Chapter 4: Pain and Pleasure

“Damn it, can’t you speak normally for once? With the way you talk, it’s hard for me to take you seriously as a God, kusou!”

“Eh?”

Inside Krexia’s consciousness space, Coutia sat astride a floating broomstick, propping her chin up with one hand, wearing a teasing expression as she looked at the glowing screen that appeared from Krexia’s first-person perspective.

“But all Gods talk like this, you know. It’s hard for me to suddenly change my way of speaking.”

“Tch…”

Krexia frowned, the disdain in her expression impossible to miss.

At that moment, she was pacing through this unfamiliar forest, occasionally glancing around cautiously.

According to her knowledge, places like this—far from human settlements but with a moderate amount of magic power in the air—were breeding grounds for monsters. She had to stay alert.

“Ko, I’ll just call you that.”

“What kind of name is that?”

“You don’t want me to call you by your full name, and I don’t know what else to call you, so I’ll just use something simple that won’t expose your identity.”

“But it sounds awful.”

“Then just bear with it.”

Krexia felt that since meeting this creature, they hadn’t had a normal conversation; it was all bickering. It gave her the feeling of chatting with a roommate in a dorm, except if the roommate was annoying, you could punch them—but this witch, she couldn’t fight back or hit.

“By the way, I haven’t asked—how do you know so much about our world? The Royal City is pretty far from my home Fief.”

Hearing Krexia’s question, Coutia smiled.

“I’m the all-knowing, all-powerful Primordial Witch. Knowing a lot is only natural.”

“Then how come you couldn’t even say my name when we first met?”

“Ahem… well, why don’t you look into a pool and check your current appearance? You’re looking quite pretty now.”

“Don’t change the subject, you old hag.”

“Such disrespect for the Gods…”

As the two—one human, one God—chatted and bickered casually, the journey didn’t feel boring.

Passing by a small pool of water, Krexia remembered what Coutia had said and realized she hadn’t looked at her reflection since waking up.

So, almost involuntarily, she approached.

Seeing her reflection made Krexia’s eyes widen.

In the water was a stunningly beautiful girl whose appearance was easily a solid nine out of ten.

Her long silver hair hit all the right marks. Her sharp, pointed face was flawless, her skin pale and smooth as jade. Two large, watery wine-red eyes shimmered like pure spring water.

Beneath her delicate, perfectly shaped nose was a pair of cherry-red lips glistening as if moist. The perfect features combined with a fitted little dress made her look like a noble daughter from a wealthy family.

The girl in the pool wore an expression of shock, her cheeks faintly flushed—mirroring Krexia’s own.

She trembled as she reached out, touching the elven-like pointed ears on either side of her head, feeling their smooth warmth, but inside she felt a chill.

It wasn’t that she disliked this body’s appearance, but something about these features seemed oddly familiar.

She must have seen creatures with these traits somewhere before… but where?

“How about it? Pretty, right? My face-sculpting skills aren’t bad, huh?”

“…Yeah, they’re pretty good.”

Even Krexia was speechless.

Though Coutia was talkative, rude, disrespectful, forgetful of names, prone to nonsense, and a contract scammer, her face-sculpting skills were undeniably impressive.

“This body isn’t just good-looking—it’s got plenty of other uses.”

“You say that like I’m some kind of multi-purpose infantry shovel.”

“Infantry shovel?”

“Nothing, just something from a dream.”

Krexia flipped her long hair, saw the pool was clean enough, cupped some water and drank, then resumed walking.

She needed to try to find signs of civilization; staying in this remote wilderness wasn’t sustainable.

“So, all-powerful Miss Ko, can you guide me out of this scenic but desolate wilderness?”

“Oh, my loyal follower, of course I can’t.”

“I’m already lodged inside your body, so I can’t casually use my divine power. If my presence gets detected, both of us will have to pack up and leave this world.”

“Damn, what use are you then?”

“Don’t worry. According to my intuition, if you walk a few more minutes, you’ll come across a group of living people.”

“Intuition?”

Cursing Coutia’s unreliability in her mind, Krexia set off again.

Since waking, the dizziness in her head came and went.

After walking some distance, her body started to feel tired.

According to Coutia, this was normal—the Soul was gradually adapting to this body, so dizziness and fatigue were expected.

But this new body was definitely stronger than her original one—she could feel that for sure.

First, her “Spirituality,” the source driving her Magic Power, was far stronger than most. Having lived two lives, her Soul was inherently more powerful, and so was her Spirituality.

Because of this, she had shown extraordinary magical talent from a young age. Coupled with her previous life’s education as a top student, learning this world’s Magic System was even easier.

Now, after rebirth and with Coutia’s adjustments, her Soul seemed even more powerful.

Secondly, the concentration of Magic Power in her body was higher than anyone she had ever met.

From what she had learned, human bodies have a natural flaw—they cannot hold too much Magic Power. That’s why the earliest mages developed ways to use Spirituality to harness surrounding Magic Power, building special Magic Inscriptions and combining them with Magic Formations to cast spells and defend.

But in her case…

Well, it made sense. From the moment she saw her reflection in the pool, she realized she had likely diverged far from the “human” species.

But of course, there were advantages.

Casting magic in this state would make her far stronger than before—at a whole new level.

Thinking this, Krexia eyed a nearby ordinary Slime, focused her mind, and tried a basic spell she had learned.

[ Elemental Class: Second Tier Offensive Spell: Arc Lightning ]

Three simple Magic Inscriptions formed in the blink of an eye.

A palm-sized purple-glowing Magic Formation appeared in her hand, and a finger-thick bolt of lightning shot out, hitting the bouncing Slime precisely.

“Zzz… Boom!”

A faint magical ripple came from the point of impact, followed by a sharp explosion, leaving a basin-sized pit about a foot deep, reeking of burnt scent.

As for the Slime, no trace of it remained.

“Whoa, the power and accuracy really have improved a lot.”