The victory of a religion in another world is so easy?

But now it seems that this conjecture was completely wrong; this divine messenger was terrifyingly powerful.

The white-haired elf who had fought him before was now lying helplessly on the ground, covering her mouth with her hand. Whenever Rand lashed her back with his whip, she would let out a suppressed, low moan.

Seeing this scene, Tanl finally realized that this place had become a dangerous place unsuitable for him.

But after he stepped away for a while, he thought again that something was wrong. Tan'er wasn't really a cultist's lackey; he was an undercover agent for the Torch Church, a righteous paladin!

Now, although he felt that the elf must have started the trouble, shouldn't a righteous paladin stop such an evil scene?

Before he even arrived here to infiltrate, he had naturally imagined such a scene.

In his vision, it should be about outwitting and outmaneuvering cultists, constantly maneuvering them, and then cleverly protecting the innocent from the clutches of the evil cultists.

Or, in order to complete the mission, they might painfully violate their own principles, watch the innocent lives perish, and then diligently complete the mission, uncover the secrets of the cult's hideout, and finally wipe out all the cult members to avenge the innocent.

He had even imagined the scene of his heroic sacrifice after being discovered.

But even now that he has left the sacrificial chamber, he is still hesitant about whether to disturb Rand's interest.

He had a feeling that the divine messenger and the elf being whipped seemed quite happy, and he really shouldn't have been there as a third wheel.

Just as he hesitated at the door of the sacrificial chamber, Rand came out of the room, picked at his fingers somewhat awkwardly, and said, "Ahem, it's not what you think."

Tan'er hesitated for a moment, unsure how to respond. After thinking for a while, he decided to change the subject: "My Lord, the tax collector has left, but unfortunately, he still managed to collect about 1 gold coin worth of land rent."

In this world, 1 gold coin is equal to 100 silver coins, but this exchange rate is meaningless to the villagers, who almost never have the opportunity to trade such a large amount as gold coins.

Rand indicated that he understood, but seeing that Tanl had misunderstood and not knowing how to explain, he simply left it at that and returned to the house.

At this moment, Lysa stood up unsteadily: "You pervert, guh!"

Lysa

Gender: Female

Ability: Golden Eyes (Expandable)

Now, due to the tax officials' extortion, the den's economy is in even worse shape, and that's not even the worst of it.

The second hideout was a disguise; even if it was heavily taxed, it wouldn't necessarily lead to its demise.

However, other villages have no chance to disguise themselves, and once they too are subjected to such exorbitant taxes as the second den, they will be exposed.

Then it would be difficult to survive.

Moreover, as far as he knew, a batch of taxes should have been collected before the war began.

It's hard to imagine the impact this will have on people who are collecting taxes again after such a short time.

What do people who can't survive do? The robbers who raided the hideout before are a case in point.

All further trade with other villages must cease immediately, and then we must focus on training our combat capabilities.

Now that it is wartime, even if the serfs revolt, they will never be able to attack a castle guarded by an army, so the target can only be the neighboring villages.

Clearly, location number two is also susceptible to attack.

Seeing that Rand seemed to be thinking about something, the elf Lysa waited quietly until Rand turned his gaze back to her, then she shyly moved closer.

When Rand saw the elf come closer, he pinched her cheek, leaving a red mark. In fact, he had always been wary of this elf, even now.

This elf is too easy to give away, making Rand feel a little unreal.

Are top-level professionals commonplace? Why not enjoy themselves somewhere else? Why come to this remote mountain village to give away freebies? It's truly incomprehensible.

However, since the hideout was under great crisis, he didn't intend to dwell on it too much and decided to give her a task to test her ingredients first.

"Can you draw maps?" Rand took out a piece of parchment with a simple map of the surrounding area drawn on it.

At this point, the only resources near the hideout are the cultivated wheat fields and the piles of rubble near the Minotaur's lair that can be used as quarries.

The suitable hunting grounds have not been explored.

It's a pity that time is tight now, otherwise direct breeding would be much more efficient.

The elf nodded, never expecting to be assigned work on her very first day after being captured by this evil sadist.

Although she wasn't entirely satisfied with not being forced to work like an animal, she still understood the principle that everything should be done step by step.

However! Lysa isn't some kind of freak who's easy to take; she was only captured because she was subjected to evil magic by the wicked cult's messenger.

This does not mean that the strong-willed woman would simply give in and obey this pervert's orders.

"Waaah, this level of punishment, ouch~" She gasped as Rand pinched her cheek harder. "This level of punishment is not enough to make me help you with your work."

Rand has gradually come to understand the idea behind this freebie elf: being unyielding and disobedient, which translates to the reward not being enough.

Thinking of this, Rand picked up the whip again, pushed Lysa to the ground, and whipped her buttocks.

"Are you obedient?"

"Waaah, I won't listen."

Crack!

"now what?"

"I will not give in!"

"If you don't agree, I won't smoke."

"Waaah, okay, I promise you!"

Seeing that Rand was unwilling to continue, the elf coughed lightly twice, then stood up, took the parchment from Rand's hand, pushed open the door of the shrine, and left.

Outside their hideout, seeing the elf with whip marks on his body emerge, Serai and Seras admired Land's strength even more.

They had heard of elves, monsters like this. Although elves were relatively rare in the north, the historical legacy of the Hundred Years' War between humans and elves still instilled fear in ordinary people at the sight of these pointed-eared creatures. And now, it seemed that this elf had been conquered by the divine messenger.

However, they had another matter to attend to. They wanted to avenge Tan'er's humiliation, but they were worried that their limited intellect might lead to the destruction of Tan'er's efforts. Therefore, they wanted to consult the divine messenger, who was the wisest person in the world and would surely come up with a perfect solution.

Chapter 13 The Amazing Abilities and the Beginning of the Conflict

After watching the elf leave, Rand returned to the altar.

He seemed to sense something when he sacrificed himself, but he wasn't sure.

Cut open your palm. The sacrifice to the goddess of abundance requires blood as a medium. Actually, pig's blood would work the same way, but since the wound will heal after the sacrifice, it is more convenient to use your own blood.

With practiced recitation of the sacrificial prayer, Rand arrived in the kingdom of the Mother Goddess.

The Mother Goddess reached out one of her tentacles, the tip of which was wrapped around a dazzling ruby, and offered it to Rand.

As if compressed with boundless vitality, this perfect ruby ​​seemed to pulsate along with the earth.

Back on the altar, a new line of text appeared on the character panel in front of Rand.

Rand

Sex: Male

Ability: Sacrifice immunity

Blessing 1: The Black Goat Mother's thirst (has reached its limit)

Blessing 2: Desire to Share (7-day temporary)

Willpower: N (Expandable)

Although it was only a brief encounter in the divine realm, Rand still roughly understood the Mother Goddess's meaning: other cultists had appeared nearby, and the Mother Goddess wanted him to take something from these cultists.

Does that mean he really became a divine messenger? Now let's see who dares to say that I, Rand, am a fake divine messenger!

However, since she didn't pursue the matter of Rand's previous exploitation at all, Rand couldn't be sure whether the current behavior of the goddess of abundance was out of instinct or reason.

Rand hurriedly left the sacrificial chamber, intending to test the temporary ability the Mother Goddess had lent him.

Seeing the messenger's hurried manner, Thraley and Thras, who were lingering at the entrance of the sacrificial chamber, did not want to disturb him immediately.

They weren't in a hurry. They wouldn't forget this grudge anytime soon, and that tax collector wouldn't leave the baronial territory anytime soon either.

Moreover, they had no intention of acting on their own and planned to consult the divine messenger when he returned.

Rand arrived outside the hideout, where the strange blessing of the Black Goat Mother's Thirst brought him abundant vitality, a strong physique, and passable senses.

He randomly selected a wild rabbit foraging for food in his field of vision, aimed at it, and then used his second blessing—the thirst for sharing.

The moment Rand used his ability, the hare seemed to be frozen for a moment, then suddenly became frenzied, searching around for something in vain before rushing towards a nearby tree trunk.

Half an hour later, Rand looked at the rabbit's bloody and mangled lower body, scratched his head somewhat awkwardly, and finally understood what the effect of his Will N was.

Once the desire of this so-called "Black Goat Mother" reaches its peak, it seems to bring about a strong reproductive drive.

His will exempted him from this side effect, so he still appears to be a normal person.

However, once this blessing can be shared with other life forms, those without sufficient willpower will be overwhelmed by the endless desire to reproduce and lose all reason.

Although the corresponding enhancements are shared along with the desire to reproduce, it is clearly still a powerful negative curse for those with insufficient willpower.

In game terms, this means enhancing a unit's attributes, but also causing that unit to lose control, become indiscriminate in its attacks, and exhibit a significantly increased aggressiveness.

That's incredible! That's absolutely amazing!

Rand felt that he was now invincible.

……

At this moment, in the village of Takina, after the baron's tax collectors had levied heavy taxes, everyone's faces were not very good.

The village chief, wearing boots, stood in the center of the crowd, completely unlike his previous humble self when he knelt and begged the tax collector to reduce taxes. Now, he stood tall and looked down at the villagers who looked up at him.

Seeing that everyone had gathered around, he, as the only person in the village who could do math, spoke up with despairing data: "Even if we reduce our daily food intake by half, we won't survive the summer, let alone until the wheat ripens in the fall."

The audience erupted in uproar. Although they didn't have much mathematical knowledge, their long-standing life experience told them that the village chief was right.

Even if all the food were concentrated and precisely distributed, it would be impossible to survive the summer. In fact, even to survive the spring, which is already halfway through, we would have to be very careful with our resources.

If they don't prepare early, they will definitely starve to death before the harvest.

The village chief waited quietly for the villagers to start their noisy discussion for a long time before signaling them to be quiet and continuing, "Normal farming can no longer support our survival, so we need some other methods."

He touched the rough calluses on his hands, which were caused by farm work and also by practicing wielding weapons.

He was originally a bandit, but he retired due to old age and joined a village as a villager. He gradually rose to become the village chief through his own abilities.

I had hoped to settle down and live a peaceful life farming, but now it seems that opportunity is gone.