Chapter 696: Chapter 73: Promotion Through Steady Accumulation and Sudden Progress
People: ???
It was as if, while tomb raiding, they suddenly discovered the descendants of the tomb’s owner bursting. The first reaction was to quickly find a place to hide.
But where could they hide in this hall? Other than the sarcophagus, there were only tapestries, not even pillars, so everyone could only hide behind the sarcophagus, or…
“Hide inside the sarcophagus!” Kapei blurted out, “Since they respect their ancestors, they definitely won’t rashly open the coffin and desecrate the remains!”
This sounded quite reasonable; if it were just some players here, they surely would have hidden inside without hesitation.
However, Aske knew this was not a game, but a world filled with ghosts, the Netherworld, and Extraordinary Power like causality—some practices that could be glossed over with “nothing is taboo” in games couldn’t necessarily be disregarded in this real world.
“Miel?” he asked quickly.
“Thirteen Dark Elves, no Demigods,” Miel replied.
“No need to hide,” Aske decided.
As long as they could subdue or kill these Dark Elves in time to prevent the leaking of information from inside the Underground Palace, there would naturally be no need to cuddle with corpses in the sarcophagus. Moreover, Mia just needed a little rest before she could teleport them away again.
So, everyone waited in place; Aske stood in the center, Mia ambushed from a blind spot in the corridor, and Miel, with Kapei, hid behind the sarcophagus, silently pulling out her sniper rifle.
In front of her, numerous world lines branched out again:
Looking back, there was a constricted line from the past; she saw numerous Dark Elves worshipping here over the past few years, burning incense, praying amid the rising smoke to the sarcophagus, slaughtering Extraordinary Creatures in bloody rituals, and escorting captives or prey into the entrance of a deep labyrinth.
Looking forward, countless diverging future lines spread out; she saw the Dark Elves that charged in pulling out their weapons without hesitation, launching frenzied attacks.
Sometimes they directly rushed at Aske, other times they skillfully flanked to surround him; sometimes they cautiously inspected the surroundings and detected Mia’s ambush, and sometimes they merely stood at the entrance, sinfully throwing poisoned knives inside.
Each possibility was a probabilistic future, a real future to emerge from within them.
However, she could only observe the future, not choose it. What if, among these countless divergent lines, there existed a highly unlikely black swan event that could severely or even fatally injure Aske?
Suddenly, a profound sense of intuition emerged in Miel’s mind:
If only she could integrate the “Luck” Sequence into the Fate Law.
Then, feedback from the Eden Fruit rapidly brought her back to her senses.
She had leveled up!
Driven by several months of accumulated inspirations, she had comprehended a new Law Skill.
Fate Law. Destiny:
Specify a particular future line, making reality gradually collapse toward it.
Simply put, she could specify the final outcome of an event, and then it would subtly evolve toward that result.
All related random factors would be subject to a latent unknown influence, progressively skewing in favor of the specified outcome.
As the information on the skill flashed through her mind, Miel decisively activated the skill:
I want to minimize the upcoming risks!
The instant the skill was activated, she suddenly felt something swiftly draining her Spirituality.
This wasn’t right, the skill… it was consuming too much!
Fortunately, the Eden Fruit quickly became active, helping her maintain control over Spirituality, and she could sever the supply of Spirituality at any time.
After about one third of the Spirituality had been extracted, Miel realized the depletion from her body had ended, and something in the surrounding world seemed to have changed.
In the hallway outside the hall, a group of Dark Elf Swordsmen were advancing towards the Ancestor Hall, having just received a signal that the Array below had been triggered.
Whether it was insects, snakes, rats, ants, or the despicable tomb-raiders, invading the holy and noble ancestor tombs was not allowed!
As they hurried towards the Ancestor Hall, two shadows had already appeared in the middle of the Dark Elf town above the Underground Palace.
On the left was a mass of irregularly shaped black fog; on the right was a slender figure in a black robe, conversing with each other in the unique vibrational language of the Shadow Demon.
“Are you sure they’re nearby?” the black fog emitted a buzzing sound at a specific frequency.
“Yes,” replied the slender figure, “They’ve even escaped into the Dark Elf’s den.”
“I will flush them out,” the black fog declared emotionlessly.
Soon, the Dark Elf Guards surrounded them in the town. They realized with horror that both were Demigods and that fighting was certainly not an option, but they couldn’t just let the pair act freely either. So, they encircled them nervously, trying to stall for time until some of their tribe leaders, also Demigods, could arrive.
However, the two Demigod bosses didn’t give them any time to stall. The black fog Demigod suddenly expanded outward, and a vigorous vibration rapidly spread along the ground.
Disaster. Earthquake.
On the violently shaking ground, many town buildings began to collapse, and the surrounding Dark Elf Guards struggled to maintain their footing, eventually falling to the ground. The slender figure quickly scanned the Dark Elves panicking out of their houses to see if there were any Synthetic Humans or humans from the Research Institute mixed in.
“Gamoduo! Mularafak!”
Violent cries in the Dark Elf language emanated from afar, as several figures glowing with purple light charged over; they were the Dark Elf Demigod matriarchs ruling this town.
Meanwhile, as the earthquake horizontally destroyed the town, the reverberations also spread downward to the Underground Palace. The Dark Elf Swordsmen, who were aggressively advancing along the tunnel, suddenly sensed a great danger approaching.
Their Intuition Sequence went wild with warnings!
They quickly turned and sprinted back the way they had come. However, they hadn’t run far when the passage overhead was destroyed by the earthquake and collapsed, burying all the swordsmen alive.
The Ancestor Hall of the Dark Elves also violently shook from the seismic waves overhead. Being a storage place for the ancestors’ corpses, it was built exceptionally sturdy, so for now, only a few wisps of dust fell from the ceiling.
“Are you alright now?” Aske urgently urged Mia, his expression extremely solemn.
He knew that among the approaching Dark Elves, as long as there were no Demigods, he was confident that he could easily handle them. However, if they were to be buried alive in the Underground Palace due to the earthquake, then unless one was a Physical Demigod, escaping would essentially be impossible.
“I still have a bit of a headache!” Mia said, pressing her temples and enduring her dizziness with resentment.
Kapei was panicking nearby. Being completely unversed in Extraordinary knowledge, it could undoubtedly offer no help at this moment.
Only Miel remained utterly calm by her side: as the originator of the earthquake, she had already determined that everyone would definitely be safe; otherwise, her newly comprehended Law Skills would be ridiculously flawed.
“Hurry, hurry, hurry!” Annoyed by Aske’s urging, Mia could only keep rubbing her temples, hoping her spirit would return to normal quickly.
Suddenly, a buzzing sound rang next to her ear, and she realized she had leveled up.
Under extreme anxiety and pressure, little Mia also underwent a mental metamorphosis, comprehending a new passive Law Skill:
Black Hole Law. Space Affinity:
Significantly enhances the ability to perceive, manipulate, and adapt to space, reducing all costs associated with Space Series Skills (including computation, Spirituality, attention, etc.)
As information corresponding to the skill entered her mind, Mia noticed that the headaches and dizziness caused by frequent teleportation had also completely subsided.