Chapter 256
[500PS REACHED!! Next Goal: 1000PS!]
With that thought, Syd decided to try advancing his unlocking progress, gaining a new ability, and upgrading his existing ones. He wanted to see if the vision of his death shown by the black stone would change afterward.
Looking up at the sky, he noticed that night had fallen. For now, he put aside the idea of upgrading his abilities and focused on acquiring a new power.
(Unlock Progress: 74%)
Glancing at the accumulated energy points, Syd poured all of them into the unlocking progress.
The progress bar flickered before updating.
(Unlock Progress: 78%)
There was no notification sound, which made the corner of Syd's mouth twitch slightly.
"It seems there's no new ability at 75%..."
A little disappointed, he didn't dwell on it.
Since there was no new ability at 75%, it was highly likely he'd awaken one at 80%.
With 78% already reached, 80% wasn't far off.
Had it not been for his recent trip to space, which slowed his energy accumulation, he might have already gained a new ability.
Time passed, and soon the sun rose again, bathing the world in brilliant light.
Syd continuously absorbed the sunlight. Once his internal light energy was fully restored, he began circulating it and spoke aloud.
[Divine Word EXP +1]
[Divine Power of Light EXP +1]
[Divine Body EXP +1]
A series of notifications appeared.
[Divinity EXP +1]
Occasionally, he even absorbed some faith power, which enhanced his divinity.
Gradually, all four of his abilities progressed toward level five.
As the sun climbed higher, at around ten in the morning, one of Syd's abilities advanced to level five at an astonishing speed—much earlier than expected.
After achieving level five in flight, this was his second level five ability!
[Divine Word EXP +1]
With the final notification, Syd felt a profound change within him.
[Ability: Divine Word (Max/Max) Level Five]
"Divine Word has reached level five?"
The sound that escaped Syd's mouth was now filled with a mysterious, profound resonance, echoing with a unique rhythm.
The moment he spoke, he was startled.
He realized his voice had undergone a significant transformation.
To put it simply, it now sounded like the voice of a true god.
Since he was the one hearing it, he wasn't too deeply affected.
But he couldn't help but wonder what effect it would have on others who heard this level-five Divine Word.
After a moment of curiosity, he set aside his thoughts about the voice and focused on the most crucial aspect of Divine Word.
The power of blessings or curses contained in divine speech!
With that in mind, Syd took out the Tesseract.
In a flash of blue light, he vanished from the secluded alley and reappeared in a dense forest.
The humid scent of plants and soil filled his nose.
Syd floated in the air, searching for a target.
It didn't take long for one to appear.
A black bear cautiously poked its head out, sniffing the air.
Its small black eyes lit up when it saw Syd.
However, after noticing that this being was floating in the air—something it had never seen before—it hesitated.
The unknown threat made the bear instinctively retreat, ready to abandon its approach.
After all, there were easier prey to hunt without challenging an unpredictable being.
Unfortunately for the bear, Syd had no intention of letting it go.
The next moment, Syd spoke.
"Your vision, reliant on light, shall fade."
As his words fell, Syd watched the bear closely, anticipating its reaction.
He had long wanted to try depriving a creature of its sight.
After all, it was widely known that sight depended on light.
Previously, he hadn't succeeded because his control over light wasn't strong enough. But what about using Divine Word?
The mysterious, rhythmic divine words reverberated through the area.
The statement seemed to carry the weight of truth itself—as if it was the fundamental answer to the universe.
The black bear, which had been retreating, found its vision gradually fading, until it was plunged into complete darkness.
"Roar!"
In a panic, the bear roared and thrashed about wildly, completely disoriented.
Watching its reaction, Syd immediately knew the curse had worked.
At the same time, his heightened sensitivity to light allowed him to observe something.
The bear's eyes were still physically intact, but they could no longer receive light.
It was as if its eyes were naturally incapable of perceiving light—as though they were fundamentally disconnected from it.
It was as if this condition had always been the truth, like a law of reality.
Moreover, his divine intuition told him that this state would persist indefinitely. It was a permanent effect!
"So this is a divine curse?"
Syd found it a bit terrifying.
If he casually cursed someone, that person would be doomed for life.
Truly, gods were unreasonable, domineering beings, far above the concerns of mortals.
Of course, this didn't mean Syd could use Divine Word to accomplish everything.
He could feel that when he cursed the bear, a small amount of his light energy had been consumed.
Clearly, for Divine Word to take effect, it required light energy or divine power to fuel it.
However, Syd also noticed that this energy consumption only occurred when he spoke. Once the effect took hold, no further energy was required to maintain it.
This didn't surprise him—it was as he had expected.
What did surprise him was how little light energy had been used. It was almost negligible!
If he hadn't been paying close attention, he might not have noticed the energy loss at all!
He proceeded to test the curse on two other animals, one large and one small, and found the light energy consumption to be roughly the same.
In that instant, he realized something.
Even if he cursed a person right now, the amount of light energy consumed would likely be similar!
Under the influence of Divine Word, the energy cost for cursing or blessing mortals was the same.
Syd guessed that unless the individual in question had extraordinary powers or the curse or blessing was particularly extreme, the light energy required wouldn't vary much.
Clearly, in the eyes of divine speech, the essence of mortals was all the same, with little to no distinction.
After testing the curse, Syd turned his attention to blessings.
A thought popped into his head.
"Can I now grant abilities to others?"
Syd had a feeling that if he blessed someone, they might gain abilities within the realm of light, such as optical invisibility.
Of course, since he hadn't tested it yet, he couldn't be sure if that was truly the case.
(End of Chapter)
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