Chapter 94: Chapter94-SuccessorAt that moment, a large crowd of elves had already gathered outside the Star Upgrade Hall.

    They were all eagerly waiting for a once-in-a-millennium phenomenon that would occur when someone upgraded a Talent of SSS-rank. S~ea??h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    Moreover, many believed that Alice was likely a devotee of a god.

    Inside the Star Upgrade Hall,

    Alice placed her hand on a translucent crystal.

    [Star Upgrade Quest completed]

    [Talent Star Upgrade obtained: 1-Star God Shooter. Domain acquired: Stellar Domain.]

    ...

    Inside the Divine Temple,

    Daniel sat silently on his throne, patiently waiting.

    Roughly ten minutes later, Alice once again appeared in the Divine Temple.

    Seeing that Alice had successfully become a 1-Star Awakener, Daniel was quite pleased.

    Just then, a prompt appeared before his eyes:

    [Congratulations! You have obtained the Devotee skill — Stellar Charge.]

    [Stellar Charge: Before launching a bow attack, you may charge up. Charging deals 2x to 5x damage. Maximum charge time: 10 seconds.]

    "Upgrade to max?"

    Daniel nodded. A flash of light lit up before him—

    [Stellar Charge+: Before launching a bow attack, you may charge up. Charging deals 5x damage. Maximum charge time: 0 seconds.]

    Wait—what!?

    Daniel’s eyes lit up as joy surged in his chest.

    The skill [Stellar Charge+], granted as a reward for Alice’s completed Star Upgrade Quest, was beyond powerful.

    With just a moment of charging, it could multiply the damage of a bow attack, up to fivefold. And this wasn’t some scaling formula—it was directly calculated as multiplied damage.

    If stacked with other skills, wouldn’t his output become multiple times higher?

    But the most broken part was the upgraded version he received.

    Though it was still called a "charge" skill, there was no actual charge time—and it could instantly unleash full five-times damage.

    In other words, Daniel’s bow attacks were now five times stronger—no delay, no wind-up.

    What did that mean in practice?

    Even when Daniel had done his own Star Upgrade, the rewards were hardly more impressive.

    As expected, training devotees was worth the investment!

    While this thought excited him, Daniel kept a calm expression on the surface.

    "Not a bad performance," he said calmly. "But you still have room for improvement."

    "If you need anything, you may pray to me again. But I won’t respond every time."

    "Praise be to you, great Crossbridge," Alice replied reverently.

    ...

    After making the necessary arrangements for Alice’s next course of action, Daniel returned once more to the abyss.

    At this point, it was clear—[Flashback], a God Rank Skill, had become the most frequently used ability in his toolkit.

    ...

    In the abyss—

    When Sarko saw Daniel suddenly vanish, he was utterly stunned.

    What was going on?

    It wasn’t even about him being a human. Even Sarko himself, an abyssal king, couldn’t teleport within the abyss.

    The abyss had unique rules. Even the native abyssal races were bound by them.

    Yet Daniel had simply disappeared before his eyes—

    as if teleportation was nothing.

    This was absurd!

    Even the sovereigns of the abyss couldn’t do that!

    And yet, reality was undeniable—Daniel had vanished.

    Sarko couldn’t even sense his presence anymore.

    No—more precisely, he’d never been able to sense Daniel’s presence clearly.

    Because of that, Sarko’s estimation of Daniel’s power rose significantly once more.

    But as a proper gambler,

    Sarko didn’t feel fear. In fact, he was thrilled, his fighting spirit burning even brighter.

    If he could trick a demigod-rank powerhouse, wouldn’t that be absolutely exhilarating?

    Calming his rising emotions, Sarko made a private decision:

    Since the human told me to wait here, I’ll wait patiently until he returns.

    After all, I have nothing better to do.

    High risk, high reward.

    The more he thought about it, the more excited Sarko became.

    Sure enough, not long after, Daniel’s figure reappeared before him—

    Just like when he vanished, he materialized out of thin air.

    Sarko blinked, then took the initiative to speak:

    "My friend, I’m very glad to see you back. My Kingdom isn’t far from here—just a few minutes’ journey."

    Daniel nodded calmly and said, "Lead the way, my friend."

    Even now, Sarko couldn’t figure out where Daniel had come from or how he managed such feats.

    But... those weren’t the important questions.

    The important part was figuring out how to make him lose.

    With that thought in mind, Sarko kept his expression neutral and simply nodded, leading Daniel deeper into another section of the abyss.

    The moment he started moving, Daniel couldn’t help but twitch the corner of his mouth.

    As expected of a King of the Abyss—

    Even his speed was terrifying!

    Even after activating [Godspeed Step], Daniel could barely keep up with him.

    No—if he were being honest, Sarko hadn’t even started accelerating yet.

    And once Sarko did speed up, Daniel immediately sensed their distance widening with each passing moment.

    Still, Daniel gave it his all to chase after him.

    A few seconds later, Sarko glanced back, having sensed something.

    Even though they were surrounded by layers of abyssal mist, he could still tell—Daniel’s speed was far from impressive, especially for someone of his apparent strength.

    Strange... why is he so slow?

    Ah! I get it now.

    This human doesn’t specialize in speed.

    So even if he’s powerful, he must have a major weakness.

    At the very least, in terms of agility and movement, he’s inferior to me.

    With this realization, Sarko deliberately slowed down. Once Daniel caught up, he said with a hint of amusement:

    "My friend, forgive me for not understanding your people better. I didn’t realize that speed wasn’t your strong suit."

    "In that case, let’s take it slow. No need to rush."

    Daniel could clearly hear the subtle mockery in Sarko’s tone.

    But he didn’t mind. He simply followed quietly behind Sarko, flying forward at a leisurely pace.

    What Sarko claimed would take just a few minutes—

    Ended up taking Daniel four whole hours.

    However, the trip wasn’t without merit.

    During those four hours, Daniel learned a great deal about the abyss from Sarko.

    Some of the knowledge he gained had never even been discovered by the human race.

    This made the journey incredibly valuable to him.

    In return, Daniel also shared some intel about humanity with Sarko.

    In fact, he was surprisingly forthcoming—revealing several classified secrets, ones that only the Human Emperor had told him.

    What Daniel didn’t know was this:

    The Human Emperor had already begun treating him as a successor—

    Which was why he had been entrusted with so many of the human race’s deepest secrets.