God of Tricksters

*Huft!*

*Huft!*

Panting, Theo leaned his back on the tree while checking his surroundings. The monsters had been chasing him for a few hours, tiring him.

He had killed many monsters on the way, but it was truly hard to fight against many Supreme Rank Monsters, with many Rare Class Monsters at the helm. Their wisdom gradually created a situation where they could force him to hide.

"It's really hard. Just like when I hunted together with Maya and Agata'¦ Getting surrounded by multiple Rare Class Monsters is something that I don't want." Theo muttered in a low voice.

Just the thought alone made Theo sigh.

"No wonder why there are not many people who can become a Mythical Rank Expert, let alone God Rank Expert. Not only do you need to handle these intelligent and powerful monsters, but you will also become the target of countries. No one can afford to have a God Rank Expert as their enemy after all."

Now that he had become a Supreme Rank Expert and fought in an area surrounded by Supreme Rank Monsters, he finally realized the actual difficulty of leveling up.

"Whatever. What I need to do hasn't changed." Theo took a deep breath and started moving again.

His aim in this journey hadn't changed. Theo followed the direction Mark gave while hiding from monsters most of the time.

After another few hours, he stopped in his tracks and didn't move forward anymore. In front of him stood a small temple. The surrounding air gave off a feeling of gloom and chills.

'The aura has changed, and it feels so weird'¦' Theo frowned. All trees in one hundred feet radius had been cut down, resulting in fog mysteriously shrouding the temple. It added the eeriness of this place.

He also saw various ancient patterns engraved on aged, pale white stones.

Curious, Theo approached this small temple carefully while scanning the Magic Power around here, making sure nothing released a Magic Power whose color was different from normal.

As soon as he reached the stone with ancient patterns, Theo frowned and asked inwardly, 'Did any of you know about this pattern?'

Obviously, this should be left behind by ancient civilization. The ones who could recognize such a thing were the Gods and Goddess behind him.

Unfortunately, there was no response from them.

A bit disappointed, Theo sighed and muttered, "I guess I should rely on myself this time."

The temple had a small room inside, hosting a small stone table attached to the ground. There were more ancient patterns inside, but Theo truly had no idea because it looked like words instead of drawings.

Since nothing could be found in the temple, he sat down on the floor to take some rest.

"It's truly exhausting to reach here. I also need to walk for another few hours from here to find the snake scale. Maybe I should sleep here tonight since there's no monster in the surrounding area?"

After sending his clone to scout the area, he was sure he could sleep here. As long as he was aware of his surroundings, sleeping here shouldn't harm him. The Death Avatar had even checked whether the area was filled by poison or not.

To his surprise, before he slept, someone finally responded.

[Sleep here.]

"Huh? Who's that?" Theo muttered inwardly as his drowsiness vanished because of the sudden message.

The way he talked didn't seem to be the God of Mischief or Goddess of Death, so there were only two people left in his mind. Since Fenrir would choose a harsh word when talking to him, Jormungand was the only one remaining.

"Why?!" Theo asked again but got no response.

Although he was a bit hesitant because there was no explanation, those four had been very supportive to him, so he could believe them.

Since the serpent wanted him to sleep, he calmed his heart a bit and closed his eyes.

His consciousness wandered around before a white light blinded him.

"Ugh!" Theo gritted his teeth while covering his eyes. As soon as the light vanished, he realized his consciousness had been transferred somewhere.

It was a familiar lake where he stood on top of a giant lily pad with fog shrouding him.

"This is'¦" Theo checked the environment and immediately opened his eyes wide when a huge rumbling sound echoed in the area, followed by the appearance of a giant serpent.

In that instant, he realized the reason why the serpent wanted him to sleep there.

"That is your shrine?" Theo took a step back and sucked a cold breath. The revelation was too shocking.

Contrary to his expectation, the serpent answered, "No."

"Huh? If not, why'”"

Before he finished, the serpent continued, "But I feel a bit of my power left in this place."

"Is it something related to you?"

"Yes. I'm assuming the artifact you are searching for is related to me."

"But I don't think you had anything with you in the past'¦ Other than your body'¦" Theo got his answer. "Your scale?"

"Yes. It's considered a shield, so I guess it's one of my scales. Though, with my body, there should be many scales scattered around'¦ If the power still remains even until now, I can only think of one scale. The one between my eyes." The serpent lowered his head and made the particular scale blackened.

"Now that I think about it, I found the Death Armor in the Moniac Dungeon and your scale in this forest. Are the portals in the US actually connected to the place where the Norse Mythology took place?"

"No one can answer that question." The serpent closed his eyes. "If you can explore more about this place, then you might be able to find the answer in the future. But that's not important right now."

"Right. What do you want me to do now?"

"I want you to get that scale. In exchange, I will offer you two options. I will absorb the remnant power and use that energy to give you one skill as well as some instructions, or you will absorb that remnant power to get some points along with the instructions."

Theo was shaken by that question. It wasn't an easy choice because this was the first time someone offered him a skill when he didn't rank up.

Before he answered, Theo asked one crucial question. "Which one can prepare me to learn from you?"

It was clear Theo was talking about the Endurance Lesson that the God of Mischief had promised a few months ago. The snake was also happy that Theo wasn't rash. After all, he was the calmest one among the four of them.

"The first one. My skill will be of great use for that training."

"I understand. I'll choose that reward." Theo nodded with a serious expression.

"Now that you've chosen your destiny, it's time for you to return.." The snake released Theo's consciousness and sent him back to reality.