The Great Cleric: Volume 1 (Light Novel)

Prologue

Beyond the towering buildings stretched the vast blue sky. When was the last time I’d taken the time to stop and just look up like this? No sooner had those thoughts crossed my mind than searing heat shot through the left side of my chest. I pushed against it with a trembling hand, but the pain did not fade. The warmth of my body proved that I yet lived. However, time did not flinch and my vision started to dim. The world around me faded.

But I had no intention of accepting this reality.

People grow by creating and surpassing their aspirations. Someone in the past once taught me the words that now rang in my head.

My goal...is right there... I’m so...close... I’m not about to let a little...bad luck...make me throw in the towel! I shouted. The burning in my chest began to dissipate.

I’m not dying...not here... Not until...I get that promotion...

My sight was still clouded, but surely the pain disappearing meant I would make it. The sky remained an unfocused blur, but that was fine. I was sure of it. It was dire times like these when you needed to smile and push through. That was how I’d made it through life thus far, and that was how I’d keep going now.

I steeled myself and rose up. At that very same moment, my consciousness left me.

When my awareness returned, I found myself in an immaculate white room. Amidst my confusion, a single word surfaced in the back of my mind.

Reincarnation.

Many of the light novels I’d often read as a student bore a striking resemblance to my current situation. Any normal person would fail to make the connection, but I couldn’t stop the otaku-ness I’d sealed away after becoming an adult from seeping out. Still, reincarnation would mean I was dead. It sure didn’t feel like it, though. In an attempt to find answers, I thought back on the day’s events.

I was in charge of office solutions for a modestly sized company, or, to put it another way, a businessman primarily dealing in office automation equipment. The sweat and tears I’d poured into my job since my late twenties were finally starting to bear fruit right as I entered into my thirties.

Man, you’ve been on a roll lately. One more push and the target’s met, then that ‘assistant’ chain’s off your ankles. I’ll be honest, I didn’t think you’d make it. All you do is help out the grunts with their own numbers, the chief director called out to me.

Oh, hello, director. Actually, I’ve just struck a new deal with a client. I hope I can look forward to drinks if I get that promotion, I replied.

You know my wallet’s on a leash and you’re still gonna squeeze me dry, huh? Ahh, whatever. Get going.

Yes, sir.

The director’s wife was an intense woman, but we were once coworkers, so any time he went drinking he’d always call me up.

I waited for the elevator, beaming brighter than the sun. As long as the delivery on this contract happened within the month, my promotion was secure. And this one was big for two reasons.

The first was because I would be able to reach the level of a certain someone. Though our departments differed, there was a colleague I was chasing after. Ever since joining the company, my goal had been to catch up to and surpass this person.

The second reason was that I could then confess my feelings to the woman who had held me up when I lost sight of that. Our friendship spurred me on. Her smile kept me going when I had lost my ambition, so I decided I would tell her how I felt if I should make it up the ladder.

And I had finally made it. I was so close to my goal.

About the delivery, sir, it should be here next Wednesday. Thank you again for working with us.

Likewise. Oh, before you go, you’ll be here the day of the delivery, right? the president asked, our long acquaintance clear from his friendly demeanor. We went way back to my newbie days and I owed him a lot.

Of course, I answered with a smile and a nod. My promotion was thanks to him, after all, so naturally I would be there.

All right, then could you get in touch with me before you come next week?

Will do. You’ll hear from me next Wednesday.

Thanks. I’ll see you then.

Our conversation over with, I left his office.

Yes! That’s this month’s quota! That promotion’s as good as mine! I whispered excitedly to myself.

Finally, with my personal target met, it was within my grasp. I was on my way from assistant manager to full-on manager and I knew just the person to share that happiness with. If you’d told me to skip down the corridor, I would’ve obliged right then and there, no questions asked, regardless of the curious eyes around me. Unlike the descending elevator, my mood stayed high as the sky. When I got off, halfway to the exit I noticed my shoelaces had come loose.

These things just won’t cooperate, I mumbled as I leaned over to retie them.

Ahh, I can’t wait to get back to the office and celebrate with everyone.

Despite that wish of mine, I started off towards my next negotiation and left the building. Then it happened. A dry bang rattled my eardrums.

Whoa!

Whether by reflex or out of shock, my knees gave out and I crumpled to the ground.

What, am I that much of a scaredy-cat? I groaned, forcing a smile. A sharp heat pierced the left side of my chest. Come on, I don’t even smoke. My heart can handle a little jump scare, can’t it?

My chest ached, but more importantly, I was in public. I had to keep up appearances at least a little bit, so I needed to get away from there.

Man, my pants have got to be ruined now, I muttered. I tried to stand, but my legs refused to work. Did I slip a disk? It doesn’t feel like I did, at least.

The sound of my own breathing filled my ears to an unusual degree. I looked around.

Someone call an ambulance! I heard a voice scream.

What? That sound couldn’t have been... Ah, I knew it. It was a gun, wasn’t it?

Finally, my situation became clear to me. Along with this revelation came a growing chill in my body.

I’ve worked hard to move up in the world. I’m not dying in a place like this! I roused my spirit and looked up. Beyond the towering buildings stretched the vast blue sky.

My chest burned, the world dimmed, yet I had no intention of accepting this reality.

People grow by creating and surpassing their aspirations. Isn’t that right, sir? I’m going to live. I’m going to live and keep rising higher!

The churning heat in my body suddenly turned cold and the pain vanished.

I’ve made my decision. I’m going to live, make my way to you, and surpass you...

"I sure acted tough, but so much for not dying. I am dead, right? I said to myself. I just woke up in this white room, so...I’m dead, aren’t I?" Each time I repeated it, I felt my heart grow heavier.

I couldn’t just sit around feeling sorry for myself, though. I set about taking stock of the situation. The first thing I noticed was my clothing. In place of my suit, I had on some stiff, unfamiliar outfit from a bygone era. My gunshot wound, too, was gone. Various thoughts flooded my mind, but I rejected each one in search of other possibilities. The gears in my head kept turning in spite of my mental disarray. Where was I? What was this place? Who put these clothes on me? Answers soon came in the form of a disembodied voice, echoing inside my head.

Oh, unfortunate soul. Allow me to reincarnate you.

Could you just return me to my original world instead? I asked.

I cannot return you to a body that is already deceased.

Then...where am I being reincarnated to? I prayed it would be somewhere safe.

A planet known as Galdardia. A world of land and sea, much like Earth.

Can I assume it’s the same kind of world? I probed. If its civilization was on a similar level to that of Earth, chances were there could be somewhere as safe as Japan, or maybe even safer. Reality, however, was never fair and the voice’s answer came as no surprise.

It is a world of magic and beasts.

Magic and beasts? That would make it downright fantastical. That’s certainly a common setting in Japan. You see it in novels, anime, and games, so I’ve been familiar with the concept of such worlds for a while, I thought aloud. I even wanted to see one for myself when I was younger, but I’m getting up there in years now. I’m not sure I would enjoy an adventure at my age.

Oh, unfortunate soul. I do not care for your yammerings. I have nine other souls in a similar situation to attend to, so if you insist on quibbling, I will pitch you into your new world without any preparation whatsoever. If you would rather I did not, be quiet and listen, the voice threatened in a monotonous, inorganic tone.

I’m very sorry. Please continue. I lowered my head in apology.

Very much surprised that God (assuming that was who he was) would intimidate me like that, I shifted my focus to considering how I might survive in another world and nothing more.

"Oh, unfortunate soul. This world I send you to is as you envision. I will meddle not in your affairs. Should you wish to live, recite in your mind, ‘status open.’"

I obeyed the voice. Status open.

A hologram appeared out of nowhere.

Name: Unspecified

Job: Unspecified

Age: 15

Level: 1

HP (Health Points): 200 — MP (Magic Points): 50

STR (Strength): 20 — VIT (Vitality): 20

DEX (Dexterity): 20 — AGI (Agility): 20

INT (Intelligence): 20 — MGI (Magic): 20

RMG (Resistance to Magic): 20 — SP (Skill Points): 100

SKILLS

None

TITLES

None

It’s like some kind of game, I chuckled dryly.

The hologram listed what appeared to be my own attributes, as if I’d been plunged into a video game or anime reality. Fear filled me more than happiness or excitement. Surviving in a fantasy world with no such thing as a respawn would undoubtedly not be a walk in the park.

This sure is fantasy, all right... I mused. Wait, what? The age listed is so young! Is that on the house? For now, I needed information above anything else. At least I can keep thinking forward. I learned that much from being a businessman.

I pulled myself together, determined to push through this wild situation.

Your time limit is one hour. Your race and age have been set. The rest is for you to decide. You will have no family name, only a first name, echoed the voice. Soon, I will provide foundational knowledge of the world of Galdardia to you. In one hour’s time, you will be reincarnated. Oh, unfortunate soul, I pray your next life is one of better fortune.

A ping went off inside my head, followed by a new, mechanical announcement.

Obtained Protection of the God of Fate (increased SP)

Oh, thank yooooAAAAAAGGGHHH!

The instant I attempted to offer my thanks, a flood of information beyond the limits of what my mind could handle surged through every synapse of my brain. Unimaginable pain gouged my head, like a club had been brought down on it. According to the clock on the status screen, this sensation lasted for less than a minute, contrary to how my senses interpreted it. Fifty-nine minutes and seven seconds remained.

I gasped for air and grabbed my head. Ugh, that was some serious agony just now...

After the dull ache subsided, a kind of stinging feeling came, as if my brain were being forcefully poked and dug around in.

And now I have that ‘foundational knowledge,’ do I? It still hurts, but I don’t have much time, so let’s make some progress here, I remarked to no one in particular.

The knowledge I had obtained included the countries of Galdardia, its races, the common language, alphabet, and currency.

I took a deep breath, calmed my nerves, and looked at the holographic window to find it was now in the form of a character creation screen.

"This is definitely inspired by games and anime," I muttered as I proceeded with the creation process. And wouldn’t you know it, just like a game, you could alter your physical appearance. My current avatar looked European, with chiseled features, brown hair, and green eyes.

Now for my name...which I can’t remember? Why is that?

The answer to my question wouldn’t appear out of thin air, so I ultimately went with a name I had frequently used for video games in the past: Luciel. It didn’t seem like it would sound too out of place there, either. Then I tacked on an extra ten centimeters to my height, bringing me up to one hundred eighty centimeters, and changed my hair to silver, and my eyes to a pale purple. If my new knowledge was to be trusted, these weren’t particularly rare colors in Galdardia. Maybe a little edgy, I thought, but they looked good together, so I didn’t mind.

Fifty-three minutes remained.

I would have liked to know more about commodity values or local products, but I had to at least be grateful that I could speak, read, and write the local language. Life would likely be hard starting out, but fifteen was the age of maturity, so I would probably be able to quickly find work and, eventually, a peaceful living. Assuming this wasn’t all a dream, that is.

Ouch, looks like the place I’m sent to is random. A field, a forest, a labyrinth, or somewhere near a town. Comes down to luck, huh? I sat down and contemplated the skills I’d need to get by in such a place. So, some skills have levels and some don’t. The ones that do have levels also have a cap. You get them either with skill points or through hard work.

The skill list was massive and some of the more unpredictable ones relied heavily on luck. The categories were Attack, Defense, Magic, Support, Production, Lifestyle, Research, and Taming. Unfortunately, my perusing found no search bar of any kind. I would have to look things up the old fashioned way.

Luck came to mind first, and not just for gambling. If you wanted to snag clients at work, you needed luck, not just smooth-talking. Without it, you could even end up getting shot and having your life cut short like mine was. With that in mind, I began to calculate the SP costs of the more useful-sounding skills. From the Support category, I selected Attributes, and from there, Luck, which then displayed the following skills: Good Luck, Strong Luck, Super Luck, Monster Luck, Fiendish Luck, Supreme Luck, and Divine Luck. Both Supreme Luck and Divine Luck were out of the question at one hundred and five hundred SP, respectively. For the time being, I went with Strong Luck for ten SP.

Next, magic. A life in another world without being able to use magic meant a life of backbreaking work somewhere without labor laws. Only a fictional protagonist or combat expert of some kind could make headway living like that.

I chose Affinities from the Magic section and found nine options: Light, Holy, Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Thunder, Darkness, and Spacetime. Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth cost ten SP a piece, Holy was twenty, Thunder thirty, Light and Darkness fifty, and Spacetime one hundred. On top of that, there seemed to be other skills that were necessary to properly utilize the magic. Another subcategory called Casting listed Short Cast, Null Cast, Free Casting, and Magic Circle Casting. To my consternation, however, the SP I’d been afforded wasn’t enough to acquire them all.

I decided on the Holy Affinity, given its propensity to be connected to healing and support magic. With enough practice and experience, my abilities just might be of enough use to someone to land me a safe position. So that was twenty more of my SP spent. Null Cast at twenty SP and both Free Casting and Magic Circle Casting at thirty would eat up a hundred points all together.

As far as other skills went, Lifestyle included things like Cooking, while Production offered Blacksmithing and other such conventional abilities. Attack skills similarly lacked anything particularly eye-catching. There was one major pitfall, though—there was no guarantee you would start out with a weapon, even if you chose the appropriate skill. Wherever you began, the Swordsmanship skill would mean nothing without the all-important sword itself. Therefore, I chose the safest option, Martial Arts, for five SP.

Whoever was dumb enough to sit in this white room picking up nothing but combat skills to boost their abilities... Well, I couldn’t see them lasting very long. I searched for cheat skills like skill thieving or copying, but none popped out to me.

And so, after much deliberation and agonizing, I had my starting skills: Assess Mastery for twenty SP, Martial Arts for five SP, Monster Luck for fifty SP, Magic Affinity: Holy for twenty SP, and Magic Control for five SP.

Assess Mastery would allow me to find efficient methods of training, Martial Arts would let me defend myself without having to rely on a weapon, and I had bumped Strong Luck up to Monster Luck after concluding that I could use a bit more of it, given the circumstances. I selected Magic Affinity: Holy and Magic Control based on their descriptions.

Eighteen minutes now remained.

While I scanned everything once again just in case, a job selector button drew my gaze. When I pressed it, a whole new screen appeared.

Please select a job, it read, followed by all kinds of options.

Oh, you’ve got to choose this stuff yourself, too! Talk about a trap... Good thing I looked it over one more time.

I took a deep breath and examined the available jobs. From swordsman, mage, healer, thief, merchant, and many others, I chose healer. Swordsman or mage may have been a better choice, but healer seemed like the safer bet to me, in case mages couldn’t learn recovery magic, or there was no magic in general for swordsmen.

Nine minutes and forty-two seconds remained.

Before finishing up, I examined all of my skills once more and memorized a few others that I might be able to work towards later, for future reference. With over three minutes to spare, I hit Finish, and a split-second later I stood in a grass field with three silver pieces in my hand.

Time is money, even for the dead, huh? I sighed at the sky, reflecting on my skills and how my remaining time must have correlated to the money in my hand.

Grassy plains blanketed everything as far as the eye could see. I surveyed the area and spotted what looked to be the walls of a city in the distance. The size of it must have been quite impressive, given how big it looked from this far away. After a deep breath to slow my churning thoughts, and with relief in my heart at the sight of civilization, I warily took my first step forward.

＊

That makes ten souls. My end of the promise is kept.

It would certainly be interesting if this shakes things up down there, even if only slightly.

All were banal to the last. Those without an exceptional aptitude to adapt will meet only hardship.

Well, neither of us can meddle, so I’ll simply be watching from the sidelines. If they die, how about another bet? Let’s barter, shall we?

If the humor takes me. Farewell.

One light faded.

Ahhh, I hope something comes of it this time.

So, too, did the other.

The God of Fate, upon losing a bet, had offered up ten middling souls, all strangers to peril, to the ruling deity of another realm, including the man who had just been reborn. And upon this one soul alone, the first of the ten, did that god bestow his protection.

The man who became Luciel had been destined to die, yet his unwavering strength of will to defy such an end had stayed the reaper’s hand