The Shepherds Are Dense – Chapter 802

Chapter 801: The Book of Law’s Evolution

[Casting Summoning: King of the Wild Hunt]
[Prerequisites: Wind 5]
[Instant, Self, Echoing]
[Effect: Summon the power of the King of the Wild Hunt to transform yourself into a Wild Hunter, stir up gales, and activate “Ghost Walk” to become incorporeal and infiltrate the spirit realm. While in the spirit realm, you cannot inflict damage on the material realm, nor can most attacks from the material realm target or damage you. Continuous loss of life force occurs after entering the spirit realm. When riding a Ghost Pegasus, after this effect ends, activate “Undead Charge” once. This attack will be considered as initiated by the King of the Wild Hunt. If it successfully hits and inflicts damage, life force will be drawn based on the total life force lost in the spirit realm.]

[Casting Summoning: King of the Wild Hunt (Inverse)]
[Prerequisites: Wind 5]
[Sustain: Wind 5*Daily]
[Action, Summon]
[Effect: Summon the Beast of Wrath, the King of the Wild Hunt, to fight for you. The King of the Wild Hunt is considered a summoned creature. In a non-combat state, the Beast of Wrath, the King of the Wild Hunt, can transform into a Ghost Pegasus and enter a follower state. Only one Beast of Sin can exist at a time.]

Like other Great Sin Cards, its mana cost is a fixed five points.
Compared to the ability of the Night Demon card, which was quite complex and difficult to understand, the Great Sin Card of the King of the Wild Hunt, despite its length, was much easier to comprehend.
Being able to actively infiltrate the “layers” of the world was a rather significant effect in itself. Even for Heavenly Envoys who descended upon the world, inter-world attacks were an extremely rare ability.

“Ghost Walk” itself was a high-level ability of the Twilight Path, and it belonged exclusively to the undead. For living beings to use it, they would at least need to transform their race into undead… much like Black Gaze.
Except for transcendent skills like rituals, which could lock onto and damage even Heavenly Envoys from the Dream Realm, or abilities like delayed curses or poisons, this was essentially unbeatable by other Path skills.
After all, rituals could even pull Heavenly Envoys from the Dream Realm, so hitting a dimensional layer with a blast was quite normal.

Although forcibly entering the spirit realm as a living being would cause continuous health loss, the lost health could be regained!
As long as he rode the Ghost Pegasus, he could end this state at any time and summon the King of the Wild Hunt to strike the opponent! Directly summoning the King of the Wild Hunt would naturally create a considerable commotion… yet he could use an attack from a “makeshift King of the Wild Hunt” at any time!

“Not bad, not bad…”
Alistair was very satisfied, looking at the cerulean Pegasus card in his hand.
This was Alistair’s second high-level Upper Demon Phantom Demon of the Sixth Tier.
The King of the Wild Hunt, purified of its resentment by the Lord of Scales and Feathers and having obtained the warrior profession, was undoubtedly one of the supreme beings in the current world. Even though Alistair had broken its weapon… that was a minor issue.

Fafnir had said that she would use materials from her own body to craft a powerful weapon for her son, Rhine. The reason for this was Herchin’s last words.
“Then how about I bring Herchin back, and you give this weapon to Herchin?”

As for now…
Before this new weapon was forged, he would at most use the Lightning Strike Halberd one more time, manually equipping Herchin.
After all, Alistair had personally tested it during the Ascension Ritual—compared to the “Wife’s Rib Bone Spear,” the Lightning Strike Halberd was undoubtedly much stronger in terms of raw stats. It was so much stronger that there was no room for comparison.
Even if “Fafnir’s Dragon Bone” was not damaged, few of its attributes would be useful to Herchin.
Its two strongest abilities were “Blood Siphon” and “Dragonflame Infusion.”
The life force siphoning of the former was completely useless to the King of the Wild Hunt, who had already turned into an undead.
As for the latter, it was indeed powerful—but Alistair had personally used Herchin’s body. When he controlled it, he knew that Herchin had very little fire-attribute mana left.

When Herchin was alive, he had mana pools for light, wind, and fire attributes. After his death, his wind and fire attribute mana pools were halved, with this portion of mana turning into earth attribute, while the light attribute transformed into dark attribute.
This was shortly after his death—after signing the Wild Hunt contract, some of his mana would gradually transform into wind attribute. As time passed, the fire attribute mana remaining in his body would inevitably decrease, until it was likely completely incapable of driving this effect by now.

The current King of the Wild Hunt’s mana pool was wind, earth, and dark attributes, exactly the same as the Child of the Moon’s mana pool!
For Herchin, the only two useful attributes of this spear were [Heavy Weapon] and [Dragon Bone Protection], which slightly increased his attack power and defense. But that was all. Over time, as the Dragon Lance’s weight gradually decreased, the effect of [Heavy Weapon] would also eventually disappear.

The Level 3 Lightning Affinity of the “Lightning Strike Halberd” could only grant Eivass, who had no inherent lightning affinity, a slight resistance to lightning. However, for Herchin, who already possessed a lightning affinity attribute, this would be a massive upgrade—the higher the level of the affinity attribute, the greater the increase.
This meant that as long as Alistair equipped Herchin with “Lightning Strike Halberd,” he would be much stronger than the King of the Wild Hunt, Herchin, in his most ideal state!
This was undoubtedly Alistair’s true trump card.
In future battles against Fallen Heavenly Envoys, and even other Heavenly Envoys pulled down by the Ouroboros Ring, the King of the Wild Hunt would be his trusted main damage dealer!

Alistair summoned Eivass’s Book of Law and registered it.
With the [Great Sin Card: King of the Wild Hunt] registered in the Book of Law, the Book of Law’s collection progress bar finally reached two-thirds.

And at this moment.
The Book of Law suddenly trembled violently!
The Little Crow, which was in travel state, suddenly shattered, turning into a ball of extremely pure dark attribute mana and flowing back into the Book of Law.
The Book of Law then rustled on its own, flipping from the first page to the last.
In Alistair’s consciousness, the cards in the grid lit up one by one. The Book of Law then emanated an increasingly intense radiance.
When the radiance dissipated, its attributes had completely changed—

“As expected…”
Alistair muttered softly, “The Book of Law is a Divine Weapon.”

[Eivass’s Book of Law (14/21)]
[Divine Equipment (Gold)]
[Weapon – Grimoire]
[Divine Module – Grimoire of Great Sin: For each different Phantom Demon Card registered, gain 2 colorless mana.]
[Extraordinary Module – Book of Law: Your casting reach increases by 30 meters; Phantom Demon Cards registered in your Grimoire gain an additional 30 meters of casting reach.]
[Extraordinary Trait: At the cost of one registered, non-cooldown Phantom Demon Card entering cooldown, another card that has entered cooldown can be reactivated, 3 times daily (based on the number of registered Great Sin Cards).]
[Extraordinary Trait: At the cost of one registered, non-cooldown Phantom Demon Card entering cooldown, the effects of Great Sin Cards with the same attribute are strengthened.]
[Divine Trait: When you use Inverse Summoning on a Great Sin Card, gain an additional effect.]
[Divine Trait: (Unlocks upon registering twenty-one Phantom Demon Cards)]

Looking at the traits of the Book of Law, Eivass’s conjecture became clearer.
Equipment that could be created solely by one’s own power in the Material Realm could only reach the level of deep purple at most. Reaching gold proved that the power of a Pillar God Apostle or higher had definitely been involved.
Divine Equipment signified that it possessed divinity, which was precisely what was called a “Divine Artifact.” Apostles could at most handle one, necessarily prioritizing their own use. Only when Heavenly Envoys possessed authority could they create multiple Divine Artifacts to bestow upon loyal believers in the Material Realm.
The profession required by this book did not exist in the current world at all!
It wasn’t just a matter of rarity; it simply hadn’t been created.
Crafting Divine Equipment was not an easy task, even for Heavenly Envoys. Who would be idle enough to do so?

Alistair thought for a long time, then let out a cold snort and slammed the Book of Law shut.
“…Hmph.”
It didn’t matter.
Regardless of the Ring Heavenly Envoy’s conspiracy—since They had already made the first move, there was no need to concern oneself with it. Would guessing everything help avoid pitfalls? There were things that had to be done and could not be avoided, and Eivass would not do things that should not be done…

Thus, Alistair collected her thoughts and focused on the Book of Law.
Its greatest benefit was that the colorless mana, which was originally one point per registered card slot, had directly become two points. This immediately gave Alistair 14 points of colorless mana… for her, who was already mana-deficient after her recent split, it was a significant补强 (consolidation/enhancement).

“…However, what is this ‘additional effect’?”
She was somewhat doubtful, placing her hand on the Book of Law.
The attributes of the cards reappeared in Alistair’s mind.
“Eh!”
Alistair was startled: “This is—”
She saw that the Inverse Summoning effects of the three Great Sin Cards she had registered had all undergone slight modifications, either one attribute had changed, or a new effect had been added:

Originally, the Butterfly of Violent Flames had a repeat effect of using it again to either let the Butterfly of Violent Flames be reborn or self-destruct.
That effect was now reduced to [Effect: Use again to command the Butterfly of Violent Flames to self-destruct].
Below it, a new effect had been added:
[Effect: Use again to summon the Unburning Butterfly from the ashes of the Butterfly of Violent Flames; upon the Unburning Butterfly’s entry, inflict massive damage on all burning enemies.]

…What is an Unburning Butterfly?
But being able to directly write “massive damage,” the effect should be quite good…

The Night Demon’s effect also changed simultaneously.
A new attribute was added below it:
[Effect: Upon the Night Demon’s entry, inflict Curse Vulnerability LV4 on all enemies (based on Extraordinary Path Energy Level).]

Although Alistair had relied mostly on the Night Demon’s strong resistance as a shield when summoning her before… in reality, the Night Demon was a Caster. Her melee capabilities were not strong; she could suppress Succubi purely through raw stats and priority. Her true strength lay mainly in AoE and control.
Simply put, the Night Demon’s team positioning should be that of a debuffer… she could at most be a sub-DPS.
As the saying goes, “Enemy weakness equals my strength,” “Enemy slow equals my speed,” “Enemy armor break equals my damage increase”… in this regard, the Night Demon could also be considered an assist!
For characters who relied on stacking negative status effects for control, what the Night Demon feared most was failing to apply the debuffs.
Once the opponent could immunize or resist the Night Demon’s curses, the Night Demon would only be left with shadow-type abilities that were not much stronger than a Shadow Demon’s.
Curse Vulnerability could break through the opponent’s resistance to a certain extent. Even if the opponent had priority, applying vulnerability would still have some effect.
Just as undead and demons usually had purification vulnerabilities, so even if a Priest’s level was lower, dispelling would still have some effect… inciting the opponent often meant hurting them. If the priority was high enough to deal full damage, then a very obvious counter effect could be achieved immediately!
For instance, the purification barrier that the Gargoyle could never break through… or the giant tree that could be ignited by ordinary flames.
Level 4 Curse Vulnerability was the same as the negative effect of the Red-Hilted Sword. This numerical value was roughly equivalent to a Level 4 Curse Master being able to curse a Level 5 Extraordinary beyond their level, but a Level 5 Curse Master could not curse a Level 6 Extraordinary beyond their level.

“Could it be that…”
Seeing the added effects for the Butterfly of Violent Flames and the Night Demon, Alistair guessed something.
As expected, the Inverse Summoning attribute of the newly obtained King of the Wild Hunt card— a card she hadn’t used even once—also had such an attribute added:
[Effect: Upon the King of the Wild Hunt’s entry, summon the King of the Wild Hunt Legion “Herchin’s Retainers” to charge.]

—The King of the Wild Hunt Legion!
This was too cool!
The levels of those Wild Hunters were not low. After all, they were all experts of at least Fourth Tier when they were alive. To put it bluntly, if an Extraordinary was too weak, they wouldn’t have the qualification to follow Herchin on his expeditions.
Eagle Cape Village was a genuine high-level map.
This charge by the ghost legion, even if it couldn’t inflict significant damage on Heavenly Envoy-level enemies, would at least have considerable crowd-clearing capabilities! Keep in mind that the King of the Wild Hunt itself had two legion-level aura enhancements, which greatly boosted melee professions. For most enemies, this would be quite deadly.
—The King of the Wild Hunt was truly a straightforward offensive Phantom Demon.
All of its attributes were for output!
It was just unknown how long this “one round of charge” would last…

Upon seeing this, Alistair also understood.
These three Great Sin Cards had one thing in common.
That was… these effects were triggered “upon summoning.”
It could be called a battle cry, an entrance theme, or “upon summoning, special summoning”… in short, it was an effect that only took effect when summoned during combat.
This meant that the strategy Alistair had heavily relied on—burning cards a day in advance and summoning the Beast of Sin to strengthen the base panel, leaving the card cooldown and mana consumption for the previous day—could not trigger these very appealing bonus effects!
But conversely, they also significantly strengthened the Great Sin Beasts that Alistair summoned temporarily.
At least, it wouldn’t make the temporarily summoned Beast of Sin weaker than one that was prepared in advance.
This also greatly increased the burst damage of turn-based summoning!

“I’m getting more and more excited about the fourth attribute of the Book of Law…”
Alistair murmured.
However… if this were the case, her optimal choice for a permanent summoned beast should be Little Butterfly.
Because only Little Butterfly’s entrance effect was triggered upon secondary entry after death and rebirth!

“Start with Little Butterfly’s burst, then self-destruct and reborn for another burst, then switch to Night Demon, then to King of the Wild Hunt?”
Alistair subconsciously contemplated the burst cycle.
It felt like something was missing… the transition from Night Demon to King of the Wild Hunt wasn’t very smooth.

“In any case, let me see you first…”
Alistair placed her hand on the Book of Law.
In an instant, a storm brewed—
As cerulean lightning flashed, the glittering King of the Wild Hunt gradually materialized within the storm!
Unlike the scene magic that came with Upper Demons, the King of the Wild Hunt did not change the weather to a thunderstorm upon summoning.
Therefore, the sky outside remained a quiet night sky.
Following the King of the Wild Hunt’s emergence were the neatly arrayed retainers behind Herchin.
—Those Wild Hunters had originally been watching from a distance, preparing to see the King of the Wild Hunt off.
Despite reluctance and loneliness, breaking free from the shackles of their mission was also a form of freedom…
But when Alistair summoned the King of the Wild Hunt, they were suddenly pulled from the not-too-distant hundred meters away—they disappeared from their original spot as black smoke, and reappeared behind Herchin.
Wild Hunters: ?

“…It’s the main body after all?”
Alistair was also somewhat surprised.
She counted and found that these retainers totaled about seventy to eighty people.
This meant that signing Herchin was equivalent to buying one and getting eighty free!
Herchin clearly realized this as well.

“Thank you… Master.”
Herchin was not wearing a helmet, nor was he in his Twilight form. He was still a semi-transparent Silver Armored Knight, his voice clear and rational: “To take them with me. I was worried if I wasn’t here, they might be dispersed… I can finally rest easy now.”

“Herchin,” Alistair said impatiently, “let me see the horse you’ve become.”
The next moment, those Wild Hunters simultaneously dissipated from the black mist. Herchin, mounted on the Ghost Pegasus, also vanished into ethereal form.
However, the Ghost Pegasus beneath him suddenly turned its head.

“Get on, Master.”
It suddenly spoke with Herchin’s voice: “Ghosts do not tire… I can take you anywhere.”

Human and centaur combined?!
—This was the mechanism?!
Alistair was stunned.
She had originally thought it would be like Little Butterfly or Little Crow, a cute “little horse.” But it turned out to be Herchin’s majestic and sacred Ghost Pegasus…

Undead do not tire, meaning Alistair could directly use it to fly back across the sea to Star Antinomy! It also meant that the sea would no longer pose any obstacle to Alistair and Eivass…
…But this would render Leviathan’s purpose moot!
Leviathan, you are a baby who retired very quickly…

“Can you… carry two people?”
Alistair hesitantly touched the Ghost Pegasus’s cool and soft skin, like an air-conditioned blanket: “Can Leviathan be brought along?”
Saying this made her feel absurd—it was like strapping a bicycle to the back of a motorcycle.

“Probably can, let’s try first.”
Herchin replied.
So Alistair boarded the Ghost Pegasus, holding a somewhat unwilling Leviathan.
And it turned out to be feasible.
Although the speed was a bit slow… it was roughly equivalent to a ship’s speed.
She could return to Star Antinomy in less than a day!
—Then there would be no need to take a ship, they would just fly back like this!
(End of Chapter)