Chapter 120: The Bishop

“The responsibility is mine, I’m his teacher.”

“So, what exactly is the magic?”

“Mage armor?”

“Mage Armor, I remember it’s a very high level protection spell right, I honestly haven’t seen many mages use it even on the battlefield.”

“It’s not as practical as you might think on the battlefield, after all, if you waste any more energy to give yourself even more elemental resistance, once the other side’s soldiers kill you, you’ll realize that you might as well put out as many flames as possible, cast more whirlwinds and whatnot, and stop them in their tracks.”

“Ah Holy Light, I just noticed the emblem, is he just an apprentice?”

“Alas, yes, one who had just become an apprentice less than a month before, who was bent on learning mage armor, and who I saw as somewhat uncharacteristically gifted, thinking that such a difficult spell would gradually lead him faster through the doors of the protective school’s realm.”

“Obviously, his mana level is insufficient.”

“Mana level …… Forget it, I don’t want to get into an in depth discussion with you about what’s really going on. I understand what you’re trying to say, Bishop, but you don’t know what was going on, and if you were me, you wouldn’t have been able to resist letting him cast it, it was his first attempt at casting Mage Armor. Honestly, it was amazing, I was expecting him to cast it all at once and get me a conversation I could have at the Wizard’s Temple for another twenty years without getting tired of it. Unfortunately, I was just so looking forward to him succeeding that it turned out like this.”

“It’s not like you, Marin, to be so greedy, we’ve known each other for a long time and I’ve never seen you willing to take such a risk. But well, I haven’t been to the Sorcerer’s Sanctuary enough to know your style, so perhaps it’s normal for every teacher to want their students to surpass them.”

“Maybe you just don’t know me well enough.”

“I admit, after this war triggered by the Dark Gate, I no longer dare to say I understand anything, too many things are unexpected, and even too many things break through the common sense that I once recognized …… Huh? He seems to be waking up, were we talking too loud?”

“Why do you act like you’re expecting him not to wake up?”

In the midst of a flurry of conversation, Jace barely opened his eyes, and with it came an unbearable headache.

He grimaced for a while, holding his head and moaning for a moment until a hand brushed against his chest.

“Holy Light on high, I pray that you release this young man from this pain, freeing and liberating him. For his pain is brought about by endeavor and diligence, his suffering is a setback in his quest to reach for a higher ideal. O Holy Light, I know that you appreciate courage, hard work, and the will to win, and he is a believer in following your teachings …… In a whispered chorus, the headache miraculously slowed down, and Jace could even feel how powerless and useless his own hands were pressing his head compared to the glowing hands pressing on his chest. “

“Fine.” A low voice while head side said, “He woke up so quickly, you at least didn’t make any big mistakes Master Marin.”

“Hooray.” Marin’s voice came from Jace’s feet.

Jace tried to open his eyes again, the light was a little harsh.

He found himself lying in a very brightly lit room, the masonry of which was white making the whole space particularly clean and holy; this was probably the hospital in Church Square.

Standing beside him was a church pastor in a gray robe with a silver crown and hat in his arms, and Marin was sitting at the end of the bed. Jace tried to sit up, and with a large movement, his head once again throbbed with a dull ache.

“Don’t get up so fast, Mr. Jess Sesso,” said the pastor, holding him up, “the most important thing for you now is to rest.”

“How long was I out?” Jace asked weakly.

“Not for long.” Marin said, “Probably a couple hours.”

He looked to his side, “I’ve told you before, Bishop Benedictus, it’s not as serious as you think.”

“It means that the Holy Light still favors the young apprentice.” The bishop smiled.

“Thanks for the holy light.” Jace muttered back in a low voice.

Just as he felt his brain begin to spin with his consciousness, he snapped to the realization that Marin had just said a name, and turned his head to stare intently at this priest at the foot of his bed.

This bishop was probably in his late fifties not quite sixty, similar to Marin.

A thick head of dark gray hair with a hairline that had moved up not too far for his age, a carefully trimmed beard, and wrinkles all over his forehead and next to his eyes.

Despite being past his prime, he was still fit and looked broad-chested and broad-shouldered, even before he had time to get fat, like an old warrior who had been through I don’t know how many wars.

This is Benedictus? The Archbishop of Stormwind himself looking after himself?

No, he wasn’t an archbishop yet, the leader of the Cathedral of Light and the Church of the Holy Light should be Archbishop Alonsus Fao now, and he was still Fao’s student.

It was only after the death of Alonsoz Fao in the Celestial Invasion a dozen years later that Benedictus inherited the archbishopric.

It’s just that the road after Benedictus is worrisome.

The Celestial War and the destruction of Lordaeron dealt a heavy blow to Benedictus’ faith, causing him to become increasingly skeptical of the Holy Light, leading him to eventually go to the other extreme and fall into the ways of darkness, where he was used by the Evil Gods to become one of the leading figures in the Twilight Hammer, a cult group of the Evil Gods.

By that time he had become a powerful Shadow Priest, a Dark Priest, and in fact his communication with the Shadow had begun when he was Archbishop of Stormwind, only to reveal his true beliefs when Deathwing shook the world. Only now, he should still be quite devout to the Holy Light, right?

Thinking so, Bishop Benedictus had already left the room after exchanging a few pleasantries with Marin, even if he wasn’t the leader of the Cathedral of Light, he was still a bishop with a busy business schedule, and it was impossible for him to stay here for too long.

He glanced at Jace in the doorway on his way out, a glance that looked as if he’d looked back on purpose, and given Jace’s current state and his knowledge of Benedictus, there was just no way to keep him from thinking more about it.

After all, Jace was now a warlock, if he could only be considered an amateur warlock who had just touched the threshold when he first went to the priest to cure the Necrotic Corruption Poison, nowadays, he could skillfully use Fear spells and mastered many kinds of Shadow magic, he should be one of the most professional Shadow casters in the Storm City, at least at the Slaughtered Lamb.

He didn’t know what kind of healing he had gone through while in his own coma, what Benedictus had sensed, except that Jace was certain that even if he had sensed the Shadow, he hadn’t told Marin about it.

Jess could only hope that the look was just a doctor’s concern for his patient.

Marin said, “I don’t know if I should say you were lucky, Mr. Sesso, or thanks to the piety of the bishop.”

“I passed out from mana overload?” Jace asked.

“You don’t have enough mana to support the arcane powers you summoned, Jace, they were more active than expected.” Marin said, “Overall, you forced high level magic against my advice, but you didn’t have enough energy of your own to overload your willpower. But passing out wasn’t the worst consequence, which is why I said you were lucky enough.”

“When did you ever counsel me, Master Marin?” Jace said, “When I was there casting the spell, I remember specifically expecting me to succeed.”

Marin rubbed his chin a bit and said, “Just tell the others that it’s okay, apprentices can make mistakes and no one will blame you.”

When Jace had an accident learning spells, Marin as the instructor would definitely have to take the blame, even if Jace said so, then Marin would still have to take the responsibility of teaching the spells, right?

Luckily there were no serious consequences this time, and I don’t think anyone knows about it, so try to shrug off the responsibility and you shouldn’t be held accountable.

But after this, would Marin not continue to teach himself the spell for mage armor?

“Did I come close, Master?” Jace asked, “I really do feel like it was that close, it really is a shame, it was close enough to being close to the state of completing the spell at that time, wasn’t it?”

Marin didn’t affirm or deny, he just said, “Who knows if you’ll end up succeeding or not if your energy reaches the point of being able to cast all of the Mage Armor, everything will have to be tested by the next practice. Before you go to Dalaran if you still want to progress, come to me in the morning, I won’t give you the spell to memorize now, I hope you remember our agreement from that time.”

“Must practice mage armor in front of you.” Jace repeated.

“That’s right, it has to be practiced under my watchful eye.” Marin said, “If if I told you how to cast Mage Armor and you practiced it on your own in secret and you ended up passing out just like this time and there was no one to take care of it or treat it, think of what would happen.”

Indeed, especially if he set the house on fire by practicing at home by himself, or passed out in his room and was found, then all the stuff he had hidden in his house came to a pedantic exposure.

Marin continued, “Next time we will start with the basics of the protection school, to prep you for your future studies in the Sorcerer’s Sanctuary, or you can’t run before you learn to walk, this accident is undoubtedly the evil consequence of being too aggressive.”

“But it’s not many days until we leave Stormwind, which is two or three.” Jace said.

“Then we’ll wait until we get back.” Marin said.

Come back? Jess couldn’t wait.

“Alas, I understand, Master.”

He wanted to leave, but was forced to stay by Marin, who told him to spend a day recuperating at the parson’s to make sure he was fully refreshed before he left.

Though Jace didn’t know exactly where he was in the church square, he could hear the sound of chanting not far away through an unknown number of walls to get here at night.

Lying on his bed, Jace was still thinking about the spell that Marin had taught him during the day.

“Rockporto, Alkanoa ……” Simply by speaking two sentences so according to his memory, Jace already felt that headache come back again, and trying to remember the latter was already simply impossible.

Marin was right, he was still far from completely recovering, so for the time being, don’t get involved with the magic network, and let’s get a good night’s sleep tonight.

But there was no way he was going to allow himself to not practice any spells for the two or three months he was away from Stormwind, and how could he cut it off in the middle when he was already halfway through learning mage armor?