—Mortals...
The familiar mind-speaking of the gods rang inside my head. A small smile wormed its way into my expression.
Liefanissus.
The god of nature.
His was a concept that I found pleasure in crafting. Nature, or as defined by the dictionary, is the phenomena of the physical world collectively. Everything that wasn't of human creation.
Plants, animals, the earth, and the sky. Rivers, oceans, mountains, and canyons.
All of these belonged to nature, and the humans worshipped Liefanissus in that manner.
What no one else was aware of, of course, was that when I wrote [ Nature ], I meant more than simple mother nature. I included within it the character of being. The essence and identity of an object.
Even Liefanissus was unaware of this completely. He probably had a feeling he was more than just the god in charge of mother nature. Only, he wasn't that sure that he was the god of [ Nature ] as a concept itself.
I found this detail amusing. I made all of Emerallia's gods imperfect by creating this ambiguous characteristic for their concepts.
Thus, when Liefanissus spoke, I couldn't help but smile.
My creation was adorable.
—It is good to see that Aethercaller honours me so.
Liefanissus's voice boomed from within the altar. A swirl of mana coalesced to form a man in his fifties with a long white beard, hair of bright green thorns and vines, and eyes that reflected nutrient-rich red soil.
He was sitting atop his circular altar with his feet in the lotus position and his hands supporting his chin.
—I'm sure that my priests have announced this saying many times before, but it is in my personality to repeat what has been done many times before. [ Nature always returns its dues ].
Green wisps of light flew out of Liefanissus in the hundreds. A wisp landed on every examinee, flashing a bright green glow.
—I have given you all my blessing. Aethercaller University's forests will always welcome you with open arms. As long as you respect that which is mine, this blessing will allow you to grow. The beasts in Aethercaller's forests that you will confront will always be at your level or slightly stronger.
Liefanissus scanned each of us for a moment.
—So, let the law of the jungle be your guide, and skill be your weapon.
He then snapped his fingers. All of us began to slowly disappear into nothingness.
—Your task is to make out alive. The cheeky little lad, Deuzetai asked me to make your test interesting, so here it is.
Liefanissus scoffed playfully.
—You mortals really do know how to make your own kind suffer. I still don't get why you have to do that. Simply living is enough.
He then shrugged.
—But I am not Jellarit. Judgement is not my style. I wish you luck, mortals.
And with that we disappeared from where we were kneeling, leaving Liefanissus chuckling to himself as he dissipated his consciousness clone.
...
I looked around. A forest path, dense and dark snaked in front of me and disappeared behind the thick greens. The trees were multiple metres tall, standing as high as 60 metres. The howls of beasts could be heard reverberating on the tree trunks around me.
The air smelled of bark, wet soil, and crushed leaves, and a gust of wind blew through the distant canopy above.
Getting out of the Mana-Made Forest would be easy. The special three-layer map I created for it was incredibly detailed, and I near-instantly figured out where I was after Liefanissus transported me.
Now, I originally wanted to avoid wasting time in this forest by escaping right away... But that plan had to be scrapped now that I saw where I was placed.
There was a secret nearby that I wanted. I was going to get it later in the year, but since I was here now, I might as well just take it.
It was going to be a gift to Lappei. My little [ Sad God ] needed every bit of power she could find.
If Lappei grew stronger, she would be able to supplement my own Foresight ability. It was something that would be vital for the coming attempts on my life.
Thus, after wryly smacking my lips, I set off on a path that I knew would offer me zero resistance.
I walked through thickets and trudged up and down earthen mounds. I did not follow the usual paths and simply headed through the forest based on the landmarks I had set up when I wrote my book.
I made a hard left upon arriving before an arched tree, took the path crafted out of branches in the air, and slid down the tilted tree trunks.
Small things like these were what I needed to navigate the forest and avoid all kinds of time-wasting conflicts.
I soon arrived before a freshwater spring.
I took off my clothes and dove into the spring without hesitation.
Holding my breath, I swam to the bottom and retrieved a beautiful, fist-sized pearl. What it was doing there, well, it was lost by one of the founders of the school.
It was a rather special mana crystal. A beast had buried it in the earth, wanting to make use of it for its own purposes.
The beast was then slain by the school's founders by pure coincidence, thus the pearl was lost forever.
Until its mana influenced the area around it and created a freshwater spring with healing qualities.
Virion had tried using this healing water to try and heal Sylfie who had lasting injuries caused by the bandit raid that Caelum was originally a part of. These were injuries that got aggravated because of a few people in Aethercaller who had a problem with Virion's existence.
Unfortunately for Virion, it was not enough to heal the problems in Sylfie's body.
Anyways.
I now had the pearl in my hand. I left the spring to live on its own and create life with its temporary abilities. I then closed my eyes and whispered,
"Oh great goddess of foresight," I repeated my past prayer, "This young mortal wishes to offer thee a portion of this mortal's wealth. May your greatness find this sacrifice sufficient, for this mortal requires thy timely aid."
This time, no altar was needed for the goddess to appear. I was her chosen one. My body was her altar.
A special fog thus seeped out of my eyes and formed the image of Lappei. A beautiful woman whose eyes were as bright as the clouds, and clothed in sheets of white.