With a combination of my Heroic Swordsmanship Techniques and my classic Farming Tool Mastery Strike, the soul of Uller was instantly purified, turning into blinding golden light, and incapable of fighting against us as a ghost!
"T-This can't… be…! To be defeated so easily…" His entire soul faded away. "So humiliating…"
The rest of his body dissipated into particles of light as well, leaving behind a lot of items, which I swiftly stored inside my Inventory, there were a lot of Nether Coins included.
"That was fast! We weren't taking shit from that guy." Rita laughed.
"He was surprisingly weak though…" Lily wondered.
"The buffs from the outside were still active, it was good that we slain him quickly." Mark said. "Now we should quickly get out of here, it might soon collapse."
"Agreed, let's go!" I nodded, only for a system notification to surprise us.
[The {Underworld Gate Boss} has been defeated! The Gate is now beginning to close. Your party will be automatically evacuated in 5 Minutes.]
[There might be hidden treasure chests around the entire Dungeon, find them before the time is up!]
"Wait, hidden treasure chests?!" Rita panicked. "We have to find them!"
"But the place's so huge!" Lily sighed.
"Hmm, let's separate for now, maybe we could find something if-"
"Let's leave it to my Spirits." I winked at my friends. "Everyone! Can you find us any hidden treasures?"
Hundreds of Lesser Spirits started flying around everywhere, looking for every single nook and cranny they could come across.
In just a couple of minutes, they came back, most came empty-handed, but a few dozen carried with themselves small black and gray colored chests, six in total.
"I think this is all in here, and we did it in three minutes!" I said proudly.
"T-That's cheating." Rita said.
"Did the developers ever intended it to be this way?" Lily wondered.
"Well, this is a real world and all, so I doubt they thought about it too far, they still mix game elements into this world and everything else thanks to the almighty System." Mark said. "Ah, even now, we know little about Nexus Corporations. I wonder what they think about us. I don't know if it would be dangerous to go to their company and try to get in contact with their CEO or something."
"I doubt everyone knows, probably only the most trusted people of the company, the CEO is probably not even aware either, only taking care of the game marketing." I sighed. "But there must be a reason why they want it to still be just a game, instead of trying to reveal the truth to the world… Maybe the truth, even for us, is so overwhelming we wouldn't be able to believe it."
"Can't be THAT bad, right? But yeah, they probably do have some sort of plan." Rita crossed her arms. "But going into their company will simply get us expulsed from there, they'll think we're crazy or something."
"The Gods themselves, probably are working together with the mastermind behind turning this world into a game." I wondered. "But for what purpose, exactly? What purpose could bring them so far as to disregard the risks involved with this, such as when the Demon King opened the first Gates and let out the monsters and Mana…"
"Earth already had supernatural things, and mages, we learned that. So it didn't made such a big change as we believed." Mark said. "Well, it still great because it ended making most of the population develop skills, and there's more monsters than ever before but yeah."
"Maybe that's it." Rita said, smartly enough. "Masking this world as a game so it gets popular world-wide, so many people connect to this world… Maybe Players themselves are the pillar to this world. You said something about the Great Reset, right? There's no way Players are just there for nothing, isn't it?"
"You mean like… to prepare us?" I wondered. "To prepare us for what?"
"Maybe so we could adapt to the world as it is becoming now, but even then, it doesn't make sense, we're the only ones so far that have developed powers based in our Avatars." Mark said. "I think what happened with the Demon King of Miasma was something… they did not predict, and their goal could go farther than just that."
"Sigh, so many questions without answers, so many mysteries~" I sighed. "Well, at the very least we're getting a bit closer to the truth, yet every time we get an answer, we suddenly have even more questions."
"To find out more about that Reset or whatever, we should investigate you-know-what." Said Rita. "In that Kingdom over there."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. We'll get there eventually." I nodded. "Let's go home for now."
"It is really complicated, huh?" Lily wondered. "Well! Let's concentrate in the present for now!"
As Lily said, it was better to concentrate in the present instead of wasting time wondering and speculating things that we don't have a concrete answer to.
Yet, deep down, I feel like there might be a connection between Arcadia and Earth, a much bigger connection than just the connection made between Players and Avatars.
And the Gods… I do remember them saying that they were not as strong as the true ones. Does that means that… they're not the real Gods?
The flavor text of the Hephaestus Successor Title also alludes over this God of Blacksmithing dying against the hands of the Demon King of Destruction.
And I've never heard about any other God other than the main Elemental Gods, this means that… there were once dozens of Gods, not just these guys.
If I connect the dots together as much as I can, even with large gaps in information we don't know yet…
Could it mean that the Demon King of Destruction not only destroyed the world, but… killed all the gods?
Then the Reset happened, resetting the world back to the past, but because it failed, everything became convoluted.
And the Gods, maybe only the main gods survived and the rest stayed dead?
Still, this feels way too far-fetched, but maybe, it could be closer to the truth…
[The {Underworld Gate} has closed permanently.]
[Congratulations! You've suppressed the {Horde of the Dead} and completed the Special Event Raid!]