A Guide to Becoming a God Starting from a Monastery

"Rostislav, you said... you reached an agreement with the witch?" Giuliano spoke immediately after sitting down.

This matter cannot be spread out.

"It's better than this," Rostislav said. "Thomas has already eliminated the witch."

He briefly introduced the matter.

He originally intended to meet her, but was drugged and given to the witch as experimental material.

Fortunately, at the critical moment, Thomas rushed in and eliminated the witch and her men in the underground palace.

Giuliano was stunned.

Uh...the witch who has been entrenched here for many years was eliminated just like that?

He was very glad that his former student suddenly came to visit him at this critical moment. If it weren't for Thomas, he knew that he would probably have lost Rostislav as a helper forever.

Not only that, if those guys succeed in researching the disease, it will be a complete disaster for Sera City.

"Thomas, who is that witch?"

"In my opinion," Thomas replied casually, "he's probably just a wizard who's addicted to his magical research. Fortunately, I have a strong constitution, so his drugs and poisons have no effect on me. Besides, his illnesses are useless."

"Is disease useless?"

Thomas smiled, and suddenly a pillar of fire erupted from in front of him. However, the fire was short-lived, ending in an instant. Besides startling the other two, it didn't ignite anything else.

"The fire can cleanse the plague." Thomas said with a smile.

Giuliano and Rostislav looked at each other and saw the relief in each other's eyes.

They had long guessed that Thomas was already an elite warrior, but they did not know what Thomas' extraordinary abilities were.

Now you know.

Fire has a restraining effect on plague.

No wonder Thomas was able to easily deal with this witch who had a great reputation and no one dared to mess with her.

If it wasn't Thomas this time, if it was someone else, there would be a high probability that he would have been killed by the witch.

"Thomas, you must be tired. Go and rest first," said Giuliano.

"Okay." Thomas stood up and left.

He knew that he was an "outsider" now and there were some things that could not be said in front of him.

Thomas already knew the whole story, so he knew Rostislav had gone there privately. But during the entire conversation, Giuliano hadn't said a single word against Rostislav in front of Thomas.

After Thomas left, only Giuliano and Rostislav were left in the room.

"Is the witch dead?" asked Giuliano.

"Yes, completely dead," Rostislav replied. "The remains were burned."

"Just now you said...you were drugged?"

"Yes, I took people to a village," Rostislav replied. He gritted his teeth at the thought. "It was one of those three villages... I was just going there to ask questions, but I was drugged!"

"A drug made by a witch?"

"Yes!" Rostislav sneered. "My two followers are still in the village. If Thomas hadn't assured me that they were both safe and that the villagers would return them safely in a few days... I would have to mobilize the troops and attack the village immediately!"

He was also a professional fighter, but he was drugged and almost became a test subject.

If you were to say he was defeated and taken prisoner by force, that would be fine. After all, that was the rule of battle. But in this kind of situation, he couldn't help but feel humiliated and resentful.

"Tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow at the latest," Rostislav said. "Tomorrow I'll take the tax collectors there and make them pay every penny of the taxes they owe!"

"No one has that much cash, Rostislav." Giuliano smiled.

He could see that his old partner was seething with rage.

"It doesn't matter if you don't have money. Bring a few more people to move the stuff!" Rostislav said fiercely. "I saw that the houses in the village are all very nice. Every family has large livestock like cattle, sheep, and horses."

Previously, Giuliano never sent anyone there to collect taxes because he was frightened by the witch's reputation.

Now is the time for revenge!

"No, Rostislav, calm down, we can't send anyone," said Giuliano.

"Why? Now they have no one to rely on!" Rostislav was puzzled. "The witch gang has been completely wiped out."

"Yes, but that's not good for us."

"what?"

"The witch's death may not be a good thing for us." Giuliano sighed.

Rostislav calmed down and figured out what was meant in a few seconds.

"what do you mean……"

"Everyone used to be afraid of the witch. Although this place is quite nice, the Crescent Moon Cultists had absolutely no intention of counterattacking," Giuliano sighed. "There are many reasons for this, but I believe the witch is a major factor."

Something like the plague...

It’s not scary either, after all, Thomas went there alone and caught the whole gang of witches.

But it is also terrible, because everyone understands the devastation that will be caused once a major plague spreads.

In the Christian apocalypse, plague is one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, on par with war.

"The Star-Moon Cultists on the opposite side are behaving well now, and we have a decent relationship with them. But if they knew that the witch was dead, the situation would be difficult to predict." Giuliano sighed again.

"So... I was wrong..."

"It's not your fault, my dear friend...it's fate," Giuliano said. "Thomas is also not at fault. In fact, without your private actions, or if Thomas hadn't come, the final outcome of this matter would probably not be what we want to see."

Given the witch's tendency to experiment on living people, if she feels she needs a large-scale experiment, the entire Sera City will suffer.

This is also a contradiction.

On the one hand, the witch can ensure the safety of Sera City, on the other hand, the witch herself is the biggest source of danger.

This is an unsolvable situation, and whatever you do will be wrong.

There is no optimal solution.

Section 29 Magic Items

"So, we absolutely cannot go there now," Giuliano said. "Otherwise, this will become known to everyone. And right now, it's just you, me, and Thomas."

"But...won't the people in the village tell others?" Rostislav was still a little hesitant.

He also wanted revenge.

"No, this is in their best interest," Giuliano explained. "As long as no one knows about it, their interests are protected. You know, these villages don't have good relations with their neighbors. They're also well aware of how much tax they owe."

This is also normal.

From time to time, outsiders would disappear in these villages...

But the village is so rich...

No one is taking revenge now because everyone is afraid of the witch and dares not settle accounts with them.

"So, even if it's out of self-interest, they will strive to maintain this illusion. But for us, this is enough. As long as the Star-Moon Cult still believes that the Witch still exists, they won't have any bad intentions."

"Okay." Rostislav was finally convinced.

Compared with the safety of the entire city, his personal honor and disgrace are obviously less important.

"Is Thomas very powerful?" Giuliano asked suddenly.

"Of course he's powerful... Did you know he wants to be promoted to Protector of the Nation?"

"I know," Giuliano replied. "It's a pity."

In today's world, there are only two ways to advance to the Protectorate. The first is to seek the Pope and spend one million florins to purchase the Divine Revelation Technique. The other is to explore one's own potential, practice cultivation, travel, and strive to find opportunities for advancement.

The difficulty of the two is about the same.

Anyway, these are things that normal people don't need to fantasize about! This can't be achieved through hard work, luck, or even desperate efforts.

Thomas was determined to do this, which meant that he had reached the elite high level.

It can no longer be raised.

"Although I knew Thomas would achieve great things in the future," Giuliano sighed, "I never expected he would have already reached this level."

"Do you want him to stay?"

"Impossible." Giuliano laughed. "He'll probably be here for a few months...just a few months."

After all, we were heading to the Buyid Empire, a region with vastly different languages, customs, cultures, and social structures. It was natural to stay in Sela for a while to make final preparations.

"A few months...can that be possible?"

"Ask for his opinion," Giuliano said. "If he agrees, then it's fine. My student," he sighed, "is a man of his own ideas. Rostislav, you should go and rest too."

Rostislav wanted to leave and had already opened the door of the reception room. Just as he was about to go out, he suddenly turned back.

"By the way, did you know that Thomas has a dimensional bag?"

"Dimensional bag?" Giuliano was surprised. "The magic kind?"

"Yes, a pocket that is only the size of a purse can hold a lot of things."

"No wonder." Giuliano thought of Thomas's attire.

In this era and in this place, this attire means being unarmed.

And an unarmed person who wants to go on a long journey... well, that's playing with his own life!

But if you have a dimensional bag, that kind of outfit is completely understandable.

"He has more than just a dimensional bag on him." A voice suddenly sounded.

Giuliano's hand instinctively fell on the hilt of his sword, but immediately relaxed.

The person who came in was none other than his magician.

Currently serving as advisor to the lord.

"Charlie, nice to meet you," said Rostislav.

He walked forward and hugged the other person.

"I'm glad to see you're still alive, Rostislav," the magician named Charlie smiled and returned Rostislav's hug. "Really, I almost thought you wouldn't come back."

"What did you say? He had more than one magical item on him?"

"Oh, my Lord. You know, we magicians have a certain ability to perceive magic. I, for one, am exceptionally good at this," the magician said. "While I wouldn't say I'm unrivaled, I believe few can surpass me. I sense a strong magical aura in your student."

"I can't tell," Giuliano said. Thomas was dressed like that...

"He has at least three magical items on him! No, definitely more than three, probably around five."

In this world, magical items are not common goods.

A magical item, even one given as a gift to someone like the Emperor or the Pope, would not look shabby. The starting price would easily be tens of thousands of florins, and there would be no demand for it.

Even though Giuliano was now the city lord, he had no magical items. Not a single one.

"So, I'm saying that his leaving Ross... probably wasn't just about pursuing martial arts, as he said! If it were me, I'd just give up a position like district captain for five magical items!"

"You're not saying he absconded with the money, are you?" Rostislav muttered. "Five magical items... then they'd have to have plundered the Grand Duke's treasury... or at least the Knights' treasury."

There aren't so many magical items anywhere else!

"But if that were the case, wanted posters would have been flying everywhere, right?"

"It's hard to say. After all, other countries don't recognize Russia's wanted warrant," said Rostislav.

He has a say in this matter.

"Besides, even if we use diplomatic means to get other countries to issue wanted orders as well...it won't happen overnight. Ross is a long way from here! It's normal that the wanted order won't spread as quickly as it did before."

Actually, Christian countries are still okay, as they can always resolve the issue through diplomatic means. But once you leave the Christian world, all arrest warrants are really invalid.

"He is Thomas, my disciple!" Giuliano said sternly.

"My Lord, you know that you are now..."

"Shut up, Charlie!" Giuliano yelled.