Chapter 392 - Omnipotent Faith

“You lowly scum! Wretched thief! How dare you come and steal Smog’s treasure!” The golden Great Dragon somehow spoke in a language Wei En could understand.

Wei En activated all her God equipment and quickly distanced herself from Smog. Seeing her attempt to escape, the dragon opened its massive maw and spewed a torrent of golden fire. She dove behind a massive stone pillar and narrowly avoided the flames.

As Smog continued to spew golden fire, countless gold coins melted and streamed across the vault. Wei En planted her daggers and anchored herself atop the pillar, keeping clear of the molten treasure while formulating a counterplan. She would not fear Smog if she were in her real body, but her clone was over 10,000 times weaker. Facing the dragon now would be suicidal, so she chose to flee.

Thanks to her boots’ exceptional jumping power, she propelled herself out of the vault. Before leaving, she cast a longing glance at the golden chest hovering above Smog’s head. Victory was out of reach for now; retreat was the only choice.

Even though Smog sensed that Wei En had escaped, it continued to rampage, spewing flames in every direction to vent its fury. The mountain of gold melted under its scorching heat and flowed everywhere before cooling into a single, massive mound. The various treasures became trapped within the solidified gold.

Yet one diamond glowed with a pure white light from within the pile. Its radiance formed a barrier that shielded it from the molten gold, unnoticed by Smog.

Having vented its anger, Smog gazed at the colossal mountain of gold—too heavy for anyone to move—then sprawled across it with satisfaction and fell asleep. Only once it slept did several chests of different colors rise from beneath the solidified gold. These were the treasures that the seniors had left behind, but no one could get them.

Meanwhile, Han Wu had already led the slaves to occupy the entire mine, but securing food remained a pressing problem. With no other options, he had to cultivate his own crops. Fortunately, the Grovekin from his Thirty-Six Martial Castes could handle the task.

He first commanded the human slaves to gather the gnome corpses into a single pile before reluctantly transforming into the Grovekin. Once in his new form, he embedded his roots into the corpses beneath him and absorbed their nutrients until the flesh decayed, leaving only bones. He then used those nutrients to cultivate the breadfruits.

The fruits emitted a tantalizing aroma, and the slaves’ mouths watered at the sight. Their loyalty deepened, and their prayers grew more fervent; they now regarded Han Wu as omnipotent. As the fruits ripened, the slaves’ faith surged. Nearly all became Zealots, and the Faith Points they provided dramatically increased.

At this pace, Han Wu could condense a single Divine Essence in roughly ten days using only the Faith Points they provided. With enough resources, even his clone could ascend into a Demigod in the Middle Realm. Yet such a feat required ideal conditions. Ascension could not be rushed.

Han Wu considered his next moves carefully while continuing to absorb nutrients and cultivate tens of thousands of breadfruits. A single breadfruit could satiate the hunger of two human slaves for a full day. With so many, he could guarantee that they had enough to eat for at least five days.

After ordering them to store the fruits, he transformed a second time—this time into a skeleton. The slaves froze in terror at the sight. An undead was far more frightening than a gnome. Yet their loyalty to Han Wu ran so deep that fear quickly shifted to fascination and then to worship.

Their god could transform into a fruit-bearing treant, a locust, a sparrow, a light spirit, and now a skeleton. Was there anything their god could not become? More Faith Points sprouted out from their bodies, and Han Wu’s progress to condensing a single Divine Essence shortened just a little.

There was a purpose behind his skeletal transformation. It was not to deepen their worship, but to convert the gnome skeletons into undead servants. He used Summon Skeleton to reanimate the dried corpses.

Their flesh fell away as dull spiritual flames ignited in their eye sockets. The corpses became the lowest-grade skeletons, fragile enough that not even ten could defeat a single slave. Still, as undead, they served as effective deterrents against the living.

If the gnomes discovered that their mine teemed with undead, they would be forced to reorganize and devise a strategy. This would buy Han Wu valuable time to continue his development.

By the time Han Wu had reduced all the corpses to skeletons, he encountered a surprise. The Gnome Warrior he had previously fought remained formidable even in skeletal form. It had transformed into a Skeleton Knight and could summon skeletons like him. This meant Han Wu no longer had to personally raise skeletons from the corpses; he could delegate that task to the Skeleton Knight, saving a transformation for a more critical purpose.

Han Wu assigned the skeletons to patrol the mine before gathering the slaves. They now had food and weapons, but the human slaves remained inexperienced in combat. As such, he decided to train them personally and, for the final transformation, assumed the form of a race called Knife Hands.

Han Wu inherited all the close-combat expertise from the unit and repeatedly demonstrated techniques for the slaves. Despite the brief training period, the humans improved noticeably under his guidance.

One slave, Akanzor, even acquired a Skill. It was a low-ranking one, but acquiring it in such a short span marked exceptional talent and potential. Recognizing this, Han Wu resolved to dedicate more time and effort to nurturing Akanzor’s abilities.

The rebellion at the mine had disrupted its supply lines. Even the Gnome Warrior sent to suppress it had not returned. The mine’s owner realized this uprising was no ordinary disturbance and quickly reported the situation to the gnome nobles deep within the mountains.

The gnome nobles erupted in fury upon reading the report that the human slaves had rebelled and possibly killed a Gnome Warrior.

One gnome noble commanded 1,000 giant gnomes to assemble an army to crush the uprising in the mine. He vowed to execute every slave involved, both to punish the offenders and to warn others against defying their authority.

The campaign would also serve as a display of the nobles' power. The gnome noble planned to march three days later, on the sixth day after the rebellion started.

The nobles knew food was scarce in the mine and expected many slaves to starve before the army even arrived. Those who survived would be too weak to mount any meaningful resistance.