Way of the Knights

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Raven and the stranger at his room stared at each other. 

The situation was tense. Raven's instincts kicked in and yelled that this man was dangerous, yet it also tells him that this guys doesn't mean him any harm. It was weird but Raven knew that he could rely on his instincts. 

The stranger was an old man with a bald head and a long white beard which was adorned by black laces swirling around them. It would appear as if the man was sleeping while standing due to his eyelids shut at all times, yet Raven could tell that he doesn't need them open to see things clearly. The erosion of time was visible on his visage through wrinkles, bent back, old fashioned robes and a wooden cane. 

But even though this old man appear weak and frail, his presence screamed otherwise. Raven was no fool. Anyone who survived long enough in this sect, is someone who shouldn't be called 'weak' nor 'frail'.

"Very promising…" The old man's hoarse voice rang on Raven's ears, causing him to shiver. 

Raven felt…vulnerable. For the first time in a long while, he felt exposed. Very much so. 

It was as if this old man can see everything he's hiding plus more. He can't say that liked the feeling but he was helpless against it. 

"I thought I was going to meet yet another potential failure, but…" The old man smiled serenely before continuing: "You're not bad at all, uh…what was it again, right, Vendrick is it?"

"Yes, Elder. But I prefer Raven personally." He replied while doing a curt bow. The old man's cryptic words were starting to make sense to him, in fact he could even guess why this man was here.

"Raven it is." The old man helped himself and sat down to a nearby chair. And although his eyes were closed, his gaze never left Raven at all. 

"Oh dear me, I haven't even introduced myself yet." The old man chuckled, he cleared his throat and said: "My name is Gin. It is nice meeting you, Young Raven."

"The feeling is mutual Elder Gin." Raven replied, giving out another salute to the old man. 

"Sit, sit." The old man seems to be pleased by how Raven carried himself, he asked the young man to sit down, to which Raven complied. "Well, how is it? What are your first impressions about the sect?"

Raven was a bit surprised but answered nonetheless: "It wasn't like how I imagined it to be. Specially after hearing Senior Brother's words about the summarized history of our sect."

"Right? After all, who would've expected to be thrown directly onto hell upon your first arrival?" The old man let out a hearty chuckle. 

"One devil..." The old man stated, "One strong, extremely powerful and villainous devil, was all it took to threated the very existence of the Divine Realm itself. Such a matter might be unbelievable, but the longer you remain here, the more you'll feel the sheer horror of that one devil's power."

Elder Gin's consciousness seems to drift off to the good old days on his memories as he absent-mindedly said: "Mount Olympus, a mountain which stands so high that it pierces the skies and stars itself. Its a seal created through the sacrifice of many lives."

"Even so, it was barely enough to keep that devil's power." The old man used a severe tone as he stated this, "Even with Mount Olympus as the seal, its vile power leaks and reeks pure evil. So much so that another seal was created in order to prevent its corruption of lives."

"That patching seal, is called the Devil Emperor's Pagoda." The old man dropped yet another shocking revelation to Raven. 

Although the young man has many questions, he didn't interrupt the old man and just waited for him to speak. 

"The Devil Emperor's Pagoda is created to contain the monstrosities that are leaking from the spatial rend, which size was almost as big as the Mount Olympus itself. That spatial rend was the result of the Devil God trying to break from its imprisonment by producing large amounts of Devils to do its bidding."

"The location of the pagoda is at the center of Tartarus." The old man stated, he then used his cane to draw some images in order for Raven to understand his point. 

He drew a large circle filled with smaller circles within. The outer most part was labeled at the Mount Olympus, the area after that was Tartarus. The area after Tartarus was labeled as Devil's Cradle and then the final area was the pagoda itself. 

"The Devil's Cradle is where some of the Stray Devils are found. Not even the Devil Emperor's Pagoda could prevent them from going out. Some of them formed a tribe, and with how fast Devils reproduce the amount of Stray Devils also rises. Outer Disciples like you, will most likely hunt them down."

"Once you're strong enough to no longer bother with the Stray Devils, then you'll eventually enter the Devil Emperor's Pagoda. There, you won't only see tribes but rather civilizations of Devils. Their numbers would leave you numb but your duty remains the same."

"The pagoda has 100 floors, only when you're able to eradicate a whole floor by yourself, would you be allowed to ascend to the next floor." The old man looked at him intently and continued: "Eventually, you'll there. But that's not going to happen anytime soon, so there's no use to talk about it for now."

The old man then took something out of his spatial ring and gave it to Raven. 

Raven carefully received it and briefly inspected it. The item was rosary, it has 999 round beads filled with mysterious carvings that differs from one bead to the other, the cross appeared to be just a regular cross but Raven could feel the mysterious fog surrounding it. 

"Ancestor Sealer's Rosary. It's the item that will help you accomplish your goal and settle your debt with the Heavenly Elk." Elder Gin stated, "It would be for the best if you could comprehend each seal embedded on each bead. Only then would the cross would reveal its true nature and allow you to lift the seal on him."

Elder Gin then stood up and give Raven a final glace, still without opening his eyes: "Should you arrive at an impasse, pay me a visit at the Storm Dweller's Peak, that is my home. However, I'll only assist you three times. After that, you're on your own. Whether you succeed on unsealing him or not, will no longer matter to me."

As soon as he said his piece, Elder Gin simply vanished before Raven's gaze, leaving the latter into a stunned state, obviously having a hard time processing what happened just now. 

Raven stared at an empty space for a couple of minutes before eventually letting out a defeated sigh. He placed the rosary inside his spatial ring and buried his face on his soft pillows, grumbling a few times as he did so. 

'Ugh, so many things to do. So many things to study!' Raven inwardly complained. 'And what's up with all of these people giving me homework about seals?'

'Master gave 99 Destruction Seals and 99 Holy Seals. I just got back here after receiving a technique that has something to do with, god knows how many, offensive seals. Now, this old man came out of nowhere and gave me another one thousand fucking seals to decipher!! What's up with all of you!?'

Raven flailed around his bed in frustration. He looked at the ceiling while lost in his thoughts. 

'I haven't even been here for an entire day, yet so much has already happened. Me and my current number Avatars can only do so much you know? Geez. What a headache.'

Raven was confident enough to accomplish all of this if he had more Avatars. But that exactly is where the problem lies. 

He would totally love to produce more, unfortunately he couldn't due to his current circumstances. 

First and foremost, resources. His merit points are nowhere near enough to cultivate the technique which allows him to create avatars. Second, location. Even if he did have enough merit points, where will he place his Avatars? He hadn't cleared all the pocket dimensions, therefore he doesn't have anyway to send the next batch of his Avatars to the place where he left his previous batch. 

And finally, priority. Aside from the absurd number of seals he had to decipher, his techniques, battle arts, laws and etc. are also things he had to pay attention to as well. There's just way too many things for him to handle and frankly, he had no clue where to begin. 

He had to shuffle multiple things at once, even with his previous experiences and his current advantages, Raven felt stressed and stumped by the amount of things that requires his attention. 

Raven harshly rubbed his face in frustration. He let out an exhausted sigh, sat up on his bed and took out a stack of papers to write on.. He then spent the next couple of hours gathering his thoughts and making a plan for his future.