Sure enough, the headquarters of the Death Church was far more grand and imposing than the one Dusk had taken him to before.
Although it was still hidden deep within a remote mountain valley—
Once inside, it revealed an entirely different world.
The cavern interior contained an enormous hollow space, as though the entire mountain had been excavated from within.
Towering pillars rose one after another, each carved with countless depictions of living creatures dying in agony.
Kanzaki Rei and the other two continued deeper into the complex.
The powerful ward Rei had sensed earlier was also coming from this direction.
"Big Sister Kumironi," Rei asked, "the Life Church has been investigating this place for quite some time. Have you discovered anything?"
"There have been quite a few findings."
"Actually, the investigation team we sent recently came here to attempt breaking a sealed ward at the deepest part of the cavern."
"Even Iz can't break it?" Rei asked.
Kumironi shook her head.
"This ward isn't magical in nature."
"It's constructed purely from rituals and sacrifices."
If it had been a magical ward, Iz would have found it easy to break. Even if a ward contained just a small amount of magic, he could usually find a way to dismantle it from a magical perspective.
But a purely ritualistic seal… that was far more troublesome.
Although Iz's knowledge of ritual studies was quite high, it wasn't enough to casually break a Level-7 difficulty ward.
Rei had only encountered two Level-7 wards so far.
One was inside the Dark Church.
The other was here.
Aside from those, the strongest wards he'd seen were Level-6 wards belonging to the Temple of Light, Temple of Life, Temple of Fortune, and other major churches.
Oh—and the Cold Church only had Level-5 wards.
"Hmm…"
"Big Sister Kumironi, maybe I can give it a try later."
In truth, Rei had already broken the ward.
His perception had already scanned what lay inside.
But…
What exactly was that massive, pulsating black egg?
It gave off an extremely ominous feeling.
Rei's first instinct had been to leave immediately.
But then another thought followed.
Right now, it was still just an egg.
It hadn't hatched yet.
Which meant this was the best moment to eliminate the threat.
If it truly hatched later—
If it posed no threat, then there was no need to run now anyway.
But if it did become a threat…
Then it might be a threat to the entire continent, and running now wouldn't save him.
Instead, he'd regret not destroying it earlier.
Once he reached that conclusion, Rei made his decision.
Whether or not it would hatch in the future—
He would eliminate it before it fully matured.
"Little Rei, you have a method?" Kumironi asked.
Rei nodded slightly.
"I've recently gained some insights in deciphering. I might be able to break this ward."
Kumironi looked worried.
"This is an extremely difficult seal."
"Well, trying won't cost us anything, right?" Rei said with a grin.
"…Alright."
However, before that—
The most important thing was still class advancement.
The three arrived before the advancement ritual array.
The ritual formation had been preserved perfectly.
Rei stepped onto the center of the array.
Kumironi raised her emerald staff.
Inside her heart she whispered:
Sophia… I haven't betrayed the principles of Life.
Today I saved many dying people.
And recently I've treated many wounded and sick.
To help Rei advance today, Kumironi had spent the past several days in the Life Church personally treating injured and ill patients.
Normally, such tasks wouldn't require her direct involvement.
Her resolve hardened again.
Helping Rei advance was for the sake of better upholding the principles of Life in the future.
Buzz—
The advancement ritual lit up.
From the sky above, an incredibly dense aura of Death descended.
It focused on Rei's location.
The gaze was thick with deathly presence.
And strangely—
Rei felt a complicated sensation.
The gaze of Death that watched him had nothing to do with White.
Gods and the Primal Origin faced during advancement were two completely different things.
Yet from the Origin of Death before him, Rei vaguely sensed something unexpected—
A trace of anticipation.
It demanded souls.
It demanded death.
Rei raised his hand.
Like a tidal wave, piles of black ant corpses and monster remains surged forth.
At the same time, countless ascending souls rose toward the sky as offerings.
Death was sacrificed.
Souls were sacrificed.
That was the creed of a Death Priest.
Death didn't care about suffering.
Nor did it care how one died.
In truth…
It was quite pure.
Unfortunately, death itself was something people feared.
This time, Rei decided not to sacrifice too much.
One hundred billion should be enough.
Rei even felt a slight concern.
If he sacrificed too little during future advancements, would there be backlash?
Probably not.
After the sacrifice—
What came first was an explosive surge of spiritual feedback.
The advancement of a Death Priest brought perhaps the greatest increase in spiritual power among all classes.
Perhaps it was because he had sacrificed so much.
[Death Priest Mastery Acquired: Soul Slayer (Exclusive)]All attacks targeting souls receive a massive increase in effectiveness.
[Death Priest Mastery Acquired: Soul Shock (Exclusive)]All forms of attacks now carry varying degrees of soul damage.
That matched Rei's experience during Level-2 Death Priest.
During that period, he had indeed focused heavily on killing souls, largely because his talent favored it.
Besides those masteries, he also gained a specialty called:
Death Perception
This ability allowed him to easily detect the presence of corpses and determine:
whether they were truly dead or merely feigning death
how long they had been dead
the approximate cause of death
Furthermore, sacrifices no longer had to consist solely of souls and corpses.
Other items related to death with sufficient value could also be used.
For example:
magic artifacts saturated with death aura
parts of one's own body
even personal abilities
Of course, those costs were extremely steep.
For a Level-3 Death Priest, sacrificing souls and corpses was almost always the most efficient option.
After all—
Those were obtained by killing others, not harming oneself.
This specialty wasn't very meaningful to Rei.
Death Perception was somewhat useful, but still only barely so.
Then came the most important reward.
[Talent Acquired: Death Manipulation (Extraordinary) → God-Tier: Necrotic Rebirth]
Rei exhaled slowly.
As expected—
Talents were the most important reward of leveling up.
God-Tier Talent — Necrotic Rebirth
Any lifeform killed by the user will transform into a special undead species stronger than it was in life, with a chance to evolve.You become their absolute ruler.
After obtaining the ability, Rei felt as if he had gained control over a small underworld.
The space within it was empty.
Rei himself could not enter it.
This world was only accessible to the dead.
This must be where his undead army would reside.
Unfortunately, he currently had no undead.
Is this like the Shadow Army from Solo Leveling?
Rei didn't see any restriction on conversion.
Which meant that anyone he killed could likely be transformed.
As expected—
Abilities related to Death always involved undead.
Rei glanced upward.
A torrent of pollution poured down from the sky.
Compared to when Yuna advanced—where there had only been a few tadpole-like specks—
This was like a waterfall.
Kumironi's light enveloped the area completely, protecting the space.
Rei raised his hand and cast several Light-attribute purification spells.
But they passed straight through the pollution.
They hit nothing.
It seemed he could see the pollution—
But still couldn't eliminate it.
That made sense.
If ordinary magic could remove it, people could simply bombard the area with spells during advancements.
Just because his heightened spirituality allowed him to see it didn't mean magic could actually target it.
After Rei completed the advancement—
Kumironi remained on guard for another ten minutes until the last traces of pollution dissipated.
She turned toward Rei.
Rei smiled warmly.
"Thank you, Big Sister Kumironi. Without you, I might not have been able to complete this advancement."
Although she was somewhat tired, Kumironi felt it was worth it hearing such gratitude.
"Mm~ it's nothing."
"Little Rei, your growth speed has truly exceeded our expectations."
Now Rei had four professions all at Level-3.
At least in the Ruilun Continent, no one had ever heard of someone doing such a thing.
Even dual-classing was already pushing the limits.
No one simultaneously leveled four professions.
"How do you feel?" she asked.
"Very good."
The increase in spirituality could no longer simply be described as clearer perception.
It felt as though he could see through all things.
Everything appeared transparent and comprehensible.
Kumironi gazed into Rei's eyes.
She could almost see the vibrant spiritual energy within them.
For a fleeting moment, she even felt a faint trace of divinity hidden inside his spirit.
But the sensation vanished instantly, like an illusion.
Rei continued sensing the effects of his spiritual growth.
There was a new sensation now.
Perhaps it could be called…
Premonition.
"I think I've gained a new skill."
Rei considered it.
If he ever used this talent, there would be no way to hide it.
And if he never used it, then having it would be meaningless.
Rei released roughly one thousand black ants.
He casually pointed.
Lightning spread across them.
The ants were instantly electrocuted.
And almost simultaneously—
From their corpses emerged new bodies, black-green in color.
Reborn Undead — Black Ant (Tier 2)Reborn Undead — Black Ant General (Tier 3)
Rei flicked a Frost Spike forward.
Clang!
The spike struck the ant's mandibles—and the undead ant blocked the attack.
Not bad durability.
Rei scanned them with his perception.
These undead were all classified as dead entities and could be stored inside his small underworld.
Moreover, each ant carried a special trait:
some were surrounded by black flames
others emitted cold mist
some crackled with lightning
Every single one had become a special variant.
"Rei… what is this?" Kumironi asked.
"Hmm… I think sacrificing so many souls gave me a rather strong mastery ability."
He chuckled internally.
That part was completely made up.
If masteries could grant abilities this powerful, that would be amazing.
Still—
Sacrificing one hundred billion souls was unprecedented.
Others might assume such a sacrifice naturally produced extraordinary rewards.
"Do these undead obey you?" Kumironi asked.
"Yes."
"They should follow my commands completely. I can control them directly."
"But converting them requires their souls."
Rei hadn't received souls from these ants.
Their souls had been transformed instead.
Kumironi covered her mouth in shock.
Meanwhile, Iz rested his chin on his hand, deep in thought.
Separating the relationship between life and death like this…
Allowing the dead to gain new existence…
It was an interesting concept.
Iz was currently attempting to advance from Level-6 to Level-7.
He had already mastered positive and negative origin magic.
Aside from light and darkness, he had integrated most elemental systems.
But the Grand Unified Theory of Magic was still far away.
To unify the laws of:
Life and Death
Space
Time
Reincarnation
Fate
…into a single magical framework—
That path remained extremely long.
Yet from this disciple, he occasionally received flashes of inspiration.
It truly felt marvelous.
Watching this scene, Iz felt new insights about life, death, and the soul.
Perhaps his theory of Life-Death magic could advance another step.
"What an impressive ability…" Iz said.
"It's alright," Rei replied.
"It has some troublesome limitations."
Well…
The only real limitation was that he had to personally kill the target.
Other than that, there were none.
Kumironi nodded.
"That makes sense. Powerful abilities usually come with restrictions."
"But it's already incredible."
Rei said,
"Let's go look at the ward inside."
That egg likely contained a powerful lifeform.
If he killed it—
Perhaps he could turn it into one of his undead.
The only question was:
If he killed the egg, would the undead be the egg itself—
Or the creature that would have hatched from it?
…
The three arrived before the ward.
It looked like nothing more than a bare stone wall.
Nothing unusual at all.
The Death Church really loved disguising entrances as rock walls.
Rei pretended to carefully decipher the seal.
After about one hour, he turned to Kumironi.
"I think…"
"I've opened it."