Chapter 82: Divine Boon!

Damian was not particularly flattered.

"The greatest Otherworlder ever to come to Valoria" sounded wonderful until one remembered that the people making the prediction were literally gods who had been monitoring him from above.

More importantly, Lyla’s words revealed something rather interesting.

These fellows clearly could not see the Dual-Realm Exchange System.

If they could, Damian doubted their reaction would be limited to sitting in heaven placing bets on what sort of economic disaster he would create next.

They might not even possess a clear view of his individual Special Powers.

However...

They could apparently observe enough, like his cultivation, his unusual abilities, and perhaps even his movement between realms.

Damian’s expression remained calm.

Lyla watched him for several seconds before eventually sighing.

"Yes, we are aware that you can travel to another realm within the same spacetime band as ours," Lyla admitted honestly.

She then added in a thoughtful tone. "It appears to be another High Grade World, although its path is quite fascinating. Its inhabitants empower themselves by taking power from the world and refining it inward, while Valoria’s system primarily empowers beings so those beings may, in turn, contribute toward the growth of the world."

Damian nodded. "And?"

Lyla paused.

For the first time since their conversation began, the Goddess of Life looked genuinely caught off guard.

"And... what?" She asked with confusion.

Damian folded his arms.

"Well, what do you think? You just found an entire High Grade World operating on a supernatural system fundamentally different from your own. Aren’t you gods practically salivating to study it and see whether it contains a path beyond the Divine Spirit level?" Damian asked mockingly.

Understanding immediately appeared on Lyla’s face.

Then, strangely enough, embarrassment followed it.

"Indeed, we are interested. Very interested, actually. However... we cannot interfere so easily," Lyla admitted again.

Damian raised an eyebrow. "Oh? How so?"

Lyla clasped her hands before herself.

"Once an individual becomes a Divine Spirit, Valoria’s laws no longer permit them to reside freely upon the mortal plane. We may observe it, send blessings, perform limited miracles and empower followers or Champions to act on our behalf, but directly descending and interfering personally carries severe restrictions."

Damian was unimpressed.

He had spent five years working in logistics.

If there was one thing Damian knew, it was that the existence of a rule did not mean people stopped trying to abuse every loophole surrounding it.

Look at his insurance claim. A clear fault from his employer, with literal witnesses and visible proof, was squeezed downward into mere workers comp.

"Rules can be bent right up until the point where they technically haven’t been broken," Damian replied.

"If what I can offer is valuable enough to potentially advance your entire world, suffering some backlash should be worth it. Even if you couldn’t descend personally, you could empower someone else until they’re practically acting as your remote-controlled hand."

Lyla’s mouth opened to protest, then closed.

Damian’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Aha.

That reaction was much more interesting than whatever answer she might have prepared.

Inside Lyla’s mind, however, a very different complaint was currently occurring.

’Why is this one so difficult?!’

Elias Rosenfeld had not been like this!

The man had accumulated enough goddesses around himself to make mortal emperors jealous, yet Caurelia still had him wrapped around her finger whenever she truly wanted something from him.

Lyla herself had rejected Elias when he once attempted to move closer to her.

His Special Powers had not suited her Domains, and more importantly, she had never particularly liked his nature.

Caurelia could keep that one.

Damian was a whole different ballgame though.

Practically every Divine Spirit paying attention to him hoped for the opportunity to establish some personal relationship before another deity monopolized his attention.

After all, that otherworldly cultivation system was almost perfectly complementary to Valoria’s own path.

It was the yin to their yang, the moon to their sun.

Each world’s power system seemed to possess pieces the other lacked.

Unfortunately, the young man standing before her apparently had the personality of a customs inspector who suspected every suitcase contained cocaine.

"Well... that is because..." Lyla began hesitantly.

Damian watched her struggle nonchalantly until something clicked in his mind, his expression changing greatly.

A slow chuckle escaped him.

"It’s because I block you, isn’t it?" Damian stated bluntly.

Lyla stiffened as Damian’s smile widened.

"Future me, that is?"

Silence.

Jackpot!

Damian almost wanted to slap his thigh.

Of course!

It suddenly made perfect sense!

No wonder the Dual-Realm Exchange System had been in such a hurry to hand him <One Proof, Eternal Proof> before he opened his first Realm Passage back to Valoria!

At the time, Damian had appreciated the Special Power primarily because of its protections against regression, hostile causality and other cosmic bullshit that sounded extremely relevant in worlds where people eventually became capable of punching time itself.

Now?

The timing looked incredibly suspicious.

One of <One Proof, Eternal Proof>’s protections allowed the System to invoke the proof of Damian’s perfected future existence when sufficiently powerful beings attempted to interfere with his development from outside the level of existence he currently occupied.

In simpler language?

Mess with Level 11 Damian using Level 11 means, and congratulations, Damian needed to solve his own problems.

But if some god, future powerhouse or ancient bastard operating several dimensions above his pay grade decided to reach backward through causality and crush the little mortal before he became dangerous...

Peak Damian answered the door.

And apparently, the gods of Valoria had already discovered that fact personally.

"Heh."

Damian finally understood why the System had given him that protection before his return.

Without it?

The moment he came back from Shengyuan, half the Holy Pantheon might have become extremely curious about the strange Otherworlder who had suddenly acquired an entirely foreign supernatural system.

Perhaps Divine Spirits could not casually descend.

Fine.

Then send a Level 49 Legend Champion, or a Level 45 Saint.

Or even some fully empowered Apostle carrying enough divine blessings to make Damian’s current Character Sheet look like a grocery receipt.

The outcome did not require much imagination.

Either capture him, recruit him, charm him, threaten him, study him or dissect him.

Whatever flavor of "we know what’s best for you" the god in question preferred.

Damian’s lips twitched. "Those stories really are full of shit."

Lyla looked puzzled.

Damian ignored her.

Seriously!

How many stories began with some terrifying final boss sitting at the absolute peak of existence while the protagonist crawled around at Level One collecting herbs?

Then the protagonist slowly rose from Level Ten to Level Fifty and finally to Level One Hundred.

Eventually, after several thousand Chapters of face-slapping, auction houses and suspiciously attractive jade beauties, the protagonist reached the final boss and killed him.

Bullshit!

Why would the final boss wait?!

If some prophecy announced that Farmer Bob’s newborn son would kill Damian Baines three thousand years from now, Damian was fairly sure one of his first questions would be:

Where does Farmer Bob live?

This was precisely why every sufficiently important Otherworlder seemed to arrive with the metaphysical equivalent of the ’Fate Jammer’ Starter Pack.

Divination failed, heavenly secrets blurred and fate became chaotic.

Powerful beings could not simply look downstream through destiny, identify the future threat and throw a meteor at the maternity ward.

Damian’s version was simply more aggressive.

His heavenly secrets were apparently visible enough that gods could observe him from a respectable distance.

Come too close and attempt to directly interfere beyond his current level?

Congratulations!

Please enjoy one free backhand from the Eternal Proof Avatar of Future Damian Baines!

The realization did not anger him.

Quite the opposite.

Damian felt an enormous amount of pressure leave his shoulders.

It told him two extremely important things.

Firstly, Divine Spirits were not incomprehensible eldritch entities whose thoughts operated beyond mortal understanding.

They were just people with larger power levels.

They possessed greed, curiosity, lust, pride, ambition, desire, temptation, preferences and biases, all things Damian understood.

And anything possessing understandable desires could be negotiated with, manipulated, befriended, avoided or played against someone else.

Secondly...

They could not simply reach down and squash him.

That one was even better!

If the highest beings in Valoria—and likely the equivalent top-tier existences in Shengyuan—could not casually take control of his life, then Damian possessed considerably more room to maneuver than he had previously assumed.

Beautiful.

Absolutely fucking beautiful!

He returned his attention to Lyla.

"So what exactly was your goal in bringing me here? Just making friends and showing me that I get special treatment?" Damian asked with his arms folded.

Lyla finally recovered some of her composure.

"Indeed. I wished to expedite your formal initiation after you selected me as your patron, establish a personal relationship before circumstances became more complicated and... offer you something extra," Lyla admitted with a charming smile.

Damian’s eyebrow rose. "Oh?"

Now she had his attention.

Damian already possessed basic knowledge of Divine Boons.

They were essentially Feats directly bestowed through divine authority rather than ordinary Character progression.

There was no level requirement nor need to wait for a milestone.

The main restriction was brutally simple.

Did a deity like you enough to spend their precious Faith Power on you?

That was it.

Lyla lifted one hand.

A sphere of vivid green light appeared above her palm.

It looked alive, and not merely energetic, but actually ’alive’, carrying the warmth of sunlight, fertile soil, fresh blood, growing grass and every other tiny process that separated a corpse from something breathing.

She flicked her fingers and the green sphere entered Damian’s chest.

There was no pain.

Instead, a warm pulse spread through his soul as the Valorian Overworld System immediately reacted.

[Cleric Initiation completed.]

[Divine Patron recognized: Lyla — Goddess of Life, Vitality, Vigor, Fertility and Growth.]

[Origin Feat Acquired: Divine Attunement.]

[Feat Name: Divine Attunement

Feat Category: Origin

Effect: Adapts the Host’s Cleric Class, Divine Spellcasting and divine progression toward the authority and Domains of the selected patron without imposing ordinary incompatibility penalties.]

[Divine Spellcasting activated.]

[Level 1 Divine Spell Slots: 2.]

Then the familiar advancement interface expanded in front of Damian.

It strongly reminded him of becoming a Mage for the first time.

[Select Three Cleric Cantrips.]

[Available Cleric Cantrips:]

[Guidance.]

[Light.]

[Resistance.]

[Sacred Flame.]

[Thaumaturgy.]

Another panel followed immediately.

[Select Three Level 1 Cleric Spells.]

[Available Level 1 Cleric Spells:]

[Bane.]

[Bless.]

[Command.]

[Create or Destroy Water.]

[Cure Wounds.]

[Guiding Bolt.]

[Healing Word.]

[Inflict Wounds.]

[Protection from Evil and Good.]

[Sanctuary.]

[Shield of Faith.]

Damian’s gaze immediately gravitated toward <Cure Wounds> and <Healing Word>.

Obviously.

He had chosen this entire Class for healing and resurrection in the first place.

<Guidance> also looked stupidly useful for day-to-day work, while <Sacred Flame> would finally give him a proper divine offensive Cantrip.

He had barely begun comparing the selections when the System suddenly paused.

A new green light flashed through the interface.

[Additional Divine Authority detected.]

[Divine Boon bestowed.]

[Divine Boon Acquired: Class Merger.]

Damian stopped.

"...Class what?"

The description unfolded.

[Divine Boon: Class Merger

Feat Category: Divine

Effect 1: The Cleric Class may mirror the advancement progress of the Host’s other Standard Class regardless of whether Cleric occupies the Main Class or Subclass position.

Effect 2: Mirrored Cleric advancement does not compete for Overall Level allocation.

Effect 3: Divine Spell Slot progression mirrors the linked Class’s corresponding progression.]

Damian read it once, then again, and finally a third time.

His jaw slowly dropped to the ground.

"Holy shit!"

Lyla smiled smugly at Damian’s expression, knowing that he would appreciate this greatly.

After all, what she had given him was... was....

It was fucking ridiculous!

The weakness of Valoria’s dual-Class system had always been obvious, one’s Overall Level was king.

If Damian wanted to advance Mage, that level had to go into Mage.

If he wanted Cleric progression, the level had to go into Cleric.

They competed for the same limited space.

Take Mage as an example.

At Mage Level 20, Damian could eventually unlock his first Level 9 Spell Slot and begin accessing the signature magic of that tier.

However, suppose he also wanted <Revivify>.

He needed Cleric Level 6 to obtain the appropriate Level 3 Divine Spell progression.

By Overall Level 20, that would leave him as something like:

Mage Level 14.

Cleric Level 6.

Congratulations!

He obtained <Revivify>.

He also crippled his Mage progression badly enough to lose access to the Level 9 Mage Slot he should have earned at Mage Level 20.

Meanwhile, his Cleric side remained stuck around Level 3 Divine Spell Slots, meaning Level 4, 5, 6 and higher divine miracles were still far away.

That was the balancing mechanism.

Multiclassing gave breadth at the cost of depth.

Perfectly reasonable and perfectly fair.

But Lyla had just thrown fairness into a furnace and cooked it up for lunch!

With <Class Merger>, Cleric no longer competed with Mage!

If Mage advanced, Cleric mirrored its progress.

If Cleric had somehow been Damian’s Main Class instead, then his other Standard Class could occupy the conventional progression while Cleric still followed alongside it.

His current Cleric Class was technically Level 1 through his Overall Level allocation.

But its progression now mirrored Mage Level 10.

The System reacted immediately.

[Class Merger synchronization complete.]

[Linked Class: Mage — Level 10.]

[Cleric Mirrored Progression: Level 10.]

[Divine Spell Slot progression synchronized.]

[Current Divine Spell Slots:

Level 1 ×6

Level 2 ×5

Level 3 ×3

Level 4 ×3.]

Damian slowly looked up from the panel toward Lyla.

Mage Spell Slots.

Six Level 1.

Five Level 2.

Three Level 3.

Three Level 4.

And now...

He possessed the exact same spread again in Divine Spell Slots despite the fact that it had separate resources, magical structures and spell system.

He had effectively received an entire Level 10 Cleric’s divine casting progression without sacrificing a single future Mage level!

Damian looked back at Lyla.

The Goddess of Life stood in her flower garden wearing the satisfied expression of a village woman who had just handed someone a basket of vegetables rather than completely vandalizing Valoria’s multiclass balance.

His lips slowly curled upward.

Oh ho ho ho!

So this was what nepotism and favoritism was like?