Chapter 70: Kicking an Iron Plate
Year 4520, Day 1
I've finally reached the absolute pinnacle of the Sword Master rank. As I had suspected long ago, my talent with the sword is far superior to my cultivation abilities.
After all these years, I've barely entered the advanced stage of the Transcendent realm.
Still, it's good news for me.
Once I reach the eighth rank, my cultivation should catch up quickly.
I'll focus solely on my sword from now on.
According to the elder in the branch, there's little left in this world to help me break through.
Thus, he gave me two pieces of advice. The first is to venture into the boundless void and try to learn through battles with celestial beasts.
The second is to explore this world, sealing off my cultivation and sword spirit, becoming a simple mortal once again.
I haven't decided which path to take yet; after all, I'm in no rush.
Before anything else, I think I'll return to my home world to see my family.
...
After the mountain dwarves and the generals entered the spatial channel leading to Portalis, the portal trembled slightly before closing entirely, leaving behind a dead and desolate world, destined to collapse in a few decades.
At the same time, all students who participated in the mission felt their wrists vibrate as a holographic message appeared.
[All portals have closed; the mission is considered complete.]
[Mission Evaluation:]
[Expedition number 4/50 to be completed]
[Success rate: 100%]
[Student's Tactic: A]
[Student's Personal Losses: B]
[Average Strength of Student's Followers: S]
[The student has been identified as leading the expedition; an additional perspective has been evaluated:]
[Commanding Ability of Other Students: S]
[Overall Student Performance Evaluation: S-]
[Reward of 500,000,000 merit points and the ability to choose a level A reward; access to level C rewards.]
...
Elsewhere in the student formation...
[…]
[Student's Tactic: - not evaluated]
[Student's Personal Losses: A]
[Average Strength of Student's Followers: E]
[The student has been identified as following orders from another student; an additional perspective has been evaluated:]
[Ability to Follow Orders: S]
[Overall Student Performance Evaluation: B-]
[Reward of 750,000 merit points and the ability to choose a level C reward; access to level E rewards.]
Lucie smiled cheerfully as she reviewed the results, already planning to consult Liam about the reward and to transfer her points to him.
...
In stark contrast to these two students' joyful moods, a certain young woman looked horrified as she reviewed her own statistics.
[The student was detected as being excluded from the expedition by the group leader; reason examined.]
[The student was detected as disobeying the group leader's orders and attempting to harm another student's followers, ultimately risking the expedition's troop cohesion; new evaluation:]
[Student's Tactic: F]
[Student's Personal Losses: F]
[Average Strength of Student's Followers: - not evaluated]
[Ability to Follow Orders: F]
[Overall Student Performance Evaluation: F]
[Reward: None. A meeting with the professor has been scheduled; please enter your availability.]
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
...
While everyone was calmly occupied with their tasks, an enraged scream pierced the stillness of the formation.
"Lucie Wenhamar, you treacherous witch, I challenge you to a world war!"
No matter what they were doing, all the first-year students paused and looked toward the commotion, seeing a crazed woman raging with the overwhelming presence of a confirmed Rank 8.
At the same moment, the void warped, and all the professors appeared in front of her.
"Guezara, what are you doing causing such a ruckus!" growled Mr. Idder, barely giving the furious woman a second glance.
"Sir, it's Lucie. She manipulated me and forced me to disobey Liam's orders, that witch even bewitched him, making him forcibly dismiss me from the expedition when I wasn't—"
"Watch your language, young lady!" snapped her lead professor, crushing her with the presence of an archmage.
The woman swallowed the torrent of insults she had prepared, realizing she had gone too far in front of the teachers.
Still, her gaze remained wild as she frantically looked around.
Finally, she found what she was looking for and rushed toward a demi-plane, ignoring the disdainful and disapproving looks of the professors and students.
"Lucie, crawl out of your rat hole! Do you dare face me in a planar war?"
As her anger slowly calmed, she realized that she was about to become the laughingstock of her class, but backing down now would only make her lose even more credibility.
Though she knew Lucie would likely refuse, she had no choice but to continue provoking her.
Finally, a figure surrounded by a transparent blue magic shield appeared, and to everyone's shock, she shouted:
"Very well, I accept!"
...
To understand just how shocking this situation was, you first need to understand what a world war is.
As you might imagine, a world war involves pitting two worlds… against each other.
So far, so standard.
But these aren't just any worlds; they are divine domains.
Even when gods act in person, they rarely use this mode of combat. It's reserved for when they face a sworn enemy or a mortal threat, using their own divine domain as a battlefield.
A divine domain is the foundation of every god.
Liam and the others were only divine creatures, so the effects weren't quite as evident yet, but as they progressed, the bond with their divine domain would only grow stronger.
Thus, if the divine domain was damaged, the consequences for the gods would be far more devastating than a mortal wound—it would be a crack in their very foundation.
Because of this, planar wars were incredibly rare.
It's easy to see why such an event attracted the entire first-year class, as well as the entire faculty.
Slowly, two demi-planes separated from the formation and quickly approached each other, only slowing down when they were a few hundred kilometers apart.
One of them was nearly 180 km in radius, while the other was barely 80 km.
Strangely, the smaller one was covered in a dense fog that prevented anyone below Rank 9 from seeing anything.
The professors, however, couldn't help but look at the young girl who had deliberately provoked her own downfall with pity.
...
Slowly, the two worlds collided, and their edges fused, forming a gigantic mountain about twenty kilometers long and several kilometers high as the tectonic plates warped under the pressure.
But just as Maria was already celebrating her victory inwardly, the fog covering Lucie's world lifted.
The students couldn't help but widen their eyes, with some even gaping in surprise.
However, the ones most shocked were undoubtedly the twenty-two other students who had also participated in the expedition with Liam, and, of course, Maria, who felt her vision blur and her brain short-circuit from shock.
...
"Marshal, the tremors have stopped!" reported a general.
"Hmmm, some of my young ones are feeling restless because of all this. It's time to let them let off some steam," Isabella said calmly.
"No need for formations or strategies; they're mere barbarians who dared to disrespect our Lord, mere heretics. SLAUGHTER THEM!" Sylvera roared!
ROOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR
Nearly two hundred intermediate existences, including excited wyverns, bloodthirsty nagas, angry Valyr, enraged Novarians, and various beasts with a thirst for blood, soared into the air, releasing their full auras.
There were no formations, no warnings.
All was sheer destruction.
What could a few ten thousand lower existences do?
It was pure, one-sided genocide that lasted barely a few minutes.
As the students were still in shock, Maria finally felt her last bond of faith break as a honey badger nearly twenty meters long devoured her last follower.
"No, how is this possible?"
Within her spiritual sea, her sole and only divine rune, having lost all support, cracked, then shattered into thousands of pieces.
Blegh
The backlash made her immediately cough up blood as her complexion turned as pale as snow.
"That witch had it all planned!"
Maria finally understood she'd been played. Why on earth would Lucie have accepted such a fight if she didn't have a guarantee?
"You bastard, I'm going to kill you!" she roared as she charged toward Lucie, forgetting that she was surrounded by both professors and other students.
Rank 8 Spell – Ice Nova
Her murderous intent spread across the entire formation as a thousand-kilometer ice block materialized out of nowhere, trying to imprison Lucie.
"Presumptuous!"
Crack
Suddenly, an overwhelming pressure descended into the void, instantly shattering the unformed spell.
The presence of an advanced-stage Expansion Realm cultivator descended upon the entire formation.
Protected by the professors, the other students barely felt it, but Maria's head immediately began to spin as Liam focused his full strength on the astral mage.
Rank 9 Technique – Elemental Chaos
Across tens of thousands of kilometers, space seemed to boil.
Flames, rocks, lightning, ice, water, razor-sharp wind blades… hell itself seemed unleashed in the void as the maelstrom condensed and rushed toward the young woman at hundreds of kilometers per second.
Maria barely had time to react before the attack was upon her, making her faint from the pressure, but just as she thought she was about to die, a barrier enveloped her, easily blocking Liam's attack as a stern-faced, middle-aged man appeared before everyone.
"Greetings, Deputy Director!"
All professors and students, including Liam, respectfully greeted the man in a three-piece suit.
"Young man, I hope you might spare this young woman and give some face for our academy."
This was, after all, federal law.
When two gods engaged in a world war, it was even more severe than a duel; it was a battle to the death and Liam, as the head of Alandal's pantheon, had every right to intervene.
Considering Maria's actions, no one would say a word if Liam killed her—she had simply provoked her own demise.
So, if Liam insisted on acting, the Deputy Director would have no choice but to step aside.
But such an event would heavily impact the academy's reputation, so he wanted to give it a try.
Liam, on his part, hesitated.
Given her behavior, it would be simpler to kill her outright, removing a future enemy, but at the same time, this would completely offend the school and trample on the Deputy Director's face.
"Since the Deputy Director has spoken, I will follow his guidance," Liam said calmly, putting his hands behind his back.
The Deputy Director immediately sighed with relief, showing a rare slight smile.
"Nevertheless, Lucie is part of the Alandal pantheon, so I'll be taking this!" Liam said. With a flick of his wrist, the two worlds separated, and Maria's demi-plane disappeared into his spatial ring.
Naturally, no one had any objections to this.
...
Some time later, as everyone returned to their activities, Liam's watch suddenly vibrated.
[Given your performance during the expedition, an authority has granted you permission to select a free level A reward.]
Liam raised his eyebrows in surprise.
Honestly, he hadn't expected to receive any advantage at all, but it seemed the Deputy Director was more sincere than he'd thought.
"Well, I had planned to do this later, but I might as well take a look now," Liam thought to himself.
He entered the rewards menu, and a large holographic screen appeared in front of him.
[Categories:]
[Divine Pearls]
[Equipment]
[Resources]
[Miscellaneous]
He quickly glanced through the equipment and resources, but they were either useless because they were too low in rank or far too expensive.
He settled on the divine pearls, browsing through the nearly endless list, focusing especially on the two-star pearls and the one-star divine pearls of diamond quality or higher.
After hours, he had finally narrowed down the two level A rewards he would choose.
[Level A Reward: Race Pearl (2 Stars - Yellow): Contains a tribe of forest elves, including a queen at the peak of Rank 4 and 14 elders at Rank 4 (2 advanced, 4 confirmed, 8 beginner), 250 Rank 3, 1000 Rank 2, and 4000 Rank 1 (Price: 300,000,000 points)]
...
[Race: Forest Elves]
[Race Category: Humanoid]
[Race Level: Low-level intermediate race]
[Racial Talents: Enhanced agility | Nature affinity | Slow metabolism]
[Physical Attributes:]
[Rank 1: Constitution: 2.8 | Strength: 2.6 | Agility: 3.8 | Spirit: 3.4 | Lifespan: 350 years]
[Rank 2: Constitution: 7 | Strength: 6.5 | Agility: 9.5 | Spirit: 8.5 | Lifespan: 500 years]
[Rank 3: Constitution: 27 | Strength: 25 | Agility: 37 | Spirit: 25 | Lifespan: 1000 years]
[Rank 4: Constitution: 140 | Strength: 130 | Agility: 190 | Spirit: 170 | Lifespan: 2500 years]
(Theoretical max attribute: Rank 0: 1.5 | Rank 1: 4 | Rank 2: 10 | Rank 3: 40 | Rank 4: 200 | Rank 5: 1000 | Rank 6: 5000)
[Chance of a Spiritual Root: 80% (Mortal: 75%, Earth: 4.8%, Celestial: 0.2%, Supreme: 0.001%)]
[Chance of a Mental Root: 75% (Mortal: 69%, Earth: 5.7%, Celestial: 0.3%, Supreme: 0.002%)]
...
[Level A Reward: Resource Pearl (1 Star - Mythical): Contains 100 tons of uranium (Price: 350,000,000 points)]
...
(white -> red -> yellow -> green -> blue -> violet -> gold -> diamond -> legendary -> epic -> mythical)
There wasn't much to say about the uranium—it was a strategic resource.
Even without spiritual energy enhancement, this mineral could release an enormous amount of energy, and with Alandal's development, they would soon need it.
As for the elves, they were meant for Lucie. To help her develop easily, she needed at least a base of dedicated believers.
In any case, it wasn't as if the forest elves would ignore her; it was just that they would easily be devoted to her due to their natural affinity.
As her superior god, their faith in Lucie would involve their faith in him as well.
It would be a win-win.