The Disconnected Squad

What was that supposed to mean...?

Mo Tan sat on the ground, momentarily stunned. The increased attributes and talents in his character panel proved that everything that had happened before wasn't some hallucination or daydream. However, it seemed that the Dawn Goddess really had only wanted to find an "otherworlder" to chat with. None of what she had said to him had any practical meaning whatsoever, and it had been completely out of the blue...

He would think about it when he had time. Perhaps he might be more interested in these matters when he was in one of his other personalities, but for now, he would pass. There were plenty of better ways to live an easy life~

The old priest, who had occasionally been watching this way, hurried over as well. With concern, he asked Mo Tan, who had just gotten up from the ground, "Are you all right? If I didn't see it wrong just now... you were blessed by the goddess?"

Mo Tan paused briefly, but he immediately recalled the tangible-looking holy light that had been coiled around him when he had just regained consciousness. Judging from the other man's somewhat excited reaction, it was clear that this wasn't a normal occurrence. At the very least, it had to be a member-level visual effect...

Hmm, it seemed the Dawn Goddess thought highly of him after all.

"Bookworm."

"I don't know if what happened just now counts as a blessing." Mo Tan considered his words inwardly before answering, "I seemed to hear the goddess's voice, and then I felt much more clear-headed. My whole body felt pretty comfortable."

Describing the feeling of having both his Intelligence and Constitution increased by three points as "pretty comfortable" should be fine, right?

Sure enough, the old priest became excited at once. He immediately dragged Mo Tan to the prayer room behind the church and asked, his woolly beard trembling, "What did the goddess say to you?"

Had he gotten so excited that he had even started speaking in dialect...?

For some reason, Mo Tan suddenly thought of that Dog Girl whose "woof" seemed to have an accent~

Tsk tsk, what a huge difference!

"Uh, what did the goddess say to me..." Mo Tan suddenly blushed for some inexplicable reason. Then, he scratched his hair rather awkwardly. "It's a little difficult to talk about."

Clang!

Without a word, the old priest knelt on the mat beside him facing the idol, which was forever surrounded by a hazy layer of holy light. Trembling all over, he performed three bows and nine kowtows, then began muttering, "Goddess! Forgive me!", "I really didn't mean to!", "I wasn't thinking anything!", "Goddess, you're magnanimous, so please don't punish me with divine retribution or anything!", "My faith is pure and sincere!"

Mo Tan: "...!!!"

He suddenly felt that this old man was kind of adorable.

It took quite a while before the old priest finally stood up, his face pale. He looked up at the ceiling, confirmed that there seemed to be no sign of justice descending from the heavens, then turned to Mo Tan and pulled at the corners of his mouth. "Kid, try thinking things through before you speak next time..."

You were the one who came up with that bizarre interpretation! How was that my fault!?

That was what Mo Tan thought, but of course he didn't say it. He merely nodded solemnly, then spread his hands and said, "The goddess thinks I'm too weak. With my third-rate skills, I'd easily embarrass her while traveling through the jiang— I mean, while traveling across the continent."

Here it comes~

What Mo Tan had just said could indeed be considered truthful in a certain sense. The Dawn Goddess had said that he needed to temper his mind and body, which meant she wanted him to become stronger. And why did he need to become stronger? Naturally, because he wasn't strong enough yet. What did "not strong enough" mean? It meant he was weak!

So there was nothing wrong with what he had said!

Like most people, Mo Tan occasionally had a dark side. He would think of ways to scheme some benefits for himself...

"Too weak?" The old priest blinked twice, looking rather troubled. "As believers of the goddess, shouldn't the most important thing be to make ourselves steadfast and devout, while extending a helping hand to the suffering and the lost lambs? As for strength, shouldn't we gain enlightenment step by step...? Well..."

Mo Tan shrugged. "I don't know what the goddess was thinking either."

"Mm... mm..." The old priest nodded repeatedly. "The will of the gods isn't something we mortals can casually speculate about. Hmm, let me think."

He stood there pondering for quite a while. Then he walked to a cabinet in the corner of the prayer room and carefully took out a manuscript, which he handed to Mo Tan with great solemnity.

"This was left behind by my godfather." The old priest smiled. "When he was young, he was a powerful Discipline Priest. This manuscript records some of his insights into faith and divine arts. I'm rather lacking in talent in this area, so from now on, I'll entrust it to you for safekeeping. Perhaps this is also the goddess's will..."

Here it comes!

This was the setup! By some twist of fate, he was being taught an unmatched secret art by a white-bearded old man. The seemingly ordinary technique concealed the potential to slay gods and destroy demons. It was like an unorthodox boxing style that could kill anyone who stood in its way once mastered, or the Dugu Nine Swords that could break all the martial arts in the world. At this moment, Mo Tan's heart was racing, his hands were trembling, and he felt as if he had just swallowed a whole bag of fertilizer~!

A white-bearded old man! An ancient, rustic manuscript! The white-bearded old man's godfather, who might have been some worldly expert!

All the conditions were met!

He reached out and accepted it, then looked down...

Nevah? Fao's Manuscript

Special Item

Use: Learn Skill: Command? Shield; Activate/Complete Class Quest—Discipline Priest

Quest Requirements: Perform twenty critical heals 0/20, pray devoutly 0/20, cast Command? Shield on allied targets 0/30, Priest Level 2/15, Holy Light Knowledge Level 1/7

Reward: Gain the Discipline Priest class

Notes: A manuscript left behind by Nevah? Fao during his lifetime. Mr. Fao was an ordinary, kind, and unambitious man who had not escaped the lower pleasures of life. He accomplished neither great deeds nor great misdeeds in his lifetime... so there isn't much to say.

If there wasn't much to say, why did you say so much!? What the hell is wrong with you!?

Mo Tan roared inwardly. It seemed that Mr. Fao's utterly ordinary life had dealt him quite a blow...

However, setting aside his wildly unreliable... speculation from earlier, this item was actually pretty good. After all, players in Innocent World could have multiple classes. As a Priest by original class, if Mo Tan could gain another class of the same field but a different specialization, the benefits were obvious.

For the simplest example, if a player who primarily trained as a Warrior obtained the Mage class by chance, it would be difficult for him to learn many skills with high Intelligence requirements unless he painstakingly trained his mage abilities. But if he did that, his Strength would easily fail to keep up...

Therefore, during the early stages of the game, having more and more varied classes wasn't necessarily better. After all, not every bald man was Kratos, and not every elite player had mastered every specialization.

Besides, after some classes leveled up, they not only failed to increase attributes across the board, but might even deduct existing attribute points. After all, powerful mages generally didn't have very high Strength, while rangers who came and went without a trace were unlikely to be burly men...

Of course, we're talking about normal circumstances... normal circumstances...

There would always be unreasonable people in this world. No one could do anything about that~

Hmm, he had accidentally taken another long detour. Let's return to the previous topic.

Although completing this class quest in a short time was completely unrealistic given Mo Tan's current level and Holy Light Knowledge, it wasn't as though there were no immediate benefits. At the very least, he could learn one skill right away...

Command? Shield

Holy Light School Active Skill

Requirements: Holy Light Knowledge Level 1

Cost/Restriction: 20 Faith

Effect: Creates an absorption shield on the target that is unaffected by any attributes, absorbing a small amount of damage and reducing all damage it receives by 5%. Duration: 30 seconds. Cooldown: 30 seconds.

Notes: Go! Warrior, go take more damage for me! In the name of the goddess, charge forth and get beaten up!

Compared to the two support skills Mo Tan already knew, this damage-absorbing shield with a cooldown of only thirty seconds was clearly highly cost-effective.

"Thank you. I'll take good care of it." Mo Tan placed Fao's notes into his pack and said gratefully to the old priest, "If one day I can fully comprehend it, I'll return it to you then."

The old priest stroked his snow-white woolly beard and smiled. "The goddess guided you to pursue strength, and I happened to have a manuscript of divine arts left behind by my godfather. I suppose all of this was arranged by fate."

This was what was good about dealing with believers of the gods. No matter what happened, they could explain it with phrases like "the goddess's guidance" or "the arrangement of fate." They never took anything too seriously.

(PS: But please, by all means, don't get the idea of throwing your boyfriend or girlfriend into a church to live for a while. The author bears no responsibility for any extreme consequences caused by such behavior.)

The two continued praising the goddess for a while. Then Mo Tan received a string of messages from Shuangye. The gist was that if he was online, he should return to the base immediately. Something seemed to have gone wrong.

It was still early, and it wasn't yet time for Mo Tan's planned account change, so he hurriedly said goodbye to the old priest. After replying to Shuangye, he jogged back to the military camp as quickly as possible.

Before he reached the base, Mo Tan noticed that the atmosphere around him was somewhat tense. The autonomous army soldiers, who were usually few and far between, seemed to have suddenly increased in number, and everyone wore an unpleasant expression...

After hurrying along for a while, he soon saw all the members of Fenrir Squad standing not far away. Everyone had gathered around Ned, discussing something noisily. Shuangye stood a little farther away. When she saw Mo Tan, she immediately waved to him, then turned and said something to Ned.

"You finally made it." Ned strode over and nodded at Mo Tan. "Emergency mission. The Kindling Squad, which was assigned to patrol today, still hasn't returned to report. The border authorities have ordered every squad to conduct a search as quickly as possible. We're responsible for the area southwest of Rockpile City. Get ready to head out."

Yinna, who had followed him over, rolled her eyes and pouted as she muttered, "Who knows what kind of nerve those 'border' people have lost? A routine patrol was merely late, and they're making such a huge fuss..."

"Exactly." The Lizardfolk monk Salazar walked over while sliding his hands into his gauntlets. "Maybe they just went somewhere to drink and slack off. They're simply wasting my time."

Crab, on the other hand, looked rather eager. He hefted his seemingly heavy battle-axe and grinned. "It wouldn't be bad if we ran into some trouble. I could use the exercise!"

"Keep tempting fate..." Ned glared at him. "I'll loosen your muscles for you first."

Crab immediately backed down. He was pretty good at bickering with Salazar from time to time, but no one had ever seen him joke around with Ned. He seemed rather afraid of him.

"Crab and Salazar fought when they first arrived~" Yinna whispered into Mo Tan's ear. "The captain beat both of them up together, and those two troublemakers became obedient after that."

Mo Tan suddenly understood. So they had been thoroughly subdued through physical force...

"All right. Since Hei Fan is here, we won't delay any longer." Ned said solemnly, "I also think the border authorities' order is rather strange, but since we're taking their money and living on their land, we have to work when it's time to work. Let's go."

With that, the group left the city in a grand... scattered... leisurely procession.

Mo Tan noticed that at least three or four squads were heading roughly in the same direction as them. Even more squads were advancing west and south, respectively, making their movements seem highly purposeful.

"Looks like this emergency situation was within those 'border' people's expectations." Shuangye had somehow moved to Mo Tan's side. She spoke softly, "Their objective is far too obvious."

Mo Tan shrugged and tilted his head toward her. "What exactly happened?"

"It's what the captain just said." Shuangye pushed up her glasses and spread her hands. "I received the notice while I was wandering around the Mages' Guild, then immediately had you come over. It's fortunate you were online."

"Yeah. I've been pretty busy lately..."

The two chatted intermittently as the squad soon left Rockpile City and began exploring toward the northwest. Geographically speaking, this should have been the outermost edge of the Marshall Territory. Since it wasn't an official road and there was little commercial exchange with the territory beyond the border, the area was extremely desolate. They could barely see any travelers at all.

Of course, "searching" really just meant walking and chatting. No one believed that the squad had actually run into trouble. Even Ned had started yawning, apparently planning to stroll around once before returning to report.

But in situations like this, something usually happened right around then. For example...

"Help!!"

Bang!!!

Ned moved as swiftly as lightning and kicked Crab several meters away with a whip-like kick. He cursed furiously, "That mouth of yours deserves to be sewn shut! Everyone, stay alert! Prepare for rescue!!"

Whoosh!

A fist-sized fireball rose from Shuangye's palm. Immediately afterward, an oval halo appeared beside her.

When he turned around, Mo Tan had already cast a Fortitude Prayer on Ned. The radiance flickering at his fingertips illuminated the dim earth beneath the setting sun.

"Everyone, be careful."