Mercenary Wars

Chapter 148 Mortal Skills

To pray with the sword, one must first hold the sword, and secondly, the object of the prayer must be the god who holds the sword. If one is not the one who holds the sword, or the god is not the god who holds the sword, or if the content of the prayer is completely unrelated to the sword, it cannot be considered a prayer with the sword.

In theory, one can pray to any god who wields a sword. However, in practice, almost everyone chooses their prayer from the name of their chosen one.

It is rare for someone to have mastered swordsmanship to the extreme and yet not have a single holy name derived from the god of the sword, to the point that they have to pray to a god of the sword who is unrelated to them.

After all, gods wielding swords are quite common.

Just like those who wield swords are also very common.

To some extent, it can be understood that it is because the gods like to use swords that mortals also like to use swords.

Among the name-givers of the five sacred verses of Gaucano are the gods who wield swords, and there is more than one.

First up is Sunderland, the Wind Prince.

According to the description in "The Pukert Mystic Compendium", the sword wielded by the Wind Prince Sunderland is called "Thunder Fury". It is full of wind and thunder and has a cool design, so it is often incorporated into various stories by bards and is extremely well-known.

The goddess of vengeance, Erinise, also wields a sword.

However, compared to the Wind Prince, the sword wielded by the Goddess of Retribution is much simpler, with an unremarkable design and an extremely simple name: "Reckoning." In her right hand, she also holds a set of scales, similarly simple in style, named "Fairness."

Now, Gaucanor can take up his sword and pray to Sunderland or Erinise whenever he wants.

The most common prayer is to shamefully shout something like "Give me strength"—so the heroes in epics who shout all the time are not just being childish.

Of course, there's no such thing as a free lunch.

To continue receiving divine assistance, one must fulfill certain divine pronouncements; otherwise, one will be collectively "blacklisted" by the gods, and one's prayers will no longer be answered.

If the act of taking advantage of someone for free is egregious, or if the target of that freebie is an evil deity, it may incur divine punishment.

Therefore, prayers should not be used indiscriminately.

Gaucano carefully read the "Illustrated Guide to Pukert Mysticism," especially the sections related to his own holy name.

In fact, this book only records a small part of gods and demons.

However, the namesakes of his holy names are all of high rank, so they are all recorded in detail—except for "Edacondeanus".

Sages have always been the most mysterious type of name givers, with very little information available, and they do not seem to belong to the category of "gods." At least, Pukert never used words like "god" or "demons" to refer to sages in his book.

Whenever a sage is mentioned, Pukert always refers to him as the most neutral and universal term, "the namer."

Even today, Gaucano cannot be 100% certain that "Edacondeanus" is the name of a sage, because the only criterion he can use is: if a verse of a sage's name is very long and its blessing effect is similar to improving intelligence, and no information can be found about it, it is most likely derived from a sage.

Pukert offered his conjecture, arguing that the names of sages fundamentally follow rules different from those of ordinary names.

For example, whether it is a god, a demon, a high dragon, a titan, etc., their name recipients will all consider themselves believers. Only the sages, their name recipients never consider themselves believers of the sages.

For example, even the lowest-ranking demigods will issue oracles, but sages never do.

The wise are more indifferent than the most indifferent demons, and no condition can trigger their divine assistance; the wise are more tolerant than the most tolerant gods, and no condition can trigger their divine punishment.

Pukert even suspected that the Sage's name was not a name at all, but something that resembled a name.

After reading the sparsely described "Sage's Chapter," Gao Jiano continued reading the rest of the encyclopedia.

What surprised him most was Alexstrasza.

"Alexstrasza, the Red Dragon Queen, her power is... youth and love!" Gaugano's eyes widened. The dragons of the world of Faralore were already on the verge of extinction during the era of the Blood Elf Empire, therefore people knew very little about them.

Prior to this, Gaugano only vaguely knew that Alexstrasza, as a high red dragon, had authority and "life" in common.

Now, the "Illustrated Guide to the Mysticism of Pukert" reveals a clearer answer: Alexistrasza's power is actually "youth and love"!
This reminded him of the message he heard when he received "Alexstraszasen": May you obtain something more precious than youth.

Gaucano fell into deep thought...

Much later, he took a look at his own panel.

[Constitution: 28/46] [Mental Strength: 29/46]

Strength: 28/46 Intelligence: 26/46

[Agility: 29/46]

[Experience: 4070/6000]

[Level 5 Swordsmanship] [Level 4 Archery] [Level 4 Herbalism] [Level 4 Feign Death]...

There are also three level four skills or crafts—according to Pukert's definition in the encyclopedia, these skills strictly belong to "mortal crafts".

For high-level players, these mortal skills are not very useful in themselves, but once they are mastered to the maximum level, the corresponding prayer skills are still very valuable.

So which aspect should we focus on improving next?
Gaucano first ruled out archery.

None of his name-givers were gods of archery, and such gods were relatively rare. Even if there were, he didn't intend to prioritize improving archery skills. After all, archery and swordsmanship were both mortal combat arts, and the uses of prayers would inevitably overlap significantly.

Feigning death...

Gaucano was somewhat tempted.

After mastering this skill, can I pray to the "God of Death"?
Then, can we pray to prolong our lives?
But this skill is not easy to master.

Gao Jiano had inquired many times and found that, at least in the entire Southsea Town, there was only one person who seemed to have mastered the art of feigning death to its fullest extent, and many people did not believe it.

In contrast, there are at least ten people in South Sea Town who have mastered swordsmanship to the highest level.

Herbalism seems to be a better option.

Although it's not easy to practice, it's easier than feigning death, and one of the names of Gaucanor is a related god—the Earth Mother Serazane.

He also originally planned to study herbalism for a long time and eventually master the ability to make remedies.

After careful consideration, Gaucano finally decided to focus on improving herbalism as his next skill.

Without hesitation, he quickly immersed himself in the study of herbal medicine, reading various herbal books and trying to make all sorts of unfamiliar or even completely unknown medicines.

With time and effort invested, my proficiency in herbalism began to slowly improve.

However, the environment has also changed.

On that very day, as Gao Gano was returning from buying herbs from the Hunter's Guild and the Apothecary's Guild, the increasingly lively crowd near the bulletin board immediately caught his attention.

Two guards stood beside the bulletin board, responsible for maintaining order and explaining the situation to the illiterate.

One of the guards shouted in a passionate voice, "Pious Mosas, the moment you have been waiting for has finally arrived! King Louis and the Duke have given the order that our revenge against the heretics shall begin!"

(End of this chapter)