Advanced Colors

Richie planted the fruits on the coastal beach.

To better distinguish them from the Return Fruits bestowed by the god, he named the slightly smaller fruits Green Fruits.

Guards stood watch over the beach.

No one was allowed to enter the area without permission.

A year later.

Two Return Fruit Trees had successfully blossomed and borne fruit.

The other two had unfortunately withered and died.

Of the dead Return Fruit Trees, one had been watered with fresh water.

The other had been planted too far from the ocean and had not been soaked by seawater during high tide.

"The merciful god knows of our lack of fresh water, so the divine fruits bestowed upon us need only salt water to survive. If watered with fresh water instead, they struggle to live."

Richie pondered something.

It seemed that, for now, the best place to grow these fruits could only be along the coast.

He decided to conduct further experiments when the time was right.

Richie established rules for distributing the hard-earned Return Fruits.

"Only those who have made outstanding contributions to the Tribe will have the chance to taste these precious fruits bestowed by the god."

That was what Richie told the tribespeople.

Thus, in order to taste the fruits of the god, the people of the Tribe began scrambling to make contributions.

Some risked their lives to kill several enormous spiders that frequently invaded the farmland, using their corpses to claim rewards.

Some discovered medicinal plants in the mountains and mashed them into juice that could stop bleeding.

Others wove the coarse fibers of various plants into extremely sturdy, water-resistant nets, then stuck earthworms onto them to attract schools of fish.

This novel method of fishing greatly improved the Tribe's efficiency during high tide.

No matter how great or small their contributions were, these contributors received Return Fruits as rewards.

Yet those who received the rewards were in no hurry to taste the sweet fruit.

For several weeks, they carried the large Return Fruits in both hands every day, visiting every house and shouting loudly.

"Look! This is a Return Fruit bestowed by the god!"

People poked their heads out and asked with envy and curiosity.

"My god, how did you get that fruit?"

The contributors naturally launched into lengthy boasts about their achievements.

Only after showing off to nearly every tribesperson did they reluctantly cut open the shriveled fruits and drink the somewhat spoiled, strange-smelling juice inside.

To them, whether the juice was sweet and delicious no longer mattered.

Compared with the fleeting pleasure that melted on the tongue, the intangible thing symbolized by the fruit left them intoxicated for far longer—

Only the glory bestowed by the god was something that could intoxicate them forever.

Encouraged by the Return Fruits, the people became much more enthusiastic about labor, and many more volunteered to build Temples.

The Tribe entered a period of flourishing development.

Time passed swiftly.

Under the swing of stone hoes, the land on the island was leveled inch by inch.

The places where the tribespeople lived were no longer limited to the former land bestowed by the god.

All kinds of stone buildings began to spread across every corner of the island.

The population, diminished by famine and slaughter, steadily recovered as well.

After the Tribe's circumstances improved, Richie began sending Artisans to build larger and better Temples and altars for the god.

"From this day onward, living people will no longer be used for sacrifices."

"The god has shown us mercy. We shall worship the god with devotion and love, not violence and cruelty."

Richie began establishing new rules for the Temples, preventing people from committing bloody sins before the god.

He also told the people something.

They must never again pray to or demand things from the god out of selfish desire.

The hands of believers should not be spread open in begging.

They should be raised high, supporting sincere Faith.

To commemorate the birth of the new rules, and to remember the punishment and grace bestowed by the merciful god.

The god's majestic image had to be renewed.

Now, stonemasons began diligently carving new statues of the god.

On the statue's left hand, they carved a towering stone pillar like a stone tower, while in its right hand, they carved a massive oval fruit.

They represented the god's punishment and grace respectively.

New Temples and even taller statues of the god rose throughout the island.

Faith grew greater and greater.

[Your Fire of Faith continued to increase.]
[Your anchoring to this world deepened somewhat.]

[But it was still difficult to keep up with the growth of your divinity.]
[Thus, you began creating new Divine Artifacts.]

Mona felt the Faith of the people flowing toward him without end.

Although their Faith could indeed stabilize his Anchor Point in this world to a certain extent.

It was still far from enough to stop him from ascending to godhood.

So, he would also use the creation of Divine Artifacts to disperse his power.

Put simply.

He was weakening himself.

The power possessed by Divine Artifacts actually came from his own divine power or newly gained strength. Even the Drawing Board contained a part of his consciousness.

In other words, even without Divine Artifacts, he could still use these abilities.

To delay his ascension to godhood, Mona would turn the constantly growing power within him into new objects, or strengthen old Divine Artifacts.

That way, his true body would not leave this world too quickly because of his ever-growing divine power.

[You are creating a new Divine Artifact.]

[Your divine power begins pouring endlessly into the new Divine Artifact.]

[You have created: Dropper]

[Dropper]: A Divine Artifact that consumes considerable divine power. It can draw out certain advanced, complex colors and separate them into layers. These advanced colors will not receive the divine power enhancement of the Palette.

"So now there's another Divine Artifact."

Mona looked at the straw-like tool that had appeared in the [Divine Artifact] section.

The Dropper was a tool specifically used to draw out Advanced Colors.

If the Paintbrush merely dipped gently into the colors of basic things.

Then the Dropper extracted the most essential colors from more advanced things.

For example, animals and humans.

All kinds of inventions created through human wisdom.

And... extraordinary substances.

Furthermore, after extraction, the Dropper would directly damage the thing in reality.

So Mona had no intention of using it on his believers.

After thinking for a moment, Mona shifted his view to a mountain Temple he had marked.

[You have switched Anchor Points.]

[Your vision has arrived at the mountain Temple.]

This Temple stood deep in the mountains, where there were few traces of people.

However, after the Temple was built, enormous spiders would often appear at night for some unknown reason.

These huge, furry spiders, around twenty centimeters in body length, liked to hide in the dark corners of the Temple during the day and emerge at night to hunt Brown Rats. When threatened, they spat purple acid.

If humans were splashed by it, their skin would melt and rot in mild cases, though they might survive. In severe cases, they would have trouble breathing and die on the spot.

As time passed, fewer and fewer people came here, and the Temple gradually fell into ruin.

After Mona switched his view, he casually glanced around and soon discovered one of these giant spiders in the shadow of a stone pillar.

In his eyes, color tags from the spider's soul quickly emerged over its body.

[Giant Monster lv1] Yamal Spider

[Age]: 3 years old

[Traits]: "Poison Element lv1" "Life Energy lv1"

[Habits]: Ferocious

[Sequence]: None

[A naturally vicious giant spider. Its ability to spin webs has degenerated, but it has instead evolved stronger venom glands. It mainly hunts by spitting corrosive acid, which can also be used to digest some dead branches and fallen leaves. These spiders like to control the concentration of their acid, cruelly devouring prey that still has a sliver of life left. Although their bodies are rich in protein, their venom glands are spread throughout their bodies, so they cannot be considered good food.]

This strange spider was exceptionally huge, a giant species that had not existed in Mona's original world.

Even this creature's classification was [Giant Monster lv1].

However, giant here did not mean giant in the broad sense.

It was only large in a relative sense.

Mona lightly tapped [Giant Monster lv1] to view the creature's detailed classification tag.

[Giant Monster lv1]: A color tag possessed by creatures classified as giant monsters. Creatures with this tag are at least three times larger than the normal size of creatures in their category, and are usually more ferocious by nature.

Now, this Yamal Spider belonged among the Giant Monsters.

"The most fundamental difference between these creatures and humans lies in their souls. They have no talents or knowledge, which are instead replaced by traits and habits."

Mona thought for a moment.

He decided to use the Dropper and see what could be extracted from the spider's soul.

In an instant, the spider hiding behind the stone beam collapsed peacefully.

[You have unlocked five new colors.]

[You have obtained: Yamal Spider Life Essence *1]

[You have obtained: Yamal Spider Soul Essence *1]

[You have obtained: Land Essence *4]

[You have obtained: Poison Element *2]

[You have obtained: Giant Monster Mark *1]

After his Dropper extracted the creature known as the Yamal Spider.

What appeared in the Dropper was not a single color, but several different layers of color.

It was precisely these different colors that formed the complete creature known as the Yamal Spider.

Mona examined these colors in detail.

[Yamal Spider Life Essence]: The structural form and life origin of a Yamal Spider.

[Yamal Spider Soul Essence]: The seat of a Yamal Spider's consciousness.

[Land Essence lv1]: Low-grade essence contained within land creatures. A material used to create creatures, and can also be absorbed—temporarily increases your Land Vision ↑

[Poison Element lv1]: A low-grade poison element from poisonous creatures. A material used to create creatures, and can also be absorbed—temporarily slows divine power growth ↓

[Giant Monster Mark lv1]: A mark that can only be used to create creatures. It grants you a small chance of creating a creature with Giant Monster lv1 traits.

"The Advanced Colors extracted from creatures can not only be used for creation, but also have some effect on my divinity."

Mona thought for a moment.

He reached out and touched some Land Essence and Poison Element.

The two colors were instantly absorbed into his body.

Only after absorbing a certain amount in succession did Mona finally feel a slight reaction within himself.

[After absorbing a certain amount of Advanced Colors, your divinity has shown a faint reaction.]

[The growth rate of your divine power has slightly decreased ↓]

[Your Land Vision has increased ↑]

Now, his vision had temporarily improved.

The entire island became a scaled-down two-dimensional map in his eyes.

This made it easier to switch Anchor Points, and he could even see part of what lay underground.

The growth rate of his divine power had also been temporarily slowed.

Unfortunately, these benefits only lasted for a short time and were not permanent.

Mona gradually calmed down.

He could feel that his divinity would easily develop resistance to these things.

If he consumed several more, their effects and duration would only slowly weaken.

"Although these Advanced Colors have some effect on me, it is still weak. I wonder if the essences of other creatures are equally weak?"

Mona felt regretful.

But he did not lose hope.

Although they could not have much effect on his divinity.

His Paint Palette now contained many [Advanced Colors].

He collectively referred to these layered colors extracted by the Dropper as [Advanced Colors].

[Advanced Colors] could not be used directly for painting.

Because these intangible colors did not possess materiality.

They were merely individual elements.

So they could not be painted directly.

To bring them into the world, the Drawing Board offered two methods.

One was to fuse them together and create a new substance.

This method was actually quite simple.

As long as he used his divine power and gave it some time, he could create a Divine Artifact containing fused colors. He was already doing so.

The other method—

Was to find an extraordinary [Aether].

By making use of Aether's properties, [Advanced Colors] could enter the world as independent entities.

This method was somewhat more difficult.

Mona had searched the entire island without finding such a substance.

It seemed that it existed only in the world beyond the island.

But this did not disappoint him. Instead, it left him feeling a hint of exhilaration.

More unknown essences.

And that extraordinary Aether substance.

It meant there were still many more interesting things worth looking forward to.