An old man with white hair stood in front of a small wooden cabin, gazing at the sky.
His long white hair cascaded down his back, creating a stark contrast with his light brown skin. A few purple scales adorned his eyes, forehead, and elbows, and he sported a pair of long purple horns and a purple snake tail.
He held a long wooden staff engraved with various runes, serving as his cane. He was one of the last Valyrs alive.
"I wonder what could have angered that bastard so much..."
He sighed and suddenly erupted into a fit of coughing.
Cough cough
He looked at his hand, covered with the blood he just spat out.
At that time, a young female Valyr rushed out of the cabin.
She was beautiful, with still-small horns and just-developing curves. She seemed to be between eleven and twelve years old.
She hurried towards the old man and held his hand.
"Grandpa, you've gone out again! You should rest and stop moving. Every time you get up, your illness worsens."
The old man smiled slightly and let himself dragged into the cabin.
….
In the void, the students felt the angry world's will and couldn't help but curse. The invasion's difficulty had drastically increased, and those who hadn't kept a spatial channel open began to panic.
In the plane, the will meticulously scanned the area around the crab cave. It quickly discovered eight invasion armies within a fifty-kilometer radius, further fueling its rage.
The world's will was limited within its own plane, much like a human unable to instantly resolve an issue upon noticing a wound on their body.
However, it still had several means.
It directly contacted several intermediate existences and sent them to slaughter those who dared infiltrate its plane.
In the void, the concerned students realized something was wrong and urgently tried to open spatial channels to bring back their troops.
The world's will knew this would happen and drew upon the plane's energy to prevent the formation of spatial channels.
Simultaneously, ten enormous auras appeared in the plane.
A colossal squid nearly a hundred meters long emerged from the sea and rushed towards a merfolk army.
On the other side, a crow-woman soared swiftly towards a group of Minotaurs.
In the void, the concerned students panicked. They spent hundreds of thousands of faith points, forcibly breaking the world's will blockade, and created a spatial channel.
However, for some students, it was already too late. The crow-woman was incredibly fast, and when the channel was established, she had already reached the Minotaurs and begun a bloodbath.
To the student's despondency, only a few dozen of his believers managed to pass through the channel alive, leaving hundreds of corpses in the plane.
Only two students succeeded in recalling their armies in time.
Another one had drought down an incarnation which was currently facing two intermediate existences: a bear and a Drakos, leveling the surrounding area.
Spells and brutal clashes devastated the land.
A sword aura strike opened a massive ravine, and a fireball created a huge explosion, with the shockwave sweeping across hundreds of meters.
Within a radius of nearly a kilometer, everything lay in ruins.
The student was as infuriated as the world's will and fought with all his might, providing enough time for his believers a few kilometers away to escape.
When all his believers had crossed the channel, the incarnation dissipated in the air as the student recovered his faith points.
A bit further away, the crow-woman had changed targets and was rushing towards a spatial channel.
The student panicked; it would take him a few seconds to close the portal, but the crow-woman would reach it before that.
Low and mid-tier demi-planes were far less robust than real planes. If she passed through the portal, she could directly shatter his divine domain.
The student could do nothing. He had almost no faith energy left, and he couldn't use his own strength in his divine domain.
Humpf
An elite class n°2 teacher sniffed and extended his hand.
Immense pressure descended on the plane, and all natives, even intermediate existences, felt the urge to kneel.
Generally, when a plane fought, it was three ranks above its tolerance threshold.
They couldn't use more force, but they would be much more resistant and enduring than same-rank existences. Nevertheless, what was a rank 7 existence in front of a peak demigod?
Even Liam and the top students could destroy it if they want to.
The teacher sent a message to the world's will. After some discussions, they seemed to reach an agreement, and the pressure disappeared.
Simultaneously, the world's will guided its intermediate existences to slaughter another army but no longer attempted to breach through spatial channels.
It was an agreement with the plane's will. It could massacre anything within the plane, but it couldn't counter-invade.
For gods, believers could be cultivated, but once the divine domain was destroyed, everything was finished.
They may find an unused demi-plane like Liam found, but besides being very costly, they would have to restart everything from scratch.
Additionally, they would have to remove their first divine rune to re-harmonize it with the believers of their new domain, but the cost would be as high as others' second runes.
In summary, it was a possible operation that despite being feasible cost a lot and would make them lose a considerable amount of time.
Even after that, they would have to redouble their efforts for lesser results.
That's why teachers would never let their students' divine realms be destroyed.
Even so, students who couldn't send their troops away were biting their lips in frustration. Not only were their scores fixed, but they had also lost many believers.
Liam, on the other hand, didn't care about the misfortune of other students eventhough it was his fault.
There were twelve armies in the area, but the world's will only detected eight. If they were hidden enough they might not have been discovered; it was their fault for not being meticulous enough.
Back on the plane and next to his incarnation, Sylvera still trembled as he remembered the two immense pressures. The first was still bearable, but the second made him feel completely insignificant.
"What was that?"
Liam looked at him and replied.
"The first was the world's will."
Sylvera stared at him strangely and Liam continued.
"I'm sure you've never heard about it. After all, your world is still too young and too small. It doesn't give birth to its own consciousness yet. Don't worry; it will have one soon."
Liam paused for a moment and continued.
"The second thing you felt is the will of one of the gods outside."
Sylvera stared at him.
"Impossible, there's only one god, and it's the L-"
"The Lord of the Azure Abyss, I know. In your world, indeed, there is only our lord. However there are many different gods in the universe. As a saint, you will encounter many gods."
"You must learn to distinguish between gods and impostors."
Liam let him digest the information before continuing.
"There are many gods who set their sights on this plane. You even already encountered several armies related to those gods. This is why I did not want us to fight with these groups."
"Forget the natives. Even those who consider themselves as the masters of this plane are mere ants in front of the greatness of gods. However, if you attack the believers of another god, things may go out of control. Leave away engender unnecessary problems, this could lead to an all-out war with our lord. »
Liam put a hand on his shoulder and comforted him.
"That's why I'm telling you all of this. You must learn to recognize believers of other gods and not attack them without solid reasons!"
Sylvera absentmindedly nodded, still confused by everything he learned.
...
Three years went by before the plane's will disappeared from the plane.
Even for a low-tier plane, that was the maximum it could do. Unless particular circumstances, it would probably remain dormant until the end of the exam.
During this period, everything was strangely calm. Students didn't take on quests anymore and focused on concealing their presence.
Even so, many invasion armies were discovered. Every time, at least one intermediate existence was summoned to deal with them.
It didn't cause too much commotion since intermediate existences were on another level.
Up until rank 3, one could still use the human wave tactic to surpass the enemy. However, once becoming an intermediate existence, it no longer worked.
A single rank 4 beginner could slay hundreds of pinnacle rank 3, not to mention the lower ranks.
Unless there was a saint to hold the fort, the discovered armies often ended up with less than 20% survivors.
With all this, there were less than 120 students left, but the gap between them was enormous. Most were so weak that the world's will unconsciously ignored them while the others were powerful enough to hide completely.
The average students almost all disappeared, hunted by the world's will.
As for the overall ranking, it didn't changed at all. No one would undertake missions and expose themselves to the limelight.
However, for Liam, it was perfect. Nearly 2% of spiritual stones were consumed, and his divine realm expanded to 27 kilometer radius.
At the same time, small animals and insects did their job, spreading the ecosystem to the newly added lands.
Expanding a divine realm was not linear.
The larger it grew, the more lands had to be added. These two percent had increased the radius of his domain by two kilometer, but it didn't mean it would reach a 76-kilometer radius when fully consumed.
(Mathematics in 3, 2, 1...)
With a simple calculation, the 2% of spiritual energy had increased his divine realm by about 166 km². ( π*(27²-26²) ~ 166 )
Thus, all the spiritual energy would increase the area of his domain by 8300 km². (166*50 ~ 8300)
So, when all the spiritual energy was digested, his divine realm would reach approximately a 57-kilometer radius. (sqrt( (π*26² + 8300)/π ) ~ 57)
(End of math here!)
(If I had to use this kind of things another time, I won't detail calculus and just give the answer)
It would probably take more than 150 local years, so nearly two months on Earth, but it was worth it.
On the other hand, the battle against the crabs gave a huge boost to his believers. The thrill of war allowed several Nagas to break through.
Now, there were two other rank 3 Nagas and 58 rank 2 Nagas.
For the novarians, it was even more exaggerated. There were several hundred novarians who had been stuck at the peak of rank 1 for over a decade.
The battle was a real trigger that pushed them to their limits and made them break the seals on their bloodline.
Now, there were over a sixty rank 2 novarian warriors.
For Liam, it was definitely good news.
Upon reaching rank 2, novarians could live for nearly 50 years. Even if they wouldn't have more children due to their improved strength, they could deepen their faith and provide him more faith energy.
Moreover, Liam made a use of the crab's bodies. By spending around fifty thousand faith points, he re-forged the pincers into spears and the carapaces into shields.
There were 4 rank 4 spears and 9 rank 4 shields from the crab king, along with 30 rank 2 spears and 45 rank 2 shields from the rank 2 crabs, the rest are hundreds of rank 1 weapons.
His rank 3 believers were directly equipped with rank 4 weapons, and most of the rank 2 Nagas were equipped with suitable weapons.
The surplus of rank 4 equipment was currently set aside.
Overall, it could be said that his strength had undergone a huge improvement. Now that the world's will had disappeared, it was time to resume quests.
Since novarians lost most of their mobility on earth, Liam only summoned the Nagas.
After three years in the divine realm, eight young Nagas were born, and six females get pregnant. There were now 103 Nagas, with 82 able to fight.
One of the newly promoted rank 3 Nagas was a female and became pregnant.
So, Liam had Sylvera, who was promoted to a pinnacle rank 3, a beginner rank 3, 55 rank 2 Nagas, and 25 rank 1 Nagas ready for the quest.