Chapter 364: Chapter 7: The Extraordinary Path of Mechanical Ascension It’s easy to join the Mechanical Divine Sect, but becoming a Mechanical Priest is very difficult.
The former only requires sincere faith, even if it’s not very devout. As long as you can output enough Power of Faith, it’s fine because being a common believer is a widespread phenomenon. The latter, however, requires passing various assessments and meeting certain talent requirements, especially intelligence and perception, which have strict standards.
The Insight Sect that Tassia mentioned has higher intelligence requirements; if one’s intelligence is insufficient, mechanical modification is needed, directly implanting a brain-machine chip and data interface to forcibly raise the intelligence limit.
However, this kind of modification is costly, and if you’re not a noble from the Upper Nest District, you might as well not even think about it.
The computing power that the human brain can provide is limited, unless the brain is extraordinarily developed. But in this sect, ultimately, a brain replacement is needed.
In many Mechanical Sects, without a natural intelligence advantage, basic Spell Sequences cannot be learned. If you were to face other Mechanical Priests, you might be overwhelmed by the garbage data packets thrown by the enemies in an instant.
This type of data virus-like attack is very effective against highly mechanized Mechanical Priests.
Tassia had previously mentioned joining the Insight Sect, so this woman’s intelligence is even higher than imagined.
Of course, there are exceptions in these sects that don’t emphasize intelligence.
For example, Duncan’s F46 region, which is the territory of the Steel Cast faction, emphasizes perception, that is, perception of one’s inner self. Though there’s an intelligence requirement, they usually aren’t afraid of the interference of garbage data; lack of computing power is not a problem, just simply block the signals.
Using a simple analogy, the Mechanical Cultivators of the Insight Sect are like radar biological computers, constantly sending and receiving signals. When attacked by data viruses, they need to rely on computing power to solve issues and construct a spiritual firewall.
On the other hand, the Mechanical Cultivators of the Steel Cast faction are like an old Nokia phone, directly switching to airplane mode, cutting from network and signal, relying on physical strength to smash you directly!
And they still have human brains, so they can actively block signals and act relying on perception and intuition at critical moments.
Of course.
The spellcasting ability of Mechanical Cultivators from the Steel Cast faction is much weaker due to insufficient computing power; they cannot control the Mechanical Servant army or interfere with a large number of mechanical devices leveraging their personal computing power matrix.
They mostly engrave Steel Runes on themselves; perhaps a powerful being at the Bishop level can control a portion of the Mechanical Servants, but their computing power is still much lower than other sects’.
Druids have spells to summon animals.
Whereas the spellcasters of the Mechanical Divine Sect create Mechanical Servants themselves and rely on computing power to control them; if computing power is not strong enough, their performance upper limit will be greatly reduced.
The only exception here is the Shepherd Leader of the Steel Cast faction, whose computing power is said to be terrifying.
In some secret rumors, the leader of the Steel Cast faction holds a mysterious piece of wreckage fragment, so he isn’t daunted facing other Mechanical Sect leaders. Furthermore, the Nest Cities under the control of the Steel Cast faction are maintained by him providing basic computing power. He can directly command any Archbishop of regional sects, connecting the global signal points with a single thought.
Duncan naturally doesn’t know about these things yet.
However, from his perspective, undoubtedly, the Steel Cast faction is the most suited Extraordinary Path for him. Firstly, he has Dragon Bloodline and Giant Bloodline engraved on his body, making his physical qualities inherently far superior to ordinary people, and the Dragon Bloodline actually has a little connection with metallic mechanics, after all, giant dragons often ingest various metal ores.
If Duncan were to undergo mechanical modification, he would forego his inherent physical advantage, but if he could advance to the Steel Cast path, his physical qualities might become incredibly exaggerated!
This is the upgrade path of humanoid Gundams.
The Steel Cast faction also has mechanical implants, but far fewer compared to other sects.
Flesh is weak, mechanical ascent!
Other sects achieve modifications by replacing flesh and blood, while the Steel Cast faction focuses more on refining oneself into a ’Mechanical Body’.
The factions of the Mechanical Divine Sect each have their advantages.
However, in the contempt chain among numerous sects, the Steel Cast faction has always been at the bottom because they’re all crude warriors. Sometimes they even wield cold weapons in battle, like power hammers, power axes, force field swords, etc., used mostly by Steel Cast faction members, and they are not proficient in technology.
But who cares about that!
If it works to fight, that’s enough.
Duncan still routinely goes to the prayer room today; this time he again successfully simulated sincere faith, but undoubtedly, the Mechanical Prayer he recited upon leaving still had no reaction.
However, this time there seemed to be one exception: a man in his forties, appearing with low social status, dressed in ragged clothes and having a hunched figure, suddenly surprised him through the trial because the prayer he recited triggered a reaction from the Steel Rune.
At this moment, a Mechanical Priest glanced at him, frowning, and said, "He’s a bit old."
"Can he pass the initial fusion ceremony?"
Generally speaking, they tend to select people under thirty. As humans age, strength, constitution, and agility decrease, but perception and intelligence improve.
However, with the body experiencing declining vitality, this poses no problem to other sects, which usually involves spending money to replace mechanical parts.
But for the Steel Cast faction, this problem is significant because a body with declining vitality may not keep up with the consumption, possibly failing even to pass the initial fusion ceremony.
A Mechanical Priest nearby took a look and said slowly, "Indeed, a bit old."
"Send him to the Defender Army."
"He can start from a Technical Cultivator and learn to engrave Steel Cast Prayers."
"If he achieves something, he can be transferred back."
Unsurprisingly, Duncan was eliminated for a second time.
However, the Mechanical Priests present were secretly observing him, and someone had even recorded his file, the reason being simple: Duncan was the youngest among them.
The minds of young people are restless; it’s hard to say whether they have sincere faith in the Divine Spirit, and their minds are not yet fully matured, leaving room for future growth.
In a Dungeons and Dragons-like worldview, humans need to be over eighteen to establish stability; if one is to advance to a Priest, most are above twenty years old because, at this stage, perception and other inner attributes finally catch up.
Outside the Steel Angels’ plaza.
Duncan was also frowning tightly at this moment, thinking to himself: "How was I eliminated again?"
"What could be the reason?"
Undoubtedly, the initial hidden assessment by the Mechanical Divine Sect is definitely faith; one must be a devout believer to become a Mechanical Priest.