Chapter 83: Divine Contribution (1)
The blue sky.
The sunlight shining down below.
And me, holding a smartphone under it.
In the clear and bright weather, I was playing a game on my smartphone.
The game I was playing was the same as always.
It was an idle game that I had been playing for months without getting bored.
“Haaham······.”
On a sunny day, it was best to stay at home with the air conditioner on and play games.
I suppressed a yawn that came out of my mouth and looked at the screen of my smartphone with sleepy eyes.
Maybe it was thanks to Roan who had earned me a lot of karma lately.
As I looked at the bottom of the screen with half-closed eyes, a level-up message was displayed.
When was the last time my level went up?
I couldn’t remember exactly, but it seemed like a lot of time had passed since I reached level 9.
-You have reached level 10.
-<Eye of the Observer (Lv.9)> has grown.
-<Eye of the Observer (Lv.10)> has been achieved. You can observe the continent with a clearer vision than before.
The skill <Eye of the Observer> that evolved along with my level had reached level 10 by now.
Even though it was level 10, there was no visible change.
At most, the area I could move to had widened.
Below that, as always, there was a warning about <Karma’s Balance>.
-Warning: Karma that is excessively biased in one direction has a high possibility of causing <Causality Adjustment>.
-<Karma’s Balance> has tilted.
-A low-level <Causality Adjustment> has occurred.
-Due to <Causality Adjustment>, [Divine Artifact: Ascalon] has been released by one stage.
-Causality Adjustment Progress: 9%
The causality adjustment had reached 9% by now.
Unlike before, it seemed to speed up.
It was probably because I had leveled up drastically since I acquired Kueverg.
As the causality adjustment reached 9%, a message that [Divine Artifact: Ascalon] had been released also popped up.
It meant that the boss who possessed [Divine Artifact: Ascalon] had become stronger than before.
As I looked at the message of the divine artifact’s release, I remembered the boss monster that Eutenia had faced before.
“The boss I met last time had some tricky patterns.”
There was one character who weakened magic.
There was one character who hit the alpha hidden in the shadows.
And finally, there was one character who blocked my sight.
They were all characters with difficult patterns.
It meant that they had grown stronger, which was a burden for me.
“I wonder if I can take them down with my current characters if I meet them again.”
But the game’s difficulty adjustment was already done.
There was no way to undo it by regretting it now.
It was natural that the enemies became stronger as my level went up.
Leveling up was a great way to boost my specs, but there was also a penalty for the difficulty level depending on the level.
As the player grew through leveling up, the boss characters also grew through causality adjustment.
The only way to get stronger without penalty in this game was to spin the 10-pull and get new items.
It was to increase the number of rare items and create a difference in effective item specs.
“If my specs are not enough, I’ll have to make a new payment plan then······.”
Unfortunately, I was not someone who could pay unlimited amounts of money, whether it was 1 million won or 10 million won.
I had to pay as much as I could afford and level up to boost my specs at the same time.
The most efficient way was to balance my level and item specs.
By mixing the utility of both, I could create the most powerful character with less money.
As I expressed my regret for my wallet, I scrolled down and checked the next message.
“And the next message is······. Hm?”
Swish.
As I moved my finger to scroll down the screen, I stopped my finger and felt interested in a message I had never seen before.
Below the causality adjustment message by <Karma’s Balance>.
There was a message in an unfamiliar format.
I woke up in an instant and read the message that appeared on the screen carefully.
-[Apostle 1: Eutenia Hyroste] has exceeded the standard value of divine contribution.
-You can unlock [Divine Skill: Grimoire] by spending 100 karma.
Eutenia, the character I appointed as the first apostle.
She had exceeded the standard value of divine contribution, according to the message.
Below that, there was another message saying that I could unlock her divine skill by spending 100 karma.
I clicked on the new message in the message box to check it more closely.
Then, the screen went dark and a selection window with choices written on it appeared.
-Spend 100 karma to unlock the power hidden in [Divine Skill: Grimoire].
-Do you want to unlock [Divine Skill: Grimoire]?
-Yes / No
The new selection window asked me if I wanted to unlock the divine skill.
Unlocking the divine skill.
When I received a warning related to <The Heavenly Voice of Karma> earlier, the message box said that [Divine Skill: Ascalon] had been unlocked.
It was a message saying that the difficulty had been adjusted, just like last time.
That’s why I thought that only boss characters could unlock their divine skills and adjust the difficulty.
But this was a system that also applied to my apostles.
I couldn’t help but be surprised by the unexpected message.
“Eutenia’s divine skill can be enhanced…?”
I looked at Eutenia, who was riding a carriage on the screen.
She was moving to return to the order, and there was a book with a luxurious cover on her lap.
[Divine Skill: Grimoire].
It was the divine skill that I gave to Eutenia after completing her <Apostle Selection>.
Eutenia’s grimoire had the effect of creating shadowy hands from the darkness.
Looking back, it was more of a versatile trait than a combat-oriented one.
“Still… it seems like magic is more of her main weapon than shadows.”
I don’t think <Shadow Hands> is a useless trait for Eutenia.
It was a trait that had a decent effect in terms of support.
But Eutenia’s main strength was always the wide-range bombardment with magic.
She was not like Evan, who showed off the power of his divine skill in battle.
<Shadow Hands> was a trait that was hard to become Eutenia’s main strength.
And now, as an apostle of the enlarged order, Eutenia’s trait seemed somewhat lacking in dignity.
“Maybe it’s time to enhance Eutenia.”
In that sense, being able to enhance Eutenia’s divine skill was a very positive news.
It was an opportunity to raise Eutenia’s combat power, which had been focused only on the magical aspect.
Besides, unlocking the divine skill was not only possible for Eutenia.
Evan and Pluto might also be able to unlock their divine skills and improve their performance.
Of course, they would have to accumulate enough divine contribution before that.
I smiled involuntarily at the thought of Evan and Pluto wielding their enhanced divine skills someday.
“But there are other places where I can use divine contribution besides setting permissions… That’s a bit surprising.”
Divine contribution was a system that was added when I acquired the <Divine Response Device>.
That’s why I thought that divine contribution was only valid within the <Divine Response Device>.
But it turned out to be a value that applied to the whole system.
My evaluation of divine contribution changed in my head with the unexpected harvest.
It felt like its importance had risen by several levels than before.
“If I can enhance the specs of my apostles by spending 100 karma with enough divine contribution… This is worth trying.”
I revised my evaluation of divine contribution in my head and looked at Eutenia on the screen again.
It had been a long time since I directly enhanced Eutenia’s specs besides magic.
I brought my finger to the ‘Yes’ button with anticipation.
Click.
As soon as my finger touched the ‘Yes’ button on the choice, the selection window disappeared and light burst out from Eutenia’s body.
At the same time, a new message was added to the message box.
-[Apostle 1: Eutenia Hyrost] has started the trial.
A bright light enveloped Eutenia’s body.
It was a clearer light than the light cluster that Estasia had surrounded herself with.
Eutenia looked up at the sky with her dazzling self.
Above Eutenia’s head, who was looking up at the sky with light, a small speech bubble floated up.
-“······?”
When the light that had wrapped around Eutenia subsided.
I could see Eutenia standing in the darkness, holding a book in her arms.
***
The first apostle, Eutenia Hyrost.
She blinked her eyes and looked around at the scenery.
A pitch-black world where only darkness descended.
She stood alone in the darkness, holding a book in her arms.
It was the first time she had ever seen such a sight since she was born into the world.
She closed her eyes and opened them again at the sudden change of scenery.
“······.”
But closing and opening her eyes did not change the scenery that surrounded her.
She was in the darkness.
A thick and dense darkness.
And a vast and endless darkness.
Her eyes went to the grimoire in her arms in the darkness.
Even in a world where she was the only one, the divine skill that her master gave her was always with her.
“What’s going on?”
She hugged the grimoire tightly and took a step forward.
Splash. Splash.
Every time she took a step forward, ripples spread around her.
The footsteps that cut through the darkness felt like walking in deep water.
Yet she did not feel any cold sensation on her legs.
It flowed like water, but it did not have the same temperature as the sea.
She muttered as she looked at the shadows that covered the floor while walking through the darkness.
“It seems like Alpha is not here either.”
It was a big enough shadow for Alpha to come out easily.
But Alpha did not show any signs of coming out of the shadows.
The terminal body of Alpha, who usually sat on her shoulder, was also gone.
She thought that Alpha, a shadow beast, would follow her no matter what, but it was a situation where her expectations were completely wrong.
It seemed like she had to give up on the idea of getting out of here with Alpha’s help.
Eutenia put more strength into her hand that held the grimoire.
She continued to walk forward with a regretful expression.
-“Prove yourself.”
Splash.
Her steps stopped again in place as she walked forward.
An unidentified voice rang in Eutenia’s ears.
She looked around with a puzzled face and repeated what she had just heard.
“Prove…?”
The unidentified voice told her to prove herself.
But Eutenia could not fully understand his words.
He suddenly told her to prove herself.
What exactly did he want her to prove?
As Eutenia was lost in thought, the voice echoed in her ears again.
Along with the unidentified voice, the space that Eutenia was standing on also began to shake.
-“This is the world of shadows.”
Black trees sprouted from the shadows that stretched out widely.
They had dry and barren shapes with black leaves scattered between them.
The trees that started to rise one by one each sprouted their own leaves.
In an instant, the trees that sprouted densely created a forest of giant shadows.
-“This is the space that the great one created for his apostles.”
Beyond the lush forest, a huge wall began to rise.
Through the blurry boundary line, the shadowy bricks that were tightly packed revealed their appearance.
On top of the long shadow wall, a towering tower boasted its presence.
A black castle built in a moment.
A beautiful castle that seemed to come out of a fairy tale was fully present in front of Euteneia.
-“Prove yourself. Prove your qualifications.”
With the shadow world as the background, the voice that followed Euteneia spoke.
The scenery that seemed like an illusion created in a moment flowed along with the voice and shook violently.
The only thing that the voice hidden in the shadows wanted was one thing.
Euteneia’s proof towards the great being.
-“Prove that this whole world exists for you.”
And the apostle’s proof towards the shadow.
