CHAPTER 647

【 COASTAL CITY OF MIROVIA 】

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Facing the solemn gaze of the Dwarven God Dorft, Evé fell silent.

For a few moments, neither spoke. Then, in a voice that carried both restraint and a trace of uncertainty, she finally asked, “Are you able to repair it?”

Dorft sighed faintly, his weathered hands brushing over the faint cracks that lined the divine artifact’s surface. “If… you truly insist on having me repair the Withering Heart, then I certainly can,” he replied gravely. “However, as your friend, I must strongly advise you against taking such a risk for a corrupted artifact like this.”

He paused, meeting Evé’s eyes once more.

“I understand that you are preparing for the Crusade against the demons, but such a conflict cannot be won through a single decisive strike. In all my years, I have participated in numerous crusades, and most of them end the same way—mutual exhaustion, with neither side truly claiming decisive victory.”

“To place yourself in danger just to secure a fleeting advantage against them… personally, I do not think it is worth the price.”

Dorft straightened slightly, his voice taking on a tone of solemn counsel.

“Your Grace, you are the Goddess of Life and Nature—your potential is limitless. If you devote your time to fully mastering your divinities, you will surely ascend to a height comparable to that of All-Mother Yggdrasill herself. Only then will you truly stand unshaken before the forces of the Abyss.”

He paused once more, his expression filled with genuine concern. “Now is not the time for reckless ventures or untested powers for the sake of a conflict that will happen only a year from now.”

Dorft’s expression was filled with earnest concern as he spoke.

Listening to the Dwarven God’s heartfelt persuasion, Evé felt a storm of conflicting emotions well up within her.

Take a risk, he said…

Alas, she no longer had the luxury of time to grow stronger through patience and steady cultivation. The upcoming Crusade loomed closer with every passing day, and even setting that aside, repairing the Withering Heart isn’t solely for the sake of the conflict either…

A faint, self-deprecating sigh escaped her lips as she lowered her gaze.

Now that she understood just how powerful the Withering Heart truly was, her determination to restore it had only deepened.

As for the potential dangers… she could only smile wryly to herself.

Corruption?

—No. That much, she did not fear.

She was the World Tree, after all. She had already proven that the power of the Abyss could never truly take root within her divine soul. At most, the Withering Heart might distort her memories.

That was a risk she could accept.

If she treated the Withering Heart as a last-resort trump card and avoided using it unless absolutely necessary, it was a risk she was willing to bear.

Besides, with the Sword of Damocles now in her possession, she finally had an artifact designed for pure offense, one capable of compensating for her long-standing lack of attack power. With it by her side, her reliance on the Withering Heart would be far less than before.

With that thought, Evé straightened slightly and spoke firmly,

“Please proceed with the repairs. And fret not, Your Majesty Dorft, I will heed your warning. I shall use the Withering Heart only as a last resort.”

Seeing the unwavering resolve in her eyes, Dorft could only sigh softly.

“Very well… since you insist, I will proceed with the repair as planned.”

A faint, weary smile touched his lips, tinged with self-awareness.

“Perhaps I have lived too long and become far too cautious… always seeking stability, always trying to avoid risks.”

He studied Evé for a moment longer, his gaze thoughtful yet filled with genuine concern.

“I only hope that you never lose sight of your true self,” he said gently. “Your Grace, do not let this strange artifact cloud your mind or lead you astray from your purpose.”

In the end, the God of the Dwarves accepted her decision.

Afterward, the two spoke for a while longer, their conversation shifting to the state of the Dwarven Kingdom.

“I must say, those little fairies you created are truly remarkable,” Dorft said with a note of genuine gratitude.

“With their help, the regions once tainted by the Abyss are slowly being purified. At this rate, perhaps in less than a year, the underground region beneath the southern mountains will once again flourish as it once did.”

Evé’s expression softened at his words. Sending the elemental fairies to assist the Dwarves had been one of the decrees she issued following the Harvest Festival.

Those tiny beings she created were naturally attuned to the forces of nature and life. They thrived in places where corruption lingered, cleansing the land with their pure elemental power. In return, a little bit of restored vitality flowed back to Evé as nourishment.

It was a perfect cycle of mutual benefit, one that strengthened both her and the world itself.

“This is simply my duty as the Goddess of Life and Nature,”

Evé replied with a gentle smile.

“You’re too modest. Your benevolence commands my deepest respect,” Dorft said with a soft chuckle, though his eyes remained earnest.

“I will do my utmost to restore the Withering Heart, and I’ll see if there’s a way to minimize the risks of wielding it. Once the restoration is complete, I shall come to see you again.”

Evé nodded lightly.

“Then I’ll be waiting for your good news.”

With that, their meeting drew to a close. The faint light of the Pantheon dimmed as the two gods went their separate ways, their respective divine projections slowly dissolving into motes of sacred light.

In the next moment, she opened her eyes once more within her own divine kingdom. The familiar scent of blooming ether flowers filled the air, and the tranquil light of the World Tree’s branches bathed her surroundings in a soft emerald glow.

“I hope the restored Withering Heart won’t disappoint me,”

Evé murmured, her voice faint but laced with quiet anticipation.

Though she understood the risk, her resolve did not waver. If the artifact’s power truly matched her expectations, then whatever danger it carried would be a price worth paying.

After all, compared to the possibility of facing a life-or-death situation, no peril could truly be called far too great.

If Dorft’s assessment proved to be true, then the Withering Heart might very well become her ultimate trump card, a weapon capable of turning the tide in any battle to come.

Whether it be against the forces of the Abyss or the gods themselves.

After meeting with Dorft and learning about the issues regarding the Withering Heart, Evé found that much of her earlier enthusiasm for continuing her exploration of the Titan Ruins under the guise of Féng had considerably faded.

Instead, she merely selected a few high-level players she had personally taken note of, issued a hidden quest that only max-level Silver players could accept, and then turned her attention elsewhere.

Of course, the method she used this time to disseminate knowledge about the other two Titan ruins differed from the first.

Rather than delivering it as a divine oracle to the priest players, the information was instead subtly released through Alice, thereby triggering a hidden plot tied to the main storyline.

Naturally, Evé also expanded the players’ range of activity, extending their boundaries to encompass all the Titan ruin sites.

The entire map of the Elven Forest and the Desert of Death were now fully accessible to the players, while the Fertile Plains’ accessible area was no longer limited to just the western part of Mapleleaf Territory. It now extended beyond the Vymur River into its eastern reaches.

In other words, players could now roam freely throughout the entire Mapleleaf Territory.

However, despite the recent accessibility of the Mapleleaf region, not many players had chosen to go there.

The main reason was simple: there were too few monsters to fight.

Aside from those visiting for leisure or trade, few players had any reason to travel to these human-controlled territories. In fact, many newer players did not even realize the area was accessible at all.

Moreover, the long journey required to reach these locations was also another deterrent.

Only two guilds, Heart of Nature and Moe Moe Committee (via its finance division, Amway and Black Dragon Trade Group) had secretly established teleportation arrays in Mapleleaf City.

Any other players who wished to reach Mapleleaf City had no choice but to travel on foot. That meant enduring a journey that could stretch anywhere from ten days to nearly half a month.

Even those with access to the secret teleportation arrays could not escape the time sink entirely as the trip to the arrays still took about a week when traveling by carriage.

Such long and tedious travel times were enough to dissuade most players from making the journey at all. After all, the majority preferred the convenience of fast travel and streamlined gameplay.

Ten to fifteen days of in-game travel translated, in real-world terms, to roughly two to three full days of continuous movement. Which is an exhausting prospect for anyone hoping to enjoy the game without feeling drained.

It was precisely because of this that teleportation arrays were so popular in Elven Kingdom. In every major city, the areas closest to teleportation points always had the highest housing prices.

So the release of several exploration missions once again stirred excitement throughout the playerbase.

Hidden quests, once triggered, no longer stayed hidden.

The moment a single player received one, the entire server will knew it within an hour.

That had long become standard in Elven Kingdom.

The massive rewards from the first Titan ruin had already allowed many players to profit greatly. Having tasted success, they were naturally eager for the new ruins that had just appeared.

Soon, large numbers of players began heading toward the less-traveled western reaches of the Elven Forest and the southern areas of the Desert of Death, the latter corresponding to the previously discovered Titan ruin.

Meanwhile, the ruin near Mapleleaf City remained relatively quiet.

After all, reaching the level cap for Low Silver-rank which was the minimum level requirement for accepting the exploration quest in that location was no easy feat.

Altogether, fewer than a thousand players across the entire game had achieved that rank.

Moreover, most of these individuals were spread across the land and seeing any of them in one place was a rare sight indeed.

The difference in how the quests were issued was also a factor. Unlike the previous one which was released as public announcements, this time the method for triggering the quest led most top players to quietly keep their discoveries to themselves, hoping to profit in silence.

This, of course, was exactly what Evé intended in the first place.

After all, the Mapleleaf ruin was located in the human controlled territories. So if a sudden swarm of elves suddenly began appearing around it, then it could easily attract the attention of the Eternal Church, which was something Evé wished to avoid.

༺⟐༻

Unknowingly, a week had passed in the blink of an eye.

By this time, players exploring the new ruins had begun reporting their findings one after another.

The Elven Forest was vast, and the Desert of Death was no less expansive.

The two regions couldn’t have been more different—one intricate and overgrown, the other barren and lifeless.

Had the players been exploring freely, it might have taken them much longer to locate the ruins. But with exact coordinates provided, their progress was swift.

The first ruin to be discovered was the Titan site within the Desert of Death.

It lay near the destroyed royal Orc court. After that region had been “liberated,” players constructed a teleportation array linking it to Sandstorm City, making the marked ruin especially easy to locate.

So within just a day, Moe Moe Committee—who had already established a base in Sandstorm City—took advantage of their proximity, successfully located the site, and immediately commenced exploration.

This ruin was far larger than the one previously uncovered in the Elven Forest.

If Eve’s assessment was correct, it was none other than the former royal court of the Titans, which had once contained a spatial passageway leading to their native motherland, the Realm of Titans.

Of course, that realm had long since collapsed, and the royal Titan court itself lay in ruins. Countless waves of looting and exploration throughout history had also stripped it bare.

Thus by the time players arrived, there was little of true value left to uncover at this site.

Nonetheless, that judgment applied only from Eve’s perspective as a God.

For the players, even the stones and materials within the ruins were treasures worth hauling away.

Wherever they went, nothing was left untouched, once again proving why their moniker as ‘the Fourth Calamity’ was a title they had well earned.

In fact, if it weren’t for Evé imposing certain restrictions on their actions, it’s entirely possible that these ruins would have been completely demolished by the players for use in their own capital cities.

Two days after the royal Titan court ruins were rediscovered, another ruin—this one located in the western Elven Forest—was also found.

This site was much smaller in scale and showed clear signs of prior exploration.

Moreover, the players discovered remnants of ancient Elven architecture near these Titan ruins.

Among them stood several elven stone monuments, and when a few skilled players who had studied the elven language translated the inscriptions, they found that the carvings described the very Titan ruin they had uncovered.

It appeared that, historically, the ancient elves had once regarded this place as a tourist attraction.

In other words, this ruin had likely already been excavated by the ancient elves themselves.

The discovery of these elven structures excited many lore enthusiasts who had studied the game’s backstory, as it suggested that there might be an elven city hidden nearby.

And so, further exploration began around the ruins’ surroundings.

Just as Evé had predicted, this ruin was located not far from the coastal elven city of Mirovia.

After uncovering the Titan ruin, players soon discovered the remains of this nearby elven metropolis.

It was the fifth major lost elven city discovered by players, following Florence, Rivendell, the Elven Royal Capital (now Mapleleaf City), and Kenorland.

The coastal city of Mirovia stood upon a stretch of golden beach.

However, unlike the previously unearthed elven cities, this one was remarkably well-preserved. The white stone structures of Mirovia were still elegant and majestic, as though untouched by destruction. Even the city’s temple remained completely intact.

Clearly, Mirovia had not suffered much devastation during the Thousand-year Holy War. Only overgrown weeds and climbing vines gave the otherwise pristine city a touch of desolation.

Beside the city stretched an endless ocean. The seawater was crystal-clear and deep blue, with foamy white waves rolling and crashing gently upon the sand. Seabirds soared freely overhead, their cries echoing through the open air. The cool sea breeze brushed against the skin, as though it could sweep away every worry.

On the distant horizon, sea and sky blended seamlessly, making it impossible to tell where one ended and the other began, creating a breathtakingly beautiful scenery.

The first wave of players who arrived there were instantly captivated by its beauty.

As exquisite screenshots began circulating across the game’s forums, the name Mirovia, the Coastal City, quickly spread throughout Elven Kingdom.

Undoubtedly, it became another sacred tourist spot for those who enjoy the beautiful scenery of the game.

Upon receiving the news, the Church of Life immediately took action, dispatching personnel to establish a teleportation array and bring the ancient elven city back under its jurisdiction.

Naturally, the game’s world map was also updated accordingly.

The discovery of a new elven city ignited a fresh wave of exploration among the players who wished to tour Mirovia’s breathtaking coastal scenery.

However, Evé frowned slightly as she observed all of this from behind the scenes.

She had noticed something peculiar.

Mirovia showed no signs of destruction—not even the temple bore a single mark of damage—which meant it had escaped the cataclysm of the Thousand-year Holy War.

And yet, oddly enough, the Temple of Nature in the city contained no statue of her predecessor at all.

Nor were there statues of any other divine beings.

That in itself was suspicious.

After all, sacred statues do not simply vanish on their own.

Moreover, if the city had not been ravaged by war, then where had its inhabitants gone to?

Even if most ancient elves had retreated to Florence after the war, there should have been at least a few who stayed behind.

Yet, oddly enough, the city of Mirovia showed no trace of life at all—no belongings, no signs of habitation, not even a hint of migration.

This deepened Eve’s curiosity. She began to suspect that the city of Mirovia might be hiding a greater secret, one tied to the disappearance of its former residents.

It was a mystery that would require deeper investigation.

But just as she pondered upon this enigma, another report caught her attention.

The Titan ruin exploration quest she had issued in Mapleleaf Territory, which had been exclusively undertaken by top-ranked players, had ended in failure.

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