Inside Rose Cathedral.
"What a shame, what a shame! Just a tiny bit more!"
Aaron tossed the cards in his hand onto the table, his face filled with regret.
Leon smiled slightly and said, "Your Highness Aaron's understanding of various cards is already quite excellent. It is just that you are accustomed to taking unconventional paths, and your playstyle lacks a bit of steadiness. If you could be a bit more stable, I would have a hard time dealing with you."
Having said that, he glanced at the sky and added:
"Your Highness Aaron, it is getting late. Shall I have someone take you down to rest?"
Aaron also glanced outside and nodded. "Aight."
Leon gestured for a servant to lead Aaron to the room that had been prepared for him.
Aleph-One and Sylvia, as Aaron's personal guard and priest, followed him down as well.
The Shadow Agent Doncic, who had been restless the whole time, finally breathed a sigh of relief.
He watched Aleph-One's departing back, then turned his head toward Leon. After a moment of hesitation, he asked:
"How... exactly did you discover me?"
Doncic couldn't understand; he was at the Diamond rank!
His stealth skills, if not supernatural, could at least be called mastery. How could he be detected by a Silver rank priest?
It was completely illogical!
"Perceive with your heart."
Leon gave him a slight smile.
The strength of Lv1 Radiance Perception was indeed insufficient to detect Doncic.
However, with Lv2 Radiance Perception and the added bonus of the 【Linkage】 trait, perceiving Doncic across ranks was not a problem at all.
After all, although 【Radiance Perception Lv2】 looked like only Lv2, the vast majority of priests in the world could never reach this level.
Take Miles, for example. The Sacred Light Meditation he practiced day and night, when converted to the panel, was only at Lv1 (67/100).
A Gold rank priest like him was still unable to break through Lv1 in his daily meditation, which showed how difficult it was to increase the level of a Divine Art.
Thinking of it that way, it was hardly surprising that Radiance Perception, having broken through to Lv2, could faintly perceive Doncic's figure.
"Perceive with your heart..." Doncic fell silent for a long while.
He wasn't sure if Leon had just said that to trick him, or if his own talent was insufficient to understand what it meant to "perceive with the heart"...
After all, in front of a freakishly talented priest like Leon, his Diamond rank self had only lived twenty years longer than him.
How could he know what the world of a genius was like?
"Farewell!" Since he couldn't figure it out, Doncic stopped thinking about it. He saluted and left immediately.
His mission was to secretly protect Leon. Now that he had been detected and even dragged out like an assassin, it was a complete disgrace to the Shadow Guard organization.
After this mission ended, he would surely face severe punishment upon returning to the organization...
Sensing Doncic's departure, Leon slowly let out a breath.
Finding that the follower was an Imperial Shadow Agent sent by the Sage King to protect him was just a false alarm.
If the follower truly had ill intentions toward him, he would have found it very difficult to deal with.
Even though the 【Red Fairy Tale】 contained powerful protection and spatial teleportation Divine Arts sufficient for self-preservation...
The people around him would find it difficult to survive under an enemy's attack.
"The upgrade of Walking Meditation must be prioritized!"
Leon didn't want to wait until a powerful enemy came knocking to regret his lack of strength to protect those around him.
What he needed to do was quickly raise his Divine Art levels and become powerful enough to handle any enemy!
And then.
Whether it was the Nightmare Empire's assassination attempts or that goddamn line about his "level being insufficient," he would pay them all back one by one!
He opened the Divine Art panel.
【Divine Art Casting Grade: Excellent】
【Light Prayer XP +17】
【Healing Art Lv2 (297/300) → Healing Art Lv3 (14/1000)】
"Milking the experience points of an Epic rank expert is truly satisfying..."
Gaining a full 17 points of experience from Aleph-One without even needing to fight was a massive win!
Leon continued to look down at the flowing light on the panel.
【You have upgraded Healing Art. You may choose one of the following three traits for enhancement:】
【Obsession: Your Healing Art will carry the 'Obsession' effect. Every time you heal a target with this art, it will cause their body and mind to fall into a state of obsession so pleasurable it borders on the extreme, making them develop a dependency on the healing effect and long for continuous treatment.】
【Profusion: Your Healing Art will carry the 'Profusion' effect, which can apply 'Accelerated Transcendent Power Recovery', 'Transcendent Power Strengthening', 'Physical Fitness Strengthening', and 'Mental Power Stabilization' buffs to the recipient, while also increasing the healing rate of the 'Overflowing' effect.】
【Linkage: Linkage with the Divine Art 'Wind-Whisper Heavy Cannon'. Its attack effects can be converted into healing effects, enabling enhanced healing in a short period of time.】
"Obsession... isn't that just addiction?!"
Leon immediately passed on this trait.
Obsession or whatever sounded a bit terrifying!
Light Prayer was linked with Healing Art. If Healing Art became addictive, wouldn't that mean Light Prayer would directly have an addiction aura?
Within the aura, all treated targets would simultaneously become addicted to the Healing Art, sprawled all over the place with euphoric expressions on their faces, seeking more treatment... what kind of mass narcotic session would that be!
Isn't that entirely a negative effect... wait, actually, maybe not?
Leon suddenly thought of a phrase: "Mrs. So-and-so, you wouldn't want the healing to stop, would you?"
Hmm, in a certain sense, this 【Obsession】 trait was much more powerful than the others...
However, Leon was a man of integrity, wow!
This 【Obsession】 trait... forget it.
"Between Linkage and Profusion... I choose the Profusion trait."
【Enhancement trait selected: Profusion】
Although Leon's principle was to prioritize linkage traits when selecting enhancements...
The 【Healing Art】 was different. Leon's role for this Divine Art was pure healing; he didn't need it to link with other Divine Arts.
The 【Profusion】 effect could provide many buffs during healing and could even increase the healing rate of the 【Overflowing】 effect.
Leon had already experienced the utility of the 【Overflowing】 effect.
Even the old injuries on Viscount Finn, which were difficult for even a Diamond rank priest to treat, could be cured by the 【Overflowing】 Healing Art.
Compared to the instantaneous healing of the linked 【Wind-Whisper Heavy Cannon】, Leon still preferred to raise the healing limit and enhance the healing effect.
Besides, if an enemy could break through the defensive Divine Arts on Leon's body, then such an instantaneous healing effect would be almost useless.
Because long before he could cast instantaneous healing, he would have already been instantly killed by the enemy.
...
Night fell.
Leon held a welcoming banquet for Aaron's arrival.
After the banquet, Leon did not stay in Eldenborg but instead took Alicia, Ratahn, and several other guards to Jellyfish Town.
Leon ordered Ratahn and the others to keep watch in Zachary Manor, then walked down the underground passage of the manor to the ruins gate.
At this moment, the Gramophone Golems in the ruins had mostly scattered, with only two or three wandering around the gate.
Leon used a Divine Art to kill these Gramophone Golems and then rushed into the ruins to make some noise, re-attracting the scattered golems to the ruins gate.
"The alchemical golems in this ruin are quite strange. Even though they are golems, they can provide me with experience points. I have to use them sparingly..."
Leon didn't use the alchemical golems to farm experience for other attack Divine Arts. Instead, he lit a Light Prayer Orb above his head.
Then, he went to the farthest position where he could still attract the aggro of the Gramophone Golems and sat cross-legged.
He calmed his mind and relaxed his state of mind.
Slowly closing his eyes, he threw himself into the practice of the meditation method that allows one to meditate even while walking.
Rate on N.U.
