Chapter 76: Blessings For The Most Trusted

Chapter 76: Chapter 76: Blessings For The Most Trusted

They finally arrived, and the moment the shrine came into view, the familiar information flickered across Victor’s vision.

[Ancestral Barbarian Shrine of Worthiness]

This was the same shrine that had let him log out the first time.

He was back.

The shrine itself sat hidden deep in the forest, tucked beneath a hill where no one would stumble on it by chance.

Kiki’s eyes passed over it and a small flicker of surprise appeared in her gaze, but then quickly disappeared. Victor noticed. Her father was the tribe’s shaman. He had probably shown her this place a long time ago.

Jaja and Coco had no such history, their shock remained on their faces.

At the entrance, Kiki unbuckled her broadsword and laid it on the ground.

Victor blinked. "What are you doing?"

"Paying respect to the ancestors." She said it like it was obvious.

He hadn’t known that tradition. In the game, he just came did want he needed and left. Luckily, his axe and the rest of his gear sat in his inventory, so he had nothing to drop. Jaja unhooked his own weapon and set it down too. Coco moved to help him forward, but he waved her off.

"Let me walk. I won’t stand before the ancestors looking like helpless."

Victor merely massaged his brow at this. What a very stubborn man.

Jaja strained with every step, his teeth clenched, but made it to the front of the shrine with his own power. Then he dropped to his knees and bowed. Kiki and Coco followed. They also bowed. Victor mimicked them. Yet another thing he did not know till now.

They bowed three times in unison.

When they rose, Kiki turned to him. "Why don’t we bring the whole tribe here? Nobody even knows this place exists. They should pay their respects too."

"No." Victor shook his head. "As much thrilling as that would be, this shrine serves a bigger purpose than that."

All three of them stared at him, puzzled.

"That’s why I brought only you," he said. "You’re the ones I trust most. And I know these gifts might be better spent on stronger warriors." His eyes slid to Jaja, who was clearly still weak from his wounds. "But I’d rather give them to people I trust."

Victor stepped forward and took the beast anima in his hands. He slotted it into the same ring hole he’d used the first time. Like the first time, information scrolled across his eyes, and a green light shot up from the shrine into the sky.

"What I just placed there is called a Beast anima," he told them. "It carries the soul and energy of the beast it comes from. This one is from the Dragonic Basalt Dragon. It can also grant blessings. The blessing of the beast it came from."

Jaja and Kiki traded looks. Kiki had heard of beast anima, but this was the first time she’d ever seen one used. And then the memory of that green light came back to her, the one she’d seen the day she followed Victor. Her eyes narrowed.

"Is this how you crossed the Boundary?"

"Yes." Victor nodded. "Now step forward, Kiki. I want you to sense the blessings on offer."

After descovering this shrine in the game, Victor would bring Kiki here to absorb the blessing from the beast anima so that they could leave the boundary early.

But this time around, he couldn’t do that. The tribes men were too many for one beast anima.

Honestly, it would be best if all of them had blessings.

Just as the idea formed in Victor’s mind, he sealed it.

Kiki stepped forward as Victor instructed.

The three options hovered in her awareness.

One had gone gray and only two were available.

"I... can see them," she said.

"Take that one."

[Ember-Ward Hide: Grants partial resistance to fire and extreme heat]

She chose it. The eyes of the three-headed Barbarian statue flared, and the green light settled over her, wrapping her whole body. She breathed in, out while Jaja and Coco watched in shock.

When the light faded, she looked down at her hands. "I feel hot."

Then fire blazed out of her body.

Jaja and Coco jumped back. "She’s burning! Get water!"

"Stop." Victor raised a hand. "This is how it’s supposed to go."

And it was.

There was something about Kiki that even she didn’t know. Victor had only found it out later in the game, after he got access to this shrine. When she was a child, her shaman father had blessed her with a skill beyond her Unique skill Cataloging. It was called Amplification, and it multiplied every blessing she received by five. That was why she’d grown so fast, and why she was one of the tribe’s best fighters despite having no one to teach her. Everything she learned landed five times deeper. Swordwork came easy, as well as Hunting.

Honestly, Victor was jealous. She was like the protagonist of some Manwha.

If he had picked that same blessing, he would only be able to withstand boiling water at most, but in Kiki’s hands, it shone like gold.

The Ember-Ward Hide hadn’t just resisted fire. Amplified, it had evolved.

[Ember-Ward Hide has evolved: Emberflame Mantle]

[Wreathes the user in flame, and extends flame to any weapon held]

Fire licked along her skin, and when she lifted her broadsword, the blade caught too, burning along its length. Jaja and Coco stared.

"It’s... it’s a miracle. A miracle from the ancestors" Jaja whispered, Coco nodded.

"Jaja," Victor said. "Your turn."

Jaja pointed at his own chest. "Me?"

"Yours is the most important one. Please step forward."

By now, the beast anima in the slot was riddled with cracks. The shrine’s eyes swept over Jaja.

"Take the remaining blessing."

Jaja willed his choice.

[Shardclaw]

The green light enveloped him. Then his bones visibly crackef. Under his skin they broke and reformed, and he screamed. Coco lunged toward him, but Victor caught her arm. "Wait for it."