Their romance storyline only begins on the second playthrough

“Some original skill methods.” Lilith stood beside Rhodes, deliberately moving closer to him, her fair fingers subtly making a couple of hooking motions.

All the little tricks were shown in the actions.

Rhodes, of course, wouldn't be stingy with such praise:

"As expected of you."

“Hmm.” Lilith nodded expressionlessly, but then explained further, “For me, skills are not bestowed, but created by myself, so as long as there is an idea, it is possible to create one. Even merging two skills is possible.”

Rhodes ignored Lilith's continued, subtle self-praise, simply patting her head twice before turning to look at Axel:

"General Axel, the internal problems of the military have been resolved, our mission is complete, and this is your reward."

Axel's gaze remained fixed on Crystal Scott, her breathing erratic.

That's too strong...

Whether it's that strange sealing skill or the skill that devours people into crystals without any preparation, it's all the same.

Only now did he realize that even the girl with long blue hair was a powerful being who had advanced seven times, far surpassing him.

What about the others?

He couldn't help but look at Felicity and Natalie.

Okay, these two are familiar faces, so they can't possibly be hidden powerhouses again.

Even so, he still couldn't calm down, and could only force himself to remain composed, saying in a low voice:

"Let's go to the Merit Department to collect it. Then, I'll go back to your territory with you to prepare for the witch hunt."

"However, I'm still a little curious. May I ask your names?"

"Upgraded seven times, you should have heard about it by now. Since we're going to fight together, we should at least know about it."

“My name is Shirley Chivenlance. I am the guardian of the Melanie Empire, and of course, a follower of my superior.”

"Maeve Dolan".

“I see.” Axel paused.

One is the [Cataclysmic Evil Spirit], and the other—

If he hadn't learned today that the presiding officer of the [Divine Ritual] had been replaced by the fifth Pope, Maeve, he would never have guessed that it was this person's identity.

To be honest, even when he heard about it this morning, he found it hard to believe.

Because the five popes were too distant and too dazzling.

As a figure from the era of heroes, a forbidden powerhouse who has ascended eight times, he truly couldn't believe that she was still alive.

But now, Maeve is actually standing right in front of him.

Moreover, the strength she demonstrated was indeed well-deserved.

No.

Isn't the key issue that Maeve is a powerful being who has been promoted eight times?

If that's the case...

"In any case, let's deal with the witch together." Rhodes said calmly, stopping all his thoughts.

……

...

Back in the cathedral, the other girls went to their rooms to rest, while Rhodes went to Ivina's room to look after her.

Ivina did a great job last time; if she hadn't taken Natalie's place, Natalie would probably have really been in trouble.

Therefore, as a reward for his meritorious service, and also out of his own personal desire, he naturally hoped that Ivina would see him first when she woke up.

At this moment, Ivina was still fast asleep and looked adorably dazed. Her lips murmured a couple of times, her head was half curled up in the blanket, and her long silver hair was scattered messily on the pillow, moving slightly with her breathing.

"Skill upgrade".

Just now, in addition to the rewards he originally requested, Rhodes also asked for two extra upgraded link scrolls to casually enhance his newly acquired skills.

Axel didn't hesitate at all. As a reward for Rhodes healing the entire army camp, he even gave him two more link scrolls that had been upgraded three times.

In other words, Rhodes now has a whole bunch of skill-enhancing scrolls waiting for him to use.

For others, skill upgrades are often minor, but for him, a skill monster, skill upgrades are even more important than attribute upgrades.

Rhodes was very confident that he would become exceptionally strong.

In an instant, he tore apart all the linked scrolls in his hand: two secondary scrolls, two tertiary scrolls, five quaternary scrolls, and three quintuplet scrolls.

In an instant, runes carrying the [Soul] shimmered with golden light and hovered around his body.

Each rune was interconnected, flashing with constellation-like patterns, and finally, line after line pierced into his veins.

He was getting stronger; Rhodes could clearly feel that his body's ability to mobilize energy was rapidly increasing.

This is the essence of the "Linked Scrolls," the simplest method bestowed upon humanity by the gods to understand "skills."

Of course, Rhodes had already experienced these breakthroughs in his first playthrough, so he only felt that he was regaining his former strength.

As for the skills to be upgraded, there is no need to hesitate at all. The three skills to be upgraded to level five are very clear, most of which were enhanced when the [Star God Seed] was obtained.

One is the ability to grant him immunity to fatal damage, another is the purely numerically powerful [Star Punishment Dragon Sword], and the last one is undoubtedly an enhancement of his domain skills.

Your skill level has increased.

【生命龙心LV.4】：可以共享范围千米的精神，并且对敌人造成【精神窒息】，您的心脏会变得极其强悍——体魄提升90→200点、体质与敏捷提升50→100点。

[Mental Stifling]: Causes the enemy's soul to leave their body, resulting in a brief and complete loss of control over their physical body.

【聆听生之龙曲LV.4】：可无障碍交流全物种，全属性提升60→150点，且激活技能后在【龙曲世界】范围15米内的所有友方单位及自身以每秒2→3%伤势治愈恢复。

【Star of Creation LV.5】: All attributes are increased by 30% to 45%, the body exhibits elf-like and god-like characteristics, and can resist one to three fatal attacks, restoring 100% of health.

【Star Punishing Dragon Sword LV.5】: You can forge a Star Punishing Dragon Sword. When equipped, your Strength increases by 200 to 400, your body is divinely enhanced, and your Physique, Agility, and Spirit increase by 100 to 200. Furthermore, when the weapon pierces an enemy, you can inflict the 【Mental Damage】→【Mental Tear】 effect.

[Reconstructing the Domain LV.5]

【Effect 1】: When you activate this skill, a domain belonging to you will be formed within a radius of 1,000 meters. Within the domain, your various attributes will be increased by 40%, and your soul damage will be increased by 40%.

[Effect 2]: When an enemy enters your territory, you can use the special skill [Severing Strike], which deals 110% damage to the enemy regardless of spatial position and has a 100% hit rate.

[Skill: Celestial Dragon's Bravery LV.3]

【Celestial Dragon's Courage LV.3】: When the skill is activated, your willpower will be unassailable, and your base stats of Physique, Agility, and Constitution will increase by 200 to 400 points.

【Holy Light Dragon God Slash LV.3】:

Negative effect: When you activate this skill, your health will be automatically reduced from 80% to 70%, and your maximum health will decrease by 10% continuously for 24 hours.

Positive effect: You can create a powerful [divine] attack that surpasses the limits of physics. This attack deals physical damage equal to 180% of your value and inflicts a mental trauma effect equal to 200% of your value.

Rhodes' soul is undergoing a new baptism; he exhales a breath of turbid air, and his power reaches its peak.

The improvement of these skills is not just reflected on the panel, but also has an effect on his physical body and soul.

He opened his eyes and felt as if the entire space was coated with a blue glow. All the items in the house seemed to be scanned, and information flooded into his mind.

This is the ultimate improvement.

Of course, even in terms of numerical values, there is a very intuitive numerical representation of the strength – [8826].

This is his base physique stat after all his skills are activated, without any other effects.

If we add the new attack methods [Severing Slash] and [Holy Light Dragon God Slash] gained from the domain, his physique value will reach 17476 points.

15000 points is the dividing line between the sixth and seventh upgrades, so his attack can even penetrate the body of someone who has been upgraded to the seventh level and cause direct damage.

Taking Axel as an example, if he were to take Rhodes' attack head-on, he would basically be half-dead.

Very strong, without a doubt.

However, its weaknesses are also obvious.

First, at most he can only use such an attack four times at the same time now, since the maximum health bar of the Holy Light Dragon God Slash has a particularly severe weakening effect on the body.

Secondly, he couldn't withstand an attack after being upgraded seven times, because even with all his skills activated, his [Constitution] was only around [8000] points.

Therefore, even if he were to advance seven times, he could only win by sneak attacking.

Instantly deploy a lock-on area and instantly use a skill to finish off the target—otherwise, he would be the one to die.

"pat-"

Suddenly, a sound rang out—the sound of Ivina sweeping the books off the table by the window and dropping them to the ground.

Rod also snapped back to reality and looked at the somewhat dazed girl who was fidgeting.

Ivina's eyes were still blurry with sleep, the strap of her slip dress had slipped down to one side, and she didn't even open her eyes. Instead, she sat up blankly and leaned against the headboard.

It wasn't until more than ten seconds later that she stretched with a whimper, her thighs twitching as she kicked the blanket, and opened her beautiful, heterochromatic eyes.

She wasn't wearing bandages at that moment—because they had been burned away when she awakened.

"Ugh?" Ivina quickly closed her golden eye and covered half of it with the blanket.

She couldn't reveal their current situation to Cecilia.

The vision of the eyes is transmitted directly.

However, thinking of this, she couldn't help but peek at Cecilia and the others' actions—

At that moment, a blurry image came into view.

In the pitch-black cave, a monster that Ivina had never seen before was surrounded by blood, and it began to twist and open its lower half of its head, frantically devouring the blood, its aura becoming increasingly terrifying.

And, the instant Ivina's gaze fell upon this scene, Cecilia's voice returned:

Don't look around randomly.

Click.

Instantly, Ivina's vision was interrupted, forcing her back to reality.

The moment she returned to reality, she rubbed her head, feeling a bit of a headache.

Then, when she opened her eyes, she saw Rod, whose cheek was only a dozen centimeters away from hers, looking her up and down.

Eh?