As soon as his hand crossed the non-existent barrier, he could both feel and see his hand being atomized. Excruciating pain flew throughout his entire body. However, just as that pain formed, it vanished, and the hand was repaired once again.
Daron knew what this was. It was basically the exact same thing that would happen to him when the main system was upgrading. Only difference being, he was not on the powerful anaesthetic that made him lose consciousness like always, but was fully aware of all the pain coursing through his body.
Quickly, Daron retracted his hand. This pain was not something he was used to, and nor was it something he liked.
'Sh*t! That hurts! Damn it! I can't enter this place!'
[I can suppress the pain to a minima level while maintaining basic bodily functions. However, your actions will be incredibly slow as though you are about to fall asleep. The more active you wish to make your body, the less active the anaesthetic will be and the more pain you will feel.]
'Why did you not do this before? Do it! Fast. I don't want to waste too much time here. Let's just get to the church and finish the work and leave quickly.'
With that said, the now lethargic Daron walked in, and could barely feel much pain. What he was feeling was similar to the feeling of pin and needles when your foot falls asleep, but it was all throughout his body, all the day down to his bones.
Daron did not stop and kept moving, one step at a time, and entered through the half open gates. The main system was busy greedily absorbing all this free energy and upgrading itself if there is enough energy, while continuously healing Daron as soon as any damage is done.
Bloodline inherence had also calmed down by now, and had secretly categorized this particular energy that was the deadliest form of energy in all of existence as something that was beneficial to Daron.
The inside of the city was just like the outside of the city, completely barren, bare of all life, the only thing remaining was the collapsed buildings. Even the ground itself did not have any signs of life like worms and insects. Soon, Daron could see the Holy Church. Clearly visible to him there was a golden barrier around it. Along with that, there was also clearly a passage that let outside the back of the city that was also covered in the golden barrier that Sirious had already analysed slightly.
[It is a slightly weakened version of Holy Energy that Anna used.]
'Damn it. I did not have to come here. I could have just gone from the back. Let's go. They will think of me as some monster that can survive in this energy and might even try to dissect me to figure out my secrets.'
As Daron thought that, he immediately turned around and was somehow able to silently move his body out of the direct line of sight of the church and anyone within.
Silently, his continuously reforming body moved outside the city where the anaesthetic was removed and the energy was stopped.
[Upgrade completion 1%]
'Isn't it better for me to just go to sleep than do this while I'm awake out here in this city?'
[According to my calculations, the main system will not be able to upgrade normally after it reached the 50th upgrade, which would reveal around 50% of all functions. From that point onwards, you will need to find sources of that same mysterious energy to upgrade. Finding sources earlier just adds onto the reserves. If this upgrade is done without falling unconscious and using the reserve energies, the reserve will be able to upgrade until the 51st upgrade]
'So, there was a limit after all. I should absorb as much as possible? We can do that later on. I can return here later on. Right now, I need to meet with the church.'
With that thought, Daron made his way around the city and finally found the golden glowing passage, and at the entrance of the passage was a priest, wearing the same robe as Joanne. Clearly, he was a regular priest, however, Daron could not see through his strength despite becoming an official knight.
[It should be due to the effect of the Holy Energy. Scans reveal he is completely normal besides having Holy energy, just like Joanne.]
"Welcome to the Holy Church. How can I help you?"
"Hello. I would like to meet the lord's figure." Daron said with a smile, however, the priest's expression instantly turned serious as he stared at Daron.
"Ah!" Daron realised that normally, every child is sent to the god's statue without their parents and while they are incredibly young, so the existence of the statue is known only to the priests and those close to them, some powerful figures in each city, as well as enemies of the church!
"Do not misunderstand. I was an orphan raised in a church branch."
Hearing this, the priest's expressions took another 180 degree turn and was back to all smiles once again.
"Come on in them."
The fact that orphans could see the statue anytime was also known by very few people, including enemies. However, these enemies had used the same tactics and failed so many times in the past that they had long given up on this act. Naturally, the priest was still a little speculative and guarded against Daron, but still brough him to the lord's statue.
Once someone was in there, all their secrets would be laid bare in front of the almighty lord, and no enemy would be left alive at that point.
The priest had also entered along with Daron and a servant who was armed with a sword. Unlike the church in Bard, this church was full of people, even including hunters and farmers to maintain the food for the people within the church. That included this servant who seemed more like a guard.
"The lord is waiting."
Daron bowed first to the priest as he had been taught in the church before kneeling in front of the lord's statue, which reminded Daron of a more barbaric and blind Ares.
[Detecting high intensity intrusion probe]
[Attempting to resist]
[Unable to resist]
[Attempting to deceive]
[Deception complete]
[Probe searching for information.]
'Give it the following information. 'Cage', '8 Years', 'Male', 'Human (?)', 'Official Knight, Novice Blacksmith', 'Hard-working, Reserved, Clever, Loyal, Reliable, Talented, Focused'
[Task completed…]
[You flatter yourself…]
'Hmph'
As the probe that lacked self-consciousness went back Sirious sighed.
[The probe here was at least 12.5 times stronger than the one at Bard city. If it was not for the two upgrades the main system has gone through, I would not have been able to fool it into scanning the temporary fake you I created.]
Daron was slightly taken a back as he understood the power of this statue. Unlike in Bard city where Sirious had fully been able to block the probe completely, she was unable to even slow it down and could only fool it, just barely.
After bowing once more to the statue, he thanked the priest and gave him a few copper as the fees for allowing him to meet the lord's statue that Joanne always told him about.
Seeing the way in which Daron behaved and left, the priest finally let down his guard and felt like he was only a normal orphan who wanted his identification card updated. For normal people, the identification cards were updated by priests who would act as a bridge to connect the lord's consciousness to the person wanted the update.
Very few people could access the lord's statue directly. However, as long as they knew about the lord's statue's existence, behaved according to the standard created by the holy church, and paid the fees before leaving, no one could stop them from doing the same. The fees in fact for directly visiting the lord's statue was slightly higher than doing it through a priest to limit the number of people able to use it, since the money earned from this would go directly into the church, while that earned from the ceremony done by the priest would all go the priest(s) involved.
====================
Name: Cage
Age: 7
Gender: Male
Race: Human (?)
Job: Official Knight, Novice Blacksmith
Personality: Hard-working, Reserved, Clever, Loyal, Reliable, Talented, Focused
====================
Daron had very cleverly used his surname from Earth that he had never used in this world. Even in his old identification card, he had only used Daron.
At first, Daron had thought about using John Cena, since that might unexpectedly give him invisibility powers in this world of magic and Internal energy. Naturally, he was reminded by Sirious that he would have to keep this name until he became strong enough to protect himself against those black knights who were after him, which meant he needed to keep the name until he at least became stronger than Zack, who was an Intermediate knight. After agreeing to her, Daron simply went with his surname which also went nicely for a name, although it was a little odd for him.