[Legendary item: Subordinate Divine Evolution Scroll]
[Item description: A Lord chooses a champion, a Lord breeds a conqueror, a Lord deserves the greatest… An ancient inheritance of the Medieval Machine Demon General, grants the inheritor a chance at becoming the greatest and most fearsome of his master's generals!]
"Holy shit! It's so good I feel envious!" Roy exclaimed, stunned.
[It is unbecoming of a Lord to envy his subordinates!]
The system chimed in scorn.
Yeah, if I get an inheritance that good I wouldn't be envious, Roy tried defending himself, but he quickly realized how wrong his defense was. How could this inheritance compare to the Justice Order? It simply didn't come close.
This was an order that promised him the future of regulating the cosmos. Gods? Dragons? Devils? Even these divine creatures would be at the mercy of his order.
Shaking his head with a wry smile, he summoned the ancient scroll. It appeared midair, radiating a sacred bronze divine luster.
"Richard, come over," he called to the poor builder, who was sitting in the corner almost half asleep from exhaustion.
The man dragged his feet against the ground as he waddled over, his eyes still half lidded. Thanks to the air conditioning inside the outpost, his sweat soaked body was dry.
After Richard arrived and stood before him, Roy took the ancient scroll, ready to impart the inheritance. The method of doing this was simple: on the divine contract, there was a section for the Lord's name and the subordinate's name.
Naturally, all he had to do was inscribe both their names. He bit into his finger, drawing blood, and began writing his name. In a stroke, he was done. He did the same, inscribing Richard's full name into the subordinate section.
A chime rang!
[Subordinate, Captain Richard Gaunter, has been granted the inheritance of the Medieval Machine Demon General!]
[Evolution will begin!]
The ancient bronze artifact thrummed with a cadence of red as it flew away from Roy's hands, straight to its new candidate. Richard had barely registered what was going on.
"Huh? What's this?" he questioned as his outstretched finger poked at the scroll in curiosity.
The moment he came into contact with it, the scroll burst into a cacophony of brilliant lights as it engulfed the still confused builder, leaving behind a divine golden membrane of a cocoon.
Above the cocoon, a timer ticked, signaling the time the evolution would take. What Roy saw turned his expression ugly…
[2456d. 16h. 48m. 32s]
Damn, how many years is that? What's the point of evolving a subordinate if he becomes useless for years? Roy instantly regretted giving Richard the inheritance scroll.
[Requirement met! Host has unlocked a new function: Sacrifice!]
Huh? What is this for? Roy questioned suspiciously. He had started to become wary of the system's gifts. After all, it had advised him to spend points on probability increase, just to get an inheritance that would render his subordinate invalid for a long time.
[Sacrifice Function: Allows Host to exchange items in order to shorten subordinate or territory evolution time!]
His eyes lit up. This was useful, and it came at just the right time.
He quickly navigated through the new feature as a scale appeared before him. The ethereal object resembled one used for measuring the weight of goods, with a blank digital screen at the front.
He input Richard's name, the person whose evolution time he hoped to shorten.
[Host wishes to shorten Evolution Time of Subordinate Richard Gaunter!]
[Choose your sacrifice from the following!]
[…]
A long list of items appeared before Roy's eyes, which bulged in apprehension. His epic items, his draws from the gacha featured pack, and even items he had yet to pick from the outside monster drops — in short, everything he owned was on the platter and could be sacrificed!
Patting his chest reassuringly, he consoled himself, convincing himself that this was all for the greater good.
Just as he decided to start picking items, the system chimed in with advice.
[It is advisable for Host to sacrifice 93% of the monster drops…]
Roy frowned. "Why is that?"
[The only drops from regular monsters that are useful to Lords are gold coins. Any other drop, be it items or beast cores, is useless to Lords…]
[A Lord cannot be blasphemed by inferior Ether and can only level up using Boss Monsters and other unique type monsters' beast cores!]
"Wouldn't that make our leveling speed slow?" Roy asked with furrowed brows. Things just kept getting frustrating. It was like Lords were overpowered and at the same time being nerfed.
[The amount of Boss Monsters in this realm is infinite. The amount of unique beasts is the same. Slow leveling can only be blamed on laziness…]
[And this unique requirement brings benefits to the Lords. While leveling up, a normal Hunter can only gain 3 extra relocatable stat points along with +1 point to all sections, but it is double for Lords…]
Roy sighed and could only accept the fact as it was. Though the leveling requirements of Lords were tough, the benefits were even more enticing.
Fine, sacrifice 93% of the monster drops. Even though he knew they were useless to him, his heart still ached. At least I still have the Boss Monster drops, he thought, consoling his aching soul.
[Sacrifice commencing…]
Roy turned around to gaze outside as he noticed all the glittering items diffusing into a flowing crimson mist, which congealed into a river that flowed straight into the outpost and onto the cocoon Richard resided in.
The golden cocoon turned a shade of sanguine as it silently absorbed the flowing crimson torrent. Above, the long string of numbers rapidly depreciated by the second…
Minutes passed, and finally the mist came to an end.
Roy glanced at the timer, suddenly feeling it was worth it.
[16h. 43m. 17s.]