Chapter 139 [Erudition]

The losses caused by a large-scale evil invasion are staggering.

The cult members just burp their butts, and there will always be someone to wipe their butts later.

This time the Orthodox Church suffered heavy losses.

People who die in the church do not need to receive pensions because they are dedicating themselves to justice and their beliefs. But certain compensation is still needed. For example, orphans and widowed mothers need to be supported. For example, children of guardian knights are given priority to be admitted as knight apprentices, trainee priests, etc.

These require worldly money.

The simplest way is to ask believers to raise funds and donate.

In addition to active donations, there are also passive donations.

As the top of the food chain, the Orthodox Church Alliance holds the power to define "normal". As long as the affected nobles and businessmen come back alive, they must donate sufficient benefits to the church. Otherwise, whoever is judged as an "abnormal" will be regarded as a lunatic. , then you have to say goodbye to your wealth, power and status.

Being confined in a church requires money for food, clothing, housing and transportation.

How could they tolerate nobles and commoners being treated equally?

Moreover, this involves an extremely subtle medical examination such as a mental examination.

No matter what era, seeking medical treatment from a psychiatrist is prohibitively expensive, let alone dealing with evil spirits and mental pollution.

This cannot be solved by knowing how to exorcise evil spirits. The examiner also needs to distinguish whether the victim has been hungry for three days and has generated negative energy in his heart, or whether he has been invaded by evil thoughts.

When more than 300 people were involved in an accident at one time, the major Orthodox churches mobilized pastors from the entire province to get enough help.

Fortunately, this is the rich and densely populated St. Leiden area. If it is placed in some remote mountainous areas, if it is really uncertain, the church has the right to order the victims to be gathered together and burned to death.

Just over a year ago, more than 200 people were burned in Morat, a poor province in the northwest. Because the local reincarnation priest was soft-hearted and did not carefully investigate the victims who were contaminated by the spirit of the evil god before letting them go, which resulted in the spread of the evil god's teachings, and finally had to take this policy.

This time the survivors were not burned indiscriminately, which was a great mercy.

To a certain extent, killing evil is also a big business.

It just so happened that there were enough unlucky guys who came back alive this time, nearly a hundred VIPs and more than two hundred crew members came back.

The old aristocrats can grit their teeth, cut off pieces of meat, and still live a normal life.

Rich businessmen and the like are miserable. If you don't peel off your skin, you can't get out of the church.

The result is layer upon layer of pressure.

The Orthodox sect eats the flesh of nobles and wealthy merchants to make ends meet.

The nobles and wealthy businessmen were so angry that they went to the Lemington Cruise Line and sued the orthodox tribunal, saying that they did not do enough inspection and protection.

In fact, in the final analysis, this company is a bit unfair.

They all approached the Church of Storms and hired an elite storm squad to garrison all year round. Who knows, it will provoke the Knights of the Apocalypse and create an alternate world that will be rated as SS-level in hindsight.

This company wants to ask the Church of Storms to help with the thunder, but the Church of Storms is single.

Ren, the Storm War Priest who was responsible for signing the contract, smiled.

"Ten of our 12-person elite team died. They have tried their best and are worthy of the name of the children of the sea. For your premium, we can only give you this configuration. You can't pay this little money and let us send out Sequence 3 Would you like a strong man to be the bodyguard? Of course, it is not impossible to think that the Church of Storms must be responsible for this, and I, Ren, have decided to take the blame and resign."

The cruise line was dumbfounded.

What else could they say?

The price for hiring a bodyguard is a matter of international public opinion.

What's more, they even resigned from the war ceremony, what else can you say?

The result was that the entire cruise company was forced to liquidate, not only all the funds in the account were divided, but the assets were also forced to be auctioned.

But here comes the problem.

Lamington Cruise Line's greatest assets, besides the terminal, are its two cruise ships.

A good one finally fetched 7 million lite dollars.

Only the devil wants this remaining Lamington!

Not to mention the hundreds of people who died, this thing has turned into a giant [abnormality].

If it’s not a powerful Extraordinary, who can suppress it?

There are also ordinary crew members and waiters who are affected. For major churches, this is a complete negative asset. These people are all wage earners. Their family had little money to begin with, so they came to work as waiters and crew members, so there was no way they could squeeze out any income.

Several big teachers are trying their best to kick the ball, but the Gemini Goddess always takes the lead, and naturally the most negative equity is allocated to them.

Mark looked at Albert: "Is this why you came to me?"

"Well, everyone knows that your housekeeper, Miss Helena, just made a lot of money in the stock market..."

"So what?" Mark's eyes were sharp, like a stingy rich man protecting his money bag.

"Well, of course we know that this is your legal income. But you also know that in this internal struggle within the Church of Light, our faction won a great victory and won prestige and power, while Brown's faction suffered heavy losses. So that bastard Brown... Eat that broken cruise ship and its crew and leave it to us to deal with."

Mark was surprised: "Can it still be done like this?"

"Alas! Your grandfather can't leave. He is the only cardinal in the local area, so he naturally negotiates on behalf of the Church of Light." Albert sighed: "Although my family is sorry for you, it has always given you its full support..."

Mark rolled his eyes and said, "The weather is really nice today", which made Albert speechless.

From Albert's point of view, this hatred for the legitimate heir is definitely a hatred that will last a lifetime. Who can bear the main family turning into a separate family? It's a big credit to this kid that he didn't completely fall out.

Seeing that Mark was not appreciative, Albert turned and said: "Mark, you have gained a lot of benefits. Although the goddess of light does not mind that you got the blood moon cards of John Brown and Judge Charlie, she will not let you use them publicly. , it’s another thing.”

Mark was speechless. It was one thing to use it secretly, but it was another matter for the Gemini goddess to use it publicly for him.

After all, evil spirits have no human rights, and even if the bosses of the Church of Light and Night die, they can theoretically only work for the Twin Goddess.

"Then... let's talk."

After some talk, Mark paid two million lite dollars to buy this 'new ship' that originally cost more than 10 million lite dollars and was launched less than a year ago. This includes the cost of cleaning every corner of the entire cruise ship, repairing the damaged areas on the ship, and receiving more than 200 crew members.

And whether it's repairing the ship or waiting for the crew to complete the lock-in and mental check-up procedures, it all takes time.

During this time, Mark was dragged to the academy by Dean Margaret.

It took me three full days to explain to my juniors how to deal with [abnormalities] and how to fight against evil spirits.

This is the price.

Because Margaret said to him: "Mark! The fact that you can handle the SS-level world of the Lamington proves that you are a real genius! But genius does not mean that you do not need to accumulate and convert talents into strength. You know the sequence Are there any conditions required to be promoted from Doctor Who at Sequence 7 to [Loremaster] at Sequence 6?"

"Teacher, please clarify." Mark bowed humbly.

"In addition to deciphering three S-level [abnormalities] or demons and subduing one of them, you also need to read a thousand extraordinary books."

As the dean finished speaking, Mark immediately received a prompt from the fate dice:

[Discover the authentic branch of the God of Knowledge - the 6th level sequence of mysticism (Erudition)! 】

[Promotion Rules—Promoters need to personally experience the mysterious rules of at least three unknown S-level anomalies or demons, surrender at least one S-level anomaly (evil) as their own property, and read at least a thousand books about extraordinary Books about things...]

In fact, the promotion conditions are similar to those of the previous Doctor Who level, but the amount of reading is what makes Mark miserable.

When I was in college, there were only a few major courses that required 80 credit hours each semester. Mark gnawed on such a tome and wanted to die after just one copy, let alone a thousand copies.

How long does this take?

Mark almost gave up the idea of ​​advancing to this sub-career.

Margaret's next words saved him: "I don't know what drives you to be so anxious. You have your own personal reasons, and I won't interfere. I can provide a very simple spell [Eye of Knowledge] Here you go, it can read for you continuously 24 hours a day, and you can even multi-task and open multiple [eyes of knowledge] at the same time.”

Huh?

Could this be the legendary quantum reading method?

Mark was not stupid and immediately asked: "What's the price?"

"It will consume a lot of your spiritual energy and greatly increase the burden on your soul." Dean Margaret rolled her eyes, clearly seeing through part of someone's spiritual body. She smiled: "This has nothing to do with your burden. An [anomaly] is the same.”

"Oh - that's it!" Mark breathed a sigh of relief.

The dean burst into laughter: "Do you think anyone is as crazy as you, daring to absorb the purified demon general's spiritual essence, and to face the evil god directly to strengthen his will and soul strength? Extraordinary people with average qualifications have already had spiritual power. He lost control and became a monster. Either he used the [Eye of Knowledge] for a long time, which led to his spiritual exhaustion or insanity."

Mark smiled sheepishly and touched the back of his head.

"Go to the library. It is very safe for you to read a lot of books below A-level. Don't touch books above A-level, because the books themselves are extraordinary objects, and they are very likely to be reversed through the [Eye of Knowledge]. It eats away at your spirit and soul.”

"Understood."

Isn’t it just momentum? Mark understands this.

Margaret put him in the library of the Mystic Academy to study, and half a month passed like this.

From a technical point of view, Mark could open all 36 [eyes of knowledge] at his limit, but with just 12 eyes open at the same time, the overwhelming amount of knowledge pouring into his brain almost drove him crazy.

Even if the filtering is turned on, it is still difficult for him to develop and use his brain so intensively.

After training for half a month, all Mark could actually do was read four books at the same time while awake.

Even so, he still benefited a lot - by reading some small books that were not that thick, he managed to collect five hundred books.

"For the rest, take the copy back and read it slowly. People from the Light Church have been here a few times, so I won't stop you."

"Thank you, teacher." Mark knew that even a copy would cost a lot of mysterious points. The teacher gave him most of the benefits of this ‘battle’.

"Let's go! Remember to live well and try not to fall. The academy still needs your golden name to recruit students."

"good."