Level Up Saintess

The Head Priest let me sleep for 6 hours, and then he sent the balding priest to wake me up. It turns out that by the time Chella and I slowly made our way over to our bedroom and finally laid down, I actually got my hourly energy regen and had 190 energy, which made me a little less loopy but not a bit less drowsy. And now, after 6 hours, I was sitting at a respectable 790 energy, which I hoped would be enough to carry me through the healing session I was headed to.

 

When I arrived, the Head- the Bishop got up and met with me, looking very very haggard. Can’t say seeing how worn out he looked wasn’t making me feel super crazy guilty, but this was a very difficult situation, so I forced myself to get over it and thank him in my heart. This wasn’t time for guilt, it was time for action. Anyways, he told me that he’d done as I asked and kept the more urgent people from crossing over the rainbow bridge or whatever they believed in here, and that he’d also made sure to keep the guards around so that no one would leave prematurely.

 

I’m happy no one left, but a part of me is a little worried how they’ll feel about being detained like that. I guess I wasn’t wrong in thinking that, either, because the Bishop did warn me that a few of the people had tried to force their way past the guards and leave, before he strolled away to his room for some much needed sleep.

 

Oh well, at least it’s for their health and it’s free.

I rescued you, so just do this one little thing for me, please!

 

 Oh, and he entrusted Chella with looking after me so I didn’t accidentally kill myself while healing, which was probably for the best. Plus, idunno, maybe he’d heard from her that I’m not really the uh… authoritative type, so I’m happy he left her as a liaison of sorts for me. All the other priests had retired to bed a few hours ago anyways, so since Chella was the more senior member, even if I technically outrank her, I’ll definitely be leaving all the hard customer and employee relations to her!

 

Anyways, first thing’s first; I need to fix up that last guy who was about to kick the bucket!

 

So yeah, the fifth desperate case that I took on was a poor small beastman teenager who’d had some of his organs removed. They’d taken 3 out of him already, being 1 lung, most of a liver, and a kidney, and it seemed like the only reason he’d been able to survive through that was just due to his hearty nature. Must be why they decided to use him in the first place, on top of him being so young. Seems he also had a passive recovery skill on him, which was desperately fighting to keep him alive despite his missing pieces, so I’m sure that must have factored into their choice to use him, too. It explains why there weren’t even any suture lines or anything, just scars, even though this seemed to be a recent operation.

 

It was sad. Very very sad.

No one should ever do anything like this, especially to a child.

…Where was the Goddess to stop all these atrocities?

Why did I have to be the one who she made clean up all the messes?

…The title of Saintess just seems to be getting more and more burdensome as time goes on.

 

I had to use 3 [Regenerative Heal]s on him, which ate up a big chunk of time. I really need to figure out what I’m supposed to be doing to do an unfocused heal with that, if it’s even freaking possible. Like, if this kid were in any more of a dire situation, then it’s possible that he could have died while I was spending all that time trying to fix him. It’d turn into one of those dramatic ‘Don’t you die on me!’ situations you’d see all the time on tv. There’s no way I’d be okay with that happening right in front of me! And if I don’t want that to happen, then I’ve gotta find a way to get better at this, for sure.

 

But yeah, it wasn’t too dire, and the kid is now fine. Justice prevails, and we were lucky yet again today, blah blah blah.

 

Now that the big urgent 5 were finally taken care of, I had Chella move them towards the back and line up everyone else for a check-up. Really, it was very nice having a cute secretary to handle things like that, although I’m sure she’d totally hit me if I said anything like that to her. Maybe she’d like it better if I rephrased it and said she was like a squire to a knight? Nah, that one wouldn’t work out either. Really, I’m sure any comparison at all would land me a bruise or two from her. …Maybe if I joked with her and said she’d make a great wife? Maybe if I mentioned that, but with her and Ferr?

 

No no, I should stop right there; I’m just trying to mentally escape from the rest of the work that I have to do because I’m still tired. Come on Arissa, just get this nice and finished and we can get some more sleep in later! Compared to those 5 people, the rest of these guys should be a breeze! I only have 490 energy left, though, so I’m gonna have to try and stay efficient on this.

 

I’m still totally crossing my fingers for an AOE healing aura or something soon, though. Sheesh.

 

~~~

 

So, of the remaining 30ish people, really only about 24 needed anything more done to them. I’m sure maybe a few of them even arrived here perfectly fine and unbruised in any way, so that’s, um… saying something. But hey! I can’t fault the other priests! They don’t have [Appraisal] like me, so if something’s hidden, how are they supposed to know? It’d be like expecting a doctor to have x-ray eyes or something and just knowing everything that's wrong with you.

 

Yeah, I can’t fault them at all.

Besides, it means they left some exp for me, so really, I’m actually rather thankful for it!

 

But yeah, I managed to get about 12 [Heal]s and 15 [Cure]s off of them, which was understandable, what with there being hidden bruises or sprains and minor illnesses in them that would be hard to catch with the naked eye. No [Greater Heal]s though, which I wasn’t surprised about at all. If something was bad enough to need a [Greater Heal], you better believe the patient would have complained about it and shown some kind of sign!

 

So yeah, just on the cleanup alone, I made 135 exp.

With all of that taking around an hour, I’d gotten my hourly energy reset and was sitting at about 335 energy, which was a little uncomfortable, but not unbearable, for sure.

I wasn’t done, either; I still had about 4 more people to check on.

I was almost, almost finally done!

…But then something weird just had to happen.

 

You see, when I check on a patient, the first thing that pops up in my [Appraisal] is their name, right? I’ve tried to train myself to only pay attention to their health and their status listings, but still, it’s hard for me to not first notice their name when it pops up, at least. So that’s why this one in particular really caught my eye.

 

Apparently, this guy who I was looking at was named ‘Devil’?

 

{Devil

Health: 200/200

Energy: 40/250

Status: Glamoured

 

Skills: [Torment], [Fly], [Nightmare], [Feed], [Whisper], [Glamour]

 

A devil who lived in the dungeon, feeding off the pain and anguish of the captives while pretending to be one of them.}

 

At first I was like ‘Woah, what? Why would someone be named ‘Devil’?’, but then when I saw his health and status, it all sunk in, and the backstory section really cemented it. So this thing was a devil? It certainly didn’t look like one, but that’s probably just because it’s glamoured to look like a human. No wonder it’s energy is so low right now, if it’s been stuck in this glamour for the past day, trying to blend in. It’s crazy lucky that it wasn’t able to use its [Whisper] ability to trick the guards and let it escape, although idunno, maybe that’s not how the skill works. And without my [Appraisal] ability, I don’t think anyone would ever even know that this thing was a monster, although with how shifty it’s looking in front of me right now, it’s not really selling its innocence particularly well.

 

Anyways, this thing is gonna have to go.

At least I’m not overly scared of it right now, since it still looks like an ordinary person and we're literally inside of a church, but let’s try to not make a scene in front of everyone, since this has the possibility of getting out of hand otherwise.

 

“Hey, Chella? I’m gonna need some help-”

 

Ah nope, I underestimated how jumpy this devil was going to be! I didn't think it would just straight up attack me, since we're surrounded by people right now. Honestly, in a way it’s just like that first time with the slimes all over again...

The good news is, I managed to notice the thing moving out of the corner of my eye when I started to turn away, and my reflexes are actually pretty good in this new body of mine, so the devil’s suddenly sharpened nails and larger hand didn’t manage to land through my heart, where they were pointed at. The bad news, though, is that I still totally got hit, and I’m pretty sure it managed to take a big chunk out of my side and arm. It might have even managed to graze against my heart, I couldn’t tell for sure. Good thing I have a little more than the average girl my age’s health, because that devil blow was no joke; It put me down to only 12 hp!

 

I staggered, of course, but since I knew what was happening, I wasn’t going to let myself be stunned like the last time I was getting attacked. My lips started moving even before the devil could finish removing his hand from my body.

 

“[Judgment]!”

 

As Chella frantically rushed to catch me while I began to fall down in pain, a beautiful holy light descended down through the ceiling and onto the devil. It looked up in fear, as if knowing what was coming, and soon his body was quickly eroded away in the light, leaving little motes of energy that drifted off to the heavens. In a way, it looked particularly video game-like. Or maybe it just seemed that way to me in my rapidly dimming state.

 

Even with Chella’s worried shouting, the cries of the onlookers, and the gushing blood that I was desperately trying to hold in, my eyes were still locked on the spot that the devil had once been.

At least I didn’t get stabbed for free, since a small ‘+500xp!’ floated up from where it once was, a moment later.

 

As Chella sobbingly called for the other priests, I felt my body being laid down on the soft cushioned pews, and I could feel my consciousness slowly starting to drift away. It hurt so much, so bad, but that 500 exp definitely made up for it, at least a little bit. Looking at the 905/1400 exp I was at filled me with hope and satisfaction, since I was sure I could level up tomorrow if I played my cards right. And if tomorrow was no good, then for sure I could at least make it the day after. Didn't I still have 6 more days left? I had time. There was time for sure. I could do it. I could save Kale, and we could finally be happy together.

 

My eyes stayed blankly locked on the pleasing experience numbers, stubbornly refusing to look below them and acknowledge the rapidly ticking down numbers of the stat underneath it. And then, when my vision finally faded out, I let the darkness embrace me, as if I had no more worries left in the world.

 

I was so close now, so close…

It should be okay if I stop for just a moment to get some rest now.

I’m sure it’ll all be fine.