Chapter 34: Ch 34: The Looming Shadow of Mortality

A wave of excitement swept through both the human and elven kingdoms. The discovery of the trial realm and its promised treasures had ignited a new sense of purpose among the people. For years, their growing unity and strength had allowed them to roam the continent's wilderness with little danger, leaving them without a worthy challenge. Now, they were eager to face the trials set by their creator, hoping to prove their worth and live up to his divine expectations. The humans, in particular, were in desperate need of this opportunity. The revolt that had occurred years ago, in planetary time, still haunted them. With a population of only one hundred thousand, mostly civilians, the loss of 500 warriors had dealt a crippling blow to their kingdom's strength. The treasures within the new realm offered a chance not just for recovery, but for revitalization. They saw this as a miracle and a chance to truly honor their God. While all this unfolded in Veridia, Sunny was still relentlessly trading, a tireless figure in the cosmic marketplace. He knew that for now, Nova was enough to handle the demonic incursions, which were only about a dozen per month in planetary time. However, Nova's recent reports had been a cause for growing concern. The number of attacking demons was steadily increasing, and if the pace continued, the dragon's strength would eventually be insufficient to stop them, especially as the demons could appear at many locations at once. Sunny felt the full weight of this responsibility on his shoulders and exhaled deeply. He was trying to squeeze every last bit of faith he could from his endeavors, for he now knew that faith was the very essence of a God, the sole distinction between a mortal and the divine. He briefly considered creating a religious text for his high priests but decided to postpone it. He wanted to write a book that was meticulously crafted, devoid of any potential contradictions or words that could come back to haunt him later. Slowly, the fifth and a half day of Sunny's Godhood came to an end. His faith reserves had swelled far beyond his wildest dreams, reaching an astounding 62 million faith points. The majority of this influx hadn't come from trading, but from his lifeforms. The burst of emotion and prayer from any human or elf who overcame a difficult trial or discovered a rare treasure created an enormous surge of faith. Sunny realized he could now recover all his faith and even start turning a profit within a few hours. As he checked the God Chat, he was about to return to his trades when a message caught his eye. "Guys, look at the number of Gods," one God typed. Most Gods had been too busy fending off demons to notice, but the message quickly drew their attention. "Why are there 406 less Gods than yesterday?" another chimed in. "Is it the System again?" "But it clearly said we are the new true Gods now. Why would it kill so many of us?" "And the System hasn't answered or sent a notification since the last one." The conversation went on for a long time before the Gods collectively reached a chilling conclusion: "The demons." A palpable silence fell over the chat. The Gods felt the same bone-deep fear that Sunny had experienced when he glimpsed into the Demon Realm. "So we can also die?" one God asked, his fear a tangible thing. "I think so," the Strategist disclosed, dropping a bombshell on the chat. "One who vanished was from my alliance, and in last message he complained about demons attacking his world." The disappearance of the new Gods, combined with the whispers of the "old Gods," solidified the terrifying belief that even Gods could die. Sunny felt no fear at this revelation. He was already aware of the danger. He paid little attention to the other Gods scrambling for a way to strengthen themselves and their lifeforms. He was more focused on the big players like Kairos and the Strategist, but they rarely spoke in the God Chat, preferring to remain active only in their private alliance groups. Sunny had traded with Kairos for a time, but the transactions eventually stopped. He knew Kairos had likely found a way to use his own alliance members to ask for Sunny's services, disguising their trades to keep their identities and plans hidden. Sunny decided to leave it be for now and focus on Veridia. The strength of both the human and elven races had grown tremendously. While their leaders' grades remained at A, the sheer volume of treasures and the experience gained from the trials had increased the overall strength of their kingdoms many times over. With his faith reserves nearing his target, Sunny began to prepare for his next course of action. His mind was buzzing with ideas for new divine creations: a new demigod with talents from the novels, a Heavenly Library, and even the concepts of Heaven and Hell. But all of these required immense capital, and his current reserves were only enough for a small task. Still, Sunny was reluctant to use it just yet. He waited. Fueled by their newfound strength, both races were eager to travel to the central continent, the next logical step in their evolution. They had already developed the technologies and magical arrays for such a journey, but they were running into a major resource bottleneck. The elves needed a huge amount of mana stones for their arrays, and the humans required a steady supply of resources for a long sea voyage that could take half a year or more. The elves had found a few mana stone mines, but the amount was far from enough. They had begun to meticulously check every part of their continent for more. The only mana stone mines in all of Veridia were the ones Sunny had created just days before, and their output was far from sufficient. While a few new mines were slowly beginning to form as a natural effect of the powerful SS-Grade mana veins, they were still in the earliest stages of development, years away from yielding any significant resources. Sunny saw their struggle and, with a subtle divine touch, directly manifested a few new mines in the elven continent.