Aftermath

"No! It's not fair!" A man wearing shabby armor was sent away by people wearing uniforms.

The setting was within a grand hall. It looked to be clean and bright, beaming with grace and holiness. It was none other than a place of worship, but unlike the Church of Gourmet, this was an orthodox one.

"What a messy attitude, who in their right minds would say such a thing?" A man in priestly garbs ridiculed the man.

"Indeed. Such preposterous demands for such bogus information. Don't you think that that savage deserved something more, what can I say? Brutal?" A person wearing formal attire replied.

"Truly so. However, he may be on to something here. I doubt that people will say anything about any of this any time soon."

The priest robe-wearing man confirmed and thought out loud. He was correct, this concept of those unholy beings that were banished from existence for centuries coming back.

"If you say so. Well then, should I assign a team to investigate this query? It doesn't matter much but it should be enough for this."

The formal attire-wearing man replied nonchalantly.

"Thank you, your grace, Dunkin."

"Much obliged, your Holiness."

-

"So, whaddya say?" The leader of the group from Diabolical asked Bob once more.

"Don't rush him, Jianni." The blonde cleric warned Jianni.

"I know what I'm doing, Don. And yes, we need him in our ranks." Jianni, the leader-figure, retorted.

Bob was alone in the morning. He spent the night within an inn and was able to take a warm bath and relieve himself of the dirt, mucus, and blood all over his body.

"Cluck!"

Lavanuk clucked once and then said nothing more.

"Maybe? Give me a couple of days more before I get to decide." Bob still couldn't decide whether to accept their offer.

"Alright. However, please accept my friend request. I'll be staying in the Kingdom of Doof for a while before I lose my shit. You better make it worth it for us three." Jianni said her ultimatum.

Now, despite Jianni's warnings, Bob wasn't alarmed. He's an immortal man, what kind of ungodly horror would he be afraid of? Except for Ligma and her kind, that shit was just scary even for him.

"Before I send you a friend request, there are three things that I have to say." Jianni talked with a soft voice. It still isn't established whether Jianni is a male or a female, but does it even matter?

"Yep? What is it?"

[Jianni sent you a guild invite. Accept?]

[You successfully joined the guild 'Diabolical'.]

"Haha! You got bamboozled!" Jianni tricked Bob into thinking that it was a simple friend request.

Bob was alarmed but he knew that that isn't that much of a problem.

"Hello? System? How do I leave guilds?" Bob asked the system that was helpful to every player.

[Are you sure you want to leave your guild?]

"Yes."

---------------

Character Name: Bob

Level: 20

Class: [Corrupted] Gourmet's Knight (Epic)

Race: Essential

Titles:

-Keeper

-First Witness

-Death in One Shot

-Helpful Adventurer

Stats:

-STR: 105 +

-AGI: 25 +

-VIT: 10 +

-INT: 1 +

-WIS: 1 +

-LCK: 10 +

-FTH: 5

Stat Points Remaining: 50

Contracted Monsters: 1/1

-------------

Bob's stats are still unbalanced. He still hits strong but his HP pool is still very low but that isn't much of an issue.

Without anything to do, Bob and Lavanuk wandered around the vicinity of Sunnyside Village, looking for monsters to kill to past the time, diving deeper into the depths of the forest.

Crackle~

Wood breaks as they burn within the fiery abyss of a forest fire.

"Shit." Bob cursed as he held Lavanuk in his hands as he ran through the forest.

"This is totally your fault!" He screamed towards his chicken.

He may say that, but he knew that he was partially at fault here. Lavanuk's flames may be temporary, but the fire that spread above and beyond those flames are the result of fuel being burned. In other words, Lavanuk and Bob just caused a forest fire.

"Run!"

There's not much he could do. He's not running for his life, he's running to avoid getting caught by local authorities.

When Bob and Lavanuk got out of the vicinity, the fire mysteriously deteriorated to a small ember and was put out within moments.

"Wow. Neat." Bob wiped his sweat away, knowing that the situation was alleviated.

The damage was done, some trees were burned in the process. However, Bob was relieved that it didn't result in a massive forest fire. Still, it's a mystery how the fire was put out.

Seeing that things have calmed down, Bob walked away from the scene and decided to just forget about it. It's not unusual for forest fires to happen anyway as plenty of monsters and adventurers have aspects of fire.

'.....' A figure was speechless as it observed Bob nonchalantly walking away from his responsibilities.

The figure was on a treetop, calmly watching over Bob as it assessed the damage the fire did.

-

"Sorry guys. The kids were very difficult to put to sleep." E scratched his head as he apologized to the group while smiling terribly.

Unlike everyone else in the party, he had responsibilities. Specifically, he had children to take care of. This fact alone already separated him as everyone else has all the time in the world to play the game.

'I'll be left behind in levels huh. Good thing I'm a summoner.' He thought.

"Don't worry, E. While you're busy with your family, we write chapters. So no one will be left behind in this party." Enma encouraged E.

Despite his smile, it was obvious that E thought he was dragging the party down.

"Stop it with this cheesy conversation. We have a quest to redeem." Minion broke the sappy mood with his blunt words.

He was right, they had two separate quests to complete. One was the quest Crazy Dude Maral gave them, while the other one was an unmarked quest from the Blood Moon questline.

To complete either of them, the party has to travel back to Donut City. It wasn't a far distance from Sunnyside Village, but it still takes quite some time.

"I keep telling you, time and time again, don't use your blinding light spell when I'm right in front of the monster."

"Haha. If you're not with the monster, the monster would be on my ass."

"Hey. What do you think of getting a couple of potions?"

"Eh? Potions? We're noobs, we can't afford that. Plus, I'm here to heal everyone."

"..."

"Cluck cluck."

"I can't wait to eat rations from the church."

They spent their sweet time to walk and had a decent conversation for once.

-

"You've come!" Fera embraced Bob as the party arrived in the church.

"Cluck." Lavanuk, who was perched on Bob's head, moved to Fera's head.

Bob's adventure with the party lasted for a couple of days. During that time, the paperwork necessary for Bob's official inauguration was completed by none other than Fera herself.

Their journey was fruitful and they found all the missing ends of their quest. They also discovered mysteries hidden within Sunnyside Village.

[Your blood boils.]

"..." Fera noticed the anomaly within Bob. The reaction of his blood and the holiness of the church contradicted each other was easily noticed by someone from an extreme side.

"Bob, we need to talk." Fera said.

The party didn't know what was happening underneath, they just assumed that Bob and Fera had a pretty good relationship, wink wink.

"Okay. However, my friends have something to say first." Bob replied.

E stepped forward to speak up.

"Cough." He faked a cough to signal some people to let go.

Only then did Bob and Fera realize that they were still in each other's embrace.

After they terminated their hug, E began explaining his piece. He explained the story of the re-emergence of the unholy beings and the story of Ligma.

"Ligma, I can't say I've seen her personally, but I have heard of her. Is what you say, factual?" Fera can't just take their word for it. It was a sensitive topic due to the scale of this situation.

Ligma herself was a high ranking vampire, at least from the party's experience from fighting against her. It could hardly be called a fight, it was an adult bullying some children.

"Stay here, the officials here may need to listen to this information." Fera said to the party.

After a while, the party was confronted by an acolyte. The acolyte led them towards a conference room within the church. Ample food and snacks were provided which was a great thing for everyone involved.

"Please, state your piece." The party was asked to retell the story of that night.

After telling the story the second time, the party remained quiet while the church officials discussed. But before anyone could say anything, the door suddenly opened and revealed a person that looked like garbage.