Chapter 42-choose the divine gift

Frank didn't have time to dwell on those matters for now, as the Holy Semen had been absorbed. Joan's total three states were only 10/30, wasting two-thirds of the treasure.

Given that she was an administrator of an adventurers' guild with decent talents and numerous learned skills, Frank chose to upgrade her already high-level and fairly talented "Negotiation" skill to avoid revealing too much.

The experience required for divine gifts increases exponentially at higher levels. Joan's "Negotiation" was already at Expert level 19, needing just 22,000 experience points to start, but after spending over 40 million experience points, it only advanced to Expert level 20, just shy of the 10% epiphany threshold.

Nonetheless, Frank felt this change should go unnoticed by Joan. However, as she lay curled up on the ground, waiting for the sticky fluids between her legs to finish dripping out, she turned over and looked at him, saying, "Frank, did you give me something more than just pleasure?"

"No, that was the goddess sensing your budding faith and blessing you through me, her emissary. The goddess of fertility is quite benevolent," he replied, stroking her cheek and taking the opportunity to instill his message. From his experience with Tiffany, he realized that a contractual faith was the best choice. Girls who worshiped him, believed in him, and saw him as an idol and guide wouldn't become jealous or possessive. It was perfect.

Having eaten both dinner and Joan, Frank felt his job was done without any urgency. However, the administrator still had work and couldn't be late. With no time for a proper bath and lacking expensive hot water facilities, Joan had to wipe herself down with a wet towel before hurriedly getting dressed.

"Will being late cost you a lot of money?" he asked casually while rinsing himself off with cold water. Although Tiffany wouldn't mind if he brought back another girl's scent, he still wanted to minimize any potential hurt caused by his actions out of love for him.

"No, but it affects my attendance bonus. Besides, I need to prepare for your sacrifice. Remember to give me the list of offerings; I can get them at cost, and we can settle up later," Joan replied, her tone and demeanor much more rational after having her heat thoroughly satisfied. "By the way, I also need to gather materials for my medication. Opportunities to be completely satisfied and resolve my heat like today are rare."

Unlike before, Frank could vaguely sense that the girl was hinting at her hope for him to stay. Unfortunately, his mission required him to travel far, and leaving Lorsa likely meant a long farewell. This made him a bit sad, and he secretly decided to choose a skill or attribute for her with a significant upgrade as a parting gift.

Today was the Day of Wind, meaning the sacrificial offerings needed to be associated with wind attributes and the scale slightly elevated. Therefore, the grade of offerings should also be higher. After much consideration, he decided to spend a bit more money and asked Joan to help procure low-purity wind attribute magic crystals as the core offering, along with wind chimes, paper fans, dandelions, and other small items.

Frank had no work in the afternoon, and without needing to curry favor with a greedy boss by working overtime, he happily enjoyed his well-earned free time. He went to pick up Tiffany at Moon's Rest and then wandered around the adventurers' guild area, hoping to see if there was any reaction to the dissemination of the goddess's information.

To his disappointment, despite wandering through several crowded places and even bringing up the topic of the goddess Vicky in conversation with Tiffany, no one seemed to react. Not a single curious passerby asked about it. As expected, bringing a forgotten deity back into people's beliefs wasn't an easy task.

When it was nearly time, Frank took Tiffany to the sacrificial ceremony. He had prepared for eight participants, but one of Joan's invitations was overheard by a curious adventurer who insisted on joining. This adventurer was a local informant, and Joan believed his participation could help spread the goddess's name, so she added him without consulting Frank.

No matter, it wasn't a big issue. Tiffany, being a contracted believer, had no further potential for improvement, so she was assigned to pray outside. To make the ceremony appear solemn and formal, Frank designed a lengthy and complex prayer, using an ancient language that only scholars or wizards would typically study.

Besides the prayer, he also upgraded his previously conceived design into an emblem that was both easy to draw and visually striking. He used gold ink to depict it on the table where the offerings were placed.

With these two steps completed, at least for this ceremony, all participants should have had their doubts dispelled. The sacrificial steps he set would indeed have Vicky's true divine power attached to them.

After the recitation of the prayer, he requested everyone silently pray to the goddess in their hearts. Then, with a sweep of his hand, the massive emblem of the goddess lit up with a holy light.

Immediately, the ceremony was activated, and all offerings rapidly decomposed into invisible particles within the light, bringing the ritual to a successful conclusion.

The theoretical upgrade of 20 points in faith only required two participants, but unexpectedly, there were eight participants this time. If their faith was strong enough, they could all have leveled up.

"Faith has been upgraded, and the ritual has increased faith by 16 points, with 16,000 experience points available for distribution. Please allocate them promptly."

Ah, this time the ceremony finally had added value. Although it paled in comparison to the experience bestowed by the Holy Semen, Frank's talents were top-notch, with all the initial starting experience for skills set at 100. He decided to temporarily retain the divine effects for alchemy. Therefore, this windfall of experience naturally went to his sexual skills.

With some experience accumulated from groping girls and fondling breasts, he had already reached level seven or eight. With this sudden influx of 16,000 points, he skyrocketed to an adept level of 10. He chuckled and flexed his fingers.

Alright, at least he was now at the level of an honest man who had been married for ten years.

Now, it was time to choose the divine gift...

Based on the output effect of the alchemy skill, Frank has already realized its tremendous value. The divine gift level, containing the power of the goddess Vicky, is a height in this world that even geniuses cannot reach. This makes him regret a bit why he chose hand skills last time. Considering his current carefree life, sexual skills can be honed by himself, coupled with the experience boost from the sacrifice, it's sufficient.

So, this time's choice, he was very cautious. The first one to be kicked out was "Appraisal". Just by rational thinking, it's clear that no matter how high the appraisal ability of goods is, without sufficient authority, it cannot convince others to accept your judgment. And if there is enough authority, even a banana on a board can be sold as a priceless piece of art, making this skill worthless.

The remaining two, however, are both valuable - Enchantment and Smithing. Comparing the advantages, all branches of Enchantment can rapidly improve the capabilities of wearable items, which is significant for him as someone with fixed physical attributes who can only rely on equipment stacking.

Smithing can directly enhance protection and has a much broader market space than alchemy - the god of alchemy can save adventurers from death when they are dying, but the god of smithing can prevent adventurers from dying in the first place.

In terms of disadvantages, the materials required for enchantment are very expensive, and several branches are temporarily difficult to choose without Frank's understanding of the current world's danger. The downside of smithing is its weight, unless choosing to craft jewelry, otherwise, even light armor, with his frail strength of 15 points, it's still difficult to wear and move freely.

He pondered silently for a long time, relying on the fact that time wouldn't pass. In the end, for a simple reason, he chose to dive into enchantment's embrace. Smithing is too hard work...

The skills under the Enchantment branch are a good choice, after all, enchantment is essentially for strengthening.

The "Attribute Transformation" skill used to correct the effects of magical equipment he didn't plan to consider at all. "Activation" can fully unleash the potential of items, and hidden effects can also surface, but the premise is that the target itself has potential and hidden effects, of course, not as straightforward as "Blessing" - gather materials, and with a wave, turn them into powerful equipment, much more perfect.

After lighting up the enchantment·blessing skill, Frank didn't switch directly. After all, he still needed alchemy to complete the follow-up work. After finishing the affairs of the adventurers' guild, he would switch over to see the actual effects.