Chapter 543 - 388: Martial God Body?

Chapter 543: Chapter 388: Martial God Body?

They all had one thing in common: these paths could not advance to Tier Three!

Therefore, they could only become fodder for Wizards and Knights. And so...

...they were allowed to spread!

This was why Isaac had his doubts. Perhaps this kind of Heroic achievement came with certain hidden dangers...

One of the sources of a Legendary Mage’s power was the Power of Faith, born from Observation. Thus, the more widely a Legendary Mage’s Creations spread, the more they benefited.

But this type of Heroic achievement for Extraordinary Professions clearly violated this principle.

If it couldn’t advance to Tier Three, it couldn’t be considered a Heroic achievement. But if it could advance to Tier Three, it wouldn’t be allowed to spread...

It was only then that Isaac understood what they had meant back in the Endless Tower about using Little Worlds as experimental grounds.

The Main World would suppress the spread of these Extraordinary Professions with limited potential to avoid impacting its own prospects. But no one cared about the Little Worlds—or at least, in a Little World you yourself conquered, no one could tell you what to do.

This meant you could conduct massive experiments in these worlds, collect vast amounts of data, and then directly forge a brand-new Extraordinary Power, achieving true greatness!

Unfortunately...

Isaac currently had no such projects of his own...

So, even though he had a Little World ready, he couldn’t conduct experiments there like other Wizards...

"Hmm?" At this thought, Isaac suddenly looked up, stunned for a moment, then nodded thoughtfully.

’That’s right. I don’t have a project to experiment on here, but other Wizards do!’

’I can just steal their research!’

’The most efficient way to acquire Knowledge has always been to learn from others!’

With this thought, Isaac set the tone for his actions in this world. On one hand, he would research the crystallization of the Authority that sublimated from his Privilege Magic. On the other, he would travel the world to observe the experiments of other Wizards. As the saying goes, when three walk together, one is sure to be a teacher.

Perhaps he could gain some unique inspiration from it.

And so, they split into three groups: the Saint Master would go fight and collect materials, Shushu the Glazed Rat would carry out some of Isaac’s ritual experiments and also collect materials, and Isaac himself would travel the world to "steal knowledge."

——

「One week later.」

Isaac arrived at an Island Country near the equator in Brurel’s eastern hemisphere. According to intelligence from Maxu Kant, a Mad Witch was conducting inhumane experiments here—on Followers!

Followers—a rather popular power system within the Mad Witch framework.

As everyone knows, the Outer Gods are generous, but also miserly.

All power they bestowed, even when filtered through the Gate of Legends, still contained hidden dangers. The only difference was how great the danger was and when it would erupt.

It was just like that thing Isaac had previously purged from the Analysis Authority Crystal.

Therefore, for a Mad Witch, simply completing a transaction with an Outer God and surviving was a skill in itself. But knowing how to properly use the power gained from that transaction was another skill entirely, and a very deep one at that.

Researching how to better utilize the power of the Outer Gods was a subject almost every Mad Witch had to consider.

Except for Isaac, of course.

Only things acquired through deals could be tampered with. His, on the other hand, were openly and honestly picked up!

The only problem was that the Outer Gods whose things he’d taken—with no intention of returning—would come to settle scores when he advanced to Tier Five. It was a near certainty; any of them that hadn’t died and weren’t slumbering would almost definitely show up.

But I digress. Today’s Mad Witches lacked the audacity of their predecessors and the methods of Isaac, so they could only resort to honest research.

Creating Followers was one of the easier ways to get results.

Followers originally referred to beings created by a Deity, imbued with a sliver of its Divine Power. Their bodies and souls belonged completely to the Deity; as long as the Deity did not die, the Follower would not die.

Later, with the emergence of Witches, things changed. Although Witches lacked the wisdom of Wizards, all paths lead to the same destination. When power reaches a certain level, many things become interconnected.

Powerful Witches could also use their own Magic Power to create or Erode beings whose bodies and souls belonged entirely to them. Due to the high degree of similarity in form, these creations were also called Followers.

This was the first time the Concept of Followers had spread beyond the hands of Deities.

Later, with the advent of Wizards, the "class" of Followers dropped lower and lower. This was partly due to the research of Wizards, and partly a deliberate consideration by the Deities, who lowered the station of Followers to strengthen the Church’s power against the rising tide of Wizards.

Today, Followers are no longer the exclusive domain of Deities. A Tier One Official Wizard, provided the conditions are met and the method is correct, can also create their own Follower.

Just as Isaac had created Liu Li in the past.

Followers have now become a special type of Servant Demon in the hands of Wizards.

However, in most cases, normal Wizards don’t create Followers lightly. The returns are not proportional to the investment. The station of Followers today is far inferior to what it once was, and many even have more drawbacks than benefits.

Therefore, it is the Mad Witches who are at the forefront of this research. They possess all sorts of messy Outer God Powers that they dare not use on themselves. But they can’t just let them sit idle either—that would mean they risked their lives for nothing, right?

Thus, some Mad Witches choose to use these powers to construct Followers!

A Follower created this way would possess a very high station—Tier Five at a minimum!

But its power could be kept very low, just like Liu Li back then. Her station was exceptionally high, but her own power was only at the level of Tier One.

A Follower of this level could be easily controlled by an ordinary Tier Two Great Wizard. They could also monitor it to see if it breaks free of control due to the Outer God’s influence. If it does, they simply kill it and create a new one.

If it doesn’t break free...

...then they can officially invest resources into raising it, successfully bypassing the backdoor left by the Outer God’s power!

You could say that the Mad Witches of today have refined the path of the Follower to be extremely safe. Nowadays, almost no one who walks this path is killed midway by an Outer God.

The kind of person who survives a near-death experience to trade for power, only to be secretly killed when trying to use it.

That kind of frustrating end hasn’t happened in a long time.

Again, times are changing. The idea that the past is inferior to the present is quite common in the world of Wizards.

Although the Outer God Power seized by someone like Isaac was convenient to use, normal Wizards don’t have such hacks. For them, the death rate is sky-high!

Even more perilous than a near-death experience!

Isaac, cloaked in a black robe with his face hidden in the shadows of his hood, walked silently down the bleak street. He would occasionally pause to stand and observe. People came and went on the street, yet not a single one noticed his presence.

After wandering for a moment, Isaac stopped in front of a small hut. The hut was dilapidated, but the person inside was perfectly whole: two eyes, one mouth, a pair of ears, and the normal limbs of a human...

Overall, apart from the Ghost floating behind him, everything looked normal.

A Spiritual Host.

This was a very special type of Follower. The human body was merely a vessel in the Material Realm; the true self was the Ghost floating behind it. Generally, creatures in such a parasitic relationship operate on a "you’re strong, I’m weak" or "I’m strong, you’re weak" survival model, where power is divided between them.

But the Spiritual Host was different. They had a symbiotic relationship with the Ghost behind them. When the human grew stronger, the Spirit Body would strengthen as well. Likewise, when the Spirit Body grew stronger, the human would also strengthen. However, this wasn’t even their most heaven-defying aspect!

The most heaven-defying thing about a Spiritual Host is that this feedback can be repeatedly stacked. For example, if the human’s power increases by one hundred, the Spirit Body’s power will then increase by ninety. And when the Spirit Body’s power increases by ninety, it will in turn boost the human’s power by eighty, and so on and so forth...

Although the power from each feedback loop diminishes, this "climbing a spiral staircase by stepping on your own feet" method of power enhancement allows a Spiritual Host to make immense progress with every increase in strength.

If not for the Spirit Body’s extreme vulnerability in combat, the Spiritual Host would likely be the number one choice of Follower for Mad Witches.

But even with the Spirit Body’s many weaknesses in battle, the Spiritual Host was still a popular type of Follower. It wasn’t strange to see one here. Since Mad Witches never knew what backdoors the Outer Gods left in the powers they received, they usually created a whole batch of Followers at once when experimenting.

But the reason Isaac had stopped here was because...

...behind the young man in the hut, he could see a full seven Spirit Bodies!

’Is this a Martial God Body...?’