A sneeze destroys a magical civilization

The ghetto, the temple of Ilmat, the god of suffering.

A man in his forties, with almost all the hair on his head having fallen out, looked like a middle-aged male priest in his fifties or sixties. He was kneeling in front of a simple altar and leading a group of believers in devout prayers.

Although the new sect of Talona, ​​the goddess of poison and disease, has expanded rapidly, snatching away many of the original believers of Ilmat to a certain extent, and even squeezing the living space of the church, he does not seem to be anything like it. He was anxious, and he had no intention of competing head-to-head with his opponent.

Because the teachings of the God of Suffering itself do not encourage fighting, but hope that everyone can live in peace and help each other.

Therefore, his pastors and priests rarely conflict with other gods' churches, and even if they are bullied or suppressed, they often choose to endure it silently.

What's more, the teachings of Talona's new sect are to make people aware of the nature of poisons and diseases, and to prevent poor people who are not rich to begin with from getting sick or poisoned, which is equivalent to reducing the suffering in the world.

This simply coincides with the philosophy advocated by Ilmat.

Ever since, a very strange phenomenon appeared in the places where poor people gathered in major cities in Amn.

That is the rapid expansion of Talona's new sect, which continues to erode the original base of the faith of the God of Suffering.

But the latter not only had no intention of fighting back, but also pretended to be submissive and lived in peace with him.

When members of both churches met each other on weekdays, they would greet each other with smiles on their faces, without any hint of hostility.

If you didn’t know better, you would have thought that these two gods were allies.

But in fact, anyone with some knowledge of religion and theology knows that Ilmat and Talona have been incompatible rivals for thousands of years.

Whatever Talona wants to achieve, Ilmat will stop it at all costs.

But now, their relationship is starting to get complicated and souring.

Of course, God's way of thinking is obviously not something ordinary mortals can understand.

Therefore, this priest did not dare to speculate. He simply wanted to do his job well, help the poor in need, and provide children who had lost their parents with at least one hot meal a day and a shelter from the wind and rain. residence.

But this is obviously not an easy thing to do.

Although he has received a lot of donations from the Bernard Chamber of Commerce and Zuosi's Mage Tower, it is still a drop in the bucket for the huge number of poor people in the slums.

Regarding this, you can get a glimpse of this by looking at this temple that is still dilapidated and poor, and the linen blouse worn by the priest himself that has been mended countless times.

Even with tens of thousands of gold coins in hand, he did not want to use a copper plate to decorate the temple, or buy himself some decent clothes and shoes. Instead, he spent all the money carefully. Help those poor people who really need help.

This is why Zuo Si never hesitated when donating to the Ilmat Temple, and he donated tens of thousands of gold coins.

Only they know that there are families in the slums who really need help.

Since the God of Suffering does not emphasize complicated and solemn rituals, but pays attention to the practice of teachings, the prayer ended after just a few minutes.

When the priest stood up from in front of the shrine, all the believers immediately stood up too, staring at the large pots set up outside with extremely longing eyes, and kept swallowing their saliva.

What is cooked in the pot is also very simple, which is a hot soup stewed with potatoes, onions, cabbage, garlic, animal offal and some bones without any meat.

To make the soup look thicker and thicker, a lot of bread crumbs and crumbs are sprinkled in it.

Whether it's bones, offal or bread crumbs, all of them come from Zuo Si's high-end restaurant in Chengmen District.

The former is the leftover part of the high-end dishes cooked in the kitchen, while the latter is the leftover bread that the guests have not taken away, dried and then crushed directly.

Although in the eyes of rich people, these things are worthless at all and are just garbage that can be thrown away easily.

But it is a rare delicacy for the poor people at the bottom who have lost the ability to labor and work in the slums.

At least it's much cleaner and more hygienic than picking up food from garbage dumps or sewers, or simply catching rats to satisfy your hunger. You don't have to worry about contracting terrible diseases after eating.

Seeing these disabled people with broken hands, broken legs, blindness or deafness, as well as those children who were too young to work, the priest showed an expression of pity on his face and spoke in as gentle a voice as possible. He said, "Let's eat! Come on, you're welcome. I've prepared enough bread and hot soup today."

"Praise be to the merciful God of weeping! You have given us the courage to continue living!"

The middle-aged man with only one arm raised the wooden bowl in his hand and shouted loudly, then walked to the soup pot and took the initiative to take the responsibility of distributing food to others.

The rest of the people did not show any signs of fighting, but lined up in an orderly manner.

Among them, children, the elderly and women line up at the front of the queue, while adult men stand very consciously at the back.

It wasn't until everyone had eaten that the one-armed middle-aged man poured the remaining soup from the bottom of the pot into his bowl, picked up a piece of hard black bread, and held it in front of the sacrifice with one hand: "The Glory One." , you can eat some too."

But the priest smiled and shook his head and refused: "No, I'm not hungry, you should keep it for yourself."

"But you haven't eaten all day today. You won't be able to hold on at this rate." Strong worry appeared on the face of the one-armed man.

Because he knew that except for the temple of Ilmat, the God of Suffering, there was no other god or church in Askatra who cared about poor and disabled people like himself.

If something unexpected happens to the noble priest in front of him, and there happens to be no second person to take over, the group of people behind him who live entirely on charity will starve to death and turn into corpses lying on the roadside without paying attention. .

Although merchants in Amn like to show their wealth and social status through charitable donations, their money is usually taken away by those guys who occupy the downtown area and are called "beggars", but they are actually liars, hooligans, and gangsters.

This group of people are often strong, carry daggers and other weapons with them, and control areas where nobles and wealthy businessmen often pass.

Once other beggars approach, they will immediately threaten, intimidate, beat, or even kill.

Therefore, beggars in slums who really don’t have enough to eat and don’t have enough clothes to wear cannot get so-called charitable donations.

Of course, nobles and wealthy businessmen actually didn't care who they donated their money to.

I simply want to show off my wealth in this way and gain a reputation for being generous and kind.

Just when the priest was about to refuse again, he suddenly found that the believers who were eating suddenly stopped eating at some point. They all stood up and poured some of the soup in their bowls into another empty bowl next to them. inside.

After a while, the bowl was filled with hot soup.

A lame old woman carefully held up the bowl and brought it to the sacrifice. She forced out a smile and said: "Dear Glory, the God of Suffering teaches us to be brave enough to bear pain, endure suffering, and help each other. It used to be the case. You are helping us selflessly, now please allow us to express a little respect to you in our own way. Eat, if you don't eat, how can we people eat."

"Thanks!"

This time the priest did not refuse, but showed a pleased smile, took the soup bowl and squatted at the door of the simple temple to eat with all the believers.

Under the influence of his personal actions, these disabled people and children, although very poor and hungry, showed the best side of human nature.

Even if they have nothing and don’t know where the next meal will be after eating this meal, they are still willing to share the only food they have and struggle to survive in this cruel world.

There is no doubt that this act of pure kindness without any distracting thoughts quickly caught Ilmat's attention.

I saw a flash of golden light in the shrine, and the priest was suddenly surprised to find that his priest level had actually increased, and he hurriedly expressed his gratitude to the gods he served in his heart.

Unfortunately, the God of Suffering did not respond.

Because at this moment, he was standing on the third floor rooftop of a masonry building not far away, looking down at the entire slum area. After a full minute, he asked: "What do you think of the kind actions of those people just now?" how?"

"Well - how should I put it, it's really touching, but I don't like it." Zuo Si said his thoughts straightforwardly.

"Oh why?"

Ilmat turned around with a puzzled look on his face.

Zuo Si smiled and explained: "Because in my opinion, problems caused by this kind of food shortage can actually be solved in other ways. It is certainly a kind of sacrifice for a priest like him to rather starve himself than to let others eat. A very noble move, but it misses the most important and critical part.”

Irmat seemed to understand something and immediately nodded slightly: "I understand. Compared to the process, you actually value the change, the result, and the answer more."

"That's right! I never deny the greatness of selflessness, dedication and self-sacrifice.

But these alone cannot fundamentally change the current situation.

Look at this priest. Although he is doing his best to help others, has he changed anything in the end?

No, he couldn't change anything, he just slightly prolonged the lives of these poor people and alleviated a little the suffering they were suffering.

Once the temple's income and donations from the outside world decrease, some of these disabled people and children will inevitably die.

After all, their destiny has never been in their own hands, but in the hands of others. "

When he said these words, there was no emotion in Zuo Si's tone, as if he was talking about something that had nothing to do with him.

"What would you do if you were the priest of this temple?"

Ilmat's eyes flashed with curiosity.

Zuo Si raised his hand and extended his index and middle fingers: "Two methods.

First, find a way to find some jobs for these disabled people, preferably by getting some money to build a tavern, hotel or small workshop.

In this way, they can not only earn a salary that is enough to support themselves through work, but also increase the income of the temple so that they can help more people.

To put it simply, it means giving up the original way of giving without expecting anything in return, and organizing these people to create value.

Although this method does not solve the root cause of the problem, it is at least much better than leaving your destiny completely to others.

The second method is to expose the greed and sins of the nobles and wealthy businessmen, arouse the anger of the poor at the bottom, and completely intensify social conflicts.

Through means such as demonstrations and strikes, the merchants and aristocracy were constantly forced to make compromises, in order to attract more lower-class people to join.

At the same time, they must secretly develop an army, use corrupt city guards to obtain weapons and equipment, and prepare for a head-on conflict with the Shadow Thieves Guild.

When the time is right, he will directly set off a riot that sweeps the entire Askatra, overthrow the rule of the six-person council, and establish a new municipal council with the church as its core.

Finally, land and wealth are redistributed to make the entire society relatively fair.

This truly solves the problem at its root. "

"I really can't believe that I can hear such remarks from the mouth of a high-ranking official like you in Amn." Ilmat was obviously surprised, but soon he sighed involuntarily. "Sigh - if we follow the second method to solve the problem at its root, this city will flow into a river of blood, and many people will die as a result."

Zuo Si shrugged his shoulders and responded: "That's something that can't be helped.

If we want to implement radical changes at the social level, we must overthrow the existing ruling groups with vested interests.

As far as I know, no vested interest group is willing to hand over everything it has worked so hard to obtain.

So the use of violence is almost one of the necessary means to success.

This is why I emphasize that it is difficult for a truly kind and good person to become a good ruler.

Because no matter what the decision is, it is usually destined to sacrifice the interests of some people to satisfy the interests of others.

When should the people at the bottom be sacrificed, and when should the nobles and businessmen be sacrificed? It requires an extremely rational and calculating mind to do it.

In addition, the reason why I dare to say this is because I know that with your character and ideas, you will never be able to support such a bloody and violent social change. "

When Ilmat heard this, he couldn't help laughing immediately: "Yeah, I can never support these actions that may obviously lead to violence and death. Not just me, the God of Justice, Loyalty and Courage I won't support it either. Tell me, why did you come to me this time? "

"I want to talk to you about Calishite."

Zuo Si made no excuses and stated his intention straightforwardly.

"Calimshan?" Ilmat frowned subconsciously.

Although Calishite had the largest number of followers due to the practice of slavery, he did not like the country at all.

Zuo Si nodded seriously: "Yes, Calimshan. Not long ago, I just reached a cooperation agreement with Shane VII, preparing to deal with the Entangling Talisman and the "Sharp Teeth" of Ivicola Sagraland. Take action and help him restore the Xia En Dynasty."

"Xia En VII? He is still alive!"

The god of suffering was obviously surprised by this.

After all, Xia En VII has disappeared for nearly a thousand years through suspended animation. Unlike the goddess of magic, who can instantly discover the identity of the caster connected to the magic network, he knows nothing about it.

"Well. Not only is he still alive, but he has transformed himself into a lich. Since Calimshan is the place with the largest number of your followers, I would like to ask your attitude on this matter." Zuo Si raised his head and looked at Il Matt's eyes.

The God of Suffering lowered his head and considered for a moment, and immediately replied: "Order is better than chaos. At present, Calimshan has become worse than ever under the control of the Entangled Talisman and countless thieves guilds, so I don't think so. Oppose the restoration of Shah En VII."

"I feel relieved to hear you say that. Oh, by the way, Shane VII also promised to abolish slavery after regaining his country, in return for your support for him."

Zuo Si appropriately provided the final assist.

"Abolition of slavery? I'm afraid this is not the idea of ​​Shane VII, but your proposal, right?"

Ilmat's face suddenly showed undisguised joy.

You don't need to ask to know that in his eyes this is a hundred times more important than the restoration of the Shane Dynasty.

"Is there any difference?" Zuo Si smiled and spread his hands.

The God of Suffering also laughed: "If you are result-oriented, there is really no difference. Soth, you have not disappointed me, and you are constantly bringing good changes to this suffering world. Go tell Xia En For the seventh time, I and the Church of the Righteous God will recognize and support his rightful right to rule over Calishite."

"As you wish..."

Zuo Si put one hand on his chest and bowed slightly.

Ilmat nodded in response with a smile, then turned into a golden light and disappeared without a trace.

"He is such a God that people cannot help but be awe-inspiring, right?" The diary suddenly sighed.

"Yes! In Faerûn, if there is a god who can represent true kindness, it must be the God of Suffering. Unfortunately, his teachings determine that he will never be able to achieve powerful divine power, and it is even possible that the whole world will turn against him. It develops in a good direction and then declines. Maybe this is the so-called good people are not rewarded."

After that, Zuo Si ignored the diary and walked towards the stronghold of Talona New Sect not far away.

As the representative of the gods in the material world, he had the identity of a chosen one and came directly to the huge statue of the goddess without any obstruction.

Before the few trainee priests who were cleaning could react, the leader of the sect, Ilze, rushed in from another room and drove everyone out of the hall, even himself.

After the area was completely cleared, a graceful young woman appeared out of thin air directly under the statue.

You don’t need to ask to know that she is the descended incarnation of Talona.

Different from her previous dress, the goddess put on a translucent low-cut sexy black gauze skirt today. She came closer with elegant and seductive steps, held Zuo Si's cheeks in her hands and kissed her without saying a word.

When they separated, Zuo Si didn't even bother to wipe the remaining saliva on his lips. He was shocked to find that his priest level had actually increased by ten levels, from LV5 to LV15.

Counting the LV10 of the [Mystic] profession, the total magic casting level has reached LV25.

Not only that!

He also obtained three tenth-level magic slots and four legendary magic slots, as well as a unique legendary magic - [Summoning the Incarnation of Talona].

Yes!

The goddess of poison and disease generously gave the chosen spell the ability to summon her presence anytime and anywhere.

It is estimated that throughout Faerûn's history, no other chosen god has ever received this honor.

Because for God, the existence of the elect is to carry out some dangerous tasks and fight against enemies that are inconvenient for him to show up in person.

If the electorate is given the power to summon their own incarnation, it would be more cost-effective to do it themselves.

"So, are you satisfied with this gift?" Talona raised the corners of her mouth with a playful smile.

"What else can I say? Of course I couldn't be more satisfied."

Zuo Si answered in the affirmative without any pretense.

Although he knew that he had unintentionally helped him upgrade from a weak divine power to a medium divine power, the goddess would definitely give him a huge reward.

But I never expected that the rewards would be so amazing.

Needless to say, it goes without saying that directly improving ten priest levels is very rare in any divine church.

Especially Zuo Si didn't have any faith in Talona at all.

But compared to giving three ten-ring divine spell slots and four legendary divine spell slots, ten priest levels are nothing at all.

As for the final [Summoning the Incarnation of Talona], it goes far beyond the scope of ordinary legendary magic.

So after the brief surprise, Zuo Si also took out his return gift, a small box covered with a powerful magic seal.

"What is this?" the goddess asked with a tone of surprise and joy.

"A key that can help you develop powerful divine power before you obtain the Death Priesthood." Zuo Si replied calmly.

"oh?!"

An expression of ecstasy instantly appeared on Talona's face, and she raised her hand and tore the lid of the box into pieces.

The next second...

Something that could not be observed by the naked eye, but emitted a dazzling light, lay quietly in the middle of the box.

It looked so fragile and small, as if it could collapse at any time.

Priesthood!

As a goddess, Talona recognized at a glance that this gadget was exactly what countless gods were crazy about and longed for.

Especially those demigods who have not yet obtained a priesthood, are even willing to pay any price to obtain the most inconspicuous priesthood.

No hesitation!

Talona reached out and carefully picked up the little thing and raised it high above her head, feeling the complex rules contained in it. After about ten minutes, she couldn't help laughing loudly: "Hahahaha! It's a spore! It's actually a spore. Priesthood!

No wonder you say this is a key to powerful divine power.

With this, I can slowly develop the priesthood of fungus and compete with the fungus lady Zugmoy for the myconid's faith.

What's more, I can separate viruses and bacteria from the disease clergy, and together with fungi form an integral part of the natural cycle of degradation.

Once I do this, no one can stop me from becoming one of the powerful gods.

Soth, you really brought me a huge surprise this time. "

"All this is thanks to Shar, the goddess of the night. She used her divine blood and the mycelium left in the material world by Mrs. Fungus to help Angel Poison Core become the God of Spores. As for this priesthood, it is One of the trophies I got from killing Angel Poison Core, and it’s also the only thing I can’t use.” Zuo Si shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

"But to me, this is a priceless treasure. It seems... I have to give you more in return."

With that said, Talona immediately absorbed the spore priesthood, then opened her arms to give her chosen one a hug, and let them feel the soft and broad "mind".

Seeing this, Zuo Si hurriedly dodged and refused: "If it's this kind of reward, forget it. I'm not ready for this, let alone such stimulation."

"Haha, don't be shy, there is a first time for everything. I promise, it's just a simple hug."

As the last word blurted out, Talona took a step forward at lightning speed, hugged Zuo Si's head tightly in her arms, and her whole face sank involuntarily.

After about ten seconds, she let go of her hand and admired the slightly embarrassed look of her chosen one with a slightly amused look.

There is no way not to be embarrassed!

You must know that Zuo Si's body has entered puberty, which is the age when physiological impulses are most likely to occur. How can he withstand such stimulation.

So it took him a long time to calm down the restless hormones in his body, and he said with great annoyance: "If you do this again, I won't come next time."

"Don't be angry, I promise I will ask for your opinion in advance next time." There was a hint of cunning in Talona's eyes.

You know without asking that the goddess obviously enjoys this kind of intimate and slightly ambiguous interaction.

Zuo Si shook his head helplessly and took out the [Talona Favor] he carried with him: "Here, the soul of Angel Poison Core is sealed here. I think you have an account with him that needs to be settled. "

"Ah! I would have forgotten it even if you didn't tell me. Come, let me see what this traitor has to say."

Talona stretched out a finger and tapped the scepter lightly.

moment!

The soul that was originally captured and imprisoned emerged from inside.

The moment he saw the goddess of poison and disease, Angel Poison Core's expression suddenly changed. He turned around and tried to escape through the roof.

It's a pity that with only his soul left, how could he escape the control of a true god.

Before it could fly very far, it was forcibly pulled back by a huge force.

"My most beloved believer, where do you want to go? Do I just scare you like this?" Talona sneered and mocked.

"Great goddess! Merciful goddess! Please let me go! I swear that after I am resurrected, I will serve you as my lord again."

Angel Poison Core knelt on the ground and begged without restraint.

Having briefly become the God of Spores, he knows better than any mortal what a god can do to a defenseless soul.

Especially if you fall into the hands of a goddess like Talona, ​​who is bound to retaliate, it would be better to have your soul run away.

"Hmph! Let you go? Stop dreaming! I will drain all the potential of your soul! Let you accept the punishment in eternal pain and despair!"

Talona suddenly released a ball of divine power containing powerful curse power from her palm, pouring it directly into Angel Poison Core's soul.

The latter didn't even resist for a second, and immediately let out a heart-rending wail, and slowly grew a large number of numbing parasite-like things from the depths of his soul.

While they eat Angel Poison Core's soul, they release energy that can repair the damaged soul, causing the wound to cycle through constant healing and tearing...