Super Righteous Player
Chapter 949 - 7: The Coward’s Courage

Chapter 949: Chapter 7: The Coward’s Courage

In June and July, Annan did indeed have travel plans... and they might even last a while.

The trip to the United Kingdom was clearly unavoidable.

Not long ago, Salvatore had brought Annan some new intelligence.

It was information from Master Chiron... as a centaur seer, he foresaw that the "Great Curse: Smoke Mirror" would appear in the United Kingdom in mid-July.

—It would.

The use of that word caught Annan’s attention a little.

However, Annan did not intend to delve into the details.

Those Wizards of the School of Prophets had made Annan familiar with their cryptic way of speaking. As the founding Prophet, Chiron’s style could be said to be a very authentic embodiment of enigmatic prophesizing.

Since the accuracy of the prophecy was certain, there was no need to inquire further.

Based on experience, when a King began to doubt prophecies and then started to micro-manage, it invariably led to many unnecessary misunderstandings and complications. Knowing that Chiron’s prophecies were highly accurate and possessed a considerable degree of reliability, and that Chiron bore no ill will towards him, was enough for Annan.

This was probably a kind of absolute trust.

At times, Annan was amazed at himself.

Since arriving in this world, he had gradually mastered various techniques to dodge peculiar FLAGS...

However, the incident in the United Kingdom wouldn’t happen until mid-July.

Before that, Annan needed to pay a visit to Naifertali.

Annan had already arranged with Naifertali to visit the Sporogenesis Mill before the end of June.

According to the original plan, after testing the compatibility with the sacred bones, Annan was to find the Fearless Saint Alfonso, to compete with other candidates for the "Bone of Fearlessness."

But this plan had already encountered significant problems.

Among the chosen candidates who wished to succeed Alfonso and become the Fearless Saint, the only Gold-ranked Transcendents besides Annan were "Ship in Stone" Selicia, and "Winter Reverser" Vladimir.

Yet two months before the ritual was to be held, sudden issues arose.

Selicia lost her silver "Ship in Stone" and was demoted back to the silver rank, now serving Duke Annan; while the Winter Reverser Vladimir had been "eliminated" by Annan personally, leading to his direct demise.

As a result, the only one left capable of performing the ritual was Annan.

Just thinking about this made Annan’s expression change subtly.

—He really hadn’t intended to eliminate Selicia and Vladimir before the proper time!

But it always seemed as if he could no longer clear things up from his side...

However, it wasn’t a big problem.

Because Annan, in fact, did not want the "Bone of Fearlessness" at all.

The reason he had agreed to Naifertali in the first place was only because he didn’t want the Bone of Fearlessness to fall into the hands of the Winter Reverser and become the enemy’s power. In other words, he planned to use the "Bone of Fearlessness" as bait, to lure out Vladimir who had been avoiding him.

Of course, some might say: Wouldn’t you want a sanctified relic if it were given to you freely?

If the relic was "quality assured" and reliable, Annan would certainly want it.

But the problem was that Annan did not trust Professor Grey’s technology.

Annan had not even obtained the recognition from the "Bone of Fearlessness," which represented "Courage." In other words, he hadn’t caught the attention of this sanctified relic.

Justice, Mercy, Sacrifice, Hope, Protection.

So far, these were the five sacred bones that had shown interest in Annan.

Although Annan felt he was not lacking in courage... he always had the feeling that the "Bone of Fearlessness" might have been ruined by Professor Grey.

Alfonso was simply not a person of courage.

But Professor Ash, by injecting him with an extract from the sacred remains highly concentrated in "courage," allowed him to directly gain traits "very close to those of the Bone of Fearlessness"... circumventing the sacred bone’s detection.

Alfonso’s essence was very similar to his own. That made him a compatible user.

And for that reason, Alfonso’s body ended up in such a battered state.

The sacred bones and their hosts undergo a mutual selection and transformation process.

Sacred bones are particularly choosy about their hosts, and should the partner break an oath or become impure, they will leave.

But they also continually supply energy, remodeling the body to better match their own, while also extending the host’s lifespan.

However, due to Professor Ash’s "forced recognition technology," the sacred bone did not detect that Alfonso’s body was incompatible. To the "Bone of Fearlessness," Alfonso’s compatibility was very high, no adjustments were necessary, and it could operate at full power output directly.

It was much like using electrical devices with mismatched voltages, forcing them to function.

If it were a delicate electronic device, it might have been fried by the voltage and emitted smoke the moment the plug was inserted.

That Alfonso’s body didn’t immediately smoke and explode could only be attributed to the robustness imparted by the Bone of Fearlessness...

In this respect, Professor Ash’s talent was also apparent.

It seems, for now, that his technique could probably only be tolerated by something like the "Bone of Fearlessness."

Because the "Bone of Fearlessness" can give the Fearless Saint an incredibly strong resilience—although the exact effects of the Bone of Fearlessness are unknown, the previous Fearless Saint, even when hit head-on with an attack from the Iris Marquis, whose offensive power ranked among the best of all gods, did not die from it.

Now, Alfonso’s body was on the verge of collapse.

If the sacred bone could not be removed and transplanted to another person before his collapse, he would certainly be completely torn apart by the Bone of Fearlessness. By then, it would be a nightmare of otherworldly proportions.

Even if he were to die, he must wait until the sacred bone was removed.

Of course... he was after all Naifertalis’ elder brother.

Naifertali was also the ritual instructor for the players. Plus, Alfonso had been to the Winter Principality once and seemed like a decent person to Annan.

If possible, Annan still hoped he could survive.

But Annan was no saint.

He wouldn’t use his own life to save Alfonso.

Because Alfonso wasn’t that important to him.

Annan knew his own worth.

Indeed, sacred bones don’t conflict with one another, wearing one doesn’t mean you can’t wear another. But using cheating methods to directly modify one’s personality to force compatibility with the "Bone of Fearlessness," that’s a different story.

Injecting a high concentration of sacred bone extract into one’s brain—undoubtedly, that would directly alter a person’s psyche. In such a case, Annan would have completely become a "brave" character.

Even having strong enough self-doubt could lead to being abandoned by the sacred bone.

Such a drastic mental transformation would certainly cause the sacred bone that favored Annan to reject him.

Sacred bone: You’ve changed.

...Although such methods wouldn’t crudely change a person’s disposition directly, it could indirectly affect their character.

That unprovoked "courage" echoing in the mind, if left unconstrained, would easily swell into arrogance and egotism.

Only a person sufficiently self-effacing, silent, and rational could counterbalance the bravery burgeoning in their heart.

According to Professor Ash’s calculations, this could actually give a self-effacing person confidence, turning them into a normal individual.

The reason for choosing Alfonso, an ordinary silver-tier Transcendent, wasn’t due to good fortune.

But because, after Professor Ash’s analysis of psychology, only Alfonso was capable of controlling this newly added courage.

—Because he was cowardly enough, he could manage the power of the highest-level courage.

It must be said... that was quite ironic.

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