The next morning, the team woke up alive and well. A lightning bolt hadn't struck them in their sleep, and considering their streak of bad luck, that was good. It was always good to not get struck by lightning.
Aside from a hot beef stew at night, the team shared a warm cabbage soup in the morning. The menu items in this Inn were really cheap, on the account that this city was very poor, so the team could buy things without batting an eyelid. They still had some gold on them, Arvena mostly, but they'd be fine in a while regarding food money.
Lisa seemed to have liked both of her meals a lot. Between eating raw meat throughout her entire life, and those types of meat being limited to three-to-four species, she couldn't say that she ever had a square meal up until last night. The caves had not been good to her, she was very happy to be out, she enjoyed warm meals thoroughly.
Anyway, regarding Lisa, she wasn’t very fond of the contents that a big, bustling civilization offered. She thought that there were too many people around here, there was too much noise, so she'd rather be somewhere that wasn't a big city. She decided that she wanted to build a house along the mountainside, a wooden house to be exact, as everyone else in this city lived in those.
The house would be located above the Forbidden Caves, so if she ever wanted to visit her original home again, or if she wanted to help out in the mines, she could do so easily. With this idea of hers, she'd have a foot on the doors of both worlds, and this was what she was the most comfortable with. She explained her plan to the team, and they only wished her good luck, and gave her some gold to get started with her wholesome plan. They figured that a bit of gold would help her get a long way, it would at least make her first year easier as she tried to adapt to the outside world.
“We'll be going now, Lisa.” They started saying their goodbyes, and Tim added. “No offense, but I'll never step foot in this shithole again, unless I want cheap food.”
“That's okay,” She chuckled lightly, “Have a safe trip to… wherever you're going.”
“Stay safe here, okay? Don't get into any trouble.” Skendus then added, and winked at her. Lisa nodded, and avoided eye contact.
Anyway, the team then finally made their way out of Manape, and this felt like the best hour of their life to them. They hated this city thoroughly, so they walked out of here joyfully, and planned to never come back!
The next city that they were supposed to go to, was fifty kilometers away from them, and it was located southeast. Now this would've been a great distance if they had to walk on foot, it would take them days to reach the other city, but thankfully, transportation was easy for them considering that they had dragons to their side!
The team went on to fetch the dragons across the mountainside, it didn’t take long to reach them. Gothatar Ice Veins, Bolivamus Tal the Greater, and his little pals seemed just as enthusiastic to get out of here, now, and for good!
…
The city of Runimus was an interesting place. It is said to be a haven for arcane practices that aren't as usual amongst the average mages, such as illusion magic, telekinetic magic, and sculpting magic. The latter made the city a lot more breathtaking as a result, because the place was filled with great architects!
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Though the architecture was great here, it was also very limited, because there weren't that many people living here. The city was more of a town, to be exact, as it looked really small from the sky, and it didn’t strike anyone as a city. It must have about fifteen-hundred buildings at most!
It was hardly the domain of the century, especially in terms of population, but it was worth the visit. It was a beautiful place, and the third church was here, so the team had to visit it regardless if they wanted to or not.
After they had the dragons hide within some hills, they then made their way towards the city. Later on, they discovered that the church wasn't inside the city to begin with, it was located on a flat field, five-hundred meters away from the city. A patrolling guard told them about this, so it spared everyone an unnecessary walk to the city.
They walked to the church, and discovered that it might have the most interesting shape yet. Much like its symbol, the Church of Ontarum was built in the form of a pyramid, and it was built entirely out of a darker type of stone! It was simply weird to call it a church. Regarding pyramids, Timothy was reminded of the countless, brain-rotting conspiracy theories back on earth, so he proceeded to this place with extra caution.
According to procedure, the entrance guards marked their foreheads as well, because they could sense that this team was not welcome here, even by the gods. A tattoo-like pyramid was imprinted on everyone's forehead, and so, they entered.
This church looked big from the outside, it was about fifty meters wide, and equally as tall, it was enormous! However, from the inside, it was a snug place, without much room for anything other than prayer. They had to follow a single, three-foot wide, square corridor for about fifteen meters, until they finally reached the altar room!
The altar room was only two meters tall, and six meters wide, so it wasn’t exactly remarkable. This church didn't seem to care much about decorations either, because there wasn’t a single thing in this room other than the statue-like altar. There weren't even any benches here, just a four-foot wide, dark-stone pyramid!
“At this rate I wouldn't be surprised if Anubis popped up, and beat the crap out of us with his wonder stick.” Tim thought, but he kept his thoughts quiet because he didn’t want to upset the gods any further than he already did.
The church's priest entered the altar room through another corridor, and greeted the team. He was surprised to see them, so they assumed that this place wasn't visited very often, not by strangers at least.
The priest caught up afterwards, as he noticed the type of unholy stench that the visitors bore. Only priests noticed this smell from the looks of it, so the rest of the conversation became easier.
“So, you've been marked for death? I'm assuming you came here for my blessing?” The priest asked.
“Yes, priest.” Arvena spoke, she was the calmest goblin of the bunch. “We've put everything aside, to obtain the blessing of the great three churches, and we only need your blessing to rid the Mark of Death off of us for good.”
“May I ask why you've been marked to begin with? What did you do to displease the Mana Gods?” He asked.
“We didn’t do anything more than anyone else in this universe. Valporovus is a haven for the improvement of mana quality, and we were doing just that, we were improving our mana all of this time.” She answered, and this was a part of the truth.
“You must continue to please all of the gods, rather than just the mana gods.” He stated, and then explained. “I can't bless you unless I know that you're on the path to do good deeds, I need to see a grand gesture from all of you, and I'm not talking about gold.”
“Of course,” She sighed, though she also nodded in cooperation.
Then, the priest added. “The dragon problem has only increased throughout Valporovus, they're gaining too much of an advantage over the entirety of the goblin kind. There is a particular dragon that burned down twelve villages recently, and we're set out to kill it, to at least discourage any other dragon that wants to follow his steps. We've named this monster, we call him Iron Claw the Wicked. Now I don't expect you to kill him yourselves, but you must take part in his demise, so go find Guard Master Zedim, in the city, and tell them it was I who sent you. When that dragon dies, you will have my blessing, as you’d have pleased the gods, and restored a sort of equilibrium.”