The trip to the Cathedral was a short one in the electric cart, which did turn out to be faster than walking, but not faster than riding on Thor would have been for the Clerics.
The Archbishop himself was there to greet them in front of the Trial Temple, along with Lord Nacht and an elderly High Priest from the Red and Green Dragon factions.
“Welcome High Priestesses and honoured guests. It is such a pleasure to have you here today. We have gathered to express our most sincere wish that the Gods recognize the ascendancy of two Royal High Priestesses today, and show them their favour.” The Archbishop began.
“The morning entrance to the temple will begin in ten minutes, and we ask that the guests make way to allow the Priestesses to enter first.”
That was when Karl noticed that they weren’t the only ones here today, just the only ones who had taken this path into the Temple area. There were dozens of young Acolytes on the Cathedral side, all kneeling on the stone floor out of respect for the Archbishop, and so that the ordained Clerics behind them could see.
There was a brief round of polite applause for Tessa and Lotus, who the Archbishop motioned forward as the first signs of the Temple awakening for the morning began to show.
The stones inside were building power that Karl could feel in his bones, and it wouldn’t be long before the trial was activated, and the two clerics could go in.
“Would you like to follow the High Priestesses in to have your advancements officially verified?” One of the Cathedral staff Clerics asked Karl quietly.
“I think that we will wait a few minutes. We don’t want to come out overlapping them, so let the kneeling kids go first, then we will enter.” Karl whispered back.
The cleric went and informed the others, and they began to get the kids into double rows, ready for a smooth entrance once Tessa and Lotus had entered.
The temple’s magic activated, and the two Priestesses entered without hesitation, confident in their respective Goddess’ favour and their ability to pass the trials.
Then, the kids were escorted in, leaving only the remainder of Karl’s group and the senior clerics.
The elderly Red Dragon High Cleric addressed Karl with a faint smile. “Monarch, Princesses. Welcome to the Capital Cathedral once again. Your new acolytes will be chosen from the Orphanage training programs, in the hopes that their drive to improve themselves will give better results. It doesn’t actually affect the outcome rate of the injections, but the Red Dragon does hope that it will improve your success rate in training Acolytes. At the very least, they should be motivated to try hard, and not lazy or unambitious.”
Karl nodded. “At the very least, we can try to teach them a few different skills to see if they can awaken the most common classes if their first option doesn’t work out. But I think that if they show promise, we might be able to awaken a few unique skills just by teaching them the things that we already know.”
The old man in red robes smiled. That was the greatest goal of the Orphanages that the Red Dragon Clerics operated. If they could bring up a generation of heroes who managed to change their fate, they would give hope to every orphan that came after them.
The Orphanages were filled with tragic backstories, but with just this, they might be able to give the kids hope that they could be more than hourly employees or infantry for the front lines of the army.
Assuming that they weren’t one of the lucky few who was compatible with the injection, anyhow.
The Archbishop gestured to the Temple. “Please, enter and confirm your Ranks. The High Priestesses should be out soon, and then we have a short ordination ceremony before they will be available again.” Karl simply smiled and stepped through the doors of the temple, letting the energy engulf him and pull him into the trial.
Once again, he found himself standing at the foot of a World Dragon pyramid temple, but this one was incomplete, still under construction, with a gantry and earthen ramps all around it to facilitate the movement of massive stones.
There wasn’t anyone here, and the temple felt like it was missing something.
Without anyone to guide him, and the beasts trapped in their spaces, the obvious answer seemed to be to go to the top of the Temple and see what had been holding up the progress. An unfinished temple should mean waiting for materials, so perhaps the test was for him to declare allegiance, or provide an offering to the gods?
That might make sense for the Cleric classes at the very least. This was a temple trial, so perhaps it was for everyone who attained his Rank.
So, he made his way to where the construction was ongoing, using the smooth ramps that had been made to move the stones, and examined the ongoing construction.
He wasn’t a mason, but he’d spent enough days in the mine to know what good stone looked like, and what was flawed.
And the core stone was definitely flawed.
There was a tall square obelisk in the centre of the temple, and there were visible inclusions in it, which would certainly crack when the construction was finished and the stone was expected to carry weight.
He could fix that, though. freeweɓnovel.cm
[Earth Shield] could make stone, or reshape existing stone to make the shield. So, that was what Karl did, and removed the flaws along the way.
Now, the obelisk was perfect, and the temple was ready to be completed. But it was still missing something.
There was a small hole through the obelisk near the top, with an engraved platform for some sort of holy relic to sit on. It would be buried within the temple, but it would serve as the core for the sanctified ground effect.
Every temple had one, though it was normally in a case behind the altar, where visitors could admire the holy relic.
The great question was: What did he have that might qualify as a holy relic for a temple?
He had some Holy Stones in Thor’s space, but that likely didn’t qualify.
Maybe it should be something system related?
He had a number of System linked reward items.
But he could do better than that, he was certain of it.
He had [Skill Merger] which would let him make a whole new skill, and [Skill Book] to write it out. So, if he made the very best skill that he could manage, and put the book there, it should count as an Epic Grade, Monarch Rank System Blessed item.
That had to be better than picking stuff from his inventory.
Karl did hope that this wasn’t expected to be a short process, though. Because making a new skill could take some time, and then learning to make one that could be made into a skill book with the materials that he had available would take even longer.
Perhaps this wasn’t the right way forward, given how long it would take. But it felt right, and if it felt right, then it most likely was right.