Abel was heading back to the Rogue’s Encampment. He was preparing to make equipment to upgrade his team. Now that he had the runes, he needed to think about what sort of runes to craft to maximize his combat capabilities.

First of all, he needed his own equipment. It had to be equipped to boost all his classes. After that, he would need to satisfy the equipment Bruce was wearing. Since Bruce was a mad knight, an increase to his spiritual qi light ring would benefit the team.

The next step was to revive the legendary sacred knight corpse inside his personal storage box. If Abel could do it, he would really have to make a set of armor that was designated for sacred knights. He could have the runes made for Bruce replicated for this.

Back to himself. He was not thinking about changing his outfit because right now, the dark quality “snake magician’s skin” was the most fitting robe for him. Of course, there was the “mystic” rune that required a “30# ber” and “31# jah.” He also had a knowledge rune for his hat, which had the amazing all-class boost he was after. He needed more than that, though. From his impression, he could remember only the Dilerim, which could increase a total of two points to all class skills.

Dilerim

Helmet

1% chance to cast a level 50 Dilerim when hit

6% chance to cast a level 14 mind explosion when hit

14% chance of casting a level 13 terror when hit

11% chance of casting a level 18 mayhem when an enemy was hit

2 all skills

10 vitality

50% receive extra money

25% increase the chance of magic equipment appearing

Rank 17 absorption (60 times)

This rune had an extraordinary function. Once the attack was made, there was a 1% chance to transform itself into a Stygian doll. Once a Stygian doll was transformed, the moving speed and attack speed would increase by a whole lot so that only regular attacks could be performed.

The Stygian doll wasn’t what bothered Abel the most. Again, he was more concerned about how to get the runes that he couldn’t craft. For now, he thought that the rune “Delirium” was best put to use somewhere safe. He could get Bruce to use it as well. That way, it could use all kinds of special effects in combat. Some of the special ones included “mind explosion,” “terror,” and “mayhem.” These were all for targeting the mind, which could be extraordinarily helpful in close-range combat.

Think about it. If the opponent were frozen still after being hit by a mind explosion, there would be no defense. Bruce would be so much more versatile with it. As for Abel, what he needed the most would have to be 2 level for all his classes. With an increase like this, his overall combat ability would increase even if he was in his giant dragon form.

Now, with so many runes, he could go ahead and craft the Delirium. He was making one in advance, but he could more generous than that. After that, he figured that he make a new sword. He was holding a “spirit” longsword right now, and the one that he wanted was the oak tree’s heart.

Oak heart

3 level all skills

40% quick spell casting

75% damage against demons

100 accuracy against demons

3-14 ice damage, effect lasts for 3 seconds

7% mana steal for every hit

10 agility

20 automatic life recovery

Increase mana maximum threshold by 15%

All resistance 40

Level 4 wise oak (25 times)

Level 14 crow (60 times)

50% damage to undead creatures

This would have to be the strongest single-arm weapon a wizard could have. It had almost all the requirements Abel was looking for. There was a 3 level for all skills, 40% quick spell cast, 15% increase for maximum spell threshold. It was not a lot, but it was a lot for him at his current stage.

There was also a 40 point for all resistance. Although that was only 5 points more than his previous sword, this difference would still be crucial when the time was there. So far, it was just the two of these runes, so he figured that he might as well go for the slightly before one.

Next, he looked at Bruce. It was now time to change to new equipment. Firstly, it would be the armor. He changed into two sets. One was a “theory” armor for increased skill level.

Theory Armor

100% chance to cast a level 5 holy light bomb when attacking

2 to all sacred knight skills

100-150 life

50% resistance to undead

30 fire resistance

5% poison resistance

15% reduced durability

As ordinary as this piece was, it had the 2 increase for all sacred knight abilities was exactly what Abel wanted. He also wanted to make armor to increase his attack power, the “c.

Sturdy Armour

20% chance to cast a level 15 freezing armor when hit

25% quick spell casting

300% damage

200% defensive capability

99-148 life

15 defense

7 automatic life force recovery

5% maximum lightning resistance

Reduce physical damage by 7

30 for defense

12% convert damage to mana

1 brightness

While some of the required runes would have to be synthesized, the product seemed worth more than the cost. Yes, a total of 27 25# gul would be needed to make one 28# lo. The thing was that just one piece could increase his total damage by 300%. If he wasn’t going to save up his runes, he might create a “sturdy” rune for his longsword.

For the rest, he created twelve more “convert,” which was meant to boost his wizard skills by 2 points. He created so many of these because he was equipping “Delirium” and “oak heart” so both his “skeleton resurrection” and “resurrecting skeleton wizards” could reach level 31. This way, he could also boost the number of his spiritual guardian knights and spiritual guardian wizards by twelve.

Abel didn’t use any more runes. 508 seemed like a lot of runes, but these were actually very few. This was where an idea came to him. He would go ahead and kill all the hell creatures near the mana gathering fort. Once he obtained the world stone fragment of this area and became its guardian, he could re-activate the inferno furnace for more resources.

With that in mind, he had more motivation. After renewing the combat team, he readied himself to head over to the River of Fire.

Days continued to pass. Within the Nation of God, more and more religious workers became Abel’s own spokespeople. These people used to only work in small towns with an audience of about 2000 to 5000 each, but after slow and steady work, he managed to get about 10000 of them to the towns within the Nation of God. That was not a lot of towns compared to the total population within the nation of God, but what he was doing was clearly shaking the foundation of the Nation of God.

The Nation of God could always use its devoted worshippers to fight against the central continent. Due to the daily prayers of its citizens, the guardian wings were supplied with worship power so that the entire nation could be protected. A lot of faith was required, the same way that the Howling Castle required help from the Wizard Union constantly. The difficult part was that the Nation of God required new religious workers. Although the guardian wings would have to do these themselves, it was still quite costly.

The Saint would sometimes take out some worship powers for opening a portal or connecting a long-distance teleportation circle. He might also treat someone who was wounded. The demon from beyond might need it, which was the most important bit to expanding worship power. Spirits and divinities recovered their energy through sleeping, but worship power would always be needed for true healing. In fact, the demon from beyond had almost always drained worship power from the Nation of God. This was why the Saint was hesitant to use even a bit to cure Knight Ando’s finger.

Just a few months ago, the Saint used worship power on Knight Ando to break through the defense of the Doomsday Defence Wall. After that, getting him to the Central Continent into the Haden Mountain Range expended about ten years’ worth of divine power. Worse yet, the Saint just discovered that the nation’s worship power was on a decrease.

The Nation of God was like a fine, intricate machine that was constantly overloaded. Apart from some captives from the central continent, almost the same amount of worship power was expended every day. Recently, the supply got lower, but Mr. Saint just had too many things to worry about after Knight Ando’s death. It took him two days to find the motivation to actually look into this loss.

As absolutely crucial as Knight Ando’s death was to the balance between the Nation of God and the central continent, as long as the guardian wings remained, there wouldn’t be any problem with the safety of the Nation of God. It was quite different for worship power. If the worshiper power were reduced, the Nation of God’s safety would be at stake. Both the guardian wings and the demon from beyond would be in danger.

To address this issue, the Saint called Knight Cabel over. Since Knight Cabel hadn’t been managing a lot of this kind of problem, the eighteen temples were left to the management of the religious workers until something major happened.

Knight Cabel bowed after arriving at the temple hall, “Cabel is here to serve you, Master Saint.”

He nodded his head, “I’ve something to ask you, Cabel.”

Knight Cabel noticed how many things were happening over at the Nation of God. There had been a great loss of the number of sacred knights. Even some legendary knights and mad knights were dead.

Knight Cabel lowered his body, “Yes, Master Saint.”

Mr. Saint enquired, “How have the temples been lately, Cabel?”

Knight Cabel reported, “Over the past few years, the number of preachers killed has risen to 65. However, 86 new ones came to be.”

He knew these statistics well to heart, given how bizarre this all was. He’s sent quite a few of his own sacred knights, but he never managed to find any schemes or anything artificial. It seemed to have just happened.

Mr. Saint couldn’t help but ask, “What do you mean? 65 killed?”

The temple had been running steadily for a thousand years. The Saint always let it run on itself because, well, nothing out of place really happened.

Knight Cabel explained, “There were two accidents this time, Master Saint. One had to do with a captive we transported from outside the borders. He was secretly an assassin, and his consciousness came back when we tried to do a brainwashing program on him. He slaghtered 20 of the lives that were lost.”

Mr. Saint was enraged, “How can you not have this fully investigated? If he could break through the brainwashing program, his power of Will must be very easily identified!”

Knight Cabel explained, “The related staff has been punished, Master Saint. After an investigation we conducted, we concluded that the incident was an accident.”

The Saint tried to keep his patience, “What about the other case.”

Knight Cabel reported again, “The other had to do with a law enforcer. He was resentful for not being able to become a sacred knight, so he used the teleportation circle to kill 45 preachers.”

The Saint did not think this should happen at all, “So you’re telling me that followers would kill their pastors? What’s your excuse for this one?”

Knight Cabel lowered himself, “We’ve looked through everything we could think of, Master Saint. We couldn’t discover any connection between the two. If possible, we would like the great spirit to explain it to us.”

Mr. Saint couldn’t help but squint his eyes. He knew that this was the best method. While he didn’t think that he could get an answer from the spirit about the assassin, he was sure that there was a lot he could ask about the law enforcer. The assassin was never a true follower, to begin with, but the law enforcer was born in the Nation of God. His soul must’ve returned to the guardian wings even after his death.