Subscriber of the Gods Chapter 363 - Importance

Upon returning to Whiskers territory, Ethan first sent Entrosa to the workshop.

The top priority was, of course, golem production.

“There’s a merchant who specializes in selling the special golems we make. It’s called the David Merchant Guild, and you’ll often meet with the head of that Merchant Guild. If there are any new products or technologies, just tell the David Merchant Guild head. Her name is Etting Hunt.”

“Ah, yes. I understand.”

Entrosa, who had arrived at Whiskers territory, was quite surprised.

“Is this really the count’s territory?”

“That’s right.”

“It’s not even the capital… Can a count’s territory be this large?”

Ethan’s territory was currently one of the largest among the Holy Empire Twelve Families’ territories.

He had been continuously expanding his territory since he first started his business. Above all, it was the result of absorbing surrounding territories through amicable dialogue and transactions, rather than war.

To Entrosa, who came from the Demon Empire, Ethan was just a young man, even if he was a count.

Of course, the one ruling this territory would be the elder Count Whiskers, not this young count, but even so, it didn’t make sense for a count’s territory to be this large.

On top of that, there was one more important thing.

“No… It’s not just that the territory is large. The scale is enormous. There’s no such large-scale market in the Demon Empire.”

Entrosa had been traveling around various territories of the Holy Empire to procure materials needed for making golems, setting up near the capital.

Having visited various markets in different territories to find rare materials, he was well aware of the scale of markets operated by each territory.

From Entrosa’s perspective, the market in Whiskers territory was unparalleled among all the markets he had seen so far.

First of all, the scale was huge.

“Wow… This is unbelievable. It’s just unbelievable.”

Entrosa’s raised corners of the mouth simply wouldn’t come down.

“We’re just finishing Zone 1, and from there starts Zone 2.”

“What?! Zone 1? And Zone 2 means…”

“It means we’ve only seen half so far.”

“Good heavens.”

That wasn’t the end of it.

Entrosa saw something even more surprising.

“Is that…”

“It’s a guide we’ve recently recruited. The territory is so vast, you see.”

“Even the Demon Empire didn’t have anything like that…”

As Entrosa looked around the market within the territory, Ethan appeared even more impressive to him.

As they were touring Zone 2, Ethan stopped in front of a quite large building.

“What kind of place is this?”

“This is where you’ll be staying and in charge of golem development from now on, Entrosa. Ethan’s workshop is divided into several fields, and this will now become the golem workshop.”

“…Pardon?”

“It’s your golem workshop. Name it as you wish. You can name it after yourself, like Entrosa Workshop, or choose a different name.”

“…”

Entrosa couldn’t tell if this was reality or a dream.

Entrosa had just agreed to work with Ethan.

He had ability, but there was no trust between them.

Ethan had said he didn’t mind if Entrosa ran away, but he didn’t expect such good treatment for someone who had fled from the Demon Empire.

But Ethan had a firm belief.

‘When you give, you should give properly.’

Also, when you trust, you should trust to the end without suspecting betrayal.

‘There’s no better way to elicit loyalty from craftsmen. Others might not understand how meaningful it is to them to be trusted.’

“I’ll do my best. Thank you for giving me this opportunity!”

Ding-!

-You have appointed the Second Apostle!

The Second Apostle and owner of the golem workshop, Entrosa, has been recruited.

***

“I heard you were on vacation, Count.” 

Said Schudlen, who came to see Ethan as he was preparing to leave.

“I’m hardly doing any territory-related work. This is what resting looks like.”

“I heard you brought someone to be in charge of territory guidance and someone to run the golem workshop…”

“That’s barely doing any work, if you think about it.”

“Considering the work you usually do, Count, I suppose that’s true. But I heard you were quite badly injured at the academy.”

“Are you worried? But don’t be. As you know, I value my body the most.”

“Ah, right. That’s true. I was needlessly worried!”

Schudlen smiled brightly.

He had momentarily forgotten. The fact that Ethan had an illness.

Living with an illness, Ethan took care of his body better than anyone else.

“You must be busy, so go on. You might get an earful from Yerica otherwise.”

“I’m already getting it. She says you’ve approved everything.”

“I’m off, Schudlen!”

Ethan quickly left the room.

‘I’ll return to the academy in three days.’

It was a short vacation, but he had accomplished much more than he had originally thought.

Five hundred thousand believers, no less.

Thanks to things going better than expected, he had some time left.

‘Even if I return to the academy right away, it’ll be chaotic and noisy… There’s not much I can do there.’

Moreover, Ethan was still not satisfied.

“I learned from the fight with the 3rd Apostle. Excessive preparation is the answer.”

The highest-ranking apostles were unknown variables. Because of this, Ethan had been making excessive preparations in anticipation of fighting them.

And through this fight with the 3rd Apostle, he realized that excessive preparation was indeed the correct answer.

‘At the same time, I learned one more thing.’

Now he had to take risks.

He needed to take risks, challenge himself, and become stronger.

“If I only think about safety, I can’t gain the level of power I want.”

From now on, the opponents he had to face were the 1st Apostle and the 2nd Apostle.

‘And there’s also the head of the Dawn Council.’

There were also the strongest in the Demon Empire. And that’s not all. As Ethan’s fame spread, there was a possibility that the hidden strong ones of the Holy Empire might suddenly come looking for him.

‘Because there’s a madman who only goes around defeating the strong.’

The principal of Freya Academy, where his younger brother Nathan was, was one such madman.

Of course, he was confident that he could overwhelm them sufficiently in his current state.

But the problem was that among such strong individuals, the principal of Freya was the weakest.

“And since I’ve broken through the survival probability limit this time. Even if it’s just 0.1 percent, I need to increase my survival probability more.”

When fighting against strong opponents, the survival probability drops rapidly in real-time.

And proportional to the dropped survival probability, the influence of Extinction rises.

So there was a need to raise the survival probability even a little more.

“I realized it clearly while breaking through the survival probability limit in the desert.”

The place where Ethan was currently located was the eastern end. This was one of the places where Ethan had expected Moonforce’s forgotten temple to be.

And at the same time.

“This is where the superhuman ability that I didn’t want to obtain because the risk was too high is located.”

Most of the abilities Ethan had gathered so far were primarily defensive abilities.

He had been compensating for the offensive side by learning abilities from the New World or growing his job.

Frost Sword and Thunder Sword.

These two have been serving as the basis for his attacks.

‘But when it comes to someone like the 3rd Apostle, their defense is also excellent. My stamina can’t keep up.’

In the end, he would inevitably end up in precarious situations like before.

‘Thanks to greatly increasing the number of believers, my stamina has increased, and my attack power has risen quite a bit.’

Because his class had grown, the power of Ethan Swordsmanship itself had increased.

‘But this is ultimately the same.’

“I know myself best. No matter how strong the attack power is, if it’s evaded or defended against, the attack power essentially becomes 0.”

The 3rd Apostle’s attack power was top-tier. But how was it for Ethan?

Ethan had only allowed attacks a few times in his fight with the 3rd Apostle.

Even the 3rd Apostle, with top-tier attack power, had considerable trouble with Ethan’s defensive techniques.

‘What if the strong opponents I meet in the future have excellent defensive abilities like me?’

That would be troublesome.

If he’s at a disadvantage in compatibility, there’s a possibility of defeat.

Ethan had been accumulating defensive techniques to compensate for his body weakened by Extinction, but they wouldn’t.

‘They’ll intentionally allow a few attacks and block the techniques that need to be blocked with defensive techniques.’

“In the end, it’s bound to become a psychological battle.”

Therefore, Ethan needed a definitive attack technique.

An attack technique that could definitely take down the enemy.

“More precisely.”

Wheeeeee-.

Ethan had already arrived at the cliff at the eastern end.

“I need a technique that can hit without fail.”

Below this cliff exists that technique that can hit without fail.

“The superhuman ability of certain hit.”

Along with that, Moonforce’s forgotten temple was also somewhere around here.

“Just how much persecution did she endure to be pushed this far?”

Ethan shook his head.

It was a cliff of such tremendous height that just looking down made his body tremble.

The mist hanging in between made the bottom invisible, creating a sense of mystery.

“If someone chasing falls from a place like this, they’d be certain of death and turn back.”

It had that much of an impact.

“This is going to be tough.”

Ethan jumped off the cliff without hesitation.

***

Somewhere in the Demon Empire.

“They say the 3rd Apostle is dead.”

“Yes, we’ve confirmed the death of the 3rd Apostle.”

A believer in black night clothes reported the details of this incident.

In front of him was a tall man, the 2nd Apostle.

His red eyes, burning like fire, were so intimidating that it felt like if one were to lie in this place, those eyes would see right through them.

“The 3rd Apostle, who crossed over to the Holy Empire to carry out the mission, prepared to attack Ethan Whiskers by mobilizing all the believers in the Holy Empire. In the process, the 3rd Apostle annihilated the Rosicrucian Order and immediately attacked Ivecar Academy where Ethan Whiskers was.”

“Are you saying all the First Orders and True Apostles left in the Holy Empire are dead?”

“Yes, because she tried to end it all at once using firepower.”

“There were many eyes watching, so it had to be finished quickly. If things went wrong, even the Holy Emperor might have intervened.”

If the Holy Emperor, the emperor of the Holy Empire, started to intervene directly, even the 3rd Apostle would inevitably be in trouble.

The 2nd Apostle gestured for him to continue explaining.

“However, the 3rd Apostle was defeated by Ethan Whiskers… The believers were captured by Ethan Whiskers, who was riding the momentum, and the teachers of Ivecar.”

The reporting believer continued.

“All this information comes from those we had planted. There are almost no survivors on our side, and all those who survived have been captured.”

“…”

The 2nd Apostle said nothing for a moment.

He had worried that things might go wrong.

As the 1st Apostle had said, Ethan Whiskers was not someone who obstructed the affairs of the council by chance.

He was tied by fate and connected by an unavoidable ill fate.

But he thought the 3rd Apostle would be enough to deal with such an Ethan Whiskers.

The 3rd Apostle was a chosen one created by the Dawn Council.

Moon Mother had directly blessed her, and the council had spared no support.

It wouldn’t be wrong to see her as the secret weapon of the Dawn Council, born strong and raised strong. Of course, in terms of strength, she was clearly below the two apostles above her.

But she had enough potential.

She should have been the talent to be at the forefront if Moon Mother descended to this land.

“So Ethan Whiskers alone killed the 3rd Apostle. And he has all but ruined all our plans.”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

Gulp.

The reporting believer swallowed dry saliva.

It was difficult to maintain his sanity due to the emotion being transmitted directly from the 2nd Apostle.

The emotion he was emitting was neither anger nor sadness.

“Huuuuuuuu.”

The 2nd Apostle, who had been emitting a mysterious emotion, shed all emotions with a long deep breath.

Now was not the time to be caught up in sentiments.

“Tell the 1st Apostle we need to have a meeting immediately.”

“Yes!”

In a dark room.

The 1st Apostle, who had received the contact from the 2nd Apostle, revealed himself.

“You must have heard the report, 1st Apostle.”

“It wasn’t a misjudgment.”

“I think so too.”

The 3rd Apostle was more than enough, even excessive, to settle this matter.

Even though Ethan Whiskers was said to have an unfathomable potential, the 3rd Apostle was someone who could crush and swallow all of that.

“It’s far beyond expectations.”

The 1st Apostle closed his eyes as if thinking for a moment.

“We can’t move to the Holy Empire right away, 1st Apostle.”

“I know.”

Right now, the two highest-ranking apostles are tied down here.

The situation hasn’t changed much since they sent the 3rd Apostle to the Holy Empire until now.

“We’re changing the plan. From disposing of the Saintess to preventing the Saintess’s plan.”

“1st Apostle, which do you think weighs more?”

The 1st Apostle spoke with a voice full of conviction.

“The Ethan Whiskers side is more important.”