My Talent Panel Can Add Points

”How the hell am I supposed to beat this?”

”Wasn’t this guy’s projection supposed to only have 70% of his full Power? Why is it still this terrifying? Why do I feel more pressure sparring with him than with Lord Hephaestus? Is that normal? Does that make any sense?”

”No way, I’ll just cast a big one and one-shot him!”

....

Five minutes later

The familiar ceiling...

Hamites’ expression was completely blank. The sky of the outside world seemed to darken as well, Thunderbolt rumbled from time to time, and it looked like it was raining outside.

Dreams are plump, reality is skinny. His full-power Mystical Technique... only shaved off one-third of Doomsday Tyrant’s Life. The gap from actually one-shotting him was way too big. It was hard to imagine just how tanky this guy was.

”Damn! This guy is way too ridiculous!”

”I can’t see any way to win at all...”

”Is it because I’m too dumb? Maybe I should go ask teacher for advice? Yeah, let’s do that.”

....

Divine Race, Fiery Prison Volcano

Hephaestus sat cross-legged at the peak of the volcano, doing his daily cultivation of Fire Power. After countless years of Divine Power training, he had successfully mastered the Ultimate Secret Technique of bodily Elementalization, and no longer had weaknesses in the conventional sense.

Let alone defeating him—ordinary people would struggle just to hurt him.

”You’re here. What is it?”

Hephaestus lifted his gaze and asked.

”Teacher, I ran into a powerful enemy. Even going all out, I still couldn’t win.”

Hamites lowered his head, sounding a bit dejected. As the top-tier prodigy of the Divine Race, he’d only cultivated for a very short time, yet had already reached the peak of Authority God, with stepping into the True God Domain just around the corner.

He’d thought he was invincible—no one within the same Level could beat him. Even when facing a True God’s Divine Chosen, he felt no fear at all.

But today, he’d gotten utterly smashed, and he couldn’t even beat the other guy’s projection.

Hamites was seriously depressed.

”Oh? Who is the opponent?”

Hephaestus asked curiously. In his understanding, there really weren’t many people who could defeat Hamites. This situation was indeed rare.

”A challenger who goes by the name Divine Monarch.”

Hamites said.

”Rumble!!”

Suddenly, the entire volcano surged for an instant, but was quickly suppressed. A terrifying aura rippled outward, yet Hephaestus, still sitting where he was, merely said calmly, ”Failure isn’t scary. Even a True God like me will run into problems during cultivation, just like what you saw just now.”

”What matters is whether you can turn failure into motivation, push yourself forward, and absorb the knowledge and lessons from it to make yourself stronger.”

”So, tell me in detail what Abilities he has.”

Hephaestus said.

”Okay. That guy’s toughness is insanely high. I went all out and unleashed my Mystical Technique, and I still only managed to knock off one-third of his Life. Normal attacks can’t even break through his defense....”

”Is that so?”

All at once, familiar memories surged up. Hephaestus recalled his past, when he controlled a Tier One divine body to fight, and ended up failing to burn through the Resistance of a teleportation-tier challenger.

He’d taken a closer look—nearly three thousand Fire Resistance!

This was Tier One, for fuck’s sake!

Tier One with three thousand Fire Resistance—was that still a person?

Not only that, the guy’s double Resistance was also ridiculously high, which meant a lot of his control and debuff Effects just got straight-up banned. If he tried to fight head-on, the guy was so tanky it was hard to win, and the opponent even had an extreme-strength Dark Power that could counter his Elementalization.

You had to understand, his Elementalization was not the same as those Elemental Life. Only Elementalization mastered through extreme cultivation was the real thing, with unparalleled strength.

But even so...

He was still defeated...

This was a secret Hephaestus kept buried deep in his heart, never telling anyone. After all, it was too embarrassing: he was a Divinity, beaten by a Legendary Level Spiritualist. If word got out, his face would be gone.

He hadn’t expected that his disciple had also gotten wrecked.

”Teacher, that guy’s strength is too insane. Do you have any way to deal with him? I’ve challenged him many times and still can’t beat him.” Hamites asked.

”What’s the code name of his projection?”

”Doomsday Tyrant.”

”Mm, I see. I’ll personally help you test out his Skills set.”

”Thank you, teacher!”

....

Three hours later

Hephaestus slowly opened his eyes. Fiery Prison Volcano surged again for a moment, but quickly calmed down.

”Teacher, how did it go?”

Hamites asked eagerly.

”You should give up. His strength is very high—True God Level, Stuck Level bugged at the Dominator Level.”

Hephaestus said evenly.

”How strong is he exactly? I feel like he doesn’t have that many Skills, his numbers are just high. Teacher, you can definitely beat him, right?” Hamites looked at Hephaestus, full of hope.

”I... can of course beat him.”

Hephaestus continued, ”And it’s not that he has few Abilities—he actually has a lot. The state you saw wasn’t his Mystical Technique form, just his ordinary combat Tyrant Form. He has three other forms he can transform into afterward, and his Combat Skills are quite numerous as well.”

”???”

Hamites was covered in question marks, but his heart gradually relaxed. No wonder he got beaten so badly—turns out the opponent was a Stuck Level True God.

Got it!

No wonder he calls himself Divine Monarch—so the guy really is a Divinity! Then it’s fine! Phew, I thought it was some Spiritualist who picked a random codename. Turns out he’s just that strong.

”He has four forms? Isn’t that a little too outrageous? As expected of a True God powerhouse.”

Hamites said with emotion.

”He doesn’t just have four forms. He also wields three kinds of top-tier Power, not inferior to Divine Power cultivated to the extreme. He can resurrect multiple times, and...”

By the end, Hephaestus’ voice started getting quieter, as if he didn’t really want to keep talking.

In reality though, it was because he’d only seen the guy resurrect twice. He actually didn’t know whether the guy could resurrect a third or fourth time, so he just said ”multiple times,” keeping it vague so people wouldn’t notice anything off.

”And...?”

”Some things aren’t suitable for you to know right now. You should focus on cultivation first, and don’t try anything against that guy in the future.” Hephaestus said.

”Oh, okay.”

”....”

After that, Hamites left.

Hephaestus sat where he was.

He lowered his head slightly as the magma around his body began to boil, countless hot bubbles rising and spilling outward.

Endure for a moment, and the wind and waves calm.

Take a step back, and the more you think, the madder you get.

”Nope!”

”I’ve gotta fight him a couple more times!”

....

[Hint: Your projection is being challenged by High Tier powerhouse Hamites. Do you want to fight personally? Yes/No]

[Hint: Your projection is being challenged by High Tier powerhouse Hamites. Do you want to fight personally? Yes/No]

[Hint: Your projection is being challenged by High Tier powerhouse Hephaestus. Do you want to fight personally? Yes/No]

....

The prompts rang out one after another, but Ye Mingqiu mostly chose auto-battle. Only when Hephaestus challenged him did he choose manual control to spar with the guy.... After all, stomping newbies doesn’t improve your strength. Only fighting the strong can raise your hard stats.

After another battle ended, Ye Mingqiu sat in his room and couldn’t help sighing, ”Hephaestus, you’re really strong. I might remember you for the rest of my life.”

To be honest, Tier Two Hephaestus was more than a single tier stronger than his Tier One self, because Tier One was when Ye Mingqiu challenged Hephaestus’ projection—Hephaestus’ projection only had 70% of his real body’s strength.

Now it was Hephaestus challenging his projection. His projection only had 70% of his own strength. So even though Ye Mingqiu had successfully Advanced in Professional Level, he still ended up losing two lives to Hephaestus.

Thankfully, Ye Mingqiu also triggered Doomsday Tyrant Form for the first time because of this. He hadn’t had a chance to use that form in battle before, nor a chance to get familiar with it.

Hephaestus really is a good guy.

On top of that...

For some reason, during the fight, Hephaestus didn’t really dare to clash weapons with him, and didn’t dare to burn the Blood Spear either, like he had some special scruple. His fighting felt timid and constrained.

Ye Mingqiu wasn’t stupid. He quickly realized that the reason he’d managed to beat Hephaestus the first time might lie with the Blood Spear.

Back then, in the simulation space, Blood Spear was burned by Hephaestus until it melted, and he lost consciousness right after. Then Hephaestus got crushed.

”I have a bold guess!”

”But I’m not sure if it’s right.”

”....”

”If he’d just challenge me again and give me a chance to verify it, that’d be perfect.”

”Too bad he just lost. He probably won’t challenge me again in the short term, sigh.”

Just as Ye Mingqiu was lamenting, another Spirit Realm prompt popped up.

[Hint: Your projection is being challenged by High Tier powerhouse Hephaestus. Do you want to fight personally? Yes/No]

”Yes!”

Ye Mingqiu broke into a bright grin.