Chapter 561

Thinking, summarizing, training Suenari, forging magical artifact, raising his level...

During this period, Kanzaki Rei didn’t run around anymore. Instead, he stayed in the Land of the Crescent Moon, doing what needed to be done methodically and step by step.

After five days,

The 「Blacksmith」Profession finally reached Level 5.

Forging magical artifact every day had accelerated Kanzaki Rei’s blacksmithing progress tremendously.

The 「Supreme Luck Scepter」 wasn’t completely finished yet,

But it already had a prototype.

Now, in Kanzaki Rei’s hands, he possessed a semi-finished product of a demigod artifact.

His new thoughts on the Origin Source had also gradually reached a fairly critical juncture. Over at the Boundless Mountains, the Absolute Magic Sea had already expanded extremely far—wherever the Absolute Magic Sea existed, a magic-destroying barrier had formed to envelop the area.

Magic beasts within the range of the Absolute Magic Sea were directly melted away.

Only Eighth-Order magic beasts could survive.

But even if they survived, they were drastically weakened. Local Tier 7职业者 could now contend with those Eighth-Order magic beasts.

It could be said that the disaster at the Boundless Mountains had largely been pacified by Kanzaki Rei.

As for those 「Old Gods」 in the forbidden zones—

Yes... Old Gods.

Kanzaki Rei had finally gained a much deeper understanding of these existences.

In truth, the existence of these forbidden zones also provided an answer to a long-standing mystery.

Namely—Tier 9 Professionals and gods were theoretically similar in strength. And the difficulty of becoming a god versus becoming Tier 9, strictly speaking, wasn’t that different either. It was merely a matter of which path one chose.

However, gods had infinite lifespans.

Logically speaking, over such a vast span of time, there should be many gods—certainly more than the handful currently known.

Yet there were very few named gods in this world.

After gradually learning about the forbidden zones,

The answer to this question finally came to light... Every forbidden zone contained a former god.

Trapped within their divine kingdoms, having lost their faith in the struggles of factional disputes. A god who had lost their faith also lost the power to influence the world through their followers’ hands.

In the end, they would be eternally imprisoned in the small cage of their divine kingdom.

No one could endure such imprisonment.

It was an almost eternal loneliness. Unable to fulfill the vows they had made upon becoming gods, unable to walk their chosen path—their divine kingdoms would gradually wither as well.

Eventually, the divine kingdom would fall and become a broken divine kingdom.

Leaving only two choices.

Either, to survive, go to a place like the Boundless Mountains—where the constraints of the world’s rules were weaker—and seal themselves in a forbidden zone to continue existing.

Or, bloom like a flower that wilts as soon as it opens—

Leave the divine kingdom, do one last thing, then fall from the divine realm and become a职业者 barely maintaining Tier 8... ultimately either dying of old age or being killed.

And over such an immense span of time,

The Boundless Mountains were filled with forbidden zones, all of them these Old Gods clinging to their last breath.

Not every Old God was his enemy.

But Kanzaki Rei had confirmed that some Old Gods in certain forbidden zones would definitely become his enemies—colluding with the Nest, opposing humanity.

As for killing them—

Clang!

Kanzaki Rei struck the hammer against Artemys’s hide. The indestructible hide sent out sparks of crimson flame... This hide was a divinely-gifted material.

He would completely forge this 「Supreme Luck Scepter」 .

Then go deal with the remaining Old Gods, transforming them all into his own death spirits.

Right now, he indeed had the 「Soul Porter」 —one god-tier death spirit—but Kanzaki Rei had no intention of relying solely on this single death spirit to hunt down the other Old Gods.

The main issue was that god-tier death spirits possessed uniqueness.

They couldn’t be duplicated.

If one died, it was truly dead.

And each of these Old Gods, when facing death, would fight with everything they had—or directly self-destruct... Kanzaki Rei had been able to kill Porter because every single one of his abilities perfectly countered it.

But for the other Old Gods, without that counter advantage, they wouldn’t be nearly as easy to kill.

To reduce combat losses and not throw away his advantages—

He could only choose to go in fully prepared.

And conveniently enough, the Fishman Sage’s divine garment should be arriving soon.

Kanzaki Rei saw that on a distant, hidden island in the Moon Sea, the Fishman Sage had returned to its dwelling.

Now, Kanzaki Rei’s Absolute Magic Sea had already covered almost the entire Moon Sea.

The speed at which the Magic Sea expanded had reached an absurd rate—thousands of times Earth’s speed of light.

"Time to go get the divine garment it promised..."

Kanzaki Rei’s will stirred slightly.

Using spatial magic, he exchanged the space between two locations and appeared directly before the Fishman Sage.

This was spatial substitution, not movement via phase magic.

And in the Fishman Sage’s eyes, Kanzaki Rei had simply appeared out of thin air.

"Time to fulfill your promise, Sage."

...

Clang, clang, clang, clang——

The Fishman Sage indeed pulled no tricks and fulfilled its promise.

After that, another three days passed.

Forging, thinking, practicing magic... The Enchanter Profession also rose to Level 5 within those three days. Thanks to the fact that the Supreme Luck Scepter belonged to the wand/staff category.

In addition to requiring a blacksmith to forge the magical artifact blueprint itself, it also required the enchanting abilities of an enchanter.

Neither was dispensable.

During the process of forging this magical artifact, Kanzaki Rei also took the opportunity to craft a mage’s war lance for Suenari, using Tier 8 magic beasts and some rare materials found nowhere else in the world.

As for why Suenari asked about it being a war lance,

Kanzaki Rei’s answer was very simple.

Namely—a war lance was more practical than a staff. When an enemy closed in, a staff was difficult to use as a melee weapon for counterattacks. But a war lance was not only convenient for casting spells—it was also convenient for stabbing people.

Suenari didn’t understand why a mage would need to stab people with a war lance...

But since his master gave it to him, there had to be a reason.

Still... did that mean even he, as a pure mage, had to learn close-quarters combat techniques? Suenari couldn’t help but feel confused.

Over these days, Suenari’s progress had been remarkably fast.

But that was only fast compared to ordinary mages.

Suenari hadn’t yet broken through to Tier 3 Mage. He still hadn’t discovered his own Origin Magic... After all, only ten days had passed since he reached Tier 2 Mage.

Kanzaki Rei knew he still had a very, very long road ahead.

Contemplating Origin Magic, systematically studying all aspects of magical knowledge, creating entirely new magic of his own, analyzing the Origin Source even more deeply.

He might even need to study Primeval Forbidden Magic.

Many things would require months, even years of study.

If he wanted to push Suenari to grow faster, the only option would be to alter the flow of time... But simply speeding up or slowing down his personal time wouldn’t actually make him grow faster.

Because magic also required practical application.

And even if he slowed down time, he would still need to verify his magical hypotheses within the normal flow of time.

There was no rushing this.

...

Finally, twelve days had passed since returning from the Room of Answers.

June was already half over.

Inside the sweltering forge, Kanzaki Rei held a scepter whose outer layer was wrapped in countless layers of hide.

「magical artifact : Supreme Luck Scepter」

He had finally forged it.