Looking at the batch of recovery potions starting to be produced, Lind suddenly said to Isha beside him, “Do you think there’s a possibility that we can use the arcane magic circle to produce holy water?”
Holy water is the highest grade potion that the female protagonist can create in the game, effective in removing all abnormal statuses, and it is very precious. By the end of the game, the amount of holy water the female protagonist can craft can be counted on both hands.
In reality, there’s a slight difference; in this world, holy water manifests as a universal antidote.
It can not only counter plague diseases but can also lift various curses, and most importantly, it doesn’t produce drug resistance.
Of course, it might be that holy water is too precious for most people to obtain enough to create a significant dosage.
“Impossible, absolutely impossible.”
Isha shook her head frantically and explained, “Lord, the creation circle for holy water requires not only magic power but also the power of faith. Otherwise, the Church wouldn’t openly publish the recipe and the magic for creating holy water; those alchemists would have started mass-producing it long ago.”
Then Isha’s expression suddenly dimmed; after all, she had lost her power of faith. Originally, she might have been able to craft a bottle of holy water in a month or two, but now, even summoning a hint of holy light has become very difficult for her.
Lind didn’t immediately rebut Isha’s words but walked to a vacant mixing station in the workshop, began gathering alchemical materials for creating holy water, and then activated the skills he inherited from the female protagonist, Isha, to start constructing the spell model.
The spell for creating holy water doesn’t strictly belong to alchemy; it is divine art. A soft holy light projected down from the void above Lind, shining into the transparent bottle filled with materials in his hand.
Under the illumination of the holy light, the materials in the bottle began to dissolve, merge, and ultimately transformed into a bottle of transparent liquid emitting a clear radiance.
“Wow, dude, you can actually use divine art! That’s amazing!”
Lena seemed very pleased and started clapping her hands. Lind, however, had a bewildered expression, seemingly not realizing that he had fully neglected these skills, to the point where he almost forgot he was also a professional with a perfect save file.
After all, the skills of the original female protagonist didn’t seem to contribute much to territory development.
The entire process left Isha and Lysha staring at Lind in astonishment. Especially Isha; it was the first time Lind saw her in shock, her jaw nearly dropping to the ground. This was the first time this chosen female protagonist had shown such an uncivilized demeanor.
“L-Lord, are you really such a devout believer in the goddess? Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
The stronger a person’s faith, the faster the process of making holy water becomes. Even the most devoted priest in the royal capital takes at least three weeks of continuous infusion of faith power to create a bottle of holy water.
But Lind actually hand-crafted a bottle of holy water in less than three minutes right in front of everyone.
Even if the current pope were to come, he would probably question his faith.
Moreover, if Lind were a woman, the pope would have to kneel and beg him to become a saintess.
But unfortunately, Lind is a man.
No, perhaps an ordinary saintess would not reflect Lind’s identity anymore. Isha suspected that the pope would directly make Lind a current manifestation of the goddess, a living embodiment walking among humans.
Those popes and cardinals might even consider not being rigid about the gender of the saintess. Who says men can’t be saintesses?
After all, the goddess hasn’t shown miracles in a long time. A person who can handcraft holy water in three minutes could be considered a walking miracle.
Lind also scratched his head. The process of crafting holy water in the game was bound to a long cooldown based on in-game days, but the crafting process was relatively quick because one shouldn’t require the player to stay glued to the screen for fourteen hours non-stop to craft potions, right?
This was out of game balance, a normal adjustment.
Unexpectedly, after crossing over, Lind found that the skills he inherited restored this aspect perfectly. Although he could handcraft a bottle of holy water in three minutes, he wouldn’t be able to use this skill again for the next month.
However, that was terrifying enough. If the Church found out, let alone Lena, even Duke Lars wouldn’t be able to protect Lind.
After all, the ability to handcraft holy water was a skill bestowed only to the saintess chosen by the divine.
The legends say that a mythical saintess hand-crafted a bottle of holy water in mere minutes to save her believers.
But legends also explicitly state that a saintess is a messenger of the gods and is, like the goddess, female.
Thinking of this, Isha instinctively focused on Lind’s lower body. Feeling a chill in his crotch, Lind subconsciously squeezed his legs together. Following her gaze, he found Isha had already averted her eyes, leaving Lind feeling quite perplexed.
After momentarily dismissing the onlookers who didn’t know what was happening, Lind said to Isha, “Regrettably, I’m merely a superficial believer in the goddess of light. In fact, strictly speaking, I’m not even a believer in her. I haven’t performed prayers or mass in months. I don’t believe in any deity.”
Isha felt her worldview collapsing. A non-believer actually hand-crafted holy light into holy water.
To be honest, Isha felt she would rather believe that the lord was actually a descendant of the goddess left in the human realm, or perhaps the goddess’s illegitimate child, simply unaware of it. Or perhaps Lind was a saintess disguised as a man, which would be easier for Isha to accept.
Then Lind made an even more shocking statement.
“Why don’t we try using the arcane magic circle to set up my spell model and see if the magic stone can produce holy water.”
“No! Absolutely not!”
Before Lind could finish speaking, Isha violently interrupted him, her ferocious aura even startling Lena nearby, while Lysha fled directly behind Lind.
Isha, seeing the startled reactions from everyone, froze for a moment. After taking a deep breath, she apologized, “I’m sorry, Lord. I just feel that doing this would not only be a blasphemy against the goddess, but it could also lead to terrifying consequences.”
Lind was also startled, not just because of the light atmosphere in the game; in this world, Isha truly had killed someone with her own hands.
However, Lind could understand. After all, there truly are gods in this world, and Isha is the saintess selected by the goddess. Using inorganic materials to invoke divine art would probably be considered a grave act of blasphemy by even the most extreme cultists.
This involves the fundamental issues of faith.
“Dude, maybe we should just forget it.”
Even Lena understood what that meant, showing how serious the situation was.
“I can pretend I don’t know about this experiment, but I need to know what the outcome of this experiment is.”
This time, Lind unexpectedly sounded a bit forceful. Because of the so-called gods, Lind’s actions and choices had often been constrained, including the long-delayed construction of the church, and whether to implement a slight religious reform in the territory.
These issues seemed unimportant and didn’t directly affect production; they were precisely the most dangerous.
Whether to exchange one faith for another would directly relate to what the territory would look like in the future and how to handle relations with the Church.
“Isha, don’t you want to know if the goddess you have believed in for so long still responds to her believers?”
Lind looked at Isha. After long-term contact, he understood that in this timeline, Isha was not a rigid person; she just couldn’t accept such blasphemous actions due to her unwavering faith.
Isha looked at the holy water in Lind’s hand.
If the goddess really could respond to her believers’ prayers, then why would she let these devout believers suffer? Isha believed she was more devout than most priests and believers, yet why was the power of holy light drifting further away from her?
What puzzled Isha the most was that Lord Lind, who had no faith whatsoever, could still handcraft holy light.
In fact, Isha had already realized this during their previous discussions; Lind’s thoughts were often completely detached from the divine, even based on the premise that the divine did not exist, yet such a person possessed the ability to handcraft holy water in just a few minutes.
But Isha still couldn’t convince herself. After all, faith developed over a long period cannot be easily abandoned. In the end, she forced herself to find a reason: if even a suspected illegitimate child of the goddess like Lord Lind didn’t care about this experiment, why should she, someone abandoned by the goddess, be afraid?
Having unilaterally categorized Lind as an illegitimate child of the goddess, Isha finally made up her mind and said to Lind, “Lord, let’s start the experiment. I’ll help you convert the spell model into the arcane magic circle.”
In contrast to Isha, although Lena and Lysha felt some fear, they were more curious. They thought they didn’t have as much hesitation as Isha. Lena even thought that since her brother could still handcraft holy light, that must mean the goddess had no objections, right? If the goddess had no objections, then neither did she.
Thus, the dismantling of the spell model began rapidly and secretly.
The spell model Lind used came from a game save file, even causing Lysha to marvel at its sophisticated structure and incredibly powerful algorithms that seemed beyond human imagination, as if it were derived from a superbrain with terrifying computational abilities. The spell model could almost seamlessly convert into a mathematical model, and then the mathematical model would integrate into the arcane magic circle. The whole process flowed smoothly, as if this spell had originally been adapted from the arcane magic circle.
What was originally expected to take weeks or longer to complete was finished by everyone in just a few days.
In a concealed corner of Graywhite Territory, a spot where no detection spells could reach, Lena’s knights spread out for vigilance. Lena even personally stayed behind, waiting for Lind to activate the magic trigger.
As Lind turned the knob, the familiar steps began. Invisible magic power flowed through the runes into the magic circle, and the arcane magic circle began to work.
Isha felt very complicated; this was the first time she hoped for failure in the research and experiments in the territory.
But as a holy light fell from the void above the magic circle, and the raw materials in the transparent bottle began to dissolve, Isha knew her hopes were dashed.
Shutting down the magic circle, Lind picked up the bottle of holy water he had just crafted and looked at everyone.
Lena, Isha, and Lysha wore expressions of shock or fear. It was impossible for a non-believer, and even an inorganic entity, to have truly created holy water solely by magic power.
Lind then repeated the production process using the arcane magic circle several times. Interestingly, although this magic circle had a cooldown duration similar to Lind’s in real-time, by simply adjusting the output power, he could trick the system and continue producing.
This was almost like having no skill cooldown; as long as the magic stones were sufficient, holy water could be produced in unlimited supply.
“Perhaps the power of faith isn’t a necessary condition for making holy water,” Lind concluded, gazing at the seemingly vacant-eyed Isha.
“Faith might not even be necessary for casting or performing divine art.”
Before Lind could continue, Isha trembled and said, “The gods are dead…”
“Calm down, Isha. This only means that casting divine art, or producing holy water, doesn’t necessarily require faith in the goddess.”
Lind didn’t believe this meant the goddess was dead after all. The background information for this game clearly states that the goddess chose the female protagonist as her spokesperson, indicating that no matter the goddess’s current state, she at least still had the ability to interfere in the human world.
“No…”
Isha countered from a perspective Lind had not considered: “When humans can wield divine art without needing the gods, then the gods are already dead.”
