Bella knew plenty of secrets, but she also felt that most of them were far too high-level. Compared with those secrets, the Secrecy Portfolio she had now might not be able to handle them at all. Tell it about the Beyonders? The Divine Portfolio would probably have question marks all over its face. What are you even talking about? This humble concubine cannot comprehend it!
What worried her even more was that if she fed information into the Divine Portfolio, the source of that secret might somehow sense it. Then some big shot could wipe out the whole universe with a single slap. Instant GG.
Bella proceeded cautiously. First, she fed the Divine Portfolio the information "Elsa's birthday." She waited two seconds. The Divine Portfolio did not react. Apparently, that did not count as a secret to it.
Then she entered her bank account number and password into the Divine Portfolio. It still ignored her, apparently deciding that mere matters of money did not qualify as secrets either.
"Fine. I'll give you some big news."
She fed the secret "Unicron is hiding in Earth's core" into the Divine Portfolio. Its glow immediately dimmed a little. What did that prove? It proved that rank, level, and all that were within its scope. This secret worked!
Bella carefully sensed the lingering effect. It seemed that as long as the secret remained unrevealed, she could obtain a small amount of Divine Power. This was Divine Power derived from the rules themselves, basically a guaranteed minimum. It would never make her especially strong, because if a God of Secrets ever became truly powerful, that would mean the deity "knew too much!"
And the usual result of knowing too much was everyone ganging up on you. No matter how she looked at it, that did not sound wonderful.
This Divine Portfolio did not have much of a future, and its uses were far too passive and sneaky, but it was still quite suitable for a Transmigrator...
Once she made her decision, Bella gradually eased Frostmourne's suppression. Dragging four Divine Portfolios around for so long had consumed an enormous amount of her psionic energy.
She released the Merfolk, Infatuation, and Ocean Portfolios one after another, keeping only Secrecy.
The Merfolk Portfolio returned to the sea. Whoever wanted it could have it. The Infatuation Portfolio and Ocean Portfolio both belonged to the Olympian Pantheon and were already registered there, so naturally they returned to Mount Olympus.
The pressure on Bella dropped sharply, and she began concentrating on absorbing the Secrecy Portfolio.
A 3090 was useless plugged into an iron plate; it only worked when plugged into a motherboard. Even if a mortal body absorbed a Divine Portfolio, it still could not become a god, because without a Divine Body, the hardware did not match and the whole thing simply could not run.
Normally, one needed to forge a Divine Body, ignite the Divine Fire, and then absorb a Divine Portfolio. Only then could the transformation from mortal to god be completed.
A Divine Body was not necessarily all that powerful. Just look at Loki getting thrashed by Hulk, or Calypso getting mobbed by the Vengeful Ghost Alliance. A Divine Body had the property of being extremely difficult to alter through physical means. Of course, difficult did not mean impossible. If Thor stuffed himself until he became fat, there was nothing his Divine Body could do about that either.
For a physically frail spellcaster, a Divine Body was definitely a tremendous upgrade. As Bella appeared in public more and more often, the dangers she faced were escalating rapidly. A sniper had already given her a miserable time in Istanbul. Would the next enemy simply use a missile? She needed a stronger body now.
A Divine Body was the focus of her next stage of work. For the moment, her first priority was to secure the Secrecy Portfolio.
After one battle after another, Bella was already exhausted, but she forced herself to stay alert and squeezed out more psionic energy by overdrawing her mind.
Web after web of psionic energy shot from both her hands and wrapped around the Secrecy Portfolio. Like a spider dragging in its prey, she slowly pulled it toward her own territory.
She was exerting tremendous force, but the actual effect was like a pony trying to pull a huge cart. The Divine Portfolio barely moved.
Fortunately, they were in the deep sea and no gods came to interfere. After quite a struggle, she finally managed to take the Secrecy Portfolio in.
Because of its secretive nature, she could place it inside her Mind Lake without outsiders noticing. The Ocean Portfolio and Infatuation Portfolio did not have that trait. In the eyes of certain powerful beings, a Divine Portfolio shone like the sun; they could spot her from as far as 400 kilometers (249 miles) away.
The Ancient One had once explained many methods of attaining godhood to Bella. The old woman had clearly researched the subject from all kinds of angles and had probably even quietly killed a few gods for study.
As Bella understood it, a Divine Portfolio was basically a diploma. Whether it counted as an undergraduate degree or a graduate degree depended on the specific Divine Portfolio and had to be judged case by case.
A Divine Body, as the name implied, was basically a good body. Any job required a healthy body. Someone like Hawking could not exactly go out and work.
With a diploma and a good body, starting your own business at home was one option, except the income was not guaranteed. Most people chose to find a job at this stage. If nothing else, an employer would provide social insurance and benefits. For a god, that translated into receiving at least some Divine Power so you would not starve to death. That was extremely important for a newly promoted deity, and it brought up another issue that had to be considered very carefully: the Pantheon!
Choosing a Pantheon that suited you was extremely important for future development. Switching jobs between Pantheons was incredibly difficult. Pantheons were rather like work units from the era of the planned economy: once you joined, you were there for life. Unless you were someone with extraordinary connections and influence, forget about transferring!
As for condensing a Divine Body, the Ancient One had told Bella as many as fifteen methods. Some were simple. For example, go sweet-talk someone, flatter Zeus or Odin until the god-king was delighted, and then, with a wave of his hand, he could directly condense a Divine Body for you. Uniform, house, car—issued on the spot. Report for work tomorrow!
There were plenty of examples like that. Thor, for instance!
That guy had never even figured out his Lightning Portfolio. He still had not figured it out by the time his father died. In other words, he never got his degree certificate and did not graduate at all. But Odin, his biological father, waved a hand and let him join the work unit anyway, so he could coast along while accumulating seniority.
Bella certainly would not receive that kind of treatment. Forget her—even Loki did not get that treatment.
The one-step shortcut was not going to work.
Displaying her talents like a streamer and hoping some big shot would notice her, then tagging along to land a job, was too uncertain as well. The key problem was that the timing was impossible to control. For now, she could only use the safest methods. No rush. One step at a time.
Different Pantheons had different advantages and disadvantages, but Bella did not actually have many choices: the Asgardian Pantheon, Olympian Pantheon, Egyptian Pantheon, Celtic Pantheon... large and small, there were only a handful in total.
Olympus was the first one she ruled out. That place was far too chaotic. With her looks, joining it would be the same as jumping straight into a fire pit!
The Asgardian Pantheon, with its whole "We are barbarians!" style, suited her best. As it happened, she was also the ruler of Vanaheim, and Vanaheim was an ally of Asgard. If she ascended from there, she would count as one of their own, making it the easiest route for her to be accepted.
The Secrecy Portfolio did not conflict with the Asgardian Pantheon.
Her decision not to choose the Ocean Portfolio was also partly due to Asgard.
Thor's maternal grandfather—in other words, Frigga's biological father and Odin's father-in-law—was Njord, an old powerhouse who wielded an iron oar and was said to possess the martial prowess of ten thousand men. Old Njord was the sea god of the Asgardian Pantheon!
Could Bella really compete with him? There were simply far, far too many gods with an Ocean Portfolio these days!