To be honest, meeting an old friend in a foreign land was quite a joyous occasion, especially when they owed me money and even promised to pay me back with interest …
[System: That's enough of this joke, are you done yet!?]
Cough, getting back to the main topic, I finally didn't have to trick those gnomes to earn my living expenses, which saved me quite a bit of effort. After all, those gnomes weren't easy to deal with, and they weren't easy to deal with.
However, their hard work resulted in another effect. The God of Law, Wumianzhe's faith, spread far and wide.
Of course, it was impossible to count on them to proactively spread the concept of law. Even if the Church of Law, which strictly prohibited crimes, was very helpful to the weak gnomes, they were willing to do anything for the sake of money. They had been walking on the border between legal and illegal for a long time, so why would they actively seek trouble for themselves?
What they spread was another Church of Law that belonged to Wumianzhe — Contract.
This Divine Concept obtained from the Ottoman Empire hadn't even been accepted by human society yet, but the gnomes were already openly using it. That "insurance" was obviously a type of contract, and the protection of the "weak" and the recognition of contracts by a true God made the gnomes exceptionally welcome this new concept.
There was just a small problem.
"Venerable Insurance God, Sleepless, please listen to my prayer and allow me to sell a few more insurance policies today."
Fine, forget about getting the God's name wrong, the Insurance God wasn't the God of Commerce, so why would he bless you with a smooth business? Cough, wrong … What did this Insurance God mean! He actually didn't send down any divine punishment? Could it be that Wumianzhe was a forgiving God? That was impossible.
"Fortunately, I got the wrong God's name wrong, so my prayer was ineffective, otherwise …"
Fine, someone had already told the truth. Praying with the wrong God's name was like calling the wrong number. Of course, it was meaningless, but it would definitely anger any divine job class member who saw such blasphemy.
But sometimes, the fake could also be mistaken for the real. Some wrong concepts, when combined to a certain extent, could really affect the concept of a true God. In order to not be called the Insurance God, Sleepless, such a weak name, I intended to have the Church of Law take action the moment I returned.
At the very least, I couldn't let the gnomes do as they pleased. Perhaps I could try to get involved in such a profitable business like insurance.
But now, this contract with the God of Law inscribed on it was doubtlessly far more useful than the devil's contract. And in order to make these contracts even more effective, those stingy misers actually built a church dedicated to the God of Law in Karo. Wumianzhe's statue was even made of gold … yep, it was just gold paint. They wouldn't be willing to use the lovely gold to make useless decorations.
Although I was rather dissatisfied with the fact that more and more goblins were treating the God of Insurance, I had to admit that the God of Law had indeed expanded the God of Law's Divine Concept and Divine Domain as they spread new contracts such as insurance. It could be said that they were doing a great deed out of selfishness.
"Perhaps I should discuss it with the gnomes and come up with a contract with them for a wholesale price, with an additional condition for them to spread the complete teachings of the God of Law. With their ability to expand their business to other dimensions, it should be quite effective."
As I pondered, a scene suddenly appeared before my eyes. A goblin wearing a suit and a gentleman's hat knocked on my door politely and handed me a name card.
"Excuse me, do you know Wumianzhe? You don't? That's great … oh, no, it's such a pity. Our Church of Wumianzhe … if you join us now, we'll even give you a three-year insurance policy. If you add a hundred gold coins, we'll even help you apply for a VIP membership card and upgrade your insurance policy to explosive accidents for free. "
I thought about how if this frightening scene came true, the Church of Law's divine job class members would probably be the same as the ubiquitous insurance salesmen. In order to prevent Wumianzhe from being treated as the God of Advertising, I immediately decided to give up on this idea.
But the most important thing right now was still …
"Ahhh, when will the 'world' be returned to me?"
I did activate a Legendary Quest, which would definitely give me a lot of points. But unexpectedly, it wasn't to kill the Earth Elemental God Ömdiroken. Instead, it was a "Entanglement of Two Dragons" mission that required me to choose between the Bardi Empire and the Mage Country in order to increase my reputation as much as possible.
Obviously, if I chose the Mage Country and dragged them down with me, it would naturally be a good thing for me to increase my reputation in this battle against Ömdiroken.
The reward I received was a large number of points that I needed the most. If I chose to kill Ömdiroken in order to increase my reputation, I would also receive plenty of earth elemental materials to construct my perfect "world" as spoils of war.
However, I wasn't happy at all, because this Legendary Quest was obviously hinting at something.
"The Mage Country and the Bardi Empire are at war?"
Kaid nodded with a bitter expression upon hearing this.
"Although there's no full-scale war yet, there have been over a hundred skirmishes at the border in the past month. We capture several hundred spies every day, and it's quite obvious that the enemy's armies are gathering. It would seem that it's only a matter of time before the Bardi Empire declares war."
"Just what is that Orloss the Thirteenth thinking? He's actually trying to start a war between the mega empires right before the Holy War? Did a demon eat his brain!? "
I didn't even need to ask for the reason, as I had some understanding of the Truth Symposium. As long as the general structure of the Truth Symposium didn't change, the Mage Country's rulers would have no interest in territory or reputation. The Mage Country hadn't changed its territory for several millennia already, so it was almost impossible for them to start a war.
As for the Bardi Empire … actually, all the human mega empires were basically the same. It was only natural for them to be arrogant. If a lunatic who thought that he was the greatest emperor of all time appeared, the neighboring countries would have to struggle for several hundred years. And it just so happened that all the mega empires had quite a solid foundation, so it was quite troublesome to struggle for them. Fortunately, there were still smaller countries between the mega empires as a buffer zone.
However, I had heard of Orloss before. He had already been in power for more than thirty years, and he had always been a staunch hawk. He had fought against numerous foreign countries, and recently, he had even forced the thirteen countries of the Moon Horn Alliance to surrender, which directly tore apart the buffer zone between the Bardi Empire and the Mage Country.
"I don't think he's crazy. He probably saw that the other countries were busy during the Holy War, so he could use this time to expand."
"Hmph, do they really think that they can escape? How foolish. "
Kaid shook his head.
"The Bardi Empire is a landlocked country. There aren't any other species within or outside its borders. I'm afraid that they really won't be involved in this Holy War. Our Mage Country has expanded far too much. I'm guessing that they're here for our technology. This will be quite troublesome. "
I opened my mouth, but in the end, I didn't say anything. After all, it was impossible for me to explain the information that the Undead Plane just so happened to be in the Bardi Empire's capital. If I casually said something like that, there would be no end of trouble. Not only that, I wouldn't be able to verify whether "history" and "future" would really coincide.
Something worth mentioning was that when I told Renée to use the name of the Donglan Principality to spread the news that the undead were about to invade the Bardi Empire, basically nobody believed me. In fact, there was quite a bit of ridicule and criticism.
"The northerners are saying that the Undead Calamity is about to arrive? Heh heh, it would seem that they've been scared witless by the remnants of Xiluo's army. Let the Undead Calamity come! The Yongye Calamity that has existed for more than a hundred years hasn't been able to do anything to us. Not to mention today. "
"The Donglan Principality? The legendary Roland Principality? He's here to warn us of a new Yongye Calamity? Oh my, isn't this just a mouse warning us that the granaries are unsafe? Are you sure you're not joking? "
Alright then, I had done everything I could. I couldn't care less if you listened or not. But now, it was obvious that I had to make a choice.
"There's no need to think about the Mage Country anymore. I already deeply hate that idiotic bastard emperor."
And when I made my choice, that damned System actually gave me a benefit, allowing me to temporarily borrow my "world" three times. It even gave me a progress bar.
[11.7%, -3421]
The second progress bar was a completely random increase in debt, while the first progress bar was incomprehensible.
But no matter how I asked, my System would fall into a strange silence. And every time the progress bar increased by a little, my debt would skyrocket. This was completely different from how it was calculated.
I could only helplessly try using my "world" once, and I instantly understood. Then, I instantly regretted it … I had wasted a rare opportunity.
My "world" was still empty, and the air was still as cold as ever. However, there was something more to it than before. At the very least, it was much more stable than before.
"… Has my System changed? Is it intending to go down the tsundere path? It actually really helped me out. If my guess is correct, it's helping me stabilize and perfect my "world." And it's even making me write an IOU. "
My System was quite reliable when it came to accepting money to do things. It would never work for free, and would always adhere to its basic "principle" of not doing anything without accepting money, and doing as much as it received. This time, it was rather surprising that it was willing to go into debt to help me.
My System had fallen into an abnormal state of stagnation. Not only did it ignore my questions, it was also impossible to open anything apart from the progress bar. It was just like a computer that had crashed due to being overloaded. But from another perspective, this was proof of how important my "world" was. It was so important that my System was willing to give up everything and pour all its power into perfecting it!
But just because I was unable to use my System didn't mean that I had nothing else to do. In fact, in order to improve my reputation and adapt to future battles, I had been doing many "small things" recently.
Karo's arena was usually a place where other species would settle their personal grudges. "Wise" mages would never like a barbarian's arena. But these days, the arena was filled to the brim with mages.
Right now, a battle between a silver-armored warrior and an archmage was underway in the arena. The archmage kept constructing walls in an attempt to prevent the warrior from getting close to him, while the earth elemental warrior that was being controlled was also acting as a barrier.
* Smack! *
The earth wall that was strong enough to block giants was actually smashed apart. The warrior only lowered his head and raised his shield to protect his head, completely ignoring the secondary earth elemental summoned by his opponent.
* Boom! *
This time, the earth elemental energy in the newly erected earth wall wasn't solid enough yet, so it was actually smashed through.
The archmage was caught off guard and was still in the middle of chanting his incantation when a sharp sword arrived in front of him. The mage was so scared that his face was pale as he hurriedly raised his hands to surrender.
"Victor, Roland! Congratulations on your seventeen consecutive victories! "
I took off my helmet and smiled in a rather rusty 59-style Holy Knight style as I waved at the spectators. This immediately caused even more cheers.
"It would seem that I'm still as good as ever."
As a Holy Knight who used to act as a front and attract sponsors, I was quite skilled at using my face to increase my reputation. But that alone still wasn't enough.
And so, I smiled as I extended my hand to the loser, pulled him up, and began explaining the battle just now.
"Using an earth wall trap that's been lying in ambush to block high-speed warriors is indeed a good idea, but sometimes it's too obvious. Just now, if you had placed a small tripping trap under the earth wall, as long as the opponent loses his balance, even if it's only for an instant, it would have been enough to kill him. Besides, you only cared about the wall. Couldn't you have dug a pit behind the wall? As long as you blocked the opponent's line of sight, it's highly likely that a high-speed warrior would directly fall into the pit the moment he rushes past the earth wall or over it. "
"Ohhh!"
Not only was the mage nodding his head in gratitude, the other spectating mages also took out their notebooks and kept taking notes. Such small combat techniques and practical experience would be impossible to teach in any classroom, since they were combat experience for powerful warriors.
"Academic mages have a bad habit: they always like to use extravagant high-level spells to crush their opponents. Actually, high-level spells are far too slow and obvious to cast, so they aren't much of a threat to experienced high-level warriors. As long as they're hit in a critical spot, a small ice arrow will be enough to kill them. Simple low-level spells are the best combination to deal with high-level warriors. "
Yep, these were all training battles, as well as my attempt to increase my reputation. After all, in the world of mages, there were plenty of mages who could impart magical knowledge, but there were pitifully few mages who could impart combat experience and practical techniques.
Yep, mages. Although they all acted as combat job classes in battle, I faced them as a magic swordsman who also practiced swordsmanship. This was also the main reason why they were willing to accept me.
Since it was also a training battle between mages, they could accept losing, but if warriors constantly defeated mages, it would doubtlessly cause unnecessary trouble.
As their highest-ranked archmage, Kaid's senior apprentice, I naturally counted as their teacher as well, which greatly reduced their hostility toward me. And since I was an ancient monster who had lived for several hundred years, no matter how ridiculous my behavior was, they would still treat me as normal.
"May the Holy Light's favor forever be by your side!"
A glorious Holy Light descended, and the defeated mage's wounds began to heal. Even his skin began to glow a pinkish red. However, the others didn't have any reactions. After all, this wasn't the first time this had happened.
"Thirteen Holy Treatments! Could it be that this lord is also a Legend-ranked Holy Knight? "
"Inconceivable."
Doubtlessly, having a good reputation as a Holy Knight would make it much easier for me to increase my reputation. At the very least, everyone took my random stories of adventures seriously.
While the others only had expressions of astonishment at the start, Kaid was so shocked that his jaw nearly fell off.
"The greedy, perverted, petty, cunning, and vengeful Roland was actually able to become a Holy Knight? Could it be that the rumors that the God of Holy Light has gone blind are true?"
Alright then, I'm greedy, perverted, and vengeful. Yep, Kaid, you brat, remember it well. Yep, in two days, I'll show you just how vengeful I am.
"Thanks for your hard work. Those brats are finally convinced." Kaid, keep being happy. I'll help you spread the name of being a lolicon throughout the entire city.
I wanted to tease him a little more, but suddenly, a galloping horse brought me a messenger. Judging from how the messenger waved at me, the letter I had been waiting for all this time had finally arrived.
"Kaid, it seems that it's time for our plan to begin."
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