Chapter 073 – Balance Messenger and Spell Harmony
......
The inheritance had already begun, there was no reason for it to be interrupted.
Matthew chose to continue.
Thus, more information flooded into his mind like a tidal wave.
He stood in front of the stone tablet, his eyes tightly closed, beads of sweat the size of beans seeping from his forehead.
Black and white images flashed before Matthew's eyes like a slideshow.
A quick look at "paw𝑟ead.com" will leave you more fulfilled.
In a few breaths.
Not only had he successfully received the inheritance of the Balance Envoy, but he also learned part of the story of King Mingtan, the first Balance Envoy of the Su Clan.
Matthew slowly opened his eyes.
The tadpole text on the stone tablet began to twist rapidly, and soon "evaporated" out of thin air.
The dozen or so patterns behind the stone tablet did the same.
Matthew turned around and asked in a hoarse voice:
"After you came in, did you see anything on the stone tablet and the stones?"
Bobo shook his head silently.
Lumiere looked curiously at the stone tablet:
"Hasn't this always been blank?"
Matthew nodded silently in his heart.
This proved that his guess about the stone tablet was correct - only those with the potential to become a Balance Envoy would see the tadpole text and those patterns.
This required at least two conditions:
First, and most importantly, the imprint of the Su Clan;
Second, the person touching the stone tablet must have at least two legendary paths or two particularly powerful forces within them.
These should be the necessary conditions to trigger the inheritance of the Balance Envoy.
Once this threshold is passed, accepting the inheritance becomes very easy. For example, Matthew didn't recognize the content of the tadpole text at all, but he easily understood the information that was poured into his mind.
It is estimated that the person who left the inheritance considered that the birth of the Balance Envoy is not easy.
Therefore, they opened the door of convenience.
Matthew, who had traveled south and endured the hardships of the journey, finally got what he wanted.
But there was still a hint of confusion in his eyes.
......
"Prompt: You have received the inheritance of the 'Special Profession: Balance Envoy'. You can choose from the following two methods to add the abilities of the Balance Envoy to your ability list——
1. Advance (Open the special path: Balance of All Things)
2. Part-time (Face XP penalty)"
......
According to Matthew's previous thoughts, he would most likely choose to advance directly.
After all, the Balance Envoy has a special path, which means that future achievements are limitless.
However, after taking stock of the inherited information.
Matthew hesitated.
He didn't impulsively make a decision, but closed his eyes and began to recall the origin of the Balance Envoy profession.
To sort out these things, one must start with King Mingtan.
According to the information stored in the stone tablet, King Mingtan was the first Balance Envoy in this world.
In that unknown era.
After a terrifying disaster swept across the Eastern Continent, King Mingtan, who had a premonition, led people to board twelve ocean-going ships and left their homeland, heading west in search of a safe haven.
During the crossing of the Endless Ocean, King Mingtan's fleet encountered two major difficulties.
The first difficulty occurred in the southeastern part of the Endless Ocean.
There, the seabed has a trench that leads directly to the abyss, where a sea monster capable of destroying the world lives. It is said to be one of the 'Twilight Creations'.
When King Mingtan's fleet passed over the trench, they were ambushed by the sea monster, which swallowed the ship at the front of the fleet in one gulp.
The sea monster was extremely large, almost as wide as the land, and its body length was endless.
Everyone on the ship was shocked, only King Mingtan stood up.
He left the ship alone, used a flying spell to fly to the belly of the sea monster, and asked to negotiate with it.
The sea monster admired King Mingtan's courage and said it was willing to give him a chance.
But the sea monster then said that the negotiation could not take place at sea, it had to be at the bottom of the sea.
So King Mingtan followed the sea monster to the bottom of the sea.
The negotiation lasted about 72 hours. At that time, the sea was covered with dark clouds and stormy weather, which was quite frightening. A few captains with weak will secretly drove the ship away.
When King Mingtan finished negotiating with the sea monster and returned to the sea, he found that only five ships were waiting for him.
He didn't get angry, he just sighed and said:
"Those who stay in place can still survive, how can those who sneak away possibly survive?"
Sure enough.
When everyone was cheering to welcome King Mingtan back on board, and the fleet successfully sailed through the stormy sea, they soon saw the wreckage left by those ships that had run away earlier.
King Mingtan told the others.
The people on these ships were also eaten by the sea monster, just like the first ship.
Fortunately, he had negotiated with the sea monster, and the latter would no longer trouble the remaining people.
The remaining crew members cheered and jumped for joy.
Some people were curious about the specific content of King Mingtan's negotiation with the sea monster, and what method King Mingtan used to dispel the sea monster's idea of eating them.
Unfortunately, King Mingtan always kept his mouth shut about this topic.
Until he died, no third person knew the content of that negotiation.
Afterwards, the fleet headed west, and a few months later, they arrived at the western edge of the Endless Ocean. According to later estimates, it was less than three days' journey from the Savage Tooth Peninsula, which belonged to the Aindora Continent.
Here, King Mingtan's fleet encountered a second very tricky problem——
A plague broke out on the ship.
This plague was very strange, and everyone's symptoms were different. King Mingtan found that the stronger the Su Clan people, the more severe the plague on their bodies.
Especially the high-ranking professionals led by the Taoists, each one was sicker than the last.
The herbs and spells they mastered were of no use.
The people of the Su clan began to die in large numbers.
Even though King Mingtan tried hard to solve the problem, he was helpless and fell ill himself not long after.
Fortunately, there were still some healthy people on the ship. Under the command of King Mingtan, they continued to sail and finally arrived at the Savage Tooth Peninsula after some time.
The fleet of the Su clan docked here for nearly half a year.
Those who died from the plague eventually accounted for two-thirds of the population on the ship, especially the Taoists, who were almost wiped out.
This was the fundamental reason why this special profession gradually lost its heritage.
During this period, the Su clan, in order to save themselves, began to frequently interact with the local natives, and a large amount of trade was conducted between the two sides.
Not long after, the seriously ill King Mingtan sent people to learn some voodoo techniques from the native shamans.
Under the strong recommendation of the shaman, King Mingtan, out of desperation, fed the remaining sick people, including himself, a powerful voodoo.
As a result, a miraculous thing happened. After the voodoo entered the body, the symptoms of the plague were indeed greatly alleviated. Although it was not completely eradicated, it at least saved lives.
King Mingtan was very emotional at the time. If they could have arrived at the Savage Tooth Peninsula earlier, perhaps more people could have been saved.
Unfortunately, fate was already cast, and no one could change it.
King Mingtan, who barely survived, began to study the plague in his body.
He was a true genius. In the Su Kingdom, he was once the leader of the Great Wall Mage Group and was rewarded for his merits in resisting the demons.
When he arrived at the Savage Tooth Peninsula, his professional level was a LV16 Great Wall Mage plus a LV4 Taoist, a semi-legendary standard.
Soon, his research yielded preliminary results.
King Mingtan's research showed that the plague itself was just a fuse. The large number of deaths among the Su clan on the ship was essentially due to the differences in laws and domains between the East and West continents.
Why did so many Taoists die?
Because these Taoists from the Su Kingdom mostly mastered the power of two domains at the same time, controlling wind, rain, thunder and lightning, and summoning zombies and demons. This was actually content within one domain in the Eastern Continent, and anyone could learn it.
But the domains of the Western Continent had long been divided by the gods. If one dared to touch different domains, they would inevitably suffer a backlash from the laws. Compared with the plague, which was just a symptom amplifier, what actually killed a large number of Su clan people was the power within them.
The voodoo given by the native shaman just happened to have the effect of weakening power and making people weak, so it could greatly alleviate the symptoms.
This discovery made King Mingtan extremely depressed. He knew that the gods didn't even take the initiative to make a move. This was the automatic reaction of the domain deeply imprinted by them.
This meant that the Western Continent was not an ideal refuge for the Eastern ancestors.
However, they no longer had a choice. They could not return to their homeland, so they had to adapt.
The information about the following inheritance was somewhat vague.
Matthew only knew that after King Mingtan left the Savage Tooth Peninsula, he spent a long time studying the domain situation of the Western Continent. Eventually, he used a divine artifact brought from the Eastern Continent as the foundation to create the Balance Domain out of thin air to reconcile the opposing forces within his body.
He succeeded and stepped into the legendary realm with it.
But he also failed, because even King Mingtan himself had to rely on that divine artifact to maintain a long-term balance.
For generations, the Balance Envoys, if they wanted to further their career, had to sign a contract with that divine artifact.
In the inheritance information Matthew received, there were also annotations from the Balance Envoys of the past generations about that divine artifact.
From their attitude towards the divine artifact, it was not hard to see that this thing was not reliable at all!
For example, the second generation Balance Envoy, who was also the fourth son of King Mingtan, left this annotation:
"The divine artifact is unpredictable, and the heavenly path is inscrutable."
This was still quite euphemistic.
By the time of the seventh generation Balance Envoy, the style began to deviate:
"The path to legend for a Balance Envoy is to catch the spirit of the artifact everywhere, right? You can never guess where it will hide the next second. At this time, if you think back to the scene when you signed the contract with it, you would wish to slap yourself."
And the previous generation Balance Envoy, when the inheritance was about to be cut off, left this annotation:
"Stupid spirit, always neglecting its duty, it can't fulfill its original promise at all!
The path of balance was wrong from the beginning. Everything is biased, where is the balance?
Unless you can tap into the two most primitive forces from the beginning.
But how can a mortal do this?
It's too hard, too hard, it's not balanced, whoever loves balance, let them balance!"
...
As can be seen, the profession of Balance Envoy is full of uncertainty. It was a new profession created by King Mingtan for self-rescue.
Although it allows one to step into the Balance Domain, it is unnecessary for Matthew.
Because he already had one foot in the Balance Domain.
"King Mingtan and his people were quite pitiful. From the timeline, when they arrived at the Savage Tooth Peninsula, the Ascension of the Heavenly Palace had not yet happened! The domain laws would subconsciously try to please the gods, which is why the plague was fueled."
"If they had arrived after the Ascension of the Heavenly Palace, things might have been different. The domains that had been cleansed by the Cataclysm Mage of the gods' imprint would not actively resist!""According to the descriptions in the inheritance, the Taoist profession mainly controls the wind, rain, thunder, and lightning, and summons zombies and imps. This is equivalent to a combination of a shaping mage and a necromancer. In this era, these two domains do not conflict. Could it be that before the ascension of the Heavenly Palace, the gods had already subdivided their domains to this extent? Would the undead and shaping, both belonging to the spell domain, start fighting each other?"
Matthew sighed lightly, finding it somewhat unbelievable.
For him, this inheritance hid too much useful information, which could even be more valuable than the profession of the Balance Envoy.
But it also left him with many doubts.
How did King Mingtan negotiate with the sea monster, a creature of twilight?
Was the negotiation related to the bizarre ritual of the Su people entering the sea before their death?
Did the Taoists really die in large numbers due to power conflicts?
What was the artifact that King Mingtan used to open the domain of balance?
Where is it now?
These were all things Matthew was interested in.
However, he also knew that not every question in this world could find an answer, and many mysteries were destined to disappear in the fog of history. Being too obsessed could easily lead to one's own death.
Most importantly, he now had to make a choice.
"My path is already very clear, nature and undead, this is an unchangeable journey."
"I don't need too powerful advancement, what I need more is stability, most of the random factors in the advancement process must be eliminated!"
"I need balanced power to counterbalance the two paths. Even the system name has been scrambled by the two big brothers of Undead and Nature. If their power grows, they might start a fight inside my body. So, I need this power, but at the same time, there is no need to pay too much for the profession of Balance Envoy."
After figuring out what he needed, Matthew's thoughts became incredibly clear.
...
"Prompt: You have chosen 'Part-time', you have consumed a large amount of XP, you have obtained 'Balance Envoy LV1' (Second Profession)!
Warning: When promoting the second profession 'Balance Envoy', you will face a part-time penalty, that is, you need to consume an additional 50% of XP!
You have obtained the professional characteristic of the 'Balance Envoy': Supreme Harmony.
Supreme Harmony: You can harmonize several kinds of power in your body, making them in a balanced and stable state, so as not to conflict;
At the same time, you also obtained the ability of 'Harmony Spell'.
Harmony Spell: Through a spell action (cannot be omitted), you can choose two spells or abilities from your own ability list that belong to different domains for harmony.
After the harmony is completed, you can upgrade one of the spells or abilities to 'Enhanced Spell (Ability)', which will have a stronger effect when released.
The other harmonized spell or ability will automatically enter the cooldown time.
Note 1: Different spells will have different enhancement effects after being harmonized with each other.
Note 2: The number of 'Harmony Spells' you can use per day is now 2 times."
...
After obtaining Supreme Harmony, Matthew could clearly feel that the power in his body had become more balanced.
Above the Tai Chi symbol, the path of balance that was originally a dotted line has now become a solid line.
Matthew could see many green and gray light spots flowing from Nature and Undead into Balance, eventually mixing into dark green light spots.
However, the dark green light spots did not stay in Balance for long, they quickly dispersed into Nature and Undead.
Soon, the dark green light spots entering the realm of life and death were re-split into gray and green, each driving each other back to their own territory.
So it goes back and forth.
Although the number of light spots in the three paths varies, a dynamic balance has been formed!
The hidden danger that had been buried in his heart was finally relieved.
This made Matthew very happy.
What he was more interested in was the ability of spell harmony, which could harmonize abilities from different domains together, thereby making one of them exert greater power.
The key is that different combinations can exchange different enhancement effects.
This is very interesting.
Matthew couldn't help but try one on the spot.
This ability requires a standard spell action, which lasts about five seconds.
After the harmony was completed.
One of the two abilities Matthew chose showed available, and the other entered the cooldown time.
...
"Prompt: You used the Harmony Spell, the targets for harmony are 'Wild Shape (Raven)' and 'Sack of Corruption Mastery';
After the harmony, 'Wild Shape (Raven)' is enhanced to 'Wild Shape (Corrupted Raven)'.
It is expected that the raven form you transform into will slightly increase in size, perception and agility +1, and possess a powerful infection ability of the Sack of Corruption!"
...
"This is fun!"
If it weren't for the limit on the number of times, Matthew estimated that he would play with it every day!
The most interesting point of this ability is that as his own strength increases, the acquisition of abilities will become more and more, and the results of combinations will also increase exponentially.
If it weren't for Lumiere and Bobo watching by the side.
He couldn't wait to transform into a raven and fly around now!
After spending a lot of effort.
Matthew calmed down.
In addition to the professional characteristics, the first-level Balance Envoy also brought him a new ability.
...
"Balance Perception: No matter where you go, you can sense the local energy field. If there is any imbalance, you will immediately capture it."You can use this ability to track elements, or as a basis to rearrange and repair the energy field."
...
This is also a quite useful auxiliary ability.
Energy fields are usually perceptible only to elemental creatures.
They are mainly composed of the four major elements and attributes such as spirit.
The absence of a certain energy usually represents an anomaly in the energy field.
Some powerful monsters will also change the local energy field as they pass by, making it suitable for tracking enemies.
As for rearranging the energy field, Matthew doesn't have that ability yet, but if he encounters some patchwork tasks in the future, he can certainly give it a try.
"The continuous expansion of the Mark of the Undead may be related to the imbalance of the energy field."
Matthew's mind was spinning fast, and he immediately found a use for this ability.
And it's a very useful one!
So far.
The LV1 Balance Messenger has brought Matthew a passive professional trait and two abilities that are either practical or interesting.
And all he paid was just a portion of his XP!
"The level one Balance Messenger is enough for me now. Next, I should advance to the Undead Night. If the Balance Messenger can show a certain stability in the future and prove that this path has more prospects, it's not impossible to redevelop the second profession into the main one."
Matthew thought to himself.
Of course, this is not without cost, it would lose a lot of XP.
But what Matthew has the most is XP!
...
"I'm ready, let's go!"
After finishing his part-time job, Matthew turned around without hesitation.
He didn't even glance at the tomb passage faintly revealed in the depths of the square.
Bobo was astonished:
"You're done already? That was too fast!"
Matthew was speechless:
"Do you like to dawdle?"
Bobo hesitated:
"But aren't you here to advance? This seems too easy!"
"Easy?"
Matthew laughed:
"You just happened to see the satisfaction I felt when I reaped the fruits of my labor, not the hardships I went through in the storm."
Matthew was not exaggerating.
In order to obtain the inheritance of the Balance Messenger, he indeed paid a lot.
Just because of some legends, he did not hesitate to cross most of the southern land, crossing the difficult rainforest all the way from the plague-ridden Zeshui City.
If it were an ordinary person, he would have died halfway.
And on the Island of Balance, he withstood the temptation from the bottom of the sea. If his resistance was a little lower, he would have walked into the sea like those old people of the Su tribe, embracing an unknown fate.
Even if he got the news of the Way of Balance in the end, he might have suffered a big loss from Yu Lian.
As long as Yu Lian pointed him to a dead end, or if he didn't bump into Bobo, didn't leave a good impression on Yu Lian, the latter might have charged him a lot of money, or asked Matthew to do something of equal value.
These experiences combined, in fact, far exceed the normal effort needed to advance.
Although he only got a part-time job in the end, Matthew didn't feel it was not worth it.
Life is like this, after hard work, having a harvest is enough to make him feel satisfied, no matter how big or small the harvest is.
"What I mean is, are we just leaving? Aren't we going to take a look inside?"
Bobo reluctantly looked back at the entrance of the underwater tomb.
Matthew's voice came from ahead:
"I told you, I'm not a grave robber."
With that, he walked straight out of the secret door.
"But, but, it's a waste not to blow something up before we leave..."
Bobo kept looking back every three steps.
Suddenly, a big hand stretched out from the secret door and forcefully pulled her out!
The stubborn mechanic had to compromise in the end.
The way out of the lake bottom was also incredibly smooth.
They didn't encounter any monsters along the way and returned to the shore.
"We're really lucky!"
Lumiere habitually jumped on the shore—
This was a side effect of the frogman potion, his jumping ability was astonishing, a casual jump was four or five meters high.
"Not even a single monster bumped into, it's really strange, usually there are so many plesiosaurs around the Dragon Lake!"
However, Lumiere, who was bouncing in mid-air, soon changed color:
"Run!"
Matthew noticed that he was looking in the direction where the Cataclysm Cult and the Sandstorm Thieves had fought before!
"Is someone coming? The Cataclysm Cult or the Thieves?"
Matthew asked cautiously.
"No, there are monsters all over there! My God, run, there are all corpses over there! The two groups of people we just persuaded were all wiped out by the monsters in the lake!"
Lumiere couldn't help but shout.
At this moment on the shore, several monsters had gathered from that direction.
Without a word, Matthew grabbed Bobo's hand and ran.
Lumiere hurriedly followed.
The group fled into the rainforest, and after a while, a few plesiosaurs came over.
They looked at the dense rainforest, lowly howling a few times, wanting to step forward, but seemed to hold back because of fear of something.
They gradually retreated and eventually disappeared on the shore.
...
A day later.
At the edge of the Bitter Water Swamp.
Three figures slowly emerged.
"What do you think happened to those two groups of people yesterday?"
Lumiere threw the question he had been pondering over all night at Matthew:
"Did you secretly post a bounty task for the Dragon Lake to both sides, letting them draw away the monsters for you?"Matthew responded with a smile:
"A true Necromancer could indeed do that."
Bobo corrected him:
"And you are a true Necromancer."
Matthew glanced at her:
"You didn't really have to follow me all the way here. After leaving the tomb, the favor you owed me has been repaid."
Bobo said seriously:
"The debt of a Mechanist isn't so easily repaid. Yesterday's tomb raiding went too smoothly. Today, I must help you blow something up!"
Matthew shrugged, no longer trying to dissuade her.
Instead, it was Bobo who looked at the reeds ahead and curiously asked:
"So, what are you doing here exactly?"
"Looking for a few zombies to spend the night."
Matthew said casually.
His gaze searched the edge of the swamp, and quickly, he found his desired target.
They were two zombies trapped in the reeds and mud.
There were shiny nameplates hanging around their necks.
"Found them!"
Matthew turned around happily.
But he was met with Bobo's disgusted look:
"Even zombies can spend the night, Necromancers are truly unpredictable."
Matthew was at a loss whether to laugh or cry.
He was just about to explain that it was a misunderstanding.
When at that moment.
Lumiere, who had been on the lookout, suddenly spoke up:
"There's another fight up ahead, hehe, I love watching others fight."
"Let's see who these fools are, causing trouble on my turf."
"Hehe, one group of fools is from yesterday's thief gang, the other group of fools, um, they look familiar... Holy crap!!"
"That's my tribe!!"
......
(End of the chapter)