The Lost Sun Revamped- Chapter 6 : The Start of a New Adventure.
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“So has hunting been going for you lately?”
“Pretty bad. I lost a couple of levels.”
People were idly chatting nearby.
Others were selling their goods.
“Selling fresh ingredients and spices!”
“Buying all japtem!”
He was sitting down on the fountain in the middle of the square in a daze.
‘What have I been doing?’
The Lexington Expedition!
It had already been a two months since then!
Since then Sun was ordered to rest and continue clerical work. However, he grew restless as time passed by and he wasn’t getting anything accomplished.
‘Its been so long and I still haven’t found any clues yet.’
The realization of his weakness back in the Dawes Caverns gnawed at him. In his original state, he would never stand by as his men were dying.
To make matters worse, it had been far too long since he had disappeared into this world. There was no telling what was going on in the Holy Temple since his disappearance. Judgement most likely had it under control but he still had a few worries.
All sorts of problems were constantly bombarding his mind.
However there was one issue that bothered him the most!
‘I’ve been gone for so long...if I ever get back they’re going to scold me for disappearing so long.’
Then he realized something even worse.
‘If Storm isn’t dead from overworking then...’
Revenge!
Fearing the inevitable backlash from Storm, he started to reconsider going back. However he decided against it. Even if he didn’t want them to, the holy knights would somehow eventually find him. The faster he got back, the less he would get beat up. However, he still didn’t know where to even start looking for answers.
‘I guess the best way to get started would be to travel.’
He stood up from the fountain and headed towards the church.
“Have you seen brother Calvin?”
Sun asked one of the paladins about the Calvin’s whereabouts. If he wanted to travel, he would need a destination in mind at the very least. Traveling on the behalf of the church made things alot easier because of the various benefits the church provided.
“Yes brother Sun. He is currently in a discussion with the representatives of the church in another city. He won’t be back for a few days”
The paladin suggested that Sun waited for awhile until Calvin was done. These type of things were also typical back in the Holy Temple so Sun knew that it would take quite some time.
That was why he would frequently skip out on them.
“So what should I do for the next few days?”
Sun tried to think about something to keep him preoccupied.
‘What do I even like to do?’
He tried to sum up an average day for him.
Wake up, skin treatment, eat, poke the other holy knights, throw work at Storm, parade around town, lose a few pints of blood, eat, bath, skin treatment, sleep.
He thought back and tried to see if he had any hobbies that he used to do. Sleep, eat sweets, drink alcohol, and...and what else was there?
‘What the hell....do I really have nothing to do?’
Sun slumped against the wall in depression. His life was a lot more lax and boring than he thought it had been.
“Look Mommy! It’s a weirdo!”
“Stop staring at him. It’s rude.”
Sighing, Sun stood back up and decided to go to a restaurant to get something to eat. From there he would decide if he wanted to do anything.
Most restaurants were also considered bars since they usually served alcohol. Adventurers would usually stop by in these establishment to relax after a long hunt. Sun walked to the closest restaurant from the church, a place called Rosen Pub and Grill.
“Table for one?”
A waitress asked him as he walked through the door. He didn’t eat out often since he usually relied on the Holy Temple and Ice Knight for meals. So he just nodded in reply. The waitress led him to a small table in the back of the restaurant.
“We will be with you shortly to take your order.”
It was not often that he went to places like these in his world and it was the first time coming to one in this world. There were some things that were distinctly familiar. The patrons of the shop were mostly men from their mid twenties to early thirties. However, there were an unusual amount of warriors and combat related classes. Normally in bars and restaurants there were at most 7-8 adventurer groups. However there were a few hundred people in the bar, over half of which were adventurers. It was one thing to see them walking around in town, but it was an entirely different matter to see so many of them in one place.
That was not the only thing that was different about this place. There were various crystal mirrors mounted onto the walls. These crystal mirrors were projecting images of people fighting against monsters.
“Now you will hear some wonderful news. Take a break from other issues for a few minutes. Now, at last in the Kingdom of Haven, the player Ray Bard received level 370, which was called the ‘impenetrable wall’.”
“Wow! Superb!”
“Remember that Ray Bard is one of the leaders ranking among the highest-level players, and certainly you know of the nickname ‘The Black Knight.’ Inside the tower, the soldier finally reached level 370. The highest level in the game! Now, let’s see how this happened.”
The screen switched to footage of several high level warriors fighting against each other.
From the looks of it, the black knight was toying with his opponent.
‘Must be some sort of observation magic.’
When the waitress came by to take his order, he decided to get a plate of roasted meat and a large beer. When his food was ready, he paid for the meal and started eating. He took his time eating so he could look around at the various different type of people in the room.
After scanning around the room, he was able to classify most of them into one of three categories. There were those that mainly traveled around in groups. These people seemed to be more talkative and seemed to care more about their appearance. However, a common trait that all these people had were that they were weaker than the rest.
Then there were a few that were very shabbily dressed, usually in a ragged robe or something similar. These people usually dropped in and drank alone for a while. From time to time, people would approach these people with requests. From the atmosphere that these people gave off, it was apparent that they were much stronger than the others.
The last group was the least noticeable group. The reason for this was because they weren’t really there for any particular reason. They didn’t appear to be combat related classes and they just hung around the bar. Some would flirt around with women unsuccessfully while others sat around and watched the images in the crystals.
The thing that was noticeable about all of these people was their behavior. There was something distinctively different about them that the other people he had met. The way they talk and acted was unfitting of this world. In a way, they were very much like Calvin.
‘Could it be that there is some correlation...?’
He thought back about Calvin.
‘Hey Sun, do you have any food on you? Anything will do. I’m kind of hungry and I want something to eat.’
‘We stopped to eat an hour ago! Why would I have anything on me anyways?’
‘Come on, can we stop again soon?’
‘You can stop if you want. Paladins! Continue marching and leave him behind if he can’t keep up!’
“...”
Sun discarded the thought that Calvin would have anything in common with these people.
Since he was already done eating a couple hours ago and he didn’t see anything interesting on the crystal television, he got up from the table and headed to the entrance. There were various people standing around outside trying to find people to go hunt with. He wandered around for a few hours until someone called out to him.
“Hey, are you a priest?”
A girl around 18 years old asked him. From the looks of it, she was some sort of profession related to rogue because of the leather clothing that they usually wore and the various small dagger that she had on her. There were a few people behind her that appeared to be her companions.
Sun opened his mouth to correct her.
“Well, actually I’m the Su...”
He stopped mid-sentence. He remembered that, in this world, he was a priest and not the Sun Knight.
“Ahem, yes I’m a priest.”
One of her companions, a male warrior walked up and asked him.
“What sort of priest are you? On that topic, are you affiliated with any of the churches?”
In the field of clerics, there were several types of priest type classes. There was a category of priests called battle priests, who specialized in increasing various combat stats of the party but were deficient in all other fields. Then there were standard priests that were capable of doing various skills but not as effectively as other priests.
Church affiliation was also important for priests. Initially, priest were a generic class that users were able to choose. Upon the second job advance, they were allowed to specialize in a field of healing and gain new abilities. Depending on the church that a priest was affiliated, the abilities they received were vastly different. Priests associated with the Order of Lou were exceptional combat priests. The abilities granted to each priest differed on the church that they served.
“I am a Holy Priest from the Order of Freya.”
“Holy Priest?”
Though they were aware that there were various types of priests, they had never heard of such a class before. The Order of Freya was a common religion in the continent. In fact, ever since the Holy Relics were returned to the Order of Freya, the church was constantly increasing its influence across the continent and in the north.
There was a very good reason that the profession Holy Priest was not known to the general populace.
NPC specific professions!
These were professions that were specific to NPCs. They do not become available for the public use unless a quest is performed to unlock it. Without him knowing, the system was treating Sun as a spontaneously generated NPC.
“Hey, did he say the Order of Freya?”
A tomboyish girl that was dressed like a rogue asked.
“Yes, is there a problem?”
While the rest of the party was shocked, Sun was more confused if anything. This was understandable since for players to join the Order of Freya they needed to be a considerably high level. Sun was able to bypass this and join as an NPC, gaining all the benefits player priests would get later on. In fact, because he was able to join the Order quickly, that meant he was able to build faction points with the church easier and receive quest referrals more often.
“Hey what do you think?”
“I think it’s as good a chance as we’re going to get.”
“He seems like a nice guy as well.”
“You’re only saying that because he looks pretty.”
“Well, that is true...but that’s not the point!”
The players gathered around and started discussing. Meanwhile Sun was just standing there since they kind of left him alone. After they were finished talking, the warrior turned to address Sun.
“Hey, do you mind if you could join our...”
They looked back and Sun was already gone.
“Where did he go?”
“I think that’s him over there.”
One of the girls pointed at a nearby pastry shop, where Sun had gone in to buy some blueberry pie.
“Yes, I would like five slices of blueberry pie, and three pieces of that chiffon.”
“Understood, would you like to buy anything else?”
“Can I also get some of the red velvet cake?”
“Will that be all?”
“Yes.”
“Your total comes to 5 gold. Thank you for your purchase. Please come again soon.”
Sun went back outside and asked them.
“So are all of you done talking yet?”
“Oh, uh yea.”
The man cleared his throat and asked his question again.
“Keoheum, so do you mind if you join our hunting party.”
“What are you going to hunt?”
“It’s going to a dungeon that we recently discovered. It’s called the Corpse Tomb and it’s supposed to be crawling with undead. We haven’t gone in yet because we couldn’t find a priest.”
Sun gave them some credit for their actions.
‘It’s a good decision. It’s not a good idea to go into a dark land without a priest.’
When dealing with the undead, priests were an essential part of a party. They were far more effective than paladins when it came to support spells. There was another reason why there were desirable for hunting the undead.
Powerful holy affinity!
Priests had a lot more holy magic than Paladins. Paladins usually used holy magic to supplement their bodies and weapons to fight. Priests were capable of using holy magic on others. That meant two things. They were capable of healing and blessing their party members. The other was the more specialized use of holy magic. Holy magic was an extremely effective source of damage against members of the undead.
Sun thought for a few seconds about whether or not he should go.
“So what would my cut of the hunting be?”
“We divide up the profits after the hunt. Anyone is free to pick up japtem. If a rare item drops, then we usually either give it to someone or we roll a dice for it.”
To Sun, this was a pretty decent proposition. He would prefer if he was given about 50% or more since, back in the Kingdom of the Forgotten Sound, a priest and mages capable of Advanced and Ultimate spells were very rare and thus expensive. However, he did not have the magical omnipotence that he had back them so he had to yield asking for more.
“I guess that will be fine. My name is Sun. As you already know, I’m a Holy Priest from the Order of Freya.”
The male warrior that had done most of the speaking introduced himself.
“My name is Yong Li. My profession is a swordsman.”
The energetic female rouge chimed in.
“Hai hai, I’m Feng Yun and I’m a rogue.”
Another girl that was clad in armor came forwards.
“Nice to meet you, I’m a knight and my name is Da Xia.”
A kind of short girl dressed in a robe and a magician’s hat was next.
“...Xuehua. Ice mage.”
Then, the only other man in the group aside from Yong Li spoke up.
“ And I am the archer Hou Yi.”
They had a very well rounded party.
There was a knight and a swordsman on the front line which provided both steady defense and decent damage output. A rogue was useful for disarming traps and dealing quick bursts of high amounts of damage as well as damage over time from poisonous coating. The archer could deal a considerable amount of damage while limiting the enemy’s movements with his arrows. The class that maximized the strength of the group was the ice mage.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Mages were split into various groups based on affinity.
Fire mages were very common because of their ability to deal high burst damage to a large number of enemies. It was also possible to ignite the monsters to deal consistent damage.
Wind mages were capable of using projectiles to attack the enemy while providing speed buffs for their team. Advanced level wind mages were capable of using lightning to attack, a very lethal type of spell.
Summoners were capable of making contracts with spirits and utilize their powers to fight. These summons were very powerful and multiple could be summoned at once.
Druids had the power of nature for their use and were very versatile in combat. There were many subdivisions of mages and several higher tier classes to advance to.
Ice mages were particularly noteworthy for a number of reasons. Sun himself had learned several different types of ice magic from Frost Knight so he knew the many benefits of ice magic.
Ice could be used to completely immobilize the enemy, or at the very least inhibit their movement. Defensive barriers could be made out of ice to divert the enemy’s attacks.
Ice magic had another property that was different from other traditional forms of magic. It was capable of dealing magic damage like all other spells, but it was also possible to use ice magic to deal physical damage. Solidifying the pieces of ice into sharp icicles could be used as magical arrows. Forming a large block of ice would be used as both a defensive and offensive skill to block the enemy’s strikes while dealing crushing blunt damage.
By slowing down the enemy’s movements, the entire party would have an easier time dealing with the monsters.
‘It looks like a good group.’
Sun was satisfied with his current situation. He needed to wait until Calvin was back and he was getting bored helping out the church with menial tasks. It was time for him to earn himself some decent gold for once.
“Let us add you to party.”
Yong Li, the leader of the party sent Sun a party request.
-Yong Li has requested that you join his party. Do you accept?
“Yea.”
-You have joined Yong Li’s party.
A signal popped up confirming that Sun had joined the party.
“So when are we leaving?”
Sun asked Yong Li, who scratched his head in his reply.
“Uh, the sooner the better I. We discovered the dungeon some time ago and we don’t want someone else discovering it.”
“We can go right now if you want.”
“That would be fantastic.”
Yong Li was pleased that they could leave immediately. Discovering a dungeon was not an easy thing to do so he wanted to be them to be the ones to reap the benefits of fame and experience.
“See, I told you that he was a nice guy.”
Feng Yun refuted to Hou Yi.
“Yea yea, we’ll see if he’s any good later.”
They started heading to the hunting ground. On the way Sun runs into a senior priest from the Order of Freya.
“Priest Sun. Where are you going?”
Sun had already gotten used to dealing with others that were also in the field of religion.
“We are heading to Corpse Tomb to cleanse the land of the undead that have plagued the good people of Rosenheim and ensure their safety for the future.”
“Such a noble goal. I wish I could go with you but I have responsibilities to take care of in the church. I have no choice but to leave it to you. Will you sweep away the evil in the dungeon?”
Ttiring!
Clear away the Corpse Tomb.
Monsters have recently inhabited a new dungeon called the Corpse Tomb. Many of those monsters are undead. The senior priest Harold regretfully could not go with but he sends you in his stead. Vanquish the evil that festers in the kingdom and guarantee the safety of the citizens in the future. Spend a week clearing away the undead and defeat the source of the undead within the dungeon. Afterwards destroy the entrance to the cave to trap the undead.
Difficulty: C
Compensation: Unknown
Quest limit: If refused, reputation with the Order of Freya will decrease. Fame will decrease by 200. Only offered when reputation with the Order of Freya is high.
“I will ensure that the undead will finally find rest.”
- You have accepted the quest.
“If possible, can my companions also aid me in my mission.”
“Of course. They too are protecting the good people of Rosenheim.”
Harold offered the quest to the rest of his party members.
“Of course.”
“I accept.”
“Yes.”
“...Okay.”
“Yeah.”
-The party has accepted the quest to clear away the Corpse Tomb.
“This is better than anything I was expecting.”
Da Xia was quite surprised when the senior priest addressed Sun. She didn’t expect that they would get something like a quest.
That was quite unexpected. Usually the Order of Freya was self-reliant and didn’t depend on using players to complete quests. Usually only high level players with large amounts of fame could perform quests for the Order.
The rewards for the religious quests were quite generous. They always gave high amounts of experience for completion and rare items were common. The most important part was that they could gain reputation with the Order of Freya, which was very difficult to raise normally.
This was only possible because of the large amount of contribution that Sun had with the Order of Freya and the reputation that he had with the church. Because the senior priests thought highly of Sun, he was able to share his quest with others that were not affiliated with the Order.
Strangely enough, Sun was also capable of offering quests to other players on behalf of the Order of Freya. However, he never had the opportunity to learn that he could do such a thing.
Da Xia had chosen the profession of a knight so she was quite the righteous and honorable person.
“It’s thanks to Sun that we got such a good quest. Thank you.”
She gave a slight bow then straightened up and smiled sweetly.
“Yay! Let’s get moving!”
Feng Yun gave a cheer and thrust her fist into the air enthusiastically.
The rest of the group was also content with the quest.
Even the normally arrogant Hou Yi was grateful to Sun.
This sort of quest was not very easy to get.
The party left the city and started their way to the dungeon.
“So how did you find out about this dungeon?”
Sun was curious about how they found such a place.
It was quite uncommon to find new dungeons since they were in rather obscure places so that evil could fester and grow.
“Well the thing is...”
Yong Li began to explain how they had discovered the location of the dungeon.
Sun understood from their story that they had been friends for quite some time before they started hunting together.
They had been hunting around the Citadel of Serabourg completing all sorts of menial quests.
The quests weren’t very much and neither were the rewards. Most of them were quests to hunt down a certain amount of monsters or obtain a certain material.
However, their public reputation points grew quite high from doing them. Then one day Xuehua finished a chain quest from the mages’ guild to collect some magical resource materials when the instructor told her about the dungeon.
“So after looking into the information about the dungeon a bit and it turns out no one has discovered it yet.”
Sun was quite impressed at their progress.
“I see. That’s pretty cool Xuehua.”
“...no big deal.”
Xuehua was not a very talkative person so she just let his compliment pass.
“So how strong are these undead?”
Sun was used to dealing with the undead so he needed an idea about what they were going to face.
“From the information we gathered about the dungeon, the monsters are going to be around level 120 and above. So it’s going to be somewhat difficult.”
Even though Yong Li seemed calm, it was actually going to be quite difficult for them. Even if they were a party of five, their average level was around 105. So they were desperately looking for a priest to join their party.
Sun was at a pretty decent level. After finishing the expedition into the Dawes Cavern, he managed to raise his level to 115 by finishing the quest. However, for someone like Sun, numbers are not a measurement of ability.
He spent a great amount of his time using his skills on the paladins during the expedition. Furthermore, his skills had advanced greatly because he had been on active duty in the church to provide all sorts of blessings to players. After the course of his work, his healing and blessing skills were in the mid-intermediate levels. His holy combat skills were lacking in comparison to his holy support skills, but they were still far above his level in comparison to a standard priest.
Priests from the Order of Freya had a higher growth rate since they were constantly using their skills at a minimal cost due to holy water. Sun was an exceptional example since he even played around with his holy magic on his free time. Because of this, he would unlock several types of skills derived from holy magic.
“So how far away are we from the dungeon?”
Sun asked since he had poor stamina.
“We should be getting there soon.”
Yong Li sounded confident that they were close. Then thirty minutes passed. Then another thirty minutes. Then another two hours.
“How much farther is it?”
“Hm, I guess another half hour should do it.”
Sun could not take much longer. He needed something that would let them take a break for a short period of time.
“Why don’t we take a break and have a meal? It’s been awhile since I ate and I’m getting kind of hungry.”
“That sounds like a good idea.”
“I’m getting kind of hungry as well.”
It was a little past noon and they had not eaten lunch yet.
“Does anyone know how to cook?”
The guys tried to avoid his gaze. Being the single men that they were, they had not bothered learning how to cook and mainly just went out to eat or someone cooked for them.
He then directed his expectations towards the girls.
“I reluctantly do not know how to cook at all.”
“I can’t cook at all. Hahaha!”
“...no.”
They weren’t any help either. In the society that they were in, there was both men and women in all forms of occupations. Therefore there was no longer the stereotypical belief that women were good at household activities. In fact, in the modern era, there were more househusbands than housewives.
‘...’
Sun was stunned by the cultural differences in this world.
In the Kingdom of the Forgotten Sound, on average women were at the very least capable of cooking beef stew or something basic. All women were expected to know how to cook at the practical level, even the women that worked as mages, clerics, craftsmen, or merchants. Even the men were capable of some basic level of cooking.
The advancement of technology.
In the physical world, as the technological level grew so did the level of comfort provided by society. Many tasks became simpler and the number of skills required to go about everyday life were drastically reduced. At the time that Royal Road was released, aside from specialized professions, everyone in the real world did not need to learn the skills needed for self-sufficiency.
“Haaah.”
Sun just sighed and pulled out some cooking utensils.
In the past, he was incapable of even starting a basic fire by rubbing two sticks together or setting up a tent. Back then, if he was alone, he could just throw a fireball at the wood. The thing was that he was never alone because, whenever he had to travel for the Church of the God of Light, he always had to travel with someone else. Luckily for him, in this world, there was a convenient thing called a campfire kit that set the wood on fire for him.
“It’ll be done in a bit.”
His cooking skill wasn’t very high level. He wasn’t very good at cooking back in his world either. Luckily, the cooking skill would supplement for his lack of skill.
Ever since he came to this world, he learned the cooking skill because it was required for his everyday life. So he had Calvin teach him how to cook. Though he wasn’t at a master level, he still managed to reach Beginner Level 5 in cooking because he cooked for himself and for the rest of the church often.
The biggest difference between himself and real cooks was that since he didn’t have the Handicraft skill, he didn’t receive any extra bonuses to his cooking skills. Still, he was better than most people that mainly got the cooking skill just for occasional use.
After half an hour, a magnificent feast was prepared.
It was an exaggeration to say it was a feast but it was still better than anything a beginner could do.
Skewered roast meat!
Fried rice!
Spicy chicken noodles!
Sun spread a mat over the floor and passed out everyone’s servings. It didn’t really cost him much to make since he got most of the meat from hunting and the rest of the materials were pretty cheap.
“Wow!”
“This is pretty good.”
“Wow, you’re great at cooking.”
“Thank you for the meal.”
“...”
Compared to the stale barley bread they bought from the store, this meal was a lot tastier. On average, Sun was better at cooking than quite a few of the basic restaurants in Rosenheim that were for lower level users. He would cook for himself all the time instead of going to eat out, but cooking required time and he would rather spend money to get someone to cook for him.
They continued eating at a quick pace.
After eating the meal, their stamina was recovered and their satiety increased. As an added bonus his Beginner Level 5 cooking temporarily increased health and stamina as well as a few stat increases. They spent about an hour eating so Sun was no longer tired.
Then walked on for another half hour and reached their destination.
“This is the place. Let’s go inside.”
The party entered inside of the dungeon.
Ttiring!
DUNGEON: You are the first players to discover the Corpse Tomb.
Reward: Fame + 100
You will receive double experience and drop rates for one week.
The rarest items will drop from each monster of it’s type.
Subsequent kills will drop common items.
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1. Yong Li means Bravery Strength.
2. Feng Yun means Phoenix Cloud.
3. Da Xia means Female Hero.
4. Xuehua means Snowflake.
5. Hou Yi was the name of a legendary archer.