033: Advancement Considerations

This is a Sealed Artifact formed by the Black Knight's Beyonder Characteristics condensing onto an object.

After being processed by the power of the underworld, the negative effects of such Sealed Artifacts are also reduced to their minimum.

Don stored it in the system inventory, planning to later use an 'Artisan' to craft it into a corresponding mystical item.

"It's still better to have fewer Beyonders of the Secret Supplicant pathway. This pathway has the True Creator at the top, and before He fuses with that King of Angel, all Beyonders of this pathway are potential madmen."

Looking at the system filled to the brim with mystical items, after eating breakfast he went once more to the house he had previously rented in the small town.

Taking the Staff of Life out from the inventory, Don cleaned up the materials left over from yesterday's Wall of Spirituality, then looked at the thumb tree he had expended great effort to move down from the mountain. He rearranged the materials needed for the ritual, once again isolating the Staff of Life's influence of 'reproduction' power on the surroundings, then took out his own marionette from the system inventory.

Strictly speaking, marionettes are dead people, and in the system's judgment, dead people can be stored in the inventory.

Unless under special circumstances, all items in the system inventory will be maintained in their sealed state or in optimal condition.

This means that although he can only control one marionette, as long as the System Inventory isn't full, he can stuff his marionette into the inventory at any time, then make a new marionette.

Although the control limit is still one, he can still play with marionettes in various ways.

The Sequence 6 Devil that Don controlled set up a large pot in the courtyard, placed firewood and lit it, then used a knife to chop up the harvested thumb fruits, removing the pits and peels, putting the remaining flesh together with water into the pot to boil.

Don sat on the reclining chair somewhat contentedly, letting his brain relax and rest for a while.

"Sometimes not using your brain and doing some physical labor is quite nice."

Ah, though it's his marionette doing the physical labor.

"However, speaking of the acting for Marionettist, yesterday was indeed an excellent opportunity."

It's just that the situation at the time didn't allow his marionette to take the stage at all, there wasn't even a possibility of attracting attention, which was regrettable.

Otherwise, with so many high-sequence Beyonders present, the feedback generated from that alone would have been enough for his digestion progress to advance by leaps and bounds.

After staying quietly in the dilapidated small courtyard for a while, Don closed his eyes as if he had fallen asleep.

At this time, the fruits and water in the large pot had become extremely viscous through continuous high-temperature boiling. The tall Demon silently extinguished the flames, lifting the large pot without any protective measures, placing it on the ground beside to wait for it to cool and solidify.

At the same time, a jar of mud appeared beside Don.

This was clay that he had servants dig up from the garden and bring out together when he had just come out of the castle.

The clay mixed with water formed mud that had excellent decolorizing effects.

Of course, the purity probably wasn't that high, but the sugar produced would definitely be better than the sugar he bought in Tingen.

"Doing these things really requires a Savant..."

He's just a Diviner. This ancient sugar-making recipe was all learned from reading web novels long ago, recalled through dream divination methods. He couldn't make too many changes, so there was no way to improve it.

To exchange from the system using knowledge fragments... Don glanced at his balance and decisively gave up.

[So Host, do you need to switch to Mysticologist/Alchemist?]

"Get lost."

[Roger that.]

The system quickly prepared to get lost, [Oh, by the way, the 'Artisan' upgrade has 2:03:11 remaining.]

Waving his hand to indicate he knew, and directing his marionette to stir the mud and syrup together, precipitating the pigments from the thumb fruits, Don continued to close his eyes and rest.

"If there are no acting opportunities, I can only digest the potion through daily acting."

No rush, there's still some time.

"So, the next thing I should do is..." After obtaining so many Beyonder Characteristics, Don felt he should also prepare for future advancement rituals.

"After completing the acting and digesting the Marionettist potion... there's no choice for Sequence 5 to 4, I can only pick and see if there are any demigods that absolutely must be killed to target."

Priority targeting those who believe in evil gods, such as the True Creator.

The world becomes more beautiful with every bit less of the True Creator.

"Moreover, the rituals for Sequence 4 to 3, 3 to 2, and 2 to 1 can all be prepared."

For Sequence 4, the Bizarro Sorcerer's potion doesn't necessarily require taking down the Theater With Curtains That Never Draw. Using the Beyonder Characteristics of that Bizarro Sorcerer who died from mental pollution collapse would work.

For Sequence 3 (Scholar of Yore), he should need to catch Hounds of Fulgrim, or take down the Sequence 3 potion within the theater... there might be multiple copies, so even taking it down wouldn't affect the theater's overall operation.

For Sequence 2 (Miracle Invoker), using the 'Theater With Curtains That Never Draw' would work.

As for the remaining Sequence 1...

Don had also figured out where to get it.

For him, the best reason for taking the Seer pathway is that if he doesn't consider the monocle from next door coming to steal his home, or the top boss wanting to resurrect at any time, the materials, rituals, key points, acting rules, and even most of the difficulties he needs to face have already been solved. He just needs to follow the plan step by step and won't encounter major problems.

"Moreover, advancement rituals can also be nested and cyclically reused, using opportunistic and unorthodox methods to achieve success."

For example, the ritual for Sequence 3 to 2 requires making a segment of history return to reality.

When advancing to Scholar of Yore, isolate a village in advance, have it return after three hundred years. Wait for the Scholar of Yore potion to be completely digested, and when preparing for Sequence 3 to 2, lift the isolation to complete the ritual.

After advancing to Sequence 2, hang the people in this village as marionettes, reenacting the scroll of life, preparing for Sequence 2 to 1.

System: [Every bit of surplus value has been squeezed out...]

'This is called perfect recycling.'

Don supplemented, "Add two more mermaids, and conveniently kill a Demigod in that small town, leaving the demigod's corpse inside to be isolated together."

System: '...'

Fine, fine, fine, have your 'Seer's Paradise Village.'

While the system was silent, Don opened his eyes and sat up from the reclining chair, "When Scholar of Yore advances to Miracle Invoker, some people should have done it this way."

Isolating a village along with themselves, completing all ritual requirements after becoming a demigod.

After all, besides natural-born Miracle Invokers, this is the simplest method.

As for the people in the isolated village... in the eyes of high-sequence Beyonders, bottom-dwellers should feel honored to become ritual materials for the Saint.

So, in the Fourth Epoch, no, here, whether it's the Fourth Epoch or Fifth Epoch, even if bottom-dwellers want to stay alive... it's extremely difficult.

For people in the abyss, can they trust the occasional mercy shown by devils?

Don looked at the pot that had already begun to show adsorption, where the syrup's color was gradually lightening as the mud settled, signaling the marionette beside to scoop up the upper liquid.

"I think these Beyonder Characteristics can serve as the foundation for establishing a secret organization."

With the system present, as long as he obtains Beyonder Characteristics, he can get the formulas through identification methods. Even for those he doesn't know, killing one Beyonder of the same pathway would reveal it.

As for the needed rituals, Don also had ideas.

(End of Chapter)