The Wilderness Dungeon Grows Lively

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The first to be fused was the Virtual Divine Spark from the Lord of Billions of Flesh and Blood. Its Divine Name was [Virtual Divine Spark: Blood Banquet], its divine powers were [Flesh Mutation], [Flesh Creation], and [Flesh Withering], while its Divine Authority was [Flesh Feast]. Its divine spark took the form of a wrinkled red finger.

The fusion subject was a drab gray Demonized Slime. Influenced by the Demon God's power, even a slime that had originally been extremely sluggish and barely aggressive had become exceptionally irritable. Since being captured nearly half a day ago, it had kept baring its teeth and hissing at Isaac.

But that was only normal. Most monsters were all muscle and no brains. Isaac naturally could not be bothered to argue with an idiot. With a light wave of his hand, an invisible hand of magic pulled the slime before him and stuffed the wrinkled finger straight into its mouth.

The next second, dark crimson divine flames ignited over the slime's body. Isaac took two steps back, a faint glimmer flickering in his eyes, while the magic array beneath the slime also emitted a soft white light.

Compared to last time, Isaac had not only continued using the authority of [Analysis] to collect data, but had also added an observation array to make the collected data more detailed.

Before long, the drab gray Demonized Slime became a bright red Lord of the Blood Banquet. The being that had previously only been able to hiss now broke free of Isaac's magical hand through sheer force, opened a huge bloody maw that took up most of its body, and bit at Isaac!

But it was useless~

Facing the Lord of the Blood Banquet's backlash, Isaac remained calm. With a mere thought, scarlet divine flames once again engulfed the Lord of the Blood Banquet, burning its incomparably powerful divine power and its body to nothing, leaving only a wrinkled red finger floating in the air.

With the data collected, there was naturally no reason to keep it. Isaac had always been clear about his goals. At this stage, his purpose was to gather more experimental data, then refine the Godhood Ritual.

As for taming it...

He could do it, but there was no need.

After fusing with a divine spark, a monster's intelligence would indeed be enhanced by the divine spark and rise tremendously in a short time. But as a saying from Isaac's previous life went—morality had nothing to do with intelligence.

These virtual deities were the same. They had originally been extremely bloodthirsty monsters. Even if they could be tamed, it would take a great deal of effort, and there was no need for that.

Next, Isaac repeated the process and collected another seven sets of data. Including the first one from [Evil Eye], he now had nine Godhood Rituals. What he needed to do next was find the differences.

He would compare them with a normal Godhood Ritual, identify the differences, and then try modifying them.

This was not difficult for Isaac. At most, it was a little troublesome. After all, he had a proper Godhood Ritual to compare them against. As he had said before, he merely needed to find the differences.

To other professions, a Godhood Ritual might be a precious treasure, but to wizards—especially fourth-rank or even third-rank wizards—it was nothing special.

After all, gods still faced many restrictions in the real world. Setting Outer Gods aside, even true gods could not move freely in the real world. They could not compare to wizards at all.

Besides, becoming a true god was not so easy. There was only one position for each Divine Authority, and a god's strength was tied to its Divine Authority. The powerful Divine Authorities had long since been claimed, leaving extremely limited room for growth. Anyone who could reach the level of a high-ranking wizard was a genius in their own right.

Returning to the matter at hand, after collecting the experimental data, Isaac did not immediately bury himself in research. Instead, he found several locations and tossed out every divine spark except Evil Eye, allowing them to develop freely.

This was also part of the experiment. Isaac wanted to see whether he could still maintain absolute control over the Virtual Divine Sparks after they had been outside his control for a long time, especially when both their numbers and distance exceeded the limit.

There were not many opportunities to conduct such an experiment. Only in a special place like the Boundless Tower, completely isolated from the outside world and with its power ceiling locked at fourth rank, did Isaac dare to do this. Otherwise, it would not be an experiment—it would be courting death.

After deploying the Virtual Divine Sparks, Isaac stopped paying attention to them. He found a place to hide and began researching ways to optimize the Virtual Divine Sparks.

Meanwhile, while Isaac hid away to conduct his research, Prince Noens made a different choice.

The moment he landed, Noens's first action was to gather his men as quickly as possible. Compared with Isaac, Noens had a far smoother start. Not only had most of his subordinates landed near him, but even his trial mission was merely to clear out cults. Although there were more of them than Isaac's mission, requiring him to eliminate three cults.

The difficulty was far lower, however. The cults' forces were relatively scattered and could be defeated one by one. Moreover, compared with dungeons, cults cost less to develop. To an evil god, losing them was no great loss, certainly not worth erupting in power to save them.

In other words, under normal circumstances, the strongest enemies they would face in a cult would not exceed fourth rank. At most, there would be more fourth-rank enemies. But that suited Noens perfectly.

Because if he wanted to truly possess fifth-rank power after leaving the Boundless Tower, he would need to do more than complete the trial mission. He also had to perform a Blood War Ritual to hone his combat skills, and that ritual happened to require life-or-death battles against a large number of enemies at the same rank!

Such conditions existed only within a special Great Creation like the Boundless Tower. In the outside world, fourth-rank powerhouses possessed tremendous status. Who would fight you to the death?

Before long, Prince Noens had gathered seven or eight people, nearly half of their group. Among them was Isaac's second brother, Remington, who had returned from death in the form of a construct.

Although Prince Noens's mission was much easier than Isaac's, he still understood the principle that knowing oneself and one's enemy guaranteed victory in every battle. Prince Noens did not look down on the Boundless Tower's local factions simply because he had come from the real world.

Therefore, after landing, dealing with the cult riffraff that had surrounded them, and gathering his subordinates, they found a hidden cave and concealed themselves. Rather than act rashly, they first gathered intelligence.

The Empire's intelligence had been left behind during the Boundless Tower's previous opening, and more than a thousand years had passed since then!

Even in a supernatural world filled with long-lived races, that was an extremely long span of time.

And reality was just as they had expected. Over those thousand years, humanity had completely withdrawn from the Wilderness Dungeon's stage, becoming wholly domesticated by the dungeons and cults—especially the cults.

If humanity's existence had not made the cults' expansion much easier, humans might have already vanished entirely from the Wilderness Dungeon!

However, Prince Noens shared Isaac's attitude on this matter: let nature take its course.

They had no intention of standing up for the humans here. There was no benefit to it, nor was there any meaning.

Although Prince Noens could not see, as Isaac could, that humanity had lost all chance of embarking on the supernatural path, one thing was abundantly clear to him: the humans here were weak!

So weak that there was not a single supernatural being among them!

This was not the real world. That Great Wizard's Goblin Slayer Ritual had no effect here. Without power, there was no value.

Besides, what would helping them accomplish?

He could not remain in the Wilderness Dungeon. Once they left, this place would again belong to the dungeons and cults. The cruelest thing in the world was to give people hope, then personally snuff it out!

That would be the greatest torment for the humans here.

Thus, after understanding the situation here, Prince Noens prepared to act directly—that was, eliminate cults while gathering his own people!

They were only surrounding and exterminating cults. As long as they did not go after Isaac, these people were enough.

Yes, Prince Noens had already decided not to deal with Isaac. Though the conflict between him and Isaac seemed fundamentally irreconcilable at this point, still...

Conversely, there was nothing he could do to Isaac either...

Go kill Isaac?

Who knew who would kill whom...

That man had only just advanced to fourth rank, yet he absolutely could not be judged by ordinary standards!

For all he knew, he might already possess the combat power of a powerful fourth-rank expert!

After all, legendary wizards were said to be like that. Once they reached the required rank, they were guaranteed to possess one powerful spell of their current tier...

Utterly unfair.

No, more accurately, all spellcasters were like that. Legendary wizards had miracle magic, while Arcane Masters had corresponding Great Arcana. After all, one of the prerequisites for an Arcane Master's advancement to fourth rank was independently researching or learning a fourth-rank Great Arcana...

As for Witches...

They played with bloodlines. They had been like that from the very beginning...

So Prince Noens had given up on dealing with Isaac. Call him cowardly or accuse him of raising a tiger only to invite disaster—it did not matter. He was not going after that madman. He would take each day as it came!

Besides, if he successfully advanced to fifth rank, the Empire might not necessarily abandon him after he got out!

What mattered most right now was staying alive, then becoming stronger!

Only then would he have a sliver of hope!

So...

"Our first target is this Golden Radiance Cult?" Prince Noens frowned as he studied the magical map created by one of his spellcaster subordinates, his expression somewhat solemn.

"Yes." The silver-robed spellcaster standing opposite Prince Noens nodded seriously before saying, "We have roughly figured out the situation nearby. Although this Golden Radiance Cult is the strongest overall, they worship King Elden, an ancient and warlike evil god. Thus, their fighting forces are relatively dispersed. According to their doctrine, unless King Elden personally issues a divine oracle, they will not fight together."

After saying that, the silver-robed spellcaster adjusted the monocle on the bridge of his nose.

Of course, there was another point he did not mention. This Golden Radiance Cult, which worshipped King Elden, was his trial target for this journey. As long as his participation in the encirclement exceeded sixty percent, he could complete his trial mission. Then, as long as he left the Boundless Tower alive, he could immediately advance to fourth rank and obtain a fourth-rank Great Arcana highly compatible with him!

Prince Noens glanced at the silver-robed spellcaster. Naturally, he understood his little scheme. Still, the silver-robed spellcaster was not wrong. Although the Golden Radiance Cult was not the most suitable target, it was relatively decent.

As long as they did not oppose him, Prince Noens did not mind indulging their little schemes. It would make them work harder. Besides, if these people all advanced to fourth rank under his leadership, it would also be a great boon to the House of Noens!

Thus, Prince Noens did not hesitate for long. After giving it some simple thought, he began arranging their tactics.

While Isaac and Prince Noens each began their own operations, the other fourth-rank powerhouses who had entered this world were not idle either. Though they had entered slightly later than Isaac and the others, they too began acting in their own ways.

It was worth mentioning that because the Boundless Tower's fourth floor and above forcibly pulled people in, not all participants regarded completing trial missions as their primary goal, as Isaac and Prince Noens did. Most of them had a simple goal: survival!

A small number of spellcasters set their sights on the humans here. They were very interested in humanity's complete loss of the supernatural path and wanted to study that special factor. Joining forces with some more kindhearted powerhouses and human supremacists, they began protecting the humans here and giving them various forms of supernatural training...

And so, the Wilderness Dungeon, which had been peaceful for many years, became lively once more. Cities were built across the endless wilderness, destroyed, then built again.

Thus, in the blink of an eye, two and a half years passed...

"Fuu~"

A gentle breeze blew across a riverbank. Several pale blue, unranked slimes wriggled about lazily. Suddenly, their bodies began trembling, as if they had sensed some powerful monster. They each shrieked, melted away, and merged into the earth and river, fleeing rapidly from the area.

At the very instant the slimes vanished, faint ripples of space surfaced like waves. Isaac's figure slowly stepped out from them, a faint smile on his lips.

Though it had taken a while, after three years, his experiment was finally complete!

He had filled in the missing portion of the Virtual Godhood Ritual. Of course, that did not mean they would be completely controlled by Isaac—that was impossible. The desire for freedom was an aspiration etched into the souls of most supernatural lifeforms.

But at the very least, it prevented their personalities from drastically changing due to that immense power.

Still, this stability was only temporary. Whether they would undergo major changes depended on their individual circumstances. After all, when one carried a weapon, the urge to kill arose naturally.

I was timid before becoming stronger, and I am still timid after becoming stronger. Then wouldn't becoming stronger have been pointless?

Therefore, what Isaac had added was merely a safeguard, not an absolute restraint.