Who designed this underworld dungeon?.

Chapter 722: The Church of Epilepsy explodes!
Todd is unable to describe his feelings right now.

Is it fear, depression, or simply giving up on thinking altogether?

Or perhaps it's not just these three emotions, but many more negative emotions flooding into your brain?
do not know.

He felt that no one would be happy to be kidnapped by a madman.

“I, Todd Spek, am twenty-three years old. I have no place to live, no job, and no savings. My greatest interest every day is going to old men and women to collect coins to spend. They all give them to me voluntarily. This doesn't count as a crime. Even if it were prosecuted as fraud, I wouldn't even get a year in prison.”

Todd muttered to himself for a while, then suddenly scratched his head in frustration and said in a dejected tone:
"What am I doing?"

He huddled in the corner of the dark house. The small house had its windows completely blocked by weeds, which looked like they had just been put up recently. A damp, musty smell permeated the room. The house was practically bare, and its only redeeming quality was that it was clean.

"Plop—"

Just then, three dead rabbits with their heads ripped off were thrown in through the window, blood splattered all over the floor, and their limbs were still twitching.

The spilled blood instantly ruined the only redeeming quality of the room.

"Ah, it's only morning." Todd stared blankly at the sky. Looking through the broken window, it was only morning, probably around eight or nine o'clock, the start of the day.

However, he couldn't sense any vitality from it, nor could he feel happy, because—

"You must eat your food properly today, I'm going to preach now, hee hee!"

A voice, sounding old-fashioned yet insane, came from outside the window. Then, Todd heard the other person running away with joyful steps. After a while, he could hear faint sounds of artillery fire outside.

"That old guy is really fearless."

Seeing the rabbit staining his floor with blood, Todd finally took action, went over to pick it up, and began to handle it rather clumsily.

A short while later, smoke began to rise from the chimney, but a gust of wind magic controlled by Todd instantly dispersed it, making it almost impossible to tell from a distance that anyone was still living in the house.

The remaining smoke drifted to the collapsed bakery on the street, to the burnt-down herbal medicine shop, and to the empty houses with their doors wide open.

The smoke dissipated before it even left the lifeless, almost deserted town.

Even if Todd didn't use magic to erase the traces of smoke, it probably wouldn't be very noticeable, because outside the town, the invisible magic was becoming chaotic and volatile, and something as intangible as smoke would certainly be destroyed by the raging magic.

In other words, there is a magic stabilizing device left by a magician in the town, which makes the town seem relatively stable. Being in a chaotic magical environment for a long time would definitely affect people's health.

Why is the magic going out of control?

Because it was very, very far from the town, but it didn't seem too far from the Speed ​​Demon.

The churches are at war.

This is the central region of Scameron, the Kingdom of Ten Thousand Religions.

It was also the front line of the battle between the three major religious alliances that controlled the country and the various small religious rebel armies.

The two sides fought fiercely back and forth in this area, and it was common for the allied forces to occupy the area in the morning, only for the rebels to return in the afternoon. The same piece of land would change hands multiple times in a short period of time.

It's safe to say that this place is now the most dangerous place in the entire Scammeron, without exception. What could be more dangerous than war, apart from the demon invasion?
In the eyes of the local residents living in this town called Hypa, there is no such thing.

Fortunately, the fighting between the two armies has not yet reached this area.

But tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, as long as the war continues, it will probably spread here sooner or later.

A pleasant aroma gradually wafted from Todd's cottage.

Although eating only rabbit meat for a long time can lead to health problems, it's still better than not being able to eat anything at all. Recently, it has become increasingly difficult to catch animals in the area, which is naturally due to the war.

The advantage is that the monsters in the vicinity have also disappeared, and the safety of the town has been guaranteed. These days, not even a slime can be seen. After all, the slime's insignificant body can be used to load magic cannons, which can be used by both sides in the war.

Because of the war, a large number of people fled the town, but there were still many things left in each house. He could pick up spices and other things to use as he pleased, so the stew was very fragrant.

Although fragrance is colorless and invisible, it is in some ways harder to conceal than cooking smoke, but Todd doesn't need to conceal it.

As the aroma of stewed meat gradually spread throughout the town, the once-silent town began to stir.

The doors of some houses that looked dilapidated and indistinguishable from ruins were pushed open a crack, and dark figures emerged from behind the doors, their eyes bloodshot and filled with longing.

"Sniff."

After taking two quick sniffs to confirm the aroma of stewed meat, his bloodshot eyes crinkled into a smile, and a strange laugh came from behind the door.

The door was slowly pushed open, and sunlight flooded into the dark room, revealing the creature hiding within.
There are two children, a boy and a girl.

They looked to be in their teens, dressed in tattered clothes, but their bodies were fairly clean, and even the crevices under their fingernails were spotless.

Although they are so thin they look almost unrecognizable, it's clear that if they had enough food, they would be very popular. The two even look somewhat alike, so they might be siblings.

The two exchanged a glance, then quietly left their small, dilapidated hut, but instead of going to Todd's hut, they headed in the exact opposite direction.

They split up and went to knock on some houses with their doors closed. Finally, they ran together into a house and brought out two elderly people in wheelchairs.

Other doors opened, and one weak face after another appeared, each person dressed in rags but clean.

Some were sickly, some had lost an arm, and some were so weak that they needed crutches to move around. There were about ten people in total.

It perfectly embodies the term "old, weak, sick, and disabled," it's practically a concrete representation of it.

The people all seemed to be in a bad mood, and no one spoke when they gathered together. They moved toward Todd's house in silence, and the atmosphere was quite eerie.

This short distance was taken by the weak people for more than ten minutes, and some of them had to stop to catch their breath.

When they finally arrived at Todd's house, everyone looked at the two children. They counted down for a moment and then went up to knock on the door.

A short while later, the door opened.

Todd, wearing a pink apron he'd picked up on the spot, came out carrying a large pot of stewed rabbit meat. The aroma made everyone present swallow hard.

"Praise to Madfire! Madfire is the best!"

People shouted slogans in unison.

Even though they were so weak that they could barely walk, everyone gave it their all when chanting slogans. This wasn't because they were all fanatical believers, but because...
"Hmm, very good, the slogans were shouted quite loudly this time."

Todd nodded in satisfaction, then inspected each person's body. Anyone with dirty hands or face was given a splash of water magic to wash them clean. Only after everyone's hygiene was deemed acceptable did he tap the side of the pot with a spoon and say:

"Alright, let's eat. Everyone come and line up for your food."

This is exactly what people have been waiting for.

So, various containers were filled with rabbit stew by Todd, who kept muttering to himself as he did so:
"Here's an extra piece of meat. Go and feed those two old folks first."

"You have an infectious disease, go eat over there."

"Does your arm still hurt? Oh, it's nothing, I was just asking. I don't know how to treat it."

When the two children were still ladling soup at the end, Todd gave them the last bit left, saying in an even more courteous manner:
"Eat more, and grow up quickly."

The children nodded emphatically, their eyes filled with gratitude, and said:
"Praise to Madfire! Madfire is the best!" With a dozen or so people sharing three rabbits, even though Todd didn't serve himself any meat, it still wasn't enough. But there was nothing else to be done; they couldn't find any other food.

Although there wasn't enough to eat, everyone who received food prayed with gratitude, reciting all the prayers they had ever learned in their lives. These prayers pointed to the god Todd had told them that as long as they praised that god, he would provide them with the strength to live.

The name of that deity is the God of Mad Fire.

"Sigh, I can't believe I've ended up like this here. I really want to go to the capital and stay with my cousin."

Todd watched the people enjoying their food and couldn't help but sigh with melancholy, taking a sip of the soup that was flavorful but completely empty.

He was a mage who was neither particularly skilled nor unskilled. He could replenish his physical strength with magic, so although he didn't completely stop eating, he only needed to eat once every two days.

Of course, it's not that he doesn't like to eat; in fact, he loves food quite a bit. But right now, these elderly, weak, sick, and disabled people need to eat more.

"I can't believe it, my first attempt to establish a sect, and the first group of believers are like this."

He hesitated for a moment, then finally sighed deeply and muttered to himself, "Such a future is promising."

Hearing him sigh, people, though unaware of the reason, chanted in unison, "Praise the Madfire! The Madfire is the best!"

After shouting, he continued to shovel rice into his mouth.

"Yes Yes Yes"

Todd forced a smile, thinking to himself:
I can't believe I came up with these two utterly meaningless sentences, and I can't believe these people actually accepted them with such amusement.
The people who fled Hypa took all the food with them, leaving the elderly, the weak, the sick, and the disabled to die.

From a moral standpoint, this selfish act should indeed be criticized, but Todd should be grateful that there are still people in Hypa who stayed.

Because these people indirectly saved his life.

This all dates back to half a month, or a month ago.

That's what happened after he smuggled himself into the Warrior's Kingdom, and was kidnapped by a strange old man named Dorian because he shouted that he believed in Mad Fire.

Dorian's mental state is very unstable. He only shows some logic when talking about the Mad Fire. If you claim to believe in the Mad Fire and say something related to it, you can gain Dorian's trust and even influence his behavior with your words.

This is the conclusion he reached after observing Dorian, and the significance behind this conclusion is...
In Dorian's hands, my life is very precarious.

Dorian believed the nonsense he had told him, thinking there was an organization in Scammeron that worshipped the Mad Fire, so he happily headed over there, saying he wanted to join the organization and contribute his strength.

But Todd knew that such an organization didn't exist. He only learned about Mad Fire by chance from a newspaper from the Warrior Kingdom. Most people didn't even know about it, let alone have an organized faith in it.

So when Dorian arrived in Scammeron and discovered that such an organization didn't exist, he knew his life was over.

To avoid that from happening, Todd tossed and turned all night on his journey, thinking of many backup plans.

When he was still in the Warrior Kingdom, he asked Dorian to find research on Mad Fire, saying that he wanted to learn more about Mad Fire and understand it more deeply. Dorian actually found it for him.

Upon further investigation, Todd discovered a fact that made his eyelids twitch:

This mad fire doesn't seem like a good thing.

Why does it seem like a contagious disease?

Realizing he had stepped into an extremely dangerous pit, Todd could no longer turn back. All he could do was try various things every day to raise Dorian's favorability, hoping that the other party would let him off the hook after learning the truth.

But then, things took a turn for the better.

That day, they spent the night in Hypa town, and Dorian was already restless because he couldn't find his group.

Todd was so scared that he wanted to try to run away, but he knew that if he ran away, the old man would find him and would be much stronger than him.

On that restless night, the two children who had come with him to get food appeared.

"We believe in the god you believe in, could you please give us some food?"

This sentence became Todd's lifeline.

The next morning, he took his two children, who had spent the night cramming on their knowledge of the madness, to Dorian and announced with great sorrow that his organization had been wiped out by some church and that the two children were the only survivors who had escaped.

The siblings' acting skills were beyond ordinary people, and they kept praising Madfire, saying Madfire was the best, which made Dorian, whose mental state was deteriorating, look like a happy and kind old grandfather.

At this point, Todd seized the opportunity to say, "We can rebuild the church here and make the faith of Mad Fire great again!"

Dorian accepted the request without any questions.

And so, Todd managed to get away with it for the time being and his life was spared.

The elderly, weak, sick, and disabled of Hypa Town became the first believers of the Church of Mad Fire. Knowing that Todd and his family were their only source of food, the people were exceptionally loyal to the Church of Mad Fire.

It was because of this connection that Todd dared to take in these people and temporarily made Hypa Town his base.

Why doesn't he leave this dangerous war zone?

Because he was gambling, gambling that he could get rid of Dorian.

Although this guy is very strong, he runs out every day to find people to bring back the Faith of Mad Fire. With war raging outside, it's hard to guarantee that he won't have an accident.

Todd has made up his mind: if Dorian doesn't return within two days, he'll run away immediately!

I will never look back!

However, the harsh reality is that Dorian returns every day unharmed and seems quite happy, sometimes even bringing back some good stuff.

It sounds strange to say that.

But it feels like Todd is playing a game called Travel Frog, and Dorian is naturally the frog son.

"As long as I'm here, you'll still have food to eat. Be grateful to me, because your happiness is built on my suffering."

He spoke in a voice only he could hear.

But what if?

He gave a self-deprecating smile and said:
"What if this church actually succeeds?"

Even Todd himself didn't believe it.

Just then, the ground suddenly shook, as if a huge, heavy creature was heading this way.

He glanced into the distance, and his face immediately turned grim.

"Have those fighting guys finally noticed this side?"

He saw a group of heavily armed figures riding large horses toward him, which looked like a small squad.

It's impossible to tell from this side whether that squad belongs to the allied forces of the three major churches or the rebels of those smaller churches, but regardless of which side they belong to, Todd has a feeling that anything bad is bound to happen once they get here.

The crowd began to panic. At this moment, he stood up and said:
"You all hide in the cellar. I'll handle things here!"

(End of this chapter)