Chapter 1160 – Perplexing Plots Across the Milky Way

“Another one?” Miranda asked with exasperation. “And let me guess, they need help?”

“So far they haven’t requested it, but I think that’s a safe assumption,” Lillian answered calmly. “While they should be able to defeat a B-grade themselves, the losses they would incur would be massive.”

“Yeah, I guess their only viable strategy would be to throw bodies at it until the damn thing gets tired out,” Miranda nodded. “Assuming it’s another weak variant, that is.”

“All signs indicate it is,” Lillian said. “I would guess a request for assistance is imminent.”

“Alright… see if the people from Valhal would like to handle this one,” Miranda sighed, not really having many other options at this point, as most of the other elite factions or teams were busy.

Miranda had expected that dealing with the emergence of B-grades would be a challenge, but it had happened earlier than expected. What’s more, it was all over the galaxy.

Luckily, it was still confined to the top planets of the Milky Way, and some of the planets could handle it on their own. Kindroth, as an example, had reported the emergence of three B-grades so far, but he and his forces had handled them on their own.

The same was true for the other top factions in the galaxy that controlled planets. While they didn’t necessarily have any individuals capable of fighting B-grades, numbers could still make up for the difference.

If it were truly powerful, B-grades would have been a lot harder to handle, but so far, all the ones appearing have been at the bottom of the barrel. It did make sense, though.

These were all B-grades that had consumed special system-given natural treasures during the early parts of the integration and experienced massive growth due to it. Their Paths were shaky to say the least, and at most, they had one lucky encounter that allowed them to barely evolve to B-grade.

To make matters more annoying, many of these B-grades were actively causing problems for the current leadership of the planets. To be clear, Miranda believed there were actually far more B-grades than they knew, but most of them were smart enough to stay the hell away from the enlightened settlements, and if they did approach, they did so with no ill intent.

The same really couldn’t be said about the problematic B-grades. What’s more, they all shared the commonality of carrying blessings. Usually very low-tier blessings, but Blessings nonetheless. Additionally, all the gods giving out these Blessings actively hid their identities.

Miranda and the rest of Earth’s intelligence network had tried to uncover who was behind this, but sadly, there weren’t really any reliable ways to confirm a god’s name. Sure, if a god used Identify on someone blessed, there was a good chance they could see through it, but sadly for Miranda, they didn’t have any gods handy.

Fortunately, despite the best attempts of these B-grades, none of them had managed to accomplish anything meaningful. A significant reason for their failure was the arrival of backup from the Order of the Malefic Viper.

Draskil had already been around and was a great help with other elites gone from the planet. When Scarlett had arrived about a year ago and helped Holstred deal with the Bristleboar B-grade, things had really turned around.

Scarlett was proof of what a true B-grade could be. While she had also gained power rapidly through consuming potent system-provided natural treasures, she had gotten incredibly lucky and found an even more fortuitous encounter to address her shaky foundation.

She had gained the Blessing of the Forefather of her entire race pretty early on in C-grade and afterwards even gone to the Order of the Malefic Viper to improve herself further. Then, armed with knowledge and an improved Path, she spent fifty years tempering herself inside of Nevermore. Once she was out of time there, she had already been close to peak C-grade and only needed a little more to fully evolve.

Additionally, the snake had also told Miranda a great deal about the considerable resources invested in her. Not by the Order of the Malefic Viper, mind you, but the Dragonflights that had seemingly decided that Scarlett would be their connection to the Chosen of the Malefic Viper.

All of this had resulted in Scarlett turning into a relatively high-tier B-grade. Her power was truly proof of the vast gulf in power that could exist even within the same grade. Miranda had been a bit worried about putting so much on Scarlett, but so far, she’d yet to encounter a single B-grade she wasn’t capable of killing near-instantly, with little to no effort.

Her venom was simply too powerful for anything to handle. It didn’t even matter what she attacked, as even a damn water elemental found itself poisoned to death. Miranda was also fully aware that a single bite from Scarlett would kill her and pretty much any other C-grade alive, with only a scarce few exceptions. Draskil being one of them.

As Miranda was in thought, they had a knock on the door. Looking up, Miranda realized who it was as she waved her hand.

The door swung open, revealing a familiar elf.

“This lowly one is honored to have the Voice of the One visit her humble planet,” Miranda said in a mocking tone.

“My mere presence is indeed a gift upon your life,” Kindroth responded with a dry chuckle. “Humor aside, allow me to get directly to the point. According to my contacts, the Holy Church is not affiliated with this god or gods trying to cause a disturbance. They also aren’t aware of who it could be, though they do have their speculations.”

“Ones similar to ours?” Miranda asked inquisitively.

“Yeah,” Kindroth nodded. “Yip of Yore had a lot of allies and people who believed in him. While the Malefic One got rid of a lot of them, far more exist out there. I would almost be surprised if something like this didn’t happen.”

“True, especially when it seems so low-risk,” Miranda muttered.

“But not entirely risk or consequence-free,” Kindroth pointed out. “Giving out that many Blessings isn’t free, and I can only imagine the losses that whatever gods are involved have already suffered.”

“That’s why I said low risk,” Miranda shook her head. “Activity has recently slowed down across the board, making me think the enemy has either given up…”

“Or they are gearing up for something bigger,” Kindroth finished her sentence. “They must know they can’t keep doing this forever. Not only is it unsustainable and incurs too big a cost, but it’s also too risky. If they go too far…”

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“The karmic footprint they’ll leave will be too substantial and potentially allow us to discover their identities,” Miranda took her turn to finish Kindroth’s sentence.

“Exactly,” the elven World Leader smiled. “I can only surmise that whatever god or gods are behind this weren’t open supporters of Yip of Yore; if they were, there would be no reason for all the subterfuge.”

“I do agree with that assumption,” Miranda said. “What I can’t quite figure out is the why yet. Sure, I get the motive, but not the goal. This other party must know that they can’t accomplish anything meaningful by just having a bunch of problematic B-grades and peak C-grades create trouble around the place.”

“I could make guesses, but there are none I’m confident of,” Kindroth sighed. “Though it is possible, this god is just incredibly incompetent and their plans were messed up from the moment that white snake arrived on the planet.”

“Her name is Scarlett,” Miranda corrected the elf.

“Right,” the World Leader nodded, as he seemed to be in thought for a moment. “If I may ask, who was behind her name? Because it doesn’t seem like one the Chosen of the Malefic One would have thought up.”

“Oh?” Miranda exclaimed, acting dumb. “What could you possibly mean by that?”

Kindroth just looked at her with a raised eyebrow before she chuckled.

“Hey, I think he’s getting better,” Miranda said, shaking her head. “The latest name he gave was Jasper.”

“Is it an elemental made of gems? Maybe a golem?”

“No, and I was also shocked when I learned it wasn’t,” Miranda said, a hint of proudness in her voice.

“Impressive,” Kindroth said, Miranda unable to tell if he was joking or not. “Alas, I believe I should head home. The council has been a bit annoying these days due to the B-grade activity.”

“Enjoy politicking,” Miranda waved him off. “I was about to throw you out anyway, as I have a meeting coming up.”

“You didn’t need to add that,” Kindroth said, acting hurt.

“See you next time, oh supreme Voice of the One,” Miranda said as she waved her hand, making Kindroth slide across the floor and out of the door, which promptly closed after him.

Outside the door, the elf shook his head before taking his leave. Once he was out of earshot, Miranda turned to the side of the table.