A cacophony of sounds resound through the once quiet village and following the sound is a great number of humans, all of different shapes and sizes, which appear spontaneously.
A few thousand pairs of eyes look around in amazement and many people gasp in excitement at the thought of adventure.
Almost simultaneously, the horde of people scatter in all directions; some run for the nearest house, while a larger number dash off to the outskirts of the village with a bloodthirsty look in their eyes.
The ones that rush to the outskirts quickly party up with one another; to fight the seemingly harmless rabbits that munch cheerfully on the grass.
Some remain alone fighting for their lives and some even ignore the rabbits altogether and charge into the forest that is nearby.
Only a few dozen decide to do so, and many of those are killed within the first few minutes of entering by wolves.
Most stop there, either running away or fighting a deadly battle against the wolves.
The once quite village has turned into a whirlpool of activity but the NPC’s that reside there do not seem to be bothered by the sudden horde of newcomers.
Though, the local clergyman does shake his head at the constant stream of newcomers that walk out of his chapel, looking vengefully towards the dangerous outsides.
After about thirty minutes, everyone stops re-entering the forest due to the dangerous wolves. Though, one young man does keep charging in.
This man gets the attention of others who begin to nickname him ‘Suicide Joe’ due to him repeatedly running into the maws of death for no apparent reason.
Death at this level has little penalties; as it was stated that newbies until level 15 would have protection from lowered stats, drops and would only lose a level.
An hour quickly passes, and then another, but Suicide Joe doesn’t stop reviving and running into the forest, staying in there for longer and longer. Almost five minutes this time.
In the space of almost three hours quite a number of them have leveled twice and believe they are strong enough to take on the wolves.
Though trial quickly teaches them they cannot do it alone.
As a number of quickly bonding parties duke it out against wolves, Suicide Joe runs past them and deeper into the forest. Only to be killed by another wolf again.
Though it is now a normal occurrence; the thought of Suicide Joe being slightly insane is on everyone’s minds.
He continues running again and again for another two hours and by then hundreds of people are in the forest slowly massacring wolves.
Because of that, only around fifty people see Suicide Joe on a regular basis; running off in the depths of the forest and passing by after ten minutes.
The sixth hour comes and passes and the man, along with many of the people have a long rest to recuperate satiety and general breath. Although they are strong in this world, they still need a break after some time.
A good twenty minutes break and Suicide Joe is back again running through the forest.
Fifteen minutes later, he runs out the chapel grinning. And nobody knows why.
No one knows why he keeps running suicidally into the forest and no one knows why he is grinning.
He charges through the forest and this time the parties who saw him unconsciously note that he hasn’t reappeared for almost half an hour this time.
He does finally reappear however; after about forty five minutes.
This time, the man sits down, eats a piece of rye bread and gulps down some water. To the surprise of others who are milling about in the village for various reasons; he begins stretching and limbering himself up.
Most take this as the sign that he’s planning to run to wherever he is going to run this time and not die.
After a good 10 minutes of stretching, the man charges out of the village and into the forest once more.
Three more hours pass and those who are fighting double their efforts to kill as many wolves as they can before night falls. The sun is reaching a lowish point, about three hours away from sunset at most.
A few people ended up reaching level seven, while a larger majority reached level six. About an hour ago they reached the part of the forest infested with level seven lynxes, perfect for almost everyone.
Constant streams of people go in and out of the village completing quests and cashing them in for xp and coin. Though a few remain inside; to explore more if they had not done so earlier, or remain outside; to kill more monsters before night falls.
Suicide Joe finally exits the chapel, much to the surprise of those inside the village. This was because he had disappeared for the past three hours and they had genuinely though he had made it to wherever he was going.
He makes his way over to the central fountain in the village and lies by it looking quite out of breath.
The onlookers just leave him be, partially because he’s still grinning and partially because they’re busy leveling up themselves.
After an hour, Suicide Joe finally gets back up from the floor and begins running…in the opposite direction. This is much to everyone’s surprise since till now he had only run in the same direction each time; to the North.
The rest of the day is no different, and once night falls, everyone retreats to the safety of the village. To their knowledge, the night makes monsters more dangerous.
It sure does, and those who stay fighting quickly find that out once the monsters they’re battling become way stronger than they can handle.
Suicide Joe is one of the people who return to the safety of the village via the chapel and he, like many others around him, stay on and try to venture out and fight again.
Parties merge to form bigger ones and Suicide Joe takes a good chunk of an hour break before running west this time.
Everyone raises their eyebrow at the odd man, but at least they somewhat understand he is looking for something.
Six hours pass in a flash, and almost everyone takes a long rest at an inn or on the streets; due to inns being booked out. This rest lasts until the morning sun rises.
Oddly enough, and many of them there think so; Suicide Joe hadn’t returned since he last left.
Some bid the memory of him good riddance, but some felt a slight loss from not seeing the supposedly crazy man constantly dying and reviving, all the while keeping a grin plastered on his face.
Sparing a moment to speculate as to where Suicide Joe had gone, they then go back to grinding xp.
…
The City of Darton; One of the 4 major cities in the Annoldi Kingdom. A vast fortress of a place with seven rings of walls separating the city into its famous Eight Rings.
Ring of Grass: the farming area located just outside the city walls.
Ring of Blood: Full of those unfortunate enough to not have place in the city. They reside here until the city is attacked, then the Ring of Blood becomes its infamously named kill zone. A branch of the Warriors Guild resides here.
Ring of Adventure: Home to many taverns, branches of Guilds and the Adventurers Hall. Also the main Warriors Guild resides here.
Ring of Coin: The Market part of the city where all shop owners reside and all types are separated in their own zones. The Merchants Guild resides here.
Ring of Craft: Forges, Tanneries and workshops of all kinds are situated here and all appropriate guilds of crafting kind are here too.
Ring of Nobility: As the name states, it is where all noble class live and is home to certain luxurious shops, a privilege only available to few.
Ring of Power: The Cathedral and The Mage’s Spire reside here as well as the city’s library.
Ring of Rule: The last wall is the castle wall itself so the entire ring is the home of the city’s ruler.
Each ring after the Ring of Grass gets progressively smaller and so the castle itself is not that grand in size. Compared to other castles in the empire it is one of the smallest.
However to siege this castle is an almost impossible feat due to it being a multilayered impregnable fortress.
This is the basic information the gate guard gave to some haggard looking country bumpkin with severely torn clothes who was looking to enter the city a bit before the break of dawn.
All travelers are allowed into the city after inspection, and this man who barely has a strip of cloth passing for a shirt and ripped shorts certainly doesn't have much to hide in the guards eyes.
He had told him that only those registered in the Adventurers Hall or were registered citizens could enter further into the city.
To enter the Ring of Nobility one would need to be sent an invitation, however one can go to the Ring of Power through the passage on the south gate as it does not directly step in the Ring of Nobility due to walls being built either side of the passage.
The Ring of Rule is also only accessed through invitation.
Thanking him, the man ran off into the city a lot less near death than he seemed.
Shrugging his shoulders, he goes back to his duties.
…
Moren steps out of the large oaken doors of the cathedral and, taking his broom, starts sweeping the slightly dusty stairs.
*Sigh*
As a lowly disciple he is not given much freedom and thus spends most of his day on the whims of his instructors. Much to his disappointment, they do not teach him much. And what they have taught only helped him on his daily menial tasks.
*Sigh*
The one slight sparkle to his life is the fact that from these steps he can see a large amount of the bustling city, even so much as to see the mass of figures milling about in the Ring of Coin.
Seeing the sun rise and wash light over the city is a calming sight for Moren, one that helps him survive the boredom that come with his tasks. After all, he is doing this to get closer to Helia, Goddess of Light.
He sweeps peacefully for a short while, focusing on his duties diligently, as Helia is watching over him.
Soon, he spots a crowd of people walking through the south passage. The usual he presumes. Most who come up to the Ring of Power are here for services in the Cathedral or for the Library. No one really comes up here for the Mage’s Spire.
A few people split off from the crowd and head towards the library. The rest, head towards the Cathedral.
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Moren quickly scans their faces as they rise the forty two steps. Most, he recognizes as usual visitors but a few look new or he simply has not seen them before.
One particularly stands out; a country bumpkin with no shirt and ripped shorts, is looking at the Cathedral with an awestruck expression, almost tripping on each stair as he slowly climbs as if to have more time to take in the sight.
Those sort do somehow make it up here, and are usually the more fervent of worshippers; mostly due to their chapels back home being quite forceful.
*Sigh*
He doesn’t like to remember the near past that used to be his village life. If only he’d stayed, he wouldn’t have had to have the menial hardships that are his so called ‘adventure’.
The bumpkin does finally make it up to the fortieth step, where Moren is, and almost collides into him.
The bumpkin stops himself in time and gives a bow of apology
“I’m sorry, I was just so overwhelmed by this Cathedral…it’s actually amazing!” His voice is gentle, but not womanly as one may so coincide.
“It is alright, you are not the first to be awestruck”
Moren internally rolls his eyes, but does understand the man somewhat, as he too was once a country bumpkin walking up these steps in awe.
The man continues walking after giving another quick apology, but then stops and as Moren gets back to cleaning, taps his shoulder.
Moren turns round to the man
“I have a question; could you tell me how to join the clergy?”
Moren raises his eyebrow, mostly out of surprise but then again people from the country are fervently religious, so to try join the clergy isn’t that uncommon.
“You must ask one of the priests themselves. You can spot them with their white robes”
Internally sighing, he glances down at his dirty brown robe, which he wishes is a nice white robe.
“Thanks” the man bounds up the rest of the stairs and dashes inside.
Shaking his head, Moren gets back to work. Though he does consider that he may not be alone cleaning when he comes out here next time. With that semi-happy thought, the stairs slowly become dustless with his effort.
…
*Phew*
Moren, letting out a sigh of relief, finishes dusting off last stair.
Giving a short bow to Helia, he returns to the inside of the Cathedral, to begin his other daily tasks.
As he walks through the vast corridors lit by natural light from the huge colored windows, he passes a large number of people; both priests and local populace.
He diverts towards the kitchen as the morning breakfast is over and he has still to eat.
Moving to less and less crowded corridors, soon there is no one in sight but a rare priest or a fellow disciple hurrying to do something. None acknowledge Moren in the slightest as he greets them with a bow or a wave.
Sighing slightly at the fact that he’s so low in the hierarchy even his fellow disciples don’t acknowledge him when passing, he continues down the slight maze of corridors.
“I’ve told you before and I tell you again, you cannot become one of us” An angry voice fills the corridor, Brother Sian.
Moren quickly stops and hides, for he knows not to greet Brother Sian when in a mood.
“Why not sir?” The gentle voice from before echoes in the corridor.
This immediately fills in whatever details Moren might be missing because he gets the gist of what is going on: The man asked to join and is being refused.
“Because you do not feel strong enough”
“What does that mean? Why do I need to be strong to be a priest?” The man sounds quite confused and Moren is slightly confused too, but more curious about this need for strength, for he has not heard of this before.
“Physical strength is unnecessary, but you lack the inner strength to hold the blessings of the Gods. So you must first increase that before I can accept you into the priesthood”
With that, Moren begins to hear angry footsteps stomp towards him
“A question sir!” The man beckons after him.
The footsteps stop, much to Moren’s relief.
“Yes, boy?”
“Can you show me the statue of Aegi so that I may pray to her?”
“That I can do”
Two pairs of footsteps start off in another direction and after a minute, Moren is once again left alone.
Wiping his sweaty palms on his robe, he’s thankful he wasn’t seen by Brother Sian.
Also, that man is a strange one indeed…to worship the Immortal Goddess isn’t the most common thing, and even then only those who pursue the secrets of immortality such as alchemists pray to her.
To his knowledge, no brother in this Cathedral worships her, in public anyway. he knows that the Immortal Goddess is also known by another title; she is better known to the public as the Goddess of Undeath, a deity to the sentient undead.
Moren is curious as to why the man chose her, but right now his mind is being filled with the thought of food.
Restarting his journey, he quickly makes it to the kitchen, greets the cooks and digs in to his warm soup. He is thankful that the cooks are nice to him at least.
Finishing his morning meal, he heads to the prayer room to give a morning prayer to his Goddess before continuing with his chores.
Though when he arrives there, he sees something definitely out of the ordinary…
“OH GREAT GODDESS AEGI, PLEASE HEAR THIS ONE’S PLIGHT!” The strange man has now gone full bizarre in Moren’s mind as he’s kneeling in front of the faceless statue that depicts Aegi.
Moren thought the shouting was bizarre since prayers are calm and through inner thoughts, but what happened next really took him off his feet: The man began to rake his fingers across his own arms leaving bloody streaks and began praying once more while visibly stopping his wincing.
“YOU SEE THIS BODY, FRAGILE, KILLABLE!
I DO NOT LIKE PAIN.
I DETEST DEATH!
BUT I DO NOT ASK YOU TO GIVE ME IMMORTALITY.
I ONLY BEESEECH YOU TO BLESS MY ENDEVOUR TO UNCOVER THE SECRETS MYSELF”
He silently stands up, picks up the offering bowl with its chinking coins, and tips the contents to the floor much to everyone’s horror.
“COINS ARE BUT TRIVAIL OFFERINGS.
FOR YOU MY GODDESS, I OFFER MY LIFE”
The bowl does not have a smooth edge due to its rough clay make, and the man uses that to his advantage as he slices it across his neck and fills the bowl to spilling with his own blood, which spurts from the gash in his neck.
A second later, he slumps onto the floor, the bowl landing upright and sloshing with fresh blood.
…
..
.
The room remains silent…as no one knows what to do. They can’t clean up the body immediately for it will be a slight upon the man’s offering and to Aegi herself.
But the local populace look terrified at the devotion, well everyone looks terrified of the fanatical devotion of the man, and to remove the body will help the rest of the room cope better with what just happened.
Though, while the priests debated on what to do, the body disappeared in a pillar of light and everyone in that room took it as a sign of an accepted offering.
A scary thought to those who know her as the Goddess of Undeath. But also a scary thought to the more knowledgeable priests themselves.
To kill one self as an offering is barbaric yet something no one here would do to show their utter devotion.
Once the body had disappeared, the priests cleaned the blood around the bowl and picked up the coins, now covered in blood too.
In a few minutes, all that’s left is a sloshing bowl of blood that no priest dares to touch, out of disgust or uncertainty as to whether the Goddess liked to keep the offering.
Moren, extremely shaken by this act, runs from the prayer room, charges through the corridors and bursts out the doors of the Cathedral, only to sit on the forty second stair, looking up at the sun.
Never before has he felt this useless, this undevoted to his Goddess. All he has done to worship her has been diligent work in her presence and some small prayers throughout the days.
Compared to the strange man, Moren and probably any priest within that Cathedral feel like fakes.
Cupping his head in his hands, he thinks, he ponders, he wonders what he can do to show his devotion to his Goddess, truly sacrifice something for her. Can he sacrifice an arm, or a leg? Can he give away his speech or his sight?
The brutal thoughts of all kind of horrific and painful sacrifices he could make to show just a small amount of devotion to his Goddess, if only something to make him feel worthy of calling himself a follower of Helia.
“Don’t try something stupid”
Moren whips his head out of his hands and looks to the bottom of the stairs, where the same man who had just killed himself is walking up.
His mind goes blank, just for a second before thousands, no millions of questions burst into his head. All of them based around one question.
“H-How are you alive?”
The man smirks as he walks up the steps
“I never died, I was just killed”
“B-b-but then you’re immortal!?” Moran’s mind is further packed with burning questions
“No, because what can be killed can still die in the end. At this moment, I am just one who does not die easily”
With that, the man walks up to Moren, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder before walking off into the Cathedral.
Moren remains sitting for a few minutes, slowly compressing the typhoon of questions and thoughts.
As he does so, he can feel the warmth of the sun’s rays upon his head and looking up, he can see clouds hiding most of the sun, leaving on a large ray of light to beam towards him.
For an instinctive reason, he looks back, to see a line of light going from him to the Cathedral doorway.
Moren has many questions trying to spill from his mind and the only one who can answer is the one his Goddess points to.
*Sigh*
Bowing gratefully to the sun as it is once again free from the clouds, Moren goes back into the Cathedral, in search of that strange man.