What If the Scoundrel Pope Becomes Competent

◈ 4. Unlocking the S-Class Skill

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The Blonka Forest, a hazardous zone once under the imperial family’s jurisdiction, was soon transferred to the Church’s ownership. 

Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for the shocking news to spread throughout the Church.

Rumours buzzed with claims like:

‘They say it was all the Pope’s doing, deciding to take on the useless Blonka Forest!’

The matter quickly became the most talked-about topic.

The priests, already brimming with dissatisfaction toward the Pope, began voicing their harsh criticisms without hesitation.

“The Pope must have gone senile. And at such a young age too!”

In the central square of the temple, a priest lounging on a bench opened the conversation with that biting remark.

Hearing this, the priest beside him looked around nervously, but the first priest only scoffed.

“Relax. Even if someone catches you complaining about the Pope, no one’s going to care. Don’t you know everyone feels the same way?”

“Well… I suppose that’s true…”

“What else could you call taking on that cursed land besides lunacy? He’s just throwing our hard-earned money into the gutter. And when the official monster hunt in the forest starts, think of how many knights will be injured or killed!”

At this, the priest who had been hesitant before nodded in agreement.

“…It really is madness. The poor holy knights are the ones who’ll pay the price.”

“Exactly. That’s why there’s talk everywhere about ‘removing’ him.”

“Removing? Wait, you mean the Pope?”

“Why not? The guy’s an orphan with no connections, no backing. He’s utterly unfit to be Pope—”

Before the priest could finish his tirade, a young acolyte came running toward them, breathless and visibly flustered. 

Barely catching his breath, he delivered startling news:

“It’s been discovered!”

“…What? Discovered? What’s been discovered?”

“The ancient ruins! They were found in the western Blonka Forest, just as His Holiness had predicted!”

The bustling square at the heart of the temple was always teeming with people, and the novice priest’s loud exclamation about the discovery of an ancient ruin quickly spread among the gathered crowd.

The commotion spread like wildfire across a dry field.

“Did you just hear that? They found an ancient ruin!”

“Wasn’t that forest just a monster-infested wasteland? And now a ruin shows up there?”

“Wait a second, wasn’t that area gifted by the Imperial Family? So, this is like finding a gold bar on the roadside!”

The ancient era, far more advanced in magic and science than the present, often left behind ruins filled with miraculous items beyond the scope of modern technology.

As a result, countless adventurers in the Empire dedicated their lives to searching for ruins, chasing dreams of overnight fortune.

Now, one of these treasure troves had seemingly appeared, miraculously, in the ‘worthless’ land that the Pope had stubbornly insisted on acquiring.

Those who heard the news couldn’t help but wonder the same thing:

‘Was this a coincidence? Or could the Pope have received a divine revelation?’

Nikellus, as Pope, had never once received a proper oracle. 

A man entirely devoid of holy powers like divine insight or miraculous healing—known only for destruction and waste—Nikellus was often suspected of being a fraud pretending to be a Pope.

But this time, dismissing the event as mere coincidence felt strange. 

Such a phenomenon could only be attributed to divine intervention.

“Well, for once, that scoundrel Pope actually earned his keep, huh? Not that it’s anything more than luck.” 

A priest scoffed, laughing and expecting his nearby colleague to join in mockingly.

However, no such agreement came.

His companion had gone completely pale, frozen in place.

“…Huh?”

The laughing priest finally noticed something was wrong and turned his head toward where his colleague was staring—behind him.

Someone he hadn’t realized was there had appeared behind him.

“L-lord B-Bliss?!”

Bliss, who had silently approached and now stood behind him, wore a chilling smile at the corner of his lips.

“Why stop now? It sounded like an entertaining story; please, continue.”

Normally, openly calling the Pope a ‘scoundrel’ wouldn’t have led to major trouble since everyone was frustrated with his incompetence. 

But the person who overheard this time was Bliss, infamous for his madness—and that could lead to serious consequences.

‘Run now.’

With that thought, the priest shot up from the bench, attempting a hasty escape.

“E-excuse me! I, uh… I must be going now—”

“Why are you leaving? Sit back down.”

“I just remembered an unfinished task… I really must go.”

“Is that so? Then come here for a moment before you leave.”

“…What?”

When the priest hesitated and only took a half step forward, Bliss frowned slightly.

“Closer. And lean your ear toward me.”

The priest hesitated again before reluctantly moving closer and inclining his ear toward Bliss.

Then Bliss spoke, his voice chilling and low.

“You may leave for now. But…”

Lowering his voice even further, he whispered directly into the priest’s ear:

“If you learn anything interesting about that scoundrel, come tell me. Fun things should be shared, don’t you think?”

The moment the priest heard this, something strange happened to him.

Just seconds ago, Bliss had seemed terrifying. 

But upon hearing his whispered command, that fear dissipated, replaced by a surge of inexplicable loyalty.

Bliss’s mental-affecting skill had taken effect.

Skill: 「Whispers of the Dead King (A)」
This skill implants inexplicable and baseless loyalty into the target when the user whispers directly into their ear.
While it has notable drawbacks—
―It is ineffective against Awakened individuals of B-rank or higher.
―Its effect only lasts about a week.
―Its activation conditions are quite restrictive—

Even with its limitations, the skill worked perfectly against low-rank Awakened individuals or, as in this case, non-Awakened ones.

Completely oblivious to the fact he had been affected by a skill, the priest bowed deeply and obediently. 

Then, as Bliss watched, the square—now empty after everyone had fled—echoed with the sound of his lonely footsteps as he walked away.

---

The western forest of Blonka had been overrun entirely by monsters.

The knights endured significant hardships to discover the ruins there. 

Had I not personally called upon Luciana, the captain of the knights, and discreetly instructed her to search around the ‘lakeshore at the centre of Blonka Forest’, it might have taken even longer.

Thankfully, Luciana didn’t dismiss my suggestion. 

She led the knights to carve a path through the monster-infested forest and finally reached its centre.

When the ruins were discovered, her surprised reaction— “I didn’t expect there to actually be something here…”—suggested she hadn’t fully trusted me.

And now, here I was, having secretly travelled to Blonka Forest. 

Hidden in a secluded spot, I opened my quest window to check my progress. 

[Main Oracle #5 – Purify the Ruins (In Progress)]
―Sub-Oracle (1): Defeat 10 monsters in the western forest of Blonka! (0/10)
―Sub-Oracle (2): Destroy all suspicious magical sources in the western forest of Blonka! (0/10)
―Sub-Oracle (3): Locate and purify the final magical source hidden in the ancient ruins of the 『Temple of the Crimson Full Moon』 by the lakeshore at the center of Blonka forest! (0/1) 

The game interface available after my possession was nearly identical to what I had access to before being transported.

The window colour, transparency, and font style of the game interface had remained mostly identical to what I was familiar with.

The only noticeable difference was the name of the quest window that I was currently viewing.

‘Before the possession, it was just called ‘Quests’.’

The name had changed from ‘Quest’ to ‘Oracle’.

Despite the name change, the fundamentals were the same—fulfil the given tasks, and you would receive rewards such as stats or gold.

For example, the first main oracle was something simple like ‘Talk to 10 nearby individuals’. Completing it earned me a small amount of gold, just as expected.

‘What’s in a name? As long as the rewards are good.’

Resolving to continue performing the oracles diligently, I drew a sword from my inventory.

[Iron Sword (E)]

― A sword crafted by a skilled blacksmith. 

It was technically an item, but being E-grade, it was a cheap piece of junk with no special effects. 

It’s only distinction from a regular weapon was that it could be stored in the inventory.

If I still had the expensive items I owned before my possession, I wouldn’t have to rely on something so low-grade, but―

‘For now, I’ll just have to make do with this.’

At present, the only two items I still possessed from before were:

– A hidden piece of ring worn on my finger.

– The ancient sword of the Fallen Holy Knight Commander.

The rest—over 500 million won worth of weapons and armour stored in my inventory—had vanished when I was transferred to this new body.

Regrettable, to say the least.

For now, the cheap iron sword would suffice to deal with the monsters approaching me.

―Growl…

The group of monsters that had been lurking nearby finally stepped out of the forest’s shadow.

Three massive wolf-like creatures revealed themselves.

Standing alone in the middle of the forest, I must have looked like an easy target to those monsters—practically an open invitation to ‘come and get me’.

Their sharp, menacing fangs were already glistening with saliva, clearly eager to sink into their prey.

―Snarl!

One of them, lacking patience, lunged at me without hesitation.

It must have assumed I was an effortless meal, considering it didn’t even bother to scout or assess the situation before attacking.

I decided to teach it the price of such recklessness.

Slash.

I dodged to the side and, at the same time, struck its flank with my sword.

The beast, seemingly unaware of what had just happened, glanced back and forth between me and the crimson fluid gushing from its side, utterly bewildered.

Then, with a final, guttural growl, it collapsed to the ground.

‘That’s one down…’

The sight of its bloodied corpse didn’t faze me. After all, I’d encountered scenes like this countless times while playing <CRW>.

I simply waited, out of habit, for the familiar system message to pop up in the corner of my vision.

Sub-Oracle (1): Hunt 10 monsters in the western forest of the Blonka region! (1/10)

The number in parentheses changed, as expected.

From (0/10) to (1/10).

‘With these two lefts, I’ll have three in total. That means I just need to track down seven more.’

As I swung my sword to shake off the blood, the remaining two monsters began cautiously retreating, taking slow steps backward.

But it was futile.

Just as I had done in the game, I leaped forward with all my strength.

This time, my S-grade body exceeded my expectations, delivering results far beyond what I had anticipated.

Whoosh.

My body shot upward, almost flying, and landed squarely on the back of one of the monsters, right at the nape of its neck. 

Before it could buck me off in a panic, I swiftly drove my sword into its throat.

Gurgle.

With blood bubbling from its mouth, the massive beast collapsed with a thud.

The final wolf, seemingly intent on howling to summon its packmates, raised its head.

But—

―Slash!

That last desperate cry was abruptly silenced.

I retrieved my sword from beneath the wolf’s jaw, meticulously wiping the blood off the blade.

‘That ended quicker than I thought. Only three monsters, sure, but they were ranked pretty high.’

At this point, I even had to acknowledge the body I was inhabiting.

While it was true that the reputation of the original Nikellus was in shambles, his physical form was undeniably impressive.

‘His baseline physical capabilities are unmatched. If only I had full access to Nikellus’s unique skills… but I suppose that’s asking for too much right now.’

Just as Argelio possessed psychic abilities, Nikellus had his own unique set of skills. 

Though I wasn’t entirely familiar with them, they were likely all of dazzling quality—A-grade, S-grade, maybe even L-grade.

An Awakener’s rank depends heavily on the number and quality of their skills. 

With Nikellus being an S-rank Awakener, it was only natural his abilities matched his title.

Unfortunately, the majority of those exceptional skills were currently sealed.

Of the five total skills in my arsenal, only one was accessible right now, and even that wasn’t a combat ability.

Opening my skill window, I was met with a familiar sight: 

[Nikellus Van Lucidmiller (S)]
[Available Skills]
― Holy Inviolability Pact (S)
― (Skill currently unavailable.)
― (Skill currently unavailable.)
― (Skill currently unavailable.)
― (Skill currently unavailable.) 

‘Tch. Well, this is all I have to work with for now. At least I have something to protect myself with.’

I shrugged off the limitations. Skills could always be dealt with later.

With that thought, I pulled the dagger hanging at my waist and hurled it into the air.

Swish!

The dagger sailed cleanly through the air, striking a monkey-like monster hiding in the treetops directly in the neck. 

The creature fell lifelessly to the ground.

A message popped up immediately: 

Sub-Oracle (1): Hunt 10 monsters in the western forest of the Blonka region! (4/10)
Current Progress: 40%
Complete this Sub-Oracle to unlock one of the user’s sealed skills.
Skill to be unlocked: “Blasphemy! (S)”

It was a standard progress notification, the kind I would usually glance at briefly before dismissing.

But this message contained a phrase that completely captured my attention:

‘Unlock an S-rank skill upon 100% Oracle completion?’