Looking curiously at Lorath, the Hermit, Michael wondered how much the man would spill before he started asking questions.

And he had quite the arsenal prepared.

[It was prophesied she would come back...](Lorath)

"What does she want?"

[That's the question. Sanctuary has always been trapped amid the Eternal Conflict, a war between angels and demons... But Lilith serves neither side. She has her own plans for us.](Lorath)

"She did mention that the Lords of Hell are coming and that 'her children' were too weak to survive as they are. Do you think she has something in mind to help us tide through the invasion?"

[Possible... it seems you know more than you're willing to tell me.](Lorath)

"I'll gladly trade knowledge if you don't mind. I still know much less than you do, but I will share what little I found."

[Fair enough.](Lorath)

"I found two strange things on my way to your cabin. An Altar of Lilith and a Shrine of Power. The Sanctuary helped me identify them and explained that Lilith and Inarius created them with this world's help as weapons of salvation."

[I was aware of the Shrines as they are pretty common in the wilderness. But an altar for Lilith as well... you should have already activated it, right?](Lorath)

"Mhm."

[Figures. That explains the strange feeling of strength that surged within me and my sudden increase in Dexterity.](Lorath)

"You're a Wanderer as well?"

[Not quite, but yes, I do own a Class. You could say that I'm a Sorcerer/Warrior combination. That is an interesting approach from Lilith, I must say. To undo the shackles Inarius placed, she must've paid quite the price... what is she after?](Lorath)

Seeing the Hermit drift into the world of his mind, Michael interrupted him.

"And me? Am I corrupted?"

[Not sure yet, but I doubt it. But you two certainly share a connection. What will you do about it?](Lorath)

"Honestly? Use it. Find out what she's after."

[Good. That sounds interesting. Then we're in this together. I am pretty curious myself about her end goal. Plus, someone with more knowledge would be needed to explain things. From the looks of it, you're low-leveled, aren't you?](Lorath)

"Level 6, yes."

[There is something strange going on. I am much closer than you were to the village, but the Sanctuary didn't want me to intervene. Instead, it sent a newbie to deal with the situation. I can't help but wonder what this world and its creators are up to. Fortunately, unlike Lilith and Inarius, the Sanctuary always put its inhabitants and their safety above all else. Even above its creators.](Lorath)

The pause in the Hermit's words made Michael frown.

[Inarius is a selfish asshole blinded by pride. Lilith is equally selfish, but she at least cares about her children. Her usual methods of solving problems tend to be quite rough, and she advocates for only the strong to survive. Being born in Hell will do that to you...*Sigh* Inarius won't act for now, but once he finds out about Lilith, he will spring into action.](Lorath)

"And Lilith?"

[She's smart and cunning beyond our understanding as mere mortals. Whatever she is planning won't be good for ordinary people. Rest while you can, then we'll start our search for answers in Kyovashad. If we can't stop Lilith, we'll all be damned.](Lorath)

"Why do you say so?"

[Think about it. Her lover banished her into the Void and is scared of her no matter how much bravado he puts forward. Once he finds out she's back, he will immediately hunt her down using the influence he accumulated while she was gone. A clash between the two is terrible for the realm. Plus, if Lilith has other plans and kills Inarius or she dies, the balance will break, and nobody can predict what will come next. Mortals look toward the Church of Light for spiritual comfort... if their 'god' suddenly dies, it would be a terrible blow to morale while we're being besieged by invaders on all sides.](Lorath)

Michael agreed with the Hermit's conclusion by combining all the information he had so far.

Still, something was off.

"Why are you telling me all this? It's suspicious to share that much knowledge with someone you just met."

[Someone that the Sanctuary selected, you mean. Plus, it's just knowledge. Among my kin, at least. It's useful only when people know of it. When hidden, it's useless at best or dangerous in the worst cases. Also... something tells me you'll need to learn as much as I can tell you. I doubt the Sanctuary is done with you yet. Especially with a connection created between you and Lilith.](Lorath)

Michael was still suspicious but nodded either way. With daylight breaking the darkness outside, Lorath entered the bedroom and extinguished all light sources.

Then, he dragged the stag, placed it on the table next to the long-horned skull, and opened some windows.

[The cold will preserve the corpse until I return. *Sigh* I can't get enough rest even at this age...](Lorath)

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Michael watched him close the bedroom with the bookshelf and then use the water he washed his hands with to put out the fire in the fireplace.

[Let's go. It's a long trek to Kyovashad.](Lorath)

"Huh!? Will you just leave the cabin like this? What about your books and research here? What if someone walks in like I did?"

[The whole cabin and much of the surrounding place is warded with glyphs and runes. You only managed to make it here thanks to the Sanctuary guiding you. Others won't find it even if they walk near it.](Lorath)

"Is that so..."

Thinking about it, it made sense. After all, the man was in the middle of nowhere, and many wild animals and now demonic creatures were roaming about.

It seems like there was more to this Hermit than meets the eye.

[ Quest Complete - In Search for Answers

Reward 1: 440 experience points

Reward 2: 240 gold coins ]

[ New Quest issued - Rite of Passage

Description: Accompany Lorath to Kyovashad. ]

Thinking about it, the Hermit avoided talking about him and steered the conversation toward getting more intel from Michael. His identity as a Hermit is questionable at best since even the Sanctuary chose to base the Quest around him.

That meant that he was indispensable to the storyline, at least in an immediate sense. As for what would happen later, there was no way of knowing.

Nodding his head in agreement, Michael stood up and walked outside, watching Lorath grab his weapon and follow close by.

"Right, I've been meaning to ask. I found some stone mounds under which I found gold coins. One was behind your cabin. Are those your stashes?"

[Hmm? Really now? No, not mine. The Sanctuary likes to play games like that sometimes, hiding stuff in plain sight. If it sees you ignoring it, it will even highlight important ones to you. It's one of the ways through which it helps Wanderers survive. After all, it's quite an expensive line of work.](Lorath)

"So I've heard... Which direction is Kyovashad?"

[North East. The location should be marked on your MAP function.](Lorath)

Nodding and inspecting the MAP, he saw another marker pointing toward a general direction.

Unfortunately, the distance was much bigger than Michael initially thought, and they spent over four hours on foot, traveling to their destination.

He was super tired but couldn't exactly sleep in a room with a man he just met. Irrelevant of how friendly the Hermit was, Michael wouldn't be comfortable with the idea.

'Luckily, both the trio and the Gonk mentioned an inn in Kyovashad. From the novels I've read, I should be able to book a single room to wash up and sleep. Hopefully, I can buy some more Cleaning Marbles as well... I'm down to only four, as I abused them quite a bit these past days.'

Between wandering in the wilderness, diving in a dungeon, and getting splashed with blood, Michael often needed to cleanse himself. It was slowly becoming an obsession, but there wasn't much he could do about it.

Sighing, he could only hope for a warm bath in the near future. The city was supposedly big enough to...

[Ahead! What in the Burning Hells!? Fallen? This close to the city? *Tsk* Lilith's evil is spreading. It seems she brought some minions she still holds power over in the Sanctuary.](Lorath)

Seeing five Fallen and a Shaman, Michael lobbed two Blight balls at the group and commanded the minions to attack by reflex. Lorath didn't interfere, but once a Fallen moved past the Skeletons, a swing of the axe beheaded the tiny fellow.

With the demon one shotted, Michael spammed the Bone Splinters to quickly take care of the Shaman while wondering how high-level this Hermit was.

'A hidden bigshot, no doubt. This is good for me, though. He can ensure my survival. It's not bad to have a thigh you can hug.'

[We're pretty close to the city. Up ahead, we'll follow the small road and reach the bridge leading to Kyovashad. *Tsk* More Fallen...](Lorath)

Hearing the annoyance in the man's voice, as if he was speaking of mosquitos instead of demons, Michael couldn't help but feel annoyed as well. At Lorath.

Ignoring the posturing hidden bigshot, Michael scrutinized the newly acquired Corpses and used Raise Skeletons twice to heal up his minions. Also, he found no loot except for nine gold coins, pissing him off quite a bit.

The road ahead was relatively uneventful after the two encounters, but the system decided it was TOO uneventful.

[ Quest update: Rite of Passage

Description: Slay the Fallen. ]

Michael clicked his tongue in annoyance, and Lorath caught it.

[What's going on?](Lorath)

"A Quest update. It says 'Slay the Fallen.'"

[Interesting. Maybe Lilith lost track of her demonic followers, and they are running loose now. The Sanctuary might want us to clean them up since it's close to the city. It wouldn't stand for ordinary people to be endangered. It's not surprising.](Lorath)

Seeing the red dots on the map, Michael couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. Judging by how things were going, he would no doubt meet an Elite.

Walking toward the direction where the demonic congregation was, his assumptions were proved correct.

[An Overseer and an Elite Shaman... troublesome...](Lorath)

And he wasn't wrong. A total of seven enemies blocked their path. Five were normal Fallen, but the other two were much bigger.

[ Fallen Overseer (minion) - Level 10 ]

[ Mirroring Fallen Shaman (Elite) - Level 11

*Multishot: All ranged attacks are mirrored by two more attacks dealing 100% of the initial damage. ]

As for what 'Multishot' did, Michael found out the hard way after being flung away by three different lighting bolts coming from the Elite.

Fortunately, as the Overseer came crashing down on the sprawled Necromancer, Lorath intervened and smacked it away.

[Your awareness is not bad, but your battle instincts still need work. You could've avoided the lighting bolts by having the Skeletons block it for you. Don't just freeze and wait for the enemy to make the first move. Initiative is crucial if you want to survive.](Lorath)

Nodding while getting up and downing a Weak Healing Potion, Michael spammed the mobs and the Elite with Blight and Bone Splinters, even going as far as fighting in a mele with the Overseer.

He brought out his two-handed Scythe and practiced for a bit under Lorath's watchful eyes. Having a thigh to hug was quite comfortable.

[Okay, enough playing around. We need to move.](Lorath)

About twenty minutes later, Michael was panting, but all the enemies were dead. He took his time getting used to the new stats in combat since the spiders didn't help very much.

Being disgusted and scared of the furry arachnid terrors wouldn't allow one to practice too much.

Unsurprisingly, a shot of Blight, while his two-handed Scythe was still equipped, was enough to throw the Elite off balance. The minions followed and made short work of the poor Shaman.

'The 15% increase in damage is quite obvious. Also, I am very stiff while fighting in mele... I need to get used to my new attributes quickly, or it will be problematic later on.'

Seeing Lorath nod in approval at his clumsy fight almost made Michael blush. Fortunately, the man seemed to be more focused on something else.

Something Michael failed to notice in his fight against the mobs.

[Never thought I'd live to see all this...](Lorath)

While Michael picked up the Potion Orb, the ten gold coins, and the blue item box, Lorath stood before a somewhat damaged statue.

"What's this statue?"

[The angel Inarius. I'm sure you already heard the dumb Iosef babbling about their holy Father. And, of course, as I already said earlier, he's real—an angel walking among us. I can't keep thinking about when he learns about Lilith... blood will flow. Past lovers, current arch-enemies.](Lorath)

Thinking about relationships turning bad back on Earth, Michael couldn't help but shudder and agree.

[They'll drag the whole damned world into their feud... unless we can stop it. Fat chance of that happening, though. But we must try at least.](Lorath)

"I guess... I'm starting to regret getting mixed up in this mess..."

[You can't get away now. Not without paying the price anyway. Let's not linger. Kyovashad lies just ahead.](Lorath)

Taking in his surroundings, Michael agreed upon seeing old stone walls on the sides of the road. It reminded him of Ireland for some reason with its strange appearance.

But he was more interested in the city in the distance.

Tall walls that could be seen only in a novel dwarfing their surroundings.

He made it to his first major city in this new world.