Adventurer Association – Base
As the president of this base, Batel looked at the young man in front of him, his thoughts drifting far away, falling into a montary recollection.
He took a deep draw from his smoking pipe, slowly exhaling the smoke, his gaze falling on the young man as he asked, "Kid, so much ti has passed, and you’re still hung up on that matter, do you really want to beco a Night Watcher?"
"Of course!"
Kurta replied firmly, his eyes filled with determination and yearning, "I’ve always been working towards it, now I’m quite a well-known hunter in town!"
Saying this, he proudly patted the belt at his waist, which was characteristic attire of the town’s hunters, marking him as having truly beco a hunter.
In this place, not just anyone was qualified to beco a hunter.
"A hunter... Right, have you received any information regarding the oath?" Batel suddenly asked.
"Oath?" Kurta looked puzzled, clearly unfamiliar with the topic.
It seems those nobles never intended to disseminate that information. Batel thought to himself, then said, "Fortunately, you’ve co. Recently, a lot of dangerous areas have appeared, both inside and outside the town."
"Oh?" This piqued Batel’s interest.
Kurta nodded and continued, "For example, the White Mountain Forest south of town has had ghostly wails coming from it these past months.
Two people who went to chop wood in the mountains tragically lost their lives, dying horrible deaths, and it’s said their souls were devoured.
I don’t dare hunt in that forest anymore; now, I have to go further out, which is a hassle."
Batel listened and nodded silently. This was likely the phenonon discussed within the Night Watchers, brought on by the dispersion of the Evil God Power.
Ordinary evil power wouldn’t cause such imdiate harm, but now many avatars of the Evil Gods have been destroyed, even the Shadow Evil God nearly perished in this world. Although it eventually escaped, its body and power remained intact in the world, and these are pure evil power.
The world absorbed this energy but also had to endure the accompanying evil energy.
Due to the evil curse, these negative forces scattered across the world, increasing the frequency of bizarre dangers compared to usual.
This was also the opportunity for the Adventurer Association to develop and grow, handling these dangers, releasing commissions appropriately, arming civilians, and allowing more young people with aspirations to beco adventurers.
In this way, not only could they gain training, but they could also drive the economy and empower civilians to protect themselves.
"Kurta, the standards for recruiting Night Watchers are quite high nowadays. With your current abilities, you’re still not enough to beco a Night Watcher," Batel said straightforwardly, looking at Kurta.
Hearing the old man’s words, Kurta’s expression darkened slightly, though he didn’t seem too frustrated, for he understood the gap between dreams and reality.
"However..." Batel changed his tone.
"Yes!" Kurta quickly turned his head, hope igniting in his eyes. Could the situation have turned around?
"Although you can’t beco a Night Watcher, Kana, the leader of the Night Watchers, with his power, can allow more people to receive the Night Watchers’ blessing even if they don’t join.
"As long as you’re willing to swear an oath to fight for the world, would you be willing to try?" Batel looked at Kurta with expectant eyes.
"To receive the sa blessing as the Night Watchers? Of course I’d want to!" Kurta nodded vigorously, his eyes shining with excitent.
In his view, even if he couldn’t beco a true Night Watcher, obtaining the sa power would an being half a Night Watcher.
"These are the words of the oath, take a close look, and I’ll teach you the words you don’t know, then I’ll explain the aning of this oath to you.
"This is an oath made to the world, not to be taken lightly. If you break it maliciously, the world’s punishnt will be more painful than death."
Batel spoke solemnly, his gaze dignified.
Looking at Batel’s serious expression, Kurta couldn’t help but swallow, then nodded resolutely, indicating that he understood the gravity of the matter.
"Alright then, I’ll teach you."
After a simple lesson, Kurta understood the aning of the oath.
To him, the oath wasn’t a constraint; rather, it was like an honorable knight’s declaration, akin to the Spirit of the Night Watchers he had always dread of, clearly a good thing.
"You look ready, so let’s begin, take the oath," Batel said.
"Huh? Here and now?" Kurta hesitated, feeling it might be disrespectful to take such a solemn oath while sitting at the bar, as if it were too hasty.
"Where you take it doesn’t matter; what’s key is that you sincerely take the oath and always fulfill it," Batel said earnestly.
"Alright then."
Since old man Batel said so, Kurta nodded, closed his eyes, made an effort to recall the oath, and began reciting it softly.
However, due to nervousness, he stumbled over his words, occasionally opening his eyes to glance at the oath.
As he finished the last word, a power surged within Kurta.
"Wow, I can feel it!"
The young man exclaid with excitent.
He opened his eyes, continuously feeling his hands, even pinching himself to try and sense the newly acquired power, but couldn’t detect any obvious changes.
This feeling of sensing power yet not being able to articulate the specific changes caused him so discomfort.
"Don’t worry, I’ll teach you," Batel said gently upon seeing this.
...
Ring Tower City
Kana stood on the balcony of his office, overlooking the city below.
The city was thriving, expanding outward each day, gradually moving towards becoming a gacity.
In the air, faint golden light converged into thin strands, gathering towards him.
These golden lights were primarily divided into three parts, coming from different directions of the city, with so dimr rays shooting from afar.
Kana blinked slightly, blocking this special visual effect.
"Faith... seems to be growing,"
Kana murmured, then turned to Alyris, asking, "Did they start preaching?"
Alyris shook her head, answering, "No, they didn’t intentionally preach. Those Night Watchers gathered on their own. When their numbers reached a certain scale, they naturally attracted more people."
Hearing this, Kana felt a bit helpless. He didn’t want to walk the streets, seeing worshippers bow to him or stare at him with fervent and devout eyes.
"I’ve co up with an idea recently, go and establish a target for those believers to worship.
"Don’t erect statues of , replace any items with my likeness, or directly associated with in the prayers, with torches, the Night Watchers’ insignia, or banners, shifting the focus of worship to the Night Watchers," Kana said after contemplating for a mont.
Though Alyris didn’t quite understand the reasoning, she nodded, turned into a flash of bloodlight, and vanished to carry out Kana’s orders.
Kana sighed helplessly. Ever since ascending to godhood, he had been delving into relevant information and studying the application of related powers.
And the issues brought by faith were what troubled him the most.
The main reason was that he had never dealt with matters of faith before, so facing these now naturally felt thorny.
As a deity on earth, directly interacting with mortals and his followers, this contact could reduce the excessive awe his followers had towards him to so extent, but it also made them more devout.
This caused the followers to behave overly reserved and rigid in his presence, for in their hearts, Kana was their everything.
And those not extrely devout to him, just upholding the Night Watchers’ duties, also had to follow the change in rites. This wasn’t the situation Kana hoped to see.
This spontaneous spread of faith left him sowhat caught off guard, not even knowing how to stop it.
Actually, the Night Watchers did have ritual norms, albeit relatively straightforward and casual, just a symbolic gesture.
By altering the worship target, centering on the Night Watchers, and cleverly redirecting the power of faith, it might adequately solve this issue.
In this way, only those with powerful capabilities and extrely steadfast faith could perceive that the true object of their faith was Kana himself.
This could both prevent the vast majority of believers from plunging into fanaticism and ensure that the strong and rational faithful clearly understood their pursuit, perfectly resolving the current dilemma, though the execution might be sowhat troubleso.
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