Chapter 217 – The aftermath.

The monster was dead and the battle was over. The accountant by the name of Melaina had managed to deliver the finishing blow while the monster was distracted by Roland’s magical blast. Her clothes were in taters and revealed a body fit for a warrior with many muscles and scars.

Yet this was not what Roland was looking at this point in time. His gaze was on the status screen of this woman that had been updated. Loreena was her true name and her classes were quite interesting. Probably the item that kept her status screen had been destroyed along with her clothes during the battle which allowed Roland to take a peek.

Loreena had certainly been blessed with good swordsmanship, even her first class was a Sword Warrior. This class was usually taken by people trying to rank up into tier 2 swordsmen down the line. The Blade Acolyte was unknown to him but it indicated the relationship with the church.

That was nothing new as during the battle the woman brought up her relation to the church a few times. The golden aura blade was also a dead giveaway that she was related to some kind of deity. The coloring would be dependent on the god they were involved in. The cultist for instance would probably have a more darkened blade either pitch black or dark purple.

This battle also gave him a bunch of experience. He delivered two large blasts to the high level tier 3 monster. Even without delivering the killing blow he was rewarded with three level ups and was fast approaching the tier 3 threshold.

Besides getting some new stats his dexterity was pushed past two hundred which gave him another trait. It seemed that he would not need to worry about fumbling when working with his hands even less.

While his old Runesmith Lord class was more equalized in all fields his new Runic Engineer seemed to put strength and agility into the backburner. This was fine as he could bridge the gap with the help of his armor, the more mana and intelligence he possessed the more his spells would scale of them.

No new skills were unlocked which was normal. Usually, new skills would be unlocked every ten levels or so, sometimes it was even rarer. Nothing was a guarantee and some classes required the person to unlock the skill themselves by some kind of revelation.

A skill book was the best way but an individual could acquire a skill on their own accord if they managed to figure something out. It was similar to gaining a climbing skill just by going up a tree a few times.

“You have my gratitude.”

“I didn’t do much, just distracted it for a moment.”

While glancing between the interface he saw that the woman from the church regained her footing. Even now her breathing was erratic and the glistering aura blade had crumbled into dust with only a sword hilt remaining in place. He had to give it to this weapon, it was quite fascinating and compact.

Could he create a magical version of it that would not consume all of his mana at once? An Aura blade was considered to be equal to something like Mythril. While this was not the strongest metal out there it was from the top shelf. Yet it would still be damaged while a blade made from Aura could be recreated multiple times.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

A sword hilt wasn’t even needed, if a person’s aura blade skill was high enough they could even create it from thin air. Yet the more space it covered the more resources it burned up. A hilt was not as important thus most master swordsmen used separate items made from similar alloys. The one this woman was using looked to be high quality with various gems placed on the sides that perhaps augmented the blade in some way.

“Don’t sell yourself short Mr. Wayland, you were able to cause damage to an abyssal creature you will have my eternal gratitude”

The woman did something surprising as she bowed her head before someone of a lower level. This caught him off guard as most people with power would most likely brush his involvement to the side. Yet now came another problem, what was this all about. What started as a regular rank-up test for a silver grade adventurer turned into a cult eradication mission.

“Don’t worry about it, more importantly, Ms. Melaina… are you feeling alright? I saw what those cultists did to the people, your eye…”

Roland could see the woman’s legs shaking, even though she was standing up there were many wounds on her body. Then there was also her left eye which seemed to have been occupied by one of those tiny leech-like monsters.

While he seemed concerned about the woman’s wounds in reality he was somewhat prodding for answers. If she was from the church she probably knew what this was all about, perhaps he could finally figure out what this Abyssal cult was after.

“I am immune to the abyssal influence… but what did you just say? You saw the cultists perform their dark ritual, could you explain yourself?”

The woman seemed to react strangely to his question. After thinking for a moment he realized the mistake he made.

“I, well…”

Loreena was part of the church and was here probably to hunt down the Abyssal Cultists. This meant that she should be somewhat aware of how they conducted themselves. Roland did not know if the church actually knew about the runic items they were using to evade detection.