The Warrior Is Dead

Although the Silver Crowned Dragon is Pillar God of the Path of Authority, it also possesses some power and qualities that Path of Transcendence.

In other words, in ancient times when there was no professional lineage, it was perfectly reasonable for any extraordinary person to possess multiple paths of power.

The nine paths represent nine attitudes towards life, nine worldviews, nine personalities, and nine tendencies.

No path is absolutely correct, and very few people can walk on only one path without ever deviating from it.

The professional system, which was created only in the last two thousand years, has provided extraordinary individuals with a more stable path for inheritance and advancement. In fact, it has also made people subconsciously follow the path and gradually purify their personalities.

However, advancing on one path does not mean abandoning the characteristics of other paths. Or, to put it another way, if someone does not conform to other paths at all, it does not mean that he can necessarily go far on that path.

The ultimate goal of "purifying one's thinking" is actually to concentrate more energy on one path in order to go faster and further because of one's own lack of talent.

However, once some realized that this would lead to faster advancement, it forced others to also purify their cultivation path, otherwise it would be difficult to go further while they were still young—after all, the cultivation level at a young age directly determines one's career, income, and future life. Everyone wants a better life, and they are willing to change themselves for it.

As advancement in the path of cultivation becomes more pragmatic, the average age of extraordinary individuals at each level decreases year by year. However, the number of people who can actually reach the Fourth Level and above remains relatively constant. This is because the higher one goes, the greater the difficulty becomes.

In less extreme circumstances, every extraordinary individual should possess adaptability to multiple paths—not by Path of Adaptation, but by acquiring the power of all paths that are compatible with them. Therefore, they should have many low-level abilities in various paths, but very few of them should be able to advance to higher levels... This is the talent of a normal person.

As a modern superhuman, Hai Na finds this ancient concept of the superhuman incomprehensible.

Hai Na was so shocked that she could hardly speak, "The Silver Crowned Dragon, the Crowned Lord... is he also Transcender?"

Is it possible for a mortal... to become Pillar God?

"Not those Transcender, but those who possess the characteristics of Path of Transcendence," Iver calmly corrected. "Moreover, becoming Pillar God is not actually an insurmountable chasm. As everyone knows, mortals can become Celestials, and as long as one is a Celestial, theoretically, one has the potential to become Pillar God. Those who haven't become Pillar God are simply not strong enough, and haven't gone far enough on the nine paths."

"We've taught this many times in school: the Nine Pillar Gods are not the managers of the path, but merely its pioneers... But clearly, you don't understand the true meaning of that statement. In essence, it simply means that there are nine great, unclaimed powers in this world, and corresponding to nine supreme positions... Our theological seminary textbooks teach this kind of knowledge."

"The reason why the Nine Pillar Gods are Nine Pillar Gods is because they have gone the furthest on this path. Therefore, this path is named after their direction, and everyone else must also follow their principles."

"But as long as other Celestial Lords can go further than the Pillar God, this path will change hands and be renamed. There's no need to even kill the Pillar God —since the era after the existence of writing, the Pillar God have changed hands three times: [Cicada Molting], [Forbidden Fruit], and [Royal Power]. Of all the events experienced by humans, only the third one, which occurred five hundred years ago, is recorded in human history. The first two were witnessed by dragons and elves, respectively."

"... Iver, where did you learn all these... these secrets from?"

Hai Na couldn't help but tremble all over.

She clearly struggled to process this taboo knowledge.

She suddenly realized, "Grandpa Jacob used to tell us legends about those great warriors from ancient times... I've always wondered why there are no warriors in modern times..."

"Although power and authority are similar in nature, they are different in direction. Therefore, after the Silver Crowned Dragon took power, the old professions such as 'Warrior,' 'Berserker,' and 'Fighter' declined."

Iver didn't answer her first question, but skipped over it to answer the next one, "The power they already possess won't disappear, but they won't become stronger through their original profession. However, they can easily switch to the Path of Authority without losing much power."

"Ultimately, the 'Berserker' became the Bound One, the 'Warrior' became the Guardian, the 'Swordsman' became the Watcher, the 'Fighter' became the Arrester, and the 'Challenger' became the Attendant. The Law Mage is a completely new profession, so there is no advancement. Among the professions of the Path of Strength from five hundred years ago, only the Light Cavalry remained unchanged, but the original advancement 'Knight' became ' Sky Knight '. And the Knight became a class in Avalon."

Guardian, Bound One, Arrester, and Attendant are not common professions in Avalon.

Because as long as one learns the law and simultaneously practices swordsmanship and horsemanship, one will definitely advance to become an Inspector; if one does not learn horsemanship, one will become Law Mage; if one does not learn the law, one will become Light Cavalry.

This is what Iver meant when he said that mystical knowledge can corrupt a person. Many professions require advancement not only to possess a certain mystical skill, but also specifically require that one "cannot possess a certain skill".

Therefore, any superhuman with an official background can only become one of these three professions.

"What about advanced professions?"

Although Hai Na was terrified and even trembling all over, her curiosity grew stronger. "Where are the inspectors and arbitrators?"

"You really want to hear it?"

Iver raised an eyebrow and casually replied, "If I remember correctly, inspectors used to be called ' Warlord,' and arbitrators were called 'dictators.'"

Compared to lower-level professions, higher-level professions, which are closer to the true path, undergo very significant changes. It's like a knight on horseback becoming a griffin-riding Sky Knight.

However, the abilities of extinct Extraordinary Profession such as "Warlord" and "dictators" can still be found in Grimoire. This is a very typical example of "lost skills".

In fact, when Iver played this game, he had the same questions as Hai Na.

Although he doesn't like playing warriors, generally speaking, every game should have a "warrior" class.

The Dedication Path has priests, monks, and paladins; the Path of Wisdom has mages; the Path of Adaptation has assassins and Hunter; the Path of Authority has knights; and the Path of Transcendence has warlocks...

—But why are there no warriors? And according to various historical records and ancient legends, there were clearly warriors in this world before.

So, at the time, Iver could only conclude that it was probably because times had changed.

Today, those extraordinary individuals who Equilibrium Path have developed all sorts of new-era inventions and discoveries—the steam engine, the diesel engine, the generator, the electric light, the telephone, microorganisms, the periodic table of elements, film, the fountain pen, the train, the bicycle, toilet paper...

In this vibrant and prosperous era where anything is possible, warriors wielding swords and spears may no longer be fashionable. The existence of extraordinary individuals can lead to excessively fierce wars between nations of similar strength, while the vast differences between individual extraordinary individuals can make the war situation uncontrollable, thus indirectly contributing to the birth of an era of peace.

Much later, Iver learned that it wasn't that warriors had been eliminated, but rather that the Extraordinary Profession of "warrior" had disappeared.

While both are "strength," brute force and power are different.

—When the era of authoritarianism arrived, the warriors were dead.

From this perspective, Jacob was truly remarkable.

He may not have grasped the full truth, nor understood the nature of the Path and the Pillar God, but he was at least aware of the existence of the Supreme Heaven. And in Avalon, the existence of the Old Pillar God undoubtedly belonged to forbidden knowledge.

However, he escaped the Noble Red Society only after it took control of the Scaleless Hand.

Perhaps Jacob obtained these secrets from the Noble Red.

Although Iver's words reveal the secrets of the Path of Authority, they also contain knowledge that Path of Transcendence. He can inspire a high-ranking transcendent being on the Path of Authority to directly reverse to the Path of Transcendence, and may even drive them insane; he may also inspire someone who originally had no affinity for the Path of Transcendence Path of Transcendence.

However, in Iver's opinion, it's better to say such things sooner rather than later.

Jacob probably told this story to Children who had Path of Transcendence through fairy tales for the same reason.

The longer and higher one goes down the Path of Authority, the more one regards Path of Authority as the standard of one's life and firmly believes that this path is absolutely correct, the more likely one's worldview is to collapse as a result.

Who could know that the Pillar God of the Path of Authority ascended to Pillar God status by possessing power that Path of Transcendence? There is such a risk in walking a single path alone. No path is inherently wrong, but in reality, no path is absolutely right either... even the Dedication Path has its flaws.

The secrets and words that Iver possessed were his incredibly sharp weapons.

After a long period of dazed confusion, Hai Na finally came to her senses. She then left Iver's dormitory with the letter Iver had written to Sherlock.

"... However, it's surprising that Hai Na recovered so quickly."

He was somewhat surprised.

Iver had thought she might lose control and faint, or even go unconscious, and end up spending the night in his dorm. He had even prepared a guest room for Hai Na with Lily's help.

Does this mean that her talent for Path of Transcendence is actually higher than that for the Path of Authority? She's only twenty-two years old, and she's already past the halfway point of the Third Level of the Path of Authority. This is undoubtedly genius.

But now her talent for Path of Transcendence may be even greater than that of the Path of Authority.

This piqued Iver's interest somewhat.

Could such a genius really die so easily in the face of national annihilation? Or perhaps she actually appeared in the game?

But by then she wasn't called Hai Na anymore, nor was she on the Path of Authority, so that's why Iver didn't recognize her? Her routine was basically back on track, and she'd reached level three in terms of popularity! (Cheers)

I went to bed at 10 pm yesterday and got up at 5:30 am today.

This time I'm a real human! (wiping away tears—Cat Detroit: Become Human!) Now I can finally go out for a haircut. I had a severe pollen allergy in the spring and couldn't go out, and my sleep schedule was all messed up after publishing the book. I hadn't had a haircut in four months, and my hairstyle is now almost like Yu Ishigami's—very artistic...