Kingdom Building: Civilization Starts with Divinity-Chapter 70: Path of the Ruler

"TEACHER!" Alchemy shouted out.

|<You have assisted in killing an Adult Mint Lion(Elite++) and earned 11,300 EXP!>|

|<Congratulations! You have leveled up! You have skipped level 19 and reached level up to 20!>|

|<STR has increased from 65 to 67, INT from 83 to 86, and CON to 123. FAI has remained the same!>|

Alchemy smiled wryly as she looked through her system panels at Gravana.

"Grahaha! Not bad, not bad! It would have been an easy fight if you had not been severely disadvantaged." Gravana cheered.

’However.’ Alchemy predicted.

"HOWEVER!" Gravana shouted.

’Yup.’ Alchemy nodded to herself.

"A true warrior should never run away! You better have a good explanation about that stunt!" He continued.

Alchemy pushed the system panels to the side. She saw this coming.

"I’m not a warrior." She said bluntly.

"I’m a Ruler—a Goddess. My job is to keep my people happy and safe. That involves choosing the path to success that consumes the least amount of resources."

Gravana gave Alchemy an interested look.

"Meaning?"

"Meaning I knew you’d save me, so I didn’t commit to sacrificing a large portion of my Divine Power to continue fighting."

Although she did have it prepared, if Gravana had taken an extra millisecond to launch his attack, she would have healed herself.

Caressing his chin fur, Gravana went silent for a few moments before laughing.

"Walking the path of the ruler, huh? What an interesting girl you are! No wonder you’re my, The Great Gravana’s Disciple!"

’What does that even mean?!’ Alchemy questioned inwardly.

Calling it a gamble at this stage is incorrect because she had a clear contingency if it went wrong. All she was doing was betting on Gravana, not letting his disciple die.

|<Notice: Another hour has passed. Draining Divine Power>|

’Well, whatever. Eight levels aren’t bad. Nera got all of those kills, so she should be well past 25.’

"Then... Is that mission complete?" Alchemy asked.

"With just those 4? Of course not!" Gravana laughed at Alchemy, which caused her face to pale.

"But I already dealt with the other 12 of them, so we can claim our reward!"

As Gravana finished speaking, Alchemy let out a sigh of relief.

"Please don’t worry me like that, Teacher!" Alchemy complained.

"Grahaha! I don’t know what you expected. I did say this could nearly take a day, depending on how bad it was."

"Mmhn, that’s true. Shall we head back then?" Alchemy grumbled.

Gravana nodded, leading the way back to the village.

"That was an eventful five hours. Are you two okay?"

"I’m fine, Mother Goddess," Nera answered.

Although her words were clear, Nera held her sides where the lion clawed at her while flying upward. She hid it well, but Alchemy saw that the wounds were more than just small singes.

"I’m recovering!" Sapphire attempted to cheer but failed.

Unlike Nera, she couldn’t hide the wounds and was significantly worse off.

There wasn’t any bleeding or D.O.Ts on her; the only benefit of fighting fire enemies is that any wounds they open are seared closed.

Even without any life-threatening injuries, Sapphire had bruises everywhere and was basically dragging herself along, having a limp in one of her front legs and one of her back legs being completely unusable.

"I’m sorry, girls. I was so focused on leveling you up to protect you in the future that I didn’t think about how much pain you’d both be in."

Quickly, she used her Divine Power to do first aid on Sapphire’s broken leg.

|<565 Divine Power has been consumed!>|

Alchemy looked up at the bloody stars idly as she regretted her decision. She knew they needed to level up, but she’s constantly pushed them to fight enemies far stronger than themselves.

Heck, Sapphire hadn’t been able to do anything. The lions were over 20 levels higher than her, yet Alchemy still dragged her out here.

"Eh? No. No, Mother Goddess! I wear these wounds with pride! Being able to fight on the front lines and grow stronger with you is an honor of the highest order! Please don’t worry about me!" Nera reassured her.

"Yeah, maybe you, but what about Sapphire? This is the third time she’s been so heavily wounded because of me."

Nera was going to continue reassuring her in Sapphire’s place, but Alchemy began to talk again before she could.

"Nera. As a member of the Verminae, as long as I live, your consciousness will remain alive in the pseudo-hive mind. Although I have issues with you dying, you don’t have anything like an innate fear of death like Sapphire does. It’s not fair to try and compare the two of you."

"That’s... You’re absolutely right, Mother Goddess. I’m sorry, Sapphi. It seems I’ve also been pushing you forward recklessly with expectations."

Sapphire looked at the two with a complicated expression. She had so many words she wanted to say at the moment, but none of them could escape.

"I suppose this is a bit late, but Sapphire. If you don’t wish to fight, you don’t have to. I won’t ever force you to if you just say no." Alchemy said, patting the young deer’s head.

"C-could I think about it?" Sapphire asked.

"Take all the time you need," Alchemy responded with a small smile.

Gravana, who had been listening in from the front, let out a small chuckle. Luckily, he was too far for any of them to hear.

’No wonder Rio miscalculated. She seems to be able to find her way to be as efficient as possible and create the best possible outcome in each situation, but then she falters at the slightest sign of her people getting injured. What of it, if any, is an act? Is she truly a genius or just a lucky little girl?’ He wondered.

"If this keeps up, I might just want to become her follower too." He hummed to himself in a low tone.

Getting rid of his idle thoughts, he turned and crossed his arms, his usual confident smile painting his face.

"What’s with this sad attitude? You all fought wonderfully against opponents stronger than yourselves! Come on, let’s go get our reward and then celebrate!" He cheered with his booming voice.