Chapter 403 - 295: Deity Assembly Line

Chapter 403: Chapter 295: Deity Assembly Line

Not only could it be used to charge the Virtual Divinity, but it could also bestow upon it a part of the "Eternal" Concept!

That was how its status skyrocketed, riding on the coattails of the Virtual Divinity!

Thus, after arriving in the world of the Wilderness Dungeon, during his two and a half years of seclusion, Isaac not only optimized the Virtual Divinity’s ritual for Becoming a God, but he also took the opportunity to improve the Divine Fragments.

However, it was less about optimizing the Divine Fragments themselves and more about optimizing the method of their creation, making it far more efficient.

After all, the Divine Fragment itself was still not very useful. Its Tier was high, sure, but its stats were just too low.

Trying to optimize a Divine Fragment starting from its basic stats was as difficult as Becoming a God—in fact, Becoming a God might even be simpler. After all, there were shortcuts to godhood. You could just pick up a Divinity, perform the ritual, and have a high chance of succeeding. That was far easier than enhancing a Divine Fragment.

Even so, the current Divine Fragments still couldn’t meet Isaac’s needs. Although their production efficiency had increased, it still fundamentally relied on his Golden Finger. Without it, even if Isaac himself personally oversaw the process, the success rate would be pitifully low.

So, more optimization was necessary. Isaac wanted to spend his time on more meaningful pursuits, not on this kind of worthless, repetitive, assembly-line labor.

Was there an alternative, then?

The answer was yes: he just needed to outsource the creation of the Divine Fragments.

Normally, this would be very difficult. After all, Divine Fragments only lacked stats, not mechanics or Tier, making them nearly impossible to create through conventional means.

But then again, Isaac’s situation was anything but normal.

After all, he had gods under his command!

’Would it make a difference if a god were to create the Divine Fragments?’

Isaac was curious.

He had tried before: the Divine Power of a Virtual Deity could not charge a Virtual Divinity. Because both possessed the "Illusory" Concept, the principle of two negatives making a positive didn’t apply here.

’But perhaps adding an intermediate step would yield a different result...’

In the basement, Isaac watched the Master of Blood with anticipation. It slowly picked up a piece of Demon Flesh from the lab bench, its nonexistent "eyes" fixed on the morsel in its hand. Crimson Divine Power began to surge, slowly seeping into the flesh like silken threads.

As Isaac watched with bated breath, the threads of crimson Divine Power slowly merged with the flesh. A network of crimson Divine Power began to spread across its surface!

Seeing this, an expression of delighted surprise spread across Isaac’s face.

This was because, not only was the flesh’s transformation process identical to that of creating a Divine Fragment, but in Isaac’s view, the success rate hovering above it was one hundred percent!

This was the maximum possible success rate without the intervention of a buffer!

This meant that without any external interference, the action was guaranteed to succeed!

However...

Predictably, the unexpected occurred...

The very instant the Divine Fragment formed, before Isaac could even reach for it, it transformed into a streak of bloody light and completely merged into the Master of Blood’s body!

Isaac could only stare, dumbfounded.

After a moment of stupor, Isaac frowned and began his analysis. First, he could confirm that there were no issues with the experimental procedure itself; both the data and the feedback from his Golden Finger confirmed it.

’So, did the Master of Blood secretly consume it?’

Isaac looked up at the calm, mist-like features of the Master of Blood and shook his head slightly. ’The Master of Blood possesses only Divinity; it acts solely in accordance with its divine authority and my commands. It wouldn’t act on its own, not for a Divine Fragment, not even for a complete, proper Divinity.’

’Then...’

’Why did it happen?’

Isaac narrowed his eyes and had the Master of Blood begin a second trial.

The second trial went just like the first; every step of the process was perfectly smooth, right up until...

The final moment of formation!

Just like before, the moment the Divine Fragment formed, it instantly turned into a streak of bloody light and merged into the Master of Blood’s body, vanishing completely. This time, Isaac had even preemptively activated his Authority Magic: Arrogant Turtle, but it was useless.

Then came the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth attempts...

The Master of Blood tried over a dozen more times, but the result was always the same. Upon successful creation, the Divine Fragment would immediately merge with the Master of Blood, and no method could stop it.

The look of delight vanished completely from Isaac’s face, replaced by a deep frown. After a moment of thought, he waved his hand and dismissed the Master of Blood. The experiment would continue, but now he planned to have Mephisto and the others give it a try. He first needed to see if the problem was unique to the Master of Blood.

After all, the Master of Blood’s circumstances were quite unique. Its Authority involved blood and flesh, while the base material for the Divine Fragments was Demonized Flesh. It was possible this was causing some kind of interaction.

Hideous, terrifying sawteeth materialized from the Void and swallowed Isaac whole.

In the Underground Palace City on the surface, Mephisto was intently studying a small booklet bound with animal hide, pondering how to quickly increase the strength of his Followers. The development of his Followers had hit a bottleneck. While their sheer numbers allowed them to gather enough resources from the Underground Palace to survive and grow, the majority of his Followers were still too weak. At present, they could only manage to roam the second level of the Underground Palace; they couldn’t handle anything deeper.

This simply wouldn’t do.

With the exception of the final level, all other levels of the Underground Palace required periodic clearing. Otherwise, the Demons within would swarm out and wreak havoc.

Currently, he and the Fighting God were handling all the other levels. They could manage for now, but it wasn’t a sustainable long-term solution. As the Underground Palace City expanded, they would need to clear even more Underground Palaces to acquire sufficient resources.

Moreover, even if they were content with the status quo, they had to remain vigilant against the other Underground Palaces. If one of them spiraled out of control and Demons wandered into their territory, it would still be a major problem.

So, when it came down to it, they had to increase their own strength!

True strength is the strength you possess yourself.

But... that was easier said than done.

While their own power was infinite, the power they could use to convert and enhance their Followers was not. With their large-scale conversions, the initial power they gained upon becoming Deities had long since been depleted.

It was the same for Mephisto. Although he had fewer Followers than the Fighting God, their quality was much higher. He had used all his surplus power to enhance them, and now, not a single drop remained.

As for how to recover this power, they had now figured it out: Faith.

As long as people believe in them and act in accordance with their Divine Authority, that power can be restored!

However... this recovery rate was incredibly slow.

From the information flowing from his Divinity, Mephisto learned that this power was called the Power of Faith. According to the Divine Spirit Book, it was a versatile energy that could be used for many things, though its most fundamental purpose was to increase one’s own power.

This aspect, however, was useless to them, as their own strength could not be increased.

As for its other uses... those still needed to be explored.

For now, then, it could only be used for converting and enhancing Followers.

And there was only one way to increase their intake of the Power of Faith: get more intelligent beings to believe in them!

This brought them back to the original problem: population.

The Underground Palace City couldn’t accommodate any more people for the time being. They had to take things slow...

Sigh...

Just as Mephisto sighed, hideous, wicked sawteeth began to materialize in the Void. He frowned, and a golden flame flared to life, only to be extinguished an instant later.

He extinguished the flame because, from within those righteous sawteeth in the Void, the figure of Isaac was slowly emerging.

"Divine Master!"

Mephisto immediately bowed in reverence.

Isaac waved his hand and tossed a piece of Demon Flesh to Mephisto. "Do me a favor."

With that, he casually sent a stream of Magic Streaming Light into Mephisto’s mind, imparting the method for creating Divine Fragments.

"As you command, Divine Master."

As a Deity, even a Virtual one, Mephisto’s ability to learn was outstanding. He understood the process for creating a Divine Fragment almost instantly. He nodded in assent and began the process.

But soon, the same thing that happened with the Master of Blood occurred: the instant the Divine Fragment formed, it merged into Mephisto’s body!

The only difference was, Mephisto seemed... happy about it?