First Step On The Battlefield (2)

“Hahaha, exactly. I’m glad I met Katarina too. Haha… Oh? It seems the monsters we saw earlier weren’t all of them. Such intense killing intent in an instant…!”

Unos briefly felt a sharp surge of killing intent, and while looking around, he brushed his arm as if nothing was wrong, ensuring others wouldn’t notice.

Even though it was just a moment, the intense aura that gave him goosebumps made him discard his underestimation of the forest, which had only produced mutant orcs and ogres before.

‘Is one of these two women really a representative of Aetas?’

To Unos, the two women appeared to have entirely different personalities.

The blonde woman was the typical lady from a noble family. Or someone with a similar status. She was accustomed to being treated well and equally accustomed to commanding others.

Moreover, she seemed like someone who had never camped out and demanded spices he had never even heard of.

Of course, he couldn’t accommodate her request. Unfortunately, it seemed the group didn’t have a mage with a subspace ability.

No, even if they did, what mage would carry the luxury items of the highest nobles around?

‘At least she doesn’t seem like a mage skilled enough to utilize subspace…’

As Unos thought this, his gaze shifted from the man who introduced himself as Arun to Lee Hyo-ju.

A typical commoner? No, more like a scholar? No, that’s not it either.

In any case, Unos had never encountered his type before. Neither a noble nor a commoner.

He was not accustomed to receiving without doing anything like a noble, nor was he as ignorant as commoners. Sometimes, in the words casually uttered, there was a sense of insight that pierced through the situation.

The way he moved and acted suggested he wasn’t a warrior or a high-ranking mercenary, as if the forest was new to him.

‘When we entered the forest earlier, I felt something akin to a spirit’s aura, though I wasn’t sure. Could it be a spirit mage?’

Unos still remembered the shock of meeting a renowned spirit mage under the influence of his marquis father.

He just guessed that because something similar to that unique aura seemed to brush past him.

‘Well then… shall we start moving?’

Unos’s gaze at the two women shifted from that of a doting father looking at his daughter to that of a snake with its mouth open, having stunned its prey.

The gleaming look in his eyes, as if about to bring prey to his mouth, appeared and then quickly vanished.

“Ah, by the way, do either of you ladies know the love story of the God of the Sky and the Goddess of Time?”

“What?”

“Hm?”

“Oh dear, do none of you know?”

“No, this is the first I’ve heard of it.”

“Me too.”

“…Same here.”

Everyone showed a curious expression.

In the atmosphere heated by the campfire’s light and warmth, the faces of the six representatives were flushed a reddish hue.

In such a setting, hearing a love story of the gods for the first time created the illusion of being a party member of a hero in the tale.

“So… before the God of the Sky was called a god, he loved a woman. She was said to be like an unreachable woman. An elegance that one could hardly stand beside. And a grace that seemed to make even the wind pause before passing by. Looking at her, beautiful beyond words, he longed for the sky. And finally, when he became the God of the Sky, whom he so wanted to resemble and longed for, he decided to propose to her and went to find her. There was no one under the sky who could escape the eyes of the God of the Sky. However, the God of the Sky ultimately could not find her. Then, on the first day the ‘Battlefield of the Gods’ was held, he saw her.”

Stopping there, Unos paused and brought the cold tea in front of him to his lips.

“Come on! And then what?”

A blonde woman urged the story along, gently holding onto one of Unos’s arms. At her urging, Unos smiled and continued the story.

“Yes. The moment he first saw her, now as a goddess, the God of the Sky knew. That she was the one he had been desperately searching for. Moreover, she was the Goddess of Time, untouchable even among the gods. The God of the Sky courted her every day. But the Goddess of Time, Aetas, ignored his courtship.”

Unos’s story continued to describe how Aetas was a woman with an impenetrable heart, at 200% purity.

Each time, the woman clinging to Unos’s left arm like a cicada reacted in perfect sync with his words.

“Then, the God of the Sky found a way to express his feelings to the Goddess of Time. That is precisely the ‘Battlefield of the Gods’, this place.”

“What? This place?”

The blonde woman, perhaps trying to appear cute, pressed her index finger to her lower lip and tilted her head as she questioned Unos.

“Yes. Here in the ‘Battlefield of the Gods,’ the representative of the God of the Sky has always looked after the representatives of the Goddess of Time.”

“Oh…!”

Realizing this, the group exclaimed and looked at Unos.

“You mean to say…”

“Yes, I am the representative of the God of Sky. And my assigned god, the God of Sky, has once again asked me to look after the representative of Aetas.”

With Unos’s words, the campsite fell silent as if a spell of silence had been cast. Only the periodic crackling of burning logs could be heard.

Why wouldn’t it be? Apart from the supreme gods represented by the Heavenly God and the Demon God, most tend to hide whose representatives they are.

There are several reasons for this, but the biggest is that it makes it easy to discern the nature of their powers.

After all, the ‘Battlefield of the Gods’ is a place where representatives of the gods fight together. It’s undeniable that it’s a place where they point swords at each other.

But who would want their power’s nature revealed early on, risking being countered or assassinated? So they tend to hide it as much as possible.

“So…?”

As expected, awkward silence is bound to be broken by someone oblivious. The blonde woman looked at Unos with surprised eyes.

And although the rest of the group didn’t speak, their shocked emotions were clearly reflected in their reddish faces illuminated by the dancing campfire.

“Well, the reason I brought this up is because I want to find the representative of Aetas.”

Silence descended again.

Then, a muscular man opened his mouth with a growling sound.

“So, are you saying that among us, there’s a representative of the Goddess of Time?”

“Yes. Historically, the representative of Aetas, the Goddess of Time, has always been a woman.”

Once again, the shocking words from Unos left the two women even more astonished.

The blonde woman seemed even more surprised than Lee Hyo-ju as she looked at Unos with wide eyes.

It wasn’t just Unos who alternated his gaze between the two women. All the men gathered at the campsite were also staring at them.

And then, Lee Hyo-ju’s mouth slowly opened.

I slowly approached to a position where I could hear Unos’s words.

Whether it was because of Unos’s excellent storytelling or the truly remarkable skill of stealth, I don’t know. In any case, no one at the campsite noticed my approach.

And as Unos’s story continued, I almost exposed my stealth out of sheer disbelief.

‘What? What about the God of the Sky? Who loves whom?’

After spending over 30 years in the ‘Battlefield of the Gods,’ you end up hearing rumors and stories about the gods, whether you want to or not.

Things like which god is from where, or what their original personality was like.

The reason I call the Heavenly God the representative rag of the gods, or always refer to the Demon God as a crazy lunatic, is because I’ve heard rumors close to the truth.

And the God of the Sky. More precisely, the representative of the God of the Sky and the second youngest among the nearly 100,000 gods participating in the ‘Battlefield of the Gods’ was Unos’s assigned god, Caelum.

Of course, having been close, I knew a lot about his assigned god, but I had never heard of such a love story.

Moreover, this is also Caelum’s first year in the ‘Battlefield of the Gods,’ so what does he mean by ‘every time the Battlefield of the Gods happens’?

‘And what’s this about Aetas being graceful and noble? She’s insane. If Aetas were watching this, she would immediately go to Caelum and grab him by the collar… or would she? Is she watching this now?’

In the ‘Battlefield of the Gods,’ the gods can see a radius of 1 meter around their representatives. So, even if she can’t see, it’s certain that she can hear this nonsensical talk.

Given Aetas’s foul temper, wouldn’t she descend upon Caelum’s shelter with the intent to destroy everything around him?

Anyway, as soon as I approached the party, I quickly activated the ‘Verify’ command.

For a moment, I doubted my eyes whether the information listed in ‘Verify’ was true.

The woman exuding the aura of a blonde noble, clinging to Unos’s left arm with a nasal voice, had truly pathetic stats.

As mentioned before, upon becoming a representative to enter the ‘Battlefield of the Gods,’ almost all representatives, except for me, are granted immense power. The kind of power that can cause natural disasters.

But these meager stats… I can confidently say that I’ve never seen such trashy stats, except for ‘me’ in the early stages of my previous life.

Moreover, as the true name ‘Witch of Sloth’ suggests, she seems to be the representative of the Demon God of Sloth, but even for the Demon God of Sloth, this was excessively severe.

If that woman had fallen into the Monster Belt alone, who knows what might have happened to her?

Judging from the true name ‘Witch’, she seems to mainly use illusion or mental-type magic. Yet, absurdly, her intellect is the lowest.

What’s ridiculous is her talent.

Flattery and charm, and makeup.

Flattery that allows her to sow discord or make pleasant-sounding lies seem plausible.

Charm, which lets her change her facial expression to suit her will in any situation.

Makeup, which shows exceptional talent in enhancing her appearance.

There’s no way to survive in the ‘Battlefield of the Gods’ with these stats and talents.

Well, there is one way.

Prostitution.

‘Crazy woman.’

Annoyed at the thought of having wasted my gaze, I roughly turn my eyes away.

That’s right. This is about average.

It’s not comparable to those often called monsters, but at least as a representative, you need to be at this level to borrow the power of a group and make it in the ‘Battlefield of the Gods.’

Especially the talent ’Dawn’ of Rokoff, who bears the true name ‘Knight of Dawn,’ is the most unique and special among those gathered here. The first one I checked, that Katarina woman, is definitely abnormal.

Seeing her stats reminds me of my own stupid and pathetic past, and it irritates me even more.

Pushing aside the annoyance, I carefully checked the status of the three people I was somewhat familiar with.

The three were just as expected.

The surprise was Arun. Outwardly appearing dull and timid, Arun is a mage with high potential.

If fully bloomed, the ridiculous talent called ‘Torrent’ grants wings to a mage.

In the most straightforward sense, as the name suggests, the flow of mana within the body quickens.

The accelerated mana flow allows for faster mana supply during spellcasting, ultimately reducing casting time.

Moreover, with ‘Mana Affinity,’ he will rapidly increase his mana, and ‘Inquiry’ will help him quickly understand magical formulas.

‘If fully bloomed, that is.’

Yes, that is. The premise is that he fully blooms, becoming a being that escapes everything that will unfold in this Monster Belt.

Still, the emotions I felt while looking at them were a sense of relief that the plan I devised alone after regression was successful, and a superiority I couldn’t feel in my previous life.

Although some of my stats are lacking compared to theirs, overall, my stats exceed 100, and I have titles and highly effective skills that come with them.

Right now, I could take down at least three of them, and if I launched a surprise attack, I could even take down four in an instant.

When I concluded that it was possible to take down the four men, I praised myself for the first time.

The only problem now was Lee Hyo-ju.

Her power, ‘Time,’ was the issue.

‘For now, I’ll watch the situation. Why on earth did the Creator send me here?’

Just as I decided to observe a little longer, Unos asked a question with a smiling face, and Lee Hyo-ju opened her mouth. And Lee Hyo-ju’s answer stopped me in my tracks.

“No, it’s not me.”

“Oh, really?”

Unos’s and Lee Hyo-ju’s eyes met.

At that moment, I could see Unos’s gaze. He was smiling, but those eyes and the corners of his mouth were clearly mocking Lee Hyo-ju. Anyone who didn’t know better would think he was smiling at her…

‘Lee Hyo-ju lied? Why?’

“Oh! Then?”

“Was it Katarina?”

“Oh…!”

“Yes? Ah… Hohohoho. Yes, it’s me.”

Momentarily flustered by the expectant gazes of the gathered men, the fool named Katarina spread her arms and slightly raised her chin, claiming she was the representative of Aetas.

As soon as Katarina admitted it, everyone except Lee Hyo-ju applauded while looking at Katarina and Unos, and Unos also smiled warmly at Katarina clinging to his left arm.

As if saying, “I’ll protect you.”

Even Unos volunteered to take the night watch, receiving cheers once more.

The six representatives were thus wrapping up a day in the “Battlefield of the Gods.”

“Idiots.”

To put it nicely, they’re still pure and have the romance of adventure, but objectively speaking, they’re idiots.

They haven’t even been bound into a Legion yet, so how can they trust others and sleep so comfortably?

Frankly, even within the Legion, “Battlefield of the Gods” is a place rife with all sorts of schemes and intrigues.

Battlefield of the Gods is a place where a morning companion might smack you on the back of the head by evening, and it’s also a slave arena.

Watching those hurriedly preparing their sleeping spots, I climbed a nearby tree to catch some shut-eye. Just watching the idiocy of idiots made me feel like I was going to burst and get cancer.