"Get out, kids," Adam bellowed.

I stood up; my legs were shaky from sitting for nearly a day without moving. After leaving the carriage, I helped Alice climb out; she fared worse than me.

"Where are we?" I asked, stretching my legs.

"Gillsville, a few days away from the capital. We are staying for the night here," Adam said, closing the carriage door.

Finally, a bed. Sleeping in a carriage wasn't great. "Where are we staying?" I asked.

"I'll show you later. For now, you two can go and explore the town while I take care of the horses." He tossed a small satchel with coins at me. "Have fun."

I opened it and saw a few copper and silver coins; I handed the satchel to Alice.

"Let's go," she said, turning away from me and Adam.

I hastily followed her. We went towards the center of town. There was a massive church, or cathedral on the town square. Are cathedrals even a thing here? I should try to learn more about the religions of the world because even if the Gods don't do much, their churches have a big influence. "That's a big church," I said, hoping to tease some information out of Alice.

"Not just a church, a cathedral," Alice said.

"What's the difference?" I asked.

"It has priests dedicated to three or more gods, and they each should have three or more churches reporting to them." She pointed to symbols above the entrance—an eye, an anvil, and a compass. "This one is dedicated to Astradus, Talrok, and Vagaria."

There is an importance to the number three here, three attributes per type, three domains per god, even stories like to use three and nine as important numbers. I don't know whether it goes from the magic to the culture or the other way around. There is the legend of Talrok inventing dwarven magical steel after shooting nine lightning bolts at a bar of steel, which is the reason for him being depicted as a blacksmith despite being a thunder god. "Have you ever been inside a proper church?" I asked her.

"Bethelwood has a church; I got awakened in it," Alice said. "Do you want to go in?"

"Sure," I responded, hoping that my blessing didn't have weird features that would get me into trouble.

We went to enter the cathedral; it was cold inside. Soon after entering, a middle-aged [Priest] with a compass pendant approached us.

"Welcome, weary travelers," the middle-aged priest greeted us with a warm smile. He looked at me in fascination. "I sense a lengthy path behind you, and the road ahead stretches even farther. Is there anything I can assist you with, you two?"

"We were admiring your cathedral," Alice replied. "Could you give us a tour?"

"Of course, both I and the Goddess would be delighted to have the chance. Follow me," he responded.

We followed him around the cathedral; he stopped at each stained glass window to explain the scene. He explained some of the more important things in the church, with an emphasis on Vagaria.

He talked a lot about how Vagaria was trying to merge her three domains into one, and that she needed all the prayers that she could get for it to be successful. It was a process that usually lasted for hundreds to thousands of years, but in her case, she was struggling since near the dawn of the age of gods.

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"When did the age of gods start?" I asked.

"That depends a lot on who you ask," he said with a chuckle. "And it depends on how you define time. For the Gods, 6000 years have passed since the end of the age of Heroes, a bit over a million years from our perspective since the time where the nine hells and nine heavens were established by the Gods. That's what I, as a follower of Vagaria, use as the start of the age of Gods and the end of the age of chaos. If you ask a follower of Astradus, he would only give you the time that the Gods experienced since the age of Heroes."

"The elves made up a time between the age of Heroes and the current age, calling it the age of Demons from when the ability to summon heroes ended to the time that we could summon angels and devils. Nowadays we use demon and devil interchangeably when talking about beings from the hells," Alice commented.

"And that's why my church calls it the age of chaos, and not the age of demons, so that nobody is inspired to summon ţ̶̙͎̤͚̝͕̪͙̒̈́͊ḩ̵̨̼̮̪̠̘̠̼̫͚̼̪̘̣̈̋́͆͐̅̓͂ȩ̸̠͓͚̰͙͍̓͛̀̆̾̅̔͛͋̾͑̀̕͠͝m̵̢̧͍͕̖̄̀͛̈̍̀͊͒ͅ." The [Priest] said.

As we were leaving, he offered us a minor blessing; Alice accepted enthusiastically, and I followed her lead to not stand out.

You are about to receive the [Safe Travels (minor)] blessing.

Do you consent?

[YES]

[NO]

I haven't seen that type of System message in this life. The system seems consistent with the types of messages; so far, I can categorize them into normal, priority, and choice. With this one, I can tell what the Blessing will do and how long it will last. I didn't know that not all of them were permanent; seems obvious in hindsight. I accepted it, hoping that the other blessing wouldn't interfere in any way.

[Safe Travels (minor)]

You are less likely to be in travel-related accidents; monsters will avoid you while traveling; fortuitous encounters are more likely.

Lasts one day.

For some reason, Loki's Blessing has different formatting from everything else. It makes me want to believe that I am just in a coma after hitting my head when walking out of that fucking shower.

Alice tossed a few coins into the donation basket that the priest held out.

After leaving the cathedral, Alice and I explored the town further. Gillsville had a quaint charm to it, with narrow cobblestone streets and small shops lining the sidewalks. Eventually, we made our way back to where Adam was taking care of the horses. Adam noticed our return and looked up, wiping his hands on a cloth.

"Enjoy the tour?" he asked with a grin.

"Yeah, the cathedral was fascinating. We even got a blessing," Alice replied.

Adam chuckled. "Good choice. Now, let's head to the inn. I've got a room for us."

The inn was a cozy place with a welcoming atmosphere. After a hearty meal, we retired to our room. The creaking bed felt like a luxury compared to the carriage.

The next morning, we woke up, gathered our belongings, and headed downstairs for breakfast. Our breakfast spread consisted of warm, crusty bread, honey-drizzled porridge, and freshly picked berries with herbal tea accompanying it. After finishing we went to wait by the carriage.

"Since you are going to the capital, you must have something special about you," Alice said.

"Yeah, wanna see?" I asked.

"Sure," she replied. I touched her nose with my index finger.

"Try to get it off." I said. She pulled back, but my finger was stuck. She kicked me in my crotch.

A boy collapsed from laughter at our antics. "I think I—" he stammered out before returning to laughing. "I think I am supposed to join you; I'm Jack."

"Nice to meet you, Jack," Alice and Adam said in unison. "We're leaving as soon as Arthur recovers from the hit to his pride," Adam said.