Chapter 72 – Former Teammates

“You’re a stranger to me, Divine Child, but I must say—‘Get lost’ is hardly suitable as colloquial speech. It’s far too rude.” Teresa squatted down, delicately toying with her silk-like hair. She reached out a pale, soft hand and poked the cornflower that had bloomed from the male Divine Child’s neck. “Rude boys don’t attract girls, you know.”

“Do you even hear yourself?!” The Divine Child glared, his eyes wide. Tied to the ground and being humiliated, and this woman had the nerve to lecture him about manners?!

He thought he was already being incredibly patient. If he didn’t instinctively find her impossible to hate, he’d have already cursed her whole family by now.

“You vicious woman! …Fine, I admit I lost—but a warrior can be killed, not humiliated. If you’ve got the guts, just end it quickly!”

“Vicious… woman?” Teresa blinked, genuinely surprised. For a moment, the corners of her mouth tugged into a helpless smile.

A year ago, she’d still been a naive and gentle young boy. Who would’ve thought that one day, someone would call her that?

“I’m sorry, Divine Child. I truly had no intention of humiliating you.”

“Hah.” The Divine Child’s head lay slumped against the ground. He glanced at the cornflower blooming on his shoulder and let out a cold chuckle.

“If you’d just cooperate a little, it’ll be over soon.” Teresa poked at the cornflower again. “How about now—do you feel anything?”

“No!” he snapped.

“Hmm. Any discomfort or strange sensations? Like something being slowly drained from inside you?”

“How the hell should I know?! I don’t!”

Seeing how uncooperative he was, Teresa fell silent. She simply kept staring at the cornflower so intently that it made the Divine Child’s scalp tingle.

Soon enough, he began to notice something strange. His dizziness grew heavier—his head, limbs, everything felt heavier.

“What about now? Can you feel something being drained?”

“You… you…”

Teresa observed the cornflower, which was blooming more brilliantly by the second. “It’s getting more vibrant—clearly being nourished by something. Judging from your complexion, it’s likely drawing energy—maybe stamina or blood.”

Soon, the cornflower on his neck began to swell. Even its stalk thickened, growing vine-like.

Sensing something, Teresa instinctively stepped back. The next moment, the flower—its color deepening—burst open with a soft boom, shattering the vines around him.

A voice rang out announcing his elimination.

Facing the direction in which the male Divine Child disappeared, Teresa bowed respectfully.

Was that… a bit too much?

Still, the experiment gave her new data about [Verdant Fragrance].

When it touched a human body, Verdant Fragrance would take root and bloom. The flowers weren’t directly harmful, but they continuously absorbed some form of energy from the host as nutrients. When absorption reached a limit, a small explosion would occur, harming the host.

That said, many variables remained—for instance, this subject was a Divine Child with no Divine Authority. Would the effect be more potent when used on a Divine Princess?

Regardless of its potential, [Verdant Fragrance] wasn’t the easiest to use. It required both Divine Authority to control and natural elements to cast. One couldn’t function without the other.

Currently, she could only store enough for five uses. If a battle didn’t take place in a forest, her combat effectiveness would suffer greatly.

Thankfully, [Verdant Fragrance] wasn’t her ultimate trump card.

In inner vision mode, Teresa shifted her focus to her other two Divine Authorities:

First Divine Authority: [Blade of Destruction and Creation: Sacred Oblivion]

Third Divine Authority: [Sovereignty of All Forests]

These two were her real ace-in-the-hole. However, one needed to be released with caution, and the other had harsh conditions and an immense Divine Authority cost—suitable only for prolonged combat, not casual use.

In this world, there were many alchemy potions and enchanted items that could restore vitality or health. But items that could restore Divine Authority were extremely rare, appearing only in high-end auctions if at all.

So when a Divine Princess exhausted her powers in battle, all she could do was wait for them to recover naturally.

How to allocate Divine Authority in combat was a key part of a Divine Princess’s tactics and experience.

Of course, there were exceptions—some Divine Princesses had extremely low Divine Authority costs and didn’t need to worry about resource management. Teresa, however, wasn’t one of them. Just forming a light arrow consumed Divine Authority—let alone using her more power-hungry abilities.

Even with a decently high Divine Authority reserve, she couldn’t afford to waste it.

She had already wiped out two teams.

Putting away her token and slinging her longbow across her back, Teresa continued north.

The moment she stepped out of the forest, she immediately sensed the supportive effects on her body fade away.

Looking down at her milk-white hand, she saw the golden harp-shaped mark on the back beginning to dim.

All the buffs were gone—enhanced recovery, natural element generation, sensory boosts, agility—everything vanished.

No wonder people warned: never fight elves in a forest. The boost they received there was terrifying.

Glancing back at the woods behind her, she suddenly felt as if she were growing farther and farther from home.

Before long, the forest was out of sight. Teresa walked across a barren plain. Even as her soft white-soled foot, wrapped in white ankle socks, stepped on the cracked earth, it was neither scraped nor dirtied—as if some unseen force protected her.

The wind, carrying a hint of desolation, swept her shining golden hair. From afar, she looked like a snow lotus blooming in the desert.

If the northern valley had a forest, her chances would have increased drastically. But clearly, luck wasn’t on her side.

From the looks of it, the valley ahead was most likely a barren mountain with no vegetation.

Click. She felt something hard beneath her foot. Lowering her head slightly, Teresa saw a pale object protruding from the sand.

She crouched down, lifting her long hair to keep it from touching the ground, and gently brushed away the sand to reveal a gleaming white bone.

It was clearly neither human nor elf—likely the remains of some large magical beast.

It couldn’t have come from the freshmen currently participating. That meant this creature lived here before Coleman Academy had repurposed the secret realm.

Teresa moved on.

In this lifeless and desolate land, the wind and sand muffled her barely audible footsteps. It felt as if she were the last person left in the world.

Her pointed ears twitched. She stopped walking—her elven hearing had picked up the faint sound of voices in this wasteland.

She slowed her pace and crept toward the source of the sound. It came from behind a massive boulder.

As she approached, her eyes widened slightly.

She saw two incredibly familiar figures.

Her former teammates—Laini and Cole.

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