and dirt waft towards them.

Laira ignores it and goes in with a beautiful smile.

Inside is a large room with dozens and dozens of men and females, engaging in immoral acts.

Karim follows behind Laira, ignoring those around her, especially the ones who're trying to invite her and Laira to join. 

Laira reaches the end of the room.

At the end of the room is a skeleton-like creature sittiny on an obsidian throne and around it are many women and men servicing its body.

Laira and Karim kneels.

The skeleton-like creature quietly moans in pleasure as the people around it start to service its body.

It speaks.

"Laira... my loyal servant... you've returned."

The other servants notice Laira and many of them voice their annoyance but the creature orders them to leave.

Once Laira and Karim are alone with the creature, Laira greets it reverently.

"Lord Supremas... I-"

Supremas raises its hand to stop Laira.

A moment later, it gestures for her to come to him.

Laira stands and approaches the throne. 

Supremas' skeletal face momentarily shows a smile and Laira happily approaches him. 

She goes to bow but Supremas keeps her standing by holding her cheek with its bony hand.

Laira gently carresses Supremas hand, clearly enjoying his attention.

"My dear Laira, the water you have provided me has granted me great vitality... It truly is a miracle. I feel my divinity coming back to me."

He lets go once he feels her face properly.

Laira enjoys the praise and recalls Supremas form before the water spring.

While Supremas already looks bony and undead, he used to look worse. He was once a skeleton with a barely talking head but due to the water, he has managed to form a body and has already been using it towards his servants.

At first, Laira was very angry that she was losing the attention she craved from her deity but came to the conclusion that a deity's love belongs to everyone and not just to one individual. 

"It's been only three days since you found the spring... yet I feel rejuvenated." 

Laira recalls the three days of people continuously heaving water from the spring and submerging her lord under it.

At the first day, lord Supremas' body didn't regenerate but he could finally talk and his voice was like sweet honey towards his followers.

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After that, the followers continued to pour water upon him. On the second day, Supremas' body started to show signs of regeneration. 

With his command, we submerged his body 24/7 under a large vat of spring water.

The next day his current body has appeared and he's been using it a lot, like how a man who hasn't eaten in months eat.

While Laira has been deep in thought, her master's voice pulls her out.

"How are your preparations Laira?"

Laira recalls their plan of giving Supremas just a small amount of divine power through worship so that he could once more ascend to his heavenly realm. He just needs a small amount so he can use it to enter his realm once more and regain his power there.

"Yes my lord." Laira nods respectfully.

Supremas looks towards Karim and acknowledges her before returning his gaze towards Laira.

"Tell me... how will we go about our plan."

Laira nods and continues.

"Near our makeshift lair is a town called Barkenvall. Inside there are devout followers of you my lord yet they follow the false deity that took your name."

Supremas grips his hand as he recalls the grievances he had to suffer during his time.

"What shall we do then my faithful servant?"

"My lord, once you have regained your former glory, we will go there and make the people see your glory!"

Supremas shows a toothy smile.

"What about those that do not follow?"

Laira's peaceful and calm look suddenly shows a viciousness that wasn't there earlier.

"We will use their lifeforce to strengthen you my lord. Their sacrifice will be for the greater good!"

Supremas nods satisfied.

"Are there no dangerous individuals there?"

Laira shakes her head.

"Barkenvall is a place for failures and people who didn't succeed in their endeavors retire there. The only problem there is the relatively high levelled blacksmith. I heard that he's somewhere around level 120 milord."

Supremas scoffs at the low levelled mortal. He doesn't find it strong enough to stop him.

"I see. Once I regain my power, I'll be able to crush him like a bug if he resists but if he does not, we will be able to have a blacksmith create weapons for us."

Laira smiles and bows.

"Yes my lord... You truly are a genius."

Supremas chuckles as the two continue their planning.

----------------------------------------

"Magnus what were you thinking!?"

I ignore the annoyed Jonathan following behind me.

While I continue walking towards the exit of the town, I see Pep, Viktor and Aria. 

Aria waves at the two of us to join them. Her chestnut brown hair is beautiful to look at and despite her status as a paladin, she keeps her appearance immaculate similar to a priest.

Despite her cheery way of calling to us, she's wearing full plate armor and her visage is absolutely terrifying if not for the fact that she's not wearing a helmet.

Viktor is reading a book while ignoring us and Pep is waving at us as well but he is obviously preoccupied by other thoughts.

I take a quick look at their levels and they raised it by a little except Viktor who raised it by a lot.

Pep raised his level from 14 to 15. This man is truly unfortunate. He just isn't talented.

Jonathan raised his level from 16 to 18 which is relatively good.

Aria raised her level from 18 to 20, the same rate with Jonathan but a little bit better because it gets progressively harder to level up as you become stronger.

The big shocker is Viktor who raised his level from 18 to 24. I guess he truly is talented although not as talented as Elizabeth or Leila... 

I can't really say that Kin is talented, most of her power comes from Felina.

Viktor stares at me with a very inquisitive look but I ignore him. 

Once we reach them, I speak before Jonathan can say anything.

"Jonathan here took the initiative to become one of the blacksmith competition's judges. He will be judging along Darius on the result of the smith's work."

Jonathan's face becomes pale.

Aria screams in joy. 

"Really?! Are we finally going to stay during the competition. I've always wanted to see the new weapons being made but every year round, we're coincidentally... On...  A mission"

As Aria finishes her sentence, it trails off at the end. She stares at Jonathan with a slightly angry look. 

Pep shakes his head already knowing what thr situation entails.

Viktor ignores us but I notice he's still taking looks at me. 

Hmmm I wonder why.

For now I ignore him and listen to Aria.

"No it's just purely coincidental Aria!"

Aria grabs Jonathan's collar and pulls him close. 

"Don't lie to me Jonathan! You mean to tell me that everytime we go here to celebrate your birthday with your father, we're suddenly with a mission?"

Jonathan goes quiet.

I nod with approval. 

When I challenged that noisy pest earlier, I didn't just want to show off my skills, I also want Jonathan to spend more time with Darius...

He doesn't have much time after all...

"I knew it!" 

Aria screams and lets Jonathan go. 

Her eyes are pretty scary right now.

Pep comes up besides me and tells Jonathan two words.

"Run boy"

And run he did. 

Jonathan starts running towards his house with a pissed off Aria, with her longsword unsheated, following behind.

Pep laughs loudly and looks towards me.

"Thanks kid, that youngin doesn't know what hit him. I just hope he and old man Darius get some time together. I feel that something bad will happen." 

I nod smiling, I hope Darius feels a bit better.

Viktor approaches me once Jonathan and Aria is out of sight.

"Magnus... can we talk?"

Pep looks surprised that Viktor initiated a conversation with me and he backs off. 

"I'm outta here, the kids need one of them swings, so I'll snap up one for them."

Once Pep has disappeared from view, I return my attention towards Viktor. 

"Viktor?"

Viktor gives me a quiet look and nods.

"Follow me."

I already know what he plans on talking about, so I follow him.

I was supposed to go to the spring for mana generation and physical training but I might have to postpone it for now. 

Me and Viktor take a small walk and eventually reach an inn. 

Why an inn? I recall Viktor staying in the Carthus household as well. 

He leads me inside and into a private room. The room is quite lavish and it's obvious a lot of effort has gone to it. 

I thank Darius in my head because I've been wearing my fur clothes the whole time I was alone and the moment I accepted his offer, I was given new clothes and a cleaner eye cover. 

Once inside, Viktor stops and turns around to look at me. 

He stares at me for a while without breaking the silence. Most people would feel awkward from this type of serious but I can't help but be nonchalant about it. 

Between me and Viktor, the two of us have a secret. 

During my stay here, I've spent some of my free time talking with the others and I may have unintentionally given Viktor some advice. 

Absolution started ripping me off after that, saying I might give away too much information.

I apologized to her afterwards. 

It was after my blacksmithing session and just before my spring meditation. After creating my 7th sword, I was slightly getting annoyed because despite my efforts I was having a hard time making the alchemical circles permanent. 

While travelling towards the spring, I unintentionally saw Viktor in the forest practicing his magic.

As I said before, Viktor has the [Genius Mind] innate skill. This skill is usually received at one's birth and it generally increases a person's IQ by a large margin.

It isn't common for people with the [Genius Mind] innate skill to have an average IQ of 140+. But a higher IQ doesn't mean they can immediately solve their problems. I recall individuals with IQ that reach 200+, yet they have difficulties with trying to find out new and original methods. 

Viktor was such an individual. He was a genius in understanding new concepts and knowledge but he had a hard time in application.

I admit that I watched him for a while. I forgot that I was no longer a god, and I didn't need to watch a mortal to get my satisfaction. 

I could do it myself! 

*sigh*

Mortals are truly an interesting bunch. 

Anyway, I continued to study the lonely genius and noticed that he was reading up on magical spells and tried to cast them through rote memorisation. 

While one might say that such a phenomenon is not worthy of mention, the main reason why I was interested in Viktor's magic was the magic type he's casting.

He was using dark magic. A magic that he doesn't have natural access to. 

Every creature in the planet can use magic and it can be learned by any diligent enough mortal.  

But there are exceptions. Creatures with the unique skill that allows them to use an element means they already have a head start. A prime example is Leila who has the unique skill Single Main Element (Fire) (Rare). She was either born with an extremely great affinity to fire or she received that from the demon inside her. 

Since Leila has that skill, she can learn fire magic with great ease. She can still learn other forms of magic but she'll never learn as fast as her fire element and she won't be as efficient on using other elemental powers as well. 

Viktor has the unique skill Single Main Element (Wind) (Rare). His ability in using wind magic is greatly increased compared to others without any talent. If that is the case, why is he practicing dark magic.

In fact, I beli-

"Magnus."

Oh... I rambled for a bit there. I focus my look on Viktor.

"Magnus, I have to thank you for what you taught me." 

I nod.

"You're welcome."

Once I'm done accepting his gratitude, I turn to leave.

"Wait!"

I hear Viktor's panicked voice and turn around.

"Why are you leaving already?"

"I already recieved your thanks."

Viktor's face was filled with confusion.

"Are you not interested in a reward?"

I raise my eyebrow.

A reward?

I shake my head.

"What I told you was just a slip of the tongue. Rewards are meant for impressive feats. Although I do respect teachers."

I continue to walk out as I am very busy today.

Thankfully Viktor didn't force me to do anything.

"Wait!"

Ughhh what now.

"Can you help me?"

*sigh*

"On what?" 

Despite the constant back and forth between me and Viktor, due to his weak social skills, he manages to talk properly. I'm guessing magic is truly his forte.

"Well... I almost succeeded with your advice. Can I ask you to help me?"

I recall his practice. He almost tried to kill me once I found out but he stopped once I start giving him advice.

Sighing, I nod.

His usually calm and unperturbed face shines with slight brightness despite the lack of a smile.

He immediately exits to lead me out.

"It's in the forest, hidden. So we'll need to go there."

Perfect, I was going there anyway.