The following morning, the four brothers were down stairs eating their breakfast as they waited for the rest of the family to wake up and gather.
"Before we leave Ironchill for Snakecliff village, I want to make a stop at the city hall to see what the requirements for forming a guild are." Spartacus spoke as he looked at the other three.
Since they were the only ones from their group awake, Hunter decided to take this time to inform the other three of Linrun's situation.
Orion clamped his fist lividly as he slightly teased Hunter to try and lighten the mood. "You can count on me brother. I'll cure the old cat so your little kitten will frolic all around you."
Hunter showed a white flashy smile as he looked at Orion before he turned his focus onto Spartacus. "Stephanie and I told them what we all are, so they know that Orion is the only angel." Since it was quite early in the morning, there weren't that many folks awake or alert while in the tavern so Hunter wasn't afraid of anyone hearing them, though he did make sure to lower his voice.
Spartacus nodded as he sipped a wooden "cup"(1) of fresh milk. He made a slight face at the taste, causing the others to laugh. "I miss a lot of the foods back home." He grumbled as he set the bowl down. "I don't think I'll ever get used to the taste of milk compared to how sweet modern milk is."
Ian chuckled, "You could always add sugar to the milk. Though it won't taste as natural, and it would be very expensive to import the sugar."
Orion lifted his cup of warm milk and downed it in one go, with a slight gag before he finished it off and set the empty bowl on the table. "Oh, the perks of being wealthy." He sighed heavily, causing the other three to snicker as they enjoyed themselves. Looking at the empty bowl with complete disgust in his eyes, Orion stuffed some fresh bread into his mouth to cover up the taste. "If I'm not mistaken, this is goat's milk."
Ian made a face as he chugged his cup of milk as well. Hunter smirked seeing everyone's reactions before he continued to eat his breakfast. By time the brothers had finished eating, the rest of their party had came down stairs and were also enjoying their breakfasts as well. Other than Stephanie and Quixi, the other girls seemed slightly tense as they sat next to the brothers; not looking up from their plates and eating in near silence.
Sylvia finally looked up at Ian awkwardly before she gave a slightly bashful yet sad smile. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Ian scratched the back of his head shamefully as he looked down. "I didn't think it was important enough to tell you the truth, and if people end up finding out about what we all truly are than we will all be in danger. Out of all of us, Orion only has to worry about cultists and demonic beings hunting him down, but we three have to worry about not only those bastards, but also churches, kingdoms, and even the gods themselves."
Sylvia nodded after hearing this. "And through all that, I'll stay by your side. No matter how bad or dangerous it gets." She grabbed Ian's arm and leaned her head against his shoulder as she closed her eyes contentedly. After the slight shock wore off his face, Ian began to beam enthusiastically as he wrapped his arms around Sylvia and nuzzled her head with his.
The others looked at them with admiration and a little envy before they watched Asani and Tarenia also look at Spartacus. Asani leaned in close and with her eyes filled with a mix of love and lust, she whispered. "I can't wait to taste a god."
Spartacus began to blush and cough heavily as he sputtered out wine. Tarenia quickly leaned in, planting her lips on Spartacus', and as she pulled away, everyone saw her lick the droplets of wine that were left on his lips. She turned and stuck out her tongue at Asani as she giggled. "Looks like I got to taste the god before you did!"
Everyone else burst out laughing as Spartacus was trying to process what was happening, and Asani was pouting while she teasingly glared at her sister.
Finally, Linrun coughed as she glanced up at Hunter, than looked at the other three boys awkwardly. "I promise to tell no one what you all are, however I really don't feel comfortable being with you all so I do apologize about my behavior following today. It's going to really take some time for me to wrap my head around everything, and well after I guide you all to Snakecliff today, I wish you all the best as we'll part ways once we get there."
The brothers glanced at Hunter, not being able to detect what kind of mood he was in after Linrun spoke. With a sigh, he nodded, not saying a word in response to what she said. Stephanie looked worriedly at him, however he did not respond, focusing on his own thoughts.
Orion looked back at Linrun, fetching glances at Hunter every now and then before he spoke. "Linrun, if you want I can cure your ailing grandmother. As for that vermin, we can remove him so you don't have to be forced into being his pet. We understand your feelings of wanting to be away from us, and we won't push you to stay. However, know this, you can always rely on us if you ever need help."
She nodded, not willing to look at Hunter as she began talking with the others and telling them what to expect in Snakecliff. Hunter leaned in towards Spartacus as he softly spoke. "I'm going to walk around for a bit before we leave. What time are you wanting us to be leaving?"
Spartacus turned his head to look at Hunter, his eyebrows furrowing into a quick frown as he contemplated before he looked at everyone else who were all still eating. Returning his focus to Hunter, "In about an hour we'll leave for Snakecliff village."
Hunter nodded as he got up and walked out of the still mostly empty tavern and into the slightly crowded street. Linrun sadly looked up at his back walking out the door, while Stephanie glanced worriedly as he left. Orion saw both their faces, and gently smiled. "Don't worry, he's fine. He's gone through quite a bit so he's tough and able to deal with pain."
Out on the street, Hunter was walking aimlessly, looking at all the tall stone and wooden buildings noticing how well they were kept. He returned his focus back to the street, and realized that the cobble streets were all really clean. As he continued walking down the side of the road, he noticed iron gutters every ten yards. He nodded in surprise as he used his echolocation to rebound sound into the gutters, allowing him to see a large catacomb of sewage; all of it being drained towards what appeared to be a far cheaper looking teleportation array, as to where it went, Hunter had no clue. However; he was in slight respect towards the fact that the city was designed so hygienically.
After walking down multiple streets, Hunter found himself in front of a church that appeared to be having a market held in it's plaza. Intrigued, Hunter walked through the gate, listening to the stall owners calling out their wares as everyone turned their attention towards him. As he wandered through the stalls, he stumbled upon a priest who appeared to be shopping for supplies. When the priest turned around, and noticed Hunter, his old eyes crinkled into a smile as he looked at the little child. "Hello little one, may I help you in anyway?"
"I was just curious about this place and the market that it was holding." Hunter responded lightly as he looked at the old priest.
The old priest continued to smile, and did not seem surprised that Hunter didn't know about this place. "This church doesn't worship any gods. To be honest, none of the churches in Siol do. It's an idea that the young prince has been pushing for the last two years, and though a lot of people don't really conform to it, they are still willing to try it out since the prince has already achieved many impossible things. The prince has us preaching the ideology that the gods are just like us, and should be considered as a race similar to that of dragons; feared and respected, but not down wittingly worshiped. As for the churches, we are all state organizations now, focused on helping to train morals into the young ones, help those who need it, and use our holy magic to cure the sick."
Hunter nodded his head silently as he listened to the old priest; however, with some surprise still evident in his voice, Hunter asked, "How are you able to wield holy magic if you aren't conformed to a god?"
The old priest chuckled as he looked at the little boy. "Priesthood is actually a type of mage, though unlike regular mages anyone can become a priest as long as they follow a god's doctrine. There are two types of priests, the god based and the natural based. The natural based are born with an affinity towards holy magic, which is the requirement for mages. Once they show signs towards their affinity, if their lucky enough they would be taken in by a church and be groomed as the church's genius until they reached the rank of bishop, giving them much power in the church. If they are not found and taken in by a church, they can end up going to a school of magic and using their affinity towards magic to become any type of magic wielder, but if they chose to follow their affinity they would become known as Holy Mages. Holy Mages are like priests, but they have no conformation towards any gods, allowing them to use holy magic without the favor of a god.
Now then, for the god based priests; these are regular people who join a church and swear an oath to the god, becoming the god's followers. If they had no affinity towards magic, being sworn to a god would give them access to the holy magic. If they did have an affinity towards magic, be it wizardic(2) or mage based, their magic affinity will slowly be converted towards holy magic only. Compared to mage based magic wielders, most wizardic types will transform their affinity faster thanks to them already having a sliver of holy magic as a base."
Shaking his head slightly in shock, Hunter looked the man up and down some more as he grasped the complexity behind being a priest, let alone what all the other magic classes had to go through. Looking back at the priests face, Hunter asked another question. "Sir, you said earlier a requirement for a mage. What exactly do you mean by that?"
"Mages are a rare but powerful class type. To be a mage, you must first have an affinity towards a specific base(3). If a person has a water base but wants to be a wind mage, it is impossible as the only way to change your base is by the will of the gods. If they gods don't agree to change your base, then the only thing you can do is either become a priest or a cultist. Swearing an oath of allegiance to a deity is the only way a mortal can cause their bases to change, and it will then only either turn into a holy or dark base, depending on the deity the mage swore the oath too."
Hunter nodded as he perused the stalls while walking next to the priest. "You also said there is a difference between mages and wizardics as you put it. Can you explain more to me please?"
By this point the priest realized that the little boy was using him to gather intelligence, however he felt quite happy that he was able to use his old gained knowledge to help a youngster build a deeper understanding of the world around him. "Mages are only able to cast magic affiliated with their bases, however to cast that magic, they use a mental power called mana. Since they use mana, mages created their ranking on the basis of the amount of mana a mage has. The more mana, the more powerful spells, and the more number of spells they can use in general. Wizardic classes are all other magic wielders that don't fall under the forced magic use defined by their bases. Some wizardic classes use mana to cast, while others don't use any mana at all."
Hunter stopped at a stall that had multiple little gems laying on the table. He turned towards the priest as he glanced away from the gems. "Since there's a Holy Mage, than priests are also considered mages correct?"
The priest smiled slightly as he shook his head. "That is incorrect little one. Yes Holy Mages are mages, but priests are neither wizardic or mages. The priests of Siol however are all now Holy Mages since we stopped worshipping gods, but other nations' priests are different. A regular priest uses the god's divinity to cast magic instead of mana. As long as a priest remains in a temple of worship, they can use as many holy spells as they want, however once they leave the temple, they have a limited number of spell casts for each spell. That number of spell casts resets each day, or can be reset whenever a priest enters a temple during the same day. The reason why priests end up with limits is because they rely on the god's divinity. Since they left the god's temple, they don't have an areal connection to the god, and are unable to refill their storage of the god's divinity. To prolong the amount of divinity a priest has, allowing them to increase the amount of spells, or allowing them to cast higher leveled spells for a cheaper amount of divinity; they would cast prayers and worship to the god while they cast the spell."
"Priests seem like a very complex class." Hunter turned back towards the stall, using his heightened senses to see if there was anything good.
The old priest chuckled softly. "I agree with you lad, but priests are a needed class in society. They help ease the people religiously, help call upon the blessings of the gods, and are needed as healers since humans naturally don't have affinity towards nature like the elves are." He too began looking at the stall, wondering why the little boy had stopped here.
Finally, Hunter grabbed what appeared to be a small brown diamond that was around six point five millimeters in size (roughly a one carat diamond). Using his Sight of Divinity, Hunter could see that the diamond was glowing brightly. As he picked it up, the young man smiled at him. "Good lad, this is a chocolate diamond. It is a very rare diamond, and it was found at the mines near Snakecliff village. It's about forty gold pieces to purchase it, and can be crafted into any type of jewelry for a beautiful lady."
Hunter continued to examine the chocolate diamond, noticing that the energy flowing inside of it seemed to be drawn towards him. Unknownst to everyone else, (because of his blindfold of course), he closed his eyes as he tried tapping into the energy in the gem. Seeing his pillars of Divinity, he noticed a small brown glob floating near his pillars. He smiled, realizing that this gem seemed to have a large amount of Divinity.
Mentally reaching out, he grabbed the Divinity and began guiding it towards his main pillar; watching as the brown began to merge amongst the other colors. After merging with his pillar, he felt his body become stronger and more sensitive. He scanned his body, trying to figure out what happened, finally noticing that it appeared his body had become as hard as diamond itself. Then he felt the power slowly fade away. Shocked, he looked at his main pillar, only to find that the brown was slowly dissipating away. He turned around trying to find where the brown Divinity had gone, and saw at the same location a new, but smaller and weaker glowing orb of brown Divinity existed.
[Holy shit! This gem can create new Divine energy, and it's energy seems to increase a person's body to the strength of diamond. If I can find a permanent way of keeping that ability, I can make myself immune to all swords and arrows, as long as they aren't infused with other energies. I also need to try and find a way of either finding more of these, or creating synthetic ones. Maybe this could help the other three evolve, and if I get a new one for Stephanie, she might be able to awaken her Divinity.] Opening his eyes again, Hunter pulled out the forty gold coins and handed them over to the stall owner as he smiled and tucked the chocolate diamond into his vest pocket in front of his heart.
The priest watched this transaction and nodded before he turned and began walking back towards the church. When Hunter was examining the gem, he had sensed the boy having massive amounts of power, some of it being dark and corruptive. "Come with me lad, I have something to give you."
Hunter thanked the stall owner before running after the old priest. Arriving in a room behind the sanctuary in the church, Hunter watched as the priest pulled out a drawer in his desk. "I don't know what you are, but I sensed your power fluctuation when you were examining the gem. You have both light and darkness inside of your soul, and if you aren't careful enough, you may end up becoming a nightmare that is hunted down by the rest of the world." Finally he pulled out a small eight point sun made out of a yellow crystal. Lifting it up higher, the priest smiled as he looked at it. "This gem was made by the sun god Ahuleo (Ah-hoo-ley-oo). It helps to light up the soul, and gives the wielder a clearer and gentler mind focused more on the good of the world instead of all that is dark. I hope this helps you counter the darkness that lies within you."
Handing the crystal over to Hunter, Hunter examined the crystal closely, realizing that it was actually citrine, a gem stone that was a type of quartz. [Didn't think my geo classes back in high school would be important.] Closing his eyes, he found that there was now a massively bright glowing aura along with the little brown ball and his Divine pillars. He watched as the bright glowing light created a steady stream flowing into all his pillars and slowly began covering the black patches on his Divinity. Looking closely, one could see that it wasn't removing the color, it was just covering it, as if trying to seal the darkness where it was.
Opening his eyes again, Hunter bowed towards the old priest as he tucked the eight point sun into his breast pocket as well. "Thank you for being willing to help me with this. May I ask why you chose to give it to me?"
The old priest smiled as he shook his head. "Just say it was the will of the gods for this old man. Besides you'll have more use for it than I ever will."
Hunter nodded before turning and leaving the church and going back to rejoin the others. The old priest at this time sat down in his chair as he looked into the still open drawer. He gently picked up a clear crystal item that was glowing with a faint but soft gold hue.
"My lady. You were right, I happened to meet one of your sons today, and I have given him the eight point sun; just as you asked."
The crystal glowed slightly brighter as a gentle but sad womanly voice came out from it. "Thank you little one. It has been along time since my kind have walked the worlds, and if we are to stop what my husband plans to do then those children of mine must become stronger than any god before them, and stronger than what they once were. The existence of not only this world, but all the others, lies on whether or not they can gather together. Since you have done as I asked, my word to you is true. Rest now little one, you can see your loved ones again now."
The crystal slowly faded into bright speckles of golden light as it drifted out of the open window and faded into the horizon. The old priest smiled happily as he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, never to awaken them again.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1: cups in medieval taverns were usually wooden bowls, while in castles and noble manors they would use hollowed out horns to drink. Since there were little to no preservatives then, people would have to milk the cow or goat every couple of hours as milk would spoil between 1-2 hours. Usually milk was given to children (11 and under) since they were unable to drink alcohol at that time.
2: A word base I created. So mages are spell casters with an affinity towards a certain element or "base" (fire, space, life, etc.) Wizards however, are what's called chaotic based, meaning they don't have a strong affinity towards a singular base and instead are drawn to all the bases, allowing them to use all spell types, however the spells do have restrictions. Wizardic also holds classification of alchemists, potion masters, spell casters, enchanters, and rune masters (Will go into more detail of each magic class as the story progresses).
3: Bases are my reference towards a person's magical type. Basic Base: (Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Holy, Ice, Dark) Advanced bases: [Combination bases are usually rare and made of two basic bases] (Storm, Shadow, Industrial{preferred for enchanters}, Lightning, Nature, Demonic) Legendary Base: [Semi-divine level bases, both singular and combination type] (Death, Blood, Spirit, Life, Mind, Space, Time, Gravitational) Divine Base [Combination bases]: (Apocalyptic, Celestial, Divine [divine ones, though no one knows this existence yet, they are the combination of all bases]) Chaotic base type has all basic, because of this they also have all advanced bases thanks to combinations, and then they also have access to the semi-divine combination bases. Combination bases means they require a mix of previous level bases to make them. (Storm base [Advanced]=[Basic] Wind +[Basic] Water. The mage, if lucky enough can also awaken the lightning base increasing the strength of storm magic and also giving the mage access to a basic fire base. Storm [Advanced] + Lightning [Advanced] = raises the level of base causing their storm base to be semi-divine while regular storm mages are at advanced bases. Bases increase the effectiveness of the mage's spells, the damage capabilities, the length of casting, and the effect period.