Chapter 5 Totem of Faith
"…Did you go and provoke those things again?"

"No, I just killed someone."

"Well, I see, I'm still a believer."

"Do you think his meat is edible? It looks pretty meaty."

"are you joking?"

"Yeah, I was kidding."

Anti placed a corpse covered with wounds of all sizes outside the cave where Safin lived. The head of the corpse looked like a ravaged watermelon.

Then he sat down on the ground in a mess, gasping for breath.

Safin looked at him with some worry, and then he saw Anti raised his hand, instantly calming himself and pressing it between his brows.

Ding~.

It seemed like an instinctive action, but it didn't seem to relieve his panting and fatigue.

"After just a short while, you've become so skilled at keeping calm that it's almost like a fixed habit." Safin raised his eyebrows.

Anti didn't respond.

Perhaps in order to combat the severe pain during the body's regeneration, his proficiency in staying calm has indeed skyrocketed. However, in a state of extreme calmness, the feeling of pain will be even clearer. It's just that he can eliminate the impact of pain to the greatest extent possible.

In the end, I successfully killed the enemy in the dark.

But the opponent's fierce counterattack at the last moment still broke several of Anti's bones and almost ruptured his chest.

The opponent also tried other miracles, but was interrupted in advance by Anti. It can be seen that believers are still very afraid of fighting, at least at a lower level, after all, miracles are often performed with a pre-swing.

All in all it is still a tough battle.

After a long period of silence, Anti felt the pain in his body eased and his senses returned to normal.

I thought about it.

Ding~.

It’s better to catch up first to calm down.

After his senses were restored, his inspiration also returned to normal, but even so, his ability to calm down was almost instantaneous, with only the duration reduced, but it could still last for several minutes at a time.

"You will basically not lack in sensory ability in the initial stage of miracles, but as you learn more miracles, you will have to distribute your sensory ability well." Seeing that he kept replenishing his energy to stay calm, Safin reminded him.

Anti finally found the energy to speak: "Is the sensitivity fixed by nature?"

"The moment a baby is born, its sensitivity is the strongest, but it will weaken significantly afterwards until it starts to have memories, and then it will start to grow again. It is a period of rapid growth before the age of 20, it weakens after the age of 30, it is difficult to make any progress at the age of 40, there will be another leap at the age of 50, and after that it will basically stop growing." Safin said quickly.

"Strange pattern." Anti commented.

"Humans are strange, the whole world is strange," Safin laughed.

“Are there other ways to grow?”

"Yes." Safin said simply, "After the miracle of activation or the believer's death, some inspiration will be precipitated and turned into substance and dropped. Just absorb that. But there are hidden dangers. You must be moderate. If you absorb too much, you will get lost."

Anti nodded and wrote it down first.

"I was planning to teach you how to hunt in the cave after you come back, but it seems you still need to rest for a while." Safin shook his head.

"Sorry, I still need to rest." Anti didn't try to be brave.

"It's okay, I'm not in a hurry." Safin said, "By the way, how many lives do you have left?"

"...What?" Anti paused for a moment before reacting, but still didn't understand what Safin meant.

Safin understood something: "You don't even know this... well, that's weird."

So he thought about his words and explained, "People from the past worlds of the Land of Destiny have multiple lives. I have met several people from the past worlds and heard them say that anyone from the Land of Destiny will have at least two lives in the Dream World, and as they master and use miracles, it is said that their lives can increase."

"I don't know." Anti was stunned for a moment after listening, and then said, "Do they have a name for this phenomenon?"

"In the land of dependents, this extra life is called a 'life lock'."

Anti was stunned again.

Life lock! ?
The price of exchanging "Eyes of Night" is that the number of life locks is reduced.

It's an extra life! ?
But after staying there, I understood.

So that's why the "Life Lock" is worthy of this pair of eyes with so many special effects.

"I don't know if I still have the life lock. I know nothing about this." This is all Anti could say to Safin.

Safin stroked his chin and said, "Your battle with this initiate was very dangerous. I don't know how you won, but if you accidentally lose your life lock, you'll have to be careful next time. From now on, always treat yourself as an ordinary person with only one life left."

Anti nodded to show that he understood.

In any case, he has always acted on the idea that life is only once. Of course, the use of the gift of rebirth is another matter.

After this topic came to an end, An Ti asked his new question: "I saw that when you used the medium to perform miracles, different patterns appeared, but I didn't. Is it because of the lack of the medium?" As he said this, he also took out the necklace and bracelet he had looted from the corpse.

"Not really. This is a slightly more advanced miracle project. I originally planned to let you at least master calmness and body shaping before trying it... But now it seems there is no problem. Your proficiency in calmness makes me ashamed of myself." Safin said after thinking for a while.

"Please teach me." Anti's dull dark eyes revealed a desire for knowledge.

Safin nodded, and then said: "This pattern is called a 'faith totem'. The pattern has symbolic meaning in miracles. It can accelerate the induction object and also expand the effect of miracles. You can think of it as a magnifying glass for miracles."

As he spoke, he released a totem-free lighting with his bare hands, and then released another lighting with a flashing light totem with his bare hands.

The difference in brightness between the two lights is visible to the naked eye, and there are also differences in size.

"This is a universal totem that our ancestors have continuously explored and developed, and has been streamlined to this day. There are corresponding totems for common inspiration categories, and anyone can learn to use it. After all, humans are very weak, and we need to learn more to make up for our shortcomings."

"In the process of in-depth research on performing miracles, some powerful people will gradually develop their own faith totems, thereby changing the nature of some miracles, and even developing their own powerful miracles. These are more advanced contents."

After saying that, Safin pointed to the beginner's textbook that Anti placed at his feet: "Now turn to the last few pages of the textbook."

Anti picked it up obediently, turned the page and saw a number of patterns arranged in the appendix at the end of the textbook, all of which were totems of faith.

At a glance, he saw the "Sunshine" totem and the "Man" totem that he had seen before.

The markings in the textbooks are "Light" Totem and "Self" Totem.

After watching for a while, Safin threw a sharpened stone over and said, "You should start with the 'self' totem. Draw each totem five times to get familiar with it. During the break, I will teach you how to shape your body. Then you can continue to draw. There is no trick to these things. Engrave them in your mind first and then form muscle memory."

So, Anti began to learn body shaping and totem belief at the same time.

In addition, he had to be taken out by Safin to learn how to capture common creatures in the cave.

Most of them were hares and rodents, and of course there were some edible insects. The food conditions in the mine were really like this, but Antido accepted it expressionlessly.

It would be better to say that he has never had any expression.

In the dark mine, no amount of time had passed, and Anti felt like he was gradually turning into a savage.

Fortunately, Safin was able to perform the miracle of water to help clean the body, otherwise it would have been very dirty.

During this period of time, Anti successfully mastered the body shaping, which can currently only be used on the forearms of both hands, and began to be able to add self-totems to the process of performing miracles.

It was just in this part that he encountered a little problem.

Adding a totem requires additional consumption of induction power, and before becoming proficient, the totem's enhancement effect on miracles is not obvious. At the same time, although casting miracles has indeed become faster, it takes time to outline the totem itself. With one minus and one plus, for the still unfamiliar Anti, the pre-swing is actually longer.

In the end it's still a question of proficiency.

In the absence of regenerative stimulation, Anti's learning progress can only be described as average.

He was already considering whether or not to stab himself a few more times, practicing in a state of greatly heightened inspiration.

However, for the time being, he is acting with Safin most of the time, so he cannot behave too abnormally.

The two of them also went to the corpse dump in the mine together. Ever since the believer was killed by Anti, the group waited for a long time for the believer to come back, so they ran away in fear.

No one has come here for a while.

After he had mastered the self-totem, Anti's study tasks became a little easier, and he was able to start learning some other knowledge.

For example, some history of this world.

"There were forty-four beings with great power in the Chaotic Dream Realm. They had different origins, but at a certain time they jointly ruled the Chaotic Dream Realm, fighting each other and causing constant wars. In the last years of their rule, the first group of messengers who stole miracles appeared. They transformed the power that only they could use into miracles and gave them to humans. This marked the beginning of a change in the era. Humans defeated the forty-four pillar gods, eliminated them, and established the foundation of today's civilization."

Safin explained a piece of history in a drowsy tone.

Anti listened carefully, these were all new things.

"Who was the first to steal the miracle?" he asked.

Safin looked at him and said, "It's Master Kashira. She is the first human believer. She stole the light power of Michelle, one of the forty-four pillars of gods. She is the first human user of the light power."

Kashira.

The name the Eye had read earlier from the Illumination miracle.

After thinking for a while, Anti continued to ask: "Then do you know the name 'Lebaons'?"

That gave him the name of the gift of "rebirth".

"How do you know this name?" Safin was very surprised.

"What's wrong?"

"...No, you've been acting like a newborn baby. I'm surprised you know this name. Although this name is not unfamiliar in the mixed dream world."

"he is?"

"One of the forty-four pillar gods, 'Wuji' Lebaons."

(End of this chapter)