Unfortunately, it took four days for Al to learn all of the three arcanes I expected from him. Also, this was an experiment to determine what they really are. I wanted to see if they share the same mental state as me. If I’m mentally exhausted does it hold the same for them? If they’re mentally exhausted, does it hold the same for me? These three whole days of meeting and discussing with them the progress of learning the arcanes provided sufficient information.

Al does not share the same mental state as I do. In fact, I can proceed just fine despite him being up all night trying to understand and learn arcanes. After I was done with the second day’s services, which I would have to note to be better and more efficient after implementing my suggestion of assigning the acolytes and priests to tasks that they are skilled at rather than expecting them to perform all the tasks, the physical exhaustion was negligible but the mental exhaustion was definitely felt. Al, however, did not feel this as he had rested enough and thus proceeded to learning arcanes once again.

By the second day, Al was able to comprehend the invocation of [Frenzy Bestowal] and [De-Frenzy], and my own curiosity decided to experiment on it a little bit. I tried to invoke myself with [Frenzy Bestowal] without preparing for the invocation of [De-Frenzy]. The notes said that it takes around ten seconds for the berserk effect of [Frenzy Bestowal] to kick in, and I wanted to see how it would affect me, a person with supposedly multiple identities. When I expected rage of some different frustration to build inside me as I allowed [Frenzy Bestowal]’s effects to activate, I realized that a minute had already passed. There was no ‘berserk’ to be expected, just disappointment. When I went back to the Lacuna and asked Al why this was the case, he explained that he felt [The True Pacifist] activate a minute ago. Doesn’t this mean that I don’t have to use [De-Frenzy]? Unfortunately, that was not the case.

After a certain amount of time, approximately five minutes or so, my body suddenly felt an intense feeling of fatigue. It felt as if all my unspent energy was taken out of me. As this happened inside my room while I was seated on the bed, I only fell on the mattress. Although my mind was awake, my body does not wish to move. Analyzing this experience, it would mean that [Frenzy Bestowal] may also continue to utilize one’s energy during its duration and may then cause exhaustion afterward. If I were to describe this sensation, it was as if I had used up all my adrenaline. It can thus be assumed that [De-Frenzy] negates this energy-draining state, but it then leads to the brain working its wonders to dull the senses and numb the pain, thus causing dizziness. As the effects of [Frenzy Bestowal] were almost over, I could feel myself slowly recovering but the tiredness I felt during all these helped me fall asleep a lot quicker.

With the third day and after doing the church’s services, I decided to awaken the Blood Gloop. I carefully opened the small box containing it and observed it carefully. It really did look like gelatin and I was sort of hesitant to touch it as it was, after all, a monster. But remembering the assurance of Astor, I decided to toss aside my hesitation and touched this particular item with my bare hands. Immediately upon touching it, I felt a prick at the tip of my finger and I could tell that a drop of blood was absorbed by this strange object. Gradually this small lifeless thing started to squirm and expand to the size of an orange. It was the color of deep red and although its features still resemble that of gelatin, it can be seen that it was alive. The notes provide that I could order it to assume the form of anything that I can think of as there is supposedly some sort of telepathic link between the owner and the Blood Gloop. I thought of one particular thing which was a camera back in my old world, and the Blood Gloop surprisingly shaped itself into such a thing. It was a small digital camera that I had once given to a certain individual. However, unlike its silver metallic color, this one before me was colored red and it was semi-transparent. So although it could incorporate the form that I asked for, it can’t change its initial properties. I decided to pick up this camera-shaped Blood Gloop and it held itself into shape, but sudden movements would lag and disfigure it for a while until it slowly goes back into form. I then thought for it to take the shape of a particular pendant with a cross. It shaped itself just like that I envisioned it and decided to wear it on me. The third day was overall, a lot less hectic and some acolytes praised Astor for his supposed ingenuity. Certainly, it was my idea in the first place, but I didn’t want to become the center of attention. With what I plan to be doing, I want to be as inconspicuous as possible.

The fourth day was when Al was finally done learning [Clear Mind]. With this, I was ready to go and I just had to report this Astor. While on my way to his chambers, I noticed Rogen who many have already known where I was headed to, With a smile, he approached me.

“You already managed to learn all of them?”

“Yes, Sir Rogen.”

“Well then. Follow me so that we can verify it.”

Instead of heading towards Astor’s chambers, we made our way to the kitchen. While it was still early, I saw the cook, known as the acolytes as Priest Legas, busy preparing breakfast. His appearance, if he were to be described in the context of my old world, would be that he was African with short black hair and eyes and that he didn’t look any older than Rogen. As he noticed the two of us, he stopped with what he was doing and greeted Rogen first.

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“Rogen? What brought you here?”

“Legas, do you still feel that your shoulders feel sore from the time?”

“I do. But I haven’t actually blessed myself with [Torpefy: Minor] yet as the pain is still bearable.”

“Well, I’d like to test one of the acolytes here if he managed to learn the arcanes that were assigned to him a few days ago.”

“Oh? Is that so?”, as Legas said that, he shifted his gaze towards me. I decided to greet him first.

“Good Morning, Sir Legas. I am Acolyte Alkef Asketon.”

“Alkef? Rogen, isn’t he the rumored fut-”

“There’s no need to openly mention that now.”

I thought that me being the future Saint was a secret, but I guess that isn’t true to those who are already considered as permanent members of the Church of Hure. It may also just be that the priests here trust each other that much that they’d be willing to share the church’s secrets with each other.

“Young Acolyte Alkef. From the praises of Astor himself, I also expect great things from you.”

I simply nodded without saying anything.

“So what do you plan on doing?”

“He’s here to prove his efforts for the past four days, which is to learn and demonstrate [Frenzy Bestowal], [De-Frenzy], and [Clear Mind].”

“What are they for, exactly?”

“They are for pain relief.”, I answered.

“So that’s why. Well, it’s a good thing I haven’t used [Torpefy: Minor] yet. Alright then Alkef, go on.”

I then invoked [Frenzy Bestowal] in one hand, and a few seconds later, [De-Frenzy] on the other. Then once Legas was blessed with the two, I then blessed him with [Clear Mind] to remove the dizziness. After doing so, Legas moved his arms a bit and examined his own shoulders. He moved then to check and see if the soreness was still there and the lack of any displeasing expression in his face while doing all this may indicate that the arcanes were effective.

“This definitely worked. But it certainly doesn’t beat [Torpefy: Minor].”, Legas thus compared.

“Well, this sort of treatment is only effective for Alkef’s condition.”

“Oh is that so? Although I don’t know what’s affecting you, it may be inconvenient to use three arcanes to perform one task, but at least it works.”, Legas clarified while smiling at me. He then continued.

“But, learning three arcanes in the span of four days. As expected from, you know.”, Legas praised while trying to make sure that he didn’t mention the specific word that should not be said publicly.

Were they not aware of my physique? I guess they don’t know that I’m actually an elf, or that may be a secret that just hasn’t been told to them just yet.

After the treatment, Rogen and I did not stay any longer as Legas still had to prepare breakfast. Although other priests would also be assigned to cook, Legas was specifically referred to by the acolytes as the ‘cook’ because he was exceptionally good with cooking and the meals he prepared were indeed delicious. As we finally headed towards Astor’s chambers, I decided to fuel my curiosity about where Legas supposedly came from and I thus asked Rogen if he knew.

This is where I truly learned the concept of ‘race’ here in this world, well specifically from the perspective of the Church of Hure. That although humans had varying skin tones, facial features and other physical traits, they are still human. The superiority of one human from another is not based on physical features but rather on their contribution to the preservation and prosperity of life. As explained by Rogen, these views and sentiments are also shared by most if not all humans in this world and are certainly quite different as to how ‘race’ is viewed in my old world.

However, I do have my own hypothesis, or rather possible explanation, as to why this is the case here. Sentience and wisdom will always result in the longing and desire of a purpose. Some would form goals and try to achieve it while others would incorporate and develop beliefs that fuel their desire to have a purpose; a desire to be special. Discrimination in the old world and in this world may as well be the same, and that the target of animosity and basis has been shifted from mere physical diversity to actual difference in physiology. When compared to my old world, there are many more different intelligent beings that humans can communicate and interact with. And with this communication and interaction, either friendly or hostile relations are formed. These hostile relations will then fuel an ever festering bias. It’s all inevitable. So long as people search for a purpose in life, or try to achieve a goal, or continue to find explanations to their experiences and existence, then conflict will always be an inevitable scenario. The wars and battles that happened back then will always spark the fire of perpetual conflict among arkind. Certainly, they are more civilized now, but anger and hatred can make any sophisticated and learned individual to conduct barbaric acts.

Well, there’s no actual point in formulating all these conjectures now. But there will always be some merits in determining the factors that the social relations of arkind.

Finally arriving in Astor’s chambers, Rogen explained to him my accomplishment in learning how to invoke the three arcanes and praised me for my quick progress. Although this is certainly all through the combined effort of Al and the ‘disappointment’, I’m pretty sure that they also feel happy and proud of themselves as well since we’re all supposedly one and the same. Well, I’m not really sure of that now, however.

The more I learn of the situation about these two variations of ‘me’, the more suspicious I become of what they really are. The only thing I can imagine that would cause all this would be [The True Pacifist], and it might just be possible that the then Saint Exconde Macuo might not be as selfless and kind as everyone thought him to be, or to be more accurate, as to how he, himself, wanted to be.