Flara, capital of the Eastern Continent, 3 days after the alert, one of the royal guards PV:

The king was sleeping on his throne again. It was a long day for everyone, the nobles of the capital all came here to ask for more money or power for whatever reason. Since we stopped our assault on the demons these guys who only sit here, doing absolutely nothing, got too cocky, believing that they can do anything they want. Recently, rumors were going around about some noble who want the throne for themselves. Of course, these were just rumors, no one is so stupid to attack the king who is in direct descended of one the greatest hero!

Man, I wish I had a hero in my family! If you have at least a drop of their blood, you are set for an easy life! Also, you get some sweet power, making you super strong!

The doors of the throne room suddenly swung open, waking up the king. A group of well-dressed people came in led by the young prince, Joshua.

“Father we have a great crisis! I and the ones behind me received a message from the Gods!”

The king, who waked up from his slumber looked at them still half asleep.

“Really? And what did the Gods say to you?” his voice was as if he was talking to a 5-year-old.

This type of thing happened more often than it should. Sometimes an idiot gets in his head that he was chosen by the gods and decided to ask the king to give him findings for the noble quest or whatnot. Sometimes the king gives them some support for fun and till now none of them seemed real. It was a matter of time the young prince does the same thing, Really, since he was born he was surrounded by greedy nobles that wanted him ridiculed.

“There is a greatly dangerous monster lurking in a city far away from here and we need to stop it before anything happens! The gods themselves told me in my dreams!”

“A monster, you say… Tell me, do you know the name of the city or the monster you want to kill? How strong is it, do you need additional soldiers, or do you want to do this solo? And maybe the most important: Which god gave you this message?”

The last one was a trap. The gods have special names that have special properties. When pronounced no lie can be spoken. Even if someone isn’t aware of their lie they are unable to pronounce them. This method is the basis of all trials and oaths.

The young prince studs there firmly and said with a determined voice.

“It’s the goddess Astera herself who talked to me. She was made out of light and she told me that in the city of Palanda there is a being that must be killed before it can grow.”

Hearing the name of the Queen of gods the king immediately woke up, with a hint of fear on its face.

“Palanda… Yes, I remember, it’s around a month to get there even if you hurry. I know the lord of that place, a good friend of mine. I will send a message to inform him of your arrival. Who will you bring with you?”

“Selma and Belinda are coming with me. I also want to hire some of the local adventurers there to have greater mobility in the town.”

“A Priestess and a Master Witch? Isn’t that too much? We are not sure if the beast you are talking about is even an adult yet. Some soldiers must be enough…”

“No father, we need to be strong and decisive to be sure that this threat. And because of this that I will take some Holy Objects with us.”

“Holy objects?! Have you gone mad?!”

The king's surprise could be understood. Blessed objects, objects that have inherited their user's skills when they died were rare enough, but Holy Objects were more. Created when a hero died this formidable object could level mountains to nothingness, dry seas to their last drop, or things even more insane.

“I Am well aware of their importance, but this is a mission granted to us by the Gods, so we can’t fail!”

“Yes, I understand, but… Sigh. You may take one.”

“…Father, we will need three. This beast is a being that is so dangerous that the Queen of Gods had her eyes on it.”

“You will have one and that is final and now go, I need to work. !”

The prince bowed and left with his companions.

Damn, I am lucky to be one of the guards today, to see the prince go on an epic quest, like a true hero!

But I wonder what this threat that makes the prince receive a message from the Gods?

*****

“Achoo!”

Damn, did I get a cold?

I was sitting at one of the tables of the canteen eating my breakfast.

While I was looking outside waiters with my drink.

“Sorry for the wait, here is your apple juice. Can I get you anything else?”

“No thank you, that will be all.”

Will she was walking away I used one of my tricks on her.

[Appraisal].

A blue transparent scream appeared behind her back.

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Name: Stellas Morsa

Race: human

Age: 20

Job: Waitress

LV: 10/1000

HP: 50/50

MP: 20/20

STR: 10

VIT: 19

SPD: 20

MRES: 5

Skill PT: 0

Skills: [Cooking, LV:5] [Cleaning, LV:4] Innkeeping, LV:4] [Drinking, LV: 3]

Value: 21 Gold coin

Wish: Having more free time.

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Yep, I started to use [Appraisal] when I had the chance. Thanks to it I was able to see the abilities and the worth of a person as I was reading an ID card. When I used it on myself my eyes changed back to those of my demon form, so I made sure no one saw me when I used it. Sadly, in this city, I couldn’t find any sunglasses only regular ones. Maybe in the future, I will ask a blacksmith to make one of me, but I will need money for now.

I’m totally out of cash. I used them all up when I bought more ingredients for my newest concoction.

I made a deal with the one who checks the inventory to sell me some rare ingredients without them being on the list. I didn’t want to others known about it, because what I was making is considered a rare beverage. It was called The Rose, a sleeping agent that could take effect in the second it is drunk. Whoever drinks this it will automatically KO it.

But why do I need this?

Well, that’s an easy question. In one of the books that I read in the library, I learned more about Mind Palaces. Turns out everyone has one, each unique on their own, and are a direct representation of one’s mind. If someone enters one’s mind, the Mind Palace is the first line of defense. A normal human being has a familiar place as its mind palace, providing some protection.

Me, on the other hand, I have nothing.

… It's frecking frustrating! Is this mean that I’m weak-minded?! I will not stand for that!

Thankfully I found a solution. By drinking the sleeping potion and another one that helps me keep my lucidity in my dreams I will be able to ‘Change my mental landscape to my liking, or at least that’s what the book says. So now, till it's night I need to get some money so that I can stay here.

I should really go out and do some adventuring. Collecting herbs is out of the question because of the barrier. Maybe some work as a bodyguard or something? I can indeed fight and I might gain some Exp. Ugh, this is too complicated, I should just go there and see what I can choose from.

After I finished my breakfast, I took Card to a church that saved children from the streets.

My experience with her recently just proved that I was a terrible person so I wanted to give her a chance of living a good life, even though I didn’t care.

The inside of the church was entirely white and clean, a complete contrast from the one in the slums. Also, it was itchy! My whole body became itchy when I entered the front door. It took me a great deal of effort not to grat myself to death.

Is this holy magic? I don’t like it!

One of the priests came in front of us when he saw us. He was wearing a white robe with a huge silver cross on its neck.

“May I help you?"

He looked at me suspiciously when I entered. A small girl wearing rags and a man in a coat and a hat came in.

I took off my hat and bowed while holding it to my chest.

“Good morning father, I came here to ask you to take care of this girl who I found on the street.”

The priest looked at the girl who had an emotionless eye then at me.

“Can you tell me where she comes from?”

“I found her in the slums, her parents literally forced me to buy her. Believe my father I'm not that sort of man and with my current income, I can’t take care of her. I already tried many places and your holy place is the only one left.”

I lie so easily now, I'm worried.

The priest's expression softened when he heard my explanation.

“I see… We do have some free place here for kids… leave her here and come back tomorrow if the cardinal doesn’t accept.

“Thank you, father.” I bowed again.

“May the Holy Queen bless you.”

When he said those words the itching on my body became worse.

“Thank you, father, you too.”

I left the place without saying anything to Card.

****

The next day I returned to the church, where the priest told me that they will take care of Card from now on.

After I signed the papers, I went straight to the guild to get money.

As always, it was noisy with people drinking and eating. I went to the quest board where pieces of paper were hanging with different quests.

Depending on the type of quest the quality of the paper changes. The top ones are on white ones, while the lowest ones were on old parchment.

I looked through some of them until one has felt on the floor. While picking it up I glanced at the black letters.

____________________________________________________________________

Quest!

Rank: E

Request: Getting rid of a cursed book and cleaning.

Payment: 3 gold and8 silver 3 gold and 20 silver and the objects found

Details: I found a hidden room in the basement of my new house. Inside the room, there were several strange objects, glass bottles, some measuring devices, and some books. One of them keeps talking in a language that I can’t understand and have a weird aura around it. Please help me!

Address: …

____________________________________________________________________

 

This is perfect! The description of the strange objects reminds me of the types of equipment used in alchemy. That place must be used by someone with the same job as me and didn’t want to be found out. I can get some money and if I’m lucky I might find some recipes.

Until now all I could found about this subject in the library was that alchemists were blasphemers who broke the natural laws of the word and served chaos. Not extremely helpful if you asked me.

I wasn’t really worried about the cursed book since the one who made the quest didn’t have any symptoms. In the worst case, I will not touch it.

I took the quest and after I got permission from the counter to get a seal of approval.

“First quest ah? Nervous?”

I turned around to see the girl who spied on me when I made the medicines (tried to sell them, only the poison worth anything! Turns out I was immune to it, being made of my blood and all.). Up close I could tell that she was really small, looking as 16 years old and flat as a bord. She had brown hair and eyes with a mischievous grin.

“It's you again? Miss…?”

“Belda and drop the miss I'm not that old!

“ I have noticed that…”

“What?”

“Nothing. If you excuse me, I have a job to do…”

Before I could go, she stepped in front of me

“Not so fast newbie! They say that you haven’t done the test yet and we can't have that fly can we?”

What is she talking about?

“What test?”

“Well, it's more of a ritual than a test. Right guys!”

She turned around, looking at the adventurers who were drinking. Some of them smiled and raised their glasses or cups while the rest looked away like they didn’t hear a thing.

I had a bad feeling about this.

“Come on come with me!”

Without a word she grabbed my hand and brought me outside to the street.

The people who came with us made a huge circle around us keeping any passer-by away from us.

“The rules are simple. You need to push me out of the circle or make me incapable of fighting. Magic, weapons are allowed but no killing. We have a healer, but he STILL can't use [Resurrect]. “

From the crowd someone shouted “screw you”, accompanied by laughter.

“… Let's get this over with.”

I held my hat and extended my hand, while Belda took out a short sword.

From the crowd, an old man stepped out looking at the two of us with severe eyes before letting out a sigh.

“… Just please don’t break the houses again.” He raised his hand in the air.” Start!”

On his words, Belda launched herself at me with incredible speed, giving no time for me to react. Too bad for her I already made my move.

From my extended hand a blue light lit up and a black dog appeared. It was slightly bigger than I remembered, with its blue eyes gloving. Immediately it rushed at Belda, with saliva in its mouth.

Belda was started for a second before narrowly avoiding its bite. Before she could do anything else I raised my hand once again and blue light appeared again. From the light, a small blackbird appeared. It looked like a vulture with its long bald neck, but its skin was grey as if it didn’t have any blood.

Lesser Night Howl.

I thought it would be bigger but beggars can't be choosers.

The bird took flight and looked at the hound and Belda.

I did use these guys before while I was practicing in my room. It turns out that they can talk with each other for some reason or at least the bird and imps did.

My tactic is simple. While she is occupied by them I will sneak behind her and make her give up.

The Night Howl soared above us and made some cries. The hound in response gowned showing its teeth.

“ …This isn’t what I predicted.” She looked at me, a creepy smile on her face.” Are you really a potion maker?”

“Who knows.” I took out two knives and rushed into the fight.

The hound came next to me and we attacked at the same time, me with my knives and he with his claws.

Belda raised her sword in defense. The blade was blood red.

“Ignite!”

The blade in her hand let out a tremendous heat that pushed me and the dog back.

Before I could react, she was right in front of me, with a blade covered in fire.

I was lucky enough to dodge it by bending backward. My hat on the other hand wasn’t so. It was cut into two pieces vertically.

I picked up the top half while it smoked.

Oh, now she did it!

I tore off the bottom half that rested off my hat and glared at her.

Like a signal, the small bird in the air made a kamikaze attack on her face, but it was Immediately cut into two by a swift strike. The two parts disappeared leaving nothing behind.

[Lesser Night Howl been defeated]

[Time till return: 48 h]

Fhuu, I worried for a second that it died.

I took out six knives and threw them in her direction. She effortlessly avoided them.

Then from behind the hound jumped on her pinning her to the ground.

Before I could do anything, like pushing my blade at her neck, the ground under her started to heat up, and the next thing I knew ….

BOOM!

The sky is so blue.

I was in the air 5 meters above the ground that was covered in dust. My clothing was on fire, burning me as well.

[Lesser Night Hound been defeated]

[Time till return: 48 h]

Crap…

CRACk!

When I landed, my arm broke, with pain scourging through my body. My ears were ringing, with a sticky fluid coming out of them.

Whit a blurry vision I looked around. Where the explosion happened, the ground was in pieces with dirt and debris everywhere. As much as I could tell the crowd from the noises.

Damn it this is how she holds back? She almost killed me!

Belda wasn’t in better shape as well. Her body was covered in sweat and the sword that she was holding was on the ground not far away from her, yet she was still standing with her fist raised.

“Come on what are you waiting for come at me!”

[You received new skill [Familiar Summon]]

Not now.

Sigh, I will need to sleep after this.

I raised my only hand and gave her a bird with a shit-eating grin.

“Show me what you got, midget.”

She roared at my taunting and threw herself at me. I intercepted her first punch with one of my arms while I grabbed her wrist with another one.

I believe that you would think that I would have a plan or anything. Well, you are wrong. I'm beaten and with an arm, I have no chance against a seasoned fighter. The least I could do was let her knock me out to get free medical care.

I wasn’t wrong, her fist collided with my face with the power of a truck. The next thing I knew was that my consciousness faded.

*****

5 days later.

So, medical care isn’t free. They charged me with a fee that included the cost of reparation of the street and other collateral damages. Even if I didn’t do any of them, they forced me to pay up since I participated in the fight.

At least their medical care is amazing. They were able to fix my arm and my face while I was unconscious. Really if not for that I would have thrown a tantrum.

The adventurers when they saw me this morning cheered and bought me a drink. Some of them even invited me to their parties. My fight with Belda made me a star as in” the idiot who dared to insult her and live to tell the tale”. I didn’t like it.

Then, I was sent to the street to help in the repairs, since I could pay the fines. This took me four days to finish and Belda who was with me didn’t help me. Literally, she refused to work, saying things like a man should do the cleaning, which resulted in an argument that almost escalated with another fight.

When everything was settled down, I went to the address in question.

The place was at the edge of the Slums.

The building itself was fine, but it looked out from its surroundings, which were in a sorry state.

I knocked on the door and waited for it to open. After a few seconds, an old woman with a pale face opened the door.

“What do you want?”

“I came for the cursed book.” I handed her the paper that had the quest on it and when she finished reading it, I entered.

“It’s in the basement. That thing just doesn’t stop talking, it drives me mad! Please, just get rid of it!”

I nodded and I followed her to the basement. I went down and, on the wall, right in front of me was a hole that led to a small room. Except for the one with the hole in it, shelves were posted next to the walls. They were filled with books and objects.

As I was suspected. They were equipment use in alchemy even though I never saw one in my life, yet I could name and use each one. Maybe my job is doing this.

I entered the room to see more when I heard something. They were murmurs undescriptive and crazy. It came from a crimson red book that was on the floor.

I picked it up slowly with a piece of clothing that I found randomly.

Then the voices amplified and now they were screaming. I almost fell on my knees, Holding my ears. After a while that seemed an eternity, it completely stopped and I heard the familiar voice.

[Fragment located.]

[Analyzing…]

[Fragment compatible.]

[Download…]

Suddenly an unimaginable pain pierced my head. I could feel my brain burning in my head. My vision became blurry and the next thing I knew was that I was on the floor.

[Download Complete]

[Heretic knowledge acquired]

[New title received: [Heretic]]

[Alert!]

[Skill [Alchemy] been corrupted]

[System reboot…]

[Automatic signal to C@R3 been initiated…]

[Alert!]

[Alert!]

[Alllllllllllllllllllllll….]

The voice changed back to the screams sending me back to agony. In the middle of the screams, some voices spoke, but some of their words been disturbed by the background noise.

[…All shall fall and beg before the lords; whose eyes see the thrust of this plain.

All shall worship and pray, since we saw the dragon.

And the dragon will st@n3 on hhhthth . And we saw a beast coming out of ####. He will have seven horns and seven heads, with seven crowns on his horns, ######################.

The dragon will give the beast his ################### and great authority.

Men ####### the dragon because he will give authority to the beast, and ###############

He will ################################################## make war against the saints #################### will worship the beast ############################################################################################################ to receive a mark of his right hand on his forehead #######

He who has an ear, let him hear, because the name of the beast is...]

____________________________________________________________________

Name: Desmond ˙(Temporary,)

Race: Slave Maker

Age: 16

Job: Alchemist

LV: 1/50

HP: 70/70

MP: 80/80

STR: 40

VIT: 40

SPD: 60

MRES: 30

Skill PT: 44

Physical attributes: [Dark Vision] [Tail Swift]

Skills: [Alchemy: LV:1] [Deal Making, LV:1] [Wish Granting (Small), LV:1] [Herbology; LV:1] [Mapping, LV:1] [ Appraisal,LV:1] [Mind Palace, LV:1] [Slave Mark, LV:1] [Sweet Talk,Lv:1] [Familiar Summon, Lv:1]

Unique Skills: [Body Physic Manipulation] [Harvest]

Titles: [Broken Soul] [Novice Summoner] [Heretic]

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