Read advance chapters of all my works or want to support me.
https://www.p.a.t.r.e.on.com/Adamo_Amet
....
Join us on discord: https://discord.gg/DXv2nkTB
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Naruto sighed, slumping onto the table. The classroom was empty now except for the three of them. Everyone else had already filed out with their jonin instructors.
He didn't quite know what to make of his teammates.
Sakura Haruno had been his crush for years. He had never been entirely sure he could explain it, even to himself. She wasn't kind, not to him anyways. She hit him every time he asked her out. But there had been something about the way she approached things that a younger Naruto had found genuinely compelling.
The sharpness of her mind and voice. The way she cared about getting things right with a seriousness that most of their classmates couldn't be bothered with. He had liked that about her even when she was wasting that same sharp mind on the emo.
Naruto looked at Sakura.
Waited for the feeling that used to be there.
It didn't come.
The same as Sasuke's acknowledgment of his strength.
The best of their year by the academy's standards. A week ago he would have done almost anything to be taken seriously by either one of them. Now he was just waiting to see if they could give him a reason to take them seriously.
Well well well, how the turntables, Naruto thought, glancing at the clock without any particular satisfaction before standing up.
"Naruto, where are you going? Sensei could arrive any minute."
"Gotta take a massive dump," Naruto said, watching the disgust move across Sakura's face.
"Be quick," Sasuke said, without looking up. "We don't want to keep our jonin instructor waiting."
"Yeah yeah yeah."
If Kakashi was going to show up two hours late, Naruto figured he had time to slip into Lordran and be back before anyone noticed. He made his way to the bathroom, checked under every stall to confirm he was alone, and locked himself inside the last one.
[Do you wish to use item: Darksign?]
[Yes / No]
The stall filled with light.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
The warmth of the bonfire settled over him like a blanket while his eyes adjusted.
"Welcome back to Firelink Shrine."
Naruto spun around hard enough that his hand went to his sword hilt. The Crestfallen Warrior was standing behind him.
"Don't do that," Naruto said, hand still on the broken hilt. "You scared me."
The warrior simply pointed to a mass of souls near the edge of Firelink Shrine. Suspended in its greenish light was an apparition of Naruto, preserved at the moment of his last death.
"What is that?"
"Souldrop," Alexander said.
"That's the whole explanation?"
"You die, you drop the souls you haven't used. That's your souldrop from the asylum."
"But I thought the souls just went away when you absorbed them."
"No." Alexander's voice was flat. "You need a firekeeper to use them. The firekeeper shapes them into something your body can actually use. Strength, endurance, whatever you're building toward. Your master didn't teach you that, little squire?"
"Oscar didn't exactly have a lot of time."
A silence passed between them that acknowledged that fact without dwelling on it.
The souldrop dissolved into Naruto on contact, spreading through his chest the way heat spread through cold hands.
[Souls: 10,120]
Naruto wondered how much stronger he could get with these souls before asking, "So where do I find this firekeeper?"
"She is in Firelink Shrine," Alexander said, already turning away. "Find her and let her do the rest."
The Crestfallen Warrior shooed Naruto away before moving toward a nearby well.
Two hollow corpses with small wisps of liquid humanity bleeding from their bodies like steam rising from cooling broth. Alexander collected it with his fingers with a smile. He had protected Naruto's souldrop for the past few days without moving.
He had earned these liquid humanities.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Naruto climbed up some stairs to the broken church. Its dome was broken at the center with a massive tree directly growing through it. The tree dwarfed the Hokage Monument in size, with its upper branches dissolving into the clouds in the sky. The giant crow that had taken him from the asylum sat on one of the branches.
Multiple paths branched off as the stairs leveled out, each one leading to a different section of the church.
Naruto took the second.
The hallway inside was long and cold, light falling through gaps in the broken ceiling in pale uneven columns. Giant earthen pots lined the walls toward the back. In the middle of the floor, a man knelt in prayer.
He's fatter than Choji, Naruto thought.
The man was armored neck to toe in layered metallic plating. He held a spiked mace with a shield covered in a colorful design. What nearly made Naruto lose his laugh out loud was the guy's stupid bowl cut.
"Hello there."
The man's eyes opened, deep set and cautious. "I believe we are not acquainted. I am Petrus of Thorolund." He paused. "Forgive me for being cautious, but I must ask that you maintain a respectful distance."
"Uh. Sure," Naruto said, stopping where he was.
"Do you have business with us?"
"I'm looking for the firekeeper. Do you know where she is?"
Petrus seemingly ignored the question. His gaze dropped to Naruto's armor with the focused attention of someone who recognized what they were looking at. "That armor belongs to the elite knights of Astora."
"You know it?"
"Are you from Astora yourself?"
"No. My master was. He passed the armor to me before he died."
Something shifted in Petrus's expression. Not softened exactly, but adjusted. He reached into his robes and produced a small coin, tossing it gently across the space between them. Naruto caught it on reflex.
It was copper, old and worn smooth at the edges. The face of an elderly man had been stamped into one side with faded precision.
"Thanks," Naruto said, turning it over. "But why?"
"You are not familiar with the tradition, my young squire?" Petrus said, assuming the natural authority of a man addressing someone who was clearly in need of instruction. Naruto didn't know how to feel about that.
"Copper coins are placed upon the eyes of the deceased. To pay the ferryman who carries souls to the bonfire."
Naruto looked around the church. "I haven't seen any ferrymen here."
"Oh, no, no. That is a tradition of the people. A superstition of devotion rather than literal practice." Petrus folded his hands. "I was simply paying my respects to a fallen warrior of the Way of White. Your master was of that order if he carried those arms."
Naruto closed his fingers around the coin. "Thank you."
He paused.
"What is the Way of White exactly? Oscar mentioned the Knight's precepts but he never had time to explain much else."
"Is this your way of honoring your fallen master, young squire? Seeking to understand the path your master walked?"
"Yeah," Naruto said, and found that he meant it. "I guess it is."
"The Way of White is a path of devotion. The way of the gods, of faith, of miracles granted to those who prove themselves worthy of divine attention."
"Miracles. Is that anything like pyromancy?"
Petrus's expression soured like milk left in the sun. "My dear young squire," he said, his voice retaining every courtesy while quietly evacuating all of its warmth. "We do not associate the gifts of the gods with the crude practices of barbarians."
"What?"
"Pyromancy is the power of demons. It is a heretical craft, born of the demonic flame and entirely beneath the dignity of any knight."
Naruto kept his face neutral and filed the information away carefully. Oscar actively encouraged his pyromancy. Had treated it as a tool like his sword. And Oscar had walked the same path Petrus was describing with apparent genuine devotion. One of them was wrong about what that path meant.
Naruto had a strong suspicion which one.
Either way, Petrus did not need to know about the flame in his arm.
"Understood," Naruto said simply. "So these miracles. Can I learn them?"
"I had intended to await my companions here in any case," he said. "So perhaps, while I wait, I could teach you some miracles. Would that please you, young squire?"
"Yep."
"Very well then. First, a Covenant with the Gods."
"What do I need to do?"
"You need only accept the light of All Father Lloyd, uncle of the Great Lord Gwyn himself, patron deity of Thorolund." Petrus produced a white talisman from the folds of his pouch. "Through this covenant, the power of miracles becomes available to you. Your faith does the rest."
Naruto understood approximately thirty percent of that but nodded anyway.
"By the grace of All Father Lloyd and in the light of Lord Gwyn, we gather to welcome a new soul into the sacred Way of White."
A warmth gathered around Naruto's shoulders. Not the warmth of the pyromancy flame. This was like standing in sunlight after a long time indoors.
"Do you renounce the Abyss, the servants of darkness, and the curse of the Dark Sign that plagues the Undead?"
"I renounce them," Naruto said, before he had fully decided to say it.
"Do you pledge to uphold the teachings of the Way of White, to serve the gods, and to maintain the bonfires that stave off the darkness?"
"I pledge my soul and my will."
Naruto wasn't entirely sure what that meant. But it felt true when he said it, which he supposed was the point.
The white talisman in Petrus's hand ripped cleanly down the middle and the pieces dissolved, spiraling outward around Naruto in a slow ring of light. It was a genuinely beautiful and magical experience.
"By the will of All Father Lloyd and the light of the Flame," Petrus intoned, "I baptize you into the Way of White. May your soul burn bright and your faith remain unbroken."
The light settled into him and was gone.
Naruto stood there for a moment and decided this was the coolest thing that had ever happened to him and moved on.
"Now," Petrus said, producing a new talisman, "let me share what I can. Their ultimate effectiveness will be determined by your efforts and your faith."
A system window opened in Naruto's vision.
[Wares]
[Miracles]
[Heal - 4,000 souls]
[Great Heal Excerpt - 10,000 souls]
[Seek Guidance - 2,000 souls]
[Force - 4,000 souls]
[Homeward - 8,000 souls]
[Talismans]
[Talisman - 1,000 souls]
[Thorolund Talisman - 5,000 souls]
Naruto stared at it. "Wait, I have to buy them from you?"
Petrus smiled with great serenity. "Knowledge has its costs, young squire. The gods provide the power. I provide the instruction. These things are not, strictly speaking, free."
Naruto stared at the price of Heal for a long moment. "Newcomers get a discount, right, dattebayo!"
"A promise is a promise," Petrus agreed pleasantly. "And commerce is commerce. The two need not conflict."
"What do you recommend I get?"