Chapter 28

**Chapter 28: The Missing Squad**

What is all this...

Mo Tan sat on the ground, momentarily dazed. The attributes and talents added to his character panel clearly proved that everything just now wasn't some illusion or daydream. But it seemed the Dawn Goddess had genuinely just wanted to chat with an "otherworlder." The things she said to him had no reference value whatsoever and were utterly disjointed...

He'd think about it later when he had time. Perhaps when he was in another personality, he might find these matters more interesting. But for now, forget it—living a little easier was better than anything.

The old priest, who had been occasionally glancing over, quickly walked up and asked with concern to Mo Tan, who had just gotten up from the ground: "Are you alright? If I wasn't mistaken just now... were you blessed by the Goddess?"

The latter was momentarily stunned but immediately recalled the tangible holy light that had lingered around him when he first regained consciousness. From the other's slightly excited reaction, it was obvious that this wasn't a common occurrence—at the very least, it had to be a membership-level light effect...

Well, it seemed the Dawn Goddess thought highly of him.

"I don't know if that counted as a blessing," Mo Tan replied while carefully weighing his words. "I seemed to hear the Goddess's voice just now, and then I felt my spirit improve a lot. I felt quite comfortable overall."

Describing the feeling of having both Intelligence and Constitution increased by three points as "quite comfortable" shouldn't be a problem, right?

Sure enough, the old priest immediately became excited. Without another word, he pulled and dragged Mo Tan into the prayer room behind the church, his woolly beard trembling as he asked: "What did the Goddess say to you?"

He was so excited he'd slipped into dialect...

For some reason, Mo Tan suddenly thought of that dog-eared girl whose very "woof" seemed to carry an accent.

Tsk tsk, the gap was too big!

"Uh, what did the Goddess say to me..." Mo Tan inexplicably blushed, then scratched his hair rather sheepishly: "It's a bit hard to say."

*Thump!*

Without a second word, the old priest knelt directly on the cushion beside him, facing the statue perpetually shrouded in hazy holy light. Trembling all over, he performed three bows and nine kowtows, then began muttering things like: "Goddess! Forgive me!", "I really didn't mean it!", "I wasn't thinking anything!", "Goddess, please be magnanimous and don't strike me with Divine Punishment or anything!", "My faith is pure and sincere!"

Mo Tan: "?...!!!"

He suddenly found this old man a bit adorable.

After a long while, the old priest stood up with a pale face, looked up at the ceiling, and confirmed there seemed to be no sign of heavenly justice descending before turning to Mo Tan with a twitching mouth: "Kid, next time think before you speak, alright..."

【You're the one who came up with some weird imagination! How is this my fault!?】

Thinking this way, Mo Tan certainly wouldn't say it outright. Instead, he nodded seriously and spread his hands, saying, "The Goddess thinks I'm too weak. With my mediocre skills, wandering the... continent would easily embarrass her."

Here comes the key point~

Mo Tan's words could indeed be considered a kind of truth-telling in a sense. After all, the Dawn Goddess had indeed indicated that he needed to temper his spirit and body, which meant she wanted him to grow stronger. And why did he need to grow stronger? Naturally, because Mo Tan wasn't strong enough yet. What does not being strong enough mean? It means weak!

So there's nothing wrong with that statement!

Like most of us, Mo Tan occasionally indulges in a bit of slyness, trying to scheme some benefits for himself...

"Too weak?" The Old Priest blinked a couple of times, looking quite troubled. "Well, as believers of the Goddess, shouldn't our top priority be to make ourselves steadfast and devout, while extending a helping hand to the suffering and lost lambs? As for strength, it should be something we gradually comprehend step by step... this..."

Mo Tan shrugged. "I don't know what the Goddess was thinking either."

"Mmm... mmm..." The Old Priest nodded repeatedly. "The will of the gods is not something we mortals can casually fathom. Mmm, let me think."

He stood there pondering for a good while, then walked over to a cabinet in the corner of the Prayer Room. Carefully, he took out a roll of manuscript and, with great reverence, handed it to Mo Tan.

"This was left behind by my godfather back in the day," the Old Priest said with a smile. "He was a very powerful Discipline Priest in his youth. This manuscript records some of his insights into faith and divine arts. I'm rather dull in this area, so from now on, I'll entrust it to you for safekeeping. Perhaps this is also the Goddess's will..."

Here it comes!

This is the rhythm—under some stroke of luck, a white-bearded old man bestows a secret technique. A seemingly ordinary skill set that holds hidden potential to slay gods and demons, like the Wild Fist that becomes unstoppable at max level, or the Nine Solitary Swords that breaks all martial arts under heaven. At this moment, Mo Tan's heart was pounding, his hands trembling, and he felt as if he'd been supercharged!

A white-bearded old man! An ancient, weathered manuscript! The old man's godfather, who might be a hidden master!

All the conditions were met!

He reached out, took it, and looked down...

[Neva Faol's Manuscript]

Special Item

Use:

-Learn Skill: [Divine Decree: Shield]

-Activate/Complete Class Quest — Discipline Priest

Quest Conditions:

[Perform Critical Healing 0/20], [Pious Prayer 0/20], [Apply Divine Decree: Shield to Friendly Targets 0/30], [Priest Level 2/15], [Holy Light Knowledge Level 1/7]

Reward: Obtain Class [Discipline Priest]

[Note: A manuscript left behind by Sir Neva Faol during his lifetime. Sir Faol was an ordinary, kind-hearted man with unambitious goals who had yet to transcend base interests. His life was without great merit or fault... so there's nothing much to say.

If there's nothing much to say, why say so much?! You lunatic!!

Mo Tan's inner self was roaring. It seemed Sir Faol's utterly unremarkable life had dealt him quite a blow...

However, setting aside his earlier, utterly unreliable specul... conjectures, this item was actually not bad. After all, in the game [Innocent Realm], players could possess multiple classes. For Mo Tan, whose original class was Priest, gaining a new class within the same school but a different specialization would bring obvious benefits.

To give the simplest example: if a player specializing as a Warrior happened to acquire the Mage class, they would struggle to learn skills requiring high Intelligence, unless they diligently trained their Mage proficiency. But then, their Strength would likely fall behind...

Thus, from the early to mid-game, having more classes didn't necessarily mean being stronger. After all, not every bald head is Kratos, and not every top player is an all-round specialist.

Moreover, some classes, upon leveling up, not only failed to increase attributes across the board but even deducted existing attribute points. After all, powerful mages generally didn't have high Strength, and rangers who came and went like shadows were rarely burly men...

Of course, we're talking about normal circumstances... normal circumstances...

But there are always some unreasonable people in this world, and there's nothing anyone can do about that~

Ah, I've meandered off again for a bit. Let's return to the topic at hand.

Although, given Mo Tan's current level and Holy Light Knowledge, completing this class quest in a short time was utterly unrealistic, it wasn't without immediate benefits. At the very least, he could learn a skill right away...

[Divine Decree: Shield]

Holy Light School Active Skill

Mastery Requirements: Holy Light Knowledge Level 1

Cost/Restrictions: 20 Faith Points

Effect: Creates an absorption shield for the target that is unaffected by any attributes, absorbing a small amount of damage and reducing all damage taken by 5%. Duration: 30 seconds. Cooldown: 30 seconds.

[Note: Go forth, that warrior! Go take more damage for me! In the goddess's name, charge in and get beaten up!]

Compared to the two support skills Mo Tan had already mastered, this damage absorption shield with a cooldown of only 30 seconds was clearly more cost-effective.

"Thank you very much. I will take good care of it." Mo Tan placed Faol's journal into his Pack and said gratefully to the Old Priest, "If one day I can fully comprehend it, I will return it to you then."

The Old Priest stroked his snow-white woolly beard and smiled. "The goddess guides you in your pursuit of power, and I happen to have a manuscript of the Godfather's divine spells from his lifetime. It seems all of this is the arrangement of fate."

This is the one good thing about dealing with believers of a god—no matter what happens, they can always explain it away with things like 'the goddess's guidance' or 'the arrangement of fate,' and they never take things too seriously.

(PS: But please, under no circumstances, get the idea of throwing your boyfriend/girlfriend into the church for a period of time. Any extreme consequences resulting from such behavior are not the author's responsibility.)

The two of them continued to praise the Goddess for a while longer, and then Mo Tan received a series of messages from Futaba. The gist of it was that if he was online, he'd better return to the base immediately—it seemed there was some trouble.

It was still early, not yet time for Mo Tan's planned character swap, so he hurriedly bid farewell to the Old Priest, replied to Futaba's message, and jogged back to the military camp as fast as he could.

Before he even reached the base, Mo Tan noticed that the atmosphere around him was unusually tense. The Territorial Guard soldiers, who were usually scarce, seemed to have multiplied, and everyone's expressions were grim...

Quickening his pace, he soon spotted all the members of Fenrir Squad standing not far away, gathered around Ned and chattering about something. Futaba stood a bit farther off, and upon seeing Mo Tan, she immediately waved at him, then turned to say something to Ned.

"You're finally here." Ned strode over and nodded at Mo Tan. "Emergency mission. The Ignition Squad, which was on patrol today, hasn't reported back yet. The higher-ups have ordered all squads to conduct a search as quickly as possible. We're responsible for the area southwest of Layered Rock City. Get ready to move out."

Yinna, who had walked over with them, rolled her eyes and pouted softly. "I don't know what those 'higher-ups' are thinking. It's just a routine patrol being late, and they're making such a big fuss..."

"Exactly." The lizardman monk Salazar slipped his hands into his gauntlets as he approached. "Maybe they just went off to drink and slack off. This is a waste of my time."

Klab, on the other hand, seemed quite excited. Hefting his massive-looking axe, he grinned. "Wouldn't be bad if we ran into some trouble. It'd be a good chance to stretch my muscles!"

"If you jinx it..." Ned shot him a glare. "I'll stretch your muscles for you first."

Klab immediately backed down. He was usually pretty bold when bickering with Salazar, but he never dared to joke around with Ned—he seemed genuinely afraid of him.

"Klab and Salazar got into a fight when they first joined," Yinna whispered to Mo Tan. "The captain beat them both up, and after that, those two troublemakers settled down."

Mo Tan suddenly understood. So it was a case of brute force establishing order...

"Alright, since Hei Fan is here too, let's not waste any more time." Ned said in a low voice. "I also think the higher-ups' orders are a bit ridiculous, but since we're taking their money and living on their turf, we have to do the work when it's time. Let's move out."

With that, the group set off in a grand... scattered... leisurely manner out of the city.

Mo Tan noticed that at least three or four squads were heading in roughly the same direction as his group, while many more teams were advancing toward the due west and due south, displaying a clear sense of purpose.

"It seems this emergency was anticipated by those 'higher-ups,'" Futaba said, having somehow circled around to Mo Tan's side, her voice low. "The purpose is too obvious."

Mo Tan shrugged and tilted his head to ask her, "So what exactly is the situation?"

"Just what the captain said earlier." Futaba pushed up her glasses and spread her hands. "I got the notice while hanging around the Mage Guild, then immediately called you over. Lucky you were online."

"Yeah, I've been pretty busy lately..."

The two chatted idly like this, and soon the squad left Layered Rock City, beginning their exploration toward the northwest. Geographically speaking, this should be the very edge of Marshall Territory. Since it wasn't an official road and there was no trade with the territory beyond the border, the area was quite desolate, with barely a few travelers in sight.

Of course, calling it a search was just a formality—everyone was really just walking and chatting. After all, no one truly believed anything could have happened to that squad. Even Ned was already yawning, simply going through the motions of a quick patrol before heading back to report.

But as fate would have it, this was precisely when trouble usually struck. For instance...

"Help!!"

*Bang!!!*

Ned moved like lightning, sending Klab flying several meters with a whip-like kick, and roared, "Your damn mouth ought to be sewn shut! Everyone on alert, prepare to rescue!!"

*Whoosh!*

A fireball the size of a fist rose from Futaba's palm, followed by an oval-shaped halo appearing beside her.

Turning around, Mo Tan had already cast a Tough Prayer on Ned, the light flickering at his fingertips illuminating the dim earth beneath the setting sun.

"Everyone, be careful."

**Chapter 28: End**