An invitation to Church

Davis didn't give 2 farts to what the voices outside said, he was simply caught up in the euphoria that comes everytime he works out a mystery. Only this time it was 10 times no a hundred times no even more, it was a thousand times more than anything he had gotten in his previous world.

He spent over an hour just taking in the air of this new world and feeling that mystical energy that was present all around him. To the people of this world they may take it as ordinary since they were born here but for Davis who came from a world that was dead he could strongly feel the energy that dwelt in this world.

It was like someone who all his life had grown up in the desert suddenly moving to a rainforest. He would be able to notice the humidity in the rainforest better than someone who grew there all his life because he came from somewhere that was scorched all year round with little to no form of water.

After revelling for a few more minutes he reluctantly stopped and started to assess his current situation. The first thing he did was to go over the memories he had in his consciousness and understand the situation he was in. After a few minutes he understood a bit and he couldn't help but let out a weird chuckle.

"What kind of shitty situation is this? Forget it, it's better than being in a dead world. I just have to figure out how to get myself into a better situation. "

Davis was a bit frustrated about his new life but he quickly overlooked it. He had every right to be frustrated though, Green Newman was the current identity he had. The real Green apparently died from taking a quack drug that not only didn't cure the sickness but downright made it worse, the result being his death.

Its not that Green didn't want to buy good drugs but he wasn't in a position to. A couple of years back and something like this wouldn't have happened, they would have been a full medical team attending to him but alas tragedy struck the Newman family so hard that all that was left of it was he and his little sister.

Apparently, his father was framed for involving himself with a bunch of heretics and the entire business empire that had been built up over the past generations was destroyed over night by a group of inquisitors. His father did try to resist, he had his own private army but for all his might it was nothing in the face of the church and it was easily snuffed out.

The entire empire was destroyed and the only reason why the two of them were kept alive was because of the request of a very important figure but that was it. They were just alive and the money they brought with them was soon running out.

He had tried getting a job but no one wanted to hire a bunch of heretics' children and even those that would hire him, he didn't have the skills to work there. All his life he'd been pampered so how was he supposed to learn mundane works.

He was a skilled account but no one looked kindly upon him and between the stress, the sickness and the faulty drug he couldn't hold on anymore. So here Davis was now, without any money or asset to his name and even the rent for this room he was staying in was about to expire.

He had stopped schooling so that his sister could continue but even with that if he didn't find any money soon she'll have to drop out.

"Although I may not be Green, I can't just abandon the little girl. I'm not that good with family but I guess I'll try it out. This world doesn't seem that far in with technology, they still seem to be using steam power but I need to know more about it. "

Just when Davis was about to plan his next move, a splitting headache struck him and he lost his balance and fell. It was as though someone was stirring up his brain with a knife, in summary it was painful as hell.

A series of glyphs flashed in his consciousness, they were similar to the words he saw in that space only this time he could understand what they meant. It turns out those things he remembered in that space never left and they were manifesting now.

Those glyphs flashed about in his head and he absorbed all the knowledge contained within them, when he came to he was drenched all over and his figure was pale but his eyes were shining and a smile stretched across his face.

"This day just keeps getting better and better"

In his head was a series of words

// Host has listened in on a lecture on "The Fundamental Elements and their Derivatives" Comprehension:100%//

//Host has listened in on a lecture on "Fire; Source, Use, Laws" Comprehension:100%//

//Host has listened in on a lecture on "Water; Source, Use, Laws" Comprehension:100%//

//Host has listened in on a lecture on "Earth; Source, Use, Laws" Comprehension:100%//

//Host has listened in on a lecture on "Wind; Source, Use, Laws" Comprehension:100%//

//Host has listened in on a lecture on "The World of Mysticism" Comprehension:100%//

//Host has basic knowledge of the four elements. Recommended to learn Tier 1 spell "Four Elements, Myriad Changes" Cost 100 Mystic Energy Points to Learn forcefully or can take test and learn for free. (Test trials remaining: 3)//

//Host has successfully promoted to 1st Ring mystic//

//Host has understood Tier 3 knowledge, 1st Ring has been Stabilized. Can promote to 2nd Ring Mystic.//

//Conditions necessary for promotion: Understand Tier 2 Knowledge, Tier 2 Potion : Wanderer.//

//Host has awakened talents: Sage Pupils, Student of Myriad Beings, Sage Edict.(Talents use mental energy not mystic energy)//

//Four Elements, Myriad Changes (Tier 1): Has control of the four basic elements but elements must be present before use. Mystic Energy Cost: Depending on scale of use.(Cannot draw out of nothing and cannot adjust the quantity of the element.)//

//Sage Pupils: When in use,can see those things that cannot be seen and will process thoughts at a faster speed. (Nothing can be hidden from the eyes of a sage.)//

//Student of Myriad Beings: When in use can draw knowledge from everything both animate and inanimate. (Cannot draw infinitely, so finding a rock from 1000 years ago doesn't mean you can look back 1000 years into the past)//

//Sage Edict: Each people have their own language so how can the heavens not have its own. Understand the language of the heavens and you can use that language to move heaven itself. (Words learnt currently: nil)//

Davis sat down on the floor and tried to digest all the knowledge swarming in his head from "The World of Mysticism". The world he is in currently is named Geas and within this world are 3 acknowledged powers namely Mysticism, Divinity and Martial Cultivation.

Each are divided into 10 stages, numbered 1 to 10 with the only difference being that mystics call their stages rings, priests call their stages heaven and cultivators call their stages life palace. That wasn't the only difference though, they use different energies to.

Mystics use Mana Energy, Cultivators use Life Energy and Priests use Faith Energy. The stages 1 to 6 within all 3 systems are strong but they remain within the limits of the world but from 7 to 9 they have broken that limit and have certain titles awarded by each system.

The Mystics call them Magus, The Priests call them Saints and The Cultivators call them Venerables. Stage 10 is the finality of all the systems and they are all commonly known across all systems as Supremes. There is a realm beyond stage 10 but it wasn't included in the lecture, only that for Priests they call them Gods, Mystics would call them Enlightened and Cultivators call them Sovereigns.

The method of promotion is different across all systems and it wasn't detailed how the other 2 systems apart from Mysticism promote. Mystics however promote by ingesting potions that can alter their entire beings, helping them evolve and make them stronger by establishing rings within their consciousness.

However after taking each potion, there is a period required for the potion to digest in order to stabilize the promotion. This digestion can be sped up by performing certain actions that align with the mystic's evolution path. A stabilized ring will be more powerful than one which isn't stabilized. Within each ring is a spell slot, which allows the mystic to learn one spell and only one spell.

So even if a mystic reached stage 10 he can only learn 10 spells. The spell tier cannot surpass the mystic's stage but when the mystic promotes he can upgrade the tier of his spell through different procedures depending on the spell.

As for talents, they can be awakened by certain life experiences among all 3 systems and it can't be predicted. Once awakened they can give a massive boost in strength to their user.

They are also things known as cursed relics, tools that have various effects some useful more than others but the common thing is that they all have a curse attached to them but it can be countered by various means. However it is said that if the user can resonate with the cursed relic then the curse will cease at that point it can be stored in one's consciousness and are called natal relics.

Much like the one Davis has. They have grades still numbered 1 to 10 corresponding to the number of stages but Davis can't approximate the grade of his until he has more information. The ideal of his natal item is not yet clear to him but he has a certain idea about it, even though he doesn't know what grade it is, something made from the combination of the last vestige of a whole world and the consciousness of an Enlightened one can't possibly be low.

That's right. Davis feels that that consciousness he felt should be that of Aristotle but it wasn't as strong as he thought it'd be most likely cause he had met a bad end and that was all that remained of him. Now that he thinks about it, it was a bit reckless on his part to call forth a being he knows nothing about.

As for how he knows he was an Enlightened one, to him only such a being has the ability to respond to his ritual across space and time. Taking note to be less reckless in future he focused back on the book.

"Since I'm already at this point, I might as well learn this spell but I'll take the test. Using 100 Mystic Energy Points to learn it seems like a good deal but they is definitely a drawback to learning it forcefully. Not to talk of the fact that using energy will drain me completely, I feel that 100 is probably all I have and according to the lecture, using all of one's energy will make it very difficult to recover it without using special items. I already have the knowledge, what could possibly go wrong? "

His mind made up Davis made to take the test.

//Confirm, Host wants to take test to learn Tier 1 spell " Four Elements, Myriad Changes "?//

" Yes "

//Test starting in 3, 2, 1.... Good luck//

Everything went dark and when he could see again, he was in a space that was completely white. He was here physically and most likely he had disappeared from the room. He was trying to figure how that was possible and whether this space was within the book or his consciousness.

Before he could figure it out however a voice echoed in the space, it was completely monotone without any feeling to it.

"IDENTIFY AND SOLVE THE PROBLEM IN THIS ELEMENT MATRIX AND ACTIVATE IT. IF SUCCESSFUL ON THE FIRST TRY, HOST WOULD BE ENTITLED TO ONE FREE TIER 1 LECTURE. HOST HAS 1HOUR, GOOD LUCK"

Before Davis a circular matrix appeared before him and he was stunned for a minute. What the heck is a matrix, he doesn't have any knowledge on that. He only knows about the four elements and indeed he can identify the symbols in it but he doesn't understand how it works altogether.

He was a bit reluctant to give up though cause of the reward and so he spent 30 minutes making a fool of himself. He wrote down symbols in the wrong place or he attached wrong nodes generally he only made it get worst and ruined any chances he had of solving it, it was just like untangling cords, if you do it the right way from the start you can solve it easily but if you keep on twisting it in the wrong direction, it'd only get more difficult the more mistakes you make.

Just when he was about to give up, he thought about his knowledge of trigrams and wondered if it could be applied here.

'That's right, I don't know about here but on earth if I claimed to be second in my knowledge of trigrams no one would claim to be first.'

With this train of thought, he broke down the matrix into trigrams and all of a sudden the test looked like a joke. He didn't have much time remaining though and he already made a big mess before his realization but he gritted his teeth and pushed himself to his limit.

"That's right, I can use the Sage Pupils maybe it'll help"

He closed his eyes and when he opened them again his eyes were a regal shade of gold and runic symbols could be seen flashing within them. The matrix was unfurled before his eyes and his thoughts were moving at unfathomable speeds. His speed increased several folds and he was barely able to make it in time. With a whoosh sound he appeared back in the room he was in, he took a cursory glance around the room for the first time he got here.

He had been so occupied with all the new realizations he didn't even bother about such a thing. There was only one window in the room and it faced towards the street bringing with it all the smoke from those factories since they lived upstairs.

The rooms downstairs were more expensive cause of that reason but Davis couldn't afford it so they stick with this one. There was no decor to speak of just a bed, wardrobe and a chair and table that were already there when he moved in. He let out a sigh and focused back on his consciousness.

//CONGRATULATIONS!!! HOST HAS PASSED THE TEST ON THE FIRST TRY. GRADE A+ REWARD: FREE TIER 1 LECTURE ×6 (GRADES CAN GRANT ADDITIONAL REWARDS. B _ 1, B+ _ 2, A- _ 3, A _ 4, A+ _ 5) //

//AWARDING ×1 FREE TIER 2 LECTURE FOR HOST UNIQUE SOLUTION//

Davis let out a smile of satisfaction but he scolded himself for being to reckless again. He should have known the test would be anything but easy but he was to hung up on the excitement of a new world. He let out a deep breath and focused in on the ring in his consciousness.

It was very wide and had a big diameter, he could barely see all of it. The space within the consciousness is infinite thus there was no limitations on the size of the ring. It all depends on your talent and even if Davis didn't know how they measured talent in this world, he was sure his was definitely something else.

He dived into the ring and indeed the flow of energy was very stable. Within the ring he saw the matrix for the "Four Elements, Myriad Changes" Spell and it was awe inspiring, Four colors red for fire, blue for water, pale yellow for earth and cyan for wind blended together in glyphs,lines and symbols to create a beautiful work of art.

It was at this moment that Davis realized he would be able to achieve all that he thought about and more. When he opened his eyes, he stood up and walked to the only window in the room and looked outside.

He could see the bunch of people moving on the streets. Some used bicycles and once in a while you might see a car pass by though not as atheistic as what he was used to.

He let out a smile and unclenched his fists that he didn't even realize were being clenched and let out a smile. He walked away from the window and stood in front of a mirror and took a good look at himself in the mirror.

The figure in it was vastly different from the white haired wrinkled figure he was used to seeing. The image in the mirror cut a lanky figure and had sunken in eyes. His black hair had a short cut and his black pupils where different from the golden glow it gives off when he uses Sage Pupils but it was alright. His clothes would have been okay but they had faded with time, he didn't want to buy those 'commoner' clothes so he stuck to using his own 'noble' clothes.

Over time however between the endless walking under the sun and rain, the various tedious works he was doing in such delicate clothes made them worse for wear and he even looked worse than those commoners. Davis shook his head, Green wasn't a bad guy after all he gave up his own education so that his sister could continue but his mental state wasn't stable enough to endure hardships.

This wasn't how Green always looked, before the incident he was a lady killer but now he couldn't come to terms with the world he was pushed into and he turned out looking like the people he rejected.

"It doesn't matter, I'll start using those exercises I picked up and within 3 months I should be in tip top shape. I'll just need to get money for the diet. Ugghhh I really need to figure how I'm gonna get around this problem with money. It's been a long time since I worried about things like this and I can't really go grave digging in a world I'm not familiar with."

"Forget it, I'll figure it out later. Right now I should get something to eat... I hope there's something left in the kitchen"

Before Davis could make it there however there was a knock at the door. Davis realized he was about to make his first contact with someone from this world and that familiar euphoria lingered in his mind as he walked to the door.

"I'm coming, hold on a bit"

He thought it should be his sister, the school closed around this time so she should be back around now but when he opened the door he was quite surprised to see a genial old man in a luxurious blue robe with strange symbols that bore some semblance to storm elements like clouds, lightning, wind etc

Davis figured out that this was probably a high ranked figure of the church but what is he doing here? Was he able to notice him entering this world, he didn't think so. He played it safe and showed a welcoming smile while hiding some feigned fear deep in his eyes after all this were the people that destroyed his life.

To big a change in his disposition could invite trouble so he would do so step by step. The smile could be taken as a fake front but it showed he was well on his way to walk out of his dark past.

"How may I help you sir?"

The old man let out a smile and with a voice that could put a baby to sleep he said.

"Mr Newman, would you and your sister mind following me to go and worship the Lord of Storms?"

Author's Note: I said it and I delivered hehe, a saint never lies. I'll post 3 more chapters within the week but from next week it'll be 2 unless indicated otherwise. If you enjoy the story leave a comment and as always I welcome any helpful criticism. Hope to talk to y'all in the comment section, Saint Out 😴