Chapter 788

【 NEW VISITOR 】

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A faint and ethereal hymn slowly echoed through the air as countless golden particles descended from the sky.

Four Seasons looked up and saw that the entire world seemed to be enveloped in a sea of golden light.

Excited voices from the surrounding players soon rang out:

“A blessing! It’s the Goddess’s blessing! Hurry and get the buff!”

The Goddess’s blessing?

Was it some kind of buff?

Four Seasons’ heart stirred.

He cautiously reached out and touched one of the golden particles. As it entered his body, a warm current flowed through his entire being, and his experience bar instantly increased by a noticeable amount.

Then, accompanied by a soft system notification, a message appeared before his eyes:

【❗】

【You have received the Goddess’s Blessing.】

【Effect: For the next three days, all of your stats will be doubled, your recovery speed is increased by 100%, and experience and contribution point gains are increased by 50%】

What a powerful buff!

A look of delight appeared on Four Seasons’ face.

At the same time, cheers erupted all around him:

“Hahaha! The Goddess’s buff have arrived! We’ve been strengthened!”

“It’s time to start exploring!”

“Charge!”

Under Four Seasons’ astonished gaze, the surrounding players cheered, gathered together, and rushed toward the newly formed bridge while laughing and jumping excitedly.

At the same time, resounding dragon roars echoed through the sky as one giant dragon after another spread its wings and soared into the air, whilst carrying their contracted partners toward the opposite side of the canyon.

For a moment, every player in the vicinity seemed to have run toward the other side.

Four Seasons stared in shock at the sight of thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands, of players charging forward together.

Despite being more than three hundred meters wide, the bridge somehow seemed crowded in the face of such overwhelming numbers.

No…

Wait a second!

Someone just got pushed off the bridge!

Watching a few unfortunate players get shoved off the cliff after rushing too quickly, disappearing amid a chorus of miserable screams, Four Seasons was left dumbfounded.

He honestly had no idea why everyone was so excited.

Seeing his confused expression, Yeye explained with a grin.

“Of course it’s because of the ruins.”

“Rumor has it that the ruins of the two remaining ancient elven cities are somewhere beyond this canyon. So everyone wants to be the first to find them.”

“Just imagine, divine artifacts, ancient tomes, magic scrolls, and all sorts of treasures could be hidden inside those ruins!”

“Of course, that’s assuming you can find them first.”

“Personally, I think searching for these ruins is mostly a matter of luck. If you’re lucky, you might just stumble and uncovered them in a day. But if you’re unlucky and head in the wrong direction, then you could wander around for days without discovering anything.”

After finishing his explanation, Yeye patted his cousin on the shoulder and laughed.

“Alright, we can worry about exploration later. Cousin, let’s continue grinding your level!”

Four Seasons nodded.

He turned back for one last look at the players enthusiastically charging toward the far side of the canyon. His gaze lingered on the dragons gradually disappearing into the distant horizon, as though he wanted to etch the scene permanently into his memory.

As he watched the laughing players running and jumping with excitement, a trace of envy and longing appeared in his eyes.

One day, I’ll become one of them too, won’t I?

This thought crossed Four Seasons’ mind.

With a slight smile, he turned around and followed Yeye deeper into the forest.

For now, he’d focus on raising his level first…

He could hardly wait to begin his own adventure!

༺⟐༻

Four Seasons once again embarked on his journey of grinding monsters and leveling up.

And throughout the Elven Forest, there were countless new players just like him.

However, compared to these newcomers, he was quite fortunate, as having someone guide him from the very beginning had allowed him to fast-track his class advancement.

Aside from a portion of wealthy players, most newcomers were still leveling through earning experience and contribution points by handling miscellaneous tasks for Elven NPCs, such as cleaning toilets or running errands for priests from the Church of Life.

Even so, nobody seemed to mind.

Having someone carry you might result in faster leveling, but completing NPC assigned tasks helped improve one’s personal reputation rating. Moreover, although progressing in this manner was slower, interacting with NPCs had its own unique charm.

The entire Elven Forest was filled with vitality and youthful energy.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Evé, who had disguised herself as Zero and cast a legendary spell to create a bridge connecting the canyon, returned to her Divine Kingdom.

Whilst seated upon her divine throne, Evé accepted a cup of elven flower tea respectfully offered by an elemental fairy and took a satisfied sip before opening a monitoring feed that showed the activity in the Grand Canyon region.

On the screen, vast numbers of players had already poured into the forests north of the canyon.

After forming parties one after another, they officially began their exploration.

Evé nodded in satisfaction.

“With the buff I gave them, exploring the surrounding area should be much easier for these guys.”

She said with a smile.

The news about the two elven city ruins had already been spread throughout the server and the rest was now up to the players themselves.

In any case, should any player discovered the ruins, Evé, who was constantly monitoring the situation, would naturally be the first to know.

Meanwhile, preparations for opening the dimensional passageway to the Realm of Mindel were nearly complete.

However, Evé did not intend to personally oversee the official activation of the portal. Instead, the task would be entrusted to the players.

With the Tree of Life present on Mindel’s side, sufficient energy had already been prepared there. All that remained was to inscribe the necessary magic formations in Segües and reactivate the dormant passageway.

Such a task could easily be handled by the players themselves and required no direct intervention from Evé.

When the time came, all she needed to do was issue a quest, and the players would eagerly compete to complete it.

As a bonus, it would further strengthen their sense of unity and immersion.

With the release of one million new player slots and the complete removal of the Silver-rank restrictions, Eve’s divine power consumption had increased dramatically.

Fortunately, she had already ascended to the rank of a higher divine power and could fully support such expenditure.

However, only half a month had passed since the end of the war. Even though Evé had lifted the advancement restrictions ahead of schedule, not a single player had reached the Gold-rank yet.

In fact, there was not even a peak Silver-rank player at the moment, and Boxlunch, who was currently the fastest-progressing player, had only reached Level 67, largely because he had participated in the battles on the Wasteland of Desolation, where time flowed at a significantly accelerated rate.

Fortunately, Evé was in no hurry.

After all, only half a month had passed.

Furthermore, one’s rank advancement would become increasingly difficult as one’s level rose higher and higher.

So even with the effects of [War Sacrifice], and despite the players possessing avatar bodies with the highest possible potential, this remained true.

Even so, their rate of advancement was already astonishing by the standards of the native inhabitants.

Compared to higher ranks, reaching the level cap of Iron-rank was now much faster than before. Among the newly joined million players, the first batch would likely reach the Iron level cap very soon, and more would steadily follow.

Combined with the newly available Peak Silver-rank advancement slots, the bosses within the Demon Lord Labyrinth would likely find themselves busy once again.

After half a month, the demons within Maple Moon State had been almost completely eradicated. The few remaining scattered demons posed little threat and were routinely hunted down by wandering players.

But the situation in the Holy Maniya Empire was different.

The surviving demon army there had entrenched itself within the Empire’s southern border territories, relying on several Abyssal Brood Nests to sustain and regenerate their forces.

They were even attempting to reactivate a passageway leading back to the Abyss.

Naturally, Evé had no intention of allowing them to succeed.

Although she had not intervened directly, she was watching their every move from the shadows.

Therefore, should a crisis emerge that the players were unable to handle, she would act without hesitation.

The post-war cleanup across the Fertile Plains was destined to continue on for some time.

Many guilds had already dispatched teams to the region, engaging the demons in battles both large and small, steadily carving out influence and resources across contested zones. However, a massive conflict on the scale of the previous million-player campaign would likely never occur again, as the battlefield had fragmented into smaller, more localized skirmishes.

Meanwhile, the war in the Wasteland of Desolation had resumed.

Evé dispatched the gold dragon Mars, alongside the silver dragons Mercury and Venus, and mobilized more than thirty thousand players to begin a counteroffensive.

At first glance, thirty thousand troops might seem insignificant.

However, the previous war had left most Abyssal Myths either dead or scattered, with only fragmented remnants managing to survive in hiding. As a result, the Wasteland of Desolation no longer possessed any true high-ranking demonic forces.

Although countless demons and monsters still remained, they had become leaderless.

Against an army of players led by three Mythical-rank dragons, the Demons stood no chance of victory.

Furthermore, every player participating in this campaign was among the elite, increasing the likelihood of success even further.

Even now, Evé could vividly remember the scene when recruitment for the renewed campaign had begun, with players practically fighting their way through the registration process.

It was only natural.

With the new upper rank tiers unlocked, everyone once again needed vast amounts of experience points in order to advance, and the fastest way to gain them was through hunting mobs.

The Wasteland of Desolation was filled with demons, and its accelerated flow of time allowed players to level up even more efficiently.

As a result, it quickly became one of the most sought-after battlefields.

All in all, the campaign in the Wasteland of Desolation was progressing smoothly.

However, Eve’s plan to intervene in the ongoing Crusade war taking place within the First Layer of Hell encountered an unexpected problem.

Well, this matter was rather embarrassing.

Only after deciding to deploy troops did she discover that the World of Seigües possessed no direct passageway to the First Layer of Hell. Even the portals located in its subsidiary realms had been destroyed.

Although Azazel could summon demons from the First Layer of Hell, he was unable to send people there.

As a result, Eve’s original plan of directly transporting players into the heart of the First Layer of Hell fell apart.

After reconsidering the matter, Evé decided to imitate the methods used by the Einherjar armies of the gods and deploy players through a divine descent operation instead.

In other words, she would create a temporary passageway above the Abyss, transport the players through it, and have her demigod subordinates use their divine power to envelop and escort them into the Abyss itself.

This was also the standard method used by the Einherjar armies of the gods.

Its advantage was simplicity and efficiency.

Its disadvantages were the lengthy preparation time, the enormous amount of attention it attracted, and the fact that it could only deploy forces to the outer regions of Hell.

Evé spent half a month making preparations for this operation, and only today had everything finally been completed.

Fortunately, although the First Layer of Hell had descended into complete chaos, the Demon Lords appeared to have shifted additional resources there after suffering setbacks in their invasion of Seigües.

As a result, the armies of the Demon Lords and the Einherjar armies of the gods had gradually reached a stalemate.

Evé had learned all of this from the newly summoned demons serving Azazel.

Thinking of this, Evé extended a hand and lightly tapped the air.

A surge of divine power materialized into a complex map.

It was a map of the First Layer of Hell, provided by Azazel.

The First Layer of Hell was roughly equal in size to the World of Seigües.

However, nearly half of the Seigües World consisted of oceans and waterways, whereas the First Layer of Hell contained no bodies of water whatsoever.

As a result, the amount of explorable land in the First Layer of Hell was actually greater than that of the World of Seigües.

According to the markings provided by Azazel, the location in which he hid his core was situated at the very center of his dominion, concealed within an unremarkable volcano.

From the current state of the war, this location was temporarily safe and the armies of the gods had not yet advanced that far.

However, Azazel had expressed deep concern that the other Demon Lords might take advantage of the situation to stab him in the back, locate his Origin Core, and ultimately devour it.

“The edge of the world, huh…”

Evé studied the map and quickly ran the calculations in her mind.

Even if the players were deployed at the closest possible location, it would still take them at least one or two months to reach the destination on foot.

And that was without considering whether they could withstand the corruption along the way.

After all, the closer one got to the center of a Layer of Hell, the stronger the Abyssal power would became.

Of course, Evé never intended to rely solely on the players themselves and her plan was to also conceal herself amongst them during the journey.

When the time came, the one truly responsible for locating Azazel’s core would be Evé herself.

The players would merely serve as cover.

It was not as though Evé had never considered traveling there alone.

However, Hell was a special place.

Within this multilayered realm, saturated with abyssal power, one could not move about without the illumination of divine power.

In other words, within the Abyss, a true god was like a giant beacon shining in the darkness, impossible to overlook.

Even Evé was no exception.

That was precisely why she intended to hide among the players.

With the players present, she could openly use her divine power to illuminate the world under the pretense of blessing them and clearing a path forward.

By hiding amongst the players, she would attract far less attention.

At that point, under the banner of supporting the gods, the players could advance triumphantly all the way to the target location. Then Evé could secretly take action and locate Azazel’s core herself.

The plan was simple and straightforward, but undeniably effective.

However, its weaknesses were equally obvious.

“If we proceed this way, it will still take at least one or two months. That’s far too long. And heading straight for the target immediately after deployment would make us far too conspicuous in the dark world of Hell. The risks are simply too high.”

Evé shook her head.

It was the most crude and unimaginative solution possible, and she was far from satisfied with it.

Right then, just as Evé was contemplating a better method for deploying the players, her expression suddenly changed.

She turned her gaze beyond the boundaries of her Divine Kingdom.

A slight frown appeared on her face.

“…Another visitor?”

One of the side effects of ascending to the rank of a higher divine power was that, over the past several days, gods had continuously sent envoys to visit her. Most of them were demigods or legendary-rank beings.

Among them were representatives from both the Divine Human Coalition and the God of War Coalition.

However, Evé had met with almost none of them personally. Instead, she had instructed Feynir to send them away, citing her heavy losses during the recent demon invasion and claiming that she was still recuperating.

Of all the envoys, the only one Evé had personally received was the representative of the Dwarves and their patron deity, the God of Forging, Dorft.

Through a long-distance conversation, she handed over Samael’s demonic spear to Dorft and requested that he purify and reforge it.

It was also worth mentioning that Dorft had refused any payment from her.

Instead, he stated that the work would serve as a gift celebrating Eve’s ascension.

Evé understood his intentions perfectly.

It was a gesture of goodwill.

Thus, she accepted it graciously and silently remembered the friendship he had shown.

But this time…

Which deity’s envoy had come to visit her now?

Evé frowned slightly.

Just as she was about to dispatch Feynir once more and have the visitor turned away using the same excuse as before, her expression suddenly shifted.

“Hm? This aura… It’s that mysterious deity I sensed on that day when I was capturing those Abyssal Myths.”

Evé fell silent for a moment in thought.

Then she rose from her divine throne.

Radiant light flickered around her body.

The next instant, she vanished from the supreme temple within the Garden of Eden.