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As expected, Snappy returned soon after handing out the Blessing, looking a bit worse for wear. Giving out a True Blessing was never easy, and it quite literally ate your Records when you did it. If giving out a normal Blessing – even a Divine one – could be said to consume a limited resource pool, then giving away a True Blessing was giving away a portion of your maximum energy pool with the hope that the one you gave the pool to would improve the maximum. That, or die too early, making you permanently lose a portion of this pool that you would then have to make up for. Losing a single Chosen prematurely was a significant loss, even if it wouldn’t necessarily result in any loss of combat prowess.

What it would do in every case was limit the potential of a god and make it harder for them to progress. In the same way, then if the Chosen did well, it would also help the god. Records mixed, too, giving other benefits. While Jake enjoyed plenty of the Viper’s Records, then Vilastromoz too enjoyed the Records of Jake’s achievements. The exchange was not equal but heavily favored for the Chosen, at least in the lower grades. What an S-grade did simply resulted in more meaningful Records for a god than nearly anything a D or even C-grade could possibly achieve.

This was why most gods waited to A or S-grade to make someone a Chosen. The chance of the person dying then was just lower, and one would nearly always get their investment returned. Especially as many gods hoped for the ultimate bounty of their Chosen reaching godhood, resulting in not only a huge return on investment but a new loyal god joining them in their factions.

However… the gains from someone you blessed even earlier on their Path reaching these levels of power were nothing compared to what the Viper would get from Jake. While the Viper had made Jake his Chosen rather impulsively, it wasn’t as if he had done so without any thought.

“Had an enlightening conversation with the Cosmic Genesis Worm?” Vilastromoz asked Snappy.

“Moreso than expected,” Snappy answered. “I must admit, I had not expected the level of presence resistance to be that high. It went above and beyond anything I have seen of any C-grade before. A result of your Chosen, I believe?”

“Yep,” Vilastromoz confirmed. “This is that Sylphian Hawk all over again, though slightly less potent as far as I can tell.”

“Sandy was still affected,” Snappy agreed. “Just able to ignore it far better. Stoic is not the word I would use, but perhaps willfully ignorant is more accurate.”

Vilastromoz nodded, having his thoughts reaffirmed. “So, what made you decide to give the True Blessing?”

Snappy was silent for a moment. “No singular factor was behind it. However, I had feared that Sandy would have been bound to your Chosen too tightly and not have enough independence. It was good to have it confirmed that is not the case. Moreover, as the Cosmic Genesis Worm was in my realm, I could feel its conceptual level of digestion and analyze how their inner world works.”

“And?”

“I found it acceptable to make Sandy my Chosen,” Snappy simply said with a smile. “The worm also had an acceptable personality and demeanor.”

Vilastromoz also smiled and shook his head. “Keep your secrets, then. Though I must add, I am surprised Sandy could get the divine skill you chose to give. As far as I know, the compability requirements are through the roof on that one.”

Snappy sighed. “How do you already know?”

Villy just kept smiling as he kept an eye on Jake and the worm. “Happy thoughts. At least you don’t have to be that worried about Sandy dying to any unforeseen circumstances now.”

When Jake thought about it, he had never actually gone that far into the sky. The furthest he had gone was with Hawkie while exploring the cloud continent, and that had still been in the lower layers of the world above. He had, for a long time, theorized one could find many powerful things up there, and that theory was soon proven true.

Earth had several layers of clouds, and entering each layer was like entering an entirely new world. Clouds above and below made it look like one was within a cave of clouds in the sky, and as Jake and Sandy entered one of the extremely far-up layers, Sandy suddenly stopped to shudder.

“This place is good,” the worm said.

“Really?” Jake asked rhetorically with delight. “That is great! Now see if you can move to the side too. Towards the west, that is.”

They still needed to make sure Sandy could actually enter the airspace above where the Fallen King was before they could call this a success.

However, Jake had a strong feeling it would be fine. This feeling primarily stemmed from the many beasts already in the area to the west, and far in the distance, Jake saw something extremely large move. So large it had to be C-grade.

As he had hoped, Sandy encountered no more problems but made it clear that going downward through any of the cloud layers was not an option. Jake asked Sandy to spit him out, and the worm did so.

Standing in the air outside, Jake stared downwards.

They were approximately two hundred kilometers from the surface of the planet. The cloud continent had been around twenty-five kilometers from the surface, so he was now around eight times higher, which made sense considering the presence of C-grades there.

“I guess we will have to say goodbye too… I can’t follow you down from here,” Sandy said with some sadness.

“Wait a bit,” Jake said as he kept looking down and focusing.

He squinted his eyes and strained himself. Faint traces of stamina entered his eyes to empower them. In his vision, the layers of clouds thinned, turning into only a faint mist. Focusing more, the mist began dispersing as layer after layer disappeared, and a mountain valley entered his eyes.

And people laughed at full Perception builds, Jake smiled to himself. Okay, no one had really laughed about his stat build to his face, but plenty of people probably wanted to!

Looking around, Jake soon spotted what he was looking for. A mountain peak with gold on top – the residence of the Fallen King. It was a bit far off to the side, though, but he had time to get in position. Nothing was going on all the way below as far as he could see, meaning no fight was happening.

“What are you looking at?” Sandy finally asked.

“The mountains below to figure out the best spot to prepare,” Jake answered.

“You can see all the way down there?” Sandy asked with confusion. “That is like super far, isn’t it? And isn’t all the stuff in the way annoying?”

“It is, but I can handle it. I also think I may have to go a bit lower while I prepare as I don’t want any C-grades to interrupt me,” Jake answered.

“So it is goodbye…” Sandy said with sadness. “Oh well, I guess nothing can be done about that.”

Jake frowned a bit as the last part sounded far less sad than the first. It took him a moment, but he got it. “You detected something tasty?”

“Maaaybe? The sky is way better than the water, that is for damn sure,” Sandy said cheerfully. “But do say hi again when you are done dealing with human stuff, okay? Just take the egg- I mean, rock-thing, I gave you earlier and infuse some energy into it, and I will come if I can.”

Jake smiled as he patted his wormy friend. “I will. See you around, Sandy, and happy hunting. Treasure hunting, that is.”

“You too! Good luck killing stuff and all that, and I hope that weird stuff you prepared works. Unique Lifeforms sound scary,” Sandy also said their goodbyes.

With those words, Sandy left to do wormy adventures of their own. Jake would lie if he said he wouldn’t miss the giant gluttonous worm, but such was life. At least he now had a method of contact, and even if he didn’t, then he could at least contact his fellow Chosen through Villy.

Yes, it still felt weird that Sandy was now a Chosen of an extremely powerful god and that there was absolutely no change in the worm despite that. Not that he complained, as he preferred it that way. He did wonder what that entire egg business was about, as that wasn’t something Sandy could do before, meaning it definitely came from the skill granted by the True Blessing.

This meant the egg had to come from a divine skill, even if it felt rather mundane. Villy had said that no combat-oriented skills could be given, but that didn’t mean Jake had any idea what the worm had gotten. I guess I will find out at some point. For now, let’s focus on the task at hand.

Jake dove downwards for a good while until reaching around the hundred-kilometer mark. He timed himself and estimated he would be able to reach the ground in around two minutes if he went at full speed. This put his speed somewhere around two and three times the speed of sound, closer to three.

Taking some more notes, Jake scoured the mountain range below, waiting for something to happen. As he did this, he also took out a token and activated it. A minute passed before he felt Miranda make contact.

Miranda had activated the ritual circle to establish a connection with Jake, and it formed effortlessly.

“I am in position around a hundred kilometers above the mountain range now. I have visual contact with where the King resides,” Jake said, surprising Miranda a bit. Not only with how fast he had gotten there, but that he was so far up in the sky.

“Is that within feasible striking distance?” Miranda asked with doubt.

“Yes,” Jake simply answered.

She did not even try to argue it. Jake knew far better than she did when it came to these kinds of things. “Very well, I will now form the three-way connection. Wait a minute.”

Miranda quickly took out a few more items that she placed on the circle. Pouring her mana in and controlling the ritual, a second connection was formed. Focusing, Miranda took these connections and channeled them first through herself and then into the circle as he connected them all with herself as the central medium.

“It has been a while since we last spoke, little hunter,” a voice spoke to not only Miranda but everyone else part of the ritual. Jake being everyone else in this case.

“That it has,” Jake agreed. “I hear you have been struggling with some ash guy or something? Do you mean to tell me that this other Unique Lifeform is superior to you?”

“Superior is a strong word to describe a creature of equal class. That neither of us can kill the other is only a testament to the power of Unique Lifeforms,” the King scoffed.

“Sure, a testament to their power. I guess to take down such a powerful foe, you need an expert in killing Unique Lifeforms. I guess I can consult, considering my vast experience on the subject?” Jake teased.

“I must disappoint you; I sadly do not have several system-granted items to make this Unique Lifeform weak enough for you to stand a chance.”

“Too bad, guess we will have to just kill it the old-fashioned way then, huh? Oh wait, you also tried that and failed? Damn,” Jake said.

“Boys, be nice to each other,” Miranda finally cut in to mediate the two bickering… eh… peak powerhouses of Earth? The peak of D-grade, at least. Anyway.

“Jake is in position now in the air far above the mountain range. Am I correct to assume that both of you are ready to engage the next time the Unique Lifeform shows up?” Miranda asked.

“Yes,” the King answered.

“I would prefer to wait until the time after that. You say it comes by often… make it so that this time is shorter than the others. Make it believe you are truly struggling and soon unable to keep up. You already said you are slowly losing out; make it believe you are truly at your limit. Then make it retreat, fully heal up, and return for the killing blow,” Jake said without a hint of teasing, surprising Miranda a bit at his patience. She had assumed he wanted to rush in.

“Why the delay?” the King asked, no longer joking around either.

“For me to properly assess the Unique Lifeform and make use of some of my skills. Will it be a problem to do this?” Jake asked. This was no jab but a genuine inquiry.

“Yes, it should be feasible. I have been facing mounting pressure recently, and I can play it up,” the King answered.

“Alright,” Miranda agreed. “Allow me to contact and bring in the final member of this little plan.”

Miranda had already prepared as the two spoke and activated yet another token. She repeated the process from before and had to sacrifice quite the energy to facilitate what was essentially a group call. The old man she wanted to bring in had been waiting and nearly instantly reacted.

“Greetings, Ms. Wells, Jake, and… the Fallen King, is it?” the Sword Saint spoke as he too took part in their little strategy meeting.

“Well met, swordsman,” the King greeted.

“Hi there,” Jake also said hello.

“I am glad you could join us,” Miranda finished. Channeling the presences of four people in a ritual like this wasn’t easy, especially not considering the distance between some of them and her having to make sure the connection was secure.

“I take it the time is approaching?” the Sword Saint asked.

“Yes, we are soon ready and want to make sure you are in position and able to engage when called upon,” Miranda asked the Sword Saint.

“You need not worry; I am ready. Simply say when,” the Sword Saint confirmed.

“Great. Jake, if you would explain your plan of engagement to the others?” Miranda asked.

“Okay, so I thought that-“

Jake went on to explain as Miranda just listened in and focused on the ritual. The King asked a few questions as he was the only other one directly involved in the fight with the other Unique Lifeform, with the Sword Saint more there to offer advice. Jake also gave the Sword Saint some tips as they all knew the old man would have potentially the most dangerous job of all:

Keeping Ell’Hakan busy during the takedown of the Ashen Phantom Devourer.

It took in total about half an hour to go over everything, and by then, Miranda was also plenty tired. They said their goodbyes, and, with relief, she disengaged from the ritual and let it fade. Not having the energy to clean the circle then and there, she went to relax in another room and found a certain snake sitting by the door.

“It went well?” the Alabaster Crimsoneye Snake asked.

“As expected,” Miranda just answered. “What about you? Have you decided on a name yet?”

“No… it is too hard. But I thought, what if we combine them?”

Miranda was a bit surprised, but after thinking about it, it wasn’t a bad idea. Allie Scarlett or Scarlett Allie. Maybe make it Allison, or-

“How about Scallie to-“

Miranda instantly raised her hand, making the snake shut up. “Back to the drawing board on that one.”