[ITEM] Alchemy Recipe: Minor Defense Potion
[ITEM] Alchemy Recipe: Minor Agility Potion
[ITEM] Parchment Sheet
[ITEM] White Candle
[ITEM] Wooden Bookmark
[ITEM] Binding Thread
[ITEM] A Handful of Dust
[ITEM] Paper-chewing Bookworm
…
In his new private room, Ethan opened the window and flicked the bookworm outside without ceremony.
It vanished into the dark like it had never existed.
Just minutes earlier, Ralph had arrived with a small stack of library books—introductory texts on alchemy, borrowed under Bishop Frey’s approval.
Ethan had thanked him, walked him out, and then… hadn’t read a single page.
Instead, he laid one hand on each book in turn.
And he fished.
The results were a mixed bag—two solid recipes, a few useful materials, and a generous helping of junk.
With the same expression he used for garbage back home, he poured the dust out the window as well.
The bookmark and binding thread went into the desk drawer. They might be useful someday. Or they might not. Either way, they didn’t need to clutter his pack.
Staying in the Violet Goldflower Church meant playing by its rules.
Bishop Frey had assigned him a small room of his own, simple but clean.
Ralph had walked him through what an apprentice cleric was expected to do—what to say, what not to say, where not to go alone, and which corridors were reserved for senior clergy.
To Ethan’s surprise, the life wasn’t as suffocating as he’d expected.
And through Ralph’s casual explanations, he learned something important:
The Violet Goldflower Church wasn’t just a place of worship.
It was a place that took in pre-awakened civilians.
If an ordinary person awakened something supernatural and agreed to be guided, the church could accept them, train them, stabilize them.
It kept people from panicking when their bodies changed.
It kept them from being tempted by the wrong voices—by the kind of evil that waited in the cracks.
Even so, a church did not build elegant courtyards and ornamental ponds on prayer alone.
The Goddess did not mail funding from the heavens.
The real patron behind this place was the Earth Ring.
Ethan remembered the name from the [CHAT] channel.
Player 0344 had once dropped a long explanation for everyone who was still alive enough to read it.
The Earth Ring was a massive alliance—an organization that pursued Abyss Thralls and enforced order in the supernatural world.
When an awakened committed crimes, when a city faced extraordinary disasters, when something ancient stirred beneath the sea… the Earth Ring moved.
They weren’t owned by any island or government.
But they funded the faiths of the Seven True Gods across the Endless Sea—supporting churches, shrines, and sanctioned groups wherever they could get a foothold.
Publicly, it was about resisting evil.
Privately… it was about gathering every awakened under one umbrella before anyone else could.
Ethan wasn’t sure he hated that.
In a world as chaotic as this one, an umbrella was better than nothing.
Because he’d killed nine pirates—including an awakened—both the church and the maritime marshals had decided he was pre-awakened.
They weren’t wrong.
With Ethan’s consent, he was now officially an apprentice cleric of the Violet Goldflower Faith.
Bishop Frey told him he could study here, deepen his knowledge, and wait for the chance to truly ascend.
Ralph, ever the gossip, gave him the unofficial version.
“Do three months as an apprentice,” Ralph said, leaning in like it was contraband information. “Then you can become a full cleric. Two hundred gold a month.”
“And if you really become awakened? If you ascend for real?”
Ralph’s grin turned hungry.
“Then you might get recruited by the Earth Ring. The pay is… generous.”
Ralph admitted he was aiming for that himself.
But three years after awakening, he still hadn’t received an invitation from any of the Seven True Gods.
And without that invitation, he couldn’t even begin choosing which aspect Relic he would fuse with.
It filled in a piece of the world Ethan hadn’t fully understood.
For natives, the path went like this:
Receive an invitation from a True God.
Find a Relic aligned with that god’s aspect.
Fuse it.
Ascend.
So awakening didn’t automatically make you awakened.
It just opened the door.
But players…
Ethan remembered the official guide from the game’s trailer back on Earth:
Find a Relic. Become awakened.
No mention of waiting for a god to call your name.
Almost as if entering the game itself counted as an invitation.
So what, exactly, was the “god” behind this game?
There was Ethan’s own situation.
He had one clear path: fuse the Hunting-aspect Relic—Flint—and become a Hunter (Class).
But he’d also received the Stranger in the Shadows’ invitation.
Did that mean he could walk two supernatural roads at once—without becoming an Abyss Thrall?
Was that even possible?
Alone in the quiet room, Ethan rubbed his temples until the thoughts loosened.
Not now.
The sky outside had turned the color of bruised velvet. Sunset had bled out behind the rooftops.
He opened the quest panel and checked the system’s public progress.
[QUEST] Player Quest Progress Bulletin:
Completed all three tasks: 0 players
Completed two tasks: 2 players
Completed one task: 367 players
Time remaining: < 12 days Ethan stared at the number for completed-two-task players and let out a slow breath. Less than a day in, and he was already no longer the only one ahead. And the one-task count had climbed fast as well. It made sense. More and more players were finding institutions like the Violet Goldflower Church—places backed by the Earth Ring where survival didn't require pure luck. Ethan checked the time by instinct. If Skye didn't show up soon… "Meow~" A cat's cry cut through the courtyard outside. Ethan looked up. On a thick branch near his window, a black cat crouched like a shadow with eyes. Skye. She hopped down and dropped a black cloth bag onto his desk with a dull, heavy thud. "This is what you wanted," she said, voice smug even through a cat's mouth. "One hundred mithril bullets." Ethan lifted the bag and felt the weight immediately. He opened it and took out a single bright round. The bullet was smaller than the ones he remembered—maybe half the size. But its surface was etched with intricate patterns so fine it bordered on absurd. In a world without modern machining, that kind of precision didn't happen by accident. It happened by magic. For inspection, Ethan drew Flint—a black revolver that looked plain until you knew it wasn't. The Prying Eye had told him the truth earlier: without mithril bullets, Flint was incomplete. A Relic that couldn't be used as a Relic. And without a complete Relic, he couldn't clear his second task. "Click." He flicked the cylinder open, slid the bullets in, and snapped it shut. Instantly, text flashed before his eyes. [SYSTEM] You have obtained a Relic. [QUEST] Task 2 completed. [QUEST] All tasks completed. Please claim your reward.