Chapter 177: Cleric Soul

"What the--" Cam suddenly shouted out as Merlin rushed past him with his vines exposed.

Merlin's vines suddenly rushed out in front of him, piercing an undead each and pushing them back as Merlin ripped into an undead of his own.

There were about five more zombies immediately in front of him, and around him, it seemed that everyone was dealing with at least two at that moment, besides Lyonette who was so far away from the group that she was surrounded by roughly twelve that had all started grouping up on her.

It seemed Lyonette was doing plenty of work, as the crowd that Merlin saw earlier had almost halved by the time he rejoined the fight.

Merlin continued moving from target to target without showing any indication of slowing down. His vines had also become proficient undead meatgrinders, dealing damage to several zombies with one swing, which allowed them to rack up more kills over time, and in turn, more experience for their associated soul.

Somewhere in his killing spree, he had accidentally caught up with Lyonette. And besides the first instance where he had to immediately duck under a giant axe blade or risk losing his head, the two fought comfortably side by side.

The rest of the clerics couldn't help but watch as Merlin and Lyonette shredded the remaining zombies faster than they could respawn.

Several minutes had passed, but a loud roar eventually filled the valley. Merlin instinctively looked up at the darkness, catching a glimpse of it before it completely faded away.

「You have solved an issue caused by a strange phenomenon.」

The group finished off any of the stragglers before they finally had the chance to catch their breath.

"It's over... Finally," Merlin said while panting heavily.

He and Lyonette had begun walking towards the rest of the group, half of which had collapsed to the ground, others who were chugging water from their waterskins, and Cam who was now silently praying over a mountain of zombie corpses.

"Let's get back quickly. Stavros, how is Bibar doing?" Cam stood up and shouted once he was done with his prayers.

"He hit some important parts, but he'll live," Stavros said while wiping sweat from his brow, unknowingly smearing a streak of blood across his forehead.

"Alright, I'll carry him back. Thovan, lead us back to base," Cam ordered as he approached the sleeping Bibar.

As Cam rested his hand on Bibar's shoulder, getting a comfortable grip on the man before lifting him, Bibar suddenly shook awake.

The sudden coughing and spluttering had startled Cam, and it seemed Bibar had woken up earlier than Stavros had expected, but they both regained their composure relatively quickly.

"W-what happened?" Bibar asked in a shaky voice.

He immediately started holding his stomach, seemingly feeling a strong amount of pain in that area, but he didn't make a sound. Cam also noticed that Bibar had slowly started trying to open his eyes.

"Keep your eyes closed," Cam ordered him as he quickly reached over, covering Bibar's eyes with a single hand, "We don't know what sort of curse you were hit with, but it's safer if you don't open them right now..."

"Yes sir..." Bibar responded with a weak voice.

Cam had picked Bibar's weak body up, carrying him around in his arms. Leonid had fetched Bibar's staff before the group all made their way back to the village.

"So what were those vines?" Thovan asked Merlin, "They were pretty powerful, are you some kind of--"

"I'm not a druid," Merlin cut in with a sigh.

"What about a dryad?" Thovan asked again, staring at Merlin with a suspicious look.

"I'm not a dryad, anthousai, or any other kind of nymph," Merlin sighed, "Despite appearances, I am male. I'm also human..."

'Mostly human anyway.' He thought to himself, not daring to say it out loud.

"It's just a power I have," He said as he showed off the vines, making a vine dance around in the palm of his hand.

"Fair enough," Thovan said, nodding to himself. It seemed he didn't want to probe further, either out of respect or he just lost interest.

The group continued their journey back into the village, a depressing silence hovered around the group until they heard a loud boom of thunder echoing in the distance, which caused all of them to tense up.

"Sounds like it's going to rain pretty soon," Thovan muttered to himself.

Merlin noticed that Thovan seemed pretty out of it, perhaps that fight had disturbed him and he was just looking for a distraction from the depressing mood.

The group had eventually arrived at the village. Thovan and Merlin were sent to report their successful mission, while the rest of the group immediately sought out medical aid for Bibar.

Merlin stepped into the building that the temple was currently occupying. He followed Thovan up a flight of stairs, down a corridor and back into the office of Archbishop Ferdinand.

"Good evening gentlemen, I trust that your mission was a success?" The archbishop asked.

"Yes, but there were some... Unexpected circumstances," Thovan tried to think of the right words to say.

Thovan seemed somewhat shaken up from the situation and was having a hard time properly explaining the events that had recently occurred. It had reached the point where the archbishop was getting visually frustrated. Archbishop Ferdinand turned to Merlin and asked for him to briefly explain the situation instead.

"A strange abyss formed in the sky, and from it leaked out the roar of a terrifying creature. The undead seemed to have become even more aggressive after hearing the roar, and the amount of undead had vastly exceeded the amount that was reported by the scouts." Merlin briefly explained the situation to the best of his ability. "Bibar seemed to also be afflicted by a maddening curse from the creature and attempted to kill himself, but was successfully subdued and healed by Stavros."

"Simple and to the point." Archbishop Ferdinand said with a nod, "Thank you."

"This is a concern though..." Ferdinand muttered to himself, "The last time this happened everything went to hell."

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"Let us put that aside for the moment. Merlin, I believe you've more than proven yourself. Wouldn't you agree Thovan?" Ferdinand asked, to which Thovan quickly nodded in response. "Well then, Merlin. We welcome you to the temple, congratulations."

「You have no empty soul slots, "Class Soul: Cleric (Level 1)" has been sent to your soul receptacle.」

「You have completed the quest, "Infiltrate the temple.", rewards have been delivered.」

"Thank you," Merlin said.

"Merlin, please visit the main temple to receive the next part of your training... And Thovan, please bring me a status update on Bibar's condition and make sure he's alright. We can't afford to lose another Hecate worshipper, they're rare enough as is." Ferdinand ordered, "You're both dismissed."

The two walked out of the building together, and once they were at the front door, Thovan turned to speak with him.

"Thank you for your service today," He said, holding his hand out for a handshake. "Hopefully we'll be assigned a mission together in the future."

"Yeah, hopefully," Merlin repeated Thovan's words as he accepted the handshake.

'Although life would most likely become rather difficult for you if you were.' Merlin thought to himself.

"Be seeing you," Thovan said as he scampered off.

As Merlin waved goodbye and began walking off, he decided to send a message to his friends to see what they were up to.

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[15:20:57] Merlin: Hey Snow, what are you guys up to at the moment?

[15:21:44] Snowbunny: Hey, we're in Megalopolis right now because Ty wanted to get the Wizard soul.

[15:22:20] Snowbunny: Although we'll be heading back to Macedonia soon, Ty spent all his money on a war scythe and apparently you need a wand to start the wizard college questline, so he can't do it just yet.

[15:23:46] Merlin: Well, that makes sense.

[15:24:20] Snowbunny: Yup. So what's up? Did you need us for something?

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[15:24:32] Merlin: Nah, I was just checking in.

[15:25:00] Snowbunny: Oh fair, well what have you been up to?

[15:25:48] Merlin: I've been killing zombies at Hysia for the Cleric quest for the past couple of minutes.

[15:26:12] Snowbunny: Alright, well we'll be making our way back to Macedonia now. Ty just finished arguing with some guy in a robe. We should meet up and do a quest.

[15:27:35] Merlin: Sounds good. Anything in mind?

[15:29:43] Snowbunny: Well, I heard something about a necropolis. Alvira wanted a vampire soul, so that might be a place we can try.

[15:32:05] Merlin: That's probably a little too high for all of us. Unless we all picked up cleric souls for the extra damage against the undead.

[15:34:23] Snowbunny: I'll go message Alvira and the group and see if they'd be interested. Talk to you in a bit.

[15:35:12] Merlin: Might be a plan for two sessions from now, but yeah sounds fun, cya.

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Merlin eventually left the confines of the little village of Hysia. On his way back to the city of Macedonia, he began looking over his stats.

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• Vitality = 9 (+8 Base, +1 Title, +0 Soul, +0 Equip, +0 Bonus)

• Constitution = 17 (+8 Base, +0 Title, +9 Soul, +0 Equip, +0 Bonus)

• Strength = 20 (+8 Base, +2 Title, +6 Soul, +0 Equip, +4 Bonus)

• Dexterity = 17 (+8 Base, +0 Title, +4 Soul, +1 Equip, +4 Bonus)

• Agility = 14 (+8 Base, +0 Title, +2 Soul, +0 Equip, +4 Bonus)

• Intelligence = 8 (+8 Base, +0 Title, +0 Soul, +0 Equip, +0 Bonus)

• Wisdom = 13 (+8 Base, +1 Title, +0 Soul, +0 Equip, +4 Bonus)

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• Charisma = 10 (+8 Base, +1 Title, +0 Soul, +0 Equip, +1 Bonus)

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"Looking good, I just need the wizard and the bard souls and I've got all the bonus stats," He muttered to himself.

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