The Truth of Magic - Chapter 52

Chapter 52: Turn Undead

When Archbishop Soz noticed the look of confusion on Zhao Xu’s face, he gently put down the painted porcelain cup in his hands and said, “I hope you didn’t think you’d just gotten lucky?”

Zhao Xu shook his head. Only an idiot would think he was that special.

“Don’t worry,” consoled Archbishop Soz when he could sense that Zhao Xu was wary around him.

“You don’t have to worry about him. This fellow is from my batch, but because he wasn’t gifted enough, he had to come here and become a cleric, while I happily went on to become a Level 9 spellcasting wizard,” Reyan added.

A Level 9 spellcasting Wizard meant that you could cast Level 9 spells, and you had to be at least a Level 17 Wizard. This was reflected in the number of rounds one had on their insignia.

Zhao Xu turned to look at the middle-aged Archbishop Soz, who was on the verge of becoming an elderly man. He even had gray hairs at his temple.

And then he turned to look at Reyan, who looked like he was in his early thirties, and couldn’t help but feel a little shocked. These high ranking clerics really couldn’t simply extend their lifespans like wizards could.

But then again, to these truly devout clerics, if they could reach the plane where their deity lived earlier and be with that deity for eternity, or even get promoted to become an angel, that was probably a better fate.

“Actually, your sort of situation is considered a variant of the cleric character class,” said Archbishop Soz.

When he heard the word ‘variant’, Reyan couldn’t help but glance over at Zhao Xu.

“That’s the Cloistered Cleric thing you mentioned earlier?” asked Zhao Xu in a low voice.

“That’s right. Everything in Arthur has its own set of rules that it follows. Your direction in leveling up has gone toward the path of a Cloistered Cleric. You didn’t just get a third domain out of nowhere.”

“Is there a price to pay?” Zhao Xu asked.

He had gained the feat of Enlightened Spellcaster, so he knew all about adding additional skills and abilities.

The number of skills that a character class could gain in advance was limited. If one area was made stronger, then something else would get weaker.

Otherwise, everyone would have chosen to go down that particular path.

“Compared to ordinary clerics, Cloistered Clerics will not have to go through martial training and you will spend more time than other clerics in study and prayer,” Archbishop Soz explained it very briefly. At the same time, he stood up and walked toward the bookshelf at the corner of the reception room.

After Zhao Xu heard this explanation, he more or less got it.

A character class like Cleric in Arthur wasn’t a class that just stuck around at the back of a crowd like a bunch of helpless women.

The divine spells they possessed were enough to boost their own power, and they could also become extremely powerful weapons in war.

During the Battle of Sealed Magic, Zhao Xu had seen how the battle had reached a point where the frontline Fighters had all collapsed, so the clerics just took up their maces and rushed forward to fight against those evil creatures from another world.

When wizards wore heavy armor, it increased the chance of their spells failing.

But, because Clerics were given Divine Magic by the deities, it wasn’t a problem even if they wore heavy armor.

In that case, this variant of cleric that gave up martial training to go down a more study-based direction seemed to be more in line with the non-wizard path of his double elite status.

Archbishop Soz had already taken an ancient text off the shelf and walked over to pass it to Zhao Xu.

“This is the biography of Shylaman, the previous pope. She was a Cloistered Cleric, just like you. You can take some time to read this book and understand the special features of this particular variant of cleric.”

Zhao Xu took the book from Soz politely, flipped through a few pages, and closed it again to keep listening to Soz’s explanation.

“In general, Cloistered Clerics are naturally very disciplined people, so they are seldom of chaotic alignment. At the same time, because their knowledge is a special feature, they also receive the Knowledge Domain as a bonus domain, as well as a special class feature called Lore. It’s quite similar to the skill that Bards have, Bardic Knowledge. You’ll naturally come to understand this later.”

“What about flaws?” Zhao Xu was a rational person and was more interested in weighing the pros and cons.

If the price to pay was too high, then, even if he couldn’t change anything, he would still complain about it.

“The hit dice of a cleric is D8, but the hit dice of a Cloistered Cleric is only D6. At the same time, Cloistered Clerics can only be proficient in using simple weapons and light armor.”

When he heard this, Zhao Xu hummed to himself for a while. This was acceptable.

He was only going to become a Level 1 Cleric anyway, so he didn’t need to care too much about the 2 point difference in hit dice.

Looking at that way, the price to pay was actually quite low. He didn’t really care much for the weapons training that was coming up next anyway.

“Then I think I’ve more or less got it,” said Zhao Xu with a nod of his head.

“Then let’s get to the real topic for today.” Soz looked at Zhao Xu. “Do you know what skill I’m going to help you grasp next?”

The smell of the incense burning around them was really getting to Zhao Xu’s nose. He was about to shake his head to say that he had no idea.

But a scene from his past suddenly appeared in his head.

In his previous life, in the town where he used to live, every time someone ran into a soul, most of them would immediately look for a cleric. He had seen how clerics were able to control souls directly.

If he remembered correctly, it was called…

“Turn Undead, or Destroy Undead,” Archbishop Soz said. “Or, evil clerics also call it Rebuke Undead.”

Zhao Xu took a very deep breath.

Before this, Zhao Xu had struggled when faced with that weak Human Skeleton Warrior that Antonya had summoned during their fight. He only killed the skeleton with one shot because the skeleton’s hit points were lower than average.

If he had had this skill from the beginning, then he would’ve had the skeleton completely under control.

“As good clerics, we can use the power of our Holy Symbols to turn or destroy the undead. Evil clerics, on the other hand, rebuke and control the undead.” As he said these words, Archbishop Soz passed him a Holy Symbol. “This used to be mine, I’ll give it to you now.”

Zhao Xu gently received it with his hands. The six-pointed star symbol of the Goddess was carved into the Holy Symbol, and Archbishop Soz’s name was carved into the back of the insignia.

On it was also a wise saying, “Knowledge and Wisdom are always present”.

Reyan watched all this from the side, and the corner of his lips curled up slightly.

Zhao Xu knew that this represented the friendship that Archbishop Soz was offering him.

This was a Holy Symbol that the cleric had carried on himself for several decades, so it was no simple trinket.

With this Holy Symbol, even if he wasn’t a cleric, he could probably use this insignia itself to walk through any of the areas under Archbishop Soz’s control without any problems.

He could possibly even request the Raise Dead or even more powerful revival divine spells that he wanted to have so badly in his previous life.

And it was just because this Holy Symbol represented the kindness that Archbishop Soz was extending to him.

Zhao Xu thought that the powers and benefits of the Blue Star Powers were already complicated enough as it was.

He didn’t expect that, within this reception room, one of the top-ranking clergymen of the Church of the Goddess, an archbishop, would express his friendship with Zhao Xu in such an obvious manner.

Archbishop Soz was going to make his journey up north in a few days and might never see Zhao Xu ever again, but he was still willing to invest in Zhao Xu, a person who wasn’t even a Level 1 Cleric yet.

The clerics of the Goddess would never go back on their word. If they had made an investment like that, they would accept any of the consequences, even if that hurt them.

He felt that there were still more unknowns involved in the situation. In his previous life, he had thought that clerics were all truly kind-hearted. Now he knew that they were all really smart people.

Archbishop Soz had a pleased look on his face when he saw the hesitant look on Zhao Xu’s face, but he didn’t say anything like ‘this Holy Symbol is too valuable’ and reject him.

When it came to planting a tree, the best chance to do it was either ten years ago, or right now.

He continued, “As a cleric, the number of times you can cast this spell is 3 + your Charisma modifier score.” He then passed another two books to Zhao Xu.

“This is a textbook put together by the clergy, and these are all the notes I’ve gathered regarding this skill over the years. You can take a look.”

Zhao Xu took the books from him. The textbook was labeled ‘Turn and Destroy Undead: The Path of a Cleric,’ while the other book was a notebook belonging to Archbishop Soz.

He laughed bitterly at himself secretly. Even after becoming a cleric, he was still destined for a life of reading.

But, early in the game, he had allocated 13 points to his Charisma, resulting in 1 Charisma modifier point. It had turned out to be useful now.

That meant that he could Turn or Destroy Undead up to four times every day.

“Have you gotten it yet?” asked Reyan as he turned toward Zhao Xu.

“Gotten what?” Zhao Xu was completely confused by this question.

“The ability to Turn the undead.”

Zhao Xu was immediately speechless. Did Reyan think they were at the market buying cabbages? Would they be available just because he said so?

He hadn’t even opened the book to read yet.

Zhao Xu scanned his character stats and was about to record the information from the books when his gaze suddenly froze.

He seriously got the skill already?