.Waking up from his slumber at the inn, Shichiro yawned, stretching his limbs groggily as he was still quite tired and didn't get too much rest from his last adventure. A lot has happened since he returned to Oak from Era. From being recruited by the knights, to being thrown in prison, to coming out of prison and still being recruited as a knight anyway once he was done serving his time. All things considered, it was a pretty wild and fun adventure if he does say so himself. Still, he had another job to do here in the town of Oak as its otherworldly, sinister problems continue to plague them. Getting out of the Inn bedroom, Shichiro decided to hurriedly enter the bathroom in order to clean himself up. Afterwards he began to dress himself with his normal attire, consisting of his yellow button down shirt, navy blue pants and black shoes he was often seen wearing. He had a pair of magical earrings fastened to his earlobes and a heavy, chainmail helmet that was covered by hard leather, decorated in gray and white fur that he wore on his head. After putting on what little gear he owned for combat, he briefly exited his tented room, making his way down the lobby.

He saw the inn was now serving lunch but unlike breakfast, it wasn't free so he decided he'd skip out on it and wait for dinner to come around. Exiting the establishment, Shichiro tilted his head up, taking note of the sky. unlike the last time he was here, it was rather cloudy, with dark clouds casting over the town as if it was the omen of something ominous. Well this might be a warning that today won't go as easily as last time but he'd be the judge of that for now. Placing his hands into his pockets, Shichiro began to walk back to the cathedral in order to meet up with his partner again for this particular request. On his way there, rain began to trickle as if it was laying down the setting for the upcoming scenario. This only served to amuse Shichiro as he thought this place was always bright when he came around when it was supposed to be rumored to be a dark town. Arriving at his destination, Shichiro had arrived at the same church they were situated at before. Unlike last time, they were to meet with a bishop of this church to get the details directly from their mouth.

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Waiting in front of the church, shichiro had his hands in his pockets just staring at the sky above him. He fell into his habit of daydreaming since he was sitting idly by waiting for his partner, Erebus to get here. It didn't long before a familiar voice called out to greet him. Being brought back to reality, shichiro turned his attention towards Erebus approaching with his dagger already drawn. If he didn't know him and could visibly see he was playing with the tip, he might have thought other things were afoot. "Oh, you're here. That's good. Come on, some high ranking priest person is inside on the upper floor of the church or something like that. We got to go meet with him for the briefing of our next mission," shichiro said flatly. With that, shichiro began to push the doors to the chapel open and walk, leaving the door open behind so Erebus may also enter. Walking down the halls of the church, he didn't know why he expected it to look any different from last time. The church podium, the two rows of long, wooden church chairs, the interior decorations all the same as the last time they were here.

Walking down the aisle, Shichiro scoffed a bit as began to approach the podium. He knew the bishop was here somewhere but he wasn't given instructions or directions to where the second floor might be. He didn't even know the church had a second floor much less to where it is. As if on cue, a wall behind the podium had begun to open up as an elderly, seemingly frail man walked out from behind. Glancing towards the man, the thing about the male would have to be the fact that nothing about him seemed old. He stood tall, chin tilted up to show a sense of confidence in his movement and the way in which he carried himself. His body was fit, as could be deemed from the clothing he wore that hugged his frame well. His chest was well built, stomach flat and arms rather impressive. Pondering to himself, shichiro hoped he'd have a physique similar to that in his old age one day, if he lived that long. Regardless, the male from behind the podium began to usher both Erebus and shichiro towards him as he began to walk back up a flight of stairs behind him.

Having little to no choice, Shichiro glanced at Erebus briefly before fiddling with his pockets and walking towards the entrance to the secret floor of the church. For a plain, old chapel, this place seems to have held a lot of secrets. Even from its own citizens.

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Walking side by side with Erebus, the both of them had begun to traverse the flight of steps, Shichiro had made note of the slightly different interior they had passed. The lavish beige color from beneath grayed out, the wall trimmings seeming to resemble a dark brown, only a hair away from a shade of black. The lighting on the second floor was also a fair deal dimmer than what he saw on the first floor. 'Well, if this wasn't the fanciest thing he's ever lid eyes on,' Shichiro thought to himself, sarcastically and dry. He always thought some of the few buildings that had to look extravagant no matter what room they were currently in was a chapel but this sort of scenario blow away all of those notions immediately. He guessed, even religion has its dark spots, literally and figuratively. As they made their way up, they eventually made it to the second floor where it was just a single door leading to a small room that seems to act as some sort of office. The elderly bishop had begun to walk towards his desk and planting himself in a fairly extravagant looking seat. While ushering the two of them to sit in some ordinary wooden chairs.

Making it this far, he decided it was best to comply so they could get out of this creepy looking location and begin with their mission. Once the two of them had been seated, the bishop began to clear his throat before speaking. "Hello children of the gods, I thank you both for answering my call. I wanted to personally thank the two of you for completing the last task we had sent the two of you to do. I know there might have been some strange things you may or may not have experienced down in the crypts below but I think it would be best for both parties to forget what was encountered down there. Now then, onto why I have called the both of you. It seems there was an oversight on our part as their was not only one of those horrid creatures, but three of them. The first one, you two took care of but it seems before the two of you had arrived, the other two abominations had escaped from the crypt. Now, we've tracked down and located one right here in the town of Oak. It seems to pray on the living creatures and primarily active at night. Its not publicly known yet and we've done our best to suppress the rumors and news of its sightings. The whereabouts of the second creature is currently unknown as it doesn't seem to be present in the town at all," the bishop had said.

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The Bishop had listened to the suggestion of Erebus as he finished giving them most of the summary he had laid out for them. The bishop nodded in response to Erebus' suggestion but he wasn't worried about the one that might be running rampant outside of town, only the one that was currently inside of the town preying on the citizens. "All in due time, my dear boy. For now we must concentrate our efforts on the one running rampant inside of town and eliminate it before it becomes too big of a problem. From the last time you've been on the job till now, four people have gone missing. We've confirmed they've been caught and absorbed by the large, gibbering creature but we can't simply tell the townsfolk the truth or there will be an uproar. That's why after this meeting, I shall send you both on your way in order to patrol the area when night has fallen. Now one last thing you both should keep in mind is when day breaks, it likes to retreat back into the darkness of the crypt. The thing is, we don't know how it's able to get in and out freely. If you can discover where its coming and going from, that would also help us out quite a bit in covering up its existence."

"Other than that, I've shared all I know about the current situation. If it wasn't clear, this mission requires the both of you to scour the area, during the day or the night, preferably at night and dispatch the undead creature. I will have your reward waiting for you when you come back. Any other questions, if not you are dismissed," the bishop said, sounding increasingly alarmed as he continued his story and summary. Shichiro shook his head no and was already anxious to deal with this threat. if it was kidnapping and absorbing people for its own benefit, it has to be stopped for things got too out of hand. They had both heard the mission briefing so he assumed that was all they needed to hear. Standing up, he felt as if he was sitting still for far too long before stretching a bit. Cracking his knuckles, he placed his hands into his pockets, not saying another word. He just wanted to quell this situation before it got too big. Doubling back, he began to head for the door unless Erebus needed something else before they had left.

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[48 Hour Skip]

Seeing as Erebus had nothing to add on, Shichiro had walked out of the room first in hopes of being able to scout out the area before defeating the creature. Taking a trip down the stairs where they had come from, he still couldn't believe how dingy this area was compared to the rest of the church itself. It was almost as if they had shady dealings when church wasn't in session. Then again, what had just transpired could have been considered a shady del to most. Snuffing out news, silencing people and a secret mission revolving around taking out an abnormal abomination as well as finding the leak somewhere in the church's interior. Making it back to the chapel's podium, he figured it would be easier to search around for the church first in order to find out where the creatures might have escaped from. At the same time, it might give him a clue as to the creature's current whereabouts or paths it might have taken in order to get to and from its destinations. Even though he didn't like it, he had to travel back through the catacombs of the church in order to figure out how this thing was getting from place to place.

Letting out an irritated sigh, Shichiro began to walk towards where the trapdoor to the catacombs were. Crouching down, he places his hands on the trapdoor in order to pull it open, revealing the set of stairs he and Erebus had previously traversed through. Beginning his descent, Shichiro began to walk down the stairwell in what would normally be darkness to people. As usual, it took him a couple of minutes to reach the bottom of the stairwell like he did previously. There was the old, wooden door in front of him he had proceeded to go through with Erebus the first time around and proceeded to open it, peering inside of what could possibly be lying in wait. A few rows of corpses could be seen like last time, with yet another stairwell at the epicenter of the room, with a large sarcophagus pushed over to reveal an even deeper stairwell. Shrugging his shoulders, Shichiro let out a, 'Meh' sounding sigh as he walked further into the graveyard. Not knowing if Erebus tagged along behind him or not, he picked up on the sounds of whispering like the first time around in this area. As he continued to traverse further and further, the whispering had soon quickly become wailing of sorts, angry shouting and screaming.

At first it was off putting but later on, it just became mildly annoying as he continued to travel downward. The surroundings had also begun to change as they walked, no longer being a flat, dirt path but now a more rocky and cavernous like appearance had begun to take form. This wouldn't be a bad place to hang out if it wasn't for the stench of rot and the fact this was a graveyard, he thought to himself. Arriving at the little area, where he and Erebus dispatched the first creature, he could see a large tunnel leading up, the path tilting upwards. This path was not here previously and was now a cause for concern for Shichiro. Other than the rest of the area being mostly the same was the first time he came round to visit, the new larger tunnel was new. He had no choice now but to go and discover the whereabouts to where this tunnel might lead. Traversing the new tunnel, he managed to make it out of underground catacombs behind a large building. He didn't recognize it at first but after circling it, he noticed he was behind the Swineherd Pub. If so, he wouldn't need to look around too long.

Night had fallen and it was dark now, meaning he was trapped in the underground longer than he had anticipated. This wasn't a big deal as now all he had to do was camp in the area to wait for his mystery abomination to show itself so he could dispatch it like they did the first one. Not long after he set up, the creature had come from a certain direction with a fresh victim before it attempted to go back into the tunnel it came from to feed. Shichiro decided to spring into action with his most powerful spell in order to blitz the creature, causing it to drop its victim. Surprisingly enough, the victim was still alive but unconscious so he figured it was best to let the church deal with that one later. After bombarding the creature with attack after attack, it finally gave in and disappeared. With that, Shichiro had left to go report his findings and collect his earnings all in one sitting.

[Exit.]

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