Ep. 84 - Gods? You’re No Gods, Miscalculation, New Pet

And so, we followed the Dragon God to this God Realm. I immediately sensed some unlucky tribute coming towards us.

"Guys… Go ham on them, leave none alive unless they catch your interest!"

"Hell yeah! Let the hunt begin!" said Pyrrha.

We all separated and activated our most powerful forms. I started using my Omni powers, integrated with Merlin, and went into SE White Incarnation Evolution. I started searching for any God related to Knowledge, Planning, even War, Strategy, the Sins, the Virtues. They will help me strengthen myself at least a little. From what I can sense, these beings are all Empyreans, of quite a high level, but their usage of laws and energy capacity sucks. Returning to the RPG analogy I used in the past, we are like Level 100 players with all skills maxed and hacks. They are like Level 70-80 with only one or two skills maxed and the rest are just average. We will basically use these Gods as 'materials' to 'Limit Break' our skills and actual 'Level cap'. Clear? I hope so.

One cool thing that I found is that these Realms are separate from the timeline, so I can consume the same God over and over again until I consume it's core. Since that was possible, I started absorbing every single being I came about, even the Dragon God. Diana also absorbed a few Dragon Gods she found. Remember when I formed my Divinity in the DanMachi universe, during the Denatus? I had actually not checked it until now, but it evolved alongside me. Not much of a difference except the fact that if I were to hold a 'dick measuring' contest with Divinities, I would win hands down. By absorbing all of these Gods and Goddesses, my Divinity was evolving and enlarging even more.

I also found some naturally occurring Incarnations. The Gods that rule over the Sins and Virtues are actually natural Incarnations, much weaker than those that actually become Incarnations on their own like me and the gang. While their power was weak, their Divinity was immense, so I had a field day chasing the fuckers and absorbing them. Oh, I should probably explain the absorption process. Basically, I thrust my hand towards their heart but use my Devouring laws to actually take their very being, leaving behind an empty husk. That husk is also useful to enhance our physiques, so I transform it in an ingot and fuse with it. Pretty simple, right? Why would I do something annoying like cultivating when I can kill people and become stronger? It's like a videogame! Ah, if only real life worked like that… Wait, this is my real life!

Now, there was a single being that tried standing against me time after time: Ah Dai, the God of Death.

"Aren't you tired of losing? Look, since you look interesting, I will even leave your core intact, so that you can revive."

"Why would I want to live anymore? You killed my wife, my friends, my family… I will kill you, even if it kills me!" he said and dashed towards me. I just stood there. This is the 15824th time he does this. He has never once been able to even touch me.

He went 'as usual' and started a flurry of punches, kicks, knee strikes, headbutts, and so on. I humoured him and parried or evaded his strikes. This time he changed it up a little: he was using his law of Death to corrupt my body, but I was basically immune to it. Merlin however decided that this wasn't going to happen and used my 'Concept Nullification' Spirit Ring. His Death laws were completely nullified. She also used some law of Life to remove any and all traces of Death from my body.

He pulled out a scythe and started hacking and slashing at me. And there, I miscalculated something.

You see, he has used his scythe in several thousands of other confrontations we've had, but this one was different. I used Omniscience on it and saw that it was made from the Core of the Realm of Death itself. Basically, that was like the incarnation of Death, a very powerful existence, therefore a strong weapon.

Why did I mention a miscalculation? Well, first of all because it can actually hurt me, but I knew that the moment I laid my eyes on the weapon, but mainly because it had a fucking extendable spike at the end of the shaft, which was so fucking thin that I couldn't actually see it. Do you have any fucking idea how thin that bitch was to be impossible to see? Very, very thin and also very long.

Anyway, when he took his scythe out, I took out a modified 'Excalibur' that could actually resist its attacks and started parrying and responding to his attacks, hitting him in non-lethal areas. That was stupid of me, in hindsight. I wanted to show him that he can't kill me anyway, even if he sacrifices the Core of his Realm.

When I had enough of it and wanted to end him, I parried his scythe strike once again, then loosened my grip so that the scythe would continue moving, leaving him open. That was a mistake: he extended the spike and actually cut up my left eye. I decapitated him in response, then absorbed him. Merlin was still keeping 'Concept Nullification' up and was about to heal me.

"Leave it, Merlin. I was stupid and underestimated my enemy. I killed all of his family in front of his eyes. The least I can do is keep this injury."

"Are you serious? Why would you care about a fucking Empyrean?! That asshole fucked up your eye! Look at it!" she said and held up a mirror.

Other miscalculation: a weapon made from the Core of a Realm carries enough Concept to bypass my nullification, at least in part. The actual cut was extremely thin, but some Death energy entered and worsened the injury.

I sighed and created an eyepatch. "I am definitely too stupid to be the Incarnation of Knowledge… Let's continue, Merlin. Don't worry about my eye. I will probably fix it when I am tired of this eyepatch."

"Fine! Have it your way!"

We continued hunting Gods for a lot of time. Since this place is disconnected from the concept of time, we would just have to regroup somewhere then use the time laws to go back to the day we entered this place. It wasn't hard, in particular since me and the gang are single existences, so I could always feel where the others were, even if the timeline is different. Eh, it's complicated Godly fuckery, but the point is that we easily regrouped after we had enough of hunting.

When Weiss saw my eye, she cried a little and ran to check on me. "What happened to your eye?"

"Well, it's a fun story. You see, there was this God of Death that went nuts and used the Core of his Realm to reforge his weapon. Now, if it was only that, it wouldn't have been a problem. The fucker however put a hidden spike at the end of the scythe's shaft and cut my eye open. I underestimated him and kept the injury as a memento.

I also kinda wanted to remember him. I killed everything he held dear, so I wonder how I would react to something like that… Probably destroying everything, every single universe in existence then recreating it and finding you guys again… Yup, sounds about right."

"Goddamn, bro! That's dark as fuck and you are stupid to get hit by a puny spike!" said Sun

"I should be saying 'Goddamn'! The thing was so thin I couldn't even see it! And I should be all-knowing. Oh, Hephaestus, here, take the weapon. You might be able to make something nice out of it. It's probably the last Realm Core you will find in this universe."

"Thanks! You know what? I'll make you a cool eyepatch! Yours is kinda… Anonymous." she said.

I nodded, then checked our progress. "Holy shit… We might actually be able to evolve another time. Our Divinities are three to four times larger than before and our physiques got much better! Woo, devouring Gods is the way to go to strengthen ourselves! Come on, let's head back. We still have one continent to fully explore."

We opened a tear in the dimensions and returned to the Douluo Planet a moment after we left with the Dragon God.

[Welcome back, Master. You have almost fulfilled all the requirements for an evolution. Do you want me to list them?]

"You can list them? Ah, you know what? Sure, list them."

[Your Divinity is at 73% completion.

Your comprehension of the laws is sufficient.

Your energy capacity is sufficient.

Your physique is at 68% completion.

Your soul is at 84% completion.

Your bloodline is at 0% completion.]

"You all heard that?" I asked. The gang nodded. "How the fuck are we supposed to get a bloodline? Actually, why did we not gain at least a bloodline after devouring all those Gods? Amat-Mamu, any ideas?"

[Why, you suddenly remember about me? Incompetent Master… You have gained the bloodlines of all those weak beings, but you need to create your own bloodline related to your own path, otherwise it would make no sense for the Incarnation of Knowledge to have a Heavenly Qilin Bloodline or something similar. You will have to understand how bloodlines work and create your own.]

"I see… I have an idea of where to get the knowledge, but it isn't urgent. Let's continue exploring this world, then I will take a quick trip, nab the knowledge we need, and we can get the evolution. We could just visit an alternate universe and hunt again." I said. I remember a certain novel with a lot of interesting bloodlines I can analyze. Actually, Against the Gods should also have the knowledge I need… Might as well make the best thing I can. Might as well throw in some magical bloodline bullshit… Ooh, I am getting a lot of ideas!

Year 274 Post-Voice. Civilization has reached the standard of Soul Land 1 or 2 according to canon, I think. Those puny humans have obviously started exploring and found my Tower. We were instantly revered as Gods, which we are, so it's normal. Might also be the fact that we have hunted a couple of times in alternate universes, so our Divinity now is almost too much to contain in our bodies. Emphasis on 'almost'. A few things have happened in these years.

First of all, I found an interesting little fella, who I made my second pet: a small owl, not even a Spirit Beast. Just a very normal long-eared owl. We were exploring the last continent in 142 and this little guy, who is actually a female, wouldn't leave me alone. It started flying above me and pecking my head, so I had to bring it along with me. Now, I guess you have understood that already, but I obviously had it cultivate since I can't have my pet dying like some sort of mortal animal. No no, I had it become a Spirit Beast according to this world's standards and also had it cultivate our other systems. The thing is quite stupid since it is still young, so there haven't been many breakthroughs, even after more than 100 years. Well, I guess that it will change after a few thousand years. I named her Nagai. Should be Japanese for 'long', so it fits. I am pretty sure that I will forget about her until she actually gains intelligence. I will have to wait some time for that.

After fully exploring this world by 150 Post-Voice, we made maps and started going around the villages aka small towns as cartographers. Since we had so many maps, we were revered as the 'Legendary Cartographers of Douluo'. Since these little humans were cute while groveling on the ground, I decided to open some academies that taught people how to cultivate their Spirit power and gave knowledge on blacksmithing, architecture, economics, physics, and so on. I can pride myself to have single-handedly advanced society by a few millennia in nothing more than a single moment. I therefore gained a nickname from the population: 'The Headmaster'. Pretty stupid and basic, but it's my nickname and no one will ever touch it. Our pictures were taken sneakily and distributed throughout the world in history books, so people immediately connected us to the Tower. Well, it might have something to do with the fact that the explorers saw me feeding some Spirit Beasts around the Tower.

When we decided to go on a hunt in an alternate universe, Weiss made it her mission to make every single God of Death suffer for as long as possible. I guess that she got pissed with the fact that my eye was cut. Well, it doesn't actually give me problems. Actually, Hephaestus repurposed a part of the scythe to make me a fantastic eyepatch. It has some cool engravings of a skeletonized hand and a scythe on it. In reality, she turned it into an External Spirit Bone, the 'Death's Gaze', which has an instant death effect if I so desire. I can also flood it with more laws to use different effects. It is cool, so I will take it, obviously. Now I see that the Incarnation of Blacksmithing is the best when it comes to equipment. I can make similar stuff because I have the knowledge, while she has skill.

Oh, some foreign Gods tried invading this reality, but I killed them all and absorbed them. Who the fuck allowed them to enter the reality where I am currently living? They dare invade this (Not-so) Young Master's playground? Only death is an acceptable solution. I checked their minds and found that they sensed the disappearance of the Godly Realms, so they thought that they could take this dimension for themselves… And I had a face with visible inspiration. If these weak guys managed to sense that this reality was 'ready for picking', I can use it tomy advantage and draw in some sacrifices to become stronger. And it worked marvelously.

Our Divinity, physique, and souls have reached the requirements to evolve, so we can't exactly do much in terms of strengthening until I make us some bloodlines. We literally risk exploding, which isn't exactly a fun experience. Well, we could force an evolution now and experience little to no drawbacks, but I am not risking it. More like, I am not letting the gang go through a potentially life-threatening procedure. This means that I will have to take a quick trip soon aka tomorrow.