Chapter 76: Cardinal Hernsen

POV Cornelius

“I hereby betroth the hero Cornelius with Princess Alina. Step forward, my child.” <Emperor Baldur>

The emperor's 11-year-old daughter emerged from the background. She was very pretty, of medium height, slim, with long blonde hair. We had already met her on several occasions, but had never spoken to each other before. She smiled reservedly.

“It pleases me greatly, noble hero Cornelius. I am honored to be your wife.” <Alina>

I wasn't completely taken by surprise, but I was still slightly overwhelmed. It had been planned for some time that we heroes would be married to nobles from the Empire. Presumably, this was to tie us firmly to the Empire. While the other two boys and I had no objections, Eli was firmly against it. She only wanted to be married to me. The emperor had accepted this on the condition that my betrothal should be announced soon. And now it had been announced, making it official. But we didn't know to whom yet. Alina was right up my type anyway. The harem I wanted to form also included a princess. All the better if she was pretty and cute.

After the initial surprise had worn off, I was delighted with the development. I got down on one knee in front of her.

“It's a pleasure, Princess Alina. May we have a joyful future together.” <Cornelius>

The evening came to an end without any major surprises. I spent a lot of time talking to the princess and repeatedly took her to the dance floor. The only downer was the deadly looks Eli gave us. I hoped she wouldn't do anything rash. I didn't notice the resentment that arose among some of the other nobles. Nor did I notice that two of them especially had started plotting.

The rest of the winter came to an end quicker than previously thought. On average, there were balls twice a week and the rest of the time was spent studying and training. Each of us devoted ourselves to different areas. Ansgar continued to prioritize his combat training, but was reminded several times not to neglect his other tasks. Javier continued to learn all the spells he could get hold of. He also searched the library for any books he could find on non-elemental magics. He had declared illusion as potentially another area of interest. According to him, he wasn't interested in the rest. We had specialists for Object anyway, and since Nature mainly dealt with plants and animals, he said he didn't need them. Gravity was too theoretical and nobody could teach it, just like Aura. Familiar also fell away as he had no desire to look after any pets.

Eli spent a lot of time in my presence instead of devoting herself to her studies. It took me a long time to convince her that she would always be my number one and that no other woman would take her place. As a result, I had less time for my own training than I would have liked, but Eli was more important. Her position as priestess was essential for the group and could not be taken over by anyone else.

Then it was a question of what our first destination would be in the spring as soon as the roads were clear. By now Ansgar and I were no longer able to improve our skills in close combat. We had to figure out how to overcome the cap. With the upgrade to advance we couldn't spend any more EXP on this skill. Javier still had a lot of skills that weren't nearly maxed out. The same applied to Eli.

We had been far too hesitant in the dungeon and that still bothered me. We had also behaved rather amateurishly in some of the fights. One of the reasons why we had so many problems was a lack of preparation. This also included the fact that we didn't have the ideal equipment with us. We had neglected potions in particular.

But before we could press ahead with our planning, we received an invitation to the central cathedral. We were to meet there tomorrow at lunchtime. We all wondered what the reason could be and unfortunately Eli had no idea either. However, she assumed that we would be dealing with a senior member of the church.

The next day, we found ourselves in the cathedral. We were met by a priest and led into the inner area. The priest led us into a room that turned out to be an office. Next to a large desk was a chair and two sofas arranged around a table. Sitting at the desk was a person in magnificent regalia, who stood up when we arrived.

“Thank you, noble heroes, for accepting my invitation. My name is Cardinal Hernsen. Please take a seat.” <Cardinal>

He pointed to the sofas where we were seated. He said something to the priest, who then left the room. A short time later, a servant came and brought us tea and cookies. She then left the room again. Cardinal Hernsen then took a seat in the chair.

“I'm sure you're wondering why I've asked you here. I am here on behalf of the Church of Lumos and will act as your official liaison. I am also the first point of contact for you here in the cathedral. Please, help yourselves first. Then I will come to today's topic.” <Cardinal>

We relaxed and helped ourselves to the tea and cookies. Then the cardinal continued.

“Our current conversation is primarily so that we can learn about your training progress first hand. We have received an oracle from the god Lumos. The content concerns your true purpose, why you were reborn in this world as heroes. We as a church have been reminded that we are to fully support you in your task.” <Cardinal>

“We must defeat the Demon King, clearly. We can do that.” <Ansgar>

“I'm sorry, noble hero, but that is not your actual task. Of course, we would like you to defeat all the demons and their king on your way. We want you to defeat and kill the champions of the goddess Luna here on Narran.”< Cardinal>

“Hmm, that's right, I remember the god Lumos telling me about this. We are in a contest with others. What else do you know?” <Javier>

“I wasn't listening. All I cared about was being reborn together with Cornelius.” <Eleonore>

“I don't know anything else either. I realize that we don't actually know much at all.” <Cornelius>

“Then let me give you some information about your divine mission. First of all, there are four of you, just like your opponents. Unlike you, your opponents are not human. That makes them less valuable. There is also a good chance that several of them will be female. We also assume that there are dangerous dark magic users among your opponents, so you should be prepared.” <Cardinal>

“That means if we meet a female non-human who knows dark magic, there's a good chance it's our opponent.” <Cornelius>

“Yes. From the Church's point of view, being able to use dark magic is reason enough to be considered an enemy. That's why you urgently need dark and mind resistance. The latter is very difficult to gain and increase. But I can tell you a trick that hardly anyone outside the church knows. How much progress have you already made in the Dark Dungeon?” <Cardinal>

“Up to around level 14. We've also defeated the first two bosses.” <Cornelius>

“That's good, then I'm still in time. Do you already have dark resistance?” <Cardinal>

“Not me, what about you?” <Cornelius>

The other three shook their heads.

“That's a shame, but it's no big deal. There are ways to acquire dark resistance. Most resistances are acquired by taking damage from spells in the area. However, there are exceptions and these mainly concern dark spells. In dark magic, there are many spells that attack the mind. Mind Resistance helps against this. You should have the latter as you progress through the dungeon.” <Cardinal>

All four nodded.

“Good, we can build on that, I'll come back to it later. There are also attack spells in dark magic that deal damage directly. Resistance works against them, but we don't know these spells for obvious reasons. There is also a more elegant possibility. Dark magic also includes curses and dark resistance also works against these. Although nobody can use curses because they are forbidden, there are items that curse the wearer. Like wands that carry charges of attack spells, there are also items that carry dark spells. The only important thing is that you never use up the last charge, as object wizards can then recharge the item. Although they gradually lose their effect, they can be found in dungeons, especially in the dark dungeon.” <Cardinal>

“Hmm, that means we'll be targeted with curses from items until we gain resistance? But how do we improve the resistance?” <Javier>

“That's the second trick, which requires a dungeon with a stele. You can also improve skills that don't have the required level. To do this, you need enough free EXP to theoretically raise the skill to the required level. Then, when you use the stele, the EXP is deducted and the skill is improved.” <Cardinal>

“That's interesting. I've never noticed that before. I always spend my EXP as soon as I have it. We should get enough EXP before the next boss fight, especially as we barely managed to spend the last ones.” <Cornelius>

“Unfortunately.” <Ansgar>

“Hmm, I never have enough EXP. I couldn't even upgrade a third elemental magic to advanced because I don't have the EXP.” <Javier>

“It's similar for me, as I was able to learn an improved form with the boosts to my light magic at advanced. I've also improved my healing magic to advanced. But now I've reached the end.” <Eleonore>

“You can only upgrade skills to advanced as long as you stay in your base class. This means you have to improve your class, which requires 10 Development Points. I therefore advise you to ignore the Darkness Dungeon for the time being and get the last points in the Nature Dungeon. During the time you are here, we will enchant you with curses so that you can gain Dark Resistance. Once you have them all, the next part of your training will come.” <Cardinal>

“Then that's what we'll do.” <Cornelius>

Everyone else nodded in agreement.