7 Chapter7-A Special Use of Authority, Freeloading Divine Spells
"This time it only ascended two tiers, huh?"
Jason pondered briefly, not feeling regretful.
He had suspected that the more powerful the soldier, the lower the tier it could be elevated through Authority in a single instance.
Previously, drawing out tier-4 Banshees and maximizing the effect of Authority was likely because the transformation targets were just the lowest tier-1 militia.
What now presented before Jason was a group of skeletal forms sprawled on the ground, lizard-like but without wings.
These were the Bone Dragons, transformed from the deceased subspecies dragons.
Though it might sound a bit rough around the edges, the sturdiness of their skeletons and the dark gray energy flickering in their eyes all testified to the Bone Dragons' formidable strength.
The displayed attributes confirmed their potency.
[Subspecies Bone Dragon]
[Tier: 5-tier]
[Race: Undead]
[Level: 1]
[HP: 4000/4000]
[Attack Power: 600]
[Defense: 600]
[Magic Resistance: 600]
[Speed: 150]
[Food Consumption: 0]
Skills:
[Dragonkind Bones]: Immune to 15% of all types of damage.
[Undead Dragon Breath]: The Subspecies Bone Dragon can exhale a death-effect laden dragon breath, inflicting substantial damage and reducing the attributes of hit units by 15%.
Description: As the most elite beings, rich in subspecies essence, the Subspecies Bone Dragon possesses strength superior to its peers, both in life and in death. It will only obey its creator, [Jason]. As an undead being, the Subspecies Bone Dragon does not require food consumption.
…
"Indeed, quite impressive," Jason was very satisfied.
The only drawback of the Subspecies Bone Dragon was the lack of control abilities in its skills, but its base attributes were definitely a cut above other tier-4 units.
Moreover, all soldiers related to the dragon kind typically require an extra tier of difficulty to recruit, usually necessitating the construction of a building related to dragons.
So, although this unit isn't a hidden unit, it still counts as a jackpot for Jason.
With its damage reduction passive and the ability to lower the opponent's output, the Subspecies Bone Dragon is an excellent tank-type unit.
Coupled with Jason's Banshees, which possess high early-game lethal efficiency due to their psychic damage, the combination is an outstanding setup for pioneering new territories.
Perfectly suited for…
Hitting dungeons!
Jason quickly formulated a plan in his mind.
Dungeons in Divine Age share a concept with those in massive online games on Earth, being individual enclosed spaces.
Players enter and must complete sequences of puzzles or defeat various bosses within the dungeon, culminating in defeating the final boss or completing specific quests to clear it.
Of course, lower-level dungeons don't feature complex mechanics; straightforwardly fighting from start to finish suffices.
The classification of dungeons in Divine Age follows the same scheme as equipment and quests, ranging from low to high: iron, bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond, epic, legendary, myth.
Each tier of dungeon comes with a server-wide first-clear reward.
Similar to many games on Earth, many of Divine Age's rare resources are exclusively obtainable within dungeons.
Jason's starting location, Losfall, is known to be a beginner's area with a higher degree of danger but also richer resources, where the highest tier of dungeons available directly scales up to platinum-level.
Jason's current objective is to secure the first kill of an iron dungeon, specifically named: Guild of Concealers.
After clearing it, players can access a quest line that, if followed from the periphery to the heartland of the Concealers' Sanctuary, passing through a series of dungeons, enables them to complete an additional diamond-level quest.
But all these are still distant prospects for Jason.
Even if he hadn't secured the world boss's first kill and obtained the Subspecies Bone Dragon, he wouldn't have considered tackling a dungeon so soon.
In his past life, it took over three hours post-launch for House Vanderroth to achieve the world boss's first kill, yet the first dungeon clear took six days, reportedly accomplished by a special forces team from Celestria who, with governmental support, rapidly progressed in the game and narrowly succeeded.
They were slightly ahead of the seven-day dungeon-clearing timeline achieved by players from Valoria and Everdawn.
"Of course, now no country has that opportunity anymore."
As Jason recalled the dungeon information about Guild of Concealers known from his past life, he navigated his way out of the cave expertly.
He chose to leap off a cliff, committing in-game suicide.
After killing the world boss, the massive experience gain had propelled Jason to level 6.
This fall cost him a level, but he didn't consider it a loss.
The same thought lingered; the location of his spawn point, the church, was exceptionally advantageous, offering accessibility in all directions.
Losing one level to save time allowed him to roll an even bigger snowball.
This time, Jason took a shortcut, plunging directly into the birch forest outside Losfall city.
Soon after entering the forest, the "hospitable" natives made their appearance.
"Howl! Howl!"
Accompanied by the howls of canine creatures and the rustling of leaves underfoot, a pack of wild wolves, each the size of a young calf, encircled Jason.
[Wild Wolf]
[Category: Common]
[Tier: 2-tier]
[Level: 2]
[HP: 300/300]
[Attack Power: 40]
[Defense: 20]
[Magic Resistance: 10]
Skill:
[Bite]: Charges forward swiftly and bites the opponent, with a chance to cause bleeding damage.
Description: A common wild animal group found outside Losfall city, gregarious…
Unfortunately, Jason merely glanced at the attributes of these wild beasts, too indifferent to engage in conversation, merely extending his right palm and waving slightly.
Instantly, the Banshees hiding by his side revealed themselves, swiftly infiltrating the bodies of the wild wolves.
In a moment, these beasts' eyes bulged, they spewed fresh blood, and collapsed to the ground.
Numbers floated above their heads.
-888
-754
…
Instant kill!
Although these wild wolves were tier-2 creatures, formidable foes insurmountable to some novice players, they stood no chance against Jason's tier-4 hidden units, Banshees with doubled resilient attributes, dealing early-stage, hard-to-resist psychic damage.
They couldn't last even a second.
Perhaps due to the large number of wolves, a surge of experience flowed in.
Jason quickly lit up with a radiant glow, leveling up, regaining the level lost from his leap off the cliff.
His Banshees, too, began to solidify their forms, accumulating some experience through the slaughter.
In the time that followed, the indigenous creatures of the forest were out of luck.
Whether it was the tier-2 mountain panthers, giant devouring flowers, blood crows, or the few tier-3 creatures that appeared like the barbaric stone bears and jungle tigers, all fell like mowed wheat before the unexpectedly emerging Banshees, collapsing without even getting close to Jason.
What unfolded in the forest was a peculiar scene.
A young man with a very ordinary appearance, seemingly unremarkable, walked forward quietly.
Though he seemed to have no guards by his side, with the spine-chilling laughter of females resonating, every living creature approaching the youth fell one after another in silence.
They turned into experience points, flowing into the youth's being.
Even in the dangerous wilderness, Jason's stride was utterly relaxed.
As if—a king—
Was surveying his domain.
…
An hour later, Jason finally halted his steps, his gaze curiously drawn to something ahead.
"What's this?"
[Goddess of Healing Statue]
[Rank: Special Artifact]
[Effect: Allows for prayers to learn the divine spell of healing]
[Prayer Progress: 0/1000 hours]
[Usage: 1/1]
"A deity statue?"
Jason was slightly taken aback; it wasn't particularly extraordinary.
The statue's effect was straightforward: it allowed the acquisition of a divine spell through a set duration of prayer.
Getting a skill for free sounded nice, but the required prayer time was ridiculously long.
For instance, the Healing Goddess statue demanded a whopping one thousand hours.
Which player would bother so much just for a healing spell?
Typically, it's the heroes under one's command who are sent to pray, bagging an extra skill in the process.
However, Jason was initially planning, just like in his past life, to note down the location of this Healing Goddess statue and, after a few months of development when he had idle heroes, to come back and see if the divine spell could be learned.
But this time, a key thought struck him.
Wait a minute.
Doesn't my Undead Plague have an effect that accelerates time by a thousandfold?
Would this praying at the statue count as a form of technological research?
After pondering, Jason decisively stepped forward and placed his hand atop the statue.
"Pray."
Upon his command, a progress bar popped up in front of him.
[Remaining Prayer Time: 299s]
It actually…
Works?
