286: Offering

I froze at the question. The look he gave me wasn’t malicious or a glare, but it felt like it searched my soul until he recoiled slightly.

“That must be the shadow cat I have heard about, Lily,” Prinae said, blinking his eyes.

Looking behind me, Liane gave me a nod. “Well, the soup, there’s really nothing too special in it at all: blood owl, some basic vegetables, some herbs, and the essence of a leaf-bladed spider.”

Amanda stopped serving when I mentioned the spider, so I quickly added, “It’s safe, please don’t waste it. It’s very valuable; it has the Clear Body ability.”

Prinae looked at me with wide eyes before looking back at the soup.

He muttered, “How,” but didn’t say anything else for a long while.

“I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask, Lord Ashmoon, but is there any chance you’d work at the temple?” he asked, looking hard into my eyes again.

“No, sorry, it wouldn’t work out. Lily is intentionally staying hidden right now, in order to not hurt people, but normally she wouldn’t be hiding like this. Also, I really like adventuring, and my family,” I said.

Prinae approached the soup. Amanda still had not gone back to feeding Lukas yet.

“If you don’t mind my asking, how long does the buff last?” Prinae asked.

I gestured to the pot. “You can try it; it’ll tell you how long it lasts.”

He let out a soft laugh. “I already have that ability, but it’s exceptionally rare and only works on myself. To be able to give it to others is quite remarkable.”

“You have it?” I said, shocked.

“As Head Priest of the Temple of Life, I have access to some personal abilities that are exceptional, with Clear Body being a fairly recent acquisition in my journey,” Prinae explained.

“We should probably save this discussion for later,” Liane said from the side.

Prinae nodded. “Quite right. Please continue, Acolyte Amanda. I dare say he will be unconscious for some time. Perhaps we could have the discussion now and Priest Lital can alert us when the boy wakes up.”

I pulled out the second pot of soup. “That sounds fine. I would like to give our offering to the God as well, if possible. I also have this soup; it doesn’t have Clear Body because I made a mistake, but it does have Major Regeneration.”

For the second time, Prinae looked shocked. “Major? We’ll absolutely accept it. If I may, the ability worked rather rapidly for Lukas. Is there a specific amount they need to drink to activate the healing?”

“About a potion’s worth to play it safe,” Liane quickly answered.

Prinae immediately took the pot and passed it off to the elder who was in the room. “Have this dispensed to the most critical patients.”

The elder bowed and left quickly.

It was only then that I realised that it was Geo’s pot, so I would need to get that back before I left.

Liane spoke up from the side. “Lukas likely won’t need any more of the soup for now. Perhaps save it till later.”

Unsurprisingly, Prinae stored it himself.

“Lital should be outside, Acolyte Amanda. I trust you have some studies and won’t mind joining your friend until he wakes up?” Prinae asked.

“Of course not, Head Priest.” Amanda bowed.

This whole time Amanda appeared to be in a state of shock, just looking surprised at everything and sneaking glances towards me, though I wasn’t overly surprised; so much had changed in such a short period of time.

“Shall we go?” Prinae asked.

Soon we were moving as a large group again, heading back to the main hall. We were going to make our offering; truthfully, I was very nervous about this.

The rolls themselves, when I stored them, stood out as unique. All three were uncommon. First was Crisplet’s Elemental Steam Bun.

Then you had Clacks with a simply named Water Bun.

Lastly, mine had the most ominous of names: Soul Roll.

Considering it all came from the same dough, this was surprising to me.

What’s worse, from what I could tell using essence memory, it had no buffs, not even fire immunity like Crisplet’s and Clacks, this might be the first time that’s happened, which makes me nervous for this offering.

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As soon as we walked into the main hall and out of the medical wing, Lily appeared at my side. I was surprised to see Prinae didn’t miss a step, just smiling.

“It’s truly remarkable seeing a shadow cat up close like this. Her name is Lily, you said?” He admired.

I nodded, “Lily Ashmoon.”

Crisplet let off a burst of sparks next to me, but this time Prinae did stop, before quickly catching up.

“Ashmoon, she’s a bonded companion?” He asked.

I shook my head, “No, she wanted the surname, so she took it as well.”

I heard Milo quietly laughing behind Prinae, while he seemed to struggle with what I said. I truly didn’t know what was so odd, except for it being Lily.

Milo rescued me, “Trev tends to not understand when things are absurd like that, Head Priest Prinae, and we just go with the flow.”

“But that’s not how the system works, a monster...” Prinae was interrupted as Lily glared at him.

He let out a little cough, “A Shadow Cat should be unable to take on someone’s surname like that.” Prinae finished.

“Crisplet has it too.” I added.

Then from the nest came a loud chirp, as Crisplet let off some sparks.

“Uh, and Clacks too, I guess.” I said with a laugh.

I didn’t actually know about Clacks, but I was glad she felt like family already considering we’d not been together long.

I heard a mutter from Milo as a notebook was pulled out, “There goes that hypothesis.”

“This doesn’t make sense, it’s not how the system works...” Prinae said.

I saw Hari rest his hand on the man’s shoulder, but didn’t say anything.

I didn’t know if I should be offended or laugh it off, but I chose the latter. How could I not? The Ashmoon house had another member!

We were now standing a short distance from the statue, where I pulled out everyone’s rolls, handing Crisplet’s to him, which he encased in ash and coal, making it look almost burnt, but I knew this was just a shell.

For Clacks I placed it in the entrance to her nest, “We’re going to offer this to the God of Life and thank him for that leaf.” I said, getting a chirp back.

The claw mark on her bun held through the baking process so she could easily sit on that spot right now. I didn’t want to put the nest on the plinth as I didn’t want the god to think Clacks was an offering, so with one hand holding Clacks’ nest to the edge, and the other with my own roll, I went up and knelt beside it.

The first bun to be placed down was Crisplet, before Clacks used a small bead of water to roll her own out, coming to a halt next to Crisplet’s.

Finally I placed my own, closing my eyes. I already thanked the god, so I didn’t know what to say.

“I hope this is what you were after,” is all I managed to say before there was a rustling of plants as the grain on the plinth began to sway.

Then it appeared like roots started to rise up from the plinth itself, sending small cracks through the stone as they wrapped around the three rolls.

It was far different from the Goddess of Fate where the items appeared to just vanish.

There appeared to be an amber liquid between the roots as they wrapped tighter, before finally they started to recede, all three rolls now missing, with only the small cracks left in the stone that was already filled by the amber liquid.

I looked up at the statue, just in time to see all the heads of grain opened up, before the grain itself was cast up into the air, surrounding the statue in a funnel.

While that happened, the grain on the base of the statue withered and regrew several times over, the funnel that surrounded the statue now thick with grain.

Then in an instant, they all exploded outwards.

I was surprised as nothing seemed to hit me; if anything, they all passed straight through me, and the temple itself.

What followed was a gentle breeze that smelled like first rain.

Then nothing.

Gilain spoke immediately, “Well... I wasn’t expecting that.”

Turning around I saw Milo with his head in his hand, “I did.” Milo said.

The main entrance burst open as one of the Priests who had been standing out front looked inside.

“Oh, Head Priest, perfect, something has happened outside.” He said urgently.

Prinae looked stunned. He hadn’t even turned around to face the door. He was still staring at the plinth the statue was on, which I could now see was entirely covered in small cracks with gleaming amber filling all of them.

The grain itself was now just small shoots that had barely grown, and all traces of the fully grown ones were gone.

“Uh, Head Priest?” The man said, snapping Prinae out of his stupor.

“Sorry, what is it, Priest Sentar?”

“The ground... there are plants everywhere.” Sentar said, unable to put into words what he was seeing.

Making our way to the door, we stepped outside to see the most bizarre sight. The entire ground inside the tree was covered in quickly growing grain plants, that were rising up at such a pace they were already at our waist.

“This is certainly... incredible. What did you give in offering exactly?” Prinae said in disbelief.

I didn’t see any reason to hold it back, and repeated the three rolls.

“Fire, Water, and Soul, almost like they are tailor-made gifts for life.” Liane said knowingly.

I had to wonder how she knew it was the Soul Roll? I didn’t tell anyone.

Milo had a notebook out, “I don’t think we’ve seen the end of this either yet.”

Prinae looked at Milo with wide eyes, but didn’t ask any questions, just went back to observing the grain as it grew, seemingly right out the entrance to the tree.

It only took five minutes for the grain to fully grow and prove Milo right. The mana arrived, only it wasn’t in a wave like the Temple of Fate. Bursting out from the top of the grain as I felt the mana rushing up, before it fell back down like a fountain.

Every piece of grain that had been growing outside the temple started to wither away.

The mana was gentle like the Goddess of Fate, but distinctly different, and I was struggling to put what I was feeling into words.

Prinae however seemed to have no issues, “This is remarkable, the mana, it feels like a crisp spring morning in a field of flowers.”

“This is going to cause more issues, isn’t it?” I heard Hari sigh at the back.

“Yep, almost certainly, who do you think will show up first?” Jen said with a laugh.

Letting out a sigh, I turned to Prinae. “Shall we have the conversation now before the dragon shows up?”