Two Golden Entries!

Iver somewhat helpless.

Although the Lord of Scales and Feathers gifted himself a Golden Entry, he couldn't choose it. This is because [Dissolving Soul] is an essential core affix for the Radiant One, so since it appeared, he had no choice but to select it.

All three entries this time are quite valuable.

Even the purple-grade attribute "Scorching Flame Heart" is only unsuitable for Iver— "Spell enhancement" simply means increasing priority by one level, which is equivalent to increasing penetration by one level. And all it requires is "consuming Fire Attribute mana," it doesn't even specify that it must be Fire Attribute spell.

For Blood Mage- type build that can heal itself after burning blood, creating a self-sustaining cycle, once the negative cost of having to burn blood to activate is offset, it can be considered a simple and straightforward damage-increasing attribute.

If Iver advances to become the Great Beast Master and gains the ability to combine with the Great Sin Beast, and uses the Paradox Flame Butterfly as his core combat force, then this entry would be useful.

All of the Paradox Flame Butterfly's magical abilities must consume Fire Attribute mana. That's equivalent to directly gaining level one penetration.

And [War Rhythm]...

What kind of descriptive term is this?! It's certainly powerful, able to stack up to seven buffs when stomping weaker opponents, and even reliably heal when fully stacked. It's like having a built-in priest squad, constantly chasing after you and applying buffs.

It's obviously impressive at first glance. But you just can't use it.

... because Iver doesn't engage in melee combat at all.

Although he will be able to combine with the Great Beast Master... but let's not even talk about the fact that his two Great Beasts are currently geared towards back-row magic attacks, he hasn't even captured a melee physical attack Great Beast yet.

Furthermore, Iver himself is a priest! He's even a Radiant One, specializing in buffs. The only problem is he can't buff himself... but he can buff the Great Beast first, then merge with it, thus absorbing the buff. There's absolutely no need to kill someone to activate it.

Even with the minimum requirement, it takes seven kills to fully stack—"kills" refers to sentient beings, so you'd need to kill at least a troll. Even wild beasts don't count. This warm-up time is way too long; it's really inconvenient.

Iver was somewhat surprised.

Logically, the attributes bestowed by the Pillar God's Grace should belong to the Pillar God ' own power. For example, the attribute given to Iver by the Twin Mirrors clearly has the element of "mirror".

If the Lord of Scales and Feathers were to bestow a title, it should be a power that Path of Adaptation.

But no matter how you look at it, this is the Path of Authority... or rather, it belongs to the category of "power".

In a daze, Iver thought of the City Breaker had descended into Lancelot's body.

—Was it blown to pieces by Lia?

That does match the mushroom cloud that Iver had never seen before...

"... Speaking of which..."

Iver suddenly recalled a sentence.

"—Let me tell you, I'm here to kill you, Iver."

At that time, the City Breaker uttered these words.

Because it was Iver who descended into Iver's body, Iver sometimes doesn't know which Iver is being called.

But looking back now, that statement seems a bit strange.

The reason Iver was targeted by Bear Angel is because he killed the last member of the Giant King — the Giant King Bear Angel's bloodline, and that Prince might even have been his apostle candidate. It's not surprising that he turned around and took revenge on Iver.

However, Iver in this timeline never came into contact with the Noble Red. The Giant King survived to the end in the game's timeline, and he's highly likely alive here as well. Therefore, Bear Angel has no reason to attack Iver in this timeline.

—So, that guy was looking for "Iver," who was a promoted individual.

In other words, the City Breaker are the "intruders"! Those phantom demons who bypassed the host's protection and directly interfered with the Promotion Ritual from the Dream Realm!

It's said that intruders might appear during high-level Promotion Ritual, because their souls are already delicious enough. A group of powerful and pure souls, completely unguarded, crowd together to advance... If the presiding officer is weak, they're bound to attract attention.

However, Akropolis is likely stronger than "City Breaker" Enyo, and won't let her break in easily.

so...

Is it a trap?

Iver realized what was happening.

After all, the Lord of Scales and Feathers controls the realm of prophecy, so it's perfectly normal for him to be able to foresee everything. This Promotion Ritual itself was tampered with to ensure its proper functioning... which is why it was able to draw in Lancelot of the Shadow Land, and also why it was able to bring in the City Breaker.

If that's the case, then the Lancelot he summoned might not be a temporarily generated "simulated Lancelot." Previously, Iver had been wondering how the Celestials could be forcibly descended through the Shadow of Avalon Ritual during the Promotion Ritual... Now it seems that it's impossible.

Perhaps the one who suddenly approached me and tried to possess me was also the real Ring Angel...

Therefore, this is a ceremony specially tailored for Iver!

Only within this ritual could Iver legitimately use the Shadow of Avalon Ritual, and because the ritual itself was "real," the Ring Angel could also contact him. Looking back now, Iver's sudden desire to perform this ritual was likely due to the Ring Angel ' influence—only when Iver engaged in the Ouroboros Ring Ritual could the Ring Angel possess him.

Even now, there are still some lingering crystal snake scales on Iver's forearm, which is proof of this.

And the actions of the Lord of Scales and Feathers, Ring Angel, were all foreseen!

"... Isn't this just using me as bait?!"

Iver was somewhat dissatisfied.

Fine, whatever.

At least that guy died in the ritual, and he even gave Iver some benefits.

The City Breaker was ultimately Iver's pursuer. As Bear Angel's powerful apostle, her early death was perhaps a good thing. If she had descended directly from the Material Realm to hunt down Iver, that would have been troublesome.

Thinking about this, Iver felt a little alarmed, but also a little regretful.

—What if I hadn't backed down then, and had instead initiated the complete Shadow of Avalon Ritual directly? Would I have pulled Bear Angel down with me?—

But soon, Iver quickly dismissed his bold idea.

If it really was Bear Angel descended, then my soul could not possibly have remained in his body for so long; it would probably have been crushed to death.

Without hesitation, Iver chose [Dissolving Soul].

[Dissolving Soul (Gold): Your soul transforms into a higher form; blessings below the "medium" level will no longer require rituals; you will be immune to sleep, charm, curses, and Instant Death Spell, and your soul can be actively extracted from your body as a consumable.]

The resistance provided by this entry isn't actually that useful... As Iver said before, resistance is inferior to penetration. However, the resistance provided by immunity is slightly higher than invulnerability, so it can't be considered completely useless.

Just like the Fourth Level [Flame Nullification Barrier], which can be completely penetrated by the Fourth Level Divine Paradox Flame Butterfly... it's nullified, but not completely nullified.

Different types of "immunity" operate on different principles.

Just like the idea that skeletons are immune to sleep, it's because they genuinely can't sleep; the possibility of that simply doesn't exist. This kind of immunity wouldn't exist as an entry.

However, the immunity provided by the entry can naturally be penetrated by other entries—after all, the power is of the same origin, both coming from the power of the Dream Realm River.

Fire nullification can be directly penetrated by fire penetration and divinity, while fire penetration immunity is slightly more complicated. It requires indirect attack modifiers such as "fire damage converted to soul damage," "fire damage inflicted with true damage," and "reduces fire resistance on hit," or the Golden Entry "full fire damage effect."

The immunity provided by [Dissolving Soul] works on the principle of pre-dispersion.

Priests can dispel negative status effects of a higher level than themselves, while Dissolving Soul is equivalent to transforming one's own soul into a golden mist. It can directly dispel negative status effects upon contact with the soul and strengthens them by one level.

In other words, this immunity is equivalent to Iver releasing a dispel of a higher level than himself at any time. Any negative status effect on the soul must first pass through this dispel barrier. It can be approximated as increasing resistance by two levels, and even higher-level negative status effects will be weakened due to being dispelled.

But the main reason Iver chose this entry is because of its first attribute.

[—Your soul has transformed into a higher form, and blessings of "medium" scale or smaller will no longer require ritual.]

"Blessing" refers to an active buff.

The unique characteristics of the Radiant class allow him to instantly cast blessings of "small" scale or smaller without material cost, enabling him to apply various buffs to his teammates during combat. "Dissolving Soul" is a class-exclusive affix that only Radiant players can choose; it increases the material cost reduction of blessings by one level, transforming it into "medium."

A medium-sized ceremony provides a much stronger buff than a small ceremony.

Small-scale ritual blessings, such as the "Blessing of Luck," which is the blessing Iver bestowed upon them before they fought the Punishment Demon; and blessings like "Blessing of Haste" and "Courage Blessing." Their effects are relatively weak... equivalent to blessings that can be cast instantly using only holy water or salt and a few incantations.

The medium-sized rituals include buffs like "Heroic Courage," "Overcoming Adversity," and "Strength of Body"—the effects provided by the Golden Entry in the loot distribution.

For example, "Strength of Body" has the effect of 20% "Strong"; "Break Through Adversity" can provide 20% "Adversity".

"Strength" refers to the increase in attack and defense as health increases, reaching 20% at full health. "Adversity" is the opposite, increasing attack and attack speed as health decreases, reaching 20% at 1% health. These bonuses are independent of regular bonuses, meaning they are not diluted by regular buffs. They are only added to other "Strength" and "Adversity" effects, while being multiplied by other types of damage buffs.

This is a real improvement!

As for "extracting the soul from the body"...

That relates to another characteristic of the "Illuminator".

The unique souls of the Enlightened Ones can transform into "Soul Stones." Therefore, the statues left behind by deceased Enlightened Ones can continuously bless those around them. The initial mission that discovered this profession involved finding a "strange saintly statue" from the Theocracy.

The [Dissolving Soul] is what allows one-off transactions to be converted into installment payments, transforming a solid golden gem into golden mist. It enables sharing a portion of one's soul with others, and damaged souls can slowly recover due to the transformation of form.

In the game, its effect is to be used on a teammate, creating a "Illuminator Spirit Liquid" in their inventory. Each Radiant user can only create one "Illuminator Spirit Liquid" at a time, and it can only be used once in a dungeon. Essentially, it can only bind one teammate in a dungeon.

Its effect is to immediately remove all soul control over oneself, instantly restore half of one's Maximum Life, and at the same time gain a huge continuous health regeneration for three seconds and a continuous increase in all attributes for thirty seconds... The subsequent health recovery can restore about half of the health again.

It's basically like having an extra life instantly.

However, since players can purchase items in the shop and get by-products like instant recovery potions and debuff removal potions, this ability is mainly used to give the core damage dealers the highest burst damage... But in this world, you can't buy the large purple bottle "panacea" or the large red bottle "Life Essence," which are things that can be used to save your life.

... Before we go to the Theocracy, let's leave a bottle of soul for Isabel.

Iver thought to himself.

She gave herself a necklace that could save her life, and in return, she could give her a bottle of her soul.

There could be no more suitable gift.