“Goodbye then, Your Excellency Don Juan.” Priest Louis nodded quietly to Annan.
He wasn’t particularly excited nor blamed Annan’s participation which relieved him from an extended duty.
He just accepted the fact calmly and was grateful to Annan.
“I knew this day would come,” Louis said when Annan came to the door.
In fact, Louis didn’t expect Annan to clear the nightmare in one go at the very start.
Annan completed “Nightmare: Gallery” even without prior experience with it. The only help he had was Louis’s less detailed strategy.
From that time on, Louis knew that the time he would return to the capital would be much sooner than he anticipated.
Before Louis came to the Freezing Water Port, he was already prepared to “purify the nightmare at Freezing Water Port until he was 40 years old”. Worse still, he expected to die of old age here if he still couldn’t resolve this nightmare by then.
The church had a “ten rankings” to set apart the difficulty of nightmares, and the difficulty came in ascending order from 1 to 10. Moreover, the nightmare’s ranking wasn’t based on the number of available levels but on “the efficiency and stability of purifying the nightmare with divine arts”.
For a priest, the difficulty of nightmares wouldn’t necessarily match up to his level. Even for priests of different faiths, the difficulty of the same nightmare could vary drastically.
Bronze Rank’s nightmare could be in the difficulty of the first three levels. Theoretically, Gold Rank’s nightmare would have the difficulty of minimum, Level 7.
Lewis, for example, once cleaned up a Silver Rank nightmare with a difficulty level of seven.
He spawned as a Silver Rank Destruction Wizard in prison dedicated to containing Transcended in that nightmare. He wore a straitjacket and a shock-resistant helmet with an eye patch on his head. At the same time, his hands and feet were bound in shackles, his fingernails were stripped and restricted with tight bandages, and his curse vessel was stripped off. Worse still, he even had three batches of guards, each batch on eight-hour shifts, to watch over him.
The purpose of that nightmare was to kill or subdue at least one guard within eight hours, find and retake his curse vessel, and then escape from the prison.
This was undoubtedly a nightmare of great difficulty.
Louis had no idea how to resolve this challenge.
As he entered that nightmare, he was already chained and tied to a chair by his watcher.
At the same time, his watcher was playing cards with another watcher and two prisoners.
All of a sudden, Louis heard the sound of silver coins.
He immediately used the divine art, [Money Counting]. Even with no vision of the silver coins, he had the coins’ location on the table imprinted in his vision. Then, he received feedback on the specific positions of the four people on the gambling table.
Then, he immediately activated the [Tax Appraisal], which highlighted the four people. Immediately after, he cast [Tax Levy], and two silver coins on the designated table flew towards him. One of them turned one into a [Sharp Object] and the other into [Silver Light Dust].
The rest of the battle was over in ten seconds.
Afterward, Louis held the [Sharp Object] in his right hand and 5 silver coins in his left hand. With enough weapon disposal, he quickly defeated his enemy, reacquired his curse vessel, and fled.
Although the warden reacted immediately and called upon the ballista, the nightmare was successfully cleared when Louis rushed out of prison.
Moreover, it was a solid nightmare purification that cleared off the remaining dungeon entry count in one fell swoop.
This process took no more than 3 minutes.
What Lewis was proficient at was this kind of nightmare.
His greatest strength was that he would always be fearless, calm, and determined.
In many cases, the priest could not clear the nightmare, not because the nightmare was too hard. After all, the priests had “cheats” to assist them. While Transcended power couldn’t be utilized in nightmares, they could borrow the deities’ power directly through holy light engravings.
It was like getting powerful equipment and a lot of consumables from the advanced players through mailboxes or face-to-face transactions when a specific function had not yet been released for the new players.
In this case, the priest’s failure in clearing the nightmare was most likely not because of the difficulty but simply because of a decision-making error or a simple personal mistake.
But Louis was different.
He had always followed his instincts without hesitation, let alone doubt his decision-making.
When ordinary people saw bullets coming, they would subconsciously think, “do you want to dodge to the left or the right” and the outcome was that they would stand still in the center. On the other hand, Lewis would dodge in a fixed direction the moment he realized he was being attacked, no matter if it was the optimal choice.
It was precisely because of this character that Priest Louis would accept this mission.
Indeed, he wasn’t issued to complete this mission.
Instead, he took the mission proactively.
This was a nightmare that had not been purified in 50 years. As long as the dungeon challenger failed, he would lose his memory. Thus, he couldn’t utilize the advantage of a priest to clear the nightmare. As a result, even the Silver Hand’s emissaries hesitated to do this mission.
Louis was the first and only priest to sign up for it.
Not because of being hot-blooded, nor because of wanting to be promoted for this merit. When he heard “no one wanted to come”, he thought he had the responsibility for it. Thus, he came to Freezing Water Port and then realized that it was a dead end. Still, he didn’t regret his choice. Instead, he stayed in this place calmly and continued to purify the nightmare while going through his physical training as usual.
Louis was the true ” hero ” compared to Annan, who had completely lost his “fear”.
That was why he became Salvatore’s friend.
The senior had a high standard for making friends.
“Goodbye, Priest Louis. You are a true knight.” Annan said softly, “At the next time we meet, I will call you Knight Louis.”
“According to Silver Knight’s rules, you are now my senior. So just call me Louis.” Louis replied earnestly, “I also admire your wisdom and courage. Please be sure to notify me through Silver Sire Church when you arrive in the capital.”
He stood in front of Annan like a massive mountain. Annan could only reach his chest.
Annan smiled gently and nodded, “I will.”
Louis didn’t look back, turned around, and jogged away with his luggage on his back.
He still didn’t take the carriage at Freezing Water Port in the end because he was not urgent on time. This happened even much earlier than he had expected. Thus, he decided to start running from the North Sea Territory to exercise and recover his physical fitness and then follow along and help the caravan. He would then slowly take the carriage intermittently to the capital.
“He’s a good boy.” Bishop Daryl appeared silently behind Annan and sighed, “It’s just a pity that such a character is not popular in the Silver Sire’s Church.”
“Are you talking bad about Silver Sire?” Annan chuckled.
“I’m just seeking truth from the matter. Silver Sire doesn’t care much about His reputation. He only recognizes money and interests. If you are capable, even if you point at His face and scold Him, He would even treat you to a meal provided you have evidence and reasons for it.”
Bishop Daryl continued talking about Silver Sire’s secrets as if it wasn’t a big deal.
He sighed, “A child like Louis, who is silent and determined, may be more in line with the characters of the Bone Burying Grandma and the Silent Lady.”
“Just like the Venerated Skeleton?” Annan replied casually.
Hearing the name at the Freezing Water Port, Daryl suddenly paused and looked back at Annan.
Nothing abnormal happened.
It was only then that he finally reacted that the Gallery Nightmare was purified.
Old Bread couldn’t help but laugh out loud, “Yeah, it’s over. I almost forgot.”
“It isn’t a problem anymore. When I report this to my superior, no one would be stationed to protect the Freezing Water Port anymore.”
Annan replied casually, “How are you going to leave this place? I have to let you know in advance that Yiyi is a Transcended. She can’t go abroad directly by boat.”
“Then, I shall go to Treasure Diamond Island first. We plan to take the carriage to the south tomorrow and spend a week to arrive at the South Fort. Then, we will take the subway to the submarine city and then transfer from the submarine city to Treasure Diamond Island, which will take about a day. After arriving in the United Kingdom, it is much more convenient to travel. We will reach the destination in two or three days. You can also complete Miss Yiyi’s advancement on the way.” The chubby bishop squinted and replied casually.
Annan thought about it, “That will be about eleven days?”
“Let’s round it up to two weeks. I should be able to give you an update by then.” Daryl counted the time, “You will be departing within five days. So, when you arrive at the capital, I should still be on the subway or at Treasure Diamond Island. When you arrive at the capital, settle down safely first and then look for the Paper Princess. After that, I should be able to give you more information in three days.”
“Then, it’s settled.” Annan nodded.