“You can tell the elder I’m waiting outside.”

Placating the workers, Tepo leisurely reached the door and stepped outside. Varei grasped the perfect moment and hastily followed him.

The spirit still didn’t dare to reveal himself, following the plan, sneaking into the park and carefully returning to the dorm building.

A short while later elder Trang stepped outside.

“Come with me!”

Tepo obediently followed the elder to one of the forum’s arenas, registered his fight, and left without any hiccups.

Back at the dorm he returned to his room normally.

After Gold’s remarks earlier he wanted to have a word with Yerive, but unfortunately his best friend was not home. Tepo sighed deeply, a bad feeling in his stomach, entering his own room.

Finally, a small creature appeared, scrutinizing the room with skeptical eyes.

“Is this where you live?”

“Yes. Most of the time.”

“Really? But it’s so… dirty. And barren.”

Tepo let out a chuckle watching Varei hop on his bed, the only furniture he bought himself.

“You heard it yourself. I’m a poor beggar. I can’t afford a luxurious villa.”

“It’s a disgrace for a noble dragon spirit like me to live here…”

“Well, then let’s get stronger quickly. I’m sure with a higher rank earning money won’t be difficult.”

With those words Tepo took out the Raunarum, causing Varei’s eyes to sparkle.

“Mine!”

The spirit moved almost faster than during their fight with the guardian as he snatched the strange ball.

Subsequently the two warriors began training arduously. Varei worked on engraving the forbidden spell.

Tepo cautioned him repeatedly to take it slow and learn rune for rune. But he was soon amazed by the small spirit’s progress.

Eager to get his own forbidden spell Varei brute forced the process. With his mental strength beyond the average human the engraving was much more stable.

But from the seventh rune onwards the small sprit was still met with difficulties. Tepo was planning to give his partner a pill once the possibility was high that he would finish in one try.

However, Varei didn’t wait for Tepo as he took out bottles of pills from his spatial ring, leaving his partner baffled.

Tepo understood that his concerns were wasted and focused on his own training. He was amazed as he noticed that with the [Life Bond] even his absorption speed increased.

This even allowed him to take some time and sort out his spells. He was finally able to learn the spell Quill and Anvil sent him with their letter.

It was a spell which could be considered a must-have, but because of its high demand it was hard to get one’s hand on it.

Still, all warriors aimed for it as the difference between someone with this or similar spells and someone without them was too big.

Naturally it was the popular, six-runed [Flash].

Tepo couldn’t suppress the smile on his face as he engraved this spell providing instantaneous short-distance movement. The only disadvantage of this spell was its actually popularity.

Many warriors were so familiar with the spell, that they could figure out the direction their enemy flashed in from the tiniest clues. Thus, it was necessary to combine the spell with others.

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Tepo decided to use [Chaotic Evasion] for this purpose.

The young man felt full of confidence with his all-around improvement. With his and Varei’s spells at hand he had options for all situations.

Thus, Tepo felt like he could soon consider advancing his rank. But his core was absorbing force all the time without any signs of filling up.

To Tepo’s surprise he didn’t have to blindly trust his core this time. The communication between him and the Core of Time had improved considerably. Probably because of the [God's Soul].

Thus, the Core of Time could even explain that it directly wanted to advance to the peak of the acolyte rank in one go.

To reach the acolyte rank a warrior must fill the bridges between their runes with force and then lead all the force back to the core in one swoop.

Most warriors would choose to advance one step at a time, beginning with the bridges between the first three rings. Talents however would directly fill the first six rings.

Only the most confident geniuses would fill all bridges at once, directly reaching the peak of the acolyte rank after success.

Tepo had learned of this possibility before, knowing that it was rather dangerous, only feasible with a powerful core.

However, since the Core of Time exuded a confident feeling, Tepo complied with its plans. With his current training speed, he should soon have enough force, ready to advance in maybe two months.

Like this, two weeks quickly passed. Tepo was in a good mood, with his only worry being that he hadn’t seen Yerive at all during this time.

Even his dormmates had no idea where Yerive was. As his concern deepened, Tepo even considered questioning the aristocrats or sneaking into the Church of Guiding Nature, but Shorey anxiously dissuaded him.

Fortunately, Yerive soon returned unharmed, gathering his friends in the room.

“Yerive. Where have you been?”, asked Tepo with a smile on his face. The atmosphere was a bit awkward as Gold’s words swirled in Tepo’s mind.

“I have been earning some crystals, training…. you know.”

Yerive was not overly enthusiastic, increasing Tepo’s worry.

“Have you been well? If you want to earn crystals, you can always tell me. We can do some missions together.”

“Right, mate. We’re always up for missions.”, encouraged Shorey as well.

Meanwhile Quordh silently studied Yerive’s face, realizing that the young man seemed rather awkward.

“Cutey, do you need some help?”

Yerive nodded with an embarrassed smile:

“Yes… well, no. Not me.

You see, Team Blue Hyacinth of the Church of Guiding Nature has activated a dungeon.

But the exploration isn’t going well, and they are now searching for some manpower…

So… if any of you might have time...

But you don’t need to! Only, if possible, you know.”

Tepo frowned heavily, leading to Yerive getting more embarrassed.

“I don’t mind.”

“Yes, you can count on us.”

Shorey and Quordh weren’t bothered but Tepo couldn’t help but be suspicious:

“Why would you help the church? Are they paying well?”

“Well, they don’t…”

Yerive took a deep breath as he spoke:

“… but since I joined the church, I can’t shrink my duty.”

“YOU WHAT?!”

Tepo couldn’t believe his ears, his eyes building.

Although everyone in the room had felt Tepo’s aversion of gods before, they were still surprised by his violent reaction.

“Mate, calm down. The Church of Guiding Nature are good people. You should be happy for Yerive.”

“Shorey is right. Congratulations Yerive.”

Yerive didn’t know what to feel, only smiling quietly.

“NO! Yerive, please think it over! You can’t trust gods! Don’t end up as a slave to their whims! Leave the church, quickly!”

Everyone frowned heavily. They felt as if Tepo was going crazy as he pleaded Yerive. But the tone of his voice sounded so genuine and full of emotion that the dormmates were left confused.

“Tepo, this… is my decision! I have made good friends there. Please, I hope you can accept this.”

“Yes, cutey. It seems… you had bad experiences with religion. I can’t understand what’s going on in you, but you need to fight your prejudice.

You know, why don’t you take this as a chance and let Yerive show you that most churches are benevolent places?”

“No, no, no. Guys, please believe me. Don’t trust them.

Do you remember the dungeon from the clearance event? The big war?

It was entirely orchestrated by the head priest following the God of War!

They made the general use a forbidden spell to get his heart and cast a slave ritual upon it! That’s the true face of gods!”

In a bout of desperation Tepo didn’t even care and took out the book he found in the dungeon.

“Look. It’s all written here!”

At least this move proved somewhat effective. But…

“But it’s just a dungeon, mate. We don’t know if what we see in there has any connection with reality.”

“Of course it does. We can take things from the dungeon back to reality! They are not illusionary! Come guys, look here!”

Tepo opened the notebook, pointing out the information he was able to discern. He didn’t even notice that the first to take a serious look was still Yerive.

Unfortunately, although the book told of a forbidden spell, there was no mention of the slave ritual.

Yerive felt conflicted as he carefully addressed his friend:

“Tepo… maybe Quordh is right. If you have more contact with the church, you will understand that they don’t have any kinds of terrifying schemes.

Inurol’ah and Droa’va are good people, right? They helped as quite a bit.”

Tepo fell silent, disappointment in his heart. He knew that he couldn’t change everyone’s opinion without evidence.

This only showed him how normalized religions are in this world. If he wanted to convince others of fighting against outsiders, he had to find concrete clues.

With chaotic emotions, Tepo looked at Yerive’s hopeful face. In the end he could only let out a sigh.

“Ok. I will come with you.”

Yerive smiled in relief. Although he realized that Tepo still had his bias, the young man was already pondering how to convince his best friend.

Meanwhile, Tepo decided to keep an eye on Yerive and the Church. He vowed to observe closely and show Yerive the church’s true nature.