First Day Back

I finished up my… about 1,026th drawing of a boy in a skirt at this point. Alright, I'll hand this off to Jody to serve as my offering to Kari for today. I really need to get back into the habit of that.

"Seriously, you're amazing. How did you get that good?" Kiaran asks me, looking over my shoulder.

"Um… practice. Constantly checking what you're doing wrong too… and figuring out how to fix those errors."

"I don't think I could ever do that…" Kiaran says.

I really want to tell him to shut up and start drawing. Give him a whole beginner's course, and see if he's saying the same stupid thing a month or so from now. I keep myself from saying anything though, even if people saying things like that gets me pretty angry.

"Alright Azariah, April, Sierra, and Aliya have all already left. You're going to have to leave soon unless you're planning on joining the next congregation." Jody says, showing up out of nowhere.

"Ah, already?" I say. That's strange, I normally never lose track of time like that. Well, I do, but not this much.

"Yes, although I wouldn't mind you staying for the next one. I'll even let you pick out the next song that I sing."

"Eh… no thanks, sorry…"

"Alright, alright. I'll see you tomorrow, Azariah."

"Oh, and can you… put this in the offering for me?" I say, handing my drawing off to Jody.

"Hm, alright, I will. Although Kari is quite lenient with that kind of thing. You don't need to be so fanatical." He says, grabbing ahold of my drawing.

"Thank you, I'll leave now. Come on Kiaran."

I get up to leave, and Kiaran just follows behind me without a word.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Azariah! Oh, and Kiaran! Feel free to come back whenever you like!"

"Bye, Jody!"

"I'll… think about it. Bye."

Kiaran and I go to walk out of the building. As soon as we walk out, we start to walk down the hill, and… Aubrey, Cesre, and Freware are standing there waiting for us?

"Aubrey? What are you guys doing here? How did you even know we were here?" Kiaran asks.

"Cesre told me that Azariah probably comes around here at this time. How she knew that, I don't know, ask her. Point is, Azariah, I need you to come with me real quick."

"Huh?" A pang of worry runs through my body. "What do you need me for?"

"It isn't much, seriously. I just want to set up a bank account for you, and you kind of need to be there for that. Also, Kiaran, Freware needs you for a bit. It's about getting that beast tamer license or something."

"Oh right… I do need that, don't I?"

I mean, Kiaran's one thing, but do I really need a bank account? Um… well I'm staying in a hotel room that I'm staying in with Kiaran, Aubrey, and a few other complete strangers, and I just came into a lot of money recently… yeah, I definitely need one. Ahh, I don't want to bother with that though! It was confusing enough in my old life, how would banking even function here?!

"Uh, well Azariah, I guess we'll talk later. I'm heading of with Freware now." Kiaran says.

Ugh… well, I really wanted to talk with Lucidna after that, but I guess that can wait… I just hope she won't be too mad at me.

"Come on, it won't take long." Aubrey says.

><><><><

Aubrey and I walk into a rather huge building comparative to the ones around it. It's a huge open space, held up by pillars on the walls. There's a huge front desk right in the back of the space. Waiting there, is a rather plain looking female attendant. We walk up to the woman, who greets us with a blank stare.

"Hello, I'd like to open an account under the name of Azariah." Aubrey says.

"Yes, any family name?"

"No… I don't have one." I say.

"Right…" She says as she pulls out a form and a pen. "Please fill all of this out."

I grab a hold of the form and begin to fill it out. For the most part, there's nothing really that's stopping me from filling the whole thing out in just a minute, so it's mostly done pretty soon. There's just one problem though.

"Uh… I don't have a permanent residence…" I string all the words together in my head carefully before saying them.

"Are there any organizations you're a part of that we can send money through instead?"

"Um… Kari's cult." I say.

"Is there anyone we can speak with to confirm you're affiliated with them?"

"Jody… Jody Graham."

"And what's their position within the cult?"

"A priest…"

"Alright, we'll run that through him as soon as possible." She says, taking back my form. "You should have an account open tomorrow. Come by at 8 in the morning to receive your ID number."

"A- Alright…" That's pretty early for me, but I don't say anything about that.

"See, that wasn't too hard, was it?" Aubrey says, leading me out of the building.

"I'm running mine through the adventurer's guild, so I'll get mine tomorrow, the same as you. I'll give you the money for the scales immediately after that."

"Do… do you need me for anything else?" I whisper in English.

"Yes, I need you in person at the adventurer's guild in order to claim Olen's bounty for you."

Ugggghhhhh, why?!

><><><><

Wow, first it was Kari's cult, and now it's Diana's. This is the second cult I've walked into today.

Kari's was all white, greek almost, with just about everything in there done built with amazing craftsmanship. Diana's cult though is just more of an open park in a clearing of trees. A park where a whole bunch of trees grow, and the actual cult location is right in the middle of it in the only tree clearing in the whole thing. There aren't even any buildings, just an open area of grass.

There are tables all around, as well as a couple campfires, but there's only one person standing around. There were already a lot of people at Kari's cult when Azariah and I got there, are they just not meeting right now?

The one guy is actually pretty short, a foot less than me at least and I'm only 5 foot 4. He's shirtless, and that reveals just how muscular he is despite his tiny size. The only thing he looks to be wearing is some sort of metal skirt that I think looks really cool. Not sure how practical the thing actually is, though.

"Hey! Thotheus!" Freware yells out to him.

He looks up, and I notice he actually has a pretty chiseled face.

"Freware, huh? You bringing another new follower?"

"Ah, no, no. This is Kiaran. He's looking to get a beast tamer license and I thought I would help him get it through Diana's cult. Oh, and Kiaran, this is Thotheus, he's the priest for my normal congregation."

Huh, so this is Freware's Jody then. Just comparing Jody and Thotheus in my head, it's kind of easy to see where Kari's and Diana's cults differ. I can definitely see why Azariah would prefer Kari's over Diana's, though.

"Nice to meet you Kiaran, I'm one of Diana's priests. So, you're looking for a beast tamer license, huh? Do you already have a beast with you, or are you looking to find one?"

"Uh… Freware, it should be fine if I showed him Shirely, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, go ahead."

"Alright. Shirely, come."

The pitch black spot in my shadow starts to form and ripple. Shirley hops out of it like a puddle of water, and after a bit of hopping she jumps up on my shoulder. Thotheus doesn't show any kind of reaction, and just walks up to start rubbing Shirley.

"A baby Gnostis Rana, huh? She's the only one you have, right?" Thotheus asks.

"Yes, she is."

"What orders can she follow?"

"Um she'll go in and out of my shadow when I tell her to, I can tell her to make a portal to her pocket dimension, and I can have her make weapons by showing her the actual weapon I want to make."

"And she hasn't tried to attack anyone since you've gotten her?"

"No sir, she's very well behaved."

"How did you get her?"

"A pack of Gnostis Rana were fighting a storvitor serpent, and she was the last survivor. I picked her up then."

"I see. She's probably a bit older than three years old at this point. They're usually fully grown by five, so you should expect one hell of a growth spurt over the next two years."

Two years… the adult ones come up to my stomach, right? She's going to go from able to sit on my shoulder to that size in just two years?

"They normally get a lot of food by hunting in their packs, but if this one's pack is dead, you're going to have to secure all that food yourself. You also know the main problem with keeping adult ones, right?"

"Um… the slime on their skin gets super acidic, right?"

"Yeah, so after a while, you're going to want to keep her in your shadow and only really touch her like this if you have some way of getting around having skin burns."

"A- alright, and when can I expect that to start happening?"

"Let's see? 6 months or so before it really starts hurting to have skin contact with her. Even if I give you a license here, you're going to want to get her tested again around that time."

"Yeah, of course…"

It does kind of disappoint me that I won't be able to pet Shirley after a while. Maybe there's some spell that will let me pet her anyway? I'll have to ask Azariah or somebody about that at some point.

"So she seems pretty tame, and she seems to have imprinted on you. After a little test I should be able to get you a license for just her, but for more beasts, you're going to have to get at least a little bit of training."

Well that's nice at least. I shouldn't have to stay here for long then. I mean, I was just coming here to get a license for Shirley, do I want to have more pets? I mean, Shirley's extremely docile, I can't guarantee that whatever animal I get next is going to be as easy to take care of as her. Is getting more pets something I would do?

"Um, I'll think about that later. Right now, I just want the license for Shirley." I say. I'll have to think about this for a bit longer.

"Alright, do you have a weapon on you?" Thotheus asks me.

I'm confused. Why is he asking me that? "Um, no, mine broke during the monster congregation. I still haven't gotten a new one."

"What weapon do you normally use, then?"

"A scythe."

After I say that, Thotheus kneels down to the ground, and grabs a huge chunk of earth out. Without even moving his hands, the earth slowly reshapes itself into a shape resembling a scythe.

"This won't do as an actual replacement, but it should last for one bout at least."

I grab a hold of it, before swinging it around a bit. It's a lot lighter than my old one, and I can tell it's a whole lot flimsier too. It's probably only really holding itself together with whatever magic Thotheus used to make it in the first place.

"Um… Thotheus, is that really necessary?" I hear Freware say.

I feel killing intent. I twist my body around as quickly as possible to block a blow from Thotheus. He's attacking me with a two sided ax he had just formed. Shirley jumped away. Freware's just standing there.

He swings at me again and again, but I parry all of his attacks. It helps that my weapon has a lot more reach than his. My arms are also a lot longer than his, pushing that advantage even more. He isn't attacking with full force though. He doesn't have killing intent any more. Why he's doing this, I don't know.

Suddenly too pitch black puddles appear to Thotheus' sides. Out of those puddles come six spears that look like they're made of bone, all aimed at Thotheus. He swings his ax around in a circle, shattering them all, and kicking a bunch of dirt into the air.

His ax changes shape, and transforms into a spear, which he lunges at me. I step to the side and grab the pole of his spear with one hand as hard as I can, and point my scythe at his next with the other. The black puddles form at his feet too, aiming daggers of bone at his feet and ankles, but not stabbing right into them.

Right as we reach this point, his posture seems to relax, and both of our weapons crumble into dirt. Freware still hasn't moved an inch. Shirley… she's off to the side and staring daggers at Thotheus.

"Alright, you pass." Thotheus says.

"Huh?" I say, not being able to hide my confusion.

"She fought with you, she protected you when I went to attack you. Not only that, she reacted to your intentions as well. She aimed to kill with her first attack, but when you only held your blade up to my neck, she tempered her attacks as well, trying only to restrain my footing rather than even draw blood."

"Um… that's… good, I guess?"

"Yeah, it is, it means not only has she imprinted onto you, she knows enough about how you act to be able to fight with you in tandem. She was able to temper her killing intent when she realized you weren't trying to kill me, too."

I don't really agree with Thotheus' methods, but I guess this proved I can be trusted with Shirley? I hold my hand out to her and signal her to get rid of the daggers around Thotheus' feet, but she seems unusually angry. It takes a bit, but she finally relents and lets Thotheus go. I can tell she really isn't happy with him, though

"So like I was saying, I can get you a license for just her, but you're going to have to come back if you want another one. I'll give you my address if you want it."

"Um… no, I'll just have Freware take me to her congregation if I need to speak to you again."

"Hey! Kiaran, I understand if you don't want to hang around Thotheus after that, but how about you spend one day at a Diana's Cult Congregation? We should be having another one around the sun set, although I normally come to the one at sunrise." Freware butts in.

Let's see… I guess that might be a learning opportunity? I already went to Kari's cult, I guess participating in a whole Diana's cult congregation wouldn't be too bad either. I don't have anything I need to do at sunset either. I just have to speak to Ruse about the scythe, but I can do that now.

"Um, sure… I'll come. I'm not sure if I'll become a member like Azariah is at Kari's cult, but I'll come.

><><><><

I walk into Pitiful Girl's embassy for the first time in a while. It goes pretty much the exact same as all the other times I've been here. I ask the bunny-eared receptionist if Ruse is here, and when she says yes, I'm allowed to go see him without any sort of background check at all. I pretty much remember exactly where Ruse is supposed to be in here anyway.

"Ruse! I'm back!" I say as I walk into the room he's normally in.

"Kiaran? Why are you even here?" He asks me, clearly not happy at all to see me. He was doing some sort of paperwork, and it looks like his stubble started to turn into a beard.

"Oh, well I just got back from the monster congregation and I wanted to say hi after I got back."

"Ugh… we don't have that kind of relationship, boy. If you're not here for anything important, then leave. I'm busy."

"There is something I have to speak to you about actually. It's about that scythe you lent me."

Ruse looks a mix of annoyed and nervous. "What happened?"

"Oh, well my party and I got into a fight with another one of Vincent's followers and the thing kind of shattered into about a thousand pieces during the fight."

"Idiot, don't say that kind of thing so casually! You got into a fight with another one of them?! Are you just a magnet for those cultists? You didn't get fatally wounded like the last time, did you?"

"Um, no, actually! Out of all of us who were fighting I actually wound up the one with the least injuries. I'm not sure if that's something to really be proud of though, since half of the people there were mages…"

"How did that fight even break out? You better not have been looking for trouble again."

"No, I wasn't. Um, we reclaimed one of our party members that got stuck in a cave, and as we were heading out, we ended up getting squished between a drake under a mind control spell and an actual follower. I tried to negotiate, but it didn't work and I wound up fighting him with three other people. Another close quarters fighter and two mages."

"Damn it, I have no idea what you could have done differently then. Other than ruining the scythe, how did your party wind up?"

Is that a tinge of actually worry from Ruse? I'll ignore that as I answer his question.

"Um, I wound up with cuts and ice all over me, not anything fatal, but it did take me out of the fight. Freware, the other close quarters fighters got hit in the skull so hard it sent her flying. Cesre got both her arms broken and passed out from pain. Azariah though… it was like when I tried to fight Memento, but worse. She had all kinds of fatal injuries, if Cherilyn wasn't nearby at the time…"

"Alright, alright, that's enough. If Cherilyn was there, I'm assuming your whole party was completely fine in the end. You seem to be moving around just fine, for one. Now about that scythe, given the situation I think I'll be willing to overlook it."

"H- huh? That was… that was a really expensive weapon, wasn't it?"

"It'll be fine, it couldn't be helped anyway. Just keep in mind that I'm probably not going to lend you a new one. You managed to kill that guy, right?"

"Um… I wasn't the one who got the final blow in, but I did get a lot of money recently if that's what you're talking about."

"Yeah, that's what I was talking about. That should also get you fairly respected in the adventurer's guild, even if you weren't the one to finish the guy off. You should have enough money to get a good enough scythe. If not, try and see if Noelle can't wrestle Jahil into buying you one."

"Um… I'll consider that."

I won't actually consider that, I don't want to ask Noelle to do that, even if she'd be totally cool with it. I guess I am going to have to look into getting a new scythe now though. Actually, I wonder if it would be possible to have Shirely make me one? That would definitely be good training for her.

><><><><

I walk into Diana's cult, and it's a whole lot more crowded than it was earlier today when I was speaking to Thotheus. It's around sunset now, meaning the whole feel of this place has changed. There's also everybody talking to each other, and the smell of all sorts of different food being prepared makes it seem a whole lot different.

The main differences between this and Kari's cult is that the clothes of everyone is a whole lot different, and they've already started serving food. They have a whole lot more, and much more of a variety than Kari's cult did, too.

As for clothes, Kari's dressed in lighter colors and thin fabrics, while everyone here looks like they dressed in stuff that you'd expect actual hunters and campers to wear. Practicality and durability over aesthetics while Kari's cult really seems to favor beauty over everything else.

I look around for Freware. She did say she usually showed up at sunrise instead of sunset, so I'm not actually completely sure if she's even going to be here, but I'd like to have at least one familiar face. Oh well, if I can't find her, I shouldn't have any trouble making conversation with the people here.

A loud, metallic banging noise noise rings in my ears over and over again. Everybody gets quiet pretty quickly at that, and as soon as everyone stops talking, the noise stops too.

"Alright everybody! We'll begin the service now!" I hear Thotheus yell out from somewhere in the crowd. I can tell exactly where he is since everyone seems to be looking at him.

"Please, help yourself to all of the food we have to offer, desserts will be out in half an hour! Now, I'll begin reciting the wisdom of our Matron, Diana! Listen, eat, fight, do whatever! I'll be here the entire time preaching her good word to anyone that will listen!"

Thotheus then begins to start reciting some sort of essay about how the water cycle works, and how Diana figured that out. Honestly, I preferred the singing that Kari's cult does, but at least we're allowed to do whatever we want, and we don't actually have to listen to the boring preachy stuff.

Hm… the food here is definitely better than at Kari's cult, though. I take a piece of what I assume to be steak, and cut it open with the knife and their equivalent of a fork. Tasting it… it's really good! This definitely isn't steak, but it's just as good anyway! What is this? I'll have to ask. I wonder how much Azariah would enjoy this.

I feel my shadow rippling. Oh, right, Shirley. Thotheus did say she would need a lot of food to keep growing… well, I guess there's a lot of food here. I mean, if they're feeding this many people they can definitely feed one Gnostis Rana. I take my "steak" and pretty much just scrape it off the plate and into my shadow.

It falls right into it like water, and my shadow goes back to normal. I hope Shirely enjoys that. If she needs more food than that I guess I can just dump more in, probably. Maybe it will be worth coming here every day just to get Shirley the food she needs?

"Hey Kiaran! I finally found you!" I hear Freware yell at me.

"Oh, hi Freware." I say as she walks up to me.

"Well, how are you enjoying yourself?" Freware looks almost proud of Diana's cult. Is she expecting me to praise it?

"Um, it's nice enough. The food is amazing, for one. It's better than Kari's cult, definitely." Even if I do bite into her want for compliments, I don't want to lie, and there are some redeeming qualities I can mention.

She starts trying to open up a whole conversation about her cult's practices, and I try my best to keep the conversation going, but I just can't get into it at all.

Watching everyone else have so much fun… seeing how into it Thotheus is and seeing Freware be so proud about everything here… This is who they are. Is there anything I have that makes me feel that way? Something about me? Come on, I've been in this world for a month now, there has to be something.

Azariah has magic and Kari's cult.

Aubrey has Freware & Cesre, and the adventurer's guild.

I have… Noelle, I guess, but does she count? I have Shirley. Is that my feature? The fact that I'm a beast tamer? Should I try and get the full license and start training a whole bunch more pets? Or am I just grasping at something I don't even care that much about?

I don't know…

I've been here a month, why don't I know yet?