Lord: Sequence Master

Rosen finished dressing and sat on the ground, eagerly eyeing the glowing orbs of loot scattered nearby.

After sacrificing a point of his spiritual energy limit, it would take at least a month for his mental canvas to recover. The loss stung, and if the rewards didn't make up for it, he knew he'd be regretting it for days.

He crushed the first orb and found a complete set of Sequence 7 knight gear.

This included a full set of armor and a knight's greatsword, with the armor having a self-repair attribute. It seemed that both the knight and the unfortunate Gray Rat had shared a lingering wish—that the armor would never break.

While Rosen couldn't use the gear himself, it was valuable enough to sell for a good price.

He crushed the second orb, which contained no extraordinary essence, only spiritual energy crystals.

Usually, both extraordinary essence and spiritual energy crystals appear together. Since there was no essence, it seemed that the essence had merged into the equipment, enhancing the armor. The knight's extraordinary essence must have been absorbed by the armor to bolster its properties.

Rosen stored the crystals—50,000 units in total, a considerable sum. The amount likely came from all the miscellaneous items in the knight's storage, which had been extracted and converted into pure spiritual energy by Rosen's hunting ability. However, after having raided the Gray Rat's supply warehouse, Rosen felt his appetite had grown.

Crushing the third orb revealed a Sequence 8 Hunter skill crystal.

It was a skill called Divine Beast Pen, which allowed the user to open a spiritual pen to capture, subdue, and control extraordinary creatures beyond humans.

Using his Main God computer, Rosen carefully analyzed the skill crystal and quickly gained more detailed information.

In the Gray Rat sequence, starting at Sequence 9, individuals gained the ability to form mental links. The Gray Rat race had strong hierarchical control, and the Gray Rat Ancestor's true body had died to a semi-divine extraordinary item, the King's Beast Cage. The Gray Rat Ancestor's avatar had also died while possessing a human knight.

Moreover, the avatar contained a significant amount of divinity.

These conditions, combined with the Hunter Sequence's hunting ability, had allowed the creation of this Divine Beast Pen, a unique extraordinary skill compatible with the Hunter Sequence.

Thanks to the infusion of divinity, Rosen could merge this skill into his Divine Domain, turning the Divine Beast Pen into a divine structure within his territory.

This would allow him to use the full powers of the skill without needing to master it himself.

However, there was a cost. The Divine Beast Pen would permanently occupy one of Rosen's three learned skills in his noble sequence at Sequence 9, effectively converting a Sequence 8 Hunter skill into a noble Sequence 9 skill.

The decision hinged on whether it was worth the trade-off, considering the Main God computer and the presence of divinity. Rosen would have to carefully weigh the benefits.

Skills from the Noble Sequence were extremely rare, especially ones that could be acquired before reaching Sequence 6. In all his investigations, Rosen hadn't even heard of anyone obtaining such skills prior to Sequence 6.

This led him to believe that most Divine Lords couldn't gain skills before Sequence 6 unless they had access to a Divine Domain and divinity, backed by powerful backgrounds.

Thus, every learned skill before Sequence 6 was a major advantage.

Without much hesitation, Rosen placed the skill crystal near the mouse of his Main God computer, allowing it to absorb the crystal. Colorful light flowed through his right hand and into his consciousness, where the Divine Beast Pen began to take form beneath his Alchemical Castle.

The Beast Pen appeared to occupy an area of about two meters on the outside, but within, it expanded into a space spanning a full kilometer, even larger than his Divine Domain.

The interior was a chaotic void, capable of adapting to the environment of the extraordinary creatures captured.

Basic environments were free, but any environment containing extraordinary elements required an infinite supply of resources.

With the Divine Domain now housing the Divine Beast Pen, any extraordinary creature entering the domain would be suppressed to varying degrees.

The degree of suppression depended on the growth of the Divine Domain and the Divine Beast Pen, as well as the strength of the creatures it housed.

In addition, Rosen could use his spiritual energy to form a Divine Beast Seal.

This spiritual mark could be infused into the spiritual energy of an extraordinary creature, allowing Rosen to immediately subdue it and make it his hunter pet. He could gain the abilities of any subdued pet.

Lastly, extraordinary creatures that Rosen defeated and rendered helpless could be imprisoned within the Divine Beast Pen.

Over time, the captured creatures would become tame, even if they hadn't been turned into hunter pets. The Beast Pen could even enhance the reproductive abilities of the creatures within it.

As Rosen looked over the newly formed Divine Beast Pen, he realized that this might be the true path for developing his Divine Domain.

However, harnessing divine power was no easy feat. Without access to semi-divine sequences, this method of growth was out of reach for most.

If not for the Main God computer, which allowed Rosen to fully exploit the power of divinity, he wouldn't have been able to acquire such a special domain structure. Truly, only with the help of this cheat could he establish such a solid foundation beyond ordinary means.

At Sequence 9, Rosen could only form one Divine Beast Seal.

This meant he could only subdue one hunter pet for now, and he was still undecided on the path to take.

Some hunters cherished their pets, choosing those with great growth potential and investing a lot of care into their development.

Such pets became extremely powerful and built a strong bond with their hunter, offering the most long-term benefits.

Other hunters, however, viewed their pets as mere tools.

They'd send their pets to handle all the dirty, dangerous work without a second thought. If the pet died, they'd simply capture a new one, caring only about the pet's current combat power rather than its potential.

Most hunters chose the latter path, as powerful pets were hard to come by. Holding onto a pet without sufficient potential could mean a permanent loss of strength.

After some thought, Rosen decided to temporarily follow the second path. Without the resources to properly raise a strong pet, he would settle for something temporary until he found a creature worth investing in. Besides, as his sequence level increased, he would be able to subdue more pets.

Having made his decision, Rosen left his Divine Domain and hurried toward the underwater harbor of Spiral Port.

Although the Gray Rats' extraordinary sea beasts had already been defeated by the Pirate Alliance, the Gray Rats had raised plenty of young sea beasts.

Subduing even one of them would be better than having nothing, and with any luck, he could start breeding them in his Divine Beast Pen.

(End of Chapter)