Lord: Sequence Master

In the Blue Whale Guild City's skill training spirit realm, Rosen darted through the sparse shadows under the bright sunlight. There were no trees, only patches of grass, which meant there were only small spots of shadow.

Previously, Rosen could only hide in shadows the size of a football, but now he could conceal himself in ones as small as a fist. Furthermore, his shadow teleportation distance and usage had dramatically improved. Originally, even though his Light and Shadow Master innate skill removed the teleportation limit, it didn't extend the teleportation distance.

His teleportation range had been limited to ten times his spiritual strength, but now it had increased to the entire range of his spiritual sense. This was just the improvement of his Level 3 Shadowstep. When combined with his Light and Shadow Master skill from the Painter sequence, almost no one below Sequence 7 could detect him in the shadows. This tremendous growth was the result of his high-level private tutors.

After bidding farewell to the shadow-stepping tutor, Rosen shifted his focus to improving his Deathblow skill.

Deathblow was a versatile skill with impressive damage amplification and a solid armor-piercing effect. For the skill upgrade, both attributes were the targets for enhancement.

Rosen's private tutor offered an excellent plan to strengthen the skill. However, this plan was one that even money couldn't guarantee success.

In the world ravaged by Ashen pollution, most extraordinary creatures would only drop spiritual crystals upon death, with their bodies being entirely consumed by the Ashen essence. Yet, there were a rare few whose bodies and extraordinary essences could remain intact. One such extraordinary lifeform was the Ashen Bee.

These rare Ashen Bees evolved from ordinary bees, though no one knew the exact conditions under which they were born. They were occasionally found in bee colonies contaminated by Ashen pollution. The Ashen Bee's armor-piercing abilities were terrifying, effective against both physical and energy defenses.

Among creatures below Sequence 6, Ashen Bees were ranked in the top three for their armor-piercing power. The first and second-ranked creatures were typically the offspring of semi-divine extraordinary creatures.

The last recorded appearance of Ashen Bees in the Blue Whale Kingdom was more than ten years ago.

Originally, Rosen wasn't planning to pursue this rare lifeform. However, upon deeper research, he realized that creating an Ashen Bee artificially might actually be possible.

Since Ashen Bees originated from ordinary bees, they had to share some connection with their common counterparts. While ordinary bees had an infinitesimal chance of transforming into Ashen Bees through Ashen contamination, Rosen could exploit his Hunter's Eye, which had functions like capture and fusion, to create Ashen Bees himself.

The only problem was the lack of Ashen-contaminated hives in Blue Whale Kingdom. Fortunately, Rosen found a solution through the Painter's Guild.

The Painter's Guild had its own spirit realm paintings, which contained various natural and artificially modified environments, akin to a massive zoo where a variety of extraordinary creatures were kept for artists to observe and paint.

One of these spirit realms contained Ashen contamination, and Rosen easily secured access to it. Inside, he found a beehive and began his daily routine of capturing, uploading, and fusing bees.

Every day, Rosen captured two Ashen-contaminated bees and uploaded them to the Main God Computer. He then used the art software to modify their appearance, shaping them into Ashen Bees.

Afterward, he fused the modified bees, combining their strengths. Over the course of a few days, the bees started showing significant changes.

At this point, the Main God Computer confirmed that Rosen's method could indeed create Ashen Bees. However, it required nine rounds of fusion to complete the process.

Round 1: Takes 1 day

Round 2: Takes 3 days

Round 3: Takes 7 days

Round 4: Takes 15 days

Round 5: Takes 31 days

Round 6 and beyond: Each subsequent round doubles the time needed, with the total reaching 1013 days by Round 9.

Why so long? Because Ashen Bees, like the Magic Altar, were miracles—specifically, living miracles.

Creating a miracle lifeform in 1013 days was an astounding feat, but Rosen had no intention of waiting for three years. He could reach his spiritual strength cap far sooner.

Thankfully, the Main God Computer offered a shortcut: increasing the number of subjects.

Miracles are born from numbers. If there were only one bee, the chance of creating an Ashen Bee would be nearly zero. However, since bees were incredibly common, their sheer numbers occasionally led to the birth of an Ashen Bee.

Instead of fusing individual bees, it was much more efficient to fuse entire hives. A typical hive contained around ten thousand bees, and since bees weren't extraordinary creatures, Rosen's Hunter's Eye could capture an entire hive at once. This amplified the probability of producing an Ashen Bee by ten thousand times.

By Round 5, Rosen was guaranteed to create at least one Ashen Bee. By Round 9, he might even fuse a queen Ashen Bee, a creature that would only birth Ashen offspring.

This essentially meant creating an extraordinary army of miracle creatures capable of producing miracle lifeforms.

Over the next month, Rosen focused entirely on fusing hives. Finally, he succeeded in creating his first Ashen Bee.

The bee was about the size of a thumb, its body resembling dull clay, with wings and a stinger that gleamed like gray metal. Though its body strength wasn't significantly greater than a normal bee, its wings and stinger could effortlessly pierce the defenses of Sequence 7 extraordinaries—both physical and energy-based.

If forged into an extraordinary item, it would have powerful armor-piercing abilities against anyone below Sequence 3.

Rosen quickly devoured the Ashen Bee using his Gluttony ability, transferring the essence to his Deathblow skill.

After more than a month of effort, Deathblow finally reached Level 3.

[Deathblow Level 3: Compresses spiritual energy, amplifying the next attack by up to 220%. The amplification gradually decreases to 120% for subsequent hits. Compression consumes up to double the usual spiritual energy.]

[Miracle Trait: Ashen Armor-Piercing—Completely destroys any physical or energy defense below the user's spiritual strength.]

Though the damage boost increased by 10%, what surprised Rosen most was the Miracle Trait.

None of the private tutors had mentioned such a trait before.

Upon testing it, Rosen could only say, "Incredible!"

Whether facing metal armor or elemental shields, as long as the defense's spiritual strength was weaker than his, Deathblow would tear through it with ease.

Combined with his Godslayer Crossbow's sniping ability, Sequence 7s and below might as well be unarmored against him.

Despite its immense power, Rosen quickly realized the trait's weakness: as the skill advanced, it would require further infusion of Ashen Bee essence to maintain its potency. Without continued integration of Ashen Bee attributes, the armor-piercing ability would gradually weaken.

This realization shed light on why Miracle Traits were so rare: other hunters didn't possess Gluttony, which allowed Rosen to fully digest Ashen Bees and absorb their full potential. Most hunters could only absorb a limited amount of essence, insufficient to unlock a Miracle Trait, let alone maintain and enhance it.

Rosen now understood that his Deathblow skill, combined with Ashen Armor-Piercing, could become a unique and formidable ability, unmatched by others.

(End of Chapter)