The divine art, 【The Will of the Gondor Empire】, was quite a novelty to Leon.
It was the first time he had encountered a passive-trigger type of divine art.
According to the feedback from the Divine Art Panel, the effect of 【The Will of the Gondor Empire】 was to strengthen one's willpower and reduce the damage caused by mental attacks.
It differed from other divine arts used to resist mental interference. Those required Leon to actively activate them and continuously consume mental energy to maintain them.
Just like the Sacred Light Shield, when defending against an enemy's attack, it would consume a corresponding amount of mental energy based on the intensity of the assault.
However, 【The Will of the Gondor Empire】 was different. it was cast continuously and passively, requiring no mental energy to maintain and no mental energy to block mental attacks.
To use an analogy, other divine arts for defending against mental attacks were like skills that needed to be activated to take effect.
Meanwhile, 【The Will of the Gondor Empire】 was more like a talent or a feat; once you had it, it remained active at all times.
“There are pros and cons...” Leon thought to himself.
The benefits were obvious:
It didn't need to be actively triggered or maintained with mental energy, which effectively prevented situations where he might be caught off guard by a surprise mental attack because he wasn't prepared.
As for the drawbacks—since it was a passive divine art, he couldn't gain experience to level it up by actively casting it.
“I guess I'll just have to go easy on enemies with mental attacks in the future, let them hit me, and slowly grind out the experience...”
Leon could only think of it that way.
The evaluations given by the Divine Art Panel were influenced not only by audience feedback but also by the application scenario of the divine art.
Simply hiring a mage to help him grind experience by hitting him with spells like Mind Blast wouldn't work.
Standing there and taking a mage's mental attack didn't fit the evaluation criterion of “using the divine art in an appropriate scenario.” This would result in an extremely low evaluation from the Divine Art Panel—perhaps not even reaching a 【Poor】 rating—meaning he wouldn't gain any experience.
This was also why, even though Leon had mastered the Healing Art long ago, he never intended to intentionally cut himself and then heal the wound to grind experience.
After all, the Divine Art Panel wouldn't recognize an experience-grinding method that didn't “fit the application scenario.”
Doing so would serve no purpose other than making himself grit his teeth in pain until it turned into numbness, and then into some strange kind of pleasure.
“Wait, I might be able to exploit a loophole here...”
A flash of inspiration struck Leon as he remembered how he could still gain experience while sparring with Alicia and Thomas.
Since he couldn't just stand there and let a mage hit him, he just had to fight back!
He could hire mages who specialized in mental attacks and ask them to spar with him one-on-one. As long as it met the “sparring application scenario,” he could grind experience!
“And since 【The Will of the Gondor Empire】 doesn't consume mental energy, it can be triggered infinitely...”
Well, maybe not infinitely; there were still some restrictions.
Just like with the Hammer of Sacred Light, Leon couldn't rapidly grind experience by summoning a hammer, striking once, dispelling it, and then summoning it again in the middle of a fight.
The panel would judge that entire sequence as “a single casting of the Hammer of Sacred Light.”
“No need to rush the experience grinding...”
Leon calmed his mind.
He turned his attention to the so-called “Gondor Empire” mentioned in this new divine art...
First, the Gondor Empire should be an empire.
Second... there was no second.
He had no impression or explanation of the term “Gondor Empire” in his mind.
Clearly, this Gondor Empire was likely part of the old history of another era, something very few people in the current world knew about.
And Leon didn't plan to investigate too deeply.
He knew when to take advice; Big Alicia had just warned him that his strength was insufficient to investigate such things. Leon wasn't stupid enough to go digging out of curiosity.
He didn't have the three-revival ability of a Miracle Worker. If he went poking around without enough strength and accidentally used Spiritual Vision to witness the birth of some evil god, he would literally explode just from catching a glimpse.
Well, maybe the gods of this world weren't quite at the “indescribable” level yet, but Leon wasn't about to court death.
“Mngh...”
As Leon was reflecting and summarizing, a soft waking sound came from the bed in front of him.
Alicia sat up, her face full of post-sleep daze. She rubbed her eyes and noticed the blanket that had slid off her stomach.
She didn't quite understand why, every time she slept with Priest Leon, she would have a blanket over her stomach but nowhere else.
However, Alicia didn't dwell on it. Instead, she said with sleepy eyes, “Morning, Leon... Priest.”
“Morning, Alicia.” Leon looked at her and asked, “Did you dream last night? I think I heard you talking in your sleep.”
“Can’t... remember.” Alicia shook her head.
“I only... remember... being so hungry... so tired... so sleepy... then... it was... gone.”
Leon let out a small sigh of relief and said, “It's fine. Dreams are the opposite of reality. If you were hungry, tired, and sleepy in your dream, it means you're full and full of energy in real life.”
“Is... that... so.” Alicia nodded thoughtfully.
No wonder when she was wandering before, clearly starving and cold, she would dream of living in a warm house and eating her fill. So that was why.
But... Alicia remembered that in her dream, Priest Leon was a good person. If dreams were the opposite of reality, did that mean Priest Leon was a bad person in real life?
No, it must be that Priest Leon was so good in real life that even the dream version of him was affected, turning from a bad person into a good one...
Suddenly, Alicia’s eyes widened. “Pink... hair!”
At first, seeing the pink strands resting on her shoulder, she hadn't realized what it was. But as the grogginess of sleep cleared, she discovered that her originally pitch-black hair had completely turned pink!
No matter how silly Alicia was, she knew her hair wouldn't turn pink for no reason. In the next second, her lips pouted into a platypus form as she looked at the only person in the room who could have turned her hair pink.
Leon felt her indignant gaze, and his lips twitched. “If I told you that you did this to yourself, would you believe me?”
“No... way!”
Rate on N.U.
