Inside the building there was a bright hall, embellished with silver. The floor was marble and brown, the inside of the dome of the building was covered with oil paintings. One of the images showed a naked man being held by the hand by someone covered in a veil of light. The walls of the hall were white, with light blue patterns reminiscent of waves, with six-pointed red stars woven into them. There were no windows in the room, the hall was bright due to internal light sources in the form of candle chandeliers, as well as magical beams of energy under the ceiling of the entire room.
At the very end of the hall there was a statue of the one who was depicted in the painting under the dome. The height of the statue was approximately the same as 2 basketball players standing on each other’s shoulders. She didn’t have the full, accurate appearance of a person, or anything similar. There was only the silhouette of a man in a robe; he had neither hair nor facial features. It was just an image that everyone understood even without details. In front of the statue stood a candelabra with lit prayer candles. In front of them sat a man in a white cloak, with a bushy beard and a metal silver star on a chain around his neck, his head covered with a hood. Apparently the man was old, about 60 years old. He was sitting on the floor with his legs tucked under him and muttering something under his breath in a quiet voice, most likely it was one of his prayers. A man in the same uniform, but younger, blond with a short haircut, slicked back, entered the building, his eyes were alarmed, but at the same time smiling, but at the same time cunning, like those of a fox. He walked towards the elder in front of the statue. Once he was close enough, he sank to the floor, assumed a lotus position, crossed his arms and placed them on his own shoulders, and then lowered his head down. The man near the statue spoke first, without turning around.
-Who came to our sacred home today?
- It’s me, your humble investigator, Rumier. Good health to you, Father.
- Oh, Rumier, I haven’t seen you for a long time, were you okay?
- Yes, thank God, misfortunes pass me by. Yesterday my son was born, sorry, for this reason I could not show up for service...
- It's OK. Children are our future and the future of our faith, without them our further existence is impossible. As long as they believe in the Almighty and in us, we will have eternal life and prosperity. Did you come on business, or did you just want to visit our sacred home, Rumier?
- There is one recently emerging problem that cannot be delayed.
The Father stood up from his previous place, turned around and approached the sitting Rumier, took the same position, but did not lower his head.
- Raise your head and speak.
Rumier, as he was ordered, raised his head, after which he began to look for something in the wide pocket of his robes, and soon he pulled out a small stack of documents. From them he began to read out the contents.
- According to today’s recent information, an unpleasant person has appeared at the mercenary guild. The man appears to be in his 20s, brunette, according to the description. There are two red marks on his face under his eyes. The Guild asks for further instructions.
- Isn’t the guild a place that refused to depend directly on us?
- Father, there are still people in the guild who are loyal to our home.
-It’s good that even in such a spiritually dead place there are good people. A person with a mark? Usually, if we come across such people, we aren’t informed about them, but everything is decided on the spot...
- This is a special case. Judging by the information provided, the marked one has never been to the church, he has no rank at all.
- What ?! How can this be?
- I have no idea Father, but that’s what they told us.
- How did this despicable person come to our city?
- Judging by the statements of witnesses, one of the guards on the morning shift, Vailor, let him in.
- Execute. With his actions, he disgraced our home and our people, including his family.
- What about that suspicious person?
- Let him live for now. I want to wait, maybe our society will correct him and he will still decide to give himself to us and spend the rest of his life serving people.
- As you order, Father...
- However, keep a close eye on him, we don’t want any accidents caused by a leper.
Rumier returned the stack of papers to his pocket, stood up from his ritual position, bowed deeply, after which he turned around and walked towards the exit of the church. Crossing her threshold, he locked the doors behind him. The father, meanwhile, returned to his prayer in front of the statue of God.
***
- What kind of impenetrable forests are there, are there no loggers at all, or are environmentalists trying so hard?!
Meanwhile, David moved through the forest in search of the cobalt lair on assignment. The forest was mostly deciduous, but sometimes there were also coniferous trees, like spruce. Some trees were different from the rest in that they had different shades, some were bluer, others were blacker. David suspected that the distance to the sun was involved in this anomaly. The further a plant is from the sun, the blacker it will be, and if it is closer to the sun than on Earth, the plants will take on a blue tint. The guy thought like a physicist, but not like an inhabitant of this world who knows at least the basics of magic. Making his way deeper and deeper into the forest thicket, he soon finally came across the very lair he was looking for.
It was a wide hole, even a person could walk through it, but bending down very low, almost sitting on the ground. Creatures that looked like rats were running around this very hole. Or rather, they weren’t exactly rats. In terms of physique, they were more likely to be overgrown jerboas, with rat-like muzzles, long furry tails and wide sharp claws on their front paws. The hind legs on which they stood were without claws; they were too small to maintain cobalt balance, however, these wonderful creatures maintained balance mainly with the help of their tail. They used it as a third limb to lean on while they stood and walked slowly on two legs, but if they needed to move quickly, they would lower themselves onto all four legs.
- Okay, it’s time to start doing something, otherwise evening will come, and I don’t need night forest adventures at all.
David came out of the bushes in which he had been hiding all this time and watching the rat-like jerboas. The latter immediately noticed him and sank onto all their paws, after which they began to make groaning sounds towards David. This sound was something between the sound made by a platypus and a hedgehog. They did not try to attack, they only tried to defend their territory, scaring off the enemy, without conflict. Although they looked menacing, their size in comparison with David reached a maximum of just above the knee. There were about six of them and against a tall man with a sword they saw no chance of winning the battle. However, David needed to deal with them, so he pulled his sword out of its sheath, put a small wooden shield in front of him, and then slowly began to walk even closer to the growling cobalts. One of the individuals that was closest suddenly ran at David and jumped on top of him, trying to hit him in the head, the guy took the blow on his shield, after which he threw the rat to the side, to the ground, after which he pierced it with a sword, another cobalt had already managed run behind him, jump on the shoulder of his left hand, in which David was holding the shield, and tear his clothes, at the same time tearing his skin until it bleeds.
- Get off me, you damn little rat!
The guy tried to shake the cobalt off his shoulder with a sharp turn, but the latter held on until the last, he did not intend to fly away from there. As a result, David had to fall on his back. Having strangled the hanging cobalt to the ground, he was finally able to strike at it, ripping open its belly, thereby killing the beast. The cobalts acted according to the same tactics: while one distracted attention by sacrificing himself, the second attacked from behind. Following this algorithm, David dealt with all the cobalts that were in sight. Although he fought normally, his torn shoulder hurt with terrible force. The guy remembered that in the guild, along with a shield and sword, he was given a certain “healing fruit”; he decided to test it in practice. The fruit was small, no larger than an apple, shaped like an orange, but it did not have a peel, it was purple in color.
- Well, let’s try, I hope I don’t die. I don’t want to see that impudent “divine” face again.
David began to eat this fruit, which tasted very much like blueberries, in small bites. When David finally finished the fruit, he felt freshness in the area of his wound. She began to heal, yes, slowly, but it was at least something.
- At this rate, in about fifteen minutes I will be in full bloom, but now let’s take a look at the lair itself, maybe there’s something interesting there?
Carefully approaching the hole leading into the hill, the guy looked inside, but there was only darkness and a deep tunnel. Walking into empty darkness is a stupid and reckless idea, so David began to look for something that would help him illuminate the hole. A thick branch lay nearby.
-It would be a good idea to make a torch, but the burning part itself can’t be made. Although, maybe the owners of the cave themselves will help with this?
David took a stick and approached one of the cobalts he had killed. Using a sword, he cut off the rat's tail, then wrapped it around a stick, after which he cut the skin, carefully holding the edge of the blade so as not to cut the cobalt deeper. He rolled his improvised torch in cobalt subcutaneous fat, this will allow the torch to burn longer. Next, it’s just a matter of small things: get the bark of a tree, a dry branch, and then, using the force of friction, get a fire in which to roll the torch.
Finally, having obtained the luminary, David climbed deeper into the hole. It was quite narrow and a claustrophobe would clearly feel uncomfortable here, fortunately for David, he was not one of those. The hole was long and went deeper into the ground. Making our way through the tunnel, a fork soon appeared in it. Two roads, which one leads where is unknown.
- How was it in the book...? “If you go to the left, you will be rich; if you go to the right, you will be married”? Well, I don’t really want to get married, but wealth won’t hurt.
David took the left path, the tunnel narrowed even more, now it was necessary to crawl along it. Soon he crawled out into a larger room; it was dug up almost to the full height of a man. The guy looked around, everywhere on the floor the ground was covered with a carpet of hay, dried grass, branches and other plant debris. Everything around was stained with blood and the entrails of some small animals. “Probably a room for meals,” thought David. He walked around the entire room and among the remains and grass he noticed a small animal, it was a cobalt cub. He quietly, trembling, looked at David. The little rat was small, the size of an ordinary mouse, which the guy was used to seeing in his life. David understood what happened here in the cave. In one of the biology books he had read earlier, he learned that some rodents, when they see a danger to their nest that they cannot cope with, they eat their offspring so that they do not get to the predator, after which they leave and look for new ones place to live. How this cobalt survived is unclear; perhaps it was simply not noticed in panic and haste. David crouched in front of the cobalt and extended his hand. He wanted to see if this little rat was aggressive. In the end, the last survivor simply walked up to the hand and jumped on it. The guy straightened up as much as possible, and then walked towards the exit from this section of the hole.
- You won't survive alone. You need protection until you grow up. If you didn’t bite me, it means you’re not hostile, that is, you won’t try to kill me. And you also need a nickname, right? What would you good for you? Hmm... You're the last one standing, right? So you'll be... Haku? So, you are clean, not stained with blood, so to speak?
The animal looked at David no longer with a frightened look, he did not tremble, but only looked, trying to understand what would happen next to him and his new “master”.
- I haven’t checked the second section of the hole yet, I need to look there too. Haku, this must be your first time leaving that room, right?
The animal began to quickly run along David’s hand, constantly squealing. Haku understood what his new master was saying, but he could not explain it in any way or say anything. Meanwhile, the newly minted mercenary had already taken the second path and soon entered the same room as was on the other branch, but this time it was already filled with various armor, weapons, gold and silver rings, medallions, earrings and necklaces. Haku immediately jumped from David’s hand and ran to these treasures, after which he stuck to a nearby golden box that glittered under the light of the torch.
- So, individuals of your species love everything shiny. Now your love for these trinkets is clear. But your relatives confused left and right, they placed the treasury and the manger in the wrong place. Quite successful for the first hunt.
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