Chapter 519: Win and Get the Models, Lose and Get Fondled

Chapter 519 -373: Win and Get the Models, Lose and Get Fondled

Before long, Isaac had devised a viable plan. He glanced at his Golden Finger—three percent.

Isaac nodded in satisfaction. ‘That’s about right,’ he thought. The general direction was correct; all that was left was to polish the details.

After all these years, Isaac had gained some understanding of how to use his Golden Finger. Although the value was low, as long as it was above one percent, it meant he was on the right track. The rest was simply a matter of filling in the branches.

After a moment of contemplation to organize his thoughts, Isaac looked at Philo and said, “Your direction is right, but your approach is wrong. Don’t think about becoming a Knight. These are two completely different paths; it’s not a simple matter of time and energy.”

“Not even with a High-level Curse?” Philo asked, her brow slightly furrowed.

“No,” Isaac said decisively.

Setting aside the difficulty of Nurturing the exact High-level Curse one needed, even if successful, it was highly likely a dead end. Just as Isaac had said, these were two fundamentally opposing paths.

One might be able to juggle both in the early stages, but later on, something would have to be sacrificed. Magic and Martial Dual Cultivation existed only in fantasy.

“Then how do I solve it?” Philo asked, looking at Isaac curiously.

“…” Isaac looked at Philo, speechless, and sighed almost imperceptibly. “The direction is right. You do need to approach the problem from a Knight’s perspective, but you don’t have to become one. You need to understand something: in the beginning, Knights only had the Path of the Demon Beasts. The Path of the Gods appeared later. This means they couldn’t use the Power of Faith from the start.

“So, what you need to do isn’t to become a Knight, but to further study the fundamental principles of how a Knight of God perceives and absorbs the Power of Faith. Then, you replicate it using Magic. Because of this, you’ll also need to adjust the part of your research related to Faith in Deities, but that’s not too difficult in comparison. That’s the gist of it.”

After speaking, Isaac set down the book in his hands and sighed inwardly. Though he had answered Philo’s question, his own regret, unfortunately, remained unresolved.

‘Philo probably hasn’t awakened her Mad Witch Traits. I can tell from her experimental data.’

Although Isaac didn’t know much about Mad Witch Traits himself, he could make an educated guess: it was a power that defied common sense, not only useful for countering transactions with Outer Gods but also quite beneficial in day-to-day research.

Unfortunately, Philo’s experimental data was perfectly normal, showing no signs of any anomalies.

Of course, it was also possible that she simply hadn’t revealed it to Isaac or hadn’t applied it in her research.

But Isaac found that unlikely. He was more inclined to believe the former: Philo hadn’t awakened it.

The reason was simple. Although she had advanced to Tier Four, she was actually quite similar to Isaac. By the standards of this era, she wasn’t a normal Mad Witch.

Isaac was abnormal because he was exceptionally daring, more akin to the Mad Witches of old. Philo’s abnormality, on the other hand, was because she was a coward…

Yes, a cowardly Mad Witch. Even more ridiculous than Isaac!

After all, according to the intelligence Isaac had gathered, every single one of Philo’s transactions with Outer Gods to date had been backed by an Emperor’s Decree from her father, the Emperor. If a deal went south, he would just flip the table!

She lacked the desperate, all-or-nothing madness of a normal Mad Witch!

Isaac didn’t have it either, which was why his trait hadn’t awakened—assuming he even had one.

“What’s wrong?” Philo noticed the slight disappointment in Isaac’s expression. Frowning, she asked curiously.

Isaac considered for a moment before finally asking, “Do you know about the Mad Witch Traits?”

‘Philo may not have awakened it,’ Isaac reasoned, ‘but Terra, the power behind her, must know something. After all, it was the Emperor who set her on this path. An Existence like him must know something. Otherwise, if it were purely a matter of power, Arcanists and normal Legendary Mages aren’t that much weaker than Mad Witches.’

‘They just might be more dependent on talent, and their rise to power isn’t as meteoric as that of a Mad Witch, who can skyrocket just by winning a gamble.’

“Traits? Don’t tell me you haven’t awakened yours?!” Philo froze for a second. Just as she was about to explain, the realization hit her, and she stared at Isaac, dumbfounded.

‘Has this man been ‘running naked’ all the way to Tier Four?’

Faced with Philo’s astonishment, Isaac had no intention of hiding it. He nodded calmly and said, “It seems you do know something. Care to make a trade?”

Philo stared at Isaac in silence. She wasn’t contemplating the terms of a trade, but marveling at the fact that the difference between two people could truly be greater than the difference between a person and a pig.

She, the Eldest Princess of the Terra Empire, didn’t dare engage in a normal transaction with an Outer God unless she had an Emperor’s Decree in hand. And yet, this man before her?

He dared to seize the power of Outer Gods so recklessly without even having his Mad Witch Traits awakened. He was a madman among madmen!

A true gambler!

Of course, there was another possibility: he was a peerless genius who had managed to outsmart Outer Gods through sheer intellect!

Recalling the illogical amount of materials Isaac had prepared for his ritual, Philo concluded that he was likely both: a man of unparalleled intellect and a true gambler.

Taking a deep breath, Philo shook her head and said, “I do have information on the traits. But I can just tell you. As for payment, you’ve already covered it.”

Philo pointed to the three-in-one experimental data on the side.

Then, before Isaac could speak, she began to share the Terra Royal Family’s intelligence on Mad Witch Traits. From their origins to their general categories and awakening methods, her explanation was incredibly detailed. And it was this information that confirmed Isaac’s suspicion: the Emperor had wanted Philo to become a Mad Witch precisely for these traits!

The traits were a power that normal Mad Witches automatically awakened after Tier Three, granting them incredible abilities. For example, Isaac’s former enemy, the Prank Master, had a trait named [Miracle]. Once certain conditions were met, he could make anything happen, so long as there was even a sliver of a possibility!

Every Mad Witch’s trait is unique. To this day, because the number of Mad Witches is so small, no one knows what causes this variation.

However, one thing was certain: the very first Mad Witches actually had no traits at all!

In other words, the traits, much like the Gate of Legends, were a set of rules artificially added by some powerful Wizard!

And since they were man-made rules, the method for awakening them was naturally not too Mysterious. The most conventional way was to complete the gamble with the Outer Gods during every transaction ritual, embracing the mindset of a true degenerate gambler: “Win, and it’s feasts and glory; lose, and it’s utter ruin.”

Do that, and once you advance to Tier Three and have transacted with no fewer than six Outer Gods, you will successfully awaken your Mad Witch Traits.

This was a major reason why Isaac had yet to awaken his traits. He had long since met the quantity requirement, but unfortunately, his mentality was wrong. He went into every deal with complete confidence, so of course, he couldn’t awaken them.

Of course, besides this extreme method, there were two other ways to awaken the traits, one at Tier Four and another at Tier Five.

Unfortunately, Philo only knew the Tier Five method, not the one for Tier Four.

The Tier Five method was the simplest—kill any one of the Outer Gods you’ve made a deal with!