Brand New Life Online: Rise Of The Goddess Of Harvest

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Elayne approached Mark, who looked equally stunned by his newfound strength. “Feeling stronger now?”

Mark met her gaze and nodded. “Yeah, it’s incredible. I haven’t felt this powerful in ages… I guess we should start hunting stronger monsters instead of picking off the small ones. The effort is greater, but the rewards are so much better.”

“I agree,” Elayne said with a nod. “Not that we ever did things the easy way back then, right?”

“I-I guess, hahaha! We were always fighting things way out of our league even then,” he chuckled. “But you had so many overpowered skills and abilities, so we always came out on top.”

“It wasn’t just me. You too, and… Rita, and Lily,” Elayne murmured, her voice trailing off into silence. “And Jenny… Acorn… Nieve…”

“…” Mark looked down, gently patting her shoulder as the bright mood turned heavy once more. “We’ll find them.”

“I wonder if we can,” Elayne said quietly. “I wonder that all the time… if we can really find them in this endless world… I don’t want to lose hope, but it’s become so hard lately.”

“…We’re together,” Mark said firmly. “That alone seemed impossible once, but here we are. Let’s believe we can find them. I don’t know exactly how, but I know there’s a connection between all of us. We just have to discover what binds us, and then we’ll know where they are.”

“…Yeah,” Elayne managed a small smile. “Thank you… All right, let’s not dwell on the bad stuff for now.”

She knew pushing the thoughts away completely was impossible, yet lingering on them too long would only erode her spirit further. So she chose to focus on the present, on what stood right in front of her.

“Um, Lord Blank, is the monster corpse salvageable?” she asked, glancing at the remains. “I guess we went a bit overboard…”

“I wouldn’t blame you. When you’re not strong enough, it’s tough to kill something without wrecking the corpse too much,” Blank sighed. “At this point, we can still salvage some flesh, bones, and plates, but most are shattered, so the pieces are smaller. Whole, intact corpses are always worth far more. Still, you were lucky—the heart is untouched. A Tier 3 Bone Beast Heart is very rare. Use it only when you truly need to. Maybe to evolve a skill or something similar.”

“I see, thank you,” Elayne nodded, summoning a portal to her home within the Domain and carefully storing the core inside with her hands. Blank always looked faintly astonished whenever she did that; it felt so much like Space Magic. “About Soul Treasures… Um, one of mine can evolve now. How do I do that?”

“Ah, you should refine it using your Soul Essence Fire,” he explained. “While feeding the treasure a beast heart or any material you think would suit it well.”

“I see…” Elayne nodded, summoning over a hundred nails that floated around her. “Ah, wait—do I have to feed them all hearts?!”

The thought made her despair for a moment, but she quickly focused. All 103 nails fused together into one enormous nail, fifteen meters long.

“Woah?!” Chalk gasped. “W-What is that?”

“I’ve never seen a Soul Treasure like that before…!” Blank said in awe. “Incredible. You never stop surprising us, Elayne.”

“They’re nails I originally created to… well, anchor my soul into my domain,” she explained. “Using a unique cultivation method to absorb more power and… stuff. Anyway, they ended up refined into Soul Treasures without me even realizing that was possible. They’re 103 but count as one.”

“I’ve never seen anything like that. It’s crazy,” Chalk said, rubbing her chin. “How is that even fair?”

“I wish we could learn more about how you pulled that off… one hundred treasures merged into one, counting as only one, and it can still combine further? That’s utterly ridiculous,” Blank muttered.

“Is it that bad?” Elayne asked, tilting her head. “Huh, I never thought about it too much, but maybe it is… Ah, well, regardless, Tier 2 hearts should work, right? Hm, I only have one on me…”

“Take these,” Blank offered.

“And this!” Chalk added.

“E-Eh? Really? Is it okay?” Elayne asked, blushing as the White Ghost siblings handed her bags filled with crystallized hearts from the monsters they had hunted.

“Yeah, I don’t mind,” Chalk shrugged.

“If there’s anything you need from what we’ve hunted, just ask,” Blank said with a light smile.

“T-Thank you so much!” Elayne felt a rush of gratitude. “Okay, then…”

She took a Tier 2 Heart and refined it into the giant nail. It absorbed the energy and began to change rapidly, though not fully.

“Need another? Here…”

Elayne fed it one more, but it still wasn’t enough.

“Another?”

She kept feeding it heart after heart.

In the end, after consuming fifteen Tier 2 Hearts—the highest number the siblings had ever seen a Tier 1 Soul Treasure demand—it finally evolved.

FLUOSH!

The giant nail, mostly black stone inscribed with countless runes and shaped like a totem, glowed intensely. It shifted to a steely gray hue, the totem forms sharpened into roaring reptilian shapes, gold accents appeared along its length, and a vivid red jewel crowned its head.

[Congratulations, your Soul Treasure: [Nether Spirit Totem Nail x103 – Tier 1] has Ranked Up to Tier 2!]

[Your Soul Treasure: [Nether Spirit Totem Nail x103 – Tier 2] has been divided into 153 nails.]

FLASH!

Elayne watched as the massive nail split into 153 smaller ones instead of 103. Higher tiers clearly allowed the treasure to multiply its nails, enabling it to target even more foes at once.

“No way, more nails… I guess that’ll come in handy.”

She drew the nails back into her soul. What had once been a painful ritual for power had become her most dependable Soul Treasure, one she knew she would rely on for a long time to come.

Elayne and her party gathered whatever valuables they could from the area before pressing deeper into the caves. Strengthened by their recent level jumps and growth, they soon encountered another swarm of Germ Monsters, mostly Tier 1, with several Tier 2 guardians among them.

The fights felt far less overwhelming with Elayne and Mark leading the charge and the White Ghost siblings watching from a distance. Yaga’s spells proved invaluable, helping them endure situations that would once have overwhelmed them completely.

As they explored the caves and slew creatures, Elayne gathered the last materials she needed, mining them carefully.

At last, everything required to evolve the skill she had longed to improve was ready. She gazed at the list of components she had collected, anticipation building inside her.

[The [Ghostly Spirit Consciousness – Tier 1: Level 10/10] Skill has reached Max Level and is ready to Rank Up to Tier 2. Once a Skill reaches a new Tier, more Levels are unlocked and it can continue growing stronger.]

[To evolve your Skill, you require necessary and compatible materials]:

[Five Tier 1 Ghostly Beast Hearts]: [5/5]

[One Tier 2 Ghostly Beast Heart]: [1/1]

[Ten Phantom Crystals]: [10/10]

[Five Nether Crystals]: [5/5]

“All right! It’s time. Let’s do this.”

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