The Truth of Magic - Chapter 53

Chapter 53: Good Aura

Reyan nodded in satisfaction when he saw how Zhao Xu had gone into a daze.

“If you dare to say that you’ve gotten it already, then I’m going to…”

“Reyan, watch your words carefully,” Archbishop Soz immediately cut Reyan off.

Zhao Xu glanced at Reyan. Reyan was the association’s contact officer in the church, so no matter how loose his mouth was, at the very least, he wouldn’t say anything offensive in front of a clergyman, right?

If that was the sort of intelligence a Level 17 wizard had, then all those apprentices stuck on their road to becoming a wizard would probably feel like killing themselves.

The only explanation was that Reyan and this Archbishop Soz here were just way too familiar with one another, to the point where Reyan had let his guard down.

But Zhao Xu didn’t intend to pretend or anything like that. No matter how blessed he was by the Goddess, he was still a Level 1 player after all.

He didn’t even need to go through a battle to be in danger. The aftershocks of some random spell could easily send him right back to the Palace of Character Creation.

If he displayed the value that he had and caused Archbishop Soz to be willing to invest even more in him in the future, then this would be extremely meaningful to the camp that Zhao Xu would join next time.

If the person standing behind him was just any archbishop, the people right at the top might not be very bothered.

But if the one behind him was someone who was going to become a cardinal over a certain region, then nobody would take that lightly.

Besides, Archbishop Soz was going to head for Winter Town, which was where most of the players from his school had been allocated to.

“I…” Zhao Xu was about to speak.

“Zhongxia, you have no idea about this, do you? Back when Soz failed on his path to becoming a wizard, he was sent to the Sacred Heart Cathedral to just do some studying. In the end, his gift at being e a cleric wasn’t too bad, and in just a matter of months, he was bestowed with the blessing of the Goddess and attained Divine Magic.

“But, when it comes to the ability to Turn Undead, he hadn’t grasped it yet even after I was done learning all the cantrips. When I was learning Level 1 spells, he still hadn’t gotten it. In the end, he still didn’t make it even when I was already on my way to becoming a Level 3 Wizard and learning Level 2 arcane spells. The Goddess finally couldn’t take it anymore and decided to bless him with her favor one more time so that he could gain the ability to Turn.”

Reyan said all of this in a very matter of fact manner to Zhao Xu.

A cleric’s divine spells, domains, and the ability to turn the undead were all requirements for one to become a Level 1 Cleric.

If you didn’t have all of the above, you couldn’t level up to become a Level 1 Cleric.

Zhao Xu suddenly felt bad saying what he had to say after hearing all this.

“That’s why, even though you said you’ve already gotten the blessing from the Goddess to attain all your domains, I still brought you here. Soz is someone with great experience. With him to guide you, I’m sure you’ll avoid all sorts of pitfalls.”

Zhao Xu was afraid that Reyan wouldn’t stop talking, so he quickly cut in at this point, “I just attained the ability to Turn.”

“What?”

Reyan was prepared to ramble on, and he was a little shocked when he heard this.

Archbishop Soz remained calm even though Reyan was clearly poking fun at him, but now he, too, looked very seriously at Zhao Xu, and he was holding the porcelain cup in his hands so tightly, he might leave dents in it.

“The teachings of the Goddess don’t hate lies as much as someone like the God of Justice, but still…”

A warm and intense glow of white light suddenly shot out and covered the area around the couch.

This was a force that would be fatal poison to the Undead, but it calmed the hearts of humans.

Both Soz and Reyan knew the familiar feeling immediately. This was the glow that came from positive energy.

This was the energy that Clerics gave off when they were using their ability to Turn Undead.

The glow faded and Zhao Xu was just sitting on the couch quietly while holding the Holy Symbol that Archbishop Soz had given to him earlier as if the large burst of positive energy had nothing to do with him.

Adventurer Zhongxia has used Turn Undead, Turning Check 1D20 + Charisma modifier score = 12+1 = 13, able to Turn 2HD Undead at best.

Adventurer Zhongxia’s Turning Damage is 2D6 + Cleric Level + Charisma modifier score = 4+1+1 = 6, able to Turn Undead of no more than 6HD in total.

The two messages popped up on Zhao Xu’s character stats message board at the same time.

According to the messages, if he ran into that Human Skeleton Warrior again, he only needed to use this attack and he would be able to control up to six of those skeletons together.

That was the power of the Cleric’s Turn Undead.

Evil Clerics could also make use of this power and combine it with spells to make a sea of skeletons with no problems.

“How is this even possible?”

Reyan stared in puzzlement at Soz and looked like he had many questions.

But Archbishop Soz just sighed and gently shook his head.

The silence between the two was so long that Zhao Xu started to feel a little uncomfortable.

Suddenly, Archbishop Soz picked up the spellcasting focus next to the table. He lifted a hand and started chanting incantations at Zhao Xu.

Before Zhao Xu could figure out what was happening, he could feel a conical shaped glow slowly filling up the reception room, and Reyan was also caught within the radius of the cone.

In just the blink of an eye, Archbishop Soz put down the spellcasting focus in his hand and didn’t look at Zhao Xu anymore. He turned toward Reyan with a stern look on his face.

“Reyan, I’m afraid that, unlike what you’ve been saying, he’s not just someone your organization deems a little more gifted than others.”

“What joke is this? Don’t tell me you think he’s my illegitimate son?” responded Reyan in a loud, flippant voice, unbothered that he had used Zhao Xu to his own benefit in these words.

“He has an Aura,” said Soz. The look in his eyes became even grimmer than before.

Reyan hadn’t been a Contact Officer for very long, and he wasn’t as familiar with all these things as the previous contact officer, who had been based in the church for a few decades. He was stunned for a while before he finally figured it out.

“I didn’t notice that at all. So your special Aura doesn’t come only when one becomes a Level 1 Cleric? Who’s going to know that?”

Reyan hit his head a few times in frustration.

“Wait, no, that’s not right. I’m such a smart guy. Even if I didn’t think of it, I would have hidden his Aura away as a precautionary measure. The problem now is that I didn’t expect him to actually already be able to Turn Undead.”

Reyan shook his head as he tried to console himself.

But Zhao Xu had been confused since Archbishop Soz had cast the spell on him.

“Er, could I ask…?”

Curiosity in a dangerous situation was often the road that led to death.

But, in other times, it was a way to help him avoid making mistakes over and over again.

Zhao Xu had already guessed that Archbishop Soz knew by now that he had probably attained Divine Magic.

In theory, Zhao Xu only needed to complete his training in weapons and armor, and he would become a qualified cleric.

If Zhao Xu had already received this standard training before entering this room, then he would probably have seen that he was a Level 1 Cleric in his character stats.

He needed to know what flaws Reyan had revealed.

“In general, the alignment of a cleric would be positively correlated with the alignment of the god or deity they believe in,” Reyan slowly began to explain.

Zhao Xu understood this. If a god was Lawful Good, then his clerics would generally also be Lawful Good clerics.

Only a small proportion of clerics might be Lawful Neutral or Neutral Good, but they wouldn’t go more than two alignments away from the god’s own alignment.

“As such, all clerics who believe in chaotic, evil, good or lawful gods would have the same Aura as the alignment of the deity they believe in,” Reyan went on to explain. “So you would give off the same Good Aura as the Goddess.”

“Initially I thought that only those who had officially become a Level 1 Cleric would have this sort of Aura. I didn’t know that, as long as you have obtained a majority of the skills a Cleric should have, you would get this Aura too.”

“Soz used the Detect Good spell to reveal the Good Aura on yourself, and of course, he already knows that you’re actually a prospective Cleric.”