“Right,” Peter exclaimed while they were eating breakfast, “I forgot to give you your reward.” Saying that, he got up from his chair and started to walk upstairs.

“Reward?” Rhax was confused, reward for what? For killing the Direwolf? That was the only thing he would get a reward for.

Julia giggled. “Yes, reward.” She smiled at him. “The City Watch has put a reward on the Direwolf’s head. And you killed the Direwolf, so it is rightfully yours.”

Rhax was excited. “And what is this reward?” He tried to not show his excitement.

Julia chuckled. “And where is the fun in telling you what the prize is? You have to see it to know what it is.”

Rhax sighed in defeat, he understood that Julia would not give him the information he wanted. So, he sat there and waited. It only took 3 minutes or so for Peter to come back down, he had one arm behind his back. He came to him, clapped him on the shoulder and exclaimed while giving him the reward. “Ta Da!” He was holding a pouch, it was a leather pouch, it looked common. So, Rhax didn’t use the system to see it. He felt like it was useless to use his ability on such a thing.

He carefully took the pouch from Peter’s hand while thanking him. It was kind of heavy. “Come on, open it!” He heard Julia encouraging him, he was studying the pouch. It was really a normal one, so it can’t contain a weapon or something very cool, right?

After he was done with his inspection, he grabbed the two pieces of robe closing the pouch and slowly opened it…. The light in the house reflected on the item inside, it radiated a glow that went straight into Rhax’s one good eye.

It wasn’t painful, but it was surprising. ‘What the fu-’ He exclaimed in his mind; something was shiny inside. That made him feel good.

After shaking his head, he focused his one good eye on the inside of the pouch. And what he saw made him grin like an idiot. There were 10 silver coins inside the pouch. They clinked against each other. The sound was like music to Rhax’s ear.

He is thankful that the currency system didn’t change, it was a very simple system. There were three types of currencies. Copper, Silver and Gold. 10 Copper is 1 Silver, and 10 Silver is one Gold. It is a very simple system and allows the people who like to play some obscure classes, like Merchant, to get into the economic stage fast, without having to study and plan about the currency. Like they must do on good ol’ Mother Earth.

So, Rhax understood that from the 10 Silver he has in his hand, that he has 1 Gold coin. 1 Gold coin is actually around 100 Dollars when converted to Earth’s currency. So, he was holding 100 Dollars in his hands. It wasn’t much, who is he kidding, a 100 Bucks is a 100 Bucks

“Now, with this money then you can go to the church and they will heal you, it will take all of it away, but at least you will be able to live normally again.” Peter’s voice brought Rhax out of his trance.

‘He is right, I shouldn’t convert it to real money, but I should heal myself with it. I can always make more money, but if I stay in this shape then it will take me days, no, scratch that, weeks to heal.’ Rhax understood his situation, he was going to work in a Blacksmithy, he would use his body, like a lot. So, he needs it to be 100%. Money isn’t important, he can always make more, but his health is something that can’t be replaced.

So, with that in mind, he nodded at Peter’s words. “Where is the Church, and if you don’t mind me asking, it is Terran Church, right?” Ethea has in total 4 religions. There are multiple Gods and Goddess, but most of their followers are considered Sects or Cults.

But there are only 4 grounded and widespread religions. One of them is the Terran Church; they worship the Goddess Tera. The Goddess of Earth and Nature. They specialize in healing. But they have fighting powers as well, but mostly it is healing. That makes them the least problematic religion out of the 4. Also, they have a tolerance to the other religions and beliefs. They believe that Tera loves all, no matter what their religion or their beliefs. That made them popular with a lot of people, and many countries have Terran as their official religion.

As to how Rhax knows all of this? It is actually by coincidence, he was bored one day on the weekend and started looking through the streaming websites to watch something interesting. Mistakenly he clicked on a stream, it was of a girl, it didn’t have a lot of viewers. She was playing Ethea of course, this was in the first 2 or so months since the game was launched. So, a lot of info was missing. The girl looked to be playing as a Priestess. More specifically, a Priestess of the Terran Church.

Rhax was intrigued and ended up watching the whole stream which was almost 6 hours. In that stream he kind of understood the general idea of the Terran Church. But then he did research on his own and read more about it. His history loving side was very ecstatic for the religion, because he knows that religion has an enormous impact on history. But unfortunately, even after all this time since the game has been released people still don’t know that entire history of this magical world.

Peter laughed. “Of course, it is a Terran Church. It is not like those Virturians suddenly had a knock for healing.” Virturian is the name of the Church who worships the God of Bravery and War, Virtus.

Rhax gave a smile too, mostly to not make Peter feel like he was being rude or anything.

Julia popped in. “Don’t worry, Rhax. I will take you there.”

“I can’t make you do that, Julia. You have a job to do, and I can’t make you stop your work to accompany me.” Rhax declined.

Julia rolled her eyes. He saw Peter look at him and shake his head, it was like he was telling him. “She decided, no one can change her mind.”

And it seems that he is right, as Julia raised one eyebrow and looked at him again. “From what I saw and understood, you are not from Rlia. And I’m pretty sure you can’t walk for long, so, how will a first timer like you go to find the Church by himself in this big city? I said I’m going with you, so I’m going with you, got it?” Her eyes were like fire.

Rhax immediately nodded his head in agreement. The fire suddenly disappeared from her eyes and the gentle look came back. ‘Holy shit, this woman is scary!’ It seems that Peter shares his statement too as he was studying his food like it was a thing made by the Gods themselves.

The rest of the morning went out uneventful, they sat down and chatted some more, until the kids woke up and then Julia made them breakfast. Peter went to his workshop to start the furnace and start working on an order he has. Adam went with him; it seems that Adam also wants to be a Blacksmith. That left him with Julia and Olivia. The latter was surprisingly sitting on his lap asking him to tell her a story.

Rhax doesn’t know how she climbed, he was talking with Julia who was behind him upstairs and then he felt someone climbing him like a tree. He looked and saw Olivia already sitting on his right thigh and asking him to tell her a story.

“Okay,” he relented, “once I was hired on a job to kill a threat to a village. There were some Goblins that were harassing the village and have taken some people. So, I took my sword and armor and went to the Goblin’s hideout. I entered the cave alone, there were 15 Goblins while I was alone, but I killed them all. Then I was met with the leader of the Clan. He was an ugly thing, he was 1,6 m long, with green skin. His nose was very long and his ears were pointy. His little eyes looked at me with madness. He was a Hobgoblin.

‘You are brave to come to my home alone, Human.’ He spoke in his raspy voice.

I didn’t answer him, because I saw the people they had kidnapped, they were held in a cell. I didn’t hesitate to attack the Chief. He didn’t expect me to attack first, and I was a lot stronger than him. So, in one swift motion, I cut his head off. Then I freed the people the Goblins kidnapped. We then went back to the village, they wanted to make me their leader. But I declined, I took my pay and left the village. I never returned.” Rhax finished by puffing his chest.

Olivia’s eyes were like dishes because of how wide they were. She let out a breath and spoke. “Wow, Ser Rhax, you are so cool!”

Rhax smiled at her, he tried to hide his other smile, the mischievous one. He didn’t do that; it was complete bullshit. This was some generic plot of a web novel or a manga from the late 10:s and early 20:s. But usually, it is more graphic and gorier, but he can’t tell Olivia such things, she is a child.

“Rhax, are you ready?” Julia’s voice came from upstairs, it didn’t take more than a second and she was on the stairs descending.

Rhax nodded, Olivia started to speak with enthusiasm. “Mother, did you know that Ser Rhax killed 15 Goblins and one Hobgoblin all by himself and then rescued the people that were kidnapped?” There was light in her eyes while she talked about him. Rhax liked it, he was an average person in the real world, so he doesn’t have people who admire him. He was not devilishly handsome, nor was he ugly, he was average. He was a professor, he was not a pro gamer, an influencer or a streamer. So, he never felt the feeling of admiration from people, he only felt it toward others and not the way around.

Julia smiled, but Rhax could see that she was tense for some reason. ‘Is she afraid?’ He mentally asked, ‘but why would she be afraid?’

He mentally shrugged, he can never read humans, they are too complicated. So, he won’t even try to read her.

“Really?” She still had a smile. “I didn’t know that, maybe Rhax can tell me on the way to the Church. Now come on, wear your shoes, we need to go so Rhax can get healed and play with you.”

Rhax’s neck almost snapped to Julia, he had a begging looking in his eyes. A look that says. “Please, everything but this.”

Julia smirked at him and nodded her head toward the door. Olivia jumped from his right thigh and went to wear her shoes. Rhax wore Peter’s clothes, as his were torn apart when the Direwolf attacked. Peter is much larger than him, so it seems that Julia has worked on his clothing to suit him.

It was a black shirt, black jerkin, and gray pants. The clothes looked good, and it shows how much care and attention Julia spent in making them.

He wore the shoe they gave him, apparently, Peter bought it without testing it from a caravan and when he got home and tested it, it was too small. When he went back to return it the caravan was not there. So, he just kept it. And it seems that it found its use.

After everyone was ready, they got out of the house and started walking south. The city was built with gray stone and looked kind of clean. It was kind of surprising. ‘Maybe only this area is this clean.’ Rhax guessed mentally.

The journey took almost 15 minutes to reach the church. Rhax was huffing and puffing, his face was filled with sweat and he winced every time he took a breath in. His injuries were really bad, he started fine, but three minutes into their journey he started feeling like his right shoulder was on fire. He ignored it, but then his body was getting hotter and hotter each minute. It became painful to just take a breath, Julia noticed and came to support him. So, they reached the church with his body leaning on Julia, and little Olivia holding his right hand in her tiny hand, giving him support.

They entered the church, Rhax can’t remember what the church looked like or who was in. He only remembers a woman in green robes coming to them and Julia saying something to her and giving her the pouch. Then it all went black again.

He returned to that cold and terrifying darkness. That darkness that could make the strongest person cry in despair. Despair of finding nowhere to go, despair of knowing that people don’t know that you are in this eternal darkness.

He waited for the light, because there got to be a light!

And there it was. Light, it came upon the darkness like cavalry through unarmed peasants.

It fought with vigor, but the darkness resisted. It was like watching two primordial enemies fighting against each other. It was beautiful, but horrible at the same time.

Finally light reached his place in the dark and engulfed him like it did a few nights ago.

But it seems that the dark didn’t want to let him go, as it also grabbed him and started pulling him into it. The pull of both sides was making Rhax experience pain like he never experienced before.

He would’ve shouted if he had a mouth or a voice. Finally, after minutes of this hellish pain, light won and Rhax felt it engulf him and take away all the pain. But the pain he felt will always be with him, it will always reside inside his mind, always lurking. It was not something a human should feel. The pain of death and life each gripping you and pulling you into their embrace.