Chapter 405 - 296: You Two Seem to Have Too Much Human Nature

Chapter 405: Chapter 296: You Two Seem to Have Too Much Human Nature

With the optimization of the Divine Fragment complete, it was time to study how to establish a Miracle in this world.

At least until the Master of Blood produced enough Divine Fragments, he wouldn’t need to think about creating new Virtual Divinities for now—neither for the True Gods of the Underground Palace City nor for his own combat companions.

Miracles were a strange phenomenon. From what Isaac currently understood, they seemed to be a weakened version of a Great Creation. They relied upon the world and bestowed rewards upon those who completed a ceremony or Trial.

’Just like a Great Creation, isn’t it?’

’The only difference is that a Great Creation’s range of influence is larger, and its rewards are better!’

Establishing a Miracle mainly consisted of a few steps: constructing the ceremony, constructing the reward, and communicating with the world’s origin.

Each step was interlinked. If any one of them was missing, a Miracle could not be established.

Of these three steps, Isaac had only completed the first. This was because the "Sealing God" ceremony already existed in the Real World; he just needed to copy it. There weren’t many parts that needed modification, and with his current expertise in Ritualism, the changes were easy to make.

But the second and third steps were a bit more difficult.

This was especially true for the second step. While the effect of the "Sealing God" Miracle Magic was to create a Virtual Divinity, the reward from the Miracle Ceremony·Sealing God was not a Virtual Divinity itself.

Not even the highest-tier reward was.

To put it simply, the position of a Virtual Divinity was too high for a mere Tier Four Miracle Ceremony to support. In fact, Isaac was only able to coalesce a Virtual Divinity so easily thanks to his Golden Finger, which increased his margin for error.

Otherwise, under normal circumstances, Isaac’s Miracle Magic would have been practically useless. While the potential payoff was immense, the difficulty was proportionally extreme.

This was not a rare occurrence among Miracle Mages. The very reason a Miracle was a Miracle was that no one could ever know when or in what form it would appear.

Of course, this wasn’t an insurmountable problem for Miracle Mages. They had their own solutions. While none were likely as simple and direct as Isaac’s Golden Finger, the problem could, in the end, be solved.

Returning to the matter at hand, given the high position of a Virtual Divinity, it was unrealistic for Isaac to try to anchor one here with a single Miracle. ’But it’s precisely that difficulty that makes it a challenge worth taking, isn’t it?’

Isaac hunched over his desk, pen in hand, sketching and scribbling in a blank Magic Book. ’I don’t have a solution yet, but I can start by thoroughly analyzing the Miracle Magic·God Sealing. Who knows? An idea might come to me as I study it.’

’Besides, even if I don’t come up with anything in the end, it’s not a huge problem. Thoroughly understanding the Miracle Magic·God Sealing will only benefit me. It’s a step I had to take sooner or later anyway.’

And so, as Isaac immersed himself in his research, time slipped quietly by. In the blink of an eye, two months had passed. The day had come for Mephisto and the others to make their first attempt at clearing the lowest level of the Underground Palace.

BEEP BEEP...

Isaac was engrossed in his research on Miracle Magic, frowning as he scribbled on a piece of scratch paper. Suddenly, a blue Arcane Light Band materialized on his wrist, flickering with a faint glow.

He frowned at it, then glanced at the jumbled mess of notes still in his hand and couldn’t help but sigh. ’The progress is really limited...’

Shaking his head, Isaac crumpled the paper into a ball and tossed it aside. He rose and straightened his sleeves. With a casual beckoning gesture, the Master of Blood, which had been toiling away silently like a beast of burden in a corner of the basement, instantly transformed into a streak of blood-red light. It flew to Isaac’s hand, becoming a ring on his index finger.

Isaac took stock of the Divine Fragments produced by the Master of Blood, a pleased expression spreading across his face. ’It’s enough.’

The current quantity was enough for him to coalesce another Virtual Divinity. With this, he could let the Master of Blood, whose days were numbered, have its final blaze of glory without any worries.

With another wave of his hand, Isaac stored away all the Divine Fragments, then was swallowed by a menacing, jagged rift in space that opened behind him.

When he reappeared, he was in the Divine Hall of the Underground Palace City above. This was where Mephisto and the Fighting God usually spent their days, coalescing Divine Fragments and sparring with each other to improve their combat experience.

Today, the two were gathered together again, but they weren’t sparring as they usually did. Instead, they stood respectfully to one side, each accompanied by their three strongest Followers.

After more than two months of development, most of the Divine Creatures were still at Tier One. Only a select few with the most outstanding combat abilities had been Enhanced to Tier Three.

After all, even with Divine Fragments to supplement their Power of Faith, the amount required to Enhance Followers to higher tiers was still astronomical. Even though the two of them had been producing Divine Fragments nonstop day and night, they had each only managed to create three Tier Three Followers.

In truth, if they had distributed this Power of Faith evenly among all the Divine Creatures, they could have significantly boosted the strength of their Follower Legion. At least half of the Followers would have been promoted to Tier Two as a result.

But after a moment of consideration, Mephisto and the Fighting God decided against this option. For one, Isaac wanted them to clear the lowest level of the Underground Palace. In a place like that, Tier One and Tier Two Followers were completely useless; only Tier Three beings were qualified to even set foot inside. To better complete the task Isaac had given them, they needed Tier Three combatants.

For another, even without Isaac’s mission, they would have still chosen to concentrate their resources on Enhancing a few powerful individuals first. This was the only way to free themselves from the duty of clearing the deeper levels of the Underground Palace, allowing them to focus their energy elsewhere.

After all, the Underground Palace City didn’t lack Tier One and Tier Two combatants; what they lacked were Tier Three and Tier Four!

This was the final result of their decision.

However, when Isaac stepped out from the jagged void and glanced at the Followers standing behind them, he shook his head slightly. This made both Gods’ hearts sink. Sure enough, Isaac spoke: "They don’t need to come. Resurrecting Tier Three Followers is quite resource-intensive. This trip is just a reconnaissance mission, so let them stay in the Underground Palace City."

Hearing this, Mephisto and the Fighting God exchanged a look, both seeing the disappointment in the other’s eyes. ’And here we thought these Tier Three Followers might actually be able to help Isaac...’

But while they were disappointed, this was actually within their expectations. They had been to the lowest level of the Underground Palace before. With the power these six Followers possessed, they would barely be able to protect themselves there.

If they ventured even slightly deeper, they would die incredibly quickly!

The only reason Mephisto and the Fighting God had brought them was in the hope of helping Isaac in any small way they could.

After all, this was one of the few things they could do for Isaac.

’Unfortunately, they still weren’t chosen. We failed to please our Divine Master...’

Isaac glanced at the dejected Mephisto and Fighting God in surprise. ’These two... their resistance to Divinity is this high?’

The improved Virtual Divinity had only been optimized to amplify ambition; the Erosion of Human Nature by Divinity hadn’t been significantly mitigated. For one, this was the most difficult aspect of the Divinity to resolve. For another, it was due to a small bit of selfishness on Isaac’s part.

’If I strengthened that aspect, wouldn’t my Miracle Domination and this thing be working at cross-purposes?’

’Even so, I could still make the Divinity consume their Human Nature, but it’s not worth doing so at this time.’

Therefore, the current state of these two was rather unusual...

’Perhaps it’s because they were originally humans from the Wilderness Dungeon? Are they special in some way?’

The thought flashed through his mind for an instant before he pushed it to the back of his thoughts. It was a possibility, but now was not the time to investigate it. The priority was to test the waters of the lowest level of the Underground Palace.

Completely clearing an Underground Palace was still one of Isaac’s most important current objectives!

’After all, if I complete this, I can advance perfectly to Tier Five once I get out of here!’