Chapter 575: Research and Application of Domain-ification
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 575: Research and Application of Domain-ification
"Do you have any idea? Everything you're doing right now will only turn into a blade that stabs your own students."
"Is that so? Since you've gone out of your way to say it, I assume it must have hit home, right? Otherwise, you wouldn't have brought it up; you would have just kept quiet and made a fortune," I replied with a smile.
Even without these players reminding me, I was well aware of the situation. After all, the Great Knowledge Seed wasn't just for show.
However, I still didn't stop. This was a win-win situation: I gained improvement, the players gained new monster data, and the only ones getting hurt were the students of the Transcendent Academy.
This duel and gambit reminded me of the battle I had in the Primal Dream against the other version of myself through data synchronization. There were striking similarities between the two.
But setting aside the fact that these players were struggling to keep up with my pace of progress, their way of thinking was incredibly valuable. It was vastly different from a simple "duel with oneself."
In the Primal Dream, fighting myself was about developing potential I already possessed but hadn't mastered. Everything I grasped remained within the scope of my existing cognition; it was merely a shortcut to mastering known methods.
But fighting players was a process of constant reflection and advancement—a slow path to mastering the unknown!
Granted, this method carried significant risks.
But... I didn't care. My strength gave me that confidence.
Furthermore, I had organized the information on these things and shared it within the Tree of Great Knowledge.
Even if the information gathered via Ley Line Identification Art was minimal here, the identification data for special monsters would appear in great detail.
Therefore, anyone proficient in the Ley Line Identification Art could quickly find a countermeasure and even make progress during actual combat.
This was a path to self-improvement. Those who couldn't grasp the opportunity deserved to be eliminated.
I still remembered that this Script node... had an elimination rate. Death was not an impossibility.
As for those without a Great Knowledge Seed... to put it irresponsibly, what does that have to do with me?
At that moment, my attention shifted to something else.
Through the live stream platform structured by the Tree of Great Knowledge—though it currently only allowed for bullet-chat communication—I had learned some information from the Witch Sisters.
The Witch Academy had finally made a move against the Dungeon.
I heard that a Dean, who rarely made public appearances, had intervened to adjust the Dungeon's difficulty. That was why I could afford to be so leisurely.
If the Witch Academy had already gone to such lengths and I still had to worry, then those students deserved to suffer.
Don't forget, the ones gathered here weren't just New Students. Freshmen only made up a small fraction; the rest were famous students from various Transcendent Academies. Their combat power wasn't just for show, and neither were their brains.
By now, I was doing more than just testing spells. The derivation of spells isn't infinite in the short term. Once my inspiration ran dry again, I needed to explore other avenues. For instance... Body Arts.
After all, I possessed the power of a self-awakened Body Cultivation and had already reached the prototype of the Seventh Sense, yet the Body Arts I had mastered were pitifully few—only the Ritual War Dance I used back then to strengthen my physique.
However, because I had distributed so many Great Knowledge Seeds, I actually possessed a wealth of theoretical knowledge regarding Body Arts.
This included the Body Arts information shared by Sister Bai, as well as the cultivation insights shared by other Body Cultivation Witches.
And now was the time to put them into practice!
Among the many Body Arts, I still preferred the sword techniques Sister Bai had shared with me. Perhaps it was just favoritism... Besides, I had a blade gifted to me by Natalie inside my Book in the Box.
Naturally, I had to find a way to make use of it.
After all, the feeling of holding a sword is entirely different from holding a book. That sense of childhood wonder made me uncontrollably want to chop something—like a few cauliflower heads or something similar...
But killing monsters was just a formality, and Body Arts were just a hobby.
What I ultimately pursued was the "Domain-ification" of spells.
A Heart State Domain prototype completed by combining Body Cultivation with two Great Spellbooks... even at this level, it was still just a prototype.
From this alone, one could see how terrifying the so-called Domain-ification ability truly was, and how weak I still was.
Theoretically, the power of Body Cultivation shouldn't even need the help of Great Spellbooks to generate a complete Domain. From that perspective, I still needed to work harder.
However... after my continuous spell derivations and experiments, I had faintly discovered a reason why I couldn't complete the Domain-ification.
And that was... insufficient energy.
Yes, a very straightforward reason.
This was different from my talent for self-generated mana, which accelerated mana recovery. This was simply... an insufficient upper limit.
In other words, my Mana Sources weren't enough.
It wasn't strange for me to have this thought. Setting aside deeper theoretical proofs and inexplicable revelations or insights, I could just look at one of the spellbooks I owned.
The first Super-Consumption Spellbook I ever owned, "Fire Rain Domain," was preceded by a basic spell of a similar level to the Fireball Spell: the Fire Rain Spell.
Teacher Ji Niang had described the Fire Rain Domain spellbook as a clumsy imitation of Domain-ification—an accidental byproduct that used the characteristics of spell derivation to touch upon the concept of a Domain.
It was a leap from a single point of mana consumption to a thousand!
Now that I had mastered a prototype of a Domain, looking back at that spellbook, it indeed had too many... flaws.
Without realizing it, I had reached a point where I was qualified to critique Super-Consumption Spellbooks. This qualification wasn't granted by anyone; it was a natural shift in mindset.
Once you master a spellbook, it is just a spellbook—a tool. If the user feels awe toward it, then they are not the rightful master of that power.
Of course, without the corresponding level of strength, it is equally inadvisable to blindly adopt a contemptuous attitude toward any power.
A heart of reverence for power itself stems from the respect of not yet being the master of that power. One must remember that there is always a higher heaven and a greater person.
"By the way, is this how you Players plan to deal with me? Generating nothing, preventing me from progressing, and just wasting my time here?" Seeing that there was still no movement, I spoke up.
If the Players only had these few tricks, then I was going to have to launch a forced assault.
Previously, in order to avoid destroying this Dungeon and revealing my trump cards to the Players too early, I hadn't really used the power of Mindscape Manifestation. Otherwise, by directly clashing with the Dungeon and pitting our orders against each other, even if I didn't win, this Dungeon wouldn't be able to hold me.
Furthermore, I had learned from Lucianne that at the level of [Transcendent Knowledge], power could cause violent clashes against the existence of a Dungeon. Even a mere fragment, like the Heart of the Cold Wave, could locally break the internal boundaries of a Dungeon.
And they had used that to find a breakthrough within the Dungeon.
The Players' so-called Dungeon Space was actually an application created by the Game World through the development of [Transcendent Knowledge].
I could feel that the Dungeon's framework was similar to my Fire Rain Domain spellbook, but the Dungeon's form of power exceeded the limits of that spellbook. It possessed the power to reshape the order of the material world, so strictly speaking, it was a Domain prototype.
As for why I concluded it was a prototype and not a full Domain, it was because I had never seen what a true Domain looked like. However, based on the fact that I felt confident enough to clash with it at my current level, the opponent likely hadn't moved beyond the "prototype" boundary either.
If someone told me this Dungeon was a true Domain, honestly, I would be very disappointed.
"Calamity Witch... I have to admire your terrifying strength. It's just a pity that the permissions for this Dungeon aren't directed toward extermination, but rather toward harvesting Luck. However, trapping you is enough. As long as we achieve our ultimate goal..." The Player finally responded to my question.
"I hear a hint of compromise in your tone. It seems you have more than one type of Dungeon. Why not use them? Or is the cost of using them too high?"
"Are you fishing for information?"
"You could say that, because I'm genuinely curious," I said sincerely.
"To be safe, I won't tell you anything. At least not now, while we are unable to kill you."
"That's it? You're being that cautious?"
"Of course."
"Fine..." I sighed slightly. It seemed there was no point in staying here any longer. In that case... it was time to show a bit of my true strength...
After all, if you keep playing the pig to eat the tiger, you might actually turn into a pig!
With that thought, the thumb of my left hand, which was gripping the scabbard, lightly flicked the crossguard. A finger's width of the blade slid out, shimmering with a faint, cold light.
I wondered what kind of terrifying sight would be created if I combined the Mindscape Manifestation's Domain prototype, condensed the power of reshaping order into the blade, and then delivered a single strike?
I had never tried it like that before~
Just as I was thinking this, the Player spoke to me again.
"To make sure you don't get bored, I could be merciful enough to show you what your students are doing right now. How about it?"
"Hmm?" I was slightly stunned. I hadn't expected them to keep talking to me; I thought they were just going to leave me trapped here and ignore me.
I immediately snapped the blade back into its scabbard and smiled happily. "Sure~"
Although I had the information sharing from the Great Knowledge Seed, I could only get a general idea by combining the shared data with Qi Observation. If the Players were willing to give me a live broadcast, I was more than happy to accept.
Besides... I seemed to be running a live stream myself right now. However, since there were no visuals, it was just bullet-chat, making it feel more like a group chat.
But the three-primary-color pixel imaging of these Players had given me some good inspiration.
Since the information exchange channel between my Tree of Great Knowledge and the Great Knowledge Seeds was currently imperfect and unstandardized, the form of information arrangement ultimately boiled down to imaging precision. If we stopped pursuing actual physical images, my idea seemed viable.
So... I did it as soon as I thought of it, without much hesitation.
I briefly explained what I was about to do in the bullet-chat and then began making modifications.
Very quickly, the Transcendent Witches who were watching the visual-less stream saw abstract symbols beginning to replace the blank screen. Text interspersed with symbols shifted constantly, making the witches frown, wondering what I was up to.
In reality, what I was doing was quite simple: I was clumsily imitating the "code animations" I had seen before, using runes or special symbols to replace pixels and construct an image. As I continuously refined the process, many witches realized what I was doing and smiled knowingly. This was the first time they had seen a live stream in this format; it was indeed quite interesting.
While I was conducting this experiment, the Players presented the visuals before me.
The perspective seemed to be derived from a surveillance view. It appeared that within the Dungeon Space, those Players still had the authority to view any location.
"So many perspectives? Shouldn't your authority to dominate the Dungeon have been sanctioned?" I asked in amazement.
"You actually know about that?"
"Shouldn't I? Because of that power, the Dungeon Space I'm in was also affected, wasn't it? If this weren't a custom Dungeon that you repaired quickly, I might have escaped already, right?" I said with a smile, though I didn't mention that I had stayed behind on purpose.
"Hmph! Even if we are sanctioned by the World Will, it's still child's play for us to deal with your students. And that goes for you too!"
"Right, right, right~" I played along and didn't argue with her.
However, I made a mental note of her words. Because... they said they were sanctioned by the World Will?
I remembered chatting with those Witch Sisters, and the information I got was that a Dean had made a move...
Perhaps they had truly misunderstood something.
Fortunately... I almost let slip some significant information just now.
I tapped my foot lightly, and the force caused a massive pixel block beneath me to crack. I pulled out a smaller pixel block and placed it on the flat ground to use as a stool.
The visuals the Player was broadcasting to me were then transmitted to the witches by me in another way. The resulting images were truly too abstract.
However, I was constantly updating them, providing a satisfactory picture for the Witch Sisters still watching my stream.
As for the students... after gathering their forces and finalizing a plan, they had begun to gradually clear the Dungeon.
The so-called "clearing" naturally meant breaking the Dungeon nodes one by one. After all, the release of a Domain required a host; if the host was destroyed, the Domain could not be maintained.
It was just like how the host of my Heart State Domain was myself. If someone defeated my main body, my Mindscape would naturally collapse, because I was the one controlling that power, not the Tree of Great Knowledge within the Mindscape Manifestation. That tree was merely a way the Domain's power manifested.
But clearly, the Players' Domain was entirely different from mine. The host controlling their power wasn't a single living person, or even a lifeform. Therefore, to manifest the Domain here, they naturally needed a host as a core. They were indeed quite resourceful, having dispersed these hosts.
It was hard to say which of these two vastly different methods of Domain control was superior; they each had their strengths.
However, the Players' logic was an inspiration to me. Perhaps... the host of the Domain power I controlled didn't have to be myself?
But obviously, a power like the Heart State Domain probably wasn't suited for that kind of inspiration.
"By the way... is this all you're showing me? It looks like your Dungeon is about to be torn apart by them~" I couldn't help but mock.
To take a winning hand and play it like this—they certainly had a certain 'talent.'
But then I thought about the ratio of Players to students involved in this Dungeon... the Players were indeed doing their best to bridge the gap in strength.
Perhaps they hadn't expected the combat power of the upperclassmen to be so terrifying?
Coupled with the destruction caused to their Dungeon by the other Heart of the Cold Wave, it really wasn't easy for them to maintain their home-field advantage.
And as the Player said before, this wasn't a Dungeon specifically for extermination, but for harvesting Luck...
"Torn apart? No, no, no... You don't think they'll just keep having it this easy, do you? What they're tearing apart are just pixel structures that can be molded at will. If we don't give them a little illusion of success and a glimmer of hope, how can we plunge them into the depths of hellish despair!"
Hearing my words, the Player immediately corrected my view, her tone even carrying a hint of mockery.
They had never forgotten exactly why they had paid such a heavy price!
"I see... so your main goal is still to harvest Luck, right? So this is the method you use to harvest it?" I nodded in realization. It seemed I had underestimated these Players after all.