David had to admire how spry Fernandes was for his age. The guy looked like he was pushing eighty, but he still moved incredibly fast. When he walked, it was like a tiger on the prowl—David practically had to jog to keep up with him.
Plus, this old guy had some serious talent for being a thief...
He led David through the massive church grounds, turning this way and that, managing to avoid the sight of pretty much every clergy member along the way. They silently visited several material storage warehouses.
Maybe the old guy really was a thief back in his younger days?
As David was thinking this, Fernandes had already led him into another underground warehouse. He pointed at a shelf on the wall lined with exquisite crystal bottles containing crystal-clear liquid, and said expressionlessly, "Holy water. Pick from the top shelf."
Then David just grabbed the first bottle from the very top.
Fernandes's eye twitched again—that was an 82-year-old bottle of holy water treasured by the archbishop of the southern diocese...
Noticing a certain bishop's emblem on the bottle, David finally caught on to what was happening.
Turns out they were straight-up stealing!
The two made eye contact, both glanced around, then walked out of the warehouse together, expressionless.
The final ingredient—sunstone powder—was "simple." David just knocked the biggest sunstone down from the cathedral's ceiling and ground it into powder himself.
While committing this crime, Fernandes had to make up an excuse to get everyone out of the cathedral, then shut the main doors tight.
The old man seemed a bit possessed too. He was going to let David perform the ritual right there in the main cathedral.
David knelt on one knee before that massive Sun Goddess statue—three stories tall—and even before the ritual began, he could already feel the intense sacred aura.
Fernandes personally drew the ritual formation for him and placed all the ritual materials in the circle. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief and say, "Let's try again."
David nodded and turned his gaze to the altar—these were materials they'd gone through all that trouble stealing, after all...
[Ritual power detected. Begin Goddess's Blessing Ritual?]
This time, the ritual prompt immediately appeared in his vision, and there was no success rate warning afterward.
Should be fine this time, right...
He silently chose to begin the ritual and started reciting the incantation.
The materials in the formation once again condensed into a dazzling ball of light. They soon resonated with the light radiating from the goddess statue, once again opening that gateway to the mysterious realm.
Massive energy poured from the statue...
David basked in the divine light, feeling incredibly comfortable. The huge wings of light spread above his head, and life energy began flooding into his body like crazy.
The ritual's blessing effect directly doubled David's already vast life energy!
It literally added a full double!
Then, the goddess's blessing began granting him psychic energy equal to his current life energy!
David couldn't even imagine just how absurd a number like six hundred thousand psychic energy was...
[Ritual power infused. Life energy limit +317384.]
[Ritual power infused. Psychic energy limit...]
But just as the ritual reached halfway, those golden wings that were gushing endless psychic energy suddenly let out a crack!
David's face showed alarm, and his heart sank.
"It's not gonna explode again, is it!?"
Crack!
Sure enough, the next moment he heard a crisp shattering sound. Looking at those golden light wings again, their edges were already covered in cracks...
Seeing this, Fernandes couldn't help but nervously swallow. He couldn't get David a second bottle of 82-year-old treasured holy water!
David watched those precarious wings with his heart in his throat, trembling.
However, after a while, though the light wavered, it didn't completely shatter. The only problem was that the surge of psychic energy had completely stopped.
The crack-covered light wings slowly descended, and the moment they touched David, they turned into light dust and entered his body.
Only then did the complete notification finally sound.
[Ritual power infused. Psychic energy limit +111847.]
"Wait... that doesn't seem right..." David froze. "Can the goddess not do math?"
The blessing ritual was supposed to grant him psychic energy equal to his life energy...
But he quickly figured it out. It wasn't that the goddess couldn't do math—it was because this amount was just too massive, completely exceeding what the ritual medium could handle.
If they'd continued infusing psychic energy, his ritual would've definitely failed again, so the goddess's blessing had to be cut short.
[First-tier Goddess's Blessing Ritual complete. Acquired first-tier ritual power: Blessing.]
[Ritual spirit possession: Voice of Blessing]
[Due to "Goddess's Blessing" effect, ritual evil spirit "Devourer" has been purified.]
Seeing the string of notifications appear, David immediately relaxed and sat down on the ground. He could feel those shattered light wings—the "Voice of Blessing"—had entered his body.
The sacred energy radiating from the light wings directly enveloped that damned Devourer, making it let out a pained wail.
In the blink of an eye, this evil spirit completely fell silent and disappeared from David's senses.
Finally...
He'd finally successfully gotten rid of one of the evil spirits that had tormented him for a whole year!!
As for the other two, stimulated by the blessing's aura, they'd burrowed deep into David's soul. Looked like he'd need another plan to drag them out.
But David was already pretty satisfied. Looking at the various stats on the panel in his vision, he collapsed from exhaustion.
[Life Energy: 634768/634768]
[Psychic Energy: 111947/111947]
[Hand of Divine Corpse I: Requires variable amounts of psychic energy or life energy to activate. Cooldown: 60 minutes.]
[Hand of Monster V: Requires 10 psychic energy or life energy to activate. Cooldown: 1 second.]
[Heretic's Arm III: Can expend 80 psychic energy or life energy to activate ability "Touch of Folly." Cooldown: 3 minutes.]
The three arms obtained through Limb Grafting Rituals hadn't been affected by the evil spirit's disappearance, which finally let him relax his tense nerves completely.
Just then, Fernandes's old face appeared above David's head, a potion in his hand.
"Don't forget this."
With that, he poured the potion straight into David's mouth.
The sweet-and-salty liquid flowed down his throat, and a burning sensation immediately erupted from inside his body, giving him the illusion he was being incinerated.
This stimulation made David involuntarily tense every muscle in his body, struggling on the ground drenched in sweat.
The mysterious substance in the potion was working together with the lingering divine aura from the advancement ritual to rapidly transform the blood in his body.
From this moment on, David Frank had officially become a hunter.
Then he lost consciousness and passed out.
...
When David woke up again, he found himself lying in an unfamiliar large bed, with one of the twin maids watching over him at the bedside.
"Are you Left or Right?"
David rubbed his throbbing head, feeling a bit confused.
"Young master, I'm Zoe," the maid answered softly.
"Where am I?"
"This is your new home, young master. The church's people brought you back when you were unconscious. It's already evening now. Are you alright?" Zoe asked with concern.
"Yeah... I'm fine..."
David quickly remembered everything and sat up from the bed.
"Young master, the church people also sent over a bunch of stuff. I put it all on your desk."
"Good, you can go... wait, get me something to eat..."
David paused mid-sentence. He took a light breath and touched his abdomen.
He felt a bit hungry, but it was a normal physiological reaction, not the endless ravenous craving from the evil spirit.
He smiled—really, genuinely smiled...
"Just wait, I'll get rid of your other two buddies real soon too!"
Zoe looked at her weirdly grinning young master with some confusion, quietly backed out, and only breathed a sigh of relief after closing the door.
When the young master smiled, he finally didn't look so scary... This was probably the happiest she'd seen him smile all year.
Inside the room, after David finished laughing, he climbed out of bed and came to his desk. His gaze first locked onto that letter sealed with golden wax.
Using a letter opener to cut open the envelope, he pulled out that sheet of Order-standard parchment paper. A line of text met his eyes.
"Hunter trial..."