"Climbing the Ascension God Stairs isn’t easy. Don’t rush blindly; make sure you’re prepared before ascending."

Rose watched Hilia’s power reach a critical point, recalling how the breakthrough task almost drove him to the brink when he first entered the Starfall Continent.

He wondered which game started this trend, always putting a block at level five or ten—some games had simple breakthrough tasks, others were insanely difficult.

In hard mode, "Star Fall" was the latter, very difficult.

"The Ascension God Stairs system has never changed throughout history, and the difficulty of ascending is the same. Moving from Tier One to Tier Two is relatively simple, but due to low power, it’s actually the hardest before reaching Tier Four. Before climbing in the Divine Realm, you need to enhance your tactical reserve."

The power system in this world is called the Ascension God Stairs, so the world you enter when advancing is called the Ascension World, which over time has been simplified to the "Divine Realm."

Throughout history, the gods have never corrected this name, as it inspires mages to long for divinity, thereby allowing them to absorb more faith power.

"Do I need to learn new magic?" Hilia asked.

"No, it’s too late to learn new magic; within a few days, you won’t gain proficiency fast enough, and it could affect your current strategic usage."

"Well..."

"Change weapons, change equipment, buy potions, buy scrolls—four ways to quickly boost your combat power."

"Weapons..."

Hilia took out her staff, which was a school-issued apprentice staff, less than fifty centimeters long, looking like nothing more than a black stick.

"Both the mentors and senior students say that while moving in the Divine Realm, using magic puppets is fine; the mage’s own casting is optional."

"You could equip the magic puppet with the staff," Rose said casually.

"Oh right, but I feel that in my current state, I can easily reach Tier Two." Hilia was very confident. "Senior students at the school shared a lot of advancement tips on the Star Spirit Curtain Wall. They said it’s difficult, but not overly so."

"Generally, trusting the campus forum’s strategies is fine, but do you think I’ll let you pass that easily?"

Hilia had a sense of foreboding, "Lord Rose, there’s no need to forcibly increase the difficulty, right?"

"Heh, why not? The Divine Realm within the Ascension God Stairs is also ranked in different tiers. Completing advancement in the shallow layers versus the deepest layers can differ by more than double."

"I know everyone’s situation is different, but the hardest shouldn’t be too hard, right?" Hilia said, not fully believing her own words. "Isn’t it said to be random where you advance, so you can’t control it?"

Rose replied calmly, "I can control it."

Hilia: "..."

"Perhaps you don’t understand the difference between deep and shallow layer advancement. Let me put it this way: if the combat power of shallow layer advancement is like Doris without a magic puppet, then the deepest layer advancement would be like you and Benovia, plus your magic puppet’s combat power."

Hilia tilted her head, realizing the difference was substantial.

"Doesn’t that mean from Tier Two, the combat power gap starts to widen significantly unless you advance in the deepest layer?"

"Not necessarily; you can catch up with others by spending more time after advancement."

"By then, they’d be ready to advance to Tier Three, right?"

"Right," Rose smiled slightly. "But now it’s different from before. Previously, it was purely about the mage’s individual qualities. Now, with the reliance on magic puppets, focusing solely on personal qualities, the gap isn’t that big."

Saying this, Rose couldn’t help but shake his head.

"Magic puppets brought power beyond oneself, making early advancements simpler, leading to a lack of research on how to enter the deeper parts of the Divine Realm. The downside is that reaching the human limit in the future is challenging." 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Divine Fragments truly cause harm.

Who exactly invented the device for absorbing Divine Fragments? It’s simply genius.

"Most people find reaching Tier Six hard, right?" Hilia muttered.

The human limit is Tier Six, yet across the entire Starfall Continent, notable Tier Six mages remain limited in number.

Under Rose’s requirements, Hilia had to suppress her urge to enter the Divine Realm and start planning.

With only 6 gold coins in hand, replacing the magic staff was postponed, and equipment wasn’t necessary, as combat relied on the magic puppet.

After much consideration, she decided to use 5 gold coins, spending 3 gold coins on powerful single-use potions, and 2 gold coins to buy 200 blank scrolls to draw her own designs.

"A Fireball Technique scroll sells for 50 silver coins, and a blank scroll for 1 silver coin—drawing them myself is too economical."

Through planning, Hilia chose Tier One magic, including the highest defense Rock Armor Skill, Wind Vortex Skill for drawing in opponents, Entanglement Skill for temporarily binding enemies, and the Blast Burn Skill for countering nature-type targets as a scroll-based tactical set.

"I heard that often during the Ascension God Stairs, a mass of demons will gather to block mages’ ascent. This combination skill targeting small demons should work well—gather them all with Wind Vortex, bind with Entanglement, then use Blast Burn, and finish with Ice Blade Impact..."

Thinking about encountering a swarm of demons, being sucked in by Wind Vortex, and exploding in one go excited Hilia immensely.

Rose also approved this strategy, "The preparation is good; 200 scrolls are enough, but you’re still missing a combination skill for single targets."

"For single targets, I’ll have the magic puppet handle them one-on-one... there’s no way to prepare anything else."

"Alright, go prepare."

Over the next week, Hilia dedicated herself to scroll crafting and potion researching and purchasing.

She didn’t make the potions herself; her talent in potions was inversely proportional to her rune talent, failing even with strict ratio adherence.

She’d abandoned practical potion-making, only memorizing potion names and usage methods.

Hilia wasn’t stubborn with talents she didn’t possess and gave up quickly.

Rose didn’t force teaching either. Even he became a six-sided warrior only out of boredom in the late stages, focusing on one direction during early and mid-stages.

Thus, after a week, Hilia crafted all her purchased blank scrolls into magic scrolls, totaling 195 with a 97.5% success rate.

After completing everything, Hilia applied to the school.

The application was to avoid students encountering unforeseen incidents in the Divine Realm without the school’s knowledge for timely aid.

Although death in the Divine Realm isn’t true death, ignoring it leads to actual death—by starvation.

Because dying in the Divine Realm results in weakness and immobility for an uncertain duration, ranging from hours to seven or eight days.

Once her permit was issued, Hilia took the school’s one-time emergency alert device back to her dorm, counted the number of scrolls, stacked them neatly into a specialized pouch, checked the potions again, and placed them on the magic puppet’s back.

After finalizing everything, Hilia grasped her magic staff and launched an assault on the Ascension God Stairs within her soul.

"Divine Realm, here I come!"