The villainous young master just wants to live a Buddhist-like life.

Chapter 1378 Darkdemon and the Summoning of the Evil God (4k)

　A legitimate profession must have hierarchical divisions.

　However, the profession of Archmage involves too many factors, making it difficult to define its levels.

　After all, before the magic ritual begins, magic duels are just a form of competition and do not conform to the rules.

　The level of a mage is divided into two aspects: knowledge and strength.

　Although mages can transform knowledge into power, it is important to understand that knowledge ≠ power.

　Traditionally, the only thing that can be used to judge a mage's level of knowledge is their "degree." However, in this world, the only difference between a mage's degree is between "student" and "professor," and there is no distinction between primary school and university.

　Those who graduate from a magic academy are already guaranteed a place in the world of magic, while the status of a mage after graduation is largely determined by the prestige of the academy.

　To differentiate levels of knowledge.

　For example, a mage who can graduate from St. Marian Academy must be a good mage.

　Archmages who graduated from the Royal Academy weren't so much better off. As for their strength...

　During wartime, the strength of a mage is generally judged by a combination of factors such as merits and reputation.

　It's like saying someone killed someone else in a certain battle, and that person is more powerful than the other.

　After the war ended, the only way to judge was by looking at the levels of other professions.

　The premise is that those mages also have other part-time jobs that allow them to demonstrate their abilities.

　The most common example is adventurers, followed by professional duelists.

　But now that the Sorcerer League has been established, it is necessary to formalize the professional system of Sorcerers.

　Regardless, a convincing ranking system is still necessary. And the creation of "character cards" can serve as the entry requirements for the corresponding ranks.

　—It's not that the level of a "character card" that can be produced determines its level.

　Instead, it is used as a "ticket".

　One must have the ability to create the corresponding "character card" in order to participate in the mage profession exam of that level.

　Since a mage's level is divided into two aspects, knowledge and strength, let's combine these two aspects and calculate them together.

　That is, it is divided into written exams and duel exams.

　Only archmages with "tickets" can register for the exam. Then, every so often, they gather together for a group assessment to evaluate the archmages' levels.

　Since the "character cards" are divided into four levels, the level of the mage can be temporarily set to the "four plus one" mode.

　也就是Lv1、Lv2、Lv3、Lv4和Lv5。

　Although this kind of naming is a bit old-fashioned, a truly popular job name should be simple and easy to understand.

　Lvl to Lv4 correspond to the four ranks. Lv5 belongs to the transcendental archmage.

　In short, they are mages who transcend mortals and reach the realm of gods. The requirement for Lv5 is to possess at least one fifth-tier magic spirit card.

　As for levels above Lv5, those are truly the realm of gods, beyond the comprehension of a magic alliance.

　In fact, even a level 5 transcendent mage is already beyond the scope of evaluation.

　A written test is one thing, but to use a duel exam to assess a Level 5 Transcendent Archmage, the first prerequisite is to have a Level 5 Transcendent Archmage.

　Of course, within this range, a duel of equal strength can actually be achieved through data simulation.

　However, the cost of using a "dream machine" is probably no cheaper than hiring a Level 5 transcendent mage.

　In short, there are various problems with the assessment of professional ranks. But the purpose of this discussion is to solve these problems.

　By raising and resolving problems, the number of problems will naturally decrease.

　Late November.

　Dark cooperated with the staff of the Magic Alliance to complete the level exams from Lv1 to Lv4.

　When the Magic League was first established, it only had high-ranking members. But now it is a truly large organization, providing a relatively respectable job for many unemployed mages.

　This time, the level test ended at level 4. Dark successfully completed all the tests from level 1 to level 3, but encountered trouble with the written test at level 4.

　His knowledge is indeed not comprehensive enough. Although his dueling strength has reached Lv4, his mastery of magical knowledge is not Lv4.

　Overall, he can only be considered a Level 3 Archmage.

　However, his case is rather special and cannot be used as a general reference.

　The most important thing for the Sorcerer Alliance right now is to quickly develop a ranking system for general mages, and then consider how to deal with special situations.

　A mage like Dark, who specializes in only one area, is quite rare. (His dueling skills might even pass the Lv5 test, but his knowledge level is still at Lv3.)

　If I had to give a rating, I'd say it falls somewhere in the middle, roughly equivalent to a Level 4 Archmage.

　In conclusion, thanks to the efforts of all parties, the Magic Alliance is becoming increasingly formalized.

　With the formal establishment of the professional ranking system, a large number of mages rushed to the Free City upon hearing the news.

　They all knew that this ranking system would eventually spread to various places. But humans always have a competitive mentality, as if the mage who obtains the ranking certification first is more powerful.

　—Whether it's impressive or not, I don't know, but the serial number on the certificate is definitely among the top.

　The mages quickly realized this, and as a result, even more mages headed to the City of Freedom.

　While the kingdom is engulfed in bloodshed due to the "Return of the Demon King," the sudden rise of a large number of mages exacerbates the chaos.

　The center of the chaos was gradually shifting towards the city of freedom.

　While there are quite a few demons hiding within the kingdom, the actual number is far less than reported.

　The subsequent chaos in the kingdom was mostly caused by those with malicious intentions.

　Although normal people probably cannot understand it, there are indeed such people among humanity.

　Such as "demon king worship" and "demonism" and other incomprehensible groups.

　And those cults that worship evil gods and have no connection to the demon race are countless.

　In times of peace, evil breeds, leading to more chaos and disorder than in times of war.

　These groups hidden among the people, after the Holy Church purified the "evil gods," suddenly discovered that summoning the "evil gods" had become so easy. As a result, many plans that had been forced to stop or be shelved were put back on the agenda.

　Even some neutral sects are starting to stir up trouble because of this.

　But if they can think of these things, then the Holy Church can certainly think of these things too.

　Not to mention that neutral sects rarely hide due to their nature, even many cults have long been recorded by the Holy Church.

　They weren't dealt with before simply because they weren't considered a significant threat. Furthermore, the Holy Church genuinely needed cults like them to create achievements; one could say that to some extent, they were deliberately allowed to develop.

　Therefore, after the "evil god summoning incident" occurred, the Holy Church immediately mobilized its personnel to investigate the cults on record.

　The result speaks for itself.

　When necessary, the Holy Church always acts swiftly and decisively.

　Most cults were ruthlessly eradicated by the Inquisition, which was eager to vent its frustrations, before they could pose any real threat.

　Another group of cults fled overnight after hearing rumors. Of these fleeing cults, some were captured, while others escaped.

　Among the cult members who escaped, some infiltrated the ranks of the mages heading towards the City of Freedom.

　Although the City of Freedom has been incorporated into the Kingdom's political system, it is not under the Kingdom's jurisdiction, and even the Holy Church's tentacles cannot reach into it.

　The city was already home to many adventurers, a mixed bag of good and bad, and a home to hybrids. Now, with the establishment of the Magic Alliance, the city gates have been opened wide to accept all kinds of alien races and subhumans, making it increasingly difficult to maintain order within the city.

　But if you want to wear the crown, you must bear its weight.

　These are all choices made by the city of freedom itself.

　At this moment, the City of Freedom is like it's adding weight to itself in a crazy way. If it can withstand it, it will surely soar to new heights.

　However, if it cannot withstand the pressure, it risks collapse.

　But at this crucial juncture, undercurrents are surging in, and waves are rising.

　The entire city of freedom suddenly became the focus of the nation's attention.

　But this is all internal information.

　On the surface, the kingdom's newspapers only report on the professional certification and ranking examinations for archmages.

　Ordinary people have no way of knowing or having access to the intelligence hidden in the shadows.

　However, clever people can always deduce hidden information from obvious clues.

　After cooperating with the Magic Alliance to complete the professional level assessment, Dark had anticipated the actions of the mages.

　After seeing the related reports in the newspaper, he immediately combined them with previous intelligence and deduced that the Free City must be the place where the trouble started.

　Therefore, he immediately summoned Ellie and ordered her to use the "Spiritual Connection Technique" to connect with Ashe, who was far away in the capital, and obtain first-hand intelligence.

　Things were worse than he had anticipated.

　The Holy Church has been decisive enough in dealing with cults. However, their overly decisive actions have alerted the cult, causing organizations previously unreported to believe they have been exposed. Consequently, they have taken a desperate gamble, accelerating their plans and recklessly summoning the "Evil God"!

　That "evil god" belongs to a different kind from the "evil god" that caused great chaos before. But both are just mindless remnants of some evil deity.

　The moment it was summoned, it wiped out the entire cult. By the time the remaining forces of the Holy Church sensed the aura of the evil god and rushed over, the cult had already been completely destroyed.

　What remained at the scene was a chaotic and malevolent divine aura. But the "evil god" that had been summoned was nowhere to be found.

　When this information reached the Holy See, all the high-ranking officials of the Holy See headquarters rushed to a meeting room.

　At the top of the list is naturally His Holiness the Pope, who is in a terrible predicament.

　Seated beside him was the chief archbishop Galenoris and the head of the elders who guarded the sacred artifacts of the Holy Church.

　That elder was the one who had used the "Guardian Artifact" to completely purify the remains of the evil god.

　His face was extremely gloomy, and he sat there like a heavy rock, exuding an extremely oppressive aura.

　Sabrina Melville, who was already an archbishop, also kept her lips tightly closed and remained silent.

　The people who can sit in this conference room are all

　A shrewd person.

　Who knew that you absolutely couldn't stand out too much at this time? Otherwise, good things wouldn't happen, and bad things would definitely pile up on you.

　The situation of the Holy Church is very bad recently.

　Ever since the news of "the Demon King's return from the underworld" spread, they have been on the defensive.

　They were forced to search for the "Demon King who returned from the underworld" and to deal with everything that happened as a result.

　In the end, they didn't find a single hair of the Demon King, but instead triggered a series of disasters. Although what was bound to happen eventually did happen, even if they hadn't searched, the two demons would still have carried out the "Evil God Summoning Ritual." Ironically, it was precisely because of the previous thorough search that they were able to discover the evil god ritual so quickly.

　Fortunately, they discovered it in time. Although they suffered some losses, they managed to purify the "evil god" and even gained prestige and more followers. The subsequent crackdown on other cults proceeded smoothly, all as a result of proper planning.

　But to everyone's surprise, just a few days later, a second "evil god" was summoned!

　And what's worse, the second "evil god" has also disappeared! In short...

　The problems facing the Holy Church now go far beyond the "demon king who has returned from the underworld".

　The "evil god" that has fled to an unknown location could cause terrifying disasters in densely populated cities at any time.

　At that time, although the matter itself has nothing to do with the Holy Church, the Holy Church will still be held responsible and will immediately become the center of public opinion.

　After all, eradicating cults and purifying evil has always been the responsibility and obligation of the Holy Church.

　They enjoyed the benefits of this behavior, but naturally they also had to bear the drawbacks.

　And what's even more terrifying is.

　The fact that the "evil god summoning ritual" has become easier to perform and complete has once again been proven true!

　…'

　"I never imagined that the chaos brought about by the resurgence of the gods would begin in this way."

　After receiving the information, Dak was also deeply troubled.

　When faced with the "vanished evil god," the Holy Church could no longer handle it alone. After discussion, they shared this information with the Valkyrie faction and the Royal faction.

　This has significantly increased the pressure on both the Valkyrie faction and the royal faction. Although these three forces are at odds, they share the same stance on protecting the country.

　So, in addition to the task of searching for the Demon King, a new task has been added: searching for an "evil god"!