NOVEL NEXT Chapter 35. This Consecutive Luck Is Making Me Uneasy
After a whole year of observation, Cedric has found three candidates who might have a lot of virtuous energy.
The first one is Tsukiko. Although she has gone slightly bonkers after taking the seat as a high priestess. She has also shown many acts of kindness by introducing some concepts from Earth.
From donating food and clothes for those who needed them, opening several small hospitals and schools in every city, or granting start-up loans with close to zero interest to small merchants. She has done a lot of indirect acts of kindness. Much more than the other two candidates Cedric found.
But, that is also the main problem. Cedric isn't sure whether or not an indirect act of kindness will result in virtuous energy. After all, although Tsukiko has led many acts of good deeds, she rarely went and got involved herself.
Then, there is the second candidate. She is a woman called Rinya, granny Maude's disciple and one of the extremely rare people with healing type blessed power.
Rinya has learned a lot from granny Maude and also followed her path. She also loved to visit different cities to use her power for goods. Although not as extreme as granny Maude, the amount of people Rinya saved is also quite considerable. Basically, Rinya is a watered down version of granny Maude.
Finally, there is another familiar person who also came from the hero's party, Alan.
Since leaving Yuma and the others, Alan has been traveling around the wilderness doing many things Cedric found incomprehensible.
Things like meditating under a waterfall while abstaining from eating foods for several days. He also kept away many desires like lust by never touching any woman, which has kept him as a single man even after he reached middle age.
Alan has also been living in the wilderness these past few years. Constantly traveling around like the wind without any destination in mind. Somehow, Cedric felt Alan had turned into someone that trying to attain enlightenment. That's why he suspects Alan might have generated some virtuous energy through the second method the System has mentioned.
Cedric is curious about what has caused Alan to decide to travel around the wilderness. So, he activated Past Observation while searching for the time when Alan began turning weird.
After rewinding until two years before the demon king appears in his world, Cedric finally finds an event that he suspected to be the cause of Alan's change.
At that time, he is still adventuring with Yuma and Tsukiko.
After seeing Tsukiko has reached the peak of level 1, Alan's expression has turned quite gloomy. It caught Yuma and Tsukiko's attention and the three conversed while traveling on their horse.
After Tsukiko knows Alan feels down because he feels like a burden after being stuck at the same level for a long time, she tries to console him. "In my previous world, it's said you could attain enlightenment by understanding suffering and the world. Maybe you could break your limit and reach a higher level by doing the same thing?"
Then, Tsukiko continuously talked about meditation, fasting, and whatnot.
Although Cedric could see Tsukiko only gives those comments offhandedly to comfort Alan. Cedric guessed Alan had kept those words to his heart and followed it. Which made him decide to travel around the wilderness to train.
Closing the Past Observation, Cedric messaged his forehead. "Learning from my experience with Lacius and Gratian. I somehow felt Tsukiko would cause me a massive problem. The three of them are indeed capable, but their trouble-making ability seems to be equal to their capability."
"Sigh… I still prefer people like Yuma. Although he will retire the moment his mission is completed. At least, I don't need to fear the problem he might cause in the future."
***
Returning to the main topic. Cedric has been in a dilemma and couldn't resolve himself on which person he is going to follow. So, he decided to switch his observation target between those three.
He keep observing Tsukiko, Rinya, and Alan by changing his observation target every three months.
Between every change, he spent a day checking the progress of purification for the cursed land, and the remaining times were spent resting after overconsuming his mental power.
This pattern continued for more than twenty years, but he still failed to see the virtuous energy. It seems he is quite untalented in it.
While Cedric's observing Tsukiko with his mind full of pessimistic thoughts. The System suddenly sent him several congratulatory messages.
[Congratulations! Someone in your world has found the prototype of a training path based on the special energy generated by your world! Your world has begun to get in touch with related laws.]
[Congratulations! Someone in your world has broken through the limit of their potential without being infected by Negative Energy! Your world has begun to get in touch with related laws.]
"Huh?" Cedric paused and scratched his head. "What happened? Who has done those?"
[It should be Alan, because the System detected the source of that change to be nearby the area where you last saw him.]
Cedric quickly controlled his mental power to leave Tsukiko and observed the wilderness where he saw Alan for the last time.
Sending his mental power to that area, Cedric checked the surroundings and found Alan in front of the entrance of a gorge.
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The gorge's entrance is less than ten meters wide, with a thirty meter tall cliff wall on its left and right sides. Some plants and animals are thriving around it.
Currently, Alan is sitting in front of the entrance of the gorge while strong winds blow toward him.
After finding Alan, Cedric activated Divine Sight to check his current state.
[Life Level: Mid level 1
Potential: Lower level 1]
He is finally certain that Alan is indeed the one who has found a training method and broke through his potential. So, he asked the System. "How do I see the training method Alan has created?"
He is quite curious about what the training method actually is.
[You should be able to see the energy absorption and circulation method Alan used through the use of your Divine Sight.]
Cedric immediately sent some mental power into his eyes and activated his Divine Sight.
The next moment, he focused on Alan and tried to see the energy absorption method the System mentioned. Yet, he still failed to do so after staring for ten whole minutes.
Cedric stopped staring at Alan with his Divine Sight and asked the System. "I didn't see any energy circulation nor energy absorption though? Are you sure I just need to activate Divine Sight?"
[Apologies, the System forgot you're a half-baked god.]
[Please activate Divine Sight while spreading your mental power as wide as possible. Then, try to sense the mana in your world. You should be able to see the mana inside your world easily thanks to the connection between it and you.]
Cedric ignored the first screen and followed the System's guidance.
After spreading his mental power while constantly activating Divine Sight, Cedric could feel his mental power getting consumed rapidly. Which forced him to focus and tried to sense the mana in his world as best as he could.
Suddenly, his mental power seems to feel a new sensation. It's similar to the flow of air and water, but also similar to the solid earth.
After feeling those sensations. Just like the humans understood how to breathe since their birth, Cedric could see the flow of mana in his world as if he always had that ability.
Whether it's mana in the air, in the soils, in water, in animals, or in the plants. He could sense them all as long as they were within the range of his mental power.
If Cedric must describe the feeling, it's similar to gaining the ability to observe airflow combined with some x-ray-like ability from sensing the mana inside things.
'With this, I should be able to see Alan's training method.' Cedric focused his attention on Alan and found him still in meditation poses.
But this time, Cedric could see the mana inside Alan circulate and turn into a vortex. That vortex absorbed the mana within the strong wind blowing from the gorge.
Although the amount of mana absorbed is small, and some of it will disperse to the outside world when Alan stops turning his mana into a vortex. But, the small amount of absorbed mana that hasn't left his body is enough to slowly increase his life level.
In fascination, Cedric spent an hour observing Alan's meditation.
He only stopped when a golden light suddenly appeared from Alan's body.
That light slowly increased in size until it turned into a dim gold light that enveloped half a meter radius around Alan.
Cedric turned off his Divine Sight and retrieved his mental power while massaging his temple. His head feels a bit tired and heavy after unknowingly over-consuming his mental power.
After the sense of exhaustion mixed with a slight headache disappeared, Cedric asked the System. "I suddenly saw a golden light appear from Alan. Is that related to the training method he used?"
[No. Those golden lights should be virtuous energy. So, congratulations on gaining the ability to see virtuous energy.]
Hearing other good news, Cedric didn't turn happy and became concerned instead. "These consecutive good news are making me uneasy. I've never been this lucky before."
[Don't mind it too much. Maybe your luck has increased after obtaining godhood and a world that you currently call the Crystal Cube world. After all, obtaining a godhood as mortal is pretty much winning a universe level lottery. So, your luck shouldn't be that bad.]
"Thank you." Cedric never expected the System to actually comfort him. But the warmth in his heart immediately turned cold upon reading the System's next message.
[Your luck may have indeed increased because you've gained a godhood through sheer luck. But, that uneasy feeling might be your sense of danger at work. It's warning you of possible danger you've overlooked. Don't underestimate the unconscious warning sent by someone at your level. Even if you're just a Pseudo Lesser Divinity that's actually a fake with 0 levels.]
Cedric felt his heart thumped upon hearing the System's second message. So, he quickly moved his mental power and checked the person who has a 'criminal record' of causing chaos in his world.
Seeing Lacius still minding his own business in the palace, Cedric still kept his alertness. He activated Past Observation and checked what happened around Lacius for the last few months.
Cedric saw Lacius actually sat on the throne room most of the time. Except for sitting in the throne room or sleeping, Lacius actually has a secret laboratory in the palace. He occasionally visited that laboratory to study and research magical plants, beasts, and even occasionally some humans, both alive and dead.
Cedric has checked and found the living humans that got there are actually prisoners who have been sentenced to death. They mostly consisted of normal human and occasional blessed humans.
Although Cedric isn't sure what Lacius wished to do. Lacius that looks like a mad scientists or some wizard doing a forbidden experiment is making him feels a bit uneasy.
At least Lacius hasn't made something that could cause chaos and mayhem in the world for now.
But Lacius's killing made him recall a question. "Hey, System. You said NE is generated from negative emotion once the creature in my world died right?"
[Yes.]
"Then, won't what Lacius is doing right now will generate NE and even spawn another demon king in the long term? After all those prisoner will definitely be in despair when they died after being experimented."
[There is no need to worry. Normal world has the ability to expel some NE to the void as long as not too much NE is generated at once and caused the world to get constipated.]
[Only when too much NE is generated at once will the world be unable to expell their NE and gave birth to a demon king.]
Cedric nodded and accepted the System's explanation.
Then, he placed a mental note to check on Lacius more often before switching his attention to check on Tsukiko who he felt might also turn into a super troublemaker.
***
Inside the River Stone city's temple, Tsukiko silently observed several white robed priestesses teaching children how to read and count.
Passing through the area used as a school, Tsukiko entered the hall with Cedric's statue and stared blankly at it.
Inside the Divine Space, Cedric saw Tsukiko and immediately used Past Observation on her.
Although he had been observing her for two months when he tried to learn how to see virtuous energy. But there is nothing wrong with making sure of it once more.
After checking what Tsukiko has been doing the past few months, Cedric did not find Tsukiko doing anything that could cause the world to descend into chaos.
So, he calmed down slightly. 'Perhaps this is a false alarm. Or perhaps Lacius is going to accidentally create some plague that could kill the whole kingdom? I'd better spend some times to check on them occasionally just to be sure.'
After Cedric returned from checking Lacius and Tsukiko who didn't; or hasn't caused any trouble. He continued to observe Alan's condition and tried to learn the training method he had invented.
His observation lasted until the sun in Crystal Cube World finally set.
When night arrived, Alan opened his eyes and ended his meditation while smiling. "With this, I finally catch up with those two."
Inside the Divine Space. Cedric who has been pondering about the training method, accidentally overheard what Alan said and his mouth twitched. "I think I've heard a pink haired anime girl saying something similar in my past life."