Chapter 74: 【Light of Pioneering】Blessing Short Staff, Surcoat, Baishi Statue of the God, Tier 6 Assistance Badge

Now that the Priest Asmoru, who led the team, had converted the helpful Knight Jier into a 【Sun Child】, the Sun God Church was immediately placed under heavy scrutiny by the Sasi Family.

It even implicated other churches as well.

This was unavoidable; who knew that Asmoru would be so resolute and suddenly use such a tactic.

But since things had reached this point, the remaining Sun God Priests had no choice but to accept reality and make amends for their mistakes.

"Knight Jier, please take a look; these are the compensations we have for you."

There were five priests in total, including the one currently leading the team temporarily, and each of them held something in their hands.

The temporary leader held a short staff; the style of this short staff was simple and ancient, and the material was actually made of stone, but the object embedded at the top of the staff was not simple at all—it was a brilliant yellow gem.

This yellow gem had been carefully polished; not only did it emit a faint light itself, but it also reflected the light in the surrounding room, making it very beautiful.

And on the stone staff body, there were also many engraved Sun God symbols and words of praise.

"This?" Jier took it into his hands, playing with the gem short staff that was over twenty centimeters long and easily held in one hand.

"This is a piece of historic priestly equipment that I immediately wrote a letter to have the church in Yemei Town urgently search for after the incident occurred. This short staff once accompanied the first Sun God missionary to arrive in Sasi County, and together they established the local church in Yemei Town."

"This is a priestly weapon of great significance to our Sasi County Sun God Church, and we present it to you, Knight Jier, here. We hope that as a new Sun Child, you can use it to further manifest the glory of our Lord in the future."

Jier secretly curled his lip, but since he had accepted their gifts, he acted as if he hadn't heard the other party call him a Sun Child.

Turning the heavy short staff, which appeared to be protected by the Sun God's Divine Power, in his hand, Jier continued to ask: "What effect does this thing have? It wouldn't just be as simple as emitting light, would it?"

"Knight Jier, please do not underestimate the act of emitting light. Many methods can bloom with light, such as torches, or white stone that glows after shining in the sun, etc., but the duration of the light, the range of the light, whether the light can dispel evil, whether the light carries heat, whether the light can cause Blinding, the height of the light's position, and so on—the differences are all very great."

"So, this short staff really can only emit light?"

Jier was somewhat speechless.

"Of course it does more than just emit light. The gem at the front of this short staff can project a glowing mass of Divine Power that sticks to objects, and the duration and intensity of the light mass can be adjusted according to the amount of Divine Power. Furthermore, inside the staff body, there is a Blessing Ability etched with Divine Power, which can dispel evil and deter wild beasts and Monsters."

Jier closed his eyes and felt the interior of the short staff.

Following the previous Sun Child method, Jier possessed all the priestly abilities originally belonging to Priest Asmoru, so he could perceive this Blessing Ability hidden inside the staff body through a priest's perception of divine power, thereby sensing it through the stone staff body.

Sure enough, the entire short staff was filled with the Sun God's Divine Power, but the Divine Power inside was more condensed, orderly forming a complex divine Blessing Ability.

Although he didn't quite understand it, Jier could roughly perceive that this Blessing Ability was simple to activate and fast to launch; once used, it could produce a deterrence from the authority of the Sun God against mindless wild beasts, remnant Monsters, and even some evil, eerie existences around him.

It was not a good place to demonstrate it, so Jier put away the short staff and tucked the matching long leather sheath onto his belt, keeping company with the 【Heart Fire】 Dagger.

"Then does it have a name? For example, this Magic Dagger of mine is called 'Heart Fire'; such a piece of priestly equipment with historical commemorative significance should have a resounding name, right?"

Jier asked after putting away and securing the short staff.

The priests all smiled, and the priest who handed over the short staff nodded and said: "It didn't have a name originally, but when the priest who used this short staff went to serve the gods, in order to record it well, the priest using this short staff temporarily gave it a name. It is called 'Light of Pioneering'."

"【Light of Pioneering】? Not bad."

Jier shrugged and looked at the second priest.

This one was holding a piece of clothing, and Jier had just glanced at it and thought to himself: 'I hope it's not some priest's old robe; weapons are one thing, but I don't want old clothes.'

But fortunately, this was a new piece of clothing, and it was not a robe.

This priest unfolded the clothing he was holding; it turned out to be a thin surcoat that could be worn over a warrior's armor. This thing was white with gold, and the color was very bright and eye-catching.

Jier touched the material and toughness of the white-gold surcoat and found that although it looked thin and light, its actual weight was not light.

And although it was made of linen, it was exceptionally sturdy, and it felt very smooth to the touch, without the roughness of linen products.

The priest holding this surcoat showed the back of it to Jier, and only then did Jier see that on the back, there was a large Sun God emblem. This emblem radiated a faint glow, and anyone who saw it would understand that the warrior wearing this surcoat must be working for the Sun God Church.

Good heavens, if one went out to move about wearing this thing, presumably everyone would know where one's stance lay.

But Jier thought about it later and realized that although he was previously an Agricultural God warrior, and the Agricultural God Church also recognized this title, the Agricultural God Church had never issued him a conspicuous piece of clothing representing the Agricultural God Church.

It could only be said that in terms of publicity, the Agricultural God Church was far inferior to the Sun God Church.

"This surcoat, the weight is not right, is it? How can such a thin thing be so heavy?" Jier raised the question.

The young priest who was temporarily leading the team explained: "This surcoat was originally an identity item exclusively for Divine Knights within the church. Although you, Knight Jier, are not yet a Divine Knight, you possess a Knight's power within your body, as well as a priest's power, so you can be said to be a kind of alternative Divine Knight. Therefore, it is perfectly fine to use it."

Jier knew about Church Knights and Divine Knights; when he was undergoing Knight Training, Knight Kela had told him about these things. Originally, Knight Kela intended to advance to a Mol-Knight; he had connections within the Imperial Border Knights and knew the exclusive Mage within the Knight Order, and obtaining a large amount of magic crystals from the Mage to transform his own Life Energy was also a good path to take.

But later, he obtained a batch of rare Element Crystals from Jier and changed his plans.

"As for the material of this surcoat, it is carefully woven from selected linen into fabric, then embedded with treated silver threads to increase strength, and finally, a large amount of fine gold threads are added to construct the pattern. Take a close look."

The priest handed the surcoat to Jier's eyes and used his fingers to push open the dense surface of the surcoat. As everyone looked closely, they could indeed see a large amount of silver and gold threads mixed into the dense linen threads.

"These materials were all prayed over by priests during production. And when the entire surcoat was completed, it also underwent a full blessing process, so it will not easily get dirty or easily damaged. If there is damage in battle, you can also find a Sun God Church of a certain scale nearby at any time and let them help repair this surcoat."

Jier took this piece of equipment. Although he was not wearing armor at the time, Jier draped the hoodless surcoat over his shoulders and fastened the metal buckle on the front, feeling quite good.

Not only did it make him look much more imposing when he walked a few steps, but it also made his mood feel better.

Sure enough, beautiful clothing is something everyone likes, regardless of gender, age, or seniority.

But this thing could not be worn often; after all, as long as this thing was worn on the body, it was significantly sending a signal to the people around him that he was a person of the Sun God Church.

If Jier wanted to mix within the Sun God Church in the future, then he could wear this surcoat whenever he met people, and it wouldn't take long for everyone who knew him to know that he had become a Knight of the Sun God Church.

Thinking of this, Jier estimated that neither Knight Kela nor Kendall Baron would be very happy, so he took off the surcoat, folded it, and handed it to Zhongtusi to hold temporarily.

"Let's look at the next piece of compensation." Jier said.

Several priests looked at each other, not understanding why Knight Jier, who had just been full of joy to receive this Divine Knight-exclusive surcoat—which was beautiful in style, gorgeous in production, high-end in materials, and status-symbolizing—and had been excitedly walking around the room wearing it, had suddenly lost interest in it in the blink of an eye.

They didn't understand, but they didn't worry about it much either. The third priest handed over a wooden box that he was holding solemnly with both hands.

Jier opened it and found that what was inside the wooden box was a newly made Statue of the God of the Sun.

Just like the Agricultural God who had thousands of images, the Sun God also had many images. The images that often appeared in the Sun God Church were all like priests, appearing in the image of a wise, serious old man wearing a robe.

But Jier's was clearly not quite the same.

This was a Statue of the God of the Sun made entirely of Dwarf Baishi. In terms of image, it was a middle-aged Knight wearing armor. The clothing and such on the other party were similar to the surcoat Jier had just received, with Sun God emblems everywhere. Clearly, this image should have an origin.

But if nothing else, because of the material, the statue, which would originally glow slightly, combined with the Baishi, the light spontaneously produced by this thing could even be used as a candle or an Oil Lamp.

If one were to hold this thing in one's hand, wouldn't it be too eye-catching?

"Is this statue also one of the images of the Sun God? A Knight?"

Jier asked curiously.

The Priests nodded: "That is correct. This urgently crafted Statue of the God is modeled after the appearance our God took when possessing a renowned hero during the war to protect the Faith a thousand years ago. At that time, within the borders of the not-yet-unified Empire, many Kingdoms were each supported by the churches of their own gods. A Kingdom where our God's holy site was located at the time was besieged by the massive armies of several Kingdoms due to religious reasons. The hero who displayed his strength in this war—Sheng-bosen—led the remnants of the Kingdom's forces to defeat the enemy and successfully protected the holy site of the Sun God Church, and thus his meritorious deeds have been passed down forever."

"It was not until after Sheng-bosen reached the end of his lifespan that everyone learned that Sheng-bosen had long been favored by our God and had become a Saint of the Church. When the Kingdom and the Church were in the greatest need, he accepted the Divine Possession, and astonishingly, he accepted the Divine Possession for over two hundred years! Sheng-bosen is the incarnation of our Lord and our God in martial prowess."

Jier nodded, only then understanding the matter. Previously, when the Priests were chattering in his ears about their respective church histories, the Sun God Priests had also mentioned the historical event of the war to protect the Faith a thousand years ago.

At that time, the Sun God Church was far from as powerful as it is today, and the Sun God had successfully become the first existence among Humans to ascend to a powerful god. Back then, His strength and the Sun God Church were merely a religious deity with a limited sphere of influence. In fact, many Human churches were like this; they all expanded rapidly following the establishment of the current Empire—the Endor Central Empire—along with the Empire's sphere of influence.

There was nothing much to say about this Statue of the God. Although it was a bit strange, Jier also understood their meaning: Jier had completely inherited the priestly power of the former Priest Asmoru, so he should also have a Statue of the God to carry with him, which could be used for both combat and gathering the Prayers of believers.

Although Jier would not use it to offer Prayers to the god—he did not believe in any gods at all—unlike the local people of this other world, Jier considered so-called gods to be a collective of spiritual power.

Although they have infinite abilities and extremely long lifespans, they are not essentially different from Magic Beasts, other races, or anything of the sort.

Gods are born because of the Faith of intelligent life, and they will also wither away due to the lack of believers, and can even be hunted and eliminated. They think, have needs, and can grow; no matter how one looks at it, they are a type of alternative, high-level life form.

It is just that, unlike ordinary life forms that are born into this material world, their birth requires a certain foundation—that is, there must first be a certain number of intelligent life forms, and only then can they be born from the spiritual needs of these intelligent life forms.

To draw an analogy, it is more like the artificial intelligence artificially constructed by intelligent Humans using computers and networks in his previous life. They are all born from the creative needs of the previous generation of intelligent life, all possess powerful abilities, and are all high-level life forms with countless lives.

If artificial intelligence is considered a type of high-level life form, the two are almost identical.

Jier suddenly thought that the intelligent life of this world created numerous gods and are managed and ruled by the gods they created themselves. Although they are clearly divided into superior and inferior, with the god above and the human below, at least both can benefit from this god-faith system, which can be considered a benign and healthy relationship model.

And as for the artificial intelligence of his previous life, if a strong artificial intelligence that could maintain itself were truly born, would 【it】 need the help of Humans at that time? Could it coexist with Humans on a planet with limited resources?

Or is it that the moment a strong artificial intelligence is born and grows strong, the destruction of Earth's intelligent Humans has already begun?

Coming back to his senses, Jier took the Wooden box containing the Baishi Statue of the God and placed it on the table beside him.

He raised his hand, and the fourth Priest walked up and handed over the fourth item being given to Jier as compensation.

This was also a Wooden box, but much smaller, only the size of a palm.

Jier raised an eyebrow, opened it, and discovered inside a metal badge inlaid with Gems.

With this familiar shape and familiar style, Jier looked up at the Priest who was about to speak and said: "This is a badge awarded by the Church, right?"

The Priest who was temporarily leading the team opened his mouth, hesitated for a moment, and then said: "That is correct. This is what you deserve, Knight Jier. In view of your timely assistance to the many Priests and hundreds of innocent people who were in dire straits during the counter-attack battles of the past few days, we, the Yemei Town Sun God Church, hereby specially award you this Sixth-Rank Assistance Badge, our Sun Child."

As he spoke, he stepped forward to take the badge out of the Wooden box. There was also a sturdy thin rope on the side. After passing it through a hole specifically left on the back of the badge, the Priest placed this Sixth-Rank Assistance Badge around Jier's neck.

The main body of this badge was metal, bright white, and the front was inlaid with many Gems. These Gems formed an exquisite scene of a sun above and the masses below.

On the back of the badge, a passage had been newly engraved, stating that this badge was awarded to Knight Qiao-Jier, and because of his heroic act of assistance, saving numerous Priests and commoners, this badge was gifted.

"Wearing it can keep you in high spirits during the day, and after actively activating the badge, it will emit a white light, invigorating others around you, allowing them to regain their Yongqi and boosting morale."

The Priest explained the function of this Sixth-Rank Assistance Badge.

Basically, it had one passive effect and one active effect. They sounded like very practical things.

Jier nodded with satisfaction; these were the real good things. Just having something like this made it worth it.

And it was the final compensation item that made Jier the most happy.

Because it was a bag of Gold Coins!

Gold Coins that shone and reflected light like the sun!

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