Chapter 158: The Empire's Turmoil

Sterl looked at the newly popped-up objective and immediately frowned.

Although the rewards for the main storyline and hidden quests in the Divine Mountain Empire were no longer too precious for him, losing out on them would still be a huge waste.

"Whoever is meddling and affecting my rewards deserves to die!" he muttered angrily.

Then, Sterl thought for a moment and, maintaining his soldier disguise, started walking towards the barracks.

Along the way, he quickly tapped a few times on his panel.

"Initiate the second class change ceremony."

After resting for two days, Sterl had come to the capital of the Divine Mountain Empire, ready to start striving again.

He anticipated that there would be no shortage of battles and explorations in the capital, which might even help him fulfill some of the ceremony's requirements. So he initiated it on a whim.

By the way, the large amount of resources Sterl had previously handed over to Teresa had mostly been exchanged, resulting in four pieces of diamond-grade equipment usable for levels 60-70 second class.

Since Sterl had broken through to second class, his remaining experience, with the support of arcane skills, would probably get him to around level 70. However, he couldn't use the equipment just yet...

Soon, after some waiting, a light screen appeared before Sterl's eyes, just like during his first class change. Detailed and complex information surfaced.

[You have initiated the second class change ceremony. You need to complete the following tasks to class change.]

[Upon class change, you will receive the following bonuses: class rank attribute enhancement, one-tier increase in free attribute points (current rank has reached potential limit SSS, cannot be increased further).]

[Your Celestial Stars and Stardust skills will be upgraded to gold quality.]

[You need to complete the following tasks—]

[1 Obtain Star Crystals (0/500). Each time you kill an enemy, Star Crystals will condense based on the opponent's level. A level 60 unit condenses one piece, a level 80 unit condenses two pieces, a level 100 unit condenses four pieces...]

[2 Transcendence Challenge: You need to complete a strong enemy kill. The quality and potential of the first skill you gain after the class change will be determined by this kill (maximum value is 10,000 points).]

[3 SSS-Class Exclusive: You need to invest 5 points of legendary reputation to complete the second class change.]

[4 You need to spend 100 purple gold coins.]

[5 Confrontation with the World's Malice (1/1)]

...

Reading through the class change ceremony requirements, Sterl fell silent.

For someone with his abilities, completing it wasn't difficult, but objectively evaluating the class change ceremony, the requirements were a bit too high.

First, obtaining 500 Star Crystals meant Sterl had to kill 500 units above second class. Moreover, the number of Star Crystals collected only doubled for every 20-level increase in the enemy's level.

Even if Sterl were to massacre level 100 units, he'd still need to kill over a hundred of them! The killing itself wasn't the hard part. The challenge was finding that many people.

The strong enemy challenge was another unknown. Sterl wasn't sure of the specific scoring rules yet, but judging by the difficulty displayed by the class change ceremony, finding an opponent that would max out the 10,000-point rating seemed incredibly difficult.

There were sentries every few steps, and guards every few more.

Everyone was in a state of high alert, and Sterl noticed that many soldiers' blades, glinting coldly, were stained with blood.

Clearly, they had recently been in combat.

Sterl took a brief glance into the distance before immediately activating his Shadow Stealth ability, swiftly infiltrating the tallest and most ornate main tent in the military camp, adorned with four-colored gemstones.

Using the passive ability of Shadow Stealth, he reduced his own presence and hid in a corner filled with supplies.

Sterl didn't have to wait long before someone familiar walked in—it was a civil officer he had met in the consciousness space of the Divine Mountain Empire.

But Sterl couldn't remember the officer's name.

The officer was accompanied by a slightly chubby but clearly muscular middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man wore heavy armor and plopped down on the main seat in the tent, causing a minor earthquake with the sheer weight of his armor.

It was evident that this was an extraordinarily heavy, specialized set of armor.

Using Star Insight, Sterl discovered that the man himself was at the third class change level, and the heavy armor was a piece of diamond-grade third class equipment.

"Such high-grade items, there probably aren't many even in the treasury of the Divine Mountain Empire! And look at this general, with his alert, battle-ready expression—something big has definitely happened!" Sterl silently assessed.

In the tent, the civil officer and the general exchanged some pleasantries before getting to the main topic.

"So, how goes the search for the remaining princes? The Fourth Prince has already been cornered in the Crown Prince's palace."

"Most of the princes and princesses not in the capital have been captured. Only a few got wind of the plot early. Instead of fleeing, they pretended to be unaware of the Emperor's scheme and came to the capital voluntarily, then hid in the Crown Prince's residence."

"They are now resisting along with the Fourth Prince." At this point, a hint of disdain flashed in the general's eyes. "Soon they will understand the true meaning of an absolute power gap. Any maneuver before that is meaningless.!"

"Thanks to the Fourth Prince, we can round up the remaining princes and princesses in one fell swoop."

"As expected of General Leopold!" the civil officer flattered enthusiastically.

The more Sterl listened, the more puzzled he became.

The civil officer and the general mentioned terms like "His Majesty" and "Fourth Prince." According to their conversation, it seemed the Emperor was trying to capture all his descendants.

What was going on? Had all the princes and princesses committed crimes?

Moreover, Sterl recalled that this civil officer was originally aligned with the Fourth Prince when they were in the consciousness space. Why had he betrayed them now?

"Was the prince pretending all along when he interacted with me?" Sterl wondered. "Or are the princes banding together to force the Emperor to abdicate prematurely?"

Sterl speculated based on stories of political intrigue he had read in his previous life.

The current situation didn't make much sense. What was the Emperor aiming for? Last time, he heard in the consciousness space that the Emperor was already gravely ill and about to abdicate.

If the Emperor just went with the flow and abdicated, would his descendants have made things difficult for him?

With the external pressure from the Atlantic Empire, the Emperor should understand that internal strife would shake the empire's foundation and invite enemy invasion. Why go through such trouble?