Val gave Foofy infinite praise because he had not only returned in time, but he also brought the grand king pearl back to her in his jaws. Her only regret was that she did not have any slices of fish to give to him as a reward. Soon, she could fish for a celebratory breakfast before going to bed.

First, of course, Val had to officially complete Tavras’s challenge: deliver the pearl before dawn. Her palms held out to Foofy’s snout, waiting for him to drop the pearl within her hands. As his mouth gently released the pearl, its massive form filled both of her hands. Frankly, it impressed her that Foofy had a big enough mouth to carry the pearl.

Some gray light began to expand throughout the sky. Daybreak was approaching with the new dawn.

Val did not wait a second before spinning around to offer the pearl to Tavras. “Here. Foofy and I have successfully retrieved the grand king pearl.” A bigger smile could not beam across her face.

Tavras returned a polite smile back to her. “No,” he tutted at her. “Look at the sky. It looks like you have missed the deadline but just a few minutes.

Her lips went straight. Would Tavras really nitpick her performance like this? She had done everything that he had asked, even did quite a good job jumping through his stupid hoops with the sea serpent. Literally, she had to jump into its mouth and back out of its body again. Val did not stand here at the break of dawn, covered in blood for this.

With the help of Divine Judgement, she swore that she might just shove this pearl down Tavras’s throat.

His lips peeled back to release his boundless laughter. “Again, you should just see yourself in the mirror. Val, you always have the most hilarious expressions on your face when you want to murder somebody. Being covered in washed away blood really completes the look.” Tavras made the gesture of a chef’s kiss. “Beautiful.”

She shifted awkwardly in place. Not only did she feel disgusting, but she had to look so extensively disgusting in front of her crush as well. To think, he had called her beautiful just to mock her. “Can you just stop joking around already so that I can wash up and go to bed?”

“You think that I’m joking,” Tavras said, laughing in her face. He paused for dramatic effect. “Well, I’m glad that you know me by now. I am totally just trying to pull your leg. Good job, Val. Congratulations! You have retrieved the grand king pearl for me, just like I have asked. Or more accurately, Foofy has retrieved the pearl.” His attention turned down to the Dobie and gave him a pat on the head.

Foofy kept his chest puffed up in pride.

Val was smiling again and could not help but feel more than a little relieved. One day, she feared that Tavras would be entirely serious in regards to one of his shenanigans, kind of like how he had been serious about disguising her as a boy.

At any rate, Tavras gave a speech to honor her achievement. “If you were able to manage this task despite one of my sea serpents guarding the pearl, then I think that you are adequately prepared for the Summit of Ascension. You have made some impressive progress in these past two months here with me. An average demigod might have required a year or more to come as far as you have developed, especially with Divine Judgement. Your blood is concentrated which gives you a lot of potential to grow. In time, I think that I will be proud to call a demigod like you my son.”

While his speech may have been a tad dull, Val hung onto every single word. She loved to hear him praise her and describe how she could go to the Summit at last. Plus, it was good to know that her Divine Blood ran thick in her veins.

Some lineages were naturally stronger than others. Having a mortal woman for a mother, Val had assumed that she would get the short end of the stick. Whoever her biological father was, he must be among the extremely powerful gods. At least he had given her one thing: strong genes in which she could make her own path in the immortal world.

“Thank you, Tavras. Thank you so much for accepting me and investing so much into my development.”

The smile shifted into a sweeter and more genuine thing on Tavras’s lips. “You are most welcome, Val. Go ahead and clean yourself up. I’m assuming that you’re hungry? I’ll go fishing for you and Foofy this morning.”

This simple reward made Val look up to Tavras with all the more gratitude. “Thanks.” She took up a quick jog away from him so that she would not have to spend another minute in his presence, all soiled like this.

Deeper into the forest, a small stream ran down from the mountain. From this, Val had the water to bathe and scrub all of the blood from her clothes. If she were to get all of the stained blood out, she would practically have to grind her knuckles against her clothes until they were bloody too. Of course, that would defeat the purpose of washing out the blood, so Val had to settle for slightly discolored clothes.

At least the streaky blood came off of her skin and washed away from her hair with relative ease. Before she headed back though, she longed for a mirror in which to check her appearance and make sure that she had not missed a spot. With Past Insight, she was enabled to look at herself from an outsider’s view, standing in the same spot as she had five seconds ago.

Her face looked clean. The perspective of her vision shifted all around herself, giving herself a thorough once over. Val appeared as presentable as she was going to get, so she exited the vision and headed back to Tavras.

To him, she sang, “Tavras, I completed your trial. I really did it!”

“Yes, you did!” A cozy campfire and perfectly cooked fish were already waiting for her. Tavras passed her some fish and invited her to sit beside him with a pat of his hand.

Val joined him, looking up to him with what felt like her attempt at big, doe eyes. “Besides gaining permission to go to the Summit and having breakfast cooked for me, do I get anything else as a reward?” She tried batting her eyelashes, unsure if that would actually be attractive or not.

“Yes, actually I did have something in mind.” Tavras leaned over close to his knees, tilting his head to the side with his golden smile. The pearl lay at his feet in the sand. “This pearl is very valuable, so I thought that I could trade it in for a proper gift for you.”

“A gift?” While Val would be more than ecstatic with a simple kiss, she also perked up at the prospect of a gift.

“Do you remember how I raised Iharu, a goddess of beasts?”

“Yes.” She leaned a little closer, wondering where he was going with this.

“Well, as a goddess of beasts, she is able to transform mortal animals into divine beasts.”

Val could practically feel her pupils dilate in her head, and they darted in search of Tavras’s eyes. Could he possibly be suggesting what she hoped? Her heartbeat raced away, and she found herself too astounded by the possibility to form a coherent thought.

“Foofy is your dog, and he has proven himself to be a very good dog, at that,” Tavras continued slowly. “The two of you have synergy together. A divine beast would be of greater use to you than a mortal dog. For that reason, we will have Foofy ascend to a divine doghood.”

Val leaped up to her feet from excitement, though she had not the mind to interrupt Tavras. It was simply impossible for her to sit down after hearing this news.

“This pearl, here, will be our form of payment to Iharu.” He picked up the pearl in one hand and bounced it gently.

For her initial reaction, she found herself laughing. Val doubled over in a jolly laugh, unable to remember the last time that she had enjoyed herself this much. “Tavras, thank you. This is amazing. It’s so thoughtful of you—so considerate!”

He rubbed at the back of his neck and looked away. “Well, yeah. Anyways, that will be our plan for tomorrow. We’ll visit Iharu.”

“Tomorrow?” Val whined. “Can’t we go today? Foofy wants to ascend and become a divine dog as soon as possible.”

The Dobie ate away at his slices of fish. His nub of a tail wagged away while he looked up to her, eating fast. When she moved to pet him, he snapped up his fish pieces and swallowed them in one gulp as if she would steal his food.

“I think he might just want another fish from me,” Tavras said as he stripped another one for Foofy. “You need to rest today.”

“I think that I am too excited to sleep now, though.” She sounded whinier than intended, even to her own ears.

“That doesn’t matter to me.” Tavras shrugged. “Take today to rest up anyway. We’ll travel to Iharu and Fangarus’s Preserve tomorrow.”

The rest of breakfast passed peacefully enough. Any of her efforts to engage in extra nice conversation with Tavras was deflected by his casual chatter. After breakfast, he went out to sea to leave Val and Foofy to rest.

Exactly as she had tried explaining to Tavras, far too much excitement filled her to be able to sleep. Foofy did turn out to be exhausted on the other hand, and he lay down across the sand. This inspired Val to sit calmly beside him and stroke his fur—her future divine dog. Her mind still spun, trying to wrap around her amazement.

The initial surprise wore off until she, too, gave into sleepiness. After all, she had just been up all night pitted against that sea serpent, and together, they had won all thanks to Foofy’s help.