Chapter 447 (Side Story): Killing Two Birds with One Stone (1)

After completing the church registration, Kai had no choice but to squint when he visited the Sky Island. The brilliant light enough to brighten the entire island flickered endlessly

She must be in a good mood.

Just as a satisfied smile appeared on his face, rapid footsteps approached.

“Kai! Listen to this! As soon as the church was registered, a believer appeared! Such incredible speed!”

“First, please turn off the radiant light.”

“

Ah

, wait just a moment.”

Helik raised her hand and fiddled with the light shining behind her head.

She was able to adjust the brightness like that?

He knew that when she was happy it flickered brighter and faster, but he never imagined there was even a switch.

“Done. You may open your eyes.”

“Thank you.”

Only then did Kai open his eyes properly, and when he looked at her, she continued with a face full of excitement, “Anyway, this is amazing!”

“What is?”

“Even before you have begun proper evangelism, the number of believers has already grown.”

“That was me.”

“

Huh...?

”

The light suddenly went out. At the same time Helik’s face quickly turned sad.

“It was you...? I got excited for nothing without even knowing...”

Kai knelt down to meet her gaze and said, “It is only the first day. Don’t be too impatient. Time will take care of it.”

“Right, you're always right. I will try to be patient too.”

“Thank you.”

“B-but instead Kai, I have a favor to ask... Will you fulfill it?”

“A favor?” Kai showed a surprised look.

If she wanted snacks or cola, she would have confidently demanded them as always, but the fact that she used the word favor felt very strange.

Could it be that she feels some discomfort compared to MID Online?

He thought for a moment but couldn’t figure it out.

“What kind of favor?”

“I’ll tell you if you promise to fulfill it.”

“Let me hear it first.”

“Can’t you just promise first? I beg you like this.”

She waved her arms like a mollusk and pleaded desperately. From the look on her face, she seemed on the verge of crying if he refused.

This is the first time she has acted like this.

How difficult could the request really be?

Nodding, Kai said, “If you insist that much, alright. What is it?”

“Well...” She fidgeted with her fingers and shyly said, “W-will you... become my apostle... once more?”

Fearing rejection, she looked up at him with frightened eyes. At that point, the game was essentially over. How many people in the world could refuse such a cute goddess’s request.

At least not me.

He struggled to suppress the corners of his mouth that tried to rise against his will. Barely regaining composure, Kai stroked her head with a smile.

“Well, this is a bit upsetting. Were you planning to appoint someone else as your envoy?"

“Never once have I even considered such a thing!” Helik shouted firmly, then looked up at the hand stroking her head. “But Kai, I didn’t swallow gum today.”

“

Huh?

”

“Wasn’t stroking the head something you only did when I swallowed gum? To heal me.”

“What are you...” Kai trailed off as he recalled an old memory.

Ah, come to think of it, was it during our first meeting?

When Helik had unknowingly swallowed gum and he teased her, she had burst into tears so adorably that he told her stroking her head would make her better and patted her repeatedly.

Kai hastily explained, “That aside, it is my hobby to stroke the head of someone I respect.”

“I see...” After thinking for a moment, she said in a shy voice, “

Hmm

, that is truly an admirable mindset. Continue to respect me from now on as well.”

“Alright.”

After stroking her head for quite a while longer, he proceeded with the class change process.

“Kai. Do you swear to become the righteous envoy of Helik, the Solarian God, to punish the wicked and protect the weak?”

“Yes, I swear,” Kai knelt on one knee and bowed his head in reply.

Come to think of it, what class am I changing into now?

In

MID Online

, there had been a Mythic hidden class called Solaris Cleric, but since there wasn't even a Solarian Church in

FanOn

, that class naturally couldn’t exist. But that question was quickly answered.

“Then I, Helik the Solarian God, also declare that I will take Kai as my apostle and entrust him with the role of my envoy."

Ding!

[Job class Beginner has been changed to Solaris Cleric]

[By changing your class to Solaris Cleric, class-exclusive stats have been generated.]

[The Benevolence stat has been unlocked.]

[Title acquired: Envoy of God.]

“

Wow

.” At the words he hadn’t seen in years, admiration slipped out before he could even realize it.

Who would have thought the day would come when he would once again have this class. But soon his practical sense spotted differences from before.

Dr. Jim, that cunning fellow... He prepared everything meticulously.

Since he had personally helped with Helik’s data transfer, he must have anticipated that the Solaris Cleric would someday reappear in the world.

Perhaps that’s why he cut things off so openly.

First, compared to

MID Online

, there were no exclusive skills for the Solaris Cleric. However, Kai didn’t hold much regret there.

Those skills only made sense because the Solaris Cleric was a Mythic hidden class.

In

Fantasia Online

, hidden classes did exist, but Mythic ones did not. To put it more precisely, there were no jobs so overpowering that could collapse the entire game’s ecosystem. The reason was obvious.

“

Ahem

.”

Because when they had created something like that, the game had once suffered an early termination. If his guess was right, the effect of the title Envoy of God had surely been nerfed as well.

[

Envoy of God

]

Rank: Mythic

Description: A title given to one who represents a god.

Effect: +1 to all stats for every 10 Benevolence points.

“As expected...”

What had once been a one-to-one ratio was nerfed precisely to one-tenth. Yet surprisingly, he didn’t feel particularly upset. It only made him realize again how overpowered the Solaris Cleric had been.

“So then, Kai, will you begin evangelizing at once?”

“Not yet.”

His plan remained the same.

Evangelizing on the main continent is not very meaningful.

Of course, it wasn’t completely meaningless, but the results would hardly match the effort. For now, the only method was to level up as quickly as possible and head to the Yushin Archipelago.

Hearing a rough explanation, Helik tilted her head. “Kai, there is something I cannot understand after listening carefully.”

“What is it?”

“If you are my apostle, wouldn’t doing good deeds be the quicker way to grow stronger rather than slaying monsters?”

“

Ah

, well, the thing is...”

He gave a simple explanation that in this world that method had become about one-tenth as effective.

Helik was shocked. “What, is that true?”

“Yes.”

“I cannot believe it, wait a moment.”

Then a system window appeared before him.

[The Solarian God Helik tilts her head at your words.]

[+100 Benevolence.]

“

Oh,

it really is true.”

She stared at Kai for a moment with her brilliantly shining golden eyes, then nodded.

[The Solarian God Helik’s doubts have been resolved.]

[-100 Benevolence.]

“So it truly has become ten... ten ones?”

“One-tenth.”

“I-I know. The effect of Benevolence has weakened by one-tenth.”

“That is right. So now, hunting monsters is the faster way to grow stronger than doing good deeds.”

By this point, she would have understood.

Or so he thought, but she still tilted her head and asked, “But Kai, doesn’t that mean I could simply set the reward ten times higher than before?”

“What? That is easier said... wait, it really is.”

After all, the Benevolence stat was something Helik calculated by opening and closing her fingers, then granted to her apostle in the first place. A bombshell statement came from Helik that not even Dr. Jim nor Kai himself had expected.

“Then don’t worry! I will evaluate your Benevolence ten times higher than before!”

“

Oh

, almighty Solarian God.”

He once again revered his cute goddess.

***

Thanks to this, the plan he had originally made was scrapped and thrown into the trash.

The situation has changed.

Kai himself thought that if the Solaris Cleric was nerfed, then the Benevolence stat should be the top priority. In the worst case, he even thought the Benevolence stat itself could disappear.

Dr. Jim, you probably thought cutting the effect down to one-tenth would be enough...

But on this side, there was the irresponsible god of snacks, Helik.

Unfolding his map, Kai reset his destination.

I only planned routes focused on places with lots of monsters that give good XP before.

But now, there was one more condition added.

Places where incidents and accidents involving NPCs often happen.

The more of those places, the more chances he would have to raise his Benevolence stat. It was wisdom he gained after living for years as a Solaris Cleric.

“Then there’s only one place.”

A place with monsters that gave good XP, had constant incidents and accidents every day, and a perfect stage for a priest like him to shine.

“The Sanctuary of the Ancient.”

It was an underground labyrinth overflowing with undead.

***

The Sanctuary of the Ancient was a five-story underground labyrinth where undead between levels 60 and 130 wandered. The deeper the floor, the stronger the monsters that appeared, in a typical layered structure.

Both players and NPC explorers enjoy coming here since it’s large and has a wide variety of monsters.

Among explorers, there was even a rumor that the secrets of this labyrinth had not all been uncovered yet. Of course, Kai was skeptical about that part.

This is a place countless people have already scoured down to every corner.

It was hard to believe that anything hidden could still exist in such a worn-out place.

However...

The moment he stepped into the Sanctuary of the Ancient, there was one thing he had no choice but to acknowledge.

“I guess that kind of thought makes sense.”

The ceilings were so high and the murals so splendid that it was hard to believe they were made with the technology of the ancients. The sight was more than enough to stir up the hidden expectations in a person’s heart.

“Looking for a level 70 or higher Warrior to help clear the second floor!”

“Any Wizards here? Fire-element Wizards preferred!”

Like any dungeon, the entrance of the labyrinth was crowded with players recruiting party members. Kai naturally walked past them.

The monsters on the first floor are only around level 60 to 65 at best.

Though he was currently level 26, his stats put him around the mid-fifties. Even though he had no Mythic class-exclusive skills, he still learned the basic skills of the Solarian Church. With that, hunting itself wouldn’t be too difficult.

And if I’m not mistaken...

There were always those kinds of people lurking in these types of dungeons, the kind who hunted not monsters, but people.