Chapter 20: The God of Winter and Hunting
Goblin priests?
Eve's heart sank.
Generally speaking, there were no priests among the Goblins, for they had neither totems nor faiths.
But once priests appeared among Goblins, it meant that this racial group probably had an ethnic totem or converted to a god…
The first situation would be fine. But if it was the latter…
Eve already guessed something when He thought of Berserker's deliberate hiding…
Only by converting to a deity could the Goblins make the oak guard hesitate!
"Who is it?"
The grand voice resounded through Berserker's mind. But this time, the voice was serious.
Berserker instantly understood what Mother God meant. He took a deep breath and replied reverently in his mind, "According to my observation, it should be the god of winter and hunting--Ullr."Sure enough!
Eve's mood was a bit sombre.
This was exactly the same target as He guessed!
He knew that orcs had planted a tribe near the forest of elves.
As the largest source of believers of the god of winter and hunting, orc tribes also meant Ullr's eyes.
From the inheritance of the World Tree, Eve already had a reasonable level of understanding of Ullr.
Ullr was a relatively young god of faith. It was said that He was born from a primitive totem 2,000 years ago and His power was at the top of weak divine force.
His divine mission was winter and hunting. In ancient times, He had a feud with the World Tree who controlled nature, life and elves. During the war of gods, He was also the enemy of the World Tree.
After the fall of the World Tree, this ferocious god did not give up persecuting elves. Currently, He was already the biggest enemy of elves.
Therefore, He was also on Eve's kill list, for Eve wanted to avenge the former World Tree, defend Himself, and become stronger…
Now, this god seemed to be collecting the divine blood crystals of the World Tree!
In order to look for His targets, He even admitted Goblins!
Although Goblins had low intelligence and could provide little faith power, they were afraid of the strong and suitable as hard laborers. Therefore, Eve was not surprised that Ullr selected them.
However, Ullr's collection should not have started long ago. After all, divine blood crystals were in a sealed state before and it was difficult for living beings to discover them.
Thinking of this, He had some guesses:
"Could it be that… Ullr the god of winter and hunting discovered the change of divine blood crystals and He wants to obtain the divine missions of nature and life by analyzing the gathered divine blood crystals?"
Ullr's divine missions of winter and hunting belonged to secondary divine missions, which were lower than the main divine missions like nature and life. Naturally, Ullr was weaker.
And the reason why Ullr had still been lingering with weak divine force for so many years was exactly that His divine missions were too weak.
Winter and hunting were originally related to nature and life.
Therefore, Eve was not surprised that Ullr wanted to get the divine missions of nature and life by analyzing the World Tree's divine blood.
After all, for a true god, analyzing divine blood crystals was the quickest way to get the information of other true gods' divine missions.
Nevertheless, Eve did not think that Ullr would immediately associate the change of the divine blood crystals with the revival of the World Tree. At most, He would suppose that the cursing magic spell had disappeared.
After all, 1,000 years had passed. And it was normal for an unowned magic spell to disappear…
Besides, Eve was not worried that Ullr's plan would succeed.
Now, He had revived as the World Tree and regained control over nature and life.
Divine missions and the power of control were unique. So now even if Ullr was desperate, He could never analyze the divine missions He desired.
Ullr's real intention fell through the moment Eve revived.
But even so, the absorption of the World Tree's divine blood crystals would provide Ullr with a certain amount of divine force and make Him more powerful.
This was not what Eve wanted to see.
After all, the World Tree's divine blood crystals should have belonged to Eve the successor, which also meant an opportunity for Him to quickly restore His strength!
Thinking of this, Eve continued to ask, "How powerful are those Goblins?"
"Most of them are above level five, and a few elites are at level 10. But Goblin priests have the power of level 11 of Low Iron. At present, the specific number of priests is not clear."
Berserker answered.
They could not be counted as powerful.
Eve nodded from within.
Given the opponents' power levels, Berserker could exterminate them all with one finger if he did not worry that Ullr might detect it.
"The priest leaders are at level 11. The elites are at level 10. And the others are at levels of five to nine…"
"Their levels are quite suitable for players to practice combat."
Eve murmured.
After doing tasks for a few days, the 300 players had already developed their power tremendously. Most of them had upgraded to level seven or above.
By doing tasks, moreover, some determined players focused on their daily work and some design moguls had already upgraded to level 10, the last level of apprentice, which was only one step away from the transfer to Iron rankings.
With this strength, they would find it difficult to fight against other powerful Iron monsters, but they were more than able to combat Goblins. Even if the priests were at level 11 of Low Iron, they would not be invincible if the players united.
Although the players had been working hard to do tasks these days, many people got bored after repeating the work for a while.
Up till now, many audacious players had already ignored the instructions for novices in the system and tried to go out the safe area to explore.
At this time, the best way was to give them some fun.
Originally, Eve planned to have Berserker drive some suitable monsters into the safe area for the players to entertain and upgrade. Eve would wait until the players reached level 11 before encouraging them to go out and embark on an adventure.
But the appearance of Goblins showed Eve a better way.
"Berserker is a nature-worship Druid after all. If I really have him drive beasts, it will inevitably affect his faith, though he won't say anything… However, Goblins are different."
"Goblins are enemies per se and they are relatively weak. Hunting them will not hurt my indigenous believers' feelings. And the Goblins' power is not that threatening to players."
"Furthermore, having the players hunt Goblins can also undermine Ullr's plan. I can indirectly gain the recognition of the ghosts of the dead elves."
"In addition, the players can also help me look for divine blood crystals and let me get out of the dying state faster!"
"Ha ha, in this way, I will soon get the first return on the investment in the players!"
Thinking of this, Eve already had a plan in His mind.
He was going to design a sub-plot, develop the game's first "subsidiary task" on the ruins of Florence, and let the players fight against the Goblins!
The players were different from Berserker.
As Eve's follower and believer, Berserker would attract Ullr's attention if he acted against the priests who were Ullr's accomplices.
But the players were not.
Although they looked like elves, they were not believers.
Not being believers meant that there was no mark of any god on their souls.
In fact, it did not matter even if the players were believers. Their souls were on the blue planet and only their consciousness came here. If Ullr wanted to find out the existence of the faith mark, He had to first go to the blue planet.
In the war of gods 1,000 years ago, it was the gods who witnessed the fall of the World Tree with their own eyes… and firmly believed it.
At most, the players' action would make Ullr suspect that some elves, who had lost their faith, had gone back to the forest of elves. It would not make Him doubt the revival of the World Tree.
Besides, that Goblins lived in the ruins of Florence the holy city was originally an insult to proud elves. It was not surprising that some angry elves would take action.
In this case, without the participation of any god's believers, the mere killings of some Goblins were not enough to attract Ullr's excessive attention.
Eve did not think that the Goblins in Florence were the only ones that Ullr had recruited. Since Ullr's Goblins even appeared here, Ullr might have infiltrated the ruins of other elf cities in and around the forest of elves.
Of course, Eve did not think that He could hide it for long.
Since Ullr already discovered that the seal on the divine blood crystals had been lifted, He would realize that the curse on the World Tree had also been lifted sooner or later.
In this case, it was only a matter of time before He sent His followers to check the World Tree…
Therefore, it was only a matter of time before Eve would be exposed.
Fortunately, Ullr, a god with weak divine force, was the only real god who had noticed the divine blood crystals for the time being.
Eve had to improve His strength as soon as possible…
For this reason, it was worthwhile to take some risks.
Thinking of this, Eve had already made a decision.
"Berserker, I need you to do something."