Level Up Saintess

After my ‘nap’, I passed the time until the night mass by studying more of the Saintess history book in the library. The balding priest kept taking little glances at me the entire time, maybe because he’d heard about how the morning mass went. I’m happy he didn’t try to talk to me about it though; I’m not even really sure what I’d say besides ‘Yeah, I’m the Saintess’. Maybe I should be studying how to be more social instead, because I really feel like I’m consistently failing at it. Seems like a good portion of this job is interacting with people, since there’s no other way to heal them but to see them face to face. Maybe if I ask Chella to help me practice, she'd say yes? Nah, I don’t think Chella’s all that good at it either, actually. Maybe I should try Ferr instead.

 

Speaking of Saintesses by the way, it was really interesting to see what they had all been up to during their time here. A good portion of them just stayed in the major cities and focused on healing and charity like you’d expect, but there were also a decent number of them who moved around a lot and explored everywhere they could reach. Some only ever stayed in one country, while others weren’t tied to any one country in particular. Many of them were called out to help with sudden large waves of monsters, but only a small portion of them actually fought on the front lines, with some of them even going melee style instead of sticking to a support or mage position. Crazy. I could never do any of that, I’m not nearly coordinated enough. I’d probably just panic and die immediately.

 

I guess some Saintesses are just more brave or fearless than others.

 

Anyway, eventually time and dinner passed, and it was time for the night mass to begin. It started out pretty much the same as the earlier one, but this one seemed like it had more people; Enough that they were struggling to all fit in the pews, and some had to stay standing on the sides or in the back. And strangely enough, a lot of them were constantly taking glances at me, all throughout the sermons.

 

Huh. Either they’re here to check out the new ‘Saintess’, or they’ve all come for a chance at free healing.

Damn do I hope it’s the latter.

 

Of course, I didn’t do anything differently like wave to my new hopeful fans, because I’m simply just not that capable at being social, and I’m seriously not made for being a star. Yeah no, I just sat there like a good girl the entire time until it was my turn to heal. This time we were more prepared for them ambushing us, and even though there were more people, we’d also brought along the rest of the priests to help wrangle everyone. Still though, it sure did look like a struggle. Glad all I have to do is sit here and wait 'til things are under control.

 

Funnily enough, it seems that it was indeed a mix of both of the things I suspected it to be; There were people with more severe injuries than the morning group, and there were also plenty of people who were just fine and came to gawk at me. Okay, it could be that the night crowd just naturally had worse injuries and no one new came today after they heard I was here. I shouldn’t let myself get a swollen head or anything. But yeah, it really feels like that’s the case, at least to me.

 

Compared to the morning mass’s 6 [Greater Heal] uses, this time there were at least 15 people who needed it. And what’s more, they were mostly people who’d had some kind of accident that made them break a bone, or tear their muscles, or damage an organ. Honestly, some of them made me worry what exactly it is that these people did to end up like this. ...The people in the night mass seem a little more sketchy and scary than I would like to be around.

 

There were of course plenty of people with more regular wounds, like cuts or scars or the like. However, oddly enough, there were also a decent enough number of people with a bunch of little rocks or bits of metal embedded in their skin and making them sick, that I was frankly astonished. I’m making it sound like a lot of people, when really it was only about 4 of them, but isn’t that a weirdly big number anyway? What could happen to cause an entire group of people to all have that? It was like they’d all been peppered with a shotgun filled with random fistfulls of earth and scrap. Was that even possible here? It’s so weird. And they all looked completely gross in the spots that they had the little things stuck in, it totally triggered my trypophobia. I had to slightly look away and try to not think about it too hard when I was trying to fix them all, and I made sure I touched them somewhere else and did an unfocused heal instead. No way am I touching that, not for all the exp in the world!

 

Stupidly enough, although I could use a [Greater Heal] to get rid of them, a simple [Heal] was actually what it called for, and also the kind of exp it gave me. However, if I used a [Heal] on them, it took a little while of… I guess I’d say channeling it? Yeah, I had to kind of hold the [Heal] on them and channel it for about half a minute before all the bits and bobs that were stuck inside of them would manage to all dissolve out. So yeah, I mostly just used [Greater Heal] on them to make it faster, even though it was kind of a waste of 90 energy to do it. Oh, and unsurprisingly, the 4 of them all worshiped me like I was the Goddess herself after they’d all been taken care of. They even hugged each other and cried. I guess it must have been as painful as it was gross. Ick.

 

So yeah, we gotta count those weirdos in the [Heal] column, which amounted to about 41 people in total.

 

I swear more injured people showed up to the night mass because they heard about me healing in the morning. It’s not me just getting a big head; There’s no way there’s always this many people with problems like this just wandering around here every day, right? Like, there were also a large number of people who were probably too sick to just show up and sit here patiently like this. The chapel was practically filled with random coughs and sneezes, which I’m sure must have infected a few other people too. Maybe that artificially inflated the [Cure] numbers, actually, because a few of the people who I healed of some sicknesses weren’t even showing any of the symptoms yet. …I really hope none of them were re-infected with any of it after I removed ‘em. Sure hope there’s some kind of buffer period on it at least. Some of it was just the common cold, but there were all kinds of nasty other things I got rid of too, like the flu and a couple of fancily named fevers, so I’d really not like that to have spread just because I showed up at the church, exp be damned.

 

54 people were [Cure]'d today. Let’s pray they won’t need it again tomorrow.

 

More and more people kept pouring in (even though some of them just straight up left after getting healed, thankfully), so by the time the Head Priest announced that we were closing up for the night, I’d managed to somehow treat and clean all 93 people who’d shown up. Fingers crossed that it maybe helped them to not just get sick immediately again. Guess we’ll find out tomorrow.

 

Oh, and by the way, even though it was quite a few less, I did still have to use [Benediction] to 'bless' a few more kids and babies. Thankfully it was only like 6 of them this time, since it was so damn crowded. Or maybe the morning people are just more superstitious about blessing their kids than the night crowd is. ...Or maybe it’s past their bedtimes, now that I think about it. Yeah, probably that last one.

 

Everyone was completely exhausted by the time we managed to close up and leave the chapel. It was at least a few hours past our bed times, and I’m sure all of us just collapsed into our beds just like Chella and I did. But unlike everyone else, I had gotten to nap in the middle of the day, and since I was more mentally tired than physically, I got to spend a little time before bed basking in my achievements. When I was safely tucked into my blanket and wouldn’t be bothered anymore, I finally took a good long look at the character sheet that I’d been stealing glances at all evening.

 

{Arissa

Age: 17

Occupation: [Saintess](Lv7)

XP: 520/700

Health: 120/120

Energy: 240/1600 (Divine)

Status: None

 

Skills: [One who redeems], [Heal], [Greater Heal], [Cure], [Appraisal], [Benediction], [Cleanse], [Judgment]}

 

Yes, I’d managed to level up twice! After all that work I got 1120 exp, the most I’ve ever gotten in one sitting by far! I’d gotten the immediate level like I’d expected I would, but about halfway through I’d also gotten another one! It’s amazing that I’d gotten 2 levels in just one day. That second level had really saved me too, because I was actually really chugging through energy for most of this session. I think I burned through around almost 2900 energy during all that, and for a moment I was really panicking that I might run out before everything was finished. I managed to get down to the double digits for the first time ever, so it was pretty nerve wracking watching myself get so dangerously low. I could even feel energy exhaustion starting to kick in, which I’ve never gotten low enough to feel before, so it was pretty spooky. The energy refill for reaching level 7 couldn’t have come at a better time, honestly. And even now, I’m still at only 240/1600 energy and feeling extra drained because of it. It’s absolutely crazy how much I went through.

 

I hate to say it, but maybe using [Cleanse] on every single person might not be a sustainable plan. It’s raking in some amazing exp for me for sure, but I’d feel bad if I had to turn people away cuz I ran out of energy too early like a fool. Heck, it already almost happened today. Maybe I’ll just hold off on the whole cleaning business unless it’s a smaller crowd of people. Hurts that I can’t be optimal or whatever, but it’s probably for the best until I figure out a better way of doing things. I might be missing out on exp, but it’s better than someone randomly stabbing me or something because I tell them they have to wait, right?

 

And now that the analyzing is over, let’s get to the main event!

Drum roll please…

I have two possible skills to get!

 

The skill for level 6 is:

{[Lullaby]: The Saintess sings a lullaby, putting the target to sleep for 1 hour. (80 energy)}

 

And the one for level 7 is:

{[Blessing of the Fleet-Footed]: Bless the target with quicker moving speed, giving them a 20% speed boost to all their actions for 1 hour. (50 energy)}

 

Those are pretty interesting to me. [Lullaby] seems really practical, especially since I’m a bit afraid to just outright attack people. Like for instance, if I had it when I was being chased through the slums, I could have put those guys to sleep easily. Well, maybe it would have been hard to sing while I was running, though. And about the whole singing thing, does it mean I have to sing just, like, anything? Or does it have to be an actual lullaby? …I honestly don’t think I remember any besides ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’, and I’m not wholly sure that that one actually counts. Don’t treat me like I’m an idiot or anything for not knowing any others, by the way; I was never sung any lullabies when I was a kid, so of course I don't know any of them!

 

But yeah, it’s a definite buy for sure.

 

That blessing one with the long name, though… I don’t really know. Like, it’s really interesting that I finally got a real ‘blessing’ like those people wanted me to do on their children, although I’m sure it’s not exactly what they meant. But still, even if it might lighten my conscience if I got it and used it on the kids, I don’t really think I want it right now. Maybe in the future if I decide to travel a lot I might like it, but for now it’s pretty useless since the places I go aren’t terribly far. I think I’ll just forgo this one for now and pocket the skill point for later instead.

 

And now, let’s ask for help from my favorite friend.

 

“Hey, Chella?”

 

“...”

 

“Are you already asleep? That’s impressive, it’s been less than 10 minutes.”

 

“Shut up and sleep already.”

 

“Yeah well that’s the thing; I wanted to try out a sleeping spell, and I guess now’s the best time.”

 

“I would be sleeping just fine without your stupid spell if you’d just left me alone!”

 

“But now you’re not, right? C’mon, it’ll be quick and then I’ll be out of your hair, okay?”

 

“Ugh! …You owe me some of your bread tomorrow.”

 

Yeah, I could do that; Chella definitely deserved it. There should be more Chellas in the world, seriously.