Temple (Part 2)
The Gods may be all-powerful, but our priests are not. Our priests cannot yet turn these gnolls into faithful hounds, but at the very least, they can make them obedient."
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Murphy carefully thought over the sentence's meaning. Deep down, he was thinking about whether he should use the power of this precious faith to strengthen his soldiers, or if he should use it on the humanoid slaves.
The belief system that had opened up after the reorganization of the temple data made Murphy feel like he was in charge of a branch of God's will.
Thanks to the expansion of the temple and the increase in believers, the power of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, had strengthened little by little. Also, at the same time, she had given more and more help to the town. This was a mutually beneficial reciprocal relationship!
Of course, Murphy had to make the necessary sacrifices before he was able to reap any rewards.
But this was reasonable.
The explanation of the temple given by the
Take, for example, the humanoid slaves within [God's Might] system. The system seemed to have a great effect on the gnolls, but there were a lot of requirements and conditions that had to be met first.
First, you had to capture the gnolls as slaves. Then, you had to make use of the power of faith to obtain [First Class Humanoid Slave—Gnoll] through the acolytes. These two prerequisites alone weren't easy to fulfill, and their effect on the gnolls was uncertain.
"Our priests cannot yet turn these gnolls into faithful hounds, but at the very least, they can make them obedient."
What kind of obedience could this level of slavery achieve?
Just how obedient was a "little more obedient"?
If he didn't test the [God's Might] system for himself, Murphy couldn't really estimate how effective it was just by these words alone. In fact, according to Murphy's estimations, with humanoid slaves, the stronger your strength, the better you could control them. Because it was only with enough strength could you capture a sufficient number of gnolls as slaves and not have to worry about a counterattack!
If there were only a few hundred gnoll slaves, then it obviously wouldn't be cost-effective to spend a large amount of faith on them.
So Murphy was now paying more attention to the [God's Grace] within the temple system.
Because [God's Grace], when invested, could immediately increase a person's strength!
However, the divine power seemed to consume a large number of resources. Murphy had only just accumulated a little more than 2,000 faith points after a long period of time, and the strengthening of one soldier required one hundred and one people. What's more, this was just the lowest level of strengthening.
At the same time, the person being strengthened needed to have a certain level of combat experience and resolve first!
Combining all these factors, the requirements were pretty high.
Presumably, only those soldiers who had experienced the war with the gnolls and returned with a fairly high amount of combat experience would be able to meet these steep requirements.
Also, who would he strengthen?
Murphy thought about this for a moment and finally decided to give the power of the Gods a try!
The first target he included in his list of possible options was the 11 surviving members of the Spartan infantry!
Because of the Holy Water, the surviving members of the Spartan infantry had quickly recovered from their injuries. Because of all the soldiers they had lost in battle, there were now only 11 left, and Murphy had arranged for them to train other soldiers in the barracks during this time.
Because of his territory's lack of level, replenishing the Spartan infantry with new Spartan warriors would be relatively difficult!
At least for now, it would be difficult for him to make up for the people he had lost in the battle with the gnolls.
To strengthen 11 people, if it cost 100 points per person, then the total came up to 1,100 points. This would use up about half of the faith points he had.
Everything was within Murphy's range of tolerance.
Therefore, Murphy didn't hesitate to give an order to the surviving members of the Spartan infantry and have them gather in the temple. After this, he arranged for the high priestess to hold a ritual of grace for the 11 surviving members of the Spartan infantry!
He intended to bring the fighting power of these Spartan warriors up a notch!
As expected of perfect soldiers such as these.
Murphy's order had just been issued less than two minutes ago, yet the 11 surviving soldiers of the Spartan infantry had already rushed to the door of the temple. They were lined up outside the temple and were fully armed. They had all used daggers to carve marks into their faces as a tribute to General Hamilton, who had fought with them at the frontlines, and a symbol of their hatred of the gnolls.
The process of the ritual of grace wasn't complicated. The high priestess chanted the ancient prayers and sprinkled holy water in front of the Gods onto the Spartan infantry soldiers. Subsequently, a faint white light emerged, and under the influence of the priestess, the white light turned a hazy blood red and finally finished integrating itself into the bodies of those Spartan infantry soldiers. They moved their muscles and bones to adapt to the new power, and couldn't help but praise and marvel at the power of the Gods!
After presiding over the ceremony, the high priestess' face became slightly pale, and her delicate body wobbled, as if she were about to fall.
Fortunately, Murphy noticed this and rushed over to help her.
"Are you okay?" Murphy asked. His face was full of concern at that moment, because the high priestess looked really haggard, as if her entire being had been drained of a great deal of energy.
"I'm okay…" the high priestess said, blushing as she struggled to break free of Murphy's embrace. But she was obviously unable to do so because the ceremony had used all her energy. She was barely able to raise her hands.
"Because I'm not skilled enough, the process of leading the ritual of grace took too long. I'm only feeling a little weak now," the high priestess said, motioning for Murphy to loosen his right arm, which was encircling her slim waist, but Murphy ignored this and refused. He touched the high priestess's forehead with his hand and then wiped the beads of sweat off her face. He didn't even care that she was already slightly furious with him, and only after he had finished doing this did he pass the high priestess, who was flushed red from over-exhaustion, to the new priest to the side.
"Have a good rest," Murphy said. His manner was natural and easy-going, and this attitude made the high priestess feel want to say something in rebuttal, but she was too tired to do so.
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While the Spartan infantry was adapting to their new power, Murphy re-read the last section of the deity system once again.
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Heroic Spirit: 1/12.
Name: Hamilton—Sparta (Four-star general)
Worship of Heroic Spirit: Consume 20,000 points of faith to transform Heroic Spirit into War Souls. War Souls have mysterious powers!
Next rank: Worship of War Soul, Blessing of the War Soul.
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Heroic Spirit?
Blessing of the War Soul?
What was all of this? Would the souls of the soldiers who heroically sacrificed themselves in the war be given new life by the Gods?
A mysterious and unknown power?
What sort of power was this?
Murphy was filled with countless questions, but without accumulating enough faith points, they could only remain unanswered.
The only thing that he could be sure of right now was that his future development would rely on the power of the Gods!
And that the two were interdependent and inseparable!
As Murphy made his best calculations, the "Ding!" sound of the auxiliary system also sounded in his ears.
"Spartan infantry have now been promoted to Spartan Berserker Mode Heavy Warriors!"
"Recalculating their new combat effectiveness!"
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Unit: Spartan Berserker Mode Heavy Warriors
Recruitment rounds: 0
Unit Size (11/300), Experience (+2).
Attack (24), Charge Bonus (6), Weapon (Spear, Heavy).
Total defense (22), Armor (6), Defense Skills (11), Shield (5).
Vitality (4).
Morale (18).
Recruitment cost (0), Maintenance cost (220).
Abilities: Berserk mode. Raises morale and increases attack power through their battle roars. They can hide in the forest and can form a square matrix formation. They have abundant physical strength and can dig tunnels.
Explanation: They are the super-elite! They possess discipline! They are very strong! These Spartan soldiers haven't forgotten discipline and cooperation, even in their frenzied state! They are the most perfect fighters! They are their enemies' worst nightmare!
Spartan Berserker Mode Heavy Warriors gave up some of the traditional fighting methods they had in the past.
They were equipped with heavy armor, and in addition to a spear and a hoplon, they were also equipped with a two-foot-long two-handed sword.
The only drawback of these fearful warriors was that they became very weak when their berserk mode wore off.
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A unit size of 300 people?
Murphy was slightly surprised when he saw this.
Was this the prototype of the Spartan 300?
From what he remembered, the Spartan 300 were indeed veritable fanatics!