“This is ridiculous! Does 'he' take us for fools!?”

The man yelled out angrily. He had long black hair that reached down to his shoulders. He was not very physically built but he was gifted in magic. However, despite not being a powerful warrior, he could still give off an imposing aura. The recent turn of events had thrown him into a fit of rage.

“It can’t be helped. If things had remained as they were then who knows what horrible things would have happened.”

His friend could only shrug his shoulders at the recent changes. It was beyond their powers to do anything about it.

His friend had a very imposing height. With the makings of a powerful warrior, he was extremely skilled in the art of combat. He had short red hair and a well toned body. Along with his powerfully built and agile body, he was also very intellectually gifted and very easy to get along with.

“Don’t you see that this will only make things worse for us! I had a hard enough time before and then ‘he’ does this!”

“There’s nothing that we can do against ‘him’. We should just go along with the new system and find our own ways to make it work.”

“...I guess you’re right. I will try it out and see how it goes.”

The mage and the warrior decided to wait and see how things went.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After having destroyed the entrance of the dungeon they decided to head back to town in order to turn in the quest.

“So what are your plans after this?”

Sun asked the members of the party. From what he had seen so far, they were most likely a registered party that had hunted together for quite some time. In his world, there were the parties of people that had known each other for a number of years and actively hunt together and then there were the groups that were made up of strangers in order to complete one or two quests. Their party was most likely the former.

“Well, we aren’t planning on staying in Rosenheim for very long. We were planning on traveling around to different kingdoms to hunt and raise our skills.”

Yong Li spoke on behalf of his party. They had managed to reach level 150 after finishing the dungeon. Thanks to Sun’s help they were able to fight high level monsters so their experience rose very quickly and they got very good equipment

Aside from experience, all of them managed to gain massive increases in fighting spirit and their combat skills rose rapidly because they were fighting stronger monsters. They were now stronger than most characters for their level. The average player would only fight monsters that were weaker than them, giving them less experience and skill training. There was no growth in fighting spirit by doing that either.

By hunting with Sun, they could now fight monsters that were stronger than them, allowing them to raise their level and skills much faster than most other players. They had not thought this far ahead but this would help them survive more battles in the future.

“What are you going to do Sun? If you aren’t planning on doing anything why don’t you come with us?”

Da Xia gave him a suggestion. The rest of the party nodded in agreement. It was nice having a priest in the party and they really liked Sun.

‘Hm...’

It was a good proposition to travel with them.

“Thanks for the offer but I have to refuse.”

“So what are you going to do?”

Feng Yun asked since he still had not said what he was planning on doing after this.

“I need to go back to the church and take care of some business.”

“Ah, so you have to do something for the church.”

Clerical quests are often tedious and hold penalties if refused. So whenever priests are requested to a mission, they have to accept or they will get penalized. Ever since the return of the Holy Artifacts of Freya, the number of church related commissions have been on the rise.

They began to approach the city and enter into the castle gates. The city guards recognized the group and addressed them respectfully. It had been almost a month since they had left to complete the dungeon. Since then, the Senior Priest Harold had spread the word to the other NPCs that Sun and his party had gone to clear away an undead dungeon. Since undead threaten public safety, they are commended for their valor.

After they entered the town, Sun had a suggestion.

“Since you’re going to be leaving the kingdom soon and I’m going to be busy later, why don’t we go get something to eat at a restaurant?”

“What do you have in mind?”

For players, eating good food was very expensive. Most low level players in their fifties could only afford barley bread, and even some could not afford that so they had to eat grass or bark.

After level 100, users would have more money but good food was still a luxury. These users would usually stick to barley bread or they would go to a cheap bar or restaurant to eat. Eating good food was usually reserved to the rich and the high leveled. There was the cooking skill, but it was too tedious for most users to learn outside of the professional cooks.

Even for Sun, the cooking skill was tedious. He could cook food for them himself, but he didn’t want to. He had just spent a month hunting undead in a dungeon. During that time, he took care of most of the cooking himself. Da Xia would help from time to time, but for the most part the rest were useless when it came to cooking. So he wanted someone to cook for him since he was feeling lazy.

“I know a good place.”

Sun took them through the city to a restaurant he visited frequently. The name of the restaurant was ‘Rosen Place’. The restaurant was known to have good service and great food. It was located near the fountain so it received a lot of business.

“Uwaa, this place is amazing.”

Feng Yun was amazed as she walked into the restaurant.

“This place looks like it’s rather expensive.”

Hou Yi was rather concerned with the pricing. Even though they had earned quite a bit from hunting, they still felt uncomfortable spending a lot of money on food.

That was reasonable because they were more than aware of the high costs of hunting and equipment. In some kingdoms, it was not unreasonable for there to be high taxes and other miscellaneous costs.

“Don’t worry. It’s not that expensive.”

Sun reassured them about the price. Since he was rather stingy himself, he would never allow himself to each somewhere that was expensive.

Sun walked up to the man at the counter to ask for a table.

“Hey, can I get a table for six?”

“Oh, I haven’t seen you in awhile. I heard that you went to hunt some undead.”

“Yea, I just came back from that.”

“Nice job. Everyone feels a lot safer now thanks to you and your friends.”

Anyone that was affiliated with the Church of Freya had heard of him by now. Since the Church of Freya was the kingdom’s national religion, almost all the citizens that cares knew Sun by now, if they had not already known.

“Come right this way.”

The worker led them to a empty table.

“Please let us know when you are ready to order.”

The man then returned back to the head of the store to deal with other customers. A menu of the foods that were available popped up in front of them.

“So what do you want to order?”

Sun asked them as they looked through his menu. Since he could see this thing, he assumed that they could as well. After looking through the menu they placed their orders.

After a while, a waitress came by and delivered their food. The food was served in rather large quantities so they decided to share so that they could taste a bit of everything.

“This is delicious!”

“Tasty.”

They couldn’t help but comment on how the food tasted. That was to be expected since they were not used to eating out like this. In Royal Road they limited themselves to simple foods since good food was expensive. Even in real life they mainly ate whatever was convenient.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Sun was happy. It had been so long since he could sit around and eat together with his friends.

‘It has been so long since I’ve been gone.’

He missed his fellow holy knight brothers. Even though he had made new friends in this world, his brothers were important to him.

“Sun...what’s wrong?”

Surprisingly enough it was Xuehua that noticed something was amiss with Sun’s behavior. Even though she didn’t talk much, she was very observant of those around her.

“I was just thinking about some people I haven’t seen in awhile.”

“I’m sure that you’ll see them again soon.”

Feng Yun comforted him and encouraged him to eat some more.

“Oh, wait. Excuse me for a moment, I need to take this whisper.”

Yong Li said abruptly as he stood up and started talked off to the side.

“What’s he doing?”

Sun asked since it looked like Yong Li was talking to the air. Then he remembered.

‘So yea, for the last few days I’ve been going along with this expedition with the church. Yea, I know it’s been quite a bit of time since I’ve come back to the guild but I can’t just leave or I’ll get penalized for the quest. I think we’ll be done with it in a few days. I’ll talk to you later; the commander is looking at me funny.’

The Paladin Alexander!

Back during the expedition in Lexington, there was a weird person named Alexander that was constantly talking to thin air. Sun did not think that this was mere coincidence.

“He got a whisper from his friend.”

“Whisper?”

Sun asked inquisitively. His teammates thought about it and came to the conclusion that, even though Sun was a relatively strong priest, he was still a novice when it came to RPGs.

“A whisper is a function that is available for you to contact your friends.”

Hou Yi began to explain.

“To use the whisper all you need to do is say the command ‘whisper’ and the name of the person that you want to whisper. In order to whisper someone, you need to know their name, what they look like, and you need to have made contact with them at least once.”

“Okay I understand now.”

Sun nodded at the explanation. Then he came to a realization.

“Then this means that, even though you’re going to another kingdom, I’m going to be able to keep in contact with all of you.”

“Yea, talk to us whenever we’re available.”

Feng Yun answered him enthusiastically.

“Oh, there’s one more thing about whispers.”

“What is it?”

“Whispers don’t work when either person is in a dungeon. Only guild chat works in dungeons.”

Feng Yun made sure to tell Sun about the restriction of whispering so that he doesn’t think that they were ignoring him.

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

At the moment Yong Li finished up his whisper and returned to the table.

“Now that we’re done eating, let’s pay the bill.”

“Sure, let me call them over.”

Sun called over one of the waiters for the bill.

“This was a lot lower than I expected.”

Yong Li was surprised at the cost of the meal. The total cost of the meal had only been 2 gold. The cost had been reduced a lot because Sun had a lot of fame and had a lot of public reputation in the area.

Since the rest of the party had been involved in the quest, they would receive benefits from the town for about a week, such as price reductions and special sales.

“Let’s go turn in the quest now.”

Da Xia reminded them since they still needed to go pick up their reward. The party then began to walk their way to the church to see Senior Priest Harold.

“Where is Senior Priest Harold?”

Sun asked a nearby acolyte.

“He should be in the prayer room. Also Calvin has returned from his trip and has requested that you see him.”

“Thank you for the help.”

They entered into the prayer room to see Senior priest Harold praying in front of a statue of Freya. He noticed Sun’s party entering the room and turned around to greet them.

“Welcome back. How was the situation at the Corpse Tomb?”

“There were some difficulties but we got rid of the abomination that was producing the undead. Afterwards we destroyed the entrance to seal the rest of the undead that we couldn’t kill.”

Senior Priest Harold had a content look on his face.

“I see. That’s wonderful. As expected of you Sun. I also thank you five for accompanying our fellow priest to this dangerous place.”

“I found this in the abomination’s corpse.”

Sun held up the Pendant of Agatha that he had gotten. Harold frowned when he saw it.

“So it is as I feared. The priest that was supposed to come here a few months ago but never arrived has perished to the undead. I will take care of the arrangements to notify the rest of the church and his family.”

“What should I do with this?”

Sun held up the pendant again.

“You are more than qualified to use it yourself Sun. The Church is expecting many great things from you after all. Let me give the rewards for this commission.”

Ttring!

You have completed the quest to clear away the Corpse Tomb!

The peace of the people of the Citadel of Serabourg from the undead has been maintained once more. Though it is regretful that one of the church’s priests had died, they expect great things from the Priest that had cleared away the undead. The Church commends the great adventurers that fought to protect the people from the undead.

-Fame has increased by 300.

-Contribution with the Citadel of Serabourg has increased by 10.

-Contribution with the Church of Freya has increased by 15.

-Public value of the church has increased by 100.

-Level up.

-Level up.

-Level up.

-Faith has increased by 10.

-You can now use the Pendant of Agatha.

For completing the quest, all the members of the party received fame, experience and contribution. Sun was the only one that got the bonus to his faith stat and could use the Pendant of Agatha.

“Drop by the armory to get your reward. Though it may not be much, please accept what we have to offer.”

Harold gave them a note to give to the armory manager. Each of them was rewarded with a new weapon. Since the weapons that they had gotten from the undead were kind of weak, the new weapons from the church were more than acceptable.

“Sun, you’ve grown since I’ve last saw you. Let me change out your equipment.”

The manager of the armory provided Sun with a new set of gear since he was a member of the church. He put on the new equipment as well as the pendant.

“Thanks for all the hard work.”

“The same could be said for you.”

The two of them exchanged pleasantries as he left. Da Xia was ecstatic. She had expected good rewards from the quest since it was from the Church, but she was not expecting to get a new weapon.

“Thanks for everything Sun!”

“I should be thanking you for all the help.”

Sun politely thanked the rest of them for their help. If it had not been for them, then he would had sat around and waited for Calvin to come back from his trip.

“By the way, aren’t you going to leave soon?”

They had mentioned that they were going to travel to different kingdoms after this.

“Why don’t I help you buy supplies for your trip?”

“Thanks for the help.”

The rest of the afternoon they went around visiting the local stores for travel supplies. By 4 p.m they were ready to leave. Sun went to the city gates to say his farewells.

“Bye everyone!”

“Baiii Sun!”

They waved back at Sun until they were out of sight. Then Sun started to walk back to the church.

‘If I remember correctly Calvin wanted to see me.’

Calvin had come back from his trip and Sun had many things that he wanted to ask him about.

‘Hopefully he has found some clues as to how I can return to my world.’