Knight Lord: Start with Daily Intelligence.

Chapter 368 New Glory Relic: Book of Prayer
The fact that the high-level Chosen One-class giant spider was killed by the Black Forest army in a fierce battle was a great encouragement to Su Li.

Before the battle, he had indeed considered that his side's combat strength had improved significantly, but he did not expect the improvement to be so great.

They managed to defeat the enormous monster with only the loss of 30-odd dwarves and knights.

The losses were certainly not small. The value of these personnel alone was more than 6000 gold crowns. If we add the damage to the armor, the large number of witchcraft items consumed, as well as healing potions and healing spells, the battle was conservatively estimated to have cost 10000 gold crowns. If we estimate it higher, it may even have reached 15000 gold crowns.

Therefore, in matters of war, once the cannons roar, gold and silver flow in abundance.

Su Li avoids war whenever possible. With only a few hundred soldiers deployed, they've already lost 15000 gold crowns. If the scale were ten times larger, wouldn't the loss of 150000 gold crowns be effortless?
Let alone how long it would take to earn 150,000 gold crowns by farming, even if it were 15000 gold crowns, it would still take 4000 slaves working hard from dawn till dusk, without daring to rest for almost two years to earn it back.

Earning such a sum of money is incredibly difficult, almost impossible. But once it's spent, it's like water flowing away. Hundreds of people went out to earn some money, and in less than two hours, it was all gone.

Fortunately, this war was carefully chosen by Su Li from the beginning, and the gains were indeed considerable.

Not long after he finished tallying the battlefield statistics, Doglin excitedly approached Su Li, carrying spider silk, and reported excitedly, "My lord, we found 25 jin of Divine Grace Spider Silk inside this enormous creature. This is far superior to the silk of the Queen Anaric Giant Spider. As a divinely chosen material, the battle banners woven from it will be even more powerful, and it is also an important material for making various magical artifacts."

"Perhaps we will soon produce a new batch of rare-grade items and amulets."

The silk of the Queen of Anaric Giant Spider is worth as much as 1000 gold crowns per kilogram, and the silk of this God-chosen grade is even more powerful and its value must be even higher. The profit from 25 kilograms of silk must exceed 40000 gold crowns.

As expected, choosing the right target leads to substantial profits.

"More importantly, the materials on this giant creeping spider are far more than these. There are also two precious materials: venom glands and arthropod claws, which can be used to make divine-grade weapons for us."

This giant spider was indeed enormous, the size of a house in a city. Hundreds of spiders, each the size of a warhorse, had been scurrying between its massive, chitinous claws. Now that it had fallen, it would undoubtedly provide a wealth of valuable material.

The dwarves would be responsible for dissecting and bringing back the items, so Su Li didn't inquire about the details. Instead, he asked, "Did you find the Holy Relic of Glory on it?"

Su Li just did a quick calculation and realized that the last time he obtained a Glory Relic was a long time ago, the Eternal Shield from the Church of the Goddess of the Sun.

This was found by knights from the Black Forest Territory while exploring an abandoned church, on the remains of corpses.

However, this relic of glory is more like a treasure for generals charging into battle. Its first ability is to provide [Sun's Intimidation], which, when activated, grants a holy domain with a radius of 50 meters. This domain has a very strong weakening effect on evil faction monsters, reducing the enemy's physical and holy resistance, and forcibly revealing hidden units.

One ability is [Faith Feedback], which can consume the durability of the Holy Relic and grant the user unparalleled power, like divine protection. Even if the user is attacked by hundreds of cannons or thousands of muskets, they will not be able to stop the protected knight's charge. The knight will not be harmed until the durability is exhausted.

To be honest, this relic of glory is very powerful, but it's clearly a special type of treasure, extremely suitable for generals who charge into battle, but not for a lord like Su Li who commands the entire army. After all, he won't be the first to charge into battle and draw fire for the rest of the army.

It seems like he hasn't obtained a glorious relic like the Windwing Symbol, which can affect the entire army, for quite some time.

The last strategic treasure of this caliber was the Dawn Box, but that was a treasure of the Church of Dawn, effective only for production and offering virtually no military benefit.

He is still quite looking forward to the emergence of a strategic treasure that can command the entire army.

Doglin shrugged and replied, "I haven't seen the Relic of Glory. Perhaps you could ask the Grand Steward; she's personally searching for such things."

He had barely finished speaking when Hilde's voice came from behind him. The valiant female knight sheathed her rare-grade sword, effortlessly stopped the massive wounds on her body, and then calmly approached.

"My lord, we have fulfilled our mission. After a thorough search, we found a treasure that shines with divine radiance from the middle of the spider's enormous mouthparts."

Su Li didn't immediately look at the golden treasure in her hand. Instead, he pulled the female knight over, carefully examined her for a moment, and asked, "How are your injuries? I saw you in your Divine General state just now, and you suffered a severe blow."

Hilde smiled faintly and said, "My lord, I'm fine. Knights are inherently very resilient and have excellent resistance to blows. In God General mode, this ability is amplified dozens of times. After deactivating God General mode, the wounds on my body will just be small scars. With the help of various potions, I will recover quickly."

Su Li smiled and nodded: "That's good! Knights are indeed extremely capable in this regard."

If we evaluate human knights using a five-dimensional ability chart, their attack capabilities are barely passable, or even below average. Compared to top-tier killing infantry like the Khorne, such as the Berserkers, or the dwarven steam tanks, thunder musketeers, mages, behemoths, and so on, the knights' killing efficiency is far inferior.

In terms of mobility, they were only average, since their movement wasn't on their own legs, but on their warhorses. And it must be admitted that warhorses, let alone in this bizarre fantasy world, are considered poorly mobile even in the mortal realm. Their stamina is extremely low; they often can't outrun humans in a full gallop. In this bizarre world of griffins, their hooves are only good for dealing with some cumbersome, heavily armored infantry.

But at the cost of these mediocre qualities, the human knights truly maximized their solid defenses and unwavering morale.

Basically, apart from dwarves, soldiers of any other race at the same rank are difficult to compare with human knights.

Even after being severely injured in her divine form, Hilde was still able to jump around and search for the Glory Relic, which shows her remarkable resilience.

Su Li then felt relieved and asked Hilde, "Is this a new relic of glory?"

Hilde immediately presented the relic of glory to Su Li with both hands, saying, "Yes, my lord, and its effects are indeed very powerful."

"Huh?" Su Li took it and looked at it, then was immediately surprised: "It's a book? This Spider God even has written books?"

The text above is clearly not from the Empire of Man.

The entire book perfectly matches the cold and hard style of this world, with a cover made of some unknown dark metal. The central relief features a purple throne with a short knife stuck in it, and a hand with mysterious and blood-red eyes stretches out from above, seemingly watching over everything and controlling everything.

Hilde pondered for a moment and said, "I don't think this is a sacred relic of the Spider God. Spiders don't usually have hands, do they? We also have some sacred relic that don't belong to the Goddess of the Sun, such as the Water-Repelling Pearl. Wars are frequent in this world, so it's normal for some gods to have sacred relic of other gods. I feel that the content on the cover of this book is the emblem of a certain god."

That makes sense; gods generally have their own unique symbols. For example, Rydmar is a double-tailed comet, Khorne is an eight-pointed blood skull emblem, and the wood elf god Chronos is a stag-antler longbow.

But this badge is clearly also the property of a certain deity, and the divine radiance emanating from the entire relic of glory comes from this badge.

At this moment, Amber-French Grondal, who had finished clearing the battlefield with the soldiers, walked over and calmly said, "It is written in Dark Elf script. This is Bloodhand Kane's relic of honor."

“Bloody Hand Kane?” Su Li raised an eyebrow and said, “I’ve heard of him. He seems to be an evil god, known by his followers as the Lord of Murder.”

Grondal shook his head and said, “This is a misunderstanding of Kane by the mortal world, but among the gods of the Old World, the Lord of Murder is a very special case. Although he is a legitimate deity in the Pantheon, a member of the Old World Pantheon, the worship of Kane is illegal, and there are ample reasons to prohibit the belief in him—the Old World is a country ruled by law, leaving no room for believers to perform bloody rituals. Therefore, Kane can only worship in secret; his open followers were killed, and his few temples were razed to the ground to warn the world not to repeat this dirty work.”

A legitimate deity, yet banned by various forces? That's interesting.

Grondal continued, “Despite being a forbidden god, Kane still has many followers in the Old World. The secret activities of Kane’s followers are widespread throughout the kingdoms and settlements. They gather in the shadows to worship their fearsome god, plot murders, and hope to receive his blessings. Although these cultists are not intimidated by the knight’s purifying fire, they rarely act openly, preferring to operate in the dark. Those who oppose Kane’s faith are often found lying in bed on an ordinary day, with their spouses asleep and unaware, but their throats have been slit—or perhaps strangled or their intestines cut open—and they die silently.”

"Because it is an illegal religion, the followers of Kane have no formal system; they are scattered in small, independent settlements throughout the Empire. Although they all share a common interest in murder, there are significant differences between each group, and the most popular topics in these places often concern dogma, purpose, or even practice. When participating in religious ceremonies, the followers often wear black robes with red trim. This attire symbolizes the connection between the Lord of Murder and his brother Mor, as well as the blood that flows from a perfect killing."

“Some Kane priests serve as leaders of their organization, but otherwise, their organization is quite haphazard. Most believers are actually laymen; the only requirement for believers in the Kane Church is that they have ‘bloody hands.’ Potential believers who have doubts about committing crimes will inevitably become the organization’s next victims. Furthermore, due to their divine nature, Kane priests are very likely necromancers.” “Therefore, their doctrines include: all death is sacred, but for Kane, only murder is sacred; murder is a pious act—don’t rush it; murder itself is a reward; killing with someone else’s hands is good, but killing with your own is better; kill Morch followers without hesitation!”

"So Kane is more revered by the Dark Elves, since they love intrigue and assassination. If this relic of glory came from the Dark Elves and passed to the Spider God, it wouldn't be surprising. After all, the Spider God is one of the gods worshipped by the Dark Elves."

It's even possible that it wasn't obtained through war?

The connections between the gods in this world are even closer than Su Li had imagined.

Su Li then asked curiously, "Can you understand the Elvish script on this? What does it say?"

"It is written in the Book of Prayer, and the proverb says: 'A blessing is when a mortal asks for a glimpse of the divine.'"

After saying that, Hilde said with delight, "Then does that mean this Relic of Glory isn't just for the Dark Elves, but we can use it too!"

“Hmm…” Grondar stroked his beard and pondered for a moment before saying, “I’m not sure about that. Generally speaking, holy relics can be used by all races and churches. For example, the Water-Repelling Pearl is a holy relic of the Church of Mannan, but it ended up in the hands of goblins. However, it did not prevent the use of the territory.”

“However, I am, after all, a mage, not a theologian or a priest. I suggest that we take this Book of Prayer back to our territory and have the Patriarch of the Church of the Sun Goddess take a look at it, so as to prevent it from being infiltrated and influenced by conspiracies. After all, this is Kane's property, and we must be cautious.”

Makes sense!
If it were something from another deity, Su Li would have used it immediately, but no one knew whether this god of conspiracy had left any hidden traps in the Book of Prayer.

So Su Li simply handed this thing over to Durmst, the knight of Mor, who was best suited to keep Kane's belongings safe. He was thick-skinned and tough, and even if there were any schemes, it would be difficult to restrain or influence him.

After Durmst took it, Su Li clicked his tongue and looked at him, asking, "I feel like your Mor Cult has quite a few sworn enemies! Kane is your enemy, and the necromancer is your sworn enemy. Do you have any other enemies?"

“Of course, there are quite a few.” Demst looked at the relic of glory in his hand with complete indifference and replied humorously, “Have you forgotten those vampires who prey on the old, weak and sick, like those who stare at women’s bleeding, the remains of the elderly and children who die young.”

Indeed, those arch-enemies are the ones who can best ruin one's reputation.

As far as Su Li knew, the vampires in this world were not weak, sickly, or effeminate; they were actually capable of wielding heavy swords, donning blood-red armor, and going to the battlefield to kill people.

Through Durmst's words, Su Li gained some understanding of why Mor had so many enemies. This guardian of death was probably also a neurotic type.

However, what Demst said next made Su Li happy.

“My lord, I just studied this relic of glory, and it seems to be able to use all the divine magic of our church.”

Hilde's spirited face brightened, and she immediately said, "It's clear that the spider swarm used a lot of their divine magic just now. If that's the case, this relic of glory must be held by a follower of a certain god, who can use the divine magic of that sect."

Su Li calmly analyzed, "Then we can basically deduce all the functions of this holy relic. If our commander possesses this Book of Prayer, he can use all the divine spells of the Church of the Goddess of the Sun, and when he uses it, the entire army will receive the corresponding effect!"

The other knights nodded in agreement; this deduction was quite reasonable. After all, everyone vividly remembered the terrifying scene from just now—the monsters had activated the Spider God's divine magic almost simultaneously and obtained the Jaw of Miracle.

If it's not the Hive consciousness, it's most likely the effect of this Book of Prayer.

Hilde, with her keen intellect, immediately said, "It couldn't be the collective consciousness of the swarm, because almost all the spiders activated their Jaws of Miracles at that time. The Spider God couldn't possibly have bestowed divine magic upon even a group of weak spiders."

Even a generous goddess like Rhea only bestows divine magic upon her followers when they break through to the formal level. The Spider God would never grant its divine power to a bunch of insignificant spiders.

The result is obvious: it's the effect of this book of prayer.

Thinking about it this way, Su Li felt that this [Book of Prayer] was undoubtedly a strategic treasure.

If he commands 1000 elite knights, he can use divine magic to extend its range to the entire army. This is equivalent to giving each knight in the army an extra few uses of divine magic.

Some of the divine spells of the Church of the Sun Goddess are quite powerful, such as [Violet's Spear]. Within one minute, when a devout believer wields a spear, the goddess's divine power can be imbued into the spearhead, greatly increasing the weapon's armor-piercing ability.

If he uses this divine spell in battle, it means that a large number of knights in the entire army will gain tremendous attack power. Divine power will be attached to the spearheads, and even a mortal will be able to pierce the troll's body with the spear, causing great damage to the monster.

If Su Li encounters the Red Dragon Drake again, he won't need to bluff to scare Drake away. If it doesn't run away immediately, these spears imbued with divine power will pierce its scales like a branding iron stuck into cheese.

Although this divine spell doesn't last long, it can't withstand hundreds of knights activating it simultaneously and charging towards him. The immense destructive power would terrify even a dragon, causing it to tuck its tail between its legs and flee.

In addition, the church also has divine spells such as [Armor of Justice] and [Heart of the Griffin] that further enhance the knight's defensive capabilities.

The Armor of Justice can protect the knight from harm with the light of power.

The Heart of the Griffin can draw the attention of the goddess to your chosen companions through devout prayer, giving them courage and determination, and making them fearless.

In other words, Su Li was unaware of the cost of using this sacred relic of glory. Otherwise, if he had simply prayed fervently on the high ground where he commanded the troops once the war began, he could have granted all the knights the ability to fight to the death.

However, the use of any sacred relic of glory comes at an extremely heavy price. Even if the Windwing Symbol only summons a gale, it can still drain Su Li's physical strength.

As the sacred relic of Bloodhand Kane, the God of Murder, this Book of Prayer will likely come at a much heavier price. It's impossible for Su Li to endlessly use divine spells; even the powerful Crouching Giant Spider only used divine spells three times throughout the entire story.

Even if Su Li has various recovery items, he won't be able to use this Glory Relic too many times.

However, the specific cost can be checked at the monastery in the territory. If all else fails, the priests can inquire with the Goddess of the Sun for divine guidance.

So Su Li told Demst to put away the relic of glory, and calmly said, "I estimate that this relic of glory will be given to you to carry in the future. Our territory already has quite a few relic of glory, and having them all concentrated on one person can't fully utilize their effects. We must distribute them and use them in cooperation."

If this Book of Prayer truly requires a significant amount of divine grace or stamina, then Durmst is undoubtedly an excellent operator. He is a tank, extremely resilient and possessing exceptional endurance.

If the Crouching Giant Spider can use divine magic 3 times, then with the help of the potion, Demster can use it at least 5 to 6 times.

I just don't know what kind of divine magic the Church of Mor has.
But regardless, it's quite amusing that a knight of the Church of Mor, wielding the holy relic of the god of murder, would continuously use it to enhance his own forces. It's practically killing him while simultaneously destroying his spirit! Bloodhand Kane would probably be furious at this sight.

Demst grinned, a cunning smirk spreading across his face. "Hahaha, even if this relic of glory contains Kane's schemes, I'll still have to study it carefully! I think His Majesty Mor will be very happy to see this!"

At this moment, Demst practically regarded Su Li as a guiding light. He had only been in the territory for a short time, yet he had already obtained rare-grade weapons, rare-grade armor, and now even a relic of glory!
A three-year period?

Three years? That's completely untrue! Demster is the lord's most loyal lackey. He'd fly into a rage if anyone dared say he only had a three-year contract with the territory—that's slander! Slander! He's slandering me! In the entire Hessen Territory, who doesn't know that Demster is the lord's most loyal and reliable subordinate?

If he doesn't cling to this powerful figure, he doesn't deserve to be Moore's chosen one!
(End of this chapter)