Shovels In Spades

Mu looked around with an almost starstruck gaze in his eyes. "This place is really, really, really cool. I did not even know that this much gold existed on the planet."

He, Daz, and Sir Albert were calmly ascending the steps of the only temple that still held a working Altar of Theft - as Sir Albert had named them.

Daz nodded. "It is rather crazy. It also makes you wonder if silly stories like the Fountain of Youth are actually true."

Mu seemed a bit startled at that thought. "... Certainly... Perhaps there is indeed merit in exploring fantastical rumours of old..."

His mind returned to the pyramid which they were quickly climbing as he asked, "Are there more shrines? I see lots of pyramids, so I can only assume..."

Daz wore a disappointed look on his face as he explained, "Basically every single shrine is broken and can't be repaired even with the system's help, but a bunch of them could turn moonlight into gold, others could turn that gold into items and structures. There's also a type of shrine for granting vast inspiration."

"All with the help of appropriate priests," Sir Albert added.

"... How fascinating... I wonder if Shangri-La exists," Mu muttered to himself as they reached the summit of the golden pyramid. "What a wonder to behold such a place would be..."

"Maybe," Daz answered as his eyes scanned the area near the shrine. "Where are Ak and Tek?"

"Hmm?" Sir Albert stroked his bearded jawline as he said, "They're busy in the main temple. From what they said they need to be in there to maximise whatever it is that's helping them detect the indigenous people of the Amazon."

He stood behind the golden altar and said, "Ready to steal something again?"

Daz sighed. "Please, stop calling it theft and stealing, regardless of how much the concept amuses you. Call it the Altar of Permanence and refer to the ritual as a process to imbue things with moonlight or whatever, just not stealing."

As a former Justice Reaper, even just the thought of stealing made Daz feel uncomfortable, oddly enough.

Sir Albert looked confused and couldn't tell why this bothered Daz so much but he still shrugged his shoulders and said, "Sure. Anyway, King Daz, you are ready, are you not?"

Daz nodded. "My skill, Astral Crystal Control."

He had thought long and hard about which of his 33 skills he would make permanent and this was the one he had finally decided on.

Initially, Daz wanted to make his Archreaper's Aura permanent since he could use that to force the Truthians to their knees in worship, but he had been able to learn from probing the system that doing so would only be possible if he first made his species permanent which required even more steps.

Namely, he'd have to make his base species as reaper permanent, then he'd have to do the same for his next evolution of Justice Reaper, and lastly, he'd then be forced to make his current race of Archreaper a part of his being.

Almost all of his skills were impossible to give a Star of Eternity to before first giving it to something or multiple things first.

His items didn't suffer this restriction, but their skills did. To make Hamson's One Shovel To Rule Them All permanent, for example, he first would have to give a Star of Eternity to the shovel itself.

Unfortunately, Rimmy was in the same boat. While Daz could make the skill to summon him permanent, he could not do the same for his class, his current race, his skills and even his stats.

Daz smiled wryly. 'It'll take me years, decades even before I can be free of the worry that I'll be stripped of my hard-earned power.'

Daz was honestly conflicted over his decision at first. When he had learned that only a handful of his weakest skills - as well as most of his non-combat skills - could be made permanent with no need to first give a Star of Eternity to something else first, he had initially wanted to simply use the gathered moonlight on his Survivor's Instincts.

Those very instincts, however, had warned him against the move.

From what he had figured out with his own intellect and wisdom was that having extremely heightened instincts would not be as valuable as having an actual combat skill against a massive cult.

'To think that simply because they use a kind of energy that I don't naturally own, most of my active battle skills aren't valid first choices.' Indeed. He would have to make his Worldforce or his Death Energy permanent before he could even think of making a skill reliant on them all permanent.

Sir Albert nodded. "Okie-dokie. This may tingle a little. Unlike the contract, a skill is a part of you and not just something attached to you, after all."

He cracked his neck then touched the altar lightly.

The next moment, a power enveloped Daz and it threatened to crush him in both body and soul. Not a beat later and the sensation was gone.

Daz frowned. 'No ranking list... I suspected as much, but still... I certainly wouldn't have protested a few more free Stars of Eternity. I guess the system isn't keen on handing them out since they can be used against it? Without them, everything you get from it becomes leverage, after all...'

Ak had said that the system was more than happy to allow the Shrine of Tezcatlipoca to do what it was supposed to do - make things not naturally belonging to a person actually belong to them or to make something that did belong to them impossible to remove.

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Daz had to wonder why it was willing to allow such a thing to happen. Perhaps it was desperate for him to successfully overcome all of the tests and come out as the sovereign of Earth?

Daz simply shook his head. There was no use speculating without further information. He instead checked his skill's information to make sure it had properly been granted the Star of Eternity.