All around Astraea, the vast hall of the Crystal Castle was a hive of activity.
Dozens of young girls and boys, whose physical features blended human traits with the stellar attributes of zodiac animals, flitted back and forth carrying scrolls of light and orbs of data.
These were the goddess’s divine assistants, tasked by her with sifting through the Players’ achievements and suggesting appropriate rewards. However, their discussions were endless and often noisy.
In one corner, a young man with ethereal lion ears and a tail, representing the sign of Leo, was pounding his fist into his palm while arguing with a girl in long robes and a stern gaze, whose wings resembled the constellation of Virgo.
"I completely disagree! The first Player to have sex with a person from this world deserves, at the very least, the title of ’Diplomat of the Bedchamber’ and a charisma bonus!" the Leo boy exclaimed, the sparks of his stellar aura illuminating the debate.
"That’s absurd!" retorted the Virgo girl, her voice as sharp as an ice blade. "That’s not an achievement of development or strength! It’s just a useless distraction. Besides, the report says he’s refused to leave Novata Village 48202 ever since he met that woman. He’s holding back development and wasting our resources because of hormonal feelings!"
"But the Player feels it’s true love!" Another assistant, with star-shaped ram’s horns, intervened, flying between the two. "He swore he doesn’t want to fight monsters anymore, just live a peaceful life growing herbs with her. Doesn’t that show a connection with the soul of Elysium?"
An assistant with Sagittarius features, who was flying by with a stack of notifications, stopped to shout angrily: "That doesn’t count! That woman isn’t even a real person from this world! She’s an inhabitant generated for one of the thousands of Novice Villages we created for initial testing! Even though she’s based on a real person, she’s just a simulated existence for basic support! Giving a global reward for that would be an insult to the seriousness of this project!"
Astraea closed her eyes for a moment, trying to block out the sound of that argument about the validity of love between a Player and an initial instance inhabitant.
She preferred to focus on something that had recently become her favorite hobby: observing the unusual pair formed by the little blue Slime and the delicate white Fox.
She reached out and touched the surface of the crystal-clear water of the divine well beside her, causing the image of Halon and Lisa to appear there.
Watching these two, alongside a few other special individuals who had caught her attention, had become fascinating to Astraea, not only because of the unique combination of a Mythic Race with a Legendary one, but because of the chemistry and closeness that grew between them every day.
Seeing the Slime teasing the Fox with massages and nicknames, and the girl, heir to a powerful otherworldly conglomerate, lowering her icy guard to laugh with him, brought an unexpected comfort to the goddess’s melancholy heart.
However, as she watched their conversation in the main hall of the fossilized tree, Astraea’s body suddenly froze.
Her fatigue vanished in an instant, replaced by a shock that coursed through her divine essence. She heard Lohan’s words about the lack of a reward for the first Dungeon Clear.
"Wait... the Dungeon reward..." Astraea murmured as her golden eyes widened.
She began frantically sifting through the stream of divine data hovering before her; her slender, delicate divine fingers moved across the holographic screens with a speed that made the zodiac assistants stop their discussions to look.
"It can’t be... Brynnear’s log!" Astraea realized, feeling a divine cold sweat.
The system she had created had triggered a data audit following the Matriarch’s death. Since Brynnear was a Player holding the position of Dungeon Boss and using an Epic Matriarch Class to enslave monsters and beings of this world like Pip, the "Dungeon Sovereignty" processing had entered a security loop.
The system was trying to calculate whether the achievement belonged to Halon for the PK, to Lisa for guild leadership, or if it should be nullified due to Player-Boss interference.
"I left the reward package pending during the audit and... I forgot to give the final delivery command!" Astraea exclaimed, covering her mouth with her hand, horrified at having made such a human and amateurish mistake with two of her favorite protégés.
She saw that Lisa and Lohan were already beginning to distrust the system. If she didn’t act now, their faith in Elysium’s impartiality could be shaken, and Astralis Requiem would lose the momentum needed to keep moving forward!
"Zodiacs! Silence!" Astraea’s voice thundered through the hall, immediately silencing the discussion about Vila Novata 48202. "Forget the flirtatious Player. We have a synchronization error in the Mythlorien Sector! The Mythic Slime and the Legendary Fox have completed the first Open World Dungeon and haven’t received their prize for weeks!"
An assistant with Capricorn goat ears, in charge of infrastructure, turned pale. "Lady Astraea, if the Dungeon core has already been fused to their guild, the reward should have been the ’Awakening of the Tree’ and logistical support..."
"Well, it wasn’t delivered!" Astraea retorted, already manipulating the light frequencies to prepare the data packet. "They’re in an empty hall, sleeping on the floor and discussing the guild’s future without even a decent chair to sit on! Prepare the Level 1 Seal of Sovereignty and the Banner of the Mystic Call. I’ll imbue this with a blessing of purification myself to make up for the delay!"
She focused her vision on the hall of the fossilized tree where Lohan and Lisa were standing. With a fluid motion, she sent the pulse of energy through the tree’s connection to the world’s core.
xXx
Inside the tree in Mythlorien, the glowing window that appeared before Lohan and Lisa was no ordinary notification.
It pulsed with a pearlescent, golden glow far more special than the normal windows they usually saw.
[Achievement Synchronization Complete: First Open World Dungeon Clear!]
[System Notice: We apologize for the delay in processing. Due to anomalies detected in the Dungeon Boss (Player: Brynnear), a security audit was conducted to ensure the integrity of the conquest loot.]