Chapter 170 - Historian Holly's Heartbreak

The claustrophobic streets opened up once more as he made his way through the parklands that surrounded the temple. He walked past several players who were sitting around on the park benches and who seemed to be enjoying their time in this world.

Merlin realised that he had seen more players today than he had for the past several weeks combined. 

He walked up the marble staircase that led up to the Greek-style temple's entrance before making his way through the open doorway.

There were several players inside the temple as well, several of which were praying towards the large golden statue of Gaia. Merlin noticed that several of the depictions of gods and goddesses that decorated the large platform were faintly glowing, this was an indication that a deity was responding to prayer, one of the core mechanics behind the cleric class.

Besides the players, there were a small group of NPCs sitting around praying, and a couple of priests doing odd jobs around the place, such as cleaning the temple and collecting tips.

Merlin was approached by a priest who was wearing a friendly smile, but unlike last time, Merlin didn't bother interrupting this one.

"Good evening, what has brought you to our humble temple?" The priest said while retaining a smile. "Are you here to pray? If so feel free to pray at your leisure. If you're here for something else entirely, you need only ask."

"I'd like to become a cleric," Merlin announced, and he could have sworn that he saw the priest's expression crumple for half a second.

"Oh? Wonderful, truly wonderful," The priest spoke with what seemed to be a forced upbeat tone, "We've had quite a few new recruits recently, it seems a wave of enlightenment has swept over the world's youth, truly wonderful."

Merlin couldn't help but cringe somewhat, but he kept a straight face. He was quickly reminded why besides the bard class, the cleric class was one of his least used types of class souls while playing, not even considering how little use it had with his ideal playstyle.

"Very well, come with me." The priest said before leading Merlin into another room and down a small hallway.

Merlin continued following the priest down the hallway, and moments later he was brought into a strange round room, somewhat reminiscent of a cylinder, with sixteen alcoves spaced out evenly around the room, one of which contained the door they had entered.

The other fifteen alcoves, apart from one, contained smaller statues of various gods, all of which were facing the centre of the room. Almost every statue in the room was a major Greek god, there were however a few outliers, but at the very least every statue present was from Greek mythology.

'Well, that makes sense considering the beta is almost entirely based around an ancient Greek island.' Merlin thought to himself as his eyes scanned the room.

The one alcove missing a statue seemed to have scratch marks along the floor as if something heavy had been awkwardly dragged out of its spot.

'That was where a statue of Despoina previously was, I'd assume.' Merlin thought to himself while thinking of the most common gods that people on this island worshipped. 'Even for an evil god, it's unlikely that they would destroy the statue, I suppose they just hid it?'

"Welcome to the room of enlightenment," The priest said, "Feel free to pray silently while I go and retrieve an instructor for you."

The priest quickly scampered out of the room, leaving Merlin alone with the various statues. Merlin took a quick look around at each of the gods and began voicing their names out loud.

"Aphrodite, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Apollo, Athena..." He suddenly came across a statue that stuck out to him. The statue was of three identical women standing with their backs to each other, each woman was holding two torches.

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[MOD] Atlas: Isn't that a statue of Hecate?

[MOD] Atlas: I thought this map was supposed to be based around ancient Arcadia, what is she doing here?

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Merlin noticed Holly appear in the chat, and she clearly found something wrong with the statue's inclusion too.

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[MOD] Atlas: Oh, there's a statue of Hades as well.

[MOD] Atlas: Well, Arcadia was close to Elis so I guess...

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It seemed Holly felt a little disappointed about the accuracy of history and mythology presented in the game, but it was something she would have to get over at some point as this wasn't even remotely close to the worst of Gaia's utter disregard for historical accuracy. 

Eventually, another priest entered the room and introduced himself. He was wearing a long-sleeved white robe that struggled to hide the surprisingly large biceps on the man.

"Good evening, I've been asked to instruct you in our ways." The man spoke, "I notice that your weapon of choice seems to be daggers."

"While I won't request for you to change your ways, I must inform you that due to the recent surge of undead that have been plaguing our land and the recent emergence of the Necropolis, one of our core missions as men who work under god is to purify the undead and put their souls to rest." The man explained, "When fighting against the undead, I'm afraid bladed weapons just aren't ideal, even when blessed. For that, I would recommend something such as a mace or cudgel to deal with the undead more efficiently."

"Very well, I'll take that under advisement," Merlin said, which signalled the man to continue.

"Alright, that's all I can ask. Moving on, let us see your affinity with the gods." The instructor said, which prompted a quest window to appear before Merlin.

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[Common Quest]

Receiving Enlightenment I.

The road of a cleric starts off simple, pray.

Before you can infuse yourself with the powers of the gods, you must first worship the gods. Each statue in the room of enlightenment is connected to a primary figure of the Arcadian faith.

Pray to each statue in the room of enlightenment and request guidance.

Guidance received: 0/14

• Reward: +1 Wisdom

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