World's Last Hope-Chapter 53: Not Peaceful Morning

"Mother... Father,"

Eric woke up gasping desperately for air.

His heart was beating abnormally fast, and sweat dripped down his forehead. Taking a deep breath, he forced his body to calm down.

"Another nightmare..." he muttered irritably. It seemed that he wasn’t even safe from suffering in his sleep.

He was truly cursed.

"Well, nothing that can be done about that," he spoke as he got up and stretched his body.

Exiting the hollow tree, he continued his journey toward the cathedral until realization dawned on him.

"I am hungry... and thirsty..."

This was certainly one problem he hadn’t thought of before. When he was with the girls, they had miracles that could produce water infinitely, and for food, they just ate the meat of the monsters they hunted.

But now that Eric was alone, he didn’t have any access to water, which was a bad situation. Not only that, but the only possible source of food was the cocoons that contained spiders inside them.

However, these abominations had acid for blood, so Eric doubted there was a reasonable way to eat their flesh without him dying horribly.

He furrowed his eyebrows deeply in thought. Where was he supposed to get water and food now?

"... Wait." Eric muttered as a thought came to his mind.

"Didn’t I gain a miracle that could solve this problem?" He raised an eyebrow as he shifted his gaze to the window that appeared after commanding the system.

-----

[The Nature is Mother to All]

Desperation: Isn’t life all the same? Does it matter whether it’s a moving organism or a plant?

Positives:

You can heal nature from corruption and exhaustion.

Your healing significantly speeds up plant growth.

Negatives:

How could a miracle from God have a downside?

-----

"This thing could potentially help, right?" Eric asked, only to be met with silence.

He shook his head. "I seem to keep forgetting that I am alone."

[I am here]

Surprised by the answer, Eric’s eyes widened slightly.

"You’re trying to initiate a conversation with me? Are you capable of that?"

[After the host’s soul evolves, the system not only grows stronger but smarter, giving you the chance to vent your feelings and frustrations.]

"Even if that’s true, I don’t think it’s a good idea to waste essence on meaningless conversation. Just because I have some saved up doesn’t mean I plan to blow it all."

[Understood.]

Eric’s eyebrows furrowed. He was familiar with this feeling, but it only came from humans.

So how could this feeling come from his system?

Was the thing actually sentient?

"Are you... sulking?"

[Negative.]

"Are you su—"

[Negative.]

Eric let out a sigh.

"Great, so now I’ve offended my system."

’I’ll deal with this mess later,’ he thought as he continued his walk forward. He was searching for a suitable plant to use his miracle on.

’Wait.’ He realized something.

If his miracle could heal corruption, didn’t that mean he could heal the ground beneath his feet too? It was soil, after all. Maybe something would happen.

Deciding it was worth a try, he crouched down on one knee and placed his palm on the ground.

"So... how does this work?" he asked himself.

This was the first time he was using an ability like this, so he had no idea how to activate it.

[Just think about using the miracle,]

The system advised.

Doubting it could be that easy, he followed the suggestion.

Energy traveled from his heart to his shoulder, then down his arm, palm, and finally reached the ground.

Suddenly, the dark brown soil began to lighten in color. Then, green grass began to slowly sprout, as if feeding on his energy.

After a few seconds, Eric stopped, looking proudly at his work.

"This is rea—"

He began to stand up but almost fell over as he felt light-headed.

Placing his hand on his head, he muttered, "Ah... is this what it feels like to use a miracle? I feel like my mental energy is gone."

Just using this miracle for a few seconds took so much out of him?

Eric suddenly appreciated the times the girls had healed him so much more.

Getting his headache under control, Eric grinned at the ground, observing the small patch of green grass he had healed from corruption.

"If the results are this fast, if I get some kind of seeds, I should be able to grow food," he muttered, glancing at the sky, which was growing dimmer than usual.

Clouds seemed to be beginning to cover the horizon.

"If it rains, that should also help relieve my thirst," he spoke, deep in thought.

"The question is... what do I use to catch the water for later? It’s not like I have a bottle on hand..."

But his thoughts were cut short as he heard creaking noises all around him.

His body shivered. Observing his surroundings, it seemed that several of the cocoons were slowly hatching all at once.

"What? Why? What made them hatch at the same time?!" he asked in frustration, until his gaze shifted to the small patch of grass on the ground.

"Could it be because I healed a small piece of the land from corruption? For something this small, they’re hatching?"

He sighed as he summoned his sword.

"I just got up. Can’t I have at least one peaceful morning?!"

*****

Olivia sighed. It was a strange experience walking with Aria now.

Before, Aria was just a master like her. But now, after Aria had become a Grandmaster, it was undeniably different... she was different.

First and foremost, it seemed that the creatures were reluctant to attack them—no doubt sensing the immense power Aria now possessed.

She had become even more beautiful after evolving.

It was as if the trees and grass around her swayed in her presence, captivated by her beauty.

"I wonder if I’ll have the same effect on my surroundings once I become a Grandmaster too..." Olivia muttered under her breath.

Aria raised an eyebrow. "Did you say something?"

"Yes. Weren’t we supposed to meet with Eric? Why are we going in the opposite direction?"

Aria sighed before answering, "Eric might be stranded somewhere with poor visibility, making it impossible for us to see him—or for him to see us."

"So, the plan is?" Olivia asked, raising an eyebrow.

"We make it so there’s no way he can miss us," Aria said firmly.

"But how do we do that?"

Aria shifted her gaze to Olivia and grinned as she answered.

"We fly, of course!"