(Book 1 Complete!) Side Quest [Isekai / LitRPG]

Logan tugged on his neck collar as he walked down the promenade. The sun was high in the sky, and he was sweating under the large cloak he was wearing to conceal Nugget. The cloak was Alden's, and using it to help conceal Nugget had been good in theory, but Alden hadn't told him how warm it was. At least this was just temporary.

As if thinking of the little dragon had notified him, Nugget squirmed inside his shelter. A passerby startled at the movement in Logan's cloak, but they had only been looking out of the corner of their eye.

"Sorry, my stomach's not feeling so well," Logan said.

The passerby raised their eyebrows and took a step away from Logan while clutching the hem of their garments closer to their body, as if afraid he might get sick on them.

As soon as they turned their eyes away, Logan whispered down into his shirt. "Don't worry, buddy. After we charge the prism, Cassandra should have the rooms ready."

Logan was a little bummed that he would have to split up from Nugget, but it would probably be more comfortable for both of them, and safer. It would be even safer once Mariv figured out how to reach this Shrine of the Living Path.

As the vendor booths changed from selling food to little religious trinkets, a bell tolled, marking the noon hour. Shortly after, people bustled out of the temple. Hopefully, that meant it would be easy to find a priest without having to interrupt any type of service.

Most people were leaving the church, although a few others were still entering. Logan, like them, was weaving his way through the massive throng of people exiting. He had only been paying half attention to the actual crowd, more intent on just getting through them, when something distracted him from the corner of his eye, and he looked over.

The stride and hair of one pedestrian looked familiar. She walked confidently and without pause straight ahead, but she was shorter, and she kept disappearing from Logan's view amid the taller people around her. Where had he seen her before?

A break in the crowd gave him enough space to glimpse her profile, and Logan suddenly recognized her as the woman outside the Gnashridge Heights inn who had once asked him to find her amulet.

He blinked a few times just to make sure his eyes weren't playing a trick on him. As he stood on his tiptoes, ready to call for her, not even knowing what her name was, somebody bumped into him.

"Hey, watch where you're going," they said as they knocked right into Nugget, who dug his claws into Logan's skin.

Logan offered them an apologetic smile, partly to cover up the wince at the sudden sharpness of Nugget's claws.

"Sorry about that," he said, and stepped past the person.

The woman, though, had already dipped into the temple. Logan wove through the remaining cluster of people. Some were trotting briskly as they checked pocket watches, others strolled lazily, and some were even standing in tight knots without walking at all. It was at least a minute before Logan finally reached the steps and jogged up and through the grand entry.

A haze of incense filled the entire cathedral, especially thick beneath the vaulted ceiling, mingling with the rich scent of rose and sandalwood. The air was warm, and the plumes of incense swirled lazily overhead.

The cathedral itself was built in the shape of a star. At the heart, the central altar rose in honor of the Five Sages. From this core, five great aisles radiated outward, each ending in a larger alcove dedicated to one sage: Void, Time, Life, Dream, and Cosmos. Each radiating aisle was mostly clear except for a few stragglers leaving the earlier service. None of them was the woman.

While the broad main aisles offered seating on their left and right sides and spread out from the temple's center, minor side aisles provided walking space along the perimeter. They were smaller than the big aisles, but still wide enough for six or seven people to walk side-by-side.

Countless smaller alcoves lined the perimeter walls, each a shrine to a respected priest or blessed figure of the past. Hooded monks moved silently among them, tending incense braziers or kneeling in quiet prayer. In a few places, translucent blue ladders that looked like they were made of glass extended up to a carved wood panel ceiling.

Several other non-monks like Logan wandered the space, looking like tourists or pilgrims. Logan kept his pace brisk, scanning faces as he passed. Still no sign of her.

"Can I help you, young man?" asked a hooded monk. "If you're here for today's service, I'm afraid it just ended."

Logan stole one last glance at the only other person on foot, but that wasn't her either. He turned to face the monk. "No, thank you. I mean, no, I'm not here for the service, but I could use your help." He pulled out the prism. "I am here on Adventurers' Guild business. They needed this prism blessed for the Class Assignment Ceremony in a few days."

"Ah, yes, of course. Right this way. The elders are all busy, but an acolyte can help you. I would help myself, but…" He then gestured to his brown cloak.

Logan cocked an eyebrow, unsure what that meant.

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The monk recognized his confusion and chuckled. "I suppose you haven't spent much time in the temples?"

Logan flashed a tentative smile. "Sorry, have to admit you're right."

The monk nodded and led, explaining as Logan fell into step behind him. "I am fasting from mana usage today. These are dampening robes that prevent me from being able to power the device that will charge the prism. But we'll get you taken care of."

It was relatively silent here, with soft chants echoing on the walls from further-off shrines, hushed conversation from nearby bystanders, and the swish of the monk's robes.

"Who are all these shrines to?" asked Logan softly, wanting to respect the quiet setting.

"We are in the Life Sage's wing of the temple, and these are her priests and martyrs." He pointed to a man holding what looked like a Christmas wreath made of ivy instead of evergreen limbs. "It is said that the Life Sage entrusts her guardians to protect those under her care so that they may find shelter in the Ring of Life."

"Would Luvania be one of her guardians?"

The monk turned an impressed look over his shoulder at Logan. "I thought you said you didn't spend much time in the temple, but you know of Luvania? Not many do, even among the Life Sage's worshippers. But yes, she is one of the Life Sage's most trusted guardians."

Logan mused over his quest to return the five rings to the sentinel Luvania. He wondered if there was significance to this prophetic sounding Ring of Life and if perhaps there was something that had gotten lost in translation over the ages.

Meanwhile, they reached the corner and followed the perimeter toward the center of the cathedral. Halfway between them and the central opening around the main altar's steps, a concave glass floor-to-ceiling window bumped out into the walk space. A soft light illuminated the giant display from within.

When they reached it, Logan looked at the contents. Three gilded boxes were arrayed in a vertical formation, equally spaced apart. Their labels marked them as casket boxes, and they reminded Logan of gilded cases from medieval ages that held sacred books and relics.

Analyze.

The label on the two lower ones referenced what sounded like rules and commandments. But the topmost one caught his attention: Casket Box of The Shrine of the Living Path.

Okay, I am definitely telling Mariv about this.

"I'm guessing these are special books?"

"No," the priest said, shaking his head. "They are only the outer casings. The books themselves are kept elsewhere in a vault. I'm afraid that is not accessible to the public, though. Ah, here we are. Brother Timmons will help you with the prism."

Brother Timmons wasn't much older than Logan, but he carried himself with a sense of calm and serenity Logan would expect from someone far older. His shaved head gleamed under the chapel light, and his features were almost boyish. A simple cord bound his white robes at the waist, and a sprig of rosemary peeked from one pocket. He folded his hands patiently as the monk introduced Logan to him and explained Logan's task with the prism.

"Thanks," Logan said as the monk bowed and continued along the sharp corner, following the perimeter into what appeared to be the Dream Sage's wing.

Brother Timmons, in the meantime, welcomed Logan.

"It is my pleasure to help you. Will you be receiving a class at the next ceremony?"

"I would have to be at level 25," Logan said. If he could avoid lying, he would. While he and the others met that condition, nobody in the guild knew that. Logan could wait a bit before the benefits of a class really sank in, and in the meantime he would work on some of his other skills he hadn't spent much time with. Having strong skills before the class-selection appeared to have an influence on the options that would be available.

While Mariv's level mask would keep Logan's true level hidden, Brother Timmons' eyes never glossed with the telltale sign of Analyze. Everybody at the Adventurers' Guild seemed to do that when he had spoken with them. Logan appreciated that this man accepted his words, even if he had intentionally worded them vaguely.

"Ah," Brother Timmons said with a smile. "Well, I'm sure you're excited for when they day comes, and it will in due time. Perhaps the next time you charge the prism, it will be for your own ceremony."

The friendly monk gestured overhead. Logan and the man stood at the pie-shaped junction between the Life and Sage wings of the temple. That star pattern was mirrored in the ceiling. Those blue ladders stood on either side of the wedge-like wall, and both ascended to that panel. From there, a band of glowing stone much like the ladders stretched from the other side of the panel to where it disappeared in a grand pentagon above the main altar.

"Oh," said Logan. "Do you need me to climb up there?"

Brother Timmons laughed. "No, we don't use these ladders anymore. They are quite difficult to climb." He spread an open palm to the rungs. "Go ahead and touch it, you'll see."

Curious, Logan did as the brother said. The rung made his fingers tingle as if they were half asleep, and the surface was deceptively slippery.

"Wow. And you used to use these?"

Brother Timmons just chuckled and placed on hand on a rope that dangled beside the ladder. "We use this to access the upper panels now."

Logan hadn't noticed the rope at this angle. Before the monk pulled on it, though, Brother Timmons extended a hand for the prism.

Once Logan gave it to the monk, he positioned his palm and adjusted his stance as if positioning the orb in a specific spot. His hand then glowed with a white light that traveled up along the braided rope to the ceiling, connected to the panel at the top, and then spread toward the central altar's ceiling. When the light reached that, the monk pulled the cord.

The triangular panel opened, and from it dropped a series of wooden latches, almost like a drop stair coming down from an attic, unfolding in a zigzag. Each piece of the wood was smaller than the last, as if it had all been folded up. The quality of the wood was beautifully carved, and Logan could see the same beveling he had noticed on the signpost Cassandra had mentioned outside the city.

This was master-crafted wood.

And yet, despite the high-quality timber, the mechanism jammed right before the final piece clicked into place, making it stop short of the prism.

Brother Timmons let out a small grunt and tugged the cord a few times. The wooden contraption trembled, and then finally the last sequence of unfolds happened.

Liquid light streamed down from the height in a thin thread like molten glass. It looked like a foot-long snake as it zigged and zagged down the structure until it finally came to the pinpoint end.

The light stopped there, and as the rest of its foot-long tail caught up to the head, it bulged into a bead that finally dripped from the wooden structure and instantly soaked into the prism, which glowed like a diamond under a display case.

"There we go. That contraption has been giving us difficulty lately."

As the brother released his grip on the rope, the wooden structure snapped back up into the ceiling. Then the monk handed Logan the prism.

"Thank you," said Logan.

As he made his way outside, he opened up his messages.

Logan: Mariv, I think I found a clue on where to find that skillbook for The Shrine of the Living Path.