novelThe Dark Elf Sisters
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Chapter 369: The Dark Elf Sisters
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav
[Antiholy Knight, High-level job class. Requirements for entering this job class: knight and swordsman job class members at the peak of Silver. Heavy armor and military weapon expertise. Strength must be greater than 15, Constitution must be greater than 15, and Will must be greater than 16. System Reminder: This job class's main stat is Will. Only warriors with the strongest willpowers will be able to trod upon this path filled with thorns. ]
[Job class specialty: Ordinary Mortal's Willpower. As a practitioner improves in proficiency, anti-magic and anti-divine power resistance will be improved. This resistance will be further improved by one's Will stat. This resistance also applies to the user's armor and weapon. But as a price for obtaining this resistance, the user will lose the ability to use any divine powers or magic. Notice: When entering this job class, an Antiholy Knight's divine or magic powers will be transformed into mental spirit and willpower. ]
[Magic Breaker, Divine Breaker: Enchant user's weapon with an Ordinary Mortal's Willpower. Attacking with such a weapon will dispel all magic and divine powers on an enemy's weapons and equipment. This effect can be stacked. After reaching a certain degree, it will be possible to permanently weaken an enemy's power level. Notice: This power-loss effect can only be canceled by the highest-level priests who have power levels far surpassing the Antiholy Knight who applied this effect, or by the Antiholy Knight who applied it. ]
[Holy Sword Dispelling: Target an existence from another plane. Transform user's tempered Will into a formless holy sword which will cause a large amount of neutral-element damage. Also, there will be a probability that the existence will be dispelled and sent back to its original plane. This ability can only be used against existences from other planes. As long as the user still has the mental spirit to continue using this ability, there are no limitations on how many times this ability can be used. ]
[Unyielding Body: Tempered willpower and the effect of Ordinary Mortal's Willpower will increase the user's base stats by 2 Strength and 2 Constitution. And after reaching 16 Will, every time the user's Will increases by 2 more points, both Strength and Constitution will gain another bonus 1 point. Every time the user improves in power level, there will be large bonuses to Strength and Constitution. ]
[Aura effect: Antiholy Barrier. The user can summon a barrier constructed out of their willpower and dispel all magic and divine power effects within it. This barrier's effects depends on the difference in power level between the user and the target enemy. It can be maintained for a medium amount of time. ]
[Curse: Black Solo Traveler. Antiholy Knights are loathed by the Gods, and don't expect understanding from the other mortals that they protect. Their glorious holy swords shall transform into black magic swords. Their white and silver armor shall be covered in shadows. They shall be the solo travelers of the night. System Reminder: This curse possesses a punishment of -4 Charisma. Also, devout God believers will instinctively loathe all Antiholy Knights. ]
[System Note: This job class's creation is deeply related to you according to the ties of karma. You personally changed the fate of the epic hero Diana. How much you changed her fate has increased since the previous calculation, so you are now rewarded with an additional 1000 Fate Points. P. S.: This job class is still incomplete. It's possible for it to evolve and strengthen even further. ]
Obviously, this job class was a weaker version of Diana's "Antigod" version.
This was something common in the mortal plane. As I mentioned before, many high-level job classes for Gold ranks were job classes first created by Legends before them.
After this job class was born, my System immediately gave me the relevant information. She also notified me that I myself could spend some Fate Points to enter this job class as soon as I talked to Diana and learned the basic information about it.
"It requires more than 15 points in three different stats? And the person must be an expert in heavy armor and at least one military weapon? The requirements for entering this job class are sufficient for even Legends. It's definitely a powerful job class. Although progressing into it is quite difficult, it seems like I meet all the requirements. So, I should take a level in it and have a side job class to learn some new skills... System! Did you really think I would say that!? Do I look like that much of an idiot to you!?"
Indeed, this job class had strict requirements for entry, and its natural job class talents made Antiholy Knights into the best counters to priests, mages, Gods, and Demons. But, if I entered this job class, I would definitely regret it.
"As a price for obtaining this resistance, the user will lose the ability to use any divine powers or magic. Doesn't this sentence mean that apart from the Antiholy Knight's abilities, I'd only be left with my racial talents? All the ice, undead, Law, and Holy Light magic I spent so much effort learning would go to waste."
It could be said that if I entered this job class, I'd pretty much go from a pay-to-win player with fully leveled up abilities to a high-level foot soldier who could only fight enemies with basic attacks and chase them down on foot. And if I couldn't run, I'd only be able to clutch my head and crouch down in defense... Should I throw a celebration party now that there was finally a job class with worse problems of reach compared to Holy Knight?
This was obviously a highly special job class. There was no fancy "ultimate ability" like in other high-level job classes, and the most basic magic spells or Holy Light would become unusable. However, it would still very powerful and unique.
There would always be gains together with losses. Perhaps this job class didn't have any extravagant supernatural abilities, but it was capable of making its enemies lose their supernatural abilities. Meanwhile, a person in this job class would have their power concentrated in the most practical basic stats. I could already predict that a high-level Antiholy Knight would have ridiculously high stats in Strength and Constitution, making them tanks with ridiculously high defense and magic resistance.
"Changing powerful mages into ordinary people and then forcing these mages, who've lost their magic abilities and magic equipment, to fight in melee combat against an Antiholy Knight who has a ridiculously strengthened body due to sheer willpower? This is so shameless, so underhanded, so... I love it so much!"
I could already guess that this job class was about to become even better than Dark Elf Assassins at slaying mages. Not only that, Antiholy Knights were the type of job class that would "kill you honestly and directly from the front."
While the advantages were obvious, this job class's weaknesses were even more obvious. Short-ranged melee combat meant they would be limited in attacking reach, and pure warrior job classes that they had no advantage against were by far the most common in the mortal plane. At lower power levels, Antiholy Knights would have lower defenses and not enough special abilities. It would be difficult to level up in this job class.
But it would most definitely be exceedingly powerful in its full-leveled state.
"I don't care what fancy tricks you have. I'll just take your attacks and directly kill you from the front. That really is just like that big idiot's personality... Still, it's evident that this is a job class suited to bring on the battlefield in groups. Perhaps I should consider raising a group of Antiholy Knights."
It was also because of Diana's outstanding performance that countless existences' attention was brought to that aquatic battle at Kagersi. In fact, more existences paid attention to her than the result of the battle. This caused the other new job class which appeared to only barely be mentioned in informational reports.
"Desecration Priest? What's that?"
If Holy Knights and other Gods' knights could be considered as blades which protected their church, then priests were the representatives and teachers of a God's will and teachings. Perhaps priests weren't as capable in combat as other job classes, but they would be the leaders in the church as they sought to better understand a God's teachings and Divine Arts.
Desecration Priest: this was a path a certain person took, which was quite similar to Diana's Antiholy Knight path.
Yep, I was referring to Victoria Syfan, the Head Priestess of the Dark Elves from the game's history and Lorci's number one ranked High Priestess, as well as the person that Darsos felt conflicted over for his whole life—cough—cough—forget about that last one. Even in this newly changed world that diverged from the game history, she still reached the rank of number one High Priestess, becoming the Dark Elf closest to Lorci. If it weren't for the changes that happened later, it was quite possible that Victoria would once again become the living representation of Lorci's will.
Since she had managed to reach the number-one ranked High Priestess in both the game's history and the real world, she was likely at the peak of her priestess job class. In fact, her talent far surpassed Diana's as she could be considered one of the geniuses among geniuses of this world... But with the fact that "he" was still unable to take care of a certain curse, "his" luck was indeed rather unfortunate. Actually, in the game history, Victoria ended up marrying another man while also being male.... did Victoria actually count as fortunate?
Cough, based on my personal experience, those with poor fortune would have rather pitiful love lives. This would cause them to utilize their talents to the utmost in their work, thus achieving great things... After all, if a person no longer had any hope in their love life, they could only console themself by working even harder! Yep, I was definitely referring to Victoria and not to my own sad memories!
After Lorci perished, the Dark Elf society lost their leader. As Dark Elf society sunk into utter chaos, all rules and morals were abandoned. In this utterly chaotic time, heroes would naturally arise, causing history to return to its original point and develop a different direction. That hero would be the Dark Elf Queen Victoria.
With the support of Sulfur Mountain City, Victoria, the leader of the Syfan Family, not only took control over her own Underground City but also conquered other Dark Elf Underground Cities at a furious pace. Dark Elf society was originally a place where the strong ruled over the weak. Since numerous powerful Underground Lords pledged their support to her, how could the disorganized Dark Elves possibly fight back against the powerful Syfan Family? Not to mention, the Underground Lords' militaries also entered and helped her take over the conquered Underground Cities.
The current Victoria was no longer that pitiful "cute little gift" from back in the day. She was now the number one individual in the entire Dark Elf species. She controlled more than forty percent of all Dark Elves. If she wanted, she could easily crown herself the Dark Elf Queen. If some other individual without smart brain was in her position, they would have already done so... and then I'd guarantee she'd be kicked off that position in just a week.
Lorci's death had been a huge calamity for the Dark Elves. All the highest-ranked individuals in the Dark Elf Cities were Lorci's priestesses. But more than ninety-nine percent of the highest ranked priestesses either died or went insane together with Lorci's death. The societal problems that had been repressed to the point of simmering exploded, and more than ninety percent of the Dark Elf Underground Cities went wild into crazed riots.
After that came along a faith crisis that provided an excellent opportunity for the Gods to obtain additional believers. All the True Gods sent out their most elite priests with exquisite gifts to visit the Underground. However, the final victor weren't these gentle and kind outsiders but Wumianzhe, instead, who brought along his armies...
"What? Preventing you from spreading your teachings? Of course not, do you have any evidence of such a thing? Fine, so you have evidence as well as witnesses? Who cares? Send someone down to the Underground to attack me if you dare."
Considering how True Gods warred with each other in their Divine Kingdoms and started national wars in the mortal plane over more believers, Xueti saying such things for Wumianzhe wasn't controversial in the least. If it weren't for the fact that it would be too shameless, Wumianzhe could have long called himself the Guardian God of the Dark Elves.
Wumianzhe didn't break any of the Gods' taboos by taking advantage of the chaos to claim most of the Dark Elves' faith. Since Lorci had perished against Wumianzhe in the Northlands, him coming down Underground to claim the spoils of his victory was only natural. In fact, the Gods who tried to steal Wumianzhe's spoils were the ones closer to treading on taboos. It was like they were trying to bully a newcomer God. Yet upon seeing that the newcomer God was sufficiently strong, with the veteran Ayer backing him up, the other Gods retreated.
Wumianzhe's Churches of Law and courts filled the Underground. Nanxiang Law School had more students than it could handle. Jails in every city had been expanded more than ten times in size but were still filled to maximum capacity. Many former Justice Knights had reached the position of vice mayor.
After saying this much, certain things should now be obvious.
Although Victoria had become the Dark Elf Queen in all but name, she was still Sulfur Mountain City's puppet. Even if it wasn't a very nice thing to say, both I and Victoria herself knew this quite well.
Yep, now we arrived at the truth. I didn't trust Victoria at all. Unlike Diana, Victoria was a typical Dark Elf through and through. She was highly skilled at subterfuge, betraying, and acting. In fact, she was even skilled at pretending to act stupid and cute. She was highly intelligent and very capable in politics. Not only that, she had excellent military leadership abilities and talent.
Back in the game's history, she was the Underground Lord with the best ending. She was capable of marrying another man in order to obtain greater political benefits and never even met a bad end. There would be no mistake in categorizing Victoria as a successful and ambitious individual.
Of course, I wished to be able to trust her. At the very least, I greatly trusted her big idiot of a sister. But trusting another person needed time as well as a good understanding of their personality. The most important part was to be able to see through to their desires and goals. Only that would help me to analyze how she would likely behave in the future.
Unfortunately, despite knowing her for almost two years now, I was never able to see through to what she was thinking. I had no idea what she wanted at all. It was as if her life was all about obtaining more power, along with kicking down everyone who was an obstacle... And since this was the typical Dark Elf way of thinking, it only made me not trust her even more.
"It was so difficult for me to give the Dark Elves an opportunity to escape from their twisted society. How could I possibly allow Dark Elf society to return to how it was? I need to have a proper discussion with her."
But no matter how well some things were planned, the result would often times be incomprehensible, especially if a plan involved me and my unreliable subordinates.
I had arranged multiple private discussions with her, but the moment I closed the door to the secret room I would see her hiding in a corner, trembling, as if I were a perverted boss who intended to do unspeakable things to a subordinate. I would repeatedly explain to her that I had only ordinary interests, but she refused to listen...
Only later did I find out that it was all the fault of the Dark Elf Town Security gossiping too much to her. The Town Security showed Victoria those porn books and rumors about me from Sulfur Mountain City. The end result was that, in her eyes, I became something of a mix between someone gay and a demonic pervert. She would always end my attempts at discussing with her by escaping the room and running away at top speed, causing rumors to spread everywhere by the next day.
What, you're asking why I didn't chase her? Hah, wouldn't that cause even more rumors? Witnesses would say: "The perverted boss attempted to rape a young girl in a secret room, " which would make her older sister Diana set out to kill me.
So I then tried to arrange a discussion with Victoria in a public place..."You actually want to play at exhibitionism? That's just too much!" Her face went deathly pale, and she even shouted out loudly... loud enough for everyone in the Church of Law we were standing in to hear. Everyone looked at me in disbelief, causing me to be the one to escape this time. It was such a headache to explain away the rumors the next day!
And then... there was no more "and then" because I only wanted to avoid this trouble. Why would I voluntarily want to talk to Victoria anymore? Plus, I got so busy I naturally forgot.
Victoria's wondrous beauty and cuteness caused me to be shaken to the point of crashing into a wall? That was nothing more than a mere rumor! Of course I wasn't moved to the extent of thinking that she was the most beautiful girl alive! Nor was I shaken to the point of wanting to crash myself into that bell tower's wall! That bell tower's wall just happened to collapse on its own!
Recalling how things were, perhaps both of us had incredibly awful luck stats. If we stayed together, our passive bad luck would feed on each other, making her unluckier. And if she became unluckier, I would become unluckier. Each time, there would always be something different, but the end result would be that we were unlucky together.
Cough, getting back on topic, because of all this Victoria simply remained at her position and became somewhat of an outsider in my faction as well as a puppet leader.
Obviously, she wasn't willing to stay in such a situation. So she directly resigned her job, saying that she wasn't talented enough to be anything more than a City Lord and that she wished instead to focus on personal cultivation.
Although I didn't understand what she could cultivate now that she was a former Lorci priestess, I had no reason to reject her. Looking at how things were now, she must have truly succeeded in her cultivation. Not only that, the source of her newfound powers was most likely related to me.
"She's now a Desecration Priestess who's capable of stealing divine power? Absolutely insane. Summon Victoria and Diana over to the Bardi capital to meet me."
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