MoP: Ch. 151

---Third POV---

The divine power was insanely high, over 180,000!

The Grand Mage level made sense, since Aureal had secretly imbued him with divine power for appearances' sake.

But just looking at the stats didn't explain everything.

Viktor directly checked the system logs.

This was the benefit of the system. Even if he had crashed due to the inner sanctum upheaval, the data wouldn't be lost.

[...]
[Outer God Divine Power Converted: 100000]
[Divine Authority Fragment Captured 34%: Eternal Light]
[...]

These two completely unrelated data entries had a time difference of less than 5 seconds.

They likely came from the same source.

"Is it because I dealt with Aureal's avatar?"

He couldn't help but say aloud.

Luminaris next to him reacted dramatically, flying far away in shock and shouting, "Who? Who?! You saw Aureal's avatar while unconscious?!"

"It's already dealt with," Viktor replied calmly.

Luminaris, who was about to flee to the doorway, slammed to a halt.

"Dealt with?"

He patted his little heart, finally calming down a bit.

Thank goodness it was dealt with.

He was a divine essence that was never supposed to develop consciousness.

Encountering an avatar of the God of Light that could wield divine authority… Who knows what unexpected disasters might've occurred.

Best not to meet it at all…

Viktor explained the current situation to it in a way understandable by a divine essence.

"In short, if you want to replace your wings, you'll probably need to save up your allowance for over eighty thousand years."

"W-what?!"

The pale-gold light orb turned stark white instantly, curled up on Viktor's shoulder like a frozen statue.

Viktor nodded.

"So just give up on that for now. Maybe if you wait long enough, they'll start looking better, you never know."

After all, only 34% of the third divine authority had been collected.

While Luminaris was in shock, quietly mourning its original skin, Viktor opened the description of the new divine authority.

---

[Eternal Light:
Whether in the depths of the earth or the darkness of the wilds, the God of Light's radiance endures. Wherever light shines, the divine gaze follows

Note: Due to the incomplete authority, the god's sensing range is limited to within ten meters of an altar.]

---

Judging by the description, this seemed to be an information-gathering type of skill, probably used to connect players with the otherworld.

But... Why is there such a massive gap in power between 34% and the full version?

The full version works as long as there's light, but the nerfed version even requires an altar?

Can the original God of Light's altar still be used?

Viktor searched through every system page but still couldn't find anything about displaying an altar.

He could only turn to the still-heartbroken Luminaris.

"After getting your wings, did you feel anything unusual?"

Luminaris looked up through teary eyes.

"Sometimes when I go out, I can see my house on the statue. And the wings heat up from time to time. Do those count?"

Viktor rubbed his chin.

Looks like the original God of Light's altar can't be used anymore.

Only altars using Luminaris' image, or defined as such, would work.

But those wings…

Viktor used 10 points of divine power, and started scanning Luminaris' wings thoroughly.

Sure enough, he discovered something unusual.

He closed his eyes.

In the pitch-black sky of his mind, a small green dot was circling erratically.

Whenever it passed through a certain area, the extinguished stars around it rippled like water, creating waves of white halos.

Finally, he seized a moment when a particularly large ripple trembled, and extended a tendril of his spiritual power into it.

A vision appeared before his eyes.

---

Lux was tiptoeing near a massive statue of the Goddess of Spring inside a solemn, sacred chapel that was completely empty.

She stared at the white statue and muttered to herself, "I've checked everywhere else. The only place I haven't touched is the statue."

"That bishop confirmed I'm a nun of the Radiant Church, it must have something to do with the thing he hid!"

She started tapping and knocking around the statue.

Having previously confirmed there was no space in the church to hide a person, she had shifted her investigation to outside the church.

That implied the bishop didn't hide a secret tunnel, but rather something much smaller, a hidden compartment.

Outside, using his spiritual tendrils, Viktor could clearly "see" a dazzling object glowing with white light underneath the statue's base.

However, he couldn't communicate with Lux. He was pulled out of the vision just before the light disappeared.

In the final second, Viktor heard a voice from within.

"Hehe, found it! As expected of me!"

---

Buzz!

His spiritual tendril snapped back. Viktor opened his eyes and smiled.

"Looks like we've got a lead on the second altar."

Under the statue of the Goddess of Spring, there was an object that appeared to be a divine artifact of the God of Light.

And conveniently, there was a nun from the Radiant Church who constantly prayed at the statue.

Taking advantage of the Goddess of Spring's death, she had gradually infused the statue's altar with the Light God's energy.

If he made good use of the artifact and crafted an altar, then installed a signal amplifier nearby, Honeyvale Town could use the authority of Eternal Light to establish real-time contact with Nary Town.

No need to log out.

The forum's private message system would work just fine while online.

This new authority came at the perfect time. To avoid missing anything, Viktor double-checked his other abilities.

He discovered that his mana upload speed to Earth's internet had also greatly improved.

It now took only 10 minutes to accumulate enough mana to upload a single image.

Don't underestimate this. Before, uploading one image took at least 2–3 hours. And if you wanted to upload a video, that time was measured in days.

If that was not a major improvement, what was?

Viktor looked at his special item, which was still full of question marks: [Int??dim??Net??Spirit??]

A thoughtful look flashed in his eyes.

"Could it be that collecting divine authorities is the key to upgrading its capabilities?"

What would happen if all the question marks and mosaic glitches disappeared?

Could he actually visit Earth?

Click.

The bedroom door opened again. A player walked in, carrying a wooden tub filled with a white liquid.

Next to him was a dog helping share the load.

Viktor snapped out of his thoughts and looked toward the doorway, at the dog.

"Zycotl?"

"Woof!"

Seeing Viktor awake, the dog immediately abandoned the player and the tub, split into a mass of black fluid, and rushed to the bedside.

The player behind him staggered, struggling to keep the wooden tub steady in the air, it nearly spilled.

He turned his head and shouted, "Hey!"

At least help carry the tub in before running off!

Zycotl ignored everything else and gathered beside the bed, forming into a black-and-white husky that wagged its tail furiously.

Viktor rubbed its head.

"Looks like you've been doing well these past few days. You were the one who put my body back together?"

It dropped the wooden bucket where it stood and strode over to respond.

"Yep! Your technology is amazing. When we first found you, this guy wouldn't even let us touch your bones."

"After we brought you back and pieced you together, it even made us cook up a concoction that could fuse bones."

"And it was the one who gave us the recipe!"

Viktor rubbed the husky's head again.

"Good job. But it's been a while since we've seen each other. I'll upload some new commands for you later."

He had made a few upgrades to his bones in the past few days.

The old repair methods and healing techniques no longer applied, they were obsolete now.

Then he looked up at the unfamiliar player in front of him. The other had short gray-blue hair and an inherently melancholic aura.

"You are?"

"I'm 'Got Trouble, Got Booze,' but everyone just calls me Booze," Booze said his in-game ID smoothly, clearly not a newbie.

Luminaris added from the side, "There were too many trying to take care of you while you were unconscious. It became a hassle to manage. And I wasn't in the best position to handle it either, so I let the first undead who found you help out."

As he spoke, he showed his stubby arms and legs, as if afraid Viktor would blame him later and trying hard to prove he hadn't just sat by and watched.

Viktor couldn't help but laugh.

"Take care of me? More like trying to inspect me. But still, you handled things well."

He had been severely injured, the perfect chance for them to escape. Even while unconscious from resisting the contract, he had left behind some pretty solid defenses.

At the very least, it should've cost them something to get near him.

But instead, Luminaris had honestly gone and hired him a caretaker?

Viktor couldn't decide if he was incredibly naive or just had a big heart.

"Ahem!" Booze pretended not to hear Viktor's sarcasm and tried to cut in.

He'd taken care of Viktor for two days, he came here with a mission!

"Lord Viktor, your spiritual energy was leaking out non-stop for two days. Is it stabilized now?"

Viktor raised an eyebrow.

Wow, wasting no time trying to get information out of him, huh? Not even letting him rest a little?

Fine.

This was a good chance to update the players on the world lore, and maybe have them help look for divine shards and authority fragments too.

So, he laid everything out.

Even shared part of the current state of his inner sanctum.

After all, the players' ability to continue playing was directly tied to whether he lived or died.

In a way, he could trust them more than Edgar.

The more Booze listened, the wider his mouth gaped. In the end, he even opened up his private message panel on the forum to take notes while listening.

"So you have every god's fragment in your head, they all know you, and they're all ready to possess you the moment they revive?!"

Holy crap. It's one thing for the newbie village NPC to secretly be the final boss, but 1,273 possible final bosses?!

And if the faction leader got possessed, he seriously doubted they could just swap sides and keep playing like nothing happened.

So... the biggest server shutdown risk is sitting right next to me?!

He had a million questions, but the one he actually asked was the simplest, "So... you know all the gods on the continent?"

"They came to me. Even if I wanted to forget them, I couldn't."

"And you know exclusive info about them?"

"A lot. But under normal conditions, I'm not allowed to actively recall memories related to them, unless there's a special situation."

Viktor shifted his tone slightly.

"But I just gave them all a serious beating. It'll take time before they can recover enough to even think straight again. Right now is one of those special situations where I can talk freely."

Booze sat at the edge of the bed, filled with emotion.

"That's rough."

Not even being able to remember the past… wasn't that basically the same as having no memory at all?

There were over a thousand gods, and traces of them were everywhere in Aeltia.

Not only did he have to suppress his drifting thoughts, but he also had to avoid mentally registering anything he saw or heard that was related to the gods.

He'd unconsciously recall embarrassing things from his childhood, shows how hard it is to control memory.

Can that even be considered living?

"It's not as tragic as you think."

Luminaris, perched on his shoulder, nodded furiously.

"That's right! When we first met, he even cursed the God of Light right in front of me!"

"…Uh, although the second time he cursed him, he ended up like this."

Booze had a sudden realization. "Really? Then I guess I was overthinking it."

But still, being parasitized by countless gods couldn't be as light and casual as Viktor made it sound.

For example, just looking at his skeletal body, clearly something worth investigating…

No, no, he was spiraling!

Booze shook his head hard to clear away all those chaotic thoughts.

"Anyway, are you really that confident Aureal's avatar won't merge with divine power?"

"What if he's confident enough to try defeating the other gods, and insists on using Magus-level power to take you down first?"

"What if the divine power he's holding is already enough to make him a god?"

Viktor grinned brightly.

"A magus may be considered a god by humans and regular beings, but to true gods, they're so-so."

"As long as their fundamental form doesn't change, I can still crush them with sheer force."

He had built up a massive reserve of spiritual strength, far beyond what a half-baked avatar could compare to.

"As for whether the divine power is enough to become a god? That's the other gods' problem, not mine."

There was only one spot available for possession, or "resurrection," more accurately.

No god would be foolish enough to offer the full amount of divine power needed.

The ambitions and investments of every god involved weren't something he needed to calculate.

Besides, The Watchers had been sabotaging faith-collection rituals for years now. That effort hadn't been for nothing.

Viktor continued, taking the opportunity to segue, "Still, I did gain some unexpected benefits, like collecting a few fragments of divine authority…"

Booze's eyes lit up in understanding.

"You mean, if we set up an altar in Nary Town, we can establish real-time contact with the new map?!"

"I'll go notify the others right now!"

And with that, he bolted out the door.

Bang!

The wooden door slammed loudly against the frame.

Luminaris put his hands on his hips, fuming.

"Rude undead!"

Viktor silently deducted 3 SAN points and 5 favorability points from Booze's stats, but generously said, "It's fine. At least they're efficient."

Players had their own communication system.

Although Viktor had assigned a special quest to Lux, who was currently in the Goddess of Spring's Temple… The distance was too great. For her to even see the quest, he'd have to log out and check the official forums.

With players like Booze relaying the message, the delivery time could be sped up significantly.

That was the problem with communication delays. And it was exactly why Viktor placed so much importance on the third authority fragment.

A force or organization unhindered by intel delays would have frightening operational capacity, enough to leave others in the dust.

The room quieted down.

Luminaris's emotions faded quickly, but a lingering question made him look up.

"Why does Aureal's avatar carry one of the authority fragments? Was that also part of his plan?"

Compared to the clueless players, Luminaris understood just how important authority fragments were.

Even after developing consciousness, he only had access to two non-core authorities.

And yet Viktor had defeated Aureal, or rather, hadn't even fully neutralized his planted avatar seed, and still got access to a core authority fragment?

How was that possible?!