The old magician's tone was very solemn, which made Levi's mood slightly lower because of the excitement he had just seen due to the increase in his professional level. He straightened up and asked the old magician with great seriousness, "Mr. Dich, can you elaborate on the conditions for the heart of the castle to be promoted again?" ”

"Of course, little one. The old magician was pleased with Levi's respectful attitude, and with a wave of his hand, he conjured a chair beside Levi, and motioned for him to sit down.

"The heart of the castle is the highest masterpiece in alchemy, of course, the energy required is not only a kind of demonic energy, the demonic energy absorbed by the divine rules is used to maintain the operation of only those buildings in the outermost part of the heart of the castle, and the buildings in the core part need more cohesive power to be activated. Now, little one, I'm going to test your general knowledge, which ones do you know as the types of energy?"

Levi lowered his head and thought for a moment, then wrenched his fingers and said, "Mr. Dich, the energy I know is ...... The elemental energy controlled by the magician, the divine energy used by the priest, and the dark energy used by the demon...... And, by the way, the fighting energy of the knights. ”

"Well, yes, the most conventional energy, you know quite comprehensively. The old magician nodded and said, "The alchemy rules used by our alchemists are also mainly promoted by using these energies. However, although these energies vary in intensity, they are not too tightly condensed to activate the next level of the heart of the castle. Now what you need to collect, it is very difficult in normal times, but fortunately, now is the chaotic era when the demon disaster has come, and this kind of energy is much easier to collect. ”

"Energy that is easy to collect in troubled times?" Levi's eyes flashed with a hint of confusion, and he said tentatively: "Mr. Dich, what you are talking about should not be death energy, right? I don't want to use this evil thing......

"Smack!"

Colorful starlight flickered, and Levi squatted on the ground with his head covered.

"Mr. Dicsh, did I say something wrong?"

The old magician withdrew his finger angrily and amusedly, "Little one, where did you think of going?" Death energy, which is also a branch of dark energy, is not fundamentally different from the demonic energy collected by slaying demons now. What the demonic energy can't push, the death energy can't push either. The energy required by the heart of the castle now is not one of the four regular energies, but a branch of soul energy called the power of faith. ”

"The power of faith?" Levi couldn't help but repeat, and said a little confusedly: "Mr. Dich, are you talking about those believers who kneel on the ground and pray to God the Father?

The old magician stroked his long white beard, pointed at his pointed hat with his hand, and said, "Little one, don't underestimate this, soul energy belongs to one of the origin powers, and the degree of condensation far exceeds ordinary energy such as elemental, light and darkness. In order to create the heart of the castle, I once did research that if a person of sound mind prayed sincerely every day, the power of faith generated was enough to propel a level 1 divine art. ”

Seeing the slight disbelief on Levi's face, the old magician laughed happily. "Don't you believe it, little one? Have you ever thought about where the priests got their magic from?"

"Yes, of course...... Given by the merciful Father. Levi hesitated for a moment, the source of his belief was the knight of Stun, and like this respectable old man, the god of faith was the god of war, Balder, not the father god Medanzo, but Levi still admired the supreme god of the light camp very much, and when he talked about the father, his tone involuntarily revealed a trace of respect.

"Merciful Father? Perhaps he is the merciful of all the gods. However, we alchemists are well aware of a rule of energy exchange, a supreme rule that overrides all energy rules, and that is the rule of conservation of energy. ”

The old magician concealed the contempt in his heart, which Levi would not have been able to detect if he had not had the keen sense of another soul. "Mr. Dich, you don't seem to have much respect for the Father. The young knight's squire, hiding his surprise, continued to listen to the old magician's explanation.

"If you eliminate the natural loss in the process of energy transmission, you will find that the generation and transmission of energy will always be the same as the consumption, and there is a paradox, where does the energy of the divine magic given by the gods come from? Is it the gods themselves? In that case, how can even an extremely powerful god sustain countless priests and believers for thousands of years?"

The old magician was afraid that Levi would not understand his explanation, so his hands deliberately emitted two clouds of light, one glowing with a divine white gold, while the other was hazy and could not be seen clearly.

"In my left hand is the simulated divine energy, and in my right hand is the simulated power of faith, and between these two forces, there can be a one-way transformation. That is, the power of faith can be transformed into divine energy, and vice versa. The ratio of conversions is usually close to 1:10 - 1 part of standard belief power can be converted into 10 parts of divine energy. The gods take the power of faith from the believers, and then give back a small part of it—praise the merciful Father—about three-tenths of it—to his pastors, forming all sorts of incredible magic. ”

With the voice of the old magician, the ball of divine energy in his left hand swelled wildly, while the power of faith in his right hand only diminished slightly, fully expressing the gap between the two.

Levi felt a little dry in his mouth, what the old magician said was really a great subversion of the image of the gods, and the young knight squire wanted to open his mouth to refute it, but when he opened his mouth, he found that he had no reason to refute the old magician at all. For a moment, he really wanted to ask if Balder, the god of war, had taken the power of faith from the believers, just like the Father, and then only fed back a small part of it back to the priest?

Levi could guess that the old magician's answer to that question must not be the kind he wanted.

"But, Mr. Dicsh, how can I get the power of faith, since it can only be owned by the gods?"

The old magician smiled proudly, and Whitebeard said proudly: "Little guy, you are not a god, of course there is no way to absorb the power of faith, but the heart of the castle can do it, otherwise how dare I bite it, this is the highest masterpiece of alchemy?"

"Even this can be done, Mr. Dust, haven't you created a god......" A faint wry smile appeared on the corner of Levi's mouth, as if there was no way to refuse, but as long as he imagined himself sitting on a high throne, with a large number of people kneeling down and singing praises, the young knight squire couldn't help but feel a little cold in his heart, and hugged his shoulders and trembled.

"Well, Mr. Dicsh, how can I get the power of faith?"

"That's a good question. The smile on the old magician's face disappeared, and his expression became serious again, "Faith comes from the bottom of people's hearts, and it is not something that can be done by talking about faith or seemingly bowing down with piousness. The people who can really offer faith are those who are completely open to the heart and believe in you without reservation, and I believe that after all you have done, there must have been a few people who have gone beyond ordinary loyalty and trust to the point of worshipping you, right?"

"I, being adored?" Levi felt his face heat and pointed at his nose in a stiff state.

"Won't you know if you try it? Little one, stand still. As he spoke, the old magician took out a long, thin silver wand from his sleeve, and then swept lightly over Levi's head, scattering a large number of shiny silver dust.

More than a dozen golden threads appeared from the top of Levi's head, seemingly not physical but real, one end of which sank deep into Levi's skull, and the other end extended indefinitely, disappearing into the air.

"Mr. Dich, what is this? Why did it get into my head? Could it be that there was such a thing on his head?" Levi was stunned and said incoherently.

"Oh, there are so many people who can show up, little guy, there are really a lot of people who believe in you, I thought there were only three or two at most...... Aha, these roots have actually reached the level of senior believers. The old magician looked surprised, but his relaxed tone made Levi calm down immediately.

"Mr. Dich, are these golden threads what you call the power of faith?" Levi, who had calmed down, lightly touched the golden threads in the air with his hand, but his fingers did not feel anything at all, but they passed through the golden threads, causing the boy's eyes to widen in surprise.

"That's right, that's the power of faith. The old magician rubbed his hands, then took out a crystal ball from his sleeve and handed it to Levi.

"Take it, little one, and silently imagine the gold threads breaking off from your head and attaching to this crystal ball...... All right. ”

The weight of his palm disappeared, and Levi opened his eyes as if he had lost something, and found that the gold threads had been connected to the crystal ball as he imagined, and drop by drop of golden liquid flowed into the crystal ball along the gold wires, gradually generating an incomparably perfect golden gem in the most central position.

This gem presents a color similar to gold, but a thousand times more brilliant than gold, ten thousand times more beautiful, Levi found that he could not describe the image of this gem in words, he reached out to the crystal ball with some obsession, but at the last moment of touching the crystal ball, he suddenly felt a thrill, and woke up.

Levi looked at the old magician embarrassedly, and saw a smile of understanding on the old man's kind face.

"It's beautiful, isn't it, little one? This is the Gem of Faith, the most ordinary and precious thing. It is said to be ordinary because the power of faith condensed in this gem of faith is only equivalent to the sincere prayer of a hundred people, and it can only be circulated among the gods as the most basic monetary unit, and it is said to be precious because apart from the gods, only the heart of the castle can condense this kind of thing! This is the strongest hard currency in any plane!"