The Life of a Wise Cult Leader - Chapter 84

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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

It definitely wasn’t a mob that should appear in this place.

‘I was just planning to casually beat up some undead minions, boost the soldiers’ morale a bit, then hide in the back like a proper healer…!!!’

While doing that, I was going to gain some faith, make some believers, and enjoy the sweet life!

Right! I won’t hide it anymore and think about it proudly.

I was hoping to hear things like “Aww, our cult leader is amazing! Coming all the way to a place like this, showing us the conduct of a saint in person!” from among the believers! Is that so wrong?

‘Ahh… As expected, the battlefield. I shouldn’t have come. This damn… No, I had to come anyway. But that thing is hard to catch….’

I continued my gloomy thoughts.

I’m not sure if Ife or the systems inside this body are listening.

If they are listening, then regret assigning such an ugly soul like me to this body. Anyway, since I made a contract with Ife, they can’t kick me out!

‘Hahhh… Really, why does trouble break out everywhere I go? I’m always thinking about turning crises into opportunities! But isn’t this giving me too many crises? Life, answer me!’

Yelena spoke beside me with a trembling voice.

“That thing… isn’t that a demon?”

No.

If you encounter it on the map, don’t even touch it if you’re below level 50. Even if you’re above level 50, you need at least 5 people to take it down. The drops aren’t even good, so don’t bother trying to kill it. It’s a waste of potions.

That advice circulated openly among users, so when you encountered this mob while passing through maps to do quests, you’d just avoid it.

It’s the type you avoid not because shit is scary, but because shit is dirty.

In short, it’s a mob that’s damn hard to kill and gives no benefit even when killed.

One puzzling thing is.

‘Why now?’

It’s strange that it’s appearing now when it was a mob that only showed up one or two at a time during the late-game storylines when high levels were dominant.

No matter how much the storyline changed because of me, the main story shouldn’t have even entered Chapter 3 yet.

‘It should be a mob that appears around Chapter 5.’

A level 50 character dies in just two hits from its ordinary claw attacks without even using skills. So naturally, it would be set as a mob that appears in late-game storylines when users have built up their strength. And it’s a mob that doesn’t appear often.

‘Maybe it’s foolish to think about such things when this has become reality. But still… it wouldn’t have appeared for no reason. Rather, since this became reality, this is clearly a bug, or something artificial…’

While I was looking at the Taraka and thinking, I felt trembling from beside me.

“That thing… how should we…”

Yelena has been afflicted with a status ailment.

It’s Taraka’s debuff.

With prolonged exposure, it’s a troublesome mechanic that slows skill casting time through mental attacks, and if the status ailment isn’t cured, skills get sealed.

The reason it doesn’t have any special attack skills is because of this.

Just looking at it to attack causes mental stats to drop rapidly, preventing skills from activating!

I was careless.

I had forgotten since it doesn’t seem to work on me.

I grabbed the frozen Kalebrin and Yelena and hid behind the wreckage of the broken carriage.

Then I approached Yelena and infused her with purification power. Yelena’s eyes regained their sharpness.

“Uh…”

“Be careful. If you keep making eye contact with that thing, it will steal your soul.”

I didn’t have the skill to explain things like skill sealing, so I just said it steals souls.

Anyway, if skills get sealed to that degree, you might as well consider yourself dead.

“…I’ve never seen anything like that before. How do you know, Ascetic?”

“It’s written in the scriptures. They say it can be shown to saints.”

When I basically used ‘You wouldn’t know because you’re not high-level enough?’, Yelena seemed to have nothing to say.

“Well… were things like weaknesses written there too?”

Would Taraka’s weaknesses really be written in the scriptures?

While it might mention things like stealing souls, I don’t think anything beyond that would be written.

‘It’s also a mob that even a high-ranking Inquisitor has never seen before.’

I shook my head to indicate I didn’t know. Yelena, as if she expected this, skillfully checked her equipment.

At least the fortunate thing is that we currently have one curse attribute dealer, an Inquisitor capable of tanking and dealing damage, and a healer with good defensive gear.

‘I should have brought Cardil!’

This isn’t fortunate at all!

Anyway, debuffs don’t work on Taraka, so Kalebrin’s damage won’t go through, and even though she’s an Inquisitor, Yelena is stuck at level 20, so one hit would leave her near death.

‘I did work hard to level up my defensive sacred artifact, but I’m not sure if it’s enough to withstand hits from that thing…’

Meanwhile, Taraka seemed to be devouring soldiers, as the screams of soldiers and sounds of something being torn apart continued endlessly.

“Damn… we have to do something.”

Yelena’s legs twitched as if she was about to jump out at any moment. We watched the situation from behind the carriage fragments.

“Uaaahhh!”

A hero charged at Taraka. About a finger joint’s worth of the black, sharp claws was cut off by the hero’s sword.

“Kraaah!”

Taraka screamed wildly and went berserk. Even though it was just the size of a ring finger, it seemed to feel pain well.

Golden tears flowed from the multiple eyeballs attached to Taraka’s head (presumably). I felt a sense of déjà vu somewhere.

It’s an impure being. Something that shouldn’t exist in this world. It must be driven out immediately. It shouldn’t be in this place. Drive it out. Eliminate it. Turn it to ash! Drive it out! – these thoughts dominated me.

Stop.

…The system is going crazy.

More than that, to cut that thing, how impressive? It seems like this person has quite a high level. I wasn’t expecting much, but they’re pretty good.

But that finger joint, for some reason it seems to be flying this way…

Thud!

“Ugh!”

The carriage we were hiding behind was crushed and disappeared under the large finger joint.

We were fortunate it didn’t hit us directly. Otherwise, we would have been flattened like that carriage. Then we would have filmed stone tomb version 2 like what happened at Alderion’s mansion.

Taraka rampaged around, tearing up the surroundings and causing all sorts of chaos, as if there were no more humans left to eat.

Since the carriage was crushed, Taraka’s finger was serving as our hiding place. Should I call it fortunate? Rather, it didn’t seem to pay any attention to us at all.

I got up. Then I came into contact with Taraka’s finger part.

Then the pitch-black flesh that I had touched shriveled up in the shape where I had made contact. It contracted like touching styrofoam with hot iron, and at the same time, black smoke began rising.

Hissss-

Only then did I realize.

‘Ah. Since Taraka also belongs to the category of impure monsters… if it touches me when I’m covered with purification relics, healing relics, and defensive relics, this would happen…?’

Similar to when Alderion was becoming half-monster… No, it would be almost exactly the same.

Why didn’t I think of this until now!

I felt like an idiot for trembling and being depressed when Taraka appeared.

No, more than that, system guys? If you have the mental capacity to inject thoughts like ‘drive it out’, how about stuffing this kind of strategy into my head?

You did it well last time when Alderion was gnawing on my neck.

I grumbled at them for no reason. I didn’t get any information, so it’s okay to have this much complaint, right?

‘More than that, if only the parts my hands touched become like this… the only way for me to kill Taraka would be to roll around diligently near Taraka.’

Well, I don’t have the skill to infuse sacred relic power into a sword and swing it, so either way, isn’t it the same hopeless situation?

I pondered deeply about how I could effectively kill Taraka.

‘I’ll buy Sanctuary Declaration with the remaining points.’

The skill window, which I had seen enough times to memorize, automatically opened and Sanctuary Declaration was purchased. I could hear the sound of points rapidly decreasing.

[point : 25]

[Sanctuary Declaration Lv 1 : A 20M radius around you is now your domain. (Cannot be turned OFF)]

It was a poorly written description. I wouldn’t have understood it before, but somehow I understood it now.

How to use this skill now. And I could clearly understand what I needed to do right now.

I immediately leveled up my purification relic.

[Faith: 21]

With this, all faith and points were depleted.

But it’s okay. If I can just finish this task safely, believers and faith will increase exponentially.

It’s an investment for greater profit, you could say! You can’t gain anything without risk.

Thud. Thud.

Taraka seemed to have already destroyed all the units in this area. The thudding sounds came faster and faster. It appeared to be searching for whether there were more people or not.

Thud thud thud thud thud thud.

In my vision, I could see a translucent pale yellow circle spread across the ground. It must be the effect of Sanctuary Declaration. Probably within this circle, I could generally do everything as I wished.

‘The 20m range is disappointing for now, but it’s a range that will expand when I level up anyway.’

Yelena took a breath beside me.

“Hah…”

Even the Inquisitor who slaughtered all the heretics seemed to feel instinctive fear toward something not of this world.

Black hand claws cast shadows over us, then grabbed a person who was twitching in the distance.

“Aaaaah!”

“That person is going to die!”

Yelena seemed to have all her attention focused on Taraka, so she didn’t see what I was doing.

The person was about to be crushed in the black grip. If I just waited without doing anything, they would be crushed into pulp and enter its mouth, just like that Hero whose fingers were cut off.

“Yelena, please step back.”

“What? Wh-what are you going to do?”

Ugh, this treatment is heartbreaking…

Well, Yelena knows I periodically spit blood, so she must realize how frail I am. Should I be grateful that she treats me even this well?

As I moved forward, I could tell that someone I thought was just a corpse at the edge of the 20m radius was actually alive.

It was the ability of Sanctuary Declaration. I could know everything within this range like my own limbs. Even passing ants had their location and condition completely mapped in my mind.

I approached the fallen person and helped them up. Then, at a much faster speed than before, the person’s organs were restored and flesh filled out.

To anyone watching, it would be a sight that would make them truly believe ‘God’ exists.

“As long as I’m here, no one will die. No one will suffer either.”

“….”

Beside me, Kalebrin chanted sorcery. My body felt somewhat lighter. She probably gave me a buff.

As expected of Kalebrin. It’s good that she’s quick-witted.

Having discovered us hiding behind the carriage, undead that hadn’t been dealt with yet came rushing over.

Yelena drew her halberd and tried to charge, but as soon as the undead entered the 20m range centered on me, they turned to powder and disappeared.

Dust, ash, and blood transformed into white and pale green light, wrapping around me and flying away in the wind. Due to the wind, I tucked my long hair that covered my vision behind my ear and smiled at her as she sat there stunned.

“So, don’t worry.”

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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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