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[You…you\'re a hero, yet you possess the scent of a demon. Why?]

Evan was startled, and from Eliza\'s expression, it could be seen that she also heard this voice suddenly speaking directly into their heads.

Despite this, Evan\'s surprise was only momentary as he recalled the existence that resided at the \'bottom\' of this lake, a wry smile appearing on his face as he thought.

\'It\'s not a game anymore. That being would not be programmed to just sit there until the endgame and only attack people that don\'t have the \'Loved By Nature\' title.

It is capable of doing things that didn\'t happen in the game.\'

With those thoughts, Evan voiced out his answer to that existence at the bottom of the Lake.

"Simple. I\'m not your orthodox hero.

I\'d use whatever means I can to achieve my goals."

Increasing his swimming speed, he continued.

"Besides, if I didn\'t unseal and contract with that demon, tens of millions of people would have inevitably died.

Would you rather want that?"

[Most certainly not.

I\'d rather all heroes contract with demons than for millions to die and fuel the Demonic Hand\'s goals.]

Hearing the being\'s reply, Evan nodded and pointed towards the direction of their destination to Eliza before speaking.

"As expected of one of Aidos\' Defence Mechanisms, you are aware of the true nature of the Demonic Hand\'s plan to bring the demons back onto the planet."

[You know that much? You seem quite knowledgeable for a newbie Hero.]

"Newbie?"

[The previous Heroes held those titles for at least a century, compared to them, you are nothing but a newbie, Irregular Hero.]

"Makes sense."

The duo continued swimming while Evan continued chatting with the Sovereign existence, and much to Evan\'s surprise, all the monsters nearby seemed to be avoiding them for some reason.

"Did you order them not to?"

[They were ordered not to antagonize you, but it was not an order given by me.]

"That so…? I really wanted an opponent to test out our underwater combat skills."

Evan sighed and spoke in a disappointed tone, while the being turned its attention from him and to Eliza.

[You are the new wielder of the \'Child of Life\' skill, huh?]

"y-yes."

The girl answered with a hint of fear in her voice, but it was not too surprising as the being speaking to her was one of the most powerful entities on Aidos.

One of the planet\'s Defence Mechanisms, and a being powerful enough to be considered the Seventh Strongest entity on the planet.

\'And they all become transcendents towards the end of the game. If that happens in reality, we\'d have more transcendents on our side to combat the Peak Ranked Demons.\'

Just as Evan was thinking that to himself, the being spoke of something that caught his attention.

[I see. The fact that you have that skill means that even \'she\' perished once.]

"Huh?! Perished Once? What do you mean by that?!"

[It Is not something you are qualified to know, given that you neither possess the Child of Life skill nor do you possess the required Causality index, Irregular Hero.]

Before Evan could say anything else, the voice continued.

[It would be wise of you to focus on the incoming threat; you did say that you wanted an opponent to test your underwater combat skills, did you not?]

The moment it finished speaking, a powerful aura bore down on the area, attracting Evan and Eliza\'s attention.

"A grandmaster-level Poison Cephrodite, huh?"

"Poison? Isn\'t that kinda bad considering we\'re underwater?"

"That\'s part of why I had you get \'Loved By Nature\', besides you have a few poison resistance buffs, do you not?"

"I guess…"

[It seems that you are set for your battle. Now then, I would be temporarily taking my leave to visit an old friend.

Worry not, the high-ranking spirits present would interfere if you are about to perish. Well, considering that you are a Great Spirit\'s contractor, they\'d do that regardless of my orders.]

With those words, the voice of the being disappeared, along with their presence as Eliza could no sense their life force anymore.

She heaved a light sigh of relief as the sheer amount of life force possessed by a Level 899 existence was far too great and merely sensing it was taking a toll on her, mentally.

But for now, she put that at the back of her mind and turned her attention to the incoming Poison Cephrodite.

◇ ◇ ◇

Dimensional Realm Vitalis

Verdalight

Alpha Continent\'s Country of Vathax

February 3rd

Year 1053

As the sun rose on a small forest of verdant greenery, a family of three gathered around a wooden table for their breakfast.

The aroma of roasted meat and freshly baked bread filled the air, tempting the senses of all who were present.

The father, a green-eyed man with dark grey hair, carved the succulent monster meat with a practised hand, while his daughter poured glasses of wine for him and her younger brother.

"Where\'s mother?"

"She and Matty went out to get a few things on the Divider Ocean."

"Ohh…"

The younger brother, a long grey-haired man with bright green eyes replied as he spread a chunk of butter onto his sliced bread.

He then moved on and picked up the jam jar, opening it and adding a little bit of jam, moving on to the other spreads and mixing them up into one deadly combo.

"What in tarnation are you doing, George?"

The father stopped his movements and questioned his son about his actions, but the younger man only said he was testing out something he saw in a foreign food magazine.

"I don\'t think a magazine that can suggest such should exist…"

The woman spoke as she stared at the mixture of spreads on the slice of bread, her gaze turning to her brother who was adding this same mixture to other slices of bread as she asked.

"Are you really gonna eat \'that\'?"

Just before he could answer his elder sister, George noticed that their father had gone silent and was staring in a certain direction with narrowed eyes.

Immediately after, he sensed something breaking into the Dimensional Realm and his eyes widened in shock.

But before he could move, his father held out a hand to stop him and then spoke towards a pile of bushes.

"What brings you here, Defence Mechanism?"

[Hmm? According to my Database, you are called Alden Kaur, are you not?]

"That does not answer my question, Defence mechanism."

The man, Alden, glared at the young blue spiky haired man who emerged from within the sea of trees.

[For starters, I have a name, Alden Kaur.]

Turning his golden slit pupils in the direction of the woman seated beside Alden, he continued.

[And you, are not the reason for my presence here.]

Before Alden could say anything again, the woman held out her hand and grabbed her father\'s shoulder, shaking her head to signal him to stop before turning to the new entrant and speaking.

"It has been a while, Iremith."

[I most certainly prefer being called Hydran.

But anyway, I happened to encounter the current wielder of the \'Child of Life\' skill.]

The moment the man, Hydran, spoke the second part of his statement, the eyes of the family of three widened ever so slightly as they instantly realised who he was talking about.

"What is that little girl doing all the way in Duscon…?"

The woman asked with a wry smile on her face, shaking her head and sighing lightly before speaking to Hydran.

"Come and take a seat, we have a lot to talk about."

Having received an invitation, Hydran moved to join the trio in their breakfast…even though an existence like him did not necessarily need food.

◇ ◇ ◇

At the same time, Evan and Eliza were locked in combat against the Poison Cephrodite monster in the Underground Crystal Cove\'s lake.

For a visual of how it looked, it was a marine horror with twelve serpentine limbs adorned with suction cups akin to an octopus\'s arms, and crowing its fearsome visage was a menacing beard of tangled, writhing tentacles.

"No matter how I look at it, this monster is based on Sthan£e."

Evan remarked as he generated a sword of ice with Elemental Weapon Projection, not deeming this particular monster worth using the unforged.

\'It\'s not that high level.\'

The fact that he could have such thoughts about a level 325 monster was simply a testament to how much stronger he had grown in the past few months.

[GROARR…]

The monster let out a low roar before widening its massive jaws, revealing the dozens of razor-sharp teeth and its spiked tongue.

It shot forward at full speed, fully intent on consuming the duo with a single gulp.

However, even if they were not used to underwater combat, dodging this simple attack was not something they were incapable of achieving, especially since they had those Diving Artifacts.

\'Aura Slash\'

Evan released a slash of golden aura that hurtled through the water and split apart the monster\'s scales, piercing its flesh and spewing black blood into the surroundings.

Two rings of green light appeared around his wrists and legs each, courtesy of Eliza\'s support magic. The battle priestess then turned her attention towards the creature that was swinging around and applied an elemental damage bonus buff on herself.

\'Life Ice.\'

"Esoteric Ice Magic: Freezing Field."