Chapter 422 - 310: What the Hell, It’s 1 Month?

Chapter 422: Chapter 310: What the Hell, It’s 1 Month?

The requirements for the Divine Spirit Book’s first ritual were rather general, with no special conditions regarding the environment, time, or the caster. It was the sort of thing that could be performed in a basement. For Isaac, a ritual like this posed no difficulty at all; he set it up in a flash.

In the basement, he double-checked the ritual. After confirming that the margin for error was as high as it could possibly be, he nodded in satisfaction. Then, with a gentle push, the Divine Spirit Book, radiating a multi-colored light, floated to the center of the Ritual Array.

Immediately after, three streams of Divine Power flew out from behind Isaac, circling the Divine Spirit Book.

Tss—

As the ritual was about to begin, the Demon Eye on Isaac’s brow, which had remained dormant, opened once more, staring curiously at the Divine Spirit Book in the center of the Ritual Array.

Isaac gave the Demon Eye a casual glance but paid it no further mind, focusing his full attention on the ritual.

As a faint ripple emanated, the materials of the ritual lit up in sequence. Strange, eerie streams of light flickered in the dark basement. Under the ritual’s influence, the three streams of Divine Power circling the Divine Spirit Book began to tremble slightly.

Then, the Divine Power disintegrated, transforming into specks of starlight that slowly merged into the Divine Spirit Book.

Seeing this, the Demon Eye on Isaac’s brow snapped wide open!

’Divine Power can be disintegrated?’

’After all these years, this was the first time it had ever seen anyone mess with Divine Power like this. Who was the real god here, the Mad Witch or itself?’

Isaac ignored the curious Demon Eye, his concentration still fixed entirely on maintaining the ritual.

Soon, the ritual concluded. As expected, it was perfect—so perfect that the margin for error displayed by his Golden Finger was still one thousand percent!

’This was only to be expected. As my strength increases, situations like this will become more common. Perhaps it will even happen during transactions with Demon Gods?’

’Hmm... Then again, perhaps it wouldn’t be called a "transaction" by that point...’

’It’d be called "offering tribute"!’

With the ritual complete, Isaac waved his hand, collecting the leftover materials. He brought the Divine Spirit Book before his eyes to examine it for a moment, then nodded in satisfaction. ’Good. Even less data was analyzed this time.’

’Perhaps a complete Divine Spirit Book, much like the Wind-Fire Wheel, won’t yield much data from Analysis either...’

’Time to upgrade my [Analysis] Authority...’ Isaac stroked his chin, pondering for a moment.

’But there’s no rush. For one, my current [Analysis] Authority is still sufficient. For another, not many Deities possess this Authority, and even fewer have degenerated into Evil Gods. I’ll have to do a thorough search.’

’Perhaps it’s time to put the technique for corrupting a True God on the agenda?’

’True Gods have so many good things, after all!’

He shook his head, casting the absurd thought aside. ’How could I do that? I’m trying to cultivate a better image for myself right now, to reverse my universally despised reputation. I can’t be doing things like that!’

’I’ll need to find a pair of gloves...’

Lost in thought, Isaac put away the Divine Spirit Book and left the underground laboratory.

The second-stage ritual had specific requirements for both environment and time. The temporal requirement was particularly strict: it needed to be performed on the day that ten Divine Stars aligned to form the Third Star Palace.

The Third Star Palace was a relatively important piece of Knowledge from the Contract School, specifically concerning Astrological Contracts.

According to Isaac’s calculations, waiting for that day to arrive in the Wilderness Dungeon would take at least another ten years.

Unquestionably, Isaac couldn’t afford to wait that long. He needed to find a way to alter the circumstances—either by making the alignment happen sooner or by collecting the relevant Concept.

In the Real World, Isaac would have chosen the first option. The Real World was vast, and the positions of those ten Divine Stars were fixed. Furthermore, with many more Divine Stars visible, he could alter the timing of the Third Star Palace’s appearance simply by changing his own spatial location or by substituting other stars into the alignment.

Although this was Knowledge typically mastered only by Wizards of the Contract School and the Astrology School, it wouldn’t be difficult for someone of Isaac’s standing to acquire it.

Unfortunately, this was the Wilderness Dungeon. Its scope was limited and couldn’t compare to the Real World. Fewer Divine Stars shone upon this world; with a single glance, Isaac could see there wasn’t even one viable substitute.

So, he was left with the second option.

In truth, the second option was also a long shot. According to Isaac’s calculations, the Third Star Palace appeared so rarely in this world that it would be extremely difficult to collect a suitable Concept.

Fortunately, Isaac had his Golden Finger as a safety net. Any deficiency in the Concept could be filled in with its versatile "padding."

And if that still wasn’t enough, he could even trade with an Outer God.

’There was always a way.’

After leaving the laboratory, Isaac first went to the Giant Troll Valley to find Trist, who was busy Hunting Giant Trolls. Unlike before, thanks to their efficient Hunting methods, the new Virtual Divinity had long been fully charged. They were now in the process of creating Divine Fragments.

Unquestionably, their efficiency, basically living in a dungeon, was far greater than that of Mephisto and the others, who relied on their Followers to do the collecting.

This was understandable, though. The Underground Palace City’s systems were still far from perfect, and many matters required Mephisto and the Fighting God to handle them personally. Forget about Hunting Demons—they barely had time to convert the Demon Flesh brought back by their Followers into Divine Fragments.

Ordinarily, the addition of the Mother Goddess to the Underground Palace City should have greatly alleviated the situation. Unfortunately, the Mother Goddess was neither skilled in combat nor particularly well-versed in Human Nature, so she couldn’t take on many of their responsibilities.

Most of the time, she was simply making Divine Fragments for Isaac.

The result was that even with an additional Deity, Mephisto somehow felt even busier!

The Mother Goddess’s arrival wasn’t useless—far from it. After her "birth," the number of newborns in the Underground Palace City increased at a visible rate!

Yes, the number of *newborns* had increased, not just the number of pregnant women!

The Mother Goddess’s combat prowess was weak, but conversely, her support abilities were absurdly powerful!

She didn’t just make the women of the Underground Palace City incredibly fertile; she also made them incredibly quick to give birth!

Once the Mother Goddess was established, the time from conception to birth for women plummeted from ten months to anywhere between seven days and one month!

Yes, seven days to one month!

In the most extreme cases, it was faster than fucking Demon respawns in the Underground Palace!

At the same time, the growth rate of these newborns was also massively accelerated. A normal human takes eighteen years to reach adulthood; now, it only took one month!

Yes, one month!

But this just made Mephisto even busier. Because in that one month, these people’s bodies grew, but their damn minds didn’t!

Every last one of them had the vacant, innocent stare of a newborn!

The difficulty of managing them skyrocketed!

This bizarre situation nearly scared Mephisto to death. Fortunately, they felt a wave of relief after consulting with the Mother Goddess and learning that, thankfully, this ability could be turned off. Once the population of the Underground Palace City reached a certain threshold, the growth rate could be returned to a normal curve.

But even so, Mephisto was swamped. More than once, they’d thought about asking the Divine Master to create another Deity just to handle administrative affairs...

’But they didn’t have the guts to ask...’