Chương 16: The Priestess

Coming back from the dungeon took Nero, surprisingly, half a day. That too with a bag full of loot that easily weighed nearly two hundred pounds! He also found himself not huffing or puffing from exhaustion afterward.

"It feels like my body is light as a feather." He soon reached the guild hall, ignoring the fellows who eyed him with judgmental gazes. He went straight toward Miya, who was busy attending to another adventurer. He waited until his turn came.

"Good morning, Miss Miya." She pouted at that, which made Nero recall their previous deal of dropping the honorifics. He leaned in and said in a lower voice, "Good morning, Miya." She gave a nod of approval.

"So, what do you have over there, sir solo adventurer?" she said teasingly, peeking over his shoulder. He just placed the bag on the counter; the impact shook the whole table and drew some very unwanted attention from behind him.

"Seems heavy, and full," she said.

"It is. I've got some very good stuff to show you today. But first, take these." He brought out the bag full of ordinary beast cores and handed them over gingerly. That seemed to draw some of the unwanted attention away from the adventurers, who turned back to their own business, finding it… boring, probably. Some did raise their brows, though, as if surprised. Miya weighed the bag and frowned.

"That's a lot," she said, taking them over the scale and back onto the table between them.

"You've hunted all these yourself?" She asked with an almost stunned expression.

"Yes, ma'am." He replied, tapping the bag.

"And there's more where that came from."

"That's… something." She said tentatively. Although she looked like she wanted to say more, she held back and instead got down to business. Nero wasn't about to complain, though.

"So, combined, there's about sixteen E-grades, with a good amount of the specific water elemental E-grades mixed in." She specified and pulled out her calculator, clicking away at speed.

"Total price for the sixteen would be sixty-four, but since you have the more sought-after blue ones, I'd be able to give you this much." She slid the calculator over. It read eighty, eighty copper. Nero's eyes snapped back to her. She gave him a wink and brought a finger to her lips, gesturing for him not to speak the number aloud. Eighty copper—that wasn't the kind of price he'd expected her to offer. In fact, he'd assumed she'd most likely offer him seventy copper at best.

That made him regret not trusting her enough to hand over the green ones too. Though, maybe it was better not to—wouldn't she be jeopardizing her job if someone found out she was playing favorites? Or was she even playing favorites? What if these prices were within the range she was allowed to offer? Nero couldn't think of a reason that would prompt her to risk her reputation for his benefit. Nero shook his head; it didn't matter whether she was offering a special rate or not.

The fact remained that it was a generous one. Every single copper mattered to him, so naturally, he'd appreciate her offer and take it. But it's still best if I sell the Neon cores to a specialized buyer, he decided. Next, he brought out the bag full of beast hide, claws, and teeth. They weighed quite a bit, so she called someone over from inside to carry them off. Lastly, Nero brought out the two scythes.

"Thi-this…" Miya stuttered, carefully touching the scythe's surface.

"Where'd you find them? This looks like the claw of some high E-rank monster… maybe even a D-rank one."

"Well, I found them within the boss chamber of the rat-infested cave dungeon toward the west of the district." He made sure to say that part particularly loudly.

"They'd sell for at least a silver mark, wouldn't they, Miss Miya?" Miya nodded, confused.

"And I got it for free—though bad luck, I couldn't find the most valuable beast core because my lantern malfunctioned. It was too dark in there." Miya gave him an extremely confused look, but Nero didn't bother explaining further. They moved forward with the pricing, and she handed him two silver marks along with his eighty copper pennies. Yes, the price of those hides, claws and teeths were pretty high, though, it was mostly carried by that boss monster's hide and claws.

"Thanks for doing business with us." She curtsied formally; he responded in kind before leaving. The church was his next destination. But first, he went to the second-hand shop—the one where the upper-caste slum-dwellers came to shop. Although the guard outside gave him a skeptical look, he didn't stop Nero. Inside, Nero wove his way through the crowd toward the clothing racks. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

He picked out a set of white shirt and pants, along with a separate set of black shirt and pants. They were in good condition and bore almost no defects. He could tell the price just from the smell—or rather, the lack of one; the clothes didn't carry an ounce of bad odor. Still, he had the money, and a set of clothes was a worthwhile investment.

"That would be forty copper," the shopkeeper said from behind the counter. Nero raised an eyebrow at that.

"I'll pay twenty for them. How about that?" he countered. The shopkeeper didn't reply, just shook his head. Nero set the clothes back on the counter and started walking away, when the keeper called him back.

"Thirty, and you can take them. It's the cheapest you'll get anywhere."

"Not going a penny over twenty-five." The keeper seemed reluctant for a moment before agreeing. He took the coins, and Nero went straight to the eatery. After paying a copper to the owner, he headed to the cleaner bathrooms and took a shower, using the expensive shampoos and everything. He put on his new clothes and sprayed on some minty perfume. Coming out, he bought some food, had it packed for takeout, and set off for the church. It was a mile away from the guild, nestled in the denser parts of the slums.

It took him an hour to get there, even with his now-enhanced physique. Even the knee-deep snow posed little threat to his journey. He soon reached the deeper alleys of the slums, making a beeline for the church. Main building of the church was built of polished white marble, with a minaret at the center used mostly for slum-wide announcements. Along the way, he spotted a few lower priests of the church handing out blankets to the many impoverished and struggling families, especially those with young children.

He stood outside the church for a minute, watching the children gather for prayer in the hall. Some of the newer kids looked at him with curiosity and shyness before sprinting inside. He recognized a few of them—mostly the oldest generation, and the one just below them from when he'd left the church. Nero found Priestess Sofia conducting prayer before the statue of the World Titan, the last master of mankind. He'd supposedly ascended after the last great war that shattered the alliance of seven races.

According to legend, he alone had taken the head of the supreme dungeon lord, Noxus, single-handedly established the Council of Seven, and then ascended to a realm beyond the material. To the unfaithful, it meant he'd died; to the faithful, it meant exactly what the tales claimed. Nero held the opinion that there was more to it than the stories let on. He'd heard similar tales from the elven church, who worshiped the Boundless Essence as their deity.

Unlike the World Titan, the Boundless Essence was said to be an elemental—and given how the elves relied mostly on spirits in battle, whether mage or warrior, that wasn't surprising. Either way, he wasn't about to argue any of this with the priestess. She soon finished her prayers, and as everyone filed out one by one, some gave him sparkling-eyed looks. He noticed the priestess staring right at him, almost transfixed, he wondered why, maybe it was his clothes?

Either way, he handed the food over to one of the kids and went over to her, although he'd admit, he was feeling a little awkward under her attention.

"You doing well, sister?" he asked, keeping his tone casual—except the priestess didn't reply, still staring at him.

"Sister?" He tilted his head, and she mirrored the motion before suddenly snapping to awareness. Her cheeks flushed.

"It's really you, Nero," she said, as though coming to terms with it.

"You… have changed." Nero touched his own face, as if checking for something stuck to it, because he was certain he hadn't changed much. Still, the priestess eventually composed herself and pulled him into that familiar, warm hug.

"Welcome back, my boy. How have you been?" she said in that soothing, almost motherly voice of hers—even though she was barely ten years older than him. Nero eventually wriggled out of her hug and said, "You know, it hasn't been that long since I left."

"It hasn't? I could've sworn it had been a decade, given how different you look now." Nero felt his face flush at that but managed to steer the conversation elsewhere. They talked about the many other brothers and sisters who had left to pursue their own paths. Nero avoided mentioning that he was a solo adventurer, lying instead about being part of an independent adventuring party. He steered the conversation toward asking her if she knew a buyer willing to take a poison elemental's beast core at a fair price.

The priestess put a finger to her chin, thought for a moment, and replied, "I believe Sonya DeVille would be a good candidate. She's a solo archer who specializes in poison and all things toxic—even her personality is tox—" She feigned a cough and didn't finish the thought.

"She'd be a good one." She then gave him Sonya's address, written on a small slip of paper. Nero said his goodbyes to the few remaining brothers and sisters and prepared to leave.

"You're leaving already?" Dally asked— one of the girls he'd spent most of his youth with. She was now training under the priestess to become one herself. Nero nodded.

"I've got some business to take care of, so I've gotta go." He said, tying the laces of his boots on the church steps. Then he stood up with the bag.

"Do come by again—sooner, if possible," Dally said, her tone somehow more formal than before. He smiled and replied, "Of course." The sister and the others bid him farewell as he left for home. He felt mentally fulfilled after it all.

"I'll go sell these later," he made a mental note.

"For now, I want to test out this new ability." [Decaying Aura (Primitive)] It was a primitive-ranked gene talent, and he could feel the sinister edge to it. Walking down the dimly lit, snow-covered road, he pulled out his dagger. When he entered the underground tunnel leading to the other side, he turned off the lantern and stowed it in his bag.

"Let's see how this works." He knew he couldn't use it without mana unless he sacrificed some of his mental energy in exchange.

"And guess what—after seeing them back at the church, I'm as mentally charged as I could be." He said, surveying the dark tunnel ahead. With a mental nudge, a peculiar energy surged from deep within him and spilled forward over the dagger in his hand. The Aura of Decay suffused the blade as it turned neon, hissing against the darkness like a viper.