Chapter 85: Unicorn Goddess
The predators have strong combat power.
It may be due to their belief that hunting is a common part of their lives, which gives predators far superior combat experience compared to other professionists. To use a simpler analogy, many of the predators have their own elite templates, making them much harder to deal with than ordinary professionists. It seems that followers of divine professions related to slaughter are quite formidable, such as the God of Slaughter from years ago and the later God of Murder; even the followers of the God of the Hunt exhibit impressive combat strength.
It appears that the Church of the Hunt is currently at odds with many enemies, but under Soren’s observation, they are not at a disadvantage.
First of all,
Predators are accustomed to operating in wilderness areas, which makes it very difficult for many enemies to track them. Even if someone finds their traces, facing the followers of Mara, who possesses the divine profession of Tracking, the outcome is undoubtedly similar to what happens to a ranger serving the Forest Queen: they become prey in the eyes of the hunters.
Recently, the losses for the predators have not been insignificant, but they are not as large as imagined.
Based on the size and traces of the camp, Soren discovered that after the camp was established, they lost more than ten people; by comparison, other church factions would likely have suffered greater losses.
This is a point of significant concern!
That is, after truly infiltrating among the enemies, Soren discovered something very serious.
The ordinary strength of members of the Church of the Hunt is quite high; there are basically no predators with a biological level lower than Tier Three here, and ordinary profession levels are above level 10.
If combined with their biological talents, their strength would be even greater.
In contrast, Soren’s church forces are quite different; mid-to-high-level church members are clearly inferior to the long-established Church of the Hunt.
Using this camp as an example, there is actually a near-legendary Half-Orc and five high-level predators.
None of this is crucial!
What truly made Soren ponder is whether the divine profession of Hunting, like that of Slaughter, possesses the ability to rapidly enhance strength.
As mentioned earlier,
Abilities on the soul level can increase the proportion of soul energy absorbed after killing enemies, with the increase in Killing Experience being approximately 5% to 25%.
With so many mid-to-high-level believers in the Church of the Hunt, it likely relates significantly to the power of the divine profession.
The next day.
When Soren woke up to move, he discovered that the body of the elven ranger who served the Forest Queen had disappeared, and in the hands of the burly Half-Orc Leader was an eerie skull.
This is a special ritual of the predators.
The belief among the Half-Orcs is that this can seize the enemy’s strength; after killing a powerful enemy, they can absorb a part of their strength.
Such rituals vary slightly among different races.
Ogres and werewolves believe that eating the enemy or removing their heart to consume it is the way to gain the enemy’s strength, while some werewolves think they should eat the enemy’s heart, and others believe that howling at the moon after a hunt can awaken more ancient powers within them. Such rituals are prevalent among predators. Thus, many of these hunters have rich “collections.” (Note: In areas influenced by ancient shaman doctrines, many tribes believe that through certain rituals, they can gain the strength of the enemies they have killed.)
………………
The predators acted in the afternoon of the second day.
A total of 13 predators were mobilized for this operation; if Soren joins, there would be exactly 14 individuals, among whom the strongest is the robust Half-Orc Leader, whose profession level is between 18 and 20. Following him are five predators with professional levels around 15 to 18. The rest are all experts at level 12 or above.
Their target is the unicorn.
Unicorns are one of the favorite prey of the God of the Hunt, Mara; unicorns are rarely seen in the Material Plane, and only in the depths near the Elven Forest can one be fortunate enough to encounter these powerful and beautiful beings.
The strength of unicorns in the Material Plane is not very strong.
Some have hybridized with pegasi and noble steeds, leading to a significant dilution of their bloodline. They have lost the original celestial biological template.
This is how horned horses are born.
However, even the ordinary horned horse has a biological level of around 3 to 6, while a pure-blood unicorn generally has a biological level above 15. With the celestial biological template, it would be 20+, and with the divine nature, the challenge level would increase by another 1 to 3 tiers.
Their protector is the Unicorn Goddess, Laree.
The hatred between the God of the Hunt and the Unicorn Goddess has persisted for a long time; their relationship may be much more intense than that of most forests.
The Unicorn Goddess loves to roam freely; as a chaotic deity, her personality is somewhat capricious. However, once she deems someone trustworthy, she displays loyal friendship and will not abandon her believers in distress. This aspect is very similar to the Forest Queen. When forced to confront battle, Laree would be a very troublesome enemy, but what she enjoys most are light-hearted banter, clever puzzles, novel discoveries, and various joyous explorations of life.
This goddess is quite casual in her private life, possibly because her true form is a divine unicorn.
Within Laree’s church, there is no formal hierarchical system of divine professions, nor are there any temples or altars established in her name. Although some races, such as unicorns, pegasi, and intelligent owls, revere her as their guardian goddess, the majority of her believers are outcasts who awakened due to their unique abilities (like recipients of the Enchantment ability) after being cast away. (Note: The Enchantment ability can grant animals intelligence.)
There is a passage that describes this goddess:
“The Church of Laree holds an all-night carnival celebration once a year, filled with various wild jesting and noise. During the night, there are many wild riding competitions across the countryside or through the sky, as well as exaggerated farces, humorous speeches, satirical debates, and romantic confessions. Many unicorns choose to mate and reproduce on this night, and believers also have their own joys. Occasionally, the goddess’s avatar may appear at such celebrations.”
The Unicorn Goddess harbors intense hatred for the God of the Hunt, Mara; she severely condemns the Beast King for aiding the Red Robe Wizards in creating dark and evil unicorns. Although the Red Robe Wizards have long since disappeared into the pages of history, some dark unicorns still remain in the planes. In contrast, the God of the Hunt, Mara, is eager to taste the Unicorn Goddess’s blood, always seeing her as another worthy target for hunting.
………………
As night fell.
A group of predators gradually approached the depths of the Elven Forest. The hatred between the God of the Hunt and the Unicorn Goddess has lasted for thousands of years, so these church believers are eager to hunt unicorns.
The predators’ plan is very meticulous.
They plan to infiltrate from the rear at midnight, complete the hunt swiftly, and then escape. They have already thoroughly surveyed the nearby terrain, so even if the elves nearby react, the hunting ritual would have long been completed.
Soren does not wish for such an outcome.
Thus, he believes that while this hunt should succeed, it should also be discovered by the elves, and it would be best if more than half of these predators die here. (To be continued ~^~)
