Civilized people are always civilized people. When these priests and battle clerics finally exhausted all their energy, the commotion came to an end. With bruised faces, everyone began to do what civilized people do—negotiate.

After less than half an hour of negotiations, the priests and battle clerics solemnly walked out of the conference room together. These people, who just moments ago had black and blue faces, now all had rosy complexions, showing no sign that a fierce fight had just taken place nearby. It seems that this restorative magic is truly a rare and wonderful thing. Maybe we should find a few beautiful women to endorse our great restorative magic, just like those who endorse sk rabbit.

“George servant of God, please come over here.” Priest Dent put on an expression of utmost kindness and beckoned to me.

After I walked over, Dent said to me, “After our discussion, we have decided that a week will have nine days. Except for Sunday, the ninth day, the other eight days will be split evenly. For the first four days, you will study priest skills with us. For the last four days, you will study with the battle clerics. Now, please come with us.”

Hope always shatters in anticipation. Dent and the other priests, after starting to teach me priest magic, soon realized that geniuses these days are as rare as virgins—long extinct.

“Why are you so stupid? Such a simple illumination spell, and after a whole morning you still can’t even produce a basic little light?” A priest with a red trim on his chest knocked on my head and said, unwilling to give up.

Simple? Damn! Before you started teaching me, you told me this spell was the pride of priests. You even said that in the earlier fight, if it weren’t for this illumination spell, the battle clerics wouldn’t have been able to negotiate so quickly. I also thought this illumination spell was like the Solar Flare used by Tien Shinhan in “Dragon Ball,” so I decided to learn it. Who would have thought it would be so hard?

“Focus and try again! You can fail at everything else, but if you can’t do the illumination spell, that’s a real disgrace to the church! For hundreds of years, there hasn’t been a single priest who couldn’t cast the illumination spell!” The priest shouted at me, waving a wooden stick. Judging by the look of things, if I still couldn’t produce even a glimmer of light, that stick as thick as a child’s arm would probably come crashing down on my head.

Chapter 9: The Matter of Saving Face

Human potential is limitless! Especially when threatened. Under the threat of the priest’s stick behind me, I focused my mind once more and shouted, “Illumination spell!” A few scattered points of light appeared in my hand! Although they disappeared again in an instant.

The priest looked at me in disappointment, staring at me like I was some kind of monster for a long time before saying, “All these years, all these years, this is the first time I’ve seen someone who, after being baptized with holy water, can only produce this level of illumination spell. Sigh! Well, at least you’ve learned it, so from now on you’ll have to improve on your own.” After saying this, the priest turned and, trembling, leaned on his cane and left the teaching area. I really don’t know if it was because I made him so angry, or if he was just struggling to resist the urge to hit me.

Once the priest who taught the illumination spell left, the other priests who had been watching lost all their enthusiasm as well. In the end, everyone unanimously elected Priest Dent to teach me all the basic priest spells.

For a while, the huge teaching hall was left with just the two of us, staring blankly at each other.

“Are you really the same George Washington from yesterday? You’re not in disguise, are you?” Priest Dent was clearly deeply shocked, and came up to grab my face with both hands.

“I really am! It’s really me.” I pried off the priest’s weak hands and rubbed my handsome, fair face as I spoke.

Dent stared at me for a long time, then sighed deeply and said, “Sigh! How could this happen? How could a miracle occur to such a useless person like you? Here are the notes for basic priest magic, read them yourself.” After saying this, Dent threw the notes for basic priest magic on the ground in front of me and turned to leave as well. If it weren’t for the church’s rule that as long as you haven’t made a major mistake, you can’t expel a servant of God, Dent probably would have kicked me out long ago.

Damn! No matter what world you’re in these days, reality is always so harsh! How long has it been since they were brawling for my sake? How long? And now I’ve suddenly become an unwanted child?

I picked up the magic notes old Dent left for me and looked at them out of boredom. That’s when I realized an important problem! I can’t read the writing of this world! These lines of squiggly symbols—how am I supposed to read them?

Just as I was worrying alone, my stomach started glowing again! These incomprehensible squiggles—after a short while, I could actually understand all these strange characters. In this world, mages really are a lot like those in fantasy novels: there are wind, water, fire, earth, and light—five types of elemental mages. There’s also a type of dark element, which I hear everyone can use. Of course, there are other types of mages, like necromancers, but they’re so rare they’re basically negligible. Most mages can train in two types: one as their main focus, and one as a secondary. It’s almost unheard of for someone to train in three types at once.