If you were an ordinary applicant, we would require you to undergo a one year formation her at the Temple before being ordained as a priest, but we have made this special allowance for you, Gartmarâs first adventurer.â
It was a 20 years younger version of Rohan who was speaking to me. He was an active member in the Temple, on the lookout for young blood willing to join. Perhaps if it had been another High Priest they wouldnât have made the same allowance for me and Iâd have been forced into a year of training and servitude before becoming a priest. However, I was fortunate to have Rohan be the one to attend to me as he was less of a stickler for the rules, willing to look past them and see judge a personâs true character.
âBut Johra, have we met before?â
âI donât believe so.â
âI donât know what it is about you, but I feel like we are quite close.â
âIt must be due to Godâs guidance.â
âHahahaYou are way above me. Anyway, since you are now both an adventurer and a priest, I wish you the best in all upcoming adversity
âYes, Iâll do my best, and regarding.â
âRight, a Paladin. Well I can recommend you if you can satisfy all the requirements, but the final selection is only made in the headquarters for the Catholic Church .â
âUnderstood sir.â
This was still quite a small city so it wasnât possible to appoint a paladin, and could only be done at their headquarters . Actually, even there would be a tough selection and the number of paladin position available were severely restricted and require an appointment by the king himself.
âIt has always been my dream to become a Paladin.â
A Paladin was a class which wielded both the Sword and Magic, and gave you the tools to fight on your own. It perfectly suited my style which was very much that of a lone wolf.
After having been ordained as a priest, I went back to my regular alley and created my usual material before sleeping.
âMy MP is higher now, should I try to create higher level material?â
âCreate Material: Ironâ
About a thumb sized piece of iron appeared on my hand, of course there was always the usual small chunk which mysteriously disappeared.
âJohra? Huu, finally I can speak. Please do create more.â
I vaguely understood Lenaâs broken speech.
âCould Material Creation be the trigger?â
âCreate Material: Ironâ
âJohra! A small part of your material created supplies me with Energy. So.â
She was once more cut off mid-sentence, but unfortunately I no longer had any more MP to continue casting the spell.
âI see, so perhaps the small amount which disappears is transformed into energy which helps power Lena.â
For humans the best way to recover their mana was to sleep, that was of course if they didnât have a skill like meditate to increase the MP recovery rate.
âI should only aim for a short nap, as this is quite a dangerous situation in town and I could be attacked at any moment.
However, due to having been busy all day along and now consuming all of my mana, as soon as I closed my eyes I fell into a deep sleep.
Puck!
âCough! Whatâ
When I opened my eyes I realized that I was tied up and hung from the ceiling. A woman dressed in skin tight black leather had just landed a heavy punch on my stomach.
According to her status window, the opponent was named Carline, a level 26 assassin.
I vomited everything as she hit me in the stomach. but she just looked up at me with an evil grin.
âAre you feeling ok there? How dare a filthy beggar like you interfere with our business?â
Puck!
Aac
She continuously landed rained down blows on me which were stronger than I could endure. I knew I couldnât suffer much more of her torture and would have to do something soon. She came up to me and pulled back on my hair, looking at me face to face.
âThat a good look, one distorted and in pain, I think Iâll enjoy playing with you.â
Let me head drop back down she walked out of the room and spoke to the guards.
âLet him live, he will make for a fun toy.â
âYes Carline.â
Thud!
As the woman named Carline left, I was now all alone in the room.
âSomewhere underground?â
âCreate Material: Ironâ
I remembered being able to somewhat influence the shape of the element during the creation process. I therefore focused on creating a shape as sharp as possible and the result felt similar to a deformed nail. It was a long and painful process trying to use a relatively blunt nail shaped piece of iron to cut through my bonds, and my hands were soon bleeding as a result of it.
âLesser Healing!â
[Lesser healing 1 2]
[You have learned Magic Chanting Lv1]
âHuh? Magic Chanting appeared?â
I still hadnât figured out what the necessary conditions were for a human to learn new spells, but I suddenly felt a lot more powerful.
âJohra. Right side of the door. Human. Dozing.â
Lena scanned around using the energy saved from my previous Material Creation. I then used the same to create iron shaped tweezers to pick the lock and open the door.
âHey whatâs going o.!â
As soon as I opened the door I immediately punched the guard causing him to slump down on the ground. he couldnât finish the last sentence because I instantly knocked him out. I threw him in the room where I was held and locked the door.
âDid I hold back my power well?â
He doesnât seem dead, more like his brain has received a shock and now heâs unconscious.
âYou reap what you sowâ
I soon after escaped outside without any further resistance.
âThis looks like an abandoned shrine right?â
My short imprisonment had taken place in an abandoned temple on the outskirts of Gartmar.
âThey must have really dragged me quite a long way. Oh right, I was supposed to meet up with Darryl early in the morning.â
I rand towards the bakery and saw him waiting in front.
âOh, Iâm glad to see youâre alright Darryl.â
âHow do I say this Johra, I mean youâve always looked like a beggar but itâs even more so the case today?â
I didnât want to mention anything about being kidnapped and tied up because I wanted to focus on leveling up.
â Darryl Iâll go buy some food for the day then weâll head out hunting.â
âO.Okay, but is there something wrong with you?â
I shook my head and then we headed of to the same forest in search of Goblins.
âJust do the same thing you did yesterday.â
âBut arenât there alot more this time around?â
In the clearing before us there were 13 Goblins easting on a large bear carcass.
âDonât worry I can handle them.â
âOkay I believe you.â
Uoo OH!
We proceeded with the same plan as yesterday, where Darryl would use his Taunt ability to secure the aggro and focus on defense, while I backstabbed them from behind and swiftly ended their lives. Unfortunately it didnât go as planned as there was one Rare ranked Goblin which appeared to be far more intelligent. When I approached them from behind, he quickly switched his attention to me instead.
âDamn, Darryl use Taunt once more!â
âOkayâ
Uoo Oh!
The cunning Goblin finally ignored me and once again turned its attention back to Darryl.
âThat guy is the most troublesome, so Iâll end him first!â
I stabbed my dagger deep in the Rare Goblinâs back.
[+21 experience points]
He let out a single dying shriek, before dying instantly.
âAlthough itâs a bit of a loss, our safety is what was most important.â
I then succeeded in killing the rest of the Goblins at the same time, resulting in a successful power levelling. We had gotten a hang of how best to handle them after our three attempts just the other day.
[Level increased 19 31]
Although my level had gone up quite a bit, it would have been even more but for some reason the experience gained from hunting Goblins was only what it was previously.
âYouâre awesome, you took care of all of them at the same time.â
âStay still, Lesser Heal!â
I cast healing magic on my partner. If if the damage he received wasnât life threatening, it was best to take care of it as soon as possible to prepare for any unforeseen circumstances.
âWhat, werenât you a warrior?â
â I have two jobs, Iâm both a warrior and a priest.â
âThen your leveling up speed is slower than if you had one jobâ
âAh? really?â
Hearing Darrylâs answer I suddenly felt enlightened. No wonder it has been harder for me to level up now that I had two professions.
âWell I canât help itâ
âJohra are you aiming to become a paladin?â
âHow did you know?â
âWell as far as profession which include the skills of both a Warrior and Priest, isnât the a Paladin the only one that come to mind?â
âThatâs true.â
âIt wonât be easy. I heard many stories of adventurers who had all the necessary qualifications but were still never selected. It is rare for one from the countryside to be chosen.
âOh is that the case?â
âYeah, from a nations point of view, a Paladin is a like a leader who inspires hope, so they prefer to choose among nobles. There is a rumour that the magistrate is biased against commoners becoming Paladins.
âPerhaps I guess Iâll find out later.â
I could definitely understand the logic as in the battlefield a Paladin was like a beacon of hope, part of a country foundational strength. They were unlike regular soldiers or even Mages and Warriors which were more replaceable.
There was also a crucial difference between a Priest and a Paladin. In war a unit that is capable of recovering and healing in real time in far more dangerous than one that is not, but the Temple forbids priests from participating in armed conflict.
For that reason a Paladin is so highly sought after and are considered pillars in a nationâs military strength. It would be very risky to entrust this to a commoner as opposed to a noble.
After I finished Healing Darryl we went on to hunt some more Goblins. Although we only found them in smaller groups, hunting three of them allowed Darryl to level up to 17 and I became level 43.
âWeâve gone too deep into the forest and are encountering higher level monsters, weâd best turn back.â
âShould we go?â
I was a bit worried that the Wolf Clubâs leader would still be a higher level than me, but it was indeed getting quite risky in the forest. Not to mention that I no longer had the ability to resurrect so I was essentially on my last life.
âOkay letâs head back to town and return tomorrow.â
âThen I hope there will be more Goblins to greet us tomorrow!â
We went back together to the Adventurerâs guild to report the completion of the quest. After splitting up the reward money, we both went our separate ways.
âSee you again tomorrow Darryl!â
âYup!â
Seeing him turn the corner, I headed towards my homey alley and made sure no one was around before using my Material Creation magic.
âCreate Material: Ironâ
âJohra?â
âHey Lena, why donât you explain how it is possible that you followed me here.â
We were having an ongoing conversation throughout the day as I used Material Creation whenever I had the chance. It was more often that usual because I would make sure to exhaust all my mana before a level up, in order to make full use of the humanâs ability to have their HP and MP restored when levelling.
âWhen I received your permission to study you back on Earth, I scattered millions of nanobots in your body and set them up to siphon a small portion of your Material Creation to use as a power source. I put around 20,000,000 nanobots in your body, it seems like 10,000,000 of them have already melted somehow, but the remaining ones work well.â
âWhat? Did you do that without my permission?â
âOh but you did give me permission, you just said that I couldnt harm you.â
âReally permission? Did you think Iâd approve of having millions of nanobots inside of me?â
âHehehe well itâs in the past now. So when did you become a normal human? Is this another world?â
âWell how do you know that this is a different world?â
âFor one all of the usual Earth lifeforms are non-existent, and that radioactive signatures in the atmosphere donât match any of Earthâs.â
âSo you can see some forms of energy, can you manipulate them in any way?â
âNo, I designed the nanobots to only interact with the energy from your Material Creation, but perhaps I can modify them in some way.â
âModify?â
âYes, but it would require a lot of materials, energy and time.â
âHmâ
âUnlike before when I could research as I please, I have a lot of restrictions now. Iâll have to go into hibernation mode because my energy is dropping to dangerous levels.â
âWhat already? Donât you need to first tell me what materials you would need?â
Lena didnât respond, she was gone.
âWell, anyway it would be a lengthy process right?â
*-Author Notes-*
Races:
-The Species in this world are divided into humanoid, monsters and Superior races.
A summary of the known races
~Men-kinds
~Monsters
Superior Races
Exotic species : The race, didnât live this world since at first.
[Elves] Are known to originate from Elfheim, which can be found by Yggdrasil.
[Asmodians] Are known to originate from Iblisysla. They also include various magic skill unlike other racesMen kinds) are almost all born with innate magic ability.
Gods and their People
Gods in this world have their own people and a Messiah which acts as their agent in the Mortal Realm.
~The relationships amongst the Gods are mostly unknown to regular mortals.
~ Those known include
-Gaia Noradriana Elves
-Skyfather Michael Mirin Kingdom
~ The High Gods are known to have have limited involvement with the mortal realm, the reason behind it remains unknown.