Mark of Two

Iver quietly and dutifully completed a full prayer for the Lord of Scales and Feathers.

This is to express gratitude to the Lord of Scales and Feathers — the God of Light-Speed Final Payments, the God of Generous Spending.

He then breathed a sigh of relief.

Seeing Lily standing quietly at the foot of the bed, Iver had an idea and reached out to her.

No special chanting or materials are required.

The blessing from Amber Angel descended instantly—

—A blessing of enlightenment Peace of Mind! In an instant, Lily's mind, which had been somewhat tired and stiff from getting up so quickly, became clear. Those chaotic and turbulent thoughts and lingering nightmares were immediately dispelled. She felt her thoughts become so clear that the whole world seemed to become brighter because of it.

Immediately afterwards, a light burst forth from Lily's body.

The flash of light disappeared in an instant, having already completed a treatment for Lily equivalent to a "Illumination Spell".

This is the evolved "Radiance" technique! Generally speaking, each person can only receive one blessing. When a new blessing is received, it replaces the previous one... This is because blessings either come from different Celestial Masters and Pillar God, or are different gifts bestowed by the same Pillar God.

A blessing a pastor prays for, if it falls upon something inanimate, can last longer... for example, sanctifying salt, water, or certain ornaments is much simpler than blessing a person. A blessing bestowed upon a person is easily destroyed by other blessings.

Therefore, although priests all possess the Blessing spell, they can only apply one long-lasting buff from a priest when running dungeons.

For example, adding "Strong" or "Heroic" to melee tank classes—the former increases attack and defense as health increases, helping tanks withstand some heavy damage; while the latter increases basic attributes such as strength and constitution, and increases resistance to fear, charm, and stun... Although the latter is not very useful when fighting bosses, it is very useful for players.

Mages typically consume "Peace of Mind" or "Exalted," while assassins Hunter can only consume "Swiftness." Priests consume either "Vampiric Ability" or "Heroic Ability"—the former doesn't just mean actual life steal, but refers to the ability to steal life, as this is a racial trait of the Child of the Moon, hence the name, similar to "Vampire's Touch," which can be used to replenish the priest's lost health; the latter increases the maximum health to prevent the healer from being suddenly killed.

Applying different and appropriate buffs to different professions is a crucial basic principle. A 20% conditional trigger and dual attribute bonuses across different multipliers are quite significant. Especially Swiftness—the 20% increase in both movement speed and attack speed greatly improves the feel of gameplay for Hunter and assassins.

If several teammates buff the priest, the priest's lack of damage output in the instance will be made up for by the buffs.

When Iver first started playing this game, he got flamed by his assassin teammate for applying the wrong buff throughout a dungeon. At the time, Iver thought the assassin was a damage dealer and, being fragile, prone to dying easily, so he applied the "Strength" buff to increase the assassin's damage output and prevent them from dying too quickly.

—Of course, the main reason is that this profession is so rare, it's considered quite low-level. That's why Iver doesn't know much about it.

However, the assassin, accustomed to Swift Blessing, suddenly found his rhythm completely disrupted, even losing his bearings. In a fit of anger, he started berating Iver. Because the Blessing Ritual has a ten-second cast time, it can essentially only be used before battle; using it during combat is tantamount to abandoning the front line.

Although Iver immediately retorted – "Why didn't you say the buff was wrong before the fight started?" After the argument, Iver thought about it and realized that it was indeed his fault.

So Iver still diligently researched the information on the forum, studied it thoroughly, and memorized the exhaustive list of how a priest should apply buffs in all situations.

The Radiant One, with a much lower healing output, immediately became a Tier 0 class and the darling of the current meta after this class change was released... simply because it can apply three buffs to everyone, and the buffs only have a one-second cast time! This instantly boosted its margin for error, strength, and class flexibility—because Priests previously required materials to cast Blessing. While the amount wasn't large, the Priest ultimately had to pay for it themselves. Since Blessing can be cast in groups, many classes chose to team up to benefit from the buffs of the mainstream classes.

The reason why Hunter and rogues are considered low-class is because they need to consume Swiftness to maintain their skill level, and this blessing must be cast on them individually by a priest.

While the buff from the Radiant One is single-target, it's free!

Furthermore, the Radiant One even provides a free ranged heal while applying buffs—although this also means requiring skillful, almost mechanical, operation. To maximize its effectiveness, you need to constantly switch buffs to trigger the free heal. Once a buff is applied, it cannot be reapplied, and sometimes suddenly switching off a crucial buff can cause teammates to die instantly or have their burst damage negated, so it does present a challenge.

Even the lowest-tier version of the Radiant One can still be useful by applying three buffs to the group and then AFK.

His other enhancement is that the contact healing "lighting" has been changed to the remote healing "radiance".

A target blessed by the Enlightened One is equivalent to being marked.

Furthermore, it has changed from focused casting to echo casting—specifically, it is no longer a spell that continuously consumes mana after being held down and can only be cast slowly while maintaining the state.

Instead, it became an instant-cast spell with a one-second cooldown. The healing per second changed from a smooth curve to a series of jagged, blocky lines, much like a pulse. Simultaneously, the healing amount also changed from five small ticks per second to one large tick per second.

The downside is the same: it's like playing the piano. Even without buffs, you need to keep pressing "111111"... basically leaving no time to deal damage. It's closer to a traditional priest in an MMO game, emphasizing that if you dare to drink water during a fight, I'll die.

Compared to the Torchbearer, who, once they acquire "Body of Light," can quickly burn mana to heal the group simply by activating the illumination aura... requiring virtually no operation other than switching the healing aura on and off, with both hands free—one holding a shield and the other able to fire a few shots or swing a hammer—the Radiant has a higher floor and a higher ceiling, but the complexity of its operation has also increased significantly.

However, Iver thought it was quite reasonable at the time.

The design of any long-running game generally follows this pattern: the initial mechanics are always easy to understand, while later on, new mechanics with overpowered elements, complex controls, and skills that are as convoluted as short essays will gradually be introduced, making them difficult to understand. And the strength of these new elements is likely to justify the learning curve.

For Iver, this profession has another important advantage.

That's for emergencies.

While there's not much difference between small and large numbers in games, and small numbers can even prevent overhealing, in the real world, the amount of healing directly affects the effectiveness of healing. Large numbers represent instantaneous, powerful healing—a powerful, long-range heal that can even bring someone back from the brink of death, and the effect of dispelling negative status effects is also much better.

This is much more significant than Illumination Spell.

"By the way... what time is it?"

Iver asked.

Lily was somewhat surprised as she closed her eyes, feeling the benefits of the blessing. Hearing Iver's question, she opened her eyes and replied, "It's about four in the morning."

Lily paused, then asked, "Do you need to eat breakfast now?"

"Ah, no need."

Iver declined, saying, "You should go back and rest too... Thank you for the hot towel."

As he spoke, Iver took a towel and wiped his face, to show that it was meaningful for Lily to take care of him after suddenly waking up.

The new skin seemed a bit sensitive, and there was a strange sensation when it was wiped.

It's four o'clock...

"Put the towel back, "Iver murmured to himself.

Although he didn't know what time the ceremony started, it was roughly around midnight. The ceremony time was 24 to 1 compared to the real world. So the ceremony actually lasted for about four days.

In other words, they didn't suddenly jump from the beginning of day one to the end of day three. Rather, that much time had indeed passed, but their consciousness had become blurred.

Based on the benefits the Lord of Scales and Feathers had given him, Iver roughly guessed the whole story.

... In other words, when I undergo my Promotion Ritual, Bear Angel or His apostles will be able to sense that I am in the Dream Realm.

Thinking about this, Iver became a little nervous.

Avalon doesn't teach about Bear Angel, and Bear Angel isn't widely known or worshipped, so there's not much information about him. Iver only knows that three of Bear Angel's four apostles from when he was a Pillar God have left, but he doesn't know if he's recruited any new apostles.

If he advances further, he might encounter other Apostles. Although they are unlikely to be as strong as the City Breaker, it would be difficult for Iver to encounter another Pillar God like the Lord of Scales and Feathers, who was setting a trap for her.

and...

It's even possible that next time it will be Bear Angel himself. Based on Iver's understanding of Bear Angel, he is absolutely capable of doing such a thing.

Thinking of this, Iver felt a tightness in his chest.

He made one thing clear: until he figured out the situation in the Dream Realm or found other refuge... he would not advance in his Demon Scholar profession for the time being.

After all, he didn't know who the "examiners" for the next Promotion Ritual would be. It would be best if it were the four: the Candle Master, the Silver Crowned Dragon, the Twin Mirrors, and the Lord of Scales and Feathers, as Iver had a good relationship with them. Although he didn't know the Hourglass, He was always busy and would definitely intervene in such matters.

However, Pillar God like Amber, Constant Self, Weizhe, and Serpent Father, who are relatively introverted and don't really get involved, could easily turn a blind eye.

If Bear Angel catches up with us in the Dream Realm, we'll be in big trouble.

Although the marks haven't fully formed yet...

"Hmm...?"

Just then, Iver suddenly felt a burning sensation in his chest.

He looked down and saw that on his newly shed skin... besides the Silver Scale on the back of his hand and the crystal snake scales on his right forearm, Iver had a fresh bear claw scar on his chest.

The wound was even clearer and deeper than before.

[You have acquired the trait: Authority - Mark of Two]

[Authority - Mark of Two: Bear Angel swung his claw of the future, declaring that this strike would end your life. This is the second mark, and its number cannot be seven—]

—Through the "Enyo's Essence", Bear Angel's understanding of Iver deepened!