# Chapter 17: Fright
While Joshua was urging Black to get stronger as quickly as possible, ideally advancing to the Ultimate rank and then Legendary realm as soon as possible, Faina, who had hastily returned to the Eastern Sea via spatial magic, stood in the teleportation array of her own residence but did not step out.
At this moment, the Sage of the Eastern Sea's face was filled with gravity, without any of the lightheartedness she had displayed in the center of the Black Forest, nor the boldness and unruliness with which she had dismissed even evil gods and their backers—quite the opposite. Faina's face was practically written with seriousness and tension, and even carried a hint of fear.
"Haah..."
After a long while, Faina slowly stepped out of the array, but the moment she left its range, this legendary expert suddenly felt her legs go weak. If she hadn't reacted in time and supported herself against the wall, she might have truly embarrassed herself by collapsing to her knees.
"Hah... That damned Radcliffe... that madman, does he know what he's talking about?!"
After finally steadying herself and taking several deep breaths, she spoke through gritted teeth in her pleasant voice: "Evil gods are merely man-made natural phenomena, and behind them lies an even higher level—beings comparable to Sages, or even stronger than Sages! Does he know what the Sage realm represents?! Suddenly dropping such a bombshell, is he trying to scare the entire world to death?!"
Of course, Faina knew that Joshua was exactly this kind of infuriating personality. Last time, at the outer edge of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground, his massive revelation about the truth behind the evil gods and the war that ended the Era of Radiance had sent every faction in the entire Mycroft World into panic. Not just the Eastern Sea faction—even within the Sky-Piercing White Tower, there were voices calling for "urgently preparing for emigration to other worlds," plans born from sheer terror of wanting to flee for their lives. And the Northern Empire's Foreign Exploration Department was very likely established because of this revelation. But that machine-brained Lord of the Infernal Prison had shown no trace of fear, his expression never changing, forcing everyone present to forcibly compose themselves and pretend to remain unfazed as well!
Faina couldn't help but wonder if Joshua still thought the establishment of the Foreign Exploration Department was merely about finding colonies for imperial expansion. After hesitating for a moment, she muttered uncertainly to herself: "That can't be right, can it?"
He wasn't that thick-headed.
But instinctively, Faina felt it was very possible. After all, Joshua's personality had never changed. This time, after arbitrarily establishing an information link with an evil god, he had used that same flat, uninflected tone—devoid not just of fear but of any emotion at all—to reveal one earth-shattering secret after another. The Sage-lady had wanted to immediately cover his mouth. She knew that if such news spread, it would drive most factions to despair, completely destroying their will to resist!
Think about it—if humanity learned that doomsday would arrive in a few decades, unavoidable and unstoppable, and even if stopped, other doomsdays would follow endlessly, attacking without cease—who could muster the will to resist? The more optimistic ones would prepare to flee, while the pessimistic would simply wait for death.
But Joshua had shown no expression at all. When he delivered this news, it was as if he were saying, "We're having noodles for lunch today." Such calm composure and formidable mental fortitude had immediately suppressed everyone present, forcing them all to put on brave faces and use various means to hide their tension, lest they embarrass themselves before other legends. Faina herself simply couldn't bear this heavy atmosphere, so she had practically fled in panic, using teleportation to return to her residence.
"...Next time."
Thinking this, Faina took a deep breath, her gaze revealing determination: "I'll never believe any 'I have something to tell everyone' or 'I have a little piece of news' ever again. Otherwise, that guy will scare me to death."
The other two legends, Sword Saint Lamott and Nature Mentor Galannod, were much the same. The Sword Saint had gone to a small tavern on the border of the Western Mountain Black Forest and drank all night before slowly setting out to find legends he could trust, spreading Joshua's news on a small scale. The Nature Mentor had stayed on the Eternal Island in the Elven Royal Court for an entire night, only reappearing the following evening, her face still carrying some gloom.
Meanwhile, Joshua—who felt that all the legends had shown remarkable courage, facing the truth without any fear, which only highlighted how pathetic his own shock was—was currently engaging in self-criticism atop Black's head, seriously reflecting on his insufficient willpower and other issues.
Soon, night passed, and time came to noon on January 4th, Year 838 of the Falling Stars Era.
Joshua was inspecting the Imperial Foreign Exploration Department at Ares Fortress, specifically the elite squad led by Priest.
Foreign Exploration Department squads typically consisted of five members, with a captain as the core, paired with a spellcaster, a clergy member, an alchemist, and a melee combatant. All of them had to undergo hellish physical training and learn various subjects in biology, geography, astronomy, and countless miscellaneous fields of knowledge. Although their designations were spellcaster, clergy, and so on, after training, each of them could tear apart tigers and leopards with their bare hands, build a small survival base from scratch, create runic crystal bombs from any available materials, and handcraft mana engines.
If necessary, they could even farm.
The core of this squad was naturally Priest, a talented melee combatant. Of course, this was only nominal. After undergoing the two hundred and seventy-seven comprehensive training programs personally designed by Joshua, Priest had become a true warrior. He was proficient in runic, evocation, and self-enhancement magic, could create holy water through prayer and draw exorcism arrays, could communicate with animals, and was skilled in hypnosis, disguise, infiltration, assassination, and the preparation of twenty-seven types of deadly poison. His battle qi, bolstered by various rare resources, had reached the Silver Peak, only one step away from the Gold rank.
This time, the elite squad had perfectly completed the tasks assigned by Joshua and the Foreign Exploration Department, locating the nests of three legendary creature descendants and minimizing the damage caused by clearing the Black Forest. During this operation, Priest and his team had demonstrated their capabilities. With Silver-rank power, they could safely survive in the center of the Black Forest, which was filled with Gold-rank magical beasts, and even occasionally hunt one or two.
This meant that even if they were sent to another world, Priest and his team had a high probability of surviving and adapting. If seven or eight squads of the same level explored simultaneously, the speed would be far faster than Joshua wandering alone through the void.
As for why the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground wasn't used to teleport legendary experts for exploration, the main reason was energy consumption. For example, the energy required to teleport Joshua alone to another world was millions of times greater than that needed to teleport Priest's entire squad. Even the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground didn't want to waste so much unnecessary energy.
The elite squad stood on the city wall at the edge of Ares Fortress, with the Black Forest, now burned to flat ground, behind them. Joshua walked along the wall past them, observing everyone's current condition. He passed before the mage, knight, priest, and alchemist (their code names), encouraging them to continue improving and awarding each of them seven thousand five hundred exchange points and one B-rank special exchange privilege.
The value of exchange points naturally needed no elaboration. They were the equivalent of the "credits" from the Winterfell Academy exchange system. One hundred exchange points could cover an ordinary family's annual expenses—if not wasteful, they could even live quite comfortably. Over two thousand exchange points could be used to acquire rare materials that weren't even circulated on the market.
Seven thousand five hundred exchange points, combined with a B-rank privilege, was enough for the four present to replace their entire equipment sets, transform from ordinary people into wealthy magnates, and obtain various special enhancements, even the transplantation of certain superhuman organs. Right on the spot, the alchemist murmured excitedly that he absolutely had to exchange for a "Hydra Heart" for himself, which would give him extremely strong resistance to various neurotoxins and alchemical substances, greatly improving both his daily research and combat flexibility.
Joshua naturally made no comment on this. Transplanting superhuman biological organs was indeed a shortcut to becoming stronger, but it could also easily cause disharmony in one's internal life energy, making it basically impossible to go far on the path of battle qi, life energy, or steel force. However, the other party was an alchemist with no such aspirations, so it didn't matter.
Priest naturally received his own reward. As the squad's core, coordinating the team to complete the mission and serving as its pillar, playing an enormous role, he received ten thousand exchange points and two B-rank exchange privileges. This was the captain's privilege, and while the other team members were envious, they didn't feel "I could do that too."
After receiving their rewards, the squad disbanded. This was merely a private inspection by Joshua, and the points he distributed were rewards from his personal funds. All the team members were beaming with excitement. With this batch of additional resources, combined with the favorable environment of the Great Magic Tide, they were confident they could advance to Gold rank within half a year—not the ordinary kind that was merely one step above Silver, the so-called "Pseudo-Gold," but true experts with Glory Force.
"Priest, stay."
However, just as Priest was about to leave with his teammates and use his information terminal to show off his rewards to his sister and friends still in Moldavia, a low, clear voice rang out, making him stop.
The others also heard the voice. They turned back, said nothing more, just enviously patted Priest on the shoulder before quietly leaving.
Priest, who had been singled out by Joshua, turned back with both confusion and excitement to face his direct superior, the Lord and Dean.
At this moment, because Joshua was merely an avatar, his pressure and the fear he inspired were relatively mild. But this "mildness" was only relative to his true body. For ordinary people, it was still an oppressive pressure that kept others at a distance.
However, Priest had spent considerable time in the Northern Lands and had grown accustomed to this pressure, so he smoothly knelt on one knee, bowed his head, and said respectfully, "My Lord."
"Stand up, no need to be so formal."
Joshua bent down and patted Priest on the shoulder—which nearly made the young man lose his breath and fall to both knees—indicating for him to stand. Once Priest was upright, Joshua said calmly, "I have a report here showing that you've self-studied many things in the Foreign Exploration Department. Not just knowledge related to superhuman power—you've even self-studied advanced mathematics, void studies, material theory, and alchemical knowledge."
When Joshua said this, his tone carried a hint of curiosity: "You spent nearly a thousand contribution points specifically to hire tutors for supplementary lessons and to purchase books and experimental materials. That's ten years' worth of consumption for an ordinary family. And from what I know, your previous life wasn't wealthy."
"Why?"
When Joshua calmly asked "why," Priest couldn't help but lower his head, feeling somewhat uneasy. He didn't know why Joshua was asking these questions—whether he was pleased or thought he was wasting time. So Priest hesitated for a moment before saying, "...It's what you said, Lord Dean—that knowledge is part of power, and a nation that separates scholars from warriors will only have cowardly souls and foolish wars."
He repeated the content of Joshua's speech at the end of the year before last, then said with utmost seriousness, "I don't want to be weak... I want to become a strong person like you, my Lord! So spending so many contribution points on learning—I think it's very worthwhile! I won't neglect my Foreign Exploration Department missions, I guarantee it!"
"Haha, I told you, no need to be so nervous."
For the uneasy Priest, Joshua just shook his head with a smile. He looked appreciatively at this young man who, in just half a year, had caught up to near-professional standards in various subjects. His gaze was filled with the delight of discovering an excellent seed.
Even in the current Mycroft World, there were spells for memory enhancement and speed reading, but to truly integrate so much knowledge, hiring teachers and buying textbooks alone was absolutely insufficient. One had to think with full effort, digest the content recorded in those books, and make it one's own. And this little fellow before him had self-studied in the gaps between various missions and earned praise from several teachers—a true genius.
This child... perhaps truly had the talent to become a strong person.
Thinking this, Joshua couldn't help but recall many past memories. He remembered the Sages of the Sage.
Perhaps the Sage of that time had passed down so many inheritances because of this kind of appreciative feeling.
But this wasn't important, because he wasn't imitating—he genuinely wanted to give these young people a helping hand and see how high they could reach in the future.
"I was originally thinking about whether to transfer you to the academy for systematic study, but now it seems unnecessary."
The warrior nodded slightly and said in a low voice, "But now it seems that self-study combined with sufficiently challenging practice is the most suitable path for you. Very good, Priest. So I'm going to give you an opportunity."
The gray-haired young man instinctively looked up, meeting Joshua's eyes. Joshua smiled and said to him, "No need to use the Foreign Exploration Department's exchange system. Whatever you want, whatever you want to learn, I can create and provide it for you. And I don't need you to pay any extra price—just the exchange points and privileges I just rewarded you with."
As he spoke, the warrior raised his right hand. In his palm, a silver light orb was slowly rotating, flowing with the radiance of steel force. Within this faint glow, phantoms of all things flowed, as if with a single flash of light, they could become real, manifesting in reality.
"Speak. Just don't be too greedy."
In that instant, Priest was stunned. He might have guessed he would receive some additional recognition as a reward from a legendary expert who thought highly of him, but he never imagined that Joshua would offer him "a wish."
To have the legendary Count Radcliffe fulfill a wish for him—of course, outrageous requests naturally couldn't be realized, but even a limited wish—how could mere reward points and exchange privileges compare? Such an opportunity, if it appeared in the outside world, even kings would fight over it. It was worth more than a city.
And Joshua calmly observed the stunned Priest. The warrior watched every move of this highly promising young man, wanting to know what Priest would choose in such a favorable atmosphere.
"I've thought it over, my Lord."
After a long while, the gray-haired young man closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He opened his eyes, his gaze firm, and said, "I want to obtain some knowledge... I want to learn some things."
"Speak, Priest." Joshua naturally agreed readily. The silver light orb in his palm spun rapidly. This time, the phantoms appearing in the light were books. The warrior raised an eyebrow and asked, "What do you want to learn?"
And Priest, at this moment, thought not of himself, but of those behind him, beside him, and those not here, far away in Moldavia—his family.
So he said softly:
"I want to learn absolute protection, my Lord."
...
[Priest has posted a new personal status]
[838/1/4 14:47: A photo with someone you absolutely wouldn't expect! (attached photo)]
[Brandy liked your new status.]
[Brandy: Hey, that scary-looking uncle next to big brother looks familiar... Brandy feels like she's seen him somewhere!]
[Dar liked your new status.]
[Dar: He does look familiar. Feels like I've seen him before. When was it? (attached deep-in-thought expression)]
[Factory Owner Lund liked your new status.]
[Factory Owner Lund: ???!? (attached frightened expression)]
[...]
[Lin (Administrator Exclusive Purple ID) liked your new status.]
[Ying (Administrator Exclusive Purple ID) disliked your new status.]
[Ying: What?! Master hasn't taken a photo with us yet! Damn it, someone we don't even know got ahead of us!]
[Syndicate liked your new status.]
[Syndicate: The Lord actually uses a psychic terminal?]
[Lisa liked your new status.]
[Lisa replied to Syndicate: Mr. Syndicate, please delete this message quickly... It won't be good if Teacher sees it.]
[...]
[Central Administrator No. 3 has edited this message.]
[This message has been locked and deleted for violating Moldavia Territory law and being suspected of leaking major military secrets.]