As we walk down the stairs, I notice the walls changing from dirt to brick and mortar, surprising me slightly. The bricks were dark grey in colour, and touching them it was smooth to the touch. After going down the stairs for several minutes, we soon arrived on flat ground again. We were now in another tunnel, straight ahead of us is a smooth gravel floor that leads down to a room. On the right halfway down is another entranceway.

“There is a door on the right down a corridor. That will be a resting area.” Nodding to Aubrey’s words, we continue walking with Xia following behind us. Thanks to my vision removing the darkness, we easily reach the corridor that leads to a door. Entering the room, I was surprised, it looked like a lobby of a building, but made from wood and brick. There were benches along the wall, tables in the middle and even an empty stall in the back that a shopkeeper could use.

“Surprised? The floors start getting stranger the deeper you go. The forty-first floor to the fiftieth floor is like an island resort, the resting areas are little wooden cabins, and it has a day and night cycle. There is even an ocean there…though it's said there are monsters waiting for you in it.”

Hearing her description, I found myself a bit stumped. What’s an ocean? An island resort? Asking her, she looked at me in surprise, before smiling. “One day we’ll head to one ourselves, it’ll be a nice holiday!”

As we sat down, I exhaled and relaxed. I wasn’t severely injured this time, though the cut on my chest was deep enough that it had only just healed. Looking down, I took off my shirt and put on a spare one, the only one I had left before I turned to Aubrey again.

“Aubrey?”

“Mm?”

“How do you forget to tell me something with your memory?”

Choking on her drink as her face went red, she turned to me before hurriedly muttering “I-i d-didn’t want to embarrass you since you didn’t know…” trailing off, Aubrey looked down at her knees.

“Oh, don’t worry. Just tell me okay? It’s not embarrassing to not know something, at least for me.”

Nodding, I saw her smile again and felt happy that she had. Turning my attention to Xia while Aubrey started humming, I narrowed my eyes.

“Xia.”

“Madam.” Bowing as soon as I spoke, she waited for my words.

“What is the Church? Tell me what you know, in detail.”

“Yes, Madam. The Church of the Moon Goddess in Vale is a branch of the main church. It worships the Moon Goddess, Celestia. It has been established in Vale for hundreds of years, however it is one of the smallest Churches in the city, but is said to have powerful connections. It follows the same ranking System as other Churches, which starts at Deacons, Priests, Bishops then the Archbishop. The members of the Church take the words of the Archbishop as the words of the Moon Goddess, and any order is done without complaint.

“The previous Archbishop was taken by a Cardinal in training, a Sister from the Sisterhood of the Moon Goddess, and replaced with the current one. The current Archbishop followed the previous in their beliefs, and since Madam is asking about the Church I will inform her that both Archbishops have a deep hatred for evolved monsters, such as yourself, and will execute any that attempt to join the Church. This hatred is common in Vale, so Madam must’ve had a hard time.”

So Celestia is Her name? Thinking over what Xia has said so far, a lot of it filled in the blanks to my questions. So the Archbishop wants me dead, not the Moon Goddess? Looking at the Status window that said the Moon Goddess is happy for me, I wondered what that meant.

“Did the Moon Goddess order my death?”

For the first time, Xia didn’t immediately respond, instead she seemed…angry. After a few seconds, she opened her mouth.

“No. Absolutely no. Within the Church there is a ritual required to receive Her words, however the Church has not performed this ritual in several years. It is impossible for such an order to be passed down, especially since you are indeed Her Blessed.”

“And how do you know this?” Aubrey spoke up and asked the question that I wanted too. I hadn’t told her about any of this, however I knew I could trust her with the information, even though it wasn’t something I was trying to keep secret.

“The Chains of Evernight’s Imprisonment and the bracelet on her wrist. It is impossible to free yourself from those chains. They are rumoured to have been created by a Demigod of the Sisterhood, their purpose is to imprison those that are too powerful for a branch to deal with. As a safety measure, the Demigod ensured a Sister could never be imprisoned by them.”

“What is the Sisterhood? What is this bracelet? How do I remove it?”

“I only know that those from the Sisterhood stand above the Pope, they are Her Blessed, Her Divine Messengers and Warriors. I do not know what the bracelet is, only that it signifies the one wearing it as a Sister and will bond to Her Blessed. The Church believes you stole this bracelet from the Sisterhood and claims it is the reason they were ordered by Her to execute you. As to how to remove it…I do not know, I did not know one can not remove it”

“How did they find me?” Crossing my arms, this was the most important question that I needed an answer to.

“Your patterns have become…predictable. Because of your status as an adventurer and your lack of disguise, the Church has sent people to watch the Guild and Dungeon Avenue. You were spotted entering the Tomb of Lilith, and due to the Archbishop being prepared, she sent a team led by Bishop Ellen, while ordering me to oversee the operation.”

“And what were your orders?”

Xia trembles for a moment, not in pain but…sadness? “I was ordered to execute you in the case that the team failed. However, the Archbishop does not know of my family's status within the Church, believing us to be easily ordered around by her. I accepted this mission so I could judge you myself…I will punish myself as per your wishes for my failures.”

Rubbing my eyes, I started to realise this wasn’t a problem that could be solved anytime soon. Aubrey once again spoke up.

“What is the deal with your family?”

“My family raises one child per generation. We are to swear our absolute loyalty and servitude to a Blessed we meet. Every branch of the Church has a family like this, some of which have never met a Blessed, however we are trained for the day one arrives. We are not controlled by the Archbishop, only a Sister can give our family orders. We will give our lives to ensure the Blessed becomes a true Sister.”

“Bunch of religious nuts are what you are.” Hearing Aubrey’s harsh remark, I couldn’t help but agree. I never wanted to become this “Blessed”. If I had known that my fate would be decided for me upon choosing my evolution back then, I would’ve decided on something else.

Perhaps becoming a Hellfire Fox would’ve been better. Well, it’s too late now. If that’s the case, I can just ignore this Sisterhood and refuse them…though that would mean not meeting Flannery again. But if it meant not being forced like this I wouldn’t mind never seeing her again.

Sighing, I leaned back and let my thoughts drift. Perhaps being her Blessed wouldn’t be a bad thing, but I didn’t want to be forced into being a part of this Sisterhood, I didn’t know anything about Her nor did I worship Her. So why did I become Her Blessed? Was it because of the System? Was it because of the gem I had received that caused my evolution to mutate? If She didn’t want to kill me, then what does She want from me? Do I meet with Her and ask Her?

There are too many questions! Argh, can’t someone just answer these questions for me?! Thinking about it, if She wanted to kill me, could She not just send a Demigod after me? After all, I wouldn’t survive an encounter with something like that. Even Luna, who had arrived in Vale in minutes would be more than enough. Well, perhaps it might be worth speaking with Her.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Laying down on the bench, I rested my head on Aubrey. For now, I would sleep, then listen to Xia’s comments about my fight earlier. Telling them both I wanted to rest, I checked the System first.

Unique Quest: The Champion of the Blood God completed.

The Blade acknowledges your potential and looks forward to fighting you with his real body once you’ve grown. He will not hold back at that time.

You receive the following reward:

1x Key of the Heroic Trial

The Blade has provided additional rewards:

1x set of Extraordinary Clothing

1x Dark Raven Grooming Kit

1x Replica of The Blade’s Sword

Another System message comes up and I check it right away.

The Blade believes that one of your potential should have better clothing, and that he will reclaim the replica of his sword when you meet once again.

Sitting up and ignoring Aubrey’s confused gaze, I accept the rewards. In front of me is a large, soft bundle, and box with a drawing of a Dark Raven, a Blue Sword with a purple glow and a rather large, silver key.

Picking up the sword, I checked it out.

Replica of The Blade’s Sword.

It’s just a replica and is not suitable for combat. Can easily break.

Raising an eyebrow, did The Blade give this to me as a reminder? Looking at it, it did remind me of our battle, my shortcomings and the promised fight. Placing it in my new bag, along with the loot from the members of the Church, I planned to put it in my house.

Picking up the box with the Dark Raven drawing, I opened it and saw various different tools like brushes and clippers as well as bottles of various liquids. Inside is a booklet with four pages, and quickly looking through it I found it told me what everything in the box did. It was as the System said, it’s a box of tools and cleaning liquids to clean Alice.

Putting the box down, I picked up the bundle and opened it. Inside were a mix of clothing, and checking the System I found myself slightly disappointed.

Extraordinary Shirt.

A shirt made from the finest materials that can be found in the world. Is completely self repairing and can not be destroyed. Used as common clothing.

The only other extraordinary thing is the naming sense of the creator.

Finding the last line a bit strange, I pulled out the shirt first. It was a nice, charcoal grey and felt incredible to the touch, soft and extremely smooth. Keeping my broken arm on my lap, I pull out the rest. There was a dark red-purplish scarf, a light green set of long pants, a pair of dark red boots and underwear. All of it showed as “Extraordinary” and felt incredible to the touch.

I had wanted to change into this new clothing now, but with my arm still healing, I didn’t want to risk moving it too much. Putting the clothing away for now, I picked up the last item, the Key to the Heroic Trial. Pulling out a similar key I’d received from the orphanage, the Key to the Trial of Might, I compared the two. The first key, Might, was small and bronze in colour, while the second colour was gold and slightly larger.

“Mm? You got a Heroic Trial key from that?” Turning and asking Aubrey what they were, she shrugged.

“All we know is it sends you to a trial and the keys themselves are common and dirt cheap, except for the Heroic key which is worth a little more. Basically you kinda just teleport somewhere, do a trial then are teleported back to where you started it. No one knows what is inside, it seems that you forget everything that was inside. But the rewards people receive are…well, let's just say I’d ignore them.”

Giggling at her serious face when discussing loot, I put the keys away and lay on my back with my broken arm on my stomach and head on Aubrey’s lap. Looking up at Aubrey, I told her to wake me up in a few hours, since we needed to keep going. Seeing her nod, I drift off to sleep after taking another healing potion.

***

Feeling myself shaken, I stir awake and slowly open my eyes. Right above me I see Aubrey’s sleeping face, a slight smile on her face while Alice also slept on her head. Finding the sight cute, I turned my head towards the person who had shaken me awake.

“My apologies, Madam. It has been three hours. Your friend had fallen asleep, so I believed it to be in your best interest to be woken up.”

“Mm, don’t apologise for that, instead I should thank you…so thanks.”

Sitting up slowly and gently so as to avoid waking Aubrey up, I take a drink and ration cube from my bag. Thinking for a moment, I hand both to Xia.

“You haven’t eaten or had anything to drink so I’ve met you, here.” Passing the two to her, Xia seemed to hesitate for a moment before accepting them. I explained what the ration cube was, in this case it was a blue one, and Xia nodded and ate it.

Grabbing another cube and drinking for myself, I hit the cube and sip the water. Looking at Xia once again, I checked her over head to toe while pondering. So far, she hadn’t done anything to even remotely hint that she was leading us into a trap, trying to kill us or anything. She’s had two chances to remove my head due to being weakened and not once as she looked at me with any form of intent to kill.

My instincts were telling me that it might be okay to trust her a bit, but my brain was saying that this could still be a trap. Deciding to just see what happens, I rub the bridge of my nose as I started to feel annoyed. I didn’t know what to do with her, I had no interest in having someone acting like a slave following me. I just didn’t know what to do because she’d sworn her life to me.

Getting up, I changed to the new outfit that I had received. Finishing by putting the scarf on and covering my mouth with it, I sat back down. The clothing felt amazing to wear, light and didn’t hinder my movements, especially the pants, I had thought long pants like these would interfere but they didn’t.

Sitting back down and checking over my body condition, everything had healed, including to my surprise my right leg. My arm was normal as well, the bone had healed rather quickly. I turn and glance at Xia.

“What did you want to discuss with me about my fight?”

Xia bows slightly. “Madam, permission to speak freely?”

As I nod, Xia takes a breath, she looks at me. “Madam, your fighting style is…sorry to say this, horrifyingly terrible.” Raising an eyebrow at her words, I gestured for her to keep going. “There are many problems with how you fight. Your style is strange, it relies on you relaxing your muscles and tensing them as you’re throwing a punch, however you lose a lot of speed. Let me show you an example.”

Making a circle motion with her hand, a light purple barrier appeared in front of her. “Madam, please do as you usually do and punch this without your magic, gauntlets or gloves.”

Taking both off, I stood up and punched the barrier like usual. Feeling the strength from the blow, I see several deep cracks on the shield and an indent where my fist laid. As I remove the fist, Xia swipes her hand as the barrier goes to the left of her. Repeating the same motion, a thicker, stronger shield appeared. Raising an eyebrow I glance at her.

“Now, without relaxing any muscles, strike this barrier. Same as before, no magic.”

Focusing, I tried a few times but found I had at some point forgotten how to just punch without tensing. It took a few minutes of trying before I finally succeeded, and struck the shield while tensing. As my fist slammed into the barrier, I immediately noticed a huge difference in strength, and the result became apparent right in front of me.

The shield completely shattered with a loud bang, the force of the punch blew Xia off her feet and slammed her into the wall. Hearing a panicked gasp, I knew it had awoken Aubrey as well. As the blowback from the punch settled, I winced out of pain and looked at my hand before looking at Xia. She casually stood back up, dusted herself off and walked off, completely uninjured.

“Madam, that strength appears to be too much for you.” Staring at my hand, I also looked back down and pursed my lips. My fingers had all broken as well as the hand itself. It was bruised badly and stung painfully. Grabbing a healing potion from my bag and downing it, I turned back to Xia.

“I believe the style you use may be best for you now, Madam. However, I do believe if you learn how to properly control that strength, or get more Toughness, you’ll rise to another level of strength.”

I knew she was right, that punch was beyond my expectations of what I was capable of. Of course, I was only punching a magical shield, so it wouldn’t be as strong against a monster or person depending on their Toughness, but it was a lot stronger than I had thought. Sitting down while I think about this, Aubrey laughed.

“That was an interesting way to wake up. Once your hand heals, we should head off again.” As she took out a cube and drink for herself, Aubrey gave me a bright smile.

“Madam, I do have other things I wish to discuss. May we continue this discussion after we leave the dungeon?”

Nodding, I decided to listen to more of what Xia said. I doubt this would be considered assisting me either, as she was simply advising me outside of progressing the dungeon. After an hour, we continued onto the eleventh floor as we began our journey down to the twentieth floor.