Level Up Saintess

The sun had practically booked it to setting while I was walking. I don’t know if I just wandered really far away from where I’d started while I was fumbling around trying to do a good deed earlier, or if I really just got plonked down into this world a few blocks away, but the church took about 40 minutes for me to walk to. To be fair, the crowd rushing through the streets to get home before it got dark was actually pretty thick, and I don’t really know how to move around in such a crowded environment, so maybe it actually shouldn’t have taken so long. I’m sure my eyes being glued towards the ground the whole time also didn’t help with the experience.

 

Anyways yeah, by the time I made it to the church, the sun had just finished setting and everything was getting quite dark. From the look of things, I’d been set down in something resembling the medieval era. Or, at least, I say that, but what do I really know about the medieval era or whatever? Hell, maybe this place was just really rural and technology hadn’t made it here yet. Maybe I was making unfair assumptions. Either way, there were certainly no street lights, let alone any that ran on, like, candles or anything.

 

It was getting kind of chilly in the light, simple clothing I’d been dropped in, but thankfully the doors to the church’s chapel were unlocked and I could just go right in. I followed the blue line further, heading to the back of the chapel and to a door on the side. The line ended in a point right at the door, and the word ‘knock’ floated in front of me, fading in and out. I’m certainly not dumb enough to miss the hint, so I of course knocked a few times on the door through the word, and suddenly both my line and the ‘knock’ simply faded away. As I was busy watching where they used to be with a small sense of loss, the door opened, and a tired looking middle-aged priest appeared. He didn’t look super pleased that I was here, but there weren’t a lot of times in my life that people were ever really happy to see me turn up, so hey, I’m used to it.

 

“What do you need, miss?”

 

Yeah he sounded completely annoyed. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to have shown up so late? Ah damn, and I didn’t rehearse what I was going to say to him on the way here at all. What was it? I’m supposed to tell him I’m the Saintess, right? Will I sound crazy if I just come out and say it?

 

I guess I took too long or looked too confused, because the priest just sighed and rubbed his eyes before he tried talking to me again.

 

“Did someone need urgent healing? Or maybe you’re lost? If it’s nothing important then can you get out and try again tomorrow? We’re not in the habit of running night services like the city churches do.”

 

Oh no, now I’m just making him dislike me... If I take any longer here then it’s going to make it awkward, and I don’t need more stress right now than I already have, dammit! Just say something, anything!

 

“I-I’m the Saintess! The Goddess sent me here!”

 

Ugh, it’s so weird talking and having a voice that isn’t the one I’ve always heard come out.

 

The priest’s eyebrows raised for a moment and for the first time he really looked at me. His eyes scanned me up and down, which yeah, is totally rude, but I guess I can’t blame him. I don’t know how often Saintesses appear, but maybe it’s the same as if I showed up in front of a paleontologist and pronounced myself as a dinosaur. Of course the man’d want a good look at me. He looked unsure for a moment, but after a quick shut of his eyes and a deep breath, he leveled a firm look at me.

 

“You know using the Goddess’s name in a lie is blasphemy, right? You swear you’re telling the truth?”

 

I’d love to be offended that he’s questioning my words like this, but I’m a stranger saying crazy things to him; He has every right to think I might be pulling a fast one on him. The best I could do was sound confident and look as trustworthy as possible, I guess.

 

“Yes, I promise! The Goddess told me that I was a Saintess, and to come here.”

 

The priest looked complicated for a moment, but then he softly sighed and put out his hand.

 

“Hand.”

 

I put mine on top of his like a well trained dog of course. What else was I going to do when I needed him to believe me so that I could complete the quest? I could feel something being pulled out from me where our hands were connected, but it didn’t hurt. If anything it all just felt a little hot, like a small stream of warm water trickling out from my palm into his. He let my hand go a short moment later and nodded, looking a little bit more at ease.

 

“At the very least you have a good amount of divine energy inside of you. Even if you end up being a fake in the end, the higher ups won’t get too mad so long as you devote that energy towards the church. Come, let me take you to your new room.”

 

Seems like I managed to pass the power test, although being thought of as a probable fake doesn’t feel too amazingly great. Ah, who cares, I’m not here to please him anyways.

As he lead me through the halls I kept glancing at my quest. I’d somehow found a way to convince it to move to the side so I could see in front of me more clearly, so now I could keep it open if I wanted to and monitor the status of my quest, even while I was busy doing something else. Like, for instance, ‘-Make your way to the church and inform them that you are the new Saintess!’ had been crossed out, leaving only the second line of the quest undone so far, which really made me feel like I was making progress.

 

Of course, this is all just a sneaky way of saying that I hadn’t figured out how to close the notification screen just yet.

 

~~~

 

The room he took me to was quite small and almost completely made of stone. There wasn’t really a window, since instead of glass there was just some wooden latticing blocking it. At least there were closable wooden shutters so it could still block some of the cold and wind, but like, what the hell? I thought churches were supposed to be all rich and stained-glass’d up! Maybe it’s just that this particular church isn't very well off? Or maybe this world doesn’t even have glass yet. Now that’s a depressing thought.

 

I guess this room came with a roommate, because there were two beds in the room, and one of them had a sleeping girl in it that the priest woke up to introduce me to. She had short maroon hair just down to her neck, and pink eyes, with a small mole by her mouth. Can’t say I’d ever seen pink eyes before, but maybe it wasn’t something all that weird in this world. Best not to make it obvious that I didn’t know. She looked like she should be in her upper teens, but again, who knows since it’s a wacky new world, right? I was told her name was Chella, and we had a super awkward moment when I wasn’t really sure what name to tell her back.

 

From the glimpses of myself I’d been getting since I came here, I was fairly certain that this wasn’t the same body as I’d had in my previous life. My skin was far too light and pale, my hands, legs, and breasts weren’t the same shape as before, I was certainly shorter now, and I kept seeing strands of straw-like hair rustling around reaching down to my chest. In fact, the feeling of this new hair was terribly prickly against my neck and any other skin it managed to reach. I’m sure I must have had horribly dry hair, or why else would it look like this?

 

Anyways, maybe the body I’m in wasn’t the same one, but me, the soul inside of it, was. So, in the end, I decided to give them the same name. I’m Arissa, always will be, whether I like it or not. Maybe this could have been some life changing moment where I turned a page on a new life, but I’ve never gotten a second chance at anything, and this wasn’t going to be one either. This wasn’t a new ‘life’. I wasn’t ‘alive’. This was all just a constant reminder that Arissa from my old world was dead, and that Arissa from this world just had to clean up after it while wiggling around in limbo for a while.

 

When all the introductions were finished and we finally both got into our beds, I decided to double check on my quest. I moved my notifications back in front of me and read the new, shining pop up that had replaced where my quest used to be.

 

{Congratulations! You’ve successfully passed [To the church!], and have been rewarded 50 xp! You’ve now unlocked the ability to view your character sheet and skill tree!}

 

Wow, a whole 50 exp! I pumped my fist in victory, but the paper-like sheets I was under made a lot of noise and made Chella make a very displeased grunt, so I resolved to be as quiet as possible for the rest of the night. Looking back, I shouldn’t have gotten so excited over 50 exp without even knowing if that was a lot or a little. It was certainly more than the 5 that I’d gotten from helping the old woman, but still, who knows, this could all completely be chump change. Now how do I…?

 

All I had to do was think about wanting to see it and my character sheet popped up. That’s really nifty, but why the hell doesn’t getting rid of the notification screen work the same way? Whatever. Let’s see… It doesn’t really tell me too crazy much about myself. See, it’s a bit like this:

 

{Arissa

Age: 17

Occupation: [Saintess](Lv1)

XP: 55/100

Health: 90/90

Energy: 1000/1000 (Divine)

Status: None

 

Skills: [One who redeems], [Heal], [Greater Heal], [Cure]}

 

Not that much, right? Not even any stat points like strength or intelligence or anything. But you know what? Screw all that, because I can finally see my experience points! I’ve got 55 out of a hundred, so I’m already over halfway there! Leveling up is going to be a breeze, and then hopefully I can confirm my theory! I’m doing it, I’m actually doing it, I’m-!

 

Oops, better calm down. I’ve already irritated Chella twice now.