Sacred Souls: Genesis
Chapter 580 - 559: Upgrade

Chapter 580: Chapter 559: Upgrade

"Holy Spirit" version 4.91 update.

New maximum level cap: level 75.

New equipment system added.

New instances and main quests added, available through Miss Cat on Biland Island and Alma in Sustainable City.

New skill system and second awakening for all classes・initial version.

...

Zhao Mingwei skimmed through the major content of the latest "Holy Spirit" update, and frankly, compared to the last mentorship and expedition systems, this was the most, most, most standard update.

The increase in level cap, new skills, new equipment, these are things that veteran online gamers could easily guess.

However...

"Second awakening..."

Zhao Mingwei carefully reviewed all content about the second awakening, and thus the second awakening skill tree was officially revealed to all "Holy Spirit" players.

Players could also now see the yet-to-be-learned second awakening skills in their skill tree, along with several new high-level skills and passives.

Even though the second awakening was officially open to all players, its awakening quest requirements were extremely stringent.

The first requirement was to raise your level to 75 and achieve a control level of seventy-five percent.

These two conditions already stumped a lot of people since control was the hardest attribute to enhance in "Holy Spirit." Many players had to grind the power trial instance for half a month just to barely reach fifty-five percent control.

Disgruntled by the demanding conditions, players had no choice but to focus on the first, seemingly more achievable condition.

Which was to raise their level to 75.

Thus, when new instances officially opened and level 65 players teamed up enthusiastically to explore the new instance, they soon realized a very, very, very serious problem.

"This experience bar... doesn’t look right, does it?"

Burning Blood flopped down on the stone floor of the newly opened "Dark Dungeon."

The leading strategy team of Leaping Nucleus was now tackling a new instance recently added in the "Holy Spirit" game world.

After several updates, players had generally mastered the pattern of "Holy Spirit" updates.

Every major version update would introduce several new instances in the game world map, all plot lines and bosses’ logic within these instances followed a discernible pattern and could be repeatedly challenged.

Moreover, these instances’ themes were all about tracing the past stories of "Queen Mei" or the world of the Devouring God.

Updates outside of the core world map, like those from Biland Island or the Black Tide Island version, consisted entirely of new instances from outside the core world map.

Normally, players would first clear the instances in the core world, gather new equipment and materials, and then check out what was new outside the core world.

Leaping Nucleus was now aiming for the first clear of the "Dark Dungeon" and had mastered it in less than three days, clearing it nearly ten times.

On the tenth clear, Burning Blood noticed something strange.

"The experience needed from level 69 to 70 is 7.32 million, but from level 70 to 71 it’s over 100 million? How does ’Holy Spirit’ calculate its experience formula?"

Burning Blood posted a screenshot of his experience bar in the guild chat channel, and upon his alert, other players in Leaping Nucleus realized... from level 70 onwards, the experience required increased by dozens of times!

"Damn? Burning Blood, how come you only need 100 million? I need 300 million for level 71, I’m flabbergasted," Mama Has a Dog replied instantly after seeing the screenshot.

"Why do I need 700 million for my experience? Does ’Holy Spirit’ think so highly of mechanics?" Little Feather also realized his experience requirement was anomalously high.

Lead by Burning Blood, members of Leaping Nucleus who had been grinding the core world instance for three days reported their own experience requirements to level up to 71.

Juan Canyun had the lowest requirement at 72 million, Burning Blood was next at 100 million, followed by Mo Shigui at 150 million, with other guild members ranging from 300 million to 700 million.

This wasn’t a small number! One should know that before level 70, leveling up in "Holy Spirit" was swift, with players usually maxing out by grinding difficulty instances for a week.

But after level 70, even at Juan Canyun’s experience requirement, one would still need to grind this instance for a month to level up once.

"Could this be a bug?" Burning Blood still couldn’t understand why the experience requirement suddenly skyrocketed so high.

"It has to be a bug... Does any online game now really do this kind of format where it takes half a year to level up once?" Mama Has a Dog analyzed uncertainly.

Just as the members of Jumping Nucleus were questioning the sudden spike in level-up experience requirements and wondering if it was a bug, an announcement from the system instantly made them shut their mouths.

"System Announcement: Congratulations to the player ’Happy Gaming’ for reaching level seventy-five! Reward: Title of the Era’s Apex!"

"What the?" Black Pot Meat exclaimed upon seeing the message.

"Yikes!" Velvety Rabbit was the second to react.

"Pig Head Smile Sir sneaked off to refresh the instance again while we weren’t looking!"

The Jumping Nucleus group ignored the infiltrator in their strategy group, McAfee, as Mo Shigui exchanged looks with Boss Yin.

"For the new version’s background story, ask the Stars; for gameplay... still, ask Zhao..." This time Boss Yin was thoroughly convinced.

......

Zhao Mingwei was in the dojo of Jumping Nucleus, guiding Yelena on the use of mind energy.

The apprenticeship system of Holy Spirit Power didn’t cause much of a stir, primarily because the side effects of Holy Spirit Power on NPCs were too severe.

Holy Spirit not mastering its own power, yet taking disciples?

The result was that NPC apprentices, even if a small part endured the power seeds granted by the Holy Spirit, both suffered heavily in subsequent learning and cultivation.

Either they ended up like Feng Yi with the negative state of Burning Blood unable to be turned off, constantly losing health... or they were in a prolonged weakened state.

Thus, many players were watching the situation with taking disciples, and there were quite a few dedicated individuals like Rosh among the NPCs of the Sustainable Sanctuary, who, despite severe negative effects, tried to master the Holy Spirit Power.

These types of individuals were not particularly welcomed by Zhao Mingwei.

Zhao Mingwei was also very cautious when dealing with his only student, Yelena, practically holding her hand through everything, fearing that any sudden misstep might cause trouble due to the mind energy within her.

After all, NPCs have only one life.

"That’s enough for today," he said.

Zhao Mingwei instantly withdrew the small cluster of mind energy condensed inside Yelena, and her level advancement was immediately halted.

"Master, are you... okay?"

At this time, Yelena didn’t show any stubbornness; she could feel that as the mind energy inside her grew stronger, it began to gradually devour her body.

Currently, Yelena was level ten on Chaos Island, level twenty as a Fist Mage, and level thirty-five as a Mind Energy Master.

These levels could not be added together; they were calculated independently.

But level twenty-five was already a limit for Yelena’s body control; beyond that, Yelena would need to exchange her lifespan and body to gain levels as a Mind Energy Master.

This was the price for non-blue star people cultivating the Power of Devouring God.

Perhaps apprentices coming from the Sustainable Sanctuary came with a readiness to sacrifice, but Yelena had not yet decided if she could have such resolve. Her current feeling was that she wanted to stay behind Zhao Mingwei, trying to be somewhat useful so as not to be abandoned by him.

The recently introduced expedition feature of the Sustainable Sanctuary was also where Yelena could be of help to Zhao Mingwei.

"Um... Master!" Yelena was about to say something when suddenly a bunch of people poured into the dojo.

"Smile Sir!"

"Great God!"

"Smile Sir, do you have any leveling secrets?"

As Zhao Mingwei was surrounded by players, Yelena couldn’t get a word in, but she was used to this situation. Being an NPC, she did not rashly go forward to continue chatting with Zhao Mingwei; instead, she obediently left the dojo to help with her own duties.

"A leveling board? You guys... don’t have experience hourglasses?"

Zhao Mingwei was somewhat confused by the crowd of inquiries; he took out the experience hourglass from his bag, an item bound to every player.

This item could store the experience players were unable to absorb and use it when the level cap was lifted.

"Who has an experience hourglass that can store so much experience! It takes at least fifty billion or so to reach level seventy-five, right?" Black Pot Meat complained.

"I only used about seven billion to reach level seventy-five." This time it was Zhao Mingwei’s turn to be astonished, "But... I know a map where you can farm experience, do you guys want to come along?"