Sacred Souls: Genesis

Chapter 369: Chapter 357: Raising Favorability (1st Update! Requesting Monthly Votes!!!) Chapter 369: Chapter 357: Raising Favorability (1st Update! Requesting Monthly Votes!!!) Harvest Goddess, this was one of the deities that Silver, upon inquiring about the… composition of NPCs in the City of Gods, was told by Starry Sky could be a top priority for luring and abducting.

After the new version was released, Starry Sky chose to join the Divine Alliance, and although his activities within the Divine Alliance were few, he had thoroughly investigated all the NPCs within the City of Gods.

Thorough here does not merely refer to the NPCs’ background stories, but also to their general personalities, the tasks they were responsible for, and the abilities they possessed.

Ever since the system for conquering NPCs on Black Tide Island went online, players could see the specific ratings of the city’s NPCs, and the Harvest Goddess was an SR-level goddess under the Earth Mother Goddess, despite being a lower deity.

Silver was currently sitting inside the flower shop where the Harvest Goddess was located…
“It’s not so simple for Spirit to hire a deity…”
The Harvest Goddess’s appearance was as mature as her divine title, and today, as usual, she greeted Spirit’s guests. However, instead of buying flowers, Silver directly placed a bag of Divine Power Crystals on the table indicating ‘Woman, come with me!’
“It’s not for permanent employment; the herbs cultivated at our stronghold have started to wither. Those are precious herbs that we’ve cultivated with great effort. As the Harvest Goddess… you likely have many ways to revive those poor herbs.”

While speaking, Silver placed another small bag of Divine Power Crystals on the table, making the Harvest Goddess’s expression grow even more hesitant.

“This makes it difficult for me, Spirit…” The Harvest Goddess continued to think of reasons to decline Silver’s invitation.

The biggest reason for the Harvest Goddess’s refusal was fear; unlike the powerful higher deities, most deities’ combat strength might not even match that of some powerful mortals.

The Harvest Goddess and the Lake God were among those deities who possessed some power over the laws, but whose combat strength was pitifully weak.

Whether she could defeat a Spirit was a huge question, let alone taking the risk of working at Spirit’s stronghold.

In the eyes of the Harvest Goddess, this was as dangerous as a little lamb entering a wolf’s den.

Tales of the terrifying Devouring God circulated throughout the City of Gods.

“I see, then I’ve troubled you.”

At this point, Silver glanced at the Harvest Goddess’s favorability status and noticed that the favorability figure had begun to show a declining trend.

If Silver chose the wrong dialogue or said something amiss, the Harvest Goddess’s favorability could plummet into the negatives.

The Spirit’s newly released system for conquering wild NPCs… even to Silver, who was clueless about dating sims, seemed quite interesting.

The dialogue options that he had to estimate when speaking to NPCs still existed, detailing the NPCs’ likely reactions to those options, while charm and eloquence greatly enhanced his conversational effectiveness.

Knowing that pushing the Harvest Goddess further would result in a loss of favorability, Silver chose to turn around and leave the flower shop.

The Harvest Goddess breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing Silver’s departure, but then noticed that Silver had not taken the two bags of Divine Power Crystals he had left on the table.

“Wait! Spirit,” said the Harvest Goddess, who still had her integrity and refused to accept such unsolicited charity.

“It seems that the Spirits are not interested in your flower shop,” Silver directly said to the Harvest Goddess, “so consider these Divine Power Crystals as payment for this bunch of flowers.”

After saying this, Silver casually picked an unknown flower from the shop, then left the Harvest Goddess’s shop with Starry Sky.

As Silver closed the door, he saw a system prompt pop up…
“Received 41 expressions of goodwill from the Harvest Goddess.”

“The Harvest Goddess’s fondness for you has increased to ‘like’.”

“Just as I deduced, these gods have young mindsets. Even this could make their hearts flutter. Silver, where did you learn this from, some novel?”

The Starry Scribe squad stood by dumbfounded as a bunch of little hearts suddenly fell upon Silver, having previously thought that Silver’s negotiation had failed spectacularly. Yet, as soon as he stepped out the door, forty-one little hearts flew into Silver’s backpack.

“I simply chose from the system’s preset options. Though these conversation choices have a certain chance of success, it looks like I’m pretty lucky today.” Silver had barely taken a few steps when the Harvest Goddess abruptly pushed open the door to her own flower shop behind him.

“The bouquet in your hand is not worth so many Divine Power Crystals!” The Harvest Goddess, typically the meticulous type, found herself in a situation where she couldn’t afford to let go of the two hundred crystals, so “I accept your commission, but I need some time! Where should I find you afterwards?”

“The Fountain Plaza in the City of Gods, tomorrow at twelve… Thank you, Harvest Goddess.”

After handling one goddess, Silver didn’t linger and immediately pulled Starry along toward another side of the City of Gods.

“Where is the God of Livestock?” Once out of the Harvest Goddess’s sight, Silver promptly summoned his mount and began to race through the city.

As time passed, more and more players would join the favor-granting event, so Silver needed to make contact with his targets before the other players could reach them.

“I heard from the forums that many gods are not in their shops today; they must be at the Godly Council.” Starry followed on his own bicycle, a ride that, despite looking quite shabby, was a rare mount in Spirit.

“The Godly Council?”

Silver lightly patted the Chocobo he rode, which cooed softly and stopped running, looking at Silver quizzically.

“The NPCs of the Godly Alliance hold a council every once in a while, without any regular schedule. A mass disappearance of NPCs in the city surely means they’ve gone to convene.”

“Is there a way in?” Silver was finding it quite troublesome and difficult to chaotically run around the city searching for each NPC individually.

Now, a plot event had conveniently gathered all the NPCs together… which was a big help to him.

“I discovered a pathway to the council hall while researching the architectural style of this city a while back, but don’t you think barging in on their meeting could cause us to lose their favor?” The Starry Scribe squad’s idea was to wait until after the gods finished their council and then isolate and approach them one by one.

“No time for that.” Silver glanced at the messages in the Spirit Quarrel Group. Leaders of major guilds had noticed this event and showed great interest in the stones used for city building.

Just as the Spirits’ first encounter with the Magic Thieves on Black Tide Island, the mobs were no real challenge in the players’ eyes. The only worthy opponents were other players!

“Take me there, I have some experience in joining negotiations. Plus, I’ve borrowed quite a few charm- and eloquence-enhancing pieces of equipment from Fluffy Bunny and Black Pot Meat Stew. Should be fine,” said Silver.

“Charm-boosting equipment… How high is your charm right now, Silver?” The Starry Scribe squad glanced at the cowboy hat atop Silver’s head, under which was also hidden a hairpin.

If he wasn’t mistaken, that hairpin would be the highest charm-boosting Special Equipment in the entire server, known as the Beauty Goddess’s Jade Hairpin.

“Seventy-eight. I’m fully decked out in charm and eloquence gear, number one across the server,” Silver said. “It’s just that wearing it all makes me feel a bit mentally exhausted; other than that, it’s fine.”

“I’ve lost all hope for this looks-based NPC game.”

The Starry Scribe squad silently rode his bike, looking at his own pitiful charm score of five… an indescribable sense of sorrow welled up within him.