Minami learned the truth the hard way.
Killing was the fastest path forward.
The forest became her hunting ground
Days on days passed as she moved through the tangled wilderness, hunting goblins wherever she found them. She did not charge blindly. She watched. She larked. She struck only when she was certain the outcome favored her.
Life Essence accumulated slowly within her.
As it did, her body changed.
Hunger dulled first, shrinking into a faint ache that never quite returned. Fatigue followed, sleep becoming less of a necessity and more of a habit she clung to out of instinct. Wounds closed faster. Bruises faded overnight.
Thirty-three days passed.
By the time she checked the Codex again, her hands were shaking.
"…Not even one million."
She stared at the number in silence.
Weeks of killing.
Hundreds of goblins.
Endless risk.
And it amounted to almost nothing.
Minami laughed softly, the sound brittle.
" I see how it is."
A weak goddess ruled a weak world.
And weak lives were worth almost nothing.
Her eyes shifted.
The Mirad Eyes reacted, her vision sharpening as the forest rearranged itself into layers of value and threat. Most creatures barely registered anymore—faint, insignificant impressions.
Then something flared.
Heavy.
Dense.
Minami stood still for a moment.
Far ahead, coiled beneath a fractured stone ridge, lay a massive serpent. Its body was thick with muscle and scale, its presence pressing down on the land around it like a warning.
A Gorgon.
Her gaze dropped instinctively to the nest beneath it.
Three eggs.
The impression burned into her sight before she could stop it.
Three million.
Her breath slowed.
"now that's feast"
The Gorgon was far beyond anything she could fight head-on. Its strength dwarfed hers. Its scales would turn aside crude weapons with ease.
Charging it would be suicide.
So she didn't.
Minami watched.
She memorized its patterns. When it hunted. When it rested. How it coiled around its nest. Where its massive body shifted its weight.
And—most importantly—where iher Mirad I eyes showed her its weak point.An area Unprotected by it's scales that even a wooden stick could pierce .
When the Gorgon finally curled around its nest and slept, Minami made her move.
Her steps were careful and silent
Then a stone shifted beneath her foot.
The sound was small but
the response was immediate.
The Gorgon surged forward in a violent onslaught, its roar tearing through the forest as Minami turned and ran. Trees splintered behind her as it gave chase, its massive body crashing through undergrowth without slowing.
She stumbled.
Rolled.
Barely avoided its snapping jaws as it struck where she'd fallen seconds earlier.
"Damn it—!"
Prior to the attack
Minami taught to herself
"What if I miss?"
So she made a backup plan
She gathered wood over several days, binding sharpened stakes together with thorns stripped from nearby trees. She positioned them carefully, half-buried beneath loose soil and leaves.
She wasn't running aimlessly , she was leading the Gorgon towords the trap she made as fail safe
The ground collapsed beneath the Gorgon's weight.
Wood snapped.
Stakes drove deep.
The trap triggered violently, the serpent's body crashing into the sharpened frame as it thrashed and roared, pinned and tangled by the crude construction.
Minami didn't stop.
She climbed.
Her hands burned as she clung to its scales, her heart pounding as she forced herself upward.
She drove the sharpened wood into the scales area that her mirad eyes had shown her earlier.
The Gorgon screamed in pain as it took its last breath.
Then it went still
Silence reclaimed the forest.
Warmth surged through Minami—heavy, satisfying.
She didn't celebrate.
Her gaze turned to the nest.
The eggs were cracking.
Three small shapes pushed free, hissing weakly, blind and fragile. Tiny coils wriggled against one another, utterly helpless.
Minami raised her weapon.
Her hand trembled.
She could end it now.
She knew what killing them would give her.
But her grip loosened instead.
"…No."
She lowered the weapon.
"I already took enough."
She gathered them carefully, binding them close to her body with torn cloth. Their presence registered faintly within her awareness—alive, fragile, and now dependent on her.
The Codex reacted.
A steady surge flowed through her, far greater than what killing alone had ever granted.
Minami exhaled slowly.
"it seems being a benevolent goddess is another way to go…"
She moved on.
Deeper into the forest.
The air changed.
Blood thickened the scent of the earth. Trees bore deep claw marks. Bones littered the ground—goblins, beasts, things larger than either.
Even the forest itself seemed quieter.
Something strong lived here.
The Chimera found her before she found it.
It burst from the shadows in a blur of black fur, horns and snapping jaws tearing through the air. Minami barely dodged, the creature's claws raking across her leg as she twisted away.
Pain exploded.
She fell hard, blood soaking into the dirt.
The Chimera loomed over her, snarling, its mismatched limbs coiled to strike again.
Her mind raced.
Running wouldn't work.
Traps wouldn't hold it.
And the baby Gorgons—
"No," muttered , forcing herself upright. "Not again."
She felt the Life Essence within her for the first time.
Not as a number.
Not as a reward.
But as a force that caused through her being
Minami concentrated.
She forced the Life Essence inward, guiding it into her arm, compressing it until her muscles screamed .
Her arm trembled..
She fist slammed her into the trunk of a nearby tree.
The impact was thunderous.
The tree cracked at its base, snapping and toppling forward with a deafening crash. It came down directly onto the Chimera, pinning the creature beneath its massive weight.
The Chimera howled.
Minami dragged herself forward, ignoring the pain tearing through her leg.
Using her mirad eyes she found it's weak point in an instant.
The codex opened it's third page " technique : life essence compression learnt"
it finally went still, the surge that followed nearly knocked her off her feet.
Her wounds sealed.
Her body burned.
The world shuddered.
Minami collapsed to her knees as her form changed violently, bones stretching, muscles reshaping. Her body grew in moments—from that of a fragile child to that of a 12 year old.
When it ended, she stood unsteadily, taller now. Heavier.
The Codex pulsed.
The life essence cap was full
Goddess class advanced
G to F
New authority :the overseer
She returned to her divine space in silence.
The white expanse greeted her as it always had.
But it didn't feel empty anymore.
Her thoughts shifted—and the space responded.
Clothing formed around her. Simple. Clean. Fitting.
Her expression lighten
" Now, this is way better"
On a screen that displayed by default
She saw Elythra.
Fields barely sustaining their people.
Villages shrinking.
Species in decline.
And beneath it all—
Rot.
A spreading plague, slow and relentless, gnawing at her world's foundation.
The Codex delivered its verdict.
A god whose world collapses
collapses with it.
Minami stood frozen.
"…You're kidding."
But the Codex remained silent.