The Advancing Maiden

"Little Black, do we really need to keep going?" Vivian gazed at the depths of the forest ahead, where the vegetation grew thicker and denser, and the girl instinctively shrank her neck.

But the little beast cradled in her arms let out a weak whimper, nudging her with a small paw.

Reminded by Liao Zixuan's gesture, the girl realized she'd been clutching Little Black too tightly out of nervousness. And she didn't have much meat on her bones anywhere, especially her chest—it was practically flat as a board.

"Mm—sorry, Little Black." Vivian's childish face flushed instantly, not from shyness, but sheer embarrassment, and she quickly apologized.

But just as the one-girl-one-wolf were exchanging words, a muffled roar suddenly rang out from the ancient tree above and to the girl's side.

In the next instant, a massive black shadow, half a person tall, lunged down with lightning speed at the defenseless Vivian on the ground, striking straight!

It was a leopard-shaped demon beast with sharp fangs and claws, clearly stalking the girl for a long time, waiting for a moment of carelessness to deliver a killing blow.

And now, for it, was clearly the perfect chance!

Then—

Then there was no then.

Before its claws could even touch the girl's body, the demon leopard's own form bizarrely ignited, consumed by black flames mid-air, and by the time it hit the ground, only a charred, unrecognizable corpse remained.

As for our Vivian, she was first startled by the blackened corpse falling from the sky, but quickly recovered, even growing somewhat accustomed to it, gradually adapting.

No other reason—this kind of thing had happened far too many times along the way.

This was part of Liao Zixuan's plan.

The girl might not excel at much else, but as bait to attract demon beasts, she was absolutely top-tier.

On the journey toward the forest depths' boss lair, Liao Zixuan naturally wouldn't let the girl idle, especially since a fierce battle might lie ahead.

As they ventured deeper, they'd gradually left the newbie zone behind, and the monsters' levels rose accordingly.

If it were just ordinary template forest demons, no problem—higher levels just meant more free experience. But once they reached boss-level, gaining an elite template with "specialties," even Liao Zixuan had to tread carefully.

Thus, giving Vivian some self-defense capability first, turning her from a dead weight in battle, was Liao Zixuan's top priority.

But that wasn't actually too hard, since Vivian was a legendary NPC with a player template, no bottlenecks—just keep killing monsters for experience to level up and advance easily.

And sure enough—

With the kill of this demon leopard, the experience the girl had accumulated finally pushed her past the level 10 threshold.

In "Fall of the Gods," every ten levels was a milestone, accompanied by class advancement and enhancement. Liao Zixuan clearly saw Vivian's stats rapidly changing.

The most notable change was her main class shedding the "Apprentice" from [Apprentice Summoner], becoming [Summoner Lv1].

Don't underestimate just losing those two words—behind it came a slew of class specialties only available to a full-fledged "Summoner."

For example—

[Telepathy]—You and your Summoned Beast share a spiritual connection, unrestricted by language, able to transmit thoughts to each other within a certain range.

"Moshi moshi?"

"Sawaddee krap?"

"Hello?"

"Can you hear me!!"

The sudden voice in her head genuinely startled Vivian, nearly making the girl toss Liao Zixuan, whom she was holding, right out of her arms.

"Wh-who's talking?" The girl nervously looked left and right, until she felt a little paw scratching at her, then dropped her gaze downward.

"Little Black... was that you talking to me?" The girl's eyes were full of disbelief.

Liao Zixuan nodded his wolf head, his expression a bit helpless.

Since the girl had just advanced, her mastery of the [Telepathy] class specialty was still rough, so their communication was limited to vague thoughts, not full sentences.

Still, this was a hundred times better than relying solely on body language like before.

After realizing she could truly communicate with Little Black—Liao Zixuan—Vivian was ecstatic. No wonder; the girl had been alone in the forest, and what she needed most was someone to lean on.

Besides, she'd been holding back a bellyful of things to say.

"Little Black... I... I feel like ever since we went deeper into the forest, my body's been... getting strange!" The girl bent down, gently setting Liao Zixuan on the ground, and looked at her own hands with a bewildered expression.

"I keep feeling... like something's trying to burst out."

Maybe by instinct, Vivian muttered to herself as she unconsciously raised one hand.

The girl might not have realized it yet, but Liao Zixuan, the Dark Flame Wolf highly sensitive to magic, noticed that the moment she lifted her hand, the magical energy in the surrounding forest went wild, as if a giant pump were madly funneling it into the girl's frail body.

Then, as if hitting a breaking point, a dazzling halo of magical light bloomed from Vivian's palm, and before the girl herself could react, it transformed into a pure surge of magical power, howling off into the distance.

Boom!

Boom!!

A massive explosion erupted in the forest the next moment.

A straight line stretched out from Vivian's starting point, cutting the forest in half as if sliced by a blade. Every tree in its path was obliterated, crashing down, leaving a vacuum zone.

With a thud.

The girl sat dazed on the ground, scared by her own power, her face a perfect picture of "Who am I, where am I, what did I just do?"

The Liao Zixuan who had been dismissive and unimpressed was now stunned by the sight, rubbing his eyes with his little wolf paws in a somewhat comical manner.

All "Spellcaster" class professions shared the basic skill [Magic Missile].

In theory, that was how it worked.

But if the spellcasters of the "Fall of the Gods" world learned that the terrifying destruction just caused came from a country girl who had only just shed her "apprentice" title, had never touched magic before, and came from who-knows-what remote corner, acting purely on instinct and subconscious—

They would absolutely never believe it, even if you beat them to death.

Because if this were really true, they would throw all dignity to the wind, lock onto her coordinates with massive teleportation magic, and rush over to snatch her up.

Why?

A peerless genius! What incredible magical talent! Terrifying beyond measure!

But in reality, the principle was very simple, and Liao Zixuan quickly figured it out. It all came down to his "insane" style of attribute allocation for the girl.

Namely, every single stat point gained from leveling up was dumped entirely into "Elemental Affinity," the attribute that affects magical power.

This meant that although Vivian was only level 10, in terms of "Elemental Affinity" alone, she could rival a level 20 second-tier profession—an "Elemental Mage" whose absolute forte was magic.

In fact, players from the previous life had tried this allocation method before, but it never produced such terrifying results. Because, at the end of the day, players were just data strings, constrained by the system. Excessively inflated values would automatically be diluted and kept within a reasonable range.

But Vivian was different. As a native, she used her own real body. In other words, the attributes gained from leveling up were not diluted at all, becoming the girl's power completely.

It was like the player side was using addition, while the little girl was straight-up using multiplication!

At just level 10, she was already this monstrous. What about later, at level 20, level 30?

The moment this thought crossed his mind, Liao Zixuan's eyes burned with intensity. The Dark Flame Wolf turned into a big bad wolf, drooling openly at the still-dazed girl.

Although he himself was also in the "bug" category alongside Vivian, and even had a starting point countless times higher—

But as the saying goes, true big shots never get their own hands dirty!

That was also why Liao Zixuan had always been so enthusiastic about the role of a training partner.

Compared to showing off himself—which he had long grown tired of—Liao Zixuan preferred to personally guide and cultivate outstanding people, then watch them show off!

So.

Charge forward, girl!

The entire Flame Domain and God of Fire of version 1.0 are waiting for you to save!

Just as Liao Zixuan was still immersed in the excitement of "the neighbor's daughter is growing up"—

He had no idea that another "super gift," one that would absolutely delight him, was rapidly heading his way, all because of the commotion Vivian had caused.