When the Pope Becomes Competent - Chapter 180



Only Noblemtl

180. Another Way to Use God’s Blessing
2024.04.28.

As expected, Kalax attacked me as soon as I entered the forest.

It seemed like he decided to put off hunting the deer and eliminate me as his rival.

I thought about countering his attacks, but I gave up.

My ultimate goal wasn’t to take care of Kalax.

‘If we fight among ourselves here and get hurt, it’ll be disadvantageous when we attack the palace… …?’

I couldn’t get hurt in case we attacked the palace.

Kalax, who was going to attack the palace with

me, couldn’t get hurt either. So instead of taking his attacks, I just used my wing item and flew into the air.

It seemed like Kalax didn’t have a flying item, so he couldn’t chase me.

Instead, he shouted at me from the ground.

“Are you running away like a coward?”

“What do you mean cowardly? We came here to hunt in the first place! I don’t plan on wasting my energy bickering with you!”

My current goal was to safely capture the deer without getting hurt as much as possible and win.

I flew straight into the deeper forest.

Then, when I felt I was far enough away from Kalox, I landed in the forest again.

‘By the way, how do I find that white deer? If it’s white, it should be easy to see… … .’

I couldn’t waste time wandering around looking for the deer without a plan.

I started to think of a way, and suddenly a good idea flashed through my head.

‘I’ll just ask that guy… … !’

As soon as I thought of the way, I grabbed the “Necklace that Communicates with Souls” item hanging around my neck.

A message that felt familiar now came to mind.

[Would you like to use the item “Necklace that Communicates with Souls”?]

―Yes

―No

I didn’t have time to hesitate, so I clicked Yes right away, and soon I was able to talk to that guy.

‘Petros, can you hear me?’ ”

Your Majesty?”

‘I just contacted you with the item. Don’t be surprised. I have something more urgent to ask. It’s not something else, but are you a dictionary of gods…? Can you find the information I want with that skill?’

Petros asked in bewilderment at my question of whether he could find information for him.

『Information? What kind of…?』

‘Look up something about the white deer that lives in the Guardian Forest. I need to hunt it quickly right now?’

‘White deer…? Understood. Let me search for it first.’

There was no answer for a while as if the guy had activated his dictionary of gods skill.

After waiting for a while, I heard an answer from Petros.

『Ah, there’s information.』

‘Tell me how to hunt it quickly. We don’t have time.’

‘So… I heard that it lives in the southeastern part of the Guardian Forest? It’s incredibly agile, so it’s almost impossible to catch it directly, and you have to use a special method to capture it.』

‘A special method…?’

Petros answered my question right away.

『This deer has the characteristic of stopping when it hears the sound of a flute made from the stem of a plant called ‘Revent’… It is said that it can be easily caught by blowing the flute.』

‘You mean you can make a flute by trimming the stem of a Revent? Thank you. Is there any other information?’

『Hmm, I think that’s all the information about deer for now? Should I tell you about the characteristics of Revent?』

‘That’s fine. I learned about Revent when I worked as a potion worker… No, what I just said was nothing, so forget it. Anyway, thank you! Thanks to you, I think I can catch a deer!’ Since

there was no time, I ended the call without talking any further.

After that, I spread my wings and flew up to the southeast, the deer’s habitat.

* * *

At the same time, southeast of the forest.

Kalocs was holding his breath, hiding his large body behind a rock.

It was to avoid being spotted by the white deer loitering not far away.

‘So you were here.’

I already knew that the white deer lived in the southeast of the forest.

This Guardian Forest was his hunting ground, and it was as familiar to him as his front yard.

Hunting deer was as easy for him as catching ants in the front yard.

So he had originally planned to compete with Nickelus in a different event.

It would have been a bit embarrassing for a chieftain to compete in an event that was too advantageous to him.

However, the reason he suggested the white deer hunt to Nickelus was simple.

‘His ability is very useful to our warriors. We must capture him as a slave.’

He wanted to obtain Nickelus and his ability.

From the moment he saw Nickelus use his skill to heal his severed arm, he had vowed to capture him.

To do so, he had to win this match, and it was inevitable that he had proposed a match that was too disadvantageous to Nickelus.

‘Tsk, don’t complain even if you lose.’

While thinking to himself, Kallox carefully played the flute.

It was a grass flute made from the stem of a Levant flower that could stop the movement of white stags.

Wheeeeee— Wheeeeee—

As the thin sound rang out, the stag that had been grazing nearby suddenly stopped moving.

Kallox slowly approached the stag with the grass flute in his mouth.

The stag completely froze upon hearing the sound of the grass flute.

Now, if he just reached out and grabbed the stag, he would win the match.

That was when.

Boom!

A bright sword aura flew in from somewhere and blocked Karox’s path. There

was a loud noise and dust rose up.

As soon as the dust settled, he quickly searched for the deer with his eyes, but—

“Damn it!!”

The deer had already fled, startled by the dust and loud noise caused by the sword aura.

Karox, who had lost his prey right in front of his nose, immediately grabbed the sword he had on his waist.

Then he swung it. At Nickelus, who had interrupted the hunt by firing the sword aura from the air.

Saa—

Nickelus lightly dodged the sword aura shot from Karox’s sword and landed on the ground.

After landing, Nickelus stopped Karox in a childish tone.

“Don’t attack. I don’t want to fight you. Let’s just finish the hunt.”

“Shut up!”

Karox, who was furious at the fact that he had lost his prey because of Nickelus’ interference, swung his sword recklessly.

Every time he did, Nickelus would lightly move his body and deflect the attacks.

He didn’t counterattack.

His goal was only to win the hunt, not to hurt Karox, who would be an important force.

Of course, just because Nickelus had no intention of fighting didn’t mean Karox would stop attacking.

Boom! Kwak!

Indiscriminate attacks were launched at Nickelus.

Nickelus, who had been evading leisurely at first, gradually became less active as the attacks continued without giving him a moment to breathe.

Then, at one moment—

crunch—

Nickelus’s forearm was wounded.

He had failed to dodge Karox’s attack properly.

* * *

I clicked my tongue as I looked at my bloody forearm.

‘If we continue this long-term, it’ll be disadvantageous… Should I try that method?’

Just then, a skill that would be perfect for me to use came to mind.

I said to Karox, who was smiling proudly at me.

“You need to calm down.”

Immediately after that, I activated my Deification skill.

Karox seemed to be curious about my skill, so he stopped attacking for a moment, and Doria was summoned during that time.

I asked Doria right away.

“Is Lucid Miller’s third power the ‘Power of Blessing’?”

【Yes, that’s right. It’s the power to bestow divine blessings on others.】

“It’s the perfect power to use right now. Its usage is the same as the other powers, right?”

【… … Yes, it’s the same as the other powers in terms of usage―】

Doria looked around as if checking the situation and then said.

【Are you going to use the Power of Blessing in this situation? It looks like we’re in a fight.】

I didn’t have time to explain to Doria in more detail.

That was because Kallox immediately attacked me.

I dodged the attack by a hair and quickly rushed at him.

Then I swung my Sword of Judgement at him and said,

“Should I give you a blessing?”

“… … What?”

Kallox asked back as if he was talking nonsense and blocked my attack.

The guy lightly brushed my sword aside and then attacked me from above my head with all his might.

Kkwang!

I immediately raised my sword and blocked the attack, but I couldn’t do anything about the impact of the giant’s full force.

Like a nail struck by a vertical hammer, I was struck down as if I would be driven into the ground.

“… …!”

With a groan, blood gushed out of my mouth.

It seemed like I had suffered an internal injury due to the blow I had just received that I hadn’t been able to properly shed.

Judging that it would be dangerous to hold on any longer, I immediately clung to him.

“This bastard!”

Kallox struggled to grab me as I clung to him.

However, it was not easy to grab me, who was several times smaller than him, and I was able to climb up Kallox’s body without difficulty.

In that state, I successfully avoided his hands and climbed up on his head.

The moment Kallox reached out his hand again to grab me who had climbed up on his head, I quickly spoke first.

“Let the light dwell.”

This was the spell to activate Lucid Miller’s third power, the ‘Power of Blessing.

’ Just like when I said “Gather” to summon the Sword of Judgement, this time too, the power was activated according to my words.

Saaaaah—

Lucid Miller’s blessing permeated Kallox’s body.

Not knowing what had happened to me, he stopped in a daze.

I quickly took advantage of the gap and quickly got away from him and landed on the ground.

Seeing me like that, Kalock asked,

“Just now… … .”

“I gave you a blessing. How do you feel?”

Even after hearing my words, Kalock looked bewildered.

It seemed as if he suspected that I had suddenly gone crazy.

Kalock, who was biting his lips as if trying to say something, suddenly burst into laughter.

The guy who had been laughing so hard suddenly stopped and spoke to me.

“Did the shock from getting hit earlier wear you down? Blessing the person you were fighting?”

“We’ll have to wait a bit to find out if I made a stupid choice or not.”

“What nonsense… … . If suddenly blessing the person you were fighting wasn’t a stupid choice, then what—”

Kalock stopped talking as he abruptly.

It seemed like the ‘blessing’ had finally begun to take effect.

“T, what is this… … !”

Kalock finally seemed to realize that something was wrong and showed his bewilderment.

The guy’s hands trembled and he soon collapsed on the floor.

It seemed like he still didn’t understand the situation.

As if he didn’t know why his strength was suddenly draining from his body, or why he was suddenly feeling such an unpleasant sensation.

I briefly explained to the bewildered guy.

“The blessings I bestow are different from ordinary blessings.”

“What…?”

“The blessings of the Spirit King or other ordinary humans using their skills are not harmful to anyone. They are literally blessings. However, my blessings are blessings given by the power of the gods.”

Only then did Kallox’s eyes widen as if he understood the situation.

I continued my explanation to the guy.

“And blessings with the power of the gods are just like poison to demons like you.”

No blessing given by anyone was harmful to demons.

There was only one blessing that was harmful to demons, and that was the blessing with the power of the gods.

The blessings of the gods literally worked as blessings to humans, divine beasts, etc., but it was different for demons.

Just like a cleaning product that is harmless to humans is poison to bacteria.

“Ugh, ugh… …”

Kallox, who had been hit by the blessing, let out a gasp and completely collapsed.

Even while he was down, the guy spoke to me with his mouth still moving.

“Even if you knock me down… it’s no use… … . You couldn’t… hunt the deer… … . It’s a draw… … .”

“No, it’s not a draw, is it?”

Just then, the sound of a reed flute could be heard from far away.

Listening to that cheerful sound, I replied to Carlox.

“I already caught that deer.”