Green Monster Epic

As Allen departed, he didn't notice the gaze Clay was giving him from behind, a look tinged with disbelief.

“High Priest, I have something to discuss with you.”

After seeing Allen off, Clay didn't linger in the temple. Instead, he turned and headed towards the underground space within the temple, which served as the daily domain for the majority of the Oak Father Temple's personnel. Along the underground passage, illuminated by the brilliant starlight stones, Clay arrived at the room of the temple's presiding High Priest and knocked before entering.

“Speak,”

The speaker was a middle-aged troll with countless intricate patterns exposed on his arms, clad in bark-like armor. When he opened his eyes, a faint green light flowed within his pupils, yet it didn't emanate any sinister aura; instead, it exuded a refreshing sense of nature.

“I've discovered a hobgoblin believer who I believe is worth nurturing.”

Clay stood respectfully before the troll, softly stating his purpose.

“Oh? What level is this hobgoblin? What talents does he possess that have caught your eye?”

The High Priest raised his head, a hint of curiosity in his gaze towards Clay. Since becoming a guiding priest in the temple, Clay had never recommended any talents to him or any other presiding High Priests. Others might say it was simply Clay's bad luck that he hadn't encountered any talent, but the troll High Priest, Homyel, knew Clay's character well: his standards were high, and he looked down on ordinary talents.

“This hobgoblin believer is currently only an 11th-level Berserker, and his talents are quite common, nothing particularly outstanding.”

Clay's answer surprised Homyel, but it piqued his curiosity even more: “Then why do you say he's a talent worth our special attention?”

“What if I told you that this hobgoblin's physical body has reached the peak of the 8th level, and he's already halfway across the threshold of the 9th level?”

Clay was confident, finally revealing the mystery at this moment.

“Really?”

Homyel was somewhat moved. 8th-level warriors were countless in the Feyman world, but very few could truly touch the threshold of the 9th level. Perhaps only one in ten thousand 8th-level warriors could touch the barrier of the 9th level. In the eyes of ordinary people, the gap between the 8th and 9th levels was only one level, and in actual combat, this difference wasn't as significant as imagined; however, in the eyes of true experts and those with complete inheritances, those who could touch the limit of the 9th level physical body had a very promising future.

As mentioned earlier, the most basic requirement for a warrior to advance to legend was to have a physical strength that reached the limit of the body, level 9. Although reaching level 9 didn't necessarily guarantee advancement to legend, a combat profession that hadn't reached level 9 had absolutely no chance of advancing to legend.

Therefore, when he heard that Clay had discovered a hobgoblin warrior who had touched the 9th level of physical strength, Homyel had an expression of surprise. For warriors, the biggest obstacle to advancing from level 8 to level 9 wasn't the barrier between the two levels, but rather the warrior's ability to sense the limit of their physical body, which meant that they were about to break through to level 9. What followed was simply a matter of persistent effort.

“Of course, I cast the Divine Appraisal spell three times in a row, and the feedback I received was consistent.”

Clay nodded affirmatively.

Outsiders would probably never know that the so-called deities paying attention to believers, helping them quantify their physical strength, and discovering their talents were actually power plays by the deities. What they truly used their divine power for in each believer's body was to find truly promising talents and constantly monitor their movements. For example, Allen now seemed no different from others, but in reality, if the deities truly wanted to monitor Allen's situation, they could use the divine power beacon implanted in Allen's body as a guide to see everything Allen saw and hear everything Allen heard. This was the true reason for the so-called omniscience of the deities.

Even priests like Clay could use divine spells to resonate with the divine power within Allen's body and then ascertain Allen's current physical condition.

Of course, such things were naturally impossible for peripheral believers like Allen to know, and they were secrets known only to the backbone of the divine church system.

“If that's the case, then this hobgoblin is indeed worth our attention. If we can establish a good relationship with him early on, that would be even better.”

High Priest Homyel lowered his head and pondered, then asked Clay: “What's this hobgoblin's name? Is he a lone adventurer or a tribal leader?”

“Reporting to the High Priest, this hobgoblin is named Allen Witt, and he's the leader of a hobgoblin tribe in the Greenwild Plains of the Mansa Wilderness.”

“Allen Witt? That name sounds familiar.”

High Priest Homyel fell into deep thought again, trying hard to recall where he had encountered this name: “Where could it be?”

He hadn't been to the wilderness in years, and it had been several years since he had appeared before the world, because he was in seclusion searching for a way to break through to legend, so it was impossible for him to have had contact with this hobgoblin. Then he must have heard the name from someone else. There weren't many people in the temple who could communicate with him, only Clay and the other rotating priests. The Greenwild Plains were a distant place, and as a leader, this hobgoblin named Allen wouldn't often come to Thornsburg, so the possibility of hearing his name from the rotating priests was also unlikely.

After such deliberation, Homyel slapped his forehead and suddenly remembered where he had heard the name: “Isn't this the hobgoblin with some potential that Oscar, who returned for a rest some time ago, told me about?”

“Master Oscar has also met Allen? How come I don't know about this?”

Clay was somewhat surprised. This Master Oscar, like the High Priest, was a powerful figure searching for his own path to legend, and he spent the entire year running around in the wilderness, experiencing the way of nature. How could he have happened to meet this hobgoblin Allen and even have an intersection with him?

“They met in the wilderness, it seems near the edge of the Tagan Desert. Oscar admired this hobgoblin's thirst for knowledge and even gave him a portion of oat seeds that had been improved by his druidic magic.”

Homyel narrowed his eyes. If things were such a coincidence, then he should write a letter to Oscar, asking him to go to the Greenwild Plains to contact this hobgoblin again, so that this good karma could last longer.

Whether a deity flourished in the Feyman world depended not only on the strength of the deity's own divine power but also on the powerful figures under the deity who spread the faith and stabilized the divine authority. This was also the reason why the deities had been paying attention to the talents of believers in the Feyman world: the more powerful figures a deity had in the Feyman plane, the more advantageous they would be in the competition for believers and the more believers they would acquire.

Although the Feyman world was a plane where deities shepherded believers, the will of the plane had been suppressing the deities from directly descending into the world. The destructive power of the deities was too great, and if a divine war were to occur in the Feyman plane, it was very likely to directly destroy the Feyman plane. Therefore, if deities wanted to influence the Feyman world, they needed to rely more on the powerful system established by the temples.

Although the deities themselves could send a Saint avatar to the Feyman plane, this avatar wouldn't last too long, and when faced with the siege of more legendary and above experts, how much could a Saint avatar do?

“If that's the case, then it would be more appropriate for Master Oscar to come forward to win him over than for us to contact him.”

Clay apparently thought of the same thing as High Priest Homyel. After hearing Clay's suggestion, Homyel no longer hesitated and, after Clay excused himself and left, he found stationery and began to write.

(Starting from here, I will merge the initial and advanced levels of the characters, so that everyone can intuitively understand the characters' combat effectiveness in the future: all unadvanced occupations are considered initial-level professionals in this world, advanced professional total levels are within 12, then they are intermediate professionals, high-level professionals are 13-15; legend is divided into three stages, just encompassing 16-18, demigod is 19, and Saint is 20, which is also the highest level that the Feyman plane can accommodate.)