Page 131
However, the bishop just raised his hand, and an invisible barrier blocked the rain of arrows. The arrows shot at it, creating waves, but they could not break through it in a short time.
Although a well-made composite crossbow is as powerful as a flintlock rifle, that is based on breakthroughs in materials science and the invention of pulleys. The "strong crossbow" made by the Empire's craftsmen is far from satisfactory. A single round of crossbow arrows is simply not enough to break the second-ring divine spell [Shield of Holy Light].
On the contrary, the opponent's subsequent holy light attack would kill dozens of people!
As for the miners who rushed up and attempted to attack, they all knelt down on the ground crying under the light of the divine spell [Confession of Sins], devoutly confessing their actions of smashing statues and blaspheming God.
Such a horrifying scene caused the absolute majority of miners to retreat in fear, not daring to take a single step forward and only daring to fight back from a distance with bows and crossbows.
The gap between the extraordinary people and the poor is obvious!
"Is this a true clergyman?" Redel looked at the bishop in the church who was handling their siege with ease, then looked at the dozens of corpses lying on the ground, and tightened the long knife in his hand.
He really wanted to rush forward and fight with everyone, but he knew very well that this would be of no help at all.
"That's right, so I told you that the real difficulties have just begun." Lin En's voice rang in his ears. "The bishop stationed in the earldom should be a second-ring clergyman."
"Is there any way to kill him?" Redel asked anxiously.
"There are two ways. First, you can wait until his strength is exhausted." Lin En said casually. Whether it is a wizard or a clergyman, casting a spell will inevitably consume mental energy.
However, in the church, the opponent seemed to be able to receive a certain bonus, so while protecting those priests, the power had not been exhausted for a long time.
"What about the second method?" Redel rejected the first method without even thinking about it, because if he waited a moment longer, several miners would die...
Chapter 260: Could it be that Redel is God’s messenger?
"The second way is to learn magic!" Lin En said.
"Magic? Now?" Redel couldn't help but pause. He was naturally very interested in such magical and powerful magic.
During this period of time, Lin En would occasionally stuff a lot of new knowledge into his brain, which seemed to be physics, chemistry, and mathematics... It was said that these were the basic courses that must be learned to become a wizard.
When he has free time, Redel will take a quick look at it a few times. This knowledge is very addictive, from the movement of objects to the formation of everything. Perhaps this is the world in the eyes of a wizard, everything runs according to certain laws, and magic is the reproduction of these objective laws.
"But didn't you say before that my magic talent is very limited?" Redel asked in confusion. "Isn't it too late to learn magic now?"
"I have a way to make you a spellcaster in a short period of time. Of course, this is an experiment and I can't guarantee the success rate!" Lin En said bluntly.
"Come on!" Redel took a deep breath and prepared himself to face everything. Then he felt a sharp pain in his brain, as if someone was stirring it with a pickaxe.
Although Redel is just an ordinary person who cannot use magic, his willpower is much stronger than that of an ordinary person after being tempered in the 'dream world'. The discomfort caused by having his mental defenses forcibly broken through is particularly obvious.
Even though Redel himself has a certain talent for magic, it is not an easy task to enable him to gain the ability to cast spells in a short period of time.
The most critical factor is where the magic power comes from. Even a wizard apprentice can't cast a few first-ring magics, not to mention that even the apprentice is not Redel.
Lin En chose a shortcut. He had recorded the magic he mastered into the magic field, forming a large number of spell slots.
In this way, Redel can unleash magic through a deep mental connection with the intelligent brain.
This is Lin En's attempt to explore the secrets of divine magic!
Just when the mental frequency was cracked to 50%, Redel suddenly felt that his brain seemed to explode, and his consciousness entered an extremely mysterious realm, with countless gray runes floating in the empty space.
These runes look very complicated, and are composed of lines that cannot be described in words...
As Redel was amazed, the two runes at the bottom suddenly lit up. At the same time, corresponding information appeared in his mind, and Lin En's voice also sounded synchronously.
"This is a magic of [Lightning Attraction] and [Lightning Strike]!"
"First-ring magic?" Redel was a little surprised. Lynn had just said that the bishop was a second-ring clergyman. These two first-ring spells might not be enough to defeat the other party, right?
Lin En said with a smile. "The strength of magic cannot be simply determined by the number of rings. Some specific spells can often achieve good results by leveraging the power of nature."
"For example, now!" As soon as Lin En finished speaking, a loud thunder sounded in the sky.
"Remember the physics knowledge I transmitted to you? About the formation of lightning strikes?" Lin En said with a smile.
The reason why thunder can travel across thousands of meters in the sky and hit the ground is that the electrons gather in the clouds, causing the electric potential to increase, forming an electric potential difference with the ground. When the potential difference reaches a certain level, it will ionize the molecules between the clouds and the ground, forming positive and negative charges, which attract each other and form a falling lightning strike.
However, air is not a good conductor, so most lightning is interrupted in the air and cannot reach the ground.
The art of inducing lightning uses this principle to control the formation of lightning strikes by affecting the electric field on the ground.
After Lin En's explanation, Redel quickly tried it out. The effect of the first-level magic on the electric field was very weak, but it was enough. After all, lightning always falls along the path that is most easily ionized!
The next moment, under the guidance of Redel, a violent thunder exploded in everyone's ears. It was the explosion caused by lightning breaking through the air!
But lightning comes faster than sound!
A white beam of light instantly broke through the clouds and fell straight down from the sky!
However, Redel's first spell was slightly off target and did not hit anyone. The falling lightning struck the ground and blasted a large hole in the solid masonry.
Everyone present stopped what they were doing, apparently stunned by the sudden flash of thunder.
"Divine punishment, this is divine punishment!" the bishop shouted loudly, and the priests beside him were also excited, thinking that it must be their devout prayers, or the blasphemous actions of these miners, that aroused the wrath of the true God and brought down the thunder from the sky.
Compared to the jubilant bishops and priests, Ham and others turned pale and looked terrified. Some even threw the manuscripts in their hands to the ground and knelt down to pray for the goddess' forgiveness.
"Great Moon Goddess, please put down your anger and punish the blasphemer in front of you!" The bishop was extremely excited. He opened his arms and looked up to the sky, shouting loudly.
"Then go see your goddess!" Redel roared, raised his finger and pointed at the bishop, activating the [Thunder Spell].
In an instant, an extremely bright light fell again. It was the great power of nature!
The bishop, who was spreading his arms, looking up at the sky and praying for the arrival of God, also saw the dazzling light. The high-voltage lightning of tens of millions volts went straight through the [Holy Light Barrier] that made them helpless, and the powerful electric current instantly penetrated the bishop's whole body.
Everything happened too fast. At the moment of death, excitement and joy still remained on the bishop's face!
Seeing the lightning falling from the sky and turning the bishop into a charred corpse, this scene that seemed like a punishment from God dumbfounded the priests who were praying devoutly. Could it be that the great Lord of the Stars and the Goddess of the Moon had completely given up on them?
The faith of several priests showed signs of collapse, but Redel had no intention of showing mercy. He immediately ordered Ham and others, who had just woken up from a dream, to kill the remaining priests with crossbows.
He used the lightning-inducing technique twice in succession. Although the magic power consumed was directly drawn from the magic field, the consumption of mental power also caused Redel's brain to feel a little painful.
The miners on the field looked at Redel with astonishment, excitement and shock.
A thought even popped up in Ham's mind: Could it be that Redel was the messenger of God? Otherwise, how could he summon lightning from the sky?
Chapter 261: Lin En, the God of Miners?
"Ham, take your men to search this church. Remember to destroy the statue of the goddess to avoid any mistakes." Redel gave the order despite the tingling in his brain. Then, without resting, he took the rest of the men and began to clean up the battlefield, especially to bury the bodies of the miners properly.
More than 40 people died in the attack on the church. Redel couldn't help but sigh. Although he had already valued these clergymen very much and brought all the captured crossbows, the opponent's strength still exceeded his expectations...
Fortunately it's all over!
By the time they finished cleaning up things here, it was already evening. Ham and his companions had already counted Count Joyce's finances. The boxes of gold coins and treasures filled the entire treasury, which was dazzling to see.
Redel began his usual action, which was to gather all the poor people and miners in the town together and divide the treasure and Joyce's land.
"Are they really going to divide it all up?" Ham couldn't help but ask. When he was in the Baron's territory before, he felt it was a little unbelievable when he saw Redel dividing the property. This was worth at least tens of thousands of imperial gold coins!
"Of course, according to Lord Lin, all this wealth was squeezed out of the poor by the earl, and now I am just returning it to them." Redel said solemnly, and after a pause, he continued. "However, can we take all these things away?"
This is obviously unrealistic...
Redel knew that although he had captured the count's castle, he could not defend the castle with just a few scattered soldiers, let alone fight against the regular army. He could only keep running and moving.
Carrying these treasures would only slow down their movement. Wouldn't it be better to have extra bags to hold food and clothes?
Ham looked at Redel's guards with both admiration and pity as they opened boxes full of gold and silver and distributed them to the miners and the poor.
Many people were afraid to accept the kindness of Redel and others, and even suspected that they had some ulterior motives. Redel didn't care, as trust always takes a process.
Under the temptation of real benefits, the vast majority of miners and poor people chose to accept their kindness.
Joyce's wealth seemed to be huge, but many of them were treasures that could not be valued. After the rest was divided, each person could only receive about thirty silver coins. As for the miners who participated in the battle, they received a gold coin as a reward for their heroic actions.
Redel's generosity was also the reason why these people were so morale-boosted that they dared to destroy the statue of the goddess.
After dividing the earl's gold and silver and bringing the two sides closer together, Redel used his trump card, which was to hold a large bonfire party, where everyone gathered together to denounce the harsh treatment by previous supervisors and nobles.
For example, Baron Elvis was greedy and stingy. The manor he built was extremely luxurious, but he was only willing to give the miners who risked their lives to dig ore in the mine a few pieces of black bread and hard-to-swallow wheat porridge. Even eating half full was a luxury.
Another example is a cruel official who got drunk and whipped himself in public for no reason...
There were so many similar sufferings that even if one talked about them for days and nights, they could not finish describing them. Those high and mighty noble lords did not treat them as human beings at all. The various exorbitant taxes from the territory and the church almost crushed them. Just staying alive was a luxury.
At first, the poor people in the earldom only dared to stand far away and listen, but soon they became more and more angry, and finally joined in with curses...
There were so many angry poor people that Redel had to send out his own guards to maintain order. He then ordered people to bring up all kinds of delicacies stored in the Earl's treasury.
Many poor people and miners ate "delicious" white bread for the first time, and they could also gnaw on a leg of lamb, or drink some "noble" red wine, and experience the luxurious life of the aristocracy.
"Lord Redel, were you the one who summoned divine punishment today in the church?" A young miner couldn't help but ask while the bonfire party was going on.
Ham and the others looked over at once. The scene in the church was beyond their comprehension. Continuous lightning bolts fell from the sky, almost breaking their eardrums, and instantly split the bishop, who they thought was too powerful to be defeated, into a charred corpse. In the minds of Ham and the others, only divine punishment could describe such a horrific scene!
"No, that's not a punishment from God. It's the application of the laws of electromagnetism..." Redel hurriedly explained.
But everyone present was completely confused. The accumulation of electric charges and the potential difference were far beyond the scope of their brains' comprehension.
Most people firmly believe that Redel must have been blessed by God!
Some miners from the barony even boasted about how Redel led them to kill the evil overseer, how they raided the barony at night and killed Baron Elvis in his sleep, and then they continued to advance triumphantly, scaring the Great Earl Joyce so much that he fled, not even daring to return to the castle.
Amid the boasting of the crowd, Redel's cheeks flushed red, and his face showed a bit of the embarrassment of a young man. Some of these deeds were indeed his work, but many of them were not his credit...
Especially when dealing with Joyce, he, who lacked leadership experience, often asked the mysterious wizard for advice. Even the method of calling on everyone to complain was taught to him by the wizard.
"You must have received guidance from the true gods!" a miner shouted excitedly. Since it was Redel who told them that the so-called Moon Goddess [Ella] was just a false god who used faith to fool them. She was no different from the terrifying and evil evil gods and demons in the legends, except that she was hidden more deeply.
Then Redel must have been received by the true God, or received divine revelation in a dream, to know all this.
Hearing this, Redel fell silent, because until now he still hadn't figured out who the mysterious and powerful wizard was, and why he chose him.
He only knew that the other party's profound knowledge was as vast as the ocean, and could even bestow magic on him. If the other party had not claimed to be a wizard, he would have been like these people, thinking that he had received true divine revelation.
However, in Redel's eyes, Lin En, who knew everything and displayed various magical powers, was no different from a god, and a god who was willing to save them, the humble miners...
Chapter 262: Redel, the Unethical Man
Amidst the curses on the nobles and the praises of Redel, the miners from the barony and the poor people in the castle quickly became familiar with each other and reached the point where they could talk about anything.