Should he go through with the advancement ritual?
That was the question David had been mulling over. After thinking it through for a while, he finally made up his mind and turned his attention back to those scrolls.
He had to give it a shot.
Setting aside his need for the Sun Goddess's power to purify those evil spirits, he also had to join the Order if he wanted to keep Roland's support.
What made David hesitate were the three "Limb Grafting Rituals" he'd already performed.
Did those count as rituals of an evil god?
David had studied ritual knowledge before. If there really was an evil god pulling the strings behind the scenes, the ritual should've summoned a curse from that evil god, not just some creepy evil spirits to mess with him.
Plus, that interface panel that appeared in his vision didn't seem to have anything to do with evil gods.
So he figured he could take the gamble...
Just as he was trying to figure out which of the eight rituals to pick, Olivia stood up from beside him, walked over to the stone table, and tapped one of the scrolls with her slender finger.
"Fernandes, I've got things to do. I'm heading out."
After dropping that line to the old man, she left without another word.
David looked at the scroll Olivia had pointed to. After carefully reading through the ritual's description, his eyes slowly widened.
"Goddess's Blessing Ritual"—a path that seemed the most useless on paper, but it had one effect that was absolutely game-breaking for David.
The first-tier Goddess's Blessing Ritual's "blessing" effect could directly double the ritualist's life energy, then grant them an equal amount of psychic energy to their current life energy.
For a regular person, that wasn't anything special, but for someone like David who already had over three hundred thousand life energy...
Could it actually work?
David's expression turned a bit strange as he pointed at that scroll. "I'll take this one."
Fernandes nodded expressionlessly, though he was pretty surprised inside. Someone like Olivia, who didn't give a damn about anything, was actually willing to point this kid in the right direction? Did he have something really special about him?
What did Olivia see?
Fernandes had no clue. He didn't have Olivia's insane ability to see through everything, but he figured he'd find out soon enough.
...
Following Fernandes's lead, David arrived at another, more spacious basement. After waiting a bit, Fernandes had someone bring over all the materials needed for the ritual.
The first-tier Goddess's Blessing Ritual didn't require anything too precious—a sun-facing "Sky Flower," a bottle of blessed holy water from the chapel, and a jar of powdered sunstone would do.
Add in a vial of the potion used to transform hunter's blood, and David's first advancement ritual was all set.
David took a deep breath and, following instructions, knelt on one knee before the elegant goddess statue in the center of the room, devoutly reciting the ritual's incantation.
Soon, he felt a warm light from somewhere far above enveloping him. The three ritual materials placed before him gradually began to glow within the circular sun formation, and then miraculously merged into a ball of light.
At the same time, David was shocked to see a notification panel pop up in his vision.
[Ritual power detected. Begin Goddess's Blessing Ritual? Warning: Current ritual success rate 30%.]
"Success rate? Only thirty percent?"
David immediately realized that the notification panel was responding to other rituals too!
This was good news. At least it proved this ritual wouldn't conflict with the mysterious power inside him.
But why was the success rate so low?
He focused his attention on the light before him and immediately sensed something indescribable—the problem was with the materials. Their quality wasn't high enough.
Well... might as well give it a try...
David chose to start the ritual directly. In an instant, that ball of light before him exploded, and the entire room was bathed in brilliance.
The statue of the Sun Goddess slowly manifested a golden phantom in the light, like a pair of golden wings unfolding in the radiance, slowly descending to cover David below.
Fernandes's eyes widened in surprise. This phenomenon meant the goddess's power had fully accepted David Frank.
Not only that, but the "divine envoy" David's ritual had summoned was more exaggerated than any blessing ritual Fernandes had ever seen—it completely exceeded his imagination.
Divine power so massive it made one tremble poured through those golden wings. The statue seemed to become a gateway to the realm of the gods, with endless power surging through from the other side.
It condensed into a supernatural life energy that flooded into David's body, attempting to double his already absurd life energy!
[Warning! Ritual failed.]
Crack!
Suddenly, David felt something light shatter. Struggling to lift his head in the surging life energy, he discovered cracks appearing on those wings representing "blessing"...
Light... the light had cracked... it was breaking apart!
Equally dumbfounded was Fernandes in the distance. He couldn't understand what the hell he was seeing.
The divine envoy's manifestation actually shattered!?
What kind of utterly blasphemous nonsense was this!
No... wait...
Fernandes suddenly noticed that the shattered light and shadow of the wings was slowly descending to David's shoulders, as if comforting David, the failed ritualist.
Not only did the goddess not bring down divine punishment, she was actually comforting the kid??
David watched those shattered fragments of light gradually dim and disappear, then turned back to Fernandes, at a loss.
"So... do I get another shot at this?"
Fernandes blinked, equally confused. "Uh, well... yeah, I guess..."
...
Normally, someone who failed a ritual definitely wouldn't get a second chance.
But David was different—he'd come in through the back door.
More importantly, Fernandes had also realized that David's ritual failure was due to other reasons.
It wasn't that the goddess rejected him, but that the medium channeling the divine power had issues.
Obviously, the problem was with the ritual materials... which made Fernandes's old face feel pretty embarrassed.
After David shared his theory with Fernandes, the old man nodded quietly and turned to walk out of the room.
"Follow me..."
This time, he was going to let David personally select his own ritual materials.
In hunter tradition, all advancement ritual materials should be collected by oneself—that's how to trigger the greatest resonance with mysterious powers.
And the Order had plenty of these first-tier advancement ritual materials. Fernandes didn't believe it today—he was going to go head-to-head with this freak David!
"That plot over there is the sun-facing Sky Flower garden. Go pick the best one."
Their first stop was the massive glass greenhouse in the church's back garden, which cultivated a large number of Sky Flowers. Fernandes pointed at the flower bed—take your pick.
David blinked.
He was supposed to pick the "best one"? How the hell was he supposed to know which was best?
But his gaze quickly locked onto the largest Sky Flower in the center of the bed. That orange-yellow flower blooming toward the sunlight looked like a trumpet made of crystal—translucent and beautiful.
"That's the one!"
David walked straight to that large flower and picked it without hesitation.
Behind him, Fernandes suddenly remembered something. His lips moved, but David's moves were too quick—before the old man could speak, he'd already come back with the flower...
Fernandes's eye twitched. He took a deep breath and chose to swallow his words.
He'd forgotten one thing—that largest Sky Flower had been planted by the Holy Maiden herself, and she treasured it like a baby...
Ah well, the girl would probably forget about the flower in a few days anyway...
The old man glanced around nervously like a thief. Seeing no one around, he immediately pulled David out of the greenhouse.
"Come on, next stop."