Chapter 225: Divine Artifact—Circle of Usurpation!
[Diamonds: 1,470]
Now that Ethan had Diamonds again, he could not stop thinking about them. It was like a dog that could never leave a bone sitting untouched in its kennel.
After calming Freya down, Ethan began another round of gacha pulls.
He even received a "Goddess of Beauty's Kiss" from Freya beforehand.
The [Another Cosmology] he had pulled last time was so incredible that even Ethan still found it hard to believe.
So this time, he decided to test it with a different goddess.
If it worked again, then from now on, he would never pull without a goddess's help.
Swish!
[-1,000 Diamonds]
The Diamonds were deducted, and a card pack appeared.
Then, one card after another emerged.
Just like before, most were useless items from all kinds of different worlds.
Ethan dumped them all into his Imaginary Number Space without hesitation. They were practically useless to him anyway.
[Circle of Usurpation — Single-Use Consumable]
A hit!
He had actually gotten something!
Ethan immediately grew excited.
It seemed a "goddess's kiss" really did work.
However, after taking a closer look, Ethan noticed something strange.
Circle of Usurpation.
And it was a single-use consumable.
[Circle of Usurpation: A divine artifact capable of stealing Authorities from the corpse of a slain god.]
It was a large disk resembling a shield. A dragon-head-like emblem was engraved on its surface, surrounded by eight sword markings.
Ethan searched through his memories for the origin of this divine artifact and eventually remembered.
It came from Campione!
This was the divine artifact responsible for the birth of Campiones.
In the story, whenever a human managed to slay a god on Earth, Pandora would rush over and use the Circle of Usurpation to absorb the god's power.
She would then bestow that power upon the human, creating a new "godslayer."
The [Circle of Usurpation] was an artifact that reproduced the divine attributes of sword gods.
However, there was one absolute requirement.
The user had to kill the god whose power they wanted with their own strength.
Only by offering the slain god's life as a sacrifice could the Circle activate.
Epimetheus had crossed seven divine realms and nine underworlds, enduring countless hardships before finally obtaining it.
Its prototype, the [Circle of Plunder], used the life of a god personally slain by its user as a sacrifice to steal Authority from the corpse.
It had first been discovered by Prometheus, then obtained after Epimetheus's long journey, eventually becoming the [Circle of Usurpation].
"Godslaying, huh…"
Ethan fell silent.
If this were another world, perhaps it would not be such a big issue.
But in the world of DanMachi, gods were everywhere.
They had all sealed their divine power as well, so finding one was ridiculously easy. Walk around Orario for a while and you could encounter several.
However, truly killing a god would be like kicking a hornet's nest.
The gods had merely sealed their divine power and descended to the lower world to play their game.
Even if they suffered fatal injuries, their divine power would simply activate, sending them back to Heaven.
But if someone actually found a way to kill a god permanently, every deity would probably become restless.
After all, that would directly threaten the very status and existence of the gods.
There was no guarantee the others would leave Ethan alone.
Therefore, although the [Circle of Usurpation] was undoubtedly incredibly powerful, Ethan could not recklessly use it right now.
He even had a conveniently captured Sun God, Apollo, under his control.
But for the foreseeable future, Ethan did not dare experiment carelessly.
Still, the highest recorded Level in the world of DanMachi was Lv.9.
Ethan wondered whether Lv.10 existed beyond it.
And could a great feat like actually slaying a god allow someone to break beyond the supposed limit of Lv.9?
Ethan did not know.
But that did not stop him from imagining the possibilities.
By the time he reached Lv.9, he should already stand near the peak of this world.
At that point, perhaps he could try.
For now, however, this divine artifact would remain stored away.
It was not suitable for use yet.
Looking at his remaining four hundred-plus Diamonds, Ethan ultimately could not resist.
He immediately started doing single pulls.
He had skipped single pulls during his previous two sessions, but this time, the temptation was too strong.
Single pulls created miracles.
Maybe his luck would explode.
[Golden Apple *10]
[Ninjutsu: Fire Release—Majestic Destroyer Flame]
[Magic: Magic Shield]
[Senzu Bean *10]
Four pulls.
All of them were only moderately useful.
The [Golden Apples] especially left Ethan speechless.
Good grief.
Could this pool even pull items from Minecraft?
This really was an [Unrestricted Gacha Pool].
Ethan had to admit defeat.
As for [Majestic Destroyer Flame] and [Magic Shield], he already possessed plenty of similar ninjutsu and magic.
He even had piles of spells like [Small Fireball], [Small Water Ball], and [Small Wind Blade].
Their destructive power was honestly rather pitiful.
Still, every Diamond was now gone.
He had certainly gained something, but the overall results were only barely satisfactory.
The only truly valuable item was something he could not use right now.
No.
More accurately, something he did not dare use.
...
Meanwhile, at the Twilight Manor.
Loki stared at the Falna before her, her face filled with dissatisfaction.
"What's wrong?"
Ais held up her hair while waiting for Loki to finish updating her Falna.
After receiving no response for a long time, she turned around in confusion.
At first, she suspected Loki was plotting to take advantage of her again. After all, that happened regularly.
Instead, Ais saw Loki wearing an expression filled with worry.
"Loki?"
"Ais, I'm going to ask you something very seriously."
"W-What is it?"
Ais had rarely ever seen Loki look so serious.
She instinctively became serious as well.
"Which bastard stole your heart?!"
"Look at this growth rate! Isn't this completely ridiculous?!"
Loki's voice overflowed with resentment and anger.
Ais immediately froze.
Then she noticed the parchment in Loki's hand and reached over to take it.
One glance was enough to shock her.
Her growth really was absurd.
[Ability Values]:
[Strength: I·85 --- G·219]
[Endurance: I·51 --- G·233]
[Dexterity: H·155 --- F·335]
[Agility: H·191 --- F·363]
[Magic: I·60 --- H·188]
[Development Abilities]: Hunter·G, Abnormal Resistance·G, Swordsman·H, Spirit Healing·I
[Skills]:
[Avenger]
[Liaris Freese]
How long had it been?
Ais's ability values had already increased this much.
She was Lv.6 now.
At this stage, gaining even a single point in an ability value was extremely difficult.
A growth rate this terrifying had never happened before.
It had to be related to [Liaris Freese].
'Is my precious Ais really going to be stolen away?'
Loki's heart was overflowing with rage.
…
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