“Traditionally, this class consists mostly of junior members of various churches or those who want to move in that direction. I am Priestess Arabelle Remore and I am a Priestess of the Healer. I have been a priestess for over two centuries, from when I was just a bronze-rank adventurer before I met my husband. Let's go around the room and introduce ourselves, which church you are from and why you want to do this course. Let's start here.”

“Yes, Ma’am. I am Officer Candidate Apiata, from the God of War. I am here because my commanding officer ordered me here, Ma’am.”

“Ma’am. Officer Candidate Upham, God of War. Same reason, ma’am.”

“G’day, I’m Joe Smyth. I am an acolyte in the Church of Fertility. No, that does not mean I go around making babies. The church does much more than that. I have Plant and Growth essences and am in the farming section. We produce all the food you rely on during the monster surges.”

“Thank you, Joe,” Arabelle said, “That is part of why this course is necessary, as a lot of churches do much more than most people realise. Next, please, Kareen.”

“I’m Kareen Rhys. I am an acolyte in the Church of the Healer with Priestess Remore. I am here to learn how the gods interact. That has always fascinated me.”

“My name is Sana Petroris. I am a junior bookkeeper with the Merchant Church. I am here to make connections and understand how the churches function so we can better supply them.”

“Charge them more, you mean,” I heard whispered from one of the officer candidates.

“That is enough!” Priestess Remore said. “With the different churches, there will always be a difference in their purpose. There will always be disagreements in theology and practice, but we are here to understand each other. There will be times to discuss. This is one of those times to listen.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

Remore indicated the next person.

“Lisa Holt, Ma’am. I am an acolyte in Hero’s Church. I am here because heroes come from all churches and walks of life, and they should all be remembered and honoured for their sacrifice.”

“I am Peter Carver. I am not currently in a church, but I just want to find out more about the gods.”

“Welcome. Next, Theo.” Remorse said.

“I am Theo Narelli, a Cleric for the Goddess of Death. I am here because I don’t know much about the gods and have questions regarding gods and astral spaces.” I sat down.

“Junior Cleric, you mean,” said the same voice, and I identified it as Upham.

“No, he does not mean Junior Cleric, Officer Candidate Upham,” Priestess Remore said, emphasising the Candidate part. “Theo is a full Roaming Cleric of the Church of Death. In terms of church hierarchy, I am the only one in this room who outranks him by virtue of my length of service. A Cleric is a full priestly rank for those to whom rank is important, like the Church of War. One of the things you will need to learn is that not all churches have a strict hierarchy. The Healer does not, and neither does the Goddess of Death. Anyone tell me why that is?”

“I don’t know about the Healer, Ma’am,” I said, “but the Goddess of Death sees all souls as the same.”

“The Healer is similar,” Acolyte Kareen said, “but all bodies are in various states of need for healing,”

“Not just bodies, but minds and souls as well,” Remore corrected, “We are all whole people in need.”

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“Yes, Ma’am, “ Kareen nodded.

“Next,”

“I am Yahya. I worship the God of the Hunt. You won’t find our temples in the cities, but there are shrines in the wild for those who look. I am here to try to understand these city gods.”

Just then, the door to the room opened, and a voice said, “Sorry I am late, Priestess.” My mood just lowered.

“No problem. Take a seat. We are introducing ourselves, which god we serve, and why we are in this class. Alizea was just finishing, and then you can share.”

“Hi, I’m Alizea, and I am an acolyte at the Church of Knowledge. I am here to grow my knowledge and meet others.” She sat down, and then the newcomer stood up behind me.

“I am Prince Zesiro from the Kekie Kingdom. I represent the Moon Goddess in all her phases. I am here in your city to learn about all things, including your gods.”

“Thank you all. We have two gods represented that are not usually seen here. Yahya is from the God of the Hunt, and Zesiro is from the Moon Goddess. We look forward to learning more about them.”

Zesiro stood up and bowed to Yahya, “The God of the Hunt is revered in Kekie. One of my wives worships him. May the light of the moon shine upon you.”

“May your hunt be successful,” she replied.

“This course,” Priestess Remore continued, “will start outlining the purpose of each of the more common gods. Please feel free to input into this. Knowing the purpose of the gods is vital, as this defines how they act in the world and how they interact with each other. We will start with my god the Healer.”

I was a bit annoyed at Zesiro and his barging into my course. It is going to make ignoring him more difficult. I can’t help but be suspicious he engineered this to get me alone and where his minders could not interfere.

Ok, I know this is not my course, and he definitely needs educating. Well, I have nothing to prove, so I will carry on alleviating my ignorance. Let's see what he tries. It might be quite interesting to see what he is like without his entourage.

The lecture went on and was quite interesting. The Healer oath required them to heal any injured sapient, which upset the Officer Candidates: " But they are the enemy!”

I just watched the debate. My goddess accepts all souls. Arabelle gave me the impression that this was a typical first lecture. She would have heard all the arguments by now. I assume debates like this were typical, opening people up to different perspectives and ideas. I would learn a lot here as I will come across more closed-minded types.

Alizea from the Church of Knowledge was a fiery young woman who was passionate about the truth. Yahya just watched like me, and so did the Prince. I thought he would be a fairly opinionated person. We will see. Maybe I will try winding him up in future debates and see how he reacts.

Alizea came up to me after the lecture and started chatting, so I avoided the Prince. She wanted to know how I became a Cleric. I was not really ready to share much, so I abbreviated it to, “I acted on behalf of the goddess, and she took care of me and later appeared to me and reaffirmed me as her Cleric.”

“You met the goddess? You must tell me all about it.”

This was going to be a problem, as I didn’t want to tell her all about it. I gave her less than what I gave Val and Akemi. That obviously was not enough for an inquisitive young lady, but we both had other classes to be at.

The next day was set aside for adventuring, and Val and I were now veterans, even though we were only iron-rank. We went down to the Society jobs board and chose a contact that we thought would be relatively easy to start on. Not far out of town, a pack of Roos spawned. They were only iron-rank, but there were well over fifty of them, possibly up to a hundred. They would not be particularly dangerous, but they were fast. The danger would be if you ran out of mana.

Val was looking forward to it, and so were Kai and Ardisia. The trick would be to corner them somewhere, or we would have to chase them all over the place. That would depend on the terrain when we got there.

Val and I turned up at the marshalling yard the next morning, and I started having a sinking feeling in my stomach.

“Morning all,” This Semester’s supervisor said. “This semester, we will need two teams of six. I realise it is an extra split of the fee, but you are primarily here to learn.” He shrugged. “As usual, I have teamed past students with new students, so please team up and organise yourselves.”

The four expensively dressed and decorated Leonids approaching Val and me made my stomach sink further.

“I like the earrings, Theo,” Keon said.

Val muttered, “This is going to be fun, isn’t it.”