Chapter 455

“This feels wrong,” Arthur muttered, staring at the large building before him, the soaring arches, the bell tower on the right, the expansive grounds that were available. They were located outside of KL proper, which was a good thing since it avoided the majority of traffic; but still…

“You wanted a big building, big hall space and space for people to stay. This is already ready built, we just need to add more protection for the main hall; but there’s enough annexes we can use for smaller training sessions,” Rick said, hands behind his back. “I think it’s perfect.” He pointed to the side where a bunch of abandoned land lay. “I also checked, that’s all up for sale too. It’s been in receivership for years now, but for the right amount, we can get it. Put up a newer training building up there too, in-between.”

“It’s nice, and it’s pretty but… it’s…” Arthur gestured, helplessly.

“You’re not Christian, right?”

“I’m not. Which makes it even worse, doesn’t it?” Arthur said, slowly. “It’s not like they’re letting them build many more churches, right?”

“As though they want them,” Casey who had been wandering the grounds answered. “Total worship numbers across all the traditional religions have been dropping.” No need to speak about the weird cults that had grown up around the Towers. For one thing, they were officially banned in Malaysia, and for another, they were just weird. That some Climbers were part of them – or started them – was one of the reasons that the Malaysian government was quick to ban their presence. Nevermind the need to keep Imams happy.

“Didn’t I see something in the news about a new cathedral being blocked?” Arthur muttered.

“That’s just politics. Big buildings, sure; they want to make a new one and make the new place more modern. Cheaper to upkeep, if nothing else.” At the look Arthur gave Casey, she waved a hand. “Don’t worry – upgrading this one won’t be hard. The stone’s expensive but they already have solar panels in, so we can lower cost further.”

“Okay.”

“As I was saying, not as much demand for smaller buildings now. And the cost of upkeep is one reason they’re selling it off.”

"Smaller." Arthur muttered. The place had to b at least four to five thousand square feet on the ground itself, nevermind the basement and two other floors above. 

"Yeah. The parish that was constructing it were a little too ambitious," Rick said, chuckling. "Had a big sponsor in a convert and then, when he died and his children decided they weren't going to push all their money into supporting the church, they tried to hang-on. Supposedly we're going to make a lot of brides unhappy if we buy this."

Arthur snorted, though he understood. The Western, big wedding fad with everyone gathering around in a church or some other location to hear the vows had grown popular, especially among the Christian population. Which, even if they were shrinking, were not that small. Especially not when the older parents controlled the purse springs.

While Arthur had stayed still, the others in the group - which was nearly the entirety of his team - had been wandering the grounds. Mel was the first to come back, arms crossed as she spoke to Rick. "Did I hear that the abandoned land there is up for sale?"

"Yes." Rick grimaced. "It'll cost though."

"How much?"

When he named the number, Arthur blanched a little while Mel rubbed her chin, eyeing the ground. 

"What?" he said.

"It's a lot of land, goes down to a stream. There's quite a bit of erosion there too, muddy with a lot of clay." At his impatient nod, she continued. "I bet, if we didn't want to buy it; we could just use it as a training ground."

"For?"

"Wilderness camping, bad terrain, fighting in a forest..."

Arthur blinked, eyed the heavily overgrown piece of land. The thing about living in a temperate country with rainforests was that any piece of land, left alone and abandoned went green within days. First came the lalang, the long weeds that sprouted up and hid the ground beneath. Then, after that were the bushes, various low-hanging bushes sprouting up in-between and growing taller. Everything from palms to fronds added themselves to the underbush, pushing upwards in a race to block off the trees that came up behind them; slower.

This piece of land hadn't been touched in decades, so there were actual trees in there - rubber trees, some papaya trees and a couple of mango trees from what he could tell. Not the usual mix one would expect, except they were in the middle of the suburban jungle and he bet some enterprising fellow decided to throw some fruit in there - or maybe even plant them - in the hopes that they'd do what they did. Grow.

Eyeing the ground, he didn't see any trails from this angle, but if he wandered about, Arthur was willing to bet there were a few - places where kids or the enterprising gardener had made his way to his makeshift plantation. Arthur had to admit, he was a little admiring of the man. Took vision to decide on that.

"There's natural hazards too..." Uswah said, reappearing by their side. If there was any justice, it would have been with a puff of smoke, but as it was, she grinned as she slipped out of Lam's shadow, causing Casey to hiss and the bodyguard to twitch. 

"Hazards?"

"Frogs, a couple of snakes and a nasty nest of huge rats."

"Burn it. Burn it all." Casey groused, shuddering at the last sentence.

"Won't they complain?" Arthur said, quietly. "If we use their place?'

"Only if they know."

"Then maybe we don't buy it yet..." 

"If they know we're using it, it'll drive the price up," Rick muttered. 

"I have a better idea," Casey smirked. "It's abandoned, right? No one used it for decades?"

"Yeah..."

"Leave it to me. We'll get the land back."

“How…?” Arthur started then shut his mouth. He could guess it had something to do with the government and the laws, but he didn’t need to know the exact details. It’d probably end up being somewhat underhanded. “I guess we can make use of it in-between then?” Casey nodded.

“Okay-lah. So we have an outdoor training space.” He grimaced. “And some indoor ones and dormitories. What else?”

“We still need a modern one. A place to do fitness and the like.” Looking around Rick, frowned. They were on the borders between the suburban residences and the more commercial areas, a bunch of malls and factories in the distance. He cocked his head as his gaze fixed on a mall, muttering… “I wonder…”

“I’ll leave you to it,” Arthur said, raising a hand to distract Rick. “But remember, we won’t have that much money yet – not till at least we get more money people streaming in and bringing cores.”

“Right, right…”

“Now, let’s go see this church.” Shaking his head, Arthur walked forward. He still wasn’t exactly certain on buying it; but he knew he was running out of time to make a choice. Perfection was the enemy of good, and good enough had worked well for him so far.

After all, he had a lot to catch up on with the others.