Chapter 104 - Rila

The knowledge of an Origin God sleeping right before them made these two fellows almost lose their minds. It should not be possible for an Origin God to exist in their realm in any way. All of them were in heaven, stabilizing the universe with Origin Energy.

Not counting the fact that she looked young, when all the Origin Gods were as old as the universe itself. Of course, one at her level of power could alter their looks, but what were the chances that a Supreme Goddess of Origin would choose the form of a 4 year old toddler?

Draco and Qiong Qi were more likely to believe that she was born in their world naturally, as had all the former Origin Gods. The problem with this was that according to Vadoma - and even Qiong Qi himself knew this - Origin Energy was scarce in the universe.

The Origin Gods were not even able to enjoy their lives at all, having to spend every waking moment producing Origin Energy to input into the universe in order to keep it stable, as life continued to bloom and the boundaries of the universe continued to stretch.

Think of this universe as a water tank. When it was in infancy, it could take 100 gallons of water, which was renewable since it was interconnected with all life and matter.

But if the tank was expanded to contain 1000 gallons of water while still maintaining the exact volume from before, it created a deficit. Where were those 900 gallons of water supposed to come from?

Even then, it wouldn't be a problem since the 100 gallons were somewhat renewable. Even though the universe was bigger, the amount of life would stay the same, right?

Wrong!

Life was always growing in the universe. New planets, new species, new microscopic lifeforms. These all pulled from the source of energy of the universe, which drained the available amount of Origin Energy.

Of course, they would return this energy upon death, but that was assuming the 100 gallons could even last that long.

This was the main issue.

So the Origin Gods, who were the only ones able to naturally generate Origin Energy that was of the same quality as that of the universe, had to take up this arduous and endless task of keeping the universe stable.

The idea was that one of two things would happen.

Either the universe would reach the limit of expansion and stop, allowing them to spend some more millennia to top it up to full and leave the universe to manage itself.

Or at some point, the universe would 'wake up' and begin creating Origin Energy on its own as it should.

Alternatively, it could be that the universe would never stop expanding or that Origin Energy would never emerge naturally from the universe, forcing the Origin Gods to work until their input could not keep up with the output. At that point, the universe would implode on itself.

Draco and Qiong Qi didn't dare to make conclusions with the little they knew of the inner workings of the universe - especially Draco - but they felt that the second outcome was what had happened, which was that the universe had 'woken up'.

As such, new Origin Gods were being birthed into the world. They did not appear in heaven because that was an artificial realm created by the Gods to distance themselves from the natural world.

Since this world was the natural world - or if we wanted to put it in game terms, the default spawn location - it was understandable that new Origin Gods would appear here.

This was a joyous thing, so why the hell were these two so unsettled?

For Qiong Qi, it was the fact that this Origin God was hidden in this low level area like Four Point Valley all this while. On top of that, her mere existence, she who had been asleep all this while without even emitting much energy, was able to turn this valley into a warzone.

If she woke up, just what kind of results would occur? Could it be that she would just wipe him out from the face of this earth?

For Draco, it was the meta of the situation that struck him dumb.

For f.u.c.k's sake, he was doing a Unique Quest that was originally of an Epic difficulty! While it might have risen to Legendary Rank in order to nerf his Divine Eyes, it was still Legendary level!

The reward of the Ultima Sunt bloodline was more than enough to qualify as a Legendary attainment, aside from the two chests. Not to mention Roma, Pair Dadeni, Mjolnir and Etz Chaim seedling were Hidden Quest rewards that were simply too overpowered on their own, much less when brought together.

This was not a Divine Quest, should those even exist. So why the hell was there an Origin God child sleeping here, which was the exact place where he would end the quest?

It wasn't even a basic God or even a Demi-God (not of the combat Ranks, but due to State of Being), but a whole Origin Goddess!

He had only learned that such a thing existed a little while ago, now he was presented with one…

Hm…

Wait…

Draco's expression changed.

'Could it be that the clues were always there and I failed to see them?'

Draco had previously felt it was too much of stretch to reason that the Ultima Sunt race that had been wiped out could spawn in this Unique Quest just like that.

Of course, this quest was a secluded instance that was not attached to the main continuity, but the AI was not so short-sighted as to ruin the lore of the world during Unique Quests.

How had King been born? Why had King been born? Who had allowed King to be born. What had given birth to King?

These were the questions Draco had at the back of his mind ever since he assimilated King. He had inherited some bloodline memories of the Ultima Sunt race and had seen the same scene King did, where an older Ultima Sunt controlled an Earth Dragon and ate it alive.

But he had no idea of what could have spawned King and why.

Draco stared at the little girl in the embryo and gulped lightly before he mustered his courage. He walked toward the embryo slowly, his mind alert and every single detection technique or ability being utilized to the maximum.

Yes, the Seal of Camelot prevented him from losing anything upon death, but at the end of the day, it was still a Legendary item. Against something like Omega, which Draco himself possessed, having his account deleted or crippled would be too depressing.

The stakes were high and Draco was gambling his digital life this time. Nothing had made him feel the threat of death in the truest sense so far, but here he felt it. It was an old feeling and a bitter one, but it made him feel excited as his heart pumped and his mind roiled.

Humans were adrenaline junkies by nature, though some disliked the fear. However no matter who, being in a situation like this would make you feel alive. Every other issue, whether it was lack of money, troubled love life, poor social life etc, felt irrelevant at this time, because you realized that here was more to life than just that.

Draco eventually stood before the embryo, his body untouched and unharmed. He released the breath he had been holding and stared at the cute little tot in there.

Since Draco had plans to i.m.p.r.e.g.n.a.t.e Eva and have their own child, he couldn't help but wonder what their daughter or son would be like. Staring at this girl made him feel sentimental, but that was all blown away by the screen that popped up before him.

｢Detected a possible candidate for racial assimilation.

Would the player like to change their race? Y/N｣

This screen fried what few braincells Draco had, rendering him dumb for the span of a minute. His mind went blank as the weight of the choice presented before him pressed down on his mental faculties.

Why had Draco rejected the Minor Divine Emblem? Why had he refused to have his Divine Foundation in his settlement?

The reason was because once one possessed true divinity, one would become realm-locked completely. Of course, that was in-game terminology.

To a player, this meant that they would never be able to explore the different sections of Boundless with this account. The benefit was that they would have access to unlimited and unbridled power as a deity, able to rule over everything in this realm.

The downside was that they would have to watch as all the other players eventually went off to the different realms, leaving them alone and useless.

Of course players would be able to access the other worlds. It would be incredibly stupid of the AI to waste so many resources facilitating other worlds if only a select few could access it.

If Draco hadn't died, he, Eva and other Rank 6 talents like Gentle Flower, Rambutt and Noble Soul would have been able to reach Rank 7 after the second Great War. They would have moved to new realms and acquired a means to bring their subordinates with them.

Other players would also eventually reach that level in time, since the requirements to enter would be greatly lowered.

It was like when new products or cutting edge technology were developed. It would be limited and very expensive to access, only allowing the affluent and well-connected to gain it.

It would eventually become mainstream after the first editions were revised and made better, leaving the older models for the more common folk to utilize.

The point of all this was that Draco had to choose between gaining the unlimited power of Origin Energy, making him reach the realm beyond overpowered, or continue as-is and follow his plan, which already had a 100% chance of completion.

Just as Draco was about to make his decision, the embryo trembled as the eyes of the Origin Goddess suddenly opened. Her pupils were split in two halves, one side containing a bright crimson glow while the other half was as dark as Eva's eyes.

Draco froze in place as this happened, his heart falling to his asshole as he realized that he had danced with the devil, and tried to flee like Cinderella afterward, only that the devil was not letting this fat piece of meat go away.

The Origin Goddess moved in the embryo, swimming through the embryonic fluid like fish in the sea. Her small body turned to face Draco who stood on the outside and her bizarre eyes met his own.

The moment this happened, Draco's eyeballs began to pound in his head, like they were about to explode. This wasn't something the Origin Goddess caused, but a natural reaction from his Divine Eyes.

Even as blood leaked from his eyes, he wasn't able to move his body or tear his eyeballs away from the eyes of the Origin Goddess, which only displayed confusion and purity.

Draco's mind began to whir as he analyzed what was going on. His pinnacle Intelligence passive skill kicked in, allowing him to rationalize everything that was going on here.

An Origin Goddess, who was a child, was locked in the Four Point Valley, in an instance based Unique Quest that was originally of an Epic Rank but was upgraded to Legendary.

She was naturally born from either the universe, or a possible descendant of an Origin God, but Draco had no idea if Origin Gods could reproduce, so he couldn't make a final conclusion on this particular issue.

She was the source of the parasitic outbreak, but she was asleep and displayed no traits of a parasitic host. It was more likely that there was something here that leeched off her Origin Energy to upgrade itself over time, eventually spawning the most powerful parasitic species in the universe, the Ultima Sunt.

This was also a bit of a stretch, but was Draco's best guess.

Finally, she had caused his Divine Eyes of Caelo, which had gone dormant and lifeless since his bloodline was unlocked, to come to life and in such a manner.

Draco had a suspicion in mind, and what happened next confirmed it for him.

<D…ad…dy…?>

A pure and heartwarming voice entered his mind directly, some form of telepathic connection facilitating this. The question was made with hesitation, worry and confusion, with a bit of hope in the mix.

It was clear that the Little Goddess was unsure of her feelings, but felt that something Draco possessed linked him to being her father. That meant that she was aware that she was a descendant of someone and had a father as well as a mother.

Draco breathed out deeply.

Just who was the owner of his Divine Eyes? Who was Caelo truly?

"No, I am not. I only have his inheritance."

Draco answered lightly and candidly. He didn't want to lie to this Origin Goddess, child or not, about such a matter. If she developed negative feelings about It in future, it would be hard to survive her wrath.

However, the Origin Goddess only nodded as if she had been right all this time.

<Daddy.>

Draco didn't know whether to laugh or cry. It was clear she heard what he said, so why did she directly discard it and go with her own thoughts?

The embryo she was in suddenly ruptured and the fluid came pouring out. Draco, with the mental acuity of a reincarnator and greed of a player, used his insane speed to collect as much of the fluid as possible.

He separated it into bottles of 20, placing all but one into his inventory.

｢Divine Amniotic Fluid – Material

Rank: Divine

Use: Alchemy｣

Draco released another deep exhale. His head was hurting him and his heart was pounding too fast. He was feeling seriously overwhelmed with everything that was going on. His acquisitions were crazy and the kept getting more ridiculous overtime.

He had taken part in many Unique Quests, but the highest had been of the Epic Rank. The Hidden Quests in those gave upper-tier Rare items and the final boss had given him a Legendary material which he used to form his Pseudo-Legendary Mana Sword.

Materials were different from items in terms of value. It was pretty self-explanatory, but having a Divine Material was vastly different from having a Divine Item, aside from rarity.

For example, Draco could quite literally buy as many Epic materials as he wanted from the Tradeskill Association. Legendary materials were not so easily accessible, but they appeared in places like the Divine Auction or the Bazaar. Divine Materials Draco didn't know where to get, but were much more accessible should one make the right choices and put in the right effort.

However, if you could show Draco where he could buy Epic items as he wanted, he would sell his soul for an unlimited supply of them. If you could show him a way to achieve Legendary items aside being a reincarnator and abusing future knowledge, he would pledge allegiance to you. If Draco could be shown ways to acquire Divine items without an extremely lucky set of circ.u.mstances that could only be achieved this early thanks to his future skills, knowledge and his Dragon Soul, he would swap Qiong Qi for it.

Of course, Legendary items were sold in the Divine Auction and Divine Treasure Chests were given out by the Church of Light.

However, how was the past him supposed to acquire them? Hellscape's total monetary value was around 100,000 platinum and most of that was operational funds and fixed assets. Their liquid funds had not been more than 2,500 platinum.

The same went for every other Divine Guild. If they pooled their money together, they could probably bid for a Legendary item, though it was unlikely that they would win the bid over the Rank 7 NPCs, whose wealth were terrifying.

If they miraculously won the bid… who takes the item? Did they share it in turns? Did they split it into five parts?

Hence, as far as Draco knew, no one had access to a Legendary item. Those two fellows who had low-tier Divine Items had acquired them through slaving for more than half a decade in-game, not taking a second to do anything else.

Yet, Draco was all 'Epicked' out, not a single Rare or lower item on his body. He even had a few Epic items that were evolvable, able to grow to Legendary rarity with a prohibitive cost.

He had one Divine Item and two other Unique Quests that would probably reward him with more, but the difficulty of those quests were currently beyond him, reincarnator or not.

Now, he had received a Divine Material, which was around the same value as a Semi-Legendary item like the Orb of Worlds.

And then, there was the Little Goddess before him who had raised her hands up to him with a expression that looked needy.

<Carry me, Daddy.>

Draco stared at the little tot before him and sighed. He lowered his body and placed his arms around her torso, bringing her up into his arms.

The Origin Goddess smiled happily and placed her arms around his neck, making Draco feel a strange and bizarre emotion.

"What is your name?"

Draco needed something to call her other than her title, which still weighed down on his mind.

"My name… is Rila."

She answered this time with her mouth instead of telepathy, her sweet little voice making one laugh foolishly from indulgence.

"Rila huh… would you like to follow me from now on? Or do you have somewhere else to be?"

Draco asked her languidly.

"I want to follow you!"

Rila pressed her little head into Draco's neck and torso, as if she was scared he would throw her away.

Draco sighed again.

"Fine then. I guess it'll be hard to die with an Origin Goddess following me around."

Draco said this as if the reasoning he gave was sound and logical, when it was obvious that he was a soft-hearted loser.

He turned to Qiong Qi, who was absolutely floored by everything that went on so far. The poor Lion realized at this moment that it wasn't him who the universe had chosen to be its hero, but this Brother of his!

"Let's get going."

Qiong Qi tilted his head in confusion.

"Where are we going to this time?"

Draco walked past Qiong Qi and started on the trek back to the surface.

"To turn in my quest."