Chapter 451 - New Knowledge

"You're the Celestial Empress?" Shiro narrowed her eyes warily.

"Yup. I'll have to say though Shiro, despite having the possibility to become the next Celestial Empress, you certainly don't act like one." The Empress said as she glanced at Kuromi.

"Plus, you've brought someone along despite this being a solo trial. I already know about the fact that you're technically the same person but it's certainly not the best feeling to have my trial turned upside down like this."

"Oh? Let me guess, you wanted me to team up with the humans in the other cities." Shiro joked.

"Exactly. However, now that you've made an enemy with the royal family, things are going south. Your tutorial has basically ended since you've scared off the last owner of the Celestial Weapon."

"Ha? This is the tutorial?" Shiro raised her eyebrows.

"Yup. This is so that you can get a stable footing in this world. I'll admit though, I did edit this trial a little since you went completely against my expectations. The fact that you actually fixed the spear instead of using it as a clue to find me is quite infuriating. Just when I find a person to balance out the equation, you kill her and take her gauntlets. I added three other weapons so that you could form alliances to gain their support but instead you rob two and scare off the last one. Do you know how annoying it is to have something you put effort into get destroyed because of someone's whims?" The Empress complained as Shiro watched with a blank face.

"Wait so you're telling me that this trial is your doing?" Kuromi asked.

"Yeah, Shiro is inheriting my class after all." The Empress nodded her head.

"Then does that mean you have a connection with the system higher than just being a player?"

"Yes it does."

Staying silent, Kuromi furrowed her brows as she went into deep thought.

"While big sis does her thing, I have a few questions of my own." Shiro said as she sat down on one of the boulders.

"First, since you're quite chill with having a small chat, I want to know more details about the items that I need for my class up. Are you able to tell me?" Shiro asked.

"Hmm… depends on what you want to know. I can give you a rough location of where you can obtain these items." The Empress smiled.

"However, in return, I want to understand you a bit better. I cannot have someone unqualified to become the Celestial Empress after all."

"Sure. But do you want to talk here? It's a little open, no?" Shiro asked as she glanced at the battlefield behind her.

"Oh , I can deal with that." The Empress chuckled and snapped her fingers.

All of a sudden, everything in the world came to a halt. The bird stopped flying in mid air and soldiers were frozen in their place.

Only Kuromi, Shiro and the Empress were unaffected.

"You stopped time?"

"This is my quest after all. As the admin of this place, I have some privileges. Now for my first question, how did you become queen of the spirits?" The Empress asked with a serious face.

"I'll reply to that once you also tell me what I want to know." Shiro smiled.

"Are you trying to negotiate with me?" The Empress raised her eyebrows.

"Well perhaps. But it's about this class so it shouldn't be too hard for you to tip me a few hints now would it?" Shiro said while keeping her smile.

"Interesting. In that case then I'll let you ask first."

"Where do I find the B ranked Celestial Catalyst." Shiro asked.

"You can get that once you finish this trial. My turn, it's the same question I had asked earlier." The Empress replied.

"You see, I'm not too sure about how my current class came into my hands. I was actually classing up to a different one when I apparently fulfilled a few hidden requirements and got a hidden class." Shiro shrugged.

". . .The f*ck? How can you just become the god damn queen of a race that easily???" The Empress widened her eyes in confusion.

"Don't look at me, ask the system."

"I already have! And it's not telling me f*ck all!" The Empress retorted as she quickly coughed and calmed herself down.

"Sorry about that. Anyways, what's your next question?" She smiled.

'The hell?' Shiro raised her eyebrows after that little outburst but shrugged it off. However, she knew that this meant the Empress tried to ask the system about her but for some reason, she couldn't find out anything.

"Well my next question is how can I get the Celestial Mana Essence?" Shiro asked.

"Ah that, it's pretty simple as you can probably make it yourself. However, if you're able to complete the trial with a high enough grade, I'll allow you to receive the essence as a completion reward." The Empress replied.

"Now then, it's my turn again. I-"

"Hold on, can I ask you something?" Kuromi cut in as the Empress thought about it and nodded her head.

"Sure. What do you want to ask?"

"What's the system's power over the dungeon and how did you become an admin? From what I know, Shiro was able to retrieve a person from a quest and the system changed everyone's knowledge about that person since other people had completed the quest before but not to Shiro's standard. In the process, she somewhat made an enemy of the light goddess who tried to disrupt the system but was stopped. How could something that has already happened be changed? And why was the goddess able to affect the system?" Kuromi asked as the Empress narrowed her eyes.

"That's quite an ambitious question you know?"

"I know but I feel like Shiro should know about this since things are becoming serious in the outside world. Apparently, queens are coming to our world through portals and creating anchors for some reason. Not only that, the age of demons and gods will arrive soon according to one of the queens." Kuromi replied as the Empress widened her eyes.

"Wait what!? The age of demons and gods is happening soon!?" She cried out in shock.

"Damn this isn't good. Ok, no more questions. You need to finish this trial quickly since there isn't enough time to find another person to take my class. I'll tell you the next step since you've basically finished the tutorial. Just know that I'll do some edits on my side to make things 'easier' depending on how you look at it. While the difficulty will increase to Celestial God, you'll be able to finish it in the shortest time possible and reap the most rewards. Not only that, completing one god trial is equal to three immortal trials so one of your requirements will be completed." The Empress explained in a hurry while tapping away.

"Wait, why are you reacting like this?" Kuromi furrowed her brows.

"Damn, ok how do I explain this… right, the age of demons and gods is an extinction level event for you. Seeing as though you're only level 100 despite the queens already arriving, there's a good chance that your race will be exterminated within the first 2 years. In this new generation, the gods aren't exactly the most benevolent since they need to survive themselves. Hell, rather than age of demons and gods, it's more like a blender with the gods/demons being the blades that shred you apart." The Empress replied.

"So how do you know about this event and why is it happening?" Shiro asked curiously.

"I know because I've been through the age of demons and gods already and I can tell you that it's not fancy. Every 'garden' is given this trial to see if it can become the main home of sorts. Should the 'garden' fail this trial, it'll be eliminated. Once-"

[Warning, you are about to exceed the amount of information allowed to give due to your contract and privilege. Should you continue, the system will deem that as you breaking the contract and subsequent punishment will be handed.]

Reading the notice, the Empress gritted her teeth with annoyance.

"Crap! Ok, my contract with the system doesn't allow me to say much more but know this. As you are right now, even if you do complete the trial, there's a good chance for you to be eliminated quickly. You NEED to get as strong as possible. Your 'garden' is already part of the later batches and anymore failures would be devastating. I've already set up the trial so that the main quest will appear in your system soon. Just go to the location and finish it as soon as possible. I can't kill the person with the armour so that you can have it but I can hinder him to make things easier for you." The Empress said while swiping at a few holographic screens.

Seeing how anxious she was at this, both Shiro and Kuromi knew that things weren't looking good.

[Rank Up Trial Updated. Tutorial Complete.]

[Main Quest Updated]

[Clear the corruption: A portal of sorts seemed to have opened up in the centre of the capital city. Powerful people started to go missing one after the other as an ominous presence can be felt within the portal.

This is the final quest, anything and everything you do will affect your final score.]