novel[28th Round] Green Cake? Green Cake!
| ← Ch.380 | Ch.382 → |
Although trade was most developed in the Central Continent, Mollan's Teachings didn't take root that well here, which was unfortunate, considering this was its birthplace.
The reason behind it was simple.
The Holy Empire in the northern part of the Central Continent had its own state religion, and the Elf Kingdom in the west was dominated by atheists, the inhabitants of which believed there was no one higher than the elves.
Moreover, opposing the Goddess, the Demon Lord ruled over its southern sector, and the Great Child religion dominated the Trade Republic to the east to ensure unhindered dealings with the Giant Empire. Lastly, the middle area had its own local beliefs.
"Dragon God..."
That was Noebius's current title, who was formerly known as the Supreme Dragon of Oblivion and the strongest of the Five Great Disasters.
His wife, Divine Dragon Queen Erdanti, built his reputation for the past 2000 years while serving as a Saintess and the ruler of the main trading city of the Central Continent.
While my wife created alter egos of me and used them in her dastardly plans, Erdanti did the complete opposite.
As my dear comrade slept, she worked diligently to deify him while raising their children.
I was jealous!
"... Are you so jealous that you decided to sabotage her?"
Disco's words couldn't be farther from the truth.
FFF-Class Heroes were watching me right now. I shouldn't engrave such a stupid idea in their even more stupid heads.
Nevertheless...
"If you want to change professions in a short time, you must be prepared for a little risk. Listen carefully. Religion-based jobs have ranks, but I'm going to skip these steps."
Religion-based specializations developed in the same way a person's career did. It would start at kindergarten, followed by elementary, high school, senior high school, college, then finally job seeker.
Likewise, one would start as a follower in my current occupation, then fanatic, priest, monk, paladin, high priest, cardinal, religious leader, saint, apostle, prophet, truth seeker.
The highest ranks were prophet and truth seeker, but it would be difficult to climb that far due to my lack of time and budget. Hence, I compromised by targeting the religious leader position instead.
? Job: Religious Leader (Sermon → Brainwashing ↑)
? Job: Cardinal (Sermon → Divinity ↑)
In both cases, their effects increased or decreased depending on the sermons.
Cardinal was much better than the monk position, but it wasn't as useful for me since I already had a special devotion to Master Mollan.
However, the same couldn't be said for the rank above that since it came with the Brainwashing skill, which was extremely difficult to acquire.
The indoctrination of a religious leader was different from normal indoctrination since it was absolute for those who practiced the same religion.
It didn't matter who the target was.
"Even the Demon Lord's subordinates?"
Well, they did imitate me. Naturally, that meant they were ardent followers of Mollan's Teachings.
"My God..."
***
Numerous difficulties awaited me, the G-Class Hero, as a consequence of my desire to become a religious leader.
Mollan's Teachings was a religion that boasted 2, 000 years of history and tradition, so appropriate recognition was essential to reach its peak.
To shorten that process, one had to convert famous heretics into their religion.
Tomato, Aqua, Alex...
? Odin: Is that even possible?
? Zeus: That's easier said than done...
? Allah: He seems to think religion is just a childish prank. If it were that easy, others would have already done it.
? Amon: They are too proud. Alex will never worship a slime as God.
Tertiary education course students always spoke negatively about everything.
Of course, not all of them were the same.
The vast majority of students watched the broadcast calmly without even texting in the mollanphone community.
? M. Satan: I have tried many methods, but I have never even thought of this. It will be interesting to see.
? Isis: Huh? Senior Satan, didn't you graduate already?
? Luna: Look closely. There's some prefix in his name.
? Luke: Anyway, it's nice to see you again, senior.
? M. Satan: I'm glad to see you too. Starting today, I'll be the trainee responsible for community moderation. I wish you all the best in the future.
Satan returned to the mollanphone community as an intern.
The community was autonomous before, but the director decided that it needed at least one moderator.
My wife was doing her best.
As a moderator, Satan's messages weren't limited by the chat frequency restriction, which was introduced to prevent flooding in chats.
Hence, he could freely answer all of the students' questions.
"If you want to preach in this continent, including the Lake of Sorrowful Songs, you must first obtain permission from the Divine Dragon Queen Erdanti. She has poor fighting skills, but her two children are powerful combatants since they're following their father's footsteps."
I wasn't kidding.
While not as strong as Green Cake, they had the skills to counter even Brave at such a young age.
Their mother shouldn't be left out of the equation either.
As the First Saintess, she could heal and resurrect her children as many times as necessary.
"Ah! Green Cake! Welcome! Are you eating well? How is your adventure?"
She loved my adopted son like her own child.
But that attitude irritated him.
"Greetings, auntie."
"Hoho! I'm glad you decided to come. Oh! Hero! I'd like to welcome you as well!"
Holding her twins' little hands and smiling brightly at Green Cake, she invited us to her guest house.
She didn't even pay attention to me, the G-Class Hero.
"Please listen to the Hero, auntie."
"How can I refuse your request? Do you want something to drink? We have black, green, yellow, black, and white teas."
"Black tea, please."
"Ah! You have the same taste as sir Noebius."
Listening to their conversation, I waited for the right opportunity to intervene.
I was setting an example for all the Heroes watching. Therefore, it was very important not to make a mistake.
Fortunately, she didn't reveal my true identity.
"Lady Erdanti, I have come to you to get permission to do missionary work in your area."
"Ah, I can give only one answer. We do not tolerate any other religions than the Great Child."
"... Hmm?"
Not that it was a bad thing, but why that one specifically?
"Because sir Noebius recognized the Great Child as his rival. I'm not that happy about it, but as his wife, I cannot go against his will."
"Is that so..."
Captain Fantasy's sheer size and thunderous wails seemed to have made an impression on Noebius.
Should I switch to the Great Child religion?
'Please forgive your disciple's insolence, Master Mollan, but since Mollan's Teachings and the Great Child religion were originally the same, the differences in their doctrines are minor anyway. '
The problem was the students.
They didn't need to know that the two main religions in the world of Fantasy actually had the same roots.
The Divine Dragon Queen continued.
"Thanks to sir Noebius's presence, peace has been maintained in the middle region of the Central Continent for the past 2000 years. Monsters don't even come close to this place, and interracial warfare is prohibited here. And yet he doesn't demand anything in return..."
"Land prices have risen in price lately, haven't they?"
"... Yes, but that's not his fault. I made a good investment. This is a separate topic."
It wouldn't be easy to convince her.
"Then let's do this. Lady Erdanti and I will arrange a match that both sides must agree on. If I win, you will allow me to preach about Mollan's Teachings, and if I lose, I will give you Green Cake for a whole month.
"A month? That's nothing but a fleeting moment for me. 1500 years."
"Then no deal."
"1000 years!"
"100."
"500!"
"Okay. 500 years."
"Do all the participants agree to the conditions?"
My son initially gave his silent consent to the competition immediately when I looked at him with the Righteous Hero's gaze.
Now, however, his eyes had widened, surprised by the fact that the period would be 500 years.
He shouldn't worry too much. Even if I failed, Erdanti wouldn't hurt him.
On the contrary, she would treat you no different from her own child.
"We need to choose the type of competition, Hero."
"I don't care."𝘧r𝚎𝗲w𝘦𝚋𝗻o𝘷𝘦𝚕 - 🅽🅽novel
"Are you that confident in yourself? You better not regret this later. Hmm. If so, then let's have... a cooking match!"
"A cooking match? Alright. But we need objective judges."
"I agree. But are there such people? I can randomly choose ten people from among the townspeople..."
"Green Cake."
"... We'll cook for him?"
"Yes, or does that not suit you?"
"Oh! That's fine! It'll give me even more strength!"
Erdanti's eyes, which had been filled with indifference throughout our conversation, sparkled.
? Race: Green Dragon Lord
? Level: 999+
? Job: Priestess (Favor → Faith ↑)
? Skills: Faith GG, Resurrection G, Eternal Life ZZ, Healing ZZ, Parenting ZZ, Cooking ZZ, Charm Z, Governance Z, Blessing MAX...
? Status: Transformation, Unification, Will
Erdanti's cooking skill was ZZ-ranked.
Considering the Holy Empire Chef had a Z-rank in his undergraduate degree, this was absurd.
What did I have?
Nothing.
"... I need time to gather the ingredients, so why don't we have our duel in a month?"
But I planned to get my culinary skill to Z-rank by training hard for a full month.
"You seem to have a fondness for that period. How about a year? Meat takes time to mature."
"Too long!"
Dragons had a very different concept of time.
In the end, we agreed to meet again in 30 days.
*****
"Faith" was a special skill that didn't require overcoming the limit.
Because a person's faith couldn't be measured using the fixed values of the system.
If a person believed in Goddess A but then decided to follow Goddess B, there was no reason for Goddess A's betrayer to retain their Faith's past rank.
Consequently, this skill had no division in the transcendent realm, and its rank could be changed according to its user's religious beliefs.
Like this...
? Race: Radiant Human
? Level: 382
? Job: Monk (Faith → Divinity ↑)
? Skills: Faith ZZ, Cooking Z, Annihilation MAX, Slaughter MAX, Taste MAX, Incitement SS, Fabrication SS, Deal E, Intelligence F...
? Condition: Good
I easily raised my Cooking Skill to MAX in just two weeks.
While mining for ingredients nearby, I constantly boiled, baked, fried, sliced ...
I wanted to express my gratitude to everyone who sponsored it.
? Odin: He fried robbers pleading for mercy in butter...
? Zeus: This teacher is crazy!
? Allah: What does this have to do with cooking?
? M. Satan: Since this is a live broadcast, we can do nothing about it, but this part will be edited out or censored in the rebroadcast for the students who have missed everything.
? Sieg: This is too much.
Common culinary ingredients could also be obtained from the market.
However, to refuse free materials was a waste.
I cooked right after the battle.
I didn't pick any particular race, using any creatures that caused harm to humanity.
As a result, after another two weeks, I reached the Z rank.
I didn't regret choosing Cooking as my first transcendental skill.
After all, a teacher who pretended to be weak once proved to me that it was a useful skill even in combat.
"Hero, are you ready?"
"Yes."
"Then let's begin the cooking match for Green Cake!"
My dear friend's wife seemed to have completely forgotten the original purpose of this competition, but it didn't matter.
"I'll show you delightful cuisine."
A lot of spectators would be watching this.
I couldn't order Green Cake to praise my dish for its heavenly taste as soon as he tasted it.
It was a little annoying, but I strive for an honest victory.
? M. Satan: The culinary duel for the sweet and beautiful Green Cake is finally underway!
... I should remember to have an informative conversation with that insane trainee later.
| ← Ch. 380 | Ch. 382 → |