Sacred Souls: Genesis
Chapter 582 - 561 Chains (Second Update)

Chapter 582: Chapter 561 Chains (Second Update)

"Do you guys ever feel... that Spiritus is getting increasingly difficult?"

Bubble followed Zhao Mingwei to the Sustainable Sanctuary turned nest to grind for experience.

But it wasn’t long before Bubble couldn’t help but let out such a sigh.

"Difficult? Really?"

Caramel swung his sword and cleanly severed a Void Reaper that tried to attack Bubble. As the blade was withdrawn, several other Void Swarm creatures nearby met their demise as well.

Zhao Mingwei’s day trip for grinding experience had attracted a large number of players to join, not just from Cola Fanatic Guild but also from Dynamic Nucleus players.

There were also many passersby players who joined along the way and members from other large guilds, resulting in over four hundred players descending upon the battlefield.

"Caramel, you don’t feel it because you’re young. At my age, just a few rounds of strength trials can tire me out to death, and now after releasing three Awakenings in a row, I’m starting to feel the strain."

As an Elemental Bomber... every time Bubble cast a spell, the magical elements exploded high above the battlefield, consuming several times more magic than other classes.

This magical consumption, with the increase in power control, began to reflect on Bubble’s spirit and physical strength.

If it were normal skills, it would be fine, but after releasing Awakenings more than three times in a day, Bubble could feel exhaustion enveloping his whole body just like after finishing a strength trial.

But the benefit of this was the increased power of the Awakenings and the corresponding fine control that could be applied.

"Pig-headed President, you’re only twenty-five years old, right?" Mocha said.

"Twenty-five is already not young in your guys’ book!" After releasing another Awakening and reaping the lives of more than a dozen Void Swarm creatures, Bubble collapsed on the ground under Caramel’s protection. "I can’t, I need to rest."

"If the President says so, we have indeed felt this recently. Ever since the strength trial instance, Spiritus has been getting harder," Can from the Cola Fanatic team took this opportunity to quickly whisper his complaints, "The strength trial was exhausting enough, but it wasn’t mandatory to complete. But now, the experience needed for leveling has been significantly raised..."

"We’re professional players. Isn’t it our duty to get stronger in the game?" Caramel didn’t understand what Can was complaining about.

Ever since the introduction of the Spiritus League, the relationship between Strife and Spiritus had become oddly ambiguous, especially regarding the league.

The Strife professional league players were now basically moonlighting as Spiritus League professional players as well. The schedules of the two competitions didn’t conflict much, and Cola Fanatic had adopted this system as well.

"That’s true, Captain, but not all players who play Spiritus... want to be so tired, right?" Can shared his inner thoughts.

Although there were complaints on the Spiritus forum about why the experience needed to reach level seventy-five had suddenly increased so much, those posts were all suppressed by the "Go do the strength trial!" posts.

To be honest, a strength trial may be tiring, but it is like when getting a massage: it hurts when being pressed, but feels great afterward.

"Other people’s thoughts don’t concern us. All you need to think about is how to keep the title of ’Champion’!"

Caramel’s thoughts and understanding were far deeper than any other player in the team, and his desire to win was just as strong.

Cola Fanatic was the champion of the first Spiritus League. That’s great. But what about the second one? The third one?

Caramel wouldn’t be satisfied with just one championship. He aimed to retain the title of the number one in Spiritus, and to do that... Caramel had to become even stronger, just like that man.

With this in mind, Caramel turned his gaze to Zhao Mingwei on the other side.

Zhao Mingwei was standing at the highest vantage point of this area, the Watcher, overlooking the entire region. This place used to be a theater-like area in the old Sustainable Sanctuary.

The three hundred other players who came for the experience grind were all active nearby. Since Zhao Mingwei was max level and no longer needed to accumulate experience, he would intervene if any guild or player squad encountered any serious trouble.

However, because Zhao Mingwei was close to the Cola Fanatic Guild, he heard every word Can and Caramel discussed crystal clear.

In fact, Can had only one question in mind, one that Zhao Mingwei was very clear about: what was the use of becoming so powerful in Spiritus?

Perhaps in Can’s and most Spiritus players’ eyes, Zhao Mingwei and Caramel, as strong contenders for Spiritus’ top player, with their level, gear, and technical skills all reaching the pinnacle of Spiritus, what more could they improve?

But Zhao Mingwei felt... as if he was bound.

Originally, Zhao Mingwei thought that after the level cap of the Spirit was raised, this feeling would be relieved somewhat.

But it wasn’t... Zhao Mingwei watched as the experience points in his system window kept increasing—these were from teaming up with the Cola Fanatic Guild, and all this experience was being stored in the Experience Hourglass, not used to level up himself.

The level cap or something else seemed to bind Zhao Mingwei with chains, making him feel as if his hands were shackled.

In the past, Zhao Mingwei seldom sought ways to improve himself deliberately because he knew such things couldn’t be rushed, and he was a very patient person.

But recently Yelena’s Mind Energy Master level hit a bottleneck, which made Zhao Mingwei start to confront this issue directly.

Because Zhao Mingwei heard from the Starry Scribes team that all the power of the Spirit came from the Devouring God—if understood this way... the power he possessed was just a part separated from the Devouring God.

As for the Mind Energy that Yelena commanded, it was a small part separated from him.

The main reason that the Mind Energy within Yelena would recoil against her was not that Yelena couldn’t control the Mind Energy, but that Zhao Mingwei couldn’t further control the Mind Energy within Yelena.

Or change the existing rules of the Mind Energy? The rules of using the power of the Devouring God?

Many confused thoughts filled Zhao Mingwei’s mind. The Spirit was a game, and it should be normal for players to follow the game’s rules.

But numerous bosses in the Spirit had already broken the game’s rules.

Zhao Mingwei shook his head gently, driving away these chaotic thoughts. Truthfully, in his heart, he didn’t hope that Yelena would become too strong... It was quite good for the level of a Mind Energy Master to be stuck at thirty-five.

Because Zhao Mingwei had no reason to let Yelena go to the frontline battlefield. She only needed to be a gardener in the rear, watering and watching the flowers every day.

Just as Zhao Mingwei was dispelling the tumultuous thoughts in his mind... a bizarre barrier suddenly rose nearby. The huge barrier enveloped the Void Swarm along with the Spirits in the area.

A line of system notifications suddenly appeared in front of all players in the region.

"You have been trapped in the Void, death is the only escape!"

"Time until Void imprisonment is lifted 6:41:12"

"What the hell? I can’t log out now?"

Bubble also saw this notification; he was planning to log out and get a drink of water when he found that the logout option in the system list had turned gray, as had the option to teleport out of the instance.

"Could it be the devs discovered we were exploiting a bug to farm experience?"

"With so many monsters in the instance, you really think it’s a bug? It’s definitely a new instance mechanic! But this mechanic is really disgusting, we have to die to log out? Aren’t the devs afraid of getting flamed?"

"Pig-headed teammates! Remember, dying once in this instance deducts all your experience points!" McCoffee popped up at this moment and told the Cola Fanatic Guild’s strategic group another piece of bad news.

"Do we still have enough consumables?"

Zhao Mingwei jumped down from the high tower and inquired with the members of the Cola Fanatic Guild.

"We have enough to last six hours, no problem, but the design of this Spirit instance is really over the top," Bubble responded.

"The instance notification might be written by the planners, but this instance mechanic might not have anything to do with them." Zhao Mingwei had encountered this situation while previously fighting for the territory of the Void Swarm, "Anyone with real-life issues, go ahead and commit suicide to log out first; next time we’ll find a safer place to grind."

"I... I finally farmed up to twenty percent of the experience, no way, I can still fight," said Bubble. After pulling out a bottle of water from his bag and gulping it down, barely quenching his thirst, he really couldn’t bear the thought of all his experience being deducted.

"What about you?" Caramel remembered correctly that Zhao Mingwei was already at max level, so even if he lost a level, he could make it up with the Experience Hourglass.

"To protect you guys," Zhao Mingwei responded.