The Only Thing Granted

"You've really changed since the last time I saw you, even though it's only been ten days."

The beautiful Goddess spoke to Shien, who was staring at her blankly, with a tone that was somewhere between admiration and amusement.

Her voice, as pleasant as a song that would be remembered for ages, reached Shien's ears, leaving him speechless for a long time.

However, the reason for his silence wasn't that Shien was captivated by the stunningly beautiful Goddess before him and unable to break free from her spell.

Shien was simply lost for words.

It couldn't be helped.

"Why am I back here again?"

Could it be that he had died again?

As Shien pondered this, the Goddess, as if seeing through his thoughts, suddenly smiled.

"Don't overthink it, you're not here because you died," the Goddess said. "You can check for yourself. This time, I summoned you here with your body."

Prompted by the Goddess, Shien finally realized this fact.

Indeed, unlike the last time he was summoned here, Shien wasn't appearing as an incorporeal being. This time, he was truly here with his body, his feet firmly planted on the ground, not floating in mid-air like before.

In other words...

"This time, I was summoned while alive?"

Shien looked at the Goddess before him.

"That's right," the Goddess nodded. "Seeing that you finally escaped the monster-filled forest, entered a human town, became an adventurer, and were about to settle down in this world, I summoned you over to say hello."

The sheer capriciousness of her motive made Shien really want to say, "If you were so eager for me to enter a human town and officially settle in this other world, why didn't you just throw me into a human town from the start instead of a forest full of monsters?"

And this unspoken thought, once again, elicited a response from the Goddess.

"If I hadn't thrown you into the forest at the beginning, wouldn't you have been unable to level up or learn so many skills?" the Goddess said with a half-smile. "And if you didn't personally experience your own uniqueness, how could you have quickly realized how much more outstanding you, as a Hero, are compared to ordinary people?"

This statement made Shien's face fall.

So, to make him fully understand how unique he was, this Goddess had deliberately thrown him into a forest full of monsters instead of a human town?

Wasn't she afraid he'd be eaten by monsters?

As soon as this thought arose, the Goddess's answer immediately followed.

"Of course not," the Goddess said with absolute certainty. "With the protection of the Sacred Sword, you'd be fine even if I threw you into the Demon Realm, let alone a forest where the monsters are at most level fifty."

Hearing this, Shien finally couldn't hold back.

"Excuse me, Goddess, can you read minds? How do you know everything I'm thinking?" Shien protested. "And don't act like you had nothing to do with it; you caused all of this!"

Weren't the Sacred Sword and all sorts of skills things this Goddess had bestowed upon him?

After all, Shien had originally been an utterly ordinary person.

Just as Shien was thinking this, the Goddess denied his statement.

"No, that's where you're mistaken," the Goddess said. "Whether it's the Sacred Sword or skills, those are your own things. I merely awakened them."

Upon hearing this, Shien was stunned.

"My own things?"

Shien couldn't quite process it.

Seeing his reaction, the Goddess began to explain.

"The so-called Sacred Sword is actually the power born from the concept of 'Hero.' It's a characteristic possessed by those from other worlds like you, who are summoned to this world as Heroes."

The Goddess explained in her incredibly beautiful, song-like voice.

"Just as some people within Omnipotens can awaken their own unique skills, which are called Unique Skills, you Heroes from other worlds also possess your own Unique Skills. Furthermore, you have one additional characteristic compared to the people of Omnipotens. Once summoned to this world as a Hero, you can naturally awaken your own Sacred Sword and Unique Skill. I simply accelerated this process by directly awakening your Sacred Sword and Unique Skill."

If it weren't for this, why would they need to summon Heroes from other worlds?

If the Goddess could freely bestow powerful Sacred Swords and Unique Skills upon anyone, she wouldn't need to summon people from other worlds specifically to defeat the Demon Lord; she could simply choose Heroes from her own world.

"Ultimately, if I, as a God, need to ask for help from others to defeat the Demon Lord, it proves that I am at least incapable of defeating the Demon Lord myself," the Goddess said frankly. "If I could arbitrarily grant others such powerful Sacred Swords and Unique Skills, I might as well defeat the Demon Lord myself. What need would I have for Heroes?"

The perfectly logical explanation almost left Shien speechless again.

But upon closer thought, it did seem to make sense.

"In your world, it seems Gods cannot arbitrarily interfere with the course of human affairs. So, even if you see a Demon Lord harming the world, you can only watch helplessly, perhaps offering help to humans so they can defeat the Demon Lord themselves, right? That's what myths and legends say," the Goddess said, finding it somewhat amusing. "Unfortunately, this is not a world from the myths and legends you know. While there are many similarities, this is still reality, and some things are ultimately different."

What things were different?

"For example, in this world, the God race and the Demon race have been mortal enemies for countless millennia, warring since a very, very long time ago."

The Goddess stated calmly.

"For us, the Demon Lord is the greatest enemy. If we could eliminate them with our own power, we would have done so long ago. There are no rules preventing us from interfering with human affairs; rather, the God race frequently influences the human world, bringing about much intervention."

Therefore, in this world, for the lives in the human world, God is faith, but not something ethereal. It is something that truly exists.

"You already know about Blessings, don't you?" the Goddess pointed out. "Blessings are the most common form of interference from us Gods towards the lives of the human world. You also bear a Blessing that I have bestowed, which is the only thing I have truly granted you."

Aside from the Blessing, which was granted by the Goddess, everything else was Shien's own power.

Whether it was the Sacred Sword or his Unique Skill, those were things Shien was destined to possess, and had almost no connection to the Goddess before him.

To put it simply:

"Your anomalies are almost entirely your own doing, and have nothing to do with me. To put it in terms of your previous world, don't just blame me for everything."

The Goddess's words left Shien speechless.

Seeing Shien like this, the Goddess smiled.

"Anyway, we still have some time, so let's talk a little about this world."

With that, the Goddess waved her hand, conjuring a tea table and tea.

Today's third update!

We're expecting a strong recommendation tomorrow, so I hope all my friends will show their support then! (bows)