Wizard: Scamming a Demon God

"You..."

"CRACK!"

Before the Sharkman could finish, Liu Li’s Invisible Hand silently clamped around his head. Then, with a gentle twist...

The Sharkman was dead, just like that...

Liu Li hadn’t broken through to Tier Two yet. Although she seemed to fight head-on, her true specialty was assassination. Under normal circumstances, her Invisible Hand was completely undetectable; one could only rely on instinct to dodge it.

But now, the Sharkman was severely afflicted by the Erosion of Death Magic Power, and his reactions had long since grown sluggish. Even if he could have sensed it, his battered body wouldn’t have been able to keep up.

After dealing with the Sharkman, Liu Li glanced in the other directions before returning to Shushu’s side to protect it from the shadows.

Although Shushu’s plan seemed to have changed drastically—the Demons it had worked so hard to bewitch were finished off in moments by the Sea Race and Adventurers—the rats it summoned were surprisingly competent.

’How interesting. So this is a Divine Species, publicly acknowledged as the race with the most potential!’

Superior to all other species!

Their heaven-defying aspect was that other races, even Advanced species like Demons and Giant Dragons, could only acquire an Authority at Tier Three. But Divine Species were different. They possessed an Authority even while being Non-Rank. Furthermore, with every promotion, not only would their existing Authority be Enhanced, but they would also gain a completely new one.

’So, what’s the price?’

Difficulty in advancing!

Although they could also absorb Magic Power to grow stronger, the speed was comparable to a turtle’s crawl!

At first, Isaac had thought Shushu was just too stupid. But after researching, he discovered that all Divine Species were like this, including Deities.

There were only two ways for a Divine Species to rapidly increase its strength. One was, naturally, Faith. This was the choice of most Divine Species, though their methods varied. The strong established a Church, while the weak... might even end up being worshipped by Black Orcs or Demon hordes in the Wilderness. For example, most totems were Divine Species from the Wilderness.

The other way was devouring. A Divine Species could grow stronger by devouring another Divine Species. It was like raising venomous creatures in a jar—the winner takes all!

But even though this method was faster, very few Divine Species chose it because Divine Species were incredibly hard to find. What other Divine Species had Shushu’s circumstances, able to snack on other Divine Species like they were candy?

And they were even fellow Divine Spirit Rats, making the absorption efficiency ridiculously high.

...

"All of you, stop right there."

Meanwhile, in another corner of the island, the blonde-haired girl and her four companions had also noticed the strange phenomenon on Shushu’s side. Just as they were about to rush over to provide support, a multicolored, shimmering ball landed in front of them, blocking their path.

"Isaac... Did you summon those rats? With so many of them, you’re not planning to summon the God of Rat Plague here, are you?!" The blonde-haired girl drew the longsword from her waist with a SWISH, pointing its tip at Isaac as she spoke with a grave expression.

Hearing this, the others were startled and simultaneously drew their weapons, aiming them at Isaac with solemn faces.

After all, when it came to this guy, you could never be sure he wouldn’t do something like that!

"Hm? God of Rat Plague?" Isaac, however, paused for a moment. A hint of anticipation crept into his voice as he looked at the blonde-haired girl. "Is this God of Rat Plague you speak of an Outer God? Do you have the ritual to make a pact with Him? What’s the success rate? I can pay for it!"

The blonde-haired girl: "...Those rats... you didn’t summon them?"

Seeing Isaac’s reaction, the blonde-haired girl lowered her longsword dubiously, her face full of suspicion as she asked.

"Those rats? I didn’t summon them."

"Phew~ That’s good."

"My Servant Demon summoned them."

"Huh!?"

The longsword the blonde-haired girl had just been about to sheathe was once again aimed at Isaac.

"...Er... you’ve misunderstood." Isaac touched his forehead and explained, "My Servant Demon did indeed summon those rats, but it has nothing to do with an Outer God. It... hmm, well, the process had a few hiccups, but the result is fine. In short, don’t worry, I would absolutely never summon any Outer God here."

The blonde-haired girl’s status was clearly extraordinary. It was best to avoid offending this kind of second-generation scion if possible. Not everyone was a lunatic like the Eldest Princess, who bit at anyone she saw. That’s why Isaac chose to explain things as clearly as he could.

If a fight did break out in the end, at least he would be in the right!

"Really?" The blonde-haired girl was still suspicious, clearly not fully believing Isaac. However, she knew she lacked the expertise in this area, so she looked directly at the male Mage, Avin.

Avin nodded, but he didn’t lower the Magic Staff in his hand, his eyes fixed on Isaac. "I don’t sense the Magic Power of a Summoning ritual... but are you sure you’re not summoning an Evil God to complete a promotion ritual? Isn’t that what you traditional Mad Witches love to do?"

"Hm?" Hearing this, Isaac froze again. He blinked, and a flash of excitement suddenly appeared on his face!

Seeing this, Avin’s heart sank!

"Holy crap! So you can do it like that!" Isaac grew agitated, staring at Avin with excitement. "Thank you so much! HAHAHA! I’ve been wanting to do this! Why search all over the world for a promotion ritual when you can just summon an Outer God directly? It’s so much more convenient! I knew it! I was right! HAHAHAHA!!!"

Isaac was incredibly excited. He had actually considered this plan before. The reason Legendary Mages needed rituals to advance was that their Magic Power wasn’t accumulated slowly through their own Cultivation.

Promotion rituals served two purposes. First, they borrowed the power of heaven and earth to forcibly assimilate the chaotic Magic Power within a Wizard’s body, truly fusing it with the Wizard and eliminating the risk of losing control. Second, they used the ritual’s influence to carve one’s mark upon the world, anchoring the Wizard’s own Concept.

The latter, in particular, was the most important.

This was because the former could be achieved through many other methods, such as combat, Magic Potions, or even continuous magical research. These could all help assimilate the Magic Power within a Wizard. But mere assimilation was useless. If one absorbed too much external Magic Power, they would either be dominated by it and turn into a Demon that only knew destruction, or be mutated into a monster by the Magic Power and be rejected by the world.

That was why, as a Wizard’s strength grew, the required scale of the ritual also grew larger and larger.

Therefore!

When Isaac understood this point, he wondered: since an Evil God Summoning ritual was the highest-spec and most influential ritual of its tier, could it be used as a substitute for a promotion?

That would maximize the benefits as well!

But before, this was just a hypothesis for Isaac, something he couldn’t be sure of. And now...

’My predecessors were truly...’ 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

’So damn cool!!!’

Across from Isaac, the blonde-haired girl and the others watched as he grew more and more excited, as if he’d just had a sudden epiphany. They couldn’t help but turn to look at Avin with exceptionally strange expressions.

Avin: "..."

’Okay, so now he believed Isaac hadn’t been planning to hold an Evil God Ceremony here. The question was, what could he do to dissuade this madman from his crazy idea and prevent himself, Avin Kreman, from becoming a sinner...’

’Waiting online for an answer!’

’I’m freaking out!’