As if those final words had caught the attention of the Laughing God, a quest notification popped up in Cain's interface for the first time in a while.
[Quest: A Lady's Smile] Fulfill the Elder's Request
[Reward] Bonus Experience
The first thought in Cain's mind was that someone was going to ask something so incredibly outrageous that he would normally tell them to get lost or worse. But for the bonus experience of a quest reward, Cain would be willing to go much further to help than most would normally consider sane and reasonable.
"I was going to ask you for something much larger, but I changed my mind. Give me a moment." she stammered, embarrassed by having offered Cain a bit of relic bathroom graffiti.
"No, go ahead and ask. One request is much the same as another, and you never know unless you make the request." Cain told her.
"Since you have the skill to bring a Soul back from the dead, and after seeing what you have done for the others, I am fairly certain that you can do what I want. I am at the end of my ability, you see. I will never move past the initial stages of Immortality, leaving me the weakest of Immortals until my death due to mistakes that I made during my cultivation.
What I wanted to ask you is if I could start over." She asked hesitantly.
"Start over? As in, start from scratch? You are right. Changing your body wouldn't affect your cultivation, and it doesn't improve your potential." Cain agreed.
It could. He could increase her quality rating and give her a lot more potential, but if there were a conflict in her cultivation due to mistakes she had made, or something that had affected her core, to begin with, she would still be stuck exactly where she was.
The skill she wanted was actually the very worst resurrection spell that Cain had. He had only used it twice, both on enemies he had killed. It made the target a puppet and then reset them to level one when he released them.
"Are you certain of that? I can bring you back to the very beginning, but not anywhere in between. You would be at the very basic of basic levels, and you would likely lose all of your known skills as well, not just your cultivation." Cain explained.
"All of my memories?" She asked, now much more concerned than she was a moment ago.
"Not your memories, but all of the carefully nurtured skills that you had memorized and adapted your body to release efficiently would most likely become inaccessible." She didn't have a class, so Cain was fairly sure the reset would wipe out everything.
One of the other Elders spoke up at that moment. "What about your Sect? What would you tell them when an Elder suddenly lost everything?"
The woman gave a sad smile. "Tell them I went to cultivate in isolation. I will assume a new identity and apply for an entrance exam in the next round. If I don't lose my memories, I can start over from nothing, and my initial potential was very good. I destroyed it trying to survive the first Sect that I was in."
Luna was giving Cain a look like the Elder was a lost puppy that she wanted to take home, and Cain sighed, knowing what was coming next. Surprisingly, Luna kept silent and just continued giving him that look. The problem was that Tena and the others had joined in from the next table, having heard the explanation from the Elder.
"I will look after you until then. As I said, you will start with absolutely nothing, not even the initial stages of a cultivation method established." Cain agreed.
The woman nodded grimly. "Whenever you are ready, sir."
"First, I have a spell called [Binding Oath]. I need everyone at the table to swear that you won't reveal her identity to outsiders. Every Immortal has enemies, and it is best that she really does start over from a clean slate." Cain informed the group, then asked the Record Keeper he was merged with to cast the spell.
A glowing scroll appeared on the table, and Cain called his disciples, the only ones that were close enough to have heard the conversation, over to join in.
"All you have to do is touch it and agree," Cain explained.
One after another, everyone placed their hands on the scroll and agreed to the terms, which were simply not to reveal the past identity of the Elder to anyone who did not already know.
"With that done, follow me to the tent. This isn't a process that others should see." Cain explained, leading the Elder away while everyone else sat at the table, wondering what was so secret about this particular technique.
Though, if it really did destroy a cultivation base and turn an Immortal back into a normal human with no power, it was a truly horrifying ability, and that wasn't something that they could casually allow anyone to learn.
So, once the two entered the tent, a half dozen Immortal Rank shields appeared over it, blocking everything from light and sound to energy transmission in and out of the area. With that in place, not only outsiders but not even the Elders present could detect anything.
"I will apologize for this in advance," Cain told the Elder quietly, then activated [Balance], killing her instantly.
Then he brought her back as a Puppet under his control and looked over her body, turning her into a small child that closely resembled Luna and Tena, with long dark hair, porcelain skin, and gentle blue eyes that matched her original eye color. Then he increased her body quality to Epic, which should be enough for her to regain Immortality without too many issues.
Cain wasn't completely sure how the process worked for Cultivators, or even for himself, since he was Immortal by virtue of species, but an Epic Constitution should be enough, he thought.
"At the moment, you are fully under my control, so I will ask you, are there any memories that you want to be purged from your mind? I have the skills to lock them away." Cain asked.
"No, I did that long ago."
Cain nodded. "Excellent. Now, pick a new name."
The former Elder considered it for a moment before smiling. "Please call me Solara."
"Alright. Next, I will release you from my control, and your powers will reset to nothing. After that, I will inspect your potential and see what sort of path might be suited to you. As you said, a new start. Using the same methods over again would be too obvious and might lead to the same outcomes." Cain explained.
Cain released her from his control and got a message he had never seen before.
[Error: Level 0 is an invalid option. Please input an initial skill.]
"What sort of skills do you enjoy the most?" Cain asked as the Elder gasped and tried to recover from the shock of being reduced from nearly level six hundred as a Puppet to zero.
"Alchemy, I like potions." She whispered, too shocked to do anything else.
There was an Alchemist Class, as Cain recalled it. He just had to search his records since the crafters didn't particularly interest him in the past. The census that he received from the Demon King was his best bet in this case, and Cain searched for all Demons and Dragons with Alchemy skills, then sorted by quality.
[Golden Dragon Alchemy Fires] Mythic Rank. Allows the creation of Mythic quality Alchemical concoctions of all sorts, including potions, pills, and poisons.
It was at the top of the list and belonged to a class called [Golden Alchemist], a Second Advancement class. That would be a bit overkill, but Cain didn't see any harm in going a bit overboard to make sure that the System didn't call him a cheapskate and cut the reward or call the quest incomplete.
Having to kill her twice in ten minutes because the quest didn't complete would be a traumatic memory, no matter how he looked at it, and the quest was called a Lady's Smile.
[Name] Solara
[Species] Human
[Level] 1
[Class] Golden Alchemist
"Welcome to the Forbidden Treasure Sect, Solara," Cain informed her, then sent an invitation.
[Member Added]
[Quest Updated: Gather all Children] 6/12 present
Cain was shocked by the last message. Since when did he have twelve kids? There were only five by Cyrene and the twins with Misha, which should be born soon. Where did the rest come from?
Then he looked at the incredulous look on Solara's face, and realization dawned on Cain. The System was counting all of his Sect Members as his children for the purposes of the quest.
Children under his authority and children who he had fathered were very different things, but given the ambiguous language of "All Your Children" and the fact that the quest was created by the Laughing God, Cain thought that he really shouldn't be surprised that he had to keep them all.
"It looks like you will be with me for a while. I have a quest to complete, and the Gods have determined that you are coming with me." Cain informed his newest disciple, who gave him the most magnificent smile before beginning to cry and hug his leg.
Cain waited ten minutes for her to regain her composure as he rubbed her back and let her vent her emotions. A small return to youth was one thing, but a whole new start on life was a very different matter, worthy of at least that much time to recover.
"Why don't we go greet the others? I am sure they are all eager to greet their new sister." Cain told her, then tapped on the barriers one after another, signaling the casters to let them out.
