"Being skilled in Arcane Law, you should be quite sensitive to various energy fluctuations, right?"
"You... will fill the position for Team 61 as a scout and spellcaster."
The Supreme cast a quick glance at Sterl and rapidly completed the assignments.
Sterl feigned an excited expression and nodded vigorously. He then received a merit handband.
Once the handband was worn, it displayed a series of notifications:
[You have activated the merit recording function.]
[You have now joined the merit leaderboard; your current position: Top 100%.]
[Notice: You can choose to remain anonymous or create a nickname.]
[Notice: In this merit leaderboard, players can only view their own ranking and cannot search for specific players corresponding to other rankings.]
Sterl examined the notifications, and the handband also indicated a bright dot—
It marked the location of Team 61.
"So even if I earn a lot of merit, I can keep it completely confidential?"
Sterl felt a slight thrill of excitement.
Originally, his plan was to lay low, finish creating a side account, and see what kind of benefits he could gain from it. If the rewards weren't sufficient...
Then he wouldn't need to be discreet with his main account!
He could farm merit and exchange it for rewards!
But since the merit leaderboard kept everything confidential, Sterl could freely engage in slaying demons and hell players to accumulate merit with his main account.
As long as he kept quiet, Sterl would still remain just a weak demigod who only mastered Arcane Law.
In a good mood, Sterl navigated through a series of military-like buildings and arrived at a giant white tent, precisely the location indicated on his merit handband.
Upon entering, he found that the interior had indeed been enhanced by spatial magic; it was quite spacious, with over ten private rooms for lodging. The common area was covered in thick felt, adorned with intricate indigo patterns.
The felt emitted a wave-like glow, helping to calm the mind and alleviate the discomfort and agitation brought by hell.
"A newcomer has arrived."
As soon as Sterl stepped inside, a burly man with purple skin, stroking his beard, glanced over casually.
"I'm the captain of Team 61. Why don't you introduce yourself and tell us what abilities you possess?"
The burly man's tone was cold. He had already used a detection skill and found that Sterl was just a flawed demigod, yet he was filling a scout position.
With low combat effectiveness, he was taking on a role with a high mortality rate.
The burly man didn't want to get too familiar with this newcomer, as the odds of survival for him were quite low.
On the other side, Sterl subtly surveyed the room.
He noticed that the team consisted of twelve members in total.
Aside from himself and the purple-skinned man, the other ten were also in the hall, most of them sitting cross-legged in meditation, silently cultivating, while a few others were communicating and exchanging information.
Sterl looked at the burly man and casually recited the lines he had prepared earlier. He claimed to be a newly promoted demigod, just hoping to try his luck in hell to earn some Valor Contribution Points to exchange for a Platinum Skill.
Instantly, the atmosphere in the room turned cold.
Good grief...
A complete novice who just leveled up and doesn't know anything—if he lasts three days, it'll be a miracle.
Under the leadership of the purple-skinned man, everyone just clapped half-heartedly, offering a perfunctory welcome. Sterl also played his part, remaining "awkwardly" silent. Fortunately, the burly man broke the ice, saying, "Let's have a meeting, everyone. We're about to undertake our next mission."
Leo was Sterl's alias.
Among all the tasks assigned, the weakest demigod newcomer, Sterl, was faced with the most challenging task.
In a normal war, this would be extremely unreasonable; not only would it likely send a rookie to their death, but assigning such a crucial task to an untrained person was irresponsible for the squad.
However, the demigods of the Hall of Valor were basically forged from blood and fire, thus requiring no training; they could jump straight into the team and begin executing missions.
To fit his persona, Sterl hesitated for a moment before nodding in agreement.
In reality, scouting the Swallowing Heaven players was exactly what he wanted.
...
About half an hour later, Sterl's squad officially set out from the fortress. They donned a special fur—silver-white in color, with a texture reminiscent of flowing water. This was a crafting item from the Hall of Valor, designed to shield against detection.
When used, the fur would quickly change from silver to transparent, eventually dissolving into a puddle of water.
Because of this, the fur had excellent shielding effects until it was completely worn out.
Utilizing the speed of the demigods, the group took only a few seconds to reach their destination, perfectly avoiding the detection range of numerous demons.
At this moment, Sterl looked around and noticed they were in a relatively low-lying basin, where rivers of blood converged from various parts of the layer of hell.
This was a natural setting ideal for laying out a Blood Sacrifice Array.
A thought flickered in Sterl's mind; perhaps he could use the power of nature to invoke the array while remaining even more concealed!
"Could it be that the Archduke of Blood comprehended the Blood Sacrifice Swallowing God Array based on some natural conditions in this layer of hell?"
"It's a pity... if only there were divine-level units in this layer of hell, I could have enjoyed a nice feast."
Seeing such a unique terrain, he immediately began to plot.
The area where the blood force was gathering was right in the battlefield, and Sterl thought it wouldn't be difficult to lure some powerful beings here...
Meanwhile, Sterl's teammates were spreading out according to the initial tactical arrangements. The purple-skinned man shot him a look and said, "Newbie, what are you waiting for?"
"Go scout the area and see if there are any signs of hell players, then compile the information for us."
"I'm on it!"
"I'll go right now!"
Sterl feigned a bit of apprehension, then gritted his teeth and activated Arcane Law, wrapping himself in a faint purple glow. He used Shadow Stealth to disappear before the others.
The moment he entered the shadow realm, his expression turned emotionless.
Sterl enhanced his Shadow Stealth with Stardust to prolong its duration, then swiftly observed the hellscape through the lens of the shadow world, searching for the demon on the verge of leveling up.
His thought process was clear: if the hell players needed to protect this demon, they should be nearby as well.
Before long, Sterl's eyes lit up; through the shadow world, he spotted a dark flame.
"I've found it."
A slight smile curled at the corners of his mouth as he instantly shifted back to the main world.
Sterl stood quietly in place, his gear enhanced with camouflage effects. Stardust further amplified the disguise of Shadow Stealth, combined with the perfected-level Space Law, allowing Sterl to perfectly hide within a spatial interlayer—
He suddenly appeared among a squad of hell players, yet no one noticed him.
This was the convergence point of countless rivers of blood.
Sterl could smell the nauseating scent of plasma wafting through the air, and as he looked ahead, he saw, at the center of countless tributaries, the demon wrapped in emerald green flames, its power steadily rising.
"Calculating, it should take about a day for it to level up to Supreme."
"The mission timeline is rather tight?"