Chapter 44. Elven Village (2/3)

 

I was a bit surprised to see the quest progress but after thinking about it a bit, it made sense to me now… Helesta said that elves had the best sense for businesses which is a critical part of making a prosperous place and considering how the quest is about the Golden Age, that would mean I have to find other ways to make the town even more prosperous.

 

“How about we talk inside the village?” the elder elf suggested.

 

“You should have offered that from the start,” Helesta laughed before looking at me with a nod before we were soon escorted by the elder elf.

 

The three of us continued to walk into the magical forest, delving deeper before the familiar scent of civilization crept up onto my nose. As we continued to walk deeper, sunlight came bursting out from the front, dimming a bit to slowly reveal wooden huts that were beautifully crafted.

 

All of the houses, buildings, and establishments around were made of wood and had a sort of haystack roof which made them look a bit like the older eras of humanity, but it didn’t mean they looked plain and awful, rather… it was creative and beautiful.

 

They weren’t like any ordinary wooden huts, they were like artwork that you can find in a painting. All of them weren’t small… not a single bit of them. They were similar to mansions in a modern world with glasses as windows. It made human cities pale a lot in comparison.

 

“You elves really like to brag about your creative houses,” Helesta spoke with a straight, unmoving face as she looked at the buildings around us.

 

“It’s a rare moment where elves have a visitor from somewhere. I didn’t think you, of all people, would be our first visitor in ages,” the elder elf laughed.

 

All of a sudden, both Ruby and Aquamarine transformed back into their human forms. Their eyes sparkled as they looked at the buildings and plants around us. The elder elf looked at the two with her mouth wide open as if she couldn’t hold her surprise.

 

“They aren’t normal artifacts?” she looked at Helesta who nodded with a smirk.

 

“You should know them the most considering how you were alive back when the first ancestor of mine was alive and kicking. It’s just that he wasn’t able to unlock a single bit of those two’s powers but now that those two found a proper owner, you can think of them as potentially the game-changer in this continent,” Helesta answered.

 

“Game-changers… who is this girl to be able to unlock all of their sealed powers, is she the one who can possibly uplift this continent to a higher ranking?” the elder elf looked at me with a frown to which Helesta nodded.

 

“Excuse me… but what do you mean uplift this continent to a higher ranking?” I took up my courage and asked whilst Ruby and Aquamarine held my hand tightly as they looked around with their curious eyes.

 

“You must be someone out of this world to not know about that. To make things short, there are a total of twenty continents in this world and each is ranked based on their strongest person and our continent is currently the second at that rank because of that little demon girl over there,” she explained.

 

I was surprised… but not by much. I had expected that there was a continent stronger than this but twenty continents, huh and this one is the second strongest… I wonder how strong the other continent is since if their strongest is stronger than Helesta then that means they must have at least two or five people that are beyond the 1,000 statistic barrier.

 

“What kind of person is the strongest?” I questioned.

 

“The strongest person in this world is a bit unfair to talk about since her statistics are heavily boosted since she is the only apostle of the Divine Goddess as far as I am concerned. Her name was Kiana if I remember correctly…” she replied, “She isn’t someone who likes war though, so we don’t have to worry about continental battles unless one side breaks the pact.”

 

“In fact, we do trade a lot with the other continent especially in items that aren’t found on either continent. That continent may be powerful, but they are one of the kindest people on this world, they are only strong because their continent is cluttered with strong monsters where they are forced to either become strong and survive or die…” Helesta added.

 

All of this new information is making me a bit dizzy since that’s quite a lot to take in. A continent that is very strong while also being the kindest one and the strongest person being Kiana who if I remember correctly was that Apostle I met before this entire incident.¹refer to chapter 34

 

Thinking about it now, it makes more sense as to why Kiana’s statistics were shown as Immeasurable since it wouldn’t make any sense if a system like mine were to be able to read her statistics that easily.

 

Also, now that reminds me… I do have a title that shows I am loved by the Divine Goddess; I wonder if I can surpass her and become even stronger… but can I really become that strong… no… do I really have to become that strong?

 

“You sure are in deep thought, young lass,” the elder elf laughed, “If you are thinking about surpassing that Kiana then you can probably just lay back and sleep for now. Demon lassie can take care of that even though her blessings aren’t that stronger than one from the Divine Goddess, she is powerful enough.”

 

“You can also rise your own powers and surpass the overall power of the other continent since the ranking calculates the powers through the overall average power of the continent. Make a kingdom or empire of your own and train your soldiers to a higher average and this continent’s ranking will naturally rise,” she explained.

 

“Mommy! I smell something yummy!” Aquamarine suddenly spoke up as she sniffed her nose before the scent of grilled fish(?) crept up to me but I wasn’t so sure that it was grilled fish though it did smell like it which made me a bit hungry.

 

“Do you elves still trade a lot with the mermaid race?” Helesta asked.

 

“How else would we earn a meal?” the elder elf smacked Helesta’s head softly, “You brat really think we should eat a lot of vegetables or some animal of the forest just because we are surrounded by them. We elves are protectors of the forests; we can’t eat any of them.”

 

“Ah right… it seems like the deity that blessed the elven race really gave all of you a bad time,” Helesta with a grin, laughed as she looked at the elder elf who smacked her head again.

 

“You brat shouldn’t go around and insulting our deity,” she said before looking at Ruby and Aquamarine who were grasping my hand tightly as their mouths drooled, “How about we have a quick meal inside? I also want to hear more about this lass from another world, she sounds like someone that might give me quite the business.”

 

“You hear that Aya, your town’s prosperous age is coming soon,” Helesta laughed as I pinched her with a glare, “I was kidding! Don’t pinch me that hard! Ouchies~!”

 

“I feel bad for you lassie to be involved with such a person,” the elder elf looked at me with an apologetic look.

 

“Right… I feel happy that someone also understands how annoying she is to deal with,” I laughed before Helesta butted between us, looking at me with her puffy cheeks.

 

“I am not annoying!” she spoke.

 

“You are annoying…” I responded back.

“I am not…” she challenged my words.

 

“You should look at yourself in the mirror,” I said.

 

“I look at myself in the mirror every day and I sure look ten times more beautiful every passing day,” she replied.

 

“You really are delusional,” I laughed while looking at the elder elf who had a rare smile on her face only to return back to her usual straight face within a few moments which surprised me a bit before she smacked both of our heads with a giggle.

“The two of you should really stop acting lovey-dovey in front of me. Let’s go eat first since it seems like your daughters are quite hungry,” she said as both Helesta and I bowed down a bit in apology.