Lia watched as Karol's corpse gradually turned into dust and disappeared into the void.
All enemies killed by Players would be offered as offerings to the God of Games, and that was the rule of those who believed in the God of Games and received the blessings of the System.
Certainly, Xi Wei could choose not to collect Carlo's corpse after watching the livestream in the Divine Realm so that Lia could bury her former mentor, but Xi Wei did not intend to do that.
If Xi Wei cared for his believers immeasurably like a nanny and cleaned up after them for everything, even if they would be grateful at first, once they got used to it, they would be displeased if Xi Wei did not take care of them in the future, and they might even abandon the Church of Games.
This was the meaning of the saying, 'If you raise the rice, you'll be grateful and if you fight the rice, you'll be hostile'.
Gods needed to keep a certain distance from their believers. If they were too close to their believers, they would lose their reverence for the gods.
"Your Highness …" Boris glanced at Carlo's corpse, where only a black bone was left, and his attitude towards Lia became even more respectful. "What should we do next?"
Over the past few days, Lia had joined in the fight whenever they encountered beasts or monsters, but she was a noble princess after all. Most of the time, she was just there to deal the final blow and gain EXP. That was why it was only now that Boris realized that Lia was actually so powerful that even Carlo, whom he thought undefeatable, was easily defeated.
As expected of the Warrior Princess handpicked by the God of Games, she was completely different from normal footmen like them …
At this moment, the girl had already recovered from her gloomy mood.
In fact, even Lia did not expect her strength to increase so much after having the game system. Due to the fact that he did not fight much in the previous battles, coupled with the fact that the introduction of skills in the game system was very vague and general, he did not feel that the swordsmanship he learned in the past was particularly powerful when he practiced it.
When she was blocked by Carlo, she was prepared to die just like Boris. But when the battle really started, she realized that the might of the system's skills completely exceeded her expectations. Carlo, on the other hand, couldn't last more than a few moves before he was cut down by her sword!
Although part of the reason was that Carlo did not understand the effect of the skill and was caught off guard, Lia felt that she would not lose even if it was a head-on clash.
This made the girl feel somewhat ironic.
If Carlo could have trusted the God of Games a little more and held onto his faith a little longer, he would have been able to obtain power that far surpasses the Evil God's blessing just like her, greatly aiding him in his path of vengeance. It was a pity that after enduring for so long, he couldn't wait more than a few days and betrayed the God of Games to join Rotten Bones, only to end up like this.
Thinking of this, the girl's heart burned with passion. With the power of the System, he might be able to reclaim his base in Lancaster.
However, this thought only flashed through her mind for a moment before it was denied by her.
Although Karol's swordsmanship was very strong, he was still a mortal without any extraordinary power, which was why he could be killed so easily. But the Rotten Bones Church was a church after all, and there would definitely be cultists with supernatural powers. In a fight against them, these low-level skills wouldn't be as effective.
Taking a step back, even if all the cultists of the Rotten Bones Church were no match for her, they had the numbers, and Lia's party only had six people. With limited MP and stamina, there was no way they could take down an entire church.
That was why the best choice now was still to head to the unnamed town mentioned in the System quest and recruit other players as reinforcements. Once they had enough people, they would head to Lancaster and wipe out the Rotten Bones Church in one fell swoop!
"Let's wait for the others to gather," Lia said, sheathing her longsword and tucking her pale blonde hair behind her back. "Then, we will head to the Valley of the Tragic Dead."
"As you wish!" Boris replied, half-kneeling on the ground in admiration of Her Royal Highness, who was becoming more and more like the late king.
☆
While Lia's party defeated the stalker and continued towards the newbie village, the players in the newbie village weren't idling around.
After Eleena and the others resurrected, they leveled up a little and earned enough Reputation. Then, they formed a six-man party with the guard captain of the merchant group and bought the Miasma Dispelling Torch to enter the Valley of the Tragic Dead.
Thanks to the previous experience, the journey this time was unexpectedly smooth. The weakest undead were scared off by the divine power in the torches, and there were no high-level undead around the outskirts of the valley. The undead that the players fought were slightly stronger than the low-level undead, but not by much. They were enemies that were just within the range that the players could handle.
Even so, the exploration quest took them a long time. When the party was left with the last torch, the exploration progress of the Valley of the Tragic Dead finally reached the required 1%, and the quest completion notification that they had been waiting for finally popped up.
"The notification said that we just have to stick the last torch into the ground."
The temporary leader Edward stuck the 'Miasma Dispelling Torch' in his hand into the ground.
In the next moment, the fist-sized flame on the torch expanded and exploded, engulfing the entire torch and rising into the sky, forming a huge pillar of fire!
The other players in the party jumped at the turn of events and took a step back warily.
However, the fire did not keep spreading and instead slowly receded, until it was a bonfire in front of Eleena and the others' eyes, with a strange-looking spiral longsword stuck in the middle of it.
"What's going on? Is that sword a quest reward? " Delighted, Marni tried to draw his sword, but was engulfed by the flames the moment he touched the bonfire and vanished without a trace.
"!!!" The other players were stunned by the sudden turn of events.
"I can't resurrect him … Could Mister Marni have died without a corpse left again?" Eleena tried to cast a resurrection spell on the bonfire, but nothing happened.
"That's a good word." Gou Dan's mouth twitched. "A 30% EXP loss … I feel like Mister Marni's quest this time was for nothing."
"It's clearly a sad thing, but why do I feel like laughing …" Warrior Joe said, scratching his face in embarrassment.
"He's going to be resurrected in three days anyway. There's no need to mourn for him." The new guard captain calmly suggested.