After climbing for another ten minutes or so, just as Little Blue and the others had previously mentioned, the surrounding mist had become increasingly dense and solid. The visibility was decreasing at a noticeable rate, now almost down to just three or four meters.
If it were true that any creature completely shrouded in this fog and losing its sense of direction would be sent back to the base of the mountain, then Violet and her group should be quite close to triggering this critical point of change.
“Lady Violet...”
“Yes, Little Blue, go ahead and use the ability that was just updated for you.”
“Understood!”
Although it felt a bit inaccurate, this seemingly faith-based magical power appeared more like a content storage database to Violet. The priestess acted as the main terminal, placing modified skills into it, and the creatures connected to this database would use them accordingly.
Of course, maintaining this “database” required a constant expenditure of power—not MP, but the more precious SP. Although it wasn’t a significant amount for Violet, it was indeed a form of consumption.
However, this was a relatively modern explanation and wasn’t entirely accurate.
Additionally, if Violet wanted, she could impose restrictions on each skill. For instance, skills might be invisible if certain attributes weren’t met, accessible based on contributions to [Faith], or only usable by specific designated targets.
Thus, a new believer might only gain two or three basic skills initially. As they increased their faith and strength, and their belief in the deity became more steadfast, they would gradually “comprehend” new abilities... This scenario gave the priestess a strong sense of déjà vu.
Ahem, of course, Boss Violet wasn’t so unscrupulous, so she probably wouldn’t do such things.
While climbing the mountain, the priestess had tried adding a dozen or so new skills to the “database.” Since Little Blue was her only “believer” at the moment, Violet was naturally generous in granting her full access to all the abilities. As long as the conditions were met, she could use any of them at will.
Thus, the slime girl extended her arms, closed her eyes slightly, and then a surge of golden light suddenly burst forth from her body!
“Blessing of Light!”
With Little Blue’s soft chant, the golden shield quickly expanded, soon covering an area of about ten square meters around the three girls. Although the brilliance and the complexity of the patterns on the barrier were noticeably inferior to when Violet cast it herself, there was no doubt that this was indeed the priestess’s favorite 【Light Protection】.
As a sixth-tier spell, according to the game’s rules, this skill would typically require at least level 50, which is beyond the so-called transcendent level, to have the basic ability to use it.
Although Little Blue had completed her evolution, her current attributes were still somewhat short of that transcendent level.
The reason she could use this magic beyond her level was undoubtedly because Violet had adjusted and modified some of the parameters of 【Light Protection】.
While the defense power was reduced, the usage restrictions were also significantly lowered, making it more suitable for lower levels.
The priestess surveyed the golden curtain that successfully drove away the mist, nodding slightly.
“Well... it looks quite decent. How long can you maintain this barrier?”
Compared to Violet’s effortless and adept casting of 【Light Protection】, Little Blue seemed somewhat inexperienced and strained. She maintained her arms outstretched to the sides while explaining quickly in a voice trembling from the effort.
“Yes, the ability you granted me... this ability consumes a lot of energy. I can’t give a precise answer for now, but it seems I can only maintain it for about ten minutes at most...”
Ten minutes...
It seems that even though 【Light Protection】 was reduced in power and cost as much as possible, it was still too demanding for a creature that hadn’t reached the required level to maintain a sixth-tier spell.
If even Little Blue could only manage this much, then there was no need to expend effort on improving those higher-tier skills for “believers” to use for now. Capping it at sixth-tier spells should be sufficient.
Hmm... speaking as if I actually have many believers is a bit embarrassing.
Ahem, however, it appears that 【Light Protection】 can indeed disperse the increasingly dense mist surrounding Spirit Butterfly Peak as they climb. This indicates that it’s just another form of energy manifestation.
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【Light Protection】 is a convenient skill that combines purification and defense, offering excellent resistance to most abnormal effects and environments below the sixth tier. Even though Little Blue is using a degraded version, it shouldn’t be too difficult to disperse a small portion of the thick mist.
That being said... well...
“Let’s continue upward and see what happens.”
When Violet was improving 【Light Protection】, she took into account the original version’s drawback of being unable to move easily due to its focus on strengthening defensive area effects.
She specifically adjusted it to a more portable form that could move with the caster. Although this meant Little Blue had to continuously output magic power and maintain the outstretched arms posture, making it difficult to do anything else, it had its pros and cons.
After climbing a bit further along the snow-covered mountain path, although temporarily blocked by Little Blue’s 【Light Protection】, the surrounding fog was visibly thickening at a rapid pace. It was seeping through the golden barrier from all directions, as if ready to engulf the three of them the moment Little Blue lowered her hands.
“Little Blue, can you hold on?” Violet stopped and looked back with concern.
The reason she didn’t intervene herself was partly due to strategic considerations and partly to test the limits of Little Blue, the holy light slime, to see if she could be entrusted with important tasks in the future.
Maintaining 【Light Protection】, Little Blue couldn’t make any extra movements and only nodded with some effort.
“For now, it’s still manageable. It seems I underestimated the magic power within me, and as time goes on, the energy consumption of this ability you granted seems to be decreasing... I think, if it continues at this rate, I should be able to sustain it for more than double the time.”
“Is that so? So, that’s over twenty minutes in total?”
As for the reduced consumption... could it be due to increased skill proficiency? So this modified version of the skill also has something like that?
That’s quite interesting.
“Lulu, take a look around and see if you can recognize where we are approximately.”
Although she seemed a bit out of sorts when she saw Little Blue and Violet earlier, Lulu appeared to have recovered. After carefully examining the environment temporarily illuminated by 【Light Protection】, she said thoughtfully,
“Judging from some details and the time we’ve been climbing, we should be around the halfway point up the mountain. Normally, we should start seeing signs of our tribe’s activities if we go a bit further up, but in this situation... it’s hard to say.”
Unlike Lulu’s uncertainty, the priestess seemed to have discovered something and shook her head with a smile.
“This place indeed shows signs of the Spirit Butterfly’s presence... Have you noticed? The higher we go, the less snow there is on the ground, and the snowfall in the sky is also decreasing. This should be due to the strengthening of the Spirit Butterfly Tribe’s defensive formation.”
“Therefore, some things have been left behind.”
Saying this, Violet walked to the side, came to a small shrub by the mountain path, and used her fingers to scrape off some faint pink marks that were slightly covered by the thin snow, then turned back with a smile.
“This thing, Lulu, you should be very familiar with, right?”