97: Chapter 97 Mysterious Mask +10

Using the "Characteristic Enhancement" skill allows one to enhance an NPC's characteristics.

Every time Fu Hao encounters a new NPC, he uses the "Eye of the Grand Lord" skill to check their development potential, which is how he knows that "Faith" is one such characteristic.

Unlike players, NPCs cannot rely on grinding monsters to level up or wearing better equipment to increase their stats; they cannot enjoy player-exclusive growth systems such as titles, achievements, quests, dungeons, the Training Tower, or the shop.

However, NPCs possess a "Characteristic" system that players lack—the higher the Characteristic rank, the faster the growth rate of related stats or skills; and once a Characteristic rank crosses the A-rank threshold, they can additionally acquire exclusive skills corresponding to that tendency.

Just like Ella, whom Fu Hao hurriedly recruited via "marriage" and is currently sending to the Kalis Empire Grand Library to increase her Characteristic rank, development characteristics can also be improved through acquired means.

But due to the extremely low efficiency, apart from Fu Hao, no other Lord player would deliberately plan their NPCs' actions to increase their Characteristic rank.

Fu Hao only sent Ella to the library because he couldn't find a way to utilize her for the time being; he didn't truly expect her to be able to further improve her already A/S-rank Characteristic rank through "reading more books."

But if the "Characteristic Enhancement" skill is used, the situation is different.

<Characteristic Enhancement>

Type: Active

Rank: Unknown

Lv.1

* Can enhance a specified NPC's characteristics. When enhancement succeeds, Characteristic rank points increase; upon reaching a certain number of points, the Characteristic rank rises.

* Characteristic Enhancement for the same NPC is limited to once per week.

* Enhancement success rate: 1%

Due to the cooldown restriction for the same NPC and the low success rate, Fu Hao had never tried this skill since his second awakening. But he was optimistic about the current situation—even if the Characteristic Enhancement skill's efficiency was extremely low, wouldn't it be fine if he borrowed the power of thousands of Mimics?

Although the cooldown for the 3000 Mimics crafting the +10 bow hadn't ended yet, among the newly acquired Mimics, there were still many that had not used "Fates Luck."

"Master, I will craft a Saintess who can replace Aria. When the time comes, will you take her with you to deal with the Demon King?"

"Craft a Saintess? What do you mean by that?"

"You will know soon."

Fu Hao acted mysterious to avoid the questions from Helm and his group, while simultaneously handing over a teleportation gem recorded with the coordinates of the Erebus Holy Nation.

Twenty minutes later, under the pretext of "subjugating the Demon King," Fu Hao took the nun, who was hailed as the "next-generation Saintess," from the Erebus Holy Nation in a manner bordering on "kidnapping," and teleported her to the Mimic enhancement factory—strictly speaking, if not for the great military achievements Helm and Calus had made in the Human-Demon War, the Holy Nation would never have tolerated their most important Saintess candidate being taken away so roughly.

Before the enhancement began, Fu Hao used the "Eye of the Grand Lord" to confirm the nun's information again:

Name: Seri

Level: 406

Class: Erebus Church Nun

Title: <Next-Generation Saintess>

Characteristics: [Faith] S+ [Conviction] S- [Charm] A+

HP: 110,020 / 110,020

MP: 34,310 / 34,310

Strength: 535

Agility: 529

Intelligence: 1,551

Stamina: 1,073

Holy Power: 13,191

Description: The core protected object of the Erebus Church, one of the "Two Hundred Heroes" active in the "Human-Demon War."

"Level 400, huh..."

Her level was lower than imagined, but her Holy Power was abnormally high for her level. "If even this much Holy Power isn't enough to fight the Demon King, then just how high is the Demon King's level?"

Of course, this might not just be a matter of Holy Power itself; it might also involve skill combinations. But regardless of the reason, as long as the Characteristic rank is further increased, everything will be resolved.

"Then I shall begin." Fu Hao used the Characteristic Enhancement skill on Seri.

[Enhancing the NPC "Seri"'s Characteristic "Faith".]

[Enhancement failed.]

"As expected, it's not that easy."

Although Characteristic Enhancement was strictly restricted, it didn't require consuming resources, so Fu Hao tried it once; as expected, it failed.

He quickly put aside any wishful thinking and officially started the enhancement factory—after giving orders to the Mimics that hadn't used "Fates Luck," the Mimics lined up like an assembly line. Fu Hao brought Seri through them and began the systematic enhancement operation.

Because he had used "Fates Luck," there was no need to worry about enhancement failure, so Fu Hao used the "Eye of the Grand Lord" to check Seri's Faith rank at any time.

When they passed about 500 Mimics, Seri's Faith increased from S+ to SS-, and her Holy Power stat also increased by about 6000 points—although the "Eye of the Grand Lord" could not view skills, she had definitely acquired new skills.

Seri remained silent, but her expression was full of shock; Fu Hao, however, could not hide his disappointment—the efficiency of the Characteristic Enhancement was worse than imagined. "EX rank is simply unreachable..."

In the game's tendency rank system, the final tier is defined as "EX" or "Immeasurable." Fu Hao had originally thought that by relying on the 3000 Mimics with the buff of "Fates Luck," he could at least challenge the EX rank, but now it seemed he had been clearly too optimistic.

Even so, Fu Hao still took Seri and continued to move between the Mimics for enhancement.

As Seri gradually adapted to her new skills and the surging Holy Power, Helm felt the power within it and judged: "To this extent, it is enough to wound the Demon King."

Calus also exclaimed: "It's almost like seeing Aria."

"So when you said you were going to craft a Saintess, you really weren't just talking."

"Then shall we set off?" Fu Hao smiled and prepared to use the teleportation gem, but was stopped by Helm.

"Disciple, even if we can handle the Demon King, what about the demons? If the demons all pounced on us, that would be one thing, but once they detect Seri's Holy Power, they will definitely flee in different directions. Those demons who were converted from humans will perish together after the Demon King dies. But if the Demon King escapes back to the Demon Realm, things will get complicated."

Helm continued to explain with a furrowed brow: "Although there is a Demon Detector, if tens of thousands of demons scatter and flee, even if the pursuit is successful, it could lead to the deaths of hundreds of thousands or even millions of civilians during the pursuit process."

"Will the Demon King really escape back to the Demon Realm?" Fu Hao was stunned for a moment.

If it were just to sacrifice a few humans to stop the "Demon World-ification," he wouldn't take it to heart; but if the Demon King possessed Prince Mian and escaped back to the Demon Realm, the nation-building quest would be declared a total failure.

He wasn't sure if the Demon King could return to the Demon Realm in a soul state while carrying Prince Mian's body, but for this critical step, he could absolutely not pin his hopes on gambling.

Furthermore, if the Demon King escaped, the enhancement process that had invested a massive amount of "Fates Luck" would also fall short, and he would even miss out on the Demon King's loot and the First Subjugator title.

"What should I do?"

He subconsciously thought about using the teleportation gem to go directly to the Demon King's location, but immediately realized: the barrier was a problem.

If the royal capital only had a barrier prohibiting teleportation, he could still force his way close to the Demon King using Helm's Demon Detector and precise coordinates.

But even so, relying on a single gem couldn't guarantee success—once the Demon King detected Seri's Holy Power and fled immediately, there would be no way to pursue.

To completely stop the Demon King from escaping, the only way was to hit the target with Holy Power.

"I've got it!"

A flash of inspiration hit him, and Fu Hao suddenly remembered the +10 item still in the testing phase—the Mysterious Mask. He immediately pulled up the detailed information for the item:

<Mysterious Mask (+10)>

Copies the appearance of a specified target (does not copy equipment appearance).

Copy appearance can be reused +1 time.

Copy appearance can be reused +1 time.

Copy appearance can be reused +1 time.

Simultaneously copies the five sensory elements: touch, taste, smell, and hearing.

Copies external auras such as mana and mental power.

An ordinary Mysterious Mask can only copy visual appearance and lacks the aura and breath concealment—for example, if Fu Hao wore an ordinary mask to imitate Helm, even if the appearance was similar, he would be instantly exposed by any NPC with perception skills.

But the +10 version of the Mysterious Mask could even completely replicate the subtle fluctuations of mana and mental power. As long as one didn't speak voluntarily, it was almost impossible to be exposed.

Although once they approached the outskirts of the royal capital, the Demon King might perceive Seri's Holy Power, but—an ordinary mask might not be able to do it, but the +10 mask could "transfer" the copied appearance to others to use. One only needed to select the target, and after copying, have another NPC carry the disguise to easily approach the Demon King.