“I leveled up! Two Divine Arts upgraded at the same time. Kama, you've done a wonderful job!”
Leon's smile was so radiant he couldn't hide it.
These Kama monsters really were his lucky stars!
Just shearing a tiny bit of wool off them was enough to level up two of the Divine Arts on his panel!
Leon continued looking at the panel.
【You have leveled up 'Moonlight Cloak'. You may choose one of the following three traits to enhance it:】
【Cloak: When casting Moonlight Cloak, a physical cloak will materialize to protect your back, increasing defense from behind by 300%.】
【Moonbeam: After Moonlight Cloak is activated, it can store one moonbeam every five minutes, which can launch an ice-element Divine Art attack against enemies within twenty meters.】
【Linkage: Links with the Divine Art 'Sacred Light Shield'. When you cast Sacred Light Shield, Moonlight Cloak will coat it in a layer of moonlit protection, increasing its defensive power, reducing the mental power consumed when Sacred Light Shield blocks attacks, and granting Sacred Light Shield the ability to counterattack from range.】
“【Cloak】... useless. What's the point of only increasing defense from behind? It's not like someone is going to specifically aim for the back of my neck. Am I supposed to stick my butt out and face away from the enemy in every battle...?”
“【Moonbeam】... redundant. A defensive Divine Art should focus on defense. Having an extra area-of-effect moonbeam attack isn't very useful...”
“【Linkage】... now this is pretty good. It increases durability, reduces mental power consumption, and even gives Sacred Light Shield a long-range counterattack capability...”
Sacred Light Shield's counterattack ability could only target melee attackers. When faced with ranged attacks, it couldn't counter because the target was too far away to be detected.
Now, with the linkage from 【Moonlight Cloak】, he had counterattacks for both melee and ranged. Activating Sacred Light Shield was practically equivalent to putting on a set of spiked armor.
【Selected enhancement trait: Linkage】
After finalizing the Linkage trait, Leon looked further down.
【You have leveled up 'I Name This the Mental Power Boost Divine Art'. You may choose one of the following three traits to enhance it:】
【Essence: Reduces the mental power cost of casting this Divine Art, enhances the mental power boost effect after casting, and allows the mental power boost to be shared with allies via an 'Aura Connection'.】
【Enjoyment: Whenever you cast this Divine Art on a target, they will experience total physical and mental relaxation and become obsessed with it. This enjoyable relaxation can help the target fall asleep quickly and enter a lucid dreaming state, allowing them to do whatever they wish in their dreams.】
【Linkage: Links with the Divine Art 'Sacred Light Meditation'. Whenever you cast Sacred Light Meditation, your depleted mental power will be rapidly replenished, up to 150% of your Sea of Mental Power. Any replenishment exceeding 100% will turn into your 'Second Sea of Mental Power', refilling your mental power the instant it becomes depleted.】
“【Essence】... useless, of no real value.”
“【Enjoyment】... what is this supposed to mean? 'I've fought for half my life, so I might as well enjoy myself with a new trait'?”
Leon was speechless. This 【Enjoyment】 trait, much like the previous 【Obsession】 trait, didn't seem like a serious ability.
The previous 【Obsession】 trait controlled targets through forced infatuation, whereas this 【Enjoyment】 trait seemed more like a subtle form of control, gradually making the target unable to live without him.
If Leon had a mediocre background and was short on cash, he might have chosen 【Enjoyment】 to craft beautiful dreams for wealthy nobles and merchants to make a fortune.
However, as the second son of the Prime Minister, and with 《Hearthstone Spire Slay》 already a massive hit, Leon wasn't lacking in pocket change.
“I choose 【Linkage】.”
【Selected enhancement trait: Linkage】
“If my Walking Meditation hadn't linked with Sacred Light Meditation, this 【Linkage】 trait would indeed be a waste, since Sacred Light Meditation usually requires sitting still to meditate.”
“But now...”
Leon felt the Walking Meditation running inside him at all times, as well as the Sacred Light Meditation that ran continuously alongside it due to their linkage.
“Now, my mana bar will no longer be a bottleneck for my strength!”
The advantages of the Linkage traits were becoming glaringly obvious as more and more of his Divine Arts linked together!
Initially, a 【Linkage】 trait that only restored mana was merely somewhat useful.
But with the groundwork laid by the previous linkages, the mana-recovery linkage of 【I Name This the Mental Power Boost Divine Art】 had transformed into a continuous source of mental power recovery for Leon!
Why did Leon wait until the Kama were routing and trying to escape before unleashing a barrage of Divine Arts like Wind-Whisper Heavy Cannon, Petrification Curse, and Grating Binding?
Why did he use 【Red Fairy Tale】 to cast defensive Divine Arts instead of casting them himself when facing the fireballs of those Mage Kama?
Wasn't it all to conserve mental power?
After all, the sheer number of Kama they encountered was staggering, practically a sea of monsters. If he didn't conserve his mental power, it would be disastrous if he ran into a major elite Kama hiding in the shadows.
Even though Leon had now promoted to the Silver rank and his Sea of Mental Power had been greatly expanded by the Kabbalah Tree of Life, the consumption of his various Divine Arts was still immense!
To say nothing of other spells, he had barely used the Diamond-rank Divine Art 【Power of the Three Saints】 since acquiring it, simply because the cost was too high for him to sustain for long, even now.
But with the mana-recovery linkage of the 'Mental Boost' (I Name This the Mental Power Boost Divine Art)... while keeping 【Power of the Three Saints】 active indefinitely might be a stretch, keeping it up for a minute or two in battle was now entirely feasible!
And if he didn't activate 【Power of the Three Saints】 and just stuck to his usual combat form...
“I could fight continuously for a whole day!”
Leon felt the rapid replenishment rate of the mental power in his Sea of Mental Power, his face alight with excitement.
“Another weakness patched... To become an all-around priest, I'm just missing a strong physique and an escape Divine Art...”
Leon looked at a Divine Art on his panel called 【Light Dust Flicker】:
“It's time to level up this Divine Art...”
...
Meanwhile.
Doncic's figure flickered as he quietly trailed the Eye Kama in the sky, speeding toward a certain direction in the Dusk Sea.
“These monsters truly are quite bizarre...”
He looked down at the surface of the sea.
Beneath the surface, swarms of Kama maintained a steady formation and equal spacing, swimming in the same direction as the Eye Kama.
Along the way, not a single Kama fell behind, nor did any show any signs of abnormality.
Even when they collided with undersea reefs or deep-sea magical beasts during their swim, the Kama ignored them completely, continuing forward with the main horde.
“Where is their destination?”
Doncic gazed out over the boundless sea, mapping the geography of the Dusk Sea in his mind.
Judging by their heading and speed, this area should be far from the southern coast of the Empire, the merman territories, and the zones frequented by adventurers.
In other words... a desolate stretch of sea with neither humans nor mermen.
“Could the Kama monsters' nest be right here?”
Just as Doncic formed this hypothesis, he suddenly noticed that the Eye Kama he had been tracking had come to a halt.
“Hm?”
Doncic stopped as well. Just as he was wondering if they had reached their destination, a peculiar energy ripple suddenly surged from below.
Doncic looked down and saw a monster as colossal as a magic whale beast abruptly breach the surface of the water.
Like the other Kama, this monster was entirely grayish-blue, with disgusting dark green mucus oozing from its skin, dyeing the azure seawater into a mixture of blue and green.
“Is this their nest?”
Doncic stared down at the massive Kama, filled with doubt.
Soon after, he saw a massive cannon barrel—at least twenty meters wide and over fifty meters long—suddenly extend from the whale-like blowhole on the giant Kama's head.
And the target the cannon barrel was locking onto... was none other than Doncic!
Rate on N.U.
