After passing out from the laundry pole's point blank explosion, I had a dream that recalled an experience I had a year ago. The fact that I was dreaming meant that I was still alive, thankfully.

* * * * *

One year ago, in the remote town of Canbok:

This was a town whose lands were so barren that not a single shrub could be found within a 20 kilometer radius of it. Somehow, the town was still able to sustain a population of 2000, so the people attributed that to good fortune and were devout believers of the state religion that worshiped the god of fortune. The buildings of this town were unreasonably spaced out to give the illusion that it was a large town, so it was fairly common for "a few houses down" to be understood as "walk for 10 minutes."

Because of the lack of public property and wildlife that I might accidentally burn here, I would often come to this town in search of quests or to train myself by hunting dangerous monsters in the area. Nobody ever seemed to mind the sight of scorched earth in front of their eyes. They would often say something along the lines of "it's not like anything will ever grow here… probably… haha."

One day, I was sitting on a bench at the town's central plaza, leisurely reading a book when dark clouds suddenly covered the sky.

"Are those… storm clouds?"

"Oh my! It hasn't rained here in two years!"

"Perfect… My trail will be erased."

"Maybe some weeds will sprawl after this!"

Ignoring the one creepy voice that originated from somewhere I couldn't pinpoint, the plaza crowd seemed to be surprised at the imminent rainfall. Everyone started frantically running about to find cover.

I decided to follow suit after a couple minutes, when the plaza was finally quiet and empty, since I was carrying a book with me. I didn't mind getting wet myself, but having a wet book would most likely make its pages unreadable once it dries out.

Looking around, there were no buildings near the plaza other than the town's great church, which was probably around 60 meters away from me. I'm surprised someone even allowed a church to be built in the center of a plaza. I knew the locals were devout believers of the god of fortune, but this was probably a bit too much…

I considered walking over to the church at first, but the rain suddenly started falling as soon as I stood up from the bench. Worried that my book would get wet, I picked up the pace a little. I had barely traveled 15 meters when the rain suddenly turned into a massive downpour, so I put my book inside my robe and ran as fast as I could over to the church.

While running, I tripped over a loose pavement stone. My two hands were hugging my body tightly to prevent the book from falling out of the robe, and I already had a weird posture since one hand was also holding my staff, so I easily lost my balance and fell flat on the ground. The tail of my staff hit the ground first and had bounced off of the ground, away from my hand, before I knew it.

As I got up, a shadow zoomed past me and headed towards where my staff was. When I looked, I saw a brown dog gnawing on my staff. It seemed to be too busy biting on my staff while violently flailing about, so I just let it be. The staff already had the enhancement of "tougher than tempered steel," and had a significantly below average power output, so it was unlikely that it would be destroyed or stolen, anyways. I continued running towards the church, where the head priest was already at the door waiting for me to enter.

"Welcome to the Canbok great church. Is that not your staff over there?"

"It doesn't seem like the dog will take it anywhere, so I'll fetch it later when the rain stops… Oh crap!"

A bright flash of lightning hit the plaza ground in front of my eyes, and a loud boom echoed through the sky. Looking closely, the lightning had hit the exact location of where the dog and my staff were.

Lying on the ground was now an innocent creature whose life was cut short by mother nature…

"May thy soul find peace in the afterlife, o poor canid creature…"

"I feel bad for that dog… If only I took back my staff and chased it away, the dog probably could have survived…"

"Do not feel bad, traveler, for the great god of fortune Chutava has blessed that canid soul."

"How is getting struck by lightning considered blessed?"

"The poor creature was rabid, and was due to suffer through the rest of its short life with nonstop torment. But our merciful god has granted it a quick end, away from such torments."

"Oh… Well, I feel less guilty now that I know the dog was rabid. It's probably a good thing it passed on before it could bring harm to others, too. Still, would it be possible to give it prayers, as a sendoff blessing to the afterlife?"

"Certainly. O great god Chutava-"

Another flash of lightning hit the plaza again, and the loud boom interrupted the head priest's prayer. I considered it quite a bizarre coincidence that it hit the same exact spot as before.

"We thank thee, o great god Chutava, for ensuring that the soul of that poor canid creature could pass on to join you in the afterlife. Blessed be-"

I was starting to wonder if this was all a coincidence or not when a third bolt of lightning had hit the dog once more, while the echoing boom interrupted the priest's prayer again. What bothered me the most, however, was the fact that the little dog's corpse was slowly charring.

"Sir head priest, could we close this door before the rain water floods inside?"

"Yes, that is a good idea. I shall pray for the poor soul from inside."

I didn't really care if the church got flooded. I just didn't want to look at that charred dead body any longer. Looking out the window, I could see that the lightning kept striking the same exact spot over and over again. The head priest restarted his prayer each time the lightning struck, and I don't think he ever got past the second sentence. I think I ended up hearing at least thirty different variations of "have mercy on this soul" in the end.

The rain subsided after about an hour, and all that was left on the plaza ground was my staff, which was surprisingly still intact, and a dog shaped silhouette. It was hard to describe the burning smell where the silhouette was, but let's just simply say that it made me feel uneasy and nauseus.

The church building was about thirty meters high, with the religion's somewhat triangular emblem embedded at the peak, pointing upwards towards the sky. It had a magnificent gleam under the sunlight, suggesting that it was made from some metal. Yet somehow the lightning had struck the same exact location thirty meters away about thirty times instead of that thing atop the building that should have acted like a lightning rod.

"You truly are blessed, traveler, for our great god has kept your magic staff intact through the thunderstorm, and allowed its wielder to evade death thirty times."

No, at this point I'm quite certain that my staff had the enhancement of "lightning rod." I just never knew about it before since this was the first time I left my staff outdoors during a thunderstorm.

"Will you join the religion of the god of fortune Chutava? You shall continue to be blessed every day if you live piously pray to the god."

"I'm not exactly sure that was a blessing of god…"

"If not a blessing, then what would it be? The great god had brought you away from a deadly location; he had brought you to the doors of his church, and he has kept your prized possession safe through the lightning strikes. Surely this was divine intervention, do you think not?"

"Could you please give me some time to think this through?"

"I shall leave you with this application form, then."

* * * * *

The head priest spread the story of what he thought was divine intervention throughout the town. As a result, I would constantly get pestered with religious recruitment and donation requests every time I went to Canbok town. The head priest would also creepily stalk me every time I was near the plaza. There was a limit to my patience, and I firmly decided on a few things after three more visits:

- That I shall never join any religion, since I'll just be pestered constantly.

- That I shall never stay outdoors during a thunderstorm.

- That I shall never come back this town again.

- That I shall never raise a pet dog.

And that was how I learned about my staff's "lightning rod" enhancement.