Chapter 36: The Divine Awakened (Part Two)

“Crack!”

The middle-aged Sea Raider stabbed the same spot repeatedly. The transparent shield cracked. He applied more force, piercing through it. The transparent shield shattered, dissolving into starlight. In his vision, the burning short sword struck Ace.

“Slash!”

Ace, upon being struck, broke apart into starlight and vanished.

The middle-aged Sea Raider’s momentum greatly diminished. He looked around suspiciously.

“I see you! Stop hiding!” he roared loudly, trying to trick Ace into revealing his location.

Only an echo remained in the air. He felt a sudden jolt and abruptly swung backward. “Bang!” More starlight scattered.

“Are you looking for me? I’m here.”

Ace’s low, ethereal voice resonated. One by one, black shadows appeared from the darkness, transforming into Ace. This bizarre scene made the middle-aged Sea Raider’s scalp crawl. He felt a hint of fear, and in this state, his mind grew increasingly active.

“Great God of Flame, His Excellency Eric. I, your descendant, Sharp Eric, beg for your protection.” As Sharp muttered, he slashed his short sword across the back of his hand, smearing the blade with his blood. The flame on the short sword in his hand intensified, eventually transforming into a burning great sword over 3 meters long.

Sharp’s body trembled slightly, seemingly consuming a great deal of his energy. In Ace’s perception, Sharp’s short sword had momentarily gathered a huge amount of Mana. This Mana was different from the Mana Ace usually siphoned; it was extremely active and arranged in a special pattern, carrying the characteristics of fire.

Wielding the burning great sword, Sharp rapidly spun and attacked, releasing a burning ring that instantly spread out, incinerating all the Aces around him into ashes.

The burning great sword seemed to have run out of power. The flame subsided, returning to a burning short sword, and even the bright yellow core seemed dimmer. Sharp appeared to have undergone extremely strenuous exertion, his body covered in sweat. His clothes were soaked. He knelt down, panting, propped himself up with his short sword, and struggled to regulate his breathing.

“Clap, clap!”

A bizarre clapping sound echoed in the air. “Your performance greatly exceeded my expectations. Now, please look into my eyes.”

Ace reappeared in the darkness. His eyes flickered with runes, emitting a faint glow. Sharp involuntarily looked into Ace’s eyes, and his body instantly froze. Innumerable flashes of fire appeared before his eyes, followed by burning blood. Enemies pursued him. He desperately tried to hide but was still surrounded by the enemy…

Ace looked at the unconscious Sharp, a smile on his lips. The Seasoned Divine Awakened was indeed formidable. He could use a Wonder to continuously attack one spot, directly shattering the Mana Protection Membrane that could withstand Ace’s strongest physical attack, the Strong Acid Cascade, for 2 seconds.

He even unleashed a devastating area attack. Ace could feel the burning heat wave from the spreading ring of fire from a long distance away.

He certainly lived up to his son’s assessment: close to a Pseudo-Hero. Ace even suspected that even an ordinary Pseudo-Hero would find it difficult to defeat Sharp without a powerful Wonder weapon.

Ace’s victory lay in the asymmetry of information. Through Yus, he clearly understood Sharp’s situation, while Sharp knew nothing about him.

When Ace realized that Sharp’s mental strength was slightly stronger than his own, allowing him to pass the will check, he formulated a plan to weaken the opponent’s will, thereby reducing his mental strength.

The moment Sharp jumped out of the wooden boat and into the shadows, Ace used Illusion Gaze to create a visible, tangible, and audible illusion of himself, and applied the Lesser Mana Protection Membrane. When Sharp struck and realized the anomaly, Ace used the gaze to interfere again, emphasizing the power of fear and enhancing his mental activity, causing his mind to fill with chaotic thoughts.

Finally, using several false images of himself, Ace made Sharp unable to distinguish between reality and illusion. The plan was to continuously strike him with different illusions, aiming to completely manipulate his perception and trap him in a false world.

Unexpectedly, the stimulation caused Sharp to immediately unleash his ultimate attack. The terrifying burning ring of fire, which Ace could feel from a long distance, consumed most of Sharp’s energy, rapidly diminishing his will and mental strength. Ace easily manipulated his perception, trapping him in the illusion, where he fell unconscious in despair.

The lighthouse torch had gone out. Ace picked up Sharp’s short sword with his left hand, opened his Spell Book with his right hand, and communicated with the Lesser Charm Creature using his mental power. A phantom flashed and rushed toward Sharp. A rune structure of the charm slowly crawled onto the back of his neck.

The Seasoned Divine Awakened was successfully captured.

After several days of research, Ace found that the body of a Divine Awakened showed very significant Mana accumulation, or a high degree of Mana “contamination,” while the Unawakened only had trace amounts of Mana “contamination.”

Compared to himself, after meditating with the Mana-Crystal Meditation (the meditation method that incorporates the Mana-Crystal Rune) for several months, Ace’s body and spirit had accumulated a large number of Mana Particles. His degree of Mana “contamination” was slightly lower than Sharp’s. This means his current state is similar to a Seasoned Divine Awakened.

Ace recorded his meditation progress using a scatter plot, performed once a week, where he fully cast the Lesser Magic Missile and recorded the number of times he could cast it. For the first few months, the number of Magic Missiles increased by two or three each week. Recently, the growth had slowed, increasing by only one or two Magic Missiles per week.

Ace could currently cast a maximum of 61 Magic Missiles when fully channeling his spell. He recorded the mental power consumed by one Magic Missile as 1 unit of mental power, also called 1 Missile. Having established a unit of measurement for mental power, Ace tried his other spells and roughly converted their consumption into mental power units.

Illusion Gaze is the most complex: activating it consumes 5 mental power, maintaining it consumes an additional 2 mental power per minute, and creating a realistic illusion costs an extra 1 mental power. The minimum mental power required to cast Illusion Gaze is 15 units, with no upper limit.

Continuing his research on the Divine Awakened, Ace found that the Mana of the Divine Awakened mainly accumulated in the heart, followed by the brain. His own accumulated Mana was mainly in the brain, followed by the heart. This should be why the Divine Awakened’s physical quality far exceeded his own at a similar level.

The Divine Awakened’s blood can be used as a good material for writing runes. The powerful heart is an excellent magical material, containing a unique rune structure. The brain has no rune structure. Ace speculated that his own brain might also develop a rune structure under Mana contamination, but he couldn’t observe his own brain with mental power; his mental perception of that area was completely dark.

When the Divine Awakened died, a soul-like existence appeared, which could not be captured. When Ace communicated with it using mental power, he only felt vague emotions like fear and anger. It existed in nature for about a few hours before naturally dissolving.

The Unawakened and ordinary people showed no soul after death.

Ace charmed the remaining Sea Raiders one by one and executed all the murderers. He took a portion of the Sea Raiders’ treasure and buried the rest somewhere on the island. He then ordered the Sea Raiders who had not committed murder to row the boat and take him away from the island. He had his own bottom line and would not become a monster without conscience in pursuit of power.