City of Sin

Book 7, 159

Value And Temptation

Learning about the beast tooth’s past value, Richard sighed ruefully and stroked the necklace for a moment. However, it was only a moment of disappointment without regret; no matter what reward was offered, the necklace itself was far more important to him.

He bowed towards the altar, “Thank you for the generous explanation. It will help me reduce the number of detours I will have to take in the future.”

This conversation had given him a better understanding on how offerings were valued. While the pure amount of energy an artefact held could help determine what class of offering it was, he could now pay attention to what the dragon might need and thus reap the greatest benefits.

“You’re a titled offerer, this is something you should know. Raise the level of your title and you will be able to access more information; that is my advice.” The voice paused at this moment, with all the offerings having been dissolved, “You have sacrificed ten rank 3 offerings; with your bonus as a Planewalker, you shall obtain the blessings equivalent to twelve. Now, choose the type of offering you wish for; this is the first advantage you will get in this focused ceremony.”

Richard had already prepared a broad priority list of things he wanted, but now he could just use what was on top of that list directly. He didn’t hesitate even for a moment, “Title upgrade.”

“Your next title is...” the Eternal Dragon’s voice suddenly grew distorted and unclear before returning to normal a moment later, “Lord of Space.”

Detailed information about the benefits of the title appeared in Richard’s mind. First and foremost was greater control over spatial skills; random teleportation would allow him to travel a thousand metres instead of five hundred, and he could actually demarcate a ninety-degree range instead of letting it go anywhere. His bonus was bumped up to 30% as well.

However, neither of that was what really mattered to him; it was the last benefit that he was looking for right now. Blessing Redirection allowed him to select who would receive the reward for hosting any of his ceremonies, allowing him to channel the grace to someone who wasn’t the host so long as they were still a priest or priestess. On top of that, he could also permanently affect the allocation of grace to someone of the clergy who wasn’t particularly favoured.

Richard’s expression warped slightly. From what he knew before, a Lord of Space was only meant to be able to reallocate a third of the divine grace, of which half would be used up. In other words, the person targeted would only receive a sixth of the entire divine grace. However, now he could redirect everything without cost; this was several times stronger than expected.

The benefits from the upgraded title were more than worth the two top-tier offerings it was worth. However, the information he had previously couldn’t be wrong either; the only explanation was that the Eternal Dragon had strengthened the abilities personally.

As if sensing his thoughts, the dragon sent a wave of acknowledgement, “This is the second advantage you shall get. I hope it allows you to serve me better in the future.”

Complicated emotions filled Richard’s heart from that statement, but he didn’t have much time to be distracted as a tendril of timeforce left the void and floated towards him. The Doomsday Imprint flew up automatically and floated in the sky, “The third is a prompt. All offerings related to this shall give you twice the grace in the future. In addition, as a reward for upgrading your title, I am giving you one chance to look at my wider list; I will show you some blessings that normally require a rank 2 offering. Make good use of this opportunity.”

The tremendous aura covering the altar slowly dissipated, making it obvious that the will of the Eternal Dragon had left. Richard stared at the Doomsday Imprint that had been sent floating back to him for a moment before sighing and stowing it away. Walking to the altar, he reached out to touch the ball of glowing light.

A long list immediately appeared before his eyes, a small number of the items at the top flashing gold. These were the rank 2 blessings, and he only managed to get to the fourth before he felt his heart stop.

‘Blessing: Midren, Battle Edition (Materials Included). This is the design for a rune set belonging to the King of Angels in his battle form, composed of six runes in total. Midren is much more powerful in his battle form than in his normal state, bringing this rune set’s power to that of a grade 6 rune. As a blessing limited to rank 2 offerings, this portion of the required materials will be provided: adult astral beast soul crystal.’

He had to calm himself down before reading through the explanation a few times, carving each word into memory. Midren had experienced numerous battles and killed powerhouses of all races on his path to power. He was the personification of justice and benevolence, so every rune in the set required a soul crystal belonging to a powerful evil entity: devil, demon, fallen angel, astral beast, nightmare creature, and primordial giant. Each one needed to be from a lord as well.

Amongst them all, he was confident in sourcing every type of soul crystal except that of the astral beast; even the one Sharon had given him long ago wasn’t a lord. If the astral beast soul crystal hadn’t been added in, he would have given up on the set immediately. Now, however, he began to waver.

This blessing also made it painfully obvious just how much the Eternal Dragon knew about it. He was planning to extrapolate from Saint Peter’s Heaven’s Armour series to rebuild the original designs, but that would take a long time and would be filled with detours. Even if Midren’s battle edition wasn’t the perfect version of the King of Angels, and didn’t qualify to be a full rank 2 blessing, a required material had been added in.

He thought about the hatred many powerhouses had for the Eternal Dragon, and he could vaguely understand the reasoning. It understood them all so well, and just like it could add these blessings to a list it could also take them away. That way, one would have no choice but to increase the number of offerings they sacrificed.

Of course, no good businessman would do such a thing to a client they believed would earn more for them in the future. The Eternal Dragon clearly believed that he would still accomplish more in the future, but if and when he plateaued this favouritism would go away quickly.

He focused himself and scanned down again, preparing to look through the entire list before making his choice, but the very next option left his heart pounding as well.

‘Blessing: Manaforge Array(9). The Manaforge Array increases a mage’s mana reserve, each single unit providing a 20% increase on base mana. It also greatly enhances one’s regeneration, with all nine units providing a full ninefold increase.’

A mage with limitless mana was definitely a terrifying opponent. Richard naturally knew about Manaforge, the same ability that allowed Sharon to toss her portal blasts around like there was no tomorrow, but he had no idea just how many units she had. His research into the field told him that it was normal to have five or six, but the Eternal Dragon was offering a version with nine.

He couldn’t help but waver, his desire to reconstruct the full Midren waning ever so slightly. With a legendary ability like this, he would have no need to continue suppressing himself and would enter the legendary realm right away. His efficiency at analysing laws would grow in orders of magnitude, overthrowing the mixed path he currently walked and letting him become a pure mage again.

This was the ultimate legendary ability that mages could only dream of. Just what could there be in a rank 1 blessing? For the first time, he felt a hint of regret at not offering up the beast tooth in the past. If he had the chance to look at some rank 1 blessings, his strength would have skyrocketed much more quickly. Wouldn’t he have been able to protect Mountainsea all the same?

Still, that regret promptly disappeared as well. He had been forthright in those decisions he made, and he still believed in those choices. The beast tooth had never been about power anyway. He shook his head and continued to read the last bit of the explanation.

‘Requirements: Core Manaforge.’

Looking through the list, he saw that the Core Manaforge was another rank 2 blessing, which meant he would need two rank 2 offerings in total to complete the array. It made sense for an order of magnitude growth in power, if not more. Even a three-unit Manaforge Array would make one significantly stronger than most legendary mages, a version with nine would definitely open up his path to the epic realm immediately.

The price of such strength was only twenty top-tier offerings. This was something that any legendary being could collect if they worked zealously enough; even Saint Lawrence still had a number in his broken trunk. This was a temptation that few could fight.