Goddess Kaleidoscope

The surrounding villagers, always eager for a good show, temporarily forgot about the Goddess's Christmas Festival and the sports meet, and joined in the commotion.

Seeing that things had escalated to this point, and that a peaceful resolution was virtually impossible, Rodriguez thought that since that was the case, it would be better for everyone to have a fair and square competition than to actually draw their knives and fight.

So Rodriguez came before Ludwig, first begging for his forgiveness, and then asking him to be a witness to this fair contest.

Lude was initially annoyed because these guys had caused trouble, turning the village sports meet he had worked so hard to prepare into this mess. Most of the villagers' attention was drawn to the knights' cursing, and they all gathered around in a flurry.

However, Lud then thought that since the key to collecting faith was to effectively mobilize the emotions of believers, and since everyone loved to watch the excitement, he might as well go with the flow and satisfy them, and also do some work on the side!

Under his arrangement, the first National Games of Songshu Village was suddenly changed to the first Military Games halfway through. He instructed Sharo and Rodriguez to each select a group of athletes from their own teams to form a competition team, and to use the existing competition venues and personnel to compete in all ten sports, and finally compare which side won the most matches.

To motivate the participants and further fuel the excitement, Lude promised to prepare an exciting gift for the winner!

It is worth mentioning that Lud said that in order to embody the sporting spirit of "participation is more important than winning," he will also select a group of people from the local villagers to form a team of believers from Pine Village to compete against the two knight teams.

The knights present didn't take it seriously at all, except for Sharo, who had once suffered a defeat at Lude's hands. Sharo frowned, as if his reaction time was too slow, and he vaguely sensed that something was wrong.

"With the goddess Aveline as my witness, I hope that everyone can uphold the spirit of chivalry and compete 'fairly' in this competition watched by the gods. As long as you do not maliciously interfere with your opponents, you are all welcome to display your unique abilities!"

After a brief explanation of the rules, Lud announced that the competition would begin in thirty minutes, during which time the participating parties could select their competitors and make pre-competition preparations.

After Lude finished speaking, he turned around and went to choose his own team. According to the competition, Sharo and Rodriguez quickly selected their respective participants, all of whom were experts in various fields within the Knights.

However, just as both sides were confidently preparing to show their old rivals some goodies, Lude walked over with his team, leaving both knights dumbfounded.

"What's the meaning of these younger brothers coming out like this!?"

The team that Ludela sent consisted of ten people, both men and women, and all of them were teenagers, all students under his tutelage. The thought of competing against such a group of children angered many knights, who felt that Ludela was trying to humiliate them.

Rodriguez remained silent, but his adjutant couldn't stand it any longer.

"Your Excellency, what do you mean by this?"

"Of course it's a competition, this is our team."

"But they are all children!"

"Ambition knows no age. Does that mean children can't participate in competitions?"

"you……"

"Alright, Turner, don't get so worked up. This is a competition, but it's also a form of rural entertainment. There's no reason why locals shouldn't be allowed to participate in local activities. Just let our people be mindful of their behavior."

"...Your subordinate obeys, young master."

Under Rodriguez's persuasion, the lieutenant could only retreat to the side, looking resentful. Meanwhile, the knights who had originally planned to participate all wore complicated expressions. They genuinely wanted to go down and teach their old rivals a lesson, but the thought of competing against a group of children, and the potential damage to their reputations if word got out, made them hesitate.

But no matter what, with their young master (or young lady) watching from the side, they, as retainers, could not embarrass their lord, so they had to step forward.

Just then, Aina and Shanis ran over carrying a wooden box. People around could clearly hear the clanging and banging sounds, and it seemed that there were many small bottles inside.

The two nuns carried the box to Ludwig, and in front of hundreds of onlookers and noble knights, Ludwig opened the box and took out a bunch of ceramic potion bottles, which he then distributed to the children who were preparing to participate in the competition.

"Come on, everyone get a share, let's drink before the game."

"Wait a minute! Your Excellency, isn't this going too far!?"

Seeing that Lud had no competitive spirit and was calmly distributing potions to his own people in front of everyone, the knights were outraged.

But Lud looked at the lion knight who had questioned him with a puzzled expression, then pointed to himself and the children participating in the competition.

“Sir Knight, I explained the rules before the match began. As long as you don’t maliciously interfere with your opponent, you are free to use any means. Besides, these children are my students. Our Medicine God Cult members drink the divine medicine blessed by the goddess before the match. Is there anything wrong with that?”

"Uh……"

Speechless after Lud's rhetorical question, the knights preparing to compete looked at each other, unable to find a reason to refute him.

Lude appeared calm on the surface, but inwardly he was grinning wickedly.

He also remembered that in his previous life he followed sports news and would often see certain athletes or national teams embroiled in scandals because of using performance-enhancing drugs or other banned substances.

Ludwig had a thought at that moment: why couldn't the whole world hold a drug competition? Because he was genuinely curious about just how high humans could possibly jump with the help of these banned substances!

Given that this world doesn't adhere to any Olympic spirit and possesses various "supernatural" powers in the eyes of Earthlings, Lud's actions weren't particularly excessive.

Once all three teams were ready, the competition officially began, with the first event being the javelin throw, which sparked this "team duel." The two preliminary round participants from the Knights teams were burly men with massive, powerfully built arms that looked thicker than the thighs of the average villager.

Since this competition was primarily against their arch-rivals, both knights gave it their all. Enhanced by their martial arts skills, they threw their all-steel military javelins to astonishing distances of 277 and 277.3 meters respectively. It's said that if a mage were to assist by adding wind magic to the javelins to extend their range, the distance could be increased by approximately double.

After the two knights finished their match, the next team to compete was the Pine Tree Village student team. The contestant was none other than the boy who had been mocked earlier.

Encouraged by Lud, the young man gulped down the enhancement potion given to him, then went into battle carrying the steel javelin he had borrowed from the knight.

Judging solely by physique, the boy, who wasn't fully developed, was tall and thin, unlike the knight who was burly and imposing. If it weren't for the potion Lude gave him before the game, no one in the arena would have had any expectations of him.

Even with the help of Grandpa Lu's mysterious potion, not everyone thought he was guaranteed to win. While the various alchemical potions in this world certainly had their unique features, their effects weren't exaggerated enough to turn a sick cat into a tiger in an instant.

Common sense dictates that enhancement potions, increasing the original potency by 30%, would already be considered top-tier. However, the difference between Zam and a regular knight is far more than 30%, unless Rudd's potion can cause a "miracle"!

Under everyone's gaze, Zam took a deep breath, quickly calming himself down. Learning from his previous experience, the young man changed into a pair of non-slip straw sandals. He could now clearly feel the effects of the potion; it was a wondrous sensation, not only in terms of physical strength, but also in the significant enhancement of his five senses. The world seemed to appear completely different to him now.

With the thought that he "must not let his teacher down," Zam raised the javelin in his hand. He took a running start, exploded forward, and threw. The familiar movements, combined with the power he had gained for the first time, sent the heavy javelin flying forward at an incredible speed the moment it left his hand. Then, amidst the gasps of all the spectators around the arena, it flew directly over the hill in front of him...

End of this chapter

A heavy steel armor-piercing javelin was hurled over the hill by a mere thirteen-year-old boy. The onlookers, villagers and knights alike, stared in stunned silence. A long pause followed, then a burst of enthusiastic cheers erupted.

"What the hell! This is a child? Even an ogre couldn't throw it this far!"

"It's a medicine! It must be the effect of that medicine from before."

"Even if it's a potion, the effect is way too exaggerated!?"

The knights present were not stupid. They had just watched as Zam drank the potion given to him by the priest and then miraculously threw the javelin at least 300 meters away, a range that was almost comparable to that of a ballista.

Having witnessed the "miracle," they were initially shocked, followed by resentful anger, but these emotions were soon completely replaced by surprise and jubilation.

Sharo and Rodriguez, in particular, could see that Lud's sudden unveiling of this new potion was both a demonstration of his discontent and a vivid display of his power.

In this world, most enhancement potions have a multiplier effect, meaning that the stronger a person is, the greater the boost from the potion.

The potion that Lude showed off also had the same effects as the two potions he had shown before, with efficacy far exceeding that of similar products.

A child who is only thirteen years old and has never practiced martial arts can be strengthened to such an amazing degree. If it were a knight like them, he would probably become a god descending to earth and directly unleash his power on the battlefield!

"I absolutely have to have a serious talk with the High Priest later!" x2

On the other side, Lud appeared calm and collected, but inside he was overjoyed. Just by looking at the eyes of the knights around him, he knew that his advertisement had been a huge success.

The super enhancement potion that Lu De took out was a new product that he had just tested last week. While regular enhancement potions could only increase the effect by 10% to 30%, his could increase it by 1000% to 3000%, a difference of a full hundred times!

To make the potion's debut even more sensational and eye-catching, Lud secretly added "special effects," bestowing divine blessings upon the participating children. Therefore, Zam was actually heavily buffed, enabling him to unleash that incredibly astonishing shot.

Only two people present could see through Lud's tricks: the great magician Hamilton and Bishop Ural. However, both of them had just received benefits from Lud and were now pretending to look around at the scenery.

However, this potion is not without its flaws. Its advantages are that it is super-enhancing and has no side effects, but its disadvantages are that the effective period is very short and it cannot be taken continuously. Furthermore, the super-enhancing effect of more than ten times is only effective for believers of the God of Medicine. If non-believers use it, the effect will be greatly reduced.

Like the previous two potions, the main ingredient of the Super Enhancement Potion is still Goddess Tears. However, due to Aina's continuous growth, her tears have gradually developed some new effects, one of which is user identification.

In the following matches, the elementary school team continued to perform amazingly. Except for archery, wrestling, and sword fighting, which tested practical skills and where the two knight teams could slightly suppress the drug-using teenagers with their experience advantage, they were completely defeated in the other seven events.

The final tug-of-war was particularly comical.

Lude arrogantly sent two knight teams together, twenty burly men and ten girls with an average age of eleven to pull against each other. In the end, no matter how hard the adults tried, the little girls easily dragged the line across, vividly illustrating what it means to be "cute is powerful"!

After ten matches, the elementary school team won by a large margin of 7:2:1.

The usually arrogant knights were utterly humiliated, but dared not vent their frustration and resentment. Halfway through the competition, they realized this was a trap set by a cunning priest, designed to showcase the incredible power of his potions.

No matter how frustrated the knights were, being relegated to the "control group," they had no choice but to suffer in silence unless they absolutely did not want this miraculous potion.

Not only did they have to keep quiet, but they also had to greet him with a smile, for fear of angering Grandpa Lu, who had the medicine, and causing him to sell this good stuff to his enemy.

This humiliation of being forcefully penetrated from behind and having to cover one's mouth to suppress one's cries was something many of the knights present were experiencing for the first time.

After the match, Rodriguez first went to Lud to congratulate him. Although his men were thoroughly outmatched by a group of young girls and boys, winning only one wrestling match out of ten, a loss was a loss, and there was nothing hard to accept.

Rodriguez believed that a true knight should face his failures with equanimity and use them to spur himself on. This was precisely the "golden spirit" that his family's patriarch had always taught him, a spirit that was almost forgotten by this era.

“Truly impressive, Your Excellency.”

"Haha, I also wanted to help my students build confidence, and I must thank you knights for your help."

"Uh...you're welcome."

At this moment, Ural, who had been pretending to admire the scenery and turn a blind eye to the cheating on the field, approached. He didn't bother with subtlety or hints, and asked Lud very directly if he planned to sell that potion, and how much he planned to charge per bottle.

Since its establishment, the Cult of the God of War has been famous for its amplification magic, and its priests are known as "power multipliers".

However, according to Ural's understanding, among all the unique divine spells in the church, there are only two or three single-target amplification divine spells that can achieve an enhancement of more than ten times. Without exception, these high-level divine spells can only be used by high-ranking priests of the bishop level or above.

However, Lude had condensed the extraordinary effects of this high-level divine art into a small potion, which was beyond Lude's comprehension. He could only attribute it to the special abilities of the Medicine God Cult.

As a pragmatic religious figure, Ural, born into a wealthy merchant family, is unlike many priestly families who have worshipped the god of war for generations and are blindly xenophobic due to excessive fanaticism. His mindset is more like that of a businessman, and he habitually pursues the maximization of profits.

The sociable Ural knew very well that coercion would only backfire on someone like Lud. A person with pride would not submit to power, so he needed to be gentle and entice him, and talk to him like a normal business transaction. This was Ural's specialty, something Narad would never understand until his death.

End of this chapter

Amidst the hustle and bustle, the first Songshu Village All-People Games successfully came to a close.

Because a group of knights unexpectedly joined the competition midway through, the final awards ceremony was divided into two parts. Individual awards were given to local participants, while an additional team award was given to the knights and student teams.

For the individual awards, the top three in each category will be presented with medals and prizes by Ludwig himself, while those who place fourth through tenth will also receive a commemorative prize.

The mysterious prize that Lud had been keeping a secret was finally revealed at this moment. It turned out to be a 1:16 scale miniature goddess statue. Unlike the seated statues enshrined in the temple, the miniature goddess was standing, holding a staff of rice stalks aloft, as if leading the believers behind her forward.

But what is most striking is that the entire goddess statue is infused with holy light, radiating a very soft golden halo, making it look extremely holy.

None of the believers who received the prize had expected that the mysterious gift Lud would be a statue of a god. They all knelt on one knee and devoutly accepted it with both hands.

This batch of mini goddess statues, or rather figurines, is the first step in Lud's "faith into homes" project. The initial idea was to sell them directly to the public; if every household could have one, it would generate a considerable income.

However, upon further reflection, he realized that the local villagers had not yet truly escaped poverty and did not have much spare money. If he set the price too high, he would definitely not be able to sell many, and if he set it too low, it would inevitably seem cheap. So, after much thought, he decided to take advantage of the opportunity of holding a village sports meet and distribute the first batch of prizes for free, as a kind of summer promotion.

It's worth mentioning that these figurines were initially just ordinary painted terracotta figures without any divine magic. It was only when Lude was inspecting the details of the figurines that he suddenly realized the issue of exposure, so he decisively added post-production effects.

In this way, even if a believer suddenly has evil thoughts and actually raises the idol to try to peek under the goddess's skirt, all they will see is a soft holy light to cleanse the darkness in their heart.

Yet, despite his meticulous efforts to prevent the believers' faith from being corrupted, Ludd himself placed one of the idols on his desk as a lamp after it was completed. Sometimes, he would even use it as a makeshift flashlight when he got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night—a textbook example of blasphemy!