Status Of An Awakened

"I can give you the Divine Water pond, but I want something in return."

Their expressions underwent quite a few changes when they heard him.

Doubt, hope, distrust.

Amelia opened her mouth. "Really? We can pay as much money as you want—"

"Not money."

The Divine Water pond had served its need.

It could bring Neo fortune if he sold it.

But, important treasures could not be bought with money.

Right now, Neo needed something he could use to defend himself with.

"I want a Tremor-ranked Magic Spell."

"What? That… that's the inheritance of our royal family. We can't give it to outsiders."

Amelia felt torn.

She wanted to get the Divine Water pond, but a Tremor-ranked Magic Spell was too much.

Magic Spells were divided into five ranks: Whisper, Echo, Resonance, Reverberation, Tremor.

Whisper-ranked Spells were the weakest while Tremor-ranked Spells were the strongest.

The Mermaid Country had only one Tremor-ranked Magic Spell.

It was given to Amelia's ancestor by the Great Ocean God, Poseidon.

The spell was the reason why her ancestors could establish the Mermaid Country in the harsh seas of Alaspa, which was covered by the Blood Sea from three sides.

Amelia was lost in thought when Clara put a hand on her shoulder.

The bodyguard looked at her with a deep gaze.

A sigh escaped Amelia's lips.

She understood what Clara meant. They had no choice but to get the Divine Water pond.

She saw Neo was not going to budge and spoke, "I can't make an important decision like that myself. We can appeal to the Queen, my mother, and... I think she will agree to your demand."

Her words would've sounded like a lie to anyone who knew the Queen.

The Queen of the Mermaid Country was a Tyrant Queen.

She was not someone who negotiated and instead took everything from others.

While it was true the Tyrant Queen urgently needed Divine Water in large amounts, she could force Neo to give it to them without any compensation.

However, Amelia did not think such a scenario would come to pass.

Neo was strong.

Her mother wouldn't be able to use her weapon, the overwhelming strength of hers, to take the Divine Water pond from Neo.

She would need to do a fair trade if she wanted the Divine Water.

Neo thought about her offer.

He found Amelia's words to be plausible, and although he was not strong, he was sure the Tyrant Queen would not take the Divine Water pond from him unethically.

The reason was related to why she urgently needed the Divine Water.

"I have no problem with it. When can I meet the Queen?"

"Right now. Let's go, right now!"

A small smile appeared on her face. She looked especially beautiful at the moment.

The three left the underwater cave after Neo wore the respirator; he couldn't breathe underwater without it.

Amelia and Clara found it weird how an Exalted Demigod like him had to use oxygen tanks.

But they did not point it out.

What if saying something like that got them killed?

Every Exalted Demigod was an eccentric.

They came out of the underwater cave and Neo noticed a gigantic eastern sea dragon swimming inside the sea.

The sea dragon had blue scales and a long serpentine body.

It looked majestic.

Its ferocious expression and powerful aura made all the fishes in the vicinity run away.

Noticing Neo's lingering gaze at the sea dragon, Amelia explained, "That's our ride. Only the Azure sea dragons can travel in the Alaspa Sea."

She could talk underwater without a problem.

Clara was the same.

Both of them had Bloodlines that allowed them to breathe underwater, and underwater seas were their home turf.

The demigods of Mermaid Country had Unique Skills that gave them such advantages. This was why their country was called Mermaid Country. It was not the name of a race, and instead signified the common denominator in their abilities.

The trio swam and positioned themselves above the Azure Dragon's back, and the water around the dragon in a certain radius suddenly disappeared.

They landed on the dragon's back with their feet.

Neo could see that the water was being blocked by an invisible dome, probably an ability of the Azure Dragon.

He could breathe without a problem in the air pocket by the dragon.

'Phew, finally I feel like I'm on the ground,' Neo thought.

Despite being able to breathe now, he did not remove his diving gear, as doing so would prove he could not breathe underwater.

Right now Amelia did not think he could not breathe underwater, and instead thought he was just being eccentric.

He had no intention of correcting their misunderstanding.

They began the journey.

The sea animals ran away whenever they sensed the Azure Dragon in the vicinity.

Traveling underwater, Neo felt the journey was no different from an airplane ride with a good view.

Neo could see Amelia sneaking glances at him, as if she wanted to talk but was afraid to initiate the conversation, and Clara staring at him with furrowed brows.

He did not converse with them and instead focused on himself.

He had yet to see the changes brought by the evolution of his skill.

'Status,' he thought.

[Neo Hargraves]

[Rank: Grade 5 Awakened]

[Divine Energy Purity: Grade 1 Awakened]

[Stats]

﹂Strength: 18

﹂Speed: 21

﹂Dexterity: 17

﹂Constitution: 12

﹂Luck: 0

[Affinity: Death, Shadow, Darkness, Void]

﹂Magic Spell: Necrotic Touch

[Bloodline: Monarch of Death]

﹂Unique Skill: Death, Immortal

[Quest: None]

His status screen changed after he evolved into an Awakened Demigod.

'My Divine Energy Purity is already Grade 1 Awakened?'

Divine Energy Purity was an extremely important stat.

Divine Energy could be simply thought of as the quality of fuel of Spells.

It determined the strength of Spells along with Spell mastery.

However, unlike Spell mastery, which needed to be trained for all Spells individually, Divine Energy Purity was the same for all of the Spells.

The ranks of Divine Energy were the same as the ranks of Demigods.

From Awakened to Exalted. Each rank had five sub-ranks, from Grade 5 (Lowest) to Grade 1 (Highest).

'Divine Energy Purity is good, but my physical stats are a bit…'

His stats were on the low end for an Awakened, which was understandable since he evolved recently.

Luck, however, was quite surprising.

Luck was the amount of [Fate Value].

He had never seen anyone with Luck below 1.

'Well, whatever, Luck never really mattered in the novel. So I doubt it is important.'

The most important stat was the purity of Divine Energy, which was very high for Neo.

He attributed it to him absorbing a large amount of Divine Water.

Of course, at lower rank, the physical stats mattered more, but having read the novel, Neo knew that Divine Energy Purity and the strength of Spells was what was actually more important.

You are weak? Cast a Body Strengthening Spell! You are slow? Cast a Haste Spell! Your enemy is tough? Cast a Meteorite!

'I already have a Magic Spell. [Necrotic Touch]. It must be the thing that the Grim Reaper gave me when he touched my forehead. I wonder what rank it is.'

[Necrotic Touch]

[Rank: Tremor]

[Mastery: Apprentice]

[Effect: Applies Death mark to the target through touch. (Max Stack: 5)]

Neo had to blink twice to make sure he was not dreaming.

'Holy shit! I hit a jackpot!'

Neo would've kissed the Grim Reaper if he was with him right now. The kiss would've been on the forehead, of course.

Demigods mainly fought with Magic Spells and used their Unique Skills as trump cards.

To use Magic Spells, one had to burn their God Blood.

While the God Blood could be naturally restored over time, consuming too much too quickly could kill the demigod due to anemia.

Neo was surprised to see the rank of the spell.

It seemed the Grim Reaper he met was a high-ranked personnel.

Thinking again, just not any Grim Reaper would've been sent to bring the soul of the bloodline of Hades.

'I shouldn't get too excited. While the Spell has the potential to be quite powerful due to its rank, my mastery is only Apprentice rank.'

There were five ranks of Mastery of a Spell. From lowest to highest, they were: Apprentice, Adept, Expert, Savant, and Supreme.

Next, Neo checked his Unique Skills.

[Unique Skill: Death]

[Exp: 10/10]

[Skill Effect: You Die]

The Death skill had been completely mastered.

Thanks to it, Neo gained another skill. He checked the details of the new skill's details with anticipation.

It had to be powerful considering how much trouble he had gone through to get it.

He prayed it was strong.

[Unique Skill: Immortal]

[Exp: 0/100]

[Skill Effect: You gain an extra life every 24 hours. (Max Stack: 3)]

The skill was easy to understand for Neo.

He would gain a 'stack' of extra life every 24 hours.

Each could stack three extra lives.

Each time he died, a stack would be consumed.

'What the hell is this…?'

His face contorted. This had to be a fucking bullshit! The skill was incredibly useful, but there was no point in having so many lives!

If an opponent could kill him once, he could kill him twice!

Even three or four times! Dammit!

Were all skills from the Monarch of Death bloodline so weak?

'Calm down.'

'It isn't a powerful skill, however, it's remarkable as a support skill.'

'Besides, time passes faster in the Underworld. I can go there to train my Magic Spells.'

Neo sighed. It seemed he had to keep dying in the near future.