By this time, the pathway for the Ascension Road began to flicker and figures began to manifest slowly in the church. It looked as if they were being rebuilt molecule by molecule, which technically was exactly what was happening right now.
The Ascension Road experience differed wildly between NPCs and players. Ascension had to be dramatic to signify the milestone it represented, making all those who had managed to climb to the peak of Rank 7 feel that their efforts were worthwhile after toiling for so long on the Main Plane.
In comparison, when an NPC entered the Ascension Road, there was no test prepared for them. It was a straight passage from the Mortal Plane to the Divine Realm, where they would be able to integrate into the realm either as workers, civilians, warriors or whatever else was needed of them.
Of course, this also depended on the doctrine of the one managing the Ascension Road. If they demanded that those who came up had to do this or that, or be this and that, then the NPCs were forced to fulfill that criteria.
An example was the Church of Light. No matter how much Richmond and his peers had begged, promised or paid, they had not been allowed to use the Ascension Road passage to the Divine City because none of them had truly been believers of the Gods.
While the True Gods in the Divine City lacked the required fresh blood to put up a fight against the Grey Rot, they had no interest in allowing random Rank 7 fellows to ascend. Those individuals would only have mastered Basic Laws at best, yet Intermediate Laws were the minimum requirement to be useful on the battlefield.
Aside that, the road was closed because the Supreme Pantheon was under siege and they absolutely did not want the Grey Rot to leak down below otherwise their fallback point, the Main Plane, would be ruined forever.
Don't forget, Draco got to the Divine Realm by using the loophole of the Divine Trial. The Divine Trial existed in a separate spacetime created by Origin Gods to filter and reward capable True Gods, but it had to have a 'office' so to speak, in the other worlds.
The Divine City had one such office, which was the only remaining one that worked in the Divine Realm, so Draco got deposited there following his use of this loophole. His alternative back then had been to really bribe the Church of Light with items they could not refuse.
Or use force.
Luckily, all that didn't have to happen, hahaha!
Otherwise, the world would not be very peaceful... Ha. Ha. Ha.
Back to the subject matter, the Ascension Road for players was different. Upon reaching the level cap of 400, you'd have to use an Ascension Road recognized by the AI to advance.
The original plot would have players use the road belonging to the Church of Light as they would open it up for players under the behest of the True Gods after the onslaught of Grey Rot would have forced them to take such drastic measures.
Seeing the formerly looked down upon Immortal Adventurers reaching the limit of power, the True Gods would naturally invite these immortal powerhouses up to relieve the pressure off them.
For players, the conditions the Ascension Road's owner put up was irrelevant, instead there were three things to decide their fate in the Divine Realm.
The first was the quality of their class. Classes ranged from Common to Divine, though Semi-Eternal had also entered the fray now. The higher your class rank, the greater your chances of success, and the more significant your ensuing results would be.
The second was the quality of your skills. When coalescing into a True God, you had to pick the skill that would merge with your class to become your Law. You couldn't be like the Evil Trio where all your skills were able to generate Laws after being used. A player would retain all their skills, sure, but only one of them can become Law.
The third was the difficulty chosen. As with all system mechanics, there were difficulties that a player could undertake. Like Classing Up, there were different benefits per difficulty chosen like boosts to your Law, your Source origin strength, or general rewards from the game that were useful.
There was no payment made to the system, only whatever price one paid to the Ascension Road owner, so like Classing Up, as long as you had the money, feel free to try over and over.
In order to better understand the Ascension Road system, let us roll the dice and select a random core member to view the challenge from their perspective!
Target: Rina!
Rina stepped through the portal in the Rank 7 Church of Vita and entered a world with endless whiteness, like a plain sandbox that had not been rendered. She casually looked around until a screen appeared before her, stealing her attention.
「System to Player Announcement
Greetings, Player Lusty Wench! You have entered the Path of Ascension, where the beginning marks the end of your tenure as a mortal, and the end signifies the start of your future as a God! To properly transition, you must undergo a trial that will allow you to coalesce your divinity and break free from the shackles of mortality.
「System to Player Announcement
You have selected the SSS Grade Law of True Fire! Given your choice, you can select between the following difficulties and view the corresponding rewards for your chosen Law:
Easy: No extra rewards.
Moderate: Source Origin Capacity boosted to 1.5x of its base permanently.
Hard: Gain three new skills that perfectly match the theme of your Divine Law.
Hell: The Divine Points cost for all your skills will be reduced by 50%.
Nightmare: Divine Law is permanently boosted by one Grade, up to EX.
Impossible: All Divine Essence requirements for Law breakthroughs will be reduced by 50%.」
Seeing this list, Rina's breathing became rough. Usually, only thinking about Draco or being in the presence of his manhood could make Rina feel so breathless, but this reward menu managed to achieve the same feat!
The easy mode was the basic method, so it came as no surprise that the rewards was barren, yet the next higher difficulty already granted a permanent boost to one's Divine Energy capacity by half over?
Sure, the Source Origins everyone would condense would be different, some being as vast as an ocean while some being as small as a pond. For those who had large ones, this boost would bring crazy benefits to them and even those with small ones wouldn't say no to the extra capacity.
Size does matter after all!
What excited Rina, but quickly sobered her up, was her realization regarding the heartless AI, which never showed kindness to any player except Draco. Even though it favored Draco, it still dared to challenge him. This made her question how well other players could expect to be treated.
This was the same AI that gave players gold coins and epic treasure chest rewards about one or two weeks into the game and then secretly contacted Draco to kill everyone so that no one could get it, rather ending up in debt.
The only thing that the AI was confirmed to hate more than breaking the balance and plans it set was giving out rewards to players. If it wasn't for the need to give some carrot at the end of the stick, it would probably let players fight World Bosses on the daily for copper coins.
The AI employed a very 'fair' and 'sensible' method for players, with a ratio of 1:10, where the one was the carrot or reward and the ten was the stick or the difficulty.
So the bigger the carrot, the bigger the stick!
And in this case, the carrot was the size of skyscraper, so just what size was the stick???
Even the moderate difficulty would likely be the type that would be impossible for normal players to complete, and even the top players outside of Umbra would have to pay a huge price to complete it.
Anything above that could only be tackled by Umbra tier players.
Looking at the list, Rina's eyes naturally fell on the Impossible difficulty and she selected it without hesitation. She wasn't doing it just to give it a try, but because she was genuinely confident!
While Draco might have spent ten in-game years being a father with no progress, the entire playerbase was the opposite, with even the weakest trash advancing by leaps and bounds under the nourishment of Umbra and Vita.
How much more the actual members of Umbra, and then the core members above them who represented the elite of the elite?
This was the best time for them to show the fruits of their labor over these years and they were in secret competition with each other to see who would cross the hurdles first!
「System to Player Announcement
Player Lusty Wench has selected the Impossible difficulty with the Law of True Fire. Please head to the Trial of Comprehension to start your path of Ascension!」