As the dialogue box appeared before Shen Mu, he didn't hesitate for a moment, immediately communicating his thoughts and issuing his commands to the system.
“Confirm all!”
He confirmed the upgrades for all these Blue Star Humans and the Mount & Blade Soldiers they led.
Following Shen Mu's confirmation, a stream of white data instantly surged from his glabella, rapidly swirling above their heads in a dimension invisible to the Blue Star Humans, then directly sinking into their glabella.
This also happened to the Mount & Blade Soldiers, the data sinking into their glabella, and then, with more and more white light beginning to flash, they appeared in this world, completely enveloped in egg-shaped cocoons.
‘Buzz!’
At the same time, the white data stream shimmered, and a powerful force began to permeate; the power of Mount & Blade Rules also started to spread over these Mount & Blade Soldiers and Blue Star Humans, creating a special chemical reaction.
Or rather, this was inherently the Mount & Blade Rules possessed by these Mount & Blade Soldiers, and a beneficial synergistic effect produced because these Blue Star Humans had been enfeoffed as Ten-Man Commanders and thus possessed the Mount & Blade Rules template.
Shen Mu watched as these Blue Star Humans and Mount & Blade Soldiers were enveloped in egg-shaped cocoons, and the white data stream began to permeate and be absorbed by them, a smile he couldn't suppress playing on his lips.
“I really didn't expect that in just two or three days, these Blue Star Humans would have accumulated enough combat experience with these Mount & Blade Soldiers, and also generated some pure Faith Power due to their longing for me during combat, thus producing more faith value for me.”
A smile played on Shen Mu's face.
Then a dialogue box appeared before him.
“Required experience for normal upgrade:”
“Swadian Recruit: 30 experience points. (Pseudo-Believer level)”
“Swadian Militia: 50 experience points. (General Believer level)”
“Swadian Light Infantry / Skirmisher: 100 experience points. (True Believer level)”
“Swadian Infantry / Crossbowman / Heavy Cavalry: 300 experience points. (Deep Believer level)”
“Swadian Sergeant / Veteran Crossbowman / Knight: 500 experience points. (Pious Believer level)”
This dialogue box displayed the key elements for upgrading: how much experience was needed and what level of believer status must be reached.
“Looking at the current faith level of these Blue Star Humans, they are basically at the General Believer level; I can vaguely sense this.” Shen Mu looked at these Blue Star Humans and noticed that when they were enveloped in the egg-shaped cocoons, their surfaces emitted a white light brighter than pure white.
This indicated that these Blue Star Humans, who originally only showed respect and were at the Pseudo-Believer level, had become increasingly eager for him and reached the General Believer level after encountering these Swadian Soldiers and learning about the might of the Calradia continent behind them from these Swadian Soldiers.
Pseudo-believers are those who, for various reasons, are compelled to adopt faith, thus becoming pseudo-believers.
More importantly, the character 'pseudo' (Pseudo) means fake or disguised, followed by the two characters 'believer' (believer).
But General Believers are different.
General Believers have fundamentally accepted Shen Mu's philosophy and truly believe that Shen Mu is trustworthy, so they have accepted Shen Mu in their hearts and are willing to believe in him, thus becoming General Believers.
In terms of vocabulary, the two characters 'believer' (believer) in General Believer are the most important, meaning the most widespread believers.
Acceptance, understanding, then trust.
Of course, if certain situations of distrust arise, then there will be a lack of understanding and acceptance, and they will degenerate from General Believers back to Pseudo-Believers or simply stop believing in the deity, naturally losing their faith.
And now, seeing these Blue Star Humans become his General Believers, the smile on Shen Mu's lips was irrepressible, for this meant he had successfully made these humans his believers, and they had all acknowledged his and Deherim's rule over this land.
And as Shen Mu watched these Blue Star Humans, the egg-shaped cocoons slowly shrank and contracted.
Finally, they completely merged into the bodies of these Blue Star Humans.
‘Buzz!’
Then, the egg-shaped cocoons formed by the white data completely integrated into the bodies of these Blue Star Humans and Mount & Blade Soldiers, ultimately completing their upgrades.
The first to emerge were Zhang Caidong and his 10 Swadian Recruits—no, to be precise, it should be Zhang Caidong, who had already upgraded from the Swadian Militia template to the Swadian Light Infantry template, and his 10 newly upgraded Swadian Militia.
“So this is called Swadian Light Infantry? This is truly incredible. The weapons, armor, and all the combat techniques in my mind have completely manifested on me.” Zhang Caidong subconsciously widened his eyes, looking at the fan shield in his hand, the German Sword at his waist, the spear in his hand, and the complete chainmail, helmet, and infantry boots he wore.
He could feel that all these weapons were brand new and perfectly suited to him, being standard issue.
Furthermore, Zhang Caidong's mind was filled with complete knowledge of how to use a shield, how to use a German Sword, how to use a spear, and even how to fight different types of enemies.
He understood everything clearly.
This ability to directly infuse combat experience into his mind truly astonished and shocked him. At this moment, he also looked behind him, where the original 10 Swadian Recruits, who wielded long-handled scythes, had also completed their transformation.
They had become Swadian Militia, exactly like the Militia template he had previously possessed.
They had spears, shields, hunting crossbows, crossbow bolts, and spiked maces.
And their gazes were equally resolute, looking at him and bowing their heads in respect.
But Zhang Caidong suddenly turned to look at the other figures gradually emerging from the egg-shaped cocoons, whether human or Mount & Blade Soldiers, and he found that they had all completely transformed as if reborn.
Those Blue Star Humans who originally had the Swadian Recruit template had now also become Swadian Militia.
And those Mount & Blade Soldiers who were merely Swadian Commoners had now all uniformly become Swadian Recruits.
Thinking of this, Zhang Caidong suddenly turned to look at Shen Mu, who was still seated on the Lord's long chair in the Lord's Hall.
“Everyone, assemble immediately!” Zhang Caidong, influenced by the spiritual connection, loudly commanded, causing the Blue Star Humans who had just emerged from the egg-shaped cocoons, as if reborn, to instinctively look at Zhang Caidong. Zhang Caidong then suddenly pointed at them and loudly declared: “Everyone, now salute Respected Lord Shen Mu!”
“Salute Respected Lord Shen Mu!” Then all the Blue Star Humans suddenly became alert, quickly stepping forward and lining up behind Zhang Caidong, with Zhang Caidong and Sun Zhiru at the forefront, followed by the senior managers and middle-level managers in successive rows.
They stood perfectly aligned.
Then, facing Shen Mu, who was seated on the Lord's long chair, they very earnestly knelt down, placed their hands on their chests, lowered their heads, and loudly declared: “Respected Lord Shen Mu, we salute you! We wish to offer you our most profound respect!”
“We offer you our most profound respect!”
Everyone lowered their heads and spoke these words as if shouting, and their hearts were incredibly excited, even with a fervent emotion beginning to surge within them.
Feeling the various skills they possessed in their minds, and experiencing the power of rules contained within the weapons and equipment on their bodies.
And their own upgraded human soldiers, who could now lead them to face more dangerous enemies.
The minds of these Blue Star Humans became fervent.
“Ding! Congratulations! You have gained 42 True Believers!”
These experiences materialized as a dialogue box before Shen Mu, causing him to pause slightly. Then, Shen Mu, seated on the Lord's long chair, straightened his chest, slowly raised his hand, and with a satisfied expression, said: “Very good, I have received your respect. Now I need you to shoulder more responsibilities.”
“Thank you for your benevolence and generosity, Respected Lord Shen Mu.” These Blue Star Humans respectfully bowed again, and then, at Shen Mu's request, they all stood up.
“You've done very well. Next, let more Blue Star Humans join my faction. From now on, 20 people will become Spiritual Realm Commanders every day.” Shen Mu said, observing the increasing Faith Power and dinar, “You select suitable candidates and recommend them. I very much hope you can unite and jointly resist the harassment of death spirit rules, making our Deherim stronger.”
“Understood, Respected Lord Shen Mu, we will do our utmost to serve you.” These Blue Star Humans respectfully nodded again, their eyes filled with excitement, and some even trembled with excitement because they were truly overjoyed.
Before, they were still wandering in the Blue Star World, some not even Spiritual Realm Commanders, just ordinary, humble humans.
They lived in constant fear, only finding some partial sense of security in the Green Leaf Group or Diesel Company.
But even so, their lives were quite difficult.
After a few more exchanges, these Blue Star Humans respectfully bid farewell to Shen Mu and left the Lord's Hall. After all, they had completed their upgrades, and now they needed to go out again to find their training grounds, hoping to achieve new advancements.
Moreover, these Blue Star Humans also wanted to see what their Swadian Soldiers were like after completing their upgrades and whether they could display even greater combat power.
Although they certainly wouldn't be that powerful, there was already hope, especially since upgrading from commoners to recruits meant these Swadian Recruits, wielding long-handled scythes, were much stronger than before when they only had wooden sticks and clubs.
And they had already seen the complete set of standard weapons and armor that Zhang Caidong was wearing, which was the appearance of a regular army.
Chainmail, spears, longswords, and shields.
It was as if Zhang Caidong had completely upgraded his gear, directly transforming into someone capable of directly confronting enemies, just like the iron-clad Swadian Soldiers outside.
And since Zhang Caidong could become like this, then in the future, couldn't they also become like this?
They were all excited in their hearts because they knew that if they could become like this now, then they could also become like this in the future.
People always hope to become better and better. Since someone has already become better and better, they know that as long as they follow in that person's footsteps, they too can become better and better.
This was already destined.
“This is truly incredible, Brother Cai Dong! Especially seeing your current weapons and equipment, we are truly envious now.”
“Exactly, exactly, Brother Cai Dong, how do you feel now? I feel that you are stronger now than when you commanded those Gnolls before.”
“What do you mean 'before'? Look at Brother Cai Dong now. Even those Gnolls from before, can they even be compared to Brother Cai Dong now?”
“Gnolls? What kind of trash are they? Brother Cai Dong now, he's a proper regular army soldier among us humans!”
The surrounding Blue Star Human Executives and middle-level managers were loudly praising and complimenting Zhang Caidong's appearance.
“Alright, these are all blessings from Lord Shen Mu, minor matters. As long as everyone serves Lord Shen Mu wholeheartedly, then everyone can become like this. And I'm telling you, not only have I changed my weapons and equipment, but in my mind, I also have complete knowledge of how to use these weapons and equipment, as well as combat techniques for dealing with various enemies on the battlefield.”
Zhang Caidong looked at all the Blue Star Human Executives and middle-level managers and spoke earnestly.
After all, this was the truth.
Of course, this also caused considerable surprise among the senior managers and middle-level managers within these Blue Star Humans.
“Wait, Brother Cai Dong, are you saying that your mind gained complete techniques for using these weapons and equipment, as well as techniques for fighting different enemies?”
These Blue Star Humans widened their eyes, their faces filled with disbelief.
“That's right, that's exactly it.” Zhang Caidong nodded, and at the same time, he picked up the spear in his hand, gripped it tightly, and made a thrusting motion: “I know how to thrust to maximize damage, as if I've been using this spear for nearly four or five years, having already practiced until it's second nature.” (End of chapter)