Chapter 14 Forest Goddess

6 months have passed since Maria came back to Lunar Fox City and there is a strange rumor going around the nearby villages and amongst the common people and merchants.

"Have you heard about the Forest Goddess?" said a middle-aged man who was working at a bar.

"Nah, what the hell is that, huh? Some kind of joke?" A burly man who looked like a hunter said.

"Rumor has it that right before the inner region of Dark Moon Forest there is a Goddess that lives in a cave. She has silver hair and red eyes and wields a scythe. The ground around the cave is dyed red, there are bones piled up everywhere and the air is freezing near the cave."

"Huh? What the fuck are you talking about? This is probably just some crap you heard from some village rumor or something that got passed along to those idiot merchants. No way in hell I'd believe nonsense like that."

"Suit yourself."

This type of conversation was happening all over the villages surrounding Dark Moon Forest and amongst the common people in Lunar Fox City.

,m Many villagers or hunters that hunted magical beasts and sold them wanted to try their luck at seeing this Forest Goddess. Most people that went out searching said they never found anything. This isn't odd as the Dark Moon Forest is rather large. Finding a specific cave is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Occasionally people would find it. Most men were instantly killed when they got close enough. Some men were lucky and stayed at a distance when they noticed that this area smelled of blood and death. Most women were given a warning shot as icicles shot at their feet. If they didn't leave then they would face 'Divine Retribution' as well.

Now rumor started going around that the Forest Goddess hates men and will kill on sight. Many people didn't believe this at first, but when more men starting going missing when they set out to find the Forest Goddess while the women would come back and say that they heard an ice-like voice full of killing into say "Leave." All of the women left after that. Especially from seeing that the place surrounding the cave had a thick death aura surrounding it. They knew if they didn't leave they would immediately die.

Some people had a hard time accepting this. How is it fair that only the women can come back alive? Various young heroes went to try and get an explanation only for their heads to get chopped off before they could even speak.

After a while, people stopped bothering the Forest Goddess. The rumors didn't decrease though, instead, more and more people talked about it. Some thought it was an old monster that just wanted to live in peace. Others thought it was an intelligent magical beast that was in the forest for some reason. There were various speculations on who the Forest Goddess was, but none would've guessed that it's some little girl.

The girl in question is currently sitting in her cave, but there is one major difference between the cave that she's in now than the cave from 6 months ago. The inside of the cave is covered in ice. It's not as thick at the entrance, but at the back of the cave, it's 50-60 centimeters thick on all sides. This is due to her a couple of reasons. The first reason is her meditating and progressing further in the Dao of Ice. She would release an ice-cold aura to try to freeze the surroundings as being surrounded by ice can help with understanding. Another reason is to try to temper her muscles. Tempering her muscles would be better if she was in a freezing pool, but she doesn't have a liquid that can stay a liquid in sub-freezing temperatures. She would often try different abilities with ice that can increase her battle prowess.

Being constantly surrounded by ice gives her so many benefits as long as she is vigilant and can stand the freezing temperatures for an extended period of time. The process of tempering muscles is compressing them so that she looks almost like a normal kid, but her muscles have an explosive power just waiting to burst. Ice can increase this effect as ice has the ability to compress things due to the cold.

Mira was sitting down meditating when she suddenly picked up her scythe and swung down. A curved, sharp blade of ice, that was exactly the same as the blade on her scythe shot out. It flew for about 20 meters before stopping and dissipating.

"Hmmm, that one was pretty good. I think this could be useful in battle as a mid-range attack. It could also be used as a gap closer along with the momentum of the scythe. This ability has decent potential but lacks creativity. Whatever, it's better than shooting ice shards at people. It will be a good standard move."

Mira started practicing this move some more before she became comfortable with it and was about to return to meditating when she thought of something.

"People have stopped coming to visit me lately. Well, I guess me killing everyone that doesn't heed my warning has started to go around causing fewer people to try and contact me. And what's with that name, Forest Goddess. Argh, I feel a headache coming on just thinking about the trouble that these idiots have spread. Should I leave the cave or should I stay? Even though I like this cave, beasts don't come anymore and I don't think I can temper my muscles much more. The only problem is that if they send people to look for me to see who I am and what I'm doing and don't find me they might continue to search for me which would be annoying. Fuck it, I'll go look for a new cave. I'll come back in 1 and a half years to see if Maria decided, I'll lay low until then. "

Mira started gathering her stuff then left.

Back in Lunar Fox City

The higher-ups in Lunar Fox City were discussing the rumors of the Forest Goddess.

"What do you think about this rumor Rineheart?" said a lively-looking old man with a long white beard.

"Hmph! This is probably just some stupid rumor the commoners have spread to scare their children." The head of the Rineheart family said.

"You could be right, but there is probably some truth to it. It could be an intelligent beast that wandered into the forest or it could be an old monster that's come to the forest for some reason. Obviously, she wants to be left alone, but we should still send someone to search just in case."

There were 8 other people in the room other than the lively old man and the Rineheart Family Head. They were the various heads or leaders of the sects or families in the city. Everyone agreed to the suggestion of sending someone to investigate.

Cole was also in this room as he was the Head of the Zaria family. He was rather conflicted about this as he knew that it was probably Mira in that cave. With how Maria described how much Mira hates guys and with no guys ever returning whenever they found her, he was able to confirm Maria's suspicion.

The various leaders decided to send the Rineheart family to lead the investigation with a Foundation Realm female with various other families sending their daughters, that were at Qi Condensation, to go with them. They didn't want to take any chances. If it was some old monster that hated guys bothering her, then their sons would just get slaughtered for no reason. This might even cause the downfall of the city. If various leaders had their sons killed by this unknown person then they might go to war with her. And if it was an old monster then the whole city would be annihilated and everyone killed. So even though it was still a rumor, it was better to be safe than sorry.

Around a week later, there were 10 females at the Qi Condensation Realm and above at the entrance of Lunar Fox City ready to set out.