Chapter 45: God-Tier Cheats Require a Paid Subscription?

Setting up a sacrificial ritual was a simple task for Hermione, who was already at Sequence 4.

As for the symbolic representation of the sacrificial target, Hermione intended to use the mysterious symbols corresponding to either the flickering "Sun" or the "Hanged Man" seen within the giant light and shadow.

Sacrificing to that colossal light and shadow served a dual purpose: first, to test the circulation of material objects between the dream space and the real world; second, to confirm whether that immense light and shadow possessed the consciousness to respond to prayers and sacrifices.

Hermione quickly set up the altar, carved the corresponding symbols, and placed the primitive slate of the Human Language—which possessed a certain degree of spirituality ever since she successfully created it—onto the altar, intending to sacrifice it into the dream space.

She directly chanted the honorific name of the Ancient Sun God in the Giant language, but received no response.

After a moment of hesitation, Hermione tried using the honorific name of God. This time, it triggered a disturbance in the Chaos Sea, though it was not a response to the sacrificial ritual.

"Neither works..." While letting out a sigh of relief, Hermione also wore a wry smile.

Amidst these complex emotions, she realized that whether it was the dream space or pulling the Goddess into a dream, she was essentially borrowing the power of the Chaos Sea and the remnants left within it.

These instances inspired her once again: "All I need to provide is a tiny bit of leverage."

The opportunity for leverage...

Thinking along these lines, Hermione added the description pointing to her as "the creator of the Human Language" into the honorific name of the Ancient Sun God, and then began the sacrifice once more.

This time, Hermione heard ethereal, overlapping voices echoing in her ears—those were the exact words she had just spoken toward her own sacrifice.

This sacrificial ritual was viable!

Hermione immediately ascended into the dream space to respond to the sacrifice originating from herself!

Driven by the leveraged power of the Chaos Sea, an illusory channel gradually condensed and stabilized. Soon, she saw the familiar and cherished primitive slate of the Human Language resting intact within the dream space.

It can work!

Joy surfaced on Hermione's face, but it instantly froze as she watched that illusory channel suddenly collapse.

What is going on? Just a single slate with a slight bit of spirituality caused the channel to collapse?

Hermione checked back and forth, only to discover that the spiritual materials used for the sacrifice in the real world had been entirely exhausted...

Spiritual materials and Beyonder characteristics were two entirely different things. The former would be consumed—such as the blood of extraordinary creatures, the roots and stems of peculiar plants, and so on; while the latter would never diminish or be destroyed, only transferring from one vessel to another.

"Sacrificing to myself still consumes spiritual materials?!" Hermione had gone through the complete process when placing those spiritual materials on the altar, never expecting in her wildest dreams that they would actually be used up.

Hermione tried performing the sacrifice again without any spiritual materials. Even though the ethereal, overlapping prayers could be heard whispering by her ear, she was unable to establish the illusory channel.

After several attempts, Hermione confirmed that the dream space was absorbing this meager amount of spirituality—the spirituality required for material objects to travel from the real world into the dream space was entirely provided by these materials.

Furthermore, items devoid of any spirituality could not be brought from the real world into the dream world.

Attempts to bring things backward from the dream space into the real world all failed because the spiritual materials she had stored at home were insufficient to support a single "Bestowal" ritual.

Wanting to retrieve a Sequence 3 Beyonder characteristic from the Chaos Sea would consume a sheer mountain of spiritual materials.

Spiritual materials were gathered bit by bit by the tribe's people in the wilderness. Even as the First Councillor of the tribe, she could not misappropriate them without cause; this was the foundation upon which the tribe had survived to this day.

Moreover, because the tribe conducted extensive research, spiritual materials were consumed quite frequently, and the remaining reserves might not even be enough for her to exchange for this Sequence 3 Beyonder characteristic.

Could the legacy of God really be this difficult to acquire?

Hermione was dumbfounded. When the Ancient Sun God was born, He directly carried the might of dual-pathway true gods to suppress the Dark Epoch. Yet when it came to her, she couldn't even afford to exchange for a single Sequence 3.

"What on earth are you doing? Such a huge commotion." Awakening from her nap, Amanis looked at Hermione, who had left the study in a complete mess, with a strange expression. "Are you demolishing the house?"

"I'm not a husky..." Hermione muttered, sharing the opportunity and dilemma she had just discovered with Amanis.

"You can exchange spiritual materials for a Sequence 3 Beyonder characteristic?" Having thoroughly examined the "Darkness" pathway, Amanis fully understood the preciousness of a Sequence 3 Beyonder characteristic. She sighed with emotion, "Such a good thing, and yet you're complaining..."

Hermione was choked for words by this remark. On second thought, she realized she had indeed been overthinking things. Where else in this world could one find such a bargain as trading spiritual materials for high-sequence Beyonder characteristics?

It was indeed a wonderful thing, but the crux of the matter was that she was genuinely broke...

God had given her a cheat code, but she had no money to activate it...

Seeing this, the corners of Amanis's lips curved slightly upward. With a wave of her hand, as if layering colors onto the air step by step, a small mountain of various spiritual materials piled up from low to high on the study floor.

"Is this enough?" Amanis asked with a faint smile. With another wave of her hand, that small mountain actually piled up even higher!

...What a sugar mommy.

Such a word echoed in Hermione's mind. She asked in surprise, "Where did you get so many materials?"

Amanis casually replied, "Some were hunted down on the side while on duty or out on missions after coming to the tribe. But more of them were accumulated back in the Demon Wolf Kingdom. Anyway, I have a Concealed Space to store these things."

A subordinate deity with hoarding tendencies was truly formidable, and having a Concealed Space was simply amazing.

Thinking back to her own dream space that required "payment" to unlock storage functions, Hermione felt a stomachache.

Noticing Hermione's obvious attitude, Amanis smiled and comforted her, "It's not that your dream space wastes spiritual materials; it's simply that your Sequence is too low, and your own spirituality is insufficient."

Though it sounded like words of comfort, why did it feel so piercing? Hermione glanced sideways at Amanis, who was smiling furtively like a cat, letting her gaze drift toward the mountain of spiritual materials while pondering inwardly on how to sponge off someone else's generosity with a bold and brazen face.

Before she could speak, however, Amanis took the initiative to say, "Take them all and use them. If it's not enough, I have more here."

"So generous and kind?" Hermione asked suspiciously.

Amanis chuckled lightly, "What? Were you hoping I'd say 'beg me'? Do you have that kind of fetish?"

Hearing this, Hermione actually imagined it for a moment. If accompanied by the right mood and setting, it might not be entirely out of the question—and if their roles could be reversed, it would be even better.

"You seem to be thinking about some dangerous things." Amanis said with a faint smile.

Noticing the slightly ambiguous tone in Amanis's words, Hermione proactively changed the subject: "I was just thinking about the ritual steps for using this pile of spiritual materials all at once."

It wasn't that she wasn't tempted, it was just that...

Hermione didn't want to be dominated.

Yet, as a mere Sequence 4 standing before a subordinate deity, she was inevitably bound to be dominated...