A Guide to Becoming a God Starting from a Monastery

Specifically, it is a pattern made of bronze.

The sickle and hammer are still shining with gold, and all that's missing is some red paint as the base color.

Thomas's mouth twitched, but he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Something seems to have gone wrong? The whole painting style has become abstract.

"Captain," the Blasphemous Knight raised his head. "I just have something to ask you."

“About the Nameless God?” Thomas asked.

"Yes," Boris said. "What kind of ritual is required to offer sacrifice to Him?"

"Have you tried this?" Thomas asked.

"For the past two nights, I've offered sacrifices to Him. I used the most common small-scale sacrifice method... the method of the indigenous gods." The Blasphemous Knight was a thrice-apostate and well-versed in religious rituals. "But He didn't respond."

The reason why sacrifices are offered at night is naturally because it is not appropriate during the day.

This is a Christian area after all. Apart from anything else, there is a church not far from the door.

"He doesn't respond easily," Thomas said. "And I repeat, I'm not sure He is God."

"A god-like being, it's not wrong to regard it as a deity," Boris replied.

"You can try other methods," Thomas said. "Of course you can maintain it, but I'm afraid it will take a long time. Anyway, I might have to go to Novgorod as an investigator. You come with me."

"I understand." The Blasphemous Knight was not surprised at all.

Although he had regained his feelings, many long-standing habits would not change all at once, such as his facial expressions.

A melodious bell rang outside the window.

There was a mass in the church next door.

"I'm going to Mass," Thomas said. "We'll leave when we get back. First, we'll go to... Kiev. In a day or two, once I get all the documents and stuff together, we'll go to Novgorod!"

Chapter 192 Pre-departure Arrangements 4

Thomas sat in the church pews.

He often did this kind of thing. He used to sit here in a trance and meditate to kill time.

He doesn't think he believes in God, but being a Christian is more convenient for him.

I come to the church only for divine power.

But this time, he had a completely different purpose.

Soon, the priest above began to preach.

Small to medium-sized ceremonies held in small and medium-sized churches usually bring a ball of divine power to Thomas.

Thomas had only considered the question of "how divine power is generated" before, but had never taken any measures to observe the generation of divine power.

But last time, he clearly saw the divine power being "sucked" out of the fire.

Combining what Boris said, he had a rough guess.

Now is a good opportunity to verify it.

During the sermon, not everyone was listening attentively. In fact, due to the varying levels of quality among the pastors, it was common for some to fall asleep while listening.

This is especially true at the most marginal locations.

Given Thomas's current status and familiarity with the church's many priests, he wasn't afraid of anything. At most, he'd just laugh it off and be embarrassed for a moment.

So from the moment Thomas entered the church, he had been looking inward, continuously observing his damaged godhead.

He has practiced many meditation methods and found that there are many similarities among them.

It’s not boring at all.

He remained in this state, observing quietly. He had never done this before. This was the first time.

Sure enough, after a long time, I slowly felt it.

The damaged godhead seems to be in another dimension, visible but intangible, but in fact it generates suction, absorbing something from the surrounding void.

Countless particles were sucked in.

It was a detail that was extremely difficult to observe, and Thomas was now completely immersed in it for a long time, so he could only vaguely feel it.

These particles seem to be damaging the attraction of the divine nature.

However, when the particles were sucked in, they did not immediately condense into a ball of divine power. Instead, it seemed that they would slowly precipitate after the concentration reached a certain level.

It's very similar to the distillation experiment Thomas did in his previous life.

It turns out that the damaged divine nature does indeed "suck" away divine power.

It absorbs the divine power particles from the surrounding area, and when the concentration reaches a certain limit, divine power will condense within these particles.

These divine powers did not come out of thin air, but where did they come from?

Is it because of people’s beliefs?

No...that's not right.

If it is faith, then Thomas doesn't need to go to church at all. He can just stand in a crowded place on the street and wait to accumulate divine power.

Here in Kyiv, you can also say that some people are not Christians.

But when we were in the monastery, those hundreds or thousands of people were all monks, genuine monks.

If you say that the monks themselves don't believe in God... then the cities near the monastery are all populated by Christians.

Unfortunately, Thomas only gained divine power a few times outside of the church.

All I can say is that the whole situation is still a little unclear.

The evidence is still insufficient to draw a correct conclusion.

When Thomas opened his eyes, Mass was almost over.

With one more ball of divine power, Thomas now has a total of forty-four balls of divine power.

It was exhausting to concentrate so much from beginning to end, so Thomas felt a little dazed when he left the church.

Look at the time, it’s not very early.

In the afternoon, the three of them quietly set out on the road to Kiev.

It was a quiet departure, with only a farewell to the groom.

The three of them walked all the way to the outskirts of Kiev and randomly found a hotel to stay in.

Thomas also has to get some documents and collect the corresponding money to make final preparations for this secret investigation.

In addition to documents and money, there are other things, such as contacting the Jews in advance.

On the one hand, there is the issue of money allocation, and on the other hand, there is the post station system.

If there is an emergency, you can use the Jewish post system to get an 800-mile express delivery.

By changing horses but not people and traveling day and night, they can get back to Kiev in a relatively short time.

However, Thomas didn't want the three of them to just go there as travelers.

It's not that I don't want to, but I can't.

Boris was once on the wanted list. Although Kiev has canceled the wanted order, it is still there in other countries.

In other words, if someone kills him now and takes his body or head all the way to other neighboring countries, they can still collect the reward.

Eva's identity is also in big trouble.

While the illegitimate daughter might seem insignificant, not even worth marrying into a marriage alliance, she was still a ruthless person. If Eva were truly controlled, she could still threaten the Grand Duke of Kiev.

In other words, if either of these two people was recognized, Thomas's "secret investigation" would be aborted.

It will cause endless trouble.

So the real correct approach is that both parties must separate.

The troops were divided into two groups, each looking for a foothold in Novgorod, and then contacting each other.

Treat them both as external aid, call them over when needed, and separate them when not needed, so that mistakes are less likely to occur.

After all, you are going to a completely unfamiliar environment and performing a relatively difficult task, so you need to make various contingency plans.

Of course there is one more thing.

Before setting off, Thomas had to wait for the second batch of rewards from the Wolf's Lair.

Nothing else matters, what really matters to Thomas is the golden apple.

Gray Wolf had previously offered a bounty on behalf of the Wolf Lord - whoever made the greatest contribution in the battle against Marlowit would receive a golden apple as a reward.

This is to mobilize everyone's enthusiasm.

Of course, Thomas now knew things weren't going as he'd expected. While this golden apple was indeed a golden apple, it wasn't a treasure left behind by the ancients. Instead, it was brought to this world by some catastrophic remnant of the Old Ones. Its effectiveness was far inferior to that of the legendary genuine golden apple.

But if that were not the case, the Wolf's Den would not be given out as a reward.

And even though it was not as good as the original, Gandalf still offered an estimated price of 100,000 florins for the golden apple.

Boris and Eva stayed for one night and then left. Thomas stayed here for several days to prepare various documents.

By the way, I also went to a nearby monastery and systematically learned the church's meditation method.

Estimating that the time was about right, Thomas came to the wolf's den again.

Everything went smoothly and the golden apple was delivered.

The Wolf Lord paid the Gray Wolf's reward. Thomas played a crucial role in the battle against Marlowet and made the greatest contribution, so the golden apple was given to him.

Chapter 193 Arrival

In the evening sky, you can see the setting sun slowly sinking below the horizon.

The afterglow of the sunset temporarily took over the world.

Outside the city of Novgorod, a team of horse-drawn carriages carrying goods slowly moved along the main road towards the city.

Among the convoy, there was a carriage carrying people. Thomas sat in the carriage, looking outside.

On one side of the road is a vast farmland, which is the collective field of the village. The crops are about to be harvested. From time to time, a few farmers can be seen in the fields, casting curious glances at the road from afar.

In the fields farther away, you can see shepherds driving their flocks back home, and the villagers' farmhouses stand not far from the fields, protected behind wooden walls.

This is a small village outside the city. At the end of the view, you can see a market town protected by a city wall.

The town is small enough not to cause misunderstanding.

However, a town of this size must have facilities such as hotels to serve tourists.

It seems that this should be the stopping place for merchants traveling from Kiev to Novgorod, and merchants may easily choose to rest here for a while.

It feels a bit like Kyiv.

But not particularly similar.

For example, in this nearby village, besides its wooden walls, there's a tall wooden watchtower. At the top of the tower, you can see a sentry and a large bell. Apparently, if something were to happen, the bell would be rung to alert people to take shelter behind the walls.

There was no such thing in Kiev. Although the market towns, or the surrounding cities, were also protected by walls, villages were different. Even if they had walls, they would not have any sentries.

So there's a big difference between Novgorod and Kiev. After all, Novgorod has to face the barbarians, while Kiev has no enemies around. At least not yet.

Another difference is the degree of desolation.

It was only towards dusk, or rather when we were nearing the village, that we saw signs of human habitation. During the previous few days of travel, the fields on both sides of the road were very desolate, with only shrubs and scattered trees.

Only then did Thomas truly understand that Ross was indeed a vast land with a sparse population.

Of course, this is normal. Even in Thomas's previous life memories, it was already the 21st century, an era when humans were exploring the universe, but the land of Ross was still worthy of the description of "vast land and sparse population".

In the general perception of people of this era, Novgorod was the second largest city after Kiev.

Initially, the Rurik family was "invited" to Novgorod to arbitrate between tribes and rule over the people. From there, the Rurik family began to expand, marching southward to conquer Slavic states, conquering Smolensk, Liubechi, Kiev, and other places, ultimately establishing the Rurik dynasty.

However, Thomas also did not forget that in the previous life, when the Mongols invaded Russia, only Novgorod escaped.

It was not the strong walls of Novgorod or the bravery of its people that deterred the Mongols, but simply because the Mongols felt that Novgorod was remote and they were too lazy to go there.