Soul of Searing Steel

"You are planning on becoming Gold tier now?"

Joshua furrowed his brows a little. Then he caught the point of this incident.

Regardless of where and when, the archbishop of a church of the Seven Gods must be Gold tier. So they would select a person that had already reached the pinnacle of Silver tier—Perfect Silver tier. Because this person must be able to become a Gold before he or she could become the next archbishop of the church. This rule had remained in place all these years. Meanwhile, the man that was standing right in front of Joshua had fulfilled the criteria.

"Indeed. Truthfully, when you were preparing to depart over to Moldova to provide support, I found enlightenment."

Artanis did not try to hide his own strength. He conjured a blazing white holy light right on his palm. Then he turned it into a warm light ball. It was blazing on vigorously as if it could burn an entire river.

This white-haired priest focused his eyes on the lively radiance. He had a complex look in his eyes. "For so many years, I've fought the orcs, I've fought the dragons, I've even fought the mermaids in the deep sea—I've followed Master Archbishop to the abyss many times over…"

After remaining in silence for a moment, he tightened his palm and extinguished the light ball in the middle of his palm. Then Artanis sighed. "Intense battles did not make my conviction and beliefs purer. Instead, the peace in the church where I nurture apprentices had led to seeing my own soul clearer than before."

"Where your heart is calm, you shall acquire wisdom from the calmness… The wisdom of fire is the origin of power. In few months' time, when I begin transcending into an Extraordinary body, I shall become a Gold-tier being."

So it seemed that Artanis had chosen to walk on the path of Wisdom.

"No matter what, stepping into the realm of Extraordinary is a new beginning. Congratulations."

Thinking deeply, although the two of them had chosen a different path for themselves, Joshua still congratulated the man with all his heart. Then he said, "It seems that my territory is going to have a Gold-tier priest. I wonder how many are going to envy us."

"You're unmatchable!"

Shaking his head while he laughed out loud, the white-haired priest adjusted his wooden-framed spectacles and said, "Well, let's cast aside the fact that I have no followers at all. Manpower is needed over at the Sacred Mountain. Currently, I'm all alone here. Joshua, you've already become a Gold-tier warrior when you're not even twenty-five-years old. You're actually more terrifying than the monsters I've encountered…"

"Same goes with you…"

The two of them suddenly began to butter each other up.

The warrior felt relaxed when he was talking to Artanis. However, when the two of them were praising each other, he had something else on his mind.

—Deep in the Sacred Mountain, what is really going on over there?

Far at the high seas of the Sacred Mountain, as one of the five largest forces in the world, the leading church of the Seven Gods was located on an isolated island. Even so, they were the strongest holy land, the only ones in the entire world that can train holy knights, paladins, and priests. The people from all around the world were well aware of the fame and prestige of the Sacred Mountain. The good would be admired, and the evil would experience fear from the bottom of their hearts.

In the previous life, they were unrivaled in being active. Not only were they known to be very active in suppressing the giant beasts and educating thousands of indigenous peoples across thousands of lands the Four Seas, they had also helped the kingdoms in the distant South to solve and calm the catastrophic disasters. They had even assisted the West Mountains to launch their sacred crusade against believers of the Evil God. Meanwhile, the Sacred Mountain was also the first force in the previous life to send a holy expedition to the abyss. Because of this, Joshua knew very much about the power of this extraordinary force. He knew what they were capable of doing.

However, even Joshua did not know the reason why the Sacred Mountain would summon most of their available holy Class bearers that were stationed all over the continent in this time, Starfall 831 Year. At the very least, it did not happen back then in the distant South.

"Could it be because of the upcoming Berserk Dragon Disaster that'd happen soon?'

As a transmigrator that knew of the future, Joshua swiftly thought of one possibility.

Indeed, judging based on the dimensional rift incident, there must be some Chaos believers that exist beyond the sea in the distant South. The Marine Abyssal Dragons in the deep ocean should be extinct already. Furthermore, the Pentashade Dragon God might have sided with Chaos now.

The sacred mountain that was originally located in the high seas really needed to gather every single manpower it could get to cope with the upcoming big event; that would be a world-class epic historical event: The opening of the second expansion of 'Continental War', [The Fall of the Dragon God, The Rise of the Berserk Dragon Disaster] .

As the center of the events to come, holy Class bearers from the distant South were not required to be summoned back. Instead, they should send out a large-scale party to support.

Leaving his thoughts there, Joshua turned his eyes on the translucent rune plate made of crystal that was put on the cabinet, locked by Artanis a while ago.

It is indeed a strategic resource for to be able to freely change the type of the holy light. Judging that the old priest is handling it with care, it seems that there is only a small number of it in the entire church of the Seven Gods. Well, that explains why I've not seen or heard about such strange and powerful equipment before in the previous life. It also seems that such powerful item should only be possessed by an archbishop, or be placed in the center core in the formation of the holy spell of the sacred land.

Clenching his left fist once again, the warrior could feel that the muscles and the bones in his left arm had recovered quite a lot. Artanis' holy spell was really effective on him. Of course, it was a little off the rails for a priest from the Divine Punisher Guild to have such a powerful holy spell in the arts of healing.

Normally, for the holy Class bearers who used holy light, other than distinguishing among themselves based on the gods that they believed and had faith in, they would generally determine their identity based on the types of holy light they possessed.

For Artanis, because his awakened holy light was the [Seraph's Holy Light] which could cause the most devastating damage, he became an Inquisitor for the Divine Punisher Guild. If it weren't for the spiral crystal rune plate that he used earlier, the old priest would not have been able to heal Joshua. If his holy spell reached a maximum point, he could have drilled a large hole in the Warrior's hand instead of healing him. After all, healing was not the old priest's official Class.

Normally, normal holy knights and priests could only use the most fundamental, the most basic skill in the art of healing, the [Healing's Holy Light]. That skill was purely used for healing purposes only. Although the skill itself could not deal any damage to the enemies at all, the skill could support the person to be tougher and harder to go down. Well, if a holy knight or a priest could heal themselves back to their best state, then they could easily hold their huge shields and heavy hammers to battle against beast and dragons. Furthermore, under the blessing of holy light, normal magic attacks would basically be ineffective against them. They would become literally like meat grinders on the battlefield, shredding the monsters into pieces.

Meanwhile, the gray knights and the sanctioner would use a much rarer skill called [Judgement's Holy Light]. That was a power that required very high-level Gifts and minds. The effect of the [Judgement's Holy Light] was just similar to the effect of the Order power that was dwelling in the Azurite. The power would be effective against all monsters that sided with Chaos. The gray radiance would spread and no daemons that were corrupted by Chaos would survive.

"It's almost time to go."

Time waited for no man. Joshua decided to end the conversation there. He nodded and told Artanis, "I've just returned not long ago, there are definitely a lot of things left unsettled back at the liege's mansion. So let's talk again some other day when we're both free."

"Not a problem, my liege. I wish you the very best."

After a slight bow at Joshua, the old priest did not forget to remind him, "Remember, come again next week. I need to inspect your wounds again." After that, he reminded Joshua the other thing as well, "Remember to pay up as well, my liege. The holy spell equipment and the church's holy light storage would need money to be maintained."

"Of course I will."

Joshua then turned around and looked at the corner of the resting room. Artanis' two apprentices closed their eyes to restore their mental power.

Although they were also Silver tier just like their mentor, however, they were still unmatchable to the priest that had already reached the pinnacle of the Silver tier. The old priest could still chat and joke with Joshua while he was healing Joshua. However, the two apprentices were already exhausted from focusing on healing Joshua's left arm.

Sitting on the chair right beside the two apprentices was Ying…

"Huh?"

Blinking with his eyes, Joshua looked at his own Divine Armament with a little surprise. Right before him, the silver-haired girl that was sitting on a chair made of redwood had her arms folded with her head leaning on the cabinet next to her. Her long hair was lying straight down. Her eyes were shut. Her breathing was steady. She seemed to have fallen asleep.

"Fell asleep I see… That's strange—didn't people say that Divine Armaments need no food or sleep?"

Upon shaking his head, the warrior was not bothered too much by that. Well, Ying had been eating and having tea together with the warrior back then. Nothing seemed wrong about that though. After so many days of battling and traveling in a hurry, it was normal that she would feel exhausted and fall asleep.

Looking at the silver-haired girl who had fallen into a deep slumber, Joshua gently touched Ying's head. He did not have the heart to wake her up now. However, when she felt that she was being touched by someone, Ying immediately opened up her eyes and woke right up from her dreams.

"What happened…"

She seemed like she had not woken up completely from her dreams.

"You're awake? You have to be more careful next time. It's not good to fall asleep outside. Let's go home and take a good rest."

After seeing Ying's confused face, the warrior informed her.

After waiting for the Divine Armament girl to get ready, Joshua turned around and walked towards the door of the room. Then he waved his hand at Artanis as a farewell. "Then, see you. I hope that you can reach Gold tier as soon as possible."

"Thank you for your blessing, my liege. We shall meet again next time."

—West side of the city, the Liege's Mansion.

Because of winter, the efficiency of work on the reconstruction of the liege's mansion had been reduced to minimal. And because of that, the reconstruction of the mansion had not been completed. So the warrior could only momentarily stay at the other mansion which was located at the west side of the city.

In the study room of the other mansion, Joshua had changed into another set of clothes. He was sitting right before the study table. His eyes were focused on the documents and letters that had piled up the entire surface of his study table. At the same time, Joshua could not help but sigh aloud.

Although the main city had its own military and administrative team to deal with administrative issues, however, Joshua had not returned to the city for over a month. There were some things that require the attention of the baron of the city. He needed to make the decision on some issues. So that was how his workload piled up so much. As for letters, most of them were merely greeting letters that had no important contexts in them. Only a few of the letters were much more important. Joshua had picked them out one after another and left the unimportant ones aside.

"Alphonso…"

Picking up a milky-colored letter, Joshua softly read out the name on the edge of the letterhead.

That was the name of the man Joshua asked to do a favor for him at the spring auction. He asked the Alphonso to purchase some strange items. And now, this was a letter that Alphonso sent to him.

However, it was not spring yet. The auction should not have begun yet. So what was so urgent that he had to send a letter?

While thinking of the possible reasons, Joshua tore the envelope and took the letter out to read.