9 Paladin

The temple was grand and imposing, with 12 ancient looking marble pillars that was the width of a person each and a height of about ten meters the entrance of this temple looked nothing like the entrance of the temple in the nameless little town Mike once visited.

'Don't look like a suspicious person now…'

Mike stood in front of said temple with an air of nervousness around him as he looked at the grand entrance of the temple.

'... But I need to know what exactly [Drink] dose, I have a feeling that it does more than I think.'

Mike gave a nod and put away his nervousness and walked into the temple and up to the reception and spoke.

"I would like a prayer room."

The receptionist gave a receptionist-like smile and asked.

"Please show your ID."

"Here."

Mike showed his ID card to the receptionist that gave a nod and looked down at some papers before she spoke.

"Please use prayer room number 57, it will be on your right when you walk down the hall."

Mike gave a nod and walked past the receptionist down a narrow hall while looking at the numbers above the doors and soon found room number 57 and steeped in before he closed the door and looked around. The inside of the room was very narrow and at the end of the room was a pedestal with a crystal ball, Mike looked around the room for a few moments before he gave a sigh of relief.

'It doesn't look like the prayer rooms are under observation… Good, let's do this.'

Mike walked up to the crystal ball and put his hand on it, soon a ominus red light shone out form the crystal ball but only for a moment before it stopped and then it showed his stats.

Name: Mike

Age: 26

Level: 1

Skills: [Knife control] [Drink] [Blood body enhancement]

Experience: 4.734/ 10.000

"So far so good…"

Mike looked at the experience progress and gave a frown, from what he heard from Ole and Jasmine leveling up was hard, but then why had he gotten nearly half a level from just some forest animals and a few bandits?

'This doesn't make sense…'

Mike thought for a few minutes but eventually decided to stop thinking about it and just accept it, after all leveling up fast was something to be happy about, then he touched the floating [Drink] with his finger and soon the words changed and showed information about [Drink]

[Drink]

Type: passive/active

Description: Drains a target of blood when the [Knife] or [User] has been in contact with the targets blood. Drained blood are used to heal the [User] and used to perfect the [User] by progressing towards the [*****] form, additionally draining blood with [Drink] enhances experience by a [Large] amount.

Mike gave a frown after he finished reading the information on [Drink], he knew about the healing effects but the thing about making him more 'perfect' and 'progressing towards the [*****] from made him greatly concerned for a moment before a red light shone in the depths of his eyes and he gave a sigh before a narrow smile crept onto his face.

"Well it seems like a worthwhile trade for all that experience…"

Mike waited for the prayer crystal ball to reset which it did after he didn't touch it for a minute before he walked out of the prayer room and back out to the lobby where a large crowd of people had gathered.

'What's all the ruckus about?'

Mike looked towards the crowd that suddenly parted as a beauty with short silver hair walked into the temple, when she did the receptionists and all the priests and nuns in the room bowed to her, Mike looked at her once and when he did a great sense of unease came traveling up his spine before he continued walking when suddenly she called out to him.

"You there, stop."

Mike acted like he didn't hear her and continued onwards, a decision he would soon regret as she appeared right in front of him along with a gust of wind with her silver eyes narrowed slightly before she spoke again.

"I believe I told you to stop."

Mike gave a calm smile and spoke in a seemingly apologetic manner.

"Sorry I didn't think a great beauty such as yourself would call out to this humble adventurer."

The female knight narrowed her eyes a little more before she spoke.

"You said you are an adventurer? May I see your weapon?"

MIke's sense of unease grew stronger as alarm bells went off in his head as his head went into overdrive to find a way to refuse her, a few moments passed and his best answer came flowing out of his mouth in a calm manner.

"Don't you think it's rather rude to stop a random adventure and ask them to draw their weapon? What do you want, a duel?"

The beautiful female knight narrowed her silver eyes even more before she suddenly reached out and grabbed Mike's arm and pulled him into the air, Mike attempted to stand against her with all his strength but found that an absurd amount of power was hidden in her womanly frame as she easily pulled him into the air before she slammed him down into the white marble floor beneath her. Mike coughed up blood from the impact as a boot suddenly stepped on his head while a cold voice entered his ears.

"Know your place you dirty adventure! I am a [Paladin] of the temple, when I tell you to do something you do it, is that understood!?"

"Y-yes…"

Mike gritted his teeth from the pain and the boiling anger that shot up into his head but managed to remain calm as the female [Paladin] stopped stepping on him and yelled.

"What are you still crawling around on the floor like a worm, get up!"

Mike gritted his teeth and slowly lifted himself from the floor and stood up facing the female [Paladin].

"Now show me your weapon already!"

Mike gritted his teeth even harder before he pulled out the knife and handed it to the female [Paladin] which looked over the knife for a few moments before she gave a frown and mumbled.

"I thought for sure I felt an evil aura…"

Then she looked up at Mike that had blood in the corner of his mouth and suddenly felt a little bad about throwing him down into the hard marble floor and quickly handed the knife back to Mike or at least she was about to when she felt a small cut on her finger.

"Ouch..!"

The knife slipped out of her grasp and fell to the floor with a clang as it landed on the hard marble floor, Mike bent down and picked up the knife before he walked past the female [Paladin] and out of the temple.

'Fucking bitch…'

Mike fumed as he felt his back ache, meanwhile under his poncho the knife suddenly lit up with the number '2'

"Mike wait!"

Mike turned his head and saw Ole running after him and stopped walking as Ole caught up and spoke to him with a wry smile.

"Man benefactor Mike you really have some balls on you!"

Mike gave a frown and asked.

"What do you mean?"

"What do I mean? That was a level 3! A genuine [Paladin] of the temple and you just refused her command and lived, I am amazed!"

Mike stopped, so that's why she wiped the floor with him, he suddenly felt that he was rather fortunate that she didn't decide to just outright kill him and gave a sigh.

"Man when you say it like that I feel really lucky… Although my back disagrees."

Ole gave a laugh and stopped himself from patting MIke on the back as he usually did.

"Say what, I'll treat you to a meal as a congratulations for surviving."

Mike gave a small smile.

"Thanks."

After Mike was done eating with Ole they went their separate ways, Mike wandered around the city for sometime until he eventually returned to the inn and went up to his room and laid down on his stomach and soon fell asleep early….

When Mike woke up it was early the next morning and while he still could feel the pain in his back it had lessened somewhat such as normal movement would not be a problem. He got out of bed while scratching his stomach before he walked downstairs and got some food in him before he went towards the guild to find someplace for him to get some basic training, when he arrived at the guild he walked in and studied the request board for anything to do with basic training but didn't find anything so he walked over to the reception and lined up for some time until it was his turn to talk with the receptionist.

"Hello… I have a question, does the guild offer basic training?"

"Yes, what kind of training would you like to apply for?"

Mike gave a thin smile.

"Dagger training."