Chapter 38: Verity’s Efforts
Seeing Verity bowed to the ground as she was, Emma took a few seconds to respond to the shock.
“That request of yours, what did you want to ask me to do so badly?”
Verity turned her head to the side and peaked up at Rhea with [Aural Reading]. She seemed pretty open to the suggestion, so she sat back on her heels and looked at Rhea without getting up, “I need to ask you to team up with High Priestess Rei for a dungeon run to the [Hallowed Graveyard]. She has a tank already, but they want to hunt [Hellbound Exorcists], even a low level [Purification] spell would be enough to deal severe damage to a monster like that. So we need your help, you’re the only one I can think of who might know that spell.”
Verity heard her mutter in a low voice, “[Holy Crystals], huh? Interesting, wonder if Crimson is up to something…”
She spoke up immediately, “This isn’t a request from Crimson, its one from me.”
Emma looked at her in surprise, then blushed a bit, “sorry, I wasn’t aware you could hear me.”
Verity watched as she glanced around the room, all eyes from the Adventurers there were glued to her as she knelt before Emma. Some went as far as to crane necks or stand on chairs to get a better view.
Emma spoke after the glance, “let’s speak upstairs, where we can have a bit more privacy.”
After leaving the reception desk to Sherry, they walked up to the third floor and walked in an office. There were wall to wall shelves full of paperwork, and a large pile on the desk as well, but everything was covered in a fine layer of dust - like it hadn’t been touched in a year or two.
Emma clumsily cleared a stack of paper from a chair and offered it to Verity. She stepped over the dropped papers, and delicately took a seat in the chair that immediately complained about her weight. It looked like the only thing holding it together was illusion magic, and that a stiff breeze could knock it over.
Emma then cleared a space for herself on the desk, then looked back at Verity, “Okay, you’re after [Holy Crystals] since you’re hunting [Hellbound Exorcists], unless you’re after their [Skill Stone]?”
Verity shook her head, “No, your first guess was right. I’m after [Holy Crystals]. I need one to get my [Class].”
There was some confusion in her aura, but it suddenly cleared and was replaced by surprise, followed by a cry from Emma, “are there rituals that make [Classes] more powerful?”
She hesitated, decided being honest was the best move, then said, “sort of, I’m after a [Ritual] to increase my [Affinity] for [Holy], I read about it in a book, and I’m hoping that increasing my [Affinities] will help me with getting a good healing/support [Class].”
Eventually, Emma ventured to say, “so this really is a request from you, not Crimson?”
Verity nodded.
Emma sighed, then said, “well, thank you for being honest with me. I know it would’ve been easy for you to take advantage of my friendship with Crimson.”
She had been keenly aware of the issue, and that was precisely why she was emphasizing as much as possible that it was her request. It was important for her to do everything she could on her own before turning to others. In this situation, she had to demonstrate her resourcefulness to Crimson. She would be a useful party member, she just hadn’t the opportunity to show him yet.
She kept quiet, typically she would prefer to respond and be chatty, but this wasn’t the time for that.
Emma stared at her for a while, then asked, “Verity, I understand why you want the [Holy Crystal], but why didn’t you just buy one?”
Verity gritted her teeth, then said, “because the last one I bought was stolen out from under my nose by Priest Damus.”
“Damus…the Truth Devotee?” asked Emma.
“Yes, him. He hates Crimson and because we’re in the same party, he has a vendetta against me too. I still don’t know how he did it, but he manipulated the records and took my [Holy Crystal] to offer to the God of Truth. Not even High Priestess Rei knows how he got away with it.”
Emma sat back in thought, “this is news to me, why hasn’t he been punished yet?”
“That’s exactly what I mean when I say that Rei doesn’t know how he got away with it. By all accounts, he’s skirted every inch of his oaths to finagle the truth.”
Emma let out a low sigh, “since you’re the one asking, I can’t do this for free. What can you offer me?”
Verity quietly reached into her inventory and pulled out a staff. It was one of her old party member’s equipment. One of the few items she hadn’t sold after giving up her [Class], it was the only thing that she could offer Emma that would be worth her time.
She looked at it for a long moment, rubbing her thumbs gently over it, then proffered it to Emma on open palms.
“This is a Lv.45 staff, it should have a market value in the several hundred thousands of Royals. Should be enough to cover things, and if you don’t want to use it, then you can just sell it.”
Emma stared at it in shock. Verity knew she’d seen it before, and knew why it had ended up in her possession.
She shook her head to snap herself out of confusion, then said to Verity, “I can’t accept this. If you’re serious, you could just sell the staff and buy a new [Holy Crystal], there should be no need to just give it to me.”
Looking back down at the staff, Verity responded as matter of factly as she could manage, “It’s a Lv.45 staff for healing [Classes]. I might be able to find a buyer - especially in Falst, and I might be able to sell it for a lot, but…I can’t bear to treat this staff so callously. You’re the only one I know and can trust to take up this staff, and if you can’t just ‘take it’ from me, then just hold onto it until I’m a high enough level to use it.
One [Holy Crystal] for renting a Lv.45 staff? That seems quite fair to me, but what matters, is you.”
Their eyes met, and Verity watched her. It went unsaid, but there was another reason she needed Emma. Certainly, she could just buy another [Holy Crystal], but the issue wasn’t the amount of money she had, it was the stock. There was no telling how long it would take for another [Holy Crystal] to hit the market, and even less certainty that she’d be able to snatch it up. She’d managed it the first time because of her affiliation with the Temple, and while Rei was a reliable ally, until they found out how that goblin Damus stole her [Holy Crystal], she would be very cautious about dealing with the Temple.
Emma spoke, “If it’s just a rental agreement, then I accept.”
Verity nodded, then they both spoke at the same time, “let’s get this in writing.”
Verity grinned, “Crimson?”
Emma grinned back, “Crimson.”
—————
It had been eight days since Crimson left for Lupaken, and Verity showed her face for the second day in a row at the Temple. She’d just finished negotiations with Emma, now she just needed to report to Rei, and see if an idea she’d been nursing had merit.
She grabbed a [Priestess] as she walked by and asked where she could find Rei, only to be informed that she was otherwise occupied. Verity nodded, then asked her to pass along a message to Rei, telling her that she had a visitor waiting in her office.
Winding her way through the grand hall, then various hallways, she found her self experiencing confusion that slowly turned to suspicion. Where was…everyone? There was no area of the Temple that was devoid of people, and yet, she hadn’t seen anyone for the past few minutes.
Following her instincts, she started walking more quietly in a slight crouch. She opened up her senses as much as possible, straining her ears and looking every way she could to assess the situation. She further utilized her [Aural Reading] to survey the area. Even if a person was being subtle, most low level [Stealth Skills] wouldn’t be able to hide their Aura, so Verity would know immediately the second someone entered her sight.
Empty and quiet, she cautiously continued her journey to Rei’s office, and heard the first sound other than her own breathing. Rustling, cabinets opening, paper, and heavy steps. Whoever was in there was banking on there not being anyone around to catch them.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Verity weighed her options, then mentally said, ‘whatever,’ and burst into the room as casually and noisily as possible. It would be nice if she could pretend to be more surprised, but she couldn’t.
The person rummaging through the room was Damus.
He jerked around to look at her from a safe that was hidden in the wall. She saw a glint of metal as something was slipped into his pocket. She could tell that it wasn’t money, no Royal looked like that despite their varied appearances, but she hadn’t gotten enough of a look to tell.
They immediately reached a stalemate, Verity wasn’t sure how to act, since a direct confrontation might result in her death, but she couldn’t pretend she hadn’t seen anything.
Thinking quickly Verity said, “Oh, Priest Damus? Did your wife send you here to grab something for her?”
That obviously wasn’t the case, but if she provided him with an excuse, they could both walk away from this situation. He might not kill her even if she directly called him on it, in fact, it was highly unlikely that he’d even hurt her. However, likely is not the same thing as certainty.
Better to get away safe, even if it meant possibly being on the back foot for a future encounter.
Damus immediately grabbed the excuse she spoon-fed him, straightened and said, “I was merely grabbing her journal for her, we are conducting a rather important ceremony today, and her duties require her to remain.”
What a load of griffin dung.
Even as he triumphantly held up the journal that he grabbed from the safe, Verity could see the deep guilt and nervousness in his [Aura]. She didn’t even need that to see how poorly he was lying…but how was he lying?
Wait…half truths. It was obvious in this situation.
He had grabbed the journal right before she spoke to her, meaning that he could safely use the past tense with out giving away what he was actually doing. He didn’t actually answer her question, so Rei didn’t send her, but the rest of his statement was probably true. It would explain why the hallways were so empty, as well as why now would be a good timing for him to investigate her room.
“What about you,” he asked, breaking her out of her thoughts, “why are you here?”
Verity could lie, but unlike him, she didn’t need to in this situation.
“High Priestess Rei and I have business. We’ve been trying to sort out the situation with the [Holy Crystal].”
In a flash of brilliance, she added, “In fact, would you mind helping her out with it? I know it was a problem of the records, but Rei has promised to replace it, and it would be dangerous if she was to go into the [Hallowed Graveyard] alone to hunt [Hellbound Exorcists]. I image she could use all the help she can get!”
Damus gave her a frosty smile, then said, “if the situation permits me, then I suppose I could lend my assistance…”
Verity responded with a big grin, “Great! I’ll let Rei know you’re on board.”
“That’s no what I…” he started to say, before she cut him off.
“It really means a lot to me that you’re going to help Rei get the [Holy Crystal] for me. I really need it for a [Ritual], and I have no idea when I would be able to buy another!”
“Ah…yes…well, I act according to the situation.”
Verity nodded, and he made an excuse before making a hasty retreat. It would’ve been nice if she had a [Skill] for picking pockets so she could get back what was stolen, but she had to let it go.
She settled into wait for Rei, and pulled out one of the Spellbooks she’d been studying. She’d been making good progress as of late, and while she’d been thrown out of the groove by the [Holy Crystal] incident, she decided to mimic a Crimson habit by studying at every possible bit of down time.
—————
Verity’s conversation with Rei went well, and she successfully abused her authority and her marital status to drag Damus along to the [Hallowed Graveyard] the next day. As such, she found herself returning the favor, and rifling through Damus’ office.
She wasn’t going to let Damus off easily, so she’d been trying to think of a plan to get back at him. The only thing she could think of was to get him out of the way so she could do some investigation, which was the idea she’d wanted to run by Rei.
Since he had successfully ‘agreed,’ to Verity’s proposition, she used Rei’s position as his wife and his superior to force him out of the temple for a bit. Rei provided her with a reasonable excuse to snoop around, cleaning and organizing stuff in the offices of the higher ranking [Priests]. It would let her do to Damus, what he’d done to Rei.
While it was both a moment of luck, and a moment of brilliance, Verity wasn’t one to overlook an unexpected lucky drop. She was very grateful to Damus for being such a goblin, or none of this would’ve worked out.
To aid in her snooping task, Rei loaned her a very rare and very expensive artifact of the God of Truth, a [Record of All Things]. It was a weakened version of the original, as it had once been a [Skill]. The previous owner was a man who was simultaneously [Elder Priest] and a [Champion] of the God of Truth that had died some time ago.
Verity, of course, only knew this because Rei had told her while strongly cautioning her to be careful with it. It would be extremely difficult to destroy, but it was a desirable target for any thief.
The original version, back when it was a [Skill], was far more impressive, recording everything the user saw and interacted with, but this version could only copy words that were pressed up against its pages it did maintain the property of ‘endless’ pages though. As such, while Verity was organizing documents on Damus’ desk, she started by touching each document to a new blank page, one by one. The words would then appear, but each letter would be backwards. She didn’t know why it worked that way, but Rei had told her not to worry about it.
Rei had told her that they would be gone for four days at the shortest, so she had time to act like she was properly doing her job - she was actually organizing the office to be fair, it wasn’t like she was just pretending to clean.
She was very grateful for the time, as it also gave her time to study magic on her own. Something broke in her brain, and things started making more sense, so she’d actually started increasing her pace - despite the fact that she was studying less.
She’d been instructed by Crimson to master a total of 6 spells, but because of the issues with both the [Holy Crystal] and the [Purity Crystal], she decided that she’d need to master a few more. Something she’d learned from Crimson was how every related [Skill], [Affinity], and [Title] would play a role in determining the [Grade] of her [Class].
Before, they’d settled on using [Rituals] to supplement her [Affinities], meaning she should reach the bar for a [High Grade Class], but she couldn’t afford to force Crimson to wait while she secured all the ingredients in the event, so she shouldn’t forget that the [Affinities] were a means to an end, and not the end itself. If she couldn’t secure the ingredients for the [Rituals] in time to get a [Class] at the same time as Crimson, then she would still need to take up the [Class].
Crimson would probably rather she wait, their goal was a [High Grade Class], so he wouldn’t accept anything less than that, so her plan was to learn more spells to add to the pile and make up for the loss in [Affinity]. Even if she managed to secure the ingredients in time, this new goal would only be for her good. As Crimson always told her: “the gods reward effort.”
Unfortunately, she had lost a lot of Rei’s assistance. While she didn’t have any bonuses to magic as a result of being lionkin, she had a good understanding of spells, and Verity had frequently turned to her to get unstuck. She still needed to pay Rei back for all the books she’d rented, so she was extremely indebted to Rei for all she’d done.
However, there was still an issue Verity was facing: defining her [Class]. She needed to take everything that she’d been studying and turn it into something cohesive. She knew for sure that she’d get…she was expecting to get a [Life Crystal] about at the start of the tournament, so it would be for the best if she used [Life] as the foundation for the [Class].
Her original list of six spells to learn in preparation for her [Class] were: [Lesser Healing] - for each affinity -, [Lesser Barrier], [Holy Purge], and [Detoxify]. She’d finished mastering each of the [Lesser Healing], and had learned the first level of [Holy Purge]. [Detoxify] was at Lv.3, and [Lesser Barrier] was at Lv.8. She’d selected all of the most basic [Skills] for each category of [Healing Class], so, since she was already extending her goal from 6 to 9, it would also be a good opportunity to define her [Class]. She could learn [Healing] for the [Life] element, [Rejection] for [Holy], and [Barrier] for [Purity].
In order from most important to least important, [Life], [Purity], and [Holy] would receive her focus. Part of the decision was her own taste in [Affinities], part of it was the current situation, and part of it was simply that she thought that [Holy] wasn’t as good for a as the others. [Priest] was a healer [Class], but it focused a lot on the offensive nature of [Holy Light], the innate use of [Holy]. Verity didn’t need to be hurting the enemy, that job would be left to others in her party, so it was better to focus on things that would let her help them.
She’d originally asked Rei for [Absorption Barrier], [Healing Bolt], and [Lesser Undead Purification], but it was better to change to the other ones. [Healing] was a better quality version of [Lesser Healing], while [Healing Bolt] was a variant of [Lesser Healing], it had range, but it wasn’t that much more difficult to learn. [Healing] would be, it was a spell above what even Crimson had learned. [Absorption Barrier] had a similar problem, it was just a variant of [Lesser Barrier] that was better suited to blocking magic. [Rejection] was where her decision was the most interesting. [Lesser Undead Purification] was a type of combat [Skill] for [Priests]. It had a very narrow range of targets, and it would make her more combat focused - something she didn’t want.
[Rejection] was technically a combat [Skill] as well, but it’s effect was to knock back enemies that were too close. It had a fast casting time, but in exchange it didn’t do any damage. That made it perfect for Verity’s purposes.
Breaking herself out of her reverie, Verity returned to sorting documents. While she was to focus on the three main office of the Temple, that of Rei’s, Damus’, and a third belonging to someone she didn’t know, she still had a lot of work to do.
—————
It took 5 days for Rei and co to return, [Holy Crystal] in hand. Verity and Rei agreed to let the party members take sole ownership of the other drops - depending on the agreement she would have been entitled to more, but they hadn’t done a good job hammering out everything in writing - and Rei even agreed to knock a small amount off Verity’s rental agreement.
She and Rei made the exchange, Verity received the [Holy Crystal], and Rei received the [Record of all Things] containing all of the information Verity had cheerfully pilfered without trying very hard to hide her actions. It would take her some time to analyze everything she’d recovered - especially since the letters were backwards - but hopefully they’d get something to stick it to Damus.
She’d made a lot of progress in other areas too.
—————
-Your [Skill] has grown
-[Mana Influence] 3/10 becomes [Mana Influence] 5/10
—————
She’d also managed to master [Lesser Barrier] and [Detoxify], but [Holy Purge] was still only at Lv.6. She’d still have the remaining three spells after that one.
Finally getting her hand on a [Holy Crystal] wasn’t the only stroke of fortune, a [Purity Crystal] had just appeared on the market, apparently a [Dungeon Break] had occurred and so the market was flooded with drops of various [Affinities] and ranks. She’d managed to get a very good deal on it, and bought it for 8,000 Royals. It would’ve taken her 20,000 or more to outbid the princess, so she was very happy with this result.
Further,
—————
-The gods have seen your efforts.
-You have received the [Skill]: [Magical Study]
-[Magical Study]
-Description: The ability to study magic. Boosts learning speed and spell retention.
-Cost: Passive
—————
Despite her setbacks, Verity had corrected course on her own accord, with her own efforts. She would not be left behind when it came time to take up a [Class].