“Thanks for all the help.”

The mage and the warrior waved goodbye to the priest. After that, they went and visited everyone else. After each person, the mage documented each person’s individual plan. After they were finished with everyone, the mage and the warrior headed back to the house.

“Now it’s time to make my own plan. How are you going to do yours?”

The mage asked the warrior. The warrior was a decisive person so it was likely that he had already come up with a plan of his own by now.

“I’m going to make mine about strength and power.”

The warrior decided to go with this approach since power was the foundation of his beliefs.

“I see; it suits you. I’m going to have to think mine’s through for a while.”

The mage was more indecisive and had to carefully plan things out before trying to take any action.

“Next time we meet, let it be when we have both obtained supreme power.”

“Of course.”

The two of them made a promise and went their separate ways. There was no way that they would’ve know that they would never see each other ever again.

----

Sun stepped out of the teleport portal with the rest of the church members. To speed things up, the church had teleported each division to the closest area to their destination. His division had been tasked with advancing to the city of Koress and investigating the undead along the way. They did not have a teleport gate at the city, but they did manage to teleport them to a city that was a month’s travel away from Koress.

“We will set off as soon as we purchase sufficient supplies.”

Calvin gave an order to stock up on food resources and other travel goods. They had spent a month at Somuren Liberty City and they had traveled to reach Somuren initially so their supplies had been largely exhausted.

“Sun, I need you to go buy some food.”

“What kind?”

If Sun didn’t ask then he wouldn’t know what to buy, in which case he would buy anything that caught his eye. This was inconvenient because he usually bought sweets and junk food unless told otherwise.

“Buy meat; preferably beef, spices, vegetables, bread, rice, and anything else that we can cook.”

Calvin gave Sun some money before going and telling some other paladins to go buy other materials. Since it was a rather large group of people, they needed various people purchasing supplies. Sun looked at the money that Calvin had given him. In total there was 200 gold in his hand. The church had grown rather wealthy with its increase in influence over the past year.

“Alveron, do you want to come with?”

“Okay.”

Alveron obediently followed after Sun to the grocery store. Then they started to look around at the various types of food that were being sold.

“Anything you can’t eat?”

“I’m fine with all foods.”

They started picking out some fresh vegetables from the baskets. Aside from vegetables, Sun picked out some fruits that they could eat. It was something that they could eat quickly without much preparation, though it could be prepared in some food. Then they went to buy several kilograms of white rice. Rice was an essential staple for meals after all. Sun then looked at the bread.

“I don’t really want to buy this.”

Sun was referring to the barley bread that was sold in the stores for 3 copper. It was cheap and efficient but it was also hard, cold, and tasteless. He was accustomed to food that tasted like food so he didn’t want to get this and possibly eat it later on. So he bought some flour and other ingredients to make bread himself. If there was going to be bread eaten then it had to be fluffy and delicious bread.

“Anything you want?”

Sun asked Alveron. Alveron was rather curious at the types of food being sold and was looking at the various items. It was actually quite rare for him to interact in the outside world since he had lived a sheltered life. Even when he was given leave after the vampire incident, they still had members of the church keep watch over him. Here he was given complete freedom since it was decided that the church from the Citadel of Serabourg would watch over him. In which case meaning Sun.

“Alveron. Hey Alveron. Answer me when I speak to you.”

Sun was shaking Alveron who was in a daze. The latter then regained his senses and answered.

“Oh. Yea. What are those?”

Alveron pointed to a section filled with a number of barrels and boxes.

“Those are spices.”

Most people did not use spices in their everyday lives. Most probably use salt and pepper, the basics. However cooking used a large variety of spices to enhance the flavor of foods.

“Oh so that’s what Weed nim was using.”

Alveron said in realization.

‘Weed? As in that plant that the Holy Temple’s gardeners keep complaining about?’

Sun did not know what Alveron was talking about.

“Alveron, a weed is not a spice.”

“That’s not it. I meant Weed as in a person’s name.”

Sun was getting more confused.

“There’s a person named Weed?”

“Yes. He was the sculptor that freed the paladins and villagers from the vampires.”

Sun took a moment to register that all in his head.

“A sculptor?”

“Yes. Weed nim is a sculptor.”

Sun thought about it some more.

‘Well if there’s a Sun Knight running around as an errand boy then it wouldn’t be too ridiculous for a sculptor to run around killing vampires.’

He went over and bought a large variety of different spices, such as cilantro. He then turned and said to Alveron.

“He sounds like a unique person. I would like to meet him one day.”

“If I ever get the chance then I’ll introduce him to you.”

From that point, they headed to the butcher shop to purchase meat. Calvin had said to purchase beef but there was no point in eating only beef. So he decided to buy a several types of meat and bought some extra beef. However there were still a few pieces of gold left over after buying everything. Sun looked at the few pieces of gold.

“Let’s go get a meal.”

The two of them headed off to the central plaza to find a decent restaurant. They settled for a nice looking Western place. They looked through the menu that was brought to them and then placed an order.

“This is KMC Media and your host Shin Hye-Min. In the latest news regarding the Continent of Versailles, King Theodarren of the Kingdom of Rosenheim has recently passed away. After a grand funeral, he was buried in his tomb that was recently constructed. With his death, the crown prince had taken the position as the ruler of the kingdom.”

Sun looked up to the screen while he was eating.

‘So the king died? That’s a shame.’

From what he had heard from the people in the Citadel of Serabourg, the king had been a just and protecting ruler of the kingdom. Very much different from the pig of a king he used to serve.

After their meal, Sun ordered some desserts for them.

“What is this?”

Alveron asked Sun questioningly at the numerous strange confections that were before him.

“Just eat it.”

Sun didn’t want to explain each and every one so he just forked one of the cakes and put it in Alveron’s mouth.

“Tasty isn’t it?”

Alveron just nodded in response and began eating the rest of the sweets. He preferred to eat good food ever since Weed had cooked for him long before. However, he had not eaten much sweets before so he was savoring each bite. Apparently a lot of priests enjoy their sweets.

After they were done eating, they paid their bill and headed back to the expedition. It was nearing the time to leave since they had much ground to cover. Sun went to the wagons that the other paladins had brought and threw the stuff he bought in there. Then he and Alveron climbed into the back of the wagon. Since they were priests they had to luxury of not walking. It was reasonable since their stamina was low.

The expedition set off towards Koress City. They made steady progress down the road until they entered a forested area. Once they were in the forest they needed to be more cautious. The region that they were in was known to be very dangerous. The wagons came to a halt when Calvin raised his hand.

“We’re surrounded.”

Calvin had a skill that was very similar to Sun’s Elemental Perception. It allowed him to keep track of the movements in the surrounding area. Mages had a similar spell called alarm. The fact he had not noticed the enemy until they had already surrounded them meant that they were strong. Sun threw out his own ‘sight’ to check the situation. Just as Calvin as said, there were about a hundred monsters surrounding them. From the shape of their elements, they were relatively big and strong.

The monsters came out of their hiding. From the looks of it they were some sort of half horse half man creatures. Despite having a human upper body, they were savage and unintelligible. However they were dangerous because they were fast and strong.

“Centaurs huh?”

Aside from undead, they needed to fight off several strong monsters to reach their destination. It was going to be by no means easy.

“Everyone prepare for battle!”

The paladins entered their defensive stances. Paladins were very well known for their defensive power and offensive skills.

“Alveron, we need to support the paladins.”

Sun, Calvin, and Alveron cast various buffs on the paladins. Alveron’s skills were much stronger than them but it would take too long for him to individually buff all one hundred paladins. So they divided up the buffs so that the paladins would all receive them. Even though their skills were inferior to Alveron’s, they were by no means weak.

The Centaurs charged at the expedition, swinging their weapons. With their shields, the paladins deflected the attacks and forced the centaurs back. The paladins of the Church of Freya were strong and stood their ground. The paladins took turns fighting the enemy while the injured were being healed by the priests. However, the centaurs proved to be formidable. Neither side showed any signs of losing the battle since there had not been any casualties yet.

‘This does not look good.’

Sun analyzed the situation. In terms of power, they were going to win. However, the centaurs were quite strong. If things keep up as they are then a few paladins were going to die in this fight soon. SInce it was barely the start of the trip, they needed to conserve as much forces as they can for the rest of the journey.

“Alveron, focus entirely on healing the paladins.”

Sun jumped off of the wagon. A battle of attrition was a bad idea. They would exhaust themselves too quickly and their supplies would not last. If all the battles were fought in such a manner then the number of paladins would quickly dwindle before they reach their destination. It was time for him to make a move with a new skill he had learned recently.

Gathering holy light, Sun had forged a skill that would help defeat the enemy quickly. Manipulating the holy mana, he shaped them into an image in his head. After materializing them, he threw it at the enemy centaurs.

“Light Binding!”

The light had been formed into various shackles of light to restrain the enemy’s movement. For fast moving enemy like the centaurs this would be essential to defeating them. The light binding was a skill of the arcane series of holy magic. It was used in war to immobilize the enemy army’s movements so that a large area of effect magic could be used to decimate their troops. Right now Sun was only limited to binding two enemies at once but at a high level of the skill it could restrain thousands of units in place.

“Kill them!”

WIth the enemy stuck in place, the paladins could land decisive blows to the centaurs turning them into grey ash. Sun repeated this until all of the centaurs had been dealt with. Though exhausted, none of the paladins had suffered any wounds that would kill them or render them unable to fight. With a quick heal up the paladins were back in top condition. At least nearly top condition.

Gugugugu

The long battle had left them feeling hungry. As out of place as it may see, they stopped to have a meal in the remnants of the bloody battle they had just fought. Since there were a large number of people in the expedition, there were various people cooking food.

"Hey is this edible?"

One of the paladins was holding up some meat that was dropped by the centaurs.

"I think it is, but I would prefer not to."

Sun replied honestly.

"Hand it over here, we'll eat it."

Another paladin called out.

Sun was one of the cooks and he was responsible for cooking a meal for 10 people, including himself and Alveron. It was was for a large number of people that were already hungry, he decided to make something simple that he could make a lot of quickly. So he made some stew.

He cut up all the ingredients and threw it into the pot. Then he picked up some spices and threw them in as well. After it started to boil, he stirred it until it was done.

-Cooking has advanced to Beginner Level 8.

After having cooked for his party back in the dungeon for a month as well as cooking for some of the expedition, his cooking level had finally increased to level 8. The food now tasted more refined and could raise more stats when consumed.

The paladins quickly consumed their food gratefully. Not many people in the church bothered to learn cooking so Sun and Calvin had the highest cooking skill. Alveron also ate some of the stew. It was pretty good in his opinion. Though he had eaten food that was cooked by a person with a much higher cooking skill and handicraft skill, this was still better than what most people could eat. Sun had gotten into the habit of spicing a lot of his food because of Leaf.

After they had finished eating, they climbed back onto the wagon and the expedition continued. The wagon creaked along noisily. As night fell, the expedition continued onwards thanks to the paladin’s high tolerance and stamina. Sun and Alveron spent their time curled up in the wagon sleeping.

He had the most unusual dream while he was sleeping. It didn’t even have anything to do with him.

----

Lesus was sitting at his desk in the Judge Complex sorting through documents.

“Haah.”

Lesus sighed from the recent events that had occurred.

“To think that he would go and lose his eyesight. It was a good thing that I told Hell to follow him around. Who knows what would happen if he went around as he was?”

However, Lesus knew Sun very well. Knowing that Sun would not sit still, especially when someone was watching over him, he decided to go check up on him. Looking through the entire Holy Temple, there wasn’t anyone that had seen Sun. He went over to Sun’s room and checked inside to see that there wasn’t anyone inside or in the hidden wine cellar.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Don’t tell me he went to do something ridiculous again.”

There was only one person left to check. Hell Knight. He looked around the Church and then the Hell Knight, otherwise known as Roland the Doom Knight, called out to him.

“Knight Captain Judgement!”

Behind him was a man that was in a skin-tight black leotard. There was only one man in the Holy Temple that would dress that way and it was the Hell Knight. However, Roland Hell was alone and Sun was nowhere in sight.

“Knight-Captain Hell, weren’t you supposed to be following after Knight-Captain Sun?”

Shame spread all over Roland’s face.

“You’ve lost his trail again?”

Lesus had a feeling that this would happen. He had assigned Hell to tail Sun but not once had he seen the two of them walking together. It wasn’t Hell’s fault since no one could find Sun if he didn’t want to be found.

“Forget it. You don’t have to follow him anymore. I should have realized long before. It’s not like we can have someone follow Sun forever.”

“But Sun can no longer see with his eyes… If he were to meet with danger, what would we do then?”

Lesus replied helplessly.

“If he can even throw you off, I don’t think there’s any problem.”

A look of confusion spread over Roland’s face.

“I suppose that’s true. I just can’t understand why Sun can escape from my pursuit. His strength has never been that great…”

“If that’s what you actually think, then I’m afraid you are greatly looking down on our Knight-Captain Sun.”

Roland was puzzled even more.

“But isn’t his swordsmanship terrible?”

Lesus admitted.

“Sun’s swordsmanship is indeed terrible however, although it is true that Sun’s swordsmanship is terrible, if you were to ask me who in this world I wish least to go against, my answer would definitely be Knight-Captain Sun.”

Even more confused, Roland said hesitantly.

“But Grisia, he’s…”

A voice called out from the distance.

“Knight-Captain Judgment!”

Lesus and Roland were both startled. It didn’t matter to the latter, but the former’s face promptly darkened and switched to a frown, displaying the Judgment Knight’s renowned expression.

However, the person who had come was a member of the Judgment Knight Platoon. So now Judgement was displeased even further. His platoon was very calm and collected like himself, so if they were acting like this, that meant that things were horribly wrong.

The Judgment Knight Platoon member gasped for air twice. Afterward, he immediately saluted.

“Captain Judgment, Knight-Captain Hell.”

“What is the matter?”

The holy knight began to explain.

“There was a huge explosion nearby due to causes unknown. No deaths or injuries were reported, but the clerics said that a very strong dark element has aggregated there. It’s possible that a necromancer cast a spell there.”

This could not be anything pleasant. Lesus and Roland quickly made their way towards the scene.

----

.

Sun woke up from his dream. It was quite strange to have a dream about Lesus after all.

‘So it’s been this long already.’

From his dream about Lesus, he realized that he had already been gone for almost 2 years now. The church had no way of contacting him in this foreign land. He had finally found some clues but it was still ambiguous if he could actually get back.

‘Maybe they’ve already given up the search.’

Two years was a long time. It wouldn’t be unreasonable that they would give up by now and named someone else, such as Adair, as the new Sun Knight.

‘No. I will keep believing in my brothers.’

Sun did not give up hope. He believed he bonds that he shared with his brothers transcended the limits of space and time.

The expedition had taken a break for the paladins and the horses to rest. Sun got off of the wagon and stretched out his limbs. He had been sleeping for quite some time. He looked around to see that Alveron wasn’t in the wagon anymore.

“He must have gotten up already.”

Sun said to himself. Looking around, he tried to see if Alveron was nearby. It was rather dangerous so he needed to look out for him.

“Alveron, where are you?”

He called out while walking around the area, looking for Alveron.

“There you are. It’s dangerous to be walking around at night you know?”

Sun had found Alveron, who had been walking around in the forest.

“Sorry. I was hoping to look around at the scenery.”

Sun walked over and patted Alveron on the head.

“It’s fine for you to want to do things like that. However, if you just suddenly go off alone like that then people will get worried.”

Alveron nodded his head in understanding.

“So next time you want to go off and do something just tell me. I’ll go along with you.”

Sun poked Alveron on the forehead with a smile. To him, it felt as if Alveron was some sort of small child that was curious about the world. It wouldn’t hurt to spoil him a little.

“Let’s head back to the group. They must be ready to leave by now.”

The two of them headed back to the paladins. As he had predicted, the paladins were now fully rested and ready to leave again.

“Where were you guys?”

Calvin was responsible for their safety so he couldn’t just let them move around on their own.

“Sorry. I took Alveron and went to look around a bit.”

“Be a little more careful. It’s dangerous in this area.”

Sun told Calvin that he understood and climbed back into the wagon.

“Thanks for covering for me.”

Alveron said apologetically as they got into the wagon. If the church found out that he was going off on his own then they would restrict his movements even further.

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

The expedition continued along its way. Every now and then monsters would attack the expedition. Thanks to their strong defense and healing, they manage to repel the monsters every time without any casualties.

“That’s strange.”

Sun said as they continued along the way to Koress.

“What is?”

Calvin asked questioningly. As far as he could see, nothing was really out of the ordinary. They were a week away from Koress and they were still in good condition.

“Isn’t it strange that even though we were sent here to deal with the undead, the only things that we’ve encountered so far are monsters?”

The original mission had stated that undead activity in the area around Koress had significantly increased. By now they should have been swarmed with various undead yet at this time they had yet to see a single one.

“Something must be amiss.”

Alveron thought it was strange as well. Normally the undead were able to detect high levels of holy magic, especially from such a large group as them. However, the fact that they had yet to see any meant a few things. Either there were no undead, which was highly unlikely, or there was something else that was going on. Whatever it was, it was going to be very troublesome.

Either way, their objective of reaching Koress did not change in the slightest. However, they became more vigilant since there was no knowing what could possibly appear.

Aside from the monsters, there was nothing that really got in their way. There was no undead to speak of, as if they simply disappeared from the region. In a week’s time they managed to reach the town of Koress. From the reports, there had been constant undead attacks over the past few months. However, there was no sign of undead activity anywhere near the town.

“This is very strange.”

Calvin acknowledge that this situation was far different from what they had been told. Calvin went to find the local authority of the city.

“We have received reports from this city for help against the undead. However, there seem to be none. What has happened since then?”

The leader of the city was a young man, most likely a warrior from the looks of it. Around him were various other people that looked like combat oriented classes as well. They were members of the prestigious Cold Roses Guild, led by Oberon, and their job was to manage this town. Seeing as there was not enough members of the guild available to help, they had requested the Church of Freya since it involved the undead.

“Well, there were undead raids in the area a few weeks ago. However, for some reason, they simply disappeared from the area recently.”

The leader began to explain. The undead were appearing around and hunting down various users and NPCs that left the city. This continued until a few weeks ago. The undead began to leave the area in large numbers, heading to the eastern region.

“What’s to the east?”

Sun asked Calvin after they left the building.

“East of the British Confederacy and the Kingdom of Rosenheim is nothing. There is simply the area known as the Plains of Despair but what would the undead have to do there?”

Alveron had a thoughtful look on his face.

“It might be related to what the High Priest was talking about before we left.”

“What was it?”

Sun had not heard anything in Somuren so it must have been pretty important if the High Priest had kept it secret.

“The Plains of Despair was the region where the necromancers that worshipped Bar Khan were rumored to have disappeared to.”

“Bar Khan?”

Sun knew about necromancers, wicked mages that summon the undead, but not of Bar Khan.

“Bar Khan is a powerful lich that sought immortality and wishes the destruction of the living.”

Calvin explained to Sun. Bar Khan was an existence that brought disorder to the world.

‘Lich, now that’s a familiar term.’

A lich was an undying existence that forsake their bodily existence for great power. Pink was such an existence, a powerful one at that. Even he was not confident that he could completely destroy her, even if he wanted to.

“If they’re heading toward the Plains of Despair then it’s no longer our jurisdiction.”

“Why do you say that?”

Sun did not understand what the undead going to the Plains of Despair had anything to do with their mission.

“I heard that the hero of the church, Weed was going to be sent there to investigate.”

At this point, it was already someone else’s problem to deal with. The gathering of the undead in the Plains of Despair was strange and could not mean anything good. However, they were too far away to do anything about it. So the only choice they had was to investigate the surrounding area for any clues that could explain the undead’s initial presence here.

“I’ve been hearing that name a lot. What did he do that makes him so important?”

Sun couldn’t help but ask. For a guy named Weed, what on earth did he do that made him so important?

“He retrieved a treasure of the church, the Helain’s Grail, from the servant of Bar Khan. This allowed the church to begin reconstruction after it’s damages from the fight against Bar Khan’s Undead Legion. Then he managed to recover Fargo’s Crown from the True Blood Vampire Clan and defeat Bar Khan’s servant, the Vampire Lord Tori. A few of the paladins here were actually rescued by him.”

“Amazing. To think that a sculptor did all of that.”

Sun could not help but be amazed. Was the definition of a sculptor different in this world or something? From the sounds of it, this sculptor sounded like some sort of invincible warrior.

“Just to be sure, you mean a sculptor as in someone that makes statues right?”

“Yes, what else could it possibly mean?”

He decided not to say anything else. Aside from the overpowered swordsmen in his world, there were monstrous warriors in this world as well.

“Let’s keep moving in this direction until we reach the next town. We can investigate along the way and once we reach the next town we can use the teleport gates to return to Somuren.”

Calvin, as their leader, had the right to make the decision for the expedition. Their original goal was gone so they had to finish their other objective and then return to the church.

“Let me scan the area for now.”

Sun decided to waste no time and used his Elemental Perception. Compared to Calvin’s own skill of Detect Enemies, Sun’s skill did not allow him to detect hostile forces but it did allow him to scan the area for the elements which he would then decide if it was suspicious. Another benefit it allowed was its large scan radius, the ability to identify weaknesses, and the ability to recognize people based on their elemental composition.

‘So far there’s nothing.’

Sun continued to throw out his sight further. Sending out his sight in intervals, he began to have a grasp on the surrounding area. There were all sorts of dangerous monsters around but nothing that was comprised of dark matter.

“I think I found something.”

Sun threw his sight out toward the path to the next town. There was an area that was completely blank, no elements existed there at all. To a world that was made up of elements, this one spot was highly suspicious.

“Are you certain?”

“Yes, it’s on the way to the next town. It’s a region that is completely devoid of elements. Such a place shouldn’t exist in the first place.”

Calvin thought about what Sun was saying.

“That does sound rather strange. It might be worth checking out since its on the way. Aside from that, was there anything else that was strange?”

Sun shook his head to show that there was nothing else. Calvin and Alveron also tried their own methods of investigation and that yielded nothing. They could search around with the paladins on foot, but that would waste valuable time. They decided that their best clue would be Sun’s. After loading up on supplies, they continued to move to the next location.

---

“Have you recovered all of our undead?”

A man in black hooded robe asked his underling.

“Yes. At least the ones that we summoned. The others appear to be following the will of another entity.”

“That is fine. Our lord will be returning shortly so we must make preparations for his revival.”

The hooded man turned around and then said.

“It is a shame that the others have died. They have sacrificed their lives to teleport you to safety so make sure their lives were not in vain. If you had died, then his return would have surely been delayed.”

“Yes. I will make sure that I carry on their will for all of us.”

The necromancer had escaped death thanks to the sacrifice of his colleagues. Had it not been for them, then he would had died at the hands of the Church of Freya. There was much work to be done for the return of their lord.

“Once our lord’s plan is complete, then not even the gods can stop us.”

The hooded man smiled as he laughed insidiously.