I was an apprentice in Ferren

Chapter 127 Preaching
A fire burned down the cave that held filth and sin, and the two hurried down the mountain in the last rays of the sun, hoping to get back before sunset.

As she was tying up the weapons, Deva saw the magical tent in her spatial bag. For a moment, she thought of staying there for the night, but reason made her swallow her words.

Although camping is romantic, especially after a great victory, there might be something waiting for her in Beer Town, and the matter of the disguised quest initiator luring and killing adventurers is also serious and cannot be delayed.

This was the first time she had ever encountered something so heinous. In her mind, only demons or devils would be so despicable. It was still unknown what part of the Adventurers' Guild was responsible for this incident, but at the very least, the assessment of dereliction of duty was entirely justified.

However, blaming the local guild seems a bit too harsh. There are fewer adventurers these days, and the guilds in Beer Town aren't any major forces; they're mostly retired adventurers who have found new jobs. Guilds usually apply to the town council for funding and issue missions after confirming that the threat is real. In fact, getting this much money is already quite a feat.

In fact, the issue of bounties for adventurers' quests has always been highly controversial.

Villages are often left with no other option. Some of the local militia members are not even professionals. They can only deal with goblin-like troubles by sheer numbers and the guidance of instructors. When they encounter stronger monsters, they can only rely on walls for defense. The village pools its resources to recruit adventurers, and then takes the building permits to the town for approval to prevent the village from going bankrupt.

However, towns generally have their own military forces. Even smaller towns usually have one or two thousand people. The military town of Beer Town, with its eight thousand people, even has the financial resources to hire professionals as guards. Although the town's military camp is mostly empty and is only used for temporary rest during recruitment and demobilization, there are still nearly 300 people stationed there in peacetime, serving as the second line of defense for this northwestern gateway.

Although not all 300 people are professionals, more than half are. The highest-ranking officer stationed in the area is a high-level mage. Under such circumstances, the surrounding monsters could be easily crushed by simply sending out troops to patrol. Why spend extra money to hire adventurers to deal with the monsters? This question has been discussed many times, but there is still no answer.

Anyway, the Yarlung council is willing to give money, and the local finance department will approve it as needed. As for anything else, if you don't understand, don't ask. Just implement it.

In a country with a clear hierarchy, where even a person's intelligence can be measured quantitatively, it would be incredibly foolish to ridicule the governing policies of a group of leaders with extraordinary wisdom based on one's own mortal understanding; very few people would do that.

Of course, it's okay to speculate, but the result is that you can't convince yourself or others, and in the end, it just turns into complaining and asking local finances to tighten up even more.

In Deva's memory, the last time the Harua army was mobilized was five years ago in the major event known as the Dragon Rebellion. The legendary high-level artifact, the Nether Scroll, suddenly appeared in the old capital of Harua, causing the Dragon Cult, the Five-Colored Dragons, and the Metal Dragons to fight fiercely in the old capital.

The situation was critical. Harua's airships and mage forces unusually mobilized an entire legion, and even the Secret Fire Knights of the Church of the Mysterious Lady were dispatched to try and find that precious artifact.

But the outcome was not good. The metal dragons suffered heavy casualties, and a blue dragon family in the Nath Desert was almost wiped out. In the end, a young female dragon known as Bloodfall took the artifact scroll and fled to the north. Meanwhile, a floating ship in Harua was robbed by an evil red dragon named Anthony, who stripped all the soldiers and mages on board of their possessions and equipment, causing losses of nearly a million gold coins.

Although there were no casualties, and the evil dragons that came to steal the Nether Scroll either died or escaped, such a terrible thing happened on their own territory. As a result, the squad was disbanded, and everyone was discharged on the spot. Now, the army uses this incident as a negative example to repeatedly rub salt into the wound every year. It can be said that they have been nailed to the pillar of shame.

Does that mean that not deploying troops results in poor combat effectiveness? Naturally, combat effectiveness will suffer if there's a prolonged lack of real combat training.
Thinking of this, Deva couldn't help but look at DuPont, who was leading the way.

Although DuPont looks very young, because of his abilities and the fact that he often gives her advice, she always overlooks the fact that he is 4 years younger than her.

She was younger than me, yet she was able to defeat four trolls and a level 6 ranger all by herself. Her combat power was ridiculously exaggerated. If people believed it, they might even think she was the chosen one.

Thinking about this, Deva almost had the urge to convert DuPont to Christianity.

Compared to many world-renowned magic churches, the Moonlit Church is much more low-key. Their faith is more concentrated in the Silver Moon Federation of the North, and for a long time they have been affiliated with Shuni's church, cooperating with the church of the goddess of love to carry out missions.

There's nothing that can be done about it. Although Suren is one of the creator goddesses, she was persecuted by her evil sister Shar, and for a long time, Suren was a weak deity. She even became a subordinate goddess of the 'new goddess' Shuni. The church hardly took any initiative, and now it almost only cooperates with the churches of the Magic Lady and the Fire Lady to fight against the Night Lady. It can be said that it is not well-known in the mortal world. If Dupont joins the Moonlit Church, it may be able to revive once it truly grows up, and it may even become the chosen one of the Night Lady.

However, poaching followers from allies seems somewhat unethical, and the Moonshine Church's leadership is mostly female. Even if DuPont were to join, there's unlikely to be much room for advancement. From a mage's rational perspective, this possibility is quite low.
The paladin was preoccupied with gains and losses, while DuPont was examining his harvest.

The first is experience points.

The troll's challenge level is as high as 5, which is not within the range of his experience reduction. His experience points are around 1800, which can be described as extremely rich.

In addition, the ranger he killed also provided 3200 experience points, and the mage provided a whopping 4500, for a total of 14900 experience points.

The experience points given to him by the goblin are now only a few dozen per head. Including his previous experience points, DuPont's total experience points have now reached 20672/8000.

He is currently at level 9. If he distributes his points evenly, he could reach level 12 almost immediately.

However, DuPont hesitated.

As your overall level increases, the rewards from hunting low-level monsters become less and less, and their greatest use is probably in honing your combat skills.

However, he could spend some money in the training ground to even simulate the scene, which was much better than searching for monster dens in the wild, and it saved him time and the trouble of traveling.

The experience gained will be reduced if you reach level 7 based on the level difference. If you are level 12 and hunt dangerous monsters like trolls, the experience will be discounted, which is a losing proposition.

As for leveling up his mage, given the current increase in experience, even 20,000 experience points might not be enough to get him to level 6, so the improvement wouldn't be significant.

It's better to save this experience for now and add it later if you encounter problems you can't solve. This way, you can accumulate experience points faster.

However, the gains in terms of money and goods were greater this time.

The weapon has already been decided to be donated, but two space bags can be sold for around 5000 gold coins, and such sought-after items should sell very well on the black market without being subject to price gouging.

The prices of low-level armor are relatively average. A +1 light armor is only 200 gold, while chainmail is more expensive at over 300 gold. Cloaks should be able to be sold for around 400 gold each.

DuPont, on the other hand, planned to use the War Wand himself, which saved him 800 gold. The robe was dispensable to him; now that he was quite wealthy, wearing something from the dead would be unlucky. The Mask of Deception, however, might have a miraculous effect.

His stealth skills are very average. If he goes out to do bad things, he will probably still get caught if he just wears a mask. Relying on spell scrolls is both unstable and expensive. This thing is convenient, as he only needs to wear it. Of course, it is best to hide it from acquaintances.

(End of this chapter)