The Righteous Player(s)

Chapter 123: This Feels Awesome

Hearing that, Bishop Daryl’s expression relaxed a lot.

He leaned back, resting on the back of the seat.

The bald bishop, with his age indiscernible, reached out his chubby fingers while tasting the warm black tea. He pointed at the ring on Annan’s hand.

“Holy light engraving is not something complicated and bizarre. You can understand it as the priest’s ‘vessel.’

“Let’s start from the beginning. We ‘churchman’…or in ancient terms, ‘priest’ does not require a curse vessel made of metal because we are different from Transcended. We don’t store the curse in our body.”

Having said that, Bishop Daryl’s expression was slightly serious.

“This is because anyone above the level of ‘bishop’ will not end well. We will die in a nightmare somewhere.

“After all, it doesn’t take a good physique to purify the nightmare. It’s better to have fewer curses stored in your body so that your body is weaker. If we become a monster, it won’t hurt the innocent.

“Just like you Transcended, you can use the means of carrying and granting curse to transfer the invisible and untouchable curse. Of course, the curse can be transferred. Even if you are not the priest, you will quickly strengthen yourself after purifying the nightmare. This is because the curse that composes the nightmare has been purified and absorbed by you.

“The obsession that constitutes a nightmare is like a skeleton; these curses that can be absorbed are flesh and blood. No matter which one is missing, the nightmare will collapse.

“As for the remnants, the most turbid curse that humans cannot purify will be handed over to the upright deities in the involved diocese for in-depth purification; if there is no church nearby, it will be passed on to this month’s upright deity to handle.

“But presumably, you also know… For this world, the curse is power. It is the same for Silver Sire. These curses that we cannot purify, whether for upright deities or false deities, are all great tonic.”

Bishop Daryl observed Annan’s expression.

He was roughly convinced that Annan understood what he meant and then slowly continued, “The reason why we can avoid storing curses in our bodies and yet capable of utilizing Transcended power is not that the priest has a power system beyond curses, but our curse has always been stored in our respective deities – like deposits in a bank.

“Engraving is a voucher to borrow Transcended power from different deities temporarily. In essence, they are still our curse. Think of it as a kind of banking business of the Transcended circles.”

I roughly get it. Annan nodded slightly.

This mechanism is not so much a bank but cloud storage.

It is inconvenient to store the curse in the body for various reasons, so it is stored in the cloud. When you need it, you can download this data by relying on your credentials or encryption and store it when you don’t use it.

You’re making it so easy to use, Deity Lords.

But, in other words, is the curse the “experience” the players get?

Annan came into deep thought. In this narration, he had a clearer picture.

Annan and the players were different from the natives of the world. Perhaps the natives could not transfer the curse by killing each other.

Annan soon made sense why he gained so little experience after killing a Silver Rank wizard. Most of the experience was used to construct nightmares. The profession level obtained after purifying the nightmare was only the part that was easier to be digested and absorbed.

“That is to say holy light engraving is the proof obtained after the nightmare is completely purified?” Annan asked.

Bishop Daryl nodded, “Yes. Our priest is not divided into ranks. The difference in strength comes only from how many engravings we hold.

“The more distorted the nightmare, the more engravings we can get after complete purification, for example…”

As Bishop Daryl spoke, he stretched out his right hand to Annan, palm down.

On the back of Daryl’s hand, many finely divided and profound silver runes suddenly appeared. Starting from the back of his hand, the silver runes densely spread out to his sleeves to his neck, chin, and right cheek.

These complicated silver runes gave people a sacred charm. Daryl’s right eye seemed to be mixed with some rune, shining with a mysterious silver light.

Annan just stared at those runes, and he could feel intense dizziness.

Annan forcibly looked away and held his forehead with his hand.

“This is-“

“These are holy light engravings, the medium through which we perform divine arts. Not everyone can communicate with deities, but you can,” said Daryl as he waved his hand.

Annan vaguely perceived that something seemed to be spreading in the room.

In other words, it was as if something originally existed in the air, but now it had been cleansed.

“After you have just thoroughly purified the previous nightmare, I could sense that I gained 1 engraving.”

Daryl pointed to somewhere on his cheek, “I initially predicted that with the intensity of this nightmare, I should have gotten 10 engravings.”

The face that looked simple and amiable at first looked majestic with the silver rune.

“This should be because I only purified the nightmare once. You have found the key and destroyed the nightmare’s cornerstone. So you should have gotten far more than me.

“Yes, I got 9 engravings.” Annan nodded and admitted.

—It turned out to be like this.

Annan had a better grasp now.

Only after a nightmare was wholly purified would the rewards be given out. In this nightmare, the more it was purified, the more engravings would be obtained.

“Then what if the priest doesn’t clean up the nightmare, but by other Transcended?” Annan remembered the existence of the players, so he asked.

Daryl shrugged, “Naturally, you can only get part of the nightmare you worked for, as long as you hadn’t left the diocese you belonged to when you purified the nightmare.

“After all, when we purify nightmares, we won’t get power from the nightmare, like Transcended. The Transcendeds were paid on a daily basis, while we settled on a monthly basis. However, some nightmares were difficult to purify. Or, if the mission were tough, we would also temporarily hire Transcended. We would use the nightmare ‘key’ as a reward to let them enter the nightmare to assist in the purification. Otherwise, we were equivalent to being trapped in the situation. In short, everyone would get what they deserve. The officials, or at least innocent Transcendeds, help us to purify the nightmare quicker, and we temporarily open the nightmare to them so that they can improve their strength.”

That doesn’t entirely make sense, though. Annan suddenly realized something.

When Transcended purified the dungeon instance, they could only get the profession level when clearing the dungeon nightmare.

After the priest thoroughly purified the dungeon instance, they could only get the holy light engravings.

But Annan, a transcended and also a priest, got both benefits.

Then was he paid twice for doing the same job from two different bosses?

Is this a bug or a mechanism?

For an instant, Annan felt as if he had pilfered the upright deities’ benefits.

This feels awesome…