In the strange world of Herisok, there exists a small shrine located on the bottom of a mundane mountain valley. In this godless shrine, a singular old man sits and wastes time doing nothing but drinking tea all day long. The only time this old man would ever leave his shrine was when visitors arrive and request him to bless an item or a location, or when his stock of tea leaves have run out. Sometimes these long visits outside the mountain valley would take weeks and even months but no matter how long he was gone, the old man always returned back to the shrine to continue drinking his tea.
But lately I'm starting to think the old man won't return anymore.
My name is Lotus, or at least that was the name that was on the basket the old man found me in. He found me one day, crying loudly in front of the donation box of the shrine. Apparently I was gripping a small wooden figurine which was the only item left by my parents, well that and multiple boxes of lotus flavored crackers… I still have a small glimmer of hope that the Lotus on the basket referred to me and not the snacks donated to the old man alongside me.
Anyway life has been so and so lately. I had just celebrated my 22nd birthday, making it six years since I last saw the old man. Additionally the number of visitors have been lowering and lowering due to the rumors that the Old man had retired off to the afterlife. With such a decrease in the numbers of visitors the shrine’s income has been lacking lately, forcing me to resort to other side hustles in order to maintain the shrine’s liveliness.
“Introducing my latest money making scheme, here's the god of Luck and Curses.” I waved my hands and shook them furiously at a stone statue that I have dubbed the newest and will be forever the Shrine’s deity. And no need to worry about the spiritual implications of ditching a god, it's not like they ever appeared here. But on the other hand, we have been feeding this god a lot of faith for some time so they might bring a disaster due to this act.
But at the same time I'm so tired of eating bread all the time. I'm eternally grateful for the old man’s wheat farm and abundance of seeds but why couldn't he have planted some fruits as well.
“Those are some amusing faces you're making.”
Amidst my internal complaining, a cloaked visitor arrived at the shrine silently. They appeared so suddenly, I could have sworn they teleported in front of me. “Oh greetings greetings, welcome to this wonderful shrine.”
“Wonderful?”
“Very much so, can't you see the beautiful flowers and greenery growing in the shrine’s premises?”
“The vines and the invasive species of colorful moss crawling all over the shrine’s statues and building? You call that wonderful?”
“Well yeah, you can't brush off nature no matter how ecological invasive and smelly the plants are. Anyway, enough about me and more about the shrine’s powerful and perfect god.”
“I'm all ears.”
“Well, this fella over here.” I rushed over to the statue, raising my hand and dropping it over the head of the statue. It was a dove, with two big expertly sculpted wings. I dusted the face of the statue clean and pulled out a talisman. “The shrine’s god is the most attractive being out there, they came over and showered us with their presence all the way back during the first ever planet altering War.”
“Hehehe…” The visitor giggled loudly and rubbed the back of their cloaked head. “Well it wasn't the first but…”
“Oh are you saying you know more about my god than I do. Well that's unlikely, because another secret fact about my god that nobody else except for the amazing and special shrine priest here is that our god is actually a beacon of blessings and curses.”
“Ehh? Is that so?”
“Yeah, they give blessings and guaranteed everlasting happiness to whoever donates to the shrine.”
“Huh?”
“And if you don't donate then the shrine’s god will personally go down into the mortal realm and curse you and your whole family bloodline.”
“I would never d- ah I mean this shrine’s god would never do such a petty thing. And the hell do you mean everlasting happiness, that's way out of my, ah!, THE god’s scope of power.”
“Well I don't know what to tell you. Here check this pamphlet out yourself if you still don't believe it.” I imbued the talisman with my magic, making it glow in a soft blue light and transform into a wide piece of paper.
The visitor quietly read the contents of the pamphlet, muttering and nodding from time to time before suddenly gripping the pamphlet hard using their thumbs. “Jevon?! Who the hell is Jevon?!”
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“Hey, this guy of course.” I said, pointing at the dove statue smugly. “Don't tell me you've never heard of a named bird before.”
“Hnggghhh! Get over here!” The visitor threw the pamphlet to the ground and began to run after me. I lifted my arm off the statue and bolted out of there and by out, I mean behind the statue. I wasn't very athletic.
The visitor dashed towards me, moving extremely quickl like a blur, she overshot her jump by over a couple of steps. “Please calm down este-” She twisted her whole body and rushed me down in such speed that I was only given enough time to react with one action.
*Ting*
I grabbed the cheap vase I originally planned to sell and shielded myself with it. “Oh man! Look at what you did. You broke my vase of immense luck and blessings.”
“You're the one who grabbed it, you rude bastard.”
“This vase is very expensive, It's been in my family for decades. I don't think any amount of money could pay the damages you did but since I'm feeling so generous right now. Hmmm, how about you pay me 30% of all your earnings from now on until the day you die? Is that a deal?”
“...” The visitor grabbed me by the shoulders, holding my clothes tightly. “Come on, don't touch me like that. Have some manne-'' My head was strongly pushed down by the downward force of the wind as me and the visitor suddenly flew off into the air. “Aaahhh!” The immense pain of whiplash instantly reached my brain. My arms flailed around, trying to hug the visitor so I won't fall to my demise.
“Let me down, let me down! I'm sorry! Don't kill me!” I begged the visitor, gripping into their clock as tears and snot ran down my face. “How pathetic, seriously? Are you really a shrine priest?”
“Yes I am! Please, I'm sorry! You don't have to pay for the vase anymore!”
“...”
Wait what am I doing, crying and flailing like a child. I should get a grip. Well a grip besides my grip on this stranger’s surprisingly high quality silk cloak.
“Actually. Kill me if you dare! My true god, the nameless dove god will strike you down with karmic retribution!”
“Fuhuhuhu!” The visitor removed one of their hands off my shoulder, causing me to cling even tighter into their body. They pulled back the cloak and revealed the face of a doll-like woman, a girl with perfectly beautiful qualities that seemed to match the gods.
“(-_-)”
“Don't make that stupid face.” Her eyebrows furrowed as her eyes tried to make contact with mine. My pupils glanced to the side, traveling to the clouds right beside me. Okay maybe eye contact was better than seeing literal clouds next to me.
“Look.” I made eye contact with the person, no not quite, the god in front of me. Yes she was one. I can feel it so clearly. Her entire presence was oozing with such an intoxicating feeling of holiness. Even with so little experience in magic, I knew this energy radiating in front of me belonged to a higher being.
“I may have done bad things and tried to uh scam you but you have to understand, the shrine has been dying. If I didn't try and do this then the shrine would have fallen to desolation.”
“Even still… Replacing your goddess with some made up dork called Jevon is straight up blasphemy.”
“It was for the shrine! The shrine was dying! The number of visitors was dwindling down, week after week. This whole month had no visitors except for you. I spent four weeks all on my own, stuck in this place trying to think of ways to bring it back to its glory! This is bad. I understand that much but at the same time I'm not a shrine priest at all! I don't know all the prayers, how to do the ceremonies, or how to bless and cleanse objects and locations! Ever since Gramps left I have been alone here, sadly declining the request of all the people who traveled all over the world to ask help from him!”
“Give me some slack.”
“Ahh…” My goddess sighed and moved her eyes away from mine, glancing at the clouds with an uneasy look. “Okay, fine.” She swooped down towards the ground, gracefully flapping her ethereal wings that passed through her cloak. “Let's start over shall we?”
I nodded and weakened my grip on her, taking shaky steps to stand up again on the ground. “I'm Lotus.”
“I’m Rosity, the goddess of this shrine.”
I lowered my head, bowing towards the divine being in front of me.
“I'm here to do one thing. Since the last shrine priest has perished, I shall now pass the torch to you.”
“The old man really did die…”
“Raise your head.”
I slowly lifted my head, facing Rosity who had a blank expression. She placed her hand on my forehead, sending a warm feeling all over my body.
IF THE WHOLE WORLD WAS AS KIND AS YOU, THEN WOULD IT BE TURNED INTO A UTOPIA?
CLASS UNLOCKED
~~SAINT~~
YOU WALK THE PATH OF GENEROSITY
“Congratulations Lotus. You have officially become the new Avatar of Rosity."
"A avatar? Was the old man also an avatar? Was that why he always left the shrine for weeks? Was he out there doing deeds of kindness?"
"He was, he was one of the greatest avatars I ever had. From his childhood all the way to his death, he was a beacon of kindness."
"So I just need to be kind and help others out?"
"It takes more than being kind, you need to do some very specific tasks if you really want to maximize the available gifts from being an avatar of mine. Think of it like a video game or something like that."
"A video game?"
"Oh yeah forget that you don't know that. Dont worry you will figure it out somehow. Go make me proud, Lotus.” Just like she appeared, in the blink of an eye she was gone, the only remaining presence she left was stuck deep inside my brain. Literally.
Lotus
SAINT Generosity Karma: 0 ===SKILLS===
Talisman Creation (Lv.1)
“Well ain't that something, Jevon.” My legs collapsed from all of these stressful events. “A saint? Can I really handle the responsibility of such a title? Hmm maybe… The old man was a saint as well and he was as childish as me. so I think I'll do just fine."