Chapter 119. The Return Of The Super Awsome Lifespan Fruits.
After paying the fine for his travel, Cedric returned to the Divine Space.
At this time, the dragon egg that his new hero reincarnated into hasn't hatched yet.
Luckily, the dragon egg will hatch in less than half a year.
Cedric has calculated the time and ascertained that the remaining time should be enough for the hero he reincarnated to grow up.
Well, the time might be tight, and the hero might need to be busy hunting demons to level up. But as long as she worked hard, she should be able to reach Mid Level 4.
After all, the only reason Elisa hasn't levelled up like crazy is that she's bound to a place, and the demons are smart enough not to enter the forest she controlled. So, to level up from killing a demon, Elisa would need others to help her bring the demon within her range of absorption.
But now, the hero has reincarnated as a dragon. With high enough potential and mobility.
Thus, he focused his attention somewhere else. For example, the Temple.
After his warning, Lacius woke up from his petrification and immediately started a thorough purge of the Temple's higher-ups.
The purge is incredibly thorough. Just from the fact that it caused the demon king's birth to advance by one year in a month is enough to show how many people were killed in that month.
The newly cleaned Temple, in fear of the god's wrath, became much more subdued.
There are barely any priests daring to oppress the common populace. Instead, they used the purged priest's coffers to start handing out free food to the needy and investing in more orphanages and temple schools.
All of those events caused the people's faith in the Temple to return once again. The number of believers praying to the god of creation and the god of alchemy's statue increases with each passing day.
This greatly amplified the amount of faith Lacius gathered each day as the god of alchemy.
At the same time, the Temple's sudden change caused the empires and kingdoms to be cautious.
Before this, they had been busy researching the Level 3 training method they obtained from the Temple to create a training method for other elements.
After so long, the empires and kingdoms successfully created training methods for a few other elements and secretly helped several Loyal Peak Level 2 blessed advance.
The silence at that time felt akin to the calm before a storm. Once the empires and kingdoms finished advancing all of their accumulated Peak Level 2 blessed, there was a high chance that a war would break out to redistribute territory.
But while they were still in the accumulation phase, the usually domineering Temple suddenly acted nice. This change made them feel danger instead of relief, especially when most of the priests they had bribed suddenly went silent as if they had been swallowed by the earth.
Some try to send people to investigate the Temple's sudden change. While others merely try to wait and observe.
Of course, those who sent people to investigate will be even more afraid when they later found out the priests they bribed has indeed been swallowed by the earth.
While the human territory is at peace, the main perpetrator, Lacius, is also busy with something else.
After he finished purging the Temple and making sure the operation hadn't been greatly affected, he immediately returned to his underground room and prepared to break through his limit and reach Level 4.
When he started the purge, Lacius sensed the movements of the kingdoms and empires, including the fact that they had secretly created training methods for blessed of other elements. But after getting the training method from Cedric, Lacius became too lazy to care about it.
He had met Elisa, who had already reached Level 4. At that time, Lacius could feel the danger she posed even though he was already extremely powerful thanks to the help of faith energy, which amplified his strength.
This just showed how large the difference between someone at Level 3 and Level 4 really is.
So, even if trouble happened at the kingdoms and empires. Once he reached Level 4, Lacius felt he could easily handle any problem.
He only told the Temple's higher-ups to make sure those Level 3 blessed won't cause too much trouble to the Temple or the world.
Because Lacius had been busy breaking through to Level 4, the Temple had just been purged, and the kingdoms and empires were wary of the Temple’s sudden change and halted their war preparations, the human territory somehow remained at peace.
Because of this peace, the only important event in human territory was Lacius’s breakthrough, which lasted slightly more than twenty years.
Lacius first studied the method thoroughly for a year before he attempted a breakthrough.
But his first breakthrough failed and caused Lacius to injure his left stomach. Even with the help of potions and healers, it took him five years to fully recover. Mainly because the injury has affected some of his internal organs.
But even when he recovered, Lacius didn't immediately attempt another breakthrough. Instead, he experimented with potions that could help his advancement.
This lasted for eight whole years. Only when he's certain does Lacius attempt another breakthrough.
Even so, it still ended up in failure. Thankfully, the side effect is much less than his previous failed breakthrough.
This time, Lacius took three years to recover and another three years to research and prepare for another attempt.
With so much preparation, his attempt finally succeeded, and Lacius advanced to Lower Level 4.
After sensing the change in his body and recovering the mana he consumed during the process, Lacius went out of the Temple's secret underground room and flew to an empty place in the north to test his power.
When he arrived, Lacius lightly waved his hand, and tens of reinforced earth spikes rose from the ground at the same time. Some spike shot toward a towering ancient tree and easily toppled it.
He then tries to focus the mana in his body before creating an extremely tall and thick earth pillar. The pillar grew for a whole minute before stopping. In terms of height, the pillar should be approximately a hundred meters tall.
With his control, the pillar immediately toppled. The toppled earth pillar causes a sight akin to a high-rise building demolition. Dust shot all over the place as the surrounding trees and bushes got uprooted.
After the dust subsided, Lacius tried to use his full power.
With the amplification from faith energy, Lacius used his blessed power to control the surrounding soil.
With himself as the centre, the ground continuously rose in a cone shape until his position was three hundred meters taller than before.
"It's still a far cry from the creator's feat of instantly raising a mountain range. But, I am satisfied enough." Lacius nodded before flying away to the Temple.
When he arrived at the secret room under the Temple, Lacius studied the recent knowledge for a few years before continuing his petrification to decrease his lifespan consumption.
***
After checking on the humans, Cedric checked the elves’ and dwarves’ situations over the past few decades.
Right now, the dwarves and elves' cities have finally reached the ocean in the northern part of the continent.
Since their creation, the elven and dwarven populations have been steadily growing. And with the constant exchange between the two races, they've become closer than before.
As a sign of friendship, all of the cities on the border of the two races' territory are usually filled with both elves and dwarves.
One of those recently built border cities is the first one that borders the ocean.
After gaining access to the ocean, some of the more adventurous elves and dwarves became curious about what lies beyond them.
With some advice from Elisa, both races learned some shipbuilding. Thus, shipbuilding has become a recent trend in some parts of the world.
As the only city in touch with the ocean, the recently built city quickly prospered.
Among the travellers who've moved to the city is an extremely old human.
So many years have passed, and Helion already looks extremely old.
If he already looks that old as a Level 3 blessed, it means there's not much time left before he dies.
During the last few decades, Helion has travelled around the elves and dwarves' territory to research magic. He has also taught a few people. But he hasn't officially accepted any disciple who will follow him.
Cedric is unwilling to see Helion's research buried. After all, he still has a plan for those who studied magic under Helion.
Thus, Cedric purchased a [Divine Intervention: Urge] and imbued the thought of accepting disciples and creating a force that studied magic.
He paused for a moment before adding another thought to accept some human disciple.
After activating the [Divine Intervention: Urge], Cedric initially wanted to simply observe the situation. But when he saw Helion already had one foot in the coffin, he couldn’t bear it and bought a few lifespan fruits for Helion, along with a message showing his appreciation for Helion’s invention.
Because a creature could only eat 3 lifespan fruit from each level, Cedric bought nine lifespan fruit, three each at Levels 1 to 3.
A Level 1 lifespan fruit costs 10 GP each and grants 1 year of lifespan. As for Level 2, they grant 2 years of lifespan and cost 20 GP each. For Level 3, they grant 4 years of lifespan and cost 40 GP each.
In total, Cedric spent 210 GP to purchase all of them. Even so, the fruit could only increase Helion's lifespan by 21 years.
"I kinda felt this fruit is a fucking rip-off," Cedric muttered while checking his status screen.
[Name: Cedric Hills
Level: Pseudo Lesser Divinity (Actual level: Peak Level 3)
Law: None
World: Crystal Cube World
World Level: 2
World's Average Potential: Lower Level 0
GP: 7.999
Annual GP income: 10]
Before he went to earth, Cedric's GP had almost reached 10.000. But thanks to the massive visa and hero summoning cost, it put a massive dent in his savings.
After checking his remaining balance, Cedric continued to observe the world.
***
Inside the Crystal Cube world.
Inside Blue Sky City, the city is located next to the northern ocean. Helion sat inside his cottage while reminiscing about his life.
He thought of his family and friends while occasionally chuckling or muttering, "I guess they've died now"
By the time he recalled his memory after escaping from the Temple, Helion thought of Ghiana.
Recalling everything Ghiana has done to him, Helion suddenly got the urge to look for disciples. 'I am already dying. I guess this is indeed the time to spread the knowledge I've gathered.'
'Of course, I won't just spread it haphazardly. I'll gather those willing to learn and advance magic together, creating a suitable environment for them to continue my research on magic.'
The more he thought about it, the more Helion agreed with his idea. 'I will take some elven and dwarven disciples, but I also want to take in a human student. I guess it's time for me to secretly return and also take some human disciple.'
He initially feared the god of alchemy's pursuit. But after decades of silence, Helion has stopped caring about it. Especially since he's already dying.
Lightly coughing, Helion muttered, "I don't have much time. Gathering elven and dwarven students isn't too difficult. But gathering disciples from the humans will be a bit troublesome."
While he's preparing a plan to safely collect human student, Helion saw a floating screen appear out of nowhere.
[Greetings, Helion Gadden.]
"Who?" Helion immediately became cautious. He secretly scanned the room with his eyes.
When he saw there was no suspicious person or item, he dashed to the window and checked the surroundings.
Still, there's no trace of any suspicious person. 'So, this isn't a prank.'
Although Helion acted like he was scanning the room and outside, he already had a guess about who he was talking to. After all, while in the Temple, he had already read many records. Some of them talked about the creator and the screen, which is how the god of creation usually talked with mortals.
The reason he acted suspiciously was merely to make sure no one was playing a prank on him.
While he looked around, a new screen appeared.
[For your contribution to advancing the world, I shall reward you with these lifespan fruits for your consumption. These fruits shall allow you to increase your lifespan.]
Once Helion finished reading the text, nine fruits suddenly appeared on the table close to him.
This immediately made him certain that the one talking with him was indeed the god of creation.
He looked at the god of creation's message and ate all nine fruits.
The effect of all nine fruits is pretty intense.
Helion could literally feel himself becoming several years younger.
Some of his wrinkled skin slowly tightened while the never-ending exhaustion ailing his body subsided.
The change stopped when he changed from someone who seemed to be halfway through the coffin into a sixty-year-old man.