While not large by international standards, Nerea was had many people nonetheless. A city with more than five hundred thousand people. That was a lot of people, no matter how you looked at it. And to assume that there was only a single settlement would be naive, if not outright foolish.

It was an actual settlement, with people doing things instead of staying in some building and just staying there.

The Haven, despite what they made it out to be, ended up being a shipping point for vampires to kidnap humans without any effort.

The hum of an engine drew enough attention, especially when the city was quiet aside from the noise people made. It seemed like one of those movies where cars didn’t appear unless they were necessary due to a lack of budget, and when they did, it was for dramatic effect.

“That’s a church alright,” said Aunt Charlie with a large grin on her face as she finally dropped down onto the seat. She insisted on using a car with a hole at the top. When she opened it and stood up, it was obvious why she asked for that.

Chris was driving and Sean was in the front seat. Marie and Aunt Charlie ended up sitting at the back. Rexford was left behind, being the most social fellow among the group, managing the people that were left there, especially after Uncle Jeremy acting like an asshole and his mother being reluctant. Liz, on the other hand, was left behind with her father. It was a surprise that Chris even decided to come with them.

Despite the road being a mess due to the haphazardly left cars, they somehow managed to drive across the sidewalk. They were wide enough for cars to go through, albeit bumpy.

“There’s a lot of people. It’s almost like a camp. Be careful, though,” said Chris as he looked over at the church. It was in the middle of the city so there wasn’t much room for a graveyard to be there. Instead, it was full of tents. People were practically wriggling in there, but they comfortably fit there.

The church itself wasn’t large, pretty classic. It was smaller than a sports hall but enough to fit four buses worth of people on a Sunday morning if need be. At least it looked like that from the outside.

Aunt Charlie shut the top of the car and hopped out of the car. She stretched, despite having moved freely for the ride that lasted for twenty minutes.

Before they moved, it was decided that they’d split off and try to tell it to as many people as possible. They had a whole day to work with and Sean’s watch showed that it was only ten. He twisted the top until he couldn’t anymore, winding the clock up so that it wouldn’t stop at a crucial time.

Sean and his group of three ended up having to get to the west side of the city. Rex said that he’d manage the rest, as they had a lot of people and Nicholas —the Mage boy that could fix up fuel.

“It might be dangerous!” warned Chris.

“Pffft, it’s a church. What about it could be dangerous?” asked Aunt Charlie, the question clearly rhetoric, not even bothering to turn around to say that. She waved at the people with her whole arm and shouted out, “Hi there.”

Well, that was another social butterfly to take care of the speeches. Maybe that was to be expected, as she was a full-time baker and had a shop to herself. It was a small but profitable business.

“I used to come here on Sundays,” said Marie from the backseat. She didn’t get off, very much like the other two. Not everyone was like Sean, sticking with the same clothes, and Marie was one of the majority that actually changed her clothes. She was now wearing a black tracksuit with yellow lines running across its sides.

Aunt Charlie was wearing a purple tank top and jeans torn at the knees, acting far younger than her age of forty five would suggest. Chris, too, had changed. He was wearing a dark green shirt and loose gray pants.

Then again, Sean didn’t get his clothes as dirty as Chris did back during their first excursion to the Haven.

Sean activated his Appraisal on one of them, and he spotted something he hadn’t seen on anyone else.

Skill ‘Appraisal’ has been activated!

Name: Joshua Adler

Class: Soldier Lvl 2

Title(s): Goblin Hunter

Guild: Hunters of Nerea

Mana: 190 / 190

There was a Goblin Hunter title which no one else had up to date, but most importantly… he was a part of a Guild.

“Hey… do guilds exist?” asked Sean. Just after he finished, he remembered the lines of ‘unlocked’ nonsense when he first came back. He didn’t pay much attention to it, courtesy of the mosquitos, but guilds?

If they did exist, then it’d have been a lot easier.

“They’re shams,” said Marie, almost instantly after he said that.

“What does that even mean?” he asked, turning around.

Chris was more than happy to answer before Marie could, “It has a shared XP System that makes it so that the so-called higher officials get most of the share while those on the lower end can’t gain any XP even if they kill hundreds. And it’s structured so that at least 50% of the guild has to get decreased XP gains to support the ones at the top.”

“They can just get XP by doing nothing,” added Marie helpfully.

Yeah… that made them sound like they were shit.

It seemed that they hated it enough to race to explain why it was bad. Maybe there was something involving guilds before he came.

Sean noticed Aunt Charlie steadily walking toward the church. Didn’t she know anything about cautiousness?

Then again, she was the kind of person to barge into a school full of vampires to snatch a girl. It was day then, but still, that told something about her recklessness.

“Go on. Talk talk, Mr. Hero. It’s your idea,” said Chris with a wry grin on his face. Sean bared his fangs in response jokingly. That was the Chris he knew, somewhat mocking in his speech and short-tempered. He hadn’t caught a glimpse of the short temper yet, though.

“I will,” said Sean and walked out the door. He left it open, though. For Chris.

“I think I actually spot someone I know. See ya,” said Marie as a grin appeared on her face. She was always open with her emotions. At least that’s the vibe Sean got from her from the few times he’s been with her. She shortly got out of the car and ran toward the church as if she had springs underneath her heels.

Chris was left behind in the car, behind the wheel. He turned the car off to save fuel, but staying inside a car would be the last thing on everyone’s bucket lists as it was almost noon with the sun high up in the sky. With the distinct lack of tall buildings nearby, it would be almost hellish to stay there. The open doors may have mitigated the problem a bit, but Sean fully expected Chris to come out soon.

Fourteen more hours… No, that wasn’t quite right. If it was until nightfall, then it’d be until around ten o’clock. That meant he only had around twelve more hours.

“So how many do you think there are?” asked Aunt Charlie quietly. She helpfully stopped and waited for Sean to catch up before asking, a few meters from the gate —they’d stopped far away.

“Hundreds, I’m sure. I’ve seen a lot of them staring out into the streets as well. If we tell them, then I’m sure they’ll spread the news to the ones home,” said Sean.

It was ridiculous how many people there were. The Haven was away from apartments and only a few dozen houses could be seen far in the distance, courtesy to being on one edge of the city. Toward the center, there was no shortage of shops and apartments that could feed and house people.

There was a warehouse for snacks and conserved goods on the so-called Morris Shore, making the search for food mostly unneeded for now. They were starting to run low, though. Sean started to eat less but that was apparently not a trait shared by all, unlike the need to visit the toilet.

“I see a few hunters here as well. Retired, but they’re capable. I’m pretty sure they’ve spilled the beans already,” said Aunt Charlie with a wide grin.

There were other hunters in the city? Then why hadn’t they come in contact earlier?

Maybe it was because they were retired.

“That makes things a lot easier,” said Sean and breathed in. He was assuming he had to take care of them being shocked by the truth, but if everyone he’d run into knew about the truth, he just had to tell them that they’d be attacked by a large force soon. Before they started to walk, he asked, “How many other hunters are there?”

“I don’t know. Around twenty in the entire city? Oh, also the Father should know about the monsters so it’s double-safe,” said Aunt Charlie.

Sean stared at her, mouth agape.

“You’re telling me this now?” he asked.

“Well… we get a lot of our weapons from the Vatican so I thought you’d have guessed,” said Aunt Charlie.

“No, I did not hear anything about that,” said Sean, quite loudly.

“Must’ve told Chris, then. It’s hard to get a hold of you, you know? Anytime I get close, you try to irk away and push your little old aunty away,” she said with a cheeky smirk as if saying that she’d have told him that if he hung out with her.

But the truth was that she’d forgotten. That was the kind of person she was.

That, or she was pouting.

“Marie couldn’t cast the spell, could she?” asked Sean. It was a rhetoric question, to which Aunt Charlie nodded eagerly. He let out a sigh, “I’ll refill it when we get back.”

That put into perspective just how useful Magic 101 could have been, given the fact that Nicholas knew that and a lot more. Did he even know Elementalism?

There was something about her that made Sean simply unable to get angry at her. Her optimism was like the sun. It was almost blinding, so much so that he almost forgot that they might be looking at a war in the eyes tomorrow.

As if almost disappointed that they knew about it, Sean walked toward the church and through the gate of the fence. It was made of metal, painted black, very much like the Morris Manor.

The people were welcoming if anything. They didn’t bar their path but they did stare at them a bit. People driving cars when they supposedly didn’t work may have been slightly surprising.

The cobblestone path to the church was left empty, most likely because lying on the grass was better than on stone. There was supposedly ample space but it was somehow filled to the brim. It was a wonder they were fed, in fact.

In retrospect, it may also have been their titles. One of them had the title of Legend and the other had menacing ones like Messy Eater, Fearmonger, and Reaper. And on top of that, Sean had the title of Glutton so it may have made them look like some sort of cannibals.

He wouldn’t blame them if they reached that conclusion.

Sean spotted Marie hugging a girl that seemed to be her age. Maybe a classmate or relative? He didn’t care, but seeing someone else be reunited with their family and friends made him feel slightly better. Liz meeting with his father, for real this time, was somewhat touching. The same could be said for this.

Sadly, he didn’t have much in terms of friends other than Chris. The others were mostly acquaintances or people who knew him on a basis of “Oh, hey!”

And such one person ended up shouting as he passed by him. Sean looked at him. It was definitely someone that he knew from one of his lectures. They sat next to each other a few dozen times on the seat at the very front.

Sean only waved at him as he passed by, acknowledging his greeting. He was sure that neither of them knew each other’s names but they’d talked a dozen or so times. The System, thankfully, made that easy to know.

His Appraisal told Sean that his name was Marcus and that he wasn’t a part of the guild.

“Someone you know?” asked Aunt Charlie after they walked past Marcus, right outside the gate of the church itself. She kept waving at some people. Maybe there were her acquaintances. There was a classic wooden door, kept open, letting them see the interior when they got close enough.

“Not really,” said Sean and hastened his pace. They didn’t have enough time to lose on pleasantries and idle chatter.

Inside, lined on the chairs, were people and their belongings. It seemed that no one fell asleep on them, though, from the lack of blankets inside. In the end, near the altar, stood a priest. It was easy to tell from his black clothes and a white spot near his collar. The large cross made it a no-brainer.

There weren’t many people inside the church, though. Their belongings were there, but not the people. There were only a few inside. Maybe most of them were outside. As the church had a building behind it that provided shelter to orphans and those that needed help, they could be there as well.

Aunt Charlie waved at the priest as well before they reached him.

She reminded Sean of a Golden Retriever.

“Just stay natural and quiet, okay? I’ll take care of it. There are usually procedures for this but I’ll cut corners,” Aunt Charlie whispered into his ears.

He could simply nod.

From up close, Sean could see that the priest had rapidly graying hair mixed with the faint traces of black or he hadn’t had his hair colored black for months if that was what he did. There was a large black mole on his right cheek with a single strand of hair on it. His hair made him look like he was past sixty but his skin and complexion made him look in his late forties. The hands he kept behind his back made him feel like one of those people who thought they were a bigger deal than they were.

“I very much know to what I owe the displeasure of meeting you, Huntress,” said the Father nasally, making him sound somewhat arrogant and stuck-up.

“It is a shame that the Day of Reckoning wasn’t the apocalypse that happened,” said Aunt Charlie, a wide grin on her face. Despite the barely passive but certainly aggressive greeting, they shared a slow hug. After she pulled back, Aunt Charlie spoke, “So I see that you’ve got a lot of people here.”

“More than two thousand and still counting,” said the priest, almost jovially. He turned his sight, not head, to Sean and furrowed his brows, “Is he the golden child?”

“He isn’t, and no, he’s not my son either. Mine is more handsome,” she said. She slightly turned her head at Sean and winked at him, as if to apologize. Then her tone lost its usual joyfulness, replaced with a partially serious one, “That said, we should probably talk in the backroom, Father. It’s important.”

“If you think it is necessary,” said the priest slowly, almost hesitant.

She gestured for Sean to follow them into the room in the back. It was full of clothes that Sean would expect to see on a priest. His parents were never religious people, which was odd, given how they allegedly got their weapons from the Vatican. As such, he knew little of churches as well. It was a small and stuffy one, at that.

The priest waited for them to enter at the door and closed it behind him after they came in.

“You seem disturbed,” said the priest after he did so.

“And you seem far too calm,” said Aunt Charlie. She licked her lips once and bit it. The last time Sean saw her like that was when she accidentally burned the cookies during Christmas.

“Why would I not be? There is no need to fear anything,” said the priest. There was a thin smile on his face.

Aunt Charlie stared at him for a while, then at thin air right before him, raised an eyebrow and her mouth opened, slightly agape.

She’d used Appraisal, so Sean followed.

Skill ‘Appraisal’ has been activated!

Name: Damian Rieger

Class: Cleric Lvl 8

Title(s): Priest of Divinity, Missionary

Guild: Hunters of Nerea

Mana: 410 / 430

He was Level 8 and part of a Guild —it was easy to see what that meant. He was one of the so-called ‘higher officials’ that benefitted from the experience gathered by those below.

Then Sean remembered about the Spellbooks about prayers. They were called Scriptures, Sean was quite sure. For a person of faith, it was obvious what book they’d choose. Especially if they were a devout believer.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” mumbled Aunt Charlie. She stood there for a while before asking, “Is he real?”

He only nodded his head slowly.

“So… like God exists?” she asked again.

“That is something even the higher-ups cannot answer. All I know is that there is something that answers our prayers now, and that it keeps us safe from the night,” said the priest.

What exactly did that entail?

“You’ve gotten in contact with them?” asked Aunt Charlie.

“I can hear the voices of the Cardinals, yes, though I cannot talk to them,” said the priest as he looked at Sean. His eyes slightly narrowed, “Give me your hand.”

He reluctantly extended his hand to him. The priest grabbed him by the forearm and raised his sleeves up, showcasing the black marks across his forearm.

“A possession. How did you exorcise him?” asked the priest as he turned to Aunt Charlie. She shrugged in response.

“I chased it away myself, but it wasn’t a demon,” said Sean.

The priest shook his head slowly.

“No, that cannot be. Only the infernal forces can do this to a human body,” he said.

“It was a vampire. I got rid of its Charm,” explained Sean, hoping that it was indeed the truth and not that he was somehow possessed by a demon as well.

“That is unprecedented. You… did not recite a chant, did you? That should be impossible without a Purification Chant,” said the priest. He looked at the mark once again and let go of his forearm. He let out a snort and looked around, his eyes wandering, “If Vampires are infernal creatures… no, that shouldn’t be possible. They should have been affected by the crosses.”

He quieted down, in deep thought for a few seconds, and then turned to Sean.

“Did you not feel anything as you walked in?” asked the priest, to which Sean shook his head. He nodded slowly and looked him in the eye, “These scars drain your vitality and livelihood. Do you wish to get rid of it?”

“Hey hey, since when could you do that?” asked Aunt Charlie, as if bored of being quiet.

“Since the apocalypse,” said the priest with a small smirk. He turned to Sean, and asked again, “So?”

“I do,” said Sean.

Damian started to chant something, in Latin or some other language. It was certainly one that Sean did not understand, but it sounded like it wasn’t only him that chanted, but several others. It sounded like those cheap sound effects where several voices spoke at once, except for singing —there even seemed to be music as he chanted.

Then, before Sean could even do anything, the very air started to distort, like haze in a desert. Then came a hum. It didn’t come from anyone but from the very air itself. As the priest’s chant completed and light so blinding that it could be compared to the sun appeared from his hands, the dark hue of Presence pushed back.

Sean felt himself be smothered by a force so overbearing that he felt his chest constrict, yet Presence didn’t stop. If anything, it fought back with far more power. It was no longer a hum, replaced by a whistle.

Skill ‘Presence’ has been activated!

Skill ‘Presence’ is clashing with Skill ‘Purification’.

Status Effect ‘Fear’ has been inflicted upon target.

He hurriedly deactivated Presence. It was like flipping a switch in his mind, making it quite easy. What little of the light remained after the priest stumbled back and fell to the ground reached him and filled his body.

An exhilarating sensation of tingling filled his entire body. It wasn’t the bad kind, but one similar to the tingling near the palms whenever someone felt excited, but even that feeling, in excess, made him feel horrible. It was almost like tickling.

By the time the feeling faded, the black marks had faded.

Sean turned to look at the priest on the ground, breathing heavily and crawling away all the while looking at him.

“I’m sorry about tha-” started Sean, but the priest yelled at him, stopping him in his tracks.

“Stay back!” he shouted.

“It activates automatically,” Sean reasoned, trying to make him understand that it was by no means something intentional.

Aunt Charlie whistled from next to him, as if she was some neckbeard sizing up a lass. It sounded exactly like that —somewhat impressed and somewhat condescending.

“I need some time to… recover,” said the priest in-between breaths, somewhat calm. He was looking away, to the ground, as if trying to even catch a glimpse of Sean.

“It’s fine. He’s used to it,” said Aunt Charlie from next to him. She tapped Sean on the shoulder, “But it’s better if you leave the room for the time being. It takes a while.”

So he did, or tried to, but the priest was leaning on the door.

“Excuse me, but can you move aside?” asked Sean, but before he even finished, the priest rolled aside. He covered his ears with both hands and holed up in the corner.

The Status Effect… what was being on the receiving end of it like?

He supposed it was terrifying enough to reduce a grown man to… that. Then the vampire back at Clara’s house was moving away from him, despite clearly being a predator compared to him that could have easily killed Sean if not for Liz.