The Life of a Wise Cult Leader - Chapter 60

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Fire

After that, the King and I chatted merrily, building our friendship.

The King resembled a generous franchise grandfather, but he wasn’t naive to the core. While having these trivial conversations with me, he was probably calculating how much he could gain from this.

The same went for me. Even if I wore the mask of a saint and pretended to be innocent, my outer shell and distinctive atmosphere would prevent me from looking like a lamb.

“I’ll contact your attendant separately after rescheduling. It will probably take about two days.”

Someone like the King’s attendant secretary exchanged contact information with our attendant to coordinate schedules.

Anyway, I had successfully completed entry into the country. Now I just needed to very secretly and magnificently steal the sacred relic of a foreign country.

“I’ll guide you to your lodging.”

Since it was a nearby continent, there wasn’t much time difference, but there was some fatigue. After all, I had been riding in a carriage for 4 days with almost no rest, so my body was stiff.

‘It’s only this much because the carriage was top-class… ugh.’

Countries allied with the Empire or major cities within the Empire all have portals installed.

However, this place was Centa, which was at war. There was no way there would be portals, so we had to ride in a carriage for 4 days straight.

“Please rest comfortably until the schedule is set.”

Yelena, Cardil, and Kalebrin were each given separate rooms, and those rooms were even better than the ones at the Central Church. The envoy treatment was definite.

At least the King’s desire to “make a ceasefire” seemed sincere.

Or it was a ploy to win my favor in advance because he wanted my abilities.

‘Well… now then…’

I searched through the room. I was looking for surveillance artifacts or magic circles.

A magic circle was hidden behind some wallpaper I had slightly peeled back, and inside the bed sheets, there was an artifact stone mixed in with the cotton.

‘Breaking it would be troublesome.’

The magic circle behind the wallpaper was beyond my ability to understand, so I’d need to bring Cardil.

Kalebrin, who was a sorceress rather than a proper mage, would just look at the magic circle and stare at me blankly with a ‘…?’ expression.

I should also hand over the surveillance artifact to Cardil while I’m at it. Good.

After dumping everything on him, I would contact Antonio through telepathy.

‘The range for single-person telepathy is 100 kilometers… from here, it’s just barely within contact range.’

My current points were 95. I received 30 points each time I completed a believer quest, plus 5 bonus points as a reward for consecutive quest achievements.

In other words, my wallet situation was quite comfortable.

‘Telepathy was quite useful, so it wouldn’t be bad to level it up by 2 more levels, right?’

Thinking this, I lightly knocked on Cardil’s room, which was right next to mine.

“Brother Cardil. Are you there?”

“Yes… I’m here.”

There was the sound of shuffling footsteps from inside the room. Soon the footsteps stopped in front of the door, and I could see his face through the crack in the door.

“What’s the matter?”

“Well, it’s nothing major, but I discovered artifacts and magic circles in my room. Since I’m not a mage, I can’t tell what purpose they were installed for, so I came to ask for Brother Cardil’s help. I hope I didn’t disturb your rest?”

“No, well… let’s go take a look.”

Cardil tied up his disheveled hair and headed to my room.

Despite his attitude and sharp way of speaking, he was my ‘believer’. The faith and trust that came from believers was eternal, so even Cardil speaking like this just looked cute to me.

Cardil entered my room and turned his head around looking for magic circles. Then he discovered that besides the magic circle I had initially found, there were also magic circles under the chair seat and on the ceiling.

He began circling the room and interpreting the magic circles.

“Hmm… this is definitely a defensive barrier circle. Hmm, what’s this? Vision, hearing, sharing magic circles are also intricately intertwined. They’ve mixed and borrowed elven-style magic circles…”

Cardil muttered incomprehensible things, but his conclusion was this:

“It’s eavesdropping and surveillance magic. They’re probably listening to this conversation too.”

Cardil spoke boldly. It was actually a declaration of ‘we know you’re listening, so stop your tricks.’

“Well… they tried to pass it off as defensive by mixing elven magic circles with ancient sorcery circles.”

Crack.

Cardil crushed even the artifact stone with one hand, opened the window, and shook out the pebble-sized stone fragments. Was it okay to break it like that? Well, it was already broken, so there was nothing to be done.

Even if artifacts were softer than stone, it shouldn’t have been possible to crush with one hand. This was indeed Cardil, the ‘Healer of Destruction’ who went around punching everything in the original work.

“I only studied healing a bit… but I picked up some things on the side while studying, so I know about it. I can’t use it though.”

Cardil was not only proficient in Imperial magic circles but was a true genius who had mastered all sorts of miscellaneous magic. Of course, that was probably due to his sincere healer’s mindset of learning everything to heal people.

‘It would have been good to bring that prospective archmage. Then reverse eavesdropping might have been possible, right?’

Now that he wasn’t here, I felt regretful. Of course, even with prospective archmage qualifications, he was still a student, so it would take at least 2 more years to use him effectively.

I placed my hand on Cardil’s shoulder and infused him with healing power. Cardil, energized by the healing that completely dispelled his fatigue, subtly brushed away my hand.

“Don’t use it for such trivial things.”

“Trivial? I can at least dispel Brother’s fatigue.”

“If you use it for trivial things, you might not be able to use it when you really need it.”

Was he talking about divine power?

Well, novice healers often failed at MP management, using healing skills when only 5 HP was lost, then couldn’t use skills when critically injured.

But that was a story related to MP, different from me who drew power from sacred relics.

“It’s fine, Brother Cardil. I don’t basically use divine power as a foundation.”

“Then is it mana?”

“That’s not it either.”

Cardil made a puzzled expression, then moved his lips as if he wanted to ask me something, but quickly gave up and headed to his room.

“If anything happens, tell me. Through that… thing that rings in my head.”

I smiled gently. It seemed telepathy sounded like ringing in the other person’s head.

“Of course. Brother, you should also rest well today. Tomorrow will probably be a forced march.”

Cardil just waved his hand carelessly, closed the door, and disappeared. Then, an attendant came in and told me about the upcoming schedule.

‘I can get near the World Tree.’

Originally, to see Great Nature, going near the World Tree was the tourist course, so it was natural.

I sent the attendant away and lay on the bed, opening the skill window.

[Possessed Skills]

-Weakness Detection Lv. 2

-Baptism Lv. 2

-God’s Aura (passive) Lv.1

-Scales Lv. 1

-Punishment Lv. 1(auto)

-Telepathy Lv. 1

[point : 95]

‘God’s Aura is showing good effects even at level 1. Scales and Punishment aren’t immediately necessary either. Weakness Detection won’t provide much more benefit since my original level is lacking anyway. Same with Baptism.’

But buying new skills was burdensome and didn’t fit the current situation.

The skill unlocked through leveling up was [Life Drain : 150]. As long as I had the power of the healing sacred relic, there was no need to suck other people’s life force.

‘It’s better to level up Telepathy.’

Even leveling up would only cost 20 points, so the cost-effectiveness wasn’t bad.

[Would you like to level up Telepathy?]

[Telepathy Lv.2 : You can now convey your intentions to targets within 100km. (Activates only for targets whose name and face you know. Two-way communication O)]

‘Two-way communication…!’

What had been written as “one-way only” was now changed to “two-way communication O.”

‘With this, I can contact Antonio or Austin Gerard even while I’m in Centa…!’

Although distance limitations and group voice features weren’t improved, the benefits of two-way communication were greater.

I felt good about making a good purchase.

Moreover, thanks to showing a miracle that wasn’t quite a miracle in Centa earlier, I had gained believers in Centa too, and soon I’d be able to steal their vision as well. If that happened…

‘Complete remote control would be possible!’

My body could be at the lodging while I communicated remotely through stolen vision and telepathy, and even easily punish using the Scales-Punishment combo.

I had 75 points remaining. Since better and more expensive skills would be unlocked as I leveled up more, I’d have to wait for that time.

‘First… should I try contacting Austin Gerard with the newly purchased telepathy? I originally thought it would be okay if just the range expanded, but this is really fortunate.’

Unfortunately, Austin Gerard wasn’t a ‘believer’ and didn’t have that much faith in me, so I couldn’t steal his vision…

But telepathy worked regardless of whether they were believers or not, as long as I knew their name and face.

[Target Search: Austin Gerard]

[Would you like to connect?]

[Connecting…]

[Connected!]

-Current thoughts will be transmitted to the target.

‘Sir Gerard, how is the situation there?’

Austin Gerard is the Vice-Commander of the Lion’s Heart Knights. In other words, while he’s part of an Imperial knight order… he’s also one of the swords the Banquet Master can wield effectively.

The Banquet Master had sent him to infiltrate Centa first to search for the sacred relic.

This was one piece of information the ‘Young Lady’ had shared with me.

-‘Oh, could you perhaps be… the Ascetic, sir?’

‘Yes, it’s me. How is the situation on your end? Is it going well?’

Having exchanged words with Austin Gerard through Voice Transmission several times before, he quickly began responding comfortably to this Voice Transmission skill.

-‘It’s not easy. The World Tree is in the Elven Forest… but the elves won’t easily let me pass through. Even though I disguised myself as a merchant, they flatly told me that unauthorized merchants cannot enter this place. I think anything beyond this would be too much for me to handle.’

How did Austin Gerard know that the sacred relic was specifically at the ‘World Tree’ in the vast continent of Centa, and manage to get there?

That was, of course, because I had told him.

As soon as I informed the Banquet Master that the sacred relic was in Centa, he immediately sent Austin Gerard to infiltrate Centa on a mission to find the sacred relic.

He was probably worried that if I found the sacred relic first, I might do something unexpected with it.

Travel between Centa and the Empire was restricted, making passage nearly impossible… or so I had understood, but seeing that the Banquet Master dispatched Austin Gerard to Centa, the Widow must have had a hand in making that method possible.

It was fortunate that the Young Lady had tipped me off about the Banquet Master’s mission for Austin Gerard to retrieve the sacred relic, allowing me to handle it one step ahead. And it was also fortunate that the one dispatched was ‘Austin Gerard.’

He had already met me before and held favorable feelings toward me. He even had gullible tendencies, making it very easy to manipulate him.

The Banquet Master didn’t even know I could use Voice Transmission like this. So… my plan to steal away the sacred relic would succeed.

I smiled alone in the empty room. I kept laughing because the situation was unfolding so well.

‘Sir Gerard, there’s something I need to tell you…’

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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