Chapter 178: Embracing, Feeling the Heartbeat
It's hard to say whether Charles is the handsome man sent by the Oder Empire, Loria thinks. But at least for now, Charles is much stronger than the noble group who revolve around the emperor.
During the few days she was away from the town, Charles and his supporters successfully controlled the military forces in and around the town, and through violent means, brought the slightly chaotic town back to order.
Not only that, in order to quickly unite the scattered forces within the empire, in just four days, he dealt with government affairs while personally visiting those who had great influence in the military.
This was a very exhausting task, and he had to endure a lot of scolding to persuade those people to cooperate.
But there's no way out.
If there's no Hidden Leader as the foreign enemy, and no strange power that can devour everything, he could have gathered his loyal army to gradually eliminate those who refuse to submit, and keep the new government "clean." But now, he can only choose this compromising method with potential risks.
Don't worry about whether the empire can become great again or not, the urgent task is to let the empire survive.
"Relying solely on a huge army is not enough to defeat the Hidden Leader. To completely defeat these madmen, we must kill their leader."
Charles remained clear-headed, the sudden acquisition of power didn't make him lose himself.
He skillfully explained the terrain of the imperial capital to the participants and shared his formulated battle plan.
After the long analysis, he didn't forget to add, "This plan is based on our past knowledge. Unfortunately, after losing the imperial capital, our intelligence personnel dare not approach it due to the red island in the sky. So we are not clear about the extent of the changes in the imperial capital."
Plans are living things, not dead. They must be adjusted according to the situation at any time.
"Let's set the counterattack for three days later, for now."
Three days later, on September 28th.
Loria secretly made a note of the time.
She wished that time could drag on a bit longer, so she could continue to improve her endurance through the simulator.
Unfortunately, the spreading red solitary island didn't give her that opportunity. If she continued to delay, she would be swallowed by the island.
"Besides making the most of the simulation time, is there anything else I can do?"
After leaving the venue, Loria returned to her residence with a heavy heart.
All her trump cards were written on her identity card. If there was anything that could be considered an exception, it would be those cherished divine beings.
The Goddess of Dawn, Wind, and Sky. She was Loria's "old friend."
Thanks to this goddess' care, she had been able to defeat strong enemies time and time again recently.
If possible, she really wants to get closer to this goddess, and of course, it would be great if the goddess could lend her an unbreakable clone to use.
She definitely won't mess around, at most she'll just practice a little.
The Goddess of Pleasure and Mysterious Moon, this goddess is full of mystery from head to toe.
What she represents is perfectly aligned with Loria, but various documents and legends hardly mention her name, making it difficult for Loria to determine which side she's on.
Maybe she doesn't take sides at all, she's just a simple pleasure-seeker.
"Am I your only follower in this world? If you don't help me, will you not feel guilty watching me being killed by that Weaver person?"
Loria mumbled a few words.
The Goddess of Insanity and Excess, she looks like a lunatic, and this lunatic also harbors a strong dislike for her, hoping that she'd just die already - tired of living.
"If she doesn't come after me, I'll be thanking my lucky stars."
The demon from the village is even worse, the Goddess of Madness and Indulgence at least deceives her followers with her indulgent desires before claiming lives, but this demon directly attacks its targets without pretending.
Loria frowned slightly, "It would be troublesome if it suddenly causes trouble when we approach the seal."
It would be great if there was a way to drive away this restless demon before entering the imperial city.
Loria didn't expect herself to be able to defeat gods, after all, she's just a B-rank adventurer, she hasn't even reached the peak of this world, let alone exploring things beyond it.
"Wait."
Suddenly, she thought of something she had never looked directly at since she received it.
It was the magic from the return to "village" ritual that she obtained during the completion of the special event [Lost Ritual II].
Because she thought the item was useless to her, after claiming the event reward, she threw the book containing the magic into her inventory.
The so-called return to "village" magic should refer to the magic that can send things back to the "village."
So, can this magic send that demon back?
Loria thought it should be possible.
Because the series of lost ritual events are closely related to that demon.
If this magic is useless, there's no need for her to look for it in the simulator.
"Give it a try."
Loria quickly flipped through her inventory and found the book.
Then, after opening it and taking a few glances, she was dumbfounded.
What on earth is written in this book?
She recognized most of the characters, but when the strange symbols were combined, it seemed like a magical tome to her.
It looks like we'll have to find a professional.
Loria first thought of Miss Plump Sheep.
Miss Plump Sheep doesn't seem very reliable, but that's only because she lacks combat experience. However, when it comes to magical theory, she's actually very talented because of her prestigious background.
Miss Plump Sheep has never failed in the process of casting magic. Who knows how skilled she is compared to Doris.
"Wait a moment."
Just as Loria was about to take a step with her right foot, she quickly pulled it back.
After thinking carefully, she realized how dangerous this could be. What if Miss Plump Sheep is harmed by that demon?
Although she hasn't discussed the matter with Miss Plump Sheep yet, in her eyes, Miss Plump Sheep is already extraordinary.
"Let's try simulating it first. Maybe we can simulate the results?"
Loria quickly opened the simulator.
She was about to have the final battle with the Hidden Leader. The money she had on her was useless, so she decided to spend it all on the simulator in one go.
After pressing the start button, Loria focused all her attention on observing the simulated content.
In the simulation, she directly found Miss Plump Sheep and asked her to interpret the Lost Realm Magic.
As she expected, Miss Plump Sheep indeed understood the content written in the book and said she could recreate this magic circle.
["First do this and that, then take a drop of your blood and evenly spread it in the center of the magic circle."]
The Lost Realm Magic started to work successfully.
However, things didn't go as Loria had envisioned.
The demon didn't appear, and the magic didn't open a way to the Lost Realm. Only in that moment, something strange suddenly happened.
[You see the world in front of you start to break apart, like a shattered mirror. Miss Plump Sheep in front of you is split into several pieces, but there is no blood, it looks surreal instead.]
[After continuously breaking apart, you notice that Miss Plump Sheep's face becomes identical to the guildmaster's. In the next second, Miss Plump Sheep's hand changes into Vita's hand.]
"Huh? I have never used it, how did I see that Miss Plump Sheep's hand turned into Vita's hand?"
But now is not the time to dwell on such matters.
The collapsing of the simulated world becomes more severe. Not only does Miss Plump Sheep in front of her become scattered, but the ground she is walking on also undergoes drastic changes, trembling violently.
Loria is sometimes standing on a mountain, sometimes appearing in magma, sometimes walking upside down in the sky, and sometimes even seeing a flying cow.
The entire world continues to shatter and rearrange, forming strange appearances that are only found in artworks and dreams.
This process lasts for a whole hour.
[You open your eyes and finally find the world returning to calm. It feels as if you have awakened from a profound dream. Miss Plump Sheep is now asking for your blood to activate the magic.]
"Huh?"
Loria looked at the text displayed on the simulator with a confused expression.
What does that mean?
Did it reset everything directly in this simulation?
She had never encountered this in previous simulations, was it because this simulation directly involved the ruins?
There were too many questions in front of Loria.
She didn't dare to try it in real life, so she could only quickly end this simulation and start a new one for further verification.
The outcome was no different from before. Since she couldn't gain more attribute points through this kind of simulation, she could only temporarily suppress her doubts and focus on obtaining attribute points.
Endurance was now the attribute she needed most urgently.
It's impossible to increase endurance to 500 points within three days, but it's not difficult to improve the basic endurance to 350 points as long as you find the right direction.
For the first time, Loria set her sights on the goddess.
She wasn't planning to do anything to the goddess, she just wanted the goddess to be a witness, like placing a goddess statue next to her when she was getting close to others.
It has to be said that the effect of this move was surprisingly good, as it instantly increased her endurance by 3 points.
"Keep up the good work!"
This time, Loria simply lay down in front of the goddess statue, and even used it as a support and pillar. She gained 4 points of endurance directly.
The only problem was that she didn't know what the Dark Moon Goddess looked like, otherwise she would have made a Dark Moon Goddess statue to put next to the goddess statue.
Loria had the potential to be a bit scheming. After using the goddess, she directly threw her aside and started researching new grinding methods.
Due to limited time and being under pressure, she couldn't come up with too many tricks for the time being.
In the current situation, it's unrealistic to intentionally tempt a group of monster girls for a battle and attack. Instead, just going to a naughty house won't increase your attributes at all.
She can only deliberately throw herself into the Shura Arena.
For example, even though she knew the guildmaster was nearby, she purposely stuck to Miss Plump Sheep, arousing Miss Plump Sheep's desires.
Another example is that even though she knew the guildmaster was nearby, she intentionally took Vita to take a bath, and then touched her during the bath, saying that she has liked Vita for a long time.
The plan is perfect.
Under normal circumstances, the guildmaster would have already made a heavy attack.
But what Loria didn't expect was that the guildmaster was not a normal person.
Even though she purposely made a very happy and loud noise, the guildmaster seemed to not hear and continued doing her own thing.
"！！！"
The guildmaster, why don't you stick to the plan and come out to fight the fox demon in anger?
With no other choice, after several attempts, the simulated Loria took the initiative to find the guildmaster.
[The guildmaster, are you not even a little bit angry?]
[The guildmaster calmly replied, "I alone cannot fulfill your needs."]
"？？？"
Loria was speechless.
The guildmaster's statement was completely correct. If it was only the guildmaster alone and they didn't control themselves, the guildmaster's already fragile body would definitely have problems.
But...
If it was her, even considering this issue, she wouldn't be as generous.
Can't I buy more magic-powered automatic tools if people can't do it? If three tools don't work, then how about five? Can't we fill it up?
The guildmaster, she really made me cry.
"What are you doing?"
Just when Loria was feeling sentimental, a familiar voice suddenly sounded in her ear.
Loria turned her head and saw the guildmaster standing behind her.
For a moment, she didn't know how to talk to the guildmaster.
Touched?
No.
What she felt in her heart was more like guilt.
She couldn't tempt Miss Plump Sheep and Vita like in the game, but her intentions were not pure.
Cough, cough.
Loria hugged the guildmaster directly.
"I hope we can come back alive," she said.
The guildmaster was caught off guard by this sudden attack. Her hand was raised high, but eventually, it gently landed on Loria's waist, feeling each other's body warmth.
It seemed like they had never been this close before.
Even during their previous mischievous adventures, they had never been so intimately close. Either Loria was hunched over or standing behind her.
This feeling was strangely nice.
She could clearly feel Loria's heartbeat, which was much stronger than her own.
Is this what it means to be alive?
She wanted to hug all of this tightly.
"Did I hurt you?"
Loria shook her head, "No."
Instead, it was soft and squishy.
After all, the guildmaster was the biggest among them, even Lady Luciene couldn't compare.
Without any further action, as they embraced each other, Vita stood nearby, silently observing.
...
Three days later.
On the square where the oath was taken.
Charles, holding the symbol of imperial power, the scepter, is conducting pre-war mobilization.
"Some say that if I succeed, I will be the greatest general in the history of the empire. But what I want to say is that this honor belongs to all those who fight for the empire."
He is dressed impeccably, with an inspiring smile on his face. And when he raised the scepter high, the atmosphere on the square was completely ignited.
"There is a mysterious cycle in the world, where certain generations receive more blessings from heaven, and certain generations are entrusted with great expectations. And our generation is destined to fulfill the heavenly mandate and restore order to this chaotic world!"
"Order, order, order!"
There was a roaring sound on the square, like waves crashing, one after another. In the end, these waves merged into one, surging towards the imperial capital.
