Damon's Ascension-Chapter 89: Rapid Level Ups?

Damon had no interest in getting involved in this kind of business. His Ability allowed him to produce Worldly Essence without needing anyone’s sacrifice. More importantly, it could awaken the character panels of unawakened individuals, a game-changing advantage with far greater potential than anything Trust and Trades currently offered. Knowing this he felt neither greed nor envy for the goblins.

His VR body bid farewell to Godin, who saw him out with a broad smile. Not long after Damon left, one of Godin’s close confidants stepped up beside him. In Trust and Trade’s corporate structure, this goblin could be considered executive-level, high enough in rank to enjoy the rare privilege of questioning their emperor’s decisions. "How come you did not share your idea with him?"

Godin chuckled. "Oh, the deal certainly has the potential to benefit both our races, his even more than ours. But..."

His eyes narrowed, thoughtful. "Damon is sharp, ambitious, and undeniably capable—but he’s also clearly someone who will always choose the greater benefit for himself, even in a mutually beneficial deal. That tells me he’s not truly interested in both sides winning—just in making sure he wins more."

Godin folded his hands behind his back. "I still believe humanity is our best shot at elevating our standing, but trusting him completely? No. I’ll work with him, yes, but I won’t invest blindly. And the others? They definitely won’t."

The high-ranking goblin simply nodded, offering no further comment, trusting in their emperor’s judgement.

.......

Damon, who slowly got out of his VR pod at home, did not know that he had missed a game-changing deal that could have elevated the human race forward by at least 10 years.

If he did, he would just shake his head as that was the natural consequence of his actions. Siding with Godin back then would also have its set of consequences, and he had made his choice already, so there was no need to regret something he never planned for.

Instead, he spent the next three hours slowly and methodically making plans for his future Level-Ups, before he put those into action.

He started by spending 40,960 units of Worldly Essence to bypass the 512-hour cooldown, before he paid the same amount to reach Level 11, his total cost 81,920 units. After a brief nine-minute upgrade, he allocated his new stat point into Mobility.

For the jump to Level 12, this cost doubled. It cost 81,920 units alone to clear the 1,024-hour cooldown, and another 81,920 for the Level-Up itself, 163,840 units in total. Ten minutes later, he placed the stat point into Power.

After that, Damon paid 327,680 units for everything. After an eleven-minute wait, he assigned the next stat point to Power once again.

And then, he spent... nothing!

No matter how wealthy he had felt at the start, Damon simply couldn’t afford the next Level-Up. He had already burned through over half a million units of Worldly Essence. Granted that left him with enough to cover the penalty to skip the 4,096-hour cooldown.

However, assuming he did that, he would still need 327,680 units just to reach Level 14. And if he wanted to go one step further, to skip the next cooldown AND reach Level 15, the total cost would exceed one million units.

It was at that moment Damon realized the Worldly Essence compatibility issue facing the human race was far more terrifying than he had initially thought. Less than a day ago, he had still been busy solving the cooldown problem, assuming that was the main hurdle.

He hadn’t truly considered the deeper issue of Worldly Essence itself, because for him, with access to resources, it had just been a matter of grinding or buying more. But now, the scale of the problem was beginning to reveal itself.

Looking at the increasing costs, even if Damon selfishly embezzled the human race’s money to buy Worldly Essence for himself, he might not even have enough to reach Level 50!

That was even assuming that Godin’s business could cough up the Worldly Essence needed!

Apart from Damon and Felicia, who were special, the only other way to get Worldly Essence was from the Universe Will after handing over Chaos Essence that was mined or through the very unfair distribution from Essence Realms.

Ambrose had mentioned it in one of their earlier conversations, but now Damon was feeling it firsthand, the reason Worldly Essence demand was a constant across every race. There was no convenient workaround, no penalty to pay that could reduce the cost, and at least according to public knowledge no Item that could ease the burden.

You either had the Essence... or you didn’t.

The only way was... Providence.

Damon sighed deeply, gripping his armrest tightly. "Universe Will, I know you are listening. I won’t increase my Providence until I’m know for certain that can trust you. You’re the one who decided to bless us with Providence on a never before seen universal scale, so you should have expected that this might become an issue. Are you really going to sit there and let your best workers be ill-equipped to serve you?"

Unsurprisingly, all Damon received was silence. The Universe Will rarely descended to speak to anyone directly. And despite the special status Earth’s Prime Representative held in its eyes, even he couldn’t make that happen. Because to descend, the Universe Will needed an avatar, didn’t it?

Damon was not bothered. "I know you can hear me, so if you have a solution, tell Felicia. It’s pretty obvious that she didn’t just coincidentally awaken an Ability that favors you by increasing her Providence every time she levels up."

Saying this, Damon immediately operated his VQD, calling Felicia. A holographic display rose from the wrist device and hovered before Damon, showing off the beautiful features of Felicia coupled with her signature messy golden hair.

This time, she was wearing a skin-tight white bodysuit that was nowhere near as clumsy and unfeminine as her usual wear, highlighting her rather impressive figure, which captured Damon’s attention for about a split second before he focused on more important things.

"Damon? What’s the problem?" Felicia asked with surprise, as Damon hardly contacted her unless it was for issues facing the human race.

Felicia’s feelings towards Damon were complicated. For the most part, there was extreme respect for the challenges he had overcome to ensure that the human race could have its current peace and prosperity.

After that was guilt, for her family and the various top clans’ attempt to besmirch his reputation and elevate her to replace him. Even if Damon reassured her that it was not a problem, for Felicia, who was not politically inclined, she could not be sure he was not harboring some resentment deep down.

And then after that... a bit of interest and curiosity. People constantly paired the two of them together since they met, from the first hundred in the ship who thought they were a couple to people worldwide who had dubbed her the Prime Rep’s key half.

When such a thing happened, to anyone at any age, they would inadvertently picture themselves as a couple with the person they were being paired with, also considering their various traits and seeing if it fit their criteria.

For Felicia, Damon did fit most of her criteria. He was intelligent first and foremost, and capable, able to handle things accordingly. After that, he was above average in terms of handsomeness and kept himself clean at all times, with good hygiene.

As for things like race, family background, and the like, Felicia hadn’t cared much before the IUAS and definitely did not care now.

Her only real problem was that they were the same age. She wanted someone slightly older by a year or two, because that person was more likely to teach her new things, but overall that was merely a minor gripe.

Before, she hadn’t really had time to see where this would go because both she and Damon had big responsibilities to handle, but things had cooled down now.

Or so, she thought.

When Damon quickly filled her in on the various problems, her face changed greatly. She herself had reached Level 9 in this time, occasionally doing a few Essence instances to hone herself while spending most of her time digesting the technology of the IUAS with her increased Mentality.

Like Damon, she had entered nepo-baby instances which had showered her with Worldly Essence as well as Items and Skills. Since Felicia had no qualms with the Universe Will, as well as her constant increase in Providence, her cooldown and Worldly Essence requirement had drastically reduced, so she had not faced the same problem as Damon.

But on the scale of the entire humanity, it was an issue for sure.

"I understand." Felicia stated with a serious expression.

"What do you need me to do exactly?" She asked with curiosity.

"You are quite likely to have the highest Providence among the human race currently, so I want to see if you can commune with the Universe Will to find a solution to this problem." Damon explained, hoping that this method might work.

Felicia nodded. "I can try. Will you come here, or should I do it over the call?"

Damon paused and considered. While he did not want to be anywhere near a place where the Universe Will might descend lest the ’evil spirit’ hop out of Felicia and pounce on him, even he, with his paranoia, realized that this seemed too much.

As such, he smiled and acquiesced this time. "Yes, I will be coming over to help you as best as I can. Share your location with me so I can make the trip."