The Gamer's POV

Dong! Dong! Dong!

The arms on the massive clock on the Grand Cathedral in Fashkire struck nine, causing the bells to chime nine times in rapid succession. The booming resonance of the bells was so loud that one could hear it all the way in the upper districts from here.

In front of the Cathedral, Cedric stood with his hands in his pockets, staring up at the large clock above.

As usual, he was dressed in a long black leather duster coat — his favorite outfit, by the way — and a lit cigarillo hung loosely from his lips.

All around him, carriages rattled across the cobblestones and crowds of citizens jostled past one another. The streets were busier than usual, as a lot more people had come into the central city from beyond the walls and the outskirts in preparation for the Carnal Festival which would begin tonight.

The air was filled with the scent of roasted meats and street vendor spices, which immediately made Cedric feel hungry.

He reached up and pulled out the cigarillo, blew out a thick stream of grey smoke, and then flicked the ash onto the pavement.

Dropping his hands back into his pockets, he began walking towards the massive entrance of the large cathedral.

Of course, he was not here to pray or make an offering. The man didn’t give a fuck about the gods. Instead, he was here to get something important... something that would be quite useful for him once he finally crossed over to the Second Ring.

After passing through the large arched entryway, Cedric stepped inside the main hall of the brightly lit building. Since this was his first time visiting the place, he took a slow look around. The cathedral looked like any normal house of worship at first glance, but the details were entirely bizarre.

There were no statues of any recognizable Gods, but rather, there were strange symbols, sculptures of strange creatures, and geometric engravings carved here and there. Not a lot of people were inside by this time of the morning, but those who were present were whispering in hushed, solemn tones.

By the eastern wall, there was a large stone sculpture of a massive, chubby baby, and there were lots of sculpted flowers scattered across its base.

Several meters from it, there was another strange monument. This one looked like an elephant, except there were two massive wings on its back. The green marble beast also had two extra humanoid hands pressed against each other as if it was praying, and protruding from its head were two large, curved horns.

In front of this monstrosity, two women were kneeling in front of it, praying as one would to a God.

Not too far from them, another grand sculpture was shaped like a really strange, serpentine dragon, with six mismatched wings protruding from its spine, and countless jagged crystalline horns tracing down its back. If one looked closely, they could see a heavy metal pendant of what looked like a wine barrel, hanging from its neck.

Further down the hall, there was another sculpture that looked like a gargoyle staring at his palm.

Moving past that to the right, there was yet another sculpture of what looked like a massive golden eye which was being held up by two hands. Not too far from this sculpture, there was another that depicted a massive raven perched atop a nest made of tangled bones. While the bird’s lower half was completely skeletal, its upper torso was covered in beautiful, pristine feathers, and it held a glowing, perfectly intact stone egg in its beak.

When Cedric laid eyes on this particular monument, for some reason he couldn’t quite place his finger on, it felt deeply familiar.

’Is that... a sign that belongs to and represents me?’

He began to walk towards it to have a better study of its craftsmanship.

Recently, he had done a bit of research into the churches too. These were all probably monuments that belonged to the Gods of the Old Times. Long ago, there used to be separate churches built specifically for each God. But after a while, people began to forget the names of the gods, and a lot of the ancient scriptures and other stuff like that were lost to time.

The way religion was handled also changed over time.

The few statues and symbols that were successfully recovered were gathered up by the Oracles of the churches. Since no one knew which god was which anymore, and since not a lot of people were religious anyway, rather than building separate structures, they decided to just use one single sanctuary.

Now, in every city, instead of scattered churches dedicated to individual deities, there was just one grand cathedral that could be used as a collective place of worship for those who were still deeply religious.

And they now worshipped the Gods as a collective, instead of any single God.

’Hm... O God of Divine Restoration and Benevolence, be damn benevolent and grant unto me the grace to survive the second ring, a mountain of gold, and maybe a decent night’s sleep while you’re at it.’

He began to pray seriously upon getting to the statue.

After a few seconds, he turned to his left where he could see a man dressed in a priest’s outfit, just standing at the edge of the altar area and observing the worshippers.

Though how he was watching them was a mystery considering that the man was blind and had a thick white blindfold over his eyes.

Cedric turned and walked up to him. When he stopped right in front of the man, he bowed slightly and greeted, "Good morning, Oracle."

Slowly, the man turned his head toward Cedric, then smiled warmly and replied, "Ah... may the collective grace of the Gods be upon you, young man."

Cedric smiled, "Thank you."

This old man in front of him with white hair and a long, neatly braided white beard was an oracle. All Oracles were blind and none of them were dominants.

Yet despite the fact that they were regular humans, they were still held in high regard by the people in the empires.

Of course, this was so because they were the only messengers of the Gods, even though it had been over a millennium since any god had actually spoken to humanity.

Not just anyone could be an oracle, as the latent sensitivity to the divine was passed down through specific family bloodlines.

From what Cedric knew, at the age of fifteen, those who were born into these families and had chose this path, would pluck out their own eyes in a ritual sacrifice.

’Honestly, that’s a pretty messed up considering that many Oracles don’t even get a single vision or whisper from the divine in their entire lifetime,’ Cedric thought, looking at the old man’s blindfold.

’Though I have a feeling that the Oracles know more about the Gods than they let on.’

"...Can I help you with anything, young man?" The man asked gently.

"Yes. I need a talisman."

The Oracle was silent for a few seconds, before a small, knowing smile played on his lips, "What kind of blessing are you seeking to carry with you...?"

Cedric turned to look at the sculpture of the dragon with the wine barrel hanging around its neck. Then he replied, "I need a talisman from the dragon-looking deity."