Hearing what these people said, I was both amused and exasperated. I always thought the reason Jesus fell down was that he wanted to crush this blind Pastor, who actually baptized an evil-hearted heretic in such a grand and dignified manner.

Chapter Eight: Small Chaos

Joining the Church—well, it has its pros and cons! To be honest, it’s not all that great. First of all, no matter how much money you make, you have to hand it all over to the Church. The Church will then give you a corresponding allowance based on your current position. In other words, the two hundred blue gold coins I earned earlier have all been donated to that damned Church.

To be honest, I really didn’t want to donate that fortune at the time. But when Dent told me about the donation, he was taking me on a tour to watch the training of the four battle priests in the Church. Actually, it wasn’t much, except that one of the battle priests broke a thick wooden stake in half with a single bare-fisted punch. Another three used fire magic to roast a chicken as a welcome meal for me, and then sliced the roast chicken into six pieces with five wind blades, saying it was for my convenience.

After seeing such an impressive display, of course I had to pay an admission fee. So I generously handed over all my blue gold coins. Because Pastor said there’s a Church rule: anyone who privately hoards spoils of war will be subjected to all kinds of severe punishment.

According to Dent, newcomers like me are called Servants of God, and get one blue gold coin per month. During the initial period after joining, you can learn light magic and all sorts of other skills from anyone in the Church. However, the health of Pastor is generally not very good, so you only need to learn some restorative light magic. And since I was brought into the Church by Pastor Dent, my future promotion path will also be in the priest branch. But if I have the energy, I can learn from anyone in the Church—they’ll all teach me, and the Church library is always open. The books there aren’t read with your eyes; you just put your hand on them, and as long as you have enough magic power, you can hear the voice of the book. This setup is just perfect for an illiterate like me.

After hearing Pastor's introduction, I couldn’t sleep a wink all night! In fantasy novels, the protagonist who comes to another world is always an unbelievably talented genius in magic or martial arts! The fact that I immediately displayed superhuman strength after arriving here clearly shows that I should belong to that group too.

As soon as the sun crept over the horizon, I jumped out of bed. I thought I was an early riser, but it turned out all these Pastor were already up as well. They even called me to say it was time for breakfast. With no other choice, I shuffled along with these guys to the dining hall.

What’s the greatest punishment in this world? In the past, I would have said having no money or no girls was the greatest punishment heaven could give me. Now I know, the greatest punishment changes every day. For example, the greatest punishment for me now is being able to see but not eat. My stomach was so empty I could have swallowed a whole cow. But ever since breakfast was served, these Pastor started praying, thanking this and that. They just wouldn’t let us eat. The steaming hot food sat there, and only after a full hour, when it was completely cold, did these guys finally finish praying.

After barely surviving breakfast, it was finally time for my lessons. Suddenly, I became the center of attention—a whole bunch of Pastor were eager to teach me, hoping to instruct someone who had once performed a miracle and might be a once-in-a-century genius. These Pastor all showed off their best skills and even started putting each other down.

“Young man! Look at my illumination spell. Once you master it, no matter how dark it is around you, as long as you use this spell, everything will be bright!”

“Bah! Don’t listen to him! If you cast an illumination spell in the dark, aren’t you just making yourself a target? Better to learn my healing spell! You can make a lot of money healing people anywhere!”

“Healing spell? I heard that thing only has a thirty percent success rate, and even if you fail, it still drains a lot of energy! You’d be better off learning my light hypnosis spell.”

“!#￥%……（……”

“!#￥%……—”

In an instant, these dignified Pastor in front of me became no better than market vendors. From arguing, they moved on to shoving, and then all sorts of low-powered light magic started flying everywhere. I guess it was because they didn’t have enough magic power—if they did, the church would probably have been demolished by now.

“Enough! I think this kid should be learning combat skills from us battle priests!” The four strong battle priests stood in front of everyone and shouted in unison.

I figured these four must be the top dogs in the Church. As soon as they finished speaking, the chaotic scene quieted down. Everyone looked at each other, and then suddenly someone in the crowd shouted, “Damn it, who do you think you are! Today I’m going to be the first to teach him!” As soon as this roar sounded, a flash of light appeared before everyone’s eyes, and then I couldn’t see anything at all—everything went white. The even more chaotic noise around me told me that things had gotten even crazier than before.