"Ugh my body," Mike grumbles as he feels stiff, tired, and sore
'Wait a minute where am I now' Mike thinks as he opens his eyes
He does not see anything at first as it is very dark right now but Mike assumes that he is in a bed because he feels himself wrapped in a blanket while lying on something really soft from what he assumed to be the mattress.
'Abbey you there?' Mike calls out in his mind
He receives no response from anyone.
'Guess the system lockdown shut her off as well' Mike thinks to himself as he moves out of the bed
"Wait a minute..." Mike mutters to himself as he moves his right arm he feels his hand as well
"Thank god you are back little buddy," Mike says to his hand
He gets out of his bed and starts looking around for some sort of light source to use to at least see where he was as he could not see anything with his limited vision in the dark.
Eventually, Mike finds a door and he opens it to see that he is on the first floor of the brothel and apparently he was in one of the few regular rooms with a bed in it.
"Anyone here?" Mike asks
"Sir we are not open right now I am... um usually most people don't come in while wearing undergarments," A voice sounds out as a lady came out from a room that had a sign on it probably saying, employees only
"Wait what?" Mike says before looking down to see that the only piece of clothing he is wearing is his underwear
Still, he was not embarrassed in the slightest at this as he could have been naked which would be a whole other situation that he would have to deal with.
"Actually I just woke up here I am looking for Synthia as she probably brought me here," Mike says to the lady who came out
"Oh your him?!" The lady shouts out as she rushed back into the door she came from
"..." Mike did not know what to do so he just sits on a nearby chair to wait
Eventually, the lady comes out with Synthia rushing out behind her followed by Sarenthia who flies on over as a sword.
'Micheal!' Shouts shouts out into his mind
"Ah! Sarenthia!" Mike shouts as he dodges her advances as she almost impales him as she flies by
"Micheal!" Synthia says as she tackles him in her full suit of metal armor
"Augh!" Mike shouts as he falls to the floor
Bam!
Mike gets punched in the face by the gauntlet of Synthia'
"Ah!" Mike shouts as he grabs his face in pain
"That's for scaring the hell out of us!" Synthia says as she gets off of Mike
"Well that was not my fault now was it!" Mike shouts at her
"Tha-That does not matter alright!" Synthia says
"..."
"..."
"You know what I am too tired to care right now just tell me where are my clothes?" Mike asks as he gets up
"Ah!" Synthia says as she turns away
"What? I am not naked now so just tell me where my clothes are?" Mike asks
"... They are being cleaned right now" Synthia answers
"Alright, then I will wait for them for now," Mike says as he sits back down
"How are you so casual about this?!" Synthia asks as she takes a peek at Mike to see what he was doing
"Well for one we are in a brothel, two I am not naked, and three I used to bathe with my brothers and sisters regardless of age," mike says fully expecting for a dice roll to come up
However nothing happens, there is no dice roll or anything just silence in his mind and body as he does not feel that foreboding feeling like any time he had to roll for anything.
'Is this bad or good...' Mike thinks to himself as he does not know what the implications of having the system being shut down
It seemed that with the system not being active it was preventing him from accessing anything in his system space, skill, and spells from what he could see though as he has yet to actually cast a spell and it seemed like his [Intermidate Pain Resistance] skill was not active and he was able to feel the pain of a gauntleted fist hitting his face.
"So how did everything go after you almost drained me dry of mana?" Mike asks wanting to know the results
"Well somehow I was able to cast the spell thanks to you and now everyone that was in the pit was cleansed by the holy light of Drothia," Synthia says with reverence
"You didn't kill anyone did you?" Mike asks a bit skeptical at what happened
"No! My goddess is the embodiment of life and purity so the spell I cast just erased their recollection of everything bad about her!" Synthia shouts
"Good to know then, so are we done with everything in the purification part?"
"Yes I finished up after we brought you here," She says
"Good to know... but why were my clothes taken off if my hand was the only thing missing?" Mike asks confused as to how he was only in his underwear now
"That is the weird thing I started noticing cuts that appearing on your body along with bruises so I cast some minor healing spells on you, to make sure that you would not die in your weakened, state," Synthia says
"You can cast healing spells? I thought you were a fallen paladin?" Mike asks a bit confused
"I am technically still a fallen paladin but I am almost done with my trials presented by my goddess as a result of completing one of the two I was able to regain some of the former power I had," Synthia says
"Well, that is useful, to say the least, by the way, what do you have to do now in regards to becoming a full paladin?" Mike asks
"My goddess has yet to contact me about that so for now I will have to wait and pray for her to send my final challenge," Synthia says
"Well then when you learn about your final challenge tell me about that so I can help," Mike says
"..."
"What?" Mike says as he sees that Synthia turned silent at his words
"Y-you don't need to help me anymore with my problems in becoming a paladin once again," Synthia says
"I won't do that"
"Why then are you choosing to help me then?" Synthia asks
"Simple I like to help people," Mike gives his response
"I don't believe that..."
"Well... choose to believe anything you want to, believe that I have some ulterior motives or believe that I truly am doing this to help you," Mike says
"..."
"Sir your clothes should be dry now so please come with me," The lady from before says as she leads Mike into the employee area
Mike gets up and follows the lady into the back while leaving Synthia there in the front area alone with her thoughts.
Mike gets his clothes and is now glad that he can go outside and head back to Dike even though he was going to have to tell him an excuse again at least this time he would not need to roll for anything for a while. There were perks to having the system but having to roll for almost every single action was just tiring for himself so he would treat this as a well-deserved vacation where Mike would work out and try to see if he could actually complete his Adventures guild quests in this break and seeing how far he could get with his own skills and not through the influences of the system.
Mike left the brothel after saying goodbye to Synthia and giving her the name of the inn that he was staying at since she needed to know where he was in case of any new developments in the paladin thing came up. It seemed to be midnight as Mike was walking through the streets of the city and Mike was able to enjoy the evening air and see the nightlife of the place. Thankfully the brothel that Synthia was at was not open that night or else it would have been a lot more awkward than anything if he suddenly walked into a bunch of men enjoying themselves. Mike shakes away those thoughts before they go down an even darker road.
'Wonder if Orion is done yet with whatever he is doing?' Mike thinks as he reaches the front door of the inn
"GOD'S BE DAMNED *Hick* I SWEAR IF THIS IS HOW IT IS GOING TO BE EVERY NIGHT *Hick* I SHOULD JUST KEEP YOU *Hick* HERE SO WE CAN DO WHAT I WAS SENT HERE TO DO!!!" Dike shouts out causing the very few people on the first floor to go silent and look at Dike like he was insane
"Good to see you master," Mike says as he sits down at the table
Mike also sees that there were a lot of empty bottles of liquor around the table causing Mike to smile slightly seeing the scene and Dike was a bit red as well.