mage's dating rules

Chapter 264 Elzam’s plot

While the Crusaders were suppressing the undead army, in the holy city of Lancelot thousands of miles away, the lich Elzam walked out of the portal.

This city named after Lancelot is the headquarters of the Order of Lancelot. There are only two types of people in the entire city: church personnel and pilgrims.

In the center of the city is the splendid Lancelot Temple. All roads in the city radiate from the temple to the surroundings, as if the sun is spreading its brilliance.

Because Lancelot's priests will provide free treatment to people in the Holy City, dignitaries from many countries will choose to die here - even if they have the financial and power to reach their level, they will not get the same level of medical treatment in their own countries. Serve.

Therefore, the Holy City of Lancelot has a large number of luxurious manors, which are in sharp contrast with the dilapidated houses built by ordinary pilgrims, and all of them are equally bathed in the glory of Lancelot.

The theologians of Lancelot believe that this is the embodiment of Lancelot's teachings.

The location where Elzam teleported out was the treasure house of the Order beneath the Holy City Temple. As soon as he walked out of the teleportation gate, he saw three priests wearing gold-trimmed robes.

The old man in the middle wears a white high hat bearing Lancelot's holy symbol.

Elzam joked: "I have felt more than once that the Pope's 'crown' of the Lancelot Order looks like a tulip that has not opened."

Old man: "Although you sound like a familiar person, I don't know you."

Elzam: "Yeah, the last time I came here, you weren't born yet. Why hasn't the Order of Lancelot developed followers among the elves? If it were an elf pope, I could chat with him every time I came here. ”

The Pope smiled slightly: "Unfortunately, elves have their own beliefs, and they are very loyal to their patrons. Only half-elves will become believers of our Lord."

Elzam: "A half-elf is fine, at least he can chat with me for hundreds of years.

“Actually, I have always found it strange that elves have their own patrons, dwarves have their own patrons, and even dwarfs who have produced so many unbelievers also have their own patrons.

"Only very few people from these races believe in gods other than their patrons. But humans are different. Humans do not have patrons, so humans will believe in various gods. If you make a vertical comparison between races, this It’s very strange.”

Pope: "This is a false proposition. There are so many dwarves who don't believe in Torag. Dwarves who don't believe in Caris Newman can even form an Explorers Association, with members all over the world."

Elzam: "But humans do not have a guardian angel..."

The Pope interrupted: "Your Excellency, have you come to discuss theology with me?"

Elzam: "This is also one of the purposes. In fact, several of you who have the title of saint have a very pleasant conversation with me. I have reason to believe that my existence has inspired your philosophical research."

Mages study how divine spells take effect in order to prepare to physically reproduce divine spells, while priests study how divine spells take effect mainly for philosophical exploration.

This is mainly because the promotion of a priest depends entirely on his piety to God, but piety does not have a standard that can be quantified and evaluated.Lancelot also never told the priests how to rise to the level.

Therefore, believers have developed many "paths" that are said to be able to rise to the ring. Some people accumulate good karma and spread the grace of Lancelot, some people hide in seminaries to think about philosophy, and some people pay attention to A man intent on expanding Lancelot's sphere of influence.

No matter which way, someone finally reaches the Ninth Ring Road.

Some people even claimed to have become Lancelot's elects and envoys, but in official records, Lancelot never performed miracles to confirm the identity of these people.

So a new theory was born: Lancelot is like the sun, shining on everything equally, no matter good people or bad people.

It is not difficult to accept that a lich inspired the theologians of Lancelot in their philosophical studies.

The Pope spoke: "Although it can be seen that you are in high spirits. But I am not interested in having a long conversation with you. I am old and it is already very difficult to stand like this."

Elzam: "I understand how you feel. I have also experienced aging. At that time, I was so old that I could no longer hold a pen. I could only hold the pen with the hand of a mage, but my concentration was also reduced, let alone Maintaining a spell like Ice Storm that requires concentration is difficult even to maintain a mage's hand.

"Considering that there is still so much research that has not been completed, the only option is to become a lich in the end."

Pope: “Are you here to confess?”

"Of course not. The sins I have committed cannot be solved by repentance. Even a good-tempered god like Lancelot cannot forgive me." The Lich let his chin hit the roof of his mouth. This was it. "Laughter", "I can only say that I was naive in the past."

It paused and said what the church wanted to cover up no matter what: "In the past, I thought that the good character I accumulated as Lancelot's pastor for so long would make me a kind wizard. Demon.

"Maybe it can become a bond between undead creatures and the living. Think about it, what a beautiful scene it is, the living and the dead can continue to live together. From now on, there will be no separation between life and death.

"However, this is not the case. The living believe that it is a blasphemy for their dead relatives to be resurrected, and they cannot tolerate their relatives who have turned into ugly zombies.

"If the reaction of the living is due to their subjective feelings, the reaction of the dead comes from instinct. Their instinct is to devour the living and let the living join their side.

"There is no such thing as a kind lich. The longer I resist, the stronger my instinct will become. I even begin to hate the living beings. Every time I am surrounded and suppressed, I can see the living beings holding each other back." , calculating against each other.

"In comparison, my army of the dead is much better than them. They are united and each individual is serving the interests of the group."

The Pope finally interrupted Elzam: "Your army of the dead was crushed more than once by the living who held each other back."

Erzam: "Yes, so I have been thinking about a question, why? The answer is subjective initiative. Although the undead army will not hold back each other, it has also lost the explosive power brought by subjective initiative.

"They acted according to my instructions. Do you understand? It was me who affected the performance of the undead army. I was just a mage sitting in the research room, a priest who couldn't even swing a meteor hammer. I couldn't even wear heavy armor. .

"How can the undead controlled by me like this defeat the Crusaders? On the contrary, look at that guy, the Shadow Land he established is still doing well."

Elzam: "So over the years, I have been studying how to make the undead army have subjective initiative. I have tried to resurrect famous generals in history and let them lead my army.

“But it failed, and the performance of the famous generals was not much different from that of ordinary death knights.

"I tried to use a special soul to transform the ghost that was not under my control, and then it fell apart."

"Enough!" The Pope interrupted Elzam again. "We have said enough. No matter what you try, I am not interested! Let's get straight to the point."

Elzam: "Why do you think I didn't get to the point? I thought for a long time before I thought of a way to enter the treasure house. Even if I transfer most of the paladins and priests from the temple, there will definitely be the strongest priest in the world in the end - —That is, you, the Pope, are here to stop me.

"With my fighting ability, it is basically impossible to defeat the strongest priest in the world. Therefore, the treasure house of the Order is a place I can never get my hands on.

"But why should I fight you? I told you that I have been cultivating undead with subjective initiative. Now is the time to test the results!" The Pope and the two cardinals around him immediately became alert.

The next moment, the defense device of the treasure house suddenly activated, and the entire treasure house was completely enveloped in holy light.

Then a black shadow appeared in front of Erzam, with blue flames dancing around the edges of the shadow, and it was shrinking rapidly under the erosion of the flames.

Elzam held his forehead and said: "It seems that the shadow created by gathering such a powerful aura of death is still unable to pass through the defense of the treasure house."

The Pope and the Cardinal looked at each other.

At this time, the cardinal on the right finally couldn't hold it anymore: "What on earth do you want to take from the treasure house? Every two hundred years, you have to invade the treasure house. What attracts you so much? Is it Karzas's demon?" Can you blow the horn?”

Elzam did not answer, but raised his hand: "Now we can only force our way through, time stops!"

**
After a while.

The Pope dragged his weak body to the remains of the Lich. After careful observation, he announced: "The Lich Elzam Malcolm has been killed again."

The Chief Cardinal muttered: "In the end we still don't know why this lich entered the treasure vault."

The second-in-command cardinal said nonchalantly: "There are too many things in the treasure house that will be targeted by evil creatures. If any one of them is snatched away by a lich, it will cause a crisis worthy of annihilation."

Chief Cardinal: "But... I still find it strange. After reading the Order's records about Elzam, I have a feeling that his attack on the treasure house was like clocking in at work. After attacking, he was eliminated by the guards."

Second seat: "After all, he is a lich. He has infinite life and will be resurrected even if he is destroyed. Didn't he say it himself? Undead creatures have no subjective initiative..."

"It's talking about the undead creatures it controls," the Chief Cardinal corrected.

At this time the Pope spoke: "From another perspective, our religious order also wants to thank it. Every two hundred years, it will cause big things, and every time it suppresses it, the reputation of the Immortal Army Order in the whole continent will be greatly improved. "

Second seat: "The defense of the treasure house will also be strengthened."

Chief: "The only regret is that we have never been able to find its phylactery, and there is no way to completely eliminate it..."

Suddenly, the chief cardinal stopped: "You still can't find the phylactery? Your Holiness, regarding what it just said, that he was once the priest of Lancelot..."

"That is an absolute lie. Our Lord will never share His blessings with mages." The Pope said firmly.

When a priest obtains divine magic, he is actually sharing God's blessings.

A mage can also be a priest if he is pious enough.However, these generally happen to low-level mages, because the stronger the mage is, the more he understands the nature of the world, and the more he understands the world, the weaker his faith.

On the other hand, the more devout a person is, the less likely they are to understand the nature of the world (*)

But Lancelot never shared his blessings with the mage. As long as he was a mage, he could not become Lancelot's priest.

No one knows why this happens yet.

However, since there are gods like Kailin who give their orders the ability to turn water into wine, there can naturally be gods who don't like mages.

The chief cardinal touched his chin, thought for a while and then said: "Is it possible... I mean, suppose, Erzam's phylactery is actually in our treasure house. Every time he does something, it's for Let us be stronger and the treasure house better protected..."

The Pope was furious and struck the ground with his scepter: "How dare you say such blasphemous words! How could my Lord let a lich's phylactery be in his treasury!"

The chief cardinal quickly bowed and apologized: "I'm sorry, I was careless."

The Pope continued to roar: "Are you trying to say that our Lord is collaborating with a lich to support himself? As the chief cardinal archbishop, how can you say such blasphemous words!"

At this time, the second seat said: "But... from the results, we are stronger and have more believers, so we can help more people. The defense of the treasure house has been strengthened, and it can also prevent other world-destroying level seal items from being used. Easily stolen.

"In fact, there has been no record of theft in the treasure house for thousands of years. Only corrupt priests have stolen it."

The Pope continued to knock the ground with his scepter. After a few hits, he suddenly coughed violently and fell forward.

The rage obviously drained his little physical strength.

Upon seeing this, the two cardinals hurriedly cast healing spells.However, Lancelot's healing technique would not interfere with natural death. The depleted Pope opened his mouth wide and tried hard to take a breath.

At this time, if there were medical technologies from certain technologically advanced planes, the Pope might be able to save him.

But this is Gralia, a plane on the spiritual side.

Their medical technology is also in a very primitive state due to the existence of healing potions, cures, and other spells.

So the two cardinals could do nothing but call for the novice priest to carry the Pope to the bed.

They could only watch the Pope die - no, walk into Lancelot's temple.

Of course, as the hero who personally killed a thousand-year-old lich, the Pope will probably be canonized.

**
Elzam sensed all this through his own soul.

"That chief cardinal's thinking is quite flexible," it thought.

"It's a pity that there are too many things that prevent him from re-examining the treasures in the treasure house. The work clock every 100 years is finally over. I am really an evil lich."

As a result, the lich's soul fell into a deep sleep in Lancelot's treasure house, waiting to be awakened next time.

　(*) I used this method to explain why the level of priests and mages will not be high if there are more multi-tasking.How's it going? Not bad, right?Of course, in the game, the upper limit is 20. If you have multiple jobs as a priest or a mage, your level flow will definitely not be high.

　　This nonsense setting also explains why Elminster is only a third-level priest.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)