The Sword of The Past: 7

Chapter 7

Learning

The church of the Godness of the Light was bright, to say at least. The church itself was built from white marble. Its windows were multi-colored, with grandiose images depicted within them.

Outside the church was a garden filled with all kinds of flowers that I didn’t know. There were red, violet, blue, and yellow flowers in the garden.

It was too much for me. It felt like the church wanted to hide something behind this light. Well, I didn’t really care. Once I get the treatment, I will be out of there.

The inside of the church was even more annoying. The floor is made of white tiles. Redwood benches were put in the rows. The ceiling had a painting that I didn’t even try to understand. It had sun, angels, and humans depicted. Everything else was just nonsense to me.

‘Well, it is different from what I remember.’ The Saint commented.

“How so?”

‘In my time, the church was corrupt to the point that they would build the churches using gold and silver they received as donations.’

“It’s probably no different right now. The church still will ask for donations, but only the gods would know where that money is put.”

‘No, I mean that the church literally used gold and silver to build their churches at my time. Using rubies and emeralds to decorate it too. It was to show their power to the world. Now it is a simple building, nothing too special. More pleasing to the eye and more approachable. I wonder what changed.’

“Maybe it because it’s far away from the capital, and nothing has changed.”

‘Maybe so, maybe so. Still, you have to see with your own eyes before you make a conclusion.’

“Hello there, sir, would you like something?”

A young priest asked me with a smile, just after the Saint finished his recollection. I noticed that he was only a few years older than me. The priest wore an elegant white and light grey outfit. I showed him my left hand but didn’t say a thing. The young priest’s smile disappeared.

“Oh my, who would have done this to you?”

“I did it to myself.” My answer silenced the priest, but he quickly smiled again.

“Please wait for a moment, sir. A priestess will join you soon.”

I waited, and a young girl came to me after five minutes or so. She smiled nervously at me and introduced herself.

“I am Nancy, umm, sir.”

“I don’t care. How much it will cost to fix my hand?”

Nacy took hold of my mangled hand. She looked over my burned and broken hand, asking where it hurt the most. Pinching the joints of my fingers.

“It is badly hurt.” She commented.

“I know.” I couldn’t help but remark at her.

“Umm, it would be one thousand and eight hundred orens, umm, sir. If you would be kind enough, you could donate more. The money would go to those in need.”

Like hell, it would. I still remember when a priest used our orphanage as a front for people to donate their money. I don’t know how much was donated, but I am sure that I still starved and had little clothing. It wasn’t hard to notice how that priest somehow got better robes and jewelry. In this world, there aren’t kind people.

I took my pouch counted the money the priestess asked, and threw it at her, feeling anger rising in me. There was no way that the innocent act would work on me, and as expected, they took almost all my money. Still, I agreed. I needed both of my hands to wield the stone sword.

Once I handed her my money, she left and returned with a basin of some kind of water. It was sparkly and shit, not something I have ever seen. She took my hand and put it in the basin. Then holding her two hands above, she said a prayer.

“Oh, Godness of the Light, please lend me your power. I beg of your divine blessing, for hurt and ill. Let your light shine to those in need.”

Somehow it sounded familiar to what that Lich said when he tried to get Heavenly Demon’s power. At least the first part. I didn’t want to think about it, so I didn’t. Either way, it would be impossible to think about anything when I felt like thousand of needles was prickling my burned and exposed hand.

The pain was more annoying than anything. I wanted to get my hand out of the basin and scratch it. Having no other choice, I held my left hand in place with my right hand. With time pain intensified, but at the same time, I could see how my skin regrew, my finger joints snapped in place.

“It is done, sir.”

Indeed my hand was fully healed, leaving no scar. Without a word, I left the church. With only a few hundreds of orens left in my pocket, I went to buy rations and go hunting.

…

The massive claws, longer than my hand, flew in front of me as I lightly jumped back. Then I stepped forward and used the momentum to swing my sword. It hit the head of the Red bear, but it only stunned it for a moment. I used that moment to step back again.

‘The bear is predictable. It will charge at you with anger. You have to use the movement of your adversary against them.’

In theory, what the Saint said was right, but it was harder to implement it into practice. I had to watch my foe with extreme focus. I couldn’t be distracted because it would be impossible to predict what the enemy would do if I lost track of my foe even for one second.

The Red bear was alone, so I could somehow fight it. But if there were more than one of them, it would be too hard for me to take on. The Red bear was a massive two-meter-tall beast, and when it stood up on two legs, it would block the sky in front of me.

The Red bear charged with its massive jaws open, ready to bite my head off. I rolled out of its way, and the Red bear crashed into the tree behind me and knocked it down to the ground. Quickly standing up, I struck its back with the stone sword. That only pissed the Red beard more.

I sweated heavily and felt the wind, with a cold bite, against my skin. I hated this stone sword. The massive beast with red as blood fur turned to me. Its jaws opened, letting out a deafening roar.

With only moments to react to its charge, I thrust the stone sword inside its mouth. Using all my body weight to push it deeper until only the hilt was left outside its body. The Red bear flopped on the ground, and I with it.

“Woof, woof,” Guts barked and came next to me, licking my scratches.

‘You need more training, boy.’ The Heavenly Demon commented.

That is true. I could use my origin energy to strengthen my limbs. The problem was that it was all I could do for now. I needed to learn how to use my origin energy to heal myself, enhance my senses, and so on. There were so many possibilities in how to use it. But I barely knew the basics.

“I will not try to learn anything from you, ever again, Heavenly Demon.” I refused him instantly.

‘I could teach you how to create a coat of ice around the sword. It would make it a lot sharper.’

“No, I am not listening to you.”

I ignored the Heavenly asshole, who insisted that he teach me useful skills. I learned my lesson last time when the skill he taught me destroyed my hand.

…

“There, your ten thousand, Levi,” Sarah gave me my reward for the Red bear.

“I will take this job, now,” I told her, presenting a new poster.

“Levi, you should rest for a bit before taking another job.” She tried to persuade me.

“It’s just Mud crabs. I will be done with it quickly,”

“Fine, but after this one, you will take a rest. You have taken five jobs in a row without any break. Are you trying to reach the Silver rank?”

“It would take another year of nonstop hunting before I reach it. I just want to live. And to live, I need money.”

With my words, Sarah didn’t bother me anymore. I took the signed and stamped papers and left. The Mud crabs were more like pests than beasts. Still, they had hard shells and pester the fisherman in the river.

Only twenty thousand orens are left to pay Markus fully. With another thirty thousand, I would be able to leave this town. Maybe I even manage to get to the capital. That would be nice.

Speaking of Markus, he was gone again. I barely saw him in the past month. I couldn’t even give him his money. It was weird, he would always find me when he wanted, but he disappeared when I wanted to find him. Well, he will come to me sooner or later.

…

The Mud crabs were more problematic than I anticipated. At this time of year, the river water was quite cold. After all, in a couple months, winter will come. Mud crabs mostly stay in the shallow part of the river, but they run deeper in the water when spooked.

There was no way I would get into cold as ice water. If I get sick, it would cost me a fortune to buy the medicine from the church. So I waited until one of them showed up, and then I smashed their hard shells with the stone sword. And then backed off, waiting for them to emerge from the water again.

One by one, I finished the fisherman’s nemesis. After I disposed of a couple of dozen Mud crabs, I was free to leave. But before I left, I went to inform the old man, who asked for the hunter’s help, that the job was done.

“Good, good. Now come help me to harvest Mud crab meat.” The old man told me and threw me a pair of gloves.

“Don’t take me for a fool, old man.” I threw the gloves at his face. “I am not your errand boy. Now I will be going.”

“My apologies, sir.”

It was an old trick that only worked with new hunters. People will ask them to do choirs before leaving, saying it is a part of the job. New hunters would agree because they would be concerned that the customer would complain about them to the association.

The truth is that if someone complains to the association about something trivial like that, the association at best would just ignore it. At worst, blacklist the complainer. In this world, when beasts and monsters roam around every corner, the worst thing you could do would be to piss off the hunters.

Now I just needed to return home and get my five thousand orens from the association. I should buy a few skills too. If only my training wasn’t going so slowly.

‘My offer still stands if you want to learn.’ The heavenly Demon told me, but I chose to ignore him.

“Don’t you have any skills to teach me, Saint?”

‘No, all my life, I relied on my origin energy and swordsmanship.’

Somehow it was hard to believe it. Well, I still can pick up some skill books when I return home. I learned that I needed to make the stone sword sharper in the past months. As I lacked control of my origin energy, I needed to learn a specific skill.

“Woof, woof.” Guts ran up to me, bringing a rabbit in his jaws.

“Good boy,” I rubbed his belly and took the rabbit.

After skinning it, I cooked it on my campfire and gave all bones to guts. Rabbits didn’t have much meat on them, but it was great for stew.

This was nice. Eating under the clear night sky. Watching stars, enjoying the warmth of the fire. Playing with Guts. I like this part of being a hunter the most.