Struggle in the Steam Age

On the podium, after Lawrence delivered his short speech of only five or six minutes. The deputy commander of the Federation took out a gold badge from the box and pinned it on Lawrence's left chest. The face of the badge is embossed with the head of the first president of the Commonwealth Scientific Association, while the back is hand-knocked out with the names of the winners and the date of the award.

"Congratulations, Mr. Lawrence August." After putting on the badge for Lawrence, the deputy commander of the Federation took a half step back and said, "Congratulations on becoming a member of the Federal Science Association."

"Thank you, sir." Lawrence bowed to the deputy commander, and then he turned to the audience seat and bowed to the audience. In an instant, all the audience below the podium applauded.

Followed by the usual practice is a small buffet buffet, everyone enjoyed the delicious food cooked by a high-level chef specially found from the Rose Palace not far away, while listening to the performance of a small band. During this period, all the guests gathered together in twos and threes, and then discussed some interesting topics.

As the principal of Far Harbor University, Henry Johnson is willing to provide some help to the students who graduate from his school. So he enthusiastically introduced each scholar and their achievements to Lawrence.

After turning around, the principal went to chat with his old friends. Lawrence was going to look for some food at the side of those long tables, but Priest Carter stopped him at this moment. "Come with me, Lawrence."

After following Priest Carter to a small room next to the living room, Lawrence found that there were already several people waiting here in this small room, and the one sitting in the main seat was a middle-aged woman whom he did not know. priest.

Although Lawrence didn't know this priest, she could tell from her yellow and green robe that she came from the Agricultural Church, and the golden holy emblem with diamonds on her chest indicated that this priestess should be a regional priest. scepter officiate.

"Mr. August, I have something I want to ask you, and I hope you can answer it truthfully." The priestess asked when Lawrence sat down on the sofa. The whispering around her just before she opened her mouth disappeared in an instant.

"Excuse me, Your Excellency." Lawrence said after bending forward slightly with his upper body. "If I can answer, I will definitely answer."

"Don't worry, I won't ask about any privacy. After all, we are looking for you for a good cause." The priestess smiled and said, and Lawrence felt a mother-like kindness from her smile. Then she waved her hand and summoned a tree stump as tall as a man from the ground. "Next, I hope you can do your best to cast the most powerful magic you have mastered on this tree stump."

"The most powerful magic?" Lawrence scratched his hair helplessly. "But the most powerful magic I have mastered is not offensive magic."

"It's okay, as long as it's magic." The priestess of the Agricultural Church said, "This is not the kind of target for testing magic. The magic effect can only be measured by the degree of destruction of the target."

[Resistance to energy damage] After confirming the usage of the tree stump in front of him, Lawrence used one of the two second-level magics he mastered on the tree stump.

"Very good." The middle-aged priestess nodded after the spell was released, and then she looked at a middle-aged man in a dress who had been standing behind the deputy leader of the Federation just now. "The next thing will be told by the guardian of the Federation, the legendary warrior Mr. Lopez."

"Mr. August, in view of the important contributions you made to the civilized world before, we have decided to give you some rewards after discussion, and I will announce these rewards to you—" the priest of the Agricultural Church just finished speaking, Mr. Lopez stood up with a document and read

Lawrence sat up straight after hearing this sentence. He knew what it meant to be a federal guardian, an extraordinary person who represented the country. Of course, this also showed that the important contributions and corresponding rewards from a federal guardian must be very rich.

Sure enough, as he recited, Lawrence knew the specific rewards for the things he had done before. The first reward is that he is now a common honored guest of the Church of the God of Suffering and the Church of Agriculture. And when he becomes a Transcendent of the official level or above, he can go to either of these two churches called the Diocesan Main Church to receive the blessing of the gods. "

Lawrence knew that the VIPs of each church were an honorary title for non-denominational believers who made contributions to the church. People with this honorary title could enjoy most of the services provided by the church in accordance with the standards of devout believers in the future. .

As for the blessings of the gods, there are two types, one of which is for clergy and devout believers. Often give some magic and improve the strength. But that kind of title, which is equivalent to a nobility, can be taken back by the gods at any time.

The blessing of the gods that Lawrence is now receiving is another kind for non-believers. In terms of effect, this kind of blessing is naturally not as good as the previous one, and there will be no gift of divine magic. But this kind of blessing is like rewarding money or items, and even the gods cannot take back these rewards.

Of course, this kind of blessing from the gods can only be fulfilled after becoming at least an official-level transcendent, because only after reaching that level, the transcendent can accept the blessings of gods who do not believe in them, otherwise there will be serious conflicts of belief that will hurt the soul .

The second reward was given by the Church of Knowledge. Although all the things Lawrence did before did not directly benefit the Church of Knowledge, this behavior of objectively spreading knowledge secretly conformed to the religious teachings of the Church of Knowledge.

The most important thing is that even if he is a non-staff member, Lawrence can be regarded as a member of the Church of Knowledge. Not to mention that his previous papers that were very useful to the Church of the God of Suffering and the Church of Agriculture were all published through the Church of Knowledge. This also allowed the Church of Knowledge to gain some favors from it.

Therefore, the rewards given by the Church of Knowledge are also very generous. They prepared an official grade magic item for Lawrence. In addition, all non-special supernatural knowledge at the professional level and below is open to him.

"The next step is the Federation's reward for you. In order to commend your previous contributions to the Federation's agriculture and medicine, we decided to let you participate in the black iron level competition in the New World Nations Competition as a representative of the Federation." Finally. The Guardian of the Federation to Lawrence.

Hearing this sentence, Lawrence felt a little confused, because he didn't know what the so-called Great Competition of Nations meant, but he noticed that Priest Carter had been giving him winks to signal his acceptance.

"Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity." Lawrence bowed politely, and then accepted a letter and a silver sign from Mr. Lopez.

Walking out of the room, Lawrence finally figured out what was going on in the so-called New World Contest under Priest Carter's explanation.

The Contest of Nations in the New World is a five-year large-scale event held by each country in the New World, and the event will be held on a certain astral plane. And this competition will determine the distribution of extraordinary resources in the New World among countries in the next five years.

These new planes selected as competition venues contain excellent opportunities. For extraordinary people, these opportunities will bring great benefits to the participants and allow them to walk more smoothly on the road to extraordinary.