Melton was on the carriage that was eventually going to take him down to the Capital. The Capital is a large fortified city where the king and his ministers do all their administrative work. The city was built around a river, so there are quite a few bridges. It is also a city in which many churches that worship Higher beings reside. One of them was the church of Bytos where Melton was heading. The carriage was shaking, but since he traveled quite a lot in his past life it was not much of an issue for him. The person operating the carriage was an elderly man, presumably in his sixties, with a grey mustache and a cap. Since he was getting bored and was the only passenger, Melton decided to talk with the man. The old man happily shared some of his own stories and killed time with Melton. His name was Marcus and he was working as a carriage rider for quite a long time. When he was young, his parents died early and he had to take care of his siblings and home. He and his twin brother Nicol were working very hard to earn money and feed the family but since there were 8 of them it required a lot of effort. One day when he was wandering around the forest picking up mushrooms and berries to sell he stumbled upon a group of bandits that were transferring some goods they stole. He quietly eavesdropped on their conversation and learned the location at which they will make the transaction. After getting back to town he alerted the guards of Thorpes. They decided to listen to the young boy and set an ambush. After the bandits were imprisoned and goods were taken from them, the authorities decided his contribution should not be left unrewarded. Marcus knew that what he needed the most was a stable source of income but, since he was too young, they did not want to make him work as a guard. The mayor knew Marcus was good with animals so he had him learn how to ride a carriage so he could deliver the goods from the town and back. He then became a transporter's apprentice until he learned how to ride and take care of horses himself. His talent helped him emancipate himself quite fast, and so the horse and the carriage that the bandits used to steal and plunder villages were now his tools for helping the city and his family. The story with the bandits made him quite popular, so his days were filled with riding day and night which helped him feed his family and even start his own. On the way to one of the smaller villages filled with humble people who grow wheat and corn, he found a woman who shone as none did. Every time he would visit the village he would prepare flowers and compliments to give to the girl that touched his heart. After about a year, he collected a nice sum of money and decided to buy a ring and propose. 45 years later, they have 3 kids and 4 grandchildren. His oldest son, Eugen, became a scholar in the Capital and is happily married and blessed with a son. His oldest daughter, Daisy, became a pharmacist and fell in love with a merchant. She is married and recently gave birth to her second daughter. His youngest son, Sheldon, followed the same path his father did and is married to a girl he was friends with since childhood.

Melton found the story quite interesting. Even though he did not like younger people in his world, he was always fascinated by the struggles and efforts that older people had to go through. Marcus was also quite a nice and polite person who did not boast about the struggles he survived, which made Melton amassed in his stories. People, especially older generations, usually took great pride in what they did and the life they had, so they think highly of themselves which would ruin the story in the listener's eyes. Melton would ask Marcus if he had any stories about his travels, people he met, or things he witnessed. Marcus had excitement in his eyes as if he was waiting for someone to ask him that since the dawn of ages, and gladly began to speak while the carriage was going forward. He spoke of the great Capital filled with beautiful mansions and a plaza with a fountain in the middle. About the variety of races and people there with many beliefs and ideologies. He also spoke about a few times he was tasked to deliver something from outside the country and the many beautiful scenes he witnessed. Majestic mountains, raging through the clouds in a certain southern kingdom, a massive complex of houses built on trees on the west side of a certain continent, mystic lights lighting up the night sky out north. He did not have many opportunities to travel far, but every time he did, it was an experience that would live forever inside his heart and mind. When he would come back he would also find souvenirs and bring them back to his family. Even though he visited so many fascinating places, there was still one place that was dearest to him, and that is the town he grew up in and the place where his family is waiting for his return: Thorpes. Stories continued for hours and hours until they reached a certain flat area where they stopped to spend the night. Marcus went to take care of his horse, and Melton started preparing a sandwich from the ingredients he had in his bag. While preparing, he would take a bit of cheese and dry meat on occasion and noticed the cheese tasted unusually good. It was the same sensation he had when eating with the priest. After he made sandwiches, Marcus lit a fire using a device resembling a lighter. They ate the food, prepared blankets, and went to sleep. Early in the morning, Marcus woke up Melton to resume their travel as soon as possible. They picked up all the things they had and continued to go on. After about 5 hours they reached their first checkpoint, which was one of the merchant cities where they would resupply and spend the night at the inn. What Melton noticed during the stay at the inn was that it was not only the cheese, but milk as well, that tasted extraordinary. He concluded that it seems like his body has a unique reaction to all dairy products here, and it seemed like he was correct. After sleeping through the night, they went on their way again and continued to travel. Since their horse was quite well-rested they went to the next checkpoint without having to spend the night on the open field. After taking a small break in the city and feeding the horse they were ready to reach the final destination of their travel, the Capital Frostford. After reaching the city gates, a guard greeted Marcus and let him in without any hassle. Melton was confused, but Marcus said that it is one of the benefits of working honestly and properly for so long. Since he always did his job to the best of his abilities while being kind to everyone, including the guards, Marcus was a face the Capital would gladly welcome with open arms. Melton knew the Capital would be large when seeing it from the outside, but only upon getting inside did he realize how massive that place is. "It is the Capital of Urfon for a reason," Marcus said while they were riding the fine road toward the center of the town.

Upon getting into the central district near the plaza, Melton saw a massive church with very unique decorations. In front of the church, there was the priest and four guards protecting him. The moment he noticed Marcus and Melton he immediately rushed towards them happily while waving at them. The guard was surprised at how quick and careless the priest was so they hurried as well. When the priest reached their carriage, Melton noticed that he was quite young. It was a young man in his twenties with pitch-black hair and eyes that stood out in his white robes and pale white skin.

"Hello, Marcus. Is this Melton?" the priest said with excitement

The guards caught up and started scolding the priest for suddenly running without a guard to protect him. The priest ignored their words and approached Melton face to face with an excited smile and asked him.

"Are you by any chance Melton?"

"Yeah..." Melton replied, backing away a bit as the priest was invading his personal space.

"Great! You were the person I was waiting for."

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The priest grabbed Melton and lifted him out of the carriage. The moment Melton's body weight reached his shoulder, they both collapsed to the ground.

The guards were shocked and worried because of what happened. They quickly lifted them both but this time decided to keep holding the priest so he won't do any more jests. The guard who helped Melton up apologized for the priest's rash actions while others were very angry at what the young priest did.

"Well, the important thing is that we get going. Come on Melton, lemme show you around the church." the young priest said and started heading towards the church, this time at regular walking speed. Marcus said his farewells and went on his way, and Melton followed the young priest inside. The two guards that helped him get up were guarding him against both sides while the other two were guarding the priest until they both reached the inside. The church was massive, far larger than any church he ever saw, in Thorpes or his previous life. They reached an empty praying hall. There was a statue of a Higher being Bytos also known as "The Hand of Deals". The statue resembled an eyeball with lids cut in half surrounded by rings rotating around it and flying hands. Since they were not able to make the statue levitate, they had to hang each part from the ceiling. When they got closer to the statue, the priest started talking.

"The thing you are looking at is a statue of Bytos, one of the Higher beings that govern this world and the protector of contracts. In this world when two people agree upon a deal and shake hands the deal they made is blessed by Bytos. Upon trying to break the deal you made you will be forced to finish it and will experience great pain if you were to keep disobeying. I even heard some people died because they could not achieve what they said they will. And I am one of the high-ranking priests in this church, Mathias. A few days ago I got a message from an oracle that you will arrive and that you shall be of great help to this world. It got me so excited I barely slept the last few days."

"Ok, ok, but what should I do exactly"

"I dunno. We can pray together and maybe he will answer us."

"You seem optimistic for someone that does not know anything about these things"

"And you are a very interesting fellow, darling," Mathias said while winking at him.

"Please don't do that ever again"

"Jeez, you are no fun. Anyway, let's get started."

"But how should I pray anyway?"

"C'mon, man. Just connect your hands since that is one of the signatures of Bytos, close your eyes, and hope you can contact him."

Melton did the things as the priest instructed him to and, together, they started praying. He was then teleported to the same dark place he saw when he died, but this time it started getting brighter until it was completely white. Surprisingly enough, the whiteness did not hurt his eyes and was pleasant just like the one he saw when hands connected and spoke to him. Next to him was Mathias who sat down with his legs crossed with his hands on his knees. Bytos appeared in front of them. He looked just like the statues did. The three rings surrounding his eye were slowly rotating and at least 10 hands were floating around him. One pair of hands started flying above his eye and rings and connected just the way it did in the afterlife. The light appeared again and the Higher being started speaking.

"I once again excuse myself for having to bother you, young Melton."

"At least it is more pleasant being surrounded by this white light than being in pitch blackness."

"I see. Unlike Xatris who likes to make her appearance flashy and special, I prefer things to be simple and formal"

"That is fair. Anyway, what was the reason I got summoned this time?"

"Due to Xatris being weak by default, we were not able to give you much information about the things you have to do or the powers you were given, so I decided to help you with that."

"Okay then, let me hear it," Melton said with confidence

"We are all glad you're as confident as you are. It will indeed help you a lot in the future. First things first, I owe you more information about this world. You can think of this world as some sort of medieval fantasy from famous books in the world where you resided. Many races resemble humans but have differences such as elves, dwarves, and many others. They are all unique because of the conditions their ancestors lived in which forced them to evolve in many different ways. Elves lived in areas with heavy forests and spirits so they became excellent hunters and botanists. Dwarves grew up in a region with heavy mountains so they are hairier and smaller. Since mountains are rich in metals, they were traditionally good smiths and inventors. Devils lived in a place where there was little food, so they were forced to eat anything they had. Because of that, they are excellent fighters and have immunity to most poisons. To make it easier for everyone, Higher beings decided to give them aid in return for prayers by giving them blessings and help. Because of the influence of Higher beings, people started being born with unique abilities and started spreading their domains. After building large settlements they all started cooperating to prosper everyone's lives and started building churches to pray and gain blessings. Every person is born with a unique ability that depends from person to person and the only limit to those abilities is the imagination and stamina of the individual."

"So that means that even I got something right?"

"Indeed. You can extend, manipulate and regenerate your bones. You also gain increased regeneration and exhaustion relief from sources of calcium, like dairy products"

"So that is why cheese and milk here taste so good?"

"Exactly. You will be able to master it quickly as long as you learn to use your imagination to visualize new ways to attack. There is another thing you need to know though."

"And that thing is?"

"There is an organization of few extremely powerful individuals that brings a huge amount of trouble and torment to this world. There is not a lot that is known about them except that they go by the name of Council of Torment and that their leader is called Helios Aloniss. They spread their roots deep into countries and collect exceptional individuals to add to their ranks. It seems they plan to cause an all-out catastrophe and destroy all the countries. Even though it seems like a hard task, all the Higher beings are asking for you to stop their plans and save the people of this world. You can feel free to gather a team of elite fighters and use their help to reach this goal".

The moment Bytos finished speaking, Mathias jumped on his legs and said

"Elite fighter? Sounds like a job to me. Church work is boring I am thirsty for action"

"Great! You got your first ally! Since he is a member of my church, I can guarantee his skills and strength."

"You sure about this?" Melton said, a bit worried.

"Worry not. He may not look like it but his birth was blessed and he has quickly earned his place here as one of the youngest high-rank priests."

"Yeah, no worries. I am super strong."

"Ok, can we get our way now? I would like to test my powers."

"If that is what you wish. Farewell, young ones. I wish you the best of luck on all your adventures." Bytos said and they both awoke from the trance.

After waking up, they went to the training ground reserved for the church guard and Melton tested his abilities. After putting his hand forward and imagined a sharpened bone growing out of the back of his hand and piercing the dummy. What he imagined happened in a split second and there was a hole in both the dummy and the wall.

"So cool!" Mathias said excitedly and asked, "Wanna see my power?"

"Why not."

Mathias reached his hand out and a beam as wide as his shot out of it, piercing the dummy with ease. After connecting with the wall, the wall beam started bouncing around missing Melton's foot only barely.

"What the hell was that!?"

"This is my ability. It is an energy blast, but it can only pierce certain objects like thin metal, cloth, wood, and flesh. It is kind of made to only kill people and pierce their armor so it bounces off the other things like stone."

"I am pretty sure that fact makes it far deadlier than a regular blast."

"Yup. Except the stone golem would beat my ass with ease"

"Uh. Ok. Anyway. What should we do now?"

"I think we should go to the mercenary guild so you can gain combat experience, and then go to the information guild to get info on the Council of Torment.".

"Alright then. Time to start our new adventure!".