Chapter 49 49: Goddess: It’s Over, Everything Is Over!

Tokonosu City.

Inside the dojo with the name "Busujima" hanging over it, a solitary figure stood in place.

Around her, zombie corpses were scattered across the floor.

"Looks like the battle on your side is over too."

Drake walked out from the other side of the corridor and looked at Saeko Busujima.

"With this, your family's dojo has been cleaned up… Do you want to move back here?"

Saeko shook her head slightly and answered without hesitation.

"To me, this place is nothing more than an empty shell. There is no need to return."

"However… I am very happy that Master accompanied me here to clean it up."

"I still have that much time."

Drake shrugged.

He could not exactly say that he was bored because he had to wait for the exploration of the new world to end.

"Besides, it was also a good chance to test the power I gained from you."

Hearing that, Saeko smiled softly and asked without any hesitation,

"Then… are you satisfied with the effect of my Sacred Milk?"

Satisfied?

That was an understatement. When Drake saw the buff on his body, his eyes almost froze in place.

[Sacred Milk Infusion — Saeko Busujima: Enhances the effect of "Stigmata Alchemy," and causes the user's melee attacks to deal a fixed 1.5x damage. Critical hits cannot occur. Duration: 30 minutes.]

A simple and brutal 50% damage increase.

Compared with all kinds of complicated effects, this one felt the most direct and satisfying.

Although it removed the possibility of critical hits, Drake did not have a build focused on critical rate anyway, so there was no need to consider that drawback.

During the battle just now, even with only a wooden sword, Drake had been able to cut down zombies as easily as slicing vegetables.

"Looks like I'll have to trouble you often in the future."

"It would be my pleasure."

After that, Drake also tested the Sacred Milk effects of Rei Miyamoto and Saya Takagi.

After comparing them, he reached several conclusions.

First, although each type of Sacred Milk had a different effect, they were all considered the same category of buff.

Only one [Sacred Milk Infusion] state could be maintained at a time.

Second, Sacred Milk had different levels of quality.

High-quality Sacred Milk, like that of Shizuka Marikawa and Saeko Busujima, granted additional effects that enhanced Drake's own abilities.

Ordinary Sacred Milk only had the basic effect of "enhancing Stigmata Alchemy."

Rei Miyamoto and Saya Takagi belonged to this category.

As for Sacred Milk of even lower quality… Drake had not encountered it yet.

Of course, there was another situation.

Some individuals did not possess enough developed life energy to produce Sacred Milk at all.

In other words, they were naturally unsuited for it.

After returning to Orario, Drake finally could not resist testing things with Lili.

However, no matter how he tried through contract-based alchemy, he could not make Lili produce the same kind of effect as Shizuka Marikawa.

In the end, he could only attribute it to the natural limitations of the Pallum race's small stature.

Even so, after being fussed over by Drake, Lili seemed quite happy. There was not the slightest sign of resistance on her face.

Rather, the fact that Drake had taken the initiative to pay attention to her seemed to make her even happier.

"I wonder how far the Banquet of the Gods has progressed."

Noticing that the sunlight was gradually dimming, Drake looked out beyond Babel Tower and toward the sky.

"I hope everything goes smoothly today."

....

The venue for the Denatus was the thirtieth floor of Babel Tower.

To match the grandeur of the gods, every partition on this floor had been removed.

Thick marble pillars stood in a straight line, supporting the ceiling.

Within the spacious hall, there was only one enormous round table and no other decoration.

The distant walls were made of huge, crystal-clear panes of glass, making the room seem almost surrounded by the sky.

Every three months, more than thirty patron gods of various Familias would gather around the round table, laughing and fooling around.

Contrary to how their Familia members imagined them, the gods at the banquet were sometimes not much different from children.

This was especially true when they were giving aliases to newly promoted Familia members. The room would often descend into chaos.

"—Final decision! Adventurer Seti Celti's alias shall be [Holy Dragon Knight of Dawn]!"

"Nooooooo! That's so embarrassing!"

After hearing that their child had been given such an absurdly dramatic alias, one patron god could not help clutching their head and wailing.

The more mischievous gods took the chance to roll around laughing, treating it as entertainment.

"All right, next… Hm? A child from Hephaestus's Familia?"

When the name Hephaestus appeared on the list, several gods wearing exaggerated smiles restrained themselves a little out of respect.

As one of the largest Familias in Orario, the Hephaestus Familia was not as easy to mess with as some small Familias.

Of course, part of that also had to do with the fact that today's Hephaestus was unusually dazzling and eye-catching.

"You can tell she came here determined today."

One god whispered to the god beside them.

"If we tease her, she might take revenge hard."

"Even Hephaestus dressed herself up seriously. Scary."

"Careful, or she might stop the blacksmiths in her Familia from repairing your children's equipment."

"Forget it, forget it. Let's be serious."

However, just as those gods were about to seriously decide on an alias, the information in their hands left them stunned.

Bang!

The host of this Denatus, Loki, quietly rose from her seat.

"Before we decide on his alias, explain something first, Hephaestus."

She opened her eyes and stared like a fox at the goddess of the forge, who was dressed in an elegant formal gown.

"How exactly did he manage to level up in only half a month?!"

"Even my Ais took a full year for her first Level Up… a whole year! And this brat did it in half a month?! You expect me to believe that nonsense?!"

The gazes of the other gods also fell on Hephaestus.

Eight years ago, the matter of a little girl who had only been eight years old reaching Lv.2 in just one year was still fresh in their memories.

At the time, not only Orario, but the entire world had been shaken by that great feat.

Falna did not directly grant mortals overwhelming power.

It was merely an "opportunity."

It could draw out possibilities that a Familia member might never have discovered in their entire lifetime, then manifest them as clear ability scores.

Basic Abilities, Development Abilities, Skills, Magic…

All of these were possibilities hidden within the person themselves.

In other words, their "talent."

Through the many experiences accumulated along the way, through great feats, that talent would transform and sublimate.

Like a seed buried in the soil, it would bloom into a different flower depending on its environment.

Therefore, what the gods gave mortals was not divine power, but a small push that helped them grow.

"About that…"

Facing the sharp gazes of her fellow gods, Hephaestus took a deep breath and said directly,

"I don't know either. Asking me is useless."

"Hah?!"

After failing to get the answer she wanted, Loki immediately jumped onto the table and shouted, completely disregarding her image.

"Don't tell me you used your arcanum?!"

"Please. As if I would ever do something like that."

Hephaestus snorted at the unreasonable accusation.

"The children of the Lower World possess potential even we don't fully understand. Isn't that something everyone here acknowledges?"

"Guh! … Well, that's true, but…"

Hephaestus's rebuttal left Loki somewhat speechless.

Although they stood above mortals as gods and possessed immense power, the mortals of the Lower World had once produced countless heroes as well.

Before the gods descended, mortals had relied on their own strength to protect their homes from monsters.

Now that thousands of years had passed, the appearance of another "hero" did not seem entirely impossible.

Thinking of this, Loki suddenly revealed a sly smile.

"So what you're saying is that this Drake boy is a once-in-a-thousand-years talent?"

"…Wait, I never said that!"

Hephaestus's expression changed as she realized what Loki was trying to do.

She wanted to push Drake into the pit known as being "praised to death."

"Oh my, then we really ought to give him an appropriately impressive alias."

Loki sat back in her seat with an amused expression and loudly proposed,

"Otherwise, it wouldn't be worthy of such astonishing talent. What does everyone think?"

The atmosphere, which had been serious just moments earlier, gradually began to spiral into an uncontrollable abyss under Loki's encouragement.

In the end, the round table erupted with cheers like a roaring tsunami.

Drake's alias had just been decided.

"It's over. Everything is over…"

Seeing that terrifying scene unfold, Hephaestus's heart was filled with helplessness.

"Drake… you have to endure this!"

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