Chapter 170: Desperate Minerva

?Minerva returned after some time.

Night and the others looked at her; she looked fine on the surface, but she also looked utterly exhausted.

?Night asked, "How did it go with the Demigod Goblins?"

?Minerva looked at all of them chilling, noting that the surroundings were now entirely void of any Goblins. She sat down on the ground and said, "I went to check on them, planning to pick them off one by one and then deal with the rest. But a Goblin I spotted ended up spotting me first, so I had to fight all of them at once."

?Night looked at her. She didn’t have any visible injuries, so he guessed she had won. "So you killed them all?"

?Minerva looked at him with a deadpan expression. "Do I look like a monster to you?"

?"Then you ran away?" Night guessed.

?Her deadpan expression darkened. "Do I look like a weakling to you?"

?Night threw his hands up in defeat. "Then how did it go?"

?The others also looked at her, waiting for her to continue.

?Being put on the spot, Minerva finally said, "I killed five of them, injured the rest, and then left."

?Night nodded. "We also encountered some Demigods..."

?Minerva looked at the others, seeing them nod in agreement, and she frowned. "Where did they come from? Did you guys leave this region to fight? I was nearby, so I should have sensed it if Demigods came this close..."

?Night thought, ’So a Demigod can perceive things from that far away? It’s ridiculous...’

’I thought my Nighmare Domain was op but this is something else.’

?Sara said, "They were hiding with the Mortal Realm Goblins."

?Minerva fell into deep thought, not understanding how she had missed them. A very strong stealth skill? Possibly Legendary or Mythic grade? But I have a Mythic grade detection skill, I should have sensed something at least.

?"So how did you deal with them?" Minerva asked.

?Night answered, "They were weak. I think they were around level 110 or 120, perhaps? We killed one, and the other four just left a moment ago..."

?Minerva nodded in understanding. She guessed with the help of that weird tree, it wasn’t far-fetched that he could fight low-level Demigods. "So they ran away?"

She had seen him fight before, he had managed to fight equally with Razen with just his body.

?"No," Vivianne said. "As Night said, they left..."

?"What do you mean left?" Minerva asked, confused.

?Night explained exactly what had happened and how they had encountered a God. He also pointed to the metal throne to prove that he was not bullshitting her.

?Minerva gasped. "What the fuck? I thought this planet was safe... Now you are telling me a fucking Unique Being, and a God-level one at that, appeared here?"

?Sara narrowed her eyes and scolded, "Language..."

?Minerva glared at her but didn’t say anything.

?Lucy chimed in, "I mean, it was obvious, right? If you could come here, then so can others from where you came from... Even the Immortals you always speak of."

?Minerva shivered at the thought of that, because she knew exactly what the Immortals from her planet would do first if they came here.

?They had means to know about this planet without even being here, especially the Immortal Kings, and she was pretty sure they were aware of her by now.

?Even her father wouldn’t be able to help her here.

?Minerva smiled bitterly when she realized she would have to live a life of hiding even on this planet.

?Night saw her expression, guessed what she was thinking, and said, "You can always stay in the city if an Immortal or a God comes. They would not be allowed inside even though they are suppressed. Besides, they would have to face the others on this planet."

?Minerva looked confused. "Others?"

?Night said, "You see, this world is not as safe as it looks. Aside from the Death Zones, there are beings in Hell and Heaven who are probably very strong. And there is also a Void God currently on the loose here. He would probably kill the Immortals and Gods himself if they cause too much of a ruckus."

?For once, Night was actually glad to have [Zethe-thoth] on their planet. If his goal was truly the Dead God’s Corpse, then he would definitely move to trim the competition.

?Minerva was stunned. "There is a native God already? How?"

?Night then explained what he knew about [Zethe-thoth], leaving Minerva with a humbled expression on her face.

?Gone was the arrogant demeanor she had carried until now; now she looked like a wild beast on full alert, probably terrified of running into an Immortal or a God in a random alleyway.

?Night laughed at her, and so did the rest. They could understand exactly how she felt; they had encountered [Zethe-thoth] before, and though they didn’t fight him, they knew he must be an absolute monster.

?[Dream], a Goddess who was barely a soul fragment, had killed Alze-Beus in minutes. A full-fledged God like [Zethe-thoth] must be even more terrifying.

?Minerva then looked at Night like he was her only lifeline and grabbed his shoulders. "Since you managed to survive a God not once, but twice, I must admit I severely underestimated you."

?Night looked at her in panic. Her sudden enthusiasm had caught him completely off guard. "I was just lucky!"

?Lucy appeared from the shadows and bit Minerva’s leg, trying to separate them. Death also joined in, grabbing onto Night and trying to pry him away.

?Unfortunately, Minerva didn’t feel their efforts at all; both her body and Night’s were too strong to even notice them.

?Minerva shook her head, but in doing so, she also ended up shaking Night and Death, who was still holding onto him. "Luck is also a part of strength. If I were in your place, I would have reincarnated already."

?Night tried to console her. "I am sure you could have survived."

?"I know how my shit luck is," Minerva stated. She then looked at Night with determination and said, "I will follow you from now on. You look like someone born with the luck of a protagonist in a drama."

?She then looked at the others. "Just look at the beauties gathered around you. Even an idiot can see the world bending over backwards to accommodate you..."

?Sara shouted, "LANGUAGE!!!!" She stood up, her face dark. It looked like she would actually attack Minerva if she used a slang again.

?But Minerva ignored her. "I don’t wish to be culled like an abomination. I will do anything to survive, even if I have to hold onto your small thigh."

?Night saw that his friends were getting heated up, especially Sara, Lucy, and Death. All of them looked like they would fight Minerva to the death at any moment, the he looked at the determination on Minerva’s face.

?Night sighed internally. "Okay, do what you want."

?Only then did Minerva release his shoulders. Her smile was incredibly warm as she looked at Night, but it only made Night’s eyes twitch.

?If only she knew about my Natural Calamity Physique, she would probably run for the hills, cursing the fact she only has two legs to run with....

?But Night didn’t bother telling her. It was his deepest secret, one which he and his friends would take to their graves.

?He was sure [Blaze] and [Aqua] already knew about it, and since they hadn’t said anything, it meant they were okay with it.

?[Dream] had told him how people dealt with taboos, and all of the methods were worse than death.

Then Night told her about the metal throne, for some reason Minerva looked very emotional when she saw Night had kept the spoils, even though she hadn’t help them with the fight here.

She was about to reject but when she heard about its properties she asked for some with an embarrassed experience.

?Night then received a telepathic message from Lilith, who had returned to the Inner Universe, asking him to return to the Dream City.

?He said, "Minerva, let’s return to the city. Something important has come up."

?He didn’t know what Lilith wanted from him, but anything his friends said was important; everything else could wait.

?Minerva nodded without asking any questions.

?Then he cut through space to his city and entered first, with the others following right behind him.

?Just as he was cutting space to return to the Dream City, he received another telepathic message, this time from System Girl, telling him she had a surprise for him.

?Since he was needed in two places at once, he left one clone to see what System Girl wanted to show him, and sent another to the Dream City.

?His main body continued to meditate beside the Nightmare Origin Tree on the main mountain.

?He was already stretching his limits too far with all these clones. Most of his Level 1 clones were training with [Dream] this whole time, so it was understandable that he was feeling some serious strain.

?His mind could only handle so much. Even with his advancement to Foundation Building and the massive increase in Soul Cultivation due to Dolly’s Puppet Manipulation skill, he was barely managing.

?It would have been great if [Dream] went easy on him. He had never expected her to be so strict with his training.

No wonder the others improved so fast, she must have been pushing them beyond their limits all this time...

?...

?Sometime ago, just after System Girl had become his Inner Universe Will, he had created hundreds of clones to train with [Dream].

?[Dream] stood at a distance and observed the clones. There were hundreds of them, to be precise, 333 clones.

?Though they were level 1, All of them were as weak as, if not weaker than, a mundane human.

This was the weakest clones he could make using Zero’s skill.

?As for the number of Clones, Night felt like this was his limit; any more, and he would lose control.

?[Dream] asked, "Do you know your most obvious weakness?"

?Night nodded. "I don’t know how to fight like a skilled warrior and I lack experience."

?"No," [Dream] said flatly.

?Night waited for her to continue.

?"It’s that you have far too many skills," [Dream] explained.

?Night frowned. "Huh? How is that a weakness?"

?"Instead of giving you a long preaching session, it’s better if I just show you," [Dream] said.

?As she spoke, Blade appeared in her hand. It seemed Blade was also joining them for the lesson.

?Blade shifted into the form of a rapier. Then, [Dream] pointed the rapier at his clones and dashed straight at the 333 clones all by herself.

....

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