Merchant Of Yliaster

Neivor closed the book he was reading with a snap, a serene expression on his face. His thoughts, though, were far from serene.

Before the initiation, he was a priest of the God of Heavenly Kingdom, and even he was surprised to receive true feedback from his god after the initiation. Even a faithful man would always have some smidgen of doubt inside him, and he was relieved to see the god he spent his life worshipping was truly real.

There was another side to the story, though. While his god was real, it was not the only god that was real. This complicated things, as there had been a discrete battle among the temples since the initiation. One of them eventually would claim Kralor, but Neivor was not sure which of them would be victorious.

Heavenly Codex was not a religious text originating from this country, so the number of believers he had to command was considerably lower. Other religions, on the other hand, had millions they could command in case of a war. The Kingdom of Thyr didn't have a formal religion, as the kingdom was too diverse for something like that to work, but there was an unofficial one that was all the same.

He rubbed the side of his head tiredly. He was beyond measure, as he was the head priest of his temple, but recent days had been a nightmare due to shadow priests attacking irregularly. Neivor never could understand how people could worship a goddess whose domain was shadows, but they existed.

They were also annoyingly good at being sneaky, and he had lost some good priests against their attacks. The soldiers and mercenaries preferred not to meddle in the affairs of religion, so he had no one to turn to. His god told him before that the merchant guy would be important in the coming days, even going to the lengths of directly sending a message to the man, but he was not sure how a single person could change the tide.

Goddess of Shadows, Zeylin's following was great, due to religion using Kralor as a base for a long time. The Assassin guild also mainly believed in this religion, making it more deadly than others. There are some others in the city, but their situation was no better than Neivor's.

The book in his hand suddenly released a golden glow, and Neivor was startled. He opened the book, his eyes releasing the same golden glow for a moment. After a moment of concentration, he brought his palms together and bowed at emptiness. "I thank you for the revelation," he said, and watched as the holy light around him pulsed with acknowledgment. His mind was still busy with the information he received.

"So, there is someone who could help me? Drakhabgar?" he said, and was startled when he felt the holy energy around him vibrate, suddenly agitated. The golden light that the church was decorated with momentarily wavered, and darkness moved. Shadows got deeper, and they started to enlarge, covering more space than they should.

Neivor breathed deeply, praying in an unknown language, and his body released a steady surge of holy light, once more restoring the state of the church. He was alarmed to feel that some of the energy was gone, though.

This was the second time someone actually managed to interact with the energy, the first being the Merchant, and the second being this. He was not sure what the meaning of this was, but he knew better than to try again.

If anything, this proved that the man his god told him about would be of help. After all, what could counter shadows better than Darkness? Neivor thought as he stared at the shadows around the room. They were slowly losing their depth, but they still had a darkness that they had no right having in the house of god.

Neivor got up and started to walk towards the place his god said he would find this man in. He was not very excited to meet with someone so opposite in nature to him, but he was just a servant, and he would do as he was commanded.

Maxwell and Darve walked towards the rift after a long day of tedious hunting. There was no surefire way of telling the time, as the sun seemed to never go down on this planet, but Maxwell was pretty sure they spent around 20 hours in this place.

All in all, it was well worth it, but Maxwell was starting to get a bit impatient, as he had a lot of skills to upgrade and a new skill to pick.

Darve leveled up a great deal in these last hours, reaching level 36, but the man's progress seemed to have slowed down, as there was no stronger creature on the surface.

At some point, Maxwell felt Blueberry enter the rift once more, and the bird seemed to be in a spirit of exploration, as he could feel the bird at an alarming distance. Maybe the bird would actually find somewhere where the sun went down.

He was a bit concerned, but he doubted that anything could harm the bird. Even if they could, Blueberry had a very suitable skill set for running away. He wouldn't prevent the bird from doing what she wanted just because it was a bit dangerous.

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They finally came to the rift, and Maxwell observed it from a new perspective. Immediately, though, he could see that the rift was too complex for him to imitate using the delusion of the guided. Well, for now, he thought. There would come a day when he could create them, he was sure. But maybe he should start with something easier first.

He had managed to actually create darkness in these last hours, but the nature of the creation had been a bit strange. Instead of creating it from scratch like fire mana, just destroying any light in a certain area using darkness mana had been enough.

After doing that, the skill could manipulate the following darkness using darkness energy and mana without a problem. Still, he had no idea how Drakhabgar made his darkness gain physical qualities. Ironically, his darkness constructs were actually better than the real darkness he created, as real darkness was just that. It was dark, but it had no real function beyond that. At least not one he could find for now.

Fusing his constructs with the real darkness could work, though, as it worked great with blood before. He would try that when he was in a more private place.

They went through the rift, and Maxwell hurriedly turned off his runes. It was easy to forget about them, as the commanded mana flowed into them without his input. A layer of frost could be seen on his clothes immediately. He formed a brief amplification rune, increasing the heat for a moment to get rid of the cold.

Now that he thought about it, wouldn't cold also have an affinity? That warranted some experimentation. He doubted that it would just be the nonexistence of heat, like it was in science, as if that was the case, darkness wouldn't have an affinity too.

"I will be going then," he said to Darve, who was kissing the ground in relief. The last had been hard on the man, as he had no real way to fight against the wind. He could only survive it due to his level increasing in real time, making his body stronger.

"Huh? Oh sure, you can collect your payment from the guild, right? Thanks for everything." Darve said, and Maxwell could feel some puzzled mental waves radiate from the hidden soldiers in the forest. They were probably confused about the casual tone Darve had, as Maxwell in his current form hardly warranted such a tone.

"You can tell the guild if you want to enter the rifts again," Maxwell said. He was not trying hard anymore to keep his creepy aura, as it was becoming too powerful as it is. He was sure that even if he told the funniest joke, it would become something terrifying with his current voice. The advancement of the mask didn't help.

He suddenly glanced towards a spot in the wall, or more correctly, the other side of it, as he could feel a familiar presence on the other side. He quickly did something he had regretted not doing before.

Compendium entered the absorption mode, and Maxwell observed the mana type of the man waiting on the other side of the wall.

Holy Mana(Light) - Absorption is possible after the extraction of will.

What does that mean? This proved that gods used a different kind of mana, or priests, in this case. But he was not sure what the extraction of will meant. Maybe the Etherium would magically remove it, too? That seemed to have become a pattern recently.

He just phased through the wall, once more feeling some surprised mental waves, but he ignored them. He glanced at the man before him, and he was not surprised to see Neivor before him. He was a bit curious if the man knew who he was, though. Looking at the man's emotionless but peaceful face, it was hard to discern. He observed him.

Neivor - Vassal - Level 37

Did he hunt or something? Maxwell questioned. The man's level was incredibly high, even higher than Darve's. And he was doubtful that Neivor would go into the rifts. Was this some sort of godly special treatment? In any case, it was apparent that this man, too, would become a noble in the following days.

"I assume you have something to ask?" he said to Neivor, keeping his identity secret. The man was holding a book in his hand, and Maxwell could see that it was hardly a normal one. The book radiated the same mana type as the man, but the amount was almost ten times more. Neivor would be a terrifying force if he were able to utilize all of that mana.

With a snap, the priest closed the book, and the mana around him immediately got calmer. "I will not call your name out loud, if you could excuse me, as it does cause some inconvenience. I assume you are the one I'm looking for, though, as it was written that you would be here?" Neivor said. The man became even creepier since Maxwell had last seen him.

So he doesn't know who I am? Is it due to the mask? Maxwell didn't expect the immune to divine influences part of the mask to come in handy this quickly, but he wouldn't complain. Choosing the name Drakhabgar, on the other hand, was proving to be a dumb choice, as no one could speak his name without causing interesting things.

"Can I invite you to our church to discuss this? I find the matter a bit delicate." Neivor said. And Maxwell shrugged. At this point, he would just ride the waves, as he was curious what the man had to say.

Feeling the glances of the numerous soldiers, they moved towards the city and entered the inner city. No one asked them for any proof of their identity in the process, as Neivor seemed to have a high enough status to be known by the guards. Maxwell was pretty sure that he would also be in this category from now on.

They soon came before a church, and Maxwell looked at the building apathetically. It was a giant one, for one thing, and it betrayed the amount of work that went into it due to the amount of details it had. All the walls were carved with murals, but Maxwell couldn't read them, as it was in a foreign language.

I don't know about the authenticity, but they certainly have money, Maxwell thought. Some things stayed the same even when you moved to another world.