Once upon a time there was a greedy snake.

Chapter 158 The Serpent God's Warriors Eager to Make a Difference

"That's enough."

Habisa didn't wipe the blood off his sword until he cut off the ear from the last corpse.

Counting the green monster ears strung together with rope in his hands, Habisa admired the strongman Setka even more—no wonder he had divine weapons and reached level 30, yet still lost to Setka.

Just look at this meticulously planned arrangement; they even specially arranged for a group of traitors who betrayed the Serpent God to come and die. The biggest problem was solved perfectly just like that.

"Is there anything Sethka couldn't have thought of?"

Recalling the match he lost, Habisa felt that his defeat was entirely deserved.

"It just so happens that these traitors also brought some weapons and armor. We can disguise them as a scout team sent out by the Serpent God's army... Being able to kill a scout team of dozens of people by oneself should be considered a great achievement."

Habisa didn't really care about achievements. After all, killing more or less was just a way to pretend to be loyal. Obviously, the sun priests' suspicion of these traitors wouldn't waver because of one or two great achievements.

“One or two merits are not that important. What can truly earn our trust is time.”

Habisa remembered that Setka had once told him this.

Yes, Setka had even considered how to gain the trust of the priests.

As time goes by, new things will always happen. With more and more new things happening, both the priests and the warriors of the sun god gradually get used to the return of these traitors.

"In other words, these ears should be used sparingly..."

At that moment, Habisa felt he understood what Setka meant.

However, this time, he did not intend to continue to follow Setka's instructions.

Simply because he does need some achievements right now.

He needed some achievements to give him some authority in front of those priests. He needed to prove himself to earn the serious attention of the supervising priest. In short, he needed to make his words carry some weight in order to get his calligraphy practice book and charcoal pencil back.

With this in mind, Habisa returned to the camp with the string of ears and went to find the supervising priest.

"These are the people I killed today."

Habisa threw all the ears onto the table.

"Is that enough proof of my loyalty?"

"This……"

The war priest was startled when he saw the long string of dozens of bloody ears on the table.

Indeed, he did have a noble priesthood, but it was terrifying that he could bring back dozens of ears from just one trip—but that wasn't the scariest part. The scariest part was that Habisa brought back all of those dozens of ears by himself.

If a normal five-person team were to achieve this result, it would be difficult, but at least it would be within the realm of understanding.

Going out alone, even with the Serpent Demon army on high alert, he still managed to kill dozens of enemy soldiers and even fend off assassination attempts from other groups...

Yes, other teams will definitely target Habisa; even the war priest can see that.

Therefore, the supervising priest could better appreciate the true value of those dozens of ears.

"That was indeed loyalty, too much loyalty."

The supervising priest instinctively looked at Habisa's hands, fearing that one of his hands might have been placed on the hilt of his sword at some point.

Fortunately, Habisa did not do anything dangerous.

He was simply stating his own demands.

"I just want my calligraphy practice book and pen back. Even if I go to the front lines, I will still practice my prayers praising the sun god."

Habiza gave the same reason.

This time, however, the supervising priest was not too negligent.

"What you want... is not impossible, but your equipment is not under my jurisdiction, so there's no point in you asking me about it."

After a moment's thought, the supervising priest offered another solution.

"If you just want to practice calligraphy, why don't you buy some papyrus paper from me?"

Habisa naturally didn't buy papyrus.

He just wanted his notebook and pen back.

However, the war priest also frankly said that such a thing could not be done. After all, the equipment of Habisa and the other traitors had already been sent to the holy city of Heliopolis. According to the war priest, it was to be sent to the holy city for inspection to see if there was any evil magic of the serpent demon hidden inside.

"When everything has been purified by the glory of the sun god, what is yours will still be yours."

The supervising priest said this. "Don't you believe in the sun god?"

Habisa naturally believed in the sun god, so he had no choice but to continue fighting on the front lines.

Habisa thought that as long as he could achieve more merits, he could wash away the stigma of being a traitor and, like those warriors who had made great contributions, have the opportunity to go to the holy city of Heliopolis to receive rewards.

This is also what he needs to do on this infiltration mission. He really needs to make enough great contributions to win the priests' trust and be qualified to access those secrets that ordinary soldiers cannot access.

"So, how can one earn merit..."

Habisa couldn't help but think of the strongman Setka. If that bold and meticulous strongman were by his side, he would surely come up with some good ideas.

But right now, he can only rely on himself.

Habisa couldn't come up with any good ideas on his own. After his trip to the Serpent God's kingdom, he was no longer able to deal with the green-skinned monsters who only wanted to protect their homeland. So, his first thought was to rob the other Sun God warriors.

Before the other Sun God warriors return with the ears to complete their mission, intercept and kill them in the combat zone, then fake their deaths as if they were killed by the Serpent Demon army, and bring the ears back to complete the mission.

It sounds like a good idea, but there are problems with its practical implementation. Putting aside whether the few ears he managed to steal would be enough to complete his task for a day, he simply couldn't bring himself to kill those Sun God warriors who were also farmers.

If killing those green-skinned monsters who cherish their homeland is like attacking your future self, then killing these Sun God Warriors is like killing your past self.

Despite having mastered extraordinary skills, Habisa was astonished to find that he seemed unable to kill anyone.

"What the hell is wrong with me?"

Habisa felt like he must be going crazy. How could he make such a simple task so difficult?

He couldn't kill anyone, which meant he couldn't complete his mission of infiltration. It also meant he had received the Snake God's favor for nothing, but couldn't do anything for the Snake God.

This made Habisa anxious. He even felt that something was wrong with his mind. Perhaps the great serpent god could give him an answer, but obviously, the serpent god was thousands of miles away.

However, while Habisa was still struggling with this, the war priest who had previously blocked him approached him.

"You're quite skilled, do me a favor."

The supervising priest said this to Habisa.

At first, Habisa thought it was something related to war, since the only place where he could use his skills was on the battlefield—but to Habisa's surprise, the supervising priest wanted him to handle a private matter.

“My wife’s brother has been very unruly lately. Not only is he taking advantage of me to get benefits everywhere, but he even wants me to arrange a position for his woman… If it were just that, it wouldn’t be so bad. The key is that the woman that idiot found is my secret lover.”

The war priest's face turned extremely grim when he spoke of these matters.

“I will tell you where he is, go and teach him a lesson, beat him hard enough, preferably break one of his legs and cripple him for life, so that he can settle down. But he is, after all, my wife’s brother, and I can’t just let him die there… It’s hard to find the right balance, which is why I came to you.”

"Just...this?"

Habisa was stunned.

So you came all this way to see him just for such a trivial matter?

Since it was a private matter and did not involve loyalty to the sun god, Habiza naturally agreed. As for the process of doing it, it was a trivial matter and there was nothing else to say about it—so two days later, the war priest's brother-in-law quietly broke his right leg.

No one knew how the leg was broken, not even the war priest's brother-in-law. The young man had simply bumped into someone on the street and was unable to stand up on the spot.

The person who hit the person quickly disappeared into the street without leaving a trace.

As for Habisa, all people know is that he went on a mission to the Serpent Demon camp, supposedly to gather some secret intelligence—anyway, after Habisa returned, the supervising priest gave him a great credit.

This allowed Habisa to be promoted smoothly. At least now he no longer had to wear that old set of cloth clothes all day long, but could put on several pieces of armor instead.

However, Habisa wasn't thinking about the armor at the moment; he was still immersed in immense shock.

"Is this what you call making a contribution?"

Habisa was still in a daze. All of this was beyond his expectations. As a farmer, he had always thought that meritorious service meant fighting on the battlefield. He never imagined there would be another aspect to it.
"But... this actually seems like an opportunity?"

Thinking of this, Habisa's gaze toward the war priest became even more fervent.

"Do you have any other instructions?"

"Nothing."

The supervising priest thought for a moment and realized that he didn't seem to have any other personal matters to attend to recently.

However, Habisa was not satisfied with this answer. Without even a single instruction, how could he do his job or get promoted?

"You have to have something to do, even if you don't have anything to do."

With that in mind, Habisa began his plan to make a name for himself.

(End of this chapter)