With his inspection done, the Elder handed the manuscript back to the Disciple, who Cain had promised it to, laying the heavy hardcover tome in her reverent hands.
"Is it really alright for me to have this? It won't upset the Demons, will it?" She asked hesitantly, unsure now that the actual item was in her hands.
"Most likely not. Plus, this is a human world, not a demon realm. They might smell similar, at least in the cities, but there aren't enough demons around that they would be likely even to notice that you had a truly demonic skill in your arsenal, much less notice it often enough that it annoyed them." Cain pointed out.
The spectators got a chuckle out of that analysis since everything that they did, they did for the sake of building their own power, and very few of them had ever considered consequences beyond the immediate. The thought that one day, possibly, a demon might notice that you were using a skill that his boss also knew and get mad wasn't a consideration that they made in their quest for power.
"Then thank you. I sense that I can activate this book with energy, is that right?" She asked.
"Go ahead and try it. If you're worthy, you will learn the skill in a single second. If you're really lucky, one of the Gods might smile upon your cultivation and grant you a gift. They have a knack for knowing when the truly talented have arisen and gotten their hands on something interesting." Cain suggested.
That way, if she activated a System Interface by using the book, he could blame it on divine intervention and not anything that he or the Laughing God had done.
"Just remember that if you do get the attention of the Divine, it is safest to keep that to yourself." The Immortal judge laughed, shaking his head at Cain's overblown estimation of the likelihood of attracting the Divine.
Carefully, she mingled her energy with the book, and an ominous red light glowed from the tome before it faded to nothing, taking with it the sense of power that the book had held.
Cain checked her interface, and nothing had changed. She was already Mythic Awakened, and there was no notification of a pending class, but her face was glowing with joy.
"It worked. I know the skill. It is incredible and passive. I can keep it active all the time, and it will seek my enemies when I attack." She informed the group.
"Can you prove it? That you have such an amazing Mythic Skill available?" One of the Syncophants that had accompanied the challenger asked.
"I propose a match, you lot against her. It will be obvious in just a few seconds if she really learned the skill at the same quality that Oath Breaker uses it." Cain offered.
Oath Breaker's damage transfer was one hundred percent at that level, so the first strike that she landed would show the world that she had the skills.
"Wait, there is an easier way. Disciple, slap that pompous man on the face." Her Sect Elder instructed her.
She didn't even hesitate, whipping her hand forward and across his cheek with a resounding slap that reddened the cheek of every member of his sect.
"Well, it worked. I can't guarantee that the damage output is at the maximum, but all of the hand prints look to be the same. I judge it a success." The Immortal agreed while the Disciple's Sect moved to square up with the Sect that came to challenge Cain's talents.
That was enough to make them back down from the fight, as they were clearly overpowered by their opponents and didn't specialize in combat, to begin with. Their sect was best known for hoarding or destroying knowledge so that they could maintain control over the manuscript markets.
They had lost that control today when Cain taught a hundred others how to create them successfully, though most would struggle for years or decades to be able to do it reliably for most skills.
It wasn't most skills that they were concerned about, though. Perfect manuscripts for their Sects' entry-level skills were much more vital to their growth and survival. The more people who could learn the easy skills, the stronger the Sect as a whole could grow as they built upon that basic foundation.
A simple D or C rank skill usually only needed a single elemental item to create, at least for elemental attack and defense skills, and they could obtain those from the magical beasts without much difficulty. Within the week, and certainly, by the end of the season, they would be turning out new skill booklets for their rookie cultivators, giving them great advantages in their early attempts to cultivate.
"I think I understand. You don't cultivate Magic like so many thought that you did. You cultivate Chaos. You live for it, thrive on it, and even built your group of disciples around it." The Immortal said to Cain, taking a long puff on his pipe to emphasize his point.
"I am not even sure that cultivating Chaos is possible. Chaos just happens. It is only happenstance that it seems to happen more around some than others." Cain denied the man's assertion.
"Exactly what the cultivator of Chaos would say." A voice in the crowd laughed.
He had a point. There really wasn't a way to deny that your affinity was for Chaos when so many strange and random things happened around you, and telling them that you were actually a disciple of the Laughing God wouldn't help.
Not only would they freak out if they knew he was part of the Creators' pantheon, but there was also every possibility that they would view him as a patron deity of Chaos to begin with. It certainly suited his personality.
The crowd just laughed off the concerns about Cain's actual cultivation method, not realizing that he wasn't a cultivator at all, nor were his disciples. At least, not anymore.
"Now, if everyone is finished here, you can discuss among yourselves what you might have had issues with. I know there were successful creations on the very first attempts, so some of you have a real skill for the creation of Manuscripts. I spent all night teaching a blacksmithing symposium, and it is time for me to return to my Sect Members and make sure that they didn't get into too much trouble last night during the celebration of their win in the Outer Sect matches."
"Don't let us keep you any longer. The Lotus Blossom surely took good care of your Disciples, but two lectures plus a challenge all on the same day is more work than most of us are willing to put in for the benefit of others." The Immortal agreed, shooing Cain away and then joining the conversations about Manuscript creation that were filling the area.
What Cain found when he returned to the camp was a hundred very disappointed and dispirited disciples dragging their feet through their daily tasks and none of his own Disciples in sight.
It was possible that they decided to sleep in since he did tell them they had no duties today, but that didn't explain the Lotus Blossom Disciples' state.
"Did I miss some raging party? Why is everyone so down today?" Cain asked one of the ladies who was cleaning the kitchen area near his tent.
"Oh, Sect Master Cain. Will Luna be up for lunch?" The disciple asked, ignoring his question.
Cain took a look around, noticing that the pots had the unseasoned remnants of very watery oatmeal porridge in them and no signs of any other breakfast food products anywhere. That totally explained the dejected disciples. They had gone from Luna's version of acceptable back to that of the tastebud-impaired Kitchen Elder at breakfast today.
"She will most likely be up in time for lunch. I don't imagine that she will miss two meals in a row, no matter how late they were up celebrating last night. Why don't you go check on them and make sure they're all alright, while I get started on a special victory lunch?" Cain told the girl, who smiled and rushed over to his tent, silently sneaking through the flap to see how everyone was doing.
"They're all accounted for and breathing. I didn't see any injuries, but there was a party at the edge of the compound that went to almost daylight, and I don't think that they left until it was over." The Disciple explained.
Then they wouldn't be up much before lunch if they were up for it at all. Luna would likely wake them up as soon as she smelled the food though, so Cain summoned four Human Puppets with cooking skills to assist him and got to work on an extra special treat to reward all the hard work they put into winning the competition.
It wasn't going to be easy getting that much cake ready in two hours, though, and Cain ended up calling a team of Iron Golems to make Cast Iron Ovens, especially for the cakes, since the Sect's kitchen wasn't set up for delicate pastries.
The Lotus Blossom Disciples slowly gathered around the kitchen complex as Cain worked, adding appliances and working with over a dozen summoned creatures and people to get lunch made on time, with a variety of dishes that none of them had ever seen before but that Luna would recognize as the standard party fare for an event in Long Fang Valley.
Laden with small pies, both meat and fruit flavored, plus a selection of sandwiches and other handheld foods, and a variety of cakes to be served in small squares, it was a banquet fit for a Skyview Duke, one that they could snack on all day long to keep their energy up, and with enough bold flavors to keep even Luna happy.
Read 𝓁atest chapters at fr(e)ewebnov𝒆l.com Only