Chapter 322: Tensions Running High (1/2)

The number of skills Players could learn drop drastically after they reach Level 50, although the power of their skills would also rise to the next level with the high specialization that came with taking different skill routes.

And just like before, Xi Wei shouldered the skill costs for the Players.

It was fine since the number of Players were still few for now, but their average level would definitely increase as time went on.

Moreover, as more Players rise beyond the threshold of level fifty, the casting of high-level skills would definitely drain a huge portion of Xi Wei’s divine power.

To be frank, Xi Wei was feeling a little overwhelmed…

But he was a deity, and there was no way he could cry to his believers, saying, “Stop! I really have nothing left!”

Therefore, to ensure that he wouldn’t be drained dry, he decided to attach a certain additional condition to skills above level fiftyit was the consumption of Illum crystals, which energy would be used to compensate for the skill cost.

The variety of classes would in turn require different colored Illum crystals, which was why the powerful skills beyond Level 50 were all known as ‘colored skills’ amongst the Players.

Xi Wei had assumed that the new change would draw discontent amongst the Player base.

After all, using their skills before this did not require consumables and the blue bar tend to recover on its own with time, which was freeloading at its essence. And as anyone would know, freeload a day and you feel good for a day-freeload a lifetime and you feel good for a lifetime.

Even so, the Players appeared understanding about the update, and even believed that the God of Games held the same conscience just like before.

The reason was not hard to guess— feelings of happiness were actually relative, a whataboutism.

While the other gods would respond to their own believers and bestow them their own power in the form of so-called sacred arts, even the simplest ones require corresponding incantations, hand gestures or runes. A shrine and required offerings would also be mandatory once they reach stronger sacred arts, just as the rituals must be carried out strictly according to what was dictated-it was also worth mentioning that such rules were conveyed through dreams or oracles.

That was why the moment that the reaction of any city watch informed about the presence of cultists was to search for the shrine that the cultists would be using: humans were alive and could move, but shrines would leave traces even if it were destroyed.

As for why the gods would trouble their own believers over all that? It naturally wasn’t because they wanted to watch a monkey show out of boredom-belief was actually a power that bound the gods and their believers, and even the gods need the believers to pray and the foundation of bonds in order to respond to them.

The problem was that the gods had a limit to how far their minds could extend. Even though they could gain substantial divine power if their believers would pray to them at once, they would also bother the gods with countless different wishes.

That was why aside from the few special exceptions, most gods usually keep themselves oblivious to most prayers because they didn’t want to hear their believers praying about everything that irritated them.

That in turn presented a new problem: If the believers had an urgent need for the gods’ help, what could they do especially since they were keeping themselves oblivious?

That was how ‘rituals’ came to be.

To put it in simpler terms: the whole relationship was like that of a radio-the believers’ normal, daily wishes would be blocked by the gods like random static.