I was an apprentice in Ferren

Chapter 38 The Church's Reward

“This 25 gold coins is your weekly salary as a deacon in the confessional.” In a spacious room, Dupont took the gold coins and looked at Dorothy and another man he had never seen before, dressed in a high-ranking priest’s robe. His handsome face was full of righteous indignation: “Thank you, Pastor, but it is my duty to share the burden of the church. I cannot accept this gold coin.”

“The Church never forgets the merits of those who have done good, let alone a devout believer like you.” The speaker was dressed in a priest’s robe. He took out an exquisite necklace with several deep green gemstones adorning the front: “In recognition of your special merits today, the Church offers two items for you to choose one as a reward.”

"First is this Health Amulet. I heard from Pastor Dorothy that your health isn't very good. This Health Amulet is an extremely rare magical item. As long as you wear it, your constitution will increase to 19 points."

This will improve your physical fitness, which will be very beneficial to your future growth. The probability of getting sick or being cursed will be greatly reduced, especially for young people like you who haven't awakened yet. Your muscles and bones may grow further, and wearing it may allow you to break through your original physical potential before you turn 18.

DuPont's expression froze as he heard this, followed by uncontrollable elation. Just as he was about to agree, Dorothy took out a small bag depicting a seven-pointed star ring: "This is a dimensional bag, one of the rewards the church has prepared for you. It has an extra 1000 pounds of weight and 10 cubic meters of storage space. Food and water can be stored inside for a year without spoiling."

"But remember not to put any living creatures in it. If they stay there for too long, they will suffocate and die. Also, remember not to let the opening of the dimensional bag connect with the portal, otherwise it will cause spatial distortion. If they are too close, it may cause damage that even divine magic cannot repair. This is a very dangerous thing."

Upon hearing the name of the Dimensional Bag, DuPont didn't even glance at the Health Amulet again. He knelt on one knee without further refusal, accepting the Dimensional Bag with a devout expression. He clutched his chest and exclaimed, "Thank you for the Church's blessing! My victory over evil today is entirely due to my regular attendance at church and listening to the sacred teachings. The pastors' words have awakened my courage to defeat my enemies. From now on, I will fight bravely under the leadership of the ladies and pastors, striving to severely damage even more of the ladies' enemies!"

Angie, who had come along to do odd jobs, was so surprised by these words that she couldn't close her mouth for a long time. She looked down at the Lie Detection Ring on her hand, which hadn't lit up, her eyes full of confusion. Dorothy, on the other hand, nodded repeatedly, clearly quite satisfied. Even Damien nodded in approval.

"The Church is well aware of your piety, and it will not miss any promising talent. May you always maintain a humble heart to study the teachings of the Lady. I have high hopes that you can advance to become a Spell Guardian, which would bring honor to your family's status and ability."

While Angie was still in shock, the three of them pretended for nearly half an hour before ending the award ceremony. After Damien and Dupont left, she followed Dorothy back to the temple and then to her room. She took out a pure white gem and infused it with her spiritual power. After a while, a joyful female voice rang out from the other side: "What's wrong, sweetheart? You missed me so early?"

"Sister, I've encountered something that's very confusing."

"Don't rush, tell me slowly."

After a long while, the gem replied, "Angel, the human heart is a very complex thing, and humans are even more so."

"In the eyes of some people, loyalty and piety are rootless things. In the human world, these things can be directly obtained with bargaining chips. Whether they come from the heart or not is not so important."

“But this is against the doctrine, and the lady never asked for these things. This is wrong!” Angie protested softly.

"But the lady didn't say it was wrong." The voice on the other end of the gem chuckled: "Human hearts are complex and fickle, and the range of their factions is so vast that even elves cannot compare. This is their nature and a fact that is difficult and impossible to change. Logically speaking, they should be heading towards self-destruction in their confusion."

Yet their civilization remained stable and survived countless crises of destruction—something even the greatest sages could not explain, and which is why you and I are here in this world.

“Keep observing. We have plenty of time to observe and learn. But remember that you are always yourself, that is the most important thing. And you must keep your secret. Otherwise, if people discover your talent, it will inevitably arouse their fear, which may cause quite a few problems.”

The communication was interrupted. Angie carefully put the gem inside her body, looked at the shrine in the room, let out a long breath, and closed her eyes.

May you forgive me, madam.
-
You have gained a special ability: Berserk.

Berserk: You will unlock the instincts deep within your genes, unleashing your most primal rage to bring your enemies to their deaths.

Main benefits: During Berserk, you temporarily gain +4 Strength, +4 Constitution, and temporary life equal to twice your character level. Willpower rolls grant a +2 Morale bonus. You also gain resistance to blunt, piercing, and slashing damage, and damage from non-magical weapons is reduced by 50%.

Negative effects: Wild aggression will make you ignore enemy attacks, and your defense will decrease by 2. Rage overwhelms your sanity, preventing you from casting spells or using Spell Focus during the duration of Berserk.

Your Berserk state lasts for 1 minute. Berserk ends prematurely if you fall into a daze during Berserk, or if you have not attacked any hostile creature or taken damage from the end of your previous turn to the end of this turn. You can also intentionally end Berserk during your turn.

When the rage ends, you will become exhausted and gain a negative status effect of -2 Strength and -2 Agility. All positive benefits will disappear, and the negative effect will last for 10 minutes.

Since you haven't yet acquired the Barbarian class ability, you can only Berserk once a day at most, and you cannot actively activate this ability.

You have gained 2000 experience points.

You have reached a proficient level in using the dagger.

Taking down that psychopath brought DuPont unexpected huge profits, but due to the special circumstances at the time, DuPont had to pretend to be innocent, so he had to put the matter aside for the time being. Now that he is back in his dormitory, he has time to study the benefits of this incident.

The Berserk special ability is incredibly powerful. In addition to temporary attribute bonuses, it also grants temporary health, and the three physical attack resistances provide nearly 50% physical damage reduction. Although it cannot reduce magic weapons and magic damage, it is still incredibly powerful against low-level characters, so once activated, it makes one almost invincible in one-on-one combat for nearly a minute.

With this in mind, DuPont began to look up the job requirements for barbarians and was immediately overjoyed.

Barbarian prerequisites: proficiency in simple weapons (nearly half), military weapons, light armor, and shields.

Skills: Choose two skills from Taming, Movement, Intimidation, Nature, Senses, and Survival to be proficient in.

Ability: Berserk (Mastered)
He was still far from meeting the prerequisites to become a warrior, yet he had already mastered the core abilities of a barbarian.

This was an ability that even his money-grubbing system couldn't activate directly, yet he mastered it instantly. If calculated based on his expertise, it saved him a huge amount of money.

I really am a genius!

After the initial excitement, DuPont started calculating the money.

He can learn the two weapon proficiency requirements directly for 200 gold, the light armor and shield proficiency requirements together are 100, and the two skills are 100. In other words, he only needs 400 gold to learn all the requirements to become a barbarian and obtain this profession.

If his calculations are correct, he only needs 1000 experience points to level up the Barbarian to level 2, bringing his total level to 4 (2 Wizards/2 Barbarians). In addition to all the abilities of a level 2 Barbarian, he will also receive an additional attribute boost every 4 levels.

All of this requires only 400 gold coins and 1000 experience points.

This is an incredibly good deal. You should know that the legendary cultivation manual, a legendary artifact, only adds 2 attribute points when read once, and its price is a staggering 2 gold coins.

Furthermore, even if you have the money, you might not be able to buy it. Without sufficient connections, no one will pay attention to you even if you have the money. It's absolutely a case of having a price but no market.

　Considering the schedules and work hours of our valued readers, we'll change the daily update time to 9 AM. Also, please vote for me and try to get a recommendation or something; the fantasy channel is really struggling!
　　

(End of this chapter)