Staying True To Oneself

Richard almost selected the Manaforge Array out of sheer desire; while it was useless right now, he would manage to gather enough for the other part someday. Thankfully, he managed to reel himself back by reminding himself just what a rank 2 offering was; he would need to find an important organ from an abyssal archlord or some other similar existence.

He smiled wryly and retracted the hand that had reached for the list; he had no idea when he would be able to obtain the Manaforge Core, and even he didn’t have the kind of money to throw around for the gamble. He was already progressing quickly; growing stronger on his own would be much more stable than taking shortcuts.

Beyond the Manaforge Array were two powerful divine weapons, followed by a special ability as well as two rare materials. The materials in particular were so rare that he hadn’t even heard of them before; even reading pages of information about them, he had no concrete ideas of a use worthy of the price. Still, every one of these blessings left his heart pounding.

However, it was at the very end that he saw the most enticing option of them all: Midren, Complete Form.

This was a grade 6 rune design, but there was no caption for it at all. There were no materials either, but even so his eyes remained glued onto the option no matter how much he wished to move on. There was a point when he hadn’t expected to see a grade 6 blueprint in his life.

However, he sighed softly and found it in himself to move on. The complete edition would certainly require materials that he had no means to get; even just the battle edition was enough to give him a headache. At the very least, Norland didn’t have the materials on hand for a grade 6 rune.

With the appearance of the true grade 6 rune design, the battle edition that was on the borderline lost all its appeal. However, Richard knew that he needed something that he could use right away. After spending some time looking through the rank 3 blessings and making sure that there wasn’t something very important in there, he eventually chose the battle edition design. With a single top-tier offering’s worth of grace remaining, he acquired enough rare materials for five to six saint runes and three divine sharpening stones to get Adjudicator to the same level as Moonlight.

When the last bits of timeforce faded away, he couldn’t believe his luck. He had been hoping just to obtain the complete design for the grade 5 Midren set, but even that had been a slim hope. While he could recreate the rune set from what he had acquired from Martin, there would inevitably be mistakes.

Heaven’s Armour was a rune set different from even other saint runes. Its power was nearly the same no matter who used it, requiring the user to adapt instead of otherwise. There was one other rune he had ever seen that gave off the same vibes— Sharon’s Deepblue Aria. He had suspected all this while that the sets were weakened versions of grade 6 runes, and that conjecture had been verified today.

He recalled how Sharon came from a different race and felt like it could be connected to the origin of Heaven’s Armour as well. Unfortunately, he didn’t know enough to come to a concrete conclusion; pondering over it for a while, he returned his focus to what he had obtained.

Even back when he had acquired the fragments and partial design from Martin, he had discovered a secret hidden in Midren that was likely connected to all of the other Heaven’s Armour set. It had a controlling effect on the power of lower tiers of Heaven’s Armour like Gabriel, Raphael, and the rest. This was likely Martin’s goal in ordering three sets at once, an order that would give him and his subordinates great control over the remaining angels of the Sacred Tree Empire. To reach this goal, he hadn’t even cared about leaking a portion of the Radiant Lord’s laws to an outsider.

On one hand, Richard had wanted a completed design of Midren just for study. He could always make a full version instead of a reconstruction, selling it to make up for his material costs. On the other hand, he hoped to be able to use it to trace the secrets of grade 6 runes and officially begin repairs on the Deepblue Aria. the battle edition was so much better in helping him accomplish that goal, even if it came with an equivalent price.

……

When the ceremony finally came to an end, Richard felt like he had been in there for an entire season. However, he was still absolutely delighted when he left; it felt like he had just passed a secret test. Not everyone could stay true to themselves in the face of the Eternal Dragon, but he had done so for the second time.

To the four grand priestesses and Ryan who were waiting outside, it had only been a few minutes. The light slowly disappeared, timeforce gathering into an orb of divine grace that flew towards them.

Seeing the colour and density of the divine grace, all four of the priestesses went wide-eyed. Even Jacqueline looked regretful at having given the position to Ryan; had she obtained such a blessing, she would be able to level up immediately. As the light floated towards him, the teen lost all of his ability to contain his emotions and his face flushed in excitement. He knew that this was enough divine grace for him to reach level 17, only one step away from becoming a grand priest. This would be beyond even the other two Chosen at the same age!

Ryan suddenly turned to look at Noelene, a sinister expression flashing across his face as his eyes paused on her breasts. Noelene snorted coldly and glared back, but he didn’t back off and instead shifted his gaze to her waist as he smirked. Noelene actually shook for a moment, having to restrain herself from attacking him for the humiliation.

“Whoop!” Richard walked out at that moment, stopping the divine grace with a gesture before pointing it towards Noelene. The timeforce immediately covered her and a pillar of light shot into the ceiling, her aura flaring up enormously in only a few moments. When the timeforce faded away, she had gone all the way to level 20, well surpassing the other three who were still level 18.

Jacqueline’s mouth fell open as she stared at Richard, “H-How?! Impossible!”

Richard smiled, “Well, you’ve probably heard of Blessing Redirection, hmm?”

“You upgraded your title!” she cried out in surprise.

“Yep.”

“YOU STOLE MY GRACE!” Ryan suddenly screamed, charging over, “IT WAS MINE! ALL MINE!”

The youth’s face was now completely twisted, his hopes and dreams having fallen through in a single moment. He had forgotten everything about Richard amidst his shock, only one thought ringing in his mind. He had to kill this demon!

A cold glint flashed in Ryan’s hands as a platinum dagger was thrust towards Richard’s waist, but a crisp crack sounded as a slap to the face sent him flying away. In only moments the boy’s face flushed red and swelled, but before he could try to get up Richard had flashed behind him and stomped him into the ground.

Richard leant down to look at Ryan’s distorted face under his shoe, “You really wanted to kill me? Stupid and unlucky, such a bad combination. This better be the last time you look for death.”

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