"Dragon pathway, Sequence 2, 'Discerner,'" Sasrir said, tossing the eye to Truman.
Truman caught it, examined it closely, and his mouth twitched. "Isn't this from the Mind Dragon Medici and I hunted back then?"
The mental imprint in the characteristic felt familiar.
He'd taken two drops of its blood to study its abilities, so he couldn't mistake the sensation.
"Medici already gave you your share of the spoils. This is what he turned over to me," Sasrir said, his face impassive.
Medici was truly loyal. For a natural mythical creature to be such an oddity…
"Fine!" Truman didn't dwell on it. His Sage Robe shimmered faintly, and he began molding the beyonder characteristic by hand!
The Sage Robe, now infused with the "Master" characteristic—Sequence 2 of the Paragon pathway—combined with Truman's deeper mastery of the Book of Dreams and stronger control over dreamlight, allowed him to handle the characteristic with ease.
Soon, the characteristic vanished, replaced by an exaggerated dragon mask in his hand.
"Here!" Truman tossed the mask to Hermes. "Wear it, and you'll wield 'Discerner' abilities. The side effect is a cold, mad virtual personality during use, with a strong self-destructive tendency."
For other pathways, this self-destructive personality would be daunting, but for the Dragon pathway, which could control and "soothe" virtual personalities, the side effect was nearly negligible.
The personality could even be used positively.
"Thank you, Angel! Thank you, Dark Angel," Hermes said gratefully.
With the dragon race at its peak alongside the giants, obtaining a Mind Dragon characteristic was incredibly difficult.
"Hm!" Sasrir nodded and left, needing to handle the vast affairs of Heaven.
Truman led Hermes out of the cathedral, roaming directly to the Dream Cathedral in the largest city-state.
"Call me when Omabella and the others arrive," Truman said, entering the cathedral's depths and merging into the statue.
His statues had been crafted into private residences, allowing seamless integration.
"Still a bit short…" Truman took out the Book of Dreams, flipping to the fourth page.
The first three pages—Dream Heaven, "Cause and Effect," and Dreamweaving—reflected his parsing of the Book's strongest authority: "Dream."
The "Dream" authority was too complex for him now.
Compared to the omniscience and omnipotence authority, it encompassed nearly everything. Only a revived God could wield it directly.
Even the ordained Ancient Sun God had to start with five god-level pathways, gradually approaching mastery of the Chaos Sea and the omniscience authority.
Truman's parsing of the Book of Dreams mirrored a true god deconstructing their authority, breaking it into Sequences 1 through 9.
For example, the Fool's "Deception" authority, from the Seer pathway, was broken into abilities like "Grafting," "Wish," and "History."
Truman was doing similar work now.
But the "Dream" authority was proving complex. In two prior attempts, he'd parsed its most obvious, intuitive aspects.
Over centuries, his analysis remained stuck on the third ability.
Yet, this third ability would mark a significant evolution in his understanding of the "Dream" authority!
"I feel like the Book of Dreams could yield several pathways!" Truman groaned, head aching.
Among Sefirot, only the "Key of Light" contained a single pathway.
Without the omniscience authority, this near-reverse-engineering of pathways was tedious and dull.
But this analysis of the Book was cut short when the giants arrived.
"Angel, the Harvest Goddess and God of Dawn are here," Hermes reported, and Truman leapt from the statue.
"Long time no see," Truman said, eyeing the two giants closely. Compared to him, they'd changed noticeably.
Their madness had lessened, and their mental state was much improved since their last meeting.
Likely due to the Acting Method.
With potion formulas distributed, someone would've deduced the Acting Method.
As ancient god races adopted it, their risk of losing control dropped sharply, making their subordinate gods stronger.
"Long time no see," Omabella said, her expression neutral, gazing at Truman warmly.
"Hmph!" Badheil showed no progress—perfect.
"You giants want to cooperate with humanity's secret sects?" Truman skipped pleasantries, cutting to the chase.
"Humanity's secret sects? You mean your Dream Sect!" Badheil rumbled.
"Oh? Not entirely clueless after all. At least you're growing a brain," Truman said, arms crossed, glancing sidelong with a hint of encouragement, as if daring a challenge.
"…" Badheil's single eye flashed with dawn light, but he forcibly restrained himself.
That surprised Truman.
"We hope to cooperate with you," Omabella said softly, her "you" encompassing more than just human sects and Truman.
"Why? Give me a reason to provoke ancient gods," Truman replied, unsurprised, having anticipated this.
"We want the Phoenix. You want the elves and dragons," Omabella said, her words earth-shattering!
Truman's eyes narrowed. In his temple, no information would leak, but what gave the Giant King the audacity to say this?
Just their half-guessed knowledge of adjacent sequences?
Over centuries, with potion sequences spreading, many races birthed demigods and saints, gaining some understanding of adjacent sequence knowledge.
This could resolve many ancient gods' doubts.
But under Sasrir's deliberate arrangement, much of that knowledge was incomplete, making even basic comprehension of adjacent sequences difficult.
Of course, ancient gods, being mental stitchworks, might just be driven by "appetite."
"We'll handle the Misfortune Goddess ourselves. You're getting the better deal," Badheil added suddenly.
You don't know I'm the Darkness Pontiff… Truman's mouth twitched.
Wait! Last time, in a dream, I projected the Goddess to strike him…
Does he not realize my tie to the Goddess, or… is he doing this on purpose?
This time, Truman gave Badheil a serious look.
Maybe… he really is growing a brain!
(End of Chapter)