After pondering the wall with the five commandments for a while, Tamas led him deeper within the church complex. She was clearly familiar with this place. They walked through a meandering and empty hall before they made their way into a large inner courtyard. There a miraculous sight awaited him. The courtyard was a wide-open space with stone walls surrounding it. Sand covered the entire area. The sun shone down brightly.

“What going on here?” Christopher asked.

Within the courtyard, he saw what must be dozens of warriors fighting under the hot glaring sun. The fighters were furiously sparring, practicing their skills against each other. All those warriors fighting on the sand-covered floor reminded him of gladiators.

The warriors here were a diverse bunch. They used a wide array of armor and weapons. Judging from the clothing and appearances, there were also a lot of different nationalities here. The sight of so many people sparring was quite something, and he could not look away.

Closest to him, there was a large woman wielding a giant broadsword, fighting a shorter woman using some chain weapon. He was stunned by their strength and speed.

Even more interesting, he saw some blue mist trailing some of the weapons and warriors. Are they using soul force? He wondered. Apparently, there was some way to utilize the soul force for battle. A few of the intelligent red beaked bird sat on the wall, overseeing the fighting, clearly enjoying the spectacle.

Tamas looked amused at his wide eyes. “These are just some of the priests of the church. They come here to test each other’s mettle, and to train their skills in combat.”

Warrior priests? He was not sure why, but he expected the priests here to be like those on earth. The commandments should have clued him in on what kind of people the priests would be. They all looked extremely strong. He kind of wanted to train here, he wanted to become strong like them.

“How can I train with these people?”

Tamas revealed a full dazzling smile, and Christopher was struck once again by her beauty. “You won’t be able to train with these Priests. They have fought and trained for years to gain the priesthood. The only way to gain the title of Priest and entry into their ranks is by performing great deeds and by defeating one of them in a ranked battle”

Well, he was not going to be able to beat any of these trained warriors right now, they all looked crazy strong.

Tamas continued speaking. “The Adenium Church does however expend many resources to train any person that has that desire. Of course, all for the purpose of defeating the Blight. If you desire training, then I believe that you will be placed in an initiate class with a similar skill level. Of course, supervised by a fully qualified Priest.”

This sounded almost too good to be true to Christopher. He had worried about how to get stronger. But here was an opportunity to join the initiates, and it was for free. And he would be trained by none other than one of these powerful priests. This Adenium Church was a godsend.

“This is amazing, I need to sign up straight away, where should I go?”

Tamas let out a pained sigh and rolled her eyes. “Are you completely dense, have you already forgotten why we are here?”

“ah right, I suppose we should go do that first.” He said in a disappointed tone. “So where are these healers?”

“Come, it is just around the corner now.”

They made a turn through a gate leading out of the courtyard. Here they entered a smaller side building. This building that was made out of wood, instead of stone, was clearly their destination. It certainly looked to be some kind of medical center, since it hosted some familiar-looking medical tools like scalpels, although there were also many instruments that Christopher did not recognize.

He was suddenly feeling a lot less enthusiastic. His heart started to pound rapidly. He was not sure why he had not considered this before, but what if he needed some kind of operation. The existence of a regeneration potion in the interface store had somewhat eased his mind, hoping that some simple magic might be able to heal him. But he might have made an error in thinking that such potions were available here. The scary-looking tools all across the medical center certainly seemed to confirm his fears. He calmed himself, he would not let the prospect of some pain get to him.

An older woman, in elegant clothing, stood over a table inspecting something with some kind of strange tool. When she turned to them, he could see that she had auburn hair that was intricately braided, a prim mouth, and narrowed eyes looked both of them over.

“what do you need?” she busily asked the two of them.

“Nice to meet you, my name is Christopher. My arm was whacked by a Goblin and feels broken. I was hoping to have it looked at”

The woman somewhat softened “My name is Latal. Let’s have a look then, please sit on the table and remove your upper clothing.”

Christopher followed her request. Tamas noticed his difficulty and helped to unleash the clasps from his armor. Christopher felt it strangely intimate but knew to keep his mouth shut. Once his arm was free from the clothing, he noticed that the arm had developed into a more troubling color.

Latal seated herself next to him, and carefully examined the arm, eliciting a pained inhale from Christopher. The pain made him dizzy.

“It’s not looking that great, the bone clearly shattered on impact. I will have to operate soon if we are to fully restore it.”

This was the last thing he wanted to hear. He visibly winced. Tamas snorted at his reaction.

“didn’t you say just minutes ago that you wanted to train to become a Priest, this would be routine in that kind of life.”

Christopher was annoyed at her reaction. Was he not allowed to wince!?

“I’m just not looking forward to it, is that a crime” he retorted.

Latal interjected “There is no need to worry. I have trained my soul force to shut off a person’s nerves. You won’t feel a thing.”

That was like music to his ears. He would not have to feel what it was like to rearrange the bones in his arm after all.

“Thank you, I did not know that such a thing could be accomplished with soul force. When are you operating?”

“I would say in about 30 minutes, I will have to set out the right equipment, and summon an assistant. The operation is pretty straightforward so it should not take over an hour.”

“Thank you for your help, I am in your debt.”

“Not at all, the only repayment we require is your support in eliminating the Blight. From your words I assume you follow the commandments”

Christopher nodded.

Tamas added, “I can attest to that, he charged four Goblins on his own in order to save lives.”

“very good, please keep your husband company, while I arrange for someone to assist me in the procedure,” Latal said while walking out of the door, making things extremely awkward for them. Tamas just looked angry and paced the room for a bit. They did not speak.

Christopher tried to look away from the direction with the disturbing looking tools. He thought about the possibility of training soon. He should really be able to improve his fighting ability and attributes if he was able to train under a certified priest. But then again, how long would it take for his arm to heal? He could only hope that it would be quicker here with the use of soul force, just like the farmer’s crops.