(16) One month [1]

The next day, Veren looked at the empty garden before him. No flowers, no maintenance of grasses, and the fountain didn't work either.

Deciding to not care about the small details, Veren quietly did what he came to do.

Swish~

Veren swung the sword he got from the storage room.

'I know a few sacrificial art of the sword god, but I can't perform them here, where eyes are everywhere. More importantly, the holy kingdom is a single religion-based nation, they will not look at me in a good light if they found out about it.'

There were inter-religion nations too, but Veren didn't know their approximate location.

Breathing in deeply, Veren swung his sword upward: "Arc light."

The sword that was already a blur, due to Veren's innate strength, instantly transformed into a bright light moving around like a whip, destroying his surroundings in seconds.

Crackle~

The sword disintegrated into particles and was swapped away by the air.

'3 seconds...This sword couldn't take the load at all.' Veren mused over the pros and cons of this ability.

The sacrificial act Veren just used was one of the intermediate-level art of the holy church. He felt his body exhausted just by performing it once.

'More than half of my holy divinity was sucked away...' Veren grimaced.

The church would teach many things to all the people who were admitted, this contained mastery over all weapons. Hence, Veren was more interested in being proficient with his use of holy divinity. But in the end, his body wasn't ready for it yet.

Giving up, Veren returned to his room and instead trained in his soul.

'No matter how proficiently I train my soul, I can't surpass a demi-god's soul in 8 to 7 years. It would be different If I became a demi-god myself, but that's hard or even impossible. I have to depend on my knowledge more than ever...'

However, Veren felt a little resistance thinking about who he had to deal with.

The god of life, also known as the Evernight witch by the human nations. She was an elf god, which made it even more complicated.

'...There are other methods, but they will mostly just boost the speed of my growing soul. Sigh...This will need a lot of thinking.'

Click~

At that moment, Vousenne entered his room naturally. Veren wasn't surprised either, he continued training as if nothing had changed.

But this action brought a smile to Vousenne, she was used to Veren's never-changing attitude.

"Helvry wants to meet you."

Veren rained a brow at Vousenne's words, he saw Helvry walk into his room with a calm expression.

"Young master Veren...."

Veren cut Helvry's word off: "Sit anywhere first, I can already imagine what you want to talk about."

Due to his past actions, Veren got versed in the medical field around spiritual dysfunction. So he was able to tell the amount of material Helvry requested from Duke Walprus was double or even triple, than what was necessary for one person.

Duke Walprus generously provided everything, as if to show his wealth as a Duke.

Nevertheless, to someone like Helvry, it would be close to impossible to provide any of the material used to treat Vousenne by himself.

He might be the best doctor around here, however, it was to be noted that he used up any money he got to further experiment – to find the cure to his daughter's suffering.

Helvry looked around Veren's room, it was weirdly empty. There weren't that many ingots on the wall either, it all seemed eerie to him.

Finding the table, Helvry quietly sat on it and waited for Veren to speak.

"...I know your embezzlement of the materials. I don't know why you did such a thing and neither do I want to. But since you're taking something, isn't it natural to return a worthy reward?"

Helvry understood what Veren was getting at immediately.

"Is there something the young master Veren needs, please tell me." Helvry was internally relieved seeing Veren not pursuing this matter, but still, he felt guilty.

Veren took out a parchment from his drawer and handed it over to Helvry.

"I need these two items within three weeks. I don't care what you do to acquire them, just keep in mind to never forget that I can still bring this embezzlement to light any moment." Veren began waving his hand as if to dismiss Helvry.

Helvry moved out with a dark expression. One of the two things listed in the parchment was a poison, with its formula. It was something he never saw in his life.

Helvry was not aware at that moment, the poison that he was going to create was the strongest poison in the mortal world. That even the demi-god would frown at first sight.

Veren sent off Vousenne who kept asking questions.

'I truthfully wanted to ask for money too...'

Veren found the word money very soothing now. They didn't bring any benefits immediately, but having some still made him happy enough to forget about everything for a while.

'I never knew I was such a materialistic person. It's good, I guess. I will save enough money to not care about anything till the moment of my death.' Veren found his lips perking up for the first time in years.

After calming down, Veren's face grew expressionless again. He remembered the words Duke Walprus said.

'It doesn't matter whether I fail or succeed...I had hoped that there was no ulterior motive behind sending me to the church, leaving aside the spy thing. But from his words, it is apparent that he is scheming something.'

Or else, there was no reason to send Veren to the church.

This made him consider running away. But if he did so, there would be many things to lose.

'If the scenario progressed as in the Novel, I could benefit a lot by going to church. Normally, I would need to attend for 5 years, but I know the future. The holy kingdom will be destroyed in 2 years, so I just have to attend for 2 years too.'

Running away brought many problems too, he would be chased down by the behemoth, known as the pale mask church. They pretty much controlled every underworld in this world.

'The time isn't right yet....'