Chapter 82:
Murphy was very willing to call the vampire execution battle that took place in Kadman City a great victory.
His little players performed remarkably well in this battle. Although they did not directly confront stronger silver-rank vampires, almost all of Jed’s unlucky servant vampires were defeated by the little players.
Just the ones that were cut down and captured numbered 8.
It seemed like a total victory, but if only counting the little players’ side, then this victory was somewhat imperfect.
40 little players ambushed 12 servant vampires, but 23 were killed in return. Even with a surprise attack and numerical advantage, ending up like this shows that at the current level, if little players numbering less than five encounter black iron vampires that can fly, it’s pretty much a death sentence.
But this also indirectly shows that each little player who survived such a horrific battle is a “koi,” their combat strength may be poor, but their luck is absolutely good.
Murphy has no doubt about this.
But in the current situation, it’s already difficult to describe Meow King’s circumstances as just “luck,” right?
In a flawed ritual, a standard atheist casually called out divine names, and even got the prefix wrong!
You knew it was a job change ritual going on here, not some special event to blaspheme!But still!
It actually worked?!
Damn!
Is this Astral Realm deity Avalon, the legendary deity of nature and elves who stopped responding to their prayers after the Old Church’s betrayal in the Ten Year War, blind or something?
Murphy felt that obscure gaze disappear in an instant, and turned his head again to observe Meow King below, now enveloped in the verdant green wind of the forest.
He wasn’t worried about being noticed by the “divine gaze” himself.
He’s a vampire, an eternal sin descendant, an existence that all deities avoid.
Of course, this isn’t to say vampires are powerful.
Uh, to use an inappropriate example, it’s like when you’re walking down the street and see a pile of dog poop, you wouldn’t go out of your way to inspect it closely, right?
Unfortunately, no matter how unwilling vampires are to admit it, and how resolutely they attack other races with language and physical force for holding this view, in the eyes of the deities they’re pretty much seen that way.
It has to be said, from every aspect this does sound like a tragedy.
But now is not the time to reflect on the status of vampire civilization!
Murphy widened his eyes observing the twitching Meow King below, who was currently surrounded and enveloped by the verdant green wind emerging from the forest. It was clearly some supernatural force materializing in the physical world. As the laurel leaves on the incense burner continuously released a certain fragrance, the fresh berries in the basket were rapidly decaying.
What replaced them were quite wondrous changes happening to Meow King’s body.
As a test administrator, Murphy could more clearly sense the spirit energy comprising Meow King’s physical projection being “changed in nature.”
The verdant green force of nature energy was filling his body, paving a unique career path for him.
Murphy could kick Meow King offline to forcibly interrupt this process.
But he didn’t do that.
Instead, he even opened the core bead, retrieving Meow King’s player interface on his computation bead that was currently flashing scrolling text, intending to peek up close at the changes to the first official job changer among the little players:
【Avalon is watching you!
Your talents, your sacrifices, and your pure sincere character have attracted the God of Nature, who has decided to grant you some power and guide you onto the right path.
Nature spirit enhancement in progress…attribute replacement activated!
Strength: 6 -> 3
Agility: 6 -> 4
Endurance: 5 -> 6
Intellect: 4 -> 8
Perception: 5 -> 5
Charisma: 4 -> 4
Job change activated!
Current job ‘Spirit Apprentice’ can change to ‘Avalon Church – Oak Apprentice’, accept/decline?
Can accept auxiliary job “Farmer – Breeding Specialization”, accept/decline?】
“F**k f**k f**k! I made it”
Meow King had clearly also noticed the changes happening to his player interface.
His attributes were readjusted. Although the total was still a pitiful 30 points, his attribute panel was obviously adjusted to a template more suitable for a spellcaster, satisfying Meow King’s small wish to become a noble mage to some degree.
Faced with this job change prompt that was possibly a “hidden job,” he didn’t hesitate at all, shouting in a manner completely unbefitting of clergy:
“Change change change! Change dammit!”
“Shua”
The verdant green wind surrounding him cheered as it surged into Meow King’s body, causing his vision to go black as he collapsed to the ground. His interface also changed again:
【Avalon Church – Oak Apprentice job change complete! Currently level 1 Oak Apprentice.
New talent – Basic Nature Affinity obtained!
You are more sensitive in perceiving nature spirits and gain nature resistance, but perception of other spirits is weakened.
New talent – Heart of the Woods obtained!
You view forests, jungles, plains and other natural environments as ‘preferred terrain’. In such terrain, all your attributes except Charisma are temporarily increased.
New talent – Breeding obtained!
You can now learn and select different seeds to cultivate with natural spirit energy, giving them different effects to become your unique spellcasting resource.
New skill【Thorn Spells I】obtained!
Can summon spirit thorns with mild poison to entangle yourself or allies, granting physical defense equivalent to padded armor and increasing nature resistance, while dealing counterattack damage to melee attackers.
In preferred terrain where thorns exist, spirit thorns will be replaced with physical thorns, increasing physical defense effect to【leather】level.
New skill【Root Bind I】obtained!
Can summon spirit roots to entangle your target, immobilizing them and applying a slow effect that is not interrupted by attacks and persists until the caster’s spirit energy is exhausted.
In preferred terrain with vines, spirit vines will replace physical vines, upgrading the【slow】effect to【immobilize】, and increasing the number of entangling vines.
New skill【Spirit Blast – Nature’s Fury I】obtained!
You can now release natural spirit energy in the form of a spirit blast, dealing spirit damage to enemies along with mild poison and force impact effects.
This is a branch skill of the Spirit Blast skill, inheriting its proficiency which is currently【Proficient】.
New skill【Winds of Rejuvenation I】obtained!
You can now convert your natural spirit energy into healing power to apply healing effects to yourself or allies, with the speed depending on your Intellect attribute.】
“Damn! I’m awesome now! I can deal damage and heal, I feel invincible!”
The excited Meow King jumped around like a monkey, but soon noticed the other brothers giving him strange looks.
“Huh? What are you looking at? Never seen such an awesome Oak Apprentice?”
Meow King smugly struck a cool pose, but Murphy hiding in the treetops was already covering his belly, nearly laughing out loud.
He’s green, he’s green!
Meow King is green.
Probably due to his nature spirit affinity, the grass circlet on his head had actually sprouted new buds, making Meow King’s head a lush green, no wonder the other bros had speechless looks asking the heavens.
“Damn!”
Soon realizing something was off, Meow King took off the grass circlet and angrily threw it to the ground, cursing loudly:
“This damned deity…”
“Boom”
Before he could finish, a verdant beam of light descended from the sky, striking Meow King’s forehead and sending him crashing to the ground like he was struck by lightning.
“Is this divine punishment? Hey, Lord Avalon,are you serious?”
He opened his mouth, spewing a wisp of black smoke.
Just now’s lack of respect resulted in severe punishment, leaving him feeling unwell all over and afflicted with a【Blasphemy】weakness debuff lasting two hours.
This was probably some kind of warning from Avalon?
“Hey brother, you alright?”
The Four Heavenly Kings stood there laughing like idiots.
Only his buddy Don’t Need Hands to Show Off rushed over to help Meow King up. The latter shakily patted his cousin’s shoulder, feeling grateful for family’s reliability.
Afterward, he took out the replica Avalon’s Blessed Sacred Blade from his spirit pouch, finding the faith requirement had been met so he could finally use this masterwork commander-grade divine weapon.
This thing was absolutely the most powerful weapon in any player’s hands currently!
Meow King gently rubbed his finger along the hunting sword’s blade, igniting a faint blue purifying flame that burned along the length, making the others exclaim awesome.
However, not even ten seconds later, Meow King’s face went pale as he tossed the replica sacred blade back into his pouch.
No choice, the spirit cost was too high!
This thing wasn’t meant for his level to use, burning for just ten seconds was enough to drain all his natural spirit energy.
In the end, even when the Old Church still existed, an Oak Apprentice was just the lowest tier of that faith system, so being weak was expected!
“But it gave me three talents and four skills in one go! Although the job level was reset, my character level was preserved, so it’s a net gain!”
Meow King snapped his fingers proudly and said to the other five brothers sitting on a tree stump:
“What about you guys? You wanna change too? We’ve got all the stuff here, why don’t we do it together?”
“This is obviously a spellcasting+healing hybrid job.”
The Four Heavenly Kings all shook their heads.
They actually had a pretty clear plan for their job paths and knew healing classes were meant for sweeping dungeon floors in raid parties, they’d rather be tough tanks.
“Uh, brother, I still prefer more violent jobs.”
Don’t Need Hands to Show Off also scratched his head with an awkward laugh:
“Maybe next time.”
“Tsk, uncultured.”
Meow King didn’t really mind either way.
He just wanted to be a spirit mage, not caring which type.
What’s wrong with being a healer?
Didn’t they know during raids, a reliable healer with sufficient healing output is treated like a grandpa being doted on?
He rolled his eyes at his brothers and said:
“Don’t rush, since it’s proven we players can switch to jobs from the Old Church’s system, then the Witch Hunters must also be an option. Didn’t you hear Khaki Tony Tai talk about that powerful old knight?
Apparently he’s some kind of ‘White Knight’, just the name sounds impressively strong!
I suspect that’s the peak job from the Old Church system, this storyline specially spawned one just to tease us about the prospects of the new job system.
Anyway, I’m also a member of the Old Church now, ah no, the Avalon Church, right?
Avalon folks don’t lie to Avalon folks!
Tomorrow when I log in I’ll go chat up those Witch Hunters, see if I can find out the specific requirements to switch to the Witch Hunter job.
Then we can all switch together!
Let’s all be happy together, hahaha!”
“However, Meow King, this nature-based Old Church really had a tragic background story.”
The nearby Electronic Succubus Old Tune said worriedly:
“If we switch to that path, won’t we get dragged into it too?”
“Tsk.”
Three to Five Pecks nonchalantly patted Old Tune’s shoulder and said:
“Are we players afraid of that? Isn’t being the world’s enemy even better? There are red-name mobs everywhere to freely slaughter, no? But Meow King, didn’t you always say you wanted to pledge your loyalty to Lord Murphy, be a vampire and all?
Now that you’ve switched to an Oak Apprentice, doesn’t that mean you can’t become a vampire anymore?
In the background story, the Witch Hunters go around killing vampires.”
“!!!”
The previously smiling Meow King suddenly froze, the smile quickly dropping from his face.
“Damn! Got too excited about the new job, forgot about that! Reputation points? Will the reputation points be reset too? Shit!”
He felt like slapping himself.
His face was full of the anguish of losing five million dollars.
But Murphy hiding in the treetops just shook his head, vanishing into the night like a ghost.
How could he reject his fierce yet adorable little players?
Never mind switching to Witch Hunter, even if you switched to a Deep Sea Mud Monster, Lord Murphy would still love you~
Three hours later, Murphy supported the agonized Tris as they walked towards the Witch Hunters’ nearby camp, while Lady Adele also joined up with the young ladies.
Femis’ eyes were swollen.
Although vampires cannot shed tears, it was obvious she had just cried bitterly.
Alas, no choice.
Having to unite with outsiders against their own father, even if their father was an unscrupulous schemer and huge asshole, anyone facing this shitty situation would cry.
Murphy didn’t console her.
He knew no words could empathize with Femis now.
Putting himself in her shoes, if one day Murphy was forced to kill Tris with his own hands, he estimated he might die of heartbreak.
They quickly reached the place where the Witch Hunters had gathered in the night, with no standard camp, just a bonfire lit under the city wall on the other side of Kadman City.
A group of people surrounded it, tallying their gains.
Upon noticing the four vampires approach, thirty Witch Hunters cast cold, malicious glances at them, especially Captain Natalie.
Seeing Murphy, she gripped the hilt of her sword, while the frightened Miriam at her side breathed a sigh of relief and hurried over towards Murphy’s group.
“What are you all standing around for? Guests have arrived, is this how we treat guests?”
The full-bodied voice of the old knight Finoch rang out from the darkness, and the Witch Hunters withdrew their gazes, no longer paying attention to them.
But seconds later, as old Finoch came striding over with the large Oak Sacred Blade on his back, the troubled Tris suddenly froze, giving the old Finoch a strange look. The golden old knight also stopped in his tracks.
He looked at Tris before him with equal uncertainty.
“Huh? It’s you? I feel like I’ve seen you in my memories before.”
Tris rubbed her brow, her tone strange as she said:
“What was your name again? John? Hans?”
“So it is you, Lady ‘Crimson Witch’.”
The old knight swallowed, amid the fierce humming from the Oak Sacred Blade on his back, he narrowed his eyes and said:
“It seems your memory is poor, to have forgotten the person who almost took your life over a hundred years ago. Lawson! My name is Lawson.”
“Ah, I remember now!”
Tris clapped her hands, then casually stepped forward.
Under the dumbfounded watch of Murphy’s group and the Witch Hunters, she casually patted the shoulder of the old Finoch, who was two heads taller than her and already gripping his sword hilt, saying:
“So you’re that little brat disciple who came challenging me to a duel back then. I took pity and spared your life, but now you’ve come back to die again?
Who gave you the courage? Your Avalon god?”