A Cultivation Method with Visible Progress Bars

Upon receiving Rena's prayer, Noven sensed it.

The divine power consumed by exercising his authority was within an acceptable range, so he could respond.

After establishing the [Knowledge Point] reward system, Noven's divine power was finally no longer only decreasing without ever increasing.

According to Noven's design, for every unit of faith a believer provided that could be converted into one unit of divine power, Noven would reward that believer with one Knowledge Point.

One Knowledge Point could be exchanged with Noven for knowledge or information that required him to consume one unit of divine power and exercise his authority to obtain.

Although Noven held complete control over whether to respond to believers, and could have set the ratio between the divine power believers provided and the Knowledge Points he rewarded them with much higher—

For example, 10:1 or 100:1—Noven did not do so.

Noven had both the confidence and the plan to offer an exchange ratio like 1:1, which fully gave back to his believers.

Because information related to knowledge could be reused!

For instance, when Rena prayed, Noven reclaimed 5 Knowledge Points, consumed 5 units of divine power, and used his authority to acquire information about that divine spell of the God of Justice.

For Noven, that expenditure was a one-time cost.

The information obtained through exercising his authority was permanent. Noven had already completely mastered all information related to that divine spell.

Even if other believers prayed afterward, seeking this knowledge, Noven only needed to send out the divine spell knowledge he had already mastered through an oracle once more.

He would not need to expend divine power a second time.

But for every believer who prayed to Noven, he could reclaim 5 Knowledge Points with this knowledge!

One investment, with a theoretically unlimited return!

If the ratio were set too high, believers might need to work hard for a long time before earning enough Knowledge Points. In other words, their growth would also slow as a result.

That would not be worthwhile for Noven; it would be sacrificing the greater for the lesser.

He had only just arrived in this world and needed to expand his influence as quickly as possible. As long as the number of believers increased, the divine power he could collect and convert would only continue to grow!

As for why Noven's believers could use the corresponding divine spells as long as they received the knowledge Noven gave them, even without being believers of the other gods—

Noven vaguely sensed that he could find the answer he sought deep within the gray mist of this Divine Kingdom.

For now, he did not have enough divine power to disperse the boundless gray mist, so Noven could only temporarily bury those doubts in his heart.

[Believer's request detected.]

[Target: Beginning the path of rogue cultivation, guiding shadow energy]

[Cost: 3 Knowledge Points]

Rena raised her head in surprise and said with a delighted smile, "Mr. Pete! The God of Knowledge answered me! He said He can teach me how to embark on the rogue path, but I need to give Him 3 Knowledge Points."

"Hiss!" His guess confirmed, Pete said excitedly, "What are you waiting for? Try it!"

Rena gave a soft hum. As her thoughts stirred, she received a notification that 3 Knowledge Points had been deducted, and knowledge of how to guide shadow energy flooded into her mind.

Rena tried to calm herself and sense the omnipresent shadows around her.

It was just past midnight. Night had blanketed the earth, and all things were draped in shadows, making shadow energy far more active.

Following the method Noven had given her, Rena silently called out to the shadows in her heart, asking them to embrace her and help her blend into them.

Pete, seated not far away, stared at Rena. For an instant, as though his eyes were playing tricks on him, he suddenly felt that her figure had become faint and indistinct.

The next instant, Rena's figure became solid again. She opened her eyes and sighed regretfully.

"Mm, I failed."

"The God of Knowledge told me that the first step to becoming a rogue is learning to borrow the power of shadows to conceal your body and gain the camouflage effect of [Stealth]."

"I hesitated for a moment, and the shadow energy I had painstakingly gathered dispersed."

"Mr. Pete, am I very stupid? I can't even do the very first step properly."

Pete comforted her, "Don't worry, that's normal."

"The first step toward becoming a class-holder is actually extremely difficult. It took me several months to establish communication with the Weave for the first time."

"Back then, I went through all kinds of failures—so many that I lost count."

"That is the path of a class-holder. Before you succeed, even you yourself don't know how far you are from success. All you can do is try again and again."

After hearing Pete's reassurance, Rena looked somewhat confused. "You don't know how far you are from success?"

"That's right. Everyone's experience with class cultivation is different," Pete explained. "There is no unified standard. You can only vaguely sense whether you're currently completely lost, making some progress, or about to succeed. At most, that's all you get."

"As for exactly when you will master it successfully, or which step went wrong and caused your failure, no one can say for certain."

Rena hesitantly pointed at her head. "But... Mr. Pete, I know why I failed..."

"?"

"Because when I was trying, the God of Knowledge gave me information called practice progress. It told me that my attempt at [Stealth] had failed, but I had already completed 7% progress."

"It also said that I failed this time because I wasn't focused enough when the shadows gathered. I need to maintain sufficient focus to advance the practice progress bar and move on to the next step."

"Once I reach 100% progress, I'll be able to use [Stealth] successfully."

"No, why didn't I have something like that back then?"

Rena's description utterly shattered Pete's worldview, which had already been broken several times before, into dust this time!

At first, Pete had assumed Noven was an ordinary outer god with some domains related to magic. The spell knowledge He bestowed upon him was merely an ability within His divine domain, and His overall level was below that of a chief god like the Goddess of Magic.

Later, Pete gradually realized that things were not so simple. If He were merely an ordinary outer god, it would have been impossible for Him to grant believers the divine spells of other gods!

And now, judging from this, it seemed that even the power of publicly recognized, mighty chief gods could be bypassed by the God of Knowledge. One could become a class-holder without believing in the corresponding god!

He even had such an outrageous "assistance" as visible progress bars to guide mortals along the path of cultivation!

Pete had never regretted skipping Caron Academy's general theology classes so much. He was now genuinely immensely curious about the God of Knowledge.

"God of Knowledge above, how in the world did You do it?!"

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