Chapter 131: Inferior Divinity
2015-11-25
Author: Floating Tower of All Beings
The winter’s cold wind is becoming increasingly piercing.
Even the city of Modo, which is close to the subtropical region, is now experiencing a sharp drop in temperature. It’s predictable that this year’s winter won’t be much better than last year, and it’s uncertain how many displaced people will survive this winter. The central square’s temple is holding its daily prayers, possibly sensing the arrival of an unusual aura; the church has strictened its demands on believers, changing the weekly large prayer gathering to once every three days, while a large number of statues are being crafted by Half-Elf artisans from Leaffall City.
The temple of the Half-Elf Church is undergoing expansion.
Not just the Grand Temple in Modo, but even the newly established twelve towns are building temples; priests have already been dispatched to these places to preside, which means more sources of faith for Soren.
The Temple of Wealth is now somewhat diminished in its congregation.
With trade across the continent becoming increasingly difficult due to wars, the faith in Lady Wealth has also been severely disrupted. Although trade routes in the Overseas Islands remain active, they have likely dropped by about thirty percent compared to the past. Soren has a vague sense that Lady Wealth’s divine power is waning. Without sufficient believers and sources of faith, the deity’s strength will continue to weaken. Hence, choosing what kind of Divine Profession to pursue is extremely important.
The Goddess of Wealth needs to maintain the energy consumption of priests requesting divine techniques. If she fails to grant the priests divine techniques, her church will suffer severely.
Granting divine techniques to priests requires divine power, which in turn is converted from faith. The devastation of trade leads to a decline in faith, causing a natural decrease in divine power. Less divine power means it will become difficult to sustain the divine techniques of priests. To avoid a vicious cycle, Lady Wealth can only grant her divine power to the priests, a process that will gradually lower her divine rank. Ultimately, she may end up at the level of Inferior Divinity.
The wars have affected many deities.
It’s not just Lady Wealth whose power is declining; other deities are also experiencing a constant drop in strength. They have even been forced to reduce the divine techniques granted to priests to ensure their divine power value remains sufficient. But if this continues, the priests serving them may switch their allegiances to other factions of deities or even abandon their faith in that deity entirely.
Without divine techniques, priests might not even fare better than an ordinary warrior!
Soren’s divine power value has been rising steadily, and after accumulating for more than a month, especially after the two events in Leaffall City, he has almost achieved complete control over the entire Half-Elf race. Thus, the increase in divine power value has been quite rapid. Moreover, with his own domain of Dominion, he has now reached the threshold to advance to Inferior Divinity.
The Dominion domain has surprisingly astonishing effects!
Thus, Soren has recently discovered something. The divine power value provided by the Dominion domain increases not only due to wise leadership but also because of population growth.
Initially, Soren’s divine power accumulation from the Dominion domain was about 2-3 points per day.
This is the pure divine income after deducting the divine techniques granted to priests. Recently, Soren has clearly noted a significant change. When Modo City accepted a large influx of people from Leaffall City again, his daily accumulation of divine power values reached an astonishing 4-5 points, meaning he could accumulate at least 150 points of divine power value in a month.
Furthermore!
This doesn’t even account for the large-scale prayer ceremony held once a week, which could provide Soren with over 10 points of divine power in one go.
If he chooses a more bloody sacrifice (for evil-aligned deities), the divine power gained may exceed 15 points.
Sacrifices are too ancient and primitive.
Perhaps the Ocean Goddess would accept sacrifices and favor them, but Soren would not pursue such outdated practices that could even affect the purity of his faith.
Finally.
With only three weeks left until the New Year, Soren reached the point of a qualitative change caused by quantity.
A series of data appeared before him:
“Thief class upgraded to level 8.”
“Gained 41 (Agility 33 + (Intelligence 26 – 10) * 0.5) skill points, health increased by 14 points (class health 6 points + (Constitution 26 – 10) * 0.5).”
“You have gained a free attribute point.”
“You have gained a specialty point.”
…
The vast amount of killing experience required for wizard advancement has temporarily left Soren with no other options, so he can only upgrade his thief level for now to enter the tier of the sixth level.
The free attribute point undoubtedly went into Agility. He is only one point away from a 35-point Agility value.
As for the specialty point, there is no need to consider much. Soren chose the legendary specialty of Weakness Insight among others like Legendary Precision, Narrow Escape, and Lightning Speed, which offers the greatest enhancement to himself!
“Weakness Insight [Legendary Specialty]: After countless battles and reflections, you have mastered a special ability that allows you to detect any enemy’s weakness. This enables you to maximize your combat power, and with the ability from Weakness Insight, you can ambush certain enemies that are immune to backstab. Weakness Insight can add extra damage equivalent to your Agility value.” (Requirements: Epic Agility, Reflex Evasion, Legendary Combat Skills.)
One of the highest output specialties for melee professionists.
For legendary-level melee professionists, there are three legendary specialties that can completely transform their combat effectiveness: Raging Whirlwind, Weakness Insight, and Perfect Dual Wielding.
Raging Whirlwind needs no further explanation.
It is one of the most terrifying melee legendary capabilities, and very few in the entire Material Plane can master it.
Besides this ability, Weakness Insight can provide terrifying bonuses to critical hits and fatal strikes, while Perfect Dual Wielding can double a person’s speed of attack. In terms of combat output and explosive potential, hardly any melee legendary specialties can match the three legendary abilities, and now Soren has mastered two of them.
Perfect Dual Wielding and Weakness Insight.
…
Modo City, Temple.
Soren’s figure appeared in the center of the temple, surrounded by a radiant divine light, and he began to float in mid-air. Shortly after, the faith power enveloping and converging around the temple rushed madly toward him, bathing the temple in dazzling light, causing many of the watching believers to kneel on the ground.
The divine power value is continuously rising!
When the critical point of 300 points is reached, suddenly all divine power values begin to deplete, and at the same time, Soren’s body undergoes a special transformation.
A series of data appeared before him:
“Advancing to Inferior Divinity!…”
“Saint form enhanced!… Gained spell immunity for levels 1-4!…”
“Ability breakthrough!…”
“Automatically mastered [Epic Divine Power] specialty!…”
…
“Epic Divine Power [Legendary Specialty]: Consumes a portion of divine power value, adding extra divine damage to any of your physical attacks. The additional damage value equals double your Charisma modifier.”
[Note: Current Charisma modifier is 5 points, adding an extra 10 points of divine damage per attack.]
…
The quantitative change has finally led to a qualitative change.
With the enhancement of divine level, Soren can not only grasp more powerful divine abilities but also raise his immunity to spells up to level 4.
Epic Divine Power is a legendary specialty for priests, and it seems that with the increase of his divine rank, Soren has directly mastered it.
At this moment.
His attributes have truly taken on a divine appearance.
“Name: Soren – [Saint Form] [Inferior Divinity].
Race: Half-Elf [Son of Slaughter].
Attributes: Strength 22 (+9, Frost Giant’s Strength +6), Agility 34 (+4), Constitution 26 (+4), Intelligence 26 (+5), Perception 19 (+4), Charisma 20 (+4).
Alignment: Lawful Evil.
Class: Level 8 Thief (0/826500) Level 10 Shadow (MAX/MAX)/Level 10 Wizard (0/897500)/Level 5 Archmage (0/1095000) [Sixth Tier].
Health: 475/475 [Strong].
Experience Points: 165075 (Killing Experience), 7545 points (Class Experience) [Unallocated].
Skill Points: None.
Attribute Points: None.
Legend Points: 150.
Divinity Value: 71 [Inferior Divinity]. (Requires 100 points to upgrade to [Moderate Divinity].)
Divine Rank Value: 30 [Inferior Divinity]. (Requires 100 points to upgrade to [Moderate Divinity].)
Divine Power Value: 13/600. (Requires 600 points of divine power value to upgrade to [Moderate Divine Power], mastering the divine rules of [Change Space]. Once, the storage upper limit of divine power for divine ranks was 600 points.)
Divine Profession: Half-Elf, Wanderer, Tracker.
Domains: Slaughter, Evil, Dominion, Pirate, Shadows.
Aura: Evil Aura.
Status: Normal.
Basic Skills — Stealth 395. Knowledge 325, Theft 215, Lockpicking 215, Traps 180, Focus 185. Negotiation 355, Appraisal 125, Deception 215, Intimidation 375. Taunt 215, Performance 155. Listening 315, Evasion 215, Parry 185, Block 125. Medicine 155, Search 315, Investigation 325, Scroll Copying 95, Spell Identification 155, Wilderness Survival 325, Use Magic Devices 125, Cooking 115, Alchemy 155, Crafting Magic Weapons 185.
Saint Form — Transcendence, Spell Immunity 1-4, Epic Divine Power.
Divine Rank Abilities — Alter Reality, Change Shape, Divine Shockwave, Comprehend Languages, Comprehend Writing, Interplanar Communication, Astral Teleportation, Plane Teleportation.
Legendary Skills — Weakness Insight, Perfect Dual Wielding, Universal Skillful Hand, Legendary Evasion, Legendary Combat Skill, Epic Agility, Epic Intelligence, Epic Constitution.
Special Specials — Lifespan Extension, Agelessness, Godslayer, Blessing of the Goddess of Misfortune, Blessing of the Ocean Goddess, Dragonblood Baptism LV2, Heart of Slaughter, Slaughterer, Deathwalker, Ascetic, Scholar, Profane Speech.
Personal Specials — Dexterous Left Hand, Photographic Memory, Stalwart Power, Photographic Memory, Mastery of Spellcasting, Mastery of Reflex Evasion, Mastery of Intuitive Evasion, Rolling Evasion, Agile Movement, Evasion of Sight, Dark Vision, Combat Spellcasting, Mobile Spellcasting, Spell Control, Spell Amplification, Spell Extremity, Crafting Magic Equipment, Spell Penetration, Minor Spell Resistance, Inferior Cold Resistance, Moderate Flame Resistance, Minor Toxin Resistance, Minor Electric Resistance, Stalwart, Regeneration [Advanced], Telepathy 100 feet.
Professional Specials — Arcane Memory, Arcane Countermeasure, Arcane Rune, Lord of Shadows, Mental Agility, Military Weapons [Mastery], Curved Blade [Legendary].
Combat Skills — Summon Shadows, Shadow Leap [300 meters], Shadow Assassination, Shadow Travel [2 times], Gaze of Fear (Divine), Fear Spell (Divine), Vampire’s Touch (Divine), Sword Intent [Cleave], Sword Intent [Slash], Sword Intent [Decapitate], Sword Intent [Half-Cut], Sword Intent [Whirling Dance], Whirling Slash.
…
At present.
Except for Perception, which is only 19 points, all of Soren’s other attributes are above 20 points.
In terms of basic attributes, specialty abilities, basic skills, and various aspects, Soren has gradually caught up with the native deities.
His power has reached a level where further improvement will become very difficult.
Whether in terms of the power enhancement of deities or professionists, the conditions required will significantly increase.
Under normal circumstances.
Many deities reach their peak at their class level with just one more ascent; unless there are powerful divine forces, it is hard to reach level 40.
Inferior Divinity is a process of qualitative change.
Starting from now, calculating Soren’s challenge level may require adding a label of ’10th level Half-Elf Deity’. According to assessments from adventurers in his previous life, Soren’s current challenge level should be around 25.
In other words.
Only if a complete team of high-level legends gathers could they possibly have less than a 50% chance of defeating him.
…
Time slowly passes.
Modo City enjoys the last tranquility before the New Year. The battle to attack the third level of the Wizard Tower looms, Vivian’s accumulation nears the realm of Demigods, the Demon Avatar is frantically recruiting cannon fodder, and Gloria seems to have a breakthrough in her research on floating rings.
At this moment.
There is less than half a month until the New Year.
Perhaps due to the upcoming New Year, Modo City’s atmosphere has significantly relaxed. People leisurely enjoy the winter’s peace, only feeling wistful upon hearing merchants talk about who has frozen to d*ath.
The tavern is always the liveliest place.
Recently, a new kind of strong liquor has begun to gain popularity along the Southern Coast. Although it is slightly expensive, taking a sip on a cold winter’s day is undoubtedly a great pleasure.
The tavern is filled with loud voices.
In a corner on the left, a few mischief-makers are teasing a drunkard, seemingly eager to see him make a fool of himself for some amusement.
Such people are quite common, whether it’s the drunken patron or other guests looking for fun.
The tavern owner watching the crowd with boredom noted that, with the New Year approaching, many fleets have no plans to head out to sea, leading to an influx of sailors, guards, and merchants seeking entertainment.
A commotion broke out.
The tavern owner, wiping the table with a cloth, initially didn’t pay much attention, but suddenly hearing a particular term sent a jolt through him. He tuned in to the conversation of those people.
“Really!…”
The drunkard’s eyes were glazed over, and he seemed mentally unfocused. In a slurred voice, he rambled, “Modo… really… has angels!…”
“I!… I saw one by the sea that day… a beautiful female angel…”
“So beautiful…”
“That… chest… that b*tt… simply stunning…”
The other patrons, merely bored and seeking amusement, didn’t take the drunkard’s words seriously. One laughed and said, “You wouldn’t think a beautiful woman is an angel, would you?… Haha!… You look like you’re drunk all the time; you probably mistook someone’s wife for an angel!…”
Upon hearing this, the drunkard’s face flushed as he gasped, “No… it’s not possible…”
“It really was an angel!… I saw it clearly!… She seemed very frightened when she saw me!… A pair of pure white wings suddenly sprouted from her back… and then she just flew away…”
The surrounding people burst into laughter, showing no sign of seriousness.
However, the tavern owner, who had been idling at the bar, approached at this moment, casually pouring the drunkard a glass of rum, pretending to be nonchalant as he asked, “Is that so?”
“Where did that angel fly to in the end?”
The drunkard, now thoroughly intoxicated, struggled to articulate, “South… south…”
“An angel…”
“It really was an angel…”
“You all… don’t believe me… I really saw it… with my own eyes… saw it…”
Thud.
The drunkard, having drunk too much, finally collapsed, but he continued to mumble something under his breath. It seemed he had told many people about this matter, but none took it seriously.
The tavern owner returned to the bar, called over a bartender to watch, then slipped out through the back door.
…
Late December.
With only a few days left until the New Year, perhaps because of the approaching New Year, the various regions have calmed down somewhat. However, today Modo City suddenly experienced a very strange incident.
The time was around five in the afternoon.
Yesterday, Modo City had just seen its first snowfall of the year, so the rooftops appeared to be a blanket of white.
In the dim afternoon light, just before the sun set, an eerie shadow suddenly appeared in the ruins near the southern edge of Modo City, the area where carnivorous plants grow, a place nearly devoid of human presence.
A towering tower reaching up to the clouds!
It looked like a mirage, existing for only a few minutes before gradually vanishing.
…(To be continued ~^~)
