After successfully absorbing Verdant, Beacon's experience and overall stats surged noticeably.

What caught Rita's attention more, however, was the final random reward. It felt like a gacha pull. The reward tiers followed the same classification as player combat strength, with seven levels in total: Fool, Player, Suffering, Nightmare, Abyss, Demon King, and Overlord.

[Congratulations, player BS Rita has drawn an Overlord tier reward]

[Overlord tier reward: Unlock one World Skill owned by the player for this Divine Game]

[Error. Detecting no World Skills owned by player. Detecting no War Skills owned by player]

[Overlord tier reward: Unlock two Divine Skills owned by the player for this Divine Game]

Once these four notifications finished scrolling across her interface, an announcement echoed throughout the War Cruise.

[Congratulations to player BS Rita for obtaining an Overlord tier reward and unlocking two Divine Skills]

At that moment, Rita's full attention was seized by two concepts she had never heard before.

World Skills and War Skills?

And judging by the order of the system messages, did it imply World Skills ranked above War Skills, which ranked above Divine Skills?

Rita no longer had the patience to make a call. She dodged several incoming glowing spheres and, just before eleven o'clock, selected two worlds she believed she could handle, filling both of Beacon's invasion slots once more.

At eleven sharp, the small Vineborne was dispatched to participate in its fifth Divine Game. Rita waited by the arenas and soon encountered Mistblade, who had just finished an invasion duel. If she could not get answers from Mistblade, who had once reached tier nineteen, she had no idea who else she could ask.

She went straight to the point. "What are War Skills and World Skills?"

Mistblade glanced at her, both surprised and unsurprised, and did not bother hiding anything. She led Rita toward the quieter stern of the ship.

Her gaze settled on a dilapidated, gray world dock in the distance. "You have Divine Skills, right?"

Rita did not hesitate. "Yes."

Mistblade nodded. "The most basic requirement to step into the Abyss tier is possessing at least one Divine Skill. Likewise, the basic requirement to become a Demon King is having ten War Skills. As for an Overlord, in addition to ten War Skills, you must also possess one World Skill.

"Divine Skills are rare, but there are many ways to obtain them. Sometimes luck alone is enough. War Skills and World Skills are different.

"When you initiate an invasion and push it all the way to the final descent phase, during the process of destroying a civilization in a Divine Game, a progress bar appears. Fill it completely, and you can comprehend a War Skill. With fewer than ten leaders involved, after three campaigns, each leader can usually obtain one War Skill.

"As for World Skills, you need to collect fifty World Fragments."

She continued calmly, revealing secrets of the game that most players would never know.

"To limit Demon Kings and Overlords, or rather to keep Divine Games functioning at all, no matter what artifacts or items a player acquires, no matter how many World Graveyards they collect, War Skills and World Skills cannot be unlocked through normal means."

Her eyes and voice carried a faint amusement as she looked at Rita's visibly shaken expression. "You could say that once someone has ever become a Demon King or an Overlord, even if they fall later due to reshuffling games or accidents, as long as they want to, they can climb back up at any time.

"Attributes and ordinary skills are easy to rebuild. Some players even deliberately suppress their strength to avoid making games too easy.

"Once you remove the influence of World Skills and War Skills, and factor in differences between World's Grave Forests, a tier sixteen Abyss player, a Demon King, and an Overlord do not have an absolute outcome if they face each other.

"That is why Divine Games occasionally produce strange results, like Nightmare or Abyss tier players taking first place. It is hope deliberately left behind for ordinary players.

"But on the real battlefield, if a world lacks a leader with War Skills or World Skills, that world is doomed to lose.

"So tell me. After hearing all this, are you excited, furious, or already looking for an excuse to run away?"

Mistblade stopped speaking abruptly. Her lips pressed together as she saw the unease, anxiety, and fear in BS Rita's eyes.

Through that gaze, she saw herself from many years ago. She saw Pine Bloom, Maple Syrup as they once were.

Was this fear of challenge? No.

It was fear of being changed by the rules. Fear of being pushed into a position she had once despised most.

So many worlds. So many races. Who was born loving war?

Yet once you reached that point, you were forced to love it.

Divine Game players above the Abyss were all steeped in sin.

No one was innocent.

What Mistblade had never told BS Rita was that shortly after arriving in BS, her desk had been filled with information about Rita gathered from every channel she could access.

Some came from her pets. Some she purchased from Pine Bloom.

It recorded Rita's past. Her real name. Rita.

From the first time Mistblade heard the concept of an Adjudicator, she had wondered what kind of player could become one. What kind of person could earn a world's willingness to surrender power?

It seemed impossible. Could anyone truly gain the trust of an entire world and its players?

Years later, the answer stood before her, utterly unlike what she had imagined.

BS Rita was not overflowing with compassion or selfless devotion. She despised responsibility and restraint, resisted bearing the fate of others, pursued power, and yet, like SmokeTune, detested war and violence.

Y1130's assessment had been oddly precise.

"She was pushed into becoming Adjudicator by BS itself."

To say she did not care about her people's survival was also untrue. Even long ago, she had quietly driven the growth of Eclipse Vanguard.

Mistblade saw it immediately. Back then, Rita was shifting responsibility.

As the strongest, she did not want to manage her people, yet subconsciously could not abandon them. So she needed Eclipse Vanguard.

Sometimes things worked exactly like that. When someone clearly has the ability but deliberately avoids a responsibility, it only means they take it extremely seriously.

The more someone fears bearing responsibility or a calling, the more ruthlessly they will force themselves to excel once placed on the throne.

Especially when, on the day she became Adjudicator, that responsibility was mixed with guilt and gratitude.

BS must have thought the same way.

And it was right.

When Mistblade said that without World Skills and War Skills, tier sixteen Abyss players, Demon Kings, and Overlords could still clash without certainty, was there not another implication?

Once World Skills and War Skills were unlocked, there was no longer any suspense.

One War Skill required the destruction of three civilizations. One World Skill required fifty World Fragments.

Now that BS Rita knew of their existence, what would she do?

As far as Mistblade knew, BS had not yet invaded any other world.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.