The Shepherds Are Dense – Chapter 242

Chapter 243
Lily: Sorry to disturb you.
“Eivass really knows a lot of things.”
Princess Isabel’s eyes widened, her pure, emerald-like eyes shining in the bright moonlight.
The full moon outside the window was as bright as a mirror, and the moonlight, like gauze, sprinkled on the two of them. Both Eivass’s body and the white pajamas Princess Isabel was wearing gleamed under the moonlight.
She looked at Eivass with great admiration: “Whether it’s the lower city or the Round Table Hall… you even understand lost rituals and Path Traits. I can’t compare. It’s hard enough for me to memorize the tables my teacher gave me. It’s too difficult to remember.”
Hard to remember?
Eivass’s heart stirred, and he asked with some curiosity, “What is Master Janis’s Path Trait suggestion table like? Is it complicated?”
“Mhm.”
Princess Isabel nodded and complained in a low voice, “It’s a table my teacher listed for me not long ago. My teacher said it doesn’t matter for the first Ascension, because you can’t choose any good slots anyway. But from the second Ascension Ritual onwards, you can’t be careless.
“It’s mostly about ‘if you master certain abilities and don’t master others, what Path Traits should you choose and not choose when they appear at this time.’
“For example, unless there’s nothing else to choose, I can’t choose Vessel-type slots, even if they are Purple Tier. This is because my Path of Beauty’s ‘Art’ abilities basically don’t consume mana.
“Like the [Tough Illusion] I chose this time. My teacher specifically said that if multiple of [Cunning Magic], [Tough Illusion], and [True Illusion] appear at the same time, prioritize choosing [Cunning Magic], followed by [Tough Illusion]. And if you haven’t mastered [Tough Illusion], don’t choose [True Illusion] even if you see it; but if you have already mastered [Cunning Magic], don’t choose it even if you have [Tough Illusion].
“Or, if you see both [Tough Illusion] and [Voice of Miracle] at the same time, choose [Voice of Miracle]; but if you see [Cunning Magic] and [Voice of Miracle], choose [Cunning Magic]… and so on.”
Princess Isabel was very distressed: “There are too many possibilities! My teacher gave me a densely packed table of hundreds or thousands of situations last week, most of which are about what to choose and what not to choose when you have certain choices and already possess others… and asked me to memorize it in three days. And many of the characters are the same, it’s really hard to remember!”
“…A brute-force method.”
Eivass sighed, “But it’s quite useful.”
The Professional Heritage Princess Isabel received was clearly different from Mr. Knight’s—according to little Barton, he was given a list by his parents and then chose from it.
He only chose cost-effective slots, without considering the synergy between them. He only took what he could use, even if it was a bit weak, rather than adjusting his path based on the slot effects.
Janis, on the other hand, clearly understood this better. But she couldn’t always be by Princess Isabel’s side to help her make choices, and she had no idea what random slots Princess Isabel would get. So, she simply listed out all possible scenarios in detail, and then Princess Isabel could choose according to the formula.
In this way, her probability of choosing the optimal combination would be the highest.
It was like playing auto chess. New players might not understand the meta, but as long as a comprehensive formula provided by an expert with sufficient game knowledge covers all situations, there wouldn’t be any problem.
This was also considered the simplest and most direct Professional Heritage. The true meaning of “knowledge changes destiny.”
“What were your previous two traits?”
Eivass asked curiously.
Although Path Traits were everyone’s biggest secret and were closely related to their life safety… since Princess Isabel had told him her third trait, there was no need to hide the earlier low-level traits.
As expected, Princess Isabel didn’t hide anything at all, and revealed everything: “After deciding to become an ‘All-rounder,’ my first trait was ‘Light Affinity,’ and the second was ‘Nimble Voice.'”
“Those are pretty good.”
Eivass’s eyes lit up, and he praised, “At least they have no downsides and aren’t useless.”
Although the first one was a bit confusing, it was actually fine—among common art abilities, painting and calligraphy were water attributes, sculpture and architecture were earth attributes, and singing and dancing with sacrificial attributes were light attributes. Musical instrument performance belonged to wind attributes, while scriptwriting and novels with fake and illusory attributes belonged to dark attributes.
Of course, there were also traditions that used fire or wind mana for dancing, or light mana for painting and writing, but those were not the mainstream.
With Light Affinity, at least her singing and dancing abilities would be further enhanced.
And “Nimble Voice” was a percentage-based increase trait similar to “Flesh Sacrifice”—a fairly valuable blue-tier slot.
Its effect was to simultaneously increase the casting difficulty and casting effect of all abilities that used songs as a medium.
It wasn’t a purple-tier slot because it was a passive trait, not a switchable one like “Light Body.”
Having this trait could indeed make low-difficulty demon songs more effective, but it could also easily cause high-difficulty advanced demon songs to fail—of course, if successful, because of the higher base effect, the percentage increase would also be more significant.
“…It’s a bit messy, but not a big problem.”
Eivass thought for a moment and gave his suggestion, “Prioritize looking for [Cunning Magic]. Cunning Magic allows you to have a chance to remedy any spell or spell-like ability that doesn’t cause damage when it fails.”
In game terms, it meant that any spell-like ability that didn’t cause damage could be re-rolled when it failed.
“I think Master Janis suggested this trait to you because you have ‘Nimble Voice,’ and there’s a possibility of failing to sing high-difficulty demon songs later.
“From an expected value perspective, for example, even if the success rate is only one in five, with Cunning Magic, it becomes more than one-third; if it was originally one-third, it becomes about half; if it was half, it becomes three-quarters.”
Princess Isabel’s math wasn’t very good, so Eivass chose to describe it in a simpler, more intuitive way: “This way, you effectively reduce the negative effect of Nimble Voice while retaining its positive effect.
“Moreover, when an illusion is seen through by the opponent, the effect of [Cunning Magic] is also triggered. This makes your illusions less likely to fail.
“In contrast, [True Illusion], which ‘allows illusions to cause physical damage,’ is not as useful. It might even cause your Cunning Magic to become invalid because it turns your illusions into damaging spells.”
“…So that’s how it is.”
Princess Isabel suddenly realized, “My teacher just told me to memorize it but didn’t tell me why. Eivass, now that you explain it, I understand!”
After all, it was last-minute cramming before an exam. Eivass thought.
How could such a thing be memorized in a few days? It was like not teaching properly during class and then cramming the key points before the final exam, which was ridiculous.
Master Janis’s dedication to meticulously deducing all sorts of situations for Princess Isabel and writing down hundreds or thousands of possibilities showed that she really cared about Princess Isabel. However, Eivass felt that she wouldn’t teach her students this brute-force method.
…It was also reasonable.
Although she was Princess Isabel’s teacher in name, in reality, she was more like Princess Isabel’s bodyguard… As an elf, her age wasn’t that great, and she likely hadn’t been anyone’s teacher before. This was her first time.
Since standing was a bit tiring, as they chatted, they sat back down on the bed.
Princess Isabel looked around nervously, then gently patted Eivass’s pillow.
“What for?”
Eivass was a bit confused.
“You lie down,”
Princess Isabel said softly, “And cover yourself with the blanket… I can’t bear to see you like this.”
“I’m not cold,”
Eivass emphasized, “Really not cold.”
Eivass was indeed not cold—let alone the winter temperature, even if he were immersed in ice water, he wouldn’t suffer frostbite for a while.
The Third Tier was a significant qualitative change. One could even say… it was from the Third Tier onwards that one officially embarked on the extraordinary path.
Because starting from the Third Tier, Extraordinary Power would begin to have a noticeable impact on the body.
Before that, Extraordinary beings were merely ordinary people who could use some special powers. Even an ordinary person with a gun could have a high chance of defeating an Extraordinary being if they attacked first… and if there were dozens of ordinary people with guns, retreat would be the only option.
But starting from the Third Tier, the situation began to change.
The earliest professional advancements began from the Third Tier. From this Energy Level onwards, it became difficult for ordinary people to defeat Extraordinary beings.
Even Princess Isabel, who was purely an assistant role, was now as agile as an excellent gymnast. The explosive power within her body could even allow her to move rapidly using ropes or skillfully climb walls. She could easily vault over a two- to three-meter wall without tools; she could even dodge arrows from a slight distance after seeing them.
Extraordinary beings of the Path of Beauty who specialized in dance could do even better. However, Princess Isabel was an all-rounder… being an all-rounder meant she was not as specialized as other Extraordinary beings of the Path of Beauty who focused on a particular path. However, her abilities were the most comprehensive, and agility was just a secondary attribute for her.
The primary enhancement of Path Power for Eivass was his Life force.
Even without using “Fire Worship,” he could now use the Illuminate Spell by relying on his body’s rapid self-healing. It would take about his full mana to cast the spell, and his natural healing could restore it directly. If he were cut by a dagger, the wound would likely leave only a white mark after an hour. Even a gunshot wound could heal in a day or two.
After all, “Fire Worship” was a sacred art meticulously selected by the Church. Before this skill was developed, Extraordinary beings of the Path of Devotion with insufficient Life force would be drained dry by the Illuminate Spell.
“No, you should still cover yourself with the blanket.”
Princess Isabel insisted, “I’ll just sit next to you.”
Unable to refuse her, Eivass also got into the blanket. Although he wasn’t afraid of the cold, it was definitely more comfortable inside than outside… and lying down was better than sitting.
Mainly, lying in bed and chatting with someone sitting by the bedside felt a bit strange. Eivass originally wanted to lean on the pillow, but Princess Isabel insisted on him lying down.
—She was wearing a two-piece pajama set, but Eivass was naked. This not only made Princess Isabel feel a bit distressed and embarrassed… but her gaze kept drifting towards Eivass.
This made her feel ashamed.
She put herself in Eivass’s shoes, thinking that if Eivass looked at her like this, she would definitely feel very ashamed.
—But she really couldn’t control herself! Her gaze just drifted over!
“Actually, I’ve mastered a few new abilities too,”
Eivass said with a smile, “Want to try them? My Blessing Spell.”
“How do we try it?”
Princess Isabel was curious and a little excited.
“Lean your head closer and close your eyes,” Eivass said.
Princess Isabel obediently lowered her head and leaned closer.
Eivass placed his hand on Princess Isabel’s forehead, with a foxy smile, “This is the Blessing Spell, a Sacred Skill that only Bishops master. According to the rules, shouldn’t you say something to me at this moment?”
For example, “Respected Bishop Eivass, please bestow upon me the Blessing of the Candlemaster,” or something like that?
Upon hearing this, Princess Isabel’s face immediately turned red.
She hesitated for a long time.
Taking a deep breath, she whispered, “Dad, Daddy…”
Eivass’s eyes widened, and he froze.
“…Huh?”
Seeing Eivass’s reaction, Princess Isabel immediately knew she had misunderstood Eivass’s intention.
Her face turned completely red.
She subconsciously wanted to flee, but as soon as she stood up and turned around, she suddenly saw Lily standing silently behind her.
Princess Isabel screamed in fright, her body instantly went limp and she slumped back onto the bed.
“…Princess Isabel?”
Lily still had a sleepy look on her face, “You’re here…?”
She paused as she said this.
Lily looked at Eivass’s pajamas on Princess Isabel, and her expression became somewhat subtle.
She bowed slightly, “Sorry to disturb you.”
“No, no, no, you’re not disturbing us, you misunderstood!”
Princess Isabel immediately panicked and rushed forward to hug Lily.
The first chapter of four thousand words!
The second chapter will be up at two o’clock!
By the way, are some readers unaware that I took a leave yesterday? Why are so many people asking (pondering)
Don’t you read the end of the chapters? (sternly)