Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 503 Temple Run (2)

In the hierarchy of the Purity, at the very bottom were the Priests or Priestesses, then came the Grand Priests and at the very top, only behind the pinnacle of the entire organisation, were the Higher Order Priests.

(A/N: Refer to Ch.181).

Valis, the old man Revia had gone to protect in the Isise, was a Higher Order Priest, gifted with a treasure that held a Divine Blessing within it. Grand Order Priests under Valis could borrow the treasure for limited amounts of time or beckon to the Higher Order Priest for other treasures with effects required for a specific task.

All this bled into the purpose of the Priest class.

It was an Energy Former class that demanded one to be capable of handling Divine energies in the lower forms from the get go.

Things such as Primus would quickly become a part of a Priest once they chose the class, but to gain the full functionality of this class, one had to be ordained by the Deities for it or else they would be stuck with the Priest class by name only.

In this case, one had to believe in the Direction of the Deities and stick to it.

The criteria to become a Priest was as strict as that of becoming a Mage, as severe, mostly uncontrollable stipulations existed to weed out the unworthy or incapable. Thus choosing either of these classes depended on either Direction or talent.

At this moment, the doors to the Temple were closed, all those who had been coming for varying reasons temporarily turned back as an issue needed to be attended to.

An aged man with a sharp and wise look in his eyes stood before Skullius who hugged himself against the wall, surrounded by the Priestesses.

The old man wore a large robe and held a cane in his hand to support his body - not that he was excessively weak due to age, but more or less due to habit.

"This man..." the old man said. "... is indeed cursed."

"Grand Priest...?" one of the Priestesses voiced with concern.

The old man, who was indeed the Grand Priest had an unsettled look over his face that caused the proliferation of more wrinkles than he already had.

"There is something around him, warding off all the light from the Temple and the energy from my body," the Grand Priest explained.

The Temple was a sacred place, its exterior and interior overflowing with serene energy that was meant to put everyone at ease. Dull hints of Primus energy that the Grand Priest exhumed also had the same purpose, an effect of his class.

Even though the man was quite powerful, wielding Primus energy that flowed from his class, channelled from the Deities presumably, took a huge toll on his body. Most of the Priests had to have a powerful tool around them to handle the power that grew as they served within the Temple and completed Tasks.

"Please... help... me," Skullius murmured once again.

The Grand Priest failed to churn out sympathy from his old heart. He had been told about what this man had done.

The fact that he was covering himself, hiding his face because of shame told the Grand Priest quite a lot.

"Do you truly wish to be saved?" the Grand Priest asked Skullius with a serious tone.

"Y...yes," the Hybrid Luman eagerly agreed.

The old man held a scoff.

Such desperation...

It felt lacking. False even. He knew a sorry and troubled soul when he met one. This wasn't one such soul.

'Strange,' the Grand Priest thought. 'I cannot hear anything for this man. The Deities have gone... silent.'

This feeling was unsettling.

High level Priests or Priestesses could ascertain the Direction of any individual as well as communicate with the Deities. Unfortunately, communication did not mean a two way channel, as most only heard a voice that spoke in their heads.

This usually occurred when a Priest could handle enough Primus. Enough Divine Energy. The more they could hold, the more they could hear.

This strange network was why some Priests had gone rogue, proliferating the belief that there was no such thing as the Deities, but merely a supernatural system that mechanically gave instruction without emotion, hence the lack of proper divine punishment. This was why many were quickly losing belief.

This Grand Priest still believed however, even as he couldn't hear anything at the moment.

"I see right through you. You are only desperate to get rid of the curse the cultists cast on you. You have no desire to change at all," the old man said with an accusing glare.

"Despicable," one of the Priestesses spat.

Sadly, letting someone like this go, with his curse in tow...

"For someone like you, I will not grant your salvation for free. I will give you a task to accomplish before I remove your curse. Something befitting of a hypocrite who only calls on the Deities when they have nowhere else to go," the Grand Priest said. "Only after you accomplish it, will I remove your curse."

***

"Jeez. Talk about harsh words. Not what I expected at all but it will do," Skullius said as he moved through the streets.

His hands were slotted in his pockets as he strolled along, the rigidness in his steps displaying how he felt that exchange was a resounding success despite the old bro's task and words.

All he had done was to secure a chance at culling the horrendous luck before it showed using the information he had gained from Tulnas some time ago.

The Harem Guild Master had told Skullius sometime after their expedition that the artefact he had used to cleanse the disease from the people in the town and also by extension, attempted to use to get rid of Skullius' curse – the Seed of Quintess' Eye - belonged to the Purity.

(A/N: Refer to Ch.254).

He explained that the Purity could lend such objects to someone, especially if they had a good relationship with them.

The artefact had almost worked on Skullius but the Binds of Fukal had come in clutch, refusing to allow any of Skullius' curses to be purged.

While this had been unfortunate, Skullius had thought long and hard about it and discovered a loophole.

If he used an artefact like that while in his Penetrator form, it was highly likely that it would work, as he wouldn't have the binds restricting him!

Naturally, the impending doom with the horrendous luck aspect wasn't really a curse but given its source and nature, it should be considered adverse by all accounts and thus qualify as a target to be quelled by an oh so good high level artefact!

As simple as that.

Sadly, Skullius didn't have the time to cultivate a relationship with the Purity, so he improvised.

As he had planned, he turned himself into a crude villain with a bullshit story in order to ensure that none of the Priestesses would feel the urge to help him initially.

He then made sure that this curse story was convincing by using the strange ability that came with his flesh becoming entangled with the death energy from Demion's Dance, the blackish-red energy which he could summon and imbue into weapons even without the green sword.

The feeling of this power did feel like a dreadful curse and Skullius using it out in the open, in spite of dreading the second sun in the sky, was a gamble on his part to ensure that the Purity Priestesses would still consider it dangerous enough to warrant intervention.

His plan had worked.

The do-gooders, enslaved by the chains of duty to assist anyone who sought for help, were forced to attend to him, the Grand Priest having given Skullius a task outside the city to do first though.

'There was a tragedy in the Isise not too long ago. Many people were killed. A dangerous man toyed with thousands of lives and kidnapped one of the Paladin Champions. Of course, you wouldn't care,' the Grand Priest had said. 'The Temple in the Isise is highly revered but it was subjected to heavy damage. The cities and their residents there also are in need of assistance of any kind. I will send a message there and register you as a volunteer. If you serve hard enough and earn the merit of Priests and people there, I will help you.'

That was the task.

While at first, sending someone with a curse to a recovering city was strange, the Grand Priest had elaborately cleared on that concern.

A Paladin Champion was stationed in the Isise just in case and his ability fit perfectly with Skullius' nature.

'It shouldn't be a problem to get such merit. I'll rebuild the entire Temple myself if I have to,' Skullius thought with intense determination.

He had wanted to send Stylla to do this for him but unfortunately, the lady wasn't really pious and neither was her brother. If they asked for something that could cure a curse, they would probably get something generic. Silrat wouldn't be any better as the only connections he had were in the Guilds Association.

Yuyui would be a much worse candidate.

If she were to kill herself and revive, claiming it was a curse, she would probably be captured and purged.

In the end, all this was left to Skullius' wits.

'I've added this to the long list of things I have to do. Procuring my rewards at the Guilds Association, the Premium Age Royale, re-checking my spoils from the last battle with that fiery bastard and then...'

Then came the objective Skullius was most excited about.

In just more or less three days, [Bringer of All] would be off its cooldown and he could achieve two things.

Finally getting his hands on a blue core for his Eternal Storm Veil Penetrator form and getting an avatar that could move all around Aigas separately from him!

From then on, he expected his progression to be insanely fast!

"Speaking of objectives..." Skullius said as he summoned his guidance field to check his new Task for Level 12.

Right as he was about to focus on the text...

...!

His body quivered!

A familiar, dreadful presence registered in his Koten!

It was... it was the same he had felt on the way to the Association before!

It had showed up again!

---

[Author's Note]

I fixed an error on how many days till Bringer of All comes off cooldown. I had missed the passage of two days after the Galemonger's attack.