A Cardinals Strength

The man that now stood in front of Drew was a man larger than any he had seen before. He was so large he looked almost like a bowling ball with a small and fat head peaking out from above the finely tailored robe he wore that had pictures of golden suns lining it.

He held himself proudly despite his wild obesity and held a long and brilliant golden staff that had the golden sun of Bram as a head that glinted with golden light despite the lack of sunlight anywhere in the Heavens Glass.

He wore large golden bands on his hands that seemed to be a way to further flaunt his wealth.

'I already hate this guy,' Drew thought with annoyance at the 'person' in front of him.

"Ah Ha!" A nasally voice echoed out that was reminiscent of a twelve-year-old kid who was forced to go outside for the first time in his life.

"I have caught you in the act, you cheeky old bastard!" He said with clear pride in his voice.

"How did you cast teleportation magic?!" Atun asked in disbelief.

"Wouldn't you like to know old man!"

Atun immediately looked like the stress of the current situation he was in had aged him by at least 10 years and he looked far less youthful than before.

"Now, you young rebel of the church! You shall pay for your disrespectful actions with your head!" The fat man said with confidence exuding through every pore of his body which jiggled ever so slightly as he talked.

'Oh fuck,' Where drews last thoughts before his instincts he had been honing over the past two weeks took over.

He rolled to the side as a strange beam of light exploded from the man's strange staff and hit the spot Drew was just seconds before.

Drew looked at Atun with a pleading look but the old man simply lowered his head and backed up with his hands raised.

'Looks like it is probably one of his Oaths to not go against his own, this is gonna be rather troublesome isn't it?'

"Pesky Rat! Just die already!" The man shouted in a wrath-filled voice as another beam of light began to form.

Drew looked at the man and watched his eyes.

'You have done this before! Focus on where he stares, then you can tell where he is gonna strike!'

He stared at the man's eyes and pretended to dodge one way but after seeing the spell begin to go off and the fat man's smirk of triumph he quickly feinted and dashed towards the stairs that were behind him.

He ran down the stairs at a speed that was almost akin to a wild wolf as he activated the active ability of [Acceleration].

He could hear the screams of anger and the labored breathing of the fat man as he tried to go down the stairs and ended up tripping down them instead.

'Why doesn't he just teleport like before?' Drew pondered while continuing to run as fast as possible.

He dashed out of the stairwell and down the path towards the patio where the hidden exit was.

He heard cursing from behind him as a group of nuns was pushed to the ground by this rampaging beast of a man.

'How the hell is this man a Cardinal? He has no care for his own kind and is very clearly barely capable of running without collapsing under his own weight?!'

Drew realized something that may be advantageous to him as he decided to climb the wall instead of revealing the secret door.

'He doesn't seem to be very familiar with this place... so he shouldn't know about the secret door! I mean I only noticed it because I was climbing down and could feel the awkward weight as it tried to swing open from my weight alone,'

Drew made the decision to climb the wall in an instance as he jumped as high as possible and scaled the wall in seconds with his enhanced speed.

More cursing could be heard from behind him but Drew didn't slow down as he barreled down through nearby alleyways, climbing the walls of the ones that were blocked with walls and zigzagging through the paths of civilians who were walking.

After reaching the outer ring of the city Drew finally began to slow down and take deep breaths as he realized his stamina was very close to being completely drained.

Drew put up his hood once more and walked among the night market that had appeared after the sun had set. A wide variety of strange trinkets and baubles filled the large stalls that had even more toothless merchants who eyed him like fresh meat as he passed.

'Interesting...' Drew thought as he stared at some of the items that had faint magical glows to them.

'System, what are these auras around these items?' Drew asked curiously.

[This is a hidden function of the [Permanent Sacrifice Function]. This will allow you to sacrifice magical items for energy points and allow you to get a read on how much magical energy is in an object so that you have an easier time gauging what it might be worth!]

'Strange,' Drew thought as he remembered none of the items in the Temple showed a glow to them as well as his hunter's jacket that had camouflage abilities.

[...]

[After some deliberation the System has concluded that this is most likely due to the fact that they are not made with 'Enchantments' or 'Enhancements'. Instead of direct magical application to the items they have strange runic structures hidden inside their make that funnels the ambient magic in the air to create magical effects.]

'That makes some sense I guess,' Drew thought with a mental shrug as he walked around the market for the first time with the intention of actually purchasing something.

After some time of talking to seedy merchants selling items that had vague black auras to them, he seemed to finally find someone worthwhile to trade with.

The stall wasn't really high-quality and not many people even paid it any attention. He only noticed it himself due to the abundant glow of magic radiating from the amulets hanging from hooks on the ceiling of the shack.

He stepped forward with clear interest and looked around the inside of the shack to find that there were all sorts of accessories that glowed with pure magical auras that he felt a strong attraction towards.

He scanned the shack and after not finding anyone he sighed deeply as he realized the owner was probably gone.

'But why are their things left unattended? Wouldn't some petty thieves just nick some of the wares that the owner of this stall sells?'

Suspicion began to worm its way into Drew's mind and he double-checked the inside of the Shack just in case and found something he had missed during his previous scan.

It wasn't that he hadn't seen it the first time, it was just that it wasn't something he was looking for.

His eyes focused on two amethyst-colored eyes of a black cat that laid down upon the rug in the center of the shack and lazily watched him.

An idea popped up in Drew's head and though it seemed rather stupid anything was possible within this strange world he now called home.

"Hello little cat, do you happen to know where the owner of this stall is at the moment?" He asked in a polite and respectful tone.

The cat examined his face with its startling intelligent eyes and got up for a moment and stretched out as far as it could and yawned as if just having left the greatest nap of its life.

It hopped up on a red velvet chair that was directly in front of the Shack and stared at Drew and nodded.

"I do indeed know where the owner is," The cat said in a playful feminine voice.

Drew smiled at his guess and bowed slightly towards the strange creature in front of him, who in return, nodded back.

"It is good to finally see a customer after so long," The cat said as it lazily began to lick its paw and wipe at its ears.

"How could people not shop at such a quality shop like this one?" Drew said, trying to use the most flattery he had ever used before in his life.

The cat purred slightly at his reply and nodded.

"Indeed... It is truly a sorry sight for such farmers do not know the quality of my products,"

"But every once in a while someone wanders to my little shack and sees what true magical items look like. Very similar to yourself,"

"I thank you for your compliment, Madam,"

"Hmm... Just call me Jazzy. It's the name I took on when I inherited my current form,"

"Well then, Jazzy it is,"

Jazzy took another lazy yawn before suddenly stopping and sniffing the air intently.

"You reek of that new Cardinal the Church of Bram recently appointed,"

"Have you any relations to that foul man?"

"It's a little... complicated,"