17: A miracle was forced to occur.

Shield Mountain was gathering his ultimate move when he suddenly found himself plunged into darkness.

He had used magic bracelets before, and while the side effects were significant, they were never quite like this.

He looked around; aside from the infinite darkness, what met his eyes was a staircase leading toward the heavens above.

The staircase seemed to span countless dimensions, connecting to a magnificent temple and reaching a supreme throne at its end.

Shield Mountain merely cast a glance at the throne and was instantly suffocated by an endless divine pressure. A sense of insignificance, like that of an ant, welled up in his heart alongside a powerful urge to sing praises.

What a magnificent being must be seated upon that throne.

Shield Mountain couldn't help but feel terrified by his presumptuous gaze, while simultaneously feeling deeply confused about why he was here.

He fell to all fours, kowtowing incessantly, praying for the great being to show mercy and allow him to leave this place.

Ronan sat upon the throne when a panel suddenly popped up before him, prompting:

[Bestow a miracle?]

This seemed to be a wishing function directed at Shield Mountain. After a moment of hesitation, Ronan decided to click [Yes].

He wanted to see what the purpose behind this series of actions by the Divinity was.

At that same moment, a translucent panel appeared before Shield Mountain's eyes.

The panel was lined with many mysterious characters, but from Shield Mountain's perspective, it was written in the Orcish language he was most familiar with:

"A gift from the Supreme Being: You have obtained one opportunity to make a wish."

He rubbed his eyes, his fear instantly transforming into pleasant surprise. He kept muttering to himself,

"Thank you for the gift of the Supreme Being, praise the Supreme Being..."

Shield Mountain immediately prostrated himself again, kowtowing repeatedly toward the temple above the dimensions. His words of gratitude and praise flowed like an endless river.

This made Ronan, sitting upon the throne, suspect that Shield Mountain might actually have the potential to be an Orc Priest.

After a bout of heartfelt thanks and devout prayer, he finally stood up and made his wish.

"I wish for eternal life."

Immediately after, the information on the panel changed rapidly, displaying a prompt: "Insufficient wish power, wish cannot be fulfilled."

That's right, for the Great Being to grant me the chance to wish is already an act of infinite mercy... What truly determines the wish is still up to me.

Shield Mountain completed his self-brainwashing and began trying to lower the difficulty of the wish's fulfillment.

From immortality, to dominating the world, to possessing supreme power... Greed made him like a stingy landlord, stubbornly holding onto the standard of the wish in his heart, forced to yield bit by bit and lower the requirements.

At the same time.

On the outskirts of the Monster Forest, in a canyon covered by dense vegetation.

"Lord Russell, just go take one more look..." The young lady Amy was shaking the mercenary's arm.

Russell rubbed Amy's head, his smile gentle yet helpless, and remained silent.

County Princess Celia frowned slightly and asked the Mercenary Vice Commander beside her again, "Is there really no way to go there one more time?"

"Your Ladyship, my most important task right now is to ensure your personal safety."

Russell sighed, his face full of helplessness. "If I leave rashly, who will protect you from the rat swarm's attack?"

Celia glanced at the large pit in the distance that was constantly spewing out rat swarms, her brow furrowing deeper.

"Based on my understanding of those brave Adventurers, a rat swarm of this level won't have any impact on them."

Russell then added, "If Your Ladyship is truly uneasy, why don't you follow me back to town to settle down first?"

"I believe by that time, those Adventurers should have completed their mission and returned to the city."

Hearing about returning to the city, Amy clung to him again, hanging off the mercenary. "Then let's go back quickly, Lord Russell."

Although Celia didn't know what the Mercenaries were up to, an ominous premonition lingered in her heart.

Reason told her that she had to get as far away from this place as possible.

She nodded, agreeing to the mercenary's proposal... "I want to possess the mighty power of a god."

Shield Mountain was still struggling with his envisioned baseline, selectively ignoring the prompt on the panel stating "insufficient wish power, cannot be fulfilled."

Ronan sat upon the throne, his gaze piercing through countless dimensions to look down.

Watching Shield Mountain's maneuvers, he felt completely exasperated.

He really couldn't understand what fundamental difference there was for an unachievable wish when changing 'God' to 'Deity' or 'mighty power' to 'strength'.

Perhaps Shield Mountain was actually the best guinea pig for exploring the laws of wishing.

With this thought, Ronan gained a bit more patience regarding his actions of gradually lowering the difficulty.

Through constant testing, Shield Mountain had made a clear compromise, lowering the power level from a god to a mythical creature.

"My wish is to possess the powerful strength of a giant dragon."

As soon as Shield Mountain finished speaking, the content on the panel suddenly changed.

"Pay the price?"

"Fi—Finally..." Shield Mountain's whole body trembled, and he suppressed his excitement to calm himself down.

He carefully cataloged the equipment he possessed in his mind.

The most valuable among them were three items: the magic bracelet that could both attack and defend, the cursed skull that could briefly lock a storage pouch, and a special meditation book that he had never been able to master.

Although Necromancers were not well-regarded by ordinary people, their magical equipment was genuinely expensive.

Especially on the black market, the prices were much higher than other magical equipment of the same level.

With these pieces of equipment as his backing, Shield Mountain suddenly felt more confident and agreed to pay the price. "Yes."

Following Shield Mountain's choice, a light screen composed of various mysterious symbols appeared before Ronan's eyes, displaying an analysis of Shield Mountain's wish.

——— Wish Analysis ———

[1. The wish lacks specific constraints, making it easy for the implementation direction to deviate.]

[2. Insufficient innate wish power, supplemented by personal payment of a price; the probability of mutation is significantly increased.]

——————————

[Allow the wish to be established?]

It was actually up to him to decide whether the wish was established or not... Seeing how dangerous it was, Ronan decisively chose to allow it.

[Wish established!]

[wish power Reserves +5]

Before he could even be happy about the unexpected gain of 5 points of wish power, Ronan felt his soul return to his body in an instant.

Everything around him was not much different from before; while Shield Mountain had spent a long time, only an instant had passed in reality.

[Price being paid...]

Ronan was taken aback as this line of prompting flashed before his eyes.

Immediately after, Shield Mountain's eyes filled with terror as he screamed, "No, no..."

He held up the three items—the magic bracelet, the cursed skull, and the meditation book—and shouted in panic,

"This—this is the price I want to pay!"

The next second.

The three items in Shield Mountain's hands all turned to dust. His robust muscles began to rapidly atrophy, and his tall frame became hunched in the blink of an eye, turning from a strong man into an old man with little vitality left... Just as it seemed he was about to die, the prompt came again:

[Price payment complete.]

[Wish established!]