Worship Ceremony

Romance Realm, 13 Silvers Street.

Jason entered his romance realm apartment and closed the door as soon as he stepped inside. He glanced at his bandaged waist and groaned in annoyance as every now and then there would be a pain spike. The same happened with the faded handprint on his chest. Without notice, it would cause pain.

He tossed his backpack beside the couch and walked upstairs as he removed pieces of his clothes. Soon, he was walking only in his briefs. He entered the bathroom, turned on the hot shower, and stood beneath the shower head.

He glanced at the bandage that was supposed to be fine if it got drenched, and then he turned to the faded handprint as it spread black lines across his neck.

After he finished the shower, he wrapped a towel around his waist and went to the sink. He grabbed it with both hands and looked at the small mirror above the sink. It showed quite a handsome young man with drenched black hair. The deep blue eyes had lost some of their luster, as if they had dimmed.

He sighed and left the bathroom. After changing clothes in his bedroom, he returned to the living room, grabbed the backpack, and walked to the potion-making room on the second floor.

There were all the required tools to make a proper potion. Before starting to concoct, he opened the windows, as he didn't want to fill the room with smoke.

Then he put all the ingredients on the metal desk. He went to buy all the required ingredients before returning to his apartment. They cost a hefty amount of money, but he could afford them all. The only ingredients he really couldn't buy here were Horror Creature Lung and the blood-stained fang.

Both of which he had acquired beforehand.

The Strength potion ingredients were quite common. They were also relatively cheap if compared to his current wealth. An ordinary person could never afford it. That's why becoming a Systemer was expensive, and thus there were many Non-Systemer who could only look at the magnificent Systemer from afar while dreaming about becoming like them.

Some still enjoyed their ordinary lives as they knew how dangerous realm adventuring was. However, the biggest Realm Streamer fanbase were still those Non-Systemers.

"Let's begin..." Jason looked at the three potion recipes and picked Strength Potion first. It was the quickest to make, and he needed to digest the potion before nightfall. Only at night could he digest Night Potion.

He first filled the flask with 100 ml of salt water, which he also bought. It was the cheapest purchase this time. After pouring it all, he began handling the piece of flesh from the Muscle-Headed Minotaur and the torn achilles tendon.

After making them liquify, he added the last ingredient. The liquified sweat. Then, when he was done, he put the flask on the heating plate and turned it on.

Meanwhile, Jason took a seat while frowning at the smell. If the potion was done well, there wouldn't be any taste. However, if there was even a slight error, the taste wouldn't be good. Thus, he hoped that the pain wouldn't distract him and cause him to make mistakes.

Twenty minutes later, the potion was concocted. The liquid looked transparent, as if it were water.

Jason took it off of the heating plate and looked at the liquid with narrowed eyes. Soon, he smiled slightly before placing the edge of the flask against his lips. Then he closed his eyes and downed the entire potion.

After the transparent liquid traversed his oral cavity, Jason placed the flask back down and kept his eyes closed. He waited for a terrible aftertaste, but nothing came. It didn't have any taste. He smiled as he opened his eyes. The potion was concocted perfectly.

Then he felt his muscles expanding and his bones strengthening as a result. Even the broken ribs seemed to start healing faster. Jason immediately felt himself being stronger, and in his mind, memories from the potion flowed in.

Whenever he drank any potions, flows of memories came flooding in. They were memories of the potion, telling him the exact digestion method. It was almost like the potion was its own entity before being digested wholly.

That was helpful for Vampirification Potion since he didn't know its digestion method. It wasn't that common of a potion, which also meant that its digestion method was quite a secret.

His digestion method for Strength Potion was exercising.

'I hope my ribs don't get more broken after this.' Jason lampooned inwardly and started concocting the Night Potion. The potion needed five blue rose leaves, moon dust, horror creature lung, and 500 ml of ordinary tap water.

He went to fetch the tap water from the kitchen, and once he returned to the potion-making room, he began concocting the potion. After ten minutes, he was done and placed the flask on the heating plate.

Jason then went to the kitchen to wash his hands before heading to the living room. There, he lifted a couch and used it as weights while grimacing in pain. He didn't bother to go to the gym since the nearest one was thirty minutes away and the Night Potion would be concocted by then.

While grinning in pain as he lifted the couch, he opened the system to distract him from the pain.

***

[Welcome to the Human System!]

[Name: Jason Grandhart]

[Rank: System Apprentice]

[Age: 18]

[Level: 7]

[Percentage: 55/100]

[Class: ——]

***

'Four levels increase. Not bad!' Jason grinned wider as he screamed as he continued lifting the couch even when his arms had turned nearly numb. After two minutes of continued screaming, he felt that the potion had digested. Immediately, he felt that the strength was more controlled than before.

He dropped the couch as it banged against the floor, almost bouncing.

Jason pulled his sleeve and saw his muscles increase slightly in size. He still looked like an athletic young man, but with an even more ripped body.

At the same time, he checked his wristwatch and returned to the potion-making room. He still waited for around twenty minutes before taking the potion off the heating plate and downed the dark-colored liquid.

After drinking the Night Potion, Jason's eyes widened as he realized that something was happening inside his body. All his cells, muscles, bones, and organs started to slowly transform into something stronger. However, that transformation ended before it could finish.

The reason was on his system screen.

***

[Welcome to the Human System!]

[Name: Jason Grandhart]

[Rank: System Apprentice]

[Age: 18]

[Level: 10]

[Percentage: 77/100]

[Class: ——]

***

"23 percentage away..." Jason sighed, and he sort of wished that he and the clown would have taken a pair of the vampire's fingers. Then he could buy more ingredients for Vitality Potion and concoct it. It would be more than enough to push him to System Veteran.

The reason he wanted that was because he had to now concoct the Vampirification Potion. Since it was a powerful and rare potion, the digestion method might be dangerous. Especially the potion had something to do with vampires.

He then turned to the ingredients of the Vampirification Potion and didn't concoct it just yet. He planned to wait for nightfall. At first, he would digest the Night Potion, then concoct the potion before drinking it. After drinking, he would know the digestion method, which he would do the next day.

He left the potion-making room's windows open and returned to the living room. Then he walked out of the house and sat on his wooden porch. Every house in the neighborhood had a similar porch. Some had grills and couches where they could spend time with their guests.

Jason simply had one chair where he watched the passing clouds and setting suns.

'I wonder if there is any news about the Inner Circle now that the war is over.' He pulled out his phone and checked the news website. There wasn't anything particularly noteworthy that garnered attention except the memorial that was held for everyone that had fallen.

The war, after all, started out of misunderstanding, and everyone that died was part of something very unfortunate.

The picture showed Percy in a black funeral outfit holding a bouquet of flowers. Jason suddenly started feeling guilty when he saw his face and closed the phone before pocketing it.

"Good evening, Jason~"

Jason lifted his head and saw Ma'am Layfey walking with a beautiful young woman who sported a flower dress. They looked like a mother and daughter. Her eyes were a bright green and radiated the innocence of a young maiden.

"Ma'am Layfey, good evening." Jason replied as he watched the pair of beautiful women walking in the road with sunlight on their shoulders. Even Ma'am Layfey wore a summer dress, which made her look more youthful.

"Oh my, Jason, are you injured?" Ma'am Layfey stopped as she saw a glimpse of Jason's bandages. It was clear that the injury wasn't small. She looked concerned as the other woman, who looked like her relative, stopped beside her and looked curiously at Jason, whom she'd never met before.

Jason softly smiled as he shook his head. "It's nothing. A cat scratched me."

Ma'am Layfey looked surprised at the ridiculous lie, while the beautiful young woman suddenly started giggling. It was a rather ridiculous lie. Instead, it looked like he was hit by a car!

"A cat, you say?" Ma'am Layfey smiled as she shook her head.

"It was a very big cat." Jason rolled his eyes and looked at them before asking. "Where are you two ladies going?"

"There is a church gathering today. We are going there to worship the New and Old Gods." The young woman said while smiling, which made her cheeks look like chipmunks'. It made her look quite cute.

Jason looked at her with a raised eyebrow as he wondered who she was.

"Ah, apologies. We should introduce ourselves. My name is Lauraine." The young woman smiled as she grabbed Ma'am Layfey's hand. "Her niece."

"Ah." Jason nodded and slowly stood up as he tried to avoid hurting his ribs. "My name is Jason. Ma'am Layfey has taken good care of me since I moved here."

"As expected, you are good at flattery, Jason~" Ma'am Layfey said playfully and asked. "Do you want to come with us? You could get to know more about your neighbors."

Jason glanced at the sky, which was still blue. There would be a few hours before night fell. Thus, he nodded and said. "Sure."

After making sure he had his house keys and phone, he left and walked alongside Ma'am Layfey and Lauraine. They already saw the church, where people had gathered outside and inside.

"To which gods do you pray, Jason?" Lauraine asked curiously as she looked at him. Her green eyes showed a tinge of curiosity.

"There is no specific god I pray to." Jason answered. "I pray to God, which fits the situation."

"One has to have a God with whom you can share secrets with." Lauraine said with a sweet smile as she turned to look toward the church. "The Goddess I pray to is Goddess of Angels. Also known as the Goddess of Marriage, Happiness, and Childbirth."

'A God to share secrets with...' Jason shook his head, as he didn't really like to share his secrets with someone he didn't know. Even if the person was God, he wouldn't share secrets easily. He might only share some stuff with his father, since he was the only family member that was still around.

"Oh, today is a busy night." Ma'am Layfey exclaimed as they arrived at the church. The church was already quite full; only two rows of seats remained. They entered the church and took a seat in the second-to-last row.

Jason looked toward the platform, where the priest would start the ceremony. At the same time, he looked at the different gods and goddesses painted on the walls. They looked mighty, as if they could hold the world in their palms. They had gentle smiles with sympathetic expressions.

He then saw a painting of a goddess that was on another wall. Her long hair cascaded down, and her gentle smile was almost blindingly beautiful. She wore a beautiful white dress that made her mature body dangerously attractive, as if her body were made to represent the peak of elegance and beauty.

She was sitting on some kind of golden throne that looked like it was specially crafted for a person of very high status. Her golden hair was adorned with pink Sakura flowers, which made her look pure and gentle. Her cheeks were dyed slightly pink, as though she were blushing.

She indeed was befitting of the name Goddess of Marriage, Happiness, and Childbirth.

'Goddess of Angels, I assume.' Jason thought inwardly before getting distracted by the sudden song. He turned to the platform, where a priest had appeared. The worship ceremony was about to begin.