Level Up Saintess

It was a long and shaky walk to the back of the orphanage where they showed me where they got their water from. This orphanage had a decent distance of space between them and any of their neighbors, and even had a well on it. Really, it wouldn’t be such a bad piece of real-estate if it weren’t so run down and stinky, I think. Apparently there was natural ground-water beneath the building, and it was part of the reason that the ground was always so muddy here. Or maybe it was just because this portion of town had always been a bit on the marshier side, who knows? The slums were certainly not built on the nice bits of the town, I can assure you of that, at least.

 

I guess this gross smell from the mud might be because of how marshy it is here? But I don’t know, I think that the bad water smell is getting stronger the closer I get to the well. It smells like dead fish or something. I’m really not sure.

 

When I finally took a peek down into the well, I was greeted with a gross murky color. Yeah, there’s no way this water is any good to drink; No wonder all those kids got sick. Did something get in there and die...? …The water’s pretty far down, but I think I can make out a bit of bubbling off to one side of it. Maybe something’s still in there?

 

“[Appraisal].”

 

{A well, belonging to the orphanage. It is dirty and filled with contaminated water, bits of mud, and a Dirty Slime.}

 

…The hell? So those bubbles are actually from a Dirty Slime? But those things live in the forest! How could it possibly have made its way all the way here?! If I could see the damn thing then I’d try and appraise it and check its life story, but it’s so far down in that dark murky water that there’s totally no way my skill would ever be able to focus on it...

 

Nah, it’s not important, I just gotta get rid of the problem.

 

So the thing is... how the hell am I gonna reach it to kill it? I can’t see it, so [Judgment] is out of the question. I doubt I’ll be able to fish it out of there with a bucket or anything. Oh... Or maybe… Okay, so hear me out. The well already needs cleaning, right? If I choose to clean the well along with everything in it, then that should also kill the slime, right? I can use that unfortunate test from all those days ago to my advantage, finally!

 

But um… How much energy do you think that would take? …Do you think… I have enough?

…Should I maybe risk it?

 

The good news is, even though I did all that cleaning just now inside, my [Cleanse] didn’t actually multiply the cost like unfocused uses of healing does. If it had, then I would have already been knocked out cold on that only partially cleaned orphanage floor right now from energy exhaustion. So there’s a possibility that cleaning this well won’t actually take away as much energy as I think it might… Although there’s no way the cost would be less than 200, so of course that’s a moot point, isn't it. Besides, the well might be deeper than I think it is, and there might be a heck of a lot more water in there than I think as well.

 

…I hate to say it, but I might not be able to clean this well until tomorrow.

 

~~~

 

I went to explain things to the matron, and unsurprisingly she was shocked to find out about the Dirty Slime being in there. She called some of the older kids together, and eventually they brought over a different grouping of younger kids who they said were the perpetrators of this incident.

 

Turns out the matron’s husband is a fisherman by trade. He makes money fishing, and then they use what he makes to help them fund this orphanage. Touching, I know; It’s great to see such selfless people, let’s move on. So apparently the local fishing spot is in the same forest where I fought all those Dirty Slimes before, and one decided to hop into the husband’s fish bucket because of the fishy smell, and came home with him without him noticing. Some of the kids usually helped him to clean off the fish he would catch before he brought them to where he always sold them, and they were the ones who discovered the slime. 

 

Apparently they wanted to keep it as a pet at first, but when it burnt them when they tried to touch it, one of the kids freaked out and chucked it down the well to get rid of the dangerous thing. A few of the kids felt sorry for it even though it stung them, and they tried to throw a few small fish into the well, but they didn’t know that slimes don’t eat fish, and those ended up just rotting in there and polluting the water, along with the slime itself.

 

That certainly explains the smell of dead fish around here. But I guess if they were using this area to wash off the husband’s catches anyways, it probably always had at least some fishy smell to it.

 

Anyways yeah, fast forward about two months and that’s how most of the kids were poisoned with all kinds of bad diseases. They already weren’t living the most healthy of lives, so it’s completely no shock that they all came down with something, but this was a bit too much to just sit and wait over.

 

So now that the detective work was done, and we’d solved the mystery of where that slime came from, I begrudgingly had to inform the orphanage matron that I wouldn’t be able to take care of their well problem until tomorrow. She told me it was totally fine and that there were other wells to go to, even if they were a bit farther, and she even told me that it was amazing that I was even offering to fix their well for them at all. Really, it was no big deal that this had to be put off for a day.

 

But dammit, I have pride on my side, however little and reluctant that it is, and I hate to break my streak like this!

 

I always knew the day would come where I ran out of energy before I finished getting everything done, but even though you know it’ll happen doesn’t mean that it feels good when it finally does. I should be thankful that it’s now, when there’s nothing at stake and there’s an easy work around until tomorrow, and it’s not when someone is lying there dying in front of me. I should really be counting my blessings... I guess I was never too good at doing that, though.

 

I still stubbornly sat on the chair the matron offered me and futilely tried to wait for more energy to come, even though there’s no way I would have enough by the time I had to return to the church for dinner. I even tried to pass some time by looking at the new skill that was offered to me, but when I saw that it was called the [Blessing of the Mountains] and just gave a 20% defense boost, I immediately stopped caring about it. Why would I even need that when I already have such an amazing [Benediction] on my side?

 

Ah, I’m sure it’ll be important later, when my [Benediction] can no longer keep up.

I’m sorry skill list, I think I’m just being a sulky sore loser right now.

 

I guess I must have really been proud of my energy never running out until now. This is honestly aggravating enough that a part of me really wants to just go over there and try to clean the well anyways, energy exhaustion be damned. Who knows, maybe it could all work out and I’ll pull it off without even running out somehow!

 

…But I can’t. I know I can’t. Energy exhaustion can be fatal sometimes, and I can’t risk leaving Kale alone here right after I’ve found him. Maybe he doesn’t remember me right now and won’t cry for me… But I know I’d at least be sad getting sent off to hell and never seeing him again. He may be a slave right now because he might have done a few bad things, but there’s no way Kale could ever do something bad enough to send him to hell, so I’d really never get a chance to be with him again… And there’s no way that’s okay with me!

 

~~~

 

Going back home felt like a walk of shame, but going back to the orphanage felt like a march of redemption.

 

Did I run back to the orphanage as soon as cleaning duty was done? Yes.

Did I chug away about 800 energy, confirming that there’s no way I could have done it yesterday? Yes.

Did I even donate my small 20 Riffles to them in the hopes that the kids will live a better life? Ohhh you betcha.

 

I’m a fool who really can’t stand feeling disappointed in my own self appointed standards, I guess. Oh well. At least the well cleaning netted me a cool 100 extra exp, along with 10 exp for killing the slime. The donation even gave me another 10, although I don’t much like the idea of buying a ‘good deed’ with money. At least I was sincere, I guess.

 

I’m 625/1300 into level 13 now. For all that that orphanage was definitely an ordeal, it certainly gave me some good experience. It’s not the most amazing bang for my buck, but I guess if I ever run out of people to heal and clean in an area, I could always try going around and cleaning places for them instead. …Don’t think I like the idea of becoming the local washerwoman though. Probably should just keep that one as a backup plan for when I get extra desperate.

 

So what’s next, you ask? Do I just go home and catch up on the sleep that I totally failed to get last night because I was so anxious? Heck no! I’ve got a Kale to save!

Since the orphans were so thankful to me anyways, it’s not such a bad idea to get them to show me to some of the other orphanages nearby, now is it? I remember Chella saying there were at least 3 orphanages in this town, so why not try my luck at the other 2 as well and see what I can find?