Crystalia City. Usually in this time of the day, everyone would be near the end of their work shifts, others would be drinking and dining in taverns and others would either spend it at home alone or with their families. For Soren and Lavenza though, this was the time for them to wake up. After staying awake for 24 hours, it would be understandable for anyone to collapse from fatigue, even if they are used pulling all-nighters or just staying up for over 20 hours without taking any breaks.
"Mhmmm... Tsk." The moment Soren opened his eyes, he suddenly felt a surge of pain coursing through his body. He hadn't fought all that hard, but he had taken a couple of heavy hits, to be exact one of Lavenza's fully charged water balls, so the injuries from that attack now were showing their full effect right now.
Soren could barely move his body without feeling like screaming from pain, but he still decided to bear the pain and not show any indication for injuries. He figured that it was just his body being overworked, just like being forced into constant training, so after the pain leaves, he body would be more resilient. In reality though, he wasn't aware of the fact that the pain was actually caused by internal injuries caused by magic.
"Holy barnacles, how much did I overwork myself yesterday?" Soren asked to himself while he felt the constant feeling of pain. While he was still in pain, he finally noticed that he was in the guest room with Lavenza on top of him still being fast asleep. At that point, he remembered what happened before he fainted. He remembered that he was in the middle of the road with Lavenza, Matt and Rohan before he was hit with a wave of dizziness and then fell on the ground.
"To think I would faint like that. How is that even possible to pull it off?" Soren asked quietly to himself while staring at the window that showed the city and the city lights being slowly turned on.
Without having anything else to do, he decided to check his status.
Name: Soren
Race: Merman (Leviathan)
LV: 9
HP: 210
MP: 76
STR: 33
VIT: 35
AGL: 41
INT: 38
WIS: 34
RFL: 27
LCK: 28
Skills (A): Merman transforantions (Human, Merfork, Beast), Sword Aura (Incomplete), Third Eye, Water Ball (!), Mana Wall (!), Silent Dome W (!)
Skills (P): Swimming (+1 AGL), Universal Translation, Blessing of the Seas (Major), Guardian, Water Magic LV.1(!), Mana Manipulation LV.1(!), Water Booster (!)
Titles: Life-Bound Companions(Lavenza), Undead Hunter Apprentice, %&6$@(;?
Soren saw that he had new skills, but he still hadn't leveled up, despite the fact that he had killed a dozen wolves and the ravaged wolf and started to think if that Undead Leviathan gave him just enough exp to get himself to level 9, but it was still unnatural that he hadn't leveled up yet. Since he had no clue about that, he only hoped that if killed enough monsters, he would eventually level up to level 10. After dismissing the thoughts for the level, he decided to check the only new skills that he hadn't seen before since he knew what the others did.
[Silent Dome W: A special dome made out of water magic, specifically for blocking sounds coming and out of the dome. MP Cost: 25]
'Well that was obvious.' Soren thought to himself. After all, he was the one who learned the spell itself.
[Mana Wall: A wall made out of mana. It is extremely weak against magic attacks, but it can easily protect against any non-magic attacks. MP Cost: 10]
'No wonder it blocked the attacks from the ravaged wolf when it barely held a candle against Lavenza's Water Ball.' Soren thought to himself. Just as he was about to check on Lavenza's status, she started waking and saw Soren looking at her.
"Kyuu~..." Her voice sounded like she was in pain as well.
"Good morning little girl. Or should I say good evening? Are you hurting as well?" Soren said casually.
"Kyuu~..." Lavenza nodded as well.
"Well, at least we had finished the quest a while ago, so we can spend the next couple of day recovering and researching. That way, we won't have to deal any unseen situations. After we recover though, we have to find new hunting grounds, or maybe even dungeons, if they exist in the first place." Soren said that last part while looking upwards. After that, he managed to get up from the couch, but he felt like his body was feeling a heavy pressure that gave a feeling of pain. Then he picked up Lavenza and put her on his shoulder and left the guest room.
Once the two of them left the guest room, the noticed that Rohan and Matt weren't around, but the doors to their rooms were completely closed, unlike the other times where they were left slightly open.
"The two of them were tired as well. Let's let them rest. We have rested enough and I feel like I want to go outside for a bit." Soren said that before they left Rohan's house. The first thing he wanted to do, was to take care of the quest and then, he wanted to relax. After making their way slowly towards the Adventurer's Guild, he saw that Jay was the one to be on the reception, as well as around 50 adventurers just sitting and talking.
"Oh, Soren. What is bringing you here?" Jay said to Soren the moment he made his way towards the counter.
"I came here to turn in the quest." Soren said quickly. He wanted to get that out of the way early so he could finally start resting without anything weighing on his mind.
"Oh. About that quest, you should probably do that tommorrow at 12. I got a message from Rohan and he said that he wanted make a couple of changes and that he would update you then, but since you have finished the quest, you can just tell him that you completed the quest." Jay explained.
"I see... Guess I'll catch you later then. Take care." Soren said with a slightly disappointed and painful expression before he left.
Just as Soren was leaving, Jay thought to himself:
'Did he litterally come with all of those injuries on him? That kid is a monster if he has been enduring them without batting an eye.'
Now that Soren and Lavenza left the guild, they didn't have much to do right now, they could either go back to Rohan's house or they could explore the city for a bit, hoping to find a library. While Soren was thinking for what to do, he was suddenly startled by a loud noise.
*Growl*
"Right. We hadn't slept or eaten anything these past 24 hours. I feel like a special won't even be enough for us to eat." Soren said with a casual voice as he looked at Lavenza.
*Growl*
"Alright, then here we go." At that moment, the two of them went towards the only food stall that they knew of, The Hungry Clam. After they made their way towards the stall, they saw that the stall was actually full and that there were no empty seats to eat, he also saw a line that had around 30 people.
"I guess The Hungry Clam right now is in rush hour so we won't be having clam ramen today." Soren said dejected.
"Kyuu~..." Lavenza also sounded dejected.
After seeing the line, they decided to leave in the end. Now, their only option was to explore the city for a little bit. As they were exploring, they noticed that the Sea God's temple was nearby. Soren knew that he had no business with Laventhign, so requesting an audience with her was out of the question. But he still had something in his mind that he wanted to check there.
"Reny~?" Lavenza was curious about Soren while he was staring at the temple.
"Oh, sorry. I was just think about something." Soren said slightly embarassed.
"Kyuu~?"
"I want to check if they do affinity checks. And if they do, I want to check on our elemental affinities." Soren said a bit seriously.
Lavenza just had a normal expression and didn't care much about that after Soren said that. Seeing Lavenza's expression, Soren felt like she truly didn't care much about her affinity. He wondered if she knew what her affinities were, or if she wasn't interested in them in the first place. After pondering for a bit, he decided to steel himself and take the tests.
This time when he reached the gates, he saw that there weren't any guards guarding the gates, unlike yesterday when there quite a few guards nearby. After entering the temple, instead of taking the path he had taken the first time he came here with the guard, he decided to go towards the big central gate that was near the entrance. The moment he enteref through that door, he saw that it was the room where the summoning happened when he came here, but this time he was on the ground seats instead of the platforms. There were also a lot of people sitting down on the seats and a priest on a podium in front of the giant statue.
'That podium wasn't there the last time. Is that removable or something?' Soren thought to himself. Seeing like no one had got up, he saw that they were in the middle of a sermon and decided to take a seat in the back. As time went by, Soren felt like he was getting bored, while Lavenza was sound asleep on his shoulder. After some time passed, a young woman wearing a white hooded cloak came close to him while holding a wooden box with a thin hole. Soren figured out that it was a donation box and decied to drop 5 copper coins in the hole. He had learned quite a useful spell when he was with Laventhign, so donating money was least he could do, even though he didn't have a lot of cash with him in the first place. After Soren donted the coins, for a moment he noticed a smile on the woman's face before she left, but he didn't care at all.
Once the sermon reached its end, a lot of people got up and started leaving. Soren though, decided to go to the priest and ask him:
"Excuse me sir, but does the church do any affinity checks?"
"Of course we do. As long as you have donated a bit, you are free to do an affinity check." The priest said calmly.
"I have already donated a little while ago when one of the sisters came close to me." Soren said calmly as well.
"I see, is this true?" The priest asked one of the sisters who were nearby.
"It is true. He donated 5 copper coins a little while ago." The sister reported.
"Then follow me young man. The room for the test isn't far from here." The priest said before they left from the big room.
After around a couple of minutes of swimming around, they made their way towards a room in the first floor. The room itself was mostly empty, except for a crystal ball on a pedestal and a window on the wall.
"Here is the affinity stone. The only thing you should do is to pour a bit of mana and the colors that will shine, will show your affinity." The priest explained.
"Can my partner take the test as well?" Soren asked curiously.
The man noticed that the partner Soren was talking about, was probably Lavenza who was layong on his shoulder and said:
"She is free to do so as well."
"Thank you for the information." Soren said happily. After he said that, he decided to calm himself a bit, before he started pouring a bit of mana on the affinity stone.