Chapter 491 - Universal Influence

White, sleek hair awkwardly hung over a beautiful, yet furrowed frowning face. Her narrow golden eyes, set high within their sockets, watch loyally over her new master. A big scar could be seen on the left side of her face which started right below her eyes and ended just above her lips. But even the scar couldn't keep her beauty from shining. She was a high elf after all. 

Her eyes were shining as she set her gaze upon the man she served. Ready to kill or be killed for him. All previous sense of hostility was gone as soon as her master's blood started flowing in her veins. 

In the prison cell, she stood like a statue of loyalty while the rest of them cowered away in fear. The more these vassals got to know of Arnold's power, the more they realised how feeble their own strength was in front of him. It was no wonder that even the gods decided to flee from him the moment he turned into a higher being himself. 

"Your command, my master?"

Nilerea Dawnwhisper, the vassal from the planet Alfemia, the world of elves asked Arnold who had just finished blooding her into his servant. However, Arnold wasn't paying attention to her at the moment. He had just got an interesting notification from the remnants of system sama. 

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Due to receiving blood from a godly being, the vassal's connection with her god <The Ruler of The Moon> has been severed. 

This being bows to a new overlord now, <The One Above All>.

You have gained a new apostle!

Your universal influence has increased! +100,000

Her stats will be changed accordingly. However, you can provide her with additional stats upon your will. Although doing so would use up your universal influence. 

Current Universal Influence = 1,193,046,567

Primal power manifestation has increased by 0.12%.

Primal power manifested so far: 5.38%

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'Interesting... very interesting.' Arnold absentmindedly scratched his chin, 'If only I had awakened while Nicole was still alive I could have used this to sever her connection with Loki and would have been able to- no... there's no point in dreaming up scenarios. I need to focus on the task at hand.'

Either way, the notification in front of him was nothing but positive news. If one had to think about it, the notification cleared up a few things. First, that although he wasn't a full-fledged god yet, he could still function as one. Seeing that he could make someone an apostle just like the gods, was proof for it, itself. 

Last, the increase in Primal power manifestation rate meant, as he made more apostles down the road his overall strength as a god will also increase. Meaning his army would also become stronger and he'll be able to easily dispose of the gods. 

The only peculiar thing was the Universal influence. Arnold had no idea what it was and how it had such a high value in the first place when he hadn't done much after becoming a god. Thankfully,  he soon received his answer from the remnants.

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Universal Influence is a way to measure the strength among the gods as Cosmic ranks don't do justice to the strength a god can have. For example, most of the gods ranked at Cosmic SS rank but their strength varies massively. 

That's when Universal Influence comes into play. In general terms, one can say, the higher the universal influence has, the stronger they are. However, just like everything else, there are exceptions here as well. Exceptions like you who has lower Universal Influence amongst all of the higher gods, and yet you are stronger than most of them.

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Arnold had already been made aware of the existence of a higher scale than the Cosmic scale that was used to rank Shiva. But since not all gods could reach that level, he already thought there should have been some other kind of method to scale the other gods and it looked like his thinking was spot on. 

However, this still didn't explain why he had such an absurd amount of universal influence when he had just turned into a god, that too not a true god, just something in between. Once again, the remnants of the system rushed to solve his query. It had almost started to feel like he was had an encyclopedia with him, one that could answer anything. 

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Answer: 

When a mortal being ascends to godhood, the amount of exp they have until that moment is converted to their Universal Influence. It is done so that the newly ascended god can have some authority over someone (mostly an apostle who can spread their name) and slowly gain more influence over time. 

Since the gods can not rank up using exp, it is automatically converted into Universal influence.

The most common way of increasing one's universal influence is through making the races spread across the universe praise you as a god, or by destroying planets with life. The latter would give you an enormous amount of universal influence in a short time thus most of the gods opt for this option.

However, doing so might make the other races scared of you and you might lose the option to do the former. The former option, on the other hand, provides you with a steady stream of Universal influence over millenniums. A god is free to choose how they want to proceed. It's as simple as that. 

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"Hm... this is interesting," Arnold mumbled absentmindedly. 

Who would have thought a god's life would be so strenuous? He certainly didn't. Although, the option to cultivate preachers for a steady stream of Universal influence seemed good at first glance. He didn't need it right now. Arnold had enough reasons for thinking like this.

Firstly, he was going to destroy the planets either way as he wanted to increase his Primal power which could be only increased by causing destruction. Thus he would receive universal influence either way. 

Secondly, he didn't want to be a crowd-pleaser. He was only trying to become a god so that he could resurrect Nicole. Nothing else. As soon as that was done, he wouldn't give two fcks about what happens to the universe. 

And lastly... destroying planets seemed like a more fun option than the other one and it would also satisfy his need for vengeance against the vassals. Furthermore, doing so should make the gods aware that he was coming for them and it wasn't going to be a meet and greet session.. Thus Arnold decided to stick with his original plan and do what he was already planning to.