My Dungeon Life – Chapter 1695-1697

Chapter 1695

“To have our glorious church share a space with this church of perversion, how can I tolerate this?” Anne demanded, glaring at me.

“Church of perversion, you’re one to talk,” I muttered.

“What did you say?”

“Sister, I know it is not ideal, but there is only one church building in Chalm. Given the rapid growth, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find land to build. Considering this building is in the city center, it’s an ideal place for both of us to reach the masses. Perhaps, in this one case, we can make due?”

What is she talking about not ideal and making due? One could see the happy smile on her face. When I had sent Carmine to the capital to offer her such a deal, she couldn’t agree fast enough. She even came personally, something I wasn’t expecting. I just needed a few priests and paladins to stake a claim on their half.

Of course, that was my plan. Mary had desperately wanted to reconnect with her sister. It seemed to be her life ambition to bring the churches back together. If Anne was going to try to push a church onto Chalm, then wasn’t it a good opportunity to invite both churches? Chalm had already started to earn a reputation as a city that brought people together. It contained Animalkin from Dioshin, Osterians from the Ost Republic, and Dwarves from the Deep. All of these species seemingly coexisted here, so why not the churches too?

“You speak of making due, but you’re only here to bully us,” Anne spoke defensively. “Since we don’t have a direct line to our church, we’re disadvantaged. I’ve personally come and will be staying in Chalm until this church is set up, but you’ll be in the capital of Aberis, able to send supplies easily and use your power to push our church out. Everyone knows the church of the Mother is good and taking up all the room.”

Anne’s eyes glared at Mary’s chest once again. Mary let out a seductive laugh, but that only seemed to sour Anne’s mood further.

“On that note, I’ve also decided to stay in Chalm for the foreseeable future.” Mary smiled.

“What?” I couldn’t help but cut in.

I wasn’t the only one startled by her words. Even her paladins seemed to be shocked. She was the Archbishop of the Church of the Mother. She was their predominant figurehead, yet she was leaving her place of power for a small upstart city in the wilderness. Anne was a leader of her church, but only one of several. Prelate didn’t have the same power in the Church of the Daughter as an Archbishop. Mary represented the holy mother, while Anne was closer to a representative of the daughter. After all, in a family, you could only have one mother, but many daughters.

Since Anne’s power was divided among several Prelates, she could afford to leave on missions, especially when it was spreading the church to a developing area and had the potential gain of getting a foothold in Aberis. On the other hand, the Church of the Mother already had saturated Aberis, and Chalm was only an extended territory of Aberis. There was no major advantage for the Archbishop to personally come.

Of course, I knew of one advantage, and that was for her to reconnect with her sister, but could Mary just abuse her power like that?

Chapter 1696

The bickering and fighting didn’t end there. Anne was extremely resistant, and no matter how sweet Mary acted, it only seemed to infuriate Anne too. The tension also wasn’t completely one-sided. There were tensions between the two groups of paladins. Anne hadn’t brought everyone to disappear in the dungeon, so she had a new group, and Mary had also come with her own group. These were men and women who had opposing views, and now they had been thrown together.

The paladins from the Church of the Mother looked down scornfully at the paladins from the other church, and the other church scowled right back. They were each trying to move into the church. Numerous supplies sat in various crates in front of the church going out to the street. It was enough supplies for two churches, and neither one was willing to compromise. Paladins from each group were fighting to bring their items in. This stalled when they each tried to pull a crate in, blocking each other’s path. Neither was willing to give room for the other, and their voices were becoming quite heated.

The two leaders were in just as much of an argument, so neither was watching their companions descending to the point they might draw arms. I wished I had Eliana with me. Her ability to soothe tensions could be very helpful at that moment. The only other person I knew who was as good with people was Elaya and pulling out a woman putting off waves of miasma in front of a bunch of self-righteous paladins didn’t seem like a good idea.

I lifted my hands to try to placate the two women, only for a sudden force to slam me in the back. I was thrown forward into the two women, and my arms instinctively grabbed onto the two of them. I activated several shields of defense as we collapsed to the ground. The paladins fighting over a crat had dropped one of the containers, and when it hit the ground it had exploded. The paladins had been thrown back by the force.

“The children!” Mary pulled out of my protective grip, leaping to the children who had been thrown to the ground.

“Watch out!”

I hadn’t been using my Danger Sense, but the second I was attacked I turned it on, and it told me that there was more to it. She raised her hand and created a magical shield of her own just as several more crates exploded. The entire courtyard of the church seemed to be razed in a single moment. While shockwaves and shrapnel buffeted my shield and I held Anne protectively, I brought up my Map. Red dots appeared all around us.

I stood up and spun around, my eyes searching for the threat. The explosions had stopped, but the vast majority of the paladins were either knocked out or dead. That made it unlikely this was caused by either side. Carmine was among those in the explosion, and the only member of my party that stuck around to deal with this. She had been near the blast, but she was also extremely tough. She was working her way back to her feet just like me. She was wearing her army thankfully, and it had taken the majority of the hit. She was scratched up and covered in filth, but she was still okay.

That was when a dozen people jumped down from every side, seemingly coming from the rooftops of the adjacent buildings. They were completely covered in black fabric, and even their faces couldn’t be seen.

“Ninjas?” I frowned.

“No, Master. They’re assassins!” Carmine corrected.

I had been warned that assassins would come. I never expected it in my own city.

Chapter 1697

“He’s still standing! Kill him!”

If I had any thoughts that it was the church they were attacking, they ended when all of the assassins charged at me while ignoring Anne who was still stunned on the ground.

“Be careful, Master. They’ll have soul-reaping weapons.” Carmine warned, before bringing out and slamming her shield into the ground. “Fight me instead!”

A strange flow of mana shot out from Carmine, and I realized that she had activated a skill. It was a Taunt skill, and it seemed to work, as roughly one-third of the assassins suddenly turned and began to charge her instead. That was a pretty useful skill, and I was happy for her help.

I didn’t need Carmine to tell me that these guys were dangerous though. I noticed the menacing-looking daggers in the hands of the ones still coming at me. As much as I liked to claim that I was immune to malacrum daggers, the truth was that malacrum daggers were still as effective against me as soul-reaping daggers, and when it came to my god soul, soul-reaping daggers were unaffected by the presence of my god soul.

Soul-reaping weapons damaged both the body and the soul. If a killing attack was landed with a soul-reaping weapon, then just as the name suggested, the soul died. While god soul left me immune against the miasmic infection induced by malacrum daggers, my soul could still be chopped up and damaged. Every time I was cut by a malacrum dagger, I accrued damage to my soul. For a normal person, that was a really bad thing, and the equivalent of having your life slowly whittled away. That said, Waters of Life could gradually heal such damage. It was a miraculous substance, and it was no wonder people would go to such an extent to find some.

“Don’t think you have it easy. Those are just the small fries. We’re the real threat!” One of the assassins barked as I looked at the ones leaving for Carmine.

It made sense that the ones who were easily swayed with Taunt would be the lower-level assassins. A proper assassin wouldn’t be so easily influenced by a little bit of mana, or they wouldn’t be a very successful assassin.

“Alysia, try to leave one of them alive.” I brought the sword our and started my attack.

Alysia’s reach was far greater than their daggers, so even though they outnumbered me, I still had an advantage in reach. They tried to break into my space, but they probably wouldn’t have guessed that I focused on explosive movements. These assassins depended on speed, and they likely thought I’d be slow and lumbering thanks to my height and the size of my blade, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

“Quick Attack! Water Jet!” I struck an unsuspecting assassin down just like that, severing his body and soul, and then I turned and shot out a jet of water, sending another that had leaped at my back spinning away.

These guys weren’t pushovers though. They also weren’t lone wolves. The remaining assassins had formed a circle around me and did a coordinated attack. They had sealed off every direction I could go, and the one who appeared to be the leader grinned as he thrust a dagger right at my heart.

I had armor like Carmine. Why would I have been wearing it at that moment? I also didn’t have one of those fancy dress rings from Jespain.  That meant that this strike would be fatal, body and soul.