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Chapter 122: Mad Corpse Looting, Law Power Evolution!
Chapter 122: Mad Corpse Looting, Law Power Evolution!
Sterl couldn't help but fantasize about a future where, with the Divine Office: Human Race, he would integrate numerous Law Powers and ascend to demigod status with an invincible presence.
Then he turned his attention back to the task at hand.
With the recent boost in Divine Power and Law Power, he finally estimated the cost of his divine ascension—one point of Divine Power could sustain his divine state for one second.
Reaching 50 points in Law Power slightly strengthened him, and he could now use the various effects of [Moon] three times before entering a cooldown period.
"It seems that true transformation will have to wait until the growth progress bar is maxed out…"
Sterl contemplated, but he wasn't particularly impatient.
Because, even as Sterl pondered, he could see players appearing on the distant horizon.
For the next period, Sterl enjoyed relatively leisurely days, mostly waiting in the watchtower, watching as waves of players came to their deaths.
And he continued to reap the benefits.
Divine Power +0.1…
Divine Power +0.1…
...
Law Power Growth Progress +1…
Law Power Growth Progress +1
One day later.
Sterl successfully broke through one point of Divine Power, allowing him to ascend to a divine state for a full second.
Law Power also maxed out at 100 points and evolved.
[Moon (Incomplete)]
[Effect: You now possess the ability to control the power of the moon.]
[Related Platinum Skills: None]
[Law Power Growth: 23/1000]
At this moment, Sterl had an epiphany—
Law Power is divided into several stages: Incomplete, Complete, and Perfect.
Normally, demigods or legendary players who haven't yet become demigods, if their legendary abilities are of extremely high quality—derived from three gold skills with twenty levels of legend—could potentially deduce an incomplete law on their own, given high enough talent and professional ranks.
Otherwise, players would need to travel to specific worlds to comprehend the corresponding laws. For example, Sterl's [Shadow Stealth] could take him to the Shadow World, where he might comprehend Law Powers like [Shadow] or [Death].
However, a skill like [Shadow Stealth], which only allows a few seconds in the Shadow World, couldn't possibly enable someone to comprehend Law Power.
Players must physically enter certain special worlds for extended periods to successfully comprehend them.
Once they possess an incomplete law, players can continue to train in various other worlds, continuously evolving the law to a complete and then perfect state. Each advancement would significantly enhance the Law Power's effects.
The Law Power Sterl previously obtained wasn't even incomplete, so he naturally didn't know this information.
Until now, he had truly possessed an incomplete [Moon] law.
Incidentally, besides normal training, there's another way to enhance and acquire Law Power—by killing demigod-level NPCs or players and looting their Law Power.
Players can either absorb the Law Power from other demigods to become their own or crush the opponent's Law Power into pure energy to enhance their existing laws.
In short, the path to rapidly enhance Law Power is incredibly bloody!
For Sterl, whether it's entering otherworlds to train or killing demigods, these options were far off and not even worth considering for now.
However…
"Wow, entering the Netherworld this time was a huge win."
Absorbing these insights, akin to heavenly enlightenment, Sterl couldn't help but marvel.
He could freely exploit the Moon Law of the Dark Moon Goddess!
In theory, around three to four thousand players had entered the Netherworld this time (seventy countries, with each sending anywhere from a few dozen to two or three hundred players on average).
Sterl needed 1000 points of Law Power to advance from incomplete to complete!
Even considering that some weaker players wouldn't compete for the Waters of Netherworld, and he wouldn't encounter them, it was still feasible for him to elevate the Moon Law to completeness!
It was a massive win!
After his initial excitement, Sterl finally had time to sort through the abilities of his incomplete [Moon] Law.
First, he could now expend energy to invoke Law Power. As long as he had mana, he could fire indefinitely.
Additionally, all effects of the [Moon] ability were boosted by approximately 50%, and it could now affect demigod-level enemies. Previously, the incomplete [Moon] could only bully legendary beings.
...
In the following period, Sterl continued to wait for Divine Power and Law Power to accumulate.
Sure enough, players kept coming to their deaths in waves.
Sterl waited for more than two days, during which his Divine Power and Law Power grew to 2.74 points and 174 growth progress, respectively.
Including the day his Law Power evolved, over three days, Sterl allocated points into three things—
First, he exchanged for a second talisman in the reputation shop of the Divine Mountain Empire.
[Heart of Benevolence]
[Type: Talisman]
[Effect: While carrying this talisman, each time you use a different skill, it enhances the next skill's effect by 25%, stacking up to 10 times.]
The talisman's effect greatly improved after evolution.
However, Sterl's battles usually ended quickly, making it challenging to fully stack the bonus. But since it was effective simply by being in his backpack, any enhancement was welcome.
Second, he obtained an extremely rare full recovery potion from his rampant slaughter in the Netherworld. The potion could instantly replenish energy, stamina, and life force.
The evolved result was:
[Source of Energy]
[Type: Consumable]
[Effect: Instantly replenishes energy, stamina, and life force upon consumption. Provides an energy pool with a total value of 300,000. Whenever energy, stamina, or life force is depleted, it automatically draws from the pool to restore them. The recovery speed of this potion is doubled.]
No need to elaborate—this was a top-tier life-saving potion! Even if Sterl's body was shattered, as long as he had a breath left, he could recover, avoiding the loss of his resurrection armor.
He was so thrilled that he wanted to evolve several more bottles, but unfortunately, only one full recovery potion was dropped.
The third item was equipment crafted from the Bloody Jewel.
After his carnage in the Netherworld, Sterl met the second evolution requirement for the Bloody Jewel (NPC kills didn't yield benefits, but they did provide bloody power).
Post-evolution, the Bloody Jewel's ability to pay bloody power to launch attacks and create shields was enhanced. Its proficiency breakthrough ability now extended to all skills below platinum level (including platinum), allowing them to reach master proficiency through bloody power.
Additionally, several pieces of equipment and skills were crafted.
However, Sterl was no longer the pauper he once was. He had plenty of good items. Therefore, he only favored one piece of equipment.
[Wail of Anguish]
[Type: Special Equipment (Monocle)]
[Description: This lens originated from a jest by the Blood Duke. He once promised a certain king eternal life in exchange for the sacrifice of the entire nation's lives. The king's soul was eternally sealed within this lens, forced to watch the endless wails of the countless souls from his nation.]
[Effect: All attributes +30. Passive Ability [Slayer: Each time you kill any unit, surrounding enemies will undergo a fear check. Units with mental attributes not higher than 100 points above the player will be feared for 0.5-1 second (cooldown time of one minute).]
[Crafting Requirements: 500 Bloody Power, Materials: Dragon Tooth Crystal, Ice Emperor's Essence, Blood Linen Flower...]
[Warning: If materials are not used, and the item is forcibly crafted with only Bloody Power, it will not reach perfect quality.]
After the evolution, Sterl still had 481 points of Bloody Power remaining in the Bloody Jewel. So, he took some time to leave the stronghold where the Waters of Netherworld were located, farmed a few waves of wild monsters, and collected various equipment and gold. He gathered enough Bloody Power and found a secluded spot in the wilderness to craft the [Wail of Anguish].
He was pleasantly surprised to discover that since [Wail of Anguish] did not reach perfect quality, a plus sign appeared next to the equipment's name. Sterl immediately allocated points to it.
After evolving, the effect of [Wail of Anguish] increased to all attributes +50. The [Slayer] ability was also significantly enhanced. Units with mental attributes not higher than 200 points above Sterl would be feared, and the maximum fear time doubled to two seconds.
For Sterl, this was a highly practical piece of equipment. Not only did it occupy a special equipment slot (a monocle), leaving his other equipment slots free, but it also provided free attributes and skills.
For someone like Sterl, who had extremely high burst damage but was relatively fragile (often challenging enemies above his level), possessing this equipment meant that once he entered an enemy formation and killed a target, he could induce area-wide fear. This acted as a powerful life-saving measure.
The only downside was that the passive ability of [Wail of Anguish] did not reduce its cooldown time, preventing back-to-back fear effects.
Of course, Sterl also thought that if the cooldown time were reduced, the equipment would be too overpowered. Theoretically, facing a group of enemies would be easier than facing a single enemy. If he could sneakily kill one, the rest would succumb to continuous fear, making them easy prey.
...
As Sterl gradually transformed his evolution points and Bloody Power into combat strength, the players finally began to gather in earnest.
Many of the latecomers, having learned about the situation at the third Waters of Netherworld through various channels, did not rush in to die, thus avoiding being slaughtered by the Netherworld soldiers.
Players gathered away from the stronghold, eventually forming a group of nearly 2,000 people.
As a result, Sterl no longer hid in the watchtower. He cloaked himself and mingled within the player groups, casually disguising himself as a player corpse he had seen earlier in the wild.
At this moment…
Sterl was sitting cross-legged on a mound, looking ahead. On a high platform formed by earth element magic stood a young man in leather armor with a handsome face, raising his arm and calling for action.