As the carriage bearing the crest of the Holy Radiance Church slowly drove away, kicking up a faint trail of dust, the courtyard that had been bustling all morning finally returned to tranquility.
Lynch stood by the fence, watching the retreating figures with a heart full of emotion.
"What a genuinely good person."
He turned around and said to Felsy, who was clearing the teacups, "Not only did she exempt our taxes, but she also gifted us so many supplies. It seems our previous stereotypes about the Church were a bit misguided. This new bishop is a real doer."
Felsy wiped the table with elegant movements and simply gave a breezy reply:
"Perhaps. But I noticed her legs were shaking when she left. She probably just lacks exercise."
Right at that moment, the familiar chime of the system rang out once more in Lynch's mind.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations, Host! Hidden achievement completed: Overpowering with Might!]
[You have intimidated a regional bishop with your supreme demonic aura! In the face of your abyssal, terrifying presence, that so-called war hero suffered a complete mental breakdown, voluntarily offering her loyalty and tributes—supplies and tax exemption!]
[You have successfully turned her into an obedient political puppet! From now on, the Church's power in this region will serve as a protective umbrella to conceal your demonic lair!]
[Skill Rewarded: Saint-Tier Blood Shield]
[Skill Description: Siphons blood and resentment from surrounding corpses to instantly condense an indestructible crimson shield. The more corpses and the stronger the blood, the more unshakable the shield's defense becomes. This is the most elegant defensive method for a Demon King walking through mountains of corpses and seas of blood.]
Lynch looked at the translucent light screen before him and shook his head helplessly.
"Here we go again."
"What demonic aura? What puppet? She was just being a woman of the people! She was showing compassion for the common folk!"
"And this skill description... mountains of corpses, seas of blood, resentment... it sounds so ominous. It's clearly just a defensive magic that utilizes biological fluids, yet it insists on phrasing it in such a morbid way."
However, complaints aside, Lynch still adhered to the principle of you can never have too many skills when it came to his new ability.
"Saint-tier... knowing this system's tendencies, it's probably just at the level of an advanced defensive spell, right? But that's still pretty impressive. Since it's a defensive skill, it perfectly makes up for my current weakness."
After all, other than that [Modified Arcane Burst] which tended to instantly kill targets, he really didn't have any life-saving measures.
...
In the afternoon.
Taking advantage of Felsy's afternoon nap, Lynch pocketed his skinning knife and slipped away to the back mountain.
As a rigorous, experimental apothecary, getting a new skill and not testing it out left an intolerable itch in his heart.
"I wouldn't dare provoke any large magical beasts, but catching a few rats shouldn't be a problem."
Beside an abandoned tree hollow, Lynch had good luck and caught a few giant rats that were sneaking some nuts. These rats were plump and, while not considered magical beasts, were still quite fierce.
"Sorry, little guys. It's for science."
Lynch neatly dispatched the giant rats and laid them out on the ground.
Taking a deep breath, he reached out his hand and connected his mind with the system.
"Blood Shield, arise!"
Hum—
With a surge of magic power within his body, the rat corpses on the ground instantly shriveled up. A few strands of dark red blood floated into the air out of nowhere, rapidly weaving and solidifying in front of Lynch.
In the blink of an eye, a shield the size of a palm, bearing the texture of a translucent ruby, hovered in midair.
"It's... only this big?"
Lynch looked at the tiny shield in front of him, which was barely large enough to cover his face, and didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
He picked up a rock and hurled it at the shield with force.
Smack.
The rock shattered upon impact, but the blood-red shield didn't budge an inch; it didn't even ripple.
"The hardness is definitely beyond question. It feels sturdier than an iron shield."
Lynch stroked his chin and analyzed, "The defense is indeed formidable, but the coverage area is pitifully small. Moreover..."
He felt his magic reserves, which had instantly been halved, and sighed.
"The consumption is too high."
"A few rats provide too little raw material, so the structure relies mostly on my magic power to maintain itself. With my current total magic capacity, holding up such a tiny shield is already my limit."
This made Lynch soberly realize a problem.
No matter how strong a skill was, if the user's base stats were too poor, they wouldn't be able to bring out even a ten-thousandth of its true effect.
It was like giving a child a dragon-slaying saber; the blade might be excellent, but the child wouldn't even be able to lift it.
"At the end of the day, my tier is just too low."
Lynch found a clean rock to sit on and began to contemplate his life.
In this world called Alfastia, the division of strength followed a universal and rigorous standard, ranging from Tier One to Tier Nine, with a strict hierarchy.
Tiers One through Three belonged to the transitional phase between the mortal and the transcendent.
Someone like Lynch, who could just barely perceive magic power and cast a couple of minor spells, barely qualified as Tier One. This was the Awakened rank, only slightly stronger than an ordinary person. The boastful hunter in the village or a common soldier would roughly fall into this category.
Tiers Four through Six represented the realm of true powerhouses.
Tier Four was known as the Commander rank, capable of becoming a knight commander or guarding a region. As for the Tier Six Epic rank, they were existences capable of rivaling entire armies alone. Father Anderson had previously bragged that Bishop Lalavina was a powerhouse of this caliber (though Lynch was highly skeptical of that claim).
As for Tier Seven and above...
Those were legends. The Tier Seven Legendary rank, the Tier Eight Demigod rank, and standing at the very apex, Tier Nine—existences known as the World-Ending rank or Conceptual rank.
According to legend, the deceased Witch of Destruction was at the peak of Tier Nine.
"Right now, at best, I'm just a Tier One noob."
Lynch looked at his hands. "Even though I can dominate this tier with the overpowered skills the system gives me, and maybe even sneak attack and kill a Tier Three magical beast, if I run into a real master or exhaust my magic power, I'm still incredibly fragile."
"I need to find a way to level up."
In this world, if ordinary people wanted to advance, they needed years of meditation to accumulate magic power, or they had to break through their limits via life-and-death battles.
But he had a system.
"System, do I have a shortcut?" Lynch asked in his mind. "I want to become a Tier Four or Tier Five master too, even if it's just so I can cast Blood Shield a few more times."
[Ding!]
The system quickly provided a response.
[Host's thirst for knowledge detected!]
[As a transmigrator bearing immense providence, you do not need to cultivate bitterly like ordinary mortals! Your source of power comes from the nurturing and domination of villainous factions!]
[You are currently at: Tier One (An entry-level apprentice with meager magic power)]
[To advance to Tier Two (An elite with abundant magic power), please complete the following advancement task:]
[Task Name: Revival of the Witch (Part 1)]
[Quest Description: The World-Ending Witch in your home might look like nothing more than a frail and delicate young girl on the outside, but a power capable of destroying the world slumbers within her. As her keeper (husband), it is your duty to awaken her potential through meticulous care, feeding, and... ahem, various interactions.]
[Advancement Condition: Restore Felsy's condition (vitality and magic circuits) to 1% of her peak state.]
[Current Progress: 0.87% / 1%]
Looking at the quest panel, Lynch was stunned for a moment.
"I can get stronger just by taking care of my wife?"
"This is way too... user-friendly!"
He had expected some hardcore quest like hunting down a hundred magical beasts, but to his surprise, it was just a return to his old routine: farming and pampering his wife.
ions, keeping it grounded and realistic】 After quitting his job, office worker Su Yang accidentally binds with the "Enjoy Life System." As the name suggests, simply by indulging in life's pleasures, he can earn random rewards from the system—no need to spend money on beautiful women or grovel before anyone. Just enjoy, and the money follows, making it all about effortless fun. The system comes with a scanning feature, allowing him to establish a favorability bond with women rated 85 points or above. Every 20-point increase in favorability unlocks additional rewards. After suffering through over twenty years of hardship, Su Yang trembles with excitement, his dull eyes suddenly gleaming with newfound hope. "Enjoy life? How hard could that be?"
orn and Humiliation】【Forced Love】 In his past life, Lin Ran was betrayed and murdered by his girlfriend and family, while the yandere female aristocrat, who had treated him as a mere plaything, avenged him by doing in his enemies. Upon seeing the yandere female aristocrat lying in the same coffin, ready to die with him, Lin Ran realized how profoundly mistaken he had been. Reborn, he abandoned the fickle campus beauty and wholeheartedly embraced the yandere female aristocrat's arms. "Ran! If I dig out your eyes and turn them into a specimen, you'll only be able to look at me!" Lin Ran: "Darling, kiss me!" "Ran! If I break your legs, you won't run away anymore, right?" Lin Ran: "Love, hold me tight!" "Ran! If..." Lin Ran: "Hush now! Love me more!" Luo Yao: ... Seeing his scumbag dad: "Take him out!" Seeing his stepmother: "Get rid of her!" Seeing his brother: "Eliminate him!" Seeing his white moonlight: "Send that to Southeast Asia!"
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
