After lunch, at the 19th bell on the same cycle, the young orphans came to beg Metello for a story before going to bed. As usual, he quickly yielded and told something between what he read and his imagination.

This time, he chose to base his story on Saint John and the real events of building the Saint John Wall, one of the two bulwarks against the undead menace from the Everlasting Night. For their greatest happiness, Albert and Rob, two of the kids, became the right-hand man and the bodyguard of the hero and saved his life several times. Then, it was Fergy's and Maria's turn to help the legendary [Saint] by shooting fireballs and making arrows rain on the undead horde. The hero couldn't have built the big wall without these two strong girls. Metello even added Carl, Ben, and Jack as undead minions as a way to take revenge for the stray “accidental” kicks in the legs he suffered earlier, making everybody laugh even louder. In the end, it was almost as if baby Anton, two years old, had shoved the [Petrus Saint] aside to finish the great work faster all by himself.

Metello knew the kids loved being part of the story, especially the ten-year-old Maria. She had been the first to make him tell stories some years ago. Once the wall was built and all the undead had disappeared, the children went to their dormitory. Boys with boys, girls with girls. While he entered his room, he crossed the eyes of the three ex-zombies and the grin of the younger told him he had to be careful about his bed.

Indeed, someone had surely accidentally stored some wood chips under his sheets. He took a deep breath and went to clean it under the muffled laugh of three undead minions.

Once all the little pieces of wood were gone, he could lay on his bed while Mrs Sweetsmile was closing the shutters. The Everlasting Sunlight barely passed through the gaps. Quickly, there were only whispers in the dormitory.

By the end of the cycle, Metello hadn't had much time to remind himself of the talk with Mrs Richardson and to wonder about his future. He had some quiet time now. He was both excited and scared by these questions. He tried to remember the list of traveler's jobs she had given him and pondered his options.

Choosing an artist occupation appealed to him. He liked to draw perhaps as much as he liked to read and he never thought about writing until there, but he could try it. He appreciated telling stories too. It was fun to make the children laugh or be proud of what they did in the stories, but he wasn't sure he would like or be able to do the same with strangers.

[Scholars] jobs attracted him too, if a bit less than [Artist] ones. He felt that learning new things and teaching could be interesting.

Actually, the kind of job Metello thought about the most was the monster hunter one. He knew it was a dangerous job, but it had a lot of positive points for him. He would be able to travel when and where he liked, he would be able to drive away most of the hostile people he would meet while earning money to buy food and rent a home. It was all that he felt he needed for now.

Having already almost decided on his job, Metello recalled the stories he had read. Thanks to them, he knew some of the high-tier classes for monster hunting and could infer which of the basic ones they were attached to. He remembered reading about [Saints], [Holy paladins], [Unbreakable shields], [Almighty swords], [Almighty spears], [Lethal winds] and [Pure arrows]. He would probably never cross paths with one of them in real life, but he could assume the basic version of them were [Acolyte], [Warrior], [Rogue], and [Hunter]. This was the list he had to choose from: the faithful one, the strong and tough one, the fast and sneaky one, or the precise and perceptive one.

Eyes shut, he chanted quietly his Prayer of Status.

“Nihil, great divine, please help me understand myself by showing your evaluation of me. Statistics!”

A white book appeared on the darkened inside of his eyelids. It opened to a page on which a table was written.

Statistics Base Effective Class bonus Strength Upper 6,7 6,7 0% Lower 6,8 6,8 0% Agility Body 8 8 0% Hand 10 10,1 0% Resilience Body 7 7 0% Mind 9,9 9,9 0% Mind Intelligence 8,3 8,3 0% Imagination 12,5 12,5 0% Faith Power 9,5 9,6 0% Control 9,7 9,8 0% Perception Sense 9,7 9,8 0% Memory 10,5 10,5 0% Social Comprehension 8,3 8,3 0% Expression 8,1 8,1 0%

He broadly knew how his stats were allocated, but seeing it was helping him to think. Forgetting where he was, he muttered.

“I'm neither fit for the strong and tough one nor the fast and sneaky one. My best bet would be the faithful one. I hope throwing fireballs left and right is not too boring.”

He wasn't able to mute his self-induced laugh.

“Shut up, you zombie-brained.”

Metello heard Carl and Ben pondering if he needed some beating. Thankfully it was a no for this time. He continued to think silently about the choice he had to make. However, he quickly went into fantasying about himself as Saint Matthew, fighting zombies and skeletons from unknown species by throwing fireballs, or as Saint Isobel, growing tremendous brambles to lock and pierce and crush hordes of orcs and trolls. He was a kid too. He was allowed to tell himself stories as he did with the younger orphans.

In the next cycle, after having breakfast and washing the dishes, the boy was browsing the book he borrowed from his headmistress in the library. Next to him, Maria was reading one of his favorite stories while curling her long blond hair with her finger and sometimes putting these golden strings between her lips. The ten-year-old girl was not as often as him in the library, but she spent much time there for about a year. She even said she would tell stories to the kids in his stead when he would have to leave the orphanage.

After a good sleep, he was more convinced the monster hunter job was the one he needed. If he wanted to leave this town forever and defend himself, it was his best option. Yawning, he stopped on the page which explained the blessings that were needed to unlock the basic classes and which statistics were important for each of them.

He confirmed his guesses about the most important statistics of monster hunter classes. He read a bit more to know the blessings needed to unlock each class, taking more time on the [Acolyte] section. He shut his eyes and said a complete Prayer of Status chant. He wanted to verify his statistics again while seeing his blessings.

“Nihil, creator of the system, please help me understand myself, show your evaluation of me. All!”

Status : Metello Level : 0 Ether : 0 Class : None (none) Stamina 30/30 2/h (regeneration) Divine energy 38,6/39,6 2,6/h (regeneration) Statistics Base Effective Class bonus Strength Upper 6,7 6,7 0% Lower 6,8 6,8 0% Agility Body 8 8 0% Hand 10 10,1 0% Resilience Body 7 7 0% Mind 9,9 9,9 0% Mind Intelligence 8,3 8,3 0% Imagination 12,5 12,5 0% Faith Power 9,5 9,6 0% Control 9,7 9,8 0% Perception Sense 9,7 9,8 0% Memory 10,5 10,5 0% Social Comprehension 8,3 8,3 0% Expression 8,1 8,1 0% Blessings Bestower tier level Petrus Resting 1 3 passive Aqua Cleaning 1 1 passive Lux Hiding 1 2 passive Graphic arts 1 1 passive Sight sense 1 1 passive Fulgur Prayer of Thanks 1 1 active/passive Menta Reading 1 4 passive Counting 1 3 passive Nihil Prayer of Status 1 2 active

Just to be sure, he checked the important statistics for [Warrior], [Rogue], and [Hunter] once more. His profile was really not the best for them, be it Strength wise, Agility wise, or Body Resilience wise, even if Sense Perception for the [Hunter] class was not that bad. The important statistics for [Acolyte] being Faith Power, Faith Control, Mind Imagination, and Mind Resilience, it was his best match. As he choose this class, he would get a 10% bonus for these statistics and a 4% bonus for the others for each class level he would gain.

Concerning his blessings, Metello knew he had some impressively high level in Reading even for an average adult. He had the same level as Mrs Richardson who was about forty years older. His Resting level was pretty good too, but it was the case for every child in the orphanage. Having beds in a shared room leads to harsh sleep conditions which helps level Rest a lot.

Metello read that the blessings needed to become an [Acolyte] were Prayer of thanks up to level 2 and another Prayer to the god you want to follow. Indeed, [Acolytes] needed to choose a god from the beginning. That was the reason why, even in stories, there was no ultimate [Saint] able to fly, command fire, call thunder, and so on all at the same time. If he was to select the [Acolyte] class, it was another choice to think about.

But the impossibility of choosing all ten gods together didn't dampen Metello's imagination. He mumbled to himself. “What if somebody could do all of it? It would be an ultimate hero!”

He spent two more hours fantasying about being almighty, controlling all the divine elements. Surely, there was some kind of trick for choosing several gods to serve at the same time and be blessed accordingly. It was when he heard the 10th hour being struck that he stopped daydreaming. He stood from his wobbly chair and went to give back the book and speak with Mrs Richardson before lunch.

Metello was excitedly speaking to the old lady in her orange robe about his choice to aim for a monster hunter class and more specifically [Acolyte]. He spoke for a long time about being able to travel and defend himself and mentioned briefly his unrealistic hypothesis he might have a chance to someday become a hero. He didn't even know why he told her as even he knew it was just a fantasy. He also asked her if it was really needed to choose a god or if there was a trick to be able to follow them all.

The headmistress listened, tense for a start and then smiling and chuckling a bit at the childish dream told to her. When he finished and asked his question, she had to break that dream a bit.

“I will answer your question but I want to tell you some things first. I know well the monster hunter job as I have been one some times.”

Metello was a bit surprised. He knew the rumors who ran in the orphanage that she had been a monster hunter but he dismissed it as one more unreliable story.

“For a start, it is an interesting and useful job. You travel with friends, you protect people by thinning the monster population, you help the whole kingdom too by providing cores and other monster products, you are often able to see new landscapes, and you make enough money to live well.”

Metello was now all ears opened and he nodded, a smile on his lips while hearing more reasons to choose this job than he thought about. But his lips curve didn't stay upward too long.

“That said, it is also a painful, stressful, and dangerous job. Monsters are not just things to kill. They attack too and injuries are an everycycle thing. I'm sure there is at least one monster hunter death every month in Ironholes, and it's not a thing which happens only to others.”

“Even without talking about these dramatic events, I remember the feelings I got from killing monsters when I started the job. It was not good ones. With time you care a lot less about it, but putting a living being to eternal sleep could be hard at the beginning. The worst is that in the wild, or in the mines, you don't know when you'll be attacked, even with a good spotter. You have to be always on the lookout for an ambush.” Thinking a bit, she added, “Well, not really the worst. The worst are the deaths, the injuries, and the mental trauma you and your comrades suffer.”

She took a deep breath and looked up before continuing with a pained face. “I will tell you why I quit being a monster hunter some decades ago. Me and my friends had hunted for three years. We've been ambushed several times in this span of time but we never got in too much danger. We had never been hotheads.”

“Once, as we were traveling the plains north-west of here, between the Yellowind forest and the Grand Sea, we were ambushed by a group of merfolks that nobody in the squad detected. Some were hiding in the mud, others in the bushes, I don't even really know where they all came from. Even Martin, our [Archer] hadn't perceived them. Not going on details, only me and Martin survived. That's what made me quit. I knew Sandra and Christopher would have hated me if I had let their children live in the Holy Merit Orphanage. I thought I could establish a new one to take care of them as it is not badly attuned with Calor's likes. And here we are.”

Looking back into his eyes, she saw the boy was less enthusiastic than before.

“The worst of the monster hunter job is when you lose your friends meaninglessly.”

After some time, he replied. “So, a monster hunter has to be careful all the time.”

A thin smile came back to the headmistress's lips.“It's a bit simple, but you could resume things like that child. That's right. We got a bit cockier with time. If not, things would have been different. Nevertheless, I enjoyed these years. As I said, it is an interesting job despite all the bad points.”

“After hearing that, do you still want to be a monster hunter ?”

Metello didn't answer immediately, but he worded it at last.“Yes.”

“Right. Don't forget it's never too late to change your mind. No matter the class, you can do any job. It's only it'll be a harder life. So an [Acolyte] ? That's a long time since one of my kids chose it. In the past thirty years, I got mainly [Workers] and [Rogues], some [Craftsmen] and [Civil servants] but not much of the others basic classes.”