A Guide to Becoming a God Starting from a Monastery

"What on earth... happened?"

"I was just looking for you. I'm so lucky to have met you here. I have you to thank for this," the Grand Master said. "Your achievements this time are outstanding, and the entire Knights Order unanimously recognizes your contribution."

"Is that the potion?"

Thomas had previously entrusted someone to deliver the potion he had obtained from the red dragon to the Grand Commander.

Of course, there was no concealment of other situations in Novgorod.

"Yes."

"I want to ask, what is going on, what happened?" Thomas still didn't quite understand.

"Thomas, you've probably heard that while the Old Ones are called 'Old Ones,' many are actually new to our world. When a powerful Old One appears, it signals a breach in our world. Many say this breach was 'drilled' by the Old Ones themselves. After they pass through, the breach usually shrinks and recovers... but other, less powerful Old Ones take advantage of this opportunity to enter our world through this breach."

“I’ve heard of it,” Thomas said.

This information was actually kept secret only from the common people. The true aristocracy and clergy knew about it.

In fact, this knowledge can be found in the books of various monasteries.

"Last time, a powerful remnant of the Old Ones appeared in Novgorod... a Cyclops. We spent a great deal of effort to eliminate it. Then we strengthened the Novgorod branch, because everyone unanimously expected that many less powerful remnants of the Old Ones would appear in the coming days."

"But something seems amiss. The local branch hasn't had many victories over the past few years. Everyone suspects there's something wrong with the branch's internal development."

Thomas understood immediately.

There is no way to exaggerate this achievement.

Because the corpses of the Old Ones can be used to create magical items. Thomas himself has one.

What needs to be emphasized is that the Knights are not without competitors... because for many magicians, their ideal is to control a remnant of the Old Ones and thus get rid of the curse of the magic network to a large extent.

Just like the magician Thomas had seen on Giuliano's side.

It is reasonable for the Grand Master and other high-ranking members of the Knights Templar to conclude that "there is a problem with the branch."

"But now, things may be a little different than we expected," the Grand Master said. "I had suspected this before, but that potion proves it all."

"What do you mean..."

"That's not a potion humans can mass-produce," the Grand Master said. "It was created by a remnant of the Old Ones, who infused their essence into the potion. It's a true magical potion. To be able to do that, one must be a highly intelligent and extremely powerful remnant of the Old Ones. At least a Cataclysm-grade one!"

"Another disaster-level one!" Thomas gasped.

But this look was mostly fake, because he had made the same guess before.

Prince Yaroslav traded slaves for potions, so the only possibility was that his trading partners were remnants of the Old Ones.

Or some evil gods or something.

"But, in this kind of weather..."

"We can't wait any longer. Judging from a lot of intelligence, things are more complicated than we expected."

"But we don't even know where that remnant of the past is hiding," Thomas reminded.

"We got some information from some Chude merchants," the captain said. He casually unfolded a map. "There's a tribe here, right here. According to reports, there's a problem with the forest surrounding this tribe. People from the tribe keep disappearing in the forest. People there are too afraid to go there."

"So what do we do?"

"We will immediately go to the Novgorod Knights' branch and take over there. But I'm worried we won't make it in time. Prince Yaroslav is probably busy too," the captain said. "As for you, Captain Thomas, please prepare immediately."

"what do you mean……"

"Transportation is still difficult, and it will take quite some time for the Knights to arrive. We must send a loyal and reliable person to investigate the Chude tribe first. This scout mission is now entrusted to you."

"But... Master, I don't know how to get there. I can't fly."

"You don't need to fly. First, you can hire a sled to get here..." The commander-in-chief said as he took out a map.

"seaside?"

"According to intelligence, the seawater in this area should have partially thawed by now. There is dangerous drift ice, but a few specialized ships are able to navigate this area. Go here and you'll find a ship that can take you there."

"Grandmaster, how did you contact the ship?" Thomas was still puzzled. "You are in Kiev..."

"And this for you." The Grand Commander didn't answer, but instead took out something and handed it to Thomas. "Once you get the clear news, use this to send a message immediately."

This was... a magical communication scroll? Thomas had seen it before, but had never truly touched it.

Damn, even though this thing looks so inconspicuous...it would cost at least a few thousand florins if sold!

Tsk... I'm afraid the Knights have really spent a lot of money this time!

Thomas looked at the scroll but didn't take it. Instead, he changed the subject.

"What did you say Prince Yaroslav did?"

"Hmph, he's actually posted bounties in multiple foreign countries!" the Grand Master said. "He's posted a high reward in the name of this tribe, looking for a warrior to eliminate the threat in the forest."

Thomas now understood everything. No wonder the Grand Commander was so anxious; the other party had already begun to act.

As for why he took action...

All we can say is that human greed is endless.

"But don't worry. Due to the freezing winter, even if there are really desperate criminals who value money over their lives and come here, they won't be much earlier than you." said the commander-in-chief.

"Well, I'll bring the Blasphemous Knight with me, then..."

"I'm afraid you'll have to go alone," the Grand Master said. "The Blasphemous Knight refuses to leave Novgorod."

"why?"

"His...his wife is pregnant!"

Thomas was dumbfounded, but he knew it made sense.

"So you have to go alone. This scouting mission is very important and critical!" said the commander-in-chief.

He tried to hand over the magic scroll again, but Thomas still refused to take it.

There was no way around it. Thomas wasn't a completely egoless, paper-thin person. On the contrary, he was a highly sensitive profiteer. After all, he'd seen a lot in his past life. Whether or not he was one, he'd seen both outstanding involutionary pioneers being ripped off by companies and rights activists who recorded and preserved evidence at all times, even companies wouldn't dare bully them.

He was waiting for the Grand Commander to come up with something more practical.

People are rarely satisfied because they get more benefits, but they are often unhappy because they get less.

Such a dangerous mission must have a reward of equal value.

Just like when he came to Novgorod, this mission didn't offer much reward, as it took plenty of time and was not dangerous (theoretically), and completing it would only give him one more qualification.

The Grand Commander sighed softly.

He didn't accuse Thomas of being ungrateful and greedy. After all, greed is human nature, and in fact, he himself is also such a person. Who is born a saint? Who works only for more benefits?

Accusing subordinates of being ungrateful was something that only startups on the verge of bankruptcy would do in Thomas' previous life.

Because of this, team management is a very profound subject. Many people are not good at being a leader, nor can they be a good leader.

But the leader clearly knows how to be the boss.

He did not use moral principles to suppress Thomas.

"Thomas, if this succeeds," he said, "you can temporarily take charge of the Novgorod detachment!"

He immediately painted a pie to encourage the other party, letting Thomas understand that as long as he redoubled his efforts, he would always be the most handsome guy in the Knights Templar.

Chapter 261 Adventurer 1

There are floating ice everywhere on the ice sea.

The Volkhov River is still frozen, but the sea ice has broken up... Of course, there are a lot of ice floes.

Some ice floes are harmless, but some are dangerous. The larger the ice floes, the more dangerous they are.

So the ship must be careful to avoid it.

Otherwise, even a specially reinforced hull would be easily pierced by the sharp ice. Once the ship sank, everyone on board, including Thomas, would be dead.

That's why they are moving so slowly, because they have to move forward very carefully.

To be honest, if they are not in a hurry and there are really significant interests, no one would go out to sea at this time.

According to the map, in summer or autumn, this sea voyage would take no more than two days. But in reality, Thomas had already been on the ship for five days.

There was no way out. Even Thomas could only stare at the sea of ​​floating ice with nothing to do.

In addition to Thomas, there were six crew members on board.

As for the size of the ship... For those who have experienced the industrial age of "10,000 tons is worse than a dog" and "millions of tons are everywhere" in their previous lives, any ship in this era is just a small boat.

There were footsteps behind him. Someone came up behind Thomas, put something down and left.

Thomas knew what was happening without looking back - his mental field sensed everything around him in his mind, and it was the crew bringing his lunch.

It seemed like a very thoughtful service, but, how should I put it, this was probably Thomas' biggest problem.

The food in the monastery was terrible, but I could tolerate it. But recently, especially after coming to Russia and having a lot of money...

It seems that I have become accustomed to eating big fish and meat without realizing it?

It should be pointed out that as long as you have money, the food in this era is actually not bad.

The ones who are truly living in dire straits are the poor.

Even though the bread they eat may contain sawdust, there is an old saying... hunger is the best seasoning.

But having said that, Thomas glanced at the food on the plate behind him and felt a little worried.

The food on board, even the food that the crew gave Thomas as a special treat, consisted mainly of corned beef and bread.

The jerky tasted like salted cardboard, and the bread like loose, sandy firewood.

And no matter how you handle it, it has a weird smell.

Thomas also tried boiling, baking, and pan-frying it, but all his efforts proved to be futile.

The good news is that these foods are indeed non-toxic and edible. The bad news is that the passage of time has still transformed these uncorrupted substances into a state that is extremely unrecommended for ingestion.

There was every reason to believe that this corned beef was several generations older than myself. No, that wasn't even enough to describe it. In fact, this beef had witnessed at least a century of ups and downs.

Thomas remembered that he had heard a rumor in his previous life - that during World War I, British naval officers and soldiers could still enjoy corned beef that was nearly two hundred years old.

The British weren't the only ones who did the same, and the Americans were just as grateful, even carving the old corned beef into works of art using saws, chisels, and sanding.

I used to think it was a joke that was a million miles away from me, but now I know that the world is so small and there is always a chance that the boomerang will hit me back.

All Thomas could do was put the jerky in his mouth and chew it reluctantly, while at the same time taking out the intelligence document and reading it carefully again.

Try to divert your attention away from the jerky.

The tribe they were going to was a coastal Chude tribe.

Among the various tribes of Chu and De, it was relatively unremarkable. However, due to its favorable coastal terrain, it had built a wharf, which allowed it to conduct some maritime trade. It was considered a trading point with some reputation among maritime merchants.

So this is a fairly civilized tribe.

The relationship with Novgorod is also relatively good. At least there is no record of large-scale conflicts between the two sides.

As for small-scale conflicts...that's inevitable.

Intelligence shows that the forest is temporarily named the Dark Forest.

Those who disappeared into the dark forest did not vanish out of thin air, as witnesses testified that they were probably attacked by some kind of wild beast.

Some kind of big, strong, very dangerous, and fast beast.

In fact, some victims were able to cry out for help, but were dragged away by the beasts before reinforcements arrived.

In order to solve this problem, the tribe also launched several actions.

In the first action, the tribe gathered a dozen of the most capable hunters, hoping to catch the man-eating beast by tracking its tracks and setting traps on the animal trail.

After the team went deep into the dark forest, they never came out and lost contact.

The second action was not carried out by hunters, but by several warriors from the tribe, who were armed with a variety of weapons including muskets.

After the team went deep into the dark forest, only one person escaped with injuries.

Moreover, the man's injuries worsened and he died at the edge of the forest without being able to tell his tribe what had happened.

The third time was different. The tribe not only sent its own warriors, but also recruited mercenaries from outside, bringing together a team of nearly a hundred people.

Those mercenaries are professional warriors, and should be elite.