Ch.6 – Grey like time spent quietly.
404 9 24
X
Reading Options
Font Size
A- 15px A+
Width
Reset
X
Table of Contents
Loading... please wait.

Doxan smiled as he heard Iris ask him how to change her Class. He shifted around to look at her more directly, “It is actually fairly simple, for the first time anyway. Usually, there would be a bit of a song and dance over changing your Class and becoming a Priestess. There is usually a small celebration held by the local church. Perhaps we could have a small party once we reach our destination?”

He then motioned towards her, “You just need to open your status plate. Open your class setting and choose the class you want to use.”

Iris looked at Doxan for a few seconds before she realized that he was finished speaking. A lopsided smile spread across her face. “How do I open my status plate?”

The look of surprise that appeared on the old dwarf’s face made Iris laugh. The genuine laugh of humor spilled out of her filling the air around the gently rocking wagon. She quickly gathered herself before nodding to Doxan, “Yup, you’re going to have to start there.”

Doxan shook his head a little, then muttered to himself, “It’s like she is a newborn for some things.”

He then spoke to Iris in a tone much like a teacher to a student, “You need to concentrate on yourself. Focus your mana on your chest, then use the command ‘Status’ and let the mana you gathered draw into the pull you’ll feel.” He then stopped as the thought came to mind, “You do know how to cast spells, correct?”

Iris softly laughed before she replied, “I do, I learned that much at least.” she then closed her eyes and started to concentrate. Drawing the mana into herself, like she had been shown by the Seraph in the divine realm. As she began gathering mana, Iris instantly noticed that doing so in the mortal realm was more difficult than in the Divine realm.

Well, of course, it would be. Iris thought to herself. She felt a bit stupid for not having realized beforehand that it would be different. Well, that is another thing to start practicing on top of getting her physical body feeling like it was hers. She will have to get her spiritual body up to par as well.

After a short time of practicing circulating her mana through her body. Iris concentrated and focused on the mana like Doxan had explained earlier and spoke the word out loud, “Status.”

Iris felt the pull of mana that moved out of her control. It let her know the spell had activated. She then opened her eyes to see if it had the results she was hoping for.

What greeted her eyes were a pair of floating, partially transparent, purple screens. There were clear white borders around each of them. The first screen on her left held all her basic personal information, name, age, race. An empty Class section, along with three basic stats of Mind, Body, and Soul. Underneath that was a list of Titles and Blessings.

The second screen was a list of skills, magic, and weapon proficiencies she had earned already. The list was not long, but she knew she would need to spend some time double-checking and making sure she really had all of them under control.

Iris glanced over to Doxan as he sat there and watched her. He then spoke as he noticed her attention shift away from something that only she could see, “That vacant stare is a good sign. I am guessing you managed to open it then?”

Iris chuckled and nodded, “I remember you said you scanned me. Does that give you the same information I have here?”

Doxan nodded quickly in reply, “It’s a high-level neutral magic spell. Most priests or magi that spend a lot of time with magical studies bother to get it. It takes a bit of practice to unlock, but for people that plan to go into a healing class. It's a useful spell. You don’t want to misdiagnose someone that is anemic. With, let us say, a vampire. One person will get healed. The other will be insanely angry when they are reconstituted.”

Iris simply nodded in acknowledgment. She completely understood the reasoning behind needing that skill. She asks before Doxan can move on, “Is it easy to learn neutral magics?”

Doxan pauses as he is now sidetracked by this new question, “Neutral magics are usually the first that are learned as a person picks up magic. May I know what magic you do know?”

Iris said a soft oh, as she then looked at her status, wanting to make sure the system had also recorded the magic she had trained in. “Light Magic as well as some Nature magic.” she smiled, “Light magic is my best element.” She puffed up proudly at that, “My teacher said I had a knack for it. Nature magic is my second best. It’s harder to control, but I am working on it.”

Doxan looked a little relieved as Iris spoke, “That is a good combination and at least explains why the priestess class is open to you. Both of those magic groups are well known for their healing spells. If you had Water magic, it would have been a trifecta of the three major healing magic schools.”

Doxan chuckled as he thought of his own magic, “I use Nature magic myself. So, if you want any pointers on its intricacies, please don’t hesitate to ask.” He contemplated something for a few short seconds before saying, “Light magic is more Milly’s forte than my own.” Then he shakes his head, “We should go back to what we were doing originally.”

Iris laughed as she realized she had sent them off track, a grin plastered on her face as she asked, “Changing my class, right?”

He smiled back at her. Iris’s joy was something that he felt was highly infective, “Exactly. Now focus on the class slot and say ‘Change Class’. This should bring up a new window with a list of classes available to you. The class Priestess will be there on the list, focus on it, and it should be a voice that asks in your mind to confirm your choice. After you confirm your choice, the Class should be locked in.”

Iris nodded as she followed along with Doxan’s instructions as he gave them to her. She paused before focusing on the Class and looked over the handful of starting classes available to her.

She asked before continuing, “With the classes, after I confirm it. Am I locked into it for a long time?”

Doxan let out a soft noise of understanding before he spoke, “Good catch. For your first class, you’ll need to be level ten before you can change classes again. Though with us going to a town with several dungeons in and around it, that shouldn’t take you too long.”

Iris stopped for a little and looked over her options one last time. She wondered if taking the priestess class was a wise choice, considering where she was going. Iris then shrugged in her mind as she thought to herself, It is only ten levels.

She then focused on the Priestess class name and mentally clicked her cursor on it.

What happened next made her almost fall off the back of the wagon. Iris heard a very familiar voice in her head. ~Priestess class chosen, please confirm your choice.~

Her eyes were wide open as she thought in her head, Is that you Seraphim?

A simple reply was what she got in return, ~Please confirm your choice.~

She slumped in disappointment and then thought back at the request, Confirm.

~Priestess class has been accepted.~ The voice responded in an almost monotone, but just as Iris was about to move to her next question for Doxan, the familiar voice spoke again in a much gentler tone, ~Have a lovely day, Iris.~

Iris barked out a laugh as she heard the voice and the feeling of conversation being disconnected in her mind. Looking to the status page, she saw her class change to Priestess.

Doxan looked at Iris with a curious shine in his eyes, “Did you think of something amusing?” he asked as he waited for her to finish.

She nodded and smiled at Doxan, “I heard the voice of an old friend. And they got a sneaky hello in.” she tapped her head, “The voice that asked me to confirm my choice.”

Doxan froze up for a moment, “The voice... That voice isn’t the voice of the Goddess?"

Iris could not help but laugh as she heard that question, “Oh no. Raianya has a much more feminine voice than Seraphim does. And I doubt Raianya would bother answering every single request herself. She would totally pass it off to Seraphim, or even one of the other lesser angels. I mean, she’s busy most of the time making sure the world isn’t hitting some sort of technical glitch after the transfer happened.”

Doxan held up his hands, “Iris. I need to ask you to please, not-” he took a slow breath and then nodded. “At some point, we are going to need to sit down and have a very long conversation about what you know about the goddess, and I need to do it while I can write it all down and keep it all straight.”

He smiled at Iris, “You’re going to be able to fill in some ecclesiastical holes in our understanding of our Goddess. There have been many attempts at getting a true understanding of the god that looks over this world. You already just cleared up a massive argument with one line. That the voice that you heard is that of an angel, not the Goddess herself. That is going to shoot down some old scriptures.”

Iris’s eyes widened as she realized that she was probably the only living being on the planet that had personally spoken with ‘God’. A look of worry shot across her face, “I don’t mind talking about it. Raianya is a really nice person, for a goddess. I mean-.” She cut herself off before she could finish. Then changed tack, “You aren’t going to make me go to the main church and have me argue all this right?”

Doxan laughed kindly at her worried response, “No, not at all. I wouldn’t mind if you did go past the main temple at least once at some point in time. It would help verify your words, as the head of the church would simply need to look over your titles and know without a doubt that you had spoken to the Goddess directly. I mean having the title ‘Messenger of the Goddess’, and the Blessing of the Goddess herself. Will pretty much have anything you say about her being written down as the gospel truth.”

Iris shrank both mentally and physically at the weight of Doxan’s words as she listened to them. A fear that she might have something she said misconstrued and used stupidly in later generations growing in her at an alarming rate.

Doxan’s eyes widened as he saw the sudden fear on Iris’s face. He quickly surmised the situation, then reached out gently and patted her knee. “You do remember that the Goddess as smote a few people for doing bad things in her name, right? Imagine what the Goddess would do to someone that twisted the words of someone she personally sent down to this world.”

His words hit the mark for Iris, and they calmed her down. Her anxiety being reigned in as she sighed in relief, “Yeah, but I’m still going to try and be careful in what I leave in the history books of the church. No need to create any religious schisms over my words because I was vague.”

Doxan ran a hand through his beard as he thought about what Iris had said, “That’s a good point. Better safe than sorry, huh?” he then smiled, “Sorry, it was my turn to distract us this time. I am guessing you have accepted your new Class, and now have it set to Priestess?”

Iris nodded in the positive, then looked at Doxan curiously as she thought of something, “You could have just scanned me. Was there a reason you didn’t?”

Doxan raised an eyebrow at the question, “Other than it being quite rude to do it just for something I can ask you? It’s generally considered poor form to casually scan someone and has led to quite a few brawls. When you unlock the spell yourself, I would recommend only scanning someone if you are sure they are hostile or have their expressed permission.”

Iris okayed under her breath as she put that on her mental corkboard, right next to ‘try not to talk too much about the goddess’ and below, ‘learn neutral magic’. She then asked Doxan, “I didn’t feel any shift physically, and there weren’t any real noticeable alerts from the system. What does having a class give me? Could I have just run around without a class?”

Doxan chuckles at her rapid-fire questions, “Classes give you a bonus to the skills you acquired to access it. The priest and priestess classes both give a boost to your most powerful magic and will add a bonus holy effect to your physical attacks against the undead. Each Class has something that will be boosted and will generally have no downsides.”

He continued as Iris was all ears about the information that he was giving her. “There are people that don’t take classes, but they are generally working towards a class that has certain specifications. Merchant classes, for example, require people to have not taken a combat class before taking the merchant class. That being said, you can take one after you have unlocked it.”

Iris leaned back against the inner wall of the covered wagon, listening to Doxan as she did. When he finished answering her question, she spoke, “Thank you, Doxan. I don’t know how insanely difficult it would have been to try and figure out all of this on my own. I probably would have spent way too much time trying to get even half of the information you’ve given me. So, thank you.”

She smiled at Doxan with a bashful look on her face, “Also thank you for picking me up, I mean you could have just left me on the roadside, I wasn’t exactly expecting to be helped so readily.”

Doxan waved her off, “I don’t need thanks for being a decent person.” he smiles, “Plus we’ll be seeing each other a lot from now on. I mean, a priestess usually stays at the church while in training. A church I’ll be in charge of. You might not be so happy with me in a couple of weeks.” he grinned as he pointed at her, “Or are you saying you already know how to go fighting monsters already?”

Iris snickered at his question, “I would not say no to learning all I need to know to survive. As well as having a place to stay until I’m ready to go out into the world, would be very welcome. Thank you again. Seriously.”

Doxan turned away from Iris, looking out at the scenery, “You’re welcome.”

Iris couldn’t help but smile fondly at the back of his head as he looked away from her. Letting her see the old dwarf’s slightly pointed ears had flushed pink. She decided to leave it at that and went back to enjoying the scenery.

The rest of the day went smoothly, the wagon rattling along and making good time as they traveled down the road. No monsters bothered to interfere with the wagon, the ward doing its job of keeping the monsters at bay.

Iris decided to use this quiet time to practice the basics of mana control again. Wanting to make sure she had the right feel and timing she would need if she had to call on her magic in a hurry.

She barely noticed Doxan and Stavic swapping places. Doxan took the reigns to allow the mercenary to get some rest from driving and catch up on the sleep he didn’t get the night before.

When Stavic awoke from his nap, Iris managed to get information about the local currency and its values. As well as the average costs of things in the town they were heading to. Luckily the local currency worked in factors of ten. No strange hexadecimal or another numerical factor to work with. That being one annoyance she would not have to deal with.

Ten copper bits, make a copper piece.
Ten copper pieces make a silver bit.
Ten silver bits become a silver piece.
Ten silver pieces become a gold bit.
Ten gold bits become a gold piece.

There were mithril and higher currencies, but they were usually handled by merchants or other such well-off establishments. As well as other larger denominations that were used between countries.

Copper bits were what you would use to buy meals from your average street stall.

Depending on the inn, and the meals included, it could run you a couple of silver bits for a room overnight. Other establishments would charge more for their meals, depending on the quality of the food or rooms.

Good armor or weapons could run from a couple of silver to gold bits depending on the smith and the quality of the equipment. Magic versions of them could go for much more depending on the enchantments.

Stavic showed her several pieces of his equipment that he had collected over the years of traveling and working as a mercenary. As he answered Iris’s questions, he started to warm up to this strange woman.

By the time they had stopped for the night, the mercenary was sharing some of his own tales. Stavic described some of the places to the south of the mountains they were traveling from. Then the conversation moved on. Stavic then started to share some of the haring tales of working with Doxan over the years.

This caused Doxan to intervene on several occasions to bring the stories back to being truthful, as he called it.

Stavic and Doxan only argued the numbers of the monsters they fought, more than the types of beasts. Iris was more than happy to hear the real-life adventures of a pair. Iris made mental notes by the handful, as she created a list of places to visit and things to steer clear of.

With such a cheerful conversation, Iris’s second day in this new world came to an end.

24