A requirement to equip a sword-type weapon?
Daniel instinctively frowned. He hadn’t expected this at all—his newly synthesized God Rank Skill came with a weapon restriction.
But after thinking about it more carefully, he realized it made perfect sense. After all, if there were no weapon restriction, how could he expect to execute a "slash" with just a staff?
As for sword-type weapons, they weren’t exactly hard to come by.
In fact, Daniel had several orange-grade swords sitting idle in his inventory. He had barely paid them any attention before—orange weapons barely offered any noticeable boost to his attribute values, making them practically negligible in combat.
However, with the advent of [Phantom Slash], everything had changed.
This skill packed a decent punch.
Currently, Daniel’s Agility stat hovered just above 20,000. That meant a single use of the skill could unleash roughly 600 million points of damage.
While that might sound impressive on paper, it still wasn’t enough to truly threaten the level of enemies Daniel was now facing.
Still, Daniel remained calm. He hadn’t even maxed the skill out yet.
"Do you wish to fully upgrade this skill?"
Without hesitation, Daniel selected "Yes."
Almost instantly, the skill panel transformed again.
But to Daniel’s surprise, upgrading the skill to full didn’t enhance the first three effects. Instead, it added a completely new fourth effect:
[Effect 4: Blessing from the Abyss — Each time you use the skill, you gain a chance to roll a die. The number rolled ×100 is your final damage multiplier.]
Reading this, Daniel’s mouth twitched slightly.
With this fourth effect in play, [Phantom Slash] became something entirely different.
A minimum multiplier of 100×, and a maximum of 600×—this meant that every time he activated the skill, the potential damage would range from 60 billion to 360 billion.
Now that, Daniel had to admit, was truly satisfying.
Of course, it was still a melee-range skill, which brought its own share of risks. Melee combat inevitably involved swordsmanship, something Daniel had never truly studied. He was basically clueless in that department.
So even though he had a God Rank Skill, simply swinging a sword wildly wouldn’t cut it. [Phantom Slash] required proper execution and finesse.
Still, he was eager to try out how it felt to wield a sword-based skill.
He reached into his bag and pulled out a single-handed sword.
Activating [Phantom Slash], he immediately felt the weapon become light as a feather in his grip. When he gave it a casual swing, a glowing arc lingered in the air—like a blade of light carving through the void.
As expected of a God Rank Skill—it was undeniably powerful.
But when it came to practicality, [Starlight Flurry] still edged it out.
Daniel didn’t linger in the warehouse much longer. His clones had already begun traveling through various Anygates, scattered across the world.
And yet, even with Anygate’s immense range, Daniel underestimated just how vast the world had become. Though Anygates weren’t yet present in every city, the number of active portals had already surpassed a hundred million.
Even with his clones spread out, it was impossible to cover every single gate in the short term.
During this period, Daniel himself didn’t remain idle. He assisted Alice in completing her Star Upgrade Quest.
Alice had already completed the second Star Upgrade Quest and was now in the third stage.
Coincidentally, the final stage of her quest also involved a God Rank Skill.
To Daniel, helping her complete the task was trivial. With a few more authorizations granted, Alice successfully completed her second Star Upgrade Quest.
In just a single day, she had advanced to become a Two-Star Awakener.
Even among the elf race, this achievement was unprecedented. She was the first in recorded history to reach that milestone so swiftly.
Once her quest was complete, Daniel returned to the Abyss, pondering whether he should venture deeper into its core.
It was at that moment that he received an urgent call from Alice.
"Your Eminence, the Great Crossbridge, I have an urgent matter to report."
Upon hearing her voice, Daniel immediately summoned the Divine Temple.
Inside the Infinite Divine Temple,
Alice stood before Daniel, who sat upon his throne, and respectfully bowed her head.
"Your Eminence, I have now completed the Star Upgrade Quest. My talent has evolved into what is now known as ’Sentinel of the Stars.’"
Daniel nodded. He already knew this.
His own skill [Starlight Flurry] had also evolved into [Meteor Arrowstorm].
In terms of performance, the new version simply had a larger area of effect and higher damage output. Nothing too groundbreaking. Still, when he thought about it carefully, [Meteor Arrowstorm] could probably annihilate a high-level underground labyrinth with ease.
Just from one devotee, he had gained such a powerful ability.
So what if he recruited another devotee?
That thought lingered in Daniel’s mind. He made a silent decision to prioritize the task of recruiting a second devotee.
At that very moment, Daniel noticed something new in his [Devotee Skills] panel: a new passive skill had been added.
It was a Talent Specialization from Alice herself—[Spirit of the Bow].
The effect was somewhat similar to [Spirit of Skills], except it only enhanced bow-type damage, making it less flexible overall.
Still, even with its limitations, the passive was undeniably strong.
So far, Daniel had never seen this kind of unique passive on anyone else but himself.
Alice continued her report:
"Your Eminence, I’ve just received intelligence from the elven side."
"A powerful awakener from the Orc clan has broken into the Misty Mountains."
"According to the Elven Queen’s judgment, this individual is likely stronger than I am. However, it’s unclear whether they’ve reached full awakening. So far, we’ve been unable to obtain further intel from within our network."
"May I ask, was this Orc clan awakener sent by you?"
Alice’s perception had clearly broadened. The fact that this Orc was stronger than she—despite possessing a God Rank Skill—indicated one thing:
The Orc almost certainly had ties to a god.
And in such a case, the simplest and most direct way to clarify the situation was to ask her own god.
Daniel’s expression darkened upon hearing her words.
Clearly, this Orc clan had nothing to do with him.
He only had one devotee right now—Alice.
Which left him with a troubling conclusion:
Could this mysterious Orc have been arranged by another god?