Chapter 75: The Blessing of the Gods (Part 2)

“Poverty… Vow of Poverty!” George suddenly froze, and a scene suddenly appeared in his mind. On the streets of Karada, George wore old clothes made of rough burlap and waited for alms.

Just thinking about this made George feel a chill run from his inside to his outside.

Those who took the Vow of Poverty were mostly idealists like the early martyrs of Tianchao.

After deciding to dedicate their lives to good causes, some of the more extreme members gave up all possible material enjoyments for their whole lives.

They restrained their desires to let their souls resonate more with the Upper Plane, and in exchange, they gained the power to fight evil people.

These people were usually called ascetics.

Ascetics could only carry and use ordinary weapons, which meant non-magical or Masterwork weapons.

Usually, they just carried a long stick as a walking staff for travel and a standard blade mass-produced by a general Blacksmith’s forge.

At the same time, there were very strict limits on their clothing and behavior.

They could only wear simple clothing without magical properties, usually just a home-woven robe, maybe with a hat and a pair of casual shoes.

They could only carry one ordinary cloth bag to hold at most one day’s worth of food.

If they were a Spellcaster, they could carry and use a spell component pouch.

However, they could not use any kind of Magic Item, but they could benefit from magical effects applied to themselves.

In other words, others could cast the effects of Magic Items onto the ascetic, but the ascetic themselves could not touch or use them.

There was one more point worth noting: while these ascetics practiced self-denial to the maximum, they also contributed to charity work to the maximum.

If they were Adventurers, the vast majority of the wealth they earned in the team had to be donated to people living in hardship.

This could be done directly, such as using the equipment of dead looters to arm the looted people, or indirectly, by donating to a Temple that worked for the welfare of the poor.

Ascetics who engaged in business or worked as craftsmen would also use their profits to help those around them who were struggling to survive.

However, charity was not meant to support lazy people, and ascetics with their own jobs in the city did not have time to distinguish between them one by one.

So, they basically entrusted this to the Temples of the Good Alignment, with the Temple of the Suffering, an ally of the Lord of Justice, being the main one.

After all, the main source of ascetics was the believers of the Suffering.

In short, an ascetic who voluntarily took on the responsibility of voluntary poverty would realize that many people outside themselves were trapped by poverty because they had no choice, and they would try their best to seek welfare for these unfortunate people.

Perhaps some people would think, how could there be such people in the world?

But in fact, it was just that some people thought that if they could not do it, others could not do it either.

During the White Terror period, some Party members sold their young children under the age of one to raise funds for the organization.

There were also quite a few examples of Party members who, against their will, married enemy personnel to help with defection.

In the peaceful era before he transmigrated, people constantly criticized and attacked them, claiming they destroyed human rights and lost their humanity.

But if it were not for their contributions back then, these keyboard politicians might still be worrying about how to eat corn buns today.

Of course, if there was evidence that the organization forced them, this question could be “open to discussion.”

But if it was a voluntary sacrifice, even if you cannot understand it, please do not say anything other than admiration.

Because the life you enjoy now has more or less contributed to by them.

Noticing that George suddenly lost his words, the voice in the void suddenly spoke: “Little one, do not overthink it. I was just asking if you know the benefits of the Vow of Poverty. It is not asking you to become an ascetic.”

‘What is going on today? Why am I suddenly putting myself in the role of an ascetic? Even if I get such a blessing, I can just pretend I never accepted it. Why am I so worried?’

George knew that the effect of the Vow of Poverty was extraordinary, but for his own identity, the disadvantages clearly outweighed the benefits.

While weighing this, he felt a bit conflicted.

After throwing away other thoughts, George asked: “Since the Vow of Poverty is not given as a reward, why bring it up at all?”

“What reward is the Vow of Poverty? It is just a dumb method that anyone with perseverance and willpower, who is determined to follow the path of goodness, can achieve.

If I used this as a reward for you, then I would really be slapping my own face.

Besides, this thing conflicts with Magic Items.

Looking at you, you would never be willing to walk this path.”

Although George’s current state could not show a look of confusion on his face, his emotional fluctuations were clearly perceived by the other party.

“Then let me ask, if you could get most of the abilities of the Vow of Poverty without too many restrictions, would you choose it or not?”

George had been the head of his household for several years.

Although sometimes he seemed to hesitate because there were too many things to consider, when he really needed to make a decision, he still had enough courage.

Hearing this news, he immediately asked about the key point: “Can I really get most of the abilities of the Vow of Poverty? And ‘not too many restrictions’ means there are still some limits. So what kind of limits are they?”

“The limit is that the user must ensure they are in the Good Alignment. Otherwise, this blessing will fail.

Also, because this does not follow the path of the Good Alignment, all blessings in the Vow of Poverty related to the Good Alignment will disappear or change.”

Then, the avatar projection of the Lord of Justice began to introduce the specific effects of this blessing to George, just like a salesperson in a mall.

At the very beginning, George would gain protective abilities like wearing a Chainmail shirt or Scale Armor.

The most clever thing was that although this protection was similar to a Force effect, it could work together with Force-based supportive spells.

Even more excellent was that as George’s strength increased, the protective ability would gradually improve under the interaction between himself and the blessing.

Taking George’s current strength as an example, this effect was already equivalent to the combined effect of the Breastplate and Chainmail he often wore before.

Also, although this ability was useless against touch and incorporeal touch attacks, it could still be effective against energy weapons like Light weapons.

In this way, George could discard those cumbersome heavy armors in the future and better bring out his advantage in speed.

When George was at the Gray Lead Regular Rank, he would gain the ability to endure elemental damage, which allowed him to largely ignore damage from hot or cold environments.

For example, he could survive normally without any effect in an environment ranging from minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit to 140 degrees Fahrenheit.

Unfortunately, this ability overlapped with George’s own Immune to Cold and Heat.

When George reached the Gray Lead Elite Rank, all his attacks and damage would be significantly increased.

This made any weapon used by this character become a magic weapon with a first-tier enhancement Enchantment, and it could ignore corresponding damage reduction.

This enhancement effect increased to a second-tier enhancement Enchantment after George reached the peak of the Red Iron Rank.

At the same time, any weapon damage caused by George was considered to have the Order attribute, so he could cause more severe injuries to certain special Chaotic Alignment monsters than others.

From then on, by analogy, the Black Lead Elite was the third tier, the Bronze Apprentice was the fourth tier, and the Bronze Peak was the fifth tier.

Do not think that a fifth-tier enhancement Enchantment is nothing.

You need to know that entering the sixth tier is the domain of gods, requiring a Divine Artifact forged with Immortal Blood.

Another blessing George could get when he was at the peak of the Gray Lead Rank was the ability to survive without food or drink.

However, this overlapped with the path of cultivation George would have to take in the future, which was the ability to survive without eating.

When George entered the Red Iron Rank, he gained enhanced deflection on defense.

All attacks against him seemed to fall into seawater and were interfered with.

Of course, this effect would also increase as George’s strength increased, and eventually, attacks against him would feel like falling into a swamp.

But this was a very far-off thing.

The Red Iron Entry Rank was the key rank for this blessing.

At this time, George could gain two abilities.

One of them was enhanced in all saving throws, and this effect would also increase as his strength increased.

The other ability was an increase of one rank in one of his attributes.

When he entered the Black Lead Entry Rank, he would increase that attribute by another rank.

In addition, he could get a rank increase in another attribute.

Then, at the Black Lead Peak and Bronze Elite ranks, he would further increase the already enhanced attributes and choose one more attribute to increase from the remaining ones.

So, by the time he reached the Bronze Elite Rank, George could have four attributes increased.

The highest increase was four ranks, and the lowest was one rank, arranged in a 4, 3, 2, 1 order.

The most critical thing was that this increase was an essential improvement in aptitude, meaning in a sense, it made the bucket for storing water bigger.

At George’s current rank, the Red Iron Elite, his physical resistance to strikes would be greatly strengthened.

It was just like people who practiced hard Qigong before transmigrating.

This would also increase as his strength increased.

At the same time, George’s thoughts and Soul would be specially protected.

This ability was called the Thought Shield.

From then on, he would be immune to spells that detect thoughts, spells that identify lies, and any attempts to determine his Alignment.

Spells commonly used by Mages to detect Alignment would become ineffective against him.

However, this could not really be said to be good or bad.

If the Court of his Territory was established in the future, this ability might have a very bad effect on George acting as a witness when necessary.

Immunity to Alignment detection would also cause similar trouble in other places.

So, these two things could be considered half good and half bad.

For others, the most important effect of immunity to thought detection seemed a bit useless to George.

Because the path he cultivated focused most on the tempering of the mind, if he did not want to.

Even without mentioning supernatural beings like the Lord of Justice, among mortals, only spells from Mages of at least the Bronze Rank or higher might be effective.

When George cultivated and could further advance to the stage of manifesting a soul, even a Legendary Mage would find it difficult to do anything in this regard.

The remaining enhancements for George at the present time were like pastries in a glass display case, temporarily out of reach.

The damage reduction ability he could get at the Red Iron Peak was even more tempting, making George drool.

At the beginning, as long as it was not a magic weapon, any attack against George would automatically cancel out a large part of the effect.

Specifically, for weapons like Scimitars or Light Warhammers, if they were not enchanted and the user had not reached the Red Iron Rank, George could stand there and let them chop him for a week with basically no effect.

When he reached the Black Lead Peak, this damage reduction effect would no longer be affected unless he was hit by an enchanted weapon of the Chaotic Alignment.

In short, the range of being countered was obviously reduced, which indirectly strengthened the protective effect.

When he further reached the Bronze Elite Rank, although the range of being countered was not reduced, the reduction effect was indeed nearly doubled.

Weapons like Battle Axes, Flails, and the Longsword that George often used would be hard to affect him at that time.

The only problem was that this belonged to supernatural abilities and would be suppressed by an Anti-Magic Field.

If he was in an Anti-Magic Zone, he would have no effect at all.

Unfortunately, the ability he got when he reached the Black Lead Apprentice Rank was another useless one—the ability to survive without breathing.

This overlapped seriously with the internal breathing George would be able to do soon.

When George reached the middle stage of the Black Lead Rank, he could gain some resistance to acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic energy damage.

This resistance could be further improved at the Bronze Peak.

At the beginning, he could simply ignore small tricks like the Burning Hands spell cast by just-joined novice Mages.

For slightly stronger spells, he could only reduce the effect.

Even at the end, it might not completely cancel out the effect of the Fireball, known as the strongest weapon on the battlefield, hitting him directly.

Of course, if it was within the area of effect, it might be possible.

But for weapons enchanted with attribute damage, this was a major counter.

When George reached the Black Lead Elite Rank, he could gain a permanent ability equivalent to the Freedom of Movement spell effect.

For a melee fighter, this was one of the most tempting abilities of this blessing, besides improving aptitude and strengthening attributes.

From now on, spell effects that were very annoying for close combat, such as Grease, Web, Paralysis, Heavy Fog, Slow, and Black Tentacles, would no longer affect him.

At the same time, even underwater, he could be as agile as on land.

It could also automatically help the owner regain balance, so situations like tripping would be out of the question.

For people who liked to use dirty tactics like tripwires, this was a nightmare.

Even techniques like Tai Chi’s “using four ounces to move a thousand pounds” could be ignored.

Moreover, any grapple check used to resist a grapple would always automatically succeed.

Similarly, grapple checks or escape checks used to break free from a grapple or pin would also be automatic successes.

In other words, from the rules perspective, it ignored any direct effects or self-limiting effects of magic and physics.

The most critical thing was that this belonged to a supernatural ability, so it could still work even in an Anti-Magic Field.

With this, not only would combat power increase, but the ability to save one’s life would increase greatly.

At least when running away, it would not be so easy for others to intercept him.

When at the Bronze Apprentice Rank, the blessed person could gain the ability of rapid self-healing.

This ability could not be improved by ordinary medical means because it borrowed the power of the associated Plane.

But in terms of healing effect, as long as there was a breath left, if he just rested for one day, he would immediately become lively and energetic again.

Unless it was a serious injury like a severed limb or damaged internal organs, ordinary external wounds would be fully healed in one or two hours.

Finally, when he reached the middle stage of the Bronze Rank, he could gain a permanent ability equivalent to the True Seeing spell effect.

The ability to see the true nature of things.

The spellcaster could see through ordinary and magical darkness, notice hidden doors concealed by magic, see the true position of objects affected by Blur or Displacement, see invisible creatures or objects, see through illusions, and see the true appearance of shapechangers.

The spellcaster could see the Ethereal Plane, but could not see the Demiplane.

Unfortunately, the distance that True Seeing could penetrate was only 120 feet.

The above were the effects of this series of Divine Grace, which the Lord of Justice explained to George and called the Blessing of Order.

‘It seems to be basically consistent with the partial effects of the Vow of Poverty that Mr. Val once said.’ George said somewhat unwillingly: “I’m telling you, Your Highness! You cannot fool me.

There is not even half of the abilities of the Vow of Poverty here, let alone most of them.

Besides, it also improves as your strength increases, just like the Vow of Poverty.

In a sense, it also belongs to self-cultivation, right?

At least the role you played in it seems not very big.

Is it a bit unfair to the knowledge I paid?

As for the limits themselves, they are not troublesome.

But keeping the Order, does it mean you want to bind me to your same Alignment?”

Hearing George’s complaints, which seemed to have some reason, the avatar of the Lord of Justice was not affected at all.

He still transmitted in his calm tone: “How could my role in this not be big?

You need to know that the reason why the Vow of Poverty has so many limits is to combine itself with the essence of a certain level of Heavenly Mountain.

By borrowing the power of the Plane, it allows itself to gain this series of powerful abilities.

The Blessing of Order is something I spent divine power to let you connect with the Mechanical Realm, which is known as the birthplace of all Planes’ Order and the adjustment machine of the Multiverse.

This is my unique idea and creation.

Do you think that a little bit of limitation could exchange for such a strong effect?”

Noticing that George did not make any reply, this avatar continued to explain: “As for the problem of having too few abilities, did I not explain it once before?

Those abilities within the Good Domain are gone.

Because those abilities are unique to the essence of Heavenly Mountain and can only be granted by it.

Since the source of power for the Blessing of Order is the Mechanical Realm, of course, it cannot get those abilities.”

After hearing the explanation from the avatar of the Lord of Justice, George suddenly felt something: “Since the Good abilities are granted by the unique essence of Heavenly Mountain, then the Mechanical Realm should also have its own unique essence, right?

Why were no other abilities granted?

In other words, the Blessing of Order itself is not perfect.

Plus, I have never heard of similar abilities before, and the tone of the introduction was inducing.

I think I will not be the first test subject, right?”

Even though it was just an avatar, its essence was the same as the Lord of Justice, so it would not lie.

Previously, it could be vague, but now that George had asked, the other party could only answer truthfully: “Although this is the first time, I can guarantee with my ability that you will have no problems at all.”

“I heard that even some Mages of the Good Alignment would pay a corresponding price even when finding people to test.

Besides, if this test is successful, Your Highness, you should continue to conduct in-depth research and prepare for future promotion, right?

This is of extraordinary significance to your Church.

In any case, it counts as some contribution, doesn’t it?”

George changed his tone and started to talk about real-world examples, which was also a subtle satire on the Lord of Justice for not being fair enough in this matter.

“So what do you plan to do?”

Feeling that George’s words seemed to have some reason, and not wanting to entangle too much about this, this avatar kicked the ball back to George.

“Since there are so many abilities in here that I do not need, Your Highness, can you exchange them for other abilities that are more useful to me?”

George immediately took the opportunity to strike while the iron was hot.

After a fruitful negotiation, to put it plainly, it was just haggling.

George finally got what he wanted as he wished.

First, by sacrificing the three abilities of enhanced natural protection, no need to breathe, and no need to eat, he enhanced the damage reduction ability.

This made this ability never be countered by any attribute again, and it would also be organically combined with other similar damage reduction abilities.

He also enhanced the energy resistance ability by sacrificing the ability to endure elemental damage.

However, this ability did not grow in effect, and it became like damage reduction, able to be used in combination with similar abilities.

The above two points were actually George laying the groundwork for the Golden Body Jade Pillar method he might learn in the future.

If the effects of the two conflicted in the future, it would be obviously a loss greater than the gain.

In addition, he replaced the Thought Shield with a permanent supernatural ability called the Mental Barrier.

Do not look at the literal meaning, as it seems similar, but in fact, the two differ by a huge amount!

This ability could protect the user, making all magic or devices with the same function that can detect, influence, or perceive thoughts or emotions unable to affect the spellcaster.

This effect could not only block all magic and effects that affect the mind but also prevent detection by Divination School spells or Divination School effects.

Even if Limited Wish, or even 9th-level Miracle and Wish spells were used to influence the mind or detect information, the Mental Barrier could make them ineffective.

If the owner was in the influence area of a large-scale detection spell, such as the Secret Art Eye, although the detection spell would still work, it could not detect the one who had the Mental Barrier.

Any detection spell aimed at the one with the Mental Barrier would be completely ineffective.

There are spells with similar names and effects that are truly 8th-level Protection School spells.

Since George could not afford it yet and had to upgrade it, he would have to wait until the Black Lead Rank to enjoy the effect of such abilities.