Chapter 62
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 62
Chapter Title: Fun and Exciting Trouble List
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1. Moon Goddess Artemis, Sun God Apollo - Premonition of orbital bombardment.
2. Hermes' riddle - The process by which a child born without a midwife gained divine karma.
3. Eris and Nemesis - Said we'd see each other later, but is that really okay?
4. Hera the Goddess and Atalanta - Hermes' tip: Definitely offer proper burnt sacrifices to the goddess. Cows or perfumes are good, but apparently poetry is trending on Olympus, so keep that in mind.
5. Orion - Resolved: The gang left no bodies, Eris's barrier ensured zero witnesses, the perpetrator vanished as punishment, and rumors in the forest say he got beaten by me and chased out.
6. Atalanta and Nesneria - ...
"Roughly this much?"
It had barely been a week since I left the island, but every single quest piling up was the kind that made my vision blur with dread.
The silver lining was that most of them were either resolved or not particularly dangerous.
But the problem was that just one—the unresolved one—was seriously risky.
Apollo and Artemis.
Sun and moon.
Reason and madness.
Day and night.
Twin sibling gods whose relationship was a perfect opposition yet utterly intertwined.
Apollo, whose myths were mostly called tragedies or labeled as total disasters—romantic tales gone wrong.
Artemis, whose myths were mostly called punishments or labeled as personality issues—soap opera dramas.
The fact that these two had me in their sights and were growling at me was enough to make even me break out in a cold sweat down my neck.
"Damn, I could really go for a smoke."
I'd even settle for a drink right now, but unfortunately, I hadn't set up house yet, so I had nothing prepared.
Hell, this place didn't even have cigarettes. Though they did have marijuana.
Anyway, what mattered now wasn't my smoking habits—it was preparing for orbital bombardment.
"Countermeasures I can implement right now... roughly three or four?"
First: Show of force.
Seeing Artemis's blood last time had been half luck, but in that short span, I'd been through a lot.
I'd awakened the special power known as divine demon energy, and through the fierce battle with Heracles, I'd regained much of my feel for hand-to-hand combat.
On top of that, this Forest of Heroes was Chiron’s sanctuary, protected in Zeus's name.
No god could wield divine power freely here without Chiron's permission, so I had the geographical advantage too.
But the issue was that both Apollo and Artemis were quintessential long-range dealers.
They flew through the skies, raining down arrows of sunlight and moonlight. Big bro blasted solar beams and plague beams, little sis fired moonlight beams and curse beams—master archers, the both of them.
Even if this was Chiron’s sanctuary, if they took aim from the heavens with an "Oops, hand slipped" and targeted my headshot, my options for dealing with it would be extremely limited.
"If I can just lure them down to the ground, into the forest for the battlefield..."
The Twelve Divine Demons had once told me in unison:
There was no such thing as an absolute in battle.
A third-rate fighter's careless feint could doom a first-rate master.
A superhuman who toppled mountains solo and leaped rivers could fall to a mere assassin's poison—that was the world of the martial realm.
No matter how immense a god's authority might be.
If I still possessed the essence and enlightenment of my martial arts, and if the divine demon energy could perfectly recreate those arts, then sun or moon—I'd welcome them gladly.
The problem was getting sniped from extreme long range; that's when I'd run into all sorts of headaches.
Of course, separate from the divine demon energy, I was steadily preparing the foundation to cultivate the Ghostless Heart Art and demonic arts.
Once my body reached the age of full maturity, my goal was to master the Twelve Divine Demons' arts completely with my own internal energy before leaving the Forest of Heroes—no reliance on the divine demon energy.
I'd thought, hey, if the divine demon energy can recreate even the trickiest of the Twelve—like the Isolated Rain Sword and sword aura—why bother training martial arts at all?
But after that nosebleed from backlash the other day, it was clear: To wield divine demon energy, it wasn't just internal energy control; my flesh had to back it up too.
Speculating that this divine demon energy was divine power belonging to Nyx, the primordial mother of night, not fully mine, I concluded that to fully assimilate such intense force, my body needed to transcend accordingly.
But that wasn't much of a problem either.
After the brutal clash with Heracles, the divine demon energy had grown even tougher and more versatile, boosting not just recreation of arts but training efficiency by over threefold.
My dantian alone was nearing peak-master size.
Add the divine demon energy spread evenly throughout my body—not just the dantian—and I could handle even transcendent experts with ease.
Judging by current handling, once I hit transcendent peak, divine demon energy use would have almost no limits.
And if I reached Transformation Realm? This energy would fully become mine, accelerating my achievements even further.
Plus, I figured once I hit transcendent peak, unless the gods flipped out, I could handle curses or force at least somewhat.
"Going straight to Transformation Realm... that's gonna be tough."
No matter that I'd glimpsed realms beyond heaven, Transformation Realm was a high wall.
The start of superhumanity, the first step toward divine realm.
That was Transformation Realm.
Even with perfect enlightenment and divine demon energy, reclimbing to it would take no small effort and time.
If I could just surpass transcendent peak to Transformation Realm, headaches like these troubles would vanish.
"Anyway, that's the force side sorted."
Second: Appeal to the gods.
An eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, god for a god.
Bit awkward saying it myself, but I'd contributed pretty diligently to the gods so far.
I still remembered the colorful comics lined up in the orphanage library from my childhood, full of those gods.
Beautiful art paired with fun stories—those myths. Though toward the end, the artist changed and it got kinda meh; can't remember the finish.
Anyway, the Greek gods were nostalgic idols from my innocent youth.
And here I was, living my third life in a world where they actually existed.
Without the pride of a warrior or the dignity of a ruler, they were my old dreams and memories, friends from long-lost days, protagonists who'd made me laugh and cry in my imagination.
Back at the orphanage, I'd been a devout little believer, offering faith to those memory-gods alone, savoring reunion and longing.
The result? Unintended, but per Hermes, Ares and Poseidon quite liked me.
So my calculation: They wouldn't ignore a kid devotee they'd showered with allowances and personally picked up offerings from, now threatened by another god.
Plus, that impulse poetry I offered at Zeus's temple reached beyond him to Hera's ears.
That butterfly effect had Hera warming to me too, enough for Atalanta to bring precious elixir and tend to me.
No clue if it'd backfire later or pay off, but for now, knowing myth-gods from my past-past life had my back against the psycho twins was reassuring.
Eris—self-proclaimed big sis who'd been friendly—and real sis Nemesis would cover me some too if I asked.
"Having to play the connections game against an assassin god gunning for me... really bruises the pride..."
But coldly, my realm was still too low for direct godly showdowns. Had to mobilize every realistic option.
"In that vein, this riddle Hermes tossed me..."
Follow the journey of the child born without a midwife who gained divine karma. Give that answer to Hephaestus's children, and the path shall open.
Something along those lines, and it kept tickling my intuition.
"Man, solving just this feels like it'd reveal the answer..."
It was like glimpsing the test paper, knowing the answer, but that one spot whited out blurry in memory.
"Urghhh..."
Child born without midwife, gaining divine karma...
"Divine karma means it's gotta be a god's story..."
Leave it to the silver-tongued god to twist tales like pretzels.
Worried the psycho twins' whims might hit innocents if I asked around, I had to solve it solo.
Not like I'd thought, "Hey, just asking about a riddle—surely even psychos won't kill me?"
But last night, seeing Asclepius across from me jogged a memory.
His own son killed by his dad, but instead of confronting dad, he headshot the innocent thunder-arrow-forging uncles, the Cyclopes—with his current foe, psycho Apollo.
"Yeah, psychos be psycho for a reason..."
And yet Apollo was Greece's most popular god.
Looks really are everything, huh.
"Sigh. Tomorrow, hit the temples with offerings, brainstorm some poetry."
I crumpled my trouble list, tossed it aside, flopped onto my bed, and pulled up the covers.
Tomorrow's problems for tomorrow. No point stressing now when I'm beat.
"Tomorrow's first class... Pottery?"
What the hell kind of class is that?
Snickering at the weird curriculum, I flicked a gust of divine demon energy to douse the light and hit the sack.
...
Never dreaming I'd make an unexpected discovery in that very pottery class.