Lord: Sequence Master

The 9th City on the Abyss Battlefield, like other frontline cities, had no name—only a number.

The constant devastation caused by the fierce battles on the Abyss battlefield had led to countless cities being destroyed. Over time, the cities closest to the war zone stopped having names and were simply given numerical designations.

As Rosen removed his disguise and entered the 9th City, he felt an immense sense of relief.

After several months of relentless slaughter, he had killed hundreds of Sequence 6 Abyssal demons and even a few Sequence 5s. He had barely escaped with his life when crossing a Sequence 4 battle zone, where he was chased by several Sequence 4 demons. If not for the power of Void Flash, it would have been much harder for him to make it back.

All frontline cities were under direct control of the World Government.

Rosen inquired about the location of the supply office and headed there, presenting his insignia ring.

After waiting for a while, he didn't receive a new Star Insignia as expected.

Instead, three inquisitors from the World Government's Intelligence Bureau arrived to conduct a special investigation on him.

In the reception hall of the supply office, Rosen calmly sipped his tea while facing the three inquisitors sitting across from him. As far as he knew, the inquisitors were a special branch of the Intelligence Bureau, mainly responsible for investigating and eliminating humans colluding with foreign races.

Their presence to investigate him meant that the Intelligence Bureau's demigod who had been outmaneuvered by him must have died.

"So, what do you want to ask me?" Rosen asked, maintaining his composure.

The inquisitors lit a peculiar kerosene lamp, shaped like a large-bellied toad, which emitted a green flame.

"Please recount your experiences in the 99th layer of the Abyss in detail," the lead inquisitor said, pulling out a notebook to record.

Rosen set down his cup and began recounting his story without hesitation, detailing how he had been teleported to the Abyss, disguised himself as an Abyssal demon, hunted other demons, contacted the World Government through the Spirit Realm Dark Web, and accepted a mission. He also mentioned how he had used an artifact to cleanse his Star Insignia of his spiritual imprint and how he had purchased millions of human slaves in Phantom City.

He made sure to leave out the part about swapping the spiritual imprint in the Star Insignia.

"Routine investigation complete. Here is your new Star Insignia," said the lead inquisitor, closing his notebook and pushing a box toward Rosen.

Rosen opened the box, took out the new Star Insignia, and after fusing it with his spirit, he stood up and left.

As they watched him go, the three inquisitors began packing up to leave as well.

However, the youngest inquisitor couldn't suppress his curiosity any longer.

"Captain, are we sure there's nothing wrong with him?" he asked.

"In this line of work, the first thing you need to learn is how to judge the situation, not to pursue the truth," the captain replied with a smile. "Have you considered what kind of power one would need to cross two realms and obtain the spiritual imprint of a demigod?"

The younger inquisitor fell silent. It was indeed a difficult question to answer.

The demigod intelligence officer stationed in the 99th layer of the Abyss had intended to kill Rosen to steal the merit that should have been his.

From any angle, the demigod had been the one to violate regulations first.

Yet Rosen, while trapped in the 99th layer, had somehow figured out who was plotting against him just through contacts on the Spirit Realm Dark Web, and had turned the tables. To pull off something like that, one would need to be at least Sequence 1 within the World Government.

On the surface, it seemed like Rosen had no backing or influence. But how could someone without connections have become a hereditary duke?

The more elusive Rosen's background appeared, the deeper and more unfathomable it likely was.

Continuing to dig deeper would only bring trouble.

In the end, Rosen wouldn't suffer much even if they pursued the matter. After all, it was the Abyss Lord who had killed the intelligence officer, not Rosen. At most, Rosen had merely gone along with the situation. If the incident were blown out of proportion, it would only embarrass the Intelligence Bureau.

Especially since plotting against a hereditary duke and stealing his merit was a serious offense. If the matter became public, it would drag down everyone involved.

In other civilizations, those who ruled were the true gods of their race.

But in the human world, the highest authority within the World Government lay with the collective of hereditary nobles. Even the greatest of the true gods was merely the highest-ranking noble and couldn't rule humanity outside of the noble hierarchy.

There are certain things one can get away with if they aren't caught. If you fail and get exposed, and then get countered, you just have to accept the consequences and not drag others down with you.

The outcome was precisely what Rosen had anticipated.

If he had pressed the issue, the Intelligence Bureau would have been forced to offer him compensation.

However, pushing the matter further wouldn't have benefitted him. A dead intelligence officer didn't matter much, but shaming the entire Intelligence Bureau would have made many enemies. Besides, if the truth about the Star Insignia swap got out, the Abyss Lord's wrath would be unbearable.

As Rosen walked, he absentmindedly logged into the Spirit Realm Dark Web using his Star Insignia. As expected, his noble account showed that he had been rewarded with more merit points than he anticipated.

The inquisitors' routine investigation was simply their way of signaling that both sides should leave the matter as it was.

Rosen checked into a nearby hotel and, eager to spend his merit points, logged into the World Government's merit store on the Spirit Realm Dark Web.

To encourage transcendents to earn merit, the World Government had set up merit stores in all major frontline cities and capitals. However, the largest and most valuable items were found only in the Spirit Realm Dark Web's merit store.

The wide array of treasures on display dazzled Rosen.

He resisted the urge to immediately redeem anything and instead opened the Miracle Treasury, a special section of the store.

The word "miracle" said it all—this was where he could exchange for miracle artifacts.

However, possessing enough merit was not sufficient; one also needed special permissions to redeem items from the Miracle Treasury.

After a quick check, Rosen confirmed that his one-time Sequence 6 exchange permission was still valid.

Without hesitation, he searched for the item he had been eyeing for a long time, selected it, and waited for the Spirit Realm messenger to deliver it.

He had originally planned to train the young dragon girl into becoming a Spirit Realm messenger, but who would have guessed she could transform into a human?

It seemed he would need to find another way, though for now, it wasn't urgent.

Half an hour later, a special Spirit Realm messenger from the Miracle Treasury arrived with a package.

Rosen opened the flat wooden box and took out a small sketch, only about a foot in size.

The sketch depicted a clock face, with a severed finger turning its hands.

With his promotion to Sequence 6, his Genesis Spiritual Realm's time acceleration ability had become ineffective.

When he needed time acceleration, he could still use the Time Tower, but its fivefold acceleration was starting to feel insufficient.

Once accustomed to fine dining, it's hard to go back to coarse grains.

Rosen had considered finding alternative time acceleration methods, but he realized that external solutions would eventually fail to keep up with his growing sequence level. At that point, he would need to find new methods again. That's when he began searching for a more permanent solution.

And he had found it in this sketch.

This sketch not only contained a miracle artifact but also held the crystallized skill of a Sequence 6 artist.

Similar to the skill-transfer paintings he had encountered before, this sketch contained a naturally born artist skill.

Rosen poured his spirituality into the sketch, and the clock and the finger disappeared from the image.

The entire sketch began to burn, reducing itself to ashes.

In the world, there are miracle beings, miracle artifacts, miracle skills, miracle traits, and concept miracles.

Miracle beings and miracle artifacts have physical forms, which is why they are eternally unique and indestructible.

However, miracle skills are different. His miracle skill, Time Archer, used him as its vessel.

If he were to die, the Time Archer skill crystal would drop from his body. This crystal would then have the miracle's indestructible and unique qualities, much like miracle traits.

As for concept miracles, they represent eternal, unbreakable rules of authority.

These are the most powerful miracles, yet they can also be the weakest.

The power of an authority can vary: for instance, some concept miracles are so strong that even a true god would die if they opened their eyes within its domain. On the other hand, a concept miracle that causes ordinary people to choke when drinking water clearly lacks destructive power.

The sketch that had burned into ashes was not itself a miracle; it was merely a seal. The clock and the finger in the drawing were the real miracles.

And this was both a concept miracle and a miracle skill.

No need to learn it—just fusing with it would allow Rosen to immediately master the miracle skill.

[Time Sketch: Miracle Skill]

[Passive Effect: All spiritual paintings you create can have time-based properties.]

[Active Effect: You can adjust your personal time flow freely while painting.]

[Miracle Trait: Time Thief—Your time will be stolen randomly every day.]

The miracle trait Time Thief was a unique concept miracle.

Under the influence of this peculiar authority, any artist who mastered Time Sketch would lose time—or rather, lose life span—every day. The amount lost ranged from a single day to a full year, completely at random.

Thus, Time Thief was known for having a purely negative effect with no positive side.

Without this trait, the skill would never have fallen into Rosen's hands.

A demigod artist had once possessed Time Sketch but had died after only a few centuries due to the trait. After that, no artist dared to refine the skill, and so it had ended up as a collectible in the Miracle Treasury.

Rosen dared to fuse with this skill, despite its risk, because he also possessed the miracle skill Time Archer.

The miracle trait Time Dragon Crystal could store up to 10,000 years of time.

The time stolen by Time Thief each day was negligible—Rosen could easily make up for it by slaying transcendents.

Without the worry of losing his lifespan, the passive and active abilities of Time Sketch were incredibly powerful.

Rosen quickly sketched a small drawing of a chick pecking at some grains. As soon as he finished, the passive time-based property of Time Sketch activated.

The chick in the drawing started to move as if fast-forwarded, rapidly gobbling up the grains, growing into a full-grown rooster right before his eyes.

In the past, Rosen could animate his drawings, but animation didn't mean true life.

In terms of time, the creatures in his paintings were static and could not grow or evolve.

Unless he was creating a spiritual realm painting or using divine power to grant real life to his drawings, no matter how lifelike they appeared, they couldn't actually grow over time.

But now, with Time Sketch, all of Rosen's spiritual paintings would have the ability to grow and evolve over time.

Rosen then activated the skill's active ability, allowing him to adjust his personal time flow freely.

When he slowed down time, his actions became slow-motion.

When he sped up time, his movements were like a fast-forwarded film.

However, this time adjustment came with a limitation: it only worked while he was drawing, and the adjustment speed couldn't exceed his current spiritual strength. Outside of drawing, Time Sketch had no effect.

"From now on, I'll be able to complete a regular spiritual realm painting in just a few days," Rosen thought, elated by his newfound power.

Suddenly, he felt one year of time vanish from his Time Dragon Crystal.

After a brief pause, Rosen designated Time Archer and Time Sketch as his inherent skills for Sequence 6.

This meant that as his sequence level increased, these two skills would grow stronger alongside him.

With Time Sketch in hand, Rosen decided to settle down in his hotel for a while.

The grueling journey across the Abyss battlefield had increased his spiritual strength to 46 points. Now, with his time acceleration ability, his speed of mastering spiritual runes had increased by 46 times. He estimated it would take less than six months to fully grasp the last Sequence 6 skill, Body Art.

Unfortunately, the time acceleration of the Time Tower couldn't stack with Time Sketch, or his efficiency would be five times higher.

Six months passed in the blink of an eye. After completing the final spiritual rune for Body Art, Rosen collapsed from exhaustion.

When he awoke two days later, he rubbed his temples, still feeling slightly on edge—his spiritual strength had reached 47 points.

It had taken half a year, but Rosen had finally mastered over three thousand spiritual runes.

While only two thousand runes were required to master Body Art, the more runes he learned, the more powerful the skill would be.

With his momentum going strong, Rosen submerged his mind into his transcendent essence, using the spiritual runes to construct the unique Body Art skill within.

After half an hour, the skill took form effortlessly.

[Body Art: Allows the user to inscribe spiritual runes onto the body, creating a Body Art technique.]

Within the Void Prison, Rosen gazed at a demon strung up before him—a Sequence 6 Abyssal Flame Demon, its entire body covered in burning armor plates, devoid of any clothing.

Rosen first sealed the demon's flames, then began painting spiritual runes on the demon's body.

He coated the demon's body with human-like skin tones and used that as the medium for drawing the runes. One by one, the spiritual runes formed a disguise skill from the Shapeshifter sequence.

As the final stroke landed, the Body Art activated.

Where once stood a towering, menacing demon, now there appeared a delicate noblewoman.

The transformation was flawless, rivaling the high-level cosmetic surgeries performed by transcendent doctors.

Rosen continued to practice on other Abyssal demons, perfecting his use of Body Art with each attempt.

Although Body Art had no defined skill levels, simply learning spiritual runes was only the beginning. Strengthening the body with spiritual runes was relatively easy, but mastering the skills of other sequences and imbuing them into the body required fully understanding the runic structure of those skills.

While Rosen's Greed's Hand allowed him to temporarily steal skills from others, it could only store two skills at a time, and he could replace them whenever he wanted.

Body Art, however, could only hold one skill at a time, and replacing it was much harder.

Nevertheless, Body Art had its advantages—the skill it inscribed could continue to evolve and improve, potentially reaching Level 9.

Rosen pulled out the Actor's Mask, a transcendent artifact, and began analyzing the core runes of the Roleplay skill from the Actor sequence.

He also purchased research materials on roleplay skills from the Spirit Realm Dark Web.

After two months of intense study, Rosen finally decoded all the spiritual runes that formed the Roleplay skill.

He then took out the original paper for his Self-Portrait Avatar and began inscribing the Body Art onto its surface.

As the painting enlarged, Rosen carefully drew the runes across its form. The avatar's face, originally a copy of his own, gradually morphed into a featureless, pale mask as the Roleplay skill took hold.

Now, his Self-Portrait Avatar could wield the Roleplay skill.

Since his avatar was contracted as one of his pets, its abilities could be shared back with Rosen.

At that moment, Rosen gained mastery over the Roleplay skill as well.

[Roleplay LV1: You can disguise yourself as any living being.]

Satisfied with the result, Rosen decided not to immediately use Body Art on his other pets, such as the Nightmare Slime.

Each pet had only one chance to receive a Body Art inscription.

This meant each pet could grant him an additional skill from another sequence.

However, having too many skills wasn't necessarily beneficial. Besides the time and effort required to master and level up these skills, constantly switching between them could also become a burden.

It was better to focus on a few key abilities and perfect them before acquiring new ones. Once a Body Art skill was inscribed, replacing it would be a significant challenge.

The Roleplay skill was unique, and the only way to level it up was through continuous roleplaying.

Rosen sent his Self-Portrait Avatar into the Main God Game, where it would play various roles. With the help of the Actor's Mask, leveling the skill to LV3 would be easy.

In less than a week, the avatar had successfully performed dozens of roles, reaching LV3.

Rosen then merged the Shapeshifter essence with the skill, pushing it to LV4.

Still not satisfied, Rosen spent the following days using the Glory Sage skill to absorb as much knowledge as possible about the Actor sequence. After accumulating enough knowledge, he effortlessly leveled the Roleplay skill to LV5.

[Roleplay LV5 (1/500)]

[Skill Effect: You can disguise yourself as any living being.]

[Enhanced Traits: Perfect Imitation—You can flawlessly mimic others on a spiritual level.]

[Enhanced Traits: Enhanced Transformation—You can refine your disguise down to the genetic level.]

With a single thought, Rosen transformed into an Abyssal human.

Then, a Flame Demon. A Snake Demon. He could even perfectly disguise himself as a female Abyssal succubus.

With such powerful transformation abilities, the Actor's Mask was no longer needed.

Thanks to his advanced Roleplay skill, if Rosen were to transform into a female succubus, he could theoretically give birth to a little succubus. This was the ultimate benefit of Enhanced Transformation, which had fully harnessed the power of the Shapeshifter's essence.

Rosen had survived in the 99th layer of the Abyss thanks to his disguise skills.

Now that his disguise abilities had evolved to a whole new level, any future endeavors would be much easier.

Additionally, through Roleplay, he could slightly and permanently enhance his spiritual strength after each successful role.

As one ascended through the transcendent sequences, it became increasingly difficult to raise spiritual strength. Having multiple methods to accelerate this growth was invaluable.

Rosen had spent over half a year holed up in the hotel, and now, feeling cooped up, he was itching to get out.

After checking out of the hotel, he began planning his next move.

The Abyss battlefield was a great place—it offered an endless supply of demons to hunt, maximizing his opportunities for growth.

But the battlefield was not a place to linger for too long. Prolonged exposure to the Abyss would eventually corrupt his spiritual energy. That's why human transcendents on the front lines were rotated every year. Staying longer would yield diminishing returns.

Moreover, his spiritual strength had already reached 47 points, yet his noble Sequence 6 portfolio contained only a single transcendent structure.

After a few days of rest, Rosen decided it was time to search for some new territory structures or noble skills worthy of his attention.

After a few relaxing days in the 9th City, Rosen finalized his next destination.

Years ago, Pharis had given him the coordinates to a certain spiritual realm, but he had never found the time to check it out.

Now, with no pressing tasks at hand, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to explore. Pharis had been a Sequence 5 mechanical inventor, so there was a good chance this spiritual realm held some intriguing surprises.

Using the Fairy Dragon Orb's Void Phase, Rosen teleported back to the Blazing Shadow Principality.

Riding his mechanical mount, he entered the Spirit Realm and set the auto-pilot toward the Dungeon Kingdom.

After a few days of travel, Rosen returned to the Dungeon Kingdom.

Following the precise coordinates left by Pharis, he soon discovered the hidden spiritual realm.

According to Pharis' notes, this realm was tied to a long-lost mechanical civilization.

Being an alien spiritual realm, it should have gradually weakened and disintegrated over time.

However, Pharis, intrigued by the technology of this mechanical civilization, had not only preserved but actively strengthened the realm. By now, the realm had grown from a Sequence 7 to a Sequence 6.

If anyone found out, Pharis would have been locked away for centuries.

But since he was dead, no one would be pursuing that matter anymore.

Following Pharis' instructions, Rosen activated the realm's entrance.

A metallic door materialized in midair, composed of countless spinning gears. These gears rotated outward like fan blades, opening a two-meter-wide mechanical portal.

Rosen cautiously stepped through the door, which sealed shut behind him.

(End of Chapter)