Chapter 742: The Paladin

“Having visited so many places, you must be an incredible Esper, Lord Steven!”

Evan said in an astonished tone.

Beside him, Sebastian had an urge to cover his face.

Can’t everyone just keep this understanding to themselves? Why say it out loud and make things awkward?

“An Esper? I suppose so!”

Wu Ming shrugged, suddenly looking into the darkness. “Although I hate to interrupt you, it seems you’ve got some trouble!”

“Awooooo!”

As soon as he finished speaking, howls erupted from all sides.

Pairs of emerald-green eyes wandered around the campsite. By the firelight, they could see four or five monstrous wolves slowly encircling them.

Their appearance was similar to ordinary wolves, but each stood as tall as a person, with rotting fur revealing dark red blood and muscles, along with white bones exposed, making them appear extremely terrifying.

“Damn it, they’re corpse wolves!”

Sebastian cursed bitterly. These were the creatures that all adventurers least wanted to encounter in the wild.

It wasn’t that they were particularly strong—in fact, corpse wolves ranked at the bottom among mutated wolves in terms of combat ability. However, their flesh and blood were highly toxic. Being bitten was extremely problematic. Worse still, they were inedible, making them practically worthless and a poor risk-to-reward ratio.

Defeating them brought no benefit, while losing meant death by wolf bites. Under such circumstances, no adventurer wanted to fight them desperately.

Of course, now the situation was different—the wolves had targeted them as prey. They had no choice but to fight unless…

Sebastian turned his head, looking hopefully at the so-called Esper named Steven. Given the other’s unfathomable strength, dealing with these corpse wolves should be effortless, right?

Unfortunately, he was disappointed to see Wu Ming calmly sipping soup and eating bread, showing absolutely no intention to intervene.

Although he knew that most Espers had peculiar temperaments, seeing this made Sebastian speechless.

He couldn’t gamble with his own life, though, so he shouted, “Prepare for battle!”

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Even before the corpse wolves appeared, the archers in the group had already prepared themselves. Now, they released their bows, and two arrows flew out.

Puh!

The arrows pierced precisely into the wolves’ shoulder blades, splattering a large amount of dark red blood. The wolves’ eyes turned even redder as they roared and charged forward.

“This is your first battle, right? Are you scared?”

Wu Ming looked at Evan, who was holding his spear with both hands and trembling with fear, teasingly asking.

“I… I… G-g-g…”

Evan opened his mouth but stammered due to nervousness, only producing chattering teeth sounds.

Although the corpse wolves were relatively weak, they were still more than enough to bring serious disaster upon their small team.

“Awooooo!”

With those two arrows as the signal, a fierce battle between humans and wolves immediately erupted.

In this battle, there was no compromise, no retreat, and no weakness. Both sides fought solely for survival, filled with the dark natural law of the survival of the fittest.

“Haaa!”

Sebastian roared loudly, his saber slashing fiercely into the corpse wolf’s back.

This was a vulnerable spot on the wolf, and the corpse wolf howled in pain but became even more ferocious, biting Sebastian’s right arm.

“Ahhh!”

Evan screamed and rushed forward immediately, thrusting his spear hard.

Puh!

The black spearhead pierced through the white belly of the corpse wolf, pulling out a large amount of intestines. The wolf collapsed on the ground, clearly dead.

“Good job… Watch out!”

Sebastian clutched his arm and his expression changed drastically.

At this moment, Evan realized he had charged too far forward, drawing too much attention and now being surrounded by two corpse wolves, which lunged at him with their snow-white fangs emanating a strong stench.

“Ahhh!”

Evan let out a scream. In reality, his mind was now completely blank, unable to even defend himself.

Suddenly!

At this moment, Evan felt a surge of warmth rising from within his body, filling his limbs with immense strength.

“What is this…”

Sebastian looked at this scene in astonishment, unable to speak for a long time.

To his eyes, Evan was now surrounded by a golden glow—an unmistakable sign of a paladin activating their divine armor!

Peng! Peng!

Instinctively, Evan threw two punches during his power surge. The two corpse wolves that were attacking him had their brains smashed and fell dead to the ground—once someone becomes a divine class character, their power undergoes a tremendous transformation.

“Awooooo…”

The remaining wolf pack suddenly sensed a great danger and howled in distress, fleeing with their tails between their legs.

“What… What happened to me…”

Evan looked at his hands, his face full of confusion.

“Haha… You brat, you’ve received divine favor and become a paladin of the Redeemer!”

Sebastian smacked Evan’s head hard. “What a lucky little kid!”

“Congratulations, Evan!”

The team members all smiled warmly and offered their congratulations, while the male archer’s eyes were filled with barely concealed jealousy.

After all, once one receives divine favor and becomes a divine servant, they will certainly be accepted by the Church of Redemption, becoming someone of higher status, completely different from these lower-class adventurers.

“I… I became a paladin of the Redeemer!”

Evan finally understood what had happened and knelt down to pray. “My Lord, the Redeemer, You are the ruler of redemption, the refuge of my soul. I shall walk Your path forever, until my last breath!”

Wu Ming selected divine servants completely impartially, based solely on the sincerity of their faith.

Those who provided the most faith power would be promoted as priests or paladins, while false believers could never receive divine favor.

Because divine favor was granted by the true god, the church had no authority to decide it themselves. Therefore, even though Jay, the self-proclaimed archbishop, had not yet consolidated his control over the church, he had to accept and promote outstanding divine servants from among the believers, which posed a challenge to his authority.

Of course, there were exceptions. For instance, Evan’s level of faith had not yet met the required standard, but who could have predicted that Wu Ming himself would be right there?

However, after bestowing this favor, Evan’s faith thread became thick and strong, significantly more devout, barely reaching the standard.

“Haha… You’ve become a paladin, you brat. Dorin and his wife will be really happy…”

Sebastian looked at his bleeding, blackened, and swollen arm, his expression turning somber. “Unfortunately, I won’t be able to see that day…”

“Uncle Sebastian!”

Tears immediately streamed down Evan’s face.

The poison of the corpse wolf was extremely severe, and there was no antidote. Even if there was, given their team’s financial situation, they couldn’t afford it.

“…If only I had awakened as a priest, I could have saved you!”

Priestly divine magic was very effective for such injuries—just a single Remove Poison spell could solve the problem.

Unfortunately, even if low-level paladins learned divine magic, they could only use it on themselves, not others like priests could. Evan felt disheartened.

“Absolutely don’t think like that!”

Sebastian said earnestly. “It is already a great honor for mortals to receive divine favor from the gods. How can one dare to be picky? In fact… I’m already much luckier than most people. At least I’ve lived much longer than them…”

As he spoke, his consciousness gradually became hazy, and a bitter smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. “Although… this hellish world really isn’t that great. Don’t be sad, my soul will go to the realm of my Lord, perhaps I can meet my loved ones and friends from before. What a wonderful thing that would be!”

“Chief!”

Needless to say, as the leader of the adventuring team, Sebastian was quite competent. At this moment, seeing him in a state close to death, even the male archer’s eyes turned slightly red.

“Excuse me… may I check his injuries?”

At this moment, Wu Ming finally spoke.

“Eh?!”

Evan immediately noticed that the mysterious Mr. Steven was standing aside, smiling at them.

During the intense battle just now, whether it was the corpse wolves or themselves, they seemed to have completely forgotten him, and he hadn’t been affected at all. Now, Wu Ming was still spotless.

“It’s useless unless it’s a specialized healing Esper or a priest’s divine magic…”

The female archer wiped her tears and said, only to see a golden glow emerging from Wu Ming’s hand, entering Sebastian’s body.

“Remove Poison! Cure Moderate Wounds!”

In the next moment, Sebastian’s blackened, swollen arm immediately returned to normal, without even a single tooth mark left.

“This is… divine magic? Are you a priest of the Redeemer?!”

Sebastian’s consciousness immediately became clear again, and he thanked gratefully, “Thank you, Reverend Priest. You’ve saved my life!”

However, the most astonished among them all was Evan.

As a paladin of the Redeemer, he had instinctively acquired a lot of knowledge. For instance, paladins and priests of the same rank could clearly sense each other’s auras, as long as the difference wasn’t too great, it couldn’t be hidden.

But now, Steven was standing right in front of him, yet he couldn’t sense any holy power from him at all, even though the previous divine magic was real.

All of this indicated one thing: that person’s level was far beyond his imagination.

“What about the level of Archbishop Jay and Chief Paladin Robin?”

Since Evan had never seen other high-ranking divine servants, he could only keep this question buried in his heart, joining his companions in tallying up their gains from this encounter.

“Ah… the meat of the corpse wolf is poisonous, and its fur, bones quickly rot after death. Truly, their entire bodies are useless, not a single part can be utilized…”

Sebastian looked at the wolf carcasses on the ground with disdain and shook his head in disgust.

In fact, this was the norm in the post-apocalyptic wastelands.

Even if you hunted a monster, edible parts were still rare. He knew of a monstrous creature as big as a mountain, with amazing combat power, like a heavy tank, but only a piece of meat the size of a fist at its core was edible. It was truly ridiculous.

“Alright, let’s clean up. We’re heading back!”

At dawn, Sebastian loudly announced the next plan, immediately prompting cheers from the team.