"So… In this world our age is kinda like levels in games huh? Guess i 'aged up!' from killing that fish. Shouldn't there be trumpets to announce it? Wonder if my stats went up too...honestly I don't feel that much stronger..." Glauc mentioned to the group. "I'm gonna just keep on fishing after the camp is set up. Maybe I'll be able to cast a spell or something once im a hundred years old."

"Oh nice. A level up system! Man, i hope we finds some goblins to slay soon! Wonder how much stronger i can become! How much older did you get after killing the fish?" Ryu asked.

"I got older by 3 years. So if the gain is linear I have to catch and kill about another twenty fishes before I'm a hundred. Woo I'm gonna be a centenarian soon! Wait. Will i get a heart attack or cancer or something? The nano treatments don't exist in this world right?"

"The blue screen said that people do not die of old age in this world." Ana assured him from the side. “Death by old age was some kind of curse by a bunch of Gods on Earth or something…”

"Oh yeah… wander why our gods did that…what aresholes... Man this world is awesome! Free Eternal youth! And i don't even have to take the bloody painful treatments! Time to grind for more levels haha! Fishing for levels~” Glauc hummed.

"I'm going to follow Ryu." Jane said. "Take two of the lettuce seeds. You can probably grow them for extra rations." She snapped her fingers and three glowing green beans materialised out of the air. She pocketed one and gave two to Glauc. "I'll keep one in case we meet an undead. They are apparently very good against them. Although I'm not too sure on how it works though..."

"Alright, thanks. I'll plant one of them and see what happens. The fish bones will make good fertilizers, probably." Glauc pocketed both seeds. He was still trying to figure out how to make a camp. Tie a bunch of sticks to a tree and roof it with leaves? He had watched a few survival documentaries but did not really remember much. He just enjoyed the parts where they ate wild stuff like random animals or plants. “Looks like the fishing will have to wait much later.” Plus, he will have to set up the camp alone. The three ladies were following Ryu. He preferred it that way anyway. Ryu tended to act before thinking and hopefully those three can somehow prevent him from getting killed in a suicidal act.

The party slowly walked downstream as they surveyed the environment for any danger. The backdrop of the blue skies and the lush green leaves of the forest actually instilled in them an impression of peace. It might have felt like a leisurely jungle trek on Earth's many forest had they not seen a rabbit with deer antlers. Or a bird with a rabbit head. Actually most of the animals they met were some form of rabbit chimeras. The group were apprehensive about killing them to absorb their age because well, they were kinda cute. Living in a civilized society made them reluctant to kill just for the sake of killing. Especially if they were fluffy bunnies.

"Aww look at that! it's a bunny squirrel! I wanna keep it as a pet! It's sooooo cuuuuttteeeee~!" Sheila squealed.

"Guys get back!" Ryu suddenly shouted.

He had noticed an ominous shadow. Being a werewolf has heightened his already sensitive fighting instincts. A bush rustled and a four legged beast stalked out. It had dark purple fur but what stood out was it's white straight horn that protuded out of its forehead. It's cat-like form crouched low as it prepared to jump at the weakest looking in the party, Ana. It leaped horn first as it tried to impale Ana with it. The horn glowed blue and the beast sped up mid leap. Before it managed to pierce Ana's stomach Ryu managed to swipe at the creature. It rolled mid air to dodge his claws but was still lightly scratched. It fell on the ground and immediately jumped back and growled at Ryu. Having failed to ambush the party it briefly considered retreating. However, this was the first time its prey actually fought back and the beast’s pride was not willing to lose its place at the top of the food chain in this jungle.

Its white horn glowed red this time and it breathed out flames. Sheila intercepted the breath by a yually grabbing the the flame breath as if it were a physical object and whipped it back at the beast.

The beast was stunned at having its attack reflected at it and was unable to dodge its own fire breath. It caught on fire, especially its back that had thick, apparently flammable fur. It growled as it desperately rolled on the ground to put out the flames. Sheila ran towards it and snapped her finger. She then grabbed the beast's horn and flames burst out near the beast's face. The beast was blinded by the flames and tried to scratch at where Sheila was. By then she had already dodged to the side and she kicked the beast where it's stomach was. She continued kicking it as the beast fought back with its claws. There was a loud crack sound as she managed to break one of its ribs and the beast gasped for air. It immediately lost all its strength as it struggled to breathe. Sheila took a nearby rock and with both hands smashed it on the beasts head and cracked its skull. It was finally dead.

"My age did not increase at all. What about you Sheila?" Ryu gestured to her.

"Ugh it did. By over forty years old too. Can't believe I'm now a spinster. Ana, are there any wrinkles on my face?"

"Nope. Actually your face looks more glowy. Like you just had a lift job and a couple glasses of wine..."

Sheila crawled over to the lake to see her reflection in the water. "Oh wow i really look shinier. And my hair is turning red! Lets go kill more monsters!" She snapped her fingers and flame enveloped her hands. She willed it into a shape of a whip and cracked it at the air. "And my powers got stronger too!"

"Guess the killing blow is what makes you suck their age huh? We are gonna have to alternate who gets the last hit if possible. Make sure the whole party is strong and all that. No need to do that for me though." Ana said. "So should we explore some more or head back to Glauc? And what do we do with this carcass?" She pointed to the dead beast Sheila killed.

"Uhh we loot it of course! Bet that horn gives you plus three int or something!" Ryu half joked at her. "At the very least we can let Jane use it as a crude dagger. She is the most vulnerable in our group right now." He started digging and clawing at the beast's head to dismantle the horn. It took the whole group nearly an hour before it came off, even with Ryu's sharp claws. At least now Jane could be semi useful if another monster came along.

Jane had told the group about herself during the dismantling of the carcass. Back in the old world, Jane was always top of her class. Despite her academic intellect, she was a happy go lucky girl who wanted nothing more than to retire in a nice house in the middle of nowhere. The job she was interviewing for was supposed to give her a well paying gig until she could afford said house. Not transport her into some magical world with evil undead and monsters. And all she could do to protect herself was make some magical beans appear.

When Ryu gave her the horn to protect herself she suddenly regretted not staying with Glauc. The forest was full of evil monsters and demons and who knows what. Why would she willingly explore such a place? She felt like such an idiot. And then she cried.

Back in the 'camp', Glauc was fishing. It was a lot harder to do than he initially thought. His first catch had bitten into the vine just when he pulled it and was caught by surprise. Now that the fishes knew that there was some kind of a trap they merely took small nibbles from the fruit vines.

He tossed some branches to the campfire to make sure it had enough fuel when suddenly the flames turned purple. Tree trunks were dyed a pale grey and their leaves were turning blood red. The whole forest became quiet and the skies darkened. The water in the river started boiling and foams formed in the centre. From the foam a hooded figure ascended, as if it were standing on a lift. She had grey skin and white eyes, even her pupils were white.

"So this is how i die huh? Eaten by some kind of magical zombie? Oh wait!" Glauc took one of the magic beans Jane gave him and held it towards the figure like a priest doing an exorcism.

The hooded figure glanced towards the bean and smiled. Her jagged teeth made it look quite malicious.

"Guys, i see a village!" Ryu walked out into the plains as he shouted to the group. This was the first time in a long while he managed to see the sky without leaves cluttering the view. His keen eyesight managed to spot some farmers tilling the soil. "Looks like humans. Don't see any elves or dwarves. Hope they exist though..."

The group joined him as they exited the forest. The village was about an hours walk away but they were definitely excited to see windmills and cobblestone houses.

"You should probably turn into a human first by the way. Don't think villagers are fans of werewolves." Ana said. She did not know that werewolves were actually one of the well liked races in the world of 'Nugaia'. They were well known as an honorable race and their keen sense of smell made them pretty good guards and detectives.

"Yeah lend me your blazer Jane. I think I'm naked." Ryu sheepishly said. Jane gave him her blazer and he walked back to the forest to find a nearby bush to transform and wear his clothes. And hit face first into an invisible wall.

Ryu had transformed back into his human form, Jane's blazer wrapped around his waist. It was surprisingly easy for him to transform into a human. Just like remembering how to ride a bicycle. Min in all her absent-mindedness had luckily chosen Luna to gift Ryu his blessings. Although slightly reluctant, she was meticulous and did not forget to implant knowledge of skill use to her champions. Min also said that they were after all her solution to the pesky undead problem. She had to make sure they were kinda well equipped for the job. Min did however forget to tell them why and how they should defeat the undead. Pretty sure her champions can figure it out themselves. Especially that wolf of wall road something something guy. He was like some kind of 'fine ace' genius.

"And they just left the trial forest. Wow that's pretty fast~ Hohoho looks like i chose the correct heroes. They are really quite good! Wow the fat guard is still in the starting area. He's quite useless huh? Oh well can't win em all~!" Of course she had mistakenly identified Ryu as the finance genius instead of Glauc. She didn't even know what finance meant.

And currently Glauc was facing something that his finance skill was quite useless at solving. The hooded woman floated slowly towards him. "Ahha is that a lettuce seed? How nice but as you can see i am not exactly a vegetarian~" She opened her mouth and Glauc could see rows of serrated teeth. It reminded him about a documentary on lampreys he once had seen. "Pleased to meet you Glauc. You may call me Nunu."

"Nunu?"

"That is correct my dear! My dear daughter summoned you and your friends to this world. Terribly sorry about that. I hope you're not too upset about that."

"Uhh no mam! Not upset at all mam! In fact, we are honoured she would pick us!" Glauc almost stained his pants at the thought of offending a Goddess.

"Is that so? Well, I noticed she did not tell you guys what your quest is. She's quite shy that one. Goddess of life but she could only have a normal conversation with plants. She had quite a traumatic experience when she was younger you see. Poor girl. Anyway I'm here to take her place! You and your party have been summoned to kill the undead in north Shadowvale! Just find a priest and he will guide you heroes to the battlefield."

"Undead huh? Uhh.. Is there a time limit for this quest." Glauc swallowed a gulp.

"Oh the sooner the better my dear~! Those dreadful undead keep getting stronger day by day. Who knows when they will take over the world?"

"Umm can't you gods just blow them with a spell or something? You're all really powerful right?"

"My dear~ Gods do not interfere directly with this world. Do you want diseases and sickness like in your old world? That's what happens when a god mixes too much with mortals you know. And that's why we use heroes! Exciting isn't it?" Nunu slyly spoke. Glauc had a hunch she was hiding something.

"Uhh just confirming something. You blessed me with the skill of right? So... How do i use it?"

"Is there any work around here?" Sheila asked a farmer. The group decided to first find a place to stay and for that they need money. They do not even know what currency the town used.

The tall bulky farmer squinted at Sheila's arms. She replied back "Hun. Best you ask the village head about work. You're too thin to be a farmer. That guy there looks like he can carry quite a bit though. How bout you work for us? We provide food and lodgings, and you get a share of the harvest if your work is good."

The group tried to negotiate with the farmer to let Ryu and the rest help out in the farm in exchange for food and lodgings. They failed to do so until Ann showed her a cabbage seed. The reception towards the group immediately changed and they were hurriedly brought to the village head.

"Divine heroes eh?" the surprisingly young village head inquired. "So which god sent you? And what is your divine mission?" It appears the group were not the first nor the last to be summoned by the gods into Nugaia.

"Min summoned us. Also one of our group is waiting for us in the forest." Ryu told him. "We can't come back to him, there's like some kind of invisible barrier blocking our path..."

"Min!" the villagers gasped. Murmurs and whispers could be heard amongst the villagers. Fear was shown in their eyes. "C-co co.. Could you tell us what her divine quest is? It’s... It's not to bring life to the dead is it? Or help grow our crops?"

"Huh? No, its to get rid of evil undead...I think..." Sheila replied. Somehow her negative view towards Min was shared amongst the citizens of this village.

The village leader's eyes grew wide when he heard it. "Oh wow! Seems like she realized her mistake and sent you guys to clean up her mess huh?"

"Mistake?"

"Oh yeah. I heard that the undead was created by her. She decided to answer a prayer to bring back the dead to life or something and poof! You got undead! Problem was all the rot made you go insane after a while and attack all other living beings. I think. Also, her blessing was too strong so any killed by the undead become undead themselves. That’s what i heard anyways. Messy business that one. All churches basically banned anyone worshipping Min after that. Of course her statues are still standing. No sense offending such a powerful goddess."

Sheila's eyebrows started twitching as she heard the story. What an irresponsible goddess! She created an undead plague and pushed the problem to someone else!

Ryu rubbed his forehead and asked the village chief. "So uhh. Any idea on how we could get to killing the undead? Also how dangerous is it?"

"Hmm rest assured food and lodgings will be taken care of while you are here. An enemy of the undead is our friend! You should consult with the church about your divine quest. It's located on the top of the hill. You should start climbing in the morning as its quite far away. And I'll ask around the village if any young men wishes to join your trip. A hero's' journey always produces wealth and glory! This village could always do with more rich lords! HAHAHAHA!"

The next morning, Ryu described Glauc to the villagers in the hopes that they will help him. With slight hesitation, the group left the village towards the church. They found out from the villagers that there was no way for them to return to the so called tutorial forest once you exit it so they were unable to rescue Glauc so they decided to get on with the quest as soon as possible.

The group was joined by over 30 villagers who wished to join the glory of a holy quest. There were hunters and loggers and some wives even joined to help to cook and maintain armor and weapons. The ragtag group mostly kept to themselves the except to tell the champions the directions once in a while. It was quite awkward but nobody expected to be best friends immediately. They however were very welcome by the champions, especially when they brought horse drawn carts filled with supplies. At the very least the holy quest could not be ended by hunger. Or sore feet.

After a while the hunters even brought living animals for the heroes to slay. It seems the people of this world were familiar with the heroes ability to extract power from those they killed. Ryu and the rest were not the first to be summoned by gods and tales of other summoned heroes were a common conversation topic. They even asked Anna to help them with miscellaneous deeds that would increase her good karma once they found out she was blessed by Maat. They had her bandaging wounds and such. She wasn't Maat's first champion and the way her champions grew stronger was also a popular tale amongst the citizens. Especially in schools and during dinner time to encourage children to behave well.

When they reached the church the heroes felt a lot stronger and motivated to do their quest. Ryu especially was excited. Killing animals increased his age, which he now associated with level, by a few years. He immediately felt slightly stronger and the desire to kill monsters to get stronger filled him. This was so much easier than going to the gym! He still did some exercises in the morning but they would almost be negligible in this world. But his habits would persist.

The church itself was walled and upon entering one could see that most of the land was used for farms and barnyards. It seems this church was quite self sustainable and Sheila was quite impressed. Her cynical mind had expected the churches to survive off forced donations, mooching off the hard work of nearby settlements, but the hardworking nuns and monks on the fields proved her wrong. When they entered the church they were greeted by rows of statues. No doubt the pantheons of this world. A few of the statues were respectfully covered with embroidered cloth. "Bet Min is one of them" Sheila thought.

"Welcome chosen one! We have been informed by our gods of your arrival. Please make yourself comfortable!" an old nun greeted their group and served a sweet drink. "Do try our ojifruit juice! We harvest them only once a year. They are quite pleasant if i do say so myself." Her pleasant smile did much to comfort the group and they trusted her immediately.

She seemed to pay particular attention on Anna. "Dear Anna, our church is mostly affiliated with Maat so you have to tell us more about yourself. Did you meet our divine god herself? We are so grateful she sent you to us. Please tell us how we can help you."

Maat is the goddess of harmony and truth and therefore quite popular in the world of Nugaia. Even other gods tend to be quite favourable towards her; her churches tend to include most other minor gods as she does not mind sharing faith with others. Promises made and fulfilled to these lesser gods conveniently give her power too as she is after all the goddess of truth. A lesser known aspect of Maat is that she is also the goddess of justice, but in a world where the laws can be quite different from one village to another, that aspect of her is rarely mentioned.

Major gods do not need her help though, as they get their faith power from other sources. Min for example gets more powerful the more living things in the world there are. Which makes her blessing incredibly powerful to the point of being troublesome. Hence the decision of blessing her summoned heroes with other gods' powers. Except Jane who she blessed with the weakest blessing possible that she could think of. Sort of. In her mind she did summon the group after all, therefore she should bless at least one of them. If other gods knew her thinking they would be puking blood out of jealousy right now. Summoning a hero required a monstrous amount of divine power so they could generally summon an earth human once every few centuries. It was a risky investment that most of the time lead to a minimal payback.

Only Min could half heartedly summon a bunch of heroes and then leave them alone to fend for themselves.

A few days ago, back in the tutorial forest. Glauc was conversing with Nunu, Min's mother.

"Uhh just confirming something. You blessed me with the skill of right? So... How do i use it?"

"My blessing has bestowed you with the instincts and knowledge of the skill. Your soul is simply too young to access the knowledge." Nunu's eye had glowed blue. Her open jaws had not moved a millimeter during the speech. It was as if it was too bothersome for her to move her mouth as she bored the words into Glauc's skull by thinking about it. When Glauc tried to think what kind of voice she had he could not seem to remember. It was like remembering a lost dream.

"Yeah, i had a feeling the holiness Min put the age section in our status bar for a reason. So how old do i have to be before I'm useful in a fight?" Glauc's fingers formed air quotes when he said age.

"Holiness Min? Ooo i like that title quite a lot! I'll start calling her that! Bet that will please her. The poor girl keeps getting bullied by those mean mortals you know. Calling her evil demon of misfortune and such. I'll show them all!" Nunu's eyes turned to flames and even the clouds in the sky started raining blood as she got more agitated during her speech.

Glauc was sure the temperature rose a few degrees and he could hear volcanoes exploding. 'Wow, don't ever make mommy mad.' He noted to himself. "I'm sure most humans love her! She's so cute and kind! Bet those other guys were just jealous of her you know?" Glauc was sweating buckets. He did not realise his first quest was preventing the apocalypse from happening due to an angry mom.

The sky turned bright and the blood rain transformed crystal clear, as if it was never tainted in the first place. Rainbows appeared and birds started chirping.

A bubble of water surrounded Nunu and all Glauc could see was her silhouette. She started clapping. Although she was in water it sounded like she did it in air, clear and loud. "Oh yes you're right! They're just jealous of my fuzzy wuzzy bunny baby! She's so cute isn't she? Oh where were we? Soul age wasn't it? Hmmm where do i start..."

Nunu lifted a finger to count as she told Glauc how a soul's age affected the individual. "A soul generally needs to be about two hundred before she can feel magic. Most call this awakened talent 'mana sight'. The individuals usually become wizards or shaman or magi or magic swordsman or something like that. In earth terms i believe it's called choosing a class. They try to figure out how mana works. They're still too young so they have to use certain tools to affect the magic around them. Fetishes, wands, runes or the like.

I have to add that your friends were imbued with artifacts to help them bypass the age restrictions. You'll find that they can feel and cast magic despite their age. Ana had Maat's feather, Sheila was tattooed with the eye of horus and Ryu's heart was infected with a lycanthropy vial.

As my champion, you obviously will NEVER use such crude tools. I don't understand why the gods love such shortcuts, even calling them artefacts or phat loot. Depending too much on them limits your growth. Your soul will form a resonance with such tools and in turn will make it awkward when using different methods of magic. In the future it will hinder their progress greatly.

By the way, Jane's skill is actually just a shortened prayer to Min. Like a telepathic pager. Not really a magic skill. Heh. Everytime she 'uses' the skill Min basically tosses a bunch of seeds from her pocket to Jane. As a god's boon.

Anyway, once a human can sense magic it will be another thousand years before they can slightly affect magic. Then they will be called archmage or high caster and such. A rank up was it? Most are able to use skills or magic with certain gestures or chants. The best of them simply need to think to activate their skills.

ANOTHER thousand before they start UNDERSTANDING the nature of their magic. They will then transcend into an elemental or holy spirit or maybe even a dragon. The form is usually unimportant, mostly personal preference. Basically your soul and mind and mana meld together.

It is only after another ten thousand years that they transcend into divinity. Not a god mind you, that will require both a divine soul and a divine body. A divine body is what enables gods to refine and use divine force. Think of it as an upgraded form of mana. Except less icky.

Glauc did the simple math in his head. Twelve thousand and two hundred years before he transcend into divinity? What does that mean anyway? Will he be able to create objects out of thin air? Wait, magic already does that; Sheila was able to summon fire out of thin air. At least it looked that way. What was that divine force stuff?

Anyway, that was still too far off. To be able to sense magic he needs to grind till his age is two hundred? But Nunu seems to prevent him from using magic tools for some reason. He also had not a single ounce of desire to offend her, which meant he needed to aim for a thousand two hundred soul age before he can use magic? Wonder how many fishes he has to catch and kill before he even knew what did.

Nunu seemed to have read his thoughts and winked "Oh by the way, the older your soul gets the less you get from absorbing souls. Much less. Just the way souls work you know..."

What? And there was diminishing returns? So he had to naturally grow old after a period of grinding? Glauc was slowly beginning to give up. Maybe he should just invent guns and shoot the undead? What was the recipe for gunpowder? Manure and urine and ashes or something was it? Doesn't sound right. By the minute he was running out of ideas. There was no way he can help defeat an army of undead with his human fists.

"Of course, you have bigger problems to worry about than the so called undead menace right now..." The silhouette of Nunu in the floating bubble seemed to raise an eyebrow. She pointed at the mound where Glauc had planted the lettuce seed. Jane had 'summoned' them and given him two out of three seeds. In his desire for extra calories, Glauc had planted one of them in hopes for extra salad with his fish dish. They were probably magic lettuce right? Maybe they grew very quickly. He was technically correct.

Glauc looked at the mound and noticed a sprout had grown from it. The sprout uncurled and its leaves seemed to welcome the sunrays.

Then in a ripple around the sprout the trees started to rot. All the grass and vegetation turned brown and withered. Glauc stared in horror as the lake began to dry out. The fishes were flopping on the mud banks before the mud themselves dried out and left cracked ground where the lake used to be. How long did it take before a human starved to death? Glauc was sure it took a lot less time to die of thirst and now his water source was gone. All that was left was a little plump lettuce.

Glauc pleadingly looked at Nunu. She gave him a thumbs up. "Guess i better tell my daughter to take back those seeds. They're quite voracious aren't they?" The water bubble surrounding her burst and in a second Nunu blinked out of existence. Glauc was now alone with a very unappetizing lettuce. Yay for vitamin A?

Jane was surrounded by a mob carrying sharp knives and clubs. Their oppressive aura was more than enough to make her wish it just was a nightmare. But it wasn't, she really was caged around in a makeshift barricade guarded by some of the fiercest men she had seen in her life.

Some of them even had nocked bows, flaming arrows ready to shoot her at a moments' notice. Their leader motioned to Jane. "Do your worst!"

Jane looked at the noon sky and steeled her nerves. She snapped her fingers and a green wisp of light appeared around her hands. The mob surrounding her paled and tightened their hands around their weapons. Some of them gulped and retreated a few steps, fear apparent in their eyes.

A piece of parchment materialised in the air and dropped on Jane's head and rolled into the ground.

...

"Whaaa?"

Everybody stared at the parchment. And waited for something to happen.

After a few awkward moments, one of them stuttered to Jane. "What is that?"

Jane slowly bent down and picked up the crumpled parchment. It had been crunched up into a ball and she unfurled it to see what was inside. Scratched on the inside with pink crayons was a big crooked 'I O U' with some smaller letters on the bottom. The writings were barely legible, bringing the words 'chicken scratches' to mind.

She read the letter aloud:

"Was told lettuce seeds too dangerous. Confiscating them all. Your skill too. Offer this IOU to another god for their blessing instead.

-Min"

There was a collective sigh around the group. The whole affair had started when the church had asked the heroes to demonstrate their god blessed skills. When they found out Jane was blessed by Min the whole church mobilised and armed everyone to protect against her skill. There was a good reason for such panic.

Min's blessing had a tendency to cause more trouble than it's worth. There was an incidence where a farmer carelessly asked her to bless his crops. They grew nonstop and profilerated until a whole kingdom was overgrown with a particular species of thorny vined bean plant. The damages caused to buildings and roads, not to mention the disruption to businesses, almost bankrupted the kingdom. They had to rely on the beans for food while they recouped the losses. The particular beans became a common diet of the kingdom. Unfortunately they tend to cause flatulence. To this day the kingdom is still commonly known as 'fart town'.

Such incidence was common whenever the goddess Min was involved. Her reputation was such that she was feared more than devils and monsters in certain circles.

Jane waved the parchment in the air. "So does this mean i get to choose my god? Anybody know who i should choose? How many of them are there and who are the gods anyway?"

The faces of several priests and nuns lit up. Many began to fight for the attention to Jane. They advertised their favourite god to her. After all, if their god received a new champion, their power and blessings was sure to improve.

"You should choose Ptah! He's the god of carpentry! Our old church needs a few repairs, maybe he'll give you the skill to fix it!"

"Bah! Fix the church yourself you lazy bum! Jane! You should choose the god Jujugan!" Jujugan was a particular god who created and ruled over a particular spectrum of color. It was a combination of blue and yellow. He called it blellow.

"Blasphemy! Jujugan merely copied Tlaloc! His GREEN is the true colour!" The two gods were bitter rivals and their believers often got into brawls. Unfortunately the robes they wear had a very similar leafy colour and after a while any brawls between the two faction tended to spiral into a free for all in the confusion.

After much arguments did the group decide to let Jane first learn about most of the gods before deciding herself.

Fortunately the church had a tome about some of the more popular pantheons. It was then Jane learnt that there were hundreds of different gods in Nugaia. Maybe even thousands. And that was only those written in the tome. Lucky for her she liked to read.

"Tell us when you decide on the god! Actually, pick maybe five of your favorite and we'll talk more about it." Ana whispered to Jane. She was now holding a wooden scepter in her hand. It was merely a replica for the statue of Maat but the church decided her proficiency with scepters should make it deadly in her hands. They were not wrong. Ana could swing the wooden toy and crack a rock without splintering the wood. An invisible force seemed to make the weapon harder and heavier whenever it was held by her.

Ryu also had transformed into his werewolf form. He and the girls were to help the church get rid of a goblin nest nearby. A source of experience had reliably appeared and they were going to take advantage of it. Killing the goblins was going to increase Ryu's age and strength. Goblins were also known to be a dangerous pest and getting rid of them no doubt increases Ana's good karma.

This was their first real expedition and the two of them were extremely nervous about it. Of course they had quite a few armed villagers following them but the church instructed them to minimize help. The heroes had to not just accumulate power but also gain battle experience if they were to be prepared to challenge the world.

Ana was equipped with a soft leather apron that had been worn by the village blacksmith. Although it was not a hardened leather armor it would still protect against scratches and minor wounds around her chest. She wore several layers of full sleeved linen clothes for extra protection. Unfortunately neither the church nor the villagers had any proper armour to equip the heroes.

Ryu himself chose not to wear any armor. His regeneration would hopefully be enough against the goblins. He also did not carry any weapons, believing in the sharpness of his claws. Also, wielding weapons meant for human hands was more cumbersome in his current form.

Sheila chose to wear a dark brown monk's robe. Mostly to keep the insects away. She was thinking of hiding during the fight and throw fireballs whenever it was convenient. She would try to minimize danger to herself and let Ryu and Ana take the brunt of the goblins. Hey, who wants to be a meatshield?