Chapter 6: Preparations

Fortunately, today was the day of the test.

He had received a message from the director earlier in the morning and was now at school.

The school was a huge complex. Tall buildings rose from the ground, surrounding a large square courtyard with a platform.

All second-year students were gathered in the courtyard. All eyes were on the platform, some with anticipation and others with apprehension.

At some point, a man in his forties stepped onto the platform and faced the students. The chatter quickly stopped as everyone focused on the director.

"Good morning everyone. Today will be the evaluation test. The grades you've had throughout the month won't matter anymore. Only this exam will determine your future class. It's an opportunity, so do your best!"

The director paused before continuing.

"Everyone here knows how it works. However, this one is a bit different from the previous tests. Before, you only had to fight a single group of invaders. Today, the spatial channel will remain open during the test, and every hour, a new wave of invaders will appear."

Even the most confident students began to hesitate. A prolonged war is definitely not the strong suit of new gods.

"Silence!"

The director used his divine aura to calm the crowd. The director was already a true god. Releasing just a bit of his aura was enough to calm a crowd, most of whom were still intermediate beings.

Even Liam, one of the few who has become a higher being, couldn't help but shudder under the pressure. When the crowd finally calm down, the director resumed his explanation.

"I know some of you may have many questions, but don't worry at all. We're not inconsiderate enough to create an impossible exam. The monster waves will have increasing difficulty. I'm sure everyone here can handle the first wave. Also, the monsters will have a nano-bomb planted in their brains."

"It won't affect their power, but if you think you can't fight anymore, you can just make them explode. Similarly, you can send a message to your head teacher to close the channel. In both situations, it will be the end of the test. Your score will depend of how many invaders you killed."

He swept his gaze over the students.

"You'll find in your watches the coordinates of a space base on Jupiter orbit. There, there is an artifact that will help you to create a stable channel to your divine realm. Good luck."

The director didn't wait and teleported away.

The students didn't waste time and, after getting the coordinates, opened a rift directly into the void.

Without their special watches and divine energy, they would never have broken Earth's spatial wall, even demigods would struggle.

Fortunately, hundreds of thousands of years of development had led human technology to make astronomical progress.

Spatial rifts opened one after another, and in a few minutes, there was no one left in the square.

…

Jupiter asteroid belt.

An immense palace floated between giant asteroids, suspended in the endless void.

The palace was pure white, adorned with golden runes.

From time to time, asteroids get too close to the palace and seemed to hit an invisible wall, which pushed them back. Above the entrance was a large plaque that read "Merflow High School, European Province."

It was the school's artifact, provided by the federal government to each educational institution.

For the weekly tests, students had to create a spatial channel. There weren't many monsters, and they were very weak. Moreover, the channel remained open for only a few minutes. In short, they can handle everything by themselves.

Today, it's different. They could never maintain a large and stable spatial channel.

That's where the palace came in. It will be used as a stable and fixed spatial anchor and an energy generator.

Students only had to open the channel, and the artifact would generate enough energy to keep it open. The amount of energy for such an operation was astronomical, and the school couldn't afford it.

Fortunately, the government had prepared everything and will repay the schools after the test.

In front of the palace entrance, spatial rifts opened one after another, and students appeared one by one. When Liam emerged from the rift, few people had already arrived. He found a random spot and waited quietly for everyone to gather.

As a superior creature, Liam could travel at high speed in the spatial channel, so he was among the first to arrive.

Over time, students arrived one after another and split into small groups to discuss. Only a few stayed alone, like Liam.

Even though they were all students, they were also competitors. Moreover, Liam had never liked interacting with people; so naturally, his relationships with others were not very good.

For example, the two guys in front of Liam: a handsome man with red crystal eyes and a short girl with purple hair.

Their names: Michael Soter and Lena Wallabies, both descendants of true gods.

They were favored from birth, born as Rank-6 life forms, and were now very close to Rank 8. They had been using high-quality pearls since the opening of their divine realm and would probably enter the elite class.

But just because they were strong didn't mean they were friendly.

On the opposite, their favorite hobby was harassing the weaker students in the class.

Regarding background and strength, bottom students were crushed, and they could only endure in silence.

Liam was an exception.

Last time Michael wanted to mess with him, he ended up with several broken bones and needed a demigod nurse to be able to walk. Since then, no one had come to bother him, and he lived his life peacefully.

Regarding fighting skills and personal strength, even if he wasn't necessarily the best, if he said he was second, no one would say he was first.

Apart from these two, there were also some powerful students talking a bit further away, forming separate groups.

In general, good students were in direct competition, especially the top ten of each class, who would fight each other to enter the elite class.

As for Liam, his grades were in the upper half of the class; he was neither good nor bad. So even if he didn't get along well with others, he didn't have any major grudges with his classmates.

Having nothing better to do, he closed his eyes and rested.

Ten minutes later, when all the students arrived, a powerful light came down in front of the palace.

Liam opened his eyes and saw the deputy director, radiating divine light. He had also ignited the divine fire.

The deputy director watched the crowd and began to speak.

"The test will soon start. You have five minutes to send us a message describing the environment of your divine realm. No need to go into details, but I want to know the type of demi-plane you have, so that we can send appropriate opponents. If we notice that you lied to us, you'll get a straight zero."

It was just basic logic.

In Liam's case, if they sent land monsters, Liam will not even have to fight; he can just let them drown. Five minutes passed quickly, and the deputy director resumed speaking.

"During the test, the more enemies you kill, the more points you will earn. A mortal is worth 1 point, a Rank-1 monster is worth 10 points, a Rank-2 monster is worth 100 points, and so on. However, don't try to fight to death. If you lose all your believers, even if you can enter the elite class, you will eventually be expelled."

"Of course, the school won't skimp on rewards. As long as you kill the first wave of invaders, you'll get a random white pearl. The first five hundred will randomly get a red pearl, the first two hundred a yellow pearl, the first one hundred a green pearl, the first fifty a blue pearl, the first twenty a purple pearl, and the first five a golden pearl. The winner will get one more and can specify the type of pearl they want."

"Rewards cumulate. If you're 50th, you'll get a white, a red, a yellow, a green, and a blue pearl."

 He reached out, and a small white plate appeared in front of each student.

"It's a stabilizing plate. Once in your divine realm, put the plate in the spatial channel, and a connection will be established between the plate and the school's artifact."

He paused and looked at the students.

"Now, everything is in your hands. Do your best and try to rank as high as possible."

With these words, the deputy director disappeared into the air.

Immediately, students opened spatial rifts and also disappeared, rushing to their divine realms.

Liam arrived inside the rift of his divine realm and followed the protocol to the letter.

At the edge of his divine realm, space twisted and began to collapse on itself, revealing a bright tunnel.

The channel widened and soon reached a diameter of a few dozen meters. Half of the channel was submerged in water, but nothing passed through.

It was a unidirectional channel: you could enter but not exit.

At the same time, a counter appeared on his watch: he had one hour to prepare.

…

Now, the novarian tribe had a total of 774 novarians, including 4 fanatics, 57 fervent believers, 239 true believers, and the remaining 474 were pan-believers.

Liam smiled looking at this. All had become his believers, and it wouldn't take long for true believers to become the majority.

The current strength of the tribe is one Rank-2 warrior, 56 apprentice Rank-1 warriors, which 49 can fight, and 485 mortals able to fight.

Novarians hadn't yet developed an adapted power system, and they would probably never do so. Their only way of promotion was to eat high-energy food or tap into their potential during combat.

Sometimes, small mutations happened, and some novarians could naturally reach Rank 1 or 2 just by aging, but it remained quite rare.

The novarian chief only reached this level thanks to Liam's divine intervention, which at the same time increased his lifespan by several hundred years.

In facts, this ratio was already very good. With the short lifespan of novarians, developing their faith and their strength was a real challenge.

Regarding faith points, generally, a pan-believer brought about 0.01 faith points per day, a true believer 0.1 points, a fervent believer 1 points, and a fanatic 50 points.

However, it was only the case if believers took the time to pray and put all their will into it.

For novarians, no matter how devout they were, it was impossible.

That meant that Liam got about 20% of the theoretical faith value. Still, in one day on Earth, Liam obtained about 57 000 faith points.

Faith points also served as money, just like pearls. Faith points can be converted into neutral energy, like spiritual energy or electricity, making them marketable.

With daily expenses to go back and forth to the realm, Liam already saved about 230 000 faith points.

It seemed huge, but to condense a divine rune, he had to spend a billion faith points, and this number would double every time he wanted to create more.

Moreover, it had to be the faith of his own believers. If he tried to condense the deity with faith that didn't belong to him, he would either become crazy or explode.

Liam used a bit of faith energy and sent a prophecy to the novarian chief.

The novarian chief chief was playing with an apprentice novarian chief warrior when he suddenly heard a majestic voice resonating in his head.

"Enemies are coming, more powerful and numerous than ever. They will come, wave after wave, and try to annihilate you. My most faithful and courageous warriors, take up your weapons and head south. We will triumph gloriously and spill the blood of our enemies into the sea!"

The novarian chief chief was stunned for a moment, making the female novarian chief growl in dissatisfaction.

He immediately regained his composure and stopped his act.

Under the unhappy gaze of the female novarian, he dressed hastily, took his bone knife, and rushed out of the hut.

"ROOOOAAAAAR"

He let out a long roar and gathered the tribe.

War was coming!