After Raymond was finished with getting her new class, she started weaving her way through the streets towards the Adventurer’s Guild. I spent the time fiddling with my new UI.

At first, I was pretty intrigued by the medieval fantasy setting with random bits of technology here and there. No cars or anything like that though I swear that guy over there had a rifle…

But honestly? I found the UI just a little bit more worthy of my attention for now. Especially the Perks, Divine Mandates, and Tenets tabs.

I really wanted perks. The options I had were absurdly powerful. My first perk would allow me to choose a stat that would define my followers. Dallin presumably chose strength and Jocelyn chose Charisma. I didn’t know what Mumblegrumble or Loki took but based on his title of ‘the Hidden One’ my guess for Loki would be Dexterity.

I had plenty of time to consider what would be best for us before I would even be able to choose, though. I would be able to unlock my first perk when I reached one hundred followers and my second perk at one thousand. It seemed to ramp up from there to ten thousand, one hundred thousand, one million and so on. I wasn’t sure what the population of this continent was like but with how many Overseer-less monster races there are, it shouldn’t be too long to hit a million followers, right?

A million is a lot of people… I can’t even really imagine it. I don’t know how Christianity, Islam, Hinduism or any other big religion back on Earth did it with so many millions of adherents. Actually, since the heads of those religions were apparently Overseers, I’m pretty curious about a few questions, like who the head Overseer is in some of the polytheistic religions, if there are different Overseers for different branches of Christianity and about a few particular Tenets and historical decisions of certain religions. Especially the current revolution being led by The Director. If he was a Tether, it would explain so much...

Irregardless, it might be fun and/or interesting to hang out with Thor or Jesus if I ever found a way to visit Earth.

The Divine Mandate tab was a list of currently outstanding Divine Mandates (none) and the option to create them. It seemed like I just ‘type’ in text and all of my followers would receive the notice.

The Tenets tab was one that I felt nervous about. It was where I would build the core of my religion. Here, I would put the rules that my followers need to follow and it says that I gain Holy Power for strong acts of faith. In other words, I would need to create a list of do’s and don’ts for my followers and I will get power to grant miracles if they follow the list. No requirements that the items on the list have to have a valid reason, no requirements saying I have to do ‘good’ or ‘evil’ things.

Actually, there are just no limits in general. I could ban my followers from drinking water, wine, coffee or all three. I could ban them from certain foods or require them to eat certain things at certain times or on certain days. I could ban murder… or require it. Rules on sexual orientation, gender roles, discrimination… my word was law and my moral code would be the moral code of my church and anybody who joins it.

That’s a lot of pressure.

I already had something in mind for my first Tenet though. I’d been bouncing the idea around ever since I’d seen the cart of slaves. Seeing the poor creatures in chains sparked some of the fury that I’d thought had died with my mortal body. Observing the other slaves throughout the city did nothing to improve my perception of humanity on this world.

I fiddled with the wording a bit, noticing that Raymond was entering into the Adventurer’s Guild. I followed behind her. The abominable sight that greeted us…

Humanity can burn in Hell.

***

The moment Raymond entered the Adventurer’s Guild, she felt Legion’s rage flare once more.

“Damn it…” she muttered to herself as she pulled her dark cloak tighter around her small flame. She looked around, searching for what had infuriated him.

The inside of the Adventurer’s Guild was plain. Across the left side of the long room was a desk with two receptionist girls sitting behind it dressed in fancy clothes. On the far side of the room was a board with several posters attached to it. Each poster had a large monetary reward posted on or underneath it.

Spread throughout the center of the room was a motley of tables. Some of them were round, others square. Some were tall and the patrons were standing while others were shorter with chairs. Raymond’s entrance had garnered little attention other than a quick glance by a few of the individuals seated in the corners of the room.

She heard a large crash and then a girl cried out in pain. The spectacle in the center of the room drew Raymond’s attention. A large, fat man in extremely expensive looking frilly clothes stood on a chair with one foot on the table. On the floor on the other side of the table, a small, crumpled form was crying, holding her side while glaring at the fat man. The girl hissed and then Raymond noticed the black cat ears and the angry tail. She startled with recognition… it was the catgirl from the slave cart!

“You filthy piece of shit!” the fat man yelled, pointing at the girl. “If you’re hungry, I told you to lick the scraps off the floor!”

Raymond felt the fury building inside of her. She was surprised to realize that it was not only Legion’s anger influencing her.

Raymond was pissed. These humans… this man had the audacity to call us monsters while treating a little girl like that?

Unfortunately, she was in the middle of a guild of adventurers, so there wasn’t much Raymond could do at the moment.

But then a blue screen appeared before her.

Legion has issued a new Tenet of the Church of Legion!

1. Thou shalt not buy, sell or own slaves or participate in slavery in any of its forms.

Legion has issued a Divine Mandate!

Free the catgirl! Free the slaves!

Reward: Blow some steam, potentially new followers… who knows, just do it!

Raymond sighed. Legion jumped the gun again… there was no way she could free the catgirl right now. She hadn’t seen a time limit listed anywhere so she decided to step back and wait it out.

Nobody else in the crowd was a follower of Legion so none of them had seen the notification. The catgirl meekly stood up and stood next to the table while the fat man stepped down, looking peeved that she hadn’t given him reason to continue being an asshole.

Or maybe that was just Raymond’s interpretation of his annoyed expression.

Raymond moved across the room to look at the request board. There were five types of quests listed - Suppression, Collection, Delivery, Escort and Experiment.

There were a large number of bounties for goblin ears, roc eggs and pixie dust on the collection line. The Suppression list only had one active bounty for a bandit named Ax the Pony.

Raymond recognized the man and stared at the wanted poster, curiosity burning. It was the man from the ritual. The one who had disappeared in front of her, drained of blood when she first awoke The one the system had labeled as ‘not a Pureblood Unicorn’.

Ax the Pony… what was his connection to Evelyn Raymond?

Unanswerable questions raged through Raymond’s mind, but she settled them remembering that Legion had promised to tell her what he could after she registered him in the Temple. She would have to wait until he had enough power to use a lesser miracle but that was fine.

She was here to make contact with monsters, so she started to reach for the goblin ears collection quest when she felt someone move up beside her, reaching for the same quest. With a start, she realized it was the catgirl.

“Hey.” Raymond whispered.

The catgirl jumped a foot in the air, hissing in surprise. She stepped away from Raymond, glaring at her with angry, fear-filled eyes. Raymond felt pity and anger well up within her.

“Don’t worry, I’m a friend. What’s your name?” Raymond whispered. The catgirls ears twitched slightly, but she otherwise remained defensive.

“Lexi.” the catgirl whispered softly.

Raymond glanced behind her, noting that the fat man hadn’t yet realized his slave was being delayed. However, the fat man had a small circle of friends and two of them - a red-haired girl and dark-robed man were looking in her direction.

Raymond thought quickly, an idea forming in her mind.

She grabbed the quest and threw an arm around the catgirl, walking with her back to the table. Lexi hissed in protest but allowed herself to be dragged along.

The fat man’s party went quiet as they realized the slave was returning with another person in tow.

“Who are you?” the fat man bellowed. The room went quiet as all attention centered on what they expected to be an interesting confrontation. None of them recognized the small, cloaked figure.

Raymond figured it would be a bad idea to use her real name, first or last because literally everybody here had received a notification containing both just a few hours ago.

“Eve.” she responded simply, “I’m a Guardian.”

That got a rise out of the crowd. Guardians were pretty rare because of the high mortality rate. Despite being able to respawn, nobody liked dying so nobody chose that class let alone someone as small as the cloaked stranger.

The fat man grunted, flushing slightly as he took a swig of the drink in his mug. “Ye new around here, Eve?”

Raymond nodded.

“Then I can fergive your manners just this once. The names Jantzen and my cousin is Prince Doug. Ain’t nobody bigger news around here than me.”

Prince Doug. Raymond felt like she kept running into that name.

Raymond shrugged. “I just noticed that your party was lacking a tank. Thought I would offer my services.”

The rest of the party stayed silent as they followed the exchange. There were three others, besides the slave and Jantzen. A black-robed man who was probably a type of magic user, a red-haired girl with a bow and a masked man who had lots of daggers sticking out of his clothes. Jantzen, for his part, was fat and wore a white robe which Raymond took to mean he was probably the healer.

No wonder he was so fat. He made others do all the real work while he sat back and made them rely on him.

“Don’t need a tank. That’s why we bought this slave.” Jantzen said simply, waving a hand at Lexi. Raymond felt the anger surge again but she pushed it down.

“But surely you need a real tank. She probably doesn’t have the class for it and if she dies she won’t respawn.”

“Ye think I care? Trash is meant to be disposed of eventually. I only have two uses for her and I can always get someone else for either one.”

Lexi cowered behind Raymond, hiding from the man’s fierce and cruel eyes. Raymond reached a hand out, stroking the girl’s hair to calm her.

“How about this, then. I’d like to join you on your goblin ear collection quest for the experience and levels. You can keep all the loot and the reward, I’ll tank.”

Jantzen’s eyes narrowed and his brow furrowed. “What’s in it fer you?”

Raymond smiled sweetly.

“I just expect you to keep me very well fed.”

Jantzen looked back at his party. They each nodded and he smiled, reaching out a pudgy hand. “Welcome to BMS!”

“BMS?” Raymond asked.

“Bezt Monsta Slayaz!” the man’s party all shouted simultaneously.

Raymond smiled, raising an arm to cheer with her new ‘party’. She glanced down at the trembling form crouched down beside and slightly behind her. She continued to comfort the girl as she pictured the horrible things she would do to Jantzen.

She licked her lips in anticipation. None of the other adventurers in the room noticed the seething rage that looked down on them from above. None of them noticed the bloodthirsty ‘monster’ in their midst. None of them knew that this time the adventurers were not the hunters…

This time, the nasty, mean adventurers were the hunted.