Jacque took a look around as he climbed inside the small and dimly illuminated room. There were strewn about broken-down kegs and barrels, as well as little piles of dirt and rubble, and a narrow staircase leading up to a dilapidated door leaking meager light, the only source of light in this old room.

"An abandoned wine cellar?" - Jacque asked himself out loud.

"Very observant of you, Jack. Indeed, an abandoned wine cellar." - Rethoc confirmed while he locked the hatch door.

"And I'm sure you'll never guess which building it's linked to." - He continued and looked at Jacque smugly.

Jacque seriously pondered for a moment before guessing, "A temple?"

"... How did you know?" - Rethoc asked dumbfoundedly.

"Well, the cellar is too small, so it likely doesn't belong to, say, a factory, more fitting for a smaller establishment like an inn. Added with your words that I would never guess, I crossed everything too obvious and came to the conclusion that it belongs to a temple." - Jacque analyzed.

"... Damn, Jacque. Are all wizards as smart as you?" - Rethoc asked numbly.

"Intelligent? Many are. Wise? That is subjective. Smart? Hardly." - Jacque answered.

"What's the difference?" - Rethoc was confused.

"Intelligence is the inborn ability to calculate fast and memorize things, in other words, the ability to acquire and apply skills, and it is a prerequisite to becoming a Wizard. Wisdom, on the other hand, is subjective and context-based. You are likely wiser than me on the streets just as I am likely wiser than you in the arcane arts, and that average farmer working the fields year-round is wiser than both of us combined when it comes to farming and survival of the family during a harsh winter, which I greatly respect. As for smarts, it is a honed skill that comes through problem-solving and stimulation of the mind. You see, I like a good puzzle or brain-teaser, while most other wizards are inflexible and like the easy premade answers of others, going as far as to go out and search ruins of old for them. In other words, many people in this city are likely smarter or wiser than your average wizard. Including you."

"... I don't know if I should feel flattered or annoyed by you right now." - Rethoc with his mouth twitching.

"Hey, you asked." - Jacque shrugged.

"So, are we going out or what?" - He added, pointing at the ramshackle of a door.

"Oh, yeah, sure." - Rethoc nodded and walked to the shambling door, opening it with a light shove, casting more light into the dark cellar.

Jacque followed him and entered the room upstairs, only to find himself at an old and abandoned temple. The windows were cracked or shattered, and the benches were old, broken, rotten, burnt, or even missing. The walls, pillars, and ceiling showed dangerous signs of cracks and burn marks, threatening to collapse. Only the well-made alter was somewhat intact with only a few fine cracks on it. Also, dark patches were staining the floor, pillars, and altar, as if blood has dried on them, and nobody bothered cleaning them up.

"How long was this chapel abandoned? To what god? And why is there not even a single homeless here?" - Jacque couldn't help but ask.

"Over two centuries, and to some unpopular and good-aligned minor goddess of love and sex whose name I can't remember. I heard rumors that say that because she was so minor, some Overzealous worshipers of the holy order of Qagtuna took it upon themselves to 'cleanse' the place, only leaving patches of blood, burnt books, and broken statues as a warning to others. Now, it is said that the place is haunted by the ghosts of the priests, so even the homeless don't dare to take shelter here, and even the thieves don't dare to defile this place, afraid of gaining divine retribution." - Rethoc explained as he walked to the exit.

"Makes sense." - Jacqie nodded.

Qagtuna is the greater goddess of purity and chastity, and part of her dogma is to purge the impure and unclean. Jacque could certainly imagine her worshipers eradicating a small church of a 'filthy' minor deity of love and sex, not caring if she was good or bad. As for the temple being haunted? Maybe. However, it was of little concern to Jacque.

"So, what now?" - Jacque asked.

"Well, to be honest, it all depends on the scale of the goody-two-shoes's search scale and the situation. You stay here for now while I go and gather information back in the guild. I should be back in about half an hour." Rethoc said and vaulted through one of the broken windows, leaving Jacque alone in this forsaken tomb.

Jacque looked around and said to himself, "Well, I don't have anything better to do. Might as well look around."

He then started walking around the small temple. After looking around the central hall for a few minutes, Jacque decided to look around the other rooms.

Aside from the cellar, there were five rooms; A kitchen full of rusted utensils, a storage room with food that turned to dust or eaten by rats by now, living quarters for the clergy staff, a small library with burnt books, and another room with a rotten bedframe with dark spots on it in the center and a cleanly beheaded stone statue of a beautiful and scantily dressed human woman, leaving a slightly cracked head on the floor.

He knew what the room was. It was a sacred prostitute's service room, a high clerical position offering sexual relief and healing to those who sincerely pray.

After studying the room, Jacque silently stared at the goddess's broken statue and thought, "What a shame, this is a good piece of art. Hm... I have time and nothing much better to do, so why not fix it?"

With that thought, Jacque took the stone head from the floor and placed it back in its rightful place, and while holding the head in place, he started visualizing the statue before it was beheaded.

After around a minute of concentration, Jacque chanted, "Let this object be restored to its rightful shape, [Mend Object]."

As he finished chanting, the stone head that was detached from its body was re-attached to its rightful place, and the cracks were mending and disappearing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

This spell is a cantrip of the Transmutation school and every apprentice wizard in the tower of Zaneas had to learn it, including Jacque. It could also be used to fix other things, such as broken wineskins and ripped clothes, but the damage couldn't be more than 1 foot in diameter and not more than a few cracks. Another limitation is that the user must be able to visualize the object's original state, or the spell won't work. Also, although it could fix a broken magic item into shape, it can't restore its magical properties.

After 10 seconds, the statue was fixed, and Jacque took three steps back and looked at the statue in appreciation.

"That's better." - He muttered and unconsciously smiled behind his mask.

Then, as he looked at the goddess's complete statue, another impulsive thought sprouted in his mind, "She is a goddess of love and sex, right? Maybe I should pray to her and see if some miracle happens."

He thought with false hope but still kneeled, clasped his hands, and quietly prayed from the bottom of his heart his deepest and greatest desire, "O unnamed goddess of love and sex, please hear this selfish mortal's prayer. This little mortal suffers from having too small genitals and is searching for a cure. I only sincerely desire to have a functioning and loving relationship. Please, O, please, kind goddess, grant this foolish mortal a morsel of your knowledge to cure this ailment, that is all I ask."

After repeating this prayer three times, Jacque waited for a while but received no response.

"Sigh*, Nothing. It was worth a try, I suppose." - Jacque wasn't too disappointed, as he knew that receiving the aid of a goddess he didn't even know the name of was a farfetched pipe-dream.

As Jacque was about to leave the room, he suddenly felt a cold gust of wind behind his back.

"Hah?" - He uttered out loud as he turned around and saw something that made his pupils shrink.

A jaw-droppingly beautiful and curvacious woman wearing semi-transparent fabrics stood before him. The woman had a perfect hourglass figure with not-too-large yet not-too-small assets, perfectly on display by her exotic and semi-transparent temple clothes. The woman's face looked mature yet youthful, beautiful, and seductive, and her flower-decorated hair looked enchanting. And that enchanting and caring smile was intoxicating.

Among all the women Jacque has ever seen, she likely ranked in the top three most beautiful, perhaps even first.

However, there was a slight problem, her entire body was blue and spectral, and she was surrounded by crumbling ghostly chains. In other words...

"Ghost?!" - Jacque widened his eyes as he instinctively took a step back and prepared to shoot a [Fire Bolt].

Ghosts are lingering spirits bound to the earth by immense negative emotions. In some cases, it might be because of an awful death, and in other cases, it might be because of a great regret or grudge binding it to the earth. Overall, however, a ghost is a dangerous undead that can both possess living creatures and sap their lifespan out of their bodies, and they are known to be volatile and unpredictable, so Jacque was not overreacting.

However, what happened next shocked him. The woman bowed and while looking at him and soundlessly worded something with her lips: "Thank you."

Jacque didn't hear a word, but he could read her lip movement and understand what she said, and unconsciously lowered his hand.

"Who are you?" - Jacque asked warily, his guard not fully dropped yet.

The woman didn't answer, and instead pointed at the large bed in the center of the room, and then at herself.

"You are... The ghost of a sacred prostitute?" - Jacque guessed.

The woman's smile broadened and nodded while saying with her lips: "Yes."

"I... see. And, what do you want from me?" - He probed.

The woman smiled and pointed at the fixed statue and mouthed: "Thank you."

"You want to... Thank me? For fixing the statue?" - Jacque confirmed.

The woman once again nodded, her smile as bright as before.

"I... I see. I accept your thanks, then." - Jacque nodded back.

"If there is nothing else, I shall not disturb your rest further." - Jacque added and prepared to leave, but then the ghost waved her hands frantically as if to tell him to wait.

"Hm? Is there something else I can help you with?" - Jacque stopped and asked.

The woman first shook her head, then nodded, and made a come heather motion with her hand.

"You want me to follow you?" - Jacque guessed.

The woman nodded and floated in the direction of the dilapidated bed.

Jacque followed her until they both stopped before the bed.

"What do you want to show me?" - He asked.

The woman didn't answer this time. Instead, she pointed at a certain and inconspicuous floor teal under the bedframe, and the floor teal shined golden.

Pata*

With a sound, the floor teal was loosened and raised slightly. And with it, under Jacque's amazed eyes, the crumbling ghostly chains finally broke apart as the woman started to dissipate and turn into beautiful motes of light.

As she disappeared, Jacque heard the most beautiful and enchanting voice he has ever heard in his life, "Thank you, young traveler, for fixing my goddesses' statue and giving her a heartfelt prayer, fulfilling my final regret, and allowing me to join her in the afterlife. Although it might not satisfy your wish, I hope that this treasure of mine shall protect you in the future. Cherish it..."

And with that, the final mote of light dissipated, leaving Jacque alone in the room.

"She peacefully passed on..." - Jacque mumbled in a daze. He never dreamed of seeing such a marvel in this life, but here he was.

He started thinking about the chain of coincidences that led him to be the one to free this ghost from her worldly shackles.

First, the holy order of Qagtuna was the one who committed this massacre, a holy order of a major goddess far stronger than the goddess worshipped in this temple, hence, both her worshipers and others refrained from entering the temple. This and the desecration of the temple created the ghost of the sacred prostitute, as well as her regret.

Second, this temple is in the middle of the slums, a place in disrepair for centuries, and full of magicless, superstitious, thrifty, and ignorant people, so few people tried to enter, and none tried to repair the statue.

Thirdly, Jacque, someone who could fix the statue and had a high enough artistic sense to willingly repair the statue out of charity, happened to enter the temple by coincidence, ironically because the worshippers of Qagtuna, the ones who massacred the temple, drove him here.

And finally, Jacque just so happened to suffer from having a micropenis and was desperate for divine aid, and the goddess just so happened to be a goddess of love and sex, making him try and pray to the goddess, fulfilling the ghost's final wish.

"Is this fate?" - he wondered.

After standing there in a daze for half a minute, he snapped out of it and looked at the now-loose teal under the bed.

"Treasure, hah? Let's check it out." - He thought and moved the dilapidated bed aside.

Then, he stuck his fingers under the floor teal that was 1 cubic foot in size and lifted it, revealing a hidden compartment underneath. Inside the compartment was a small and artistically crafted box made from a silverish material with a blue tinge to it.

Jacque tried to lift it, and he felt that the box weighed around 2lb.

"Mythril... She wasn't joking. Mythril is worth 50 times gold of the same weight in market price. Just this box alone is likely worth over 8,300 gold pieces by its weight alone, not to mention the artistic value, making it easily worth more than a genuine treasure." - Jacque appraised the box and sucked a cold breath of air.

"However, the thing inside the box is the real treasure, and is likely worth much more than the box." - He thought.

After a small internal struggle, he decided not to open the box for now and kept it inside his enchanted pouch.

"I will open it in my room later. Rethoc should arrive any minute now, and although I trust him to an extent, he might not be able to control his greed over something so valuable. It is better not to tempt him." - He reasoned.

The worth of a single gold piece, or gp, is 10 silver pieces, or 10 sp, or 100 copper pieces, which is 100 cp. A copper piece may be also cut into 4 copper quarters, which are just called quarters.

On this continent, 6.5 cp is enough to buy a bushel of wheat of decent quality, and a single cp is enough to buy over 7 lb of brown bread. 4 cp is even enough to buy a bushel of oats or rye, the main food of most peasants.

To make an example of the value of money, the annual rent of a small cottage in a city is 60 cp, a craftsman's house is 240 cp, and a merchant's house is 720 cp a year. A merchant's house with a courtyard in a walled city in a good area costs about 220gp or 22,000 cp.

Even Jacque's father, a very successful and rich merchant owning several businesses only has a clean profit of around 2,000 gp per year after deducting business expenses and taxes.¹I would like to think that 1 cp = 7.5$, so Jacque's father earns 1,500,000$ annually after taxes. Not bad for magical medieval times.

For someone like Jacque, although it was enough to attract his attention, 8,300gp wasn't enough to make him lose his mind and kill someone. However, for a poor slum rogue like Rethoc, it was unknown, so Jacque didn't want to gamble with both of their lives.

After taking another deep breath to calm down his nerves, Jacque walked back to the main hall and continued waiting for Rethoc. A few minutes later, Rethoc vaulted into the room and said, "I have Good news and bad news, which one would you like to hear first?"