Chapter 1576: Chapter 1158: Spoils Allocation

After finishing the day’s training, the girls went to bathe together, then sat around and divided the fruit, enjoying dinner while Ash recounted last night’s journey to Hell.

"The Black Descent Hell submerged by the Flowing Gold River, the Fantasy Hell that can customize worlds, the Necromancy Ark, the Dayless Heaven..." Diya listened in and was enchanted: "I wish I could go with you, Ash."

"I don’t know why," Weiser said, "but now even when you speak normally, Witch, I feel like there’s an overtone of unimaginable innuendo."

Sonia’s face turned black, and Vishi’s expression was subtle, clearly sharing a similar thought with Weiser. Honestly, the Witch wasn’t that bold; as long as she was restricted from using her Witch domain in bed, her performance wasn’t more outrageous than others—at least the Silver Lamp was far more outrageous than her.

But the Witch’s strength lay in her extraordinary imagination and her sweet, artful tongue that vividly expressed it. Not even Sonia, even Vishi, could bear it, especially when the Witch imagined them as the protagonists of her stories. Simply put, the Witch would imagine their fan fiction, and just last night, during a break, she casually narrated a scene so bold that it made everyone working on their originals feel pressed, until the Silver Lamp saved the glory of originality—she recreated the image described by the Witch.

"Silver Lamp, how dare you say it was me!" Diya was extremely disgruntled: "It was clearly you last night—"

"Then let’s start dividing the spoils now!" Ash clapped his hands heavily, disrupting Felix’s intention to spectate and gossip. "First, the essence of knowledge. This time I basically scavenged all resources from the Deep Blue Hell. Unfortunately, I was just rushing through the Black Descent Hell. The knowledge essence collected is just enough for us all to condense three layers of Prison Wings."

The operators exchanged glances, and the scene fell into an eerie silence.

"Alright, since none of you have objections," Ash took out several vials of knowledge essence, "then take them back and drink them—"

"I have just one question," Sonia raised a finger, "if you drank all the knowledge essence yourself, how many layers of Prison Wings could you add?"

"Do we really have to go through this argument every single time—"

"How many layers?" Sonia emphasized.

"A bit more than four layers," Ash said reluctantly, but then quickly added, "even if I drank it all, it would only add one layer of Prison Wings; but if I share it with you all, you can each go from having one layer to three layers of Prison Wings. The cost-effectiveness is obvious."

"But anyone who needs Prison Wings the most knows that even the Gospel understands," Diya also sided with Sonia: "With one layer of Prison Wings, we’re already able to contend with the Demigod War. In fact, if it weren’t for the ambush set by the Sword Law Angel, we wouldn’t have been forced into a life-and-death struggle with the Angel last time. War has always been our last resort; we’ve grown too quickly and our foundation is too shallow. Simply adding more layers of Prison Wings can’t bridge the gap. Other demigods have accumulated thousands of years, even millennia, more than us, and even if we encounter them, there’s no need to tangle with them. Avoiding battle and staying hidden, accumulating and biding our time, is the proper course for us."

The Witch’s argument was methodical, clearly premeditated to completely dismiss Ash’s intention: "Last night, I overheard you directly telling Sonia you wanted to book a hotel room and lock yourselves in for a month without leaving..."

Felix was so shocked her face turned pale: "A month!?"

If it weren’t for Diya being on her side, the now embarrassed and furious Sonia would have pulled out her sword to cut him down; she stifled her embarrassment and said bitterly, "Is that your main point here?"

"Of course it’s the main point, you agreed after all." Diya bit her fork and snorted, "Don’t even think about leaving me out, count me in when the time comes."

No wonder the Silver Lamp said that even the Witch’s normal speech sounded like innuendo; Felix completely understood now. With even her and Dedarose here as outsiders, the Witch could say such things—what she might say in private simply couldn’t be written in this book.

"But Ash, the reason why you have such a notion is because you just narrowly escaped death in Hell," Diya rested her chin on her hands and looked at Ash, "We have the option to run and avoid battle, but you have no choice but to delve into Hell. Prioritizing resources on you is the optimal solution now; if you’re safe, I have no doubt that we could ascend to Divine Lord and beyond, but if you encounter an accident in Hell, how could we possibly be spared?"

Ash was left speechless because Diya was indeed making sense. He had specifically flattered the Sword Maiden and Vishi today, mainly to lay the groundwork for tonight’s distribution of spoils, trying to sway their decisions with emotions, only to find the Witch was ruling the meeting—if he had known, he would’ve sought out the Witch in the afternoon.

"Being so much stronger than you makes me feel insecure."

"Master," Vishi couldn’t help but comment, "perhaps you should think through what you’re going to say before speaking?"

Weiser was also amused: "Shouldn’t you feel insecure if they are stronger than you?"

"But I am a bit afraid," Ash leaned back against his chair, saying, "afraid this method of distribution could become a norm and that I might fall in love with power and authority uncontrollably—I keep getting stronger and you, weaker. Allocating resources to you will no longer be self-evident but rather charity and blessing, and you will no longer just be operators but subordinates I must consider."

"Even if we might indeed become like that someday," he drummed his fingers on the table, "I still wish that day would come as late as possible so that our team can last longer."

The atmosphere at the dining table turned a bit heavy, and Felix, focused on eating, sensed something was off, cautiously pushing the last piece of steak onto her plate.

"It has never been self-evident to grant us resource allocation," Sonia said suddenly, "we are going to accompany you to fight against the Supreme of Magic, which is what we deserve."

"We are not just your operators either," Diya said, "no one is willing to only be an operator."

After a brief silence, Vishi couldn’t help but say, "The Witch’s words are normal, yet somehow when she uses the term ’operators,’ it just sounds a bit..."

Everyone nodded, Ash included. The Witch snorted lightly, firmly denying, "Obviously, it’s you who misunderstood."

"Honestly, Master, your reason fails to convince me completely; it sounds filled with naive wisdom." Vishi reached over and grabbed a bottle of knowledge essence, "But since you’re willing to give, I’ll definitely take it—nothing gives me more security than power."

Vishi’s decision completely tilted the scales towards Ash’s plan—since Vishi took it, the Sword Maiden and the Witch couldn’t refuse, unwilling to let the Ghost Prophet surpass them.

Ash breathed a sigh of relief, "Remember to drink it after you get back; drinking knowledge essence causes intense physiological reactions, which you should recall, right?"

"I remember, that time when we drank together in the bath, we all saw each other’s most embarrassing side." Diya looked at the knowledge essence, suddenly having an idea: "Let’s play a game tonight; whoever loses has to drink the knowledge essence on the spot."

"Going that far?" Ash was shocked; that would be a socially mortifying level of physiological reaction.

"If you’re afraid of losing, you don’t have to play."

"Bring it on. Whoever doesn’t play is a puppy!"

Ash noticed Vishi turned pale; after all, even though everyone would be embarrassed, the Sword Maiden and the Witch weren’t burdened mentally, whereas Vishi had the image burden of the Ghost Prophet. But Ash didn’t want to stop them, as he was also curious about what would happen to the others when they drank the knowledge essence.

"Next is the distribution of Wonders," Ash said, "This time I discovered a lot of Wonders, but most are Water Magic Wonders. I found only six suitable for you—the Sword Maiden gets three, the Witch gets two, and Vishi gets one, but you can also look in the Water Magic Wonders to see if any suit you."

"The Wonders that suit me also suit you, right?" Sonia asked, "Is it necessary to give me so many?"

"Hehe, this time I’m not biased in favor of you," Ash laughed, "I’ve kept the most precious and powerful Wonder for myself. Even if you add the six Wonders I’m giving you together, they don’t hold a candle to it."

"That’s the only Wonder on the Necromancy Ark, the Fate-healing Wonder—Illusory Promise!"