Chapter 9 – Saint

(That’s right, for now I should just focus on learning those skills like Ann said, then I could go to other place to learn other skills freely) – Thought Lucca while looking the city scenery through the window.

The old man saw the change on Lucca mien and understood that he agreed.

“Lucca Bright, do you wish to learn the holy skills and become an [acolyte]?”

Lucca turned and replied without thinking – “Yes!”

“Good!” – The old man extended his hand and grabbed the crystal ball – “But to enter the church as a student one need to pass two tests” – He charged his mana inside and the crystal ball shined strongly – “The first one you already passed, it’s a measurement to know if you have enough to learn skills without burdening your body, although it’s not a little lower than the average, to think you have this much while still being a brat that didn’t go through the ritual of blessing… Perhaps one day you will possess an outrageous amount of mana.”

“Ritual? Blessing of Mana? I have heard this a lot those days, but what exactly is this?” – Lucca said while scratching his head and remembering his normal hunting days – “I’ve been hunting and doing some quests for a time, but I never heard about this.”

“From the letter, it seems the little girl have told you to not go outside the outskirts of the capital, right?” – Then the old man moved his pocket and took the sack of coins Lucca had given to the sister attendant earlier – “Do you think we charge this much money to teach our children skills to save other humans?”

“Now that mention, that’s weird, why the church would charge people this much to learn skills necessary for our survival? Although I didn’t (like to) watched Ann and the other sister and priests work, I know how dangerous is the desert and how many lives the saved” – Lucca cut the volume of his voice and murmured the rest – “including myself.”

“That’s right. With much less money you would do fine, in fact most of the students use their own learned skill to work as payment for the lessons, lessening the constant burden of the church.

Going back to the topic, this money is going to be used when you became sixteen and go through the ritual. The ritual itself is simple and can be done within some hours, the problem is that the materials necessary for the event, those are rare.

Since you worked in the outskirts of the capital, you mostly hunted normal beasts and lesser monster, right? Although it’s possible to someone with your amount of mana and experience being able to take down middle ranked monster or even stronger one, depending on the affinity, it usually ends with the death of our people.”

Lucca smiled wryly at this part while remembering that even with the berserk potion he couldn’t do much and almost died just a few nights ago.

“As you should understand by now, the plains outside the capital have one of the lowest concentrations of mana, therefore the monsters are weak and the people who actively go out of the way to hunt those usually don’t possess much money, therefore they couldn’t go to the ritual.

Now if you were to go the seaside city in the south of the kingdom or your hometown, the desert of Marllok, it would be unthinkable to go there without going through the ritual, unless the person had a death wish.”

(I see, in the end I was in the weakest place of all, didn’t know anything and thought I could be a hero, no wonder Ann cried so much. I’ve been just doing stupid things one after the other, I wonder how I didn’t die yet) – while self-depreciating Lucca felt pain in his chest and put his hand there, he felt a faint heat from the golden medallion for a moment, but in the next second it was nothing happened transmitting the usual cold sensation of the metal – (Am I imagining things?)

The old man kept and saw Lucca reaction and his deep thoughts, after some seconds of silence Lucca finally returned from his while blinking and the man continued.

“It seems we have been talking for quite some time, let’s finish this fast, after all you have yet to pass the second test”

“What’s the second test?”

“It’s nothing especial” – Said the old man while rummaging thought the drawer and finally taking a map, which he put on the top of the desk – “The little girls from the reception would say it’s a test of patience and endurance, but I’m old, so I’m a little more direct” – Said while pointing to a building in the northwest of the capital – “There’s no necessity for students to learn in the church (cathedral) if they don’t know the basic skills [Heal], [Cure] or [Blessing], in fact they would only burden the priests working here, therefore you will go there and learn these skills there.

The test is just to go there alone, well, in your case I doubt the little girl would have time to take you there.”

“I see… So I just have to go there alone and that’s it?”

“Yeah” – The old man toke a little white bird statue and give to Lucca – “Just give them this and you’re good.”

At that time, for the first time through this long conversation, the nun who bought Lucca showed a reaction, her eyes squinted a little, although Lucca didn’t noticed, the old man saw that and showed a smile. Right after Lucca thanked the old man and dashed off. After Lucca vanished from their sight, the nun said.

“It this fine, Lord Hale?”

“What?”

“Giving such outrageous thing for that boy…” – Said the nun while remembering that little white bird, which was the symbol of the greatest influence within the church of this kingdom, Cardinal Hale.

“Haha, this much is nothing, look” – Said Hale while showing the letter to the nun.

While she understood that the boy was a rare talent for having such mana at this young age, this wasn’t particularly abnormal, as such talents appeared every generation. She didn’t understand why Cardinal Hale, despite being the busiest people in the church, would take so much time to teach a youth. At least that was what she was thinking until she started learning the letter.

“An-Angela?” – She stopped reading while shaking and stuttering – “That Angela?”

Hale just nodded and laughing as watching her panicked reaction was interesting, after a few time she calmed down and continued reading. The letter told the history of how Angela met Lucca, his innate holy mana, his adventures despite his age, his superb mana control and finally the protection of Azlud.

“I see… He is the young kid from the rumors that helped defend Azlud, despite the attack on the capital, furthermore he is the [Saint] Angela protégé, no wonder, no wonder.”

Muttered the nun admired. Lucca achievement was certainly great for someone as young as him who didn’t even had his ritual, yet even if he didn’t do anything, just being taken by the Saint Angela herself was proof of his talent.

Angela Bright since young possessed great talent, she quickly became an acolyte before the age of the ritual. Due to her young age and ability she quickly gathered attention, thanks to that she would flock everywhere to help with request from the citizens, such as healing people, helping experienced parties of adventurers exterminate dangerous monsters or repel city attacks. With time she became a priest, her fame increased more and she was asked to help in pretty much every monster attack, until a few years ago there was a great invasion on the border city of the west, she worked for one week without rest and saved countless lives, this event awakened a special skill which granted her the title of [Saint].

Those were legendary events within the whole kingdom, yet Lucca wouldn’t know this until much later when he went to the border city himself.