Chapter 10 I Take a Bath

The Temple of Amoris was not what I was expecting. I was thinking something like an old Greek temple like in the movies. What I got was a hospital combined with a church.

From the outside, it was a white stone building with three floors. There were stained glass windows and huge wooden doors. The doors were propped open with a large brick. People stood in line at the door and were let in by an old man with a clipboard. A little boy of about 8 would run up, the old man would say something to the boy, and the boy would lead the person into the building.

I got in line behind a young scantily dressed woman. She turned and looked at me up and down.

"When I'm done here perhaps the two of us can have a good time." She leaned in and showed her cleavage while simultaneously lifting her skirts and showing her leg. My Gamer Glass started flashing with an alert.

*Status Anomaly- Mushroom Rot~

I didn't know what Mushroom Rot was but since I was getting the alert it probably wasn't a good thing.

"No, thank you," I said firmly. She clicked her tongue at me and turned back around.

I entered Mushroom Rot into my search.

*STD- Mushroom Rot- Contagious, Mushroom Rot causes boils and lesions to occur in and around the genitals and mouth. Can be cured by any temple healer. (Charges may vary depending on which temple you visit.) Treatment involves visiting the temple every day for seven days. A magical film is placed over the infected area and left on for one day to be replaced the next day by a new magical film. The temple healer will need to have direct contact with the infected area in order to place the film. During this time all sexual activity must be discontinued as the act of sex breaks the film disrupting the course of treatment. While the film is in place a patient may perform normal bodily functions without concern.~

Well, then. I had been strangely curious about the prostitutes which worked nearby, but standing in line behind one who was infected curbed that curiosity. Marge wasn't kidding when she said that I could return with a rotted member.

When it was my turn in line the old man asked.

"Healing, springs, or devotion?"

"I'm not sure, I was told to come here by Amoris."

"Our Lady blesses us, you will be wanting to talk to one of our priests then." He turned to the child who had just passed the prostitute to a woman with a white apron. "Andy, who is free right now?"

"Darcy and Crue just finished their shifts they haven't gone upstairs yet," the boy answered.

"Fetch Crue for me please."

"Yes, sir." The child ran off.

"Crue is one of our healer priests. He should be able to take care of you. If you would be so kind as to wait on that bench over there." The man pointed to a bench along the wall. The little boy returned.

"He's on his way, he's just cleaning up," the child reported to the man.

The duo sorted out more people in line. Some were wanting to visit the hot springs, some were here to pray to Amoris, but the majority of the people were in line for healing. Perhaps that was why the inside of the building looked more like a hospital than a temple.

A young man approached, he had brown messy hair, blue-gray eyes, and a very white smile. He had a slight chin dimple with just the slightest remains of chin stubble. He was wearing normal brown clothes but had a pink vestment with magic circles embroidered in silver worn around his shoulders.

"Hello, my name is Crue." He introduced himself with a handshake. "I'm one of the healing priests, what can I do for you?" His smile was contagious. It was that open friendly smile that made me ask my question.

"My name is Eri, you wouldn't happen to have a brother?" I shook his hand.

"So you've met Sturgis! You're not the first person to say we look alike. Though I'm not the size of a tree!" He laughed. "I'm his younger brother. Nice to meet you Eri. Are you new to Yellow Springs?"

"Yes, I just arrived today. I know this might sound odd, but Amoris told me that you would be expecting me? It's about the chocolate."

Crue's eyes got wide and his smile became even wider.

"We had been told that someone would eventually show up at a Temple of Amoris with the chocolate, but we never expected it to be our temple. We had just assumed it would be in the capital. Our head priest, Dickson, will want to meet you immediately. Please follow me."

He led me through the temple, past an area that had a huge statue of Amoris. It was a surprisingly good likeness. There were people placing offering at the foot of the statue. Some were talking to other priests with pink vestments. Towards the back talking to a young woman, was a man whose vestments were even more heavily embroidered than Crue's. We waited while he finished with the woman and then approached.

"Dickson, this is the man Amoris spoke about," Crue introduced me. Then stood to the side as I spoke with the middle-aged, slightly overweight, man.

"Amoris sent word to all our oracles today. This new chocolate stuff is amazing. A true gift from our Lady. We are all simply ecstatic about it. It's not often that a deity decides to patron something new. I've been in contact with some of the other temples and we've all been eagerly waiting for Amoris' Emissary to show." Dickson gushed at me. He gripped my forearm after the handshake and pulled me into a bear hug. He smelled of old leather and incense.

*Title Gain- Emissary of Amoris~

Well, that was new. Not only was I a devotee and an oracle now I was her emissary as well.

I explained to Dickson how my Inventory Bracelet worked. I told him about the three types of chocolate bar and the hot chocolate. Dickson had Crue fetch mugs of warm milk and the three of us stood there in the middle of Amoris' Temple drinking hot chocolate. When we were done, we negotiated a price for each chocolate bar and for the hot chocolate packets. They weren't yet sure just how much chocolate should sell for or even if there would be a demand for it. However, having tasted the chocolate himself, Dickson was certain there would be a demand. We agreed on 1000 bars bought for 3 coppers each and 200 packs of hot chocolate at 1 copper each.

The three of us went to a back storage room. There were three boxes of chocolate sitting on a shelf. It looked like the room had been cleaned out recently. I briefly wondered what the room had been used for before it became the chocolate room.

"If I might make a suggestion," I said sitting in the middle of the room pulling bars of chocolate out of my inventory in hundred unit boxes. Crue was busy stacking them up on the shelves. "You might consider giving the chocolate away for free as a celebration gift to the devotees. Celebrate Amoris becoming the patron of chocolate for the next week, then after word has gotten around about the chocolate, you can sell it." A very small part of me felt like a drug dealer. Have one little try, the first one is free, after that, I own your soul. Chocolate was just as addictive as any drug in my opinion.

"That might be a good idea." Dickson frowned trying to work out the logistics of buying a product then giving it out for free. "How much cost would the temple have to eat before we see a profit?" He wondered allowed.

"None," I told him. "Amoris was very adamant about my helping you out. This costs me nothing, but my time. I am more than willing to double our agreement with the extra being free. However, instead of giving out the entire bar to the devotees, you can make it so that each person only gets a small sample sized portions of each flavor plus a small mug of chocolate. You can then give them the option to buy the full bars and packs."

"That is very generous, and it would work like the samples the street vendors hand out to attract customers. I like it." He slapped my back in thanks.

"What about the other temples?" Crue asked stacking more boxes. "I know they were just as excited about this as we were."

"It was already decided that wherever the Emissary of Amoris showed up that temple would act as a testing ground. We will figure out just how popular chocolate is and determine the value. Besides, right now we can't afford to purchase chocolate for every temple in the kingdom. They will begin sending priests with gold as soon as the logistics are worked out."

"Do you mind if I ask how you are in contact with the other temples?" It had been a question I'd been meaning to ask ever since Dickson mentioned talking with the other temples earlier.

"We are blessed enough to be able to afford a communication mirror. They are rather expensive, but we petitioned the main temple in the capital about three years ago. Our temple mirror can communicate with all other communication mirrors connected with the Temple of Amoris. Everyone else has to wait for the slower mail system to receive communications."

So they could communicate long distances in real time. It was an expensive technology, but if you had the money, a convenient one.

I was handed my gold when I was done. Dickson left to work out and plan the upcoming chocolate celebration. Crue was still with me and invited me to enjoy the hot springs with him.

"Have you ever been to a hot spring before?" We were on our way to the back of the temple, passing more than a few people coming and going.

"No, I haven't."

"Well, this will be a treat. Normally, it would cost 20 coppers to enjoy our bath, but since you're with me I can get the fee waived. In fact, since you are an Oracle of Amoris and the Emissary, even if you're not a priest, you should get free admission anyway. I'll talk to Dickson about it. It's been a while, but if I remember right, if you are an Oracle of Amoris, you are supposed to receive certain temple services for free. Don't quote me on that though. It was before I became a priest that the last oracle who wasn't a priest visited the temple."

"That would be nice, the place I'm staying provides a wash basin, but a nice bath every now and then is good for the soul."

"We believe the same thing, that's why we set up the temple over a hot spring. They are even better in the winter. The snow on the ground, your hair froze to your head, but your body nice and warm, there isn't anything better than that." He paused and grinned, "Well, except love and sex. Those are pretty great."

Were priests not celibate? Well, this being Amoris the Goddess of Sex, Love, and Marriage maybe it made sense that the priests enjoyed those things too. I would have to look it up at the library in the morning. He waved at a woman at a desk, and she waved him past towards a door marked MALE.

He grabbed a few small wooden pots from the top of a stack on her desk. Different stacks had different colors painted on them. Each lid of each pot fit perfectly into the bottom of the next pot so there was little chance they would get knocked over.

We entered a sort of locker room. Crue picked up a stack of towels from a large shelf of towels. Then handed me two of them.

"Shoes go here," he slipped off his boots and shoved them in a cubbyhole by the door. Then we went further into the room with a bunch of baskets. "Take your clothes off and put them in the basket. Wrap yourself in the towel," he picked a basket and started to take off his clothes and fold them placing them neatly in the basket.

"Are you allowed to marry?" I continued our conversation from before. He gave me a look then answered.

"I care about everyone I've been with, I do love them, but I haven't experienced the type of love that would make me want to marry." He glanced at me, a little crease between his brows, then he turned and began to take off his pants.

He was very well built for a priest. He had large back muscles and a very firm behind. It made me and my paunch feel inadequate. He turned around suddenly, securing a towel around his waist. Did he notice I had been staring at his butt? Don't blush, oh, hell don't blush, poker face work dammit. I could feel my face go a little red. Shit. What the hell was I doing checking out another guys body anyway? I liked girls, but I could still appreciate a nice male body.

"You're new to Amoris aren't you?" He looked me right in the eyes. "I know you said you grew up in an Amoris orphanage, but that's not true, is it?"

I was standing there shirtless, scrambling to come up with an answer.

"What makes you say that?" I finally asked.

"You were surprised when I mentioned I enjoyed sex. Then you asked me if I could marry. If you grew up around Amoris you would have known that Amoris is one of the few temples that allows for her priests to be sexually active. You would have also known asking a priest of the Goddess of Love about his love life is also taboo. We have to counsel people on their love, we can't do that if the people know about how much or how little love experience a priest has."

What did I say? He was right that I didn't know much about Amoris. Did I try to come up with another lie? Did I tell him the truth? Amoris, what was I supposed to do?

Suddenly, Crue held up his hand and tilted his head to the side. Did he hear something? I listened too but didn't hear anything, except for running water.

"Are you OK?" I asked him when he was silent for a little too long. Then I got an incoming ping.

*Incoming Message. Please check your inventory.~

*Dear Eri,

You can trust Crue. I have told him everything about your reincarnation. He is a good man. I know that you and Crue will get along well. He can teach you many things about your new world. However, not all my priests are as trustworthy. I look forward to seeing how your relationship progresses.

Love,

Amoris XoXo~

"Did you just receive a message from our Lady too?" Crue asked.

"Too? Are you also an oracle?" I asked him.

"I wasn't until just a moment ago. It's really remarkable having her speak to you. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. Until this point, I had always just had faith. I had to trust that it was all real. Having her talk directly to me. It feels like the ultimate confirmation of faith." He was tearing up a little while wearing the biggest smile I'd seen from him yet. Then he reached out and hugged me.

"I'll take really good care of you. It's amazing. You not being from Elrich." He released me from my hug and gave me an eyebrow wiggle.

"Just so you know while I like girls, I'm also into guys," then he laughed. "Your face, I'm not going to eat you."

"Um, I..." I really didn't have an answer for that. I wasn't sure he was serious. I had flashbacks to high school. I had been going through a lot, struggling to figure myself out. I was mostly into girls, but I found myself with a crush on my best friend's brother. It had been just a crush that stemmed from my idolizing him. He was popular, funny, and had dated every cheerleader. Then one day he walks up to me with his group of friends and asks me on a date. Then his friends all started laughing and calling me gay and homo. It was a cruel joke and it hurt, but I played it off. I began to date a girl from the drama club two days later. We broke up after a week.

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Was he playing a similar kind of joke on me? I had been looking at his butt, but that didn't mean I was interested. A hard knot began to form in my stomach. Objectively, the idea didn't bother me, but I still would prefer to date a girl.

*Skill Gain Empathy~

"Don't worry about it," he smiled. "Finish getting undressed I'll go make sure there are showers open." He shook his head and headed towards the next room.

I glanced at my screen. Why had I gained empathy? I wasn't feeling very empathetic. I would look up what the skill actually was later, right now I needed to focus, to make a choice.

I thought about just leaving, but Amoris said I could trust him. It's not like his preferences bothered me. I was very open-minded about the LGBTQ community. I just had a hard time believing that anyone could seriously be interested in me. In college, I had a few hookups. I officially dated two girls, both were rather short relationships. I had better luck in maintaining friendships with people than I did romantic involvements.

Still, when undergrad was over and we moved on, to either go into the workforce or on to grad school, none of my friends really kept in touch. While in college we all had that bond of 'being a student'. Once that bubble was popped by graduation, you found yourself not really connecting like you used to. Different goals, jobs, family planning all got in the way of maintaining that friendship bond.

Amoris said I could trust him. While she was scatterbrained I didn't think she'd be wrong in that. She also said she looked forward to our relationship. Did this mean that Crue and I would become friends? I would be nice to have a friend in this place.

I stepped into the shower room, and steam hit my face. It was hot in here. If I paid enough attention I could probably feel each individual pore open on my face.

"Over here," Crue waved from a spot near the other end of the room. He was seated on a wooden bench. In front of him was a spigot with a detachable shower head and a bucket under the spigot. I sat beside him, in front of my own shower head, spigot, and bucket.

He handed me a wooden pot with green paint. It was one of the pots he'd snatched at the counter earlier.

"These are a copper each if you don't work here. You can bring your own if you want." He twisted off the lid of his pot. I got a slight scent of pine.

"Crue, I don't know what this is?" I said after opening my own pot and finding a portion of pine-scented white paste at the bottom.

"You don't have soap where you are from?" He gave me a look that was part curiosity and part trying to hide disgust.

"Oh, we have soaps, all sorts of soaps," I hurried to reassure him waving my hands in protest. "We've got separate soaps for hair, skin, and laundry, but none of our soaps look like this." I held up the pot. "Most of our stuff comes in plastic bottles."

"Plastic? Bottles? If it's in a bottle how do you add the water?" He asked.

"The water is already added, I think. Plastic is a building material, I'm not sure you have it here. It's sort of like glass, but it won't shatter or break."

He nodded taking that in.

"I guess you probably have a lot of things we don't have, and we have many things you don't either. I can see why my Lady asked me to teach you."

"What did she say about me exactly?" I asked him. He had turned on his water and added a small amount to his wooden pot. I watched and did the same.

"Not too much water or it won't lather," He instructed mixing his soap with his finger. "She said that you had done a great service to the gods in your old world. She snatched your soul from the cycle of reincarnation and brought you here. You were given a few Blessings as an incentive to become a great person here as well."

"There wasn't much service to it. I ran around like an idiot, got punched, fell and broke my neck."

"The essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well. You chose to stand up and not back down even when the odds were against you. Even though you died, your fight meant something."

"I guess Amoris' 'Papa'," I made finger quotes, "went and got a woman pregnant. I guess I saved that baby and the baby will grow up to be amazing."

"I see," he nodded, "that would do it. Saving Zeus' child would be considered a heroic act."

"Wait! Zeus?" I was more than a little surprised. "Old Greek Sky God with thunder and lightning? There is no way it's the same."

"Zeus is the father of us all. He is the Lord of the Sky, the All Father. He does use thunder and lightning. Why does this surprise you? He's obviously in your world too or he couldn't have gotten that woman with child." He gave me a slightly confused glance.

"In my world, Zeus is considered a myth. He was worshiped centuries ago by a small portion of the world. Seriously, it couldn't be the same Zeus? He didn't have a daughter named Amoris for one. The Goddess of Love in my world's pantheon was named Aphrodite and she wasn't Zeus' daughter. She was born fully formed from the sea."

"I guess it's possible to have two gods with the same name. Amoris is definitely Zeus' daughter. She was born from the love he had for humans. I'll have to tell you more about it sometime, or better yet I have a book you can read. Narrating the entire creation of this world would take a while." He turned the water on for the shower head and sprayed himself until his hair was wet. "Get your hair wet then use about a third of the lather in your hair. The rest on your body."

"Going to the library is the first thing I'm doing tomorrow, but yes I'd like to borrow your book." I leaned forward and scrubbed my hair. This new soap really lathered a lot. I felt like a little kid making soap spikes with my hair.

Crue pulled down his towel a bit to wash his chest when I saw a metal glint out of the corner of my eye. Wait, was that a belly button piercing? Shit, it was. Was it something to do with Amoris? She had a little diamond. Crue didn't have a diamond, but a simple metal crescent. He flicked it with his finger. Shit, I had been staring again. He was going to think I was a weirdo.

*Skill Gain Mind Magic Resistance~

"Do you want to touch it?" He asked twisting the piercing. "I guess they don't have them where you're from?"

"Did you just use mind magic on me?" I ignored his question and focused on why I just gained a new skill. Soap dripped from my hair into my eyes. Damn, that stung. I began to rinse it out.

Crue actually looked a bit shamefaced. "I have the skill empathy..."

"That's why it popped up!" I exclaimed. "You were using it in the other room weren't you?"

I pointed at him with the end of the shower head. Water sprayed us both.

"I was, I was testing you. I wanted to see how you'd react to my question about Amoris, before she sent her message I mean. After that, I used it to see what sort of person you were. Even though Amoris likes you, you are still a stranger here."

"Still, it seems... invasive. Stop it."

"Easier said than done," he shook his head. "Empathy is one of those skills that is slightly different for each user. While I can easily trigger it, it takes some time with me by myself to turn it off. If there is someone nearby with fluctuating emotions I get distracted. I had hoped coming in here first would give me enough time, but even in the other room I could feel you." He sighed and began to rinse off.

"I'm sorry, I'll go dry off and find that book. By the time you're out of the bath, I should be fine. When you go in, make sure to keep the towel on." He pointed to the shut doors leading to the outside. "You don't need to feel bad about it."

I did feel bad about it. While yes he had been peeping on my emotions, he originally had a good motive. Would I trust me if I suddenly showed up? Probably not, even with a goddess' backing. I still didn't trust him completely either.

"You don't need to go. Because of you, I may have gained a good skill."

"Did my using empathy on you cause you to gain a skill? It doesn't usually work that way or that fast. It took me at least a year of Darcy using it on me and my studying to get it." He looked at me with a bit of a shock. He still had some soap in his hair and it was leaving little bubble trails down his neck and shoulders.

"I think it's because of my Gamer Glass Blessing, but even though I gained empathy that's not what I'm talking about. I gained mind magic resistance. You see what I mean by it being useful? I can activate it and then your empathy won't be an issue." I quickly activated the skill.

"Mind magic resistance? Wait," he paused, "you don't need to go to the devotion hall to activate a skill? Your Blessing really is amazing."

"It was actually Amoris' idea. I wanted some combat-related Blessing, but I guess she had read about this in a book and wanted to try it out."

"She used you as a test subject for a bunch of new Blessings, didn't she? Our Lady has always been a bit unpredictable."

"Isn't love always unpredictable?" I added a few more Exp to boost the mind magic resistance. "Can you still feel me?"

"You're right it is, and only slightly. I'm just getting mild impressions I can ignore them and focus on shutting you out."

"You know," I said, changing the subject. "We have those on Earth, but I've never actually met anyone who has one. Did it hurt?" I pointed to his piercing.

"Yes, a little, but I'm a healer so after the initial pinch I healed myself and that was the end of the pain." He looked down at his ring again and began to twist it a bit.

"Amoris had one," I told him, "a little diamond."

"A few of us priests here have them. It does stem from Amoris having one, but there is another meaning behind it." He hesitated before he continued. "I am a healer it's my main duty here at the temple. Amoris is a goddess of sex as well as love. Not everyone needs physical healing. Some people need emotional healing. Priests of Amoris who have this," he touched the piercing again as a group of four men came into the shower room. "Let's finish up here, I'll tell you about it when there are fewer people around."

"Alright, but are you OK? Are you still getting my emotions?"

"Yes, I'm fine, it's just not something I personally want others to overhear."

We finished scrubbing and rinsed off. He had me place the used pot on another shelf by the door. We both smelled of pine as we walked outside.

"This area is cut off from the woman's area by that wall," He pointed to a panel made of wooden boards. "When we clean it the panel folds up and we can scrub the entire bath at the same time.

There are special days when we have mixed bathing. They only happen during certain celebration periods though."

The open bath was lined with gray stone and looked more like a decorative koi pond. There were benches along the edge, inside the water, for people to sit on. Small trees and bushes made the atmosphere seem more like a garden. They sort of hid the tall stone wall that surrounded the bath. I guess it would be bad if random passersby could just look over and see people bathing.

It was just past dusk and there were short squat lamps being lit by a small boy. He walked around the perimeter touching each one. They glowed a soft yellow and made the space fairly bright. They must use magic cores like the one provided in my room at the tavern.

"Those lights, I have one in my room. I also have a water core sink, I have a short explanation of them in my Gamer Glass index, but they are new to me. They come from monsters right?" I commented nodding at the lights.

Crue lowered himself into the water and waded to the far side of the bath. I followed after him.

"It's hotter over here since the spring's source is just there." He pointed to a spot near the wooden wall that looked deeper than the rest of the bath. The surface of the water over there looked like a jet had been placed right under the surface.

He was right the bath did drastically change temperature as we got closer to the source of the spring. When you first entered it felt like a nice warm bath at home, as you wondered nearer to the source, it felt more like a hot tub.

"All monsters have cores, not all of them are magic. Only the monsters that use magic have magic cores. Magic cores are crystals that are in the bodies of monsters. The most common cores are those fire cores. They come from monsters who can use level one fire magic. We don't have many monsters that can use fire magic around here, but towards the south nearer the desert, they are all over the place. Adventurers down there kill those monsters and sell the cores to the Guild. The Guild then distributes them to all the other Guilds. Where we can buy them.

"The same thing with water cores. We do have monsters around here with water magic. So the cores we get here will be distributed elsewhere.

"The level one water and fire cores are the most common cores. If a monster can use a magic above level one the core is stronger and bigger. A level two fire core can be used to heat ovens and are particularly sought after by bakers since they can maintain a constant steady heat. They are expensive and can cost nearly 100 gold for one stone. Blacksmiths almost always use level three fire cores for the same reason as bakers, but their forges need to be a lot hotter. Those cores can cost nearly 300 gold depending on the size. Anything above a level three fire core is difficult to come by and is regulated closely by the kingdom.

"While the fire and water cores are the most common. There are other types of cores, but most of them have limited uses. There are earth cores, wind cores, lightning cores, for example.

"Metal cores are a bit special. Metal is a good conductor of magic. The metal cores can be used in making armor and weapons and they produce some of the higher quality stuff. Magic items are usually made with metal cores, like your Inventory Bracelet. The higher the level of the metal core the more magic it can hold. Your Inventory Bracelet was probably forged from a high-level metal core. While metal cores are amazing they are really rare so it's cheaper and easier just to make armor and weapons from combining regular metal and monster parts. There are some monster parts that can conduct magic too. Though nothing as strong as a metal core."

"So the higher the magic core's level I'm assuming the more dangerous the monster? Is that why they are so expensive?" I asked leaning back against the stone bench. It was surprisingly comfortable. It had probably been worn down over the years by all the butts sitting on them.

"Partly yes, but as long as there are monsters to kill there will always be someone willing to take that risk. I think most of the expense is due to there just not being that many monsters with that level of power. We have the Green Tailed Ape here. Now normal apes don't use magic, but perhaps one out of every hundred or so gain level one water magic. We aren't sure just how they learn the magic, but it does happen.

"So you have a population of a thousand apes ten of them can use level one water magic. Now adventurers go out of their way to kill them right away because the cores will gain them extra profit and apes are really simple monsters to kill. There is another reason though. If left to themselves sometimes these magic using apes can learn level two water magic. These are called Queen Apes and can be rather dangerous. So adventurers try and kill the magic users before they become dangerous."

"So a Queen Ape can be killed for a level two magic core, but there are higher levels right?"

"Yes, the Green Tailed Ape is a really weak monster normally. Their stats are usually Lv 2 or so.

So an ape that can use water magic at level 1 typically has a stat of Lv 15. Their Queen Ape that can use level 2 water magic has a base stat of Lv 30 or so. These are weaker monsters normally. You won't find a Green Tailed Ape with a level four magic core. To get the higher level cores you need to kill stronger monsters.

"If you want a level three core you'd have to find a monster with base stats of around Lv 50. Level four cores would take a monster about Lv 100. Very dangerous monsters and usually for monsters like that the army gets involved. You would need a combo team of army and adventures to take down a Lv 100 monster.

"If you think of it a level three fire core is hot enough to use in forges. So what would a level four do? Theoretically, the core levels are as infinite as the monster can continue to get stronger. Adventurers try and prevent that sort of disaster from happening to begin with by killing the monster while it's still fairly weak."

"Has there ever been a monster so strong it took an army?" I asked.

"Not recently, I think the last time was when I was a kid. There was a Sand Wyrm that had a level four earth core that the army had to team up with the Guild to take down. Now they have been active in taking down large groups of monsters, but single powerful monsters, no."

"So the army took that core, right? What did they do with it?"

"Well, they take them and put them away. I think the last time any of them were used was during the last big war. That would have been nearly forty years ago I think."

"Who were you fighting against. Demons?"

"No, We haven't had a war with the demons for hundreds of years, thank the gods. It was with the Zyanthropes."

I tried to picture Mildred the goat going to war. Somehow, I had a hard time imagining her in armor, let alone wielding a sword.

"We should probably get out now, if you stay too long you can get heat stroke."

We got out and dried off. It was unfortunate that I had to change back into my dirty clothes, but they were my only set. I looked at my pants. I had tried to rinse the blood off them before I got to town but you could still sort of see the stains around the edges of the rips in the fabric.

"Would you like to borrow a pair of mine? They will be big on you, but at least they will be clean. You can return them later."

"That would be nice. Thank you," I agreed.

"Wait here I'll go get them and that book I promised." Crue left me sitting in the changing room examining my pants. I had some money now, pants shouldn't be that expensive. There was that place that Sturgis pointed out on the way to the Guild. I should go there tomorrow. I wanted to go to the library in the morning and I had plans to meet my trainer later in the morning. I didn't know how long that would take. It was possible they would want to set out and begin right away. In that case, I might not make it back in time. I didn't know when Durmond's closed, but it was possible they held similar hours to the library.

"You know we should meet up tomorrow to take you shopping for the things you need," Crue said as he came back, book and a pair of brown pants in hand. "You don't really have any of the things you need. Soap for example, even if you don't use our hot springs you will need soap to clean yourself up in your room. Some extra clothes and I doubt you have any night clothes either."

He looked at me and smiled, "Of course I won't judge you if you prefer to sleep in the buff."

"I was just thinking I needed to go shopping. Sturgis showed me where Durmond's was and I thought I'd go there for pants, but to be honest I don't really know what I'm looking for with anything else."

"I've got some work to do in the morning, but if you want to meet up sometime around mid-afternoon I can take you shopping for the stuff you need."

"That should work," I thought if I told my new trainer I had to purchase necessities they would cut the meeting short.

Crue's pants really didn't fit right at all. They were tight around the waist and really long in the legs. He didn't look like it, but he really was a tall guy. Maybe not as big as his brother, but still hitting at least six foot. I had to roll up the hem.

"OK, I'll meet you at Durmond's at 4 o'clock tomorrow. That should give us enough time to get some clothes then head towards the market for some other stuff. I'm going to be busy for the next few weeks so we should really try to get everything you need in one go."

"Thank you for your help, I appreciate it."

"It's not a problem, I need to get a few things for work too."

Our plans made, Crue saw me to the front of the temple and waved as I left. We had our awkward moments, but a small part of me hoped that we would end up as friends. I guess I was just lucky so far that most of the people I had met had been friendly.

Name- Eri Veritas

HP 1954/2335

MP 61/64

Level- 11

Age- 18

Race/Species- (Human) Unknown

Gender- (Male) Unknown

Occupation- Surveyor of Adventurers Guild

Exp- 167

Physical Power- 220

Stamina- 278

Defense- 348

Agility- 489

Intelligence- 84

Magic Power- 8

Metal Rain Lv 1

Healing Hands Lv 1

Paralysis Resistance Lv 3

Mind Magic Resistance Lv 1

Skills

Staff Fighting Lv 2

Basic Sword Lv 2

Skull Bashing Lv 2

Martial Arts Lv 2

Spear Lv 1

Stalking Lv 1

Jumping Lv 1

Running Lv 2

Pain Tolerance Lv 3

Deception Lv 2

Poker Face Lv 1

Etiquette Lv 3

Rock Throwing

Dancing

Harvesting

Empathy

Small Talk

Discretion

Racial Ability-

Hidden Among the Masses- 20

Stealth- 95

Items Equip

Inventory Bracelet

Gold- 4g 0s 3c (4003c)

Debt- 43 copper- Yellow Springs

Blessing 1- All Map Exploration

Blessing 2- Exp Points Required by Level Up / Current Level

Blessing 3-Exp Increase X Current Level

Blessing 4- Item- Gamer Glasses

Titles- Emissary of Amoris

Devotee of Amoris

Oracle of Amoris

Grateful Petitioner

Lover of Leaves

Enemy of Apes