Chương 41: The Holy Church in Chaos, and a New Class Module

At the Central Cathedral of the Solaris Holy Church, the atmosphere resembled a command center whose entire ward network had failed at once. Dozens of Cardinals and High Priests in gold-threaded red silk robes rushed frantically around the main altar.

At the center of the great hall, the thousand-year-old sacred crystal — the one that had always radiated a brilliant golden glow representing the energy harvested from the Divinely Chosen Covenant — was now flickering an unstable, blood-red light, accompanied by a mechanical whine like a short-circuiting machine.

"Report! The Seventh Lock has lost connection entirely!" a High Priest shouted, clutching a stack of parchment as he ran up.

"Mana output collected from the Holy Maiden dropped fourteen percent in a single second!"

"An intruder? Any trace of forbidden Demon-race magic?!" The Cardinal slammed his staff against the stone floor, his face drained of color.

"No hostile mana signature whatsoever! The seal structure wasn't broken by force... it collapsed on its own from the inside, as if — as if the Holy Maiden herself had removed her title of servitude!" The entire hall fell into a stunned, terrified silence. The Cardinal panted, his eyes bloodshot. With the dogmatic reasoning of a man who'd held religious power for half a century, he immediately strung the facts together into the most catastrophic conclusion he could reach.

"Removed her title on her own? Impossible! That girl has been indoctrinated with sacrificial scripture since childhood — she couldn't possibly know how to invoke an ancient clause! It must be — it must be a remnant of the Ancient Demon Lord awakening from the void! The Demon race is trying to unleash the monster inside the Holy Maiden to destroy humanity!" He raised his staff and bellowed the order.

"Send every Enforcer to quietly seal off the arena! Put the Holy Maiden Astra under close watch! And prepare the reinforcement ritual — we must forcibly activate the remaining six seals to protect the continent's barrier before the Demon Lord rises!"

While the Holy Church descended into chaos, a few streets away, in the luxury presidential suite of the Vance Grand Knowledge Hotel— Lucian lay stretched out on a plush dragon-leather sofa, hands folded behind his head, the ceiling glowing softly with embedded moonlight pearls. Ting! A dim black notification window from the System v2. 0 suddenly appeared in front of him. [EVENT LOGGED: SUCCESSFULLY CRACKED A DIVINE COVENANT.] [NEW MODULE UNLOCKED: CLASS SELECTION.] [Based on the Host's accumulated behavior and demonstrated inclinations, the following Classes are available:] [Author] (Writer Lv. 1) Effect: +20% comprehension speed when composing written text. [Interpreter] (Translator Lv. 1) Effect: Automatically identifies 30% of the grammatical structure of unfamiliar languages. [Merchant] (Merchant Lv. 1) Effect: +10% accuracy when appraising asset value and contract risk. [HIDDEN] [WORLD SAVIOR] (WORLD SAVIOR — RANK MYTHIC!) Ultimate privilege: All base stats ×3!

Experience growth rate ×10! Unlocks the entire divine skill archive! Mandatory obligations attached: Carry the weight of humanity's extinction, patrol the border 24/7, fight the Demon King and dark gods to the last drop of blood. Lucian stared at the fourth line. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. He raised an eyebrow and read the "Mandatory obligations attached" section three times over. Tripling all base stats sounded amazing.

Ten times the experience growth sounded incredible. But the price was: unpaid border patrol duty with no days off, facing down the most dangerous monsters in the universe, and working himself to death with no pension plan.

"Lifetime overtime with no retirement fund?" Lucian curled his lip and swiped the fourth option aside without a second thought.

"Pass. Delete that Class permanently, please." Ting. The selection window refreshed. [WORLD SAVIOR declined.] [Selection remains available until confirmation.]"Spare me the lecture," Lucian said, taking a sip of herbal tea.

"'World Savior'? That reeks of debt and forced labor from a mile away. Give me [Author Lv. 1] and [Merchant Lv. 1]." [CONFIRMING SIMULTANEOUS ACTIVATION OF 2 BASIC CLASSES:] [Author Lv. 1] — Equipped. [Merchant Lv. 1] — Equipped. A cool sensation swept across Lucian's temples. In this world, ordinary people had to wait until age fifteen to receive a combat or vocational Class — kneeling at a church to be baptized and randomly assigned a "Divine Blessing" chosen by the Holy Church.

Some who wanted to be merchants got stuck with a farmer's Class instead. Some who dreamed of being a mage ended up with a mediocre knight's Class. But Lucian, thanks to the System, could freely choose, swap, and evolve his Classes according to his actual needs — without a single god's permission required. Click. The door opened. Sylvia stepped in carrying a silver tray of roasted honey-glazed lamb ribs, a secretary's badge from Vance Commerce pinned to her collar.

"Lucian," Sylvia set the plate down on the table and lowered her voice.

"There's a quiet curfew order outside the Church. Enforcers are sweeping every inn around the arena looking for whoever cracked the Seventh Seal." Lucian picked up a lamb rib, took a bite, chewed slowly, and gave his instructions at an unhurried pace.

"Let them look. Tomorrow morning, go tell Astra: same as today's match, fight weak on purpose. Dodge just enough — no more gymnastics routines. Make it look like a hard-fought win. She is not to reveal that 3. 8 million Combat Power under any circumstances."

"Understood," Sylvia said with a smile, her silver beast ears twitching slightly.

"I'll prepare two roasted sweet potatoes for her to keep her energy up between rounds."

"Deduct the cost of the potatoes from her next month's pay."

"Got it." Sylvia bowed and stepped out, closing the door behind her. Lucian finished his dinner, wiped his hands clean, and leaned against the window, looking out over the glittering lights of the capital of Solaris stretching to the horizon. The Quarterfinals had ended that afternoon. Four competitors remained. Tomorrow was the Semifinals.... At the same time, in the knights' dressing room at the Summer Palace. Magelight illuminated a large silver mirror.

Princess Eleanor stood upright, her white leather-gloved hand gripping the hilt of the holy sword at her hip. She looked at her own reflection in the mirror — the perfect princess, the undefeated Supreme Commander carrying the weight of an entire empire on her shoulders. But in her mind, the image of the mysterious knight from The Nameless Hero had already faded completely, replaced by the dark, indifferent, arrogant, and pragmatic eyes of the ten-year-old boy in the tunnel that afternoon.

Eleanor took a deep breath and drew the sword half an inch from its sheath. Golden holy light reflected in her sharp blue eyes.

"Tomorrow... I'll tear that mask off you myself, on the arena floor, Lucian Vance."