Chapter 2644 – Absorbing Divine Will
The gigantic statues erected atop Lightforged City’s tall walls gave off an indescribable sense of majesty and oppression. When Shi Feng and the other Zero Wing members got within 100 yards of these statues, they immediately sensed a powerful pressure weighing down on their minds. For a moment, they felt as if their bodies no longer belonged to themselves as their consciousness started to waver. They were like a small boat sailing across a stormy ocean. Even the slightest mistake could result in their demise.
“What a powerful mental assault! Just this one strike already makes me feel as if I just executed an Advanced Combat Technique. If this continues, I’ll probably exhaust my Concentration in no time at all,” Gentle Snow commented, frowning as she sensed the mental pressure from the statues.
She had realized that these statues were extraordinary when she saw them from outside the city. After all, just looking at these statues from a great distance had already taken a toll on her Concentration. Now that she stood so close to these statues, she realized that they were even more frightening than she initially thought. Even without looking at these statues, her mind was subject to a mental suppression that depleted her Concentration.
“Guild Leader, don’t tell me the training you mentioned will take place here?” Aqua Rose objected as she turned to Shi Feng.
“That’s right. We’ll be training here,” Shi Feng said as he smiled and nodded.
“Guild Leader, the mental assault of these statues is too powerful. Let alone using Skills and Spells, even executing basic Mana control is a problem. It is impossible for us to conduct any training here,” Aqua Rose argued. When she tried manipulating and gathering her Mana earlier, the statues’ mental assault had interrupted her. The incessant mental assault would make using any Skills or Spells here impossible.
Everyone else nodded in agreement with Aqua Rose’s words.
It might be fine if the mental assault was something ordinary, but the statues’ mental assault threatened to knock them unconscious. Against such a powerful and persistent mental assault, even controlling their physical bodies would be a problem.
Rather than waste time here, it would be much better if they went to one of the hotels in the city to practice their Mana control. The training efficiency there would be several hundred times better than here.
“It is indeed difficult to train Mana control here, but I didn’t bring you all here for that. Instead, we’re here to train our Concentration,” Shi Feng explained.
“Concentration training!? How is that possible!?” Stunned by Shi Feng’s words, Aqua Rose could not help eyeing him skeptically.
At this moment, let alone Aqua Rose, Gentle Snow and the others were likewise dubious, suspecting that Shi Feng was joking with them.
In God’s Domain, it was common knowledge that raising the Concentration Attribute was much more difficult than raising the Stamina Attribute.
Of course, while the difficulty of increasing one’s Concentration was high, the returns one could gain from improved Concentration were also immense, far outstripping those from improved Stamina. This was especially true for magical-class players and expert players. The help they could gain from the Concentration Attribute was dozens of times greater than what they could gain from any other Basic or Hidden Attribute. This was because Concentration affected players’ control over their physical bodies and Mana, aside from being the resource necessary to execute combat techniques.
However, even now, there were only two known methods to permanently improve one’s Concentration. The first was to raise one’s tier, while the other was to raise one’s Life Rating.
Hence, any item that could provide a temporary boost to a player’s Concentration was incredibly valuable and sold for at least ten times the price of similarly ranked items. The most inferior item that provided Concentration would be at the Dark-Gold rank. However, even at such a price, the various major powers would frantically contest for any of such items that appeared on the market.
Now, however, Shi Feng was telling them that it was possible to directly improve their Concentration Attribute. Their skepticism was only natural.
“Normally, raising the Concentration Attribute is indeed an incredibly difficult task. However, the statues here are extraordinary. The mental assault you’re sensing is actually Divine Will. So long as you clash directly with this Divine Will, you’ll be able to absorb a subtle amount of it, which, in turn, will improve your Concentration slightly,” Shi Feng explained, chuckling. “If I have to point out the most valuable features inside Lightforged City, then these statues will have to be one of them. However, the Divine Will of these statues can be considered a Consumable. As players absorb it, the available volume will decrease. While these statues will recover their Divine Will over time, who knows how long it will take for them to recover? If we miss out on this opportunity, it’s unlikely we’ll come across another one like this in the future.”
“So, that’s why you had us spend all our Contribution Points on Concentration Recovery Potions,” Aqua Rose exclaimed in realization. “If Violet Sword’s people find out about this, they’ll most likely send all their peak experts to train here, regardless of the cost.”
After all was said and done, although Zero Wing had signed a partnership contract with Violet Sword and now possessed 100 entry slots to the ancient secret land, Zero Wing did not have a base of operations inside Violet Light City. The resources Zero Wing could obtain from the ancient secret land definitely couldn’t compare to what Violet Sword could get. Violet Sword would definitely be able to secure more Contribution Points in Lightforged City than Zero Wing could. If Violet Sword found out about the statues’ secret, it would definitely send a large number of experts to absorb the Divine Will here, rapidly depleting it and leaving only scraps for Zero Wing’s members.
“Alright, everyone, start focusing your mind to resist the mental assault. The closer you approach these statues, the stronger the mental assault becomes. Meanwhile, the stronger the mental assault you resist, the greater the improvements you will gain. However, make sure not to be too greedy. If your consciousness leaves your body too many times, it will end up weakening the absorption rate; you might even fail to absorb any Divine Will. So, make sure to train at an appropriate distance,” Shi Feng said as he looked at the others.
Upon hearing Shi Feng’s instructions, Aqua Rose and the others sat down excitedly and started resisting the mental assault of the statue before them.
Ordinary experts treated Concentration as an Attribute that determined the number of times they could use combat techniques. However, for players like themselves who had fully unlocked their Mana Bodies, the Concentration Attribute held an entirely different meaning.
By improving their Concentration, they could improve their Mana control, which would, in turn, allow them to execute more complex actions using Mana. With this, they could accomplish things that they previously couldn’t.
One of the simplest examples would be breaking through the Mana Body’s 100% threshold.
With their present Concentration, their Mana control was at their limit. However, if they wished to break through the 100% threshold, they needed to be capable of controlling even more Mana.
Now that an opportunity to break through the Mana Body’s 100% threshold was right before them, they did not wish to waste even a second.
However, after everyone attempted to resist the statue’s mental assault, their original excited expressions disappeared, replaced by solemnity. Their complexions had similarly turned pale.
“The difference between enduring and resisting the mental assault is actually this large?” Aqua Rose nearly collapsed on her back after her first attempt.
She had expended roughly 5% of her Concentration after resisting just one mental assault. Her consciousness had even momentarily left her body, making her lose all control over herself. The experience was extremely uncomfortable and completely different from when she was just passively enduring the mental assaults.
At this moment, everyone, aside from Shi Feng, promptly retreated from their original positions, not daring to continue resisting the mental assault at the 90-yard mark.
However, even Shi Feng did not fare much better than everyone else. Although he had managed to resist the mental assault, the amount of Divine Will he absorbed was far from ideal. Moreover, just a single attempt had cost him one-fortieth of his Concentration.
After resisting the mental assaults for another two minutes, Shi Feng scarcely had any Concentration remaining and had no choice but to consume a Concentration Recovery Potion. With the boost provided by the potion, his Concentration recovery rate just barely surpassed his consumption rate.
After training like this for around an hour, Shi Feng opened his eyes and looked at the nearest statue, with a depressed expression.
During this past hour or so, his Concentration had indeed improved; however, the improvement was basically negligible. In fact, if not for him being at the Domain Realm and having an accurate grasp over his own body and mental state, he wouldn’t have noticed this improvement at all. If he continued at this rate, his Concentration would be nowhere near the Tier 4 standard even after using all his Master Concentration Recovery Potions and training for 20 hours here.
At this rate, my Concentration won’t reach the Tier 4 standard even after the various superpowers’ peak experts have already started challenging their Tier 4 Promotion Quest. Shi Feng could not help a bitter smile at this situation. It’s no wonder hardly any expert players would rely on Divine Will to improve their Concentration standard.
However, just as Shi Feng was about to focus his mind to resist the next mental assault, Violet Cloud, who sat behind him, suddenly stood up and walked up to the 80-yard mark, then took a seat there.