Upgraded Precepts

[Master Precept: Forgiveness—Forgive the faults of others, shielding them from the ravages of sin!]

[Precept Feedback: Each time you forgive someone, you will receive one Essence Bonus from them.]

[Current Bonus: Downs—Life Bonus (value: one).]

"So that's how it is. The Power of Faith could elevate the way a Precept was fulfilled to a certain extent, and it could also make the feedback more closely resemble one's essence?" Naimus carefully felt the Holy Nails within his body.

Originally, Forgiveness required him to personally forgive others, and it had to be genuine absolution. Now, however, it didn't need to be so strict.

At the same time, Forgiveness could originally only grant a Life Bonus, but now the bonuses it could provide had increased.

It was just that the only person he had forgiven so far was Downs, so he still only had the Life Bonus Downs provided.

"Still not enough. There isn't enough faith. I currently have only seven Holy Nails in my body, representing merely twenty-one years' worth of Power of Faith."

Dorsal Fin Village had over a hundred households and a population of roughly five hundred. Although everyone was ostensibly a believer, fewer than two hundred prayed daily.

In other words, over the course of a year, the entire village produced roughly two hundred years' worth of Power of Faith.

That Power of Faith flowed through the small shrines in every household and gathered upon the church's divine statue.

Most of it was then transmitted to the God of Precepts, while only a portion remained behind, gradually making the statue within the church more and more extraordinary.

Naimus opened his eyes and looked at the statue of the God of Precepts before him. Based on one Holy Nail per three years of Power of Faith, there were still roughly seven hundred years' worth of Power of Faith within the statue.

Factoring in losses, he could roughly estimate that the God of Precepts had most likely not drawn the faith from the statue for three years.

"That happens to match the time when I fell into the Abyss. It seems the God of Precepts was seriously injured that time." Naimus felt inwardly pleased.

"But that's only normal. After all, part of Their Divine Rank is with me."

Having formed a few guesses about faith, Naimus rose to his feet, his entire body cracking sharply.

With a slight circulation of the Breathing Technique, Naimus could sense that his Aura of Life had already dimmed.

The Aura of Life was the reflection of the value a person possessed.

Squeezing the aura dry extracted the value contained within it. From then on, the Aura of Life would only serve to sustain life.

Its dimness meant that Nigel's body probably had only two or three years left to live.

Its potential had also been exhausted. Unless a Divine Miracle occurred, it would never again have a chance to become a Steel Breed.

The Secret Breathing Technique had also failed. It could no longer directly draw upon the aura to gain a temporary buff capable of harming Demons.

Of course, Naimus no longer needed that temporary buff with his current value.

After his value broke through the Black Stone Breed's limit and reached thirteen, Naimus had not become a Steel Breed, but he had gained extraordinary traits as a result.

Unlike the Immortality trait that granted the body extraordinary characteristics after a Lesser Demon possessed someone,

Naimus now possessed two extraordinary traits.

One was called—Low-Tier Rule-Breaking.

It was essentially the temporary buff granted by the Secret Breathing Technique, the trait that could directly injure Demons possessing Immortality. It had merely become permanent now.

The other was called—Gift of Forgiveness.

This was the trait Naimus had gained by becoming a Paladin of Precepts through the Precept of Forgiveness. Its effect was that one who forgave others would also receive Forgiveness themselves. He could ignore damage with a value no greater than ten, reduce damage above ten to a certain extent, and mitigate negative conditions such as mental pressure and curses!

These two extraordinary traits were closely connected to the Holy Nails within Naimus's body. As long as the Holy Nails had not dispersed, the traits would remain.

Naimus roughly assessed his condition and confirmed one thing: with these two traits, he could fight even a Steel Breed using a Paladin's methods.

That was the strength of a Paladin of Precepts. A Paladin limited by a bottleneck could directly break through the limit of their value and gain corresponding extraordinary traits, greatly increasing their strength.

The Church of Precepts had become one of the foremost churches on the Material Plane for good reason.

"All right, you've gotten what you wanted. I just hope you don't go before me." The Old Priest looked at Naimus, a trace of sighing passing through his eyes before he turned and walked toward the confession area.

Naimus watched the other's aged figure, but what he considered was the likelihood of successfully taking him down if he launched a surprise attack now.

In the end, however, Naimus abandoned the thought. He shouldn't fight the other man on his home ground.

A priest's combat power within a church would be greatly enhanced, mainly because Holy Light could draw upon the Power of Faith to a certain degree and become stronger.

At the same time, when a church was built, there was a high chance that some holy relics had been buried within it. Those relics could also unleash immense power when necessary.

On the other hand, Naimus was also deeply interested in the secret the Old Priest had buried.

Nigel had been assigned to this little village because he had fallen out with his family and exposed some of their ugly deeds.

Then what about the Old Priest?

A Steel Breed had already surpassed over eighty percent of the world's priests.

Why would someone like that serve as a resident priest in a small village?

This was no longer a matter of underusing talent. It was a serious waste.

In an era of instability, the problems a Steel Breed priest could solve were enough to allow tens of thousands of people, or even more, to live in stability.

"He came to this village before Nigel, had no name, and took care of Nigel to some extent." Naimus searched through Nigel's memories, trying to find more information about the Old Priest.

For example, Nigel should have lived in the church's resting quarters according to the rules, yet he instead lived in a house provided by Otto, the village chief.

The Old Priest would also occasionally have heart-to-heart talks with Nigel, offering him comfort and encouragement.

Other than that, there was no further information.

There was even less than what the man had revealed today.

According to Naimus's original plan, today was merely about "lifting the roof."

Only after several rounds of back-and-forth with the Old Priest would he move on to the "opening a window" stage.

For instance, changing from a Paladin of Precepts who had every ounce of potential awakened by Holy Nails driven throughout his body to a Precept Receiver with only one Holy Nail driven into him.

However, after the Old Priest asked about his origins in the Dartmenly Family and then casually spoke of letting go, Naimus's plan became more aggressive.

He resolutely decided that he would receive the full precepts today.

And the Old Priest had actually agreed, displaying an attitude throughout the entire process as though he owed Nigel something.

"Interesting. It seems I'll need to investigate the Old Priest through other channels." Naimus keenly sensed that the Old Priest's existence might point to some hidden secret.

And that secret was very likely connected to the Dartmenly Family, or perhaps even the Church of Precepts!

Thank you for following along. If there are any students taking the college entrance exams, good luck!