Chapter 1109: Research
In the morning, Abel was already sitting inside battle fort no. 1. He above the golden castle. He was camouflaged, so no guests who came here to eat and enjoy the legendary light would actually see him.
Of course, he still had Doff holding the ancient totem beside him. In battlecry city over the distance, countless wors.h.i.+p pathways were connected to his position. This meant that the barbarian cla.s.s was coming back. Since the Wizard Union was very skeptical or very certain that Master Bennett was the one who took the ancient totem under the support of the Moon G.o.ddess, they decided not to take a proactive stance in interfering with the religious practices of the barbarians.
There was another important factor. After thousands of years of oppression, the barbarians had lost all influence to threaten any group that was not their own. The Wizard Union understood that, and they were not going to interfere. Rather, they didn’t want to do anything with the barbarians even more, now that Master Bennett clearly proved to be connected to them.
Ever since the first barbarian priest performed a “healing” on an advanced wizard, the WIzard Union had been taking a great interest in studying techniques of this sort. To their surprise, this healing worked almost identically to Master Bennett’s “light healing potion,” which further demonstrated the connection between the two. The production rate seemed to vary drastically, however. While one barbarian priest would spend 20 hours praying to receive one prayer, after multiple days, they could increase the maximum threshold to three. Combined with the “scream,” “battle system” and “battle command,” barbarian priests quickly became the most reliable partner choice for those who were fighting on the frontline.
Abel took notice of that, of course. To meet the growing demand, he would increase the number of barbarian cla.s.s holders to be priests. Again, the Wizard Union would not interfere whatsoever. They didn’t mind violating some rules if it meant preparing themselves better against the demon from beyond that would wake up within the next hundred years. In other words, Abel was lucky to have picked this time to do this because if he were a few decades early, he would’ve had to at least face a direct investigation from a legendary wizard, and that might ruin his relations.h.i.+p with the Moon G.o.ddess.
Essentially, Doff was unofficially recognized as the ruler of an entire race’s religion. Doff was not a divine spirit yet, however, but something that was growing into one. The chance of it happening was certain, as it was known that the wors.h.i.+p would not stop at any point. It would be only a matter of time before Doff was an actual divine spirit, but again, time was exactly what Abel lacked. It would be at least a millennium for Doff to actually become a divine spirit, and that was to become the weakest type.
Also, despite being Doff’s master, Abel had no clue about the knowledge system of the divine spirit. This would make the process even more difficult. Without the existence of the Nation of G.o.d, nor the threat of the demon from beyond, he would’ve never had to work as hard as this. During the day, he would complete missions that the Potionmaster’s Guild handed him, whether it was to make supplies for his clients or to cultivate his group of followers in the Nation of G.o.d. During the night, he would spend the entire 10 days and night equivalent to proceed with his training. Since he was a blue dragon now, he could sleep with the special method of a dragon, and he was sure that it would bring him to the same level as a legendary within 1000 years.
Things weren’t always so bright for Abel, however. The existence of the crystal angelic statue would make him the no. 1 target of the demon from beyond if it was to wake up. He was also among the worst of enemies to the Nation of G.o.d. He had to do whatever he could to prepare against any a.s.sa.s.sination attempts.
For now, he dropped his thoughts and produced a knight’s long sword in his hand. The blade would appear as though it contained some spirituality. He would practice the knights’ sword techniques that he hadn’t been practicing so long at battle fort no.1.
This time, as he entered into the dark world, his barbarian basic training helped him obtain enough qi to learn one beginner-level skill. He chose “command long sword,” a pa.s.sive spell that would change how he would feel when he was gripping the sword.
He also tried to change his mindset about the knight as a cla.s.s. All this time, he thought that the only way for knights to break limits and extend their lifespan was by becoming a cla.s.s holder. He applied the same concept to his family and underlings when he turned them into wizards with the life elixir. However, there would be too few life elixirs that he would’ve had enough to supply even with his connection to the tree of life. If he wanted the Holy Continent to grow stronger, he had to find a new direction for knights to grow.
The idea came once he had owners.h.i.+p over the ancient totem. He thought that maybe he could let the barbarians become the cla.s.s that the knights would promote themselves to. If it were in the past, what he would consider first would be the sacred knight cla.s.s, but he was more cautious about not having any sacred knight on the Holy Continent whatsoever because of what happened over on the Lance Continent.
After learning the “command long sword,” he managed to understand something. There were a lot of similarities between barbarians and knights. They both use their bodies to fight, and now, the only problem would be to see if the barbarian’s basic training routine would work on humans. Until now, at least, he’s never managed to learn this himself.
Anyhow, he needed to do some testing on his own. After using the ancient totem to enter into the “enlightenment blessing,” he tried to look for information that might be useful for humans to try the basic training routine of the barbarians. He would a.s.sume that it would be harder than this, given that back on the Battlecry city, it was really just the talented barbarians that would learn how to do this, and that was only if they received an “enlightenment blessing” directly from the divine spirit. The most important part would have to be to receive a blessing from Doff. The barbarians had to be Doff’s followers. Since he couldn’t convert his knights on the Holy Continent to become followers here, he would have to wait to test that out.
Right now, Abel might increase his own fighting abilities. He was going to do it for two years, and hopefully, he could improve his rank to legendary within two years. It was not what regular cla.s.s holders could accomplish, but if he was using his time to his best ability, he might take two songs of life to boost his level as he cleared through more areas within the dark world.
The research spirit sent a voice on the battle fort, “Druid Lendo is waiting for you, Master.”
Abel smiled and spoke to himself, “They’re here for the gift!”
Soon, his body was teleported straight from the battlefort to the guest meeting room.
He greeted Druid Lendo pa.s.sionately as soon as he saw him, “Welcome, Druid Lendo!”
Druid Lendo bowed, “Sorry for the interruption, Master Bennett.”
Abel made an inviting gesture, “Please, take a seat.”
Once Druid Lendo sat down, the servants went forward to serve the juice.
Druid Lendo didn’t drink the juice, “I’ve come here on behalf of Her Majesty the Queen, Master Bennett, to send the eight floating fort bases over.”
Abel smiled and responded, “Allow me to say thanks to her Majesty, Druid Lendo.”
Druid Lendo bowed, “The clan has something else that needs help from you, if you may.”
Abel was obviously not going to turn this down, “Please, Druid Lendo, go ahead. I’m not going to refuse something that I can’t contribute to.”
Druid Lendo suddenly stood up, “Two level 23 big druids have reached their bottleneck stage. As a fellow elf, would you please ask the tree of life to help them with their promotion?”
Abel would not say no, but he was not sure where these big druids might’ve come from. The elves never had ranks this high, to begin with. It really had to do with the fact that they didn’t like fighting on their own.
Abel smiled and responded, “It’s only natural, Druid Lendo, for me to help out my kind. How about this? Have the two big druids come to the tree of life is over the next few days, and I’ll ask the tree of life for help.”
It should’ve been Queen Luisa to come here and ask that, but maybe she thought that she wasn’t so close to Abel as Druid Lendo.
Druid Lendo was a bit embarra.s.sed, “The two are already waiting inside the defense fort outside of the valley. Would you like to head there right now, Master Bennett?”
As the Nation of G.o.d had been more aggressive in their expansionist attempts on the central continent. The elves had been busy bolstering their own strength. For Abel, ever since he was here to purchase the skys.h.i.+ps, the originally loose druid military was undergoing drastic reform that would make them much more disciplined and efficient. It was all to face the battle against the Nation of G.o.d. Right now, the one thing that the elves lacked the most would be the top-level fighting force. There weren’t that many level 23 big druids to begin with, but only level 24 or 25 would make the druids be the very elite warriors.
In any case, the elves had thought about using the resources that they had to help Master Bennett and prompt his big druid promotion. During this time, they heard that Master Bennett demanded ancient items such as the battle fort. It was only natural that they would want to trade with him like this. On the surface, they were giving these forts away, but honestly, he knew that he was not going to turn down their favors if they just “gave” away something.
Abel smiled and pointed at Druid Lendo, “I see you’ve made your calculations.”
Amidst the teleportation circle where the valley was, Abel saw the two level 23 big druids waiting for him. He could see their life energy rotting away, and they both had hoodies on that would hide away their faces. They must’ve used special transformation techniques to extend their lifespans. It was just like Wizard Malon from many years ago, although the method must be different.
Abel announced, “I can’t guarantee that the tree of life would be willing to help those two.”
Druid Lendo frowned, “You can tell?”
Abel shook his head, “The presence they are emitting. I don’t think they will be welcomed.”
One of the big druids spoke quietly, “Please, help us, Master Bennett!”
Their bodies hadn’t been shaking even until now. It’s almost like they were turned into trees. When they tried to bow to him, their waists couldn’t even bend.
Druid Lendo introduced, “These are the Lofer Brothers. They’ve used a special technique of the royal palace to extend their lifespan.”
The Lofer Brothers took off their hoodies and revealed their faces. They were literally trees. Their bodies were wood. It was the same for their faces.
One of them said, “Our bodies can still bend, Master Bennett. Our movements are not as flexible, but we are not that different to most people.”
Abel realized that the two synchronize in their speech, “You are twins?”
They spoke at the same time, “Yes, Master Bennett. We can cooperate perfectly in most situations.”
That was understandable. It would be great for the elves if they could have these two strengthened in their fighting abilities. From what he could see, he could do two things to help. One would be to enhance their ranks to 24, while the other would help them with their body flexibility.
Abel spoke, “You should know, Lofer Brothers, that the tree of life may not acknowledge you for your attempts to extend your life with unnatural means.”
They spoke together, “Please, Master Bennett! That’s why we need you!”
No one understood the hards.h.i.+p these two went through over the past few centuries. When all the cla.s.s holders stopped making progress after they transformed their bodies, they somehow found a way to move from level 22 to 23.