A.N: Merry christmas! Thx again for reading. If you spot any mistake please point them out as I didn't have the time to check it over.

I logged out of the game in search of the best healer the Stavicon could lead me to. Two Npcs had enough power to be of help, the Pope of Althasia and the Holy Dragon in Draconian Glory. The dragon's whereabouts were unknown so the only solution left was for to find the Pope.

As soon as I got this information, I logged into the game.

The scan of you iris has determined that you are a registered user. Which application do you wish to connect to?

“Althasia.”

A door opened in front of me. It led to a room where a throne dominated on a platform. Seated on it, a woman with platinum blond hair and vivid green eyes was immobile. Behind her head, a halo of light pegged her as a celestial being.

“Hello?” I tried to get her attention.

“Welcome traveler, I'm Althasia, Supreme Ruler of the Salin World. To access my world, do you wish to change your appearance or to keep the one you used in the other worlds?” Her lips didn't move as she talked. Her face was expressionless.

“I'll keep my appearance, thank you.”

“Traveler, save my children from the demons threatening their life. To help in this endeavor I shall grant you a wish.”

When you first connected to Althasia, the main Goddess of the game greeted and gave a present to every player. People usually asked for a skill or a blessing but I wanted something else.

“I want you to heal my pets.”

“I'm sorry, you have to choose another wish.”

“Why?”

“You don't have enough faith.”

“Can the Pope heal my pets?”

“Yes, he can but I can't force him to do it. I gave freedom of choice to all my children”

“Then, give me the power to heal them.”, I demanded annoyed.

“I shall grant you this request. May you be the savior of my children.”

You gained a new skill!

Supreme healing [Locked]

You can heal any disease and any injuries.

Requirement: 10 000 faith.

I gave her a withering glare. She gave me what I asked but I couldn't use it as it was locked. I was even more pissed as I didn't have the faith stat. I didn't have time to complain though, as the light behind her grew until everything I saw disappeared in an ocean of white.

When the world came back into focus, I was laid on an altar surrounded by priests. Further away, players milled around as they waited for their comrades to appear.

“Please come with us.”

The priests helped me to get up from the altar and led me out of the Cathedral of Birth. In Althasia, the Cathedral was the only place where players could start and spawn after death. Every city had one as the Npcs also used it to pray for their Goddess.

The area we were in was specially dedicated to the players. As such, their numbers were quite high.

“Who's that?”

“Don't know but look at him! He could have changed his appearance.”

“Maybe he changed it?”

“Why would someone want to be ugly? And that's not important, I really want to know what he did for the priests to

come and get him.”

Loud whispers followed us as the priests supported me out of this area. I wanted to complain again. It wasn't my fault that I was ugly. I was in human form and my charm stat was in the negative. I would love to be in my true form but if I did that, I wouldn't be able to meet the Pope and I'd be branded as a demon.

I followed them to a private room. Inside, a man in his fifties waited for me. The priest didn't enter the room. They bowed deeply at the door and pushed me inside, leaving me alone with the man.

“I'm Fraotin, Pope of Althasia.”, he presented himself with self importance.

“Nice to meet you. I'm Everheart Dreamweaver.”, I said taking deep breaths. I only walked 30 meters but with my

negative stats, it felt like 30 miles.

“You're weak. We'll start your education by getting you stronger.”

“My education?” I asked uncomprehending.

“The Goddess talked to me about you. To use your gift you needs to learn.”

“If she talked to you then you know. Please, save my pets.”

“What's wrong with them?”, he inquired genuinely worried.

“They caught a disease in one of the world I visited. There's no cure in that world, that's why I brought them here. Please, save them.”

“I'm sorry but I won't do it.”, he raised his hand to my stop my retort before it could get out. “From today onward, you'll learn what you need to do it yourself.”

'They need to be healed now before the disease progresses. The Goddess give me the skill but I can't use it.”

“Work hard then.”

He wasn't listening to me. I thought about tricking him into doing it but when I thought of the consequences if I failed, I closed my eyes and nodded.

“I have 3 weeks before the first symptoms showed up. Can you teach me in this time frame?”

“It all depends on how hard you work.”

“Let's start. I don't have any time to waste.”

“Follow me.”

We went through a small door different from the one I came in. The Pope walked slowly, giving me a chance to keep up with him as my steps were slow and precocious. We came to a golden double door decorated with precious stones. The room it led to was a library. That was what I thought even thought the place looked like a garbage dump.

Books were all over the place; Dust covered everything but it didn't hide the old age and the tears on the books. Here and there, pieces of equipment that had seen better days were thrown away.

I made an effort and looked at Fraotin. I had a bad feeling about it and sure enough, he asked me to clean the place and read all the books in there.

*Ding*

You have received a quest!

To start in your training, Fraotin, Pope of Althasia ask you to clean the room and read the books.

Difficulty: E

Reward: Unknown

He left me to my work. I was ready to changed into my true form when Maron appaeared.

“Don't, sweetie”, she said. “If you do it in your true form, it'll be too easy and your human form won't get stronger.”

“What do you mean?”

“You have to stay in human form to do this quest if you want a bigger change.”

“But...” I understood what she meant but I really wanted to get back to my true form.

“No but, sweetie. You stay in human form and good luck with the quest!”

“Wait!” I cried before her features faded into the background.

“What?”

“Won't you stay with me?”

“Nope, too boring.” This time, she left faster.

I heaved a deep sigh and went to work. Before reading, I separated the different objects in the room into piles. After that, I removed the dust and put the books and equipment back where they belong. The books were on the shelves and the others in their glass cases.

It tool me a week and rwo days in game to do that. I spent the most time I could logged in. After a heated discussion, the Plague agreed to leave me out of this week's group activity. In exchange, though, I agreed to spent a whole weekend with them.

Doing the cleaning in the library was excruciating but little by little, I gained more stats. I gained them faster than I did when I was a nature spirit. I called Maron and asked her about it.

“Nature spirits are the lowest of the low. They're immortal and have infinite mana but their rate of learning is abysmally low. What take people a day to learn, a nature spirits takes weeks and even then the skill doesn't grow at all. It's a miracle that you went through an evolution. The nature spirit race among the other spirits is known as a dead end race.”

I didn't know if I should feel grateful or not. On one side, I wanted to rant about all the hard work I wasted on this race but on the other side, it led me to the Mara race that was awesome.

I gave up on this train of thoughts as I put the last book on the shelves. Finished with the cleaning, I reading the books. I memorized some excerpts of the books.

At the beginning of time, two entities Rea and Mosle existed separated by a vast expanse of space. Tired of being alone, they searched for someone to ease their lonely days. However as they were the sole sentient being existing, they waited long and hard for the time they could meet. Their meeting was disastrous. The one thing they didn't understand in their loneliness was that they were complete opposite to each other.

When they met, their powers went out of control. The two conflicted for a long time before they stabilized but Rea and Mosle were no more. Their powers though lived on. A part of them joined equally together and created the Salin World. Smaller parts merged unequally crating the Gods.

The Gods like their ancestors had a mind of their own and like them, they knew loneliness. The time they spent together convinced them that they were better off away from their peers as they were stubborn and proud like themselves.

Contrary to their progenitor, they chose to create their own companions. Each of the companions were different from the other. Thus, the different races appeared in the world.

The races lived on the Salin World. Through the years, they became fanatics about their respective Gods. Two thousands years ago, the situation came to a head when the Gods actively took part in the dispute over who was the best.

After, many long battles, Althasia, the Goddess of Life and her followers won the war. The others to counteract Althasia's supremacy allied themselves together. Their followers as they fought the followers of Life became known as demons.

I read through the whole history of this world and I wasn't impressed. One religion persecuted the others, calling them demons and everyone was okay with it. Even the demons didn't see anything wrong with the way they were treated.

Then I went and read about the magic existing. All fell under the category of holy magic. Powers worked hand in hand with the faith stat that could be raised through prayers and actions in the name of the Gods. The powers you had also depended on the god you served.

Skills in this world worked differently from the other worlds. Mana wasn't the main power behind them. To use a skill you needed faith. There was no limit like in the other games. You could use the skill as much as you want as long as you have the required faith points to use it. The stat didn't decrease. At each increase, the skill would either evolve or you would gained a totally new skill.

Finished with the books, I went in search of the Pope. Just out of the door an acolyte waited for me. He led me to the Fraotin.

“I see you finished with the library. Did you read every books?”

“Yes, I did.”

“What did you learn?”

I recited everything I memorized from the books.

“Good. You are now an acolyte of Althasia.”

A golden light came out of his hand and enveloped me. I received several notification.

Faith stat generated!

New title!

Acolyte of Althasia

You are a follower of Goddess Althasia.

Health +100

Faith +50

New skill generated!

Healing chant [Active] Beginner lvl 1

With this chant you can heal minor injuries.

Requirement: 20 faith.

“Oh Althasia! Godess of Life and Destruction. Bring peace to our bodies and Soul. Healing!”

“As a new acolyte you need to gain faith points. As you are pressed by times, you'll go to the front lines of the conflict. You leave in twenty minutes. But before that, you need to change your clothes.”

He gave me a robe to wear. I looked at it reluctantly but I relented and put it on me at his insistence.

Fifteen minutes later, I was in a part of the cathedral where a huge cross stood at the top of an altar. In front of it, I could see different people waiting. There were only Npcs. I stayed apart from them until another acolyte came and got me.

A group of priests came into the room from a door at the side of the cross.

“Worshipers of Althasia. You are going to be sent on the front line against the demons that want to defile our holy land. May Althasia be with you in this time of strife.”

They gathered around the cross and chanted. I didn't get the words but the cross radiated light. On the ground, the shadow of the cross changed. It became a swirl of different colors. One by one, the people waiting advanced and jumped on the shadow. They didn't return to ground but sunk deep inside it. My turn came. I did like the others. One second, I was jumping and the other, I landed in a different cathedral, in front of another cross.

“Come! Don't stand in the way.” the acolyte who talked to me was the same as before. He dragged me away.

“What was that?”, I asked pointed at the cross.

“What was what?”He didn't get what I was pointed at.

“The cross.”

“The cross of Althasia? It helped us to move from Cathedral to Cathedral, if we go the traditional way, we'll take months to come here.”

I didn't say much as he brought me with him outside. The town we were in was small. The cathedral was at the center. At the entrance, horses and carts waited for us. We went into one and waited for the others to come. When everyone was there, the convoy left the town behind.

It took us two days to reach the front line. As soon as we stepped foot on the ground, all acolytes were ushered inside a tent where injured people waited for us to be treated.

I spent four days healing soldiers and civilians hurt by the demons' attacks. I was sure that my faith rose a lot but when I checked it out, I felt discouraged.

Status[quart=Character name,Alignment]Everheart,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]4 ,None[/quart][quart=Title,Race]Acolyte of Althasia,Human[/quart][quart=Fame,Infamy]0,0[/quart][quart=Health,Mana]320,1200[/quart][quart=Fear,Sadism]240,90[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]-12,-4[/quart][quart=Wisdom,Intellect]-9,5[/quart]Faith65Vitality10[quart=Willpower,Charm]-3,-30[/quart][quart=Leadership,Luck]0,0[/quart][quart=Attack,Defense]3,0[/quart]Affinity to nature10Magic resistance50

I healed tens of people and my faith only raised by 15. I went and asked the other acolytes if there was a way for me to gained more faith. The answer was the same I came up with. To gain more faith, I had to do something huge for a God. It looked like I had to fight the demons.

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