A Guide to Becoming a God Starting from a Monastery

Now in terms of martial arts, he has started learning horse fighting.

There is still a big difference between riding a horse and fighting on foot, but it is a necessary course for knights.

In the humanities, I have started studying astronomy and music.

In his previous life, Thomas knew all sorts of popular music, but he knew nothing about songwriting. And simply using those pop songs wouldn't work, because everyone's brains wouldn't be on the same level. The music of later generations, in this era, was simply "obscene lyrics and music" and low-brow. Only the worst, less-than-stellar musicians would bother with this aspect.

His biggest regret now is that he can't keep his divine power.

Astronomy and music were even harder than I expected. The inherent difficulty of the courses, coupled with the irresponsible teachers, made every class difficult. It's impossible to learn without divine power!

Besides that, fighting on horseback is almost like starting over from scratch.

For the same sword, the swordsmanship on horseback and on foot are two completely different versions, the difference is huge.

If Thomas's infantry combat ability was considered "lower mid-level," his cavalry combat ability was at best "high-level novice." An ordinary cavalryman could easily defeat him.

Fortunately, his physical skills are still very powerful. In a real combat, Thomas can jump off his horse and fight on foot.

Time passed quietly, and before I knew it, the number of familiar faces around me decreased.

The number of novice monks who entered during the same period has been reduced by at least half.

It's hard to say how or when they disappeared. It's like waking up and finding a few people missing.

If you look closely, you'll find that the monastery is also screening. All those with no family background are included in the screening.

In this era, hard work is useful, but not absolutely useful.

You have to have money.

If you have money, you can afford tutoring. If you don't have money, even if you want to work hard, you don't know how to do it.

Those without money weren't simply dismissed en masse. In fact, it was easy to identify the types of people who couldn't learn the course and weren't dismissed.

Those are all able-bodied people.

It's easy to guess that the monastery kept these people to do various chores, such as farm work.

So even though these people were able to maintain their status as trainee monks and not be expelled, their future was actually already doomed.

There is absolutely no future for him. I guess he will be squeezed dry and then kicked out.

The only thing Thomas could be thankful for was that he had jumped out of this quagmire early on.

Now, even if he can't learn, he won't fall into the predicament of being laid off or exploited.

In fact, knight is the least valued and most limited profession in the church system, but it is also the easiest to enter.

As long as you don't have too many problems with your talent and work hard enough, it will be easy to gain a foothold.

At dusk, after evening prayers, everyone went back to their rooms to rest.

Many rooms in the novice monks' living area have been vacated, and everyone believes that it will not be long before the monastery starts recruiting new people.

However, although there are more empty rooms, everyone's living conditions remain unchanged.

Thomas still shared a room with Joshua.

Joshua didn't have any tutoring today, so he came back early.

When he came back, Thomas had lit the candlesticks on the table and was about to read.

"Hey, Thomas," Joshua said. "Why didn't I see you at evening prayers?"

"Oh, I went to the library to borrow some books," Thomas replied. As a knight's apprentice, he also had a small privilege, which was that he could not attend some of the lessons - of course, only some. Missing too many classes would not be acceptable.

Joshua today seemed a little different from usual.

He was a little overexcited.

But he didn't smell of alcohol. There was no such thing as marijuana in this era.

Thomas was a little surprised. What happened?

"What... Are you still reading? Is this... a history book? From Bohemia?" Joshua lost interest in the book when he saw it.

Not everyone is as interested in history and geography as Thomas.

After all, not everyone can set their ambitions to the level of "controlling their destiny". Most people just live from day to day, and a few outstanding people only set limited goals.

"It's a pity." Thomas said lightly and casually turned to the first page.

He said this sincerely because he had discovered a problem - there were no publishing houses, no editors, and no reviewers these days - so the contents of the book could not be fully trusted.

Even the books in his own monastery library contained contradictions, and there were many of them.

"What's a pity?"

"These are all things from ancient times, not modern times." Thomas sighed.

"Modern? Haha... What do you want to know about modern times?"

"For example, Prince Vladislav, Count Jaromil, and so on," Thomas said. "I heard they don't get along very well."

"Haha, why do you need to look up books about modern affairs? Just ask me!" Joshua laughed.

"Ask you? Do you know?" Thomas became curious.

"I'm not exaggerating, but I know all about the Psemeis family's mess!" Joshua said. "Because I've been dealing with them since I was a kid! My family is a wine merchant, and the military is a key client! So, dealing with the nobility is incredibly familiar to me! What do you want to know? About those two brothers?"

"Yes," Thomas said. "Only by understanding the local lord can we know the future."

"You mean war? Haha, don't worry, there won't be a war. Well, I mean at least there won't be a war between two brothers."

"why?"

"Because Count Jaromil is a coward! Duke Vladislav has no ambition." Joshua said firmly.

"Coward?"

"Very cowardly. Let's put it this way, unless he possesses an absolute advantage in military and financial resources, he absolutely wouldn't have the courage to go to war with his brother and monarch!"

"You... have seen him?"

"No need to see him." Joshua waved his hand generously. "Some things don't depend on what he says, but on what he does!"

Thomas was speechless for a moment.

Chapter 62 Brothers 2

"Then why do people say that Prince Vladislav has no ambition?" Thomas asked.

"Well, that depends on our Emperor. To be frank, if His Excellency Prince Vladislav hadn't been so unambitious... he wouldn't have been able to become a duke!"

"Oh!" Thomas suddenly realized.

"If he still had even a modicum of ambition, he wouldn't let his brother go!" Joshua judged. "Is there any better prey in this world than a coward? Especially since he has an absolute advantage in every way! If he wanted to, he could definitely exile his brother and reclaim control of Litoměřice County."

"That's true." Thomas conjured up a picture of two men in his mind. "So, one is a coward, the other lacks ambition... Then our Bohemia should have enjoyed long-term peace and stability? At least that was how it should have been before these two brothers passed away."

"You're wrong, because there's another person!"

"Who?"

"The ruler of Boleslav County, Count Svetopelk. He is a notorious ambitious man."

"Who is this count? Is he also from the Psemeis family?"

"No, he belongs to another family, the Zzilica family. They're also an ancient and prestigious family," Joshua said. "This one is completely different. If Count Jaromil was only capable of sneaky tactics and his military and financial achievements were lackluster, this one is far more formidable. He excels in politics and economics. In recent years, his military spending has steadily increased. For example, the amount of wine we order increases year by year. And this increase hasn't caused any public dissatisfaction."

"If there is a civil war in Bohemia, I can be sure that it is 99% likely caused by this count. I even thought of a strategy for him." Joshua shook his head.

"What strategy?"

"Exploit the discord within the Pusemes family, first show goodwill to the Duke, while simultaneously attacking the Count," Joshua said. "Duke Vladislav is highly likely to fall for this trick. As long as he stands by and observes, Count Jaromil will likely be defeated. And if he succeeds, Count Svetopelk will immediately repudiate any previous promises. Then, if he can gain a favorable position and repel the Duke's attacks, he can force the Duke to recognize the fait accompli. Then, after a period of governance, he, possessing two counties, will have the strength to challenge the Pusemes family's rule. With just one opportunity—perhaps the Emperor's approval, or a new Duke ascending to the throne—he'll have a high probability of overthrowing the dynasty!"

Thomas began to understand.

It turned out that the situation in Bohemia was not as peaceful as he had thought, but rather undercurrents.

The Pseudoe family is facing internal and external troubles.

"This strategy... if you can think of it, then many people can think of it, right?"

"Just talking about it," Joshua said with an embarrassed smile. "It's definitely going to be very difficult to actually do it."

In all the time Thomas had been with Joshua, this was the first time he saw him so excited and enthusiastic. He basically said everything he could and couldn't say.

Although Joshua was a talkative person, he talked too much this time.

"Um, Joshua, have you..." Thomas suddenly thought of something. "Have you learned the art of meditation?"

In other words, Joshua found a teacher?

In the monastery, a senior monk was willing to accept Joshua as his disciple and teach him magical knowledge.

In other words, from this moment on, Joshua was a member of the monastery and was no longer at risk of being expelled.

"Haha, it's not just meditation," Joshua said happily. "I also learned magic."

"Magic?"

"Of course, I can't use it yet. I've only learned the technique," Joshua said. "I need to extract power from the magic web and weave it into magic."

He obviously also learned about the situation on the knight's side from his teacher.

The Weave is everywhere, and it treats everyone equally. Anyone can gain power from the Weave, including knights.

Ordinary people can only endure one or two hours of exercise a day. If they exercise more, they will be injured and need potions to treat it. If they exercise more, even potions can't treat it.

But a person can meditate all day long except for eating and sleeping, and even sleeping time can be used for meditation.

Therefore, in the way of magic, the knight has no advantage over the ascetic.

Therefore, knights will not be obsessed with the power and changes of magic, but instead seek practicality and low consumption.

This is why the knight's first choice is almost always the Qi-Boosting Slash.

The Qi-raising Slash is good. It can only use the energy of one magic spell, but now it can be used to launch three Qi-raising Slashes.

"The energy in the magic web is woven into magic?" Thomas was a little interested.

He knew that he was different from others and that he had a damaged godhead.

The example of Qi Li Slash has already shown that he can consume divine power instead of consuming the soul.

While divine power can be restored effortlessly through attending Mass, restoring the soul requires years of meditation and penance, which is extremely difficult.

What is this? This is cheating!

Of course, it is still too early, there are too many courses and too little time, and Thomas does not have enough energy to delve into the mysteries of magic.

Moreover, swords and magic are different. When fighting with swords, the chance of leaking secrets is small, but when fighting with magic, the chance of leaking secrets is very high.

You kill an enemy with one sword today, and another enemy with one sword tomorrow, and no one will think there is anything wrong.

But if you cast a spell to kill an enemy today, and cast a spell to kill another enemy tomorrow... well, everyone will feel that something is wrong!

Once others know that you don't consume souls to cast spells... Well, Vice President Conrad has reminded Thomas about this matter.

The Inquisition, those judges and knights, will come to you to cause trouble.

Anyway, in this era, barbecuing living people is a common practice.

"Yes, weaving. Weaving the magic web energy into shape before releasing it." Joshua shook his head. "If it's not woven properly, there's usually an explosion. An external explosion is fine, but an internal explosion... basically takes half the life out of you."

It seems that he really learned a lot today.

"How do you weave magic?" Thomas asked. "Why do you need to weave?"

There's no need to weave the energy to create a slash—just blend all the magic energy together and unleash it. That's why there's no need to teach the slash; you'll figure it out on your own once you've mastered it.

"The energy within the magic web is in a special chaotic state, with various energies of different properties coexisting with each other. However, once extracted, this chaotic state cannot be maintained. Therefore, many energies conflict with each other. The first step in weaving is to remove all unnecessary ones and retain the necessary ones."

"Doesn't that mean the overall energy is reduced?"

"It may seem like a reduction, but in reality, because the internal friction is eliminated, the power manifests as even greater," Joshua said. "Either it lasts longer or it's more powerful."

Thomas thought about it and felt a sense of sympathy.

Although the Qi-raising Slash is useful, its power is really... too limited.

While it might seem like it had decent explosive power, its effective damage was limited to a range of ten steps, not more than five meters. In reality, the energy quickly dissipated after leaving the sword, reaching its strongest point within two or three steps, before rapidly decreasing in power beyond that.

The main focus is on surprise.