[Vow of Tenacity - Passive skill; When your health drops below 2%, all your stats receive a 200% boost for 10 seconds; Cooldown - 1 minute]
Alex gasped as she stared at her system interface without blinking. She read it again and again to make sure that she didn't misinterpret things.
This skill meant that any time she was close to losing or rather dying, she would get a last burst of strength and power to turn the tables around!
This single skill could seriously mean the difference between life and death! Skills like this existed? This was simply too unbelievable! Too over-powered!
She only knew one other person who could potentially have skills like these and that was Liam.
No wonder that guy is always able to pull ahead of others and fight like a maniac. She tsked inwardly and then shook her head realizing that she was comparing herself to the guy for no apparent reason.
She closed the system interface and turned to look at the priestess to say something when suddenly she noticed that something was off.
The golden throne was empty and the room she was standing in was also empty.
"Hmmm?" Alex looked around and spotted a door on the side. She opened it and stepped out to the corridor.
Once again, the corridor was empty but a couple of seconds later, a few temple attendants walked past her, all wearing the same white robe with the golden borders.
"Excuse me? Priests? Priestesses?" She awkwardly called out and the group of people abruptly halted.
"An intruder? Who allowed you inside?" One of them anxiously spoke but the other female attendant standing next to her stopped her.
"Sister, calm down first. You can't see the golden glow on her skin?"
The second part of her sentence was a low whisper but Alex heard it nevertheless. She quickly lifted her arms and looked and indeed there seemed to be some sort of a light glow.
She then touched her face and neck and a couple of other places. Weirdly enough, everything felt the same.
"What are you searching for, sister? It's just the holy aura." One of the younger temple attendants couldn't hold her laughter back any longer and chuckled.
"Shhh. Stop it." Another one warned her and then turned to talk to Alex, "Sister, if you are looking for the temple priestess she is at the war room."
"Oh? Thank you." Alex decided to quickly check out the place while she had the chance.
She could clearly see that she was on one of the higher floors right now. Perhaps if she left this place, she would not be able to visit again. She was not even sure if the higher floors of the temple were open to players.
She quietly followed the directions and turned right to enter a huge hall at the south end of the floor.
Just from the size of the place, she expected a lot of people inside but there was only one woman standing in a corner.
She was leaning over a table and staring at something spread out atop it. And as soon as Alex entered the space, she looked up as if she sensed her presence.
There was a visible frown on her face, which quickly changed as she glanced at the redhead.
"Welcome, paladin. You have come here at the right time. I have an important mission for you."
"Yes, priestess."
Alex raised her brows in pleasant surprise as she did not expect to get a quest here. She quickly walked over to the woman, wanting to take a look at the map on the table as well.
Alex had expected some sort of old map of the world on a faded yellow paper or something similar to that but when she went close by she was once again shocked.
The things on that table actually moved!
There was a sort of white fog over what looked like green mountains and lands. This somewhat resembled the image of an Earth-like planet when seen from outer space.
But atop this planet, there were several red points, blackish-red waves rippling from the point. Some of these points had less color intensity while some had more color intensity.
She was only barely able to get a glimpse when the priestess quickly waved her hand and everything disappeared.
Alex awkwardly gulped, wanting to have a better look. It looked very interesting and definitely important. It would be nice to know the contents.
But she swallowed those questions and talked about the quest. She had learned the hard way that it was always better to get the quest first and then poke around later.
"Please tell me what I can assist you with, Priestess."
"Mmm. Vile energy is beginning to seep into our air, water, and lands. More and more beasts are losing their minds and turning demonic. Visit the western valley to help our people."
[Ding. New Quest Received]
[Ding. Do you wish to accept the quest? Y/N]
"Yes." Alex quickly accepted the quest. "I will do my best to save them, priestess. It is my good luck."
"Mmm. I will bless you to have success." The priestess nodded.
[Ding. You have received the divine temple's blessing. All your stats are increased by 5% for the next 12 hours]
"Thank you, priestess."
Alex was happy about this bonus but she still wanted to ask about the map. "Priestess, please forgive me, but may I ask what the red spirals on the map are?"
"I… ummm… got a bad feeling from them."
"Mmm… I will tell you. Since you are now a paladin of the first order, this is something that you are privy to."
"The red spirals are the cracks in the space where our defense is being tested, where the rift battles are taking place."
"More specifically, the red ones are where we are losing and the white ones are where we are winning."
"Ah… that means." Alex gasped.
"Yes, we are losing." The priestess solemnly nodded.