Summoned Again?

I successfully cleared out the small undead horde and it was only just under 400,000 people and creatures. I had to wait nearly half an hour before Lady Matricia started to stir, and I had been going around and cleaning up the scene as much as I could with her in my arms. Both Purify and Cleanse worked well to clear up the ash and rot, so it just looked like a large trenched out area.

“Ugghhh, what... what happened?” Lady Matricia asked and then she caught her breath as I took out a chair and sat down with her on my lap.

“Now, don't freak out.” I cautioned her. “You saw me use a flame breath skill I modified to be cleansing fire.”

“I... is that...” Lady Matricia shook her head, then she took in a sharp breath. “I'M LEVEL 99!”

“Easy! Don't spend all your points yet!” I said and she shifted her gaze from what she could see in her vision to me.

“I didn't gain that much.” Lady Matricia said.

“Um... you will... I think.” I said, hesitatingly. “Please, please... don't freak out if you see something shocking.”

Lady Matricia's eyes immediately dropped to my crotch and I laughed.

“I meant in your vision.” I said and held her gently. “I want you to look at the experience gains you received while helping me.”

“You still participated in the battle.” I said without explaining what I did. “I want you to concentrate at the number. After a few seconds, you should get a notification...”

“OH MY GO-MMUHH!” Lady Matricia yelled as I covered her mouth with my hand.

“I said to not freak out about it!”

“MUH HMM HUMMMM!” Lady Matricia mumbled very loudly. She didn't try to pull my hand away from her mouth, however.

“It's my ability to convert excess experience into stat and skill points.” I explained. “I wasn't sure if it would work for you, though. I expected just normal experience from destroying almost 400,000 undead.”

“Muh!” Lady Matricia said in a huff.

“Yes, 'just'.” I chuckled. “That's the lowest amount I've met so far.”

She let out a sigh and I removed my hand from her mouth.

“Now, let me explain how to allocate some of those excess points without causing you pain and suffering.” I said and then went through a refined version of my lecture that I had used for the heroes.

Lady Matricia was an experienced cleric and had lots of experience with the process, so she caught on a lot quicker than the heroes did. By the time she was done allocating her stat points and skill points an hour later, her entire body glowed for several minutes.

“Teach me that spell.” Lady Matricia said, her voice commanding and powerful.

I nodded and showed her the spell, then showed her how to combine the basic Fire spell and the Holy Cleanse spell, to make both more powerful and more effective. She unlocked the spell on her first try, then she burned through a third of her mana as she played with both the range and intensity.

“Thank you, Damon.” Lady Matricia said and walked over to me, the mana expenditure not affecting her in the least. “You don't know what this will mean for me and the other clerics.”

“A lot more dangerous work?” I asked and she laughed.

“Once I can bring them along and do what you've shown me, yes. We will become a much more effective force in fighting this undead scourge that's sweeping across my world.” She said, confidently. “I will have this new spell taught to all of the clerics as soon as possible.”

“I figured as much.” I said. “Shall we go to the next town and let them know that they won't have to evacuate and look for the next enchanter?”

Lady Matricia nodded and stepped close to me. I put my arms around her, held her close, and took off flying. It was a short trip to the town and we were out of luck. Most of them had fled already and it would take the townspeople time to send word to bring them all back. The enchanter was long gone as well.

It took us three more tries and five more town visits to finally find someone that was willing to listen to Lady Matricia's proposal. Also, none of the enchanters we had found would consider agreeing to repair an enchanted piece of armor without seeing it first, which I couldn't do, because of the way the first enchanter had reacted. It wasn't like they had contracts on this world that I could make them sign, either.

Lady Matricia got halfway through her proposal before the man flatly refused to work for the clerics. “Why? Why don't you want to save your profession from extinction?”

“Do you really think there's a future for this world with the dead taking it over?” The man asked. “It's getting to the point now that we're all in it for ourselves. Who wants to take care of tons of other people for barely any reward? What would I get out of it? Experience?”

“You would get the satisfaction of helping save the world!”

“Ha ha! You're funny.” The man said and crossed his arms. “Next you're going to tell me the idiot standing next to you is the one that's going to save the world, aren't you?”

“He's one of them, yes.” Lady Matricia said. “The heroes have already removed five of the large roaming hordes...”

“Five? Ha! Hahahaha! That's hilarious!” The man uncrossed his arms and slapped his knee. “They cover nearly a quarter of the world and are on every continent! What difference is that going to make to the entire world?” He looked at me. “Stop wasting my time and get your ass back out there and get to work! If the loony one here really brought you to this world to save it, you better get to it before it's too late. Oh, wait! It's already too late.”

I gave the man a disappointed look and sighed. “You were my last hope to fix my armor.”

“You're stripping the bark from the wrong tree, hero. I can't fix the armor. I might be able to fix the enchantment, given enough time and access to a blacksmith's commission.”

“I also wanted you and your family to move to the cleric's home temple to start working and perhaps teach others.”

“Ha ha, you're as funny as she is.” The man said and pointed to Lady Matricia. “We've all worked hard to get ourselves established where we are. We have people that depend on us and our work, while some of us have contracts and verbal agreements with preferred clients. We can't just pack up and leave whenever we want.”

“Is that you're final word?” I asked and he nodded. “What if I offered a secret technique that would...”

“It doesn't matter.” He interrupted me. “You could offer me the secret of enchanting itself and I'd still refuse to leave my family on some fool's errand.”

“It's not foolish!” Lady Matricia exclaimed. “The temple grounds are warded against the undead and none of them can even approach, let alone breach the walls. It's consecrated ground!”

“Well then, why don't you consecrate all the ground?” The man asked.

“We can't! Don't you think we would have done it by now if that was possible?!?” Lady Matricia said loudly, then she sighed. “It takes so much time and magic to perform in a small area alone. Even with everyone's help, it still took us three months to do what we have at the temple.”

“Where else have you done it?” The man asked, as if he knew the answer.

“The king's castle and the knight's barracks, as well as the guard posts and a large area outside the main fortifications of the capital city.” Lady Matricia said. “We've been run ragged with the demands for both cleansing and purification, too.”

I put a hand on her shoulder and she gave me a sad smile. “You didn't tell the heroes that.”

“Of course not, you just got here.” Lady Matricia said. “Why would we burden you with that when you have the whole world to save?”

I closed my eyes for a few seconds and took several deep breaths. “I'm sorry that I've been so hasty. I didn't realize... no, that's not true.” I opened my eyes and looked into hers. “I didn't care about anything else. I'm trying to go back home and each new thing that pops up just makes my time here extend out and out.”

“I know, and I'm sorry that we had to resort to asking god to kidnap you.”

“He tried to kill us first.” I said and she gasped. “I was run over by an army...” I stopped before I said tank. “...an armored carriage with a cannon on it.”

I saw her eye twitch, so I knew she had gotten the lie and leaned in close to whisper. “It's called something else where I come from and there are no horses pulling it. An armored carriage is all I can think of to describe it.”

“A horseless carriage?” Lady Matricia asked, surprised. “Is it magic?”

“No, it...” I sighed. “It has something inside that turns and makes it move.”

Lady Matricia stared at me and didn't say anything in response.

I was glad that she didn't ask what made it turn, because I was not going to get into fuel and combustion engines. “Forget I said that.” I paused for a moment. “It doesn't look like anyone wants to live a nice safe life with you in the temple. No war, no death, and no taxes isn't appealing at all.”

“Wait, what?” The man asked.

“Nothing.” I said and took Lady Matricia's arm and hooked mine through it. “Let's get back to the temple and...”

“What do you mean, no taxes?” The man asked as he stood up.

“I said it's nothing.” I led Lady Matricia to the door and opened it. “We need to get back. I've used up too much time already on this fool's errand.”

“Yes, you're right.” Lady Matricia said with a smile and we stepped out through the door.

“WAIT!” The man yelled.

I stopped and turned around, making sure to bring Lady Matricia around to face him.

“Please, explain what you mean.” The man said and looked around. “Inside, please.”

“Lady Matricia?” I asked and she nodded, so we stepped back in and I shut the door.

“Residents of the temple are exempt from taxes, since they are responsible for the welfare of the people.” Lady Matricia said. “Also, we are allowed to sell our services, since we can't be on missions for the king or for god all the time.”

“What? How?”

“We need to make money, of course. We can't always rely on donations from our benefactors.” Lady Matricia said. “There are twelve of us at the temple right now, only because I needed the extra mana for a ritual. We only gather once a week otherwise, and that's only if we're still near the temple.”

“But... what about...”

“We have our own homes.” Lady Matricia said. “Most are under caretakers that handle running the house while we are out doing our jobs. Some of our members chose to sell their original homes and kept the money, then moved into the personal rooms at the temple.”

“But... what about...”

“No, we don't require anyone to give up their worldly possessions.” Lady Matricia said with a laugh. “How would we buy new equipment and clothing or pay for food?”

The man looked stunned, probably because he thought that was always provided for free.

“We have custodians that clean and maintain the temple when we can't, whom we pay a normal wage, since they do work for us when we are too busy to attend to it ourselves.” She laughed. “It happens more often than even we realize, I think. I haven't touched a broom in months.”

The man looked deep in thought and stayed that way for several minutes. “You know, I really will be giving up all of my regular business if I decide to go with you.”

“That's true.” I said and he looked surprised. “You're also going to gain... Lady Matricia, how many clerics are there in the temple?”

“All of the temples or just ours?” She asked with a knowing smile.

“Just yours for now.” I said and returned the smile. She had caught on to what I meant quickly.

“There are currently two hundred and eighty six members that rotate in and out in our designated area near the capital.” Lady Matricia said. “We're spread out all over, fighting the small outbreaks of undead and dealing with the rotting foliage by purifying everything, including water tables and farmlands.”

The man's mouth dropped open in shock.

“I'd say they would pay a reasonable price for enchanted items that generated extra mana for them to use or increased their own personal generation of mana, wouldn't they?” I asked, and did my best to not laugh at the man's slightly drooling mouth.

“Certainly.” Lady Matricia said and I could see that she was having a hard time not laughing, too. “Of course, once word gets out that the temple in the capital has a dedicated enchanter that's able to provide better equipment that we can actually use, the members from the other temples will likely order their own items from us, which will increase exponentially.”

“This is a world in peril, after all.” I said with a nod. “You are always going to need newer and better equipment, which will happen if a certain dedicated enchanter practised his skills constantly. The better the enchanter, the better the equipment.”

“Upgrades! Top-ups! Revisions! Tweaks!” The man exclaimed. “It... it could... it would be...”

“An enchanter's dream job.” Lady Matricia and I said at the same time.

“I really should have listened to your whole proposal.” The man said, his happy face becoming serious.

I nodded. “You were lucky, because you were the only one to listen as much as you did and you still said no.”

“I'm sorry.” The man said. “I really didn't want to leave my family and friends...”

“...and now you're thinking about it.” I said and it was his turn to nod. “Just remember, you can live off of the temple grounds; but, if you want the house and lands consecrated, you'll have to pay the clerics.”

“...or trade for appropriate equipment.” Lady Matricia said. “Once we get a few things from you out to more clerics, we can start expanding our areas of responsibility as well. The more mana we have the more we can use our abilities.”

The man stood there and considered it for several minutes. “If I do this... make myself a temple member in name... I want two things.”

“I can't guarantee that we can do it, so we will hear what you want and then decide.” Lady Matricia said.

“That's fair.” The man said. “One, you can't force me to make one single enchantment, over and over, with no end. I'll start making up the mana boosters and mana generators as soon as I get the proper materials. They won't all be the same, however. I'll be experimenting and trying different techniques to see what I can squeeze out of different things, like rings, bracelets, necklaces, and even amulets.”

“That's... kind of an odd request.” Lady Matricia considered it. “Rather than enchanting one thing constantly, can we have a set limit before you move on? Say, fifty rings at one level if the enchantment is successful and viable, then do pendants at another level, and so on?”

“Hmm. Well, I suppose I could. I just don't want to get bored with endless repeating, you know?”

Lady Matricia nodded. “What's the other request?”

“I want my family's land consecrated. I'll leave a custodian to look after it. I won't abandon it to the undead hordes or leave it to become desolate.”

Lady Matricia gave him an odd look. “How big is the plot of land?”

“It's only a few hundred feet to a side. It's on the outskirts of town, near the windmill.” The man said and started to walk away. “I've got a map.”

Lady Matricia let out a barely audible sigh.

“It's not going to be too bad, is it?” I asked. “You've got lot of mana now.”

“It's mentally draining as well. I also need to be perfectly still or I have to start over.”

“I'm not sure why that's a requirement; but, don't worry about it. I've got you covered.” I said and gave her Angel's professional smile.

Lady Matricia blinked her eyes at me for several seconds. “Why do you keep smiling at me like that?”

“It's half as a thank you for helping me convince this guy to become the cleric's enchanter and half because I think you want me to.” I said and she looked surprised. “I know you refused before, because you were surprised by my pretty blunt approach. I'm sorry about that. I really did only want to enjoy a nice meal with you.”

Lady Matricia looked like she was going to say something, then the man came back with the map.

“Here's my place.” The man said. “As soon as you get that done, I'll pack up and come right to the temple with you.”

“Start packing.” I said and waved at the shop around us. “Don't bother with the display stuff. I'll grab it when I come back.”

“Uh, sure.” The man gave me a skeptical look.

“Pack fast.” I said and took Lady Matricia's arm to escort her out of the shop, then I flew her over to the property. By the enchanter's reckoning, we'll only be gone for about ten seconds. I thought with a chuckle. I hope he packs really fast.

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