When Maria and Lilah arrived at the Church, which had gone through another massive overhaul, while riding on Red, the two were quite surprised to see how massive it had become.
“Wow, the vampire dwarves sure did their best remodeling it!’
“It’s nearly as grand as your castle, Master!” Lilah added in.
“Yeah, well, I guess the dwarves were a bit biased on this, not that I mind it at all~”
“Saintess, you’ve come!”
One of the church’s acolytes saw Maria arrive on her large hound and quickly moved to greet her.
Maria smiled before allowing herself to be led by the acolyte into the church. Once inside, she looked around and saw many of Death’s believers congregating for prayer.
“It is such an honor to have our Church’s Saintess in our midst for this time’s prayer,” The acolyte leading Maria said jubilantly.
“Is there a special occasion?” Maria asked.
“Yes, today is the Founding Day of Death’s Church! So we are very glad to have you with us, Saintes!”
“I-I see…”
Maria was brought to one of the seating areas on the second floor of the church that was isolated from everyone else.
This was welcomed because Maria could see the believers of the church actually swarm her because she was the Saintess.
Earlier, she had Red keep the believers coming to the church at bay so they didn’t act rashly but when she entered the church earlier, she could feel the believers’ eyes on her as she walked through the halls.
If it wasn’t for the church being a sacred place, there was no doubt that she would have been swarmed by those people. She didn’t like that one bit so having a private sitting area was good for her.
Maria wasn’t going to participate in the ritualistic prayers but now that she was here, she might as well see what was going on. This could very well be the first and final time she came to Death’s church.
Although she was the church’s Saintess, Maria somewhat disliked Death because all he did was give her difficult quests to complete―particularly those that had her kill NPCs en masse.
Even the skill book quests were difficult beyond their quest descriptions recommending her to only be of a lower level like 60 or 70 but it took her everything she had to complete it and she was at level 82.
Maria didn’t have many chances to hunt so she hadn’t leveled up since her Ascension Quest.
The precession started and Maria became bored out of her mind since she had to sit there and watch it all happen.
*DING*
You have participated in the Church of Death’s Founding Ceremony! Your presence as the Saintess has added more value to the ceremony
For three days all members of the Dire will enjoy the [Sacred Boon] buff!
Sacred Boon - Special Buff Description: The Saintess’ presence has made the ceremony more authentic and sacred in the eyes of both the believers and Death Effect: Gain a 2.0x increase in EXP and Skill Proficiency gain Duration: 3 days
“Oh, what?”
Maria was surprised that just by sitting around here, she was able to earn an EXP buff for everyone in her faction. By everyone, this also meant her NPCs.
“Perfect! Looks like it’s time to mobilize the army and have them go hunt some monsters or destroy a vampire city~”
Levels to an NPC were very important. Unlike a player, an NPC would gain EXP in a very slow manner but with each level up, they would be greatly empowered and have a chance to learn a random skill related to their class.
This was good for her because now, she had a reason to mobilize all of her troops and increase their training load. It was also a good opportunity for her to level up but this wasn’t the only thing that happened during the ceremony.
The altar down below began lighting up as the statue depicting Death shined as well. The offerings on the altar disappeared while Death’s Incarnation manifested itself from the statue.
“Oh?”
When the NPCs saw the incarnation, they all immediately prostrated on the ground while Maria stood up in surprise. She didn’t think that Death would actually descend for this ceremony.
Death’s Incarnation opened its mouth and said, “Child, the time for you to act has come.”
“A new quest?!”
“Come here, Child, and receive my decree!”
Maria didn’t hesitate because she knew that she was finally going to get another interesting quest from Death. She only hoped that it didn’t involve taking the lives of too many NPCs again though she no longer minds doing so if she had to.
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*DING*
Quest update! Objective 3: Establish an Altar of Death (Completed)
*DING* *DING*
Quest complete! SSS-Rank Quest: Death’s Word has been completed! Rewards: Random Legacy Chest (Legendary), Random Construction Blueprint, Death’s Legacy Seal, Level: +5, 1000000 Gold
“Eh?”
Maria hadn’t been keeping track of her quests and she didn’t know that she had fulfilled all of the quest objectives for her SSS-rank Quest: Death’s Word. She thought that her two S plus ranked quests would take her a long time to complete but she just received the notification that one of them had been completed.
“Oh...thank goodness I came to the church today…”
She wasn’t sure if her presence had made any difference but that didn’t matter anymore because she had cleared her quest much faster than she had expected and it was just at the moment when she would receive a new one from Death.
Maria flew down to the altar after she put away her earlier quest rewards and looked up at Death’s Incarnation eagerly. She made a mental note to take a look at her rewards later after she was done here.
“We have agreed upon a request from a Minor God called Gaia. You are to head over to their planet and spread the word of Death across it and fulfill 3 Quests designated by Gaia!”
*DING*
Quest: Gaia’s 3 Fiats Rank: C ~ SSS Description: The Goddess of another world has struck a deal with your Patron God, Death, to have you come to the planet to fulfill 3 of the goddess’s wishes! Objective 1: Unknown
Objective 2: Unknown
Objective 3: Unknown Rewards: Unknown Time Limit: Unknown Penalty: -10 levels, -100 Stats, -1 Skill Ranks
“What the…”
Everything on the quest description was unknown except for the penalty of failing the quest. Even the quest’s rank was unknown because it could fluctuate from C to SSS according to the 3 objectives this goddess named Gaia gave to her.
Maria hardly believed it would be anything below S rank because these 3 objectives would be given by a god. So unless that god was crazy and only asked her to sweep their palace and temples―or something as easy as that―she expected this quest to be something very hard to complete at the very least.
Once the quest was received, Death’s Incarnation waved his hand and a portal appeared above the altar.
“Child, step through the portal once you’ve completed your preparations. Take no more than a day or else the portal will disappear and your quest will be forfeit, resulting in failure.”
“Alright.”
“Take no one with you for this quest can only be completed and taken by you, Death’s Envoy!”
Maria nodded and the next instant, the incarnation faded away. The rest of the believers began to stand up and Maria quickly hurried outside of the grand church. When she passed by an acolyte, she pulled them over and said, “Keep the church locked and have the faithful return to their homes. No one is to approach the altar...unless they want to return to their god’s embrace prematurely.”
“As you command, Saintess!”
Maria quickly returned to her castle and convened her faction’s officials and leaders. Ash and Carmilla were surprised to see Maria take the initiative to call forth a meeting but they couldn’t help being skeptical because their Queen had them convene in the War Hall where they planned the movements of their faction’s army.
“Alright, I’ll be keeping things short. I’m leaving Vanhal for the time being, Death’s orders.”
“...”
“I’m sure you’ve felt it, yes? Everyone has received a sacred blessing from the church because today, Death descended.”
“I won’t say much but he’s ordered me, his Envoy, to spread his word on another planet for a while and complete a few quests.”
Maria didn’t let anyone talk as she continued explaining why she had gathered everyone here, “Since I’ll be leaving, I’ll leave Ash and Carmilla in charge of the Dire while I’m gone. I want you 2 to mobilize the army and every combatant in our faction to take advantage of this sacred blessing and empower themselves! It’ll only last 3 days so make it count!”
“Yes, my Lady.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The two answered simultaneously.
“I’m not sure when I’ll get back, but I hope to see my army stronger and battle-ready for the upcoming clash!”
Maria began rearranging the pieces on the War Table and told Ash, who was the commander of her faction’s army, to change any of her arrangements as he saw fit. She then continued to talk about the development plans and after hearing the finalized version of what everyone was going to do while she was away, she had someone record all of her officials’ promises.
“It may take a while or maybe even just a week but I expect to see some progress! If any of you aren’t able to deliver even a little bit of what you’ve said here today...you all know the consequences, yes?” Maria eyed every single one of the people she invited to the hall and after seeing them nod at her words, she nodded in satisfaction before dismissing everyone except her two Vampire Dukes.
“Is there something else, my Lady?” Ash asked after being held back.
“Keep an eye on anyone you recruit while I’m away. I just have a feeling that once the Blood Palace knows that I’m gone, they’ll try and do something. If you feel like some people’s allegiances should be questioned, don’t do the questioning, just eliminate them after thorough investigations, alright?”
Maria then pulled out the Random Construction Blueprint and used it. A chest with a roulette on its cover appeared in front of her and it immediately began spinning, but she noticed that none of the 3 roulette spinners had similar icons. All of them were different.
The roulette soon stopped as all 3 spinners landed on different icons. The first icon looked like some kind of tower with an arrow icon, the second was a cannon, and lastly the third was an icon of a blimp.
When she opened it and pulled out the thick booklet inside, a system notification immediately rang in her ear.
*DING*
Congratulations! You have acquired the Daemon Ballistae Tower Blueprint, the Superior Magic Cannon Blueprint, and the Inferno Airship!
“...Carmilla, take this. Siege weapons and the like are just what we need right now, yes? Have our craftsmen and engineers start working on these as soon as possible. Create as many as possible before the war starts. These will be our key to winning this war quickly,” Maria said with a cruel smile on her face when she read through the blueprints she just obtained.
Maria left the hall and after bidding farewell to her most trusted subordinates, she quickly returned to the church that was cordoned off on her orders. Since she didn’t need to bring anything else with her and because she couldn’t bring anyone as well, she thought that it was time to go.
There was no point in delaying it any further. She moved over to the altar and after taking a final look at her trusted subordinates that were there to see her off, Maria stepped through the portal.