Lord: Sequence Master

In the Ashen Castle within his Divine Domain, Rosen stood thoughtfully before his Sequence Tree.

He decided to use the Ancient God Sequence to enhance the first of his mastered sequences—the Noble Sequence.

The Noble Sequence was undeniably powerful, but it was heavily dependent on both human civilization and the World Government. Should the World Government ever collapse, the sequence would suffer a devastating blow. Perhaps this was why nobles generally undertook a second sequence as well, and why developing the Divine Domain was central to the sequence. Even if the World Government fell, as long as the Divine Domain endured, nobles would only face greater challenges in development, not complete loss.

However, knowing the Noble Sequence's vulnerability, and now holding the source of all sequences—the Ancient God Sequence that could transform one into a world itself—Rosen wondered if it was possible to strengthen the Noble Sequence, enhancing its advantages and shedding its weaknesses.

The first area he intended to improve was the Troop Structures within his domain.

Approaching the Demon Nest, he saw it resembled a sinister tombstone rising from a burial mound, where Crypt Demons emerged from the ground. Years of overseeing his Divine Domain had exposed Rosen to various insights about such structures.

In earlier days, troop structures did not exist until the World Government modified specific rules within the human world through the Noble Sequence. Afterward, nobles who hunted Transcendent beings gained a small chance of acquiring troop structures as Transcendent Buildings. Hunted creatures of the Spirit Realm even had the potential to drop Soul Gems specifically for enhancing Transcendent Buildings.

Nevertheless, the drop rate of troop structures from hunting Transcendents was minimal. Most were crafted, such as his Void Gallery, built by an Architect.

Among all Transcendent Buildings, troop structures were considered the hardest to create. Creating a troop structure first required a complete analysis of the species' genetic map. This alone would only allow cloning, producing mere shells with no spiritual capacity. Then, one needed Creation Authority or Soul Authority to infuse the structure with the power of Authority, creating synthetic souls to give life to the shell.

Even with these, troop units were challenging to upgrade. A Sequence 7 Demon Nest could only produce Sequence 7 Crypt Demons, which rarely advanced to Sequence 6. Due to synthetic soul limitations, the highest troop structure ever crafted by the World Government was Sequence 4. This was also why the World Government invested so heavily to alter global rules with unknown methods.

However, with access to the World Gene Pool, Rosen possessed genetic maps even of Sequence 0 Transcendent species. By copying a Sequence 6 Abyss Demon gene map from the World Gene Pool and merging it with the Demon Nest, his structure could start producing units at Sequence 6.

The bodies would be Sequence 6, yet the souls remained synthetic and restricted to Sequence 7, optimized for Crypt Demons. Without resolving this, enhancing the troop structure's capacity was mere fantasy.

Though the Ancient God Sequence prioritized genetic enhancement, it still addressed the soul. Ancient God lore held that First-Generation Ancient Gods prioritized the physical over the spiritual, thus leaving behind the World Gene Pool upon death. The new generation, born on the corpse of the former, derived primarily from the souls of the predecessors, valuing spirit over body. Some speculated that the two generations of Ancient Gods were actually a single, eternal being, abandoning its body after reaching its physical peak to pursue a life focused on the soul.

Rosen found this perspective sensible; after all, the Main World exemplified this duality—Material in reality, Spiritual in the Spirit Realm. Perhaps the purely spirit-based sequence system of today was not as complete as it seemed.

Modern times heavily favored Spirit Sequences, in which advancing to Sequence 0 posed a difficulty of "1." But for body-based sequences, like the Ancient God Sequence, the difficulty was more like "10." Hence, today's spiritual sequence system couldn't be called wrong; it was merely a matter of prioritizing ease over depth.

Logging into the Spirit Realm Deepnet, Rosen purchased a batch of impure Spirit Crystals—distilled essences of Transcendent souls. When Alchemists crafted golems, they often employed full souls, retaining self-awareness. With Sequence 6 souls, Rosen bought as many as ten thousand.

After binding each soul to a shackle within his Void Prison, Rosen inscribed a unique spiritual rune onto their foreheads using his blood. This Ancient God technique reshaped souls for servitude through the rune, allowing him to remold them at will.

It took over two weeks to complete the transformation. During this time, the new Genetic Map was successfully integrated into the Demon Nest. The results were still demons, yet not Crypt Demons. Over a thousand Sequence 7 Crypt Demons in his domain had already been sent to mine in the Dark Continent, their trap effectiveness now minimal.

With the first modified soul placed into the Demon Nest, a Shadow Demon emerged shortly after. Shadow Demons, among the top assassin species in the Abyssal Demon lineage, had a natural affinity for shadows and mastery over darkness. Their most fearsome ability, however, was their power to possess and seize their hosts.

As modified souls were continually inserted, an increasing number of Sequence 6 Shadow Demon troops were born.

The slow production time of troop units lay in the inefficiency of synthetic soul creation. By using pre-modified souls, though it required his direct effort and Sequence 6 soul purchases, troop production speed significantly increased—one Shadow Demon every ten minutes.

With ten thousand modified souls, it would take around seventy days to complete an entire army of Shadow Demons.

Rosen intended to produce more, but his budget was tight. The souls alone were costly, and replenishing his blood added to the expense. The most substantial expenditure, however, was the material required for crafting the Shadow Demon bodies. In pursuit of specific goals, he had also purchased Shadow Stone, a Sequence 2 material that only appears in collapsed shadow worlds.

Breaking down the Shadow Stone into ten thousand parts, he fused a portion into each Shadow Demon unit, gifting each its own pocket shadow world. When assembled, these units could merge their worlds into a vast Shadow Domain capable of trapping even a Sequence 3 demi-god.

Rosen's intent was clear—to leverage the Shadow Domain in hunting colossal Transcendents, for his Void Gallery was unsuited to confining such large prey.

Additionally, Shadow Demons could devour each other to evolve further. In theory, if all ten thousand Shadow Demons were reduced to a single survivor, that one Shadow Demon could likely achieve Sequence 3.

With seventy days until the Demon Nest could autonomously produce Shadow Demons, Rosen proceeded to modify the Slime Nest.

The process was comparatively straightforward since the new Genetic Map was closely related to the original Slime species.

After only five days, Rosen's efforts yielded a fresh Metal Slime unit, contrasting with the soft, rubbery look of standard Slimes. Composed entirely of liquid metal, Metal Slimes retained their smooth, flexible appearance with added toughness, capable of consuming metals and acquiring their properties.

If auctioned, the modified Slime Nest would fetch at least tens of billions in Spirit Crystals. Yet Rosen wouldn't dare sell it. Buyers would quickly discover the Nest had been artificially modified, potentially endangering his position as a hereditary duke. This was something best kept to himself until he achieved demi-god status.

Rosen had a complete genetic map for Metal Slimes, from Sequence 9 through Sequence 2, though without synthetic souls he resorted to purchasing and fusing lower-Sequence nests via his Hunter's Divine Eye. At premium prices, he managed to raise the Slime Nest to Sequence 6. However, without modified souls, the structure's production speed was slower than the Demon Nest.

A Sequence 6 Metal Slime required a full week to produce, but by recycling over a thousand Sequence 7 Slimes, he could quickly create a hundred Sequence 6 Metal Slimes. While remolding them over a few days, Rosen ordered an abundance of Regenerative Metal—an extraordinary material with rapid regeneration and extreme durability.

If Metal Slimes assimilated regenerative metal, they could maintain the metal's properties without losing their shape-shifting abilities. A Sequence 6 Metal Slime could stalemate a Sequence 4 foe until depleted, and even upon death, its body would remain intact.

Though Rosen considered modifying souls for increased production, he decided against it. Sequence 6 souls were accessible enough, but for Sequences 3 or 1? Procuring such high-level souls would likely be even more challenging than creating synthetic ones.

Since Sequence 9 Slime Nests were cheap and, while rare, had no other drawbacks, Rosen planned to gradually collect and fuse them two-by-two, eventually creating a Sequence 3 Slime Nest with ease.

Both the Demon Nest and Slime Nest were now upgraded to Sequence 6. The next was the Ashen Hive, though it couldn't benefit from enhancement through the World Gene Pool. However, the Ashen Hive was already close to reaching Sequence 6; over the years, he'd merged countless beehives, bringing him just months away from achieving a Sequence 6 Ashen Hive.

With that in mind, Rosen decided to focus on converting skills from the Ancient God Sequence into ones compatible with the Noble Sequence.

Skills from the Noble Sequence held exceptional value, so nobles often bound skill slots to their Transcendent Buildings in pairs. Rosen had previously used his Mainframe Computer to convert skills from other sequences into Noble Sequence skills. His Void Salvage and Divine Beast Pen skills, initially Hunter skills, had been successfully transformed into Noble skills. But such conversions came with both pros and cons.

Transforming these skills required Divinity, and both skills had generated Divinity Buildings. However, the only way to upgrade such buildings was with Soul Gems. The Ashen Castle could still be upgraded by an Architect, but Void Salvage was entirely dependent on Soul Gems. Since Soul Gems were notoriously difficult to obtain, transforming too many skills this way wasn't ideal.

What he needed was a skill without a skill level—like Glorious Sage—where effects automatically improved alongside his sequence level. This skill's ability to convert knowledge into skill proficiency had saved him significant effort in advancing skill levels.

After a month of research, Rosen discovered a suitable skill in the Ancient God Sequence for a Sequence 6 noble. When he attempted to embed the spiritual runes that formed this skill into his Noble Transcendent Essence, the Mainframe Computer immediately released a significant accumulation of Divinity, integrating the skill seamlessly with the Noble Sequence.

[Ancient God Ritual]: Each sequence level allows for the sacrifice of an item imbued with Authority, endowing the world with corresponding world traits.

Every Divine Domain had domain traits, though obtaining them was difficult. Typically, Sequence 3 was the earliest stage at which a new domain trait could be acquired.

Currently, Rosen's Divine Domain possessed the traits of Divine Lord, Glorious Vault, Domain Duplication, Fountain of Life, Sequence Seed, and Fate Sense. Compared to other Sequence 6 Divine Domains, his domain traits were already exceptional.

The Divine Lord trait was a baseline feature shared by all domains. Glorious Vault allowed him to guard his bloodline, gradually enhancing his Noble lineage to reduce the difficulty of future Noble Sequence ascension; it could even capture unclaimed objects from the Spirit Realm. However, in all these years, he hadn't seen the Vault retrieve anything.

Domain Duplication enabled him to duplicate another domain's trait, though without a nearby demi-god domain to copy from, it was difficult to utilize. Fountain of Life proved useful by allowing his Divine Domain inhabitants to gradually unlock their spiritual apertures, and many of his oldest citizens had now gained basic aura abilities.

Sequence Seed allowed one sequence to be distributed without the need for troop buildings, letting inhabitants transfer to specific roles by ingesting potions. In his domain, over a thousand catfolk had transitioned into the Shadowcat sequence, though they lacked heroic status to fully realize its potential.

Finally, Fate Sense was a rare trait he'd obtained from destroying another Divine Domain. Despite having destroyed multiple domains, this was the only trait he'd collected so far.

In Rosen's years of research, each domain trait represented a nascent form of Authority. Thus, the more domain traits he acquired, the greater his domain's potential, amplifying its power within the same sequence.

The Ancient God Ritual skill allowed him to artificially add domain traits by sacrificing items. Rosen's first thought was to sacrifice the Primal Edict and integrate it into his Divine Domain.

As a Sequence 6 domain, he had the chance to gain up to four new domain traits. However, he was uncertain how many traits from the Primal Edict his domain would retain.

After weighing the pros and cons, Rosen took out the Primal Edict and initiated the Ancient God Ritual. The Primal Edict was immensely valuable, but he couldn't fully leverage it as a non-law scholar. If its traits could be converted into domain traits, they would greatly benefit his Divine Domain.

Rosen wrapped the Primal Edict in his golden Ancient God blood, then began a spiritual communion with the highest Ancient God, connecting with the dormant World Consciousness. Using Ancient God power, he completed the ritual.

As the ritual progressed, the Primal Edict dissolved in a burst of nine-colored light. In his Divine Domain, four new domain traits quietly emerged: Rule Evolution, Legal Order, Subversion, and Everlasting.

Only the Singularity trait remained inaccessible, but the other traits had seamlessly integrated into his domain, with Rule Evolution encapsulating the Edict's primary attribute, granting him a full four additional traits.

Through Rule Evolution, Rosen sensed an acceleration in all domain traits' growth. Furthermore, future breakthroughs within his domain, including attaining Sequence 3 or even mastering Authority, would be slightly easier due to Rule Evolution's influence.

Legal Order significantly strengthened his Judicial Authority as a noble. Judicial Authority originally required various mechanisms to establish laws with real supernatural impact within his Divine Domain. Now, with Legal Order, he could directly enact up to four supernatural laws of Sequence 9 to Sequence 6.

After much consideration, he laid down four laws:

Betrayal of the Lord warrants punishment, ranging from imprisonment in the Void Prison to outright death.All hostile outsiders will be gradually devoured by the rules of Gluttony.The higher a citizen's loyalty, the stronger the Lord's authority over them.The greater and stronger the troops, the more powerful the Lord's military authority.

Legal Order imposed strict limitations when forming laws. Should he try to mandate immediate execution for all intruders, it simply wouldn't work; for instance, a Sequence 0 intruder would be immune to such a rule. All laws required a foundation of power.

Since his citizens were fully under his control, he could set the punishment for betrayal as high as death. For outsiders, immediate execution wasn't feasible, but gradual consumption through Gluttony aligned with his Authority of Gluttony and fell within his power's scope.

The remaining two laws primarily served to enhance his ruling and military authority.

As a Ruler-class noble, his domain already granted Authority in Governance, Taxation, Justice, and Military. However, to fully exploit these authorities, his Sequence 6 domain was still lacking. But now, with Legal Order's enhancements, Rosen's spiritual growth rate could directly benefit from his domain's strength. The more citizens and Transcendents in his domain, the faster he would grow spiritually.

Conversely, increased governance would also hasten the citizens' growth within the Transcendent sequence.

In terms of military power, the presence of Heroes was already slowly unlocking this authority. Now, with Legal Order's enhancements, Rosen could access the extraordinary powers of any of his troops. Abilities from his Shadow Demons, Ashen Bees, and Metal Slimes—all their sequence powers could be used when he needed them.

Of course, such access would rarely be practical, as unfamiliar powers were challenging to wield effectively. Military authority's true strength lay in permanently increasing the battle capacity of his troops, providing them with an ever-scaling combat buff.

Rosen had read a story by a novelist about a Sequence 3 demi-god who spent their life at the frontlines, driven by an insatiable thirst for war. Though lacking talent beyond Sequence 3, this demi-god's vast experience allowed their troops to enjoy combat boosts magnifying their strength over tenfold, with even a record of defeating Sequence 1 foes.

With the four laws integrated into his domain, Rosen began exploring Subversion and Everlasting.

Everlasting did not render his domain indestructible like Miracle Domains or Miracle Items. It was merely a weakened version, allowing his domain to regenerate and restore itself in a short time if ever completely destroyed.

Finally, Subversion—the core, unique trait of the Primal Edict. In theory, Rosen should fully comprehend this trait, yet he found himself unable to access or even understand its true power.

He sensed that he was simply too weak to awaken the full potential of Subversion.