"Divine Heritage…?" Callan said. His tone carried confusion.
Master was working on the rune diagram. He continued to speak without stopping. "So, even you are unaware of this? I suppose it's not strange. Only your God knows about this. He conceals this fact from you all."
"Don't you talk as if you know our God…!!" Callan yelled. He tried to rise out of anger, but Korku applied more pressure and he was pressed onto the ground again. With her corrupted knife still lodged inside him, he was unable to gather strength. He could only helplessly watch Master unraveling the rune diagram a little bit at a time.
"You… How do you know the method to solve the diagram so fluently…?" Callan asked with disbelief.
"As I have said, I know all there is to know about this world," Master replied. His concentration was not disturbed despite talking.
Although Master knew of the method, the rune diagram was still extremely complex. It took him almost an hour before he completed the process.
Once it did, the altar broke apart into a few block pieces. On the floor where the altar used to be, was a hole. A glow was shining from that hole. The glow became stronger as something floated out from the hole.
"That… It can't be…" Callan muttered.
"Yes…" Master said as the glowing floating thing came to the height of his eyes.
Master touched the thing and it split into two parts. One was a mechanical sphere while the other was a small glowing core. Master held both things in his hands.
"Give it," Strah was standing beside him with a hand stretched out.
Master turned to him. There was a pause before Master handed the glowing core to him.
"I will be keeping the container," Master said.
"So be it. We do not need that," Strah replied and turned away. He came to Callan.
"Any last words?" He asked the divine priest.
"Your cult and your God will get what's coming to you!" Callan said.
"Duly noted," Strah's had one finger aimed at Callan's head.
"Hold! Let me be the one to kill him," Master uttered.
Strah turned at him with a frown.
"You lowly outworlder are not worthy to kill a being like him," Korku, who was still holding Callan down, said.
"It doesn't matter to you if you kill him, but it will be a great boon for me. God Fear had given me his blessing to get stronger, giving me this killing blow will give me that. If I am stronger, I will be more of a help to your cult. Just as how I've proven now by giving your cult that divine heritage. If not for me and my tools, just with your cult alone, do you truly think you can take down this Council of Virtus?"
"How dare you look down on us, outworlder!" Arlstraxx hissed.
"I am simply stating the truth," Master replied calmly. "God Fear can't land his feet in this place. If he does, the other Gods and Goddesses will interfere. With just your cult alone, you won't be able to win. Even with the element of surprise, the warriors here are still generally stronger than your cultists. You won't even be able to get that element of surprise since it was me who deactivated their protective barrier. I don't think I even need to mention the defensive Brave Statues, do I?"
"Hmph! Giving you his life is still too good for you," Arlstraxx didn't back down.
"Let him," Strah said.
"Lord Strah?" Arlstraxx didn't have a good feeling about Master. He would prefer that Master didn't get any more benefits. He even had an uneasy feeling that Master was actually using them, that what Master truly after was the container that housed the divine heritage just now.
Strah didn't respond to Arlstraxx, he simply instructed Korku. "Keep him still while that outworlder deals the killing blow." He then turned into a shadow and vanished.
Korku was also displeased for being reduced to Master's aide, but she didn't defy Strah's order. She kept Callan bound while giving Master an unfriendly stare.
Master didn't pay the hostility from the two natives any mind, as long as he got what he wanted.
"Yo, mind sharing the exp?" Spring Crown said.
"No," Master replied flatly.
"So cold. Like what you said to them, ain't I getting stronger will help me in better completing the task you give me?"
"No," Master repeated. "That person has reached level 55. I can't let him get too far ahead…"
"That person? Who?"
Master didn't answer. Instead, he cast a spell. Twenty spears of light burst out from the ground, piercing through Callan. It was his non-standard Lurking Spear spell. When he previously used this spell on Jack, it only produced fifteen spears. He had max-leveled this spell since then. It now produced twenty spears.
These twenty spears normally caused high damage, but Callan was a level 85 Mythical grade native. Even when bound and weakened, the spears only generated minuscule damage.
"Can you please hurry up? It is embarrassing watching your attempt," Korku mocked.
Master wasn't offended, he had expected this considering the wide gap in level difference. He continued throwing one offensive spell after another. He didn't even concern himself with hitting Korku as well. His damage was too insignificant to endanger her. She was annoyed though for those attacks that hit her.
Callan, whose HP was just a hairbreadth left, didn't show agony. He smiled instead. "Outworlder, you coward who uses dirty tricks and schemes to get what you want. You will also get what's coming to you. The small flame our inheritors carry will make sure that they won't forget what happens here. Courage will prevail…!!"
"Hmph, what a load of bull," Master uttered and sent his final blow.
Callan succumbed and his body became still. A few things clattered on the floor. At the same time, Master heard level-up notifications. All his five classes leveled up two times, bringing them to level 54.
'It's still not enough to catch up to him. How did he increase his levels so fast?' Master lamented. He decided to forget about the matter and checked Callan's drops.
As he did, Korku left without any words. Arlstraxx stood still as he watched Master. After a while, he said, "the other outworlder said that you lied to our God about that access to the real world you promised."
"And you believe the enemy?" Master asked back.
"No, but I don't believe you as well. I never do."
"Well, your God does. That's all that matters."
"Hmph! We will see about that," Arlstraxx uttered and walked out.
Master glanced at Arlstraxx as the native walked out. He might need to prepare a convincing argument when Fear next visited him. He did not need to guess who the outworlder Arlstraxx was referring to. The question was how Jack knew about his deal with Fear? He didn't let this issue continue to bother him, he returned his attention to the loots.
One of the loots was a magic staff. Master picked the staff first.
"Anything for me?" Spring Crown came and looked at the loots as well.
"This is a unique-grade magic staff," Master said, ignoring Spring Crown's question.
Spring Crown was not bothered, he was used to the cold treatment. "Congratulations then. Considering this is a mythical being you killed, it is not strange. You should be the first one to get a unique-grade staff."
"Not really, that lightning thief has a unique-grade staff as well," Master said.
"Storm Wind? How do you know his staff is a unique grade?"
"I know the looks of all weapons of unique grade and above."
"Hm… It will help me if you impart that knowledge to me as well," Spring Crown said. "But that Storm Wind is incredibly lucky. Even you have to kill a level 85 mythic native to get one."
"That's right. That indeed needs an incredible high luck stat. You see, a unique grade usually only has a decent chance to appear when you kill a mythic grade being. A rare elite provides a small chance when it is a being of level 80 or above. Below that, you need an incredible number of luck stat. I doubt that Storm Wind has killed any of those two versions. Unless…"
"Unless?"
"Unless he has the runestone of luck…"
Spring Crown understood the runestone mechanics. "Well, from its name, I think it's safe for me to guess that its function is to increase the luck stat."
"Yes… However, when I study this game program, I always think that runestone of luck is an anomaly."
"Why is that?"
"Because one needs to have at least 10 points of luck stat for a chance of it to drop."
"You need luck to get luck. Heh, that's hilarious! I must say, the designer of this game does have a sense of irony."
Master nodded. "Under normal circumstances, it is impossible to get 10 points of luck. My luck stat is 6. That is because I have 5 points from my five classes and then another point from my equipment. However, equipment that adds luck points is extremely rare, and this equipment usually doesn't have good function for battle purposes. For normal players who only have one class, it can be said to be impossible to get the 10 base points needed."
"I see. That's why you said the runestone is an anomaly… Why did the game designer make this item then?"
Master was silent. There was indeed some hidden data he couldn't access when he studied the game. If he forced the access any further, it would damage the program indeed. He didn't want to risk it. He had asked several of the game developers who came to his side, but none of them was aware of those hidden data. He also never found the trace of Wilted accessing those data, so it should be safe to say that she was also unaware. The only person that had access was the lead designer. But since that guy no longer exists, he did not worry that these unknown codes could be used against him. Hence, he never truly troubled about this unknown factor, until now.
"Well, perhaps Storm Wind got his unique-grade staff from an avenue other than kill-drops," Spring Crown said.
"Perhaps," Master responded.
"Now that you have that container, should we refocus our target?"
"Not yet. It still needs to be fused with other items before it can do what I want it to do. Additionally, we don't know where the other two treasures are yet. We need all of them in one place so that I don't waste this container. The chance of destroying a second divine faction is close to zero, it is unlikely I can get another one of these containers. So, we only have one chance. With the extractor machine heavily damaged by that blasted dragon's breath, this container is now my only chance of getting my prize."
Master equipped the new staff and picked a few more items from the loots. Afterward, he said, "The rests are yours."
