Eryi still followed his usual habit and went to Dark Lake City to purchase magic power every other day.
The magicians and priests worked together to seal the entrance to the abyss and forbade anyone in the city from leaving. They needed to clean up every corner, including the abyssal monsters.
Magic apprentices could sell their magic power and earn a sufficient income, so they naturally had no complaints. However, adventurers were different. Not being able to go out meant they lost a portion of their income.
But they certainly didn't dare complain to the Master Magician or the priests of the various churches. They could only remain in the city, occasionally completing simple tasks that could be completed within the city, or simply living off their savings.
Everything seems to be in order on the surface.
Eryi is selecting her candidates for priests. The selection method for priests mainly depends on their faith.
Faith is related to the believer's loyalty to the deity. Eryi's observations show that faith is closely related to the number of times a person prays and their affinity with holy elements.
Even with the same prayer, Jorie, Bernice, and Judy can provide different levels of faith.
Judy prayed diligently and pledged her faith earlier, but her Faith wasn't as strong as Jory's. Jory's daily prayers, his listening to confessions in the confessional, and his baptisms all contributed to his Faith. However, of all the believers, Bernice possessed the highest Faith.
The reason can only be attributed to her 85 affinity for holy elements.
In his free time, Eryi visited several potential priest believers.
First up, Tracy.
After adventurer Tracy became a follower of Maria, she would go to the healing station to pray as a routine every time she returned safely from a mission.
Eryi took this opportunity to talk to her.
The number of believers grew, and Eryi had no way of matching each of their names with their appearances based solely on the system data before they met. Coincidentally, Tracy was one of the female adventurers who had watched the Healing Inn's opening.
Eryi had a memory of her. That day, only three people at the scene possessed a holy elemental affinity. One was a child, one was a priest of another deity, and the remaining one was her.
Tracy has a very recognizable appearance, with slightly thick lips and slightly thick upturned eyebrows, which makes her look very heroic. "I feel very honored to have the favor of Lady Maria. But I play a very important role in the team. If I leave, it will be difficult for them to find someone to replace me."
She had been an adventurer for many years, was nearly thirty, and was close to being promoted to a B-rank adventurer. She didn't want to give up her career.
Eryi turned around and made a new contract tailored for this kind of adventurer.
——A nominal priest.
In their free time, they baptize people and lead believers in prayer at the healing station. They are required to work at least 48 hours a month. The healing station does not pay wages, but provides three meals a day.
In exchange, you can gain some abilities unique to priests.
Eryi allocated several existing skills according to attendance time.
After 10 hours of attendance, you can learn the prayer skill.
After 50 hours of attendance, you can learn the soothing technique.
After 150 hours of attendance, you can learn the protective shield.
After 500 hours of attendance, you can learn the healing technique.
In other words, after 500 hours of attendance, the adventurer himself will become a popular nurse.
As for how attractive this contract is to adventurers, Eryi can see it clearly from the pious eyes of Tracy's teammates.
Leading prayers and performing baptisms can generate several times more Faith than praying privately. Using skills requires Faith, and any priest who wants to gain Faith efficiently must maintain a certain attendance schedule. They are trusted to provide sustained vitality to the Healing Station.
As for the effectiveness of the spell, it depends on her affinity with the holy elements and how diligently she practices.
Eryi used this contract to easily obtain three nominal priests.
They were scrambling to get the healing spell as quickly as possible, and Jory finally had time to retreat to the confessional and continue reading his novel.
In addition to the adventurers, Eryi also found a housewife named Mapel who lived in the north of the city.
She was already over forty, and was somewhat surprised to receive the invitation, but then gladly accepted. Her affinity for the holy elements wasn't high, but she prayed so often that her faith appeared quite high.
The reason she prayed so often was because she was being abused constantly. When people are desperate, they always need something to rely on.
After becoming a priestess of Maria, her husband no longer dared to beat her, and with the support of her daughter, she quickly separated from her ex-husband.
It's fair to say Mapel has a soft side, doing whatever she's told, but she's also very diligent. Her gentle nature strangely suits her to a priesthood. Her counseling in the confessional is genuine, making her more reliable than Jory. She's brought a lot of praise to the Healing Station.
Her salary was the same as Jory's, 1 gold coin per month.
Monica, the daughter of a wealthy businessman living in the west of the city, recently underwent a magic test. She had no elemental affinity, but had a fairly good affinity for holy elements.
Her father is currently selecting a suitable deity for her, hoping she can become a priestess. The identity of a priest can bring a lot of convenience to merchants and make it easier to enter the upper class.
"After thinking about it, I still think the goddess of life is more suitable for you." Monica's father said to Monica who had just returned home.
"Really? That's a shame. I just became a priest of Maria and will officially start my duties tomorrow."
Her father was furious: "Why didn't you discuss this with me first?"
Monica raised the corners of her lips.
After baptism, the affinities of several priests appear in their profile panels.
The highest affinity is given to adventurer Tracy, at 42, followed by Monica, at 37.
Harold, a tall, fierce-looking man, is 35. Mapel, a housewife, is 12.
The other two adventurers are 22 and 27 respectively.
Eryi once again confirmed that Qiao Li and Bernice's affinity for holy elements was among the best.
Patton has recently hit a bottleneck. He spends all day in the pub and dares not go home.
To outsiders, he was just a poor, unemployed vagrant. The money he used for drinking must have been stolen, and the expensive and untidy clothes he wore must have been picked up from others.
However, he has an identity unknown to outsiders. He is a creator who gets some inspiration from daily life and edits the stories into novels.
After his adaptation, various ordinary stories become interesting and attractive, so his novels are very popular.
Speaking of the most popular book recently, it has to be "The Rich Widow and the Poor Stepson".
This novel has a name that could easily lead to speculation, but the content is actually very serious, a love story that touches on class issues. The inspiration came from gossip he overheard in a tavern in the east of the city when he was stuck in a writing bottleneck.
——"The poor boy next door climbed over the wall of a newly widowed lady."
"You mean the kid who was often abused by his stepmother?"
"Abuse? Did I say that?"
"Didn't you say that since stepmother got married, there have always been strange screams coming out of his house?"
After hearing this conversation, Patton wrote the two-part trilogy "The Rich Widow and the Poor Stepson", but the third part was difficult to produce.
So he decided to do what he had done the last time his inspiration ran out, and hide in a pub to avoid his editor who was pushing him to submit his manuscript.
He went to all the pubs in the city. Every day, the same old tunes were played over and over again, and Patton was fed up with it.
That day, he chose to go to the tavern on the same street as the Adventurer's Guild, hoping to hear about the adventurers' daily lives. He happened to hear the adventurers bragging about Maria, and the sight of the drunken assassin standing on the table stimulated his brain cells.
"Can you tell me the details of what happened that day?" Barton suddenly stood up and took out a handful of silver coins and placed them on the bar. "I'll buy everyone a drink."
Barton decided to pretend to be a believer and take a look at Mary's church.
"Coming in and out as you please?" Barton was a little surprised. He was a believer in the Goddess of Blessing and had already made up his mind to run if he was recognized. In the end, his worries were for nothing.
"The prayer room is open to the public," the staff member instructed in a friendly manner.
Then he saw here a demon wolf (Fog) with excellent appearance and docileness, a very friendly melon-shaped elf, a light elf that can heal wounds, and a washroom that is popular among the upper class.
The most amazing thing is the magicians - they and the priests should be incompatible.
New things filled Patton's mind, and he couldn't wait to find a place to record them so that he could use them at hand when inspiration came.
Barton walked into the prayer room, which was open to the public, and began to write down his thoughts. He could hear the deliberately hushed voices of the adventurers, who were recounting the dangers they had experienced time and again.
A girl with black curly hair sat at the front of the prayer room, reciting scriptures in a seemingly pious tone.
His mind, which had been unclear due to the hangover, gradually became sharper and the waves of pain left him.
Maria's reputation continued to develop in a positive direction, but this obviously made some people unhappy.
In a noble castle, noble ladies gathered together. They were having a tea party as usual, but the atmosphere was not as lively as usual, just because someone brought up a question.
——"The Baroness became a priestess of Maria and is said to have been appointed as the head of the temple in the royal capital."
The exquisite and delicious pastries instantly lost all their appeal.
A noble lady broke the silence, covering her mouth with one hand. "Can I be the head of a temple if I have four lovers? Oh no, I have three now."
"That's not a big deal. Didn't that guy before have thirteen mistresses..."
"Heh." A noblewoman in a blue dress pulled the corner of her mouth with a forced smile. "This scandal has given Macmillan a lot of followers, hasn't it? Birds of a feather flock together." Macmillan controlled the wealth, and her husband had just given him a large donation.
"She spent so much energy just for this?" A relatively young lady didn't quite understand. "What's so good about this?"
"No, nothing good." The lady, who was the most luxuriously dressed among them, gestured to the servant beside her: "Let us see my new jewelry."
A few of them understood that Bernice was completely different from them.
As they drank tea and admired the flowers, Bernice found her way to power.
This was a different path from that of ordinary nobles. If things continued to develop smoothly, it wouldn't be long before she could abandon the title of Baroness.
The royal capital, a castle.
Blanche is Bernice's stepsister, and she feels that her life is becoming increasingly unhappy. This all begins when her stepsister returns to the capital from Sunset City.
Bernice has been outstanding since she was a child. Even though she lost her mother, she still has the best resources of all the girls in the family, not only her father's love, but also God's love.
It is said that her affinity for holy elements is even comparable to that of the previous Pope of the God of Light.
Unfortunately, Bernice had a strange personality, and no one could understand her thoughts. She refused to be a priestess, and when she reached marriageable age, the number of men proposing to her in the capital stretched from her home to the city gates, yet she rejected them all, choosing instead an obscure baron from a rural area like Sunset City.
The Baron has no other advantages except that he is good-looking.
But this made Blanche feel very comfortable. After all, she was marrying a count. This count was originally chosen by her father for Bernice's marriage, and he was of high status. Apart from the count's several shameful lovers, she felt that there was nothing wrong with it.
Ever since Bernice married into Sunset City, she has been using her skills to build connections for the good-for-nothing baron and even supported a god.
The rise of a new god was difficult, but she did quite well in Sunset City. She even gained a say in Sunset City's upper class society, and the Viscount had to treat her well.
Unfortunately, defeat came in an instant. When the news of the Baron's death came, Blanche had to admit that although her face was sad, she did feel a hidden pleasure in her heart.
——I believe that Bernice can no longer recover.
"She has fallen so low that the family will be ashamed of her." Upon learning that her stepsister, newly widowed, not only did she not shed tears every day but had found four lovers, Blanche was so shocked that she couldn't even hold her teacup steady. As a result, her favorite dress was stained with tea, and she ended up spending a large sum of gold coins to hire a magician to clean it up.
Unexpectedly, her stepsister found another suitable god not long after. She also changed the teaching location from Sunset City to the Royal Capital.
This new god was completely different from the previous one, and even more powerful. The most terrifying thing was that she seemed to have the secret support of the Believers' Guild, and even other churches were quietly paving the way for her in the capital. This was simply unnatural.
"Madam, the manor has sent some vegetables that you have never seen before. Would you like to take a look?" The butler interrupted Blanche's thoughts at an inopportune time.
"Adelaide, what's wrong with you? Do you need me to watch you plant vegetables now?" Blanche suddenly felt that her daily life was very boring compared to what her stepsister did.
"Excuse me ma'am, perhaps make it into a salad tonight?" suggested the butler.
"Yeah." Blanche felt that the butler's tone was a little strange, but she didn't care.
…
After dinner, Blanche felt incredibly sleepy. The new vegetable salad tasted strange; it had no flavor, but after one bite, she couldn't stop eating.
She planned to go back to the house and rest early.
The butler walked over to her and whispered in her ear, "Maria is evil. Her method of healing is a form of black magic."
"She was able to find the Black Mage so quickly because she was in league with him."
"Maria is a demon from the abyss."
"Yeah, that's right." Blanche answered blankly.
Rumors unfavorable to Maria began to circulate in the capital and Sunset City. These rumors did not generate much momentum in the capital, but in Sunset City, they were deeply rooted in people's minds because of Garcia's previous experience.
There is even such a sound.
——"Garcia is making a comeback under another name."
Scholars who are familiar with the origins of gods certainly know that this is impossible. The names of gods are the only source of their divine power. Losing their names is equivalent to death.
But most people don’t know this.
Adventurers don't care about faith, so it doesn't have much impact on them.
"I will always remember who saved me when I was dying." Maria already has a group of die-hard believers.
The magic apprentices who came to sell their magic power didn't care at all: "The holy elemental magic of the priests here is not fake, do you think we are blind?"
As for the magicians who came to purchase elemental crystal cores.
——"Hand over the Holy Element Crystal you've hidden, and I'll pay you three times the price."
What are rumors? Magicians only believe in their own knowledge.
But the civilians don’t think so. After all, the previous events had the greatest impact on them.
There are even theories that the disappearances were staged by Maria herself in order to gain new believers.
The faith of the believers who had increased rapidly before began to waver, and the new faith that had only been with them for a few days was not so important to them.
The number of believers began to decline.
After Barton learned the news, he quickly wrote down various rumors in his notebook. He also interviewed adventurers and believers who still reported to the healing station about their opinions on the matter.
"Interesting."
He looked at the results he had recorded, biting the pen cap with great satisfaction.
"What are you going to do?" Even Qiao Li couldn't sit still. Such a lazy person actually took the initiative to ask, which surprised Eryi a little.
"That's good. You can take a break and read more books." Eryi didn't care too much. After all, her main business was not affected at all.
Dark Marsh City's magic power purchases had reached 8,000 per day. After deducting round-trip transportation costs and some unnecessary losses, she could earn 9,600 per trip.
The number of people using the prayer room at the healing station has decreased slightly, but the impact isn't significant. After all, most of those who come here to pray are adventurer families living nearby. Families living further away aren't willing to travel all the way here for daily prayers, and at most they attend church services.
Most of the believers who had surged in number before only came once a week for an hour.
It's all harmless.
Eryi recently received an unexpected surprise.
Valentina reported to the treatment center every day, and naturally she quickly became familiar with all the business operations of the entire treatment center.
Once when a magic apprentice was selling magic power, she stood by curiously and watched the apprentice transfer magic power, and seemed to have some interest in magic.
Seeing the magic value attribute in her status bar, Eryi simply invited her: "Would you like to sell your magic to us?"
"Is it possible? But I don't know magic." Valentina was a little surprised.
"It's just transferring magic power. It's very simple. I'll teach you."
[Drops, 150.]
As a human who has never been exposed to magic, Valentina's magic power is astonishingly high.
As a result, Eryi obtained 140 dark elements and 10 other elements.
Because Valentina often stays in the healing station, the system's built-in recovery-speed buff can quickly restore her emptied mana.
Empty element stable source get√
The patrol captain of Sunset City has a problem with Eryi. He somewhat agrees with the statement that the disappearances were caused by Eryi.
The Black Mage, under interrogation, had spoken a few days earlier, claiming a deal had been struck with Maria's priests. The transaction involved Valentina, a young woman with a high Dark Elemental stat who was extremely important to the Black Mage.
As long as they possess her, other black mages can gather enough sacrifices to connect to the abyss and allow demons to possess her at any time, and then open a channel connecting to the abyss from the material world.
"She agreed at the time that she wanted fame and I could take Valentina away, and she wouldn't stop me."
The content is a mixture of truth and falsehood, and it seems to be true.
Anyone with even a little bit of magical knowledge would know that this was all nonsense. When interrogating a black wizard, a magician had to be present. The magician exposed the black wizard's lies on the spot, but the patrol leader still felt that the situation was too strange.
They investigated this matter for a long time, and even the churches dispatched many priests from all over to assist, but still found nothing.
But it was very strange that less than a day after Maria's believers were abducted by the black wizard, her priests directly solved the root of the problem.
He wanted to find some small trouble to embarrass the priests of Maria, preferably they could commit some crime so that he could arrest them and take them to jail for interrogation and examination.
See what bad ideas he comes up with.
——"Take these and pour them out at the door of the treatment station." He never did anything that would offend others himself, but only knew how to command his subordinates.
"This...how did I offend you?" The patrolman carried a bucket of strange meat with disgust.
"This is related to a major incident."
"Okay."
No one would believe that their superior would deceive them about work matters.
As it turned out, not long after the item fell, it was cleaned up by the system's built-in refresh function. The passers-by who witnessed the incident were shocked, but quickly calmed down. If the magic of cleanliness can be installed on the toilet, it can also be installed on the door, so there is no need to make a fuss.
Not long after this incident, he was visited by the Believers' Union.
It is illegal to dump garbage in front of the church.
…
This patrolman who was fooled by the patrol captain rarely came to the Adventure Guild Street. Looking at the sign for purchasing magic cores placed at the door of the healing station, he thought of a problem that had troubled the patrol team for many years.
Sunset City has a complete sewer system, but at the same time, it is also easy for some strange monsters to breed in the sewers.
Among them is a disgusting monster they call the 'ditch rat'.
It likes to appear in some very dirty places. Each one is fat enough, but its meat is poisonous and cannot be eaten. They cannot be completely killed and must be cleared out every once in a while.
Each team must participate in at least one clearing mission every year, and no additional salary will be paid.
That's what their managers said.
"This thing drops magic cores, right? Take this as your reward."
Each 'ditch rat' will drop a magic core, which is quite large and contains a very complex magic power.
The Magic Guild and the Adventure Guild both gave a unanimous assessment: "This thing will only explode if put into potions. It won't be able to extract magic power smoothly for magic research. It's garbage."
The sign at the entrance of the healing station clearly stated that it was buying all magic cores.
He thought he could ask.
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