"May fire accompany you on your journey,"
the Bishop said politely as he hustled him out the door.
the doors of the Hero Church closed behind him, giving Rod a sinking feeling of being thrown out.
But soon, he saw an envoy, accompanied by a youngster a few years older than him, approaching the door.
"Mr. Envoy, am I to discover the truth of the world here?" the young man asked timidly.
"Yes, Mr. Lanko," the envoy replied respectfully, "you will find everything here."
The young man hesitated for a moment, then mustered the courage to push open the door.
The voice of the Bishop resonated through the door once again.
"Mr. Lanko, welcome to the Hero Church."
"Do you know what the Fire Hall is?"
Rod covered his eyes, unwilling to see any more.
I took this seriously.
Afterward, the envoy explained to the dejected Rod the specific operations of the Fire Hall, its customs and rules in combat and non-combat situations, and so on.
And told him that he now belonged to the secondary combat lineup and must stay within the hall but was free to move around.
If promoted to the first line, he would have to wait in the outer hall on duty.
The Fire Hall would communicate through flame markers, and he must always pay attention to changes in the markers.
Moreover, the Fire Hall would open all its rare elements, materials, potions, ancient relics, and equipment for exchange.
All restricted, forbidden, and non-tradable items could be exchanged here.
Exchanges required Honor Badges.
Honor Badges represented all his past merits, and he could also submit spoils of war obtained during missions to exchange for badges.
If there were special needs, such as critical moments of life and death or breakthroughs, he could also submit a request to obtain the necessary materials in advance.
Rod drearily discovered that his merits for pioneering Star Town had been offset by the ownership rights of Star Town.
Minus the used, his past merits translated into only twelve and a half hall honor badges in the Fire Hall.
But the logistics women were quite surprised.
"Twelve badges upon entering the hall!"
"My God, how does he have so many?"
"Did you come in based on merit?"
Rod retorted, "What do others come in based on?"
The logistics women giggled, "Based on strength, of course."
This made Rod even more demoralized. Everyone else comes in based on strength and I just slipped in through the back door?
However, what happened next made Rod somewhat happy; it seemed that one of the logistics women recognized him and shouted, "It’s Rod!"
In an instant, all eyes of the logistics women were on him.
Amidst the sound of rummaging, several spiritual energy printed actual photos were turned over.
"The black foodie, the savior from Iron Cross Street, the ruler of the sewers, Theodore’s beloved, the pioneer of Star Town!"
"No wonder he has twelve hall honor badges right as he comes in."
"Oh my God, I can’t believe I’m seeing him in person. Is this real? Am I dreaming?"
"Wuu wuu wuu, I’ve waited so long, in those dreary days, only news of little Rod could excite me, making me feel humanity still has hope."
"He’s the man of my dreams every night!"
"Every tear I shed was for him."
"You still have tears?"
"You cheeky girl, what are you saying!"
It’s hard to imagine the atmosphere when girls gather; they seemed to completely ignore that Rod was an outsider, chattering nonstop as they swarmed him, trying to keep something as a memento.
Rod squeezed his way out of the crowd after a long struggle, nearly having his clothes torn to shreds.
Luckily, the flame marker was not actually on the collar but resided on the outermost layer of the soul.
Even if his clothes were torn off, it would not disappear.
Once he realized this, Rod simply threw his coat, shirt, pants, and everything else out, running out in only his shorts.
His clothes fell into the group of women like dropping among zombies, instantly disappearing, but it successfully diverted their attention. They started fighting over the clothes with Rod’s body heat, allowing him to escape smoothly.
"Hmm... was I really that popular?"
After leaving the logistics area, Rod was slightly cheerful.
Being popular with the opposite sex is never something to be upset about, which helped him forget the events that had occurred within the Hero Church.
He approached the supply hall bare-chested.
Most of the logistics personnel here were men, who didn’t mind at all that he was running around the hall in only his underwear.
In the hall, there was a spiritual energy crystal panel where he could check all available exchangeable materials.
Rod was astonished to find that not only were there rare materials like Sun Crystals, Holy White Tree Fruit, and Star Marrow, but also Source Material was on the exchange list.
Rod quickly returned to his dream state, carefully checking, only to be disappointed that the Child of the Stars required by "Spirit Elegy" and Ancient God Ashes required by "Frost Blue" were not included.
As he continued to scroll, Rod found that not only materials but also services could be exchanged.
Such as custom forging by a Master Forger or soul body adjustments by a Soul Master, among others.
Most outrageously, Rod discovered that even people could be exchanged.