Part 5 Red Priest Chapter 189 – Fragrance
Pasu Island, Sunia Sea.
The summoned “Blue Avenger” finally arrived at the headquarters of the Storm Church and docked at one of the harbors.
Alger removed the cloth wrapped around his head, jumped out of the ship directly from the side, and landed steadily on the ground of the pier surrounded by the wind.
He had already digested his new dose of “Wind Favored One” magic potion, and the reason why he did so was to make his style of behavior closer to the rest of the church, so that they would feel close to him.
The various things that had happened to him over the years had taught Alger that it was best to keep in line with the people around him and not appear to be too idiosyncratic most of the time, even more so when he was harboring a lot of secrets of his own!
”Haha, Alger, restrain your impatience.” A man who had long been waiting at the docks greeted him with a smile.
He had soft yellow hair and wore robes embroidered with lightning patterns, and was Alger’s partner in the past, but then one chose to be a ghost ship captain and continued to drift on the sea, and one returned to the clergy system.
Alger revealed a smile and raised his right hand, clenching his fist and hitting his left chest path:
”The storm is with you.”
”The storm is with you.” The yellow-haired man in the prime of his life smiled in response with the same gesture.
He whirled around and lowered his voice:
”I hear you’ve adapted to the ‘Wind Favored One’ magic potion?”
”Yes, it’s very simple, letting yourself fly every day, staying afloat, and utilizing the wind to get to and from different places from time to time, you can adapt very quickly, I’ve already sent a telegram back earlier to report on this.” Alger allowed himself to bring a bit of pride to the corners of his brows.
The yellow-haired man glanced from side to side, maintaining the volume he had just said:
”No wonder you were summoned back.
”I heard that because of the ongoing war and manpower constraints on all fronts, the Cardinal Council decided to organize a group of ‘Wind Favors’ to be promoted to Sequence 5 as soon as possible, and you should be in that group, it’s really enviable, I just became a ‘Wind Favors’ I just became a ‘Wind Follower’, and I don’t have this opportunity.”
Organize a group of “wind dependents” to promote as soon as possible …… In advance of knowing that there may be a world war, Alger Wilson did not feel surprised, and a word popped up in his mind oil:
Cannon Fodder!
In fact, only with the contribution in the Banshee Harbor incident, Alger, who was only a “navigator” at that time, could have been promoted to “Ocean Singer” without any obstacles, and he usually ran around and accomplished many tasks, but he only became a “Wind Favored One”. “He had to wait in line for a chance to be promoted to Sequence 5, but now, he didn’t need to do anything.
And now, nothing needs him to do, suddenly was put into the reserve list, soon can step into the ranks of the church quasi-higher level, no wonder he is not suspicious.
Sure enough, once total war is opened, the order that originally hindered the rise of people like us will crack open a mouth …… However, the most important thing is still to survive the war, and only by surviving it, everything gained will have meaning …… Alger’s thoughts electrically turned between, the surface Surprise rhetorical question:
”Sainz, really?”
”I can’t be sure, anyway, that’s what I’ve heard, let’s go, go get together, if you have the chance to become a senior deacon or cardinal in the future, you can’t forget us!” The yellow-haired man called Sainz probed his palm and slapped Alger’s shoulder.
Alger stepped aside without a trace and responded with a smile:
”Good.”
……
In Silver City, after the exploration team brought back the news of the sea on the other side of the Giant’s Court, all the people briefly went into a state of euphoria.
After two days of waiting, Derek Burger finally got a notice from the “Council of Six”, asking him to go and collect the “Classical Alchemist’s” magic potion formula.
This meant that the senior management of Silver City had agreed to exchange the strange mushrooms.
”The promotion ceremony is to personally refine a ‘Stone of Life’…… What is a ‘Stone of Life’? It’s not explained here ……” Derek glanced at the parchment in his hand and began to prepare for the ceremony without much care.
He thought that Mr. Fool must know what the Life Stone was, so he didn’t need to worry about Mr. World.
After preparing the altar, he took out two metal tubes containing his blood and that of a Silver City “Knight of the Dawn”.
–The “Knight of the Dawn” had reached a certain age when his body could no longer withstand the various toxins in most of the food, and was predictably coming to the end of his life, with his granddaughter stabbing him with her own hand two days ago.
Derek, with the chief’s permission, had taken the opportunity to take some of the dead man’s blood.
As for the demon blood that Mr. World needs, Silver City does not have it in its inventory for the time being, but Chief Colin Iliad said that as long as those mushrooms can satisfy part of Silver City’s need for food, then he will organize a small hunting party to go around the areas where there are demons.
After placing two thin metal tubes and parchment on the altar, Derek took two steps back to the lit candles and began the ritual of sacrifice and bestowal.
After a great deal of work, the illusory door created by the blending of flames and spiritual materials opened heavily, taking away the sacrificed items and leaving behind a dark glow.
As the glow slowly faded, a large number of mushrooms of various shapes and sizes appeared in Derek’s eyes.
As for the question of whether or not they “looked” strange, Derek didn’t even think about it, because he had only seen mushrooms once, and they were abnormal mushrooms that lacked sufficient reference.
After recalling Mr. World’s description of the different varieties of mushrooms and their functions, Derek quickly sorted them into different leather pouches.
Immediately afterward, he couldn’t hide his excitement as he picked up the “No Dark Cross” and prepared to head to the Round Tower.
But as soon as his hand touched the copper-green cross, it burned and tingled, and a light seemed to seep out of the rust and shine on the mushrooms.
”They are evil and need to be cleansed ……” Derek was perplexed for a moment, but finally decided to trust Mr. World.
He hid the Darknessless Cross and brought up the Thor’s Roar, and made his way to the Round Tower to meet Chief Colin Iliad.
”Are these the mushrooms?” As he asked, two complex dark green symbols protruded from “Demon Hunter” Colin’s eyes, and his gaze swept over the different mushrooms, which were either white and full, or had a sense of flesh and blood.
”Yes ……” Derek made the introductions in turn.
Colin returned to normal and said after a few seconds of silence:
”There is an aura of evil and uncleanness, but it is rare and bearable.
”It would be precipitated by devouring the flesh and blood of monsters.”
He added after a pause:
”Try their ability to reproduce first.”
With these words, some of Silver City’s personnel, who had long been prepared to “greet” the mushrooms, carried several monster corpses into the chief’s room and sprinkled a little bit of each of the different types of mushrooms on them.
As soon as the mushrooms touched the flesh and blood, they immediately sprouted a single mycelium and dug into it.
After about twenty to thirty seconds, they began to expand wildly and split out spores.
After a while, the bodies of those monsters were densely covered in mushrooms.
But the growth of the mushrooms did not stop, and always upward, to the end, some of them were even higher than Derek Berg, facing him in a posture of “looking down”.
…… Mr. World didn’t say that it would grow this big. …… Moreover, the speed of this reproduction and growth is also too fast…. …Derek looked on in bewilderment, but didn’t think it was much of a problem.
Colin Iliad’s expression didn’t change much, and waited until the monster was nothing more than skeleton and debris before looking around the room and saying:
”Better than I expected, next, who will try the edible effect?”
Without hesitation, Derek stepped forward and said:
”Your Excellency, I’ll do it.”
He was responsible for the “introduced” mushrooms, so of course he had to personally determine the safety.
Colin Iliad nodded gently:
”Good.”
He then turned his head sideways and said to another Silver City resident:
”Ask Elder Lovia to come here in case of accidents.”
As an extraordinary who controlled flesh and blood, Lovia was able to resolve most of the mutations based on the human body.
Of course, whether or not the mutant would survive was another matter.
The crowd waited for a few minutes before Lovia, the “Shepherd” in her deep purple robes, arrived in the chief’s room.
As soon as she passed through the door, her pale gray eyes suddenly narrowed, and her gaze instinctively went to the mushrooms that occupied most of the space.
After a long moment of staring, Lovia looked to Colin Iliad and gave a small nod, signaling that she was ready to rescue them.
Without further hesitation, Derek Burger selected a mushroom half his height in black with inlaid blood-colored filaments and fat patterns, ripped off the mycelium it had wrapped around its skeleton, built a campfire on the spot, and began to roast it.
Gradually, an aroma that seemed to penetrate into the stomach filled the air, a flavor that the people in Silver City had never smelled before.
The knots in their throats wriggled and they instinctively swallowed their saliva.
There was a nuisance sound at that bonfire, and then the scent intensified.
It wasn’t that unusual, weird smell that seemed to make the souls crave for it, it was the type that everyone was more familiar with, a craving that would naturally arise after they hadn’t eaten Blackface Grass food for a long time and returned to Silver City.
As the nuisance sounds became denser and denser, and as the light of the fire got brighter, they only felt as if a hand was reaching out from their stomachs, wanting to probe over and grab all the food back.
Unconsciously, the other Silver City residents who had been doing other things inside the round tower followed the scent, found their way over, and gathered at the door.
It took Derek a great deal of effort to control himself from savoring the mushroom halfway through the meal, and waited until all of its shell was charred before retrieving it and blowing on it.
At that moment, all eyes turned to him, including Colin Iliad and Lovia the Shepherd.
In the spirit of trusting Mr. World and Mr. Fool, Derek didn’t say anything, buried his head and took a bite of the mushroom.
”Hiss……” he made a sound of being burned, and then chewed it, huffing and puffing as he gulped it down.
Only when nearly half of the mushroom was missing did Derek raise his head with a slight blush, his mouth slurring with grease:
”What a strange …… texture …… that makes me unable to resist …… wanting to eat it all the time… …”
Colin Iliad looked deeply at Derek for a few seconds, then turned his head sideways and looked at Lovia the Shepherd.
Lovia shook her head slowly:
”No problem.”
The surrounding Silver City people let out a cheer and came forward, surrounding Derek, either wanting to share a piece or inquiring about the treatment of other mushrooms.
”Demon Hunter” Colin’s expression gradually stretched as he saw this, slowly closing his eyes and lifting his chin slightly.
He took a deep, deep breath of the smell that filled the room.
……
Silver City held a mushroom festival? Wouldn’t that be a little strange? …… And what’s a “Life Stone”? Well, the people of the Church of the Mother Goddess of the Earth surely know, and Frank is no exception……. On top of the gray mist, Klein listened to the latest report from the little “sun” while opening the parchment that he had received earlier, but hadn’t yet had time to look at it carefully.
The reason why he returned to the real world in a hurry after the Sacrifice and Giving Ceremony was because the horror legend of the Beckland Hospital, which had been serialized in several newspapers, had reached its climax, so he had received a large amount of feedback over the past few days, and was at the critical moment when the “Trickster Mage” potion was about to be digested.
Now, he had completed this step.
He was ready to be promoted to “Ancient Scholar”.