Thus, before one assumed a Divine Role and become a demigod, their name didn’t matter. One could even tell their believers that they were the God of All Creation if they wanted to. But after assuming a Divine Role, one’s Divine Name had to be related to their role; it couldn’t be entirely random.
To avoid the trouble of having to change it in the future, Lin Xiao started making changes early.
After all, he already had the Divine Roles of Creation and Naga in his reserve. Murloc wasn’t certain yet, but there was a high chance that he could get it.
At the moment, the prayers of his believers continued to sound in his ears.
“Hear the prays of your devout believers. Almighty God of Creation, Lord of Naga and Murlocs, please guide your faithful servants.”
The prayers repeated in his ears over and over again. As a world traverser who had received professional education in the Era of Gods and read tons of fantasy novels in his previous life, Lin Xiao took herding his believers seriously.
When a situation wasn’t pressing, one mustn’t immediately answer their believer’s prayers. They had to wait it out a little.
To put it another way, one had to wait for a moment to make believers feel the difficulty of keeping their faith. A sense of distance and mystery ought to be kept.
Mysteriousness would bring fear, and fear would require spiritual sustenance. Prayers at that kind of moment would yield the best effects.
In this regard, Lin Xiao did a very good job. In his entire year, let alone his class, there weren’t many who were as good as him at cultivating their believers.
After about ten rounds of prayer, Lin Xiao responded with a deep, guttural voice, striking his believers’ ears like a rumble of thunder, setting their eardrums vibrating. “Evil is about to dawn. My children, lift your weapons and defend my glory. You shall remain within my sight.”
After that sentence, Lin Xiao expended 10,000 points of Worship Value to cast the Divine Technique, Essense of Seawater.
Countless essences of seawater, light blue in color, fell from the skies like starlight, shrouding his Spawn within their glow.
It was of no practical use, but it would let his believers feel his presence and strengthen their faith.
“The first wave will commence in five minutes. Prepare yourselves!”
A line of small text appeared in the corner of his eyes. Lin Xiao glanced at it, but didn’t make any kind of move.
According to the notice he read earlier, they would have to defeat three waves of enemies to pass the elimination assessment. This was only the first wave, so how difficult could it be?
After the five-minute countdown, a three-meter-high light gate abruptly opened at the edge of the crystal shell on the northern edge of the semi plane. Gnomes almost the size of the Murlocs emerged from it and went straight to the center of the plane where Lin Xiao’s Spawn were gathered under the guidance of a secluded force.
******
Someplace within the void, the ten balls of light at the edge of the colossal golden platform emitted rays of golden light that flew onto the platform, went through it, and plunged into the massive vortex.
In a while, within the space of the Divine Artifact, ten figures appeared, levitating in the void. The class teacher of First Class, Qiao Liang, raised his head, looked at the semi planes in the surrounding void, and said to the other class teachers, smiling, “How many students do you think would pass the two bonus stages after the first three?”
The teacher of Second Class responded, “Based on past results, it’s possible for students ranked 1 to 20 in the year. But considering the uncertainties in state and command, coupled with the fact that every wave is different, and different species counter each other, I would guess less than ten.”
Qiao Liang nodded. “A reasonable number. I wonder who it will be.”
As he spoke, he lifted his head and said to the other class teachers, “Wanna play a game? Let’s bet on which class will have the best grades for each stage. Everyone else will prepare three 5-Star cards for the winning class. How’s that?”
The other class teachers didn’t respond. Wu Hai even turned around, acting as if he didn’t hear Qiao Liang at all.
It was impossible that he would accept this kind of bet. It was common knowledge that the First and Second classes had the highest average scores. Such a bet was like throwing away money; something Wu Hai would never do.
Qiao Liang looked at the teacher for Second Class, and the receiving party spread his hands and said, “Don’t look at me. You can’t be asking me to play when it’s just the two of us, right? How uninteresting would that be.”
“You want it to be interesting?”
A hoary voice sounded out of the air. All the class teachers shuddered simultaneously and shouted respectfully, “Old Principal!”
Nobody showed up, but nobody raised their heads. That hoary voice said, “Allow me to host this bet. After the first three waves, I will activate the ‘Endless’ mode. You will bet on which student will last the longest after the first three waves. Wager on the top ten. I will reward the top three winners with one ultra-rare card and a quota to the Super Freshmen Summer Camp.”
Quota to the Super Freshmen Summer Camp?
The class teachers showed expressions of surprise at the same time. When they looked at one another, they could see the shock in the eyes of all the other class teachers.
For a long time, there was no sound. They knew that the Old Principal had left. Qiao Liang slowly recovered from the surprise and revealed an irrepressible smile at the corners of his mouth. He held his fist together and said to his colleagues, “It’s a rare occasion for the Old Principal to be in a good mood, so let’s join him, shall we? Gentlemen, I’ll be taking my leave.”
Yu Xihua, teacher of Second Class, looked a little solemn. Likewise, he bowed with folded hands and left.
The eight remaining class teachers looked at one another. Wu Hai smiled easily and said, “What else can we say? It’s the Old Principal who came up with it. Not like we have to pay for the rewards anyway.”
Despite Wu Hai’s statement, all of them knew that the ones with the best grades in the year were in First and Second classes. Getting the first three prizes would be immensely difficult. For Third Class, only Yuan Hong and Wan Chuan had a chance at the top ten, but it was only a chance. Even the slightest of blunders would cost them their place in the top ten.
Things were still fine for him. For some classes, maybe none of their students could get into the top eleven: a pretty embarrassing result for their instructors.
Holding his fist together, Wu Hai turned around and left.
******
On his semi plane, Lin Xiao looked at the first wave, a total of a hundred ordinary Gnomes, ten bigger Gnomes, and five Bugbears with a rather solemn expression.
This…
…is a little hard.
It wasn’t hard for him. He didn’t care about a challenge of this level. What he meant was that, for ordinary students, this would be a little difficult. Having such a difficulty level on just the first wave, assuming there was an increasing difficulty for each wave, meant the third wave would be quite difficult for ordinary students.
It was no wonder that so many students were eliminated every year. With this difficulty level, it would be strange if no one was eliminated.
More than a hundred Gnomes charged the center of the plane. Swiftly, they got into a skirmish with the Murlocs that saw them at the same time.
More than five hundred Murlocs erupted at the same time. The heightened speed of Salted Fish Spike allowed them to charge into the group of Gnomes in the blink of an eye. All of a sudden, chaos arose, and blood splattered the ground.
Then, there were no more.
When the bodies of the Gnomes, similar to the Murlocs in size, were hit by Salted Fish Spike’s fivefold burst damage, they were basically one-shotted. Even the larger Gnomes, slightly stronger than the regular Gnomes, couldn’t take the attack. Only a few bugbears managed to survive the first hit with their powerful physiques.
But that was of no use. Even if they could suck up one or two hits, could they take five of them?
At the end of the assault, all the Gnomes were almost dead. The remaining bugbears were knocked down by the Murlocs who came afterward and never got up again.
In less than 30 seconds, the first wave of Gnomes was completely annihilated.
“Still fine, I guess!”
Lin Xiao whistled, feeling rather satisfied with the combat effectiveness of his own Spawn.
Half an hour later, the portal remerged, and the second wave began.
Looking at the creatures that came out of the portal, Lin Xiao’s smile immediately collapsed “What the…!”