Lord: Sequence Master

After several months of hard work, Rosen stood back, satisfied as he looked at the masterpiece before him.

At this moment, by activating the spiritual energy of the painting, Ironwood Town and all its residents could materialize in reality. However, fake was still fake. No matter how lifelike the people seemed, they had no souls, and though the buildings appeared realistic, they were primarily spiritual with only secondary material substance.

Additionally, none of the life forms in the painting had eyes yet.

Rosen needed to infuse all the necessary resources into the painting to establish a true mystical realm. He also had to perform the Finishing Touch to give all the life forms their final eyes.

First, he required spiritual crystals with space and time attributes, which were highly regulated resources. Only the kingdom's government allowed certain nobles to purchase them in limited quantities. As a Sequence 7, it would take Rosen ten years to accumulate enough for a single mystical realm painting.

However, if he was willing to sell a mystical realm painting, he could gain ten times the purchasing power. So this time, Rosen couldn't afford to fail. If he did, his only option would be to resort to the black market.

As the spiritual painting absorbed the two types of spiritual crystals, the space within the painting expanded by more than a hundred times, and time began to flow slightly. The realism of the entire painting reached a new level.

Rosen then began dismantling Ironwood Town, sending the entire real town into the painting's space after breaking it apart. Earlier, while painting, he had infused the power of Gluttony into the artwork. As a result, the false structures in the painting immediately began to merge with the real buildings of Ironwood Town.

But that wasn't enough—Rosen started sending in red iron, which he had scavenged from space, incorporating it into the painting. Finally, he brought out the ironwood trees he had purchased in advance, merging them with the thriving ironwood trees growing in the painting. Once everything was fused through Gluttony, the painting before Rosen became even more realistic.

Now, all that remained was the Finishing Touch, and this painting would be transformed into a true mystical realm.

Rosen, multitasking, controlled his Self-Portrait Clone to pour all its spiritual energy into the painting before him. Meanwhile, his main body projected his spiritual energy into the Spirit Realm, using the real Ironwood Town as an anchor. He quickly passed through the surface of the Spirit Realm, diving into its deeper layers, using every person in the painting as bait to fish for the historical traces of Ironwood Town from the depths of the Spirit Realm.

During this process, Rosen's spiritual energy was being consumed at an alarming rate. If he allowed it to continue, he wouldn't last long. And if the spiritual energy was interrupted, the fishing line would break, and he would fail to catch anything. The bait he had spent months creating would be devoured by the depths of the Spirit Realm once the line broke.

This was why only those at the peak of Sequence 7 could attempt to create a mystical realm painting. No matter how talented a painter might be, without sufficient spiritual energy, there was nothing they could do. Rosen's spiritual energy was at 30 points, just three points short of the 33-point limit for ordinary painters. He could borrow those three points from his pets.

This was the greatest advantage of simultaneously cultivating both the Painter and Hunter Sequences when creating a mystical realm painting.

Rosen first borrowed spiritual energy from his Nightmare Slime, then borrowed divinity from Gray Mouse. Yet, despite this, he still hadn't caught anything. At this point, he transformed into the Feathered Serpent God, converting his spiritual energy into divinity. Using the Cultural Authority of the Feathered Serpent God, Rosen enhanced his divine perception. Finally, he managed to trace the historical remnants of Ironwood Town.

If the depths of the Spirit Realm were compared to an ocean, the historical remnants of Ironwood Town would be no more than a tiny drop of water. This drop of water might exist independently or could have been contaminated and assimilated by other historical traces. Whether the Finishing Touch succeeded also depended on luck.

When Rosen's divinity captured this drop of water, he used his own spiritual energy to connect with the Ancient Tree of the Artist Sequence in the Spirit Realm. At that moment, the Ancient Tree of the Artist Sequence used Rosen's divinity as an anchor, instantly releasing a golden leaf into the depths of the Spirit Realm. The leaf wrapped around the drop of water and merged it with the extraordinary essence within Rosen's divine pen.

Once his divinity returned to reality, Rosen immediately picked up the divine pen and began painting the final eyes on every life form in the painting. As the last stroke fell, his extraordinary essence and the painting before him underwent a dramatic transformation.

First, within his extraordinary essence, a new skill was born: Finishing Touch.

[Finishing Touch: The ability to convert spiritual energy into divine creation power, allowing one to capture historical traces from the Spirit Realm.]

[Divine Creation Power: 1 point]

This was another special skill with no specific level, and it was also one of the most important skills for a painter. Now that this skill had formed within his extraordinary essence, Rosen no longer needed to rely on the Ancient Tree of the Artist Sequence to capture historical traces.

The key to this process was Divine Creation Power—every time a mystical realm painting was completed, it would generate one point of divine creation power. By consuming divine creation power, a painter could create something out of nothing, transforming a painted character into a real person. This entire process no longer required capturing historical traces from the depths of the Spirit Realm.

Moreover, after consuming divine creation power, as long as the corresponding mystical realm painting wasn't destroyed, the expended divine creation power would gradually recover. In essence, mastering divine creation power was akin to grasping a fragment of Creation Authority, which was normally a Sequence 0 ability.

The amount of divine creation power a painter could control directly determined their strength in the Painter Sequence.

Rosen eagerly observed the painting before him. Successfully obtaining divine creation power meant that this mystical realm painting was a success.

[Ironwood Town: Mystical Realm Painting]

[Level: Sequence 7]

[Range: 30 miles in radius]

[Population: 1,160 people]

[Specialties: Red Iron, Ironwood, Residents]

[Trait: The Blessed Land of the Feathered Serpent God]

In terms of level, this was considered the lowest grade among mystical realm paintings. A painter's first mystical realm painting would generally be at Sequence 7. However, in terms of value, Rosen was confident that this painting surpassed most Sequence 6 mystical realm paintings. This was because, for paintings of the same level, the more intelligent life forms depicted, the harder it was to paint them. Rosen's success was largely due to his trust in the Cultural Authority of the Feathered Serpent God.

What Rosen hadn't expected was the emergence of the trait Blessed Land of the Feathered Serpent God. The Feathered Serpent God's Morning Star Authority could grant the mystical realm a higher red iron reserve and even provide a small sun. The Harvest Authority would ensure increased yields of ironwood and red iron, while the Cultural Authority would enhance the learning capabilities of the painted life forms.

It was only after gaining Baal's great-uncle's memories that Rosen realized the people in the underground city at the time weren't normal humans. This was because the people painted by the Finishing Touch in mystical realm paintings weren't recognized by the world government as real humans. Even the people Rosen had converted from the Spirit Realm into extraordinary residents through supernatural housing weren't officially recognized.

The greatest value of these people lay in becoming citizens of Rosen's Divine Domain. The 1,160 people of Ironwood Town, along with their future descendants, would all become citizens of Rosen's Divine Domain. Since the world government didn't recognize their rights, treating them as slaves wouldn't even be an issue.

This realization made Rosen understand that the residents of Ironwood Town, as well as people like Corollo, weren't truly human. No matter how lifelike they were, they were still one step away from being real humans. To bridge this gap, Rosen would need to rely on Divine Creation Power.

The massive mystical realm painting of Ironwood Town gradually shrank under Rosen's control. Once it had reduced to three feet in size, he mounted it in a white bone frame and placed it in his Alchemical Castle within his Divine Domain.

He then created a projection of the painting and placed it at the foot of the mountain in his Divine Domain, displaying it on a blank stone tablet. Through this projection, the 1,160 residents of Ironwood Town could leave the mystical realm and appear in his Divine Domain. Likewise, the existing citizens of his Divine Domain could enter Ironwood Town, effectively expanding the area of his Divine Domain.

Rosen roughly calculated that Ironwood Town had 150 farmers, along with nine knights and 1,001 knight attendants.

The farmers were responsible for cultivating the ironwood trees, while the knights and their attendants managed the security of Ironwood Town. The highest-ranked individual among them was at Sequence 7, and even the lowest-ranked were Sequence 9. With a full thousand Sequence 9 knight attendants—an auxiliary sequence of the Knight Sequence—their collective charge could overwhelm most Sequence 6 opponents despite their lower individual rankings.

Humanity's nine major sequences were powerful, primarily focused on enhancing individual combat strength. Superhumans from these sequences often had to embark on dangerous adventures in mystical realms or perilous locations to increase their power. Only a few, whose talents had reached their limits, chose to settle down and integrate into the official government structures. Despite their formidable abilities, the nine sequences weren't designed to cultivate a basic military force.

This is where auxiliary professions like knight attendants came in. These roles were intended for ordinary people to transition into, though advancing beyond Sequence 7 was extremely difficult. Even if they did, the increase in lifespan was minimal. A Sequence 7 from the nine major sequences could live up to 300 years, while a Sequence 7 knight attendant would only live for about 150 years. Although they had shorter lifespans and lower strength, they grew quickly and consumed fewer resources, which made them valuable.

To prevent nations from excessively transitioning ordinary people into auxiliary professions, the world government strictly limited the number of knight attendants a noble could cultivate. Even a duke was limited to raising a maximum of 10,000 knight attendants. Those below the rank of duke weren't even qualified to cultivate them.

By using his mystical realm painting, Rosen had gained a thousand knight attendants ahead of time. Once they trained up to Sequence 7, they would be a force to be reckoned with, even below the demigod level.

It took over half a month for Ironwood Town to fully integrate into Rosen's Divine Domain, coexisting peacefully with the other residents. Having all experienced death, with memories of it still fresh in their minds, the people of Ironwood Town deeply cherished their second chance at life and were immensely grateful to Rosen, whose whims now dictated their future.

After successfully mastering three painter skills and creating Ironwood Town, Rosen's spiritual energy increased to 31 points. Additionally, thanks to the Divine Pen, he was able to convert two of his newly acquired skills into innate abilities. Without hesitation, he converted Rune Painting and Finishing Touch into innate skills. Both skills were special and level-less, making them ideal candidates for this enhancement. As Rosen advanced in sequence, these innate abilities would naturally grow stronger.

Rosen realized that the best skills to convert into innate ones were precisely those special, level-less abilities that couldn't be improved by traditional methods. This made them irreplaceable. Meanwhile, skills like Mind Canvas, which could be leveled up with personal growth, were better left to progress naturally.

Upon returning to Adventure King City, Rosen's first visit was to Marquis Alonso. Although Alonso was a Sequence 5 noble, he only possessed the abilities of a Sequence 7 from the Gourmet Sequence—a reflection of poor talent but fortunate birth. Still, Alonso was no fool. He was a cunning man who excelled at making strategic investments, particularly in young nobles, patiently waiting for them to grow and then reaping significant rewards.

The Heart of the Soul Devourer, a crucial resource Rosen had used, had been borrowed from Marquis Alonso. Now that Rosen had the ability to create mystical realm paintings, he wanted to repay this debt for peace of mind.

To Rosen's surprise, Marquis Alonso was taken aback by his early visit. Although he had heard of Rosen's talent as a painter, Alonso hadn't expected to see a return on his investment for at least a decade. Yet here Rosen was, after only six months. Alonso quickly realized that the true value of this investment wasn't in the painting, but in the personal favor it would earn.

After two hours, Rosen left with a portion of space and time spiritual crystals. Despite his intent to repay the debt, Marquis Alonso had refused the repayment and even offered Rosen a congratulatory gift. It was clear that Alonso saw Rosen's potential far exceeding the value of a single mystical realm painting. Marquis Alonso's foresight was impressive.

Having unexpectedly obtained the core materials needed to create another mystical realm painting, Rosen decided to store them for future use. Creating a mystical realm painting was a taxing process that had cost him half a year of effort. He realized that balancing work with rest was crucial, so he planned to take a well-deserved break.

The rapid increase in his spiritual energy had caused some instability in his Sequence Tree. For at least the next six months, Rosen needed to avoid increasing his spiritual energy further to stabilize his growth.

With Marquis Alonso's help, Rosen seamlessly integrated into the noble circles of the Dungeon Kingdom. It quickly became evident that being a noble was a high-risk, high-reward profession. Adventure King City was filled with lonely and bored noblewomen in search of companionship. Rosen found himself attending balls every evening, busy until midnight, to the point that even his waist ached from exhaustion, leaving him no time to rest.

However, this wasn't simply indulgence. Through Marquis Alonso, Rosen had begun to understand the deep foundations of old noble families. Back in Blue Whale City, while he had attended many noble gatherings, he hadn't truly broken into their inner circles. At the time, as a mere Sequence 8, established nobles had only treated him with superficial politeness.

In Adventure King City, the creation of his mystical realm painting had granted Rosen the qualification to enter the noble inner circle. Many rare and valuable treasures were only traded within these circles. Neither the kingdom's black market nor its official trade halls had access to truly precious items.

After two months of networking, Rosen received an invitation to a noble trade fair limited to those at Sequence 6 and above. Participation required preparing at least three items of significant value for trade. After some thought, Rosen realized that the only tradeable item he currently possessed was Ash Bees. That was just one item—he needed two more.

From his contact, Farrah, Rosen could likely obtain a drop of Fallen Divine Blood, which would serve as a second trade item. As for the third, it seemed he would have to find a way to acquire it from Greed Island.