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"From a different world?"
The sudden fact made Shane pause in his action of preparing to drink tea, his face full of astonishment.
This reaction made the Goddess smile involuntarily.
"You didn't hear wrong," the Goddess laughed, "There are many different worlds unlike this Omni Potanssen. The world you were in during your past life was just one among them. The only commonality is that the worlds you inhabit are very ordinary, having no God, no Demon, and no special powers. Therefore, they are completely independent entities, beyond even the reach of us of the Divine Race. We can only summon those with Hero traits from those worlds within the limits allowed by 'Reason.' That's the extent of it."
It was truly unexpected.
However, thinking about it carefully, it seemed understandable.
If God could casually summon people from Otherworlds, then the Divine Race wouldn't have needed to create the major races to resist the Demon Clan. They could have just summoned people from Otherworlds for help, right?
Even though, in Otherworlds, those with Hero qualities were extremely rare, not everyone could awaken their exclusive Holy Sword and Unique Skill, but in this aspect, people of this world faced the same conditions.
They wouldn't have a Holy Sword, and not everyone could have a Unique Skill. They could only obediently start training from scratch, gradually leveling up and learning skills to rise above. Most people in this world still had to follow this path.
Hence, if considering just the matter of manpower, people from any world were the same.
If the Divine Race could summon people from Otherworlds into this world, most of them would probably start training with no advantages, just like people in this world, with only a few awakening their own Unique Skills. Whether these Unique Skills could be used in combat was still unknown.
Only those with Hero qualities could awaken powerful Unique Skills and have their own exclusive Holy Sword.
Thus, God only needed Heroes and could only summon Heroes.
But, the number of people with Hero qualities seemed really small.
From ancient times to now, less than ten Heroes have been summoned to this world, and every Hero came from a different world. This meant that, at most, only one person capable of becoming a Hero would appear in one world, and in many worlds, not even one appeared.
"Moreover, Heroes can be strong or weak," the Goddess said, "In the past, the Holy Sword and Unique Skills that Heroes awakened were all different."
Consequently, some Heroes would awaken Holy Swords and Unique Skills that were exceptionally powerful, while others were relatively weaker.
This would inevitably cause a problem.
Which was...
"Even a Hero may not defeat the Demon King."
Speaking of this, the Goddess's eyes looked somewhat gloomy, or even disappointed.
Seeing this, Shane understood.
(It seems that none of the Heroes summoned in the past were able to defeat the Demon King, right?)
Otherwise, if the Demon King had already been defeated, there would be no need to summon Shane.
It was precisely because the Demon King was still at large that God had to continue summoning Heroes.
This showed just how powerful the Demon King truly was, as even the successive generations of Heroes had not succeeded in defeating him.
Then, what about himself?
Could he defeat the Demon King?
Just as Shane was thinking this, the Goddess's gaze turned toward him.
She fixed her eyes on Shane.
"I believe you will be the most promising Hero to achieve this goal so far," the Goddess spoke as if to herself, "After all, whether it's the Holy Sword or Unique Skill, I think you're ahead of all past Heroes."
Shane found himself unsure of how to respond to these words.
Logically, receiving such an evaluation should be cause for joy, right?
Unfortunately...
"You're not happy, are you?" the Goddess said with a mix of amusement and helplessness, "In your world, novels and mythologies are rife with protagonists inherently possessing the strongest abilities, or situations where the talentless rise against the odds. Even if I tell you that you're the Hero with the most potential in all history, you would just find it strange, wouldn't you?"
Hearing this, the corner of Shane's mouth twitched.
Could this Goddess really see through people's thoughts?
Being a Goddess, having a mind-reading ability was quite normal, wasn't it?
... Otherwise, he could try it out.
Thinking this, Shane began to imagine some inappropriate scenes in his mind.
"...!"
At that moment, the Goddess, who had a smile on her face, suddenly stiffened, a blush unavoidably appearing on her beautiful face.
"You... You...! What on earth are you thinking!?"
The Goddess slammed the table forcefully and spoke in anger, startling Shane.
"You really can read minds!?"
Shane stood up in fright.
"I never said I couldn't, did I?"
The Goddess's face still retained a hint of blush.
It seemed that this Goddess was unexpectedly quite innocent.
While Shane thought this in his heart, a gaze full of hostility was cast upon him, making his whole body shudder as he quickly focused, clearing all distracting thoughts and stopped imagining nonsense.
"Hmph!" The Goddess snorted coldly, stood up, and said, "Let's wrap it up for today, I'll send you back!"
Saying this, without giving Shane a chance to react, the Goddess waved her hand, causing the world to twist again.
"Wait!" Shane called out hastily, "You haven't told me your name yet!"
This was something Shane had wanted to know all along.
All this time, Shane only knew her as the Goddess, and now that he knew that this world had more than one God but a Divine Race instead, he naturally wanted to know her name.
And then...
"Just call me Nien."
After saying this, the Goddess who called herself Nien snapped her fingers, and Shane, along with the twisted world around him, disappeared from the Temple.
...
In the inn room, Shane opened his eyes and found himself lying back on the bed at some point, as if he had never left.
"I'm back already?"
Shane seemed unsure, even wondering if what just happened was a Dream.
However, the lingering taste of delicious tea in his mouth told Shane that everything that had just happened was definitely not a Dream.
"I should've asked more instead of messing around, huh?"
After all, Shane still had many things he didn't understand.
However...
"Speaking of which, the Goddess looked quite cute when she was embarrassed."
Shane smiled slyly.
And so, the night quietly passed by.
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