The Shepherds Are Dense-Chapter 24: Aiwass's Plan

So you’re a boss too, huh, old man!
Aiwass immediately felt a strange sense of kinship.
Even though he was technically on the protagonist faction, he had no illusions about his own darker tendencies.
He figured he wasn’t all that far off from becoming a boss himself.
In Aiwass’s eyes, bosses were, in a way, “heroes who took the wrong step.”
—At least, by mid-game, once everyone's narrative weight was higher, that was typically the case.
They only became bosses—instance-residing foes—because they were on the wrong side of history or committed a crucial error.
But if they had chosen correctly at a crucial juncture, they could have lived.
They could even have been great heroes.
Because they too held convictions.
Consider Samuel the Holy Swordkeeper, for instance.
He adored his country, Avalon.
So after Avalon Kingdom was vanquished, he roamed the globe seeking strength.
He finally discovered the process of reforging a holy blade, and reforged the chapel key of Saint Genevieve—which he protected—into the "Sacred Sword: Red-Hilted Blade," originally held by the legendary hero Galahad.
However, what he didn't realize was that this blade had a strong curse.
This is why it had been broken and closed by the mage Merlin.
A person required an unshakeable and clean will to hold the sword.
But when Samuel grabbed it without notice, he was instantly overcome by the centuries-old brewing curse.
The light-dedicated phantom demon created by the curse overran his mind, and he was a principal instigator of the "Shadow of Avalon" scheme.
Aiwass took this heavy key with the greatest care.
He was aware of how much Bishop Mathers prized this key.
He was also aware that Mathers knew its origin and value.
Mathers liked Aiwass so much that he was even ready to lend him this treasured item for protection—
Then and there, Aiwass made a decision.
Aside from rescuing his sister, Yulia.
He would also alter the destiny of Samuel Mathers, to repay the respect and significance accorded to him in this instance.
Technically speaking, it wasn't that hard—he simply needed to prevent him from forging the holy sword anew.
Or even better, stop Avalon's destruction in its tracks altogether.
And that was what Aiwass had planned to do in the first place.
Because their objectives were in line.
In Aiwass's thoughts, his own scheming opened up anew again.
But he did not feel weighed down.
On the contrary, he felt thrilled.
Suddenly, something occurred to him:
Even though he wasn't remembering the overall story that well—could barely recall most of the important NPCs on the hero side, didn't even recall when most of them joined up or what their personal backstories were.
He remembered the bosses.
At the very least, he could quote all the major dungeon bosses from memory.
Not just their names, classes, and mechanics—he even remembered some of their backstories, like how they ended up on that path.
Which meant Aiwass actually had a very stable and mature method of acquiring “companions.”
—That was to prevent certain people from becoming bosses in the first place.
If someone became a boss worthy of fighting the player, that meant they were already quite strong.
If Aiwass were able to redeem some of those who weren't necessarily evil at the opportune time, they could pay it back and assist him.
Coming back to reality, Aiwass feigned not knowing the value of the key, yet continued to offer utmost respect and thankfulness to Bishop Mathers.
He sincerely expressed his gratitude and vowed to give it back within two months.
There was no hypocrisy in that.
Assuming no surprises, the event that would make Yulia lose control was going to take place in a little over a month.
That event included at least three third-level demon scholars, one third-level law mage, and one fourth-level adjudicator.
Aiwass knew the adjudicator's vulnerability—perhaps he could keep him from appearing by acting early.
But the other four were still formidable.
And besides, the demon scholars had prepared.
In the initial story, their enemies were defeated only due to Yulia's sacrifice.
To rescue the player and Aiwass, she voluntarily lost control repeatedly, finally fully awakening the Butterfly of Reversed Flame.
With the remaining sanity, she used the demon power to slay the enemies and let the player escape with Aiwass.
Later, Yulia's soul disappeared.
She became incorporated into the Butterfly of Reversed Flame.
And Aiwass wouldn't be able to simply call for help nonchalantly—because in that case, he would seal an illusory demon and employ darkness magic.
Yulia would also come to know that she was an illusory demon's egg.
These two things were best kept a secret between the two of them.
Aiwass had originally intended to use the illusory demon sealed within his blank card to deal with the occurrence.
But now that he possessed the "Sacred Sword," his possibilities had greatly improved.
"…Let's proceed with the lesson then."
Bishop Mathers calmed his mind, grudgingly accepting the presence of another person even more talented than him.
So he intensified as he transferred his wisdom to Aiwass:
"The so-called Illumination isn't about giving off flashes.".
It follows the same principle as the Ritual Flame—addressing pain, curses, and exhaustion as 'darkness,' and eliminating them with light.
Since it shines without burning, the process is smoother, slower, and safer.
"Visualize yourself as a candle, and your palm as the wick of the candle.
You can light up your own energy using fire-aligned power or use a fire from outside as a catalyst—that conserves some mana.".
But because you possess the Flame Vessel path power, you do not necessarily need to recover mana.
"Then, you merely tap light-aligned mana.
Put your palm lightly on someone's forehead, the nape of their neck, or their chest.
Fill them with the light that arises from your incinerated life force.
That light can calm the mind, break curses, or heal injuries…"
Illumination was easy.
With a wee bit of light-aligned mana, it was straightforward to learn.
Aiwass did not spend experience points to speed it up and learned it anyway in more than ten minutes.
That confirmed that he was indeed gifted.
Later, he quietly spent three experience points to master the Blessing technique.
But he didn't let on—because Blessing was the most difficult divine skill to master.
Learning the easier Ritual Flame instantly could still be attributed to Aiwass's native flame affinity.
But Blessing was not a skill one could just learn instantly.
It included buffing friends, consecrating objects or spaces, making holy water, and so on…
Extremely complicated.
Even the lecture on it took well over an hour.
Aiwass had used three experience points to learn it, and that demonstrated just how hard it was.
This served to prove Bishop Mathers's first guess right on the money—
For Aiwass, Blessing was actually three times more challenging than the Ritual Flame.
In other words, Aiwass had spent four experience points to save two to three days and a week of training—an absolute bargain.
Because what he lacked now was time.
—Tomorrow night was the full moon of November.
Every full moon and new moon marked a day when advancement rituals could be performed.
Rituals done under a full moon were twice as successful, and those done during a new moon stood a good chance of producing rare attributes.
A month and half from then, he would be in for a tough fight.
Prior to that, he had—at most—three opportunities to move ahead.
If he did not hold back his level advancement, Aiwass would still be able to progress on the full moon, new moon, and the subsequent full moon—Priest → Demon Scholar → Priest, in that order.
If he missed the full moon tomorrow, he would have to wait two weeks more to progress.
And before progressing, any excess skill levels would not translate to class levels.
Which meant wasted experience… that would ruin all his plans.
If Aiwass was to build his first blank card in a half month, he needed to finish both Priest advancements—and the first one was due tomorrow.
Otherwise, with merely a half month remaining, even the most extreme shortcuts would be insufficient to reach Priest level 19.
—Luckily, those two at the Pelican Bar had given useful public experience!
Aiwass remained having fifty points of public experience.
If he spread it equally across the four divine arts, increasing each one by one or two levels, he could raise his Priest class to level 9!
That would allow him to enter the Dream Realm at tomorrow's full moon and finish his first advance ritual…
And unlock the second layer of the Path of Devotion!
(To be continued)