Departure

2 days later…

Day of Tuar, 8:30 am.

Vivian with her White Cloak, necklace, black clothes, belt pouch, sword on her waist, a backpack and a face with light makeup was walking outside the compound of where the members of the Temple of Priests lived.

When she stepped outside of the main gate, there were a lot of people gathered there along with some carriages.

Some Priests were hugging their fellow Priests and families goodbye, while others putting their luggage on top of the carriages.

Among the Priests, they were mixed -- some were from the Luxen Chapter Temple and others were from the Heisen Chapter Temple.

When it came to the carriages, there were 5 large carriages that were as long as a bus and were being pulled by a type of animal that Vivian had never seen before.

If she were to describe it, they looked like giant lizards 3 times as big as a horse with a long neck, a muscular body covered with red-orange scales, and had huge claws on its giant paws.

Vivian hesitated about going near.

It wasn't because she was afraid of the giant lizards, but she was worried the lizards might go rampant if she went near and triggered the effect of her [Nemesis of Beasts] Lore Magic.

Fuck it…!

Vivian headed over to a White Cloak Priest who seemed to be one of the team leaders and was also standing near 2 carriages.

The moment Vivian got closer, the giant lizards from the 2 carriages nearby turned to Vivian and let out a loud howl.

WOOONNNGGG…!

WOOONNNGGG…!

Everyone nearby was startled that some people, especially the Brown Cloaks and civilians, ran away.

Whaaack!

Whaaack!

The sound of a whip crackled.

"STAY!" a coachman wearing a combination of civilian clothing and leather armor whipped the whip on his hand.

The coachmen weren't from the Temple of Priests. They were from the Temple of Tamers hired from Heisen City.

One lizard quickly obeyed and went back to its original position, while the other lizard continued moving towards Vivian.

Whaaack!

"WOOONNNGGG…"

The whip struck the face of the lizard, causing it to whimper in pain.

Whaaack!

"GET BACK!" the man ordered and whipped the floor.

The lizard finally turned away and moved back to its original position.

Seeing the lizards calm down, slowly but surely, most of the people who ran away earlier returned.

Vivian, on the other hand, just stared at the sight.

This…

Was this really a good idea…?

She shook her head mentally.

I've already made my decision…

This isn't only for the Physical Arts and hiding my secrets…

But also for my career as a Priest…

She went to the nearest Priest who seemed to be one of the team leaders or officials in charge.

"Excuse me, brother."

The Priest turned to her.

"Where do I board? I'm from the Luxen Chapter Temple."

"You can choose any of the carriages except for that," he said and pointed at one of the carriages from the lizards who caused a ruckus. "That one is already full."

"I see. Thank you," Vivian said and then left.

The carriage that Vivian chose was from the other lizard that caused a ruckus earlier because she didn't want to cause another scene and let people find out about her [Nemesis of Beasts].

When she stepped inside a carriage, a surprised expression appeared on her face for a brief moment. Looking at the carriages from out, it was indeed as large as a bus. However, she didn't expect to see a dining or lounging area.

It looks like one of those high-class trains in old, classic movies...

There were a few Priests inside, Brown and White Cloaks but mostly the former, and she approached them.

"Excuse me, brothers and sisters."

They turned to her.

"Yes, sister?" one of them replied.

"Where do I put my things?" Vivian replied and shook one of the straps of her backpack.

"Are those all of your things?" asked one of the female White Cloaks as she stared at Vivian up and down.

"Yes."

"If you're looking for the bedroom section it's over there," she said and pointed. "The female quarters are on the left side."

The carriage was divided into 4 sections. Starting from the front was the cockpit, then the dining or lounging area, then restrooms, and then finally the bedrooms. Most of the luggage were placed on top, while those who had little luggage like Vivian could put them inside their room.

As a man in her previous world, Vivian always traveled with 1 bag only as much as possible. But now that she was a woman, her bag -- a new one and she threw away her satchel -- was still a normal-sized traveling bag but was filled with a lot of things that she struggled to put all of them inside despite using the "ranger roll" for clothes.

"Thank you, sister," Vivian said and smiled before heading over to the bedroom section.

In the bedroom section, there were 6 rooms -- 3 on the left for the women and another 3 on the right for the men.

Vivian randomly selected a room on the left.

She opened the door and entered.

Oh...

There are 4 bunk beds, huh...

Thud.

Vivian placed her bag and sword on an empty bed on the left located below and then arranged them. She then removed her boots before lying down.

Thank God I woke up this morning without bleeding anymore…

She shifted her body to make herself more comfortable.

Also…

Now that I think about it…

And never in a million years would I've imagined that I would say this but…

Thank God I'm short…!

Vivian stared at her sock-covered feet that were a few inches away from the wall and then wiggled her toes.

As a tall person from her previous world, one of the things that Vivian hated was traveling. If she didn't want to suffer, she had no choice but to pay for first-class tickets for planes, boats and whatnot in order to give her legs some breathing room.

It was also great to travel in first class because the people there are more well-mannered and you get to see and talk to hot people and play honeymoon with them, especially if it's on a boat.

And of course, in order to play honeymoon with them, you got to at least look attractive and have some decent social skills unless you want to be labeled as a creep throughout the rest of the trip.

Nevertheless, traveling was still an experience that Vivian hated.

She let out a sigh.

I hope that those kids will receive those Magic Items…

The Magic Items that she was referring to were the Soul Finger Claw, Dark Finger Claw, Ice Finger Claw and Earth Finger Claw.

Elemental Weapons, to be exact.

Unfortunately, she didn't have any time to personally give those items to Felize, Torr and Gaze and properly say goodbye to them. Even without her 2-week suspension, she had her hands full in dealing with the Royal Palace incident, preparing for this trip, her period and also training her [Greater Origin Mastery].

In the end, she asked Grace from the Blacksmith Shop for a favor to give those items to the kids once she had time.

She even offered some coins to Grace. However, she declined to accept the coins and promised that she would give the items to them.

Vivian made an open and close motion with her fist.

I feel weak…

It wasn't because she wasn't feeling well due to her period or any flu.

The feeling was that of going somewhere for the first time without really knowing if things would work out all right or not, leaving your parent's home for the first time to start living on your own, or going to another country that you've never been to all by yourself.

Vivian got up from her bed and stared at the window.

She could see people hugging, laughing and saying goodbye to each other.

She felt a pang in her heart.

I wonder how my parents are…

She shook her head.

With how tough that father of mine is, they will be fine…

And plus, maybe the original soul of this body is inside my body…

I just hope she doesn't fuck it up…!

She let out a sigh.

I'm really leaving, huh…

I'll be gone for 6 months…

And only God knows what kind of battles or wars I'll be thrown into...

Is this what my soldiers feel like...?

My father is a policeman...

I wonder if this is how he also felt when he applied to become a policeman...

Back in her original world, Vivian didn't follow in the footsteps of her father due to some family and personal reasons.

Who cares...?

I'm better than my father in every metric...!

Memories of since she arrived in this world up to now -- the people she met, the friendships, the fights, the frustrations, the triumphs -- all flashed inside her head.

I didn't expect that I would actually miss this place…

A small smile appeared on Vivian's face and she began whispering a song.

"All my bags are packed and ready to go~~…

"I'm standing here outside the door~~…"

"I hate to wake you up to say goodbye~~…"

"Cause I'm leaving on a jet--"

The door of the room suddenly opened and Vivian turned her head.

When she saw who entered, her eyes became wide and her jaw dropped.

It was Marie and the cute woman who didn't say anything and just stared at her with a hint of animosity on the day she took the mock exam for her first Holy Mission.

"Fuck…"

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Author's Thoughts:

This is the end of Volume I and I would like to thank everyone for reaching this point of this heavy grinding story.

I would also like to give my special thanks to the following people:

• Higime142 - You gave the highest number of Power Stones and constantly post comments

• FosNeki - You gave the first review, you constantly give Power Stones and although you only gave a handful of comments, they were engaging

• Leitor_Morto - You have been constantly giving Power Stones

Please don't get me wrong, I also deeply appreciate the contribution of the other readers. But these 3 were the most active, kinda like MVPs or in this case MVRs lol.

I'm not gonna lie, when I first wrote this novel, it was during a slow month on one of my businesses in real life so I spent a lot of time listening to fantasy books and one of them was [I Reincarnated As A Sword] (can't remember the full title).

I remember getting so angry because all I wanted to listen about was the grinding. I had no interest about the conflict, drama, politics or even the bloody traveling and cooking arc.

And so I dusted off my writing muscles and decided to write a novel where the main focus was just about the grinding to satisfy my own desires. I also gave the MC very specific character traits in order to make sure that he/she would DEFINITELY stick into grinding regardless of whether there were external or internal obstacles -- like, the whole world could burn down but as long as it doesn't personally affect the MC, he/she wouldn't give a damn and let it burn.

So I'm really happy that there are people like me who like heavy grinding stories like this.

And you know what's really funny? Never in a million years did I expect Vivian to become a Priest. My original concept was a grinding story with an MC who is an adventurer.

I even created Waves as a source of monsters or a copycat from the [I Reincarnated As A Sword].

I also spent so many weeks planning and revising the structure of the Adventurer's Guild and even asked for some quest samples from you guys. Hell, I even made the MC a man trapped inside a woman's body so that she wouldn't be interested in forming a harem (this backfired so much lmao -- You wouldn't mind if I rewrite the story and make Vivian as Viktor or Vaughn, right? Just kidding lol).

But in the end, 80% of it got trashed because I was following the natural outcomes of Vivian's personality and decisions without having her get caught.

So yeah, 80% of the time I was just like you who didn't know what was going to happen next -- I don't even know if Vivian will still be a Priest in Volume II.

Now, for Volume II, specifically what will be my plan for it, I can't make any solid promises. However, I will still try to stick with the grinding part to not betray your expectations, especially for those readers who have reached this point and enjoy grinding stories. But I will also try to make it a little bit more "commercial" or "palatable" for the general audience.

Again, I would like to thank everyone for reaching this point in reading this heavy grinding story.

Now let's go back to grinding!