Setting Up the Ritual

Mu Yu Yumu's real name was Lin Xiaotong, and her profession was Life Priest.

The Priest profession belonged to the Faith System, whose professions were divided into Worship of Deities, Worship of Nature, and Imitating the Strong.

Worship of Deities, as the name suggested, meant offering one's faith to a deity and practicing that deity's doctrines, then using the power of rituals to make sacrifices to that deity and receive blessings, thereby increasing one's strength.

Professions of this type advanced by making ritual sacrifices to deities and receiving blessings. Their skills were all obtained at random through blessings received from sacrifices to deities, unlike Combat Profession System and Knowledge System professions, which had to learn skills themselves. The advantage was that their skills came as easily as instinct; the disadvantage was that they had far fewer skills than Combat Profession System and Knowledge System professions.

Worship of Nature, on the other hand, replaced faith in a deity with faith in a concept. Practitioners used the power of rituals to connect themselves to the concept they believed in and draw power from it. The further they cultivated in this system, the closer they came to the concept they believed in. Obtaining profession skills in the Worship of Nature branch was simple: by continually praying to the concept they believed in, practitioners could obtain Faith System skills related to it from that concept. The drawback was that they could only master skills related to their chosen concept.

The Life Priest profession Lin Xiaotong had chosen was one of the Worship of Nature professions. Its object of worship was the concept of life, and the skills obtained from that concept were basically skills related to life, such as healing, life force extraction, and limb regeneration.

Imitating the Strong professions were the most unusual. They differed greatly from other Faith System professions: their object of worship was neither a deity nor a concept, but a mark left behind by a powerful being.

According to what Lin Yu knew, after surpassing a certain level in Era, one's very existence would become Transcendent, surpassing the entire world and leaving a permanent mark upon it. Beings who reached that level all had to leave the world, or it would destroy itself because it could not support their existence.

The marks engraved upon the world contained information about those powerful beings from before they transcended. Practitioners of Imitating the Strong worshiped and imitated those Transcendents, bringing themselves closer to the marks they left behind to obtain the knowledge within.

The advantage for practitioners of this path was that they did not need to actively learn cultivation methods or skills. As they drew closer to a mark and obtained knowledge, their strength would also rise rapidly, and they would directly master the cultivation methods and skills corresponding to their level of strength.

The drawback was equally obvious: practitioners of this path were essentially courting death all the time. As they kept Imitating the Strong and drawing closer to the powerful, the boundaries of their own selves would begin to blur, and a single careless mistake could turn them into an avatar of that Transcendent.

I Am the Heavenly Emperor's real name was Xia Lin, and her profession was Knight.

The Knight profession's cultivation system was Fighting Spirit. It was characterized by high attack and defense and possessed tremendous combat ability.

While getting to know the three of them, Lin Yu also asked about Guan Canghai.

Along the way, Lin Yu chatted with them a great deal. Of course, most of the time they were the ones chattering away, while Lin Yu only chimed in now and then.

They knew only a little about Guan Canghai in real life.

They did not know Guan Canghai's real name either, since they always called Guan Canghai "Guild Leader." According to them, Guan Canghai was very wealthy and was probably a rich second-generation heir or something like that, and often sent red packets in the group chat. They did not know anything more.

Soon, with Lin Yu leading the way, the group arrived in front of the Beast Arena.

"That's where the boss is," Lin Yu said, pointing at the Beast Arena before them.

Looking where Lin Yu pointed, the group began to examine the Beast Arena curiously.

As he looked at the Beast Arena, Chen Yun asked Lin Yu, "I'm a little curious, buddy. How did you know there was a boss here?"

"I've been inside," Lin Yu answered truthfully.

"Then have you fought the boss? How did it go? What does the boss look like? Is the boss strong? What skills does the boss have?" Hearing Lin Yu's answer, Chen Yun fired off a barrage of questions.

Faced with Chen Yun's questions, Lin Yu put a hand to his forehead and raised the other to interrupt him. "Stop, stop, stop. I'll answer your questions one at a time."

Hearing that Lin Yu was going to tell them about the boss, the others pricked up their ears and listened carefully.

"I did fight the boss. The boss was incredibly strong, and I was no match at all." That was a lie.

"As for the boss's strength, the boss was incredibly strong. I was killed instantly and sent straight back to Newbie Village." Here, Lin Yu concealed the fact that he and the boss had killed each other.

"As for the boss's skills, I didn't have time to notice. The boss was too fast, and I couldn't tell what skills the boss had at all." This was actually the truth. When Lin Yu fought Sykes, Sykes had not used many skills; what he used were mostly techniques for wielding Qi, and Lin Yu did not consider those techniques skills.

Lin Yu went on to talk with them a little more about the boss.

Soon, they reached the entrance to the Beast Arena. Looking at the armored figure sitting cross-legged in the center of the arena, they were just about to step inside when Lin Yu raised a hand to stop them.

"Wait, don't go in yet. Let me give you a buff first." Seeing that they were about to swagger right in, Lin Yu hurriedly reached out to stop them from entering the Beast Arena unprepared.

Once they stopped, Lin Yu immediately took out 300 silver coins and used Alchemy.

Under the effects of Alchemy, the silver coins were all refined into Mithril.

Next, it was time to set up the Ritual Array. Under Lin Yu's control, the Mithril rapidly flowed across the ground, tracing out a huge Ritual Array.

As the final rune fell into place, Lin Yu completed a huge compound Ritual Array.

Seeing Lin Yu finish what he was doing, Lin Xiaotong could not hold back and was the first to ask him, "Brother, what are you doing?"

"Setting up a ritual," Lin Yu explained in response to Lin Xiaotong's question.

"A ritual? What does a ritual do?" Chen Yun, standing nearby, was a little puzzled by Lin Yu's answer and asked.

"..."

Silence. Lin Yu had already lost count of how many times he had fallen silent today. Did these people really make no effort to learn anything about Era?

"Sigh, rituals enhance the effects of magic." With a sigh, Lin Yu began to give them a simple explanation of what rituals did.