Months after meeting Verna during his mission alongside the demon hunter group, Mathias was spotted meeting this woman in a rather suspicious manner.
Soon after, Verna's tribe found out about her taboo relationship with Mathias, and her angry parents went to the Church headquarters, demanding the organization take responsibility for his actions.
To avoid getting involved in a diplomatic problem with that tribe of the Ancestral Folk, the Church dismissed Mathias, walking away from the problem and leaving everything to the two involved.
After that, the last information the Church had from him was that he had left to live with Verna north of the old kingdom that had existed in that area in his time.
Reading this, Lothur got what he wanted, the name of Mathias' wife, who he was to seek out for a descendant in the area further west of the Petha Empire.
He closed his eyes and sighed, closing the book in his hands.
'If his family has perished, in less than 2 months, I may already be back in Leopoldine.' Lothur pondered. 'But even if they are alive, I can quickly solve my mission.
Human descendants and Ancestral Folk are probably talented... By absorbing the Soul Bones I'm carrying, they'll probably have enough power to solve their own problems and live well on the continent.'
Lothur's mission stated that he had to ensure that these descendants would be able to use Mathias' heritage.
But that was vague. That is, one of these descendants could use the bones given to Lothur and then decide to enter the Ancestral Region to seek revenge.
If that happened, not even Lothur could protect them, and even if he could, was it really his responsibility to protect someone from their own stupidity?
In Lothur's view, the condition left by Mathias was for him to help the descendants of such a demon hunter in case they were threatened with death or destruction for old troubles.
If one of those descendants decided to cause chaos because of the bones, Lothur judged it would not be his responsibility.
Hence he believed he could quickly solve any problems with these descendants if they still existed.
Lothur clenched his fists, feeling anxious as he thought about it. 'I'll sort it out after this hunt. If all goes well, I'll be able to raise my cultivation a bit with a new Soul Bone!'
Thinking about it, he looked at the woman from the Spiritual Church and tossed that book back to her.
"Thank elder Sebastian for me." Lothur smiled at her. "And thank you for coming to me. This information will help me a lot."
"You don't have to thank me, senior." She said as she put that book away in her spatial ring. "Anyway, the elder ordered me to tell you to finish your preparations in a week at the latest. The rest of his group is already aware of the elder's plan and is coming to the local temple."
"Is that so? Then I will present myself in front of the church temple in a week." Lothur said before that woman took her leave, and he returned to his training.
'Time to raise my attributes and resistances a bit!
...
In the blink of an eye, Lothur's training days in the Cultivation House passed, coming to an end after a week of his seclusion.
After seven days of training almost non-stop, Lothur had achieved some improvements and finally advanced to Platinum grade in two of his resistances!
At this moment, he had just finished his training and was getting ready to go join Sebastian and his group when he looked at his status and resistances through the system with the current values.
[Name: Lothur Ritter]
[Physique: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger]
[Bloodline: Life Devourer]
[Soul Cultivation: level 20]
[Body Cultivation: level 19]
[STR: 1,000] [CON: 1,720] [DEX: 1,080] [AGI: 1,100]
[INT: 374.2] [PER: 999] [WIL: 740] [SOU: 1,881.8]
[EVF: 2]
...
[Platinum-grade poison resistance.]
[Progress: 2%]
...
[Platinum-grade flame resistance.]
[Progress: 1%]
...
[Gold-grade frost resistance.]
[Progress: 98%]
...
[Gold-grade wood resistance.]
[Progress: 81%]
...
[Gold-grade darkness resistance.]
[Progress: 60%]
...
Seeing this, Lothur clenched his fists in satisfaction, having managed to raise two of his resistances after much investment and training, which had generated a magnificent bonus to his Perception.
But he didn't think he could raise the quality of his ice resistance in the short term, as he had less affinity for this element than for the others. Not only that, it was a more challenging element to get resources for than flames and poison.
Anyway, being stronger than before and close to advancing to level 20 of body cultivation, Lothur was doing very well with his characteristics when he set off to meet Sebastian's group.
In a few seconds, he covered the short distance between the local Cultivation House and the temple of the Seraphim Church, arriving at that place where he readily sensed the auras of Sebastian's companions.
This was a powerful city where there were several Saints. But everyone in Sebastian's group was level 20 Saints, and they were together with this man inside the Church.
Lothur looked through that building with his visual ability and saw part of the high hierarchy of this group coming from an organization that wanted him dead.
'It seems that the Church has several Celestial Saints... I did not expect that.' Lothur pondered moments before Sebastian and five other people, four men and one woman, appeared in front of him at the temple entrance.
Sebastian was the strongest of the group judging by his attributes. Still, the difference between him and the weakest was only 700 Soul points and less than 20 points in physical attributes.
He was probably close to reaching level 21, while the weakest one there should be a novice at level 20 of soul cultivation.
He pointed at Lothur and said, with a smile on his face. "Everyone, this here is Liam. He's the young man I told you about and will join us in hunting down those damn demons!"
With that said, everyone greeted Lothur, not imagining that he was a hybrid of humans and demons, without underestimating him, given the tracking ability he seemed to have.
After hearing the names of each of them, Lothur said. "I didn't expect the group to be so strong... Aren't there rumors that the Church is chasing a hybrid?"
...