Cthulhu Gonfalon

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Kabbalah was not aware that in certain games, there was a "Ten Consecutive Summons Guarantee the Minimum Success Rate" mechanism, meaning to say that if ten consecutive summons were made in one breath, one would manage to at least obtain a relatively rare card.

That was also what Sui Xiong did.

But, until the present, the Major Building summoning technique was still in the test phase, and no one clergyman had ever tried to carry out ten consecutive summons in one breath. So ever since the day this Ten Consecutive Summons Guarantee mechanism was designed and produced, this was the first time it had been triggered.

Speaking of which, this time around, the Church of the God of Knowledge was placed in a rather risky situation. The church had only prepared a total of fifteen sets of resources, and if this amount were any less, the church might not have even been able to hold on up to this point.

The thing was, this was only the first time that this mechanism had been triggered, and already, one of the only two fantasy-type Oracles had appeared. Kabbalah's luck was indeed quite powerful!

The fantasy-type Oracles were the latest type of Oracles Sui Xiong had just created, so currently, there were only two. As far as fighting was concerned, these two Oracles might not be more powerful than elite Oracles, but they did have special abilities.

According to Sui Xiong's plan, next up, he would design a system for the promotion or evolution of Oracles. After an Oracle had been summoned, he could sign a contract with this Oracle and allow it to continue living in the mortal world. The Oracles who chose to live among the humans would gradually become stronger as they gained more life experiences, and eventually, they would ascend the ranks and be promoted to higher-level Oracles.

Of course, this was designed for the mass-produced Oracles. As the number of elite Oracles was quite limited, a much greater consumption of magic would be required to allow them to remain in the mortal world. This was not a realistic move.

More importantly, Sui Xiong's idea was to promote the growth of mass-produced Oracles through the accumulation of experience and ultimately allow them to reach the elite level on their own. On one hand, he really did not have the time and energy to design that many Oracles. On the other hand, he had some expectations of "growth"—just like playing strategy games, if there was an upgrade system for soldiers, who wouldn't want to try fully upgrading a few?

These Oracles might have been designed by Sui Xiong himself, but how much potential did they really have? How high was the possibility of their growth? All of these things were aspects that even Sui Xiong could not say for sure. He desired answers for these questions, and thus, follow-up plans emerged.

However, that was a matter for the future. The important issue at hand was to look at the actual combat results of the fantasy-type Oracles.

As Sui Xiong was pondering over these matters, the lion on the ground had already arrived before the mass-produced Oracles and wasted no time in interacting with them. The interaction between Oracles was naturally achieved via the exchange of thoughts, which was why Kabbalah had no way of knowing exactly what they were talking about. He could only see Lion nodding as she broke into a smile.

"The situation looks pretty good, so do allow me to lead your army!" she said with utmost confidence. "Even if we cannot win, at least we won't lose!"

"The opponent is one of the Nine Legendary Masters," Kabbalah emphasized.

"Which is why I have no chance of winning," Lion said with a smile. "However, if the number of comrades can be increased by just a little more, say 30 or so comrades of this level, then I am very sure I can fight them off."

Kabbalah almost choked upon hearing her request. Thirty or so comrades at this level? Thirty Main Force level, mass-produced Oracles? That was almost 300,000 gold coins!

You really come from heaven, so oblivious to the daily costs of living expenses in the mortal world! Do you have any inkling of what 300,000 gold coins would look like? I don't even know if there is there as much money within the unrestricted budget of the Church of the God of Knowledge for the entire year!

Kabbalah was born into the family of a merchantman. Since his grandfather's time, his family had been serving a viscount. As far as he knew, that viscount's annual income—including tax collections, sale of various products, and the management of his subordinates and merchants under him—would not exceed 10,000 gold coins even when everything he earned was added together.

What would 300,000 gold coins look like? Three-hundred thousand gold coins was an equivalent of 30 times the annual income of that viscount!

No doubt, that was generally a more average viscount with a relatively low income. Yet regardless of how average he was, he was also a big shot with an authoritative presence in a certain area. He had his manor and a vassal. He also had a baron and some knights under his command. Within a radius of 200-300 miles, he had the ultimate say in various matters. There was no need for him to provide any reason if he wanted to hang someone to death. He was simply that high and mighty.

Kabbalah was currently a mid-ranked priest. According to the system for social status, he was probably an equivalent of the lowest-ranked knight among all the feudatory aristocrats. This was his current status based on his identity as a clergyman, which was much higher than that of the average adventurer. Otherwise, he would be, at most, only an equivalent to a potential knight without any land. If he made it to the baron-collared level, he could most likely become a bishop of the local Church of the God of Knowledge, where he could enjoy jovial conversations with the other barons. However, if he were to go to a more regular viscount-collared level, then his social status would be slightly lower, but he would have to at least close to the rank of a high-level. In fact, most of the viscount-collared bishops were mid-peak close to high-level, or they had just stepped into the rank of high-level.

For example, concerning that viscount that Kabbalah was familiar with, on that viscount's territory, the biggest church would be the Church of the Goddess of Wealth. The bishop of this church was a high-level priest.

Just imagine, even a high-level priest was only equivalent to the level of a chief vassal under someone else's command, and yet, this Oracle here was shooting her mouth off without a second thought, requesting for that viscount to take out thirty years of hard-earned income to pay for one single battle…

Hey! Are you going to fight a war? I think you are only here to burn money!

So he shook his head right away and said, "Impossible! We simply do not have that many resources!"

But then he immediately added, "That… On the contrary, if we were to go for the weaker Oracles, we could summon a lot more…"

Lion froze for a moment and thought about it. She sighed with some regret.

"It's not a big deal whether we have quality help or not; it's the quantity that matters. One more person means one more set of hands," she said. "Well, do try your best to summon some more then. I have the ability to command, so I can help them improve their strength."

She paused for a moment then said, "The English Faculty will be the best, or at least, Oracles from the European Faculty, which is one notch lower than the former. If you are going to summon me one from the Japanese Faculty, I'm afraid I won't be able to command them…"

Kabbalah was in a slight daze; he was simply clueless over what an "English Faculty" or a "Japanese Faculty" meant.

At least he understood one part—the power level of this Oracle that he had summoned was, at the moment, still an uncertainty. But it seemed like she was good at commanding, so it was a good thing to build an army with more men.

Since that was the case, he immediately greeted the other church members who were feeling as clueless as he was and redistributed the remaining five sets of resources. Among the number of redistributed sets, there were about 100 sets meeting the minimum standard, while the rest fully met the criteria of all requirements. During this period, the clergymen came up with a conclusion based on their experiences. They came to realize that through adjusting the allocation of the four different resources, they could summon Oracles from different walks of life in a more purposeful manner. Although these experiences were not necessarily reliable and unexpected accidents were frequent, it was still better than bumping their way around aimlessly.

And so, numerous sets of resources were continuously piled onto the altar to be completely used up over and over again, and Oracles walked out of the light rays successively.

The one responsible for summoning the Oracles would naturally be Kabbalah, who had once again proven by practice that he was indeed a purebred Light Mask.

Sui Xiong watched this scene unfolding before him and could not help whispering under his breath, "This young fellow, he is so talented! If he had made his way all the way over to Earth, he would cause a lot of trouble for between groups of people! They might even pin him up and burn him to death!"