The Role of a Great Creation

Clear any dungeon completely!

As the saying went, the fewer the words, the bigger the matter. In this plane of the Wilderness Dungeon, the overall powers were divided, just as its name implied, into the wilderness and the dungeons.

The wilderness belonged to the various cults centered around evil gods, while the dungeons belonged to all manner of monsters led by demon gods!

As for humans...

They could only survive in the cracks between these two major powers.

Behind every dungeon stood at least one demon god. From that alone, one could see how difficult Isaac's mission was.

Although the Wilderness Dungeon stipulated that the fourth order was the upper limit of power in this world, gods could forcibly raise the power of their saints to the fifth order!

Though this came at the cost of the saint's life, though it could not last long, and though the god in question would suffer backlash from the great creation known as the Boundless Spire afterward and pay a certain price.

No matter how severe that price was, one thing was certain—whether it was a dungeon or a cult, they both had the ability to flip the table!

That did not mean success was impossible, however. Although he could not compete in absolute strength, he could still win through strategy. After all, flipping the table came at no small cost. Isaac merely needed to make the being behind the dungeon weigh the pros and cons and leave it without time to flip the table before he achieved his goal.

It sounded simple enough, but how exactly he would do it...

That required careful planning, especially when choosing which dungeon to conquer!

"Whoosh~"

As he pondered, the meteor Isaac had transformed into drew ever closer to the ground. He quickly came back to his senses, his gaze narrowing slightly as figures converging on his landing point came into view.

The bad news was that he seemed about to be surrounded the moment he landed.

The good news was that none of them were particularly strong. The strongest was only second order.

The fantastic news was that while this was a fourth-order tower, not everyone inside was fourth order. His chances of passing the trial had risen again.

"Authority Spell: Arrogant Turtle~"

Just before reaching the ground, Isaac lightly moved his fingers. An invisible ripple spread outward, and the people rushing toward him on the ground immediately froze, as though they had been encased in ice!

As the radiance around Isaac's body faded, he slowly descended to the ground.

"Riiip~"

The sound of flesh tearing rang out as Hamon crawled from the back of Isaac's head. The eye in its palm split open, and it blinked in confusion at the black-robed cultists around them. "Judging by the setting, isn't the wilderness their cult's territory? Why are they still wearing black robes and wrapping themselves up so tightly?"

"Work uniform?"

"A very extractable work uniform." Hamon gave a simple assessment. Then the eye in its palm flashed red, and ribbons laced with black specks of light drifted out from the cultists' bodies, gathering beneath Hamon's claw before it swallowed them in one gulp!

Third-Order Magic: Soul Extraction!

An incomparably evil black magic!

In the past, using this spell would have earned one the pursuit of the Church and every major empire!

But times had changed. It had now become a common spell, openly displayed in the libraries of wizard organizations. Third-Order Wizards could learn it freely, and even second-order wizards could learn it if they spent a little more money.

For one, the status of wizards had undergone earth-shaking changes and risen enormously. For another, this spell had become increasingly useful even outside combat, proving exceptionally efficient in both production and intelligence gathering.

As its value increased, the restrictions on it naturally gradually vanished as well. Now, this spell was prohibited from being spread only within the territories directly controlled by the Religious Nation.

Yes, only its spread was prohibited, not its use.

It could not be helped. This was the age of wizards, after all.

Back to the point: after Hamon devoured the cultists' souls, the blood-red eye in its palm narrowed slightly. A stream of information then flowed into Isaac's mind, and understanding flashed through his eyes.

From the cultists' minds, Isaac obtained quite a bit of useful intelligence—

For example, humans in this world truly had it rough. Their only way out was to become cultists. Only then could they have even a slim chance of surviving in the face of the rampaging dungeons.

Yes, their only way out!

The humans of the Wilderness Dungeon had no supernatural inheritance!

Or, more accurately, they no longer had one. According to the records of the Terra Empire, although the humans of the Wilderness Dungeon could not compare to the dungeons or the wilderness cults, there had still been some supernatural beings among them. The strongest had even reached the fourth order!

Yet the information dredged up from the cultists' minds said that they had no supernatural inheritance...

"Interesting..." Isaac narrowed his eyes. This was probably the greatest gain of this trip. Compared to it, the other intelligence seemed rather ordinary. It was all just information about the nearby terrain and power distribution, things Isaac could learn with any casual detection spell.

After briefly organizing the newly acquired information in his mind, Isaac put Hamon away and transformed into a streak of light, flying toward the nearest human settlement. In the next instant, the streak vanished without a trace, leaving only dozens of lifeless corpses lying silently on the ground.

Not long after, Isaac arrived at the nearest human settlement. It had been built in a cave beneath a sand dune and was extremely well concealed. Its entrance only appeared at fixed times; at all other times, it was buried beneath the sand. It was a remarkably incredible formation.

From that alone, it could be considered a miracle.

Unfortunately, even so, they had still been discovered by the cult...

Silently entering the cave beneath the sand dune, Isaac concealed himself and strolled through the crowd of people whose clothes barely covered their bodies, whose faces were sallow, whose bodies were emaciated, and whose eyes were vacant. Faint light flowed through his eyes, until at last he stopped before the few people whose eyes still held a spark of light.

But after only one glance, Isaac sighed in disappointment. The reason was that the few who still harbored hope in their hearts were discussing which evil god they should worship...

Clearly, they intended to join a cult. At present, they were merely deciding which one to join.

After all, even evil gods differed from one another. Some were extremely cruel and wanted to conduct blood sacrifices every other day, while others were relatively benevolent, merely extracting a certain amount of lifespan and harvesting their followers sustainably.

After circling the human settlement once, Isaac left.

He had no intention of saving them. First, they were already preparing to turn to an evil god. Though they had been driven to it with no other choice, the thought had already taken root. To gods, that was an opening, and intelligence might leak out in the future.

Second, compared with saving them or conquering a dungeon, Isaac was now more curious about the Wilderness Dungeon's current state. It was somewhat different from the Boundless Spire he had imagined...

But exactly how was it different... He needed to see more...

In Isaac's mind, his understanding of the role of great creations became a little clearer.