CHRONICLES of a PC Gamer Stuck Inside an RPG (Book One: Duelist)

Chapter 48 - Trial by Combat

Not wanting to be in the crosshair of another grieving town person, Lensak and I redoubled our efforts to finish cleaning the other cages. Thankfully, the other clerics assigned to the task appeared to be eager to finish this assignment as well. After we finished scrubbing our share of the cages, the two of us took turns drawing water from the fountain in the center of the Public Square and rinsed the cages with water until they were clean. When that task was finally accomplished, the other Brothers joined forces with the two of us to move the cages back to the warehouse—manually.

"Heave!" the leader grunted as half of us, including me, pushed the cage from behind.

"Ho!" the other group shouted in unison as they pulled the cage forward.

Our teamwork was decent as members of both groups were in sync and contributed to the best of their physical abilities. Unfortunately, there were a dozen cages and it took the better part of an hour to move them all into the cavernous warehouse on the west side of the Public Square.

When the last cage was finally placed in storage, I got another pop-up. By then, I was almost out of stamina and therefore needed to rest. I walked over to the water fountain, sat down, and leaned my back against the base of the fountain. As I took a well-deserved rest from the manual labor, I finally took the time to go through my stockpile of notifications. As expected, most of the messages indicated either I suffered a small amount of damage (1-3 Health reduction), or my magic detection was successful and I received a combined total of 450XP from them.

The very last pop-up, though, was a surprise: "Faction quest COMPLETED. +250 Reputation. +500XP. +1 Strength, +1 Constitution. +100XP." Frankly, I didn't expect to get any experience out of my church assignment, and certainly not attribute points either. Furthermore, I was surprised to see that the game had considered the Church to be a "faction." However, it made sense on a certain level because my current profession was a swordsman and therefore assignments from the dojo's masters would be considered part of the main quest. If I were to change my profession from swordsman to cleric, however, then my tasks performed for the church would be considered part of the main quest line while the tasks performed for the dojo would be considered faction quests instead.

Although I never received the instruction manual for this game, it was heartening for me to know that I could still figure out the rules of the game sooner or later. And I've figured out some of the rules already. For example, every point I received in Reputation would be accompanied by two points in experience. Furthermore, every gain in an attribute was coupled with fifty points of experience. Suddenly, I noticed a large shadow looming over me. When I looked up, I saw it was Sister Maisen!

She dipped her head into the water and then pulled her head out. She shook her head like a dog and the water splashed all over me. Maisen opened her eyes and grinned broadly. "Sorry, Brother, I didn't notice you were next to me."

I wiped the water from my face and slowly got back to my feet. Suddenly, the church bell tolled twelve times. It was noon already!

"You ready for lunch? My treat," she proposed with a smile.

"Yeah, right," I smirked. "I'll be eating at The Noble Lady and my lunch is already included in my lodging."

"You could break your routine and eat at another tavern," Maisen pointed out.

I shook my head to reject the suggestion. I tried to imagine my girlfriend's reaction if I went elsewhere for lunch. Yeah, she wouldn't take it well, would she?

The armored warrior wiped off the droplets of water nestling on her thick brows. She grinned as if she had read my mind. "I suppose Amelica would consider that to be infidelity, eh?" she nudged me in the ribs with her armored elbow. "Okay, let's go grab lunch from your lady first. Afterward, I assume you're going down to the dojo?" When Maisen saw my nod she said, "I need to head down there too." She turned away from the water fountain, eastbound, and started to drag my arm along.