The Shepherds Are Dense – Chapter 863

Chapter 862
Failure means inheriting the family business.
Because the Path Power comes from the ancient Candlemaster burning the Thorn of Sin, and the Candlemaster’s Sacred Number is three… that’s why the Ascension Ritual always presents three options.
This time, six Path Traits appeared at once. And half were Devotion, half Transcendence—
“Is this a choice of two Path Traits?”
Eivass pondered.
He still had plenty of time to think… because this Ascension Ritual was short and the pace was too tight. It was still a long, long time until dawn.
The first to be ruled out were the two purple traits.
This was the New Moon Ascension Ritual from Tier Four to Tier Five—a difficulty that already guaranteed a golden trait. If he went back to choose a purple trait, it would be equivalent to losing a golden trait. Since his Mana was sufficient and he wasn’t planning to pursue elemental affinity further, he didn’t even need to glance at them.
Among the remaining four Path Traits, the first one Eivass ruled out was [Elemental Emperor].
The dual attributes of Light and Dark were incomparably important to him and could not be given up.
This Ascension Ritual had already proven that the Endless Knot represented by the “Wings of Four Colors” was a “wrong future.” He had to achieve “Wings of Six Colors” to have any hope of confronting the Ring Heavenly Envoy.
Choosing this trait would mean that in the Heavenly Envoy battle against a powerful enemy, Eivass could only use four-colored elemental spells. This would undoubtedly be a weakening for him.
Moreover, [Serpent of Transcendence] was a choice that Eivass, as a Transcendent, could almost certainly not skip.
—This trait was not one that players could choose in the game.
Its namesake trait was a dungeon catch-up mechanism for new or lagging players.
If this dungeon was not a current version’s difficult dungeon, but a difficult dungeon from a previous version, or a main story dungeon of the current version, then as long as players wiped once inside, all players would receive an 8% all-attribute boost. This could stack from three to eight layers depending on the lag in the dungeon.
For example, in an era where everyone was Level 90, if there were still beginners repeatedly wiping in a Level 60 difficult dungeon… then [Serpent of Transcendence] could stack up to a 64% all-attribute bonus. This unpretentious strength was enough to allow new or novice players to easily skip some stages that were prone to wipes.
And in this World, Eivass, as a Transcendent, was almost certain to confront powerful enemies. Eivass’s current priority bonus based on “divinity” mainly came from the scales given by the Silver Crown Dragon. In situations other than “attacking oathbreakers,” he could easily gain a +2 priority under the Heavenly Envoy battle.
As long as he obtained another unconditional source of priority, Eivass could intervene in the Heavenly Envoy battle at Tier Five!
What truly made Eivass’s choice difficult were the two traits of the Path of Devotion:
[Endless Mercy (Golden): Your healing can resurrect the recently deceased.]
[Candlemaster’s Horn (Golden): You drink the blood from the Candlemaster’s neck and become the Child of the Candlemaster.]
These two traits were also rare traits that players could not choose.
He didn’t know the trigger condition for [Endless Mercy]—how recently deceased “recently deceased” referred to, nor whether this effect had any negative side effects or built-in cooldowns. He also didn’t know what “Child of the Candlemaster” meant.
Without the information advantage, he couldn’t ensure he got the optimal trait…
Did he have to make a hard choice?
However…
It was only at this moment that Eivass realized something.
Unlike every Ascension Ritual before.
This time, after giving him blood, the Candlemaster had not left!
He stood beside him, quietly watching Eivass make his choice.
“…Lord Candlemaster.”
Eivass didn’t hesitate, directly choosing to ask for help—after all, he was somewhat of a Pope, and it was reasonable to consult his deity when encountering problems. “Could you explain the traits [Endless Mercy] and [Candlemaster’s Horn] for me?”
“Of course. After all, both these traits come directly from me.”
The Candlemaster seemed to have anticipated this and calmly replied, “The Heavenly Candlemaster you know possesses these two Path Traits.”
His presence here was as if to resolve Eivass’s doubts.
Upon hearing this, Eivass actually understood somewhat—
The Heavenly Candlemaster, as the only Heavenly Envoy who voluntarily descended to the Material Realm to be killed, was the only one whose dungeons were not called “Subjugation Battle,” “Annihilation Battle,” and “Annihilation War,” but “Trial Battle,” “True Trial Battle,” and “Ultimate Trial Battle.”
And the Heavenly Candlemaster’s strongest trait was his near-omnipotent resurrection ability.
The Heavenly Candlemaster’s first stage involved two Pope’s Guards, to whom he continuously cast various group buffs. If they were not killed, the buffs stacked on the guards would become increasingly powerful. If they were killed, the Candlemaster would stop casting buffs and, after three seconds, would resurrect them. Upon entering the second stage, three seconds after resurrection, he would chant for six seconds, unleashing a mechanism with the potential for a team wipe.
In the highest difficulty “Ultimate Trial Battle,” the Heavenly Candlemaster’s first stage directly involved six Pope’s Guards—the pressure from three groups of guards and one group of guards was vastly different, and the trait that could not be killed no matter what was even more hair-raising.
Therefore, the core strategy to defeat the Heavenly Candlemaster was to control the HP of these Pope’s Guards, causing them to die consecutively, with all their deaths occurring within nine seconds.
This meant learning to use the guards’ deaths to interrupt the Heavenly Candlemaster’s extremely long-cast high-risk special actions, and then seizing the opportunity to attack his main body.
By doing so, all buffs could be cleared, and the Heavenly Candlemaster’s special actions could be delayed. A new batch of Pope’s Guards would appear without those terrifying buffs, and the Heavenly Candlemaster would have to continuously resurrect guards, thus being unable to attack for a long time, creating an output window.
Furthermore, if defeated by the Heavenly Candlemaster, one could not be teleported to the resurrection point, nor could they receive the combat resurrection unique to Player Priests. Instead, they would be instantly resurrected by the Heavenly Candlemaster and isolated from the field—having already been resurrected, they could not be resurrected again.
Therefore, the Heavenly Candlemaster’s trial battle was a special combat mode that did not allow casualties.
—This battle was a genuine “Trial Battle.”
The difficulty of this battle itself was not high, as making one or two mistakes wouldn’t cause issues, unless there were consecutive mistakes. It taught players one thing—some BOSSes’ summoned mobs needed to have their HP controlled but not killed.
This was a very classic BOSS battle mode in MMORPGs, and the first time in Ouroboros Ring that a mechanism of controlling HP without killing appeared.
If one carelessly killed one or two guards prematurely, it would be easy to be unable to kill the fully resurrected guards later during the HP control which continuously interrupted casts, and could only watch helplessly as these buffed guards outputted furiously without being able to do anything. But if one couldn’t resist and focused fire on them again, the overall flow would become increasingly chaotic. If the Heavenly Candlemaster consecutively cast team wipe mechanics twice, most players would be wiped out.
“[Endless Mercy] provides the ability to literally resurrect. As long as the death of the target occurred within three seconds and the damage to the body can be recovered to the degree that allows him to live after receiving your healing, he will be immediately resurrected. There are no restrictions, nor any price… Once you master this trait, for you, there will no longer be ‘people who were almost saved’ or ‘people who were suddenly killed due to carelessness or oversight.’
“Its drawback is that this method of resurrection cannot be used to resurrect oneself. For Mercy is not something that can be given to oneself.”
The Candlemaster said gently, “As for [Candlemaster’s Horn]… it is the ability to invoke miracles.
“Have you heard of [Symbols] or [Totems]? Some mysterious classics also refer to them as [Mythic Forms]. This is related to the power of symbols within the depths of the Origin River.
“This Path Trait allows you to briefly touch the essence of the Origin River of [Civilization], granting you divine authority. The side effect is… the more you use this ability, the more you will gradually grow antlers, grow a deer’s body.
“This ability allows you to save all those you wish to save. Whether they are petrified, ammonified, or turned to stone… or to resurrect corpses whose souls are still within their bodies shortly after death, or Extraordinary individuals with abnormal spirits or lost paths. [The Fire of Civilization] can burn away all darkness—as long as you are willing to pay a sufficient price, it can even resurrect those whose souls have already entered the Origin River. As long as the soul has not been shattered and recycled, everything can still be done.
“And the price is… the more you use this ability, the more you will resemble me. You will grow antlers, and your soul will be purified. The ‘impurities’ of other Paths will be gradually filtered out by the power of the Origin River.
“When your soul is completely synchronized with the Third Origin River, you will become like that child ‘An’… transforming from an Elf into a human with a deer’s body. and if you continue to use it, you will completely resemble me.”
An Eternal—that was the name of the First Eternal Pope.
Which was also the True Name of the Heavenly Candlemaster.
“If I become like that… what will happen to me?”
Eivass couldn’t help but ask.
“—When that time comes, come and take my place.”
The Candlemaster merely smiled. “That will be the price you pay for being unable to resist the ‘Temptation of Devotion’.”
(End of Chapter)