"Lord Kael!" greeted a young woman with a bright smile as Kael stepped out of the Carne Village temple in the clear morning light.
"Good morning, Lord!" an old man added in a respectful tone, bowing deeply.
In an instant, all the villagers around the temple approached him with sincere enthusiasm and bowed in unison as a sign of reverence. The small children who had been standing in a line before him, their eyes sparkling, imitated the adults' voices with remarkable fluency, calling out the Lord's greetings in cheerful and melodious voices.
"Alright, good morning to all of you too," Kael replied with a gentle smile, reaching out and lightly touching the head of a little girl standing at the very front.
Truthfully, Kael felt quite fond of the children in Carne Village. Perhaps because they had grown up in a dangerous foreign world and were still children in a remote border village, they had become accustomed to helping adults with work from a young age. They seemed many times more sensible and independent than the spoiled children in the peaceful society of Kael's previous life.
The tragedy of the Carne Village attack by the disguised soldiers of the Slane Theocracy, aimed at assassinating Gazef, had claimed the lives of nearly half the villagers. In other words, for every surviving child, there was a parent or grandparent who had died tragically. These children's gratitude and admiration for Kael, who had miraculously revived their lost loved ones, felt even stronger and purer than that of the adults. Kael could sense more genuine positive emotional feedback from them for "doing good," so he unconsciously showed more care and kindness to these little followers.
If one looked closely, it could be seen that all the small children in the village had a small feather wing ornament hanging around their necks with a thin string. The name of the item was [Angel's Protective Wings]. Its effect wasn't particularly strong, only able to make the wearer immune to fatal damage below level 40. However, for vulnerable children, even such a small amount of protection was invaluable. Not only that, these well-behaved children had now become magic casters or priests with great potential, and their levels had all surpassed LV15. Although they still lacked intelligence and combat experience, they possessed amazing potential power. At the very least, when facing these seven or eight-year-old children with their basic magic abilities, Gazef's subordinates in the Kingdom Warriors would have great difficulty defeating them.
Even the children were at this level, not to mention the adults in Carne Village who had received blessings and training from Kael. Their professions were now diverse, including powerful warriors, accurate archers, magic casters with various elemental magic, capable commanders, and various useful production professions, and their levels had all exceeded LV20. Besides expressing endless gratitude to Kael, their god of destiny, for these great achievements, the unfortunate Sunlight Scripture Team also made an unforgettable contribution to the villagers' leveling process. Because they were not Kael's devout followers and were magic casters who could use magic up to the third tier, they were forced to use low-level magic scrolls provided by Kael to summon a large number of low-level monsters around the village so that all the villagers could level up quickly through controlled battles.
If Kael had to rely on a group of Muggles like Gazef and his soldiers to achieve the same effect, he would have to use many rare items without usage restrictions, which would undoubtedly be a huge loss. This was also one of the main reasons why Kael did not kill Nigun and the other Sunlight Scripture members directly. Without these "summoners" acting as moving "leveling dungeons," Kael would have to take his followers around to find wild monsters, which would be very time-consuming and labor-intensive, not to mention any plans or actions to conquer other worlds in the future.
"However, the Sunlight Scripture can only be used as a source of experience at low levels. Once my followers' levels increase further, their role won't be so significant anymore," Kael muttered to himself as he glanced at the frightened-looking sect members. "Alright, it's time to move on to the next step."
Kael bid farewell to his sweet and enthusiastic little followers and walked towards the simple wooden warehouse where the Royal Knights and the Sunlight Scripture Team were imprisoned.
"Lord Kael!" exclaimed the two sturdy young men guarding the warehouse gate. They wore newly made black leather armor and held long black spears in their hands. Upon seeing Kael approach, they, like all the other villagers, immediately bowed respectfully to him. These two young men were among the first strong young people in the village who were killed when the Slane Theocracy attacked.
Perhaps due to the trauma and subsequent resurrection they experienced, the desire for power in these resurrected individuals felt stronger compared to that of the other villagers. After realizing this, Kael developed a more targeted combat career combination for these strong young men with a greater fighting spirit and even used [Superior Item Creation] magic to create a batch of high-quality equipment for them as rewards and motivation. As for magic items with stronger effects, Kael didn't plan to arm all the villagers immediately. Because through Enri's battle with the Kingdom Warriors yesterday, he discovered something important.
That is, the residents of Carne Village were not professional adventurers, and their combat skills and experience were still relatively weak. If only they could reach Enri's level in one go, they would have no difficulty defeating enemies of Gazef's level. They could even easily crush them with numerical superiority. But if they faced enemies of the same level as them but with more combat experience, Kael worried that in their current state, they wouldn't even be able to utilize half of their potential power.
However, Kael didn't think that choosing the residents of Carne Village as his subordinates was a wrong decision. Experience and skills could be developed over time and through proper training, but professionals like Gazef and adventurers who initially had high levels didn't have as much growth potential as the residents of Carne Village who started from level 1.
Take Gazef as an example. His current level was LV28, but his jobs were mostly basic ones like warrior and mercenary. The residents of Carne Village could start becoming stronger from LV1. After reaching LV10, the remaining job slots could be filled with various more specific and powerful high-level jobs. But this wasn't the case for professionals like Gazef. Because their job structure was already occupied by several basic professions, the space to develop stronger high-level jobs would be much more limited, at least 10 levels lower than the villagers' potential, or even more. Although using some valuable kryptonite gold reset items from the system might be able to reverse the situation, if they didn't have any particularly outstanding talents, Kael would be reluctant to use those rare items on them.
A bunch of trash whose maximum level was only 20, which the villagers could reach just by killing monsters for two days under his guidance, so why should he bother using precious kryptonite gold items on such people?
"Alright, thank you for your hard work," Kael encouraged the guards with a faint smile, then walked into the wooden house that served as a temporary prison.
As they saw Kael enter, the members of the Sunlight Scripture huddled in the corner of the room immediately stood up and saluted awkwardly, their attitude now as respectful and fearful as that of the villagers. In contrast, Gazef and the other Warrior members looked much more unfriendly and disgusted. Some of them even clearly held the hilts of their swords tightly, ready to strike if there was an opportunity.
Because now anyone in Carne Village who had received training from Kael could easily defeat these exhausted and injured soldiers, they no longer posed a significant threat to the villagers, and there was no way for them to escape. Therefore, Kael had asked the village chief to return the confiscated weapons and equipment to them, albeit under strict supervision.
"Lord Kael, what is your purpose in coming here this time?" Gazef asked in a wary tone, stopping his subordinates' movements with a sharp look in his eyes, then standing in front of his group to face Kael.
Hmph. When Kael heard Gazef speak to him in a formal yet cold tone, he knew that this person still refused to acknowledge his divine identity and only regarded him as a magic caster with terrifying power. But that didn't matter, Kael thought indifferently. After all, it was too difficult to win over a hardliner of the Re-Estize Kingdom like him. I'm too lazy to waste my time on such futile things, so I don't care what others think of me.
"There isn't enough food supply in this village to support a group of idle people like you. You'd better leave this place now," Kael said in a flat tone, his gaze cold and uninterested.
"Hm? Are you... going to let us go?" Gazef asked with a hint of surprise and disbelief. He hadn't expected to be released so easily after their defeat.
"Will keeping you here bring any benefit to me or this village?" Kael glanced at them indifferently, without saying another word, he turned around and prepared to leave the wooden warehouse.
At that moment, the members of the Sunlight Scripture who were also imprisoned in this wooden house looked extremely anxious upon hearing the conversation. Nigun, the ambitious captain, stood up boldly and stopped Kael's steps. "Please wait a moment, Lord Kael!" he called out in a desperate tone.
"Hm?" Kael stopped and glanced at Nigun, waiting for his explanation with a blank expression.
Nigun didn't waste this possibly last opportunity and immediately asked in a pleading tone, "Lord Kael, how do you plan to deal with us? Could you... could you return us to the Slane Theocracy?"
"You?" Hearing Nigun's desperate plea, Kael paused for a moment, weighing his options. Although the Sunlight Scripture could be used as a source of training monsters for his followers, the residents of Carne Village didn't need to rush to level up now. They needed to settle down and consolidate their strength for a period of time. Moreover, Kael planned to move his base to E-Rantel soon, where he would have access to better resources and tools. Therefore, Nigun and his sect members were no longer so important to him.
After thinking for a moment, Kael made a firm decision and said in a cold tone, "The residents of Carne Village are now my devout followers. Although the people who died in your attack have been resurrected by my mercy, it doesn't mean that your crime of attacking this village can be forgiven so easily." He looked at Nigun with a sharp gaze. "I will give you one chance to atone for your sins.
You can now choose a representative from your group. I will allow that representative to return to the Slane Theocracy and convey this message to the highest leaders of your country. They must come here to negotiate with me." Kael paused for a moment, emphasizing his words. "If the conditions you offer satisfy me and align with my wishes, then all of you will be released. If not, you will become slaves of our Cult of Destiny for the rest of your lives."
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