For the next period of time, Maria focused on developing her nation, which spanned the entire continent. She had Ash conduct large-scale military drafting across the continent to enlarge her army. It wasn’t mandatory or anything, so not many people from the conquered lands joined at the start.
Only the people from the Dire’s original territory signed up to join the nation’s army, but soon enough, more people from the other territories began joining. Her plan to gain the goodwill of the citizens started to work the moment she had people start reconstructing the cities, making them newer and better, while rations and supplies were distributed throughout the populace.
She opened up work opportunities for the people and paid them for their labor instead of just exploiting them like slaves. Thanks to the money they received, the workers were able to cloth, feed, and house their families and themselves after only a few weeks of work.
A lot of money was put into this effort and it nearly drained all of the Dire’s liquid assets if it wasn’t for Maria’s selfless act of contributing money to the plan from her own coffers. This was all her idea anyway, so she didn’t mind using her own money to contribute to its success.
In a little less than an in-game month, Maria’s Satisfaction Rating jumped up to a stable 80 while the nation’s Economy rating was now at 75. Security was at 82 while the Military rating was at a high 90 points. At least now, her nation’s ratings were well-above being in the red.
The reconstruction of her mega-city was still underway but most of the groundwork for the Dracul District had been laid out. The buildings were slowly being built and if it weren’t for the super-realistic aspects of Unitale, her city would’ve long since been completed if it were any other game.
Only the Dracul District had its groundwork completed, as the other 2 districts were still in the initial phase of their reconstruction plans. In fact, it wasn’t even the initial phase yet, as no work was being done. Maria told Danor and the other craftsmen and laborers to focus on completing the Dracul District first before starting on the other districts.
It would take a few in-game months for the Dracul District to be completely finished since her plans weren’t just focused on rebuilding the capital. She had set her sights on rebuilding the entire Blood Continent, so many places needed manpower and resources.
The process was undoubtedly going to be slow, but Maria felt a sense of satisfaction whenever she saw her plans’ progression and the good news her subordinates delivered to her every day. Money was slowly flowing back into her nation’s coffers with a small percentage naturally enriching her own pockets. The loss she had to make a month ago was slowly being rewarded now, so Maria was always smiling from ear to ear every day. She waited a few more weeks before finally handing the reins to Ash and her other subordinates after seeing that the progress of everything was moving along quite smoothly.
Now, she had a more important matter to take care of which she had been putting off for quite some time now, which was, naturally, her Class Advancement quest. Back when she first confronted the Garm-possessed Elizabeth Bathory, the Class Advancement Questline, [Path of the Divine], had automatically been chosen for her when she met with a being that was nearly a demi-god.
When she was possessed by the evil sword, Elizabeth Bathory had gained the power of a being that was infinitesimally close to a divine being of the lowest rank, a demi-god. Thanks to that, the system had arbitrarily chosen her class advancement path for her, which was luckily something she wanted to pick in the first place.
After defeating Elizabeth Bathory or Garm, Maria had completed the first phase of her [Path of the Divine], so now, she needed to call on Death to ask him about the next phase of her path. Since it was really important, Maria left dealing with all the internal affairs of her nation to her capable subordinates and returned to her quarters in the Ancient Blood Hall to summon her patron god, Death.
“Death, your envoy is calling.”
On cue, the air in front of Maria began to twist as a black portal appeared and out walked Death’s Incarnation.
“You called for me, my Champion?”
“I’ve finished the first part of my Class Advancement Quest, so what’s next?” Maria quickly asked.
“...So you have selected the [Path of the Divine]…” Death said with a gloomy voice.
“Tell me something I don’t already know. Hurry up and give me the next task!”
Death stood quiet for a moment before saying, “Whether this be fortune or misfortune, I shall let fate decide!”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
The Incarnation raised both its arms and created a portal right above Maria’s head that immediately started sucking her in.
“W-Woah!”
“...I wish you the best of luck, my Champion.”
“W-Wait a minute! What giv–”
Maria couldn’t finish her sentence as she was sucked straight into the portal which cut her words short.
*****
A black portal appeared in the sky of another planet and Maria dropped out of it.
“Seriously, again?! He just tossed me into a portal and threw me somewhere again!”
Maria let herself fall for a bit just so she could enjoy the wind before quickly activating her [Metamorphosis] just before she was around 100 meters off of the ground. Her wings stopped her momentum and she glided down safely. Once her feet touched the ground, she turned off her [Metamorphosis] and began looking around.
“Well, this isn’t your ordinary forest now is it?”
She was currently in a forest but the colors of the trees and plants were completely off. The colors were inverted, so all of the greenery was now magenta in color. It was actually pretty beautiful except for the fact that some very dangerous-looking monsters were lurking around in the area and eyeing her like prey.
“[Inspect].”
Feral Dragonblood Orangutan Lv. 130
Feral Dragonblood Orangutan Lv. 130
Feral Dragonblood Orangutan Lv. 130
Feral Dragonblood Orangutan Lv. 130
Blackbane Dragonfly Lv. 125
Blackbane Dragonfly Lv. 125
Blackbane Dragonfly Lv. 125
“...Why are they so weak?” Maria involuntarily raised her voice and asked out loud.
As if her voice was the trigger, the surrounding monsters immediately pounced on Maria, who just dully looked at them as they approached her. She wrapped her body with Aura before abruptly releasing it in the next instant, causing an aura explosion around her which pushed back all of the monsters. She pulled out her Sekhem Scepter and Necronomicon before firing a few spells at the monsters and summoning her minions.
Half an hour went by before peace returned to Maria’s surroundings. When she started the fight earlier, the noise attracted more monsters, and the sheer quantity that rushed over made it seem like a monster wave was attacking Maria.
Maria dealt with them with her minions, but since they were weak, it didn’t take too long to kill what she felt was half of the monsters in the forest. Her surroundings were peaceful, but they were littered with a ton of corpses.
*DING*
Quest updated: Path of the Divine - New objective!
Maria opened the [Quest] menu and looked at the new objective that was unlocked.
Quest: Path of the Divine Type: Class Advancement Quest Description: You have chosen to follow down the path of divine beings. Complete all of the objectives to earn your spot amongst the stars! Objective 1: Defeat a being that possesses Divinity (Complete)
Objective 2: Eradicate all life on the unknown planet! (Conditional) Time Limit: None Reward: [Divinity], Class: [Divine Vessel of Sin], Skill Book (Class Specific - Random) x1 Note***: The choices you make will directly affect the objectives of the quest
“The quest finally showed up, huh?”
Previously, Maria couldn’t view this quest on her [Quest] menu but now she could. The first objective was already completed, but the second objective was only unlocked now for some reason. She thought it was unlocked the moment she talked with Death earlier and was thrown into the portal, but that didn’t seem to be the case at all.
“My choices will affect the quest objectives…is that why the objective is 'conditional'? So, for now, it's telling me to kill all of the creatures on the planet, but it can change later on based on my decisions, huh?" Maria thought to herself. "If I have to kill everything, then what about the respawn? It's pointless to kill all the monsters if they'll just respawn... I'll be stuck in an endless loop!”
*DING*
You have temporarily received the attribute: [Oblivion] For the duration of the quest, all of your attacks will possess the [Oblivion] property! Oblivion: Any creature killed by you will not be able to respawn!
“Well, this answers that problem…let’s get to killing then.”
Maria had previously done a quest like this before. It was her class-specific quest that required her to reap the souls of a planet that was on the verge of dying. The video of that quest also sparked a lot of controversy for her back then because of her callous and inhumane actions.
She wasn’t going to record her quest this time because she wanted to avoid sparking any drama around her again. The previous video of her bringing the apocalypse to another planet had been taken down due to the backlash she received, so it would be stupid of her if she posted another video of her cleansing a planet of any living beings.
“This is going to take a while…” Maria mumbled as she began looking for a way out of the forest.
She wouldn’t realize until much, much later that these words were going to be an understatement. The previous time when Death sent her to reap the souls of a planet’s entire population, there was a Category 4 Apocalypse that did most of the work for her. This planet wasn't going through any sort of apocalyptic event at all, so Maria would have to kill the entirety of the billions of creatures on the planet by herself.
This certainly wasn’t going to be a happy year for the inhabitants of this unknown planet, who previously didn't have to worry about a world-ending threat. The apocalypse had arrived on the planet and she had done so in the most cliché way possible–falling from the sky.