Slime Leveling [Litrpg, Timeloop]-Chapter 191—Beginning penance

'It's too fast,' Giliberu mused as a blue ray hit his forehead.

[ Ding! You have acquired the Creation Goddess Mantra! ]

The old man nodded. "Now it's all up to you. Go ahead, do the penance and find the answers." He pivoted and walked away.

Giliberu glanced at the old man's back and asked, "What's your name?"

The old man replied with a grin as he walked, "I am Holy Sage Thalmyr."

"Sage," Giliberu muttered, as the Elder Slime's description about sages flashed in his mind—

"Elder, is there any other way of power than leveling up, classes, races, masteries, true magic, and… rituals, sealed artifacts?" Slime 47 asked the Elder Slime, curiosity gleaming in his eyes.

The Elder Slime sighed. "How many powers do you want to learn? Aren't you satisfied with what you have?"

"Having a variety of methods would definitely help me a lot," the young slime replied with a grin.

The Elder Slime raised his palm to smack Slime#47, but stopped as he noticed the Mama Slime's sharp eyes.

With a cough, he replied, "With races and classes, true magic, you can acquire a lot of spells and skills… It's enough for any situation, you only need to train."

"Wait a minute. You didn't say no, it means there exists another one," the young slime questioned, his smile rising high.

The Elder Slime shook his body and replied, "Yes. The path which even talentless can take—the path of the sage."

"Sages…" the young slime muttered. "Are they similar to saints?"

The Elder Slime folded his hands and replied sternly, "No. Saints are the ones who inherit power from the gods directly. Meanwhile, sages are those who gain power via their faith."

"Faith—" the Elder Slime cut off before the young slime could ask. "There's too much for you to know. I'll just tell about sages for now."

Glancing at the black sun, he continued, "Sages increase their faith by doing penance."

"Penance. Should I explain it?" the Elder Slime asked, narrowing his eyes.

The young slime shook his body. "Penance, the word itself is explanatory."

The Elder Slime nodded. "Good. Sages give up their material world. Hence, they don't focus on battles, nor do they kill to level up, nor train their masteries. They solely focus on faith."

He raised his fingers and continued, "Sages are divided into tiers just like ordinary people—Tier 1 to Tier 5, the king."

'Not suitable,' Slime#47 clicked his tongue, 'I cannot give up material world.'

Back to the present—

Giliberu dashed out before time started to flow.

He leapt out of the Zethia country gates and entered the forest.

He took a deep breath, glancing around the trees.

"Shapeshift," he changed back to his goblin form.

Within a few minutes, he found a small pond.

"Yes, this is it," he muttered, noticing a big rock near the pond.

The rock was one meter wide and good enough for Giliberu to sit on.

Whoosh!—he leapt onto the rock and sat cross-legged.

Closing his eyes, he chanted the mantra passed by Holy Sage Thalmyr.

"Salutations to the Creator.

Salutations to the Infinite Light.

I bow to the one who created the world.

To the Giver of life, I offer myself.

Repeated reverence to the Primal creator."

He formed a mental image of a gentle middle-aged woman, plain in appearance, clad in just a blue robe, and had the temperament of a gentle mother, yet vast and heavy.

Time ticked by as he focused, chanting, while visualizing the image of the Creation Goddess as per his own imagination.

A few days passed—

Giliberu ate, picking fruit from a tree.

"Is it even possible for me to force Creation God to descend?" he muttered, frowning.

After his stomach had swollen, he returned to the rock and sat cross-legged on it.

He began chanting again, closing his eyes, visualizing the appearance.

"Salutations to the Creator…."

After a few hours, a drop of cold water fell on Giliberu's head as the sky rumbled.

A jolt of lightning flashed in the clouds. Within a moment, heavy rain began, water pouring over Giliberu.

He lost his focus and opened his eyes.

"You cannot lose focus," Holy Sage Thalmyr's words echoed in his mind.

In the heavy rain, with no clothes except a grey robe, he re-entered meditation.

After a moment.

"I'm losing focus," he muttered, as his wet robe stuck to him. He switched to chanting internally.

He kept losing concentration, yet he forced himself each time.

One month passed—

Giliberu bit into fruit as rain fell on him.

He was soaked, robe sticking to his body, yet he sat cross-legged as if nothing had happened.

After filling his stomach, he re-entered meditation.

[ Ding! You have acquired a wisp of faith! ]

[ Ding! A fraction of your wisp of faith will be passed to the Creation Goddess! ]

'This is why gods will be forced to respond,' he mused, realizing why gods cannot stay silent. 'After all, you are giving them some power.'

"But some gods are not so benevolent," he muttered, sighing.

Time passed, and snow began to fall. Winter had arrived.

The pond turned to ice. The ground had filled with snow.

Giliberu's body was covered by snow from top to bottom. He kept chanting internally, not focusing on the cold or his body.

He opened his eyes as snow fell from his eyebrows. He shook his body, and the snow slipped away.

"I adapted to this," he said, clenching snow in his palm.

"Even the raindrops would have caused me to lose concentration… But now," he grinned.

"It seems it has been almost 1 year," he muttered, raising his eyebrows.

"It's time to enter the next stage. No eating," he narrowed his eyes.

"After 1 year, you have to give up eating and solely survive on the power of the faith you have acquired," Holy Sage Thalmyr's words rang in his mind. "And this is where penance becomes very strict. You absolutely cannot stop chanting the mantra or break your focus by opening your eyes."

Giliberu took a deep breath and walked for a few minutes.

He ate a hearty meal by killing an iron deer.

"It was good, and my last meal probably for this life," he said, with a gleam of determination. "There will be no turning back from here."

He sat cross-legged on the rock and closed his eyes. He began chanting internally, while visualizing.

The snow melted away as the sun began to shine brighter and brighter each day.

Suddenly, a loud roar echoed through the area. "Roar!"

A three-meter-tall brown bear walked toward the pond and noticed Giliberu meditating.

"A goblin. It's a stinky creature, but a hearty meal," the bear grinned, patting his stomach.