Chapter 36: Rank 10
Doris didn't hesitate any longer and tapped on 'purchase.'
"Are you sure you want to spend 43% of your justice points on rank 10 'jump rank'?"
Doris tapped on 'yes,' and a white pill appeared directly in her storage.
The system had a function where you could designate a place for purchased items to appear, and Doris had chosen her storage ring.
'Jump rank' is not a pill; it just looks like one. It appears naturally in the world. As for how to manufacture it, it has yet to be discovered.
She took it out and looked at it curiously.
"It looks truly unremarkable! If I didn't know better, I would have thought it was fake," she thought.
Without further hesitation, she swallowed it!
...
Dyer was sitting in his meditation room.
After decades of calculations, he finally concluded that whatever Doris does is beneficial to him.
For this reason, he did not stop her and encouraged other mages to work even harder.
He even personally colonized thousands of continents.
He also checked other mages' luck, and the overall conclusion was that the stability of the river of time depended on Doris succeeding.
He was looking at the river of time with his third eye.
The mage world is vast.
Dyer cannot see the luck of the entire mage world. For example, there are innumerable mortal continents, but Dyer is far away from them and cannot see their luck. Only the luck of the surrounding continents is visible to him.
The river of time looked calm, and his luck was as strong as ever.
He smiled and wanted to close his third eye, but suddenly, Original duty shook violently.
Extremely huge tides, sea vortexes, and lightning appeared out of nowhere. Soon, it started to rain in the Original duty!
"What the hell? Can it rain in the river of time?" Even with all his experience, this was the first time he had witnessed something like this.
All the tides and vortexes gradually moved and concentrated in a specific place.
"Isn't that where Doris is?" Dyer thought.
"Something has happened!" With this thought, he teleported to Doris's location.
...
Doris was sitting cross-legged, concentrating.
Her fragment law of 'ship''s quantity increased again, to the point where it was pushing her to rank 9.
After a moment, she broke through to rank 9 without hindrance!
It must be noted that even slight increases in fragment law reserves of high-level mages may take thousands of years, but now, it increased as if nothing.
She reached peak rank 9 in moments, pushing her to rank 10.
"You! How is it possible?" Dyer arrived and was dumbfounded.
Doris paid no attention to him, concentrating.
Her fragment law of 'ship' continued to increase, but no matter how much it rose, it didn't reach rank 10.
For rank 10, a change in quality is required. No matter how much the fragment law of 'ship' increases in quality, it can never become a complete law.
This step has made countless geniuses get stuck at rank 9. But today, with the assistance of 'jump rank,' she finally found the last step!
"All of you mages are idiots! How can you not have found the last step after so many years!" Doris shouted.
Dyer listened to every word as if his life depended on it.
"The last step is an element from outside of this world! You cannot make another complete law from this world. This word is complete with its two complete laws. Only by looking outside can you complete your fragment law!" she laughed.
The 'jump rank' pushed her further and further.
The pill in her stomach dissolved and released a certain foreign aura.
"This 'jump rank' pill has an aura of the outside world!" Doris realized something.
Not any element from the outside world can make a fragment law complete.
But fortunately for Doris, whether it was in the pill, it was completely compatible with her fragment law!
The foreign aura fused with her fragment law of ship, and a transformation took place.
Her body's tremendous amount of fragment law disappeared as if it never existed. In its place, something unnoticeable appeared!
"Fundamental law of ship! I finally reached rank 10!" Doris yelled.
"loading..."
"1%"
Dyer said unbelievably, "Doris... you!" he was speechless.
Rank 10 was the dream of every mage from the beginning of the world!
Just now, he saw someone reaching rank 10 in front of his eye.
It was so incredible that he started to cry from all his eyes.
As for why he didn't disrupt Doris...
Imagine trying to reach something for a hundred million years and finally seeing someone doing it. Would you stop it or look carefully to learn how they do it?
"To be complete, you need an element from outside the world! That's it!" When he looks at it now, it's strange that nobody realized it until today!
Doris finally looked at Dyer and sighed, "It was thanks to your help that I managed to purchase that 'jump rank,' so thank you! Consider the secret of reaching rank 10 as your reward," she said with a smile.
"45%"
"Now, let us think about what to do with the river of time," she said.
"49%"
Doris looked at the system, and the loading screen that was half complete made her frown.
Fortunately, the system shop was still open, so she started purchasing a lot of rank 10 items she had always wanted. After spending all of the 'justice points,' she took a deep breath.
"99%"
"It's probably an update to the system after I reached rank 10," she thought.
These kinds of things always happen in novels with systems.
"100%"
"'Mark of Justice' sincerely thank you for your effort during this time.'
"Please prepare for The extraction Process!"
"What is 'The extraction'?" Doris thought.
Then she felt a suction from her aperture!
A look of horror appeared on her face, and she tried every method she had to teleport to a faraway place. But she was utterly unable to use the slightest bit of power.
Soon, the system stole the complete law and disappeared, leaving Doris as a mortal without any power.
She stood there, without moving, feeling too unbelievable.
The system she had always trusted had betrayed her.
Dyer was even more stunned.
"What happened?" Dyer asked.
Doris didn't answer.
Dyer cautiously exerted a tiny bit of power to test Doris.
To his surprise, Doris was wholly defenseless and was thrown a few meters away.
"No, Dyer. I always liked you! We can negotiate!" she said while crying miserably.
Dyer nodded and said, "Yes, we do 'negotiate,' but first…"
The storage ring in Doris's hand disappeared and appeared in Dyer's hand.
"So many rank 10 items! And a rank 10 'domination' spell crystal! Finally, the river of time situation can be fixed."
"Dyer!" Doris said while weeping.
"Now, I can finally soul-search you," he said.
Before, any adverse action toward Doris would have damaged his luck to the point of sending it into negative territory, but now...
He looked at his unimaginably mighty luck and smiled.
He couldn't imagine anything in this world capable of damaging his luck.
He placed his hand atop Doris's head and began the process of soul-searching.
...
Rachel was observing Zagronan as he carried out a task for Iggad.
The task involved checking the natural hatching area and bringing back any talented demon children.
The hatching areas were the only places in hell where demon children wouldn't be immediately enslaved. As long as the demon children stayed there, they could remain free.
This presented an opportunity for many nobles to absorb talented demons.
For this reason, many nobles sent their generals to the hatching areas to gather demon children. The hatching area Zagronan was heading to was not very good, so he, a rank 4 demon, was sent.
But he still had to be careful because even though fights were not allowed within the hatching area, there might be danger in its proximity.
Rachel sighed and checked the reflection.
"Why are there so many waves today? Weird," she thought.
A few moments later, the system prompted, 'Complete Law 1/5.'
"What is 'complete law'? Hey, system, please explain!" she thought.
As always, the system remained silent.
"Whatever!" she thought."
"If you cannot figure it out or do anything about it, just throw it aside." This was Rachel's philosophy of life.
She wanted to check the original duty's reflection, but something happened.
"Why is Protector shaking so much?" she wondered.
Protector shook violently but suddenly stopped.
"Something is happening!" Rachel put aside her thoughts of looking at the reflection and focused all her attention on what was unfolding.
Protector became completely calm, like a dead river, without the slightest wave.
Rachel wanted to try, so she cast 'Dive in Time' on Protector. She asked about the future of Zagronan, but the only thing shown was a picture of the river of time.
The ripples created due to 'Dive in Time' also disappeared quickly.
"No matter how you look at it, it's a dead river!" she observed.
...
Dyer cast the rank 10 'Domination' spell on Protector and gained complete control over it.
"Now, merge!" he concentrated with only his third eye open.
Protector, which had been separated from Original Duty a hundred years ago, began flowing into the Original Duty once again. This time, it didn't conflict with it; it acted in harmony with it. As time passed, more and more of the Protector's water mixed in, and soon, one river remained.
The rivers of time became one again.
"Now, this is the critical part," Dyer thought.
'Domination' is a temporary spell. Before it expires, he must change the will of Protector from its root.
He began to alter the Protector's will.
"There should be a lifespan again," Dyer stated.
A lot of the river's water became chaotic once more.
"It has too much conflict with Original Duty! It would be separated again if I leave it like that," Dyer thought.
He removed the lifespan limit on mortals, restricting it only to anyone higher than rank 0.
The flow of water became much less chaotic.
"Mortals only use a small part of the river, so letting mortals live limitlessly doesn't cost much."
Then, he started to change the River of Time's settings to his liking. Of course, he wasn't reckless and only made adjustments to the extent it didn't cause chaos.
Soon, the 'Domination' spell expired, and Dyer lost control of the former Protector.
But it didn't matter. He had already changed the Protector's will from its core, so everything should be fine.
"Hahaha, I've benefited so much from this! Now, I truly have a chance of reaching rank 10!" Dyer laughed so loudly that the entire continent shook.
"Dyer!" Lewis finally called. He had been here for a long time but didn't want to distract him.
"I succeeded! The river of time is now one again! Lewis, we have a chance!" He ran and hugged Lewis.
Soon, every rank 9 mage arrived, and Dyer explained what had happened.
Of course, it was a censored version without any sensitive information. Only he and Lewis knew the true inside story.
The reason was that both of them had the 'destiny' fragment law, so they quickly found out where the disturbance was coming from.
As for telling the other rank 9s how to get promoted to rank 10, he wouldn't do it! Who wants to make rivals? Even if they are in the same academy, who knows what they are willing to do for a chance of reaching rank 10?
Just as they talked, another shock in the river of time appeared!
"The rank 10 apple! It reappeared!" everyone exclaimed.
A million years ago, most high-ranking mages rushed to heaven for a chance at rank 10. Now, it appeared again, so everyone got ready to rush back to heaven.
"We won't go!" Dyer said.
"How can we not go?" another mage in the late rank 9 stage asked with surprise.
"This brings us bad luck, so we stay," he said firmly.
Dyer had set up many laws in the river of time, so his prediction ability skyrocketed.
With Dyer against it, everyone else nodded. They are going to sit this one out.