And that were just the details of the Laws. That was basically only the first step in everything, and one aspect of the True God's power. These Laws sounded grand, but they were actually quite limited in their use for NPCs.
This was because the system for NPCs and the system for players were obviously different. The two were different from the very fundamental nature of it.
Firstly, as was stated with energy, players had Divine Points and the Divine Energy from their Source Origin, both of which were split into different uses. Divine Points for skills and spells, Divine Energy for techniques or abilities.
NPCs only had access to Divine Energy, which was a handicap for them. However, to make things fair players had to pay a higher price to get to the same stage, so they deserved better benefits.
The second thing was that players were not limited like NPCs in terms of Laws. Once an NPC picked a Law or Rule under a Origin, they could only ever reach the Supreme Law state, and their comprehension would benefit the Origin God above them. In the best case scenario they could work they way up to become something akin their right hand man.
This lead to Origin Gods nurturing factions among True Gods, which was how the pantheons came about. The more True Gods under your Origin Law, the more power you as the Origin God would gain, but the system for Origins Gods was not yet relevant at this stage.
Sticking to True Gods, players functioned differently. How could a player subscribe to an NPC? Boundless had a realistic world, but it was still a game at heart. As such, when players gained a Rule, they didn't subscribe to the one linked to the universe.
Rather, they 'copied the foundation of the rule and developed it personally. So it would become you, the player's, own thing. It could not be linked to the world nor could it benefit any Origin God. Of course, this also meant that it could not be controlled by any Origin God.
Taking it a step further, a player would rise to Origin God status by comprehending the entire Rule and then making their own Origin Law copy, just like with Divine Laws.
So, unlike in the previous example with Flashflame and the God of Fire, there could be thousands of players who were the True God of Burning at the same time, and even hundreds who were the Origin God of Fire. It did not affect the NPCs and their system, nor did it affect player's growth.
The only difference it made was your raw power in fighting or crafting.
Before we circle back to the Evil Trio and how all this affected them, let's address the elephant in the room. If by taking a Law, an NPC was limited to reach the Suprem Law state with no chance to become an Origin God, and all Origins Gods existed since the beginning of time... then what the fuck were Semi-Origin Gods?!
Well, there were two types of Semi-Origin Gods. There were the common types like almost every Semi-Origin God in existence, including Hikari's father for example, who were at the Supreme Law Rank as a True God but happened to have achieved a Pseudo-/Semi-/ or True Origin-Grade Source Origin, allowing them to collect/use/produce Origin Energy semi naturally and imbue it into their Laws.
There was no need to over-explain it, the details in the past few walls of text should be enough to highlight what it meant. Semi-Origin Gods of this nature stood above all True Gods because they could now effect Energy Suppression on other True Gods.
A True God of a Supreme Law with a Divine Source Origin and a True God with a Supreme Law with a Origin-Grade Source Origin in a fight would end with the latter thoroughly suppressing the former just like how a Titled God could suppress a Rank 7 despite both technically being on the same Rank.
However Semi-Origin Gods like this were only respected and feared by True Gods. Origin Gods disdained them and saw them as the same as any other True God.
The second type of Semi-Origin God were exceedingly rare, one who derived a Law at the True God stage that was unique and not encapsulated by an existing Origin God. In other words, they had discovered and were comprehending something new and unique to the world.
Obviously, Norma fit in this category and was one of the reasons the Origin Gods had treated her like their darling girl. She was a Semi-Origin God because her Refinement Law was stuck at the half-step Origin stage and her Source Origin was a Semi-Origin grade.
If she could have taken that last step, she could have upgraded both her Law and Source Origin, gaining the ability to singlehandedly sustain the expanding universe with ease and allowing Origin Gods to rest.
Alas, she had failed and passed this task on to Draco.
In truth, Stage 1 and 2 were the mortal stages of Refinement, but Stage 3 would make it easy for him to step into True God power and Stage 4 would make it even possible to become a Semi-Origin God.
Completing Stage 4 and perfecting the theory would allow one to upgrade to an Origin God and achieve Norma's dreams.
If it wasn't for the Dragorugio set giving Draco a shortcut to achieving those ranks by still being a mortal, he would have long dropped everything and obediently sat down to practice what Norma had left him.
So now that was done, let's talk about the special situation of the Evil Trio.
The first thing to establish was that no, they were not actually True Gods. They had the Divine Source Origin of a Dragon granted by their sets. So if they ever unequipped them or lost them, that benefit would disappear.
Likewise, they only got the ability to use Laws through the items Draco had crafted, and they could organically grow their Laws as if they were True Gods. If they lost access to these items, they would also lose that ability.
But putting that aside, the fact was that they had both right now, so what did it mean?
Well, to understand this, we have to take a look at the dynamic changes of their character sheet and then analyze what those walls of text actually represented
「Name: Draco
Class: Abyss Eternal
Race: Hybrid (Human/Ultima Sunt)
Rank: Demi God (5)/True God (?)
Level: 245
Exp: 4%
Law Rank: Basic
Divine Essence: 0/10,000
Str: 255
Dex: 255
End: 255
Int: 255
Spr: 255
Cha: 255
Lck: 271
Law(s): Law of Malevolent Darkness (Basic).
Combat Skills: Omitted.
Non-Combat Skills: Omitted.
Tradeskills: Smithing (Semi-Divine), Alchemy (Semi-Divine), Enchanting (level 100, 0%), Magical Engineering (level 76, 21%), Scrivener (level 85, 64%), Privateering (level 72, 32%), Dungeon Creation (level 34, 40%), Skill Fusion (level 34, 40%), Refinement (Level 0, 30%).」
「Name: Riveting Night
Class: Celestial Eternal
Race: Human
Rank: Demi God (5)/True God (?)
Level: 245
Exp: 4%
Law Rank: Basic
Divine Essence: 0/10,000
Str: 255
Dex: 255
End: 255
Int: 255
Spr: 255
Cha: 255
Lck: 271
Law(s): Law of Benevolent Light (Basic).
Combat Skills: Omitted.
Non-Combat Skills: Omitted.
Tradeskills: Ministry (level 9, 30%)」
「Name: Jade Empress
Class: Primordial Eternal
Race: Human
Rank: Demi God (5)/True God (?)
Level: 245
Exp: 4%
Law Rank: Basic
Divine Essence: 0/10,000
Str: 255
Dex: 255
End: 255
Int: 255
Spr: 255
Cha: 255
Lck: 271
Law(s): Law of Endless Strength (Basic).
Combat Skills: Omitted.
Non-Combat Skills: Omitted.
Tradeskills: Divine Farming (level 23, 55%), Array Specialist (level 2, 56%).」
As one could see, their character sheets had gained some new categories while the old ones still remained. This was because of their special situation where they were simultaneously mortals and True Gods, or rather, they were mortals with the full power of a True God along with the ability to grow.
What was different about the Evil Trio, compared to a normal player who had ascended to such a stage naturally, was not that they still had stats, Combat Ranks and experience bars, but rather that they were able to take on multiple rules.
It should be obvious that whether player or NPC, you could only choose one Law or Rule when you ascend, and that was it. However, due to the nature of the items made, Draco, Eva and Shuangtian could seemingly adapt multiple Laws.
The initial Law they started with had to do with their nature, but they could theoretically learn any Law at any time as long as they had the skills relevant for it. This was due to the wording in Passive 1 of their Abyssal Mantle, Jade Crown and Celestial Symbol.
「Passive 1 – I Am The Law: Any skill or technique used by the wearer of this cape would possess the requisite Law of that skill at the maximum level that the wearer can achieve at the time.」
If he wanted to, Draco could learn the Law of Beast Summoning thanks to the skill Cruel Beast Summon that he got from Roma, or he could learn the Law of Unholy Resurrection from the Dark Resurrection skill he had.
Likewise, he could learn the Law of Burning from a fireball used by Subjective Magic. In fact, Subjective Magic paired with this was so broken that Draco's evaluation of it which had already been high, soared through the roof into the atmosphere.
Eva could learn the Law of Light Healing using her Instant Healing skill, she could learn the Law of Searing Light from her Searing Ray skill, she could also learn the law of Explosive Light from her Light Ball skill.
Shuangtian could learn the Law of Biological Defense from her Titan skills, the Law of Brute Strength, the Law of Barbarian Berserk and more.
In other words, the more active and passive skills they had, the more Laws they could use! You could bet all your money that they were about to make use of their basically unlimited funds to purchase every skill they could possibly learn.
The beautiful part was that once the skill was used once and the Law was grasped, it could be used in other skills. The Law of Searing Light could be used in a poison element skill, and the Law of Burning could be used in a water element skill or spell.
Theoretically, once they gained at least 20 laws, they could be as powerful as a True God with a Supreme Law. Because at the Basic Law Rank, one can only put up to 5% of their Law into a single skill.
With 20 laws, they could put 5% of each until they got a 100% of different mismashed Laws in one attack! This would certainly allow them to suppress foes... but would crumble before an actual True God of that Rank due to other subtle differences and the sheer quality.
But as they always say, quantity could lead to a qualitative change!
No one ever said a skill had a limit to how many Laws could be put in, only that the Law itself had a limit depending on the stage it was at! In other words, if the Evil Trio got 40 Laws, they could stuff 5% of each up to 200%!
60 Laws would equal 300%, 80 was 400% and a 100 Laws was 500%!!
At that stage, it wouldn't matter whether Supreme Law or not, the Evil Trio at the Basic Law stage could likely suppress all foes in their path!
God, what an exciting future!
Another crazy and unfair thing was that due to their connection, they could share Laws. So whatever laws Draco learned, whatever laws Eva learned and whatever laws Shuangtian learned could be shared over once they acquired it, allowing them to increase their power exponentially!
Draco's eyes flashed as he understood the assignment.
The goal was now to acquire as many laws as possible, regardless of type, source or potency and then add them to their repertoire. That way, they could take on True Gods at all Ranks and even maintain their overpowered advantages over the whole group!
Hahahaha!