Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

Thief God Milton said loudly once more,

"Are you Grandmaster Bennett? I'll be willing to give you top-level ingredients or recipes. I'll make you satisfied as long as you tell me what you want!

"

He just doubled down on what he was willing to give, hoping that this would make the grandmaster alchemist reconsider. Abel, however, was not interested. He had all the connections he needed to get anything available on the central continent that he wanted. As far as Abel was concerned now, he just wanted to know more about the divine spirit that was caught here. He was starting to feel strange as to why the divine spirit would sneak his way here towards the golden castle in his real form.

Given his understanding, most divine spirits would not show up in their forms. The beast god, for instance, was a half-god that could just die if he fell in battle.

While Abel was thinking to himself, the research spirit sent a message to him.

"Only the god of theft is related to the name Milton, master. Milton is one of the many aliases that the god of theft uses!

"

Abel understood immediately why MIlton was here now. It had to do with his invisibility cloak, which was what the god of theft created. He was just surprised, actually, that the God of theft was still alive to find him here.

Abel spoke,

"Thief God Milton! No need to hide your identity now. Tell me, why are you here at the golden castle!

"

Thief God Milton only continued to talk about his offers,

"I am not hiding my identity, Grandmaster Bennett. You see, if my conditions are not to your liking, I'll give you two holy crystals in exchange for my release. How about that?

"

Abel strengthened his tone,

"I'll ask again. Why did you come here?

"

Thief God Milton never gave an answer to that. If Abel had to guess, he probably got some information and came here for confirmation. As for what it could be, there was actually too much that he did that deserved this. He changed the faith of the Battlesong Plateau barbarians. He changed the faith of the high elves living inside the dark world. He also went towards the central temple of the Nation of God to commit theft. There were a bunch of things that he did that deserved the attention of any divine spirits.

Still, given the order of what happened, the most likely possibility should be his recent theft at the central temple. He started to think of what might actually allow Thief God Milton to pay attention to him. Immediately, he thought of the invisibility cloak that he was wearing.

Thief God Milton spoke at the same time,

"I just want to know who stole my divine cloak. Grandmaster Bennett, I'm not trying to be your enemy.

"

That just gave it away. Abel was more certain that Thief God Milton knew about what happened over at the central temple. If he wasn't here to find the divine cloak, the timing would just be too strange to find an alternate explanation for being here. No, Abel was not going to believe it at all if it had nothing to do with the central temple.

Abel said slowly,

"You had no quarrel with me before, Thief God MIlton, but now that you're here to spy on my secrets, you come and pay the price. Yes, I know you are a divine spirit, but the price is the same.

"

Abel was not loud in any way, but Thief God Milton could hear it loud and clear.

Thief God Milton was starting to get tough as well,

"Do not push me too far, Bennett. You won't want to learn about the wrath of divine spirits. I'm just not willing to waste my divine power here, so don't make things ugly for either of us.

"

Abel replied with a chilly smile,

"What do you mean, pushing you?

"

As a matter of fact, Abel knew a lot of ways to deal with Thief God Milto, but this was the central continent. A lot of his methods, he had to think about the consequences of using them here. Well, for now, what he could do was to make things very uncomfortable for his captive.

Abel spoke to the dark spirit,

"grind him up, dark spirit.

"

In the underground basement, the dark spirit was just absorbing some energy out of the top-level gemstones. There were most dark mists appearing, and the dark mist was rushing into the starlight defensive circle and going in. Thief God Milton wasn't doing anything, but he was seeing a large amount of dark mist swarming in. He understood what disgusting ability it possessed. The dark mist could swallow the power of the Will. Although his power of the Will was powerful in its own way, the dark mist would still be eroded slowly.

Almost instantly, Thief God Milton was putting all his power of the Will into his one body. The dark mist was filled with ancient structures that were formed by the starlight defensive circle. It was not a comfortable situation at all for Milton. He didn't even think that it was safe to extend his power of the Will. He couldn't use any of his techniques.

"Do not humiliate a divine spirit, Bennett!

"

Thief God Milton let out a loud shout. With this soul, a divine spirit ripple was generated. His body began inflating, and he started getting taller very quickly. He was no longer the same figure that looked like a 60 y.o. Man. He was a five metre giant that had golden light flashing out of every spot of his body.

Abel wasn't all that surprised,

"This should be the body of the divine spirit.

"

He remembered seeing another powerful divine spirit being naked and having blood squeezed out of him. He shouldn't feel too terrified with this, then.. Compared to the god of war, Thief God Milton was not the same as the body of the god of war, even if the god of war was in a constant slumber.

On the other hand, Abel did have a lot of confidence in the battle fort. He wasn't sure if one or two forts could block the attack of a divine spirit, but here, there were 40 battle forts in general. Now, there were top-level stones filled at every corner of the fort. He wasn't afraid if he was to fight a battle of nutrition with Thief God Milton.

Now that Thief God Milton was showing his true form, a lot more divine power was now being used. More would be used if he was to be in a fight. He was not like divine spirits who had a lot of followers on his side. He was very careful in every bit he was using, so he wanted to save as much as he could. Still, the situation was already too much for him to not use his trump card. He just wanted to break out of this place to capture Grandmaster Bennett. He wanted to get everything he could from the central temple. He wanted Grandmaster Bennett to work for him for the rest of his life to generate wealth for him.

Also, as angry as Thief God Milton was, he didn't want to kill Abel. Why would you kill a chicken that could lay golden eggs? If he could see Abel now with his power of the Will, he could just confirm that even more. As it stood, even if Abel was standing right in front of Thief God Milton, Milton would still have to think a lot to see if he really wanted to kill Abel. He wouldn't want to offend both the Moon Goddess and the tree of life at the same time. If the two deities were to go after him at once, he would be as good as dead.

Thief God Milton's body was barely standing straight within the ancient steel dimension. He screamed as loudly as he could while slamming onto the wall with both of his hands.

Boom!

"

A loud boom erupted from the starlight defensive circle. Abel could feel the golden castle shaking. He was very surprised to see that the power of the divine body was more than what he expected. He even thought that maybe he should give more holy crystals to Doff now. Doff couldn't be seen on the central continent; it did serve as a very adequate fighting power later.

Thief God Milton was looking towards the giant pit that was appearing in front of him. The radius was about more than five meters. He wanted to continue to strike a few more times, but the spot that was breaking through him would just be broken through. That was where something else happened. The ancient steel started moving once more, and what appeared in front of him, again, were ancient steel walls that appeared just as new.

At a spot that couldn't be seen, the battle fort was just absorbing the energy for quick recovery. Thief God Milton was in a frenzy already. He was not a combat-type spirit, and he was ranked at the bottom in terms of his fighting capability as a divine spirit. The attack he unleashed just then was the best that he could do, but nothing that he did worked.

Very quickly, he thought about the connection between Grandmaster Bennett and the Wizard Union. He thought to the divine spirits that were in the underground basement. He didn't want to be a member over there. Very quickly, his divine body started moving on its own and his fists slammed onto the wall. The immense power was making it so that the battle fort could not regenerate itself as quickly as it could

Soon, he broke through one wall, but another appeared in front of him. It was made of the same ingredients. He didn't bother to think too much. He knew that he couldn't last too long with his divine power, so he needed to get out as quickly as he could.

Under the constant banging noise, he broke through each and every wall, but every time he did, another one would appear. It was like there were an endless number of walls here.

As a matter of fact, what Thief God Milton was looking at were not materialistic walls, but special materials that were formed from the starlight defensive circle. The starlight defensive circle could block all outside attacks, but in the same sense, it could keep the enemies trapped inside a confined space. No that Thief God Milton was inside, the best choice was definitely not to break through the walls. AS long as the energy was not completely expended, these walls would just never disappear. The walls that were broken through would only come back slowly, but there were about forty battle forts here. There should be enough time to recover the walls that were broken.

Thief God Milton was just breaking through walls that were taking turns to show up. Inside every battle fort, the total storage would be at least 2000 top-level gemstones. There would be at least 80000 top level gemstones within the forty battle forts. The number could be said to be more than what was found in this world. No, there was no way like a weak divine spirit like Thief God Milton could drain all of it away.

Thief God Milton was getting slower and slower. His body was also shrinking, but with the terrifying thought that he might just become permanent captive of the underground basement, he continued doing what he could and started attacking. He knew that it was over if the Wizard Union got him, basically. As far as he was concerned, only resistance was a viable potion.

In the entire world, all the thieves stopped doing what they did and stared into the same direction. They were all reminded of something important that was happening. Some of them were even caught and beaten because they stopped what they were doing. Thief God Milton was calling his followers to stop and supplying him with divine power. He was absorbing any energy that he could to make a viable escape.

Thief God Milton took out five holy crystals out of his portal bag. He was not feeling easy at all. The fact that he offered two holy crystals just then just showed how desperate he was. Now, then. What he needed to do was to use the last holy crystals that he had, something that he had been storing for many years. Under the oppression of the Wizard Union, he had already lost the chance to generate his own holy crystals.

Quickly, Thief God Milton threw the last bit of his holy crystals into his mouth. The divine power that was generated sped him up quite quickly. His attacking power also increased. There was still something that he hadn't understood, however. The wall in front of him was infinite. He would be able to know if he was scanning with his power of the Will, but the dark mist that was floating beside him made it impossible for him to unleash his power of the Will.

He was already starting to turn blind, in a sense. Rather, he was less than a blind man since he couldn't even use his power of the Will.

Abel could hear the sound of metal banging coming over.. His brain thought to the days that he was practising to forge.