When Maria heard the little girl’s declaration, she sized up the self-proclaimed goddess and sighed, “...So the goddess I’m supposed to help is a brat?”
“W-What?!”
“Tsk, I was hoping to find some old grandma or an older lady but I’m stuck dealing with a brat instead.”
“Y-You! Why are you being so disrespectful to this Goddess?!”
Maria didn’t respond to her and just pulled out her Calamity, changed it to its Scythe-form, and sat down on its inner blade while floating in mid-air. Even though the blade was sharp, it couldn't hurt her because she was the weapon's master.
“Well, if you say you’re Gaia, I won’t deny that. I do sense some divinity in you so you’re like Death, but just extremely weaker.”
“Hey!” Gaia shouted, feeling a bit offended and ashamed even though what Maria said was true.
“Heh, you’re quick to feel offended, just like a brat!” Maria teased.
“You…”
“Anyway, what quest do you have for me? According to Death, I’m supposed to fulfill 3 of your wishes and help you in any way I can so spill it, what do I have to do?" Maria said, trying to rush Gaia into giving her the first objective of her [Gaia’s 3 Fiats] quest. “Regardless of what they are, I plan to complete them to the best of my ability since it’s thanks to you that Death let me come here. Think of it as a 'thank-you' gift for getting me off that lonely rock that I call home~”
“...have people ever told you that you’re a really insensitive person?”
“Plenty, but they’ve ended up dying on the other end of my scythe. I don’t care how people think of me as long as I stay true to myself.”
Gaia had a nonplussed expression on her face as she said, “You really...sound like you’re being narcissistic.”
Maria shook her head and replied, “No, I just have confidence in myself! Why should I let others tell me how to act when I find nothing wrong with myself? Anyway, do you have anything for me to do?”
Gaia couldn’t understand this person and felt like they wouldn’t get along but she still answered her question, “...Not at the moment.”
“Well, if you’ve got nothing for me, then I’ll be leaving. I wanna head to the Colosseum Arena!”
Maria stood up and kicked her scythe over her shoulder and was about to float away but Gaia quickly appeared in front of her and said, “W-Wait!”
“Hm? What is it?”
“You haven’t told me your name!”
“My name? It’s Maria. Didn’t Death tell you already?”
“...No. That geezer only struck a deal with me to spread his Church on my planet in exchange that he’d send his Saintess to help me deal with the problems I’m having, but you’re just as infuriating as he is!”
“I am?” Maria chuckled at her words and continued saying, “Well, I guess a God and their Saintess must have something in common, no?”
Gaia had a dumbfounded expression plastered on her face and after staying quiet for a moment, she quickly spoke up and said, “...Here, this is something you can use to contact and find me. Even though you're a narcissist, I can tell that you’re a good person since you helped me out earlier. If you weren't so rude, I would have rewarded you for it!”
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“Coming to this world is already my reward, little goddess,” Maria quickly countered. She didn’t care one bit for the reward she would have gotten from helping out Gaia earlier since just being able to go to the 2nd Main Scenario planet was already a reward to her.
Maria had helped Gaia out earlier not because a quest prompt showed up or anything. She did it out of the goodness of her heart and didn’t really expect compensation from it. Besides, what was she going to expect from a little child that was living on the streets?
“I helped you out earlier because I felt like it. I didn’t expect any rewards.”
“...You have a good heart, but unfortunately a rotten mouth!” Gaia shot back at her.
“I’ll actually take that as a compliment. Thanks! Anyway, I’m going now. Find me when you have a quest to give. Remember, I’ll only help you 3 times as per the quest!” Maria said before flying out of the broken temple and putting away her Calamity.
Gaia looked up at Maria’s receding figure and sighed. Then, her stomach began growling.
“Ah...I should have asked her for a little bit of gold...I can’t get any money in this small vessel.”
Gaia looked a little bummed out but when she looked down, she saw a pouch on the ground where Maria was earlier. She walked over and picked it up. Inside, she found a few pieces of gold, silver, and copper.
“...She really does have a good heart. Too bad she’s just as foul-mouthed and annoying as Death!”
*****
Maria flew from the temple and marked the location on her map before flying in the direction of the most majestic structure in Discordia City, the Colosseum Arena. Even if she was directionally-challenged, she wasn't stupid enough to miss the largest and most bustling building in the city.
Since she was flying much faster than those that had wings or were riding on a flying mount, the people she passed by were extremely surprised. Maria’s over 1,500 AGI stat made this possible and her [Wrath’s Heart] [Flight] skill enhanced her flight capabilities, like her speed.
She quickly arrived at the Colosseum Arena’s gates and a system notification was heard in her ears.
*DING*
You have discovered Gaia’s Colosseum!
Maria looked up at the majestic building before walking through the gates. Once she passed the gates, Maria found herself teleported to the colosseum’s seats. She could see many other players around her and down below on the arena, she saw various matches being played out in numerous small bubble dimensions.
The exact number of bubble dimensions was too numerous to count because so many players and NPCs were fighting at the moment.
A menu appeared in front of Maria that asked her to specify her personal arena details. She inputted her name and race. Once she arrived at the class section, the system detected her class based on her main class and subclasses before categorizing her role under one of the 6 basic classes: Warrior, Priest, Mage, Thief, Archer, and Knight.
Since she was a Dark Priestess with the Magus and Queen subclass, she was listed under the hybrid Warrior/Priest/Mage category. Not many people were categorized into 3 different classes so when she appeared, Maria garnered the attention of a few people who similarly had 3 categories.
After everything was in order, Maria first started watching the matches of the players who were fighting while she was reading over the rules of the arena matches and the descriptions for all of the different modes.
She quickly contacted David who was in the real world and asked him to make a post and prepare for a surprise stream.
“I’ll be debuting in the Arena today so it’ll make for good content! Let’s try the normal PvP mode first and get my MMR calibrated before trying out the other Arena modes!”
Maria was rather excited and after taking 10 minutes to read all of the rules and descriptions, and another 20 minutes watching other people’s matches and preparing some things on her end, her arena debut stream finally started.
It was a member’s only stream since that's what she preferred doing now. Even though the heat from her video had lightened a bit, trolls still came on her stream to try and upset her so after thinking it through for a while, she decided to make all of her future streams members exclusive. It would definitely cut the amount of people watching her, but Maria didn't care too much about that. She was streaming only for the fun of it and wasn't planning on turning it into a career or anything.
Once it started, many of her members were notified via email and the announcement post she had David make so they quickly flooded her channel right away.
He_no: Oh, Maria’s actually on Gaia now?! ThatGuy01: Hello Maria! RandomJoe21: I’ll watch the match in-game and on stream! Ange_3: Finally, we can see our angel face off against some other players! Angel’s-No.1-Fan: Can we finally meet up in-game now?! ... ...
There was definitely a large cut to the number of viewers on her stream because of the members exclusivity, but the chat was still flooding with many people greeting her. Maria smiled at her chat and started greeting her viewers.
“Hello everyone. Welcome to today’s surprise stream!”
Everyone greeted her in return. Many in the chat were surprised to see that Maria was actually now on the second main planet, Gaia.
“I’ve somehow managed to arrive on Gaia and now I’m going to be streaming my Arena debut! First on the list will be a few practice matches before we get straight to the Ranked Matches to calibrate my MMR!”
After explaining what she was going to be doing today, Maria immediately began stretching before finding a random PvP match.
“I’ll maybe try out some other Arena Modes in future streams but for now, I want to get used to the normal mode first!”
System Notice: Match Found! Would you like to head down to the Arena? Y/N
Maria didn’t think too long about it and immediately pressed on the [Yes].
“Yes sa~”
Her character was teleported into one of the bubble dimensions in the center of the colosseum that had a stage inside of it. Opposite of her, she could see a human-race player materialize who seemed to be in the Knight Class category.
Maria took out her Calamity and slung it over her shoulder.
“Alright everyone, this is going to be the first match! Wish me luck!”