Brand New Life Online: Rise Of The Goddess Of Harvest

"These Traces of Darkness are not normal." Mercedes analyzed them in her studio using a special divine artifact. "They are an assemble of Miasma, Nether, and Demonic Energy. All three of such energies are derivations of Erebus Chaotic Essence, which divided themselves and then were infected with different elements the Demon Kings wield. However, to seamlessly weave them into a Node for a specialized Magic Domain is incredible. Most people that tried wielding such energies would normally… die. Their hands would just melt and then the rest of their bodies."

"Whoever is doing this is capable of wielding these deadly energies seamlessly, meaning that they have somehow modified their bodies, isn't it?" Hermes wondered, while rubbing his chin. "Maybe if we could conjure some sort of divine detection spell, to see through the bodies of people…"

"But that's a bit too much, no? It feels kind of perverted to do that! Not all people like going around naked, only dragons." Said Cecilia, blushing a bit.

"What…? I am not naked! My scales are my clothes!" Elbedo groaned.

"Enough." Mercedes sighed. "I think I could assemble a special device to track the origin of these Darkness Traces. But for that I need a few things. It'll take some time… Unless I can get some help. Can you guys' search for the relics I need? They're spread all over our house because we are all quite messy."

"Sure! Leave it to us." I nodded.

"Thank you, here, this is the list of things I need." She said. "I'll begin the assembling with what I have here. I'll need Cecilia and Hermes to help me with setting up the Runic Spirit Circle as well. Some come over here. Elbedo, help them search the items."

"Got it." Elbedo nodded, the other two elves walked to help Mercedes.

Ding!

[An Auxiliary Mini Quest has been triggered automatically]: [Quickly! Find the four necessary Relics!]

[After talking about the Darkness Traces with Mercedes and the others, you've discovered they originate from something much darker. And all of you begin to presume it might be a whole conspiracy.]

[To quickly make a tracking device, swiftly find the four Relics necessary before the time runs out! This is the third and last available Auxiliary Mini Quest, don't fail!]

[Quest Conditions]: [Find the Four Necessary Relics: 0/4]

[Completion Rewards]: [Large Quantity of Score Points.]

[Time Limit]: [Same Time Limit as the Break Time Limit.]

[Break Time Limit]: [0 Hours, 43 Minutes.]

We have less than an hour left before the break time is over, we have to find these things as quickly as we can!

"Now, follow me, I'll tell you where each relic is." Elbedo quickly led us through the house.

Using Mercedes list, we slowly started the process. The house was really big, and there were at least twenty different rooms. We separated our groups into four, each one looking for a single relic to maximize efficiency. The relic we had to find was called "Time's Cog" and it was located in the attic.

However, the bad thing was that there was a pile of relics everywhere, so we had to quickly push them away one after another while trying not to activate them by accident. At the end, I just encapsulated them all inside a Spirit Barrier Bubble and searched for the cog.

"Here!"

I took it from the pile while my friends were still looking for it, it was a small, silver-colored Cog imbued with a small amount of Divine Time Essence.

"Got it! Let's go back!"

We moved downstairs to find two groups ready, but one, the one from my daughter, was still taking a while. I quickly went to check with them with Elbedo, finding them looking through a library. The relic they needed to look for was called "Grimoire of Truth".

"There as so many damn books! Where is it?!" My daughter and her friends were growing desperate.

"Elena, calm down for a bit." I sighed, walking in.

"Mom?!" She gasped. "A-Ah, I'm getting ready, we're about to find it!"

"Let me help you, we don't have much time for this." I said. "Monica, can you expand your senses?"

"I've done it already, but it doesn't work…" She sighed.

"Hmm, Greenie, aren't you a scholar? Can't you detect grimoires?" I asked him.

"Wait, I could, right?" It seemed he never thought about that ability. "Wait a bit- Ah! There!" He had activated some Eye-type Skill and immediately found the relic.

"Hey dumbass, you could have used that from the beginning!" Anna groaned angrily.

"I-I'm sorry…" Greenie laughed nervously.

"Anna! Don't call my cousin like that, you bad mouthed little…!" Elisa was growing a bit angered as well.

I could tell everyone was slightly stressed, but once we secured the gray and white colored grimoire, we swiftly moved downstairs, and with almost twenty minutes left, we handled all the items to Mercedes.

The Time's Cog, the Grimoire of Truth, the Eye Of the Stars, and lastly, the Mirror of Laments. All of them were powerful Divine Relics we could never hope to get our hands into. People in these times had so many they had piles after piles of them inside their houses. The Gods handled them away like candy.

And above all, they were able to combine their effects through special Relic Assemblages, as they called them, combining Runic Divine Spirit Magic Formations with Time Magic and then Relics. What Mercedes was doing right now!

"Almost there… And… done!"

FLASH!

All the relics fused together in the form of a large sphere star lights, with a single, golden eye in the middle. She placed the bottle with the Darkness Trace inside, and the eye immediately started processing the essence information and everything. In just three minutes, it was done.

It looked to the west, why? We had no idea why. But it seemed that there was something there. And whatever it was, it was the origin of the Darkness Traces!

"I think we got ourselves a good clue now…" Mercedes said. "This Relic Assemblage will guide us to the origin of the Darkness Traces! Let's go!"