Jace is still unconscious and on the bed.
"I have been paying attention to him, he was muttering something about Astin being in danger not long after you left, and then he calmed down."
"How is he so aware of what is happening? Crazy chicken guy must be hiding something important." Aurelia says.
"We cannot ask him until he wakes up. It seems Oswald made a huge number with him before we got to him and we barely got close."
As this guy was predicting who was the next victim, it seems Oswald got paranoid and wanted to know how he knew. I wish this answer would come to me soon, but all I have is someone that is on the brink of death and a totally normal looking stone.
"Oh, about that... I still need to find books from town to do the research on the stone." Leiva explains. "I cannot do anything without doing cross referencing."
That makes me think...
"Aurelia, how about you take the job of escorting Leiva in town today?" I ask. "We need her to study in town and I don’t know how safe it is for her right now."
Even with the whole mess that the town is, the group that attacked her could still be around there wanting to find her and I need to take care of other business in town, preferably before the day ends.
"Understood! I am making sure sexy teach here returns safe and sound!" She points at Leiva.
"S-sexy teach...?" Leiva is surprised and blushing.
"O-okay..." I decide to ignore the comment. "I need to get more beds. We are upgrading this house and putting down some more buildings. I am contacting the Builder’s Guild today... and hopefully they can receive us today. And I need to go visit a temple."
"Huh... why?" Lisa asks. There is a certain shine in her eyes.
"I need to find a Demisaus temple, do you know if there is one?"
"So you have decided to follow the teachings of the lady of death and renew?" Lisa, with glee in her eyes, gets a bit too close to my face. "Yes! As a follower of the three, she would be happy to receive you in her arms!"
"I don’t think being received in the arms of the deity of death sounds as enticing as you seem to believe..." The idea is making me shiver just thinking about it.
"I-Let me guide you in your conversion!" She grabs my hand, catching me by surprise.
"Ah!" Is all that came from my mouth. Her hands are way too soft.
"Hey! She is getting too physical!" Karina says.
"Oooohhh? Hand holding? The holy woman is bold!" Airelia laughs.
Lisa looks at our joined hands, blushes extremely red, and then lets go of the hand and takes a step further.
That escalated quickly.
"I can go alone. I am not converting." I take out the necklace with the symbol of Demisaus. "Is it just that this thing keeps warming up while I was having some important fights and it started showing messages in the System, and I kind of feel a power up coming from it."
"Huh? That is... weird." Lisa places a finger in her right cheek, looking up, thinking. "I cannot remember anyone mentioning something like that about the amulet in the temple, and even when you mentioned the powers it has... no one ever dared to wear it until you did."
And she never stopped me either, under the excuse that I can give it a good use.
"Oh! I can go check the town if any of the furniture stores are still working! If you need beds, m-maybe I can check for good prices..." She says, confident at first and slowly loses her bravado.
She is so adorable with her ears flat!
"Everyone else is up to their business, then." I hope everyone is capable enough to find something to do.
**********************************************************************
Lisa returns into town after checking on Jace, saying she wants to provide help to the injured people. Keith accompanied his sister. While Aurelia took Leiva with her. The giant lizard she has as a pet is left in the base for the moment.
I am going to get the guild to build something for it, don’t I?
I go to the shrine, following Lisa’s instructions. I want to find out what kind of gift the System Message is talking about.
I am still a bit paranoid walking around town. Most of it survived and people are slowly returning to normal, but many are complaining that the temperature went down. I can feel it, although I have a natural resistance to cold.
Demisaus temples and shrines, at least the ones dedicated solely to her... They are different. No wonder I did not see it, the entrance goes under the ground in a random spot of town without any marks signaling this is a sacred place. Just a set of stairs that descend into darkness.
"I can feel the cold in this place..." Karina claims.
"Do you, now? I cannot blame you, that temple entrance looks suspicious."
"It’s like they didn’t want to be found."
I start to go down into the darkness through the stairs. I swallow saliva as I go down, feeling this might be a mistake.
And when I enter... It is a bit different than what I expected. It is dark as hell, there are skeletons in the walls, and there is a pillar with a set of bones and skulls from different animals surrounded by roses of different colors right in the middle.
And there are people all around the place. Some on beds, injured, some are members that are dressed in dark robes.
"Demisaus is .ea t to be a benevolent goddess, right." Karina Kasks.
"S-she is..."
In front of us, a male priest passes by quickly, holding a tray with medical supplies and notices us. He attempts to stop, but fails to kill his momentum, falling to the ground.
CRASH!
"Ah! Are you okay?!" I ask, surprised.
"Y-YES!" He stands up. "W-welcome, we are busy and we are mostly attending emergencies because of the monster raid from earlier!"
He seems a bit flustered and stressed. The temple may be working double time.