Lucian Graves sat contemplatively at his desk.
His fingers were interlinked as he used them to prop up his head.
Yes, he had a great many things to focus on right now. Lots of plans that he needed to work out the details of.
However, it was rather hard to focus at the moment.
Currently Griselda was outside his office, cleaning up other parts of their little underground bunker.
That normally wouldn't be so distracting.
Helpful, even.
God knows that he had been putting off doing any more cleaning than necessary at this point. This place had been abandoned since the Second World War. It was supposed to be a bunker in case of air strikes or something along those lines.
It was never used for that purpose and simply turned into some forgotten storage facility until he took ownership of it.
But that was neither here nor there.
He was distracted because of the near-naked nun cleaning outside his office.
Truthfully, he didn't expect Griselda to strip again after their first little encounter. Credit where it was due, he acknowledged his defeat in their little back-and-forth. He wouldn't have said a thing if she never bothered with his new 'dress code policy.'
But apparently, Griselda played for keeps.
As soon as she came into the office, she took one look at him with that smug smile of hers and stripped down to her undergarments and then went to work.
Except her headpiece.
She was still wearing her nun headpiece, and Lucian, for the life of him, couldn't recall what it was called.
But somehow, that just made things even lewder, in his opinion.
He also fully believed she was intentionally 'bending over' towards him just so he could see. He couldn't prove it, and he dared not ask, but the way she looked at him out of the corner of her eyes when she did spoke of a certain…intentional action.
Truly, being a man of God was suffering.
Thankfully, he wasn't a man of God, so while he was distracted, he likewise enjoyed the strange sights.
One thing was definitely for certain, though. The moment he said one word about it, he knew that her smugness was going to be elevated to a whole new level.
It was like she was waiting for him to say something.
He didn't know what game she was playing, but he was more than happy to let her play it.
Regardless, he took out his 'Bible' and flipped the pages.
Who has a system in a Bible?
Despite having it for a few years now, he was still utterly baffled at how he ended up with this dumb thing.
He pulled up his 'Character sheet.'
Name: Lucian Graves
Age: 26
Faith: 18
Class: None
Titles: Burial Agency Director (+1 Faith every week), Archangel's Disfavored (-10 Faith if you fail to perform one good deed a day) , Cardinal (One Time Bonus +5 Faith)
Alignment: Neutral Good (Note: Failure to remain in Grace will incur a daily penalty of Faith.)
Factions: Catholic Church (Neutral), Heaven (Neutral), Werewolves (Enemies)
Talents: Holy Power
Skills: Baptism Rite (Fate), Exorcism (Supernatural)
Equipment:
Black Key (Common) (x32), Light Gun (Uncommon) (x2), Light Grenade (Uncommon) (x4) , Light Sword (Common) (Note: Don't call it a Lightsaber), Angel's Tear (Legendary) (Note: One Time Use. Significantly increases the user's luck for ten minutes.)
It wasn't the most comprehensive system he'd ever seen in his life. Frankly, he felt like it barely qualified as a 'system.'
Where were his stats?
Why couldn't he add stats to obtain phenomenal cosmic power by killing a few zombies or something?
Not only that, but his system also came with penalties.
Though, he wasn't surprised at the consequences in all honesty. You don't get away with successfully blackmailing the Archangel Gabriel without some kind of consequence.
At the very least, that penalty was 'manageable,' if annoying. Doing one good deed a day wasn't going to cause him any major problems. And there was the bonus of getting the 'Angel Tear' from their meeting as a side effect.
He didn't know that an archangel's tear was something significant until he had seen it for himself. Likewise, it was something extremely rare to cause an archangel to shed tears in the first place.
That's why he had been saving up twenty rolls rather than having spent them already.
Thankfully, it seemed that after becoming the director of the burial agency, he had a few more quests coming in compared to before. In just the past few days since Griselda joined him, he had managed to get a few more Faith.
He turned a page in his Bible, showing that he had two 'special' roll options remaining.
There's the normal 'roll,' which is what one would expect. Spend 1 Faith, roll 1 time. You can get items, skills, talents, people, etc. Though, it seemed to all have some connection to the Faith.
But there were three 'Special' rolls, one-time uses.
[Logistics (Cost 10 Faith)] [Class (Cost 10 Faith) [Hero (Cost 10 Faith)]
Logistics was grayed out, being something he had already used.
They were specific roles, a bonus, and a 'newbie package,' as it were. They had increased rarity chances, and could target what you needed; at minimum, you got a 'Rare.' The downside is that you only got one thing from each of the rolls. But the 'normal' roll, where you would get one pull per Faith invested, didn't have any kind of minimum rarity. He had used a few Faith to test it, and he had gotten all commons and uncommons.
That's not to say that the normal roll didn't have any bonus for rolling ten at a time; if you rolled ten at once, you got eleven pulls out of it. But they were almost certainly going to be common things still.
Being unceremoniously dropped in this world, he had nothing to help him. And gaining faith was not easy. It's not like he got rolls every day. It took him over a year to gain the 10 initial rolls for 'logistics.' And he had messed up a few times with other things, having lost Faith once or twice.
His decision did pay off. It helped him get his foothold.
Money, supplies, that sort of thing. And considering this world was years behind what he was familiar with, he had a few investment opportunities that paid off.
It was why he wasn't particularly threatened by the idea of the other Cardinals withholding money and supplies.
He had enough right now to make it through until he could stabilize his position. Though Griselda was right, credibility would have been in the shitter, which was something he couldn't help.
Having a class, whatever that meant in the context of his system, or summoning a 'hero' would have been utterly pointless while he was living on the streets or in whatever hole in the wall he could afford without even proper identification when he initially started.
It all worked out, not without some bumps along the way, and he somehow arrived at this point.
With a practically naked nun cleaning his new home.
Not many people could claim that kind of life accomplishment.
Luckily, he was actually born with above-average Holy Power. No need to stuff himself full of dead child souls to be able to wield the pure and holy light of the Lord.
And not all 'quests' he completed only awarded Faith either.
He had two skills he managed to acquire through his grinding these past years. Granted, they were basic and not very strong in direct combat. But they were exceedingly practical when used.
The Baptism Rite—not much needed to be said there. It was the bread and butter of executors in a certain world.
But he also had an exorcism skill, which had its own niche uses but, likewise, was pretty self-explanatory of what it did.
They were somewhat similar but also slightly different in their approaches.
One forced the 'target' up to the 'throne' of the Lord. The other was a forceful banishment back to where they came from. It was mostly meant for demonic entities.
Lucian's inwards thoughts came to a halt as he looked up. "Good evening, Sister. Is there something I can help you with?"
Griselda stood at his doorway, still in her nun headpiece, her bra, panties, and stockings. Yet, she held not an iota of embarrassment in the way she stood. "Good evening, Cardinal Graves. I didn't mean to interrupt your silent Bible study." She glanced down at the very obvious 'Bible' on his desk.
If anything, Griselda was somewhat surprised at how intently he was dutifully spending his free time reading the Bible.
Especially as she walked around nearly naked in front of him.
"However, I finished cleaning as I was waiting for you to finish." She finished.
"It seems you have something you want to discuss." Lucian gestured for her to come forward. "What blessings have you come to give me today, Sister? Hopefully, it's not another leash. I'm afraid the one I have right now is already quite difficult." He smiled wryly.
Griselda's lips twitched slightly, growing just a tad. "I promise you, Cardinal Graves. If there's a new leash needed around your neck, I'll do my best to be gentle."
"How reassuring."
"I do my best." She replied without missing a beat. "I thought to tell you that the other Cardinals were going to take the opportunity to protest your existence once more."
Lucian raised an eyebrow. "How is this any different than what's happened before?"
"May I ask, how long have you established your burial agency for, Cardinal?"
"Today would make nearly a month of its existence on paper, at least. Though in a more practical sense, I suppose it would be accurate to say two weeks?" Lucian responded.
Griselda nodded. "A month without any notable achievements or visible benefits to the Church."
Lucian slowly grew a frown. "They're going to use that? It's been hardly a month; that's hardly a fair assessment."
Griselda let out a sigh. "You underestimate the pettiness of some…esteemed persons. They will argue that with such extraordinary benefits given to your organization, it should have provided equally extraordinary results."
"How convenient that you've heard such rumors, sister." Lucian didn't overlook the fact that she was coming to him and basically laying out the plans of the ones she was technically supposed to be 'reporting' to.
"Yes, very convenient." Her smile didn't falter one bit.
Frankly, Lucian acknowledged that she was rather annoyed at her 'handlers' for putting her in this position in the first place, so she had no intention to play their games how they expected.
"I see." Lucian tapped his desk. "Obviously, their petitions will fall flat if they try to use this as leverage to 'shut me down.' Most likely, their intent is to try and inch me closer to their banners so they can eventually subsume my organization and retain the advantages of it. Perhaps they'll follow up with the 'bright idea' of having their people teach me since I'm still 'new' to how things work."
Griselda raised an eyebrow. "I admit, Cardinal, you certainly are surprising." She was genuinely surprised that he was able to accurately predict what she was going to say next. "You're correct. Their idea to protest the existence of your organization is just meant for the inevitable 'peacekeeping' that the Pope is known for that will proceed it. It would appear that they're taking a step back while also offering an alternative that will make everyone happy. The Pope will most assuredly agree."
Lucian continued to tap his desk with a hint of annoyance. "If I played along, they could chip away at my autonomy. If it's an order from the Pope, I couldn't reject it. But if I didn't play nice, they could likewise use that as a reason to be more heavy-handed. Either way, I would be on the losing end. It's rather simple but smart."
Lucian admitted that perhaps he underestimated his 'peers' in this regard. He thought that once he had his stamp from the Pope, he was in the clear. But clearly, his peers weren't going to let him build up without some pressure.
Lucian clapped his hands. "Oh well. Unfortunately for them, I already had our first mission planned."
Griselda's normal expression faltered slightly. "Our first mission? Are you sure?"
"Positive. Don't worry, all three of us will be able to handle it fine." Lucian reassured her. "And with a mission complete, they won't have room to use that ridiculous argument either."
"Three?" Griselda asked in confusion.
Lucian smiled. "Don't worry, I have a feeling that you'll be meeting our third member within the next couple days. Prepare to depart in three days' time."
Griselda's lips thinned. "Dare I ask what our first mission will be?"
"Nothing too strenuous. Just fixing a rather unfortunate oversight on the part of some of my fellow clergy." Lucian smiled happily. "Tell me, have you heard of the Holy Maiden that was recently kicked out of the Church? Miss Asia Argento?"
Griselda blinked for a moment. "The young lady with the Twilight Healing Sacred Gear who healed a Devil?"
"The very same."
"Oh." Griselda said softly. "You know that they are most assuredly going to be unhappy about this once they find out."
The Burial Agency had authority to hire even Pagan Gods if they wanted, much less a 'witch' that had recently been kicked out of the Church for simply healing a devil without knowledge who quite literally fell on her doorstep.
She was only really kicked out to save face because the higher-ups didn't want people asking questions like, "Why was she able to heal a devil with God's gifts?"
That might lead to the rather dreadful realization that they're doing their best to hide.
Griselda here, of course, knew the full truth, so she understood why Asia was 'kicked out,' even if she didn't agree with it.
But she was a mere exorcist; she didn't have any authority to challenge it.
"Sister Griselda." Lucian said with a serious face. "I consider it my sacred duty to perform my job in a way that leaves my fellow clergy unhappy."
Griselda's lips twitched again. There was a moment where it almost seemed like she was going to giggle but held it back. "I will head home and make arrangements." She cast a glance down at herself and muttered in a low voice. "And upgrade my attire."
Lucian was unsure of what she meant by that second part, but he felt an odd amount of enthusiasm from her all of a sudden.
Regardless, he enjoyed watching her walk away.
He turned the page in his 'Bible' after she left, the page that showed his quests.
[Quest: Attend Mass every day for 14 days straight!]
[Reward: 1 Faith]
Completion: [03/14]
[Quest: Perform 100 good deeds!]
[Reward: 1 Faith]
Completion: [97/100]
Today was Saturday, and his free Faith point reset every Sunday. Combined with the second quest he currently had, it would be enough with plenty of time to spare.
"No rest for the wicked." He sighed, slapping his bible shut, and going about on his own way.
[Line break]
"Excuse me, Madam, do you need a hand?" Lucian approached an elderly woman who was holding two grocery bags, waiting to cross the street.
Living just outside of the Vatican, traffic was rather chaotic at the best of times. Rome was a large city with all the hustle and bustle that came with it.
No one gave a second glance to the elderly woman who was having a tough time.
Rightfully so, the woman was skeptical as she turned her head but brightened up as soon as she saw Lucian.
"Oh, Father!" The woman said with a faint rasp to her voice. "Praise the Lord, my poor arms feel like they're going to fall off."
Lucian was wearing his 'priest' clothing.
He felt it helped him with his 'Quest' more so than what he normally wore.
It let him lure unsuspecting victims into a false sense of security so he could farm their gratitude.
Being adjacent to the Vatican, it was a normal sight as well. The clergy were just as well given a fair bit of 'trust' in a normal open setting like this.
It was hard to suspect a priest up to no good or to assume the worst. Whereas, the woman would normally have rejected 'help' from a stranger in this day and age.
Lucian forced his smile. "It appears the good Lord sent me just in time, Madam." He carefully took the bags from her hands as he inched out into the street. In this part of town, a bit on the north side, there wasn't a proper crosswalk, so she was having trouble getting cars to stop.
He held his arms out, blocking the cars rather blatantly with the grocery bags in hand.
He got a few honks, but a glare from a priest was enough to shut them up.
"Please, Madam." Lucian gestured.
"Such a gentleman." The elderly woman cooed happily as she took her time crossing the street, and Lucian followed along. "Thankfully, I'm just up here, Father." She pointed at an apartment building.
It looked to be about six floors in total.
They walked inside as Lucian held the door open for her, and he immediately noticed the big 'Out of Order' sign blocking the elevator.
"Madam, how long has the elevator been out of service?"
"Oh, that thing?" She barely spared it a glance. "Most of the year so far." She said rather casually.
"And the building owner doesn't fix it?"
She let out a small huff. "That penny pincher, he keeps saying he'll fix it, and whenever someone raises a stink, he threatens to raise our rent to pay for it."
"I see."
"Come along, Father. I'm on the fourth floor."
Lucian's lips twitched because he saw the effort she needed to simply go up one step, and he looked up the flight of stairs.
The ascent up the stairs could only be described as agonizing. He was genuinely surprised that this elderly lady did this every time she needed to leave her home.
He kept a polite smile, even helping her up when she had trouble.
Once they finally got up, the woman's room was only a few doors down the hall.
"Oh, bless you, Father. I can't thank you enough." She smiled warmly. "Do you want to come in for a cup of tea?"
"I'm afraid I'll have to reject you, Madam. I have some things I need to take care of myself." Lucian kept his tone polite as he handed her the groceries.
She said her thanks a few more times before Lucian finally managed to pull himself away.
With a sigh, I took out his Bible and flipped to the Quest page, furrowing his brow as he noticed it hadn't increased.
It was sitting at [99/100] completed.
Doing a 'good deed' doesn't necessarily mean just doing a random good thing. At least in this instance. At the very least, the negative status from his title still counted towards it.
Which just confused him more, as they sounded the exact same on paper.
This was the third 'good deed' he attempted today that didn't register.
He was starting to wonder if the system was fucking with him.
He was about to leave, but he glanced at the elevator again as he was about to step out the door.
Lucian stared at her for a long moment before letting out a long sigh. He walked over to a small table in the corner; it had papers on it and, thankfully, what he was looking for. There was a small stack of business cards, poorly made ones at that.
He looked it over, front to back, and in addition to a name and number, it even said the owner of the building lived in Room 1, which was literally a few steps from him into the hallway to his right.
With a shrug, he walked over and banged on the door.
Lucian heard an annoyed shout, nothing particularly articulate. And the stomping that followed as someone unceremoniously swung the door open from their other.
"Yeah, whatcha want!?" The tone was aggressive. The annoyance on his face was identifiable at just a glance. But his expression softened seeing a priest standing in front of him. He had the courtesy to look a tiny bit embarrassed. "What can I do for you, Father?"
This close to the Vatican, the vast majority of people here were Catholics, even the scummy ones.
"The elevator—how much to fix it?" Lucian jumped straight to the point.
The man's lips thinned, and he slowly frowned. "Look, Father. I don't know what anyone told you, but I don't have that kind of money to—"
Lucian held up a hand to stop him. "I'm asking how much because I'll pay it."
The man's mouth hung open for a moment, and slowly his eyes widened, and Lucian could see the greed swell up. "That's kind of you, Father, truly kind. They said it'll cost eight thousand."
Lucian's lips twitched. "You know what? I'll pay it, eight thousand euro." He didn't give the man a chance to thank him or say anything else as he held up a finger. "However, I expect it to be repaired by the end of the week. In return, I won't double-check to see if the cost is accurate."
The man's face flashed through several emotions: guilt, embarrassment, and anxiousness.
Like someone who just got caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
Lucian knew he was being scammed, but he didn't care for the moment.
"And let me be clear, I expect it done properly." He held up the business card. "I will check, Mr. Emilio." Lucian warned him. "Expect the funds to arrive by tomorrow. Good day."
Lucian was curt with his goodbye, not wanting to spend any more time with a very scummy landlord.
He just shook his head as he left the building.
Put the fear of God in him, quite literally.
He shouldn't be arrogant enough to try and scam him at this point.
Just as he was about to think of his next move, he felt his Bible vibrate, and he quickly checked it.
[Ding!]
[Quest complete!]
[Perform 100 good deeds!]
[100/100]
[Reward: 1 Faith]
"Would you look at that?" Lucian snorted, closing the book.
He cursed it in the back of his mind, then cheerfully went on his way.
[Line Break]
Lucian wondered to himself.
Was finding a secluded place to practice holy rituals out of place? Or was it only something that Satanic rituals were allowed to do?
Did using a Gacha connected to a Bible count as a holy ritual?
There were many questions he didn't have an answer to.
He held his bible out and claimed the free Faith point as the clock passed midnight into Sunday.
His faith was now sitting at twenty.
He pressed his hand against a different page of the Bible, and it vibrated. With a ripple, his hand disappeared inside of it and pulled out a small crystal-like object.
The Tear of an Archangel.
He was glad at least that he had some manner of 'inventory,' even if it was basically inside the Bible.
He wasn't quite sure what the reaction would be if someone found out about his little trinket. Especially if they found out that he was apparently the one who made the archangel cry.
It wasn't intentional, but what happened is what happened.
He was already disliked by Gabriel at this point for blackmailing her, so he didn't give it any more thought. He would at least put it to good use.
He wasn't sure he'd ever get another item that could increase his 'luck.' And frankly, at this moment, it's when he needed it most, so he had no thoughts about saving it for later.
The crystal between his fingers was in the shape of a teardrop, as ironic as that was.
He squeezed, cruising it between his fingers, and he felt something sweep up inside of him.
[Luck Increased]
[Duration: 9:54]
He looked at the Bible that showed his status, and he quickly moved on to the main show.
"First, class." He told himself. He didn't know what would happen from summoning a person and would rather get the other commotion out of the way first.
He pressed the 'button' to pay 10 Faith to perform the 'Miracle.'
The images on the book swiftly changed as it began to glow.
[Rare -> Common -> Common -> Common -> Uncommon -> Mythological -> Epic -> Rare]
He watched the rarities flash by as it spun.
Then it finally settled, and the book vibrated before an orange light erupted.
[Congratulations!]
[Class: Paladin (Legendary)]
[Claim?]
[Y/N]
The light died down as he stared at his book.
Legendary.
That was far beyond what he was expecting, or maybe he underestimated the Tear. There were now a great many questions in his mind, like what kind of paladin was it?
Without hesitation, he claimed his reward.
And another flash of light surrounded him.
Information flooded his mind.
Holy abilities, spells, techniques—everything he would need to start 'training.'
And most importantly, he felt his innate Holy Power increase severalfold. He went from someone with an average tank to someone who could be called a once-in-a-century prodigy.
However, after everything settled down, his eye began to twitch violently.
"This is the Paladin from Warcraft!" He blurted out. "What the hell, this isn't even related to the Church!? This is adjacent at best!"
They worshiped the 'Light,' not any deity!
He shook the book, wanting an answer, but nothing came.
"This is some bullshit, and you know it!" He glared at the book, which didn't respond.
Was he happy for a 'Legendary Class'? Of course he was. But the fact that he had to play the role of a clergyman and now his powerset hadn't even come from an alternate church or religion of the same cloth was annoying.
That's not to say there aren't a lot of similarities.
Hell, Paladins used Holy Power.
In fact, based on his new knowledge, he was fairly sure he could teach people here since the power overlapped.
But that was irrelevant for now.
"I shouldn't even be surprised." He muttered to himself. "The Church has been mugging other religions and stealing their stuff since its inception."
He turned the page.
There wasn't time to just bask in his newfound power. Power that he needed to properly train, but power all the same.
[Duration: 4:12]
He was almost out of time.
Alright, with the class settled, he then went to the 'Hero' option.
He was curious what qualified as a 'hero.' He was just assuming it was some personage that was connected, at least somehow, to the Church from somewhere.
"Fuck it." He didn't hesitate and rolled again without any further words.
Once more, his Bible vibrated and rolled between the various rarities until a thick purple light emerged on top of all others.
A surprise wind swept up in front of him, and the purple light began to coalesce with an ethereal holy light as a person appeared.
Lucian stared at the man in front of him.
Middle-aged.
A priest with a trench coat.
On each hand was a white glove with a biblical quote.
He wore glasses and had a scar on his cheek with silverish hair.
They locked eyes, and the man had a polite, if gentle, expression on his face. Though his smile carried with it a hint of bloodlust.
"Alexander Anderson, reporting for duty, Cardinal." He introduced himself. "Kindly point me towards the Monsters and Heretics."
Lucian just realized.
The Tear never said it increased only his good luck.
[Line Break]
A/N
MC has a class and a new member for the agency.
If you want to support me, visit my p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / astoryforone
I also have a boosty if you can't use the above under the same name.