Chapter 3: The Soaring and Plummeting Charm
Joshua woke up faster than anyone had anticipated, surprising both Ying and Lin.
The flesh on his upper body had been completely burned away, barely sustained by divine power. Without the treatment from the Father of Nature, such injuries would undoubtedly have been fatal. Even with the healing from the gods, no one expected Joshua to regain consciousness so quickly. The young men and women had even prepared themselves to wait for months, or even years.
But regardless, the warrior's swift awakening made many things much simpler.
Looking around, Joshua recognized this as his room in the Lord's Manor. However, since he rarely slept—even when resting, he would just close his eyes somewhere in the study or hall—he seldom used it. Thinking about it carefully, this coma was actually the first time he had slept in the bed of the Lord's Manor.
"What happened while I was asleep?"
After watching Ying finish her apple with a flushed face, Joshua finally began his questioning. He glanced at his two weapons and asked slowly, "Judging by your expressions, it seems you've run into some trouble. Spill it."
"Well... there are indeed some matters that need handling, but since Master is awake, they shouldn't be a problem."
Standing nearby, Lin rubbed the back of his head, then pulled out his notebook. The young man seemed to have been prepared for this, waiting for Joshua to wake up to report, so he responded very quickly. He flipped through his notes: "For example..."
"Let me say it."
Before Lin could list everything out, another voice appeared out of nowhere in the room, interrupting him.
As faint traces of magical energy gathered in the air, a translucent figure formed from soft fluorescent light. A winged girl with azure-blue hair materialized in the corner of the room. Her form was initially blurry but quickly stabilized and solidified, looking as real as a living person at first glance.
Seeing this, Lin shrugged and said somewhat regretfully, "Alright, Miss 3 is indeed much clearer than I am."
After gathering her projection, 3 stared intently at the warrior. Joshua immediately felt faint magical reactions sweeping over his body. He knew this was the Artificial Intelligence Girl's method of observation, so he paid it no mind and let her continue. However, since Joshua was only wearing a white sleeping garment, he casually grabbed a leather coat from a nearby rack and draped it over himself.
After a moment, 3's expression turned somewhat strange. She murmured softly, "Energy level increased by one hundred and eighty-two percent, and there's an unrecognizable powerful energy gathering in the bones and heart... This is already the power level of my original main cannon..."
"How did he become so strong..."
She seemed to doubt that her detection spell had malfunctioned.
"Long time no see, 3. You look well. Have you been working hard lately?"
Waving his hand to snap the winged girl back to reality, Joshua smiled and said to her, "But since you've finished looking, we should get down to business."
"Of course, Joshua. I've been working very seriously."
Snapping back to attention, 3 immediately looked up and met the warrior's gaze. She sighed humanely, her eyelashes trembling slightly as if in emotion, "In just two weeks, I've uncovered two smuggling operations in the main city, stopped nine thefts and four robberies. Besides that, I've captured over twenty suspicious individuals, half of whom were confirmed by Archbishop Artemis as cultists. These are all proof of my hard work."
"...I see. It seems Moldavia's public security still needs improvement, with so many criminals and cultists... I'm sorry for the trouble."
Joshua frowned, deciding internally that when he had time later, he would strengthen the management of city security. But upon hearing the Artificial Intelligence Girl's last sentence, he couldn't help but ask curiously, "So, what about the other half?"
"Just as bad—all demon worshippers."
Shaking her head like a rattle drum, 3 said helplessly, "Every night, several suspicious individuals sneak into the city. Aside from some who are just hired cannon fodder for reconnaissance, the rest are all Chaos believers or demon worshippers. This isn't normal, Joshua. What kind of trouble did you stir up out there? Why are so many people trying to infiltrate the main city to cause destruction? And you even came back unconscious—with your strength, who could keep you down for so long?"
She seemed to have many questions bottled up inside, now pouring them all out at once. Joshua could naturally hear the concern in her words. Feeling somewhat moved, he immediately turned to look at Ying and Lin. The silver-haired girl understood her master's intention and quickly said softly, "Because Master wasn't awake, we didn't tell Miss 3 about the other world... To her, we just went out once, and all this happened."
"I see."
Nodding in understanding, Joshua turned back to face the blue-haired winged girl. 3 didn't pay attention to Joshua and Ying's conversation; she just kept scanning the warrior's body, frowning slightly as if she had seen something incomprehensible: "How is this possible? Why has my detection spell completely failed? Even if I couldn't see clearly before, I could at least get some feedback..."
She was still trying to observe the warrior's body, but Joshua's body, having been tempered by divine power and treated by the Father of Nature, now carried a trace of divinity. Ordinary detection spells naturally wouldn't work. Being able to see a bit of the surface energy distribution was already impressive, proving that 3's detection spells were superior to many Gold-rank mages.
After thinking for a moment, Joshua succinctly told 3 everything about their experiences in the other world.
This wasn't something shameful to hide, just too fantastical for ordinary people to believe. But 3 had once fought alongside Joshua in the Carlis World, so she naturally wouldn't doubt the truth of the warrior's words.
The narration wasn't long. By the time Ying had peeled another apple, the whole story was almost finished.
"That's about it."
Ending with this sentence, Joshua took the apple Ying had peeled for him. He actually left out a part—about the Saint's childhood and the World Will's gift. But these had all happened within his spiritual world and were extremely mysterious, even incomprehensible to the warrior himself. To avoid misleading others, Joshua decided not to mention them for now.
After hearing the warrior's experiences, 3 was silent for a long time. Then she let out a long sigh, her expression looking somewhat lonely.
"What a pity... I wanted to witness the Evil God's descent and the moment it was defeated with my own eyes."
But beyond that, the winged girl had no other regrets. After all, she was an existence who had survived alone in the desolate Carlis World for a thousand years. Though somewhat regretful, it wasn't enough to truly make 3 feel lost. Her gaze sharpened, and the Artificial Intelligence Girl changed the subject: "Alright, I understand the whole story. But that's all in the past... Weren't we just talking about some issues in the territory? Let's discuss that first."
After Joshua left, quite a few things had indeed happened. Not just bad things like the sudden surge of cultists and demon worshippers, but also some good news.
Under 3's very organized report, the warrior quickly gained a general understanding of what had been happening in his territory.
Five days ago, the Northern Rune Dwarf leader, forging master Moria, had completed Joshua's custom Mana Armor. The finished product was now stored in the storage room of Winterfell Academy on Nissier Snow Mountain. Moria himself had been invited by Nostradamus to teach forging techniques at the academy.
Additionally, Winterfell Academy was preparing to open several new professional departments. They planned to hire over a dozen qualified professionals as teachers. The academy invited Joshua, the honorary dean, to interview those professionals.
Paladin Loranda was in seclusion at Saint Lawrence Cathedral. He had said that if the warrior woke up, he should be called immediately. Archbishop Artemis also indicated that if Joshua regained consciousness, he should be notified.
"Besides that, there are several communications from the Imperial Capital."
After saying all this, 3 paused for a moment. Regarding these communications from the Imperial Capital, she seemed somewhat puzzled: "These communications require special identity verification that only you can respond to. I can't answer them on your behalf, so I specifically kept the addresses... If you have time, Joshua, you can reply using these addresses."
"Thank you. But communications from the Imperial Capital... Could it be Brandon or Master Nostradamus looking for me?"
Murmuring to himself, Joshua thought for a moment, took a bite of the apple Ying had peeled for him, and then decided, "It's late at night now. Even if I reply, no one would respond. The other matters aren't urgent either. I'll deal with them one by one tomorrow morning—Ying, this apple is indeed good. Very sweet."
"Is it?"
Hearing the praise, the silver-haired girl smiled softly, her emerald-green eyes sparkling, looking very pleased.
Standing nearby, Lin became curious—was the apple really that sweet?
Meanwhile, the warrior reached out, instinctively wanting to pat the winged girl's head and praise her a bit. But 3 nimbly dodged, then turned around, her form slowly fading. Before disappearing, she said softly to Joshua, "I'm going back to work... But don't forget your promise, warrior."
This last sentence was meaningful. Though 3 seemed unconcerned about their experiences in the other world, she actually still wanted to go on adventures with them.
But Joshua didn't pay attention to 3's departure. He looked at his outstretched hand, somewhat dazed.
Had he just touched something?
Confused, he turned to look at where 3 had disappeared. Joshua narrowed his eyes and muttered softly, "I did touch something... That should have just been a magical projection, but how did I feel like I touched a physical object?"
The warrior naturally wouldn't have physical illusions. Since he felt it, he couldn't be wrong. While Joshua was pondering this, Ying was tidying up the fruit plate, and Lin had picked up his notebook, seemingly wanting to make the bed for the warrior.
"Alright, you've worked hard these past few days."
Snapping back to reality, Joshua stopped both of them. He said with some amusement, "But these are things the maids should do. Even if you want to help, you should do something more valuable."
"For example, go rest and maintain good condition, so you can work better for me."
"But..."
Being half-ordered to rest, Ying and Lin both hesitated for a moment. But in the end, they obediently opened the door and walked out. Before leaving, they both turned back and said simultaneously, "Master, you should rest well too!"
"Of course."
The door closed tightly. Sitting back on the bed, the warrior was alone in the room, frowning as he opened the long-unused system panel.
Just like before, he was flooded with various messages.
"Favorability is 'Friendly,' but that doesn't stop them from wanting to run away when they see me?"
Seeing this, Joshua couldn't help but shake his head. He naturally knew that favorability could only serve as an initial impression. With his innate aura of despair, even if the initial favorability was Friendly, ordinary elves would still go weak in the knees when they saw him.
Ignoring these messages, he turned to look at his character card.
Seeing this, even Joshua was stunned. He blinked, looked several times, and only then confirmed he hadn't misread.
"Negative two hundred and nine?!"
Lowering his voice in a roar, the warrior said with disbelief, "I saved a world, didn't destroy one—how did this happen?!"
Yin Tian Shen Yin said: How could this be... Clearly saving the world and receiving the World Will's gift, two happy things coming together should bring dreamlike joy, but why is it like this...