[Calamity Priest (Hero Rank)]
[A priest who worships calamity, both a spreader of disaster and suffering and its sacrificial offering—a servant of the Calamity Monarch.]
[Advancement Materials: One Calamity Vessel (100,000 Points), one Order Wreath (100,000 Points), one treasure containing a vast accumulation of calamity concepts (100,000 Points).]
[Auxiliary Materials: Phoenix's Essence Blood (50,000 Points), 100ml of Calamity Spring Water (10,000 Points).]
[Advancement Ritual: Incite a disaster affecting no fewer than 500,000 people. At the peak of despair, consume all advancement and auxiliary materials, then intervene to significantly mitigate the disaster. The greater the mitigation, the better the ritual effect.]
Looking at these requirements, Luo Shu's face turned ashen.
What kind of messed-up advancement method is this?
Not only are the materials absurdly expensive, but the ritual is this convoluted, too?
Is this asking me to play both the villain and the saviour in some self-directed drama?
Who could possibly complete an advancement like this?
With a frustrated slap, Luo Shu covered his face before sharing the details with Utaha.
The moment she saw Luo Shu's advancement conditions, Utaha fell silent.
Lying on his lap, she quietly studied his chin before finally sighing:
"All the joy from earning money just vanished in an instant."
"Yeah," Luo Shu agreed, shaking his head to clear his thoughts.
No matter how unreasonable the conditions were, now that he knew them, he had to start preparing.
Sitting around doing nothing wasn't an option.
"Speaking of which, I haven't even mastered the Calamity Bringer Class properly yet."
As he spoke, Luo Shu pulled up another system window.
[Calamity Bringer (Progress: 3%)]
This was a progress bar specially created by his obedient AI God's Servant to track his Class advancement in real-time.
And in terms of Class progress, Luo Shu had a pitiful 3%.
The reason was simple—he had absorbed and bestowed very little misfortune. Apart from Kisara, Yoshimura, and Kurumi Tokisaki, there were hardly any others.
Moreover, Luo Shu had only briefly crossed hands with these three individuals, mostly defeating them in a single move without any prolonged struggle.
Under such circumstances, it was only natural that his progress remained low at just 3%.
Normally, reaching 100% progress would fulfil the conditions for advancing to the next stage.
As for pure ability advancement—such as upgrading an Elite Rank ability to Hero Rank—that could be achieved by stacking points.
Of course, advancing abilities in this superficial manner would eventually hit a ceiling below the Demigod Rank.
Only a very few, through sheer dumb luck, might barely scrape into the Demigod Rank.
But to truly become a standard Demigod, one had to deeply deconstruct their Hero Rank abilities and construct their own Class.
In a way, a Class could be considered akin to a divine office for the gods.
"Huh? Why don't I have a progress bar like this?"
Utaha, who had been temporarily granted access to the shared system interface by Luo Shu, asked in surprise.
Hearing this, Luo Shu thought for a moment before explaining:
"Oh, that. According to my God's Servant, this progress bar only appears for hosts and Familia members who possess a Class."
"Since you currently only have abilities and no Class, Utaha, it's normal that you don't have a progress bar."
"I see..." Utaha, who had hoped to check her mastery of her abilities, couldn't hide her disappointment.
Seeing her expression, Luo Shu chuckled and suggested:
"How about this—why don't you browse the system recently and see if there's an ability you can use to try constructing your own Class?"
The Divine Pantheon Reconstruction System didn't actually provide Classes. It only offered a vast array of abilities, while Classes had to be pioneered by the Familia members themselves.
Just as its name, the Divine Pantheon Reconstruction System, implied, if everything could be bought with points, the Divine Pantheon might as well mass-produce gods instead of going through the trouble of nurturing its members.
After communicating with his God's Servant and understanding this, Luo Shu naturally developed the idea of guiding his Familia to construct their own Classes.
But with recent events keeping him busy, he hadn't brought it up until now—though it wasn't too late.
Hearing Luo Shu encourage her to construct a Class, Utaha hesitated:
"Won't... that be expensive?"
In response, Luo Shu waved his hand dismissively with a smile:
"Don't let the high cost of a Class fool you. Once it matures, the benefits are immense."
"Take my Class, Calamity Bringer, for example. It practically makes me immune to all attacks except instant-death strikes. As long as I'm not instantly killed, I can absorb the damage through Calamity Absorption and return it to the enemy with interest."
"Beyond that, I can even absorb misfortunes like illness or bad luck and bestow them upon my foes."
In short, while the Calamity Bringer's abilities were all centred around manipulating misfortune, they were incredibly comprehensive—effectively forming the backbone of Luo Shu's combat prowess. They allowed him to hold his own against anyone below the Demigod Rank, rivalling the legendary '50-50' of the Hatake clan.
Of course, if an enemy grew careless and fell victim to Luo Shu's schemes, outright elimination wasn't out of the question.
Given this, Luo Shu was naturally a strong advocate for Class abilities.
"Don't mistake my complaints about the cost of ability advancement for reluctance. If I can advance, I absolutely will."
"Moreover, constructing your Class isn't something that can be done quickly. While the system provides convenience, you'll still have to start with Common Rank abilities for the initial build. The points consumption at the beginning isn't too high either, so our current income can still cover it."
Hearing Luo Shu say this, Utaha pondered for a moment before sighing:
"Fine, I can't argue with you. After all, you're the head of the household."
Luo Shu smiled wryly and patted Utaha, signalling for her to get off his lap:
"It's about time I set off now."
"If I delay any longer, I might miss the meeting with the Ghouls."
At these words, Utaha's eyes flickered, but instead of getting up, she turned sideways to rest her head on Luo Shu's lap, teasing:
"Since you're leaving, as payment for your guidance, I'll give you some pointers too~~"
...
Half an hour later, at the entryway.
Having exerted himself repeatedly with his waist and it being late at night, Luo Shu was extremely drowsy as he yawned and pushed the door open.
Just as he clicked the door shut behind him, he turned to see Kisara crouching in the corner.
"Hey!!"
Luo Shu jumped in fright, stumbling back several steps:
"Kisara?"
"What are you doing here?"
Crouched in the corner with her knees hugged to her chest, Kisara slowly raised her head to reveal hollow eyes:
"Good evening, Shu-kun."
Luo Shu instinctively replied: "Good evening... Wait, no? Why are you here?"
"Ah, because I was waiting for you."
Kisara spoke softly with a trembling voice:
"When you left the base earlier, Meer-san said you wouldn't be coming back tonight and told me to go home, so I returned directly."
"But then at 10 pm... I received this on LINE..."
As she spoke, Kisara pulled out her phone from her pocket, unlocked it, and held it up to Luo Shu's face to show him the LINE message.
Luo Shu froze momentarily before leaning forward to read the screen, his expression instantly stiffening.
The screen displayed a chat interface labelled "Black Stockings Vixen", but that wasn't the main issue.
The problem was the angle of the photo.
It showed Utaha hugging his neck with one arm while raising the other to take the picture, clearly capturing Luo Shu pressing down on Utaha at that moment.
As for what Luo Shu was doing while pressing down on Utaha... well, that was self-explanatory.
"That woman..." Luo Shu's face twitched violently: "So that's what she meant by playing with her phone!!"
Taking such a photo and sending it to Kisara?
Utaha Kasumigaoka!
You're absolutely ruthless!!!
Just then, a distinct click sounded - the noise of a door being locked from inside.
Hearing this, Luo Shu immediately turned towards Utaha's apartment door:
"The door? Hey, wait, you're there, aren't you Utaha? You're behind that door right now!!"
From behind the door came Utaha's muffled laughter:
"Goodnight, darling~ Mua~"
"I had a wonderful time today~ See you tomorrow~"
As the sound of retreating footsteps echoed, Luo Shu's face twitched uncontrollably.
So, were all those hints earlier about this? Before leaving, she deliberately did that, as if it were an advance compensation?
This woman!!!
Luo Shu gritted his teeth but ultimately said nothing, doing nothing more than sigh before turning to look at Kisara, who was crouched on the ground.
"How long have you been waiting here?"
"Since 11 o'clock," Kisara replied in a trembling voice, hugging her knees.
Luo Shu rubbed his forehead, both exasperated and heartbroken.
"You waited over three hours... Why didn't you just barge in and stop us?"
Kisara hesitated for a moment before whispering:
"If I barged in... wouldn't Shu-kun be unhappy?"
"It's fine if I wait a little longer. It'd be worse if Shu-kun got angry with me."
'That sounded so manipulative... But if it's this girl, well... never mind, never mind. I'm the one most at fault here...' Luo Shu sighed helplessly, crouching down to pick Kisara up.
"Come on, let's go home. Try not to chat with Utaha too much from now on—she's got a wicked heart, understand?"
As she was pulled up, Kisara murmured weakly: "But... doesn't Shu-kun still have work to do tonight?"
Luo Shu exhaled a turbid breath upon hearing the voice:
"Then I'll take you along."
"Let's go, let's go!"
"Oh..."
"Stop with the 'oh's, save it for the car. Did you drive here?"
"I did!"
At the entryway.
Listening to the fading voices, Utaha leaned against the door, tilting her head upwards as she remarked:
"Well then, I suppose we're even now, Kisara-san..."