The Holy Man of Another Century Gospel

Chapter 26: Honor and Humility
After admiring the reassembled troll corpse with the attitude of a victor, and dealing with some villagers who came to inquire about the situation, Eric returned to the camp from the mine only when it was completely dark.

"I thought this would be a good idea."

"Yes, yes." The captain of the guards nodded repeatedly, and it was unclear whether he really agreed or was just flattering the young master.

More and more villagers came to the camp to help. After the group came back, they didn't have to do anything. Someone would come to help them take off their armor, take their weapons for maintenance and repair, and then serve them steaming hot food.

After rejecting the several village women who came over to him, Eric took off his chain mail and shook it a few times as a simple cleaning.

The real maintenance is to throw it back into the sandbox and wash it with fine sand. He will have to wear it tomorrow, so there is no need to make it too clean.

Compared to a few days ago when he almost fell off his horse because he couldn't hold the chain mail, Eric can now easily lift it with one hand, and his strength has been qualitatively improved.

Leslie was watching from the side. He was one of the people who felt the change most deeply. Thinking of the young master's amazing ability to learn combat skills, he could only sigh that he was probably a natural born warrior, and only a little training would allow his brilliance to be revealed.

After getting out of the tent and sitting down by the campfire, Eric pulled his clothes and felt something was not quite right.

He soon realized that he was not feeling unwell, he just wanted to take a shower again.

When the pressure of fighting eased, needs like cleaning returned to his attention, as was his habit.

It doesn't stink. Eric raised his arm and smelled it. It can be tolerated for a day or two.

"Master, do you want to take a bath?"

"let's talk tomorrow."

Taking the barbecue handed to him by the captain of the guards, Eric decided to fill his stomach first.

"It would be nice if there was some wine." Leslie sighed.

"You can't drink even if you have wine." Eric glanced at him. "The battle isn't over yet."

"I understand... I mean after it's over." Leslie moved closer. "Some villagers just said they're going to hold a grand banquet tomorrow to celebrate the end of this disaster."

"Do they all know?" Eric took a bite of barbecue.

"Yes."

"What if we can't finish cleaning it tomorrow?"

The captain of the guards glared, "Uh..."

"Just kidding." Eric waved his hand. It was his own words that all the undead could be cleared out tomorrow.

After getting rid of the corpse troll, they advanced a lot further underground in the afternoon. According to the route he remembered, it would not be an exaggeration to say that they had reached the door of the BOSS room.

"Let's do it. Let's make it lively and let all the villagers participate," said Eric.

Leslie nodded. "I'll tell them."

After a while, Alena and Sophie also came over and sat down, and the captain of the guards tactfully moved to another campfire.

Eric felt that he was being unnecessary - could he really attack the nuns of the Holy Lady's Monastery? - but he had no intention of stopping him. The feeling of being alone with them was indeed more unique.

The bonfire was bright but not too scorching, and the burning wood crackled from time to time. Eric raised his head. The night sky was clear, and the light from the fire on the ground did not affect the stars in the sky.

After the two of them had eaten and drunk their fill, the head nun took the initiative to bring up the matter of making a divine medium for him.

"What kind of medium would Mr. Eric like?"

“So you can choose for yourself.”

Alena nodded. "But it would be best if it were something readily available that you can carry with you."

The first idea that came to Eric's mind was to make his sword into a medium.

Wherever the sword pointed, the holy flame would ignite.

——Come on, this is really cool, okay?

Immersed in his own elementary school aesthetic, Eric felt secretly happy for a moment, but when he came to his senses, he decided to put this plan on hold for the time being.

The head nun also said that we need items that are suitable for carrying. Although warriors always carry swords, there are always occasions when they cannot carry weapons - for clergy, there are actually quite a lot of such occasions.

Or pendants and other jewelry are more suitable.

Eric felt around and discovered a new problem.

"There's nothing in me that could be made into a medium."

He had quite a few gold pendants and rings inlaid with large gemstones, but they were all left at home as he did not like to wear such ornaments.

"Does Sister Alena or Miss Sophie have any extra ornaments you could lend me? I'll give you a better one later."

Sophie immediately searched among her things and was dismayed to find nothing to lend him. She assumed the same was true for the Mother Superior, who, after rummaging for a moment, unexpectedly found a silver ring.

Alena herself was a little surprised. "Where did the ring come from... Oh, right, a lady gave it to me after the funeral that day."

Eric didn't care about the ring's origins. "Can this ring be made into a medium?"

Alena took it in front of her eyes and observed it for a while, frowning, but still nodded slightly, "Okay."

"Then I'll leave it to the head nun."

Alena flipped her hand and a dagger appeared in her palm. She held the ring in one hand and the blade of the dagger in the other, and began to carve on the ring.

This was clearly no easy task. Eric held his breath, and Sophie dared not breathe, fearing to disturb the head sister. A dagger wasn't a good choice for carving, especially on a small ring. Alena rotated the ring, concentrating and meticulously carving until the entire ring was covered with fine lines.

The base of her palm had been cut by the blade, and blood was oozing out.

The head nun was completely unaware of this and instead showed a rare look of embarrassment.

"Making a medium is a very delicate matter. It requires not only patience and skill, but also the support of divine arts. My abilities are limited, and I can only achieve this level..."

Eric originally thought that it would be enough to just carve the patterns, but when he heard her mention that divine skills were also needed to support it, he immediately thought of a unique sub-profession in the [Faithful] profession system - the Holy Sculptor.

"Is this the professional skill of the 'Saint Sculptor'?"

Alena glanced at him immediately, then nodded, "That's right."

This sister nun's career path is quite unique, Eric thought to himself.

The Holy Sculptor is a purely auxiliary profession in "Crown of Thorns". It can provide various types of buffs to the surrounding friendly parties by carving statues of various goddesses.

In the game, statues decay and disappear after a period of time. However, in this world, crafting divine mediums seems to have become the job of the Holy Sculptor. The mediums they create shouldn't become ineffective so easily...

Eric was thinking about it when Alena handed him the ring.

"Until the carvings on the ring are worn away, it can be used as a medium for divine magic. Give it a try."

Eric took the ring.

[Alena's Divine Ring]

"A silver ring with sacred carvings engraved on the inside, connecting to the power of the gods.

Can be used as a medium for performing low-level divine arts.

This is the work of Sister Alena, the Seventh Sister of the Convent of Sainte-Laïsse. Her skill is rudimentary, and her sincerity is uncertain.

Stroking the newly engraved fine lines on the ring, Eric put it on his finger and said, "I haven't learned any magic that requires a medium yet."

Sophie looked over and moved her lips. The head nun had already spoken: "I will teach you 'wound healing' first."

"it is good."

After all, it was an elementary divine art. After the head nun explained it for the second time, Eric got the hint to learn the art.

Alena was still teaching when the student in front of her suddenly turned the ring on her hand and then held her right hand.

"..."

Eric prayed softly, "Please, Yella, grant me the power to heal my wounds."

A familiar wave came from the palm of his hand, covering her knuckles. The small wound cut by the dagger healed quickly, leaving only a small piece of blood that had not yet dried.

I learned it so quickly...

Catching a glimpse of the gazes coming from beside her, Alena calmly pulled her hand away, "It seems Mr. Eric has mastered it."

Eric nodded, and then asked her to teach him a few low-level divine spells that required a medium, such as Holy Light Punishment and Purification.

As the pale green purifying light swirled around her body, descended, and then disappeared, Sophie opened her eyes wide, having long since let go of the little emotion she had previously felt.

"Amazing! I haven't even learned this magic yet, but Mr. Eric mastered it so quickly!"

Of course Eric knew his actual situation - it was open, and it was open even if it wasn't closed - and he felt a little embarrassed by her praise and said a few humble words casually. Sophie then said, "Honor must be preceded by humility."

He didn't hear clearly for a moment, "What?"

"'Before honor comes humility,' that's the verse from the Book of Proverbs," Sophie explained. "The Holy Prophet Raphael taught his disciple Abbey that only by being humble at all times can we enjoy God's glory."

[Interpret the Holy Scripture and gain 1 point of Faith]

Eric was stunned when he saw the prompt that suddenly appeared in front of him. He opened the attribute panel and saw that his faith had indeed increased a little.

Listening to people interpret the holy scriptures can also gain attributes...

He quickly realized that this was just a variation of the [Professional Mission] in the game of his previous life.
There is no experience and no equipment. The only reward is the main attribute points of the profession. The content of the priesthood tasks is usually a re-skin of various small stories in the holy scriptures - holy scripture.txt becomes holy scripture.avi.

In this world, the way to obtain this reward has, in a sense, returned to its original state.

"Tell me more."

"Huh?" Sophie was stunned.

"That's the verse you just interpreted," Eric gestured. "I think it's quite interesting...it's quite touching. I'd like to hear more of something like this."

"You mean..." Sophie looked at him, then at the head nun between them. "What's in the scriptures?"

"Yes." Eric nodded.

"Mr. Eric—"

Alena finally couldn't bear it anymore.

"You mean to say that you, who intend to become the Saint's successor, haven't even read the Holy Scriptures thoroughly yet?"

(End of this chapter)