New mission? Also, I heard that other churches have a tradition of completing a task alone to prove one's abilities before officially joining...... Douglas was not at all guilty of this, after all, he was positioned as an auxiliary rather than a combatant in the church, and accordingly, the task was usually not too difficult.

Antonia, who had finished his afternoon tea, quickly took his leave, and Douglas, with Veretti and Thomas, had a good night, and the next day got up early and sent Anderson's letter on the way to church.

The golden-walled, high-roofed Harvest Chapel stands quietly at the end of Yuejihua Street, and the emblem of life engraved on the wall by springs, ears of wheat and flowers is particularly eye-catching in the thin morning sunlight. Looking at the succinct but extraordinarily sacred emblem, Douglas paused slightly, and then he shook his head slightly, discarding meaningless thoughts.

In the familiar hall of the church, rows of seats are neatly arranged, candlesticks are staggered, and a huge emblem hangs at the top. At the end of the pulpit, Father Schultz, still dressed in a brown clergyman's uniform, was smiling warmly at Douglas. Behind Father Schultz, in addition to his familiar blood brothers, Jessica "the Cultivator", Wayne "The Warrior" and other members who nominally belonged to this team were also present.

Douglas looked as usual, smiled and raised his arms in a gesture of holding the baby in his arms: "Praise the Mother Goddess." ”

After speaking, he turned his head to look around and said with a smile: "Wouldn't this be too grand?" ”

"Praise the Mother Goddess." Father Schultz also bowed his head in response, and the smile in his eyes deepened, "We are all children of God, and our faith is deeper than blood to connect brothers and sisters, and of course everyone welcomes you back to your home and to your mother's arms." ”

With that, Father Schulz's arms were slightly outstretched, and there was a solemnity in his loving expression, and his voice echoed between the walls like a rumbling bell: "Your courage proves your piety, and your deeds testify to your nobility." Douglas, I am baptized in the name of Mother Earth God so that you may serve Him with a clean body and soul. ”

Receive baptism...... Douglas was a little surprised, but he didn't show it on his face. After all, in the church, in addition to occult knowledge, he also knew something about the rituals, so he naturally lowered his head at this moment.

His mood became complicated, and he couldn't tell whether it was anticipation or apprehension.

Immediately, he felt the shadow cast by Father Schultz's body envelop him, and he heard the priest solemnly ask: "What do you ask God for?" ”

"I don't ask God for anything else." Remembering the black-and-white records in the canon, Douglas replied in a low voice, "God has brought my wheat to fruit, God has brought birth to my wife, and God has made my offspring prosperous." I don't ask God for anything else. ”

"How do you worship God?"

"I worship God by taking care of the crops of the land; I worship God by honoring my mother, who gave birth to me; I worship God by loving my neighbor as my own brothers and sisters. I worship God by protecting my family as if I were protecting my eyes. ”

"How will you serve God?"

"I serve God with my life, for my life came from the earth, and I will return to the earth."

With the exception of the last question, the women's answers will be more geared towards their own responsibility to produce and raise their offspring, while the men are committed to respecting this conception as protectors.

After completing the Q&A, Douglas raised his head slightly to facilitate the next baptism.

Unlike other churches that sprinkle holy water for baptism, the Mother Earth Church uses clay for baptism. In Fenerport's own country, the baptism ceremony is usually held outdoors, and the baptized person stands barefoot on the ground, bows down reverently, touches the earth with his forehead, and feels the blessings of Mother Earth.

In Rune there is no such step because Rune is not a land favored by Mother Earth, and it is the same as replacing it with the soil that the bishop has sanctified, except that kneeling is replaced by the bishop placing the dirt on the forehead of the baptized person with his hands. At this moment, Father Schultz used his fingers as a pen to smear the moist soil on Douglas's forehead, leaving a tan mark.

At the end, everyone softly recited the same short poem.

"Our roots give birth to fluttering branches in the valley;

"We are the flowers of the song that rises up to the highest place;

“……

"The forest will rot, and the forest will rot and fall; Man ploughs his field and lies down below.

"The eternal and the dying,

"All lie in your cradle.

“……”

At the end, the crowd raised their arms and prayed in a prayer posture like a baby in their arms, and said in unison: "Praise be to you, the source of life; Praise be to You, Mother of All Things! ”

In this way, the baptism ceremony is completed.

Douglas, on the other hand, did not feel anything unusual except for the cold, moist texture coming from the mud-covered part of his forehead. This made him stunned at first, and then the corners of his mouth raised as if in disguise.

If he were Mother Earth God, seeing such a big boy daring to be baptized in the church, he would definitely crack the ground and bury people in it on the spot, and then go back and strengthen the ideological security construction of the church.

Well, no matter how you build, if Amon intervenes, it doesn't feel useful...... Douglas was aimlessly divergent in his thoughts, and at the same time he received the warm embrace of his colleagues led by Antina—each of them was better at fighting than the other, and stretching out an arm could strangle a cow, and Douglas only felt that his back ached from being held.

But it's in the church, it's working hours, and the gang goes back to work after a lot of fun. Father Schultz stayed, first explaining to Douglas about the increase in salary and other benefits after becoming a full member, and then mentioning the so-called new task: "You also know that Antina is studying the establishment of a pharmaceutical factory, right? Next week, you will need to take two technicians to the East District, go to some pharmaceutical factories or related industries in the factory area to do field trips, and your task is mainly to be responsible for the safety of the two technicians. ”

As he spoke, Father Schultz glanced at him: "One of them, Antonia said you know, is Melissa who is studying at the Technical University of Beckland. Miss Moretti. ”

"Ah......" Douglas was indeed a little surprised this time, "I thought it would be someone related to the Steam Church." ”

"The Steam Church is now in a bit awkward in Rune's position and is not going to come forward directly, so it chose Portland, the president of the Technical University. Mormont approached us. Fr. Schultz smiled and explained, "After the initial establishment of the cooperation intention, Mr. Mormont is going to let his student Miss Moretti first inspect the current equipment and worker literacy as a reference, and the relevant safety work will of course be left to us." The other technician was Mr. Mormont's nephew, a mechanical expert from the other side of the sea. ”

Naturally, Douglas had no reason to refuse, but only proposed that the forces in the East were chaotic and that it would take a few days to sort out the intelligence and prepare, which was a reasonable request, and Father Schultz readily agreed, and after discussing it, the two set the specific time for the start of the mission to be three days later, that is, on Tuesday morning.

Other than that, there were not many other changes, except for the end of the occult study that was "borrowed" by the Church of the Night, and there was no need for regular classes, and the free time required Dougra to take on the duties of a regular priest in the church, such as listening to confessions and helping the faithful.

After the assignment was done, Father Schultz sent him down to collect the week's increase in salary and promotion to Sequence 8. Douglas, who had long been in Sequence 8, had seen potions on the spot for the first time. I saw that Antina first took out the measuring cup, then opened the container containing all kinds of materials, carefully measured the amount of extraordinary materials according to the recipe, and then poured them into the iron black dare crucible.

While putting it down, Antina also commented one by one: "20 ml of blood from deep-sea marlin, tsk, it doesn't smell good." ”

"The brighter the color of the soul eater's stomach bag, the fresher it is...... Well, this one, it's been in the warehouse for a while, but the effect is the same. ”

"Hornbeam essential oil, nematococcus powder...... What else? ”

"Oh yes, blooming red chestnut flowers, then add water!"

In the sound of pouring pure water, Douglas couldn't hide his nervousness and complained: "It's strange and unreliable ......to make you feel so good."

Antina lit a flame and stirred the ingredients in the pot, and confidently assured: "Don't be afraid, our next sequence is called 'Potions Professor', and the potions are professional." ”

You know it's the next sequence...... Douglas couldn't help but take a deep breath as he watched the pot gradually merge into a whole, like a whole piece of jelly, elastic and soft, and more mixed colors.

His nervousness was genuine, after all, drinking an extra potion was always an extra risk. But the matter has come to this, if you don't drink it, you have to drink it, Douglas picked up the potion, and raised his head and smothered it with the idea of dying early and surviving sooner.

Fortunately, the impact of the second potion was not beyond his bearing, and what he saw and heard was still an illusory spiritual realm, but there was a buzzing echo in his ears, which aggravated the symptoms of the headache. Douglas, who had experience in taking potions, quickly gathered his spirituality and began to meditate, allowing the potion to be fused into his body relatively smoothly.

Despite this, he can also clearly feel the ascension and overflow of his own spirituality, which is equivalent to obtaining a weakened version of spiritual vision, even if he can't observe it, he can capture many things that ordinary people can't notice.

The fact that the most feared runaway tendencies are not showing up, or that they are not visible at the moment, is also good news.

Then as soon as he opened his eyes, he saw the two heads of the blood clan brothers and sisters leaning in front of him to watch his promotion, and the three pairs of eyes were facing each other, Douglas couldn't help but rub the corners of his forehead: "I digest the potion very well, there's no need to stare at it like this......"

"Ah, it's mainly that I haven't seen a living person promoted." Antina touched her chin.

Whose dead still drink potions? If it doesn't leak out of your mouth, it's a success?

Douglas, who had been tortured by hunters, subconsciously wanted to raise two sentences, and the words were poured around his mouth a few times, but he still chose a relatively tactful: "Thank you, you can't say it if you can't speak." ”

Antonia, who was the younger brother, also sighed heavily.

The other blood clan elders are very dignified, elegant, reserved and noble, how come it is different when they get to my sister.

"Anyway, it's not a big deal, go back and have a good rest, and the rest will wait until you join the team and complete the task." Antina pursed her lips disapprovingly, and her arm was habitually about to put on Douglas's shoulder, "Antonia has informed you, when the time comes, come to our house as a guest, and if you don't come, I will consider tying you up in the middle of the night." ”

"Definitely, definitely." As he spoke, Douglas flashed her arm and made a little joke, "As long as you don't ask me to drink blood, I'll definitely go." ”

Having completed his assigned task, Douglas said goodbye to his colleagues, walked out of the church, and did not rush home, but changed buses twice and arrived at his rented safe house in the south side of the bridge.

This place is already close to the East District and the factory area, close to the place where he was chased and cut when he first crossed, and the environment and people coming and going are more complicated. He was going to change his clothes here, and by the way, he would go to the East End to wander around twice, brush up his presence, and prepare for the completion of the church's mission.

You can also go directly to visit the Aurora Festival.

Of course, Douglas wasn't prepared to hook up with the Aurora Club so soon, and Medici didn't ask him to be on duty in a few days anyway. After all, it was in Beckland instead of the sparsely populated Fursack, and Douglas still needed some time to think about how to reduce his risk and not get caught by the church, and he didn't really want the Aurora fellows to know his dual identity.

The most ideal situation is to use the power of seals to change the image and do a good job of identity division. "Wriggling Hunger" can manipulate flesh, but it's hard to pass when it comes to shaping, and using it to makeover will only yield rather frightening results.

In short, find an extraordinary party to sell the recipe at hand, and see if these funds can buy seals with similar functions...... Thinking like this, Douglas came to the apartment where the safe house was located, and did not rush up to it, but found a wall-filled mailbox on the right side of the lobby on the first floor.

Because it is a multi-storey apartment with many residents, dozens of painted and numbered wooden boxes are topped by dozens of painted and numbered wooden boxes on the right side of the lobby that serve as mailboxes, with gaps in the boxes for postmen to deliver and locks on top of them.

Douglas couldn't remember where the key to open the mailbox was, and the "apprentice" didn't need a key to open the lock. He easily opened the mailbox and pulled out a stack of newspapers - the contact information of many extraordinary gatherings would be published in encrypted form in the newspapers, and he ordered a few copies here, so that he could easily check out the status of the extraordinary gatherings every time he came over.

However, walking up the stairs back to the safe house, Douglas, who was about to flip through the newspapers, accidentally found a white envelope with elaborate decorative patterns printed on the four corners of the envelope, which did not look like something that would appear in a group apartment, and there was no recipient written on it.

Douglas placed the envelope on the table, took out the newly received obsidian pendulum, and did a simple divination to confirm that the letter was indeed for himself.

Then he remembered that this was the address he had given to Vana before he left Fursack.

"From Intis so quickly?" He grunted and once again divined the contents of the envelope to mean that it would not hurt him, and then opened it.

Then he looked straight to the signature at the end of the letter, and sure enough, he saw Vanna's name.

The letter was also very brief and casual, and told him that he was safe in a tone like an old friend, and told him that the whole Douglas Secret Order was very honest, and that there was no member who needed to be sent to Rune to help him with his performance. At the same time, Vanna also gave her contact information: it was neither an address nor a zip code, but a spell and a corresponding ritual to summon the messenger of the spirit world.

The mantra is:

"A spirit wandering in vanity, a friendly creature skilled in finding your way, belongs to Vanna. The Messenger of Zarathu".

After giving the spell and ritual, Vana also wrote in the letter that in the past, the Zarathu family had a contract with a more powerful messenger, but now that she did not have an angelic rank, the messenger no longer agreed with the past contract, so she had to grab one again, telling Douglas that he could send a message in this way when he needed help.

The letter was delivered by courier, but not all couriers were able to pinpoint places that had never been thousands of miles away, and generally only people or things that had been in contact with them.

This one can only be done because its characteristic is that it is "good at pathfinding".

"This is also ......" Douglas, who had not yet come into contact with the relevant knowledge, read this passage several times with great interest, and had already named Vanna's messenger "Gao 〇 Map" in his mind.

Amon seems to have said that when I am promoted to "astrologer", he will help me make a messenger...... He was a little envious, and he was also a little curious about how the "online communication" of this extraordinary world worked, and he had the urge to summon the "High Map" to find out, and he was worried that if he summoned at will, he would be beaten up by the messenger who was essentially a spiritual creature.

After all, he didn't even want to renew the contract with Sequence 3 Courier, and he really couldn't beat the things he summoned.

Soon, however, Douglas found a reason to summon a "high map" to see the excitement.

He remembered that Vanna had frightened himself by changing her appearance and pretending to be out of control, and admitted that this ability to change her appearance came from the higher sequence of the "soothsayer" pathway.

So it makes sense that the Esoteric Society, which is the base camp of soothsayers, has one or two similar seals, right?

I don't know if the money from selling the formula is enough, but it's okay to ask first...... Having succeeded in convincing himself, Douglas immediately found a pen and paper and wrote a text message stating what he wanted to ask for help.

Then, he found candles, essential oils, and other items, and simply arranged the summoning ceremony.

This ritual is no different from the ritual that requires the power of the higher level such as channeling, but it can be more casual in terms of materials, after all, it is directed at the messenger, and it will not be as fussy as the gods, and the focus on summoning spells cannot be wrong.

Standing in front of an altar that was very clean in the occult sense, cut off by a spiritual wall, with three candles arranged, Douglas chanted in a deep voice in the ancient Hermetian language:

"Me!

"In my name I call:

"A spirit wandering in vanity, a friendly creature skilled in finding your way, belongs to Vanna. The messenger of Zarathu! ”

As soon as he finished speaking, he felt that the air around him was instantly cold and calm, and the flames on the candles were also dyed with a little patina, which looked particularly gloomy.

And his own newly promoted and overly abundant spirituality allowed Douglas to vaguely "see" the reflection of the spirit world even if he did not turn on his spiritual vision, and it was because of the summoning spell that it briefly overlapped with reality.

In the midst of this overlap, a shadowy figure gradually approached the gap between the two worlds, and finally appeared in front of his eyes in its entirety.