Our Living Saint's First Request After Awakening Was a Mass Update Upon Release [650]

Our Living Saint's First Request After Awakening Was a Mass Update Upon Release [6/50]

(Extra chapter for the brothers of Frostfang's Claw [6/10])

The battle ended quickly. The process was far more "relaxed" than the brutal slaughter Yrel had imagined.

After Commodore Dick charged into the battlefield with his "new accessory" and took thirteen heads in ten seconds with a swing of his blade, the nature of this Orc ambush changed.

The hunters became the prey in an instant, and the cold-blooded Commodore clearly had no intention of letting a single one escape. In other words, the Orcs now had to fight for their lives.

"Warriors! Surround them! Cut off their escape routes! We have suffered casualties, so I order you—show no mercy!"

The Commodore issued this savage, merciless command in elegant ancient Eredar. The Vindicators and Rangers under siege did not react at first, but someone soon cried out, "The great Vigilant has returned!"

Once they realized who had given the order, the besieged Draenei elites immediately had their morale soar.

As their saint unleashed a bloody storm of "peerless slaughter" among the Orcs with an exaggeratedly fierce fighting stance, these well-trained warriors immediately spread out according to his command.

These idiot Orcs had indeed chosen an excellent ambush site. Good terrain meant it was difficult for the ambushed enemy to escape, but now the trapped side had changed. That also meant the Orcs would find it difficult to break out of this battlefield that was rapidly becoming a "Holy Light hell."

Generally speaking, Vindicators lacked wide-area offensive methods. They were melee fighters, after all, unlike mages, who could manipulate arcane magic to cast large-scale restraints and strikes.

But Dick was clearly no ordinary man. Leaving aside his signature Divine Storm, and the wide-area destructive power of his Halo Cascade, now replaced by Holy Nova, just the two area-of-effect attacks carried by the Kazzak's Grudge staff in his hand—though it was in a [Damaged] state and still usable—were enough to give these Orcs hell.

The Vigilant had forged this staff to make up for his lack of large-scale destructive power, so both of its effects were focused on area attacks.

Best of all, it released demonic power through melee kills.

Every enemy he stabbed to death inflicted a wide-range elemental curse. Killing ten would call down a rain of Hellfire. And after Kazzak's second execution, a trace of the Doom Lord's soul had been Drained and imprisoned, directly upgrading the staff's quality and increasing its destructive power as well.

What fell from the sky now was no longer a rain of Hellfire, but "Meteor."

Surrounded by Dick alone with their escape routes sealed, the Orcs had no choice but to make a desperate stand against the "Light Butcher." Yet they quickly learned just how much weight that nickname bestowed by demons truly carried.

When the last Orc warlock had his legs cut off by Dick's instant Blade of Justice and screamed as he crawled across the ground, what he saw had become a true hell.

The vicious felhounds they had summoned did not even dare approach the Draenei saint, whose body burned with white holy flames. The demons, who should have been savage, now howled in panic and fled back into the Twisting Nether as though they had encountered a natural predator.

Was that something warlocks were supposed to witness?

The Orc warlock suffered a complete mental collapse on the spot, then Yrel rushed forward screaming and chopped off his head with her axe.

The young recruit had been extremely nervous, but after claiming that head, she finally breathed a sigh of relief. At the very end of the battle, she had finally managed a decent performance. Seriously, no one knew how difficult it was to snatch even two kills from the frenzied Vigilant Saint.

"What are you doing? The battle isn't over, so why are you wearing that stupid grin!"

A harsh voice sounded behind Yrel as the Vigilant rebuked her.

"You killed the warlock but failed to destroy his Soulstone! Do you intend to spare a demon's lackey like him? Smash that purple stone in his arms and completely eliminate this demon worshipper's soul!

"Now!"

Yrel, having been scolded, did not dare delay. She immediately bent down and found the sinister Soulstone in the Orc warlock's robes. With a trace of grievance, she raised her battle axe and smashed it to pieces. Only when the warlock's soul dispersed with a scream did Yrel finally let out a breath and drop onto the ground.

This mistake was not really her fault.

Today was not only her first time encountering a warlock; it was even her first time stepping onto a battlefield.

She thought she had already done quite well.

But the Vigilant Saint's standards for a "recruit" were clearly very different from Yrel's understanding of what a "recruit" was.

"Greetings to you, mighty Vigilant, radiant Saint."

The blood-covered Vindicator captain ran over excitedly to pay her respects to Dick, but before she could finish that long list of exaggerated titles, he cut her off with a wave of his hand.

He seemed to have returned to the Thirty-Day Battle of Argus. Cloaked in a cold, ruthless presence, he said in a low voice, "Gather these corpses. Finish off anyone still alive. Cut off their heads and pile them together! I know you lost a brother. We have lost a precious clan member. This death must be remembered!

"Use the heads of these thugs to see our comrade off."

"Ah?"

The Vindicator captain was utterly baffled by the order.

This...

Building a tower of skulls after victory seemed a little too brutal, did it not?

Especially for Holy Light Believers, this...

"Carry out the order, soldier!"

Dick raised his voice. "I don't know how you handle enemies in this era, but this was how we did it on the battlefields of Argus. We believed it allowed the spirits of our fallen comrades to enter the domain of the Holy Light. It is both remembrance and deterrence!

"Listen to me, child. If such a brutal tower of skulls can frighten Even If only one Orc—if it can make him abandon his evil intentions out of fear when he later thinks of harming our people—then it is worthwhile.

"Go. Carry out the order!

"And send the Ranger in your unit over. I have questions for her."

"Yes, Vigilant!"

After thinking it over, the Vindicator captain felt that the saint had a point.

Leaving the Orc corpses here would only pollute the area and might even cause a plague. It was better to gather them and burn them all. Building a skull tower sounded brutal, but it truly was practical as a deterrent.

More importantly, the Orcs' recent behavior had been very abnormal.

Whatever the higher-ups thought, as a frontline commander, she felt they really should respond to Orc provocations with a tougher stance.

Soon, as Dick sat on a rock considering how to repair his combat staff, the Ranger with the injured leg limped over. She revered the Vigilant as well and was about to present the ancient saint with her own list of titles, only for Dick to cut her off with a wave.

The Vigilant looked at the familiar emblem on the Ranger's armor. With a trace of hesitation and unease, he softly asked, "Neri. Is she well?"

"You mean Archbishop Neri?"

The Ranger froze in shock for several seconds.

Then she began screaming inwardly. Holy shit, holy shit! That trashy romance story about the Vigilant and the Archbishop that's been circulating among the common folk is actually true? The Vigilant's first question after returning to life is whether Archbishop Neri is safe!

Holy shit! This is so sweet I need insulin.

Twenty thousand years! He was unconscious for twenty thousand years, and he still couldn't forget her! If this isn't love, I'll swallow all three jeweled hand crossbows I've got hidden on me!

Though she had just gone through a brutal battle, the Ranger's eyes instantly blazed with gossip. After hesitating, she said softly, "Archbishop Neri should still be holding the Ranger enclave in Elodor. It is the Rangers' training ground and headquarters, as well as the site of the Sha'tar Altar, the Holy Land of the Aldor priests.

"The Orcs previously harassed and attacked the area, but the Archbishop led people to drive them back.

"After that, we received orders to come guard the holy coffin.

"Oh, right. When the Orcs launched their probing attack against us, it was Archbishop Neri who proposed at the bishops' council that your holy coffin be immediately moved to the safer Karabor Temple.

"I mean, our Archbishop cares very much about you too."

"Hm?"

Dick noticed the Ranger's strange tone. With a stern expression, he said, "What are you implying, soldier? You might as well make yourself clearer.

"It is not what you think. Neri and I are old friends who could entrust our lives to one another. After I learned through interrogating servants of the Shadow Council that a traitor had emerged among our people, I had to immediately find the most trustworthy person in this era, which is so unfamiliar to me."

"What?"

The Ranger was shocked again. She cried out, "You mean this ambush was not an Orc whim, but that a Draenei leaked information to them? Who was it? How dare they!"

"We are proud Eredar. Ah, forget it. Call yourselves whatever you wish."

Dick shook his head, unconcerned with such minor details. Stroking his chin, he said seriously, "We cannot yet determine which class the traitor came from, but they should hold a high position among our people. So you must keep this secret. Right now, I trust only Velen, Hutton, Jaide, and Neri!

"Everyone else is a suspect in my eyes.

"Can you contact Neri?"

"My Auchenai communication stone was destroyed in the battle just now, but Ambori Village should have a fixed communication device."

The Ranger cautiously glanced at her Vindicator comrades behind her and said softly, "I sent out a signal before the ambush began. Given the distance between here and Ambori Village, the Vindicators and priests stationed there should already be on their way. But there has been no sign of them.

"Therefore, I suspect Ambori Village may also have come under attack. That village is too close to the Shadowmoon Clan fortress. If this is a coordinated operation, then Ambori Village's current situation should be quite dire."

"Hm."

Dick nodded, agreeing with her assessment, then asked, "Can you still fight?"

"Of course, Saint!"

The Ranger slapped her chest and declared loudly, "We are all elite warriors! We have received rigorous training, and with your Divine Might descending upon us, we have preserved enough strength to return to battle at any time."

"Uh..."

Dick gave the confident Ranger a strange look and said, "Go gather our people. Have them finish clearing the battlefield quickly, then depart with me to reinforce Ambori Village!"

"Yes, sir."

The Ranger turned and left. Just then, Yrel approached the saint with her axe over her shoulder and heard him mutter under his breath, "So has Neri's generation lowered the threshold for selecting elites this much? These self-proclaimed 'elites' would have struggled to reach even recruit standards in the War of Argus.

"The Draenei's martial spirit has fallen so low. No wonder the Orcs beat them this badly."

Those words left Yrel even more despairing about her future as a warrior.

Good grief! Even elite Vindicators don't meet your standards. When will a rookie like me ever catch your eye?

"Ambori Village has been attacked, child."

Dick rose while gripping his broken combat staff and told Yrel, "You need to prepare to return with us and provide reinforcements."

"Oh no, Samara!"

Yrel jolted and turned to run, only for Dick to press a hand down on her shoulder. In an instant, he lifted her off the ground, her feet kicking wildly in the air. The sight was absurd.

"Calm down! You can't accomplish anything by going back alone!"

Dick scolded her. "Go to the fallen Vindicator, put on his armor, and bring his weapon over. I need you to maintain your combat strength. I can defeat those Orcs, but you must handle the rescue of the civilians."

"But my sister..."

"If you can't calm down, then she really is Doomed. At a time like this, you must trust in the strength of the group. Go put on the armor. We leave shortly. You will obey the Vindicator captain's orders, and you are not to leave the formation without permission.

"The first rule for recruits is to obey orders and follow command!"

Dick set Yrel back on the ground and told the nervous girl, "Perhaps you can try calling upon the Holy Light here to forge your Doctrine, truly setting foot upon the path of a Vindicator. That way, you can receive the Holy Light's blessing in battle, which will help you better find and protect your sister."

"But... but I never passed the Vindicator trials. I only trained with Officer Tenum in the village for a while. Will the Holy Light really answer me?"

Yrel said anxiously, "And I know that forging a Doctrine requires at least years of ascetic training and insight. According to the orders of Bishop Akama, the current leader of the Vindicator order, it is dangerous for recruits to forge a Doctrine at will before they fully understand the Vindicator Manual."

"Who said that?"

Dick glared. "Does something like this require ascetic training and insight? As long as your will to protect, save, or punish is firm enough, and as long as you are willing to swear an oath to the Holy Light to uphold discipline for life, can't you forge a Doctrine?

"What exactly happened to your inheritance over these years?!

"Why have you added so much meaningless ceremony to such a basic training subject?

"The Holy Light does not need you to spend years reciting scripture and praying to It. With that time, you would do better to kill a few more enemies of the Holy Light. That would please It far more.

"So which idiot set down all these cumbersome rules?"

Faced with Dick's angry questioning, Yrel lowered her head awkwardly. As her toes dug into the ground, she said quietly, "Uh... the initial reforms of the Vindicator order were advanced by Archbishop Akama. Um... I heard he was one of your followers, and he often said he had received enlightenment from the Holy Light through your stories.

"He believed Vindicators had to learn from you and, in addition to hard training, further deconstruct and comprehend the Holy Light. That could effectively strengthen a Vindicator's affinity with the Holy Light and improve combat power."

"...?"

Dick stared at Yrel in stunned disbelief. "So Recruit Akama used my name to push this impractical reform? Fine, he used to be a priest. I can understand his devout faith, but this idiot clearly tried too hard!"

"Ah, you swore! That violates the Vindicator Manual."

"Shut up! The Holy Light hasn't reprimanded me for using foul language, so don't fuss over trivial details. Go put on the armor and get ready. I will personally guide you in forging your Holy Light Doctrine."

"Okay."

Yrel tossed aside the Orc battle axe, flicked her little tail, and ran off to collect the fallen Vindicator's remains.

Dick sat on the rock and watched the nearby Vindicators carry out his orders. The Orc corpses were dragged into a pile and set ablaze, while their heads were stacked together into a crooked tower of skulls.

Dick could only shake his head at the sight.

What a pity. The traditional craft of piling demon heads into victory mounds on Argus wasn't passed down.

Taking the opportunity, he touched his forehead and summoned his Character Card to examine his attributes carefully:

Name: Diakum Zastinus

Title: Advanced Polluter Bane, Hand of Argus

Honorary Title: Vigilant

Race: Eredar

Special Race: Scion of the Holy Light · Mythical Race Variant (Transforming)

Life Rank: Legendary · Mid-Rank

Status: Energy Overload (An immense accumulation of holy power has become congested, posing a severe risk of losing control. Release it as soon as possible!)

Class: Vindicator Commodore / High Priest / None

Legendary Class: Harbinger of the Sun

Power Affiliation: Holy Light Force

Force Doctrine: Hand of Fate

Racial Talents:

Energy Affinity, Heroic Aura, Advanced Shadow Resistance.

Lura's Legacy: Because the Naaru race leans toward the caster archetype, your Intelligence, Spirit, Stamina, Holy Light Affinity, Energy Control, and other attributes have been raised to the "Legendary—Superior" level.

Radiant Body: Inherit 70% of Naaru Lura's maximum Radiant Energy Pool and holy power capacity.

Divine Adjudicator: Inherit the racial traits of the Naaru. Upon actively activating this talent, carry out a large-scale "Holy Power Bombardment" on a designated target area. This talent has no cooldown until your personal Radiant Energy Pool is depleted.

Personal Talents:

Vindicator Tactics, Defender, Spellbreaker, Elder Intimidation, Holy Light Echo, Art of War, Zealous Devotion, Lightforged Armaments, Light Unsheathed.

New Personal Talents:

Legendary Energy Resistance: The destructive power of all energy attacks against you is reduced by 33%. Legendary/mythical weapons ignore this resistance.

Legendary Blade Resistance: The destructive power of all physical attacks against you is reduced by 33%. Legendary/mythical weapons ignore this resistance.

Notice!

This talent is granted by mythical creature traits. Once you obtain complete mythical creature traits, damage immunity will increase to 66%. Mythical weapons ignore this resistance.

Legendary Talents:

Ashbringer, Lightforged Knight.

New Legendary Talent [Forge Sword into Light]:

The fusion of the Naaru's remains with the individual raises the individual's Radiant Energy recovery rate to the Legendary—Superior level, allows the individual's Radiant Energy Pool to carry an additional 300% surplus holy power after reaching maximum capacity, and grants the ability to automatically "burn holy power" for additional combat enhancement.

Current Radiant Energy Pool reserves: Unable to calculate (an enormous surplus of holy power; release it as soon as possible!).

Maximum temporary Strength enhancement after fully igniting current holy power: Demigod—Critical Threshold

Warning!

Your Radiant Energy Pool is in a massively overloaded state. Consume and release the excess holy power as soon as possible, or uncontrollable negative effects may occur, including energy loss of control and excessive sanctification.

New Legendary Talent [Brilliant Star]:

Brilliant Star, one of the Ata'mal Crystal relics, has completed "crystalline symbiosis" with the individual's heart. It has replaced the individual's cardiac organ in sustaining bodily existence.

This Holy Light treasure grants special enhancement, mutating the individual's Holy Light form. A special sacred flame with greater destructive and healing power will replace the individual's original Holy Light.

Brilliant Star grants the individual the special passive ability [Most Holy Slash]. This ability must be charged before activation. Once activated, all your attacks will carry a sacred burst, dealing massive light-scorch damage to enemies.

This destructive effect can stack through charging, but charging for too long may damage your weapon.

Notice!

After releasing energy multiple times in a short period, Brilliant Star will enter "Overload," greatly increasing your Radiant Energy recovery rate and the destructive power of Holy Light spells for a short time while releasing immense light and heat.

However, repeated overloads will place you in the negative state "Weak Heartbeat."

The immense light and heat released during Brilliant Star's overload may damage your armor.

Important Warning!

You are currently undergoing a "racial conversion" triggered by special circumstances. Your Eredar bloodline has come into a certain degree of conflict with your Naaru bloodline.

Once your holy power burning exceeds the "safety limit," you will temporarily enter the "Sanctified" state. In this state, you will directly touch upon the true essence of primordial Holy Light, greatly enhancing your control over Holy Light power, strengthening the effects of your skills, and giving your Holy Light flashier visual effects.

However, in this state, your mortal emotions and thoughts will gradually fade away, while the "divinity" from the Naaru will gradually overtake your mind.

Before the power of your mortal bloodline is further enhanced (Demigod), do not maintain the "Sanctified" state for prolonged periods, lest the stripping away of your emotions cause irreversible damage to your personality.

Overall Evaluation:

That's more like it!

Character Evaluation:

[Why the hell did you use a Naaru as your "enhancement mat," kid? There are plenty of all sorts of strange mythical creatures in the physical universe. Naaru aren't outstanding in any respect!

You'd have been better off with guardian dragons!

Those red and green horned babes are damn fine. If I were you, I'd use them as my enhancement mats. You might even get yourself two obedient little hot weapons.

Tsk, tsk. But it was your own choice, so I can't really say much.

But let me remind you of something, kid.

Picking up one Naaru corpse isn't enough if you want to turn yourself into a true mythical race.

What I mean is, find a few more Naaru, kill them, then happily sneak bites of their corpses until you become an even stronger and more badass mythical creature.

But don't get too full of yourself.

They're only mythical creatures. I eat at least ninety-nine of them for breakfast every day to whet my appetite. In the eyes of the real overlords of the physical universe, so-called mythical creatures are merely food that tastes a little better.

So you've still got a long way to go, kid!]

"You feel bad if you don't mock me every day, right?"

Dick was truly sick of this bastard who spouted filthy nonsense all day long. He hadn't deliberately gone looking for a Naaru corpse, okay? It was just that Lura's remains happened to be at the site where he dueled Sarkir.

He held immense respect for Lura, the guardian Naaru who had sacrificed herself to save so many people. If possible, he would not have wanted to inherit Lura's power in such a sorrowful way.

But no matter what, the guardian Naaru who had died on Argus had offered up everything she had left for the Eredar's escape. That sacrifice was worth Dick remembering forever. And since he had inherited Lura's power, he would certainly carry Lura's doctrine through to the end!

He still did not know how far the Orcs' offensive against the Eredar—no, against the Draenei—had progressed. But now that he was awake, those idiot Orcs could forget about pulling off the kind of outrageous genocide recorded in the True History of the Dark Portal.

If they still dared to come at him, Dick truly would not mind leading the Hand of Argus veterans from back then and personally strangling every Green Skin Orc on Draenor to death.

They had drunk demon blood, so they were no longer people!

And if they were no longer people, why bother talking about humanity or morality?

Just as when facing demons, all he had to do was purify them!

But before starting that purification, Dick still had much information to gather. For example, he desperately wanted to know what had happened to the other Eredar clans during the twenty thousand years he had slept.

Whether the Army of the Light that had been formed was as useless as it had been in the official history.

And most importantly, what changes had occurred to Dick's sworn enemy, the Burning Legion.

He was certain that his battle on Argus had absolutely shaken fate! This butterfly had already flapped its wings twenty thousand years ago, and twenty thousand years was enough for a series of "butterfly effects" to spread across the sea of stars.

"Commodore, I brought the weapons of the fallen."

Yrel's voice interrupted Dick's thoughts. He looked up to see the girl, clad in a set of slightly ill-fitting Vindicator armor, setting various weapons down before him.

Dick was not picky. He casually picked up a two-handed warhammer and swung it one-handed in his grip, then sighed.

"Too light. Feels like it'll snap if I put any force into it, but it'll do."

"..."

Yrel offered no comment.

But she had already numbly adapted to all of Vigilant's inhuman displays, using a very simple line of reasoning to convince herself.

He was a legendary Saint!

So there was no reason to be surprised when he casually surpassed mortal limits, right?

"Then, Hand of Argus recruit Yrel, are you ready to forge your own doctrine?"

Dick rose to his feet and slung the warhammer across his back. He extended a hand like a priest, and Yrel immediately dropped to one knee, allowing Dick's warm palm to rest against her forehead.

However, Dick's question stunned her.

She stammered, "The Hand of Argus? No, Saint, I'm completely unqualified to join that legendary army made entirely of veterans who have fought for ten thousand years! I heard they don't accept children like us who were born outside Argus, either."

"Stupid dogmatism!"

Dick snorted disdainfully.

"The Hand of Argus is an army I founded. I decide how it operates. If I say you can join, then you can join!

"We do indeed need to replenish our ranks with some recruits. But I must tell you in advance, child, that a Hand of Argus recruit must kill at least thirty demons in a single battle before being accepted by the other brothers in battle and sisters in faith.

"I don't want to destroy that fine tradition, so this will be your first trial!"

"Thirty? Um, if they can be accumulated, then that's not too bad."

"No, they can't be accumulated! You must meet that standard in a single battle. If you fail, it resets to zero and you start over."

"Huh? But there aren't any demons on Draenor!"

"Don't worry. The Orcs have already surrendered to the Burning Legion, so soon enough there'll be so many demons here that you'll run into two felhounds hiding in a latrine pit, waiting to ambush you, just by going out to take a shit."

"With all due respect, that analogy is disgusting."

"Uh, that's just how us ancient Eredar talk. So, recruit Yrel, will you accept the Hand of Argus trial? And have you decided on the contents of your Holy Light Doctrine and Lightforged Oath?"

"I have, but will the Holy Light really answer me? I'm just a rookie who hasn't undergone strict training. I don't think the Holy Light would favor me that much."

"Don't worry, just say it. It should do me that favor."

"Huh?!"