Chapter 383 - 283: Rendezvous in the Dark Underground Palace

Chapter 383: Chapter 283: Rendezvous in the Dark Underground Palace

But apparently, the resemblance was only skin-deep. This goblin couldn’t compare to a true Apostle; its desires had swelled in tandem with its suddenly inflated power, and it was now completely dominated by them.

’It seems the Virtual Divinity does indeed have its shortcomings.’

Indeed. While Isaac looked down on the Three-eyed Goblin—now dominated by its desires and completely oblivious to its situation—he also had to admit that this Magic of his did have some flaws.

A genuine Deity, by contrast, would never end up in this state. Before Becoming a God, their souls would have been Enhanced by the ascension ritual. Whether will, flesh, or Spirit Body, they could fully receive the power of a Divinity. Even a subpar God would only be temporarily dominated by the divine nature of the Divinity’s power, losing their sense of self for a time to act with the absolute will of a God.

But now, the evil desires deep within the Three-eyed Goblin’s heart were spreading unchecked. The cause was either that the virtual God Creation ritual contained within the Virtual Divinity wasn’t strong enough, or that it was missing certain crucial steps.

So, Isaac shook his head. With a casual gesture, the Three-eyed Goblin, which had been preparing to strike him, suddenly froze. The blood-red aura around its body flared violently, and in the blink of an eye, the goblin was incinerated, leaving only that bizarre eye floating silently in the air.

With another casual gesture, Isaac collected the [Evil Eye]. His figure then flickered and vanished.

When he reappeared, he was already at the entrance to the nearby Goblin Dungeon.

It was the same Underground Palace, but this time, he wasn’t here for test subjects. He was here to collect sacrificial offerings.

His experiments with the Virtual Divinity had to continue, but he wasn’t going to use the [Evil Eye] for them. This particular Virtual Divinity had been charged by Isaac using a Divine Fragment, and thus possessed a portion of a true Divinity’s [Eternal] Concept. Aside from being unable to raise one’s power ceiling, its other properties were identical to a real Divinity.

Unlike other Virtual Divinities, whose every ounce of power is finite—its internal store of Divine Power diminishing with each use until it’s completely consumed—the [Evil Eye] could replenish its Divine Power just like a normal Deity.

It could absorb Power of Faith, use blood sacrifices, and even had the ability to draw power from its [Divine Authority]!

For all these reasons, experimenting with the [Evil Eye] was clearly not a good idea. Especially here in the Endless Tower, where time was of the essence. He didn’t have the luxury of slowly crafting more Divine Fragments.

Therefore, he planned to go on a killing spree here, perform a blood sacrifice, and first obtain a few portions of Divine Power to weave new Virtual Divinities.

’Tsk, tsk... If only the outside world had something as miraculous as an Underground Palace, life would be so much easier.’ As he casually tossed a goblin corpse into the Blood Pool, Isaac muttered to himself in envy while carving the Blood Sacrifice Ritual Array.

He was indeed envious. An existence like an Underground Palace was very similar to the dungeons from the novels and games of his past life. It would regularly spawn large numbers of Demons, and it was strictly divided into floors based on the Level and scale of those Demons.

For instance, on the sixth floor of the Goblin Dungeon where Isaac currently was, the normal number of Demons was around two thousand. The highest-Level threats were merely six Pseudo-Tier Three Barbaric Goblins—Pseudo-Tier Three Demons that possessed the Barbaric Strength and Magic Power of Tier Three but lacked any Authority—and a single Advanced Goblin that possessed the [Command] Authority.

This level of power was laughably weak before Isaac. He could clear this floor solo back when he was Tier Three, to say nothing of now that he had advanced to Tier Four.

Not only did the quality and quantity of Demons perfectly meet Isaac’s needs, but what was even better was that just two floors down, on the eighth floor of the Goblin Dungeon, there was a Tier Four Apostle Goblin. It was an extremely tough opponent that might even borrow power from a Demon God for a sudden power-up.

But!

Tough as it might be, it first had to be able to reach him.

The rules of the Underground Palace were clear. Even though the distance between them wasn’t actually that great, as long as Isaac didn’t set foot on the eighth floor, that Tier Four Apostle Goblin couldn’t do a single thing to him.

’If a place like this existed in the Real World, wouldn’t the Mad Witches go absolutely wild?’

Of course, it was also possible that the very existence of Mad Witches in the Real World was why such an outrageous Creation like an Underground Palace could never form there. The miracle of the Underground Palace was, in fact, entirely sustained by the great power of Deities!

The Endless Tower existed independently of the Real World. While it also stipulated a power limit, it wasn’t overly hostile to invested power. This was a huge convenience for the Dimensional Demon Gods. Their power was infinite, making them perfectly suited for creating this kind of Underground Palace.

At the same time, they could use the Underground Palaces within the Endless Tower to reap some benefits for themselves.

Even to a Dimensional Demon God, the Endless Tower was an unbelievable Creation!

Soon, Isaac finished drawing the Blood Sacrifice Ritual Array. He stepped to the side, rolled up his sleeves, and as a strange ripple spread out, an evil, blood-colored light emanated from the Ritual Array, swiftly consuming all the corpses and blood in the Blood Pool!

Suddenly, a great will descended...

"I am the Master of Billions of Flesh. Mortal, speak your..."

"Give me some Divine Power, thanks."

"Hm? This familiar aura... You’re... It’s you! You little..."

"Get lost! All I want is some of your Divine Power. Stop dawdling. Next!" Isaac casually cut off the blood sacrifice ritual, directly banishing the will of the Master of Billions of Flesh. As he sealed away the Demon God’s Magic Power, he sighed in slight annoyance. ’Looks like my old friend has been made quite irritable by the Emperor. He’s lost patience for a proper transaction like this. Pathetic... That Yellow-skinned really does a number on people!’

Isaac shook his head, lamenting, as he cleaned up the mess and waited for the sixth floor’s Demons to respawn. For this experiment, he planned to construct the Virtual Divinities using Divine Power from a single source. After all, his main goal was to optimize the insufficient or missing parts of the God Creation ritual. Therefore, quantity was more important than quality. Only with enough sample data could he identify the flaws and perfect the process.

Of course, Isaac was also planning a small, separate experiment to do some preliminary reconnaissance for his plan to conquer the Underground Palace, which was another reason he needed to prepare a good number of Virtual Divinities.

Over the next month, Isaac repeated the process to procure eight more portions of Divine Power, turning each one into a Virtual Divinity.

It was worth noting that three of these eight portions of Divine Power came from the Master of Billions of Flesh. However, after being made into Virtual Divinities, they all became completely new entities.

Their [Divine Name], [Divine Power], and fragmented [Divine Authority] were all different.

Of course, a closer examination would still reveal some traces of their origin; the power of these three Virtual Divinities was all derived from a part of the Master of Billions of Flesh.

Subtly, Isaac’s understanding of Virtual Divinities deepened.

With the Virtual Divinities prepared, Isaac officially began his experiments!

First, he once again gathered eight Tier One Demons!

He still chose the lowest-Level Underground Palace Demons. The difference was that this time, instead of goblins, he used Slimes—Demons with the most docile temperaments and whose bodies and souls were the most malleable. Using this type of Demon for his experiments would greatly improve his data collection efficiency.

’It’s rather strange,’ Isaac thought. ’I don’t know if it’s a rule of the Underground Palaces or the twisted humor of these Demon Gods, but the types of Demons in the Wilderness Dungeon are all unranked and Tier One Demons from the Real World.’

’Personally, I lean toward the former explanation. After all, the inherent potential of these Demons is too low. The cost to Enhance them to Tier Four would be extraordinary. Then again, maybe not. In this world, Dimensional Demon Gods have infinite power to squander.’

’Perhaps there are no special rules at all. It might just be that two or three Dimensional Demon Gods decided to use weak Demons as a template on a whim, and the other Demon Gods just followed suit.’

’After all, Demon Gods are notorious for being in it for the fun of it~’