Chapter 243

“What the hell was that?” Natalie exclaimed. “That thing was harder to kill than most bosses. And it’s a goblin.”

“Was a goblin,” Jordan said dryly, stepping up to join her. “Now it’s pulp.”

Indeed, layering an almost fully-charged [Smite] followed by half her team’s strongest attacks had left the creature a gruesome sight. Several stages past simply ‘dead.’ And Natalie was perfectly fine with that. Anything that guaranteed it wouldn’t be standing back up.

“Was it just me,” Natalie said. “Or was that thing smart, too?”

“Definitely fought like it.” Jordan cocked her head. “Or do you mean ... sentient?”

Natalie frowned. It hadn’t ever spoken to them, though maybe that was because either of their parties lacked the opportunity. She almost regretted not trying. Then again, starting a conversation mid-fight against something that powerful could have been a horrible idea. Her curiosity only went so far; she’d rather be alive than get answers.

Before she could respond to Jordan, movement at the goblin’s corpse drew her eye. Incredulously, she rose her hammer, readying herself for a second wave of combat.

But it wasn’t the goblin coming back to life. Which. Good. Because that would have been completely absurd.

Rather, the golden lines across its body were shifting. Moving. They snaked around, writhing, slowly pooling upward, strands of thick golden strings bundling around his chest. They began to detach from the creature’s mangled corpse, flowing upward like liquid, growing shinier before hardening and taking on a crystalline composition.

When the process had finished, a jagged golden shard floated two feet above the dead monster.

“What,” Natalie said.

Shard of Greed. It responds to the presence of a Paladin.

“What the hell,” she said.

Shock rippled through the rest of her teammates as they read the item’s description. It hovered there, otherworldly. Shining a bright gold that seemed almost too vibrant to exist.

“Hm,” Ana said. “I predicted something like this would happen.”

Sofia stared at the woman. “You did?”

“She did,” Natalie confirmed. It had been part of Ana’s reasoning for taking Natalie’s [Empowered] [Divine Invigoration]—the possibility that ‘something strange was going on with the world’, and their quest might somehow relate to that. And thus Natalie’s class.

And clearly, she’d been right.

Because ‘Shard of Greed?’ That definitely had something to do with the Passions.

“Is this why they’ve been acting so weird?” Jordan asked. “Hoarding stuff? Stealing items and bringing them back to base? Goblins don’t do that, but something corrupted by Greed...” she trailed off.

“Influenced,” Ana corrected.

Jordan gave her an odd look. “Same thing, no?”

“Would you call Natalie corrupted by Lust, then?”

Jordan blinked. She opened her mouth to reply seriously—then snorted. Green eyes flicked to Natalie. “Honestly? A little, yeah.” She laughed. “But yes, influenced, then.” She frowned as her seriousness came back. “But monsters can be paladins of the Passions, too? And that thing was one?”

“I don’t think some random goblin was bestowed in the same way Natalie is,” Sofia said dubiously. “It died too easy for that. But maybe in a lesser way?”

“It would make sense if a god or goddess could vary the extent of their investiture,” Ana said. “Though the revelation that they can sponsor monsters and not just humans is an interesting development.”

“An interesting development,” Natalie repeated flatly.

“Indeed,” Ana said, missing or ignoring Natalie’s tone.

“So it’s leaking onto the surface, too?” Liz asked. “People are in danger?”