About half a month after Benjamin joined the village, the church finally seemed to notice.
"Everyone, be careful. There is a group of people in the woods to the north."
In the afternoon, Benjamin and his group had just left a village and were walking on a remote path to the next village. Suddenly, he waved his hand to signal the entire team to stop, and spoke in a lower voice.
The king seemed startled and immediately asked: "Are you... a member of the church?"
Benjamin nodded.
He could sense that there were more than thirty people in the group. They looked like ordinary caravans, but inside there were several priests with crosses on their bodies. They were undoubtedly members of the church. The group of people were about a few hundred meters apart from them, but because of the dense woods, they were out of sight.
At this moment, this group of people is heading in one direction.
—The direction from which Benjamin came.
These people...are here to find them.
Benjamin actually expected this situation.
Half a month passed, and what happened in the village was probably slowly spread. Although this place is remote, words like "the real king has appeared" are spread out. How could the church just let it go
Besides, the church was already looking for them.
With this in mind, he spoke to the mages again and said, "They are probably sent by the church to investigate us. But there are not many of them, so we can take them down here first."
The ten mages naturally nodded and geared up.
The remaining forty or so mage apprentices could not help but show nervous expressions.
—They have only become mages for a short time, and they have not even used magic to fight once. And in this first battle, they have to face an opponent like the church. It's strange that they are not nervous.
"There's nothing to be afraid of. Just follow us and throw fireballs."
Benjamin encouraged them a little, then took ten mages with him, flew up, and rushed towards the church's investigation team.
"Looking around, what are you looking for?"
The joking questions came from the sky. At that moment, the team in the woods raised their heads and looked at the familiar figure appearing in the sky, and couldn't help showing expressions of astonishment.
"You... are actually active in this area." The leading priest glared at Benjamin and said subconsciously.
When Benjamin heard this, he frowned imperceptibly.
However, before he had time to say anything, the group of church men looked at each other, turned around, and fled in all directions, without even the slightest intention of fighting Benjamin and the others.
However, just as they were about to run, a wave of magic power came out. In the woods, a tall earth wall rose from the ground, like a fence, blocking their way.
"Damn it..."
When the priest saw this, his face became very ugly, and he could only sing quickly.
However, Benjamin did not intend to give them a chance to sing.
Fireballs and ice arrows filled the sky... Not only the mages in the sky, but also the apprentices rushed here and started throwing magic into the earth wall. The church team of more than thirty people was like a turtle in a urn, drowned in the dazzling magic attack.
The cross could not save them, and they died cleanly after a short time.
The mage also dispersed the earth wall.
"Tidy up the battlefield and don't leave any traces." Benjamin also gave instructions.
The fact that the church sent such a small reconnaissance force showed that they did not yet know Benjamin's whereabouts. In order to prevent the church's large forces from dispatching, Benjamin naturally could not leave any clues to the enemy.
Sooner or later, their movements will be discovered by the church, but... it's better to delay it as long as possible.
Ten elite mages skillfully began to clean up the battlefield, but the faces of the newly joined apprentices still didn't look good when they looked at the corpses on the ground.
"...Is this your first time to kill someone?" Benjamin saw this and walked towards them.
The apprentices were stunned when they heard this, and many nodded hesitantly.
"It will definitely be a little uncomfortable the first time, just get used to it." Benjamin said in an understatement, "The reality is still very cruel. If we don't kill them, the next time we die will probably be us."
The apprentices nodded, and although they were a little silent for a while, they still walked over and tried their best to help clean up the battlefield.
I hope these people can grow up quickly...
Benjamin thought in his mind.
In this way, after getting rid of this group of scouts, they quickly left. Benjamin originally planned to go south and visit all the villages in this area, but out of caution, he changed his plan and started heading east.
-The church is aware of their actions and he needs to be careful.
For the next week, Benjamin's plan went smoothly. After changing their route, they did not run into people from the church again, and walked to another dozen villages, further expanding their influence and expanding the number of apprentices to more than fifty people.
Unfortunately, not every village likes his approach. Once they entered a fishing village, but the people in the village didn't care about titles like kings, but believed in a religion they had never heard of. Benjamin showed them the power of magic, but they pretended not to see it, making the situation very embarrassing.
If it were in the past, he might have put more effort into this village or something, but now he was pressed for time, so he had no choice but to leave directly and turn around and rush to the next village.
- It is a religious village anyway, and it will not turn to the church in any case.
And as he ran all the way, digging wells to eliminate thieves and win the hearts of the people, their position gradually left the border mountains to the west of Carites and approached the coastal area to the south.
These places are obviously not as remote as the small mountain villages to the west.
"Lord Benjamin, which group of church men have we encountered?"
In the dark night, after they used sneak attacks to eliminate more than a dozen church spies, Tony couldn't help but frown and said this while cleaning up the battlefield.
"The eighth team, a total of 131 people." Benjamin answered relying on the statistics of the system.
In such economically developed areas, the church's control is obviously much stronger. In some larger villages, there are even spies from the church, which has greatly hindered Benjamin's efforts to win the hearts and minds of the people.
For various reasons, they could only target villages where the church did not send anyone.
From those villages, Benjamin also got some news.
—The church used their substitute king to issue some new orders.
The first is the wanted order for Benjamin and his group. The notice stated that Benjamin and the others were extremely vicious gangsters who had stolen the king's crown and family emblem from the palace and were deceiving them everywhere, so that the people of Carites should not believe them.
To some extent, this still has an impact on Benjamin and the others. However, after Benjamin helped local villagers solve various livelihood problems, Benjamin's routine still succeeded.
After all, one was a dignitary who was far away in the royal capital and could not be seen at ordinary times. When something happened, he would quietly send an announcement; the other appeared in front of them with a smile on his face and helped them solve various problems with his own hands. Ordinary people are still very practical. If you have breasts, you are a mother. They know exactly which one to choose.
As for the other news, it is about the "state religion" that Carites recently promoted.
That's probably what happened. The church cannot come forward openly, after all, there is still a ban. Therefore, they changed their names, got themselves a new shell, and then used this new shell to start building churches in cities around the world.
And their substitute king also found the reason that he was seriously ill and was cured by them, and pushed them into the so-called state religion. Not only did he allocate funds from the national treasury, but he also gave them various political conveniences, ensuring that their development.
To some extent, the church has also begun to slowly develop its own mass base.
Benjamin was of course helpless. He wanted to stop all this, but unfortunately, they couldn't even enter the town gate, let alone disrupt the church's operations like they did in Freden. Therefore, they can do little else but work hard to develop their rural base.
The entire atmosphere in Carites suddenly became a little tense as they fought for each other.