SAINTESS [Chapter 126: You still don't believe me?] (Patreon)

“This mana fluctuation… It's exactly the same as back then. I can't be wrong about it.”

“From Initiate all the way to Master, the most significant increase in strength occurs when one breaks through from the Warlock Realm into the Master Realm,” Franklin said solemnly. “If this feels like the greatest transformation you've ever experienced, then there's no doubt about it. You’ve definitely reached the Master Realm.”

“Then again, your realm improved and you didn't even know?” Franklin finished, looking at Winnie with a strange expression.

“Uh… well, about that…” Of course Winnie didn't know. After Dark Winnie transferred what remained of the bloodline to him, he passed out. After that came the process of refining the bloodline, how could he possibly know he'd advanced??

Still… It really was astonishing.

After Dark Winnie gave him the remaining bloodline, he actually broke through the shackles of an Advanced Warlock and directly reached the Master Realm.

“You little brat, you are always muddleheaded, but when it comes to talent, no one can deny that you’re the strongest. I suppose someone as powerful as you deserves a bit of carefree luck as well.” Franklin took another drag from his pipe and nodded. “Just as I’d expect from Varelis.”

“The Master Realm is basically a genius quality check. If you're a real genius, sooner or later in this life you'll definitely charge into the Master Realm. But if there's even a tiny bit of watered-down talent, then forget it. More than ninety-five percent of transcendents get stuck at Advanced Warlock and just can't climb any higher no matter what.”

“Your current strength already surpasses over seventy percent of the people in this academy, and that includes third- and fourth-years, and even the instructors.” Franklin held his pipe in his mouth, arms folded.

“Even in Carillian Academy, not everyone can break into the Master Realm, let alone you, a second-year.”

“I have to admit, Winnie Varelis, you’re truly impressive. You have talent, opportunities, and the determination to make the most of them. You lack nothing.”

“If you.... ” Franklin got halfway through the sentence, then suddenly stopped, waving his hand. "Forget it. It's nothing."

“Teacher Franklin, why are you here?” Winnie asked curiously.

“Just taking a walk. After the last disaster, there aren’t many buildings in the academy that are still intact. The arena is one of them, though I didn’t expect to find you here,” Franklin said, puffing on his cigarette.

“By the way, the whole process of your disappearance, have you explained it in detail to the administration?” Franklin asked.

“I already submitted a detailed report to the student council. I assume they've forwarded it to the administration.” Winnie said.

That report had been drafted for him by Mirexia, and everything important that happened was reported truthfully.

“Good.” Franklin nodded at Winnie. “Right, how's your Soul Armament lately?”

“My Soul Armament?” With Franklin's reminder, Winnie remembered. Because his compatibility with [Armour Fortress] was one hundred percent, every time [Armour Fortress] went through a major realm advancement, it gained a brand-new function.

He still hadn't checked the new function gained at the Master Realm.

After seeing Franklin off, Winnie sat down in the training ground's lounge, opened the panel, and checked the status of his Soul Armament.

[Armour Fortress]

Upgrades obtained so far: Massive Physical Resistance, Toxin Resistance, Impact Resistance, Weight Reduction, Additional Elemental Spell - Annihilation Stomp, Hidden Armor.

This “Hidden Armor” clearly wasn't there before, obviously a new ability that appeared after he advanced into the Master Realm.

Winnie clicked the option with his finger, and the relevant information popped up.

Hidden Armor: Activating [Armour Fortress] no longer requires donning armor. After activation, when attacked, [Armour Fortress] will automatically manifest to resist incoming damage. In the Blessed Angel form, [Armour Fortress]'s Hidden Armor effect changes to: the power of incoming magical attacks around the user is halved.

Holy shit??

After reading the effect, Winnie thought he'd misread it. He reread it again and again before confirming he hadn't, this was exactly what it said.

This is strong??

Once the “male” [Armour Fortress] was activated, he no longer needed to wear it like a heavy burden. Whenever he was attacked, [Armour Fortress] would automatically appear and block the blow.

Winnie remembered that one of [Armour Fortress]'s earlier upgrades was halving its weight. But now, Hidden Armor completely freed [Armour Fortress] from its weight, unarmored was equivalent to armored.

Why had armor-type Soul Armaments declined? Most of them increased the caster’s burden, making them cumbersome to use. They couldn’t keep up with the trend toward lighter armor, or even armorless, magic duels, so they gradually disappeared. It became a vicious cycle: no one developed them because no one used them, and no one used them because no one developed them.

If armor-type magic could fully negate its burden on the absorber, it definitely wouldn't be so ignored as it was today.

But then the question came, even if such an armor-type Soul Armament existed, it would require extremely high magical aptitude. And if your magical aptitude was high, you'd have more choices, who would choose an armor-type Soul Armament?

So even if someone truly developed that kind of armor-type Soul Armament, no one would use it. In the end, this was a mage's world. If you can learn magic, who wants to use some bottom-tier Soul Armament with terrible breach??

But now it was different.

On his body, the biggest flaw of armor-type Soul Armaments had been removed. As his realm increased, Winnie felt more and more that fighting while wearing [Armour Fortress] not only didn't help, it actually had a negative effect.

In high-level battles dominated by magic, ordinary weapons had long since become irrelevant. The “swords cannot penetrate” effect of [Armour Fortress] was far less useful than agility. After all, when struck by magic, armor or no armor, you would likely go down in one hit. Without armor, you could dodge. With it, you might not.

That was why in many fights Winnie didn't even summon [Armour Fortress].

When his realm was low, he didn't feel it. The higher he climbed, the more he understood why a one-star Soul Armament was a one-star Soul Armament, it really was trash… except when it was on Vanessa.

That was also why Winnie always felt his ceiling wasn't high. The grade of his Soul Armament had already locked him in place.

To the point that he'd forgotten what the Soul Armament selection guide had told him when he bought it with Virtue back then.

'Even a one-star Soul Armament, if the compatibility is high enough, can still leave its name in history.'

The true transformation of [Armour Fortress] at one hundred percent compatibility finally emerged when he reached the Master Realm.

Hidden Armor truly brought a leap in quality.

Especially for the Blessed Angel form.

When Winnie first read that line, he thought he'd misread it.

The “female” [Armour Fortress] could cut the power of any magic approaching him by half??

That was absurd. Combined with the Blessed Angel's innate magic resistance and [Armour Fortress]'s base magic resistance, it was hard to imagine what kind of spell could actually blow Vanessa to death.

He had already witnessed how terrifying the “female” [Armour Fortress] was during his duel with Dark Winnie. It had completely broken Dark Winnie’s mentality. No matter how much magic he unleashed, he simply couldn’t kill him. Even with a much higher realm, he still couldn’t finish him off and could only desperately cling to life.

And now it also halved the power of incoming magic, wasn't this straight-up cheating??

But thinking about it… he was already in the Master Realm. Back when he chose [Armour Fortress] as his Soul Armament, he'd endured for so long. Couldn't he enjoy it a little now??

When others were slaughtering the battlefield with their Soul Armaments, his Soul Armament had been practically nonexistent most of the time. Now he'd endure all the way to the Master Realm, time to enjoy, right??

Winnie was satisfied, and in the lounge he even hummed a little tune.

At last, after all the bitterness, the sweetness had come. It had really come!

After training at the grounds for a while longer, Winnie left the arena.

The moment he stepped out, he ran into someone unexpected.

“Morgan?” Seeing that gloomy-looking student leaning outside the arena, Winnie raised a brow. “What are you doing here?”

Even though the other party had a Church background, he wasn't a bad person, so Winnie was still willing to greet him.

As for whether the other party responded, that was up to him.

“W-Winnie?” Morgan seemed surprised to see Winnie here too, and even a bit startled, but when he remembered the person in front of him wasn't that rotten one, his heart finally eased.

"What are you doing here? What, didn't you all return to the Church?" Winnie sized Morgan up.

“We… didn't. Um.” For some reason Morgan seemed unwilling to extend the topic.

“Forget that. Have you seen our Saintess?” Morgan asked.

“Saintess? Oh right, how's Margaret lately?” Winnie asked.

If he remembered correctly, she had been at the scene. But she looked unwell. The situation had been urgent, and Winnie didn't know what exactly had happened to her.

“This… uh… she's fine. It's just that she's been having headaches lately, and they've been getting worse.” Morgan said worriedly. “She's not home today either. I don't know where she ran off to.”

“She has headaches?” Winnie found it strange. “Then have her go back to the Church of Radiance for treatment. Have the Pope send people to pick her up. Classes aren't running right now anyway, couldn't the timing be more perfect?”

Winnie didn't understand what Morgan was doing here. If a student with Church backing fell ill, it was like the director of a hospital getting sick, except the sick one was the Radiance Saintess. Wouldn't it be easy to have a few high-level grand priests or nuns treat her?

Although the idea of a Radiance Saintess needing priests to heal she did have a certain… comedic quality to it.

“This…” Morgan rubbed his forehead, as if he had unspeakable difficulties. “It's hard for me to explain.”

“The Church side… things are a bit complicated right now.”

“Oh? Complicated? How complicated? So complicated you don't even care about the Radiance Saintess anymore?” Winnie frowned.

Morgan looked at Winnie, hesitating.

“This isn't the place to talk. Let's go.” Winnie understood the implication and led the way.

“Huh? Wait.” Seeing Winnie walking off on his own, Morgan wanted to say something, but in the end swallowed it and followed.

Even he didn't know why he was walking with Winnie, the acknowledged counterfeit within the Church, and even having a private conversation with him. In the Church, that was explicitly forbidden.

“Alright. The air's nice here.” In a secluded park at a corner of campus, Winnie looked up, took a deep breath, meaning there was no one around. “Speak.”

“Speak… what?” Morgan didn't understand.

“Oh, so Morgan, you have nothing you want to tell me? Looks like I overthought it, sorry.” Winnie didn't hint further and turned to leave.

“Wait.” Just as expected, before he'd taken a few steps, the hesitant Morgan called him back.

“Oh? Want to remind me that my coin pouch fell?” Winnie turned back jokingly.

“No. That… Winnie.” Morgan modified around, looking tense. “What I'm about to say, can you keep it a secret for me?”

“You haven't even said what it is, and you want me to keep it secret. Is it something really bad? Then forget it. I'm not interested in prying into other people's secrets or talking behind their backs.” Winnie spread his hands.

“N-No, it's not like that. It's just… the Church has been a bit strange lately.” Saying this seemed to take a huge amount of resolution from Morgan.

Winnie fell silent for a long moment before speaking slowly. “How about you tell me something I don't already know?”

"Huh? You know?"

“Morgan, if you really want me to say it, I think the Church of Radiance has always been strange. What's even stranger is people like you, who are inside it, and only now starting to feel it.” Winnie tilted his head.

“Winnie, I'm not here to trade barbs with you. It's just… recently… you know the Church's astrology?”

“Astrology? Don't know.” Winnie answered decisively.

“Huh? You haven't even heard of it?”

No.

“No, but… no matter what you're still… ” Morgan blurted out.

“Still what? Don't you all think I'm a counterfeit?” Winnie asked with a laugh.

“…Fine. If I said that before this disaster, the Church seemed to already know that a calamity would happen at Carillian Academy… would you believe it?” Morgan said.

“Oh. Standard operation.” Winnie nodded calmly.

“Huh?” You-” Morgan had expected the other to be shocked, at least look astonished. He didn't expect him to be this composed.

“You're not surprised at all?”

“Not even a little. And if I tell you some things I know about the Church, I also hope you'll believe them and not be surprised.” Winnie folded his arms.

“What things?” Morgan looked hesitant.

“The Church of Radiance has colluded with Demon Pillar cultists, colluded with Demon Pillars, and even tried to kidnap another nation's first-in-line heir, and harm other human nations.” Winnie's few plain sentences left Morgan stunned.

“I-I know you have a lot of opinions about the Church, but that's not something you can just say casually!”

“See? You still don't believe me.” Winnie raised an eyebrow.