The Holy Man of Another Century Gospel

Chapter 167 Stone Pillar
After a full day of rest, Eric felt that his strength and concentration had almost recovered, so he prepared to venture into the ancient battlefield to find the underground cathedral.

Since they no longer needed to enter the ruined city, they didn't need to prepare extra food for this expedition. The dry rations stored at the temporary base were enough to last them for quite some time. In particular, this was probably their last time venturing deep into the ancient battlefield, so there was no need to continue storing food.

Carrying several water bags, the three of them once again entered the misty ancient battlefield.

Do you know the direction of that underground cathedral?

“Just like before, we only know the general location.” Eric walked ahead. “Let’s get to the base first, and then search more carefully.”

"Oh." Molly didn't ask any further questions.

Over the past six months, Eric has led them to discover countless ruins; there's no place he can't find.

The three were already familiar with the routes in and out of the ancient battlefield, so they deliberately avoided the routes frequented by adventurers and ventured into the fog.

After spending most of the day, they arrived at the stronghold. Elise jumped onto the wall, looked around, and made sure no one was there. Eric activated the mechanism, and the three of them went underground.

“This time… no, next time we leave, we don’t need to completely shut down the mechanisms here,” Eric said as he turned on the lights in the underground space.

"Are you planning to leave this place to someone else?" Molly asked.

"After all, we don't need it anymore."

“That’s true…” Molly looked at the underground space, which was much emptier than when she discovered it, “Giving it away for free feels a bit like a loss. I won’t even hear a thank you.”

Apart from Leonard and his group who were the first to discover the place, no one knew that there was such a safe and hidden underground space outside the ruined city.

“Then you can hope we run into a group of normal people after we get out,” Eric said, heading towards the second basement level. “That way we’ll hear ‘thank you.’”

They stayed there for one night, and when they left the next day, Eric sealed off the surface mechanism completely, because they would have to come back at least once more—or perhaps two or three times if they were unlucky and still couldn't find the underground church.

The stronghold is located in the southeast corner of the ruined city. There is still a large area of ​​ruins on the ground, so it is easy to find. However, the location of the underground cathedral is much more obscure.

Based on the rough map in his mind, Eric only knew that it was east of the ruined city, slightly north of due east, and he could only guess at the exact distance based on his intuition.

However, he wasn't in a hurry. He remembered the relative locations of the underground cathedral and other dungeons, and finding any other dungeon that had already been explored would greatly narrow down the search area.

And this search took up most of the day.

By the afternoon, through the discovery of several copies, Eric had basically pinpointed the area where the underground cathedral was located.

Standing on the ruins, Eric closed his eyes and drew a few lines on the map in his mind. He opened his eyes and pointed to his left, "I'm sure, it's over here."

Molly looked at him. "That's what you just said too."

“There’s no way around it; when searching in this fog, the direction is bound to be a little off.” Eric opened his water bag and took a big gulp. “Let’s go.”

Elise took the water bag from him and took a sip.

After walking a little further away, she spoke up: "The people inside should dare to continue their actions by now."

Molly was taken aback. "What?"

“There was a group of people exploring under those ruins,” Eric said. “They went silent as soon as they heard us making noise, probably afraid of being discovered.”

Molly glanced back twice; the ruins behind her were almost invisible. "But we've already moved things there twice, hollowed it out completely?"

"They don't know."

"Pitiful."

"And there's always something left over." Eric thought for a moment and realized he couldn't remember anything at all—they had discovered and explored far too many dungeons first, and he was always more concerned with the mobile experience packs inside.

“The outpost was the cleanest,” Elise said. “The rest of the place, unless those good teammates sneak back to the ancient battlefield and explore it again, there’s something to pick up.”

As for the bad teammates, they are basically just targets to be picked up, and their corpses are left to rot on the ancient battlefield.

“You’ve made it so that prices in Northtown can’t go up anymore,” Molly said, grabbing Eric’s arm as she caught up with him.

"That only proves that the original price was inflated."

"Some people are jealous of you, but others truly hate you, like those merchants who hoard goods."

"Doing business is risky, and they should have realized that a long time ago."

Following the final determined direction, the three searched for about half an hour. Elise, who was walking on the right, suddenly noticed a stone pillar faintly visible in the mist on the right.

"Eric, over there!"

Eric looked over, his gaze piercing through the mist and landing on the solitary stone pillar. He knew with certainty, "That's it."

The three of them arrived at the three- or four-meter-tall stone pillar. Molly looked at it, then turned to Eric and asked, "It looks just like the stone pillar outside the Northtown Church?"

He nodded. "They seem to be a pair."

This place looks like an ordinary ruin, not very large, and there aren't even many high walls to block the wind. People who are forced to spend the night in the wild would generally not choose such a place.

In particular, some undead that seemed difficult to deal with roamed the ruins.

Elise drew her short sword, looked ahead, and leaned close to Eric. "Are these undead people from your church?"

“It shouldn’t be.” Eric also drew his misty longsword, a golden divine mark appearing on his forehead. “The underground entrance is sealed. These undead have wandered in from elsewhere.”

This means it needs to be cleaned thoroughly.

"Molly, get ready."

"Shall I come?"

“Hmm, that’s a lot,” Eric said.

Of course, the more practical reason is that these undead can no longer provide him with much experience, so it's better to let Elise and Molly consume them.

He rushed forward first, followed closely by Elise, while Molly found a relatively safe high spot, raised her staff, and waited.

"You don't need to follow me, just finish them off later."

“Alright.” Elise also slowed down and turned to attract the attention of the undead who hadn’t noticed him.

Eric circled the ruins, drawing the wandering undead behind him, and then led them in smaller circles, making them more and more concentrated.

"Molly!"

He shouted, and Molly immediately raised her staff and chanted a rather long incantation toward the area where the undead were most concentrated.

A fireball appeared out of thin air and gradually grew larger as it spun, quickly transforming from the size of a soccer ball into a giant fireball with a diameter of three to five meters. Wherever the flames passed, the undead were burned until their skin was torn and their bodies were involuntarily drawn towards the center of the fireball.

The fireball continued to grow larger.

With one kick after another, Eric kicked two of the undead that were lunging at Molly back into the flames. Feeling the increasingly intense heat, Eric continued to retreat, creating distance between himself and the flames.

Finally, the fireball expanded to its limit and exploded with a bang, turning into a towering pillar of fire that released all its light and heat. The smaller undead were even blasted into the sky by the flames.

As the flames subsided, dozens of the immortals were reduced to charred corpses, with few still able to move.

Smelling the nauseating stench of burning flesh, Elise rushed forward to finish them off one by one.

A foul odor wafted over, and Molly, helping Eric back to her side, couldn't help but gag.

"I think I'm pregnant."

"...You're carrying ashes, aren't you?"

"Hate!"

Elise quickly returned to this side, saying, "There are still a few survivors left over there."

“Never mind them.” Eric glanced at the few remaining soldiers in the distance who posed no threat anymore, then pinched her and Molly’s noses, casting a spell to block their scents. “The entrance to the underground cathedral is over here. Let’s look for it.”

"You don't know exactly where it is either?" Molly asked.

"Hmm." The entrance to the underground cathedral dungeon that Eric had challenged was already opened by the church knights of Northtown Monastery.

The three began searching through the ruins.

Elise jumped onto the broken wall, looked down for a while, and pointed to one of the spots. "If the ruins on the ground are also church-like structures, I think that should be the entrance to the underground."

The place she pointed to was near the stone pillar. Eric went over to take a look. The stone pillar was weathered and pitted, but he didn't see any mechanism similar to a lamp holder on its surface.

After carefully circling around, Eric discovered a very shallow engraving of the image of the goddess Yera on the stone pillar.

He reached out and pressed it, but there was no reaction and he didn't feel any divine power. When he turned around, he found that Molly and Elise were both looking at him.

"Is it because you're no longer a virgin and have broken a taboo that you can't open the church's mechanisms?" Molly asked.

"..."

Elise asked, "Do we need to use some kind of magic or chant some incantation to open the mechanism?" "I'd like to know too," Eric said, scratching his head.

That's how troublesome it is to reclaim land; although the harvest is plentiful, the troubles are just as numerous.

“Let’s try casting a spell,” Molly suggested. “Let this pillar feel your magic… divine power fluctuations or something. Anyway, many mages set up mechanisms like that.”

This was also Eric's plan; he followed the inscription on the stone pillar and performed the simplest of prayers.

With the buff activated, he released his grip and discovered that the divine inscriptions on the stone pillar had also lit up.

"It's really useful."

The mark on Keira lit up for a while, then dimmed again, and there was no movement in the ruins.

“Let’s try casting a powerful divine spell,” Molly suggested again.

"Well……"

Eric hesitated for a moment.

Having studied at the monastery for two years, he had mastered quite a few advanced divine spells, but all of them that he could cast were buffs he applied to himself, and they all consumed very little energy.

Aside from these, the most energy-consuming divine spell is the advanced healing spell.

He gripped his sword, pulled it slightly, and cut a bloody gash in his palm. Then, while continuously casting healing spells, he pressed it against the stone pillar.

Molly and Elise frowned as they watched, and as he fully healed the wound on his hand, the Yera inscription on the stone pillar shone brightly.

“It should be about time…” Molly took his hand and looked at it, then looked at the stone pillar.

Suddenly, a beam of white light shot out from the top of the stone pillar, piercing through the thick fog and shooting into the sky.

Meanwhile, outside the North Town Church, the stone pillars at the entrance seemed to receive some kind of signal, and the same image of the goddess Yera appeared, immediately attracting the attention of adventurers passing by.

"Sister Lily, a miracle!"

"What……"

"A miracle has occurred on the stone pillars at the church entrance! Come out and see for yourself!"

In the center of the ancient battlefield, before Eric and his companions, the ground of the ruins suddenly began to shake, and with a low rumble, a stepped passage appeared.

"No wonder this forbidden area is outside the ruined city and no one is guarding it... Whether we can find it or not is one thing, whether we can open it or not is another."

Eric looked at the passage leading underground and said to Molly and Elise, "I'll go down and take a look first. You two wait up here."

The two nodded, and he jumped down into the passage, first firing an illumination ball into the darkness below, then slowly descending the stairs.

He was quite familiar with this passage, although it was nowhere near as long or deep in "The Thorn Soul Crown," where it was estimated to be dozens of meters deep.

Before Eric could reach the bottom, the ruins above him began to shake again, making the same noise as before.

"Eric, the ground is closing again!" Molly shouted from above.

“The inscriptions on the stone pillars have also faded,” Elise added.

As the passage was about to close, the two looked at each other, and without further hesitation, jumped down together.

The low rumble continued for a while, and when it stopped, the passage above the three of them was completely sealed off.

Using the light from the illumination sphere, the three looked at each other from head to toe.

“You can open this mechanism from down there, right?” Molly looked at him.

Eric returned to the top with a serious expression, groped around on the closed floor above for a while, and said, "It seems like we can't get out."

“…Are you kidding me?” Elise looked at him.

Eric shook his head, took a few steps back, and began to feel around on the stone wall beside the staircase passage. Then he shook his head again, "I can't find any mechanisms inside either."

“The floor above us is about this thick,” Molly gestured with two fingers. “A full-force attack should be able to break through it.”

“That’s a last resort.” Eric thought for a moment, then turned to look down into the passage. “Let’s go, explore inside first, and then we can think about breaking down the door when we come out.”

"What if we were being chased out?"

"That means we deserve to die here."

"..."

The two followed and went down the steps. When they reached the bottom, another heavy stone door appeared before them.

Molly was somewhat relieved by this, "So there was another door down there."

At least we don't have to worry about the undead inside chasing after us.

The mechanism to open the door was very conspicuous, right next to him. Eric activated the mechanism, and the stone door slowly rose with a dull thud, leading to a dark passage. At the end of the passage was the underground cathedral that had been sealed for hundreds of years.

Eric fired a ball of light into the depths, illuminating the passageway where no undead remained.

“I’ll go in first and scout ahead,” he said to Molly and Elise. Molly grabbed the mechanism on the wall and told him to explore as he pleased.

"Don't worry, this door won't close by itself."

Eric drew his weapon and stepped into the passageway.

The underground cathedral had no traps, only some protective mechanisms, such as the stone door behind him. After all, six or seven hundred years ago, this was a place where believers frequently worshipped.

The path beneath his feet was the same path once trodden by human believers who were still under the control of the demons.

As he neared the end of the passage, Eric heard some rustling noises coming from the other side of the corner.

He moved quietly, nestled at the corner of the passage, and fired a charged illumination ball into the passage.

The darkness was dispelled, and before him stood a tall gatehouse unlike any other church. In front of the gatehouse was a high and wide staircase, below which lurked a large number of undead, and the sounds he heard were coming from them.

After staring at them for a while, Eric turned and beckoned Elise and Molly to come in.

The two quickly squeezed next to him, looking inside.

"Is this a church?" Molly looked inside, then at him. "What a strange structure."

“This is the style of the early church, with a gatehouse in the front, a courtyard in the middle, and the main church building in the back,” Eric said. “It was popular for less than a hundred years, and after that, all the churches you see elsewhere became like this. This is the only one that has been preserved.”

"Is what you're looking for inside?" Elise asked.

Eric nodded, feeling a bit of a headache. The actual situation was much more complicated than he had anticipated. The number of undead outside the gatehouse alone was far greater than he remembered.

To navigate through the complex structures and find the divine skill book placed before the statue of Yera at the deepest part of the church, the risk is only high.

"Let's take one step at a time."

Eric observed that these undead appeared to be weak and there was no need to forcibly eliminate them.

"You all hide well."

He took out a few sonic bombs, walked a short distance along the wall, and then threw them forcefully to the left of the steps of the gatehouse.

The black bullet swiftly streaked through the air, landing precisely where Eric intended it to, before exploding with a series of crackling sounds.

"..."

In the enclosed underground, the sound of exploding bullets echoed back, much louder than on the surface, like a hundred thousand explosions of the Earth's Red Earth blasting indoors. Eric shrank back and returned to the end of the passage.

"The noise is so loud, it feels like even the deepest undead can hear it." The explosions continued, and Elise could only speak loudly into his ear.

"I should have thrown in fewer. Let's see how it goes."

Eric fired another flare, watching as the undead outside converged on the source of the sound.

After waiting a while, several more seemingly higher-ranking undead emerged from the gatehouse and slowly descended the steps.

“They’re all wearing church robes…and they haven’t rotted away after all these centuries.” Molly stared intently at them.

Eric, however, stared into the gatehouse.

Are there more undead drawn here?

The sonic bombs didn't actually have 100,000 explosions, so they wouldn't last long. He took a breath and tugged at the two of them.

"Follow me, move closer first, hide on the right side of the steps, and act according to the situation."

(End of this chapter)