The Era of Gods

Chapter 517: Chapter 517: Integrating Divinity, Advancing to the Hero Template

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“This is Ornell Planet, a realm housing intelligent life and a Star Soul…”

“Hold on…”

“Star Soul?”

Previously, the Void Dragon Asaniel had mentioned this, but at the time, Lin Xiao was preoccupied with other matters and hadn’t paid much attention. Now recalling this detail, he was utterly shocked.

What is a Star Soul?

In the Titan Crystal System, also known as the Azeroth Crystal Wall Universe, a Star Soul is a nascent Titan. In that universe, any mature Titan is a fearsome entity with a grand status that surpasses Powerful Divine Power throughout the current universe.

This world was imitating the Titan Crystal Universe, which meant that the Star Soul could very likely be equivalent to a Titan’s existence.

Of course, the strength of this universe was far inferior to that of the Titan Crystal Universe. The Star Souls nurtured here probably weren’t as terrifying, but even at their weakest, they weren’t something an ordinary True God could compare with.

Now the Star Soul of this world named Ornell was about to be corrupted by Ancient gods. At this moment, Lin Xiao felt a slight hesitation, somewhat afraid to venture down.

From space, one couldn’t see the Star Soul or the Ancient gods, but one could clearly see that the majority of the planet was replaced by a grey-brown hue. Many places were heavily corrupted, turning to dark grey or pure black. Terrifying Void Storms swirled around, like huge dark spots covering the planet’s surface.

The Magic Airship slowly approached the planet, piercing through the grey-brown atmosphere. Lin Xiao immediately realized that a negative BUFF—Lesser Corrosive Aura—had appeared on him.

Effect: Attack -5%, Defense -5%, Hit Rate -5%, Skill Consumption +5%.

It wasn’t a major decrease, but when applied to the entire planet, Lin Xiao believed the minions of the Ancient gods on the planet would have a boost BUFF, and with the addition of their bonus and the decrease from the negative effect, the disparity would become significant.

As the Magic Airship entered the atmosphere and reached a certain depth, many unidentified birds with a hint of grey mist kept slamming into the airship with loud bangs, causing the airship to shake and involuntarily change direction.

Seeing more and more birds, Lin Xiao opened the hatch. Mages stood guard at the front and back of the airship, continually summoning Blizzards or Thunderclouds. These creatures, called Corrupt Black Crows, were only about Level 20. The widespread spells could easily annihilate them, but there were too many. Endless black crows were killed and turned to ash, yet their numbers didn’t seem to diminish.

So they continued on, flying and killing, until deep within the atmosphere of the planet, amid the drifting grey mist, they heard a roar that made their hearts pound violently.

“Fuck, did we go the wrong way? Where are we?”

No one answered. Lin Xiao checked his BUFF, which had transformed from the original Lesser Corrosive Aura to Corrupted Aura—Attack -10%, Defense -10%, Hit Rate -10%, Skill Consumption -10%, Healing Effectiveness Reduced by 50%.

“It seems we’ve entered into a more deeply corrupted area,” Wu Zhonglin said with a grave expression, looking into the depths of the grey mist and loudly stating,

“We need to get out of here quickly, I’ve got a really bad feeling.”

Without needing a reminder, Lin Xiao had already started to steer the Magic Airship in a different direction. It was then that someone’s alarmed cry broke the tension:

“Quick, look! What’s that?”

From within the grey mist, a shadow larger than the Magic Airship approached swiftly, and ‘boom,’ the airship was smashed to pieces. Lin Xiao felt only a figure standing before him, then an indescribable force hit, hurling him helplessly towards the ground.

“Bang!”

He crashed hard onto the ground, his magical shields burst on impact, and the omnipresent grey mist in the air converged towards him. Filaments of grey mist bored into him like insects, making his whole body itch and tingle.

Not having time to worry about this, Lin Xiao quickly sensed that the several dozen subordinates he had before were now reduced to less than ten with psychic links, scattered within a one-kilometer radius nearby.

He swiftly contacted them through mental links, ordering them to regroup towards his location.

As for the other players…

Apart from Wu Zhonglin, the rest had turned to grey; they were all wiped out by that unknown attack and it was unclear where they’d respawn.

One thing was for certain though—they would definitely be revived on this planet and would not end up in the Void to respawn.

After waiting in place for two minutes, all the surviving subordinates arrived. They also brought with them a group of creatures called Flesh Aberrations.

This was a kind of monstrous evil amalgam of corpses and flesh created by the Ancient gods; their appearance was hard to describe. Put simply, they looked like de-skinned seals, but four to five meters long, with a huge head and a mouth full of sharp blood teeth. Their fins were replaced with a pair of thick, powerful claws which they used to crawl on the ground, moving at great speed.

These creatures were Level 70 elites, with no special skills but with shockingly high health and strength. A single charge attack could even cause his subordinate—the Level 76 Leader template warrior—to stumble.

The surviving Lord-level warrior Sven 5, another Leader-level warrior, one Leader-level Shooter, two Leader-level Mages, two Leader-level Priests, and two Enhanced Elite warriors rushed forward. Even Lin Xiao repeatedly summoned Lightning to strike down, swiftly killing off the group of Flesh Aberrations they had attracted, not even having time to collect the loot before hastily leaving the place.

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No sooner had they left than a group of blood mutants rushed over, circled around the spot, and chased after them.

Lin Xiao quickly noticed the pursuers behind them. Knowing they were drawn by the recent battle, he stopped and slaughtered the large group of blood mutants.

Then he stayed put, waiting for the monsters continually attracted to the area.

Their crash site appeared to be in an area completely corrupted by Ancient gods, which was teeming with corrupted monsters, yet there were no large-scale swarms. Presumably, all had been summoned by the Ancient gods to assault the last bastion of the Resistance Force on the planet.

After waiting nearly an hour, having successively killed several hundred blood mutants, and when almost no new ones were coming, Lin Xiao decisively took out a gold crystal enveloped in a glowing membrane from the Creation Rubik’s Cube.

This was a segmented Godforce Crystal containing one unit of Divinity and ten units of Godforce Crystal.

Originally, the plan for his True Body was to use a large crystal formed of ten units of Divinity and one thousand units of Godforce Crystal, to be taken out once the restrictions of the Creation Rubik’s Cube were further loosened, and then in one fell swoop, ascend to Demigod status.

Unexpectedly, plans cannot keep up with changes, and he encountered someone using a cheat who was even more ferocious than himself, who could bring their True Body into this world and banish him to the Void.

Having no choice, he split the large Divinity crystal into smaller portions, deciding to enhance his strength with one for now.

Without removing the isolating film, he directly swallowed it.

Seconds later, a golden light burst forth in Lin Xiao’s pupils, and a faint aura of majesty unfolded, prompting all the subordinates around him to bow their heads respectfully.

Lin Xiao strived to control the fusion of Divinity and Godforce Crystal, trying to prevent any leakage of divine power and exposure of his true self.

One unit of Godforce Crystal was equivalent to ten thousand points of Divine Power, and ten units amounted to a hundred thousand Divine Power. This was already a very Powerful Divine Power.

Divinity changed the nature of his soul and life, while Divine Power strengthened the altered nature—the more Divine Power there was, the more enhancements could be made.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Thus, even with just a bit of Divinity, the enhancement from one hundred thousand Divine Power would cause a qualitative change in him.

In this world, it meant a template upgrade, bypassing the elite template straight to the Hero template from an ordinary player template.

Whether it was Skills, Talent, or base attributes, all underwent dramatic qualitative changes.

The most direct change was the new ‘Hero’ Skills that appeared on the skill panel: With each level up, gain an additional +10 to all attributes, Life and Mana limits increased by x10, reduce all damage by 25%, resistance +25%, casting without materials, and all Spell and Skill effects increased by 300%.

All Skills were comprehensively strengthened, and all Talents were comprehensively enhanced.

For example, the Spell ‘Level 1 Lightning Chain’: Casts a Lightning Chain that can bounce four times within a range of 90 yards, dealing 18-22 Lightning damage to the first target, with each bounce reducing the damage by 15%.

Hero Spell ‘Lightning Chain’: Casts a Lightning Chain that can bounce infinitely within a range of 500 yards, dealing 1000+ Magic damage + Intelligence*2 Lightning damage to the target, bouncing damage does not decay, cannot stack.

Hero Spell ‘Thunderbolt’: Summons a thunder strike to hit any enemy within a 2000-yard range, dealing 3000+ Magic damage + Intelligence*5 Lightning damage to the target and enemies within 5 yards, stunning all damaged targets for 2 seconds and paralyzing them for 5 seconds.

Hero Spell ‘Lightning Shield’: Cast a Lightning Shield that lasts for thirty minutes on oneself or an ally, immune to Lightning damage and 20% of all Spell damage, adds 15000 points of armor, and releases a Lightning Strike against any attacker, dealing Lightning damage equal to the caster’s Magic damage + Intelligence, silencing for 2 seconds and interrupting casting.

Hero Spell ‘Thundercloud’: Summon a Thundercloud with a range of a thousand yards lasting sixty seconds, dealing 50000+ Magic damage*2 + Intelligence*10 Lightning damage to all enemies within the range.

Hero Spell ‘Thor’s Wrath’: Channel energy from the Void to strike all enemies within a ten thousand yard radius of oneself with a Thunder Strike, with a cooldown of one hour.

Lin Xiao, now at Level 73, possessed a total of 140,000 health and mana points, as well as ultra-high Magic damage akin to a BOSS.

And this was before he had transcended; once he reached Level 75, he would undergo a transformation like Wu Zhonglin and experience another surge in power.

That moment was not far off, with dedicated effort he estimated it would take a few months to achieve.

Because he realized that after merging Divinity and Divine Power and ascending to the Hero template, his level cap also increased, skyrocketing to a limit of Level 90.

“Had I known, I would have used it earlier.”

In other words, now the experience required to level up to 90 reverted back to the normal state before Level 70. This would greatly accelerate his leveling speed. Consequently, the eased level restrictions would further loosen the constraints on the Creation Rubik’s Cube, and before long, he would gain more Divinity and Divine Power, progressing until he reached the level required to ascend to Demigod.

By then, he would not fear even the True-Body Descend of the Children of Nightmare.

After all, the Children of Nightmare’s ascension was through cheating, which surely came with great constraints. He, on the other hand, had no constraints. Given enough time, he could grow infinitely stronger.

Cheating? Anyone can do it!