Master the Abyss, starting from an apprentice priest.

Chapter 376 Thomas: Daddy (8k, huge burst of writing!)
Red Maple City, Forging Manor.

Before the evening dusk fell, Thomas the Tank Engine was back on board God's Journey.

It was in the villa estate, his own residence, that Thomas completed the process of "promotion".

Long before the Red Maple City defense battle, he had already upgraded his level to lv.10, triggering his [Promotion Mission].

It was a combat-oriented promotion task, and it required the sum of eight attribute values ​​to be greater than 65 points. Thomas happened to meet all of them at the same time after the Red Maple City Defense War ended.

In the "Promotion" phase, after Thomas gave the [Promotion Task] panel to confirm the completion of the instruction, his consciousness fell into darkness, leaving only a panel in front of him, prompting him to perform several subsequent operations.

The "promotion" process, including entering the "Sea of ​​Spirituality", consuming the "Bronze Key" to open the "Bronze Door", entering the "Bronze Hall" to touch the "Bronze Pillar", etc., are all operated on the panel.

Thomas did not personally experience the processes shown in the panel, but he could clearly feel that with the deepening of the "promotion" steps, the body of "Thomas the Tank Engine" would become stronger, and this feeling of becoming stronger reached its peak when he touched the "Bronze Pillar"!
【…】

[You obtain the extraordinary profession: Holy Light Priest (lv.1)]

[Level inheritance for lower-level occupation "apprentice priest"]

["Holy Light Priest" level increased to lv.10, lost the profession "Apprentice Priest"]

[Obtain the "Holy Light Priest" professional skill: Holy Priest (Glorious, lv.1)]

[Holy Shepherd (Glory, lv.1): You are the one who paves the way for "Glory". When you use the "Glory" destiny skill, the skill damage/effect is enhanced by 20% and the mana consumption is reduced by 20%. ]

[Obtain the "Holy Light Priest" professional skill: Spear of Holy Light (Glorious, lv.1)]

[Mana consumption: 20, Cooling time: 3min]

[Spear of Holy Light (Glorious, lv.1): "Holy Light" condenses in the hand, this is the Holy Spear that penetrates the heretics - after a short period of charging, the "Spear of Holy Light" is thrown at the designated target, causing "Holy Light" attribute damage of 100% physical attack + 100% spell attack; after the "Spear of Holy Light" hits the target, it will cause an annihilation explosion, causing a small range of physical attack 125% + spell attack 125% "Holy Light" attribute damage. ]

【…】

When Thomas finally gave the command on the panel to touch the bronze pillar of "Holy Light Priest", he truly stepped into the threshold of the second destiny of [Glory], and was promoted from "Apprentice Priest" to "Holy Light Priest", truly becoming a transcendent!
Thomas had experienced this kind of "promotion" process during the internal beta test.

But when the public beta completed another "promotion", Thomas still felt excited, very excited!

Then in his eyes, the darkness that shrouded his vision gradually dissipated, and he saw the colors that belonged to his own room again.

And in his personal panel, there is also a new skill, a new skill - the [Glory] skill "Holy Shepherd", which is a skill to assist in combat; and the new skill "Spear of Holy Light" - that is the higher-level skill of the 'Primary Spear of Light' that Thomas has mastered in the first level of his destiny!
Compared to "Primary Light Spear", the damage of "Holy Light Spear" is almost doubled, but the mana consumption is only 5 points more than that of "Primary Light Spear"! In Thomas' opinion, this is a very practical combat skill.

One benefit of choosing the "Priest" profession is that after learning the "Spear of Holy Light", the "Primary Spear of Light" will not disappear due to learning the higher-level skills.

This is also a common occupational characteristic of extraordinary professions with melee tendencies in "God's Destiny". In other words, after Thomas was promoted to "Double Destiny", he possessed two output skills at the same time that could cause a lot of damage!
Compared to the auxiliary tendency of the "Consecrated Priest" in the second destiny and the shield enhancement of the "Holy Knight", the offensiveness and suppression of the "Holy Light Priest" are obviously stronger. You just need to pay more attention to cooperation with teammates. Well, weapons and equipment are also very important for the profession of "Priest"...

Thomas was thinking about this as he clicked on his "Skills" column and upgraded his newly acquired "Spear of Holy Light" skill to the maximum level on the spot!
Because of the reward from the previous [Dark Sky Haze] mission, Thomas still had more than 45,000 experience points stored, and it only took about one-tenth of that to upgrade the skill "Spear of Holy Light" to the maximum level.

He is now in the state of "I have never seen so much experience, and I have no idea how to spend it." Therefore, he is looking forward to the reappearance of those mysterious "Apostles of the Holy Abyss" during the internal test.

After all, among all the organizations and forces Thomas has come into contact with so far, only the [Holy Abyss Mall] of "Holy Abyss" can directly use experience points to learn new "skills" or "skills", but now that the public beta has been in place for a day, there is still no trace of those mysterious apostles.

"It seems that during the internal test... they also appeared on the third or fourth day after the 'internal test' was launched..."

Thomas murmured, and he looked at his brand new personal panel again, feeling happy and relaxed.

He then closed the panel, stood up, changed into the new set of "Saint Protector" suits that the missionary had issued to him, put on the rare quality warhammer [Hammer of the Saint] on his back, and walked out of the room.

Now - the "Red Maple City Defense War" has just ended. Whether it is the church, the border court, or the Fangbei Courtyard, the high-ranking officials are busy with the aftermath and inventory. At this time, the players are the most free.

Thomas has not yet received any patrol mission from Connor, the "Captain of the Holy Guard" from the church, so he can take this opportunity to do other things and explore Red Maple City.

The plan was set, so he walked towards the door of the villa, opened the map panel, and marked a point he was going to -

【Authentic Dwarf Blacksmith Shop】

……

at dusk.

In Red Maple City, next to the church, is the "Forge Manor".

The plaque "Authentic Dwarf Blacksmith Shop" hanging on the marble wall had just been wiped clean. At this time, the blacksmiths in the manor were still busy, forced to work overtime due to the continuous surge in orders in recent days.

Thomas had arrived at the gate of the forge manor. Looking at the dwarves inside the gate and in the yard who were swinging hammers with bare arms, his mouth slightly open in surprise.

It seems... there weren't so many dwarves here last time I came?
When did this happen?

That "master chef"... Master Mil brought all his relatives and relatives from the "Storm Continent" here?

Thomas thought about it, but didn't take it too seriously. Seeing that the door of the forge manor was still open, he walked in calmly.

Why bother with so many things…his current identity is a “consumer”!
With the forty gold coins warm in his pocket, Thomas couldn't help but feel a surge of pride. After entering the forging manor, he began to look around.

He still remembered that during the internal test, he spent five gold coins to buy a green-quality "Mithril Straight Sword" in the manor.

But now——I have eight times the funds of the internal test! I should be able to buy some good things.

Thomas is currently using the [Hammer of the Saint], which is a green quality weapon. If he can buy a blue quality weapon this time, he can use the [Hammer of the Saint] as a secondary weapon...

Thomas thought to himself as he continued to look around, searching for the figure of an old acquaintance.

But before he could find her among dozens of forging masters, Thomas suddenly felt a weight on his shoulder. Someone patted him heavily on the shoulder.

"Are you from the church? What are you doing here?"

Then, in Thomas' ears, there came a low, smoky and hoarse voice of a middle-aged man.

Thomas looked back and saw a naked, muscular man with a fierce look, staring at him with round eyes.

The panel detection showed that the burly man in front of him was named Kabad Hafkin - he was a triple destiny of [Ku Tu], and his profession was "Forging Master".

Although [Bitter Tea] is also an illegal destiny in the empire, compared to [Red Lotus], [Nothingness], and [Lost], it is not so "illegal" - most of the time, it exists as a gray destiny.

As long as they don't join those secret sects or organizations that have been identified as cults, it doesn't matter to the empire to have muscular guys walking around the streets - many official institutions, guilds or organizations will also hire extraordinary people with the destiny of [Ku Tu] to act as guards or various functions that require great strength, but these are not public and are considered to be established rules.

In the "Forging Manor" of Mir, several full-time "forgers" with the fate of [Ku Tu] were also employed. This was tacitly approved by the church behind it, and Thomas already knew this during the internal test.

"I'm here to order a custom weapon," Thomas said confidently, pulling out his purse from his pocket. "Forty gold coins! I want to order—"

“The church’s expedited work order is already full.”

"Forge Master" Kabad interrupted him, his face showing no reaction as he said, "To customize weapons or equipment suitable for [Glorious], let me think... well, you have to wait forty-two days."

——Forty-two days? ? !
Thomas was stunned and stood still as if he had been struck by lightning.

What do you mean the rush work order is full? I brought forty gold coins! Forty gold coins!
People here don’t want to make money!

Thomas, who was unwilling to give up, raised the purse containing forty gold coins in his hand and shook it in front of the "forge master" Kabad, saying:

"Forty gold coins! And there is no..."

"Little brother, because you are from the church, we can schedule you until forty-two days later."

Forging Master Kabad spread his hands, with a half-helpless and half-"this is just a small amount of money" expression on his face, and said to Thomas:

"If it's a private or individual order, the queue will be half a year later."

"Besides - forty gold coins are not enough. The starting price of the custom orders we receive now is five hundred imperial gold coins, and the lowest is the 'master' quality weapons or equipment. If you want forty gold coins, you can go to the warehouse and have a look. There are many ready-made ones there."

"..."

——Fuck!

Thomas couldn't help but think of a national quintessence.

He didn't expect that his current net worth had increased eightfold compared to the internal test, but in the eyes of these blacksmiths, it was still just "poor"!
It’s really expensive…

Thomas suddenly felt that the water in the forge manor was too deep for him to control.

Just when he was thinking about going back and saving up some more gold coins - until he saved up the 500 gold coins that the "Forging Master" Kabad mentioned, he could directly come to the Forging Manor to customize a "Master" quality weapon.

"Thomas?"

Suddenly, a clear female voice floated into Thomas' ears.

He turned towards the source of the sound and saw a girl wearing long sleeves and long pants, holding a forging hammer, and with a high ponytail.

The girl waved to Thomas, and Thomas recognized her at the first moment.

That was exactly the person Thomas wanted to find when he came to the Forge Manor, the player "ID. Frost Moon"!

As expected, she chose [Intelligence] again, and continued to be a blacksmith apprentice in the "Forge Manor"!

"Do you know?"

In front of Thomas, "Master Forger" Kabad asked Thomas.

"Yes, I know him," Thomas responded casually, "old friend."

"Then you guys chat. That girl was recommended by the church. Just let her take you around."

After saying this, Kabad turned and left. He walked towards a room on the first floor of a newly built villa in the manor and closed the door. The sound of iron hammering came from behind the door.

After Kabad left, Thomas trotted towards Frost Moon.

"You also chose Red Maple City, and you chose [Wisdom] as your initial destiny?"

Thomas asked Frost Moon.

"Yes," Shuangyue nodded in response. She looked Thomas up and down and said in surprise:
"You have been promoted to the 'Second Fate'?"

"The church can send you the 'Bronze Key' so quickly?"

"Hey." Thomas smiled.

He knew that Shuangyue had already used the panel to detect him once during the chat, so he also opened the panel and detected "Shuangyue" as well.

His eyes fell on the ID of "Frost Moon", that is "Frost Moon"——

"You finally managed to register the ID 'Frost Moon' during the public beta?"

Thomas exclaimed, "You are worthy of this popular ID!"

"The first thing I did when I entered the game interface was to enter the two words 'Frost Moon' in the ID column."

Shimotsuki suddenly smiled and said, "Didn't you see that I didn't even have time to carefully model it."

"..."

While Frost Moon was saying this, Thomas's eyes were also carefully looking at the "Frost Moon" modeled character.

Thomas still remembers that when he entered the game interface of "God's Destiny" and created an account and character, the initial modeling was generated by adding a certain degree of intelligent beautification to the image of real people. If it was not adjusted, it was actually very easy to see that it was basically modeled based on the "face molds" of real players.

As for "Frost Moon" - long before playing "God's Destiny" released by Black Technology Company, Thomas had already met her in a game called "Star Train", and they had also met several times in real life due to the opportunity of team building in the gaming circle.

Therefore, Thomas knew the "Frost Moon" in real life. She was indeed a beautiful girl who could be easily identified from the crowd at a glance. Thomas was able to recognize her the moment he saw "Frost Moon".

Now looking at "Frost Moon", it is a replica of her real self with a little beautification, except that she has a high ponytail as the default "hairstyle 1" - she really has not had her modeling done...

"Indeed, I just discovered it."

Thomas raised his hand and scratched the back of his head, smiled, then opened the friend panel and sent a friend request to "Frost Moon" on the opposite side.

Shuangyue quickly agreed to Thomas's application, and then asked Thomas:

"Okay, so - you want to take out weapons again?" "It's like this," Thomas raised the purse containing forty gold coins, but the confidence on his face at the beginning was gone, and he asked Frost Moon tentatively:

"Uh, so forty gold coins...what can you buy?"

Shuang Yue: “…”

Shimotsuki: "...Where did you get the forty gold coins? Did you steal them from the church's vault? Or did you rob them on the street?"

"No! There are at least four Paladin puppets and four 'Triple Fate' priests guarding it. How can we get in?" Thomas argued.

"Where did you get so much money?"

Although the "Great Forger" Kabad didn't seem to be very interested in the forty gold coins that Thomas had, it was already an astronomical figure for the players who were generally still penniless.

"It was sent by the church. Uh... We submitted a piece of information to the bishop, and the church rewarded us with ten gold coins. Then, after the Red Maple City defense battle was over, we returned to the church and were rewarded with another thirty gold coins..."

"..."

"……what?"

Shimotsuki opened his mouth, a look of surprise appeared on his face, and after a while, he said with a stutter:

"Church...are church benefits so exaggerated?"

"That's it." Thomas spread his hands, "That's how I got the forty gold coins..."

"..."

"Ah, what you said makes me want to switch to training a small account and join [Glorious]..."

Shimotsuki showed a helpless expression on his face, but he quickly hid it and got back to business:
"You said you want to customize another weapon with these forty gold coins?"

"That's right," Thomas said helplessly, "but the uncle just now, I think his name is Kabad? He said that the expedited work order has to be scheduled forty-two days later."

"He also said that forty gold coins would not be enough for the order," Thomas continued.

"Is it so expensive to make a weapon at the Forge Manor?"

"It's like this," Shimotsuki shrugged his shoulders and said with a smile on his face:

"After all, this is the best blacksmith shop in the entire Red Maple City. And that master, Master Mir, has recruited almost half of the blacksmiths in Red Maple City to forge here. If you want to make some better weapons or equipment, you will definitely choose to come here."

"But, coming to think of it, what Master Kabad said is true—" Frost Moon continued, "Forty gold coins are not enough to forge equipment now, but in the early morning, the Forge Manor did recover some weapons and equipment captured on the battlefield from the church and the border court."

"Some weapons and equipment are being prepared for sale at a discount. If there are no buyers, the masters are going to melt them into materials. You might want to go and take a look at them."

"Is there such a thing?" Thomas asked curiously.

Suddenly, some different thoughts came to Thomas' mind.

It's not simply about buying a weapon of "rare" quality, but places like "Forge Manor" do seem to be able to make some quick money by "recycling" some loot.

When he killed the "Giant Warrior" with the triple destiny of [Ku Tu], the giant stick in his hand seemed to be a weapon of good quality, but the weapon was too huge and could not be brought back at all, so Thomas gave up the idea.

But now that I think about it, this is indeed a way to "make money", and as a "Saint Protector", I will be able to receive more "Judgment" tasks in the future.

"..."

As Thomas was thinking about this, he heard the clear voice of Frost Moon again:

"Hey, Thomas? What are you thinking about?"

"..."

"Oh, nothing..."

When Shuangyue called him, Thomas temporarily cleared his mind of the messy thoughts, looked at the girl in front of him, and said:
"Take me to see the recovered weapons? Hmm... I want a weapon similar to a 'war hammer', preferably one that can be held in one hand, and I want to use it as a secondary weapon."

……

Afterwards, Shimotsuki took Thomas into a storage warehouse in the Forge Manor.

Just as Shimotsuki said before - most of them are indeed weapons recovered from the battlefield, and some are defective products abandoned here because the finished products did not meet the requirements of the order.

Like the "Mithril Straight Sword" that Thomas bought from the Forge Manor for only five gold coins, it was originally a custom order for a "rare" quality weapon. Because the quality of the actual finished product did not meet the "rare" standard and could not be delivered, it could only be put in the warehouse and sold at a discount.

There are quite a few weapons and equipment like this - when Thomas followed Frost Moon into the storage of the Forge Manor, he had roughly identified the quality range of the weapons and equipment displayed there through the detection function of the panel.

There were weapons and equipment ranging from "gray crude" to "purple master" quality. Thomas didn't care about green rare and lower quality weapons and equipment, and he couldn't afford "purple master" weapons or equipment. So his attention was completely focused on the thirty or forty "blue rare" quality weapons in the storage.

Thomas quickly selected three weapons from the thirty or forty possible options.

"How about this one?" Thomas pointed to an axe with a short silver handle and a light red broken crystal blade and asked Shuangyue first.

"Oh. [Axe of Destruction]... I like to call it the Axe of Tetanus, sixty gold coins."

"You can see its weapon panel, right? It was captured from the Berserker of Red Lotus. The wounds inflicted by it are difficult to heal, and will cause some continuous damage. But to be honest, although this weapon is of rare quality, in my opinion, its beauty is greater than its practicality."

"……really."

Thomas took another look at the "Tetanus Axe" on the display shelf in front of him. In his heart, he had already given up on it when Frost Moon mentioned its price as high as sixty gold coins.

It then turned its gaze elsewhere, looking at a completely black "chain hammer" on the other side, which was embedded with cones of wriggling black light, and asked Shuangyue about the price.

"This? [Rotten Tooth] - Well, it's cheap, only thirty-five gold coins, but it's too ugly."

"You are a clergyman of the church. Isn't it inappropriate to wear this?"

"..."

When Frost Moon kindly reminded him, Thomas suddenly thought of the bishop. The "bishop" Ross Carlos also seemed to be using a dark green staff that looked poisonous, so he automatically ignored Frost Moon's kind reminder.

Thirty-five gold coins could buy a poison-tipped chain hammer - quite suitable, Thomas thought, and turned his eyes to the other side, the last alternative "rare" weapon.

It was a short-handled sickle - the crescent-shaped blade flashed with silver-white broken light, and the slender handle was embedded with circles of azure rings, which were the traces of "runes".

——【Silver-Harvesting Scythe (Blue Rare)】, it has the ability to convert the part of the damage caused into "original trauma", that is, "true damage"; and the embedded runes also give this weapon an additional rune skill. After it is activated, the color of the blade will turn red, and the current health of the holder will be deducted by a percentage every second, and the damage caused by the weapon holder will be greatly increased by 30%~50%.

Putting aside the health-burning debuff of this weapon, the improvement it can bring to Thomas is quite obvious - and this last "rare" quality weapon is what Thomas wants most.

He then turned to look at Shuangyue and asked her the price.

"This... Oh, I like this little silver sickle, too!"

Shimotsuki's eyes sparkled as she said, "Just like the 'Tetanus Axe' before, this little sickle, I call it the 'Tetanus Scythe'! If I could afford it, well, I would have to get myself one anyway!"

"Oh, it seems you can't afford it... I remember the price of this sickle was ninety gold coins."

Fuck, ninety?!

Is it so expensive?
Thomas' breath was choked, and he could vaguely feel the phantom pain in his wallet.

But he really wanted this weapon - so he looked towards Shimotsuki, showing a longing expression and asked:
"Can I get a discount?"

"Uh……"

Shimotsuki pondered for a moment and replied, "I don't know, but generally speaking... even if there is a discount, the maximum you can get is 75 or 80 gold coins."

"..."

Seeing that Thomas was still staring at it, Shimotsuki showed suspicion on his face and said:
"You don't want to beat him until forty, do you? Broken bones!"

"Indeed." Thomas nodded honestly.

Shuang Yue: “…”

"Wait for me," Thomas said suddenly, "I'll borrow some from someone."

After saying that, he directly opened the [Friends Panel] and saw that the avatar of the big Paladin "Iron Pot Stewed Crocodile" was still lit, so he directly popped up a message for him -

【Thomas the Tank Engine】：In? V I 50
【Big Crocodile Stewed in an Iron Pot】:?

【Iron Pot Stewed Crocodile】：TD
[Thomas the Tank Engine]: No, come on, no kidding, emergency help brother!!!

【……】：……

……

About ten minutes later, at Thomas's attentive call, "Iron Pot Stewed Crocodile" entered the forging manor wearing a heavy set of paladin armor.

Thomas ran to the door to greet him, and then returned to the manor storage under the guidance of Shuangyue. Thomas roughly explained to the crocodile his intention to borrow money.

"You're the only one I can think of who can come up with fifty gold coins, brother!"

This is indeed true - other beta test players of the same level also received 10+30 gold coins as rewards from the church, only the big shark received 10+60, so he is the one to go to if you want to borrow money.

Iron pot stewed crocodile: "..."

He said nothing more, but took out his purse from his bosom, which was heavy with seventy gold coins, and looked at Thomas with ill intent and said:

"Call daddy."

"father."

"..."

"Okay, okay."

The crocodile was happy. He untied the string of the purse, took out twenty gold coins from it and put them in his pocket. Then he threw the purse directly to Thomas, who reached out to take it.

"Pay back your debt on time," the crocodile said to Thomas. "The salary for being a 'Saint Guardian' is fifteen gold coins a week. Your one-month 'holy pension' will then belong to me!"

"Okay." Thomas nodded in agreement.

After that, the Iron Pot Stewed Crocodile left the manor, and Thomas, with the ninety gold coins he had collected, went with Frost Moon to find the dwarf who was in charge of guarding the warehouse.

Thomas tried to bargain with the dwarf named "Frog Gravel", and Frost Moon also helped, and finally the price of [Silver-Cutter (Blue Rare)] was reduced from ninety gold coins to seventy-eight gold coins.

Thomas then untied his purse, counted out twelve gold coins and put them in his pocket, then handed both purses to the dwarf Frog.

After checking everything correctly, Thomas left the manor with the [Silver-Cutting Scythe], and he suddenly felt an unprecedented sense of satisfaction.

By the time he left the manor, it was already completely dark.

The sun has set in the distant mountains, and the blue moon has risen high - night has fallen, so Thomas is preparing to go back to the church and go to the "Holy Inquisition" to see if there are any judgment tasks he can accept.

Just as he was walking on the main street of Red Maple City, he was about to turn a corner and enter a narrow but short alley.

His eyes suddenly blurred and he felt flashes of gray, dark red and deep purple light.

The air around him stagnated at this moment. Thomas felt his breath was choked and he immediately became alert. His right hand had already grasped the newly bought [Silver-cutting Scythe] and his left hand took down the [Hammer of the Saint] from behind.

At the same time, in Thomas's field of vision, he saw a figure in a crimson cloak flashing at the corner in front of him!

The figure revealed the back of his hand from under his cloak, on which was flashing a black "dragon claw mark"!
——That is the mark of [Holy Abyss]!

The figure quickly approached Thomas and stopped two body lengths away from him. A low and faint voice came out:

"Are you... the 'Adventer'?"

……

(End of this chapter)