A Guide to Becoming a God Starting from a Monastery

But in this instant, his martial arts and extraordinary abilities, which he had always been confident in, were meaningless in front of this gray shadow.

The gray shadow continued to make that strange sound, but his body was like a swimming fish. With a simple evasive movement, he avoided the long sword in the critical moment.

Then the scimitar slashed back.

Under the tremendous force, the armor on the knight's body was completely ineffective. He was hit by a knife and the armor was directly broken.

With a scream, the gray shadow turned around and swung his sword again, knocking down the follower who was following the knight.

Blood splattered.

The two men rolled to the ground, one on the left and one on the right.

Before they could struggle to their feet, the scimitar chopped down again, this time directly at their necks.

The two men were instantly torn apart and lost their lives.

When he looked back, the entire team had been wiped out by him.

"Lucky news," the gray figure slowly removed her veil, revealing a slightly shabby face in her forties or fifties. "I managed to snag a Knight Hospitaller along the way."

He sneered, led the two men's mounts over, then recalled his own mount and rode away with the spoils.

Half a day later, the gray shadow arrived at a camp.

He frowned because there was a stranger in the camp.

A young man...he was dressed like a messenger!

"Lord Sayyid?" The messenger shrank back as he looked at Sayyid, who was full of murderous intent.

"It's me, what's wrong?"

"Master Sayid, I have brought a letter from the Grand Master!"

"Why, our Grand Master remembered me?" Said said with a hint of sarcasm. But this did not stop him from taking the letter, opening it and reading it.

"What? Just let me go kill people! Isn't it better for me to be here? I can eliminate those traitors who betrayed their faith at will, and kill a few more knights in the process!" He sneered.

Men, women, young and old, all apostates can be killed!

"But...but...the Grand Master said that the man named Thomas is very important."

"Important? Isn't it just the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes Island? If it's really important, shouldn't they go find those Assassins? They claim they can kill anyone."

"Thomas' life isn't important, because even if he dies, Rome can quickly send a new Grand Master. But the flag is crucial," the messenger said cautiously. "The Assassins can kill, but they can't take the flag."

Said grinned.

This is true. After all, those Assassins are almost all assassins who are determined to die together.

This move is extremely deadly and hard to defend against. Almost no one dares to say that they can survive facing an Assassin.

But the price is that it is difficult for the Assassins to do anything other than killing people.

For example, they can't do things like killing people and stealing treasures.

"The Grand Master said that your powers are well suited for this task. Bringing that magical banner here will be a remarkable achievement! The entire Order will be proud of you."

"That magic flag... it's just a magic flag, why did it attract so much attention from the Grand Master?"

"It's spread throughout the entire Eastern Mediterranean! It's said that with that flag, one can use magic infinitely."

"Ha... How could such a thing be possible? Well, what's the price? The life of the banner bearer? Or must a large-scale human sacrifice be performed to replenish the magic banner's power?"

"No, none of that is necessary."

"How is that possible? How could humans create something like that? It's completely against common sense."

"Yes, but it is said that the flag is... one of the supreme treasures bestowed upon believers by the Christian gods. Seizing it would not only greatly enhance our strength, but would also bring the greatest shame upon those Christians."

"Furthermore, it is said that with this treasure, the cult can immediately launch an operation to retake the holy land."

"No wonder." Said paused, narrowing his eyes as he considered the matter for a few minutes. "Although I don't believe such a powerful thing exists, since the Grandmaster has said so..."

"I have to give you some face, right?"

"Sir, we have prepared a small boat at the harbor. You can go directly to Rhodes Island. We have spies stationed on the island to provide you with intelligence and other support. You only need to seize the flag, and everything else will be arranged."

Chapter 89 Eight Thousand Florins

Outside the port of Rhodes Island, three ships slowly sailed into the harbor.

Two of them were the Knights' warships, slender and long, while the other one was relatively round and had many scars on it.

Those were the marks left by artillery bombardment.

Fortunately, in this era, artillery was generally used to bombard the deck and kill personnel, rather than to attack the waterline and cause the ship to take in water and sink. So being hit by a few shots was not a big problem.

You can tell at a glance that this is the harvest of the Knights' hunting.

A lot of people have spontaneously gathered at the port to rejoice over the Knights' victory.

In the city, at the highest point of the Knights' headquarters fortress, Thomas also saw the returning warships.

Although I don't know what cargo this merchant ship is carrying, but...

At least it’s a few thousand florins!

At least it seems that the Knights are now thriving, having shaken off their past decline.

But this was only on the surface. Thomas knew very well that the Knights would not be able to recover within one or two years.

Because the navy cannot be restored in a short period of time - it takes time to build a fleet.

With the technology level of that era, building a small or medium-sized ship might only take a few months, but a truly large warship would usually take a year from start to finish.

If some modifications are still needed, it is normal to take more than a year.

Apart from anything else, Thomas, as the Grand Commander, doesn't even have his own exclusive ship.

Well, to be specific, I've already purchased it, but it will take at least a year for it to be delivered.

Rhodes Island was still too small to sustain a truly large shipyard. Even if they tried to build one, it wouldn't be able to sustain it.

Because shipbuilding is a very important industry, it involves many sub-industries, such as logging, textiles, mining, and smelting. The most important of these is of course the supply of timber.

The most widely used shipbuilding wood of this era was oak. Its inherent properties, including flexibility and corrosion resistance, and its wide distribution made it suitable for the main body of a ship. The best oak was produced along the Baltic Sea coast. The high latitudes of this region allowed the wood to grow slowly, resulting in a dense, sturdy, and durable wood. This wood was highly favored by navies throughout the Age of Sail.

There are a lot of Crescent Moon states in North Africa, and their navies are not strong. Ultimately, this is because they lack a reliable source of timber and cannot build good ships.

Thomas was thinking about it when a guard came to report that the secretary Demetrios wanted to see him.

During this period, Thomas was quite free.

Now he had already handed over all the trivial affairs of the Knights Templar to the clerk.

After all, the Knights Templar is a very healthy organization. Even after the Grand Master died in battle and the Knights Templar itself suffered huge losses, it was able to maintain various affairs well, which in itself explains a lot.

The financial, logistical and other aspects of the work were all very complete, and Thomas couldn't find any problems, so there was no need to worry too much.

The problem now is the lack of boats rather than anything else.

Thomas also had a rare period of idleness. Every day he just waited for the fish to bite and took care of his golden apple tree.

The first batch of golden apples on the golden apple tree are about to mature, and Thomas needs to take good care of them, observe carefully, and even write in a diary.

"Let him come over," Thomas replied.

A few minutes later, the clerk arrived on the highest terrace of the fortress.

"Captain, there are two people who hope to receive the highest reward! Also, I have an appointment with that merchant this morning."

"Okay, let them wait in the small reception room," Thomas said. "As for the big businessman, I'll be waiting for him here today."

Recently, a special item has been added to the Knights' supply catalog.

"Safe promotion to the elite."

Anyone who has made great contributions can be recommended by a middle or senior member of the Knights Templar and awarded a reward by the Grand Master himself.

In this world, it is difficult for most people to become elite.

After all, it's a matter of life and death, and the success rate is only one percent.

Those who truly come from powerful and wealthy families will hardly choose this path.

In fact, whenever there is a choice, it is difficult to make this choice.

Most of the people who become elite are those who cross that line out of necessity and inadvertently, rather than doing it on purpose.

Therefore, the price of the potion for safe promotion will be raised to the sky.

Thomas had also figured it out. After all, he had quite a few potions obtained from the Wolf Lord.

Although this potion costs 10,000 florins per bottle, but...

If you want to buy bones with a huge sum of money, you must spend the money!

If you want to be in a more advantageous position in future wars, you must spread your reputation and attract masters and strong men to join the Knights.

Belief, justice, religion... none of these aspects work because there are other knight orders competing in these areas, and these competitors are in a more advantageous position than Thomas.

In the end, all you get is profit.

Before surviving the calamity, one must be generous. One more outstanding warrior means one more chance of success.

Of course, Thomas also has a plan for what to do after he gets through this.

After all, you can refer to the operations of a certain Pinduoduo in your past life.

The first group of participants in the lottery only need to collect enough fragments. The second group needs to collect enough fragments and then enough stars. The third group needs to collect enough stars and then enough red flags. The fourth group needs to collect enough red flags and then enough points... It's an infinite loop, or a carrot on a stick. The reward is there, but you can never get it.

After the clerk left, Thomas directly opened the dimensional door and took out two bottles of potion from it.

Not the usual potion, but the kind the Wolf Lord rewarded him with.

With the golden apple, this kind of thing has no special value.

After all, the golden apple has no side effects, but this potion has a small chance of being fatal.

Going down the stairs, there is a small reception room behind the side wall of the stairs.

The wall was not very thick, and Thomas, with his sharp hearing, could faintly hear voices coming from the other side of the wall.

So he put his ear to the wall, trying to listen to what the people inside were saying.

"...Do you think this is true or false?"

"It's already been publicly announced, how could it be false? If it were false, the higher-ups wouldn't dare to make it public."

"I've heard before that the Vatican has a treasure called the Golden Apple. Eating one can instantly make a person an elite. But it's extremely precious, and not just anyone can enjoy it."

"Eight thousand florins... You know, he's a student of the Pope, so he must have some good stuff."

What, what, what? Eight thousand florins?

What does it mean? Why insert such a word for no apparent reason?

Thomas was confused, so he continued listening.

Two people were arguing about how to be promoted to elite. One of them thought it was a magic that was performed with the help of the bloody cross flag.

Now the entire Knights Templar know that the Bloody Cross Banner is a divine object that can be used for unlimited and cost-free magic.

The reason why it cannot be used to arbitrarily upgrade all members of the Knights is that after using this magic, even the Bloody Cross Flag will take some time to recover.

So don’t abuse it unless necessary.

Another person thought it was a strange object like the golden apple.

No one mentioned the words "eight thousand florins" anymore.

Chapter 90 Merchant 1

It turned out that Thomas was right.

For some things, you just need to start it yourself, and others will naturally fill in the rest.

And the imagination is reasonable.

A few minutes later, Thomas met his first subordinate in his private reception room.

From his armor, it was clear that he was a sergeant of the lower ranks of the Knights Templar.