A Guide to Becoming a God Starting from a Monastery

"Forget it, don't worry about this. Come, I have basically taught you everything about daggers. The rest is for you to practice and fight on your own. What other weapon do you want to learn?" Giuliano said.

"I want to learn swordsmanship."

"What kind of sword?"

"Start with the Swift Sword."

After this incident, Otto became much more obedient. He didn't leave the house for a long time. Thomas's life was just running between academic classes and the martial arts training ground.

When the first snow of winter fell, the novice monks faced a test.

There's not much to say, it was a classic written exam that pretty much decided the fate of this group of new recruits.

Whether you have talent or not, whether you have confidence or not...all will be shown in this written test.

Everyone had to take a written test, even Thomas, who was already a full member of the monastery. Of course, to be honest, it wasn't too difficult for Thomas.

The test paper was in Latin. It was easy for those who could understand it, but impossible for those who couldn't.

If you haven't learned it before and don't have the money to take extra classes at the monastery, you'll just be guessing blindly at the test paper.

This is a very effective screening method. Those who fail will be put on the expulsion waiting list - without any special reason, their fate is sealed. That is to become a nameless servant in the monastery, and eventually be kicked out one day.

Those who pass the exam also have a hidden benefit that is important to Thomas but not so important to others - that is, they can read books.

All the books in the monastery, except those that are particularly precious, are worthy of reading.

In addition, they are also qualified to become apprentices.

It was unusual for Thomas to be accepted as a student by Giuliano. In fact, in most cases, now is the time for these newcomers to find a teacher.

Of course, it doesn’t matter if you can’t find it, but the time you spend learning meditation will be slightly delayed.

Considering that meditation requires more than ten years of hard practice to produce results, delaying it for a year or two, let alone a few months, will not have much impact.

After a lot of trouble, at noon, Thomas continued to follow Otto.

Otto was already visibly restless, so Thomas had to follow.

During this period, following the instructions of the deputy abbot, Thomas stopped him from leaving the monastery several times.

In a blink of an eye, a day passed and it was getting dark.

In the monastery, after many monks finished their evening prayers, they left the hall like ants and slowly dispersed.

Thomas hurried back to his residence.

The door closed, and the room was pitch black, with moonlight filtering through the mist through the window. An oil lamp provided minimal illumination on the simple wooden table. Unlike usual, there was a book beside the table.

This was a history book I had just borrowed from the library. It wasn't a particularly valuable book, just some common-sense historical and geographical knowledge.

But Thomas has been waiting for this day for a long time.

He could finally read a book and learn about the historical development of this world, whether it was a parallel Earth, or a completely unrelated world with only a similar-sounding name.

Section 28 History 2

It was midnight when Thomas finished reading the book.

All we can say is that, at present, the earth is still the earth, Europe is still Europe, and the Middle Ages is still the Middle Ages.

Bohemia and the Holy Roman Empire might just be a coincidence, a fluke of pronunciation, not necessarily parallel planes. But when familiar and unfamiliar names like England, Scotland, France, and Italy pop up one after another, you're pretty sure.

This is Earth.

It's just that this earth has magic.

Because of magic, many things have changed forever.

For example, the Chomutov region, where Thomas was currently located, belonged to the Litoměřice County, a county of the Duchy of Bohemia, or, as Thomas was more accustomed to in his previous life, a province. The ruler of the duchy was Duke Vladislav of the Pseměmys family.

Although Thomas was not familiar with Czech history in his previous life, he had at least read some European myths and legends, one of which was the legend of the Psemmies family.

Legend has it that a certain dynasty in ancient Bohemia had no male descendants, so a princess ascended the throne. Unhappy with being ruled by a woman, the courtiers urged the queen to quickly marry a nobleman. However, the queen possessed precognitive powers and dreamt she had fallen in love with a farmer hoeing a field in sandals. So, the queen instructed her subordinates to release horses at a road intersection and follow the horses' movements in search of their dream lover. Following the horses, the subordinates actually found the farmer who fulfilled their prophetic dream. This farmer's name was Psemes. He married the queen and, in a stroke of luck, transformed himself from a farmer to the supreme ruler of Bohemia. His family became the Psemes family.

Honestly, as far as the legend itself is concerned, this story is similar to several others. It's easy to recall a plagiarism of the Central Asian story of King Gordius (Gordius, known for his famous knot, the one Alexander the Great cut with his sword). According to legend, King Gordius himself drove an ox cart into the city, was inexplicably designated by a prophecy, and was immediately crowned king. He was even seduced by a priestess along the way.

But after reading this legend, Thomas casually browsed through history and learned that the legendary Pseudoephita family ruled Bohemia for hundreds of years before becoming extinct. Later, another noble was elected king.

But in this plane, the Pseudomes family is still alive and well. At least for now, there is no sign of any danger of extinction.

Moreover, at least in theory, the Pseudoepsida family would never be in danger of becoming extinct.

If a powerful foreign enemy really came and wiped out the entire Psemeis family, that would be fine. But if such an event did not happen, the Psemeis family would never have to worry about not having an heir.

Not only the Pseudoe family, but all the princes and nobles in Europe are theoretically free from this danger.

Because there is the church.

All dynasties have no problem of extinction - because the most famous spell of the church is the sixth-level spell "Conceiving".

A spell that can help the king and his wife give birth to a child.

If this spell still has some shortcomings, such as not being able to distinguish between men and women and not being able to solve genetic diseases, then there are better ones.

Seventh-level spell "Advanced Incubation".

This really does allow you to give birth to a child who is at least healthy and of the right gender. Of course, that's just the birth itself; whether the child survives to adulthood is another matter. The child's potential after adulthood is just as uncertain as their character.

These contents about magic were not originally in the book, but came from the annotations of some priests - these days, it seems to be normal for readers to leave some of their own annotations on the book.

After learning the truth about the world from the vice president, there is reason to believe that these are not fictional.

This is enough to explain why the world situation is so different!

Apart from anything else, these two spells alone directly disrupted the entire course of history. While they couldn't alter the general trend of history, they at least altered it beyond recognition, rendering it unrecognizable to scholars of previous generations.

The book didn't say it, but Thomas guessed that there would be no Normandy Conquest or Battle of Hastings in this world.

After all, the Norman Conquest allowed William to compete for the British throne with confidence because the previous British King Edward the Confessor had no legitimate descendants, which led to all kinds of trouble.

If there is a legal heir, foreigners will not have any strong claims and war will not be fought.

Even if the Normandy Conquest had been forced, the Hundred Years' War would have certainly not happened. After all, the source of the Hundred Years' War was that the French king had no sons, so his daughters (grandsons) had the right of inheritance, or they thought they had the right of inheritance.

In short, this history is completely unrecognizable and completely different from what Thomas remembered.

Fortunately, Thomas was not a history major and did not know much about European history except for a few major nodes, so he was not too disappointed when he saw the completely changed European Middle Ages.

I just don't know what happened in the older history.

For example, the Roman Empire.

This book didn't touch on any of this older history; there were other books in the library, but not many on history. At least, Thomas hadn't found any relevant ones when he was picking them up today.

Considering the productivity level of this world, if you want to understand history more deeply, you have to go to some large-scale book collections.

Outside the window, the sky was covered with dark clouds, and the moon could only show a small part of its face through the gaps in the clouds.

After all...it proved that I had come to a completely unfamiliar time and space.

Thomas sighed softly.

I wonder if I will ever go to the East and see what China will become in this magical world.

But it’s really difficult—literally, it’s a long and arduous journey.

But these are just thoughts. Even if we really want to do it, we have to consider it in the future when we have enough spare time.

He is far from having the time to do such things now.

Because of historical changes, there is no way to refer to the calendar, so Thomas can only temporarily guess that this world should be in the late Middle Ages, which is the eve of the Renaissance.

Of course, it is called the eve, and this "eve" may very well last for a hundred years, or even several thousand years!

Thomas turned his gaze from the moon outside the window to the other bed.

Joshua was already fast asleep by this time, and his light snoring was the best proof of that.

A world where magic exists... but magic is scarce. This is how Thomas defines this world.

Because magic is so precious and it takes decades to accumulate a spell, only the most powerful and influential people are qualified to enjoy it.

That's why, while there is certainly offensive magic, it is definitely not the mainstream of magic - no one can enjoy this luxury.

Relying on magic to develop productivity is just wishful thinking.

Magic is useful, but... it can change history, but it cannot change the general trend of history.

After all, if nothing else, Thomas had seen the arquebus.

The matchlock gun already existed and was already widely popular, so how far behind was the flintlock gun?

I don’t know whether the Age of Exploration has begun.

Chapter 29: Strategy 1

When the bells for morning prayer rang, the monks in the monastery came out of their residences and gathered together to prepare to begin morning prayer.

There are many religious prayers, including nocturnal prayer (midnight), matins (early morning), the first hour (6:00 AM), the third hour (9:00 AM), the sixth hour (noon), the ninth hour (3:00 PM), vespers (at lamp lighting or between 4 and 6 PM), and bedtime prayers (before bed or between 6 and 9 PM). But specifically for this monastery, morning and evening prayers are the most important, with the others being more common.

The person leading the recitation recites the sutra loudly, and the others follow suit.

Most of the monks attended morning prayers, hundreds of them, and no one noticed that Vice-Abbot Conrad was not among them.

In fact, the vice-president was currently waiting quietly at the gate of the monastery.

Soon, loud horse hoofbeats were heard in the distance.

A small group of people appeared at the end of the road. They rode at full speed and reached the gate of the monastery in a few minutes.

Each member of the team wore a cloak, a sword at his waist, a typical iron helmet, and a white breastplate.

This was the typical attire of the nobility and their followers in this era.

The leader was a young man with golden hair and a smile on his face, though a sharp gleam occasionally shone in the depths of his eyes.

"Vice President Conrad." This person knew the vice president and took the initiative to dismount and salute.

"Knight Jaromil?" Konrad recognized him; he was a knight, but more than that. He was slightly surprised, having not expected this man. Legend had it that he was the earl's illegitimate son... a bastard of the same name. That alone suggested he was well-liked. "Have you brought news of the bandits?"

The last time a new dean arrived, he was murdered by bandits. The church couldn't just ignore such a situation, so they immediately contacted the local lord, the earl, to deal with the bandits. Now, it seems like things are coming to a conclusion? But it also seems unlikely.

"It's not good news, Vice-President. We tracked down the bandits and defeated them. Unfortunately, they were very cunning. Although we defeated them, we didn't suffer much loss. Instead, they split into smaller groups and fled in all directions."

This is simply the worst news.

Conrad didn't feel sorry for the new dean's murder; instead, it gave him the opportunity to take over as dean. From his personal perspective, he was even willing to write a letter of thanks to the bandits.

But the situation is not good now.

"You mean... you wandered over here?" His face turned ugly.

I was a little skeptical, but I felt that there was no need for the other party to lie to me.

"Now, the Earl is in a lot of trouble." The young man sighed.

"Sir Knight, please feel free to speak your mind," Conrad said solemnly. After all, his own safety was paramount. He had already decided to order the monastery's gates closed today. No one would open them without permission.

After all, the monastery is a castle. Once the gate is closed, it is impossible for dozens of bandits to break in.

"Thank you, Master Conrad, for your understanding," the young man said with a smile. "To eliminate these roving bandits, I'm afraid we'll need assistance from all sides. The monastery should also contribute."

"Of course." The vice president naturally would not refuse.

The monastery didn't have many soldiers, only about a dozen professionals. Even if they exhausted all the resources, even if they counted every last one, there would only be a few dozen people in training.

This little bit of strength is just a demonstration of attitude.

"That would be great." The young man smiled and pretended to leave.

Of course, it was just a show. After all, they had come in such a hurry, they certainly hadn't eaten. Even out of basic courtesy, Conrad couldn't just let them leave.

He immediately tried to persuade them to stay, at least to treat them to a meal first.

After all, this matter was caused by the monastery.

In a class society, there were clear hierarchies. The leading knight was taken away by the vice-priest for reception, while the following followers were taken away for reception by Conrad's subordinate, Brother Sesley.

Sesley led everyone into a side room, where food and drinks were already laid out, mainly broth and bread.

The monastery had been notified of the visit in advance, so they were naturally well prepared and would not be rude.

Naturally, everyone sat down to eat and drink without hesitation. Sesley sat beside them, while the leader of the entourage sat opposite Brother Sesley.