15 days of seclusion in the real world equated just under two months having passed in the world of Boundless. As such, their return was well received by everyone who had believed they would be gone far longer.
The biggest change occurred to Eva, whose entire class and bloodline had been restructured. In reality, it wasn't much of a big deal since neither of them could affect their special domains anywhere but near themselves, or to be precise, directly.
She might have lost access to the techniques of her Abyssal Eye Inheritance like Izanami and Izanagi, yet on the upside, she and Draco had discovered a lot of interesting things in the void. All the stuff that had been s.u.c.k.e.d in there by Eva all this while had been sifted through by the duo.
If this had been the previous timeline, they would have found numerous goodies, especially within Boundless since the amount of things Eva had absorbed over 15 years was not a joke.
In this timeline though, she only had little time to make use of it and the uncertainty around it had forced Eva to use her light abilities more. Still though, all was not lost.
Just as Draco's Hell was merely a single aspect of his Horned Demon Inheritance, Eva's Heaven was also but one part of her former Abyssal Eye Inheritance. Before entering, she had meditated upon it and decided to call it the Heavenly Eye Inheritance from now on.
The loss of Izanami and Izanagi's space warp abilities was regretful, but she had gained some other sick techniques in their place. One of them was the Eye of Blessing, allowing her to channel her divine power as a Goddess to grant a real and tangible blessing to a person.
This was a reality-warping technique that could only work on Eva's devout followers who were true of heart, or those who had performed a meritorious deed that benefited Eva significantly.
Each person could only be blessed once a month, and Eva could only bless a total of three people a month as she was now. Her blessings were exactly what one might imagine, helping someone achieve sudden wealth, gaining the affection of a girl or guy they liked, or surviving a terminal illness, only to become healthier than an athlete.
As far as they had tested it out, there did not seem to be any backlash to Eva nor chaos caused, it was pure and efficient. That was precisely why since there was no flaw, the conditions for activation were stringent and the times it could be used were limited.
Blessings would only directly influence a few individuals at best, giving them something they needed or d.e.s.i.r.e. Miracles were targeted at events, allowing things that should not logically occur to occur.
An example of a miracle would be a disastrous car crash that claimed 40 lives on a highway. Eva could bestow a divine miracle that would have all those injured from the crash recover and live.
Another was a company going bankrupt. Eva could grant a miracle that would inject the company with a new discovery that would see their stocks shoot up like a rocket and their investors desperate to inject more money in.
Eva could only use miracles five times a month, and each time had to be an event that would yield a negative effect. She obviously could not turn a positive effect into a negative one, at least not with this power.
If she wanted to do so, that would be a job for her Eye of Punishment. This replaced the powerful Susanoo attack that had high offensive power. Eva could not directly attack a foe with this, but she could twist reality to grant them a severely unfavorable outcome.
This targeted both people and events, with different criteria for both. She could only target persons who had directly blasphemed her capacity as a Goddess or infringed upon her followers and believers.
She could punish a maximum of 20 people a month, but depending on how severe the punishment given was, that number might be reduced. For example, it was possible for her to make 20 people contract a severe illness, as long as it was not anything fatal.
An example of a punishment that would severely cut down Eva's slots would be to punish a person to watch their entire family and friends go through extreme hell. This would require too much reality-bending and would take a toll on her divine power.
As for events, Eva could make it so that someone would 'send their regards' during a wedding or make it so that the grand opening of a new company turned into slaughterfest that would make headlines. She could also cause natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes, but that could only be done once a month.
Another huge change was in Eva's Celestial Maiden Inheritance. For some reason, Amaterasu had put all of the effects that the Heavenly Eye Inheritance should have onto the Celestial Maiden Inheritance, shifting it from what it was.
A Celestial Maiden was a heavenly being, yes, but not a Goddess. That Inheritance was to emphasize the beauty of Amaterasu and her ability to charm the hearts of all living beings into worshiping her.
However, it could neither collect the Faith Energy nor grant such devout followers any benefits, so how could it be complete?! It was truly miraculous how Amaterasu had never realized this flaw in logic.
The 'Divine' aspect of the Celestial Maiden Inheritance was shifted to the Heavenly Eye Inheritance where it should be, while the Celestial Maiden focused on Mental and Angelic abilities, as it was the literal counterpart to Draco's Dark Angel Inheritance.
So, if Draco was a Dark Angel under the effects of his third Inheritance, Eva was a normal Light Angel under the effects of her own third Inheritance, as it should have been.
Her Goddess of Light Inheritance had received no changes.
All of this was, of course, referring to the real world. Her abilities with these three techniques of her Heavenly Eye Inheritance were limited due to a lack of external energy, but Eva and Draco were not aware that she was already lucky.
The real universe was subsidizing the cost of these reality-bending techniques that could work on a large scale, otherwise she would not be able to do anything. Just like how Draco could not use any of his Horned Demon techniques in reality except the full body transformation as the cost was too high and the cycle was incomplete.
As for within Boundless? Well, the AI did its analysis once she logged back in and the results came out.
Assessing current class skills… ｣
｢System to Player Announcement
Analyzing player bloodline composition… ｣
｢System to Player Announcement
Inspecting class paths… ｣
｢System to Player Announcement
Contrasting bloodline skill to class skills… ｣
｢System to Player Announcement
Reassessing class progression… ｣
Upgraded class analysis complete. Display?
Y/N ｣
Eva chose to do so and shared the information with Draco.
｢Celestial Prime - Divine Class (Rank 3)
Skills: None
Exp gain rate: 1%
Rank up difficulty: ?
Class weapons: All
Class skills: Any Light, Angelic, Divine, and Creation.｣
Certain items and skills in your repertoire have been changed or added to fit your new designation and harmonize with your class. Here is the list of changed skills;
- Void's Blessing - Amended
- Eyes of Fate - Added
- Void Form - Amended
- Lord of the Universe - Amended
- Goddess Form - Amended
- Celestial's Dignity - Amended｣
｢The Throne's Power (Rank 3) - Passive skill
Effect: The user is the one true Lord of Heaven and the controller of the upper world. All attacks at the Divine Rank and below are dispersed, with a 30% chance to absorb it as replenishment.｣
｢Eyes of Fate - Passive Skill
Effect: You can see the lines of fate of every living being in the world, as well as their fortune, luck and demise.｣
｢Heavenly Form (Rank 3) - Active skill
Effect: Assume your true goddess form temporarily.
Duration: 2 minutes.
Cooldown: 20 hours.｣
｢Heaven's Call - Passive skill
Passive 1 - Heaven's Call: Welcome the souls of defeated opponents within your Rank into your Heaven for eternal paradise.
Note 1: This only affects sapient beings (NPCs) and sentient organisms (Monsters) at Rank 3
Note 2: Immortal Spirits can only be placed in Heaven for 7 days at Rank 3 (players will be given the option to log out or experience the paradise.)
Passive 2 - Heaven's Toll: Gain 0.01% permanent increase in stats for every soul blessed with ascension.
Note 1: Maximum number of souls allowed is 100,000 at Rank 3｣
｢Celestial Form (Rank 3) - Active skill
Effect: Assume your true angel form temporarily.
Duration: 2 minutes.
Cooldown: 20 hours.｣
｢Angel's Determination (Rank 3) - Passive skill
Effect: All skills consume 30% less mana or stamina permanently.｣
Eva had gained and lost some abilities. For one, she had gained the awesome Eyes of Fate that allowed her to see the fate of all living beings in Boundless, while she had lost the ability to take on the void form.
Things that were swapped were her ability to have all charisma checks passed under the former Celestial's Dignity, but in exchange, she received the broken passive that reduced mana and stamina costs by a whole 30%.
This was crucial to Eva, who used mana like water due to her demanding passives like Elemental and Spacetime regulation. With more mana, she could freely manipulate these skills and become even more overpowered.
All around the benefits outweighed the losses, especially since Eva now felt complete in a way that she never did before. What was interesting was that Draco also found that some changes had happened to him as an indirect effect.
｢Abyssal Prime - Divine Class (Rank 3)
Skills: None
Exp gain rate: 1%
Rank up difficulty: ?
Class weapons: All
Class skills: Any Draconic, Darkness, Evil and Angelic.｣
It seemed like his Demonic and Devilish skills had been collectively classified into 'Evil' while he had gained the ability to learn Darkness element skills, which was amazing. This was a direct result of Eva completing some strange cycle between them.
Pleased, Draco rubbed his chin. He remembered that he saw some truly OP skillbooks in the rewards for the trial, and in fact, he exited the Inner Universe to check them again.
Scrolling through the list, Draco found three skillbooks that were within the Bronze tier that he could either redeem for free or use his Score Points to get. Seeing as Score Points were less limited and more precious, he decided to save them and rather fight for the freebies.
Speaking of that, Draco had been away for two months. It was about time for him to continue his climb up the various floors, with nothing pressing to sidetrack him this time.
Draco also realized that he could pass by that marketplace for the other trial takers to see if he could get some items. He knew that with his abilities, he could simply Refine something precious to exchange, or craft some Legendary Items.
After all, the highest rank of the trial takers were Rank 5, and such fellows hardly had Legendary Items unless they were part of a big faction and had powerful parents/backings. Most used Epic up until Rank 6 where they started getting easier access to Legendary Items and Equipment.
As for Divine, just because Draco and co had made it seem like cabbage didn't mean its value was low. It was still something that a Rank 7.5 Titled God like Richmond would likely betray Draco for.
Draco didn't do anything or go out though. He was more interested in climbing the floors and seeing what this tower had in store, so he walked through the various levels of the castle until he came before the portal to the trials.
When he chose to initiate his second trial, he was whisked away to a world unknown, his castle locking itself up to prevent intruders since its master was gone.
............
In the safe zone, there was a large buzz in the entire area. The feats of Draco from his clearance of the first floor were still being discussed and analyzed to this day.
The general consensus was that the fellow was a monster. They had seen that he was likely Rank 3 at best, which compared to Rank 5 titans like the top three was utterly shocking.
As such, many came to the conclusion that Draco's success lay in his talent, that when he went into the first floor, he must have been assessed with White Talent and had a smooth experience which was how he had managed to get such a high score.
After all, Gavin and co only had Purple Talent for that floor which had granted them the equivalent of Epic Classes. This already was seen as mind-blowing, but Draco's feats were out of this world.
Of course, they could never have predicted that Draco's party had such monstrous talents. Then again, how many people got to have Inner Universes in their bodies where they had Eternal Rank trees that could bypass space and time?!
The collective judgment was that on floors where abilities were restricted, Draco would likely shine through. On floors where one's abilities would be carried over, he would likely come out with a mediocre, if not average performance at best.
However, those in the top 200 always had sullen expressions when they visited the square and saw his name on the 1st-floor rankings. That huge gap was too great, like a blinding slap to their faces that left them ashamed.
The top three had it worse, and it had been said that they had become frenzied, renewing their long-halted conquests into the 71st floor to surpass their limits and show up the newbie who threatened them.
They even forced some of their lackeys to enter floors to challenge them, so it was unknown how many would come out crippled, victorious, or not at all due to the snowball effect.
Another interesting fact to note was that those on the lower ranks, even up to the 500th rank, had often come around to look for Draco. They wanted to sign up under him and become his lackey for they could see his rise was coming!
The rest though, were only watching on with playful smirks. They had long gotten sore eyes looking at those fellows always dominating the leaderboard so seeing a new challenger arise pleased and excited them.
Not only that, they had long grown tired of the oppression of those higher, along with their lackeys. Whenever they took a stroll in the safe zone, it was as if they expected everyone to rush and sniff it if they farted!
That kind of overbearing arrogance had long worn out its menacing effect and had it not been for the no-fighting rule, blood would have long since spilled.
However, Draco had disappeared for two months without any sign, making many faces change, wondering whether he might have attempted the 2nd floor, only to perish? Realistically, that should be impossible, as the 2nd floor was arguably easier.
Nevertheless, the fact remained that he was hiding in his castle, which made many curious. Could he have been intimidated by the top 3? Could they have offered him better terms in private to stay his hand?
The lack of information was driving more than a few fellows crazy, and they wished they could storm the fellow's abode and drag him out to be questioned. The top 3 were not back from their floor, as the higher one got, the longer it took to clear any floors' objective, otherwise a whole 100 years wouldn't be needed between each session.
.........
Draco coalesced in a square, surrounded by hundreds of villagers who were cheering loudly. Eva, Zaine, Roma, and Hikari had been f.o.r.c.i.b.l.y pulled out of his Inner Universe and just like him, they wore the same attires they had worn during the bandit subjugation.
This did not surprise Draco, and he had long realized that Unique Quests were above what even his Eternal Rank tree could do. He had tried to walk through a portal to the Anomaly Realm, but he and everyone else was blocked from returning to the real world until the Unique Quest was over.
This made sense, as Unique Quests were not a separate space/time connected to the main world, but a detached one that was as it was called, unique. If Draco left, it would shatter and disappear.
Amidst the loud cheering, an aged fellow who seemed to be the village chief walked over to the 'Five Monsters' and patted Draco's shoulder with a gratifying smile.
"I always knew you would become someone good, and I was right!"
The village chief then turned to the rest of the villagers, who quieted down to hear him speak.
"Thanks to the valiant effort of our own brother and his sisters, we are finally free of the oppression of the Japichi bandits! Not only that, they have donated all the earnings of that evil group to the village! Give three cheers for their valiance and nobility!"
The crowd then erupted into a collective cheer that was well-timed, making the Five Monsters feel weird. Hikari blushed with shyness and Roma rubbed the back of her head bashfully. Zaine lifted her nose up and posed s.e.xily, while Eva simply smiled benevolently.
Draco himself folded his arms and smirked shamelessly, basking in all the praises that were meant for him.
"All work shall be suspended for today! The only thing I want to see you all doing is making merry and celebrating!" The village chief roared while raising his staff, the crowd's cheers were deafening this time around.
At this time, a screen popped up showing the objective for this floor.
