Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The dwarf had a thick beard, which made him look manly and barbaric, like most adult dwarfs did. However, he did not have the slightest shortage of manners. Instead, he smiled sophisticatedly like an erudite human scholar. “I’ve been meaning to meet you since a long time ago, but I couldn’t determine your traces.”
It was an indirect admittance that he was Viken. Or at least, it was Viken who dominated the body of the dwarf right now.
As he spoke in such a casual tone, Lucien felt that his heart was heavy and chilled. When did Viken have the idea of killing him in person? Was it when he proposed the general theory of relativity and became a legend? Or was it after he met with Monster Viken in the Realm of Gates?
Fortunately, he had been advancing fast in the past few years. It barely took him any time for him to reach level three of legendary from the entrance. Also, the places he went to were either the Elven Court, where he had a top legendary ally, or the abyss, where Viken’s demigod nemesis resided. As for the other places, he only stayed for no more than half a day while covering his traces with the uniqueness of the Secretive. That was how he avoided the encounter with the well-acknowledged strongest demigod.
After understanding the specific restraints of God’s Arrival, the Congress of Magic had a new conclusion about Viken’s real capabilities. If he found a way to melt Monster Viken without any problems, he would probably be close to the level of real gods and become even more powerful than Thanos.
But of course, after he reached level three of legendary, Lucien was less worried about Viken. At the very least, he could manage to escape. The only problem was whether or not Viken had considered him to be such a great enemy that he had to eliminate Lucien with “God’s Arrival” even though Monster Viken might take control.
Thinking quickly, Lucien soon restored his calmness. This was Rentato. Should anything happen, the top legends such as Hathaway would arrive in no time. Also, Viken had only arrived as a projection. It still remained to be seen whether or not he could beat Lucien. “To what do I owe the King of Calamities’ visit?”
“The King of Calamities… It’s been a long time since anyone called me by my legendary title.” Viken seemed to be in mixed feelings. Then he smiled and said, “Don’t bother me. Old guys like me are always reminiscent. As for the reason why I am here, do you really not know, God of Steam Yuri?”
If you were an old man who dwelt in the memories of the past, I would be a pure, innocent good guy who does not know any schemes. Lucien secretly thought to himself. Viken’s personalities were not hard to guess considering that he had mercilessly erased the memories of his best friends and crafted them into seraphs.
“What God of Steam? What Yuri? I have no idea what you are talking about at all?” Lucien pretended to be innocent.
Viken chuckled. “You can fool other people but certainly not me. I can sense the heart of faith inside this dwarf. I sense that his power of faith finally has a center where it can be gathered. You wouldn’t think that I’ve arrived after selecting a random body, would you?”
Lucien’s eyes froze. Viken had retained the remote projection abilities of the primeval devils after he became a demigod. As a result, even if he were not a demigod who was aware of the secrets of immortality, it would be barely possible to completely destroy him. It was indeed as expected of the best expert who overpowered the Silver Moon, the Lord of Hell, the Will of Abyss, and Monster Viken on his own.
Of course, it was also mostly because it was inconvenient for the Lord of Hell and the Will of Abyss to arrive and the fact that their strength would be restricted in the main material world. Also, there would be no cooperation where the Will of Abyss was involved.
Lucien’s stunt could not escape the attention of Viken. He smiled peacefully. “I think you don’t need me to say anything after you see this dwarf who has been personally given divine power by you. Facts speak louder than words.”
Even though he could not be directly projected to the senior-rank experts who did not have too many negative feelings, his senses on emotional changes were still keen.
“It’s just a secret research program. The mysteries of gods and the nature of the power of faith have always been a focus of the legendary sorcerers. Oliver, for example, has been studying the Dark Dragon Lord.” Lucien wanted to know what exactly Viken was trying to do, so instead of playing innocent, he admitted frankly without telling any lie.
“You are very cautious. It seems that the conversation with Douglas has made you wary. You wouldn’t say anything that would strike arcana and magic studies.”
Viken seemed unconvinced of Lucien’s confession. “Right. The creator of the new alchemy and the general theory of relativity, the most authoritative arcanist in the microscopic domain, and the main founder of the current arcana and magic system has stopped the exploration on the truth of the world and focused on the dissemination of faith. It will be a major strike on the confidence of every arcanist in the Congress of Magic after it is spread out.”
“It’s simply a study, which proves my arcana attitude better than anything. For me, disseminating faith and gathering the power of faith are meaningless. My focus is their place in the current arcana system.” Lucien still admitted frankly. After all, the congregation of special electromagnetic waves was just a hypothesis.
Viken chuckled. “Alright, enough of your lofty excuses. I do not need to use your words to strike the Congress of Magic. I only want to ask you if you need the complete ways to steal and utilize the power of faith? That monster cannot tell the secrets of demigods in violation of my rules. So, I’m sure that you only know how to transform into the status of primeval devils with the power of feelings, which is not the best method that I’ve improved on.
“You should know that many critical procedures on your path to demigod are missing. You cannot reach the destination if you are one-legged. I can help you solve the problem with a minimal price that nobody will suspect you. After all, almost twenty high-level sorcerers know the complete structure of artificial planets.”
“Absurd! Why do I want the way to steal and utilize the power of faith? Can they help me unravel the nature of the power of faith at all?” Lucien refused determinedly.
His determination, however, sounded like a vacillation to Viken. Lucien did not mock at him for trying to allure a grand arcanist but stressed the uselessness of his offer. It was not hard to imagine what he thought.
Viken said unhurriedly, “Useless? Then, why did you steal the power of faith of the God of Craftsmen? Your way of stealing and utilization was well-hidden, but that is the only remarkable part about it. There’s no way for you to succeed unless Heit turns into the God of Steam himself. How can you figure out three thousand years of studies in only two years?”
He was quite confident about that.
“You…” Lucien was slightly stunned. The guy who was spying on him was indeed complicit with Viken.
From Lucien’s face and emotional fluctuations, Viken noticed his shock. Thinking that Lucien was surprised because the successful and unattractive thing had been learned by him, Viken smiled. “Don’t worry. With my teaching, you will be able to steal Heit’s power of faith from your own altar. How does it sound?”
He was not truly bothered by the disproportion of cost and return. It was already the greatest success of the Congress of Magic that could be divided.
“As I have said many times, I am not interested in stealing and utilizing the power of faith. After I figure out its essence and arcana significance, I will create a flawless method, instead of turning into a half human and half monster like you.” Lucien smiled and scorned Viken’s way, showing his “confidence” and “vision”.
Viken was briefly silent, as if he did not expect that Lucien would really refuse it. Had he made any breakthroughs in his research? Was the observer effect really the nature of the power of faith?
“Two demigods have emerged on this path, and they are the only two demigods who are not natural-born demigods. So, you will eventually return to this path at some point. If you miss the opportunity today, you will barely get the files in the future.” Viken sighed, as if he were feeling sorry for Lucien.
Lucien smiled warmly, but he still said firmly, “I believe in myself.”
That was the confidence as expected of a distinguished arcanist at such a young age. So, Viken was not surprised at all.
He smiled, and the dwarf narrowed his eyes. “I hope that you will not regret it in the future.”
The strange air was gone, and the dwarf collapsed as if he had lost all his strength.
Looking at the air before him, Lucien smiled casually. “I was speaking nothing but the truth. Why couldn’t you believe me? Do you only believe me when I tell you lies?”
Seeing that the dwarf was gradually back to himself, Lucien disappeared from Rentato after one step.
…
“Viken came to you?” In the Land of Truth, Douglas frowned at Lucien.
Lucien did not hide the matter and told it to his teacher and Mr. President quickly.
“He allured me with the way to become a demigod in exchange for the complete structure of artificial planets,” said Lucien briefly.
Thinking about what they discussed before, Douglas asked, “Did you agree?”
That was a good thing. They were planning to give the Church the intelligence in that regard in the first place so that they would compete with the Congress in the field that the Congress was best at. As it turned out, the pope had personally delivered the mysteries of demigods here for the intelligence. That was an unexpected trophy! Although Douglas, Fernando, and Lucien did not need such a path, it would serve well as a reference and research materials. After all, it was the only successful path of demigods right now.
“I turned him down.” Lucien acted as if it were not a big deal.
“It also makes sense. If you agreed with the exchange, Viken might take advantage of it whatever reasons you had. Even if we are going to make the deal, you shouldn’t take part in it in person.” Douglas immediately understood why Lucien refused it.
Lucien nodded. That was indeed one of the reasons. More importantly, it was an opportunity as he had always wanted to show Viken his attitude. Supposedly, he could only look for indirect opportunities to do so, but Viken had come to tempt him in person out of his expectation. He would’ve regretted it if he did not make use of the great chance.
“We were also planning to fish up the sorcerers that were associating with Viken. But Viken’s operation…” Douglas wondered which they should choose.
Lucien smiled. “There are twenty sorcerers who know the secrets of the artificial planets, and dozens more who can construct it on their own with the mechanism. Together with Viken’s devil projection, it is barely possible for us to decide who it is exactly. We can only narrow the range. Therefore, I have temporarily added certain special structures to the files of artificial planets. In such a way, we will be able to tell whether they reached out to each other before or later.”
“Are we not going to carry out the exchange?” asked Douglas.
Lucien pointed at the north. “What we are missing is just the part to steal and utilize the power of faith, and we don’t have to ask Viken for that. Since he has secretly released the ways to become a demigod to sorcerers, elves, demons, devils, and other races to mess up the situation and divide us, we can also make the situation even more chaotic.”
