Skill Tree 3
Even if I had run into a beautiful priestess in the forest on the 11th floor while practicing skills, nothing particularly noteworthy had come of it.
Our party already had everything it needed—a seasoned tank, a guide, and a mage. On top of that, priests climbed the tower not for money or fame, but for their faith. Luring talent away with some bait or other was simply impossible.
That was why we had only exchanged awkward, distant bows in the awkward atmosphere before parting ways. Or so I had thought.
“Um, Roland? There’s a party join request from the Temple.”
“That’s a good thing, isn’t it? Why the lukewarm reaction?”
“To be precise, a priestess who was already living as an adventurer has requested a party transfer.”
That morning at the Adventurer’s Guild, Alice came over to our party’s table and delivered this peculiar piece of news. The priests who served the one true Goddess, the Creator, regarded the suddenly appeared tower as a blasphemous space. Because of that, they considered stepping forward for adventurers who got hurt or died inside it to be a form of ascetic practice.
What that meant was that once a priest settled on a party, they almost never switched. Just as an ascetic walking a path of penance would never suddenly decide, “Ah, this doesn’t seem like the right road,” and change direction. These were priests who willingly took on hardship for the sake of adventurers, not wealth or renown.
“Did something go wrong with that party and it disbanded?”
“That’s not it either. It’s a party led by a veteran tank who came down from the 24th floor.”
Even as a receptionist at the Adventurer’s Guild, Alice looked a little flustered, as if this was a first for her. While we were talking about the priestess, Han Sea and Grace naturally joined the table. The three women’s chatter kicked off at once.
“Alice unnie, what’s going on?”
“There’s a priestess who wants to join your party.”
Apparently during the free time after we had parted early yesterday, Han Sea had somehow managed to charm Alice as well. Following Grace, Alice had also become one of Han Sea’s “unnies.” I took a step back and listened to the three of them chattering noisily, and Alice’s explanation began naturally.
Why priests who left the Temple climbed the tower, and why the Adventurer’s Guild went all-out to match parties for priests in particular.
“According to doctrine, the tower is a blasphemous space the Goddess did not create. The problem is the bastards who take that to mean the Goddess’s eyes don’t reach there, and commit crimes against priests.”
“Heeh, is that so.”
Even the bandits out on the fringes of the kingdom knew enough to fear the Goddess and rarely killed priests if they could help it. They might make off with silver temple goods that looked valuable, but unless they were truly the dregs of society, they sent priests back unharmed.
Part of it was superstition, but there was also the very real possibility that if a priest fell victim to bandits, inverted-eyed inquisitors and holy knights would turn that whole area upside down.
The tower was different, though. Emboldened by the claim that the Goddess’s eyes did not reach there, adventurers who moonlighted as murderers and robbers made no distinction between fellow adventurers and priests. Any evidence would vanish inside the tower, so there was no risk of pursuit by the holy knight order.
“Then is there a problem with that priestess’s party?”
“That’s what’s strange—there isn’t. Rather than talking about it here, how about just speaking with the priestess herself?”
Grace and Han Sea seemed to grasp the rough situation after Alice’s explanation and tilted their heads. As Alice said, this was a question that wouldn’t be resolved without hearing the priestess’s side. Speculating forever was useless; better to hear it from the person involved.
“Is she here?”
“Of course. She was standing outside before the guild even opened. As expected of a priestess—she’s incredibly diligent.”
Alice nodded, gave Han Sea and Grace a smiling look with her eyes, then rose from the table. As a woman who had become a receptionist because she liked pretty and cool things, she had clearly hit it off instantly with the two whose looks backed them up.
Alice headed for the reception room on the second floor and returned not long after with a woman in tow. Being a priestess, they probably couldn’t leave her waiting at a first-floor table the whole time.
The woman descending the wooden stairs with Alice was, sure enough, the priestess I had seen yesterday in the forest on the 11th floor. A loose yet neat nun’s habit that revealed nothing of her figure, a wimple pulled down properly so not a single strand of hair showed, and beneath it a small, fair face. Golden eyebrows and pale blue eyes made her beautiful, yet her impression was a little hazy.
“Ah, hello?”
“…Hello. You are Roland-nim, correct?”
Startled by that uncommon appearance, Han Sea stumbled over her greeting and hurriedly rolled her eyes. But the priestess, whose voice was barely above a whisper, accepted Han Sea’s greeting while staring straight at me.
It could have been called rude. Yet the excited voice that followed from Han Sea made me realize this was no time to quibble over something like that.
“Oh, oh, a 5-star healer dropped!”
Not even 4-star—the words “5-star” had burst from Han Sea’s mouth.
“Um, are you all right?”
“Ah, ahak, yes. My leg cramped.”
The priestess whispered worriedly as she looked at Han Sea, who had jumped so hard from her chair that her butt left the seat. Even if she couldn’t hear the conversation with the viewers, she apparently still filtered the behavior itself; the priestess watched with concerned eyes as Han Sea hopped around right after exchanging greetings.
I timed it for when the excited camera stuck right in front of the priestess and snuck a glance at the chat window. Of course, with the priestess’s gaze still fixed on me, I couldn’t openly scroll through it; it was more of a quick peek.
Sure enough, the chat cascading like a waterfall was in complete chaos. If not for my mana-enhanced eyesight, I wouldn’t even have been able to read it—the window was going completely wild.
Myself aside, 3-star Grace was closer to a guide than pure combat personnel, but her rarity was still above average. If a 5-star healer joined on top of that, the party’s composition would look disgustingly strong to anyone else.
“M-may I ask what reason brought you to our party?”
“…Is it not Roland-nim’s party?”
“The party leader is Miss Hanna.”
The priestess tilted her head as if puzzled. Her gaze finally left me and turned to Han Sea. She had come looking for me, but she at least had the common sense to know that joining the party required the permission of its leader, Han Sea.
That said, we had only seen each other’s faces once on the 11th floor. Why had she come looking for me?
The drone camera busily flew about in front of the priestess, and Han Sea kept rolling her eyes like a chameleon even while conversing. She was apparently reading the status window, skill window, and the like at the same time as the recruitment talk.
The chat was flowing too fast, so I headed for the forum instead. With the number of people having ballooned so much, there were a few guys who watched the live stream and posted real-time summaries on the board.
“You came looking for Roland-nim—does that mean you wish to join our party? Um, is there some problem with the party you’re already in, or something?”
“No. There was nothing wrong with the party members. Everyone was truly kind.”
Han Sea leaned farther and farther forward, as if straining to catch every whispered word from the priestess. Grace, who couldn’t quite grasp the situation from Han Sea’s intense reaction, glanced my way, but I couldn’t help reacting much the same as Han Sea.
5-star ‘Candidate Saint’ Irene.
A pure support type rather than a monk or holy warrior, a priestess whose mana far outstripped her stamina. But what mattered right now wasn’t the superior status window befitting a 5-star. It was the four-character title attached in front of her name that was more important.
Candidate… Saint?
The Temple of this world was ruled by a pope, established temples in various cities, and dispatched cardinals and priests—taking a form based on Christianity. That made sense, since Heroines Chronicle had used Christianity as material when designing its characters.
Priestesses in body-revealing nun habits with garter belts, or holy knights with deep cleavage and a cross necklace hanging over it, and so on.
At any rate, with a Temple like that, a Candidate Saint would hold greater influence than one might expect. To put it bluntly, she was probably right under the cardinal who managed the temple in the adventurer city? I wasn’t sure since she was only a candidate, but if she became a full saint, even the city’s nobles would have to bow their heads to her position.
…Of course, I was seeing her for the first time. Not just in this world—I had never seen this female character in Heroines Chronicle either. If there had been a 5-star Candidate Saint character, I would definitely have remembered her.
“Priestess, why do you climb the tower?”
“Because the Goddess’s will is there.”
“The Goddess’s will?”
I closed the forum and focused on the conversation. With elegant hand movements she gently took hold of the Goddess’s emblem hanging from her necklace. There was no crucified Jesus Christ, yet a cross sat smack in the center of the emblem—it was absurd.
Fat macarons, fried chicken, and now this—what a rootless world. It was a virtual reality game, but was it really okay to just slap crosses around like that? Didn’t Arab countries ban even VR games or something— I was having such random thoughts when Irene softly kissed the emblem and continued speaking.
“I… have many shortcomings compared to my other sisters.”
What is she talking about? What’s lacking in a 5-star?
Han Sea was probably thinking the same thing as me.