An Unexpected Blessing
A blessing? I figured I'd see it at least once, but why the hell did it have to be right now?
Blessing. More precisely, its full name was the Spiritual Blessing of the Sacred Tree. It could save a dying man, restore speech to the mute, aid those trapped in crisis, and flip a losing battle completely on its head—the ultimate crystallization of faith. This phenomenon, which appeared from the very early stages of the game, was exactly what the name implied: a gift bestowed by the World Tree. It forced people to surpass their own limits.
The conditions for receiving this divine gift and becoming a blessed one were simple. You had to be a human from Shareltea. Not a demi-human—an actual human. Earthlings were ineligible. Shareltea demi-humans were also disqualified. It was a thoroughly discriminatory condition, fitting for a god that existed solely for the humans of Shareltea.
The one saving grace was that even Shareltea humans couldn't receive the blessing whenever they wanted.
"My luck is absolute dogshit."
It all came down to luck. No matter how much faith you piled up, without the right fortune, no blessing would come. In other words, it wasn't granted to the person who needed it most—it was basically a lottery. Of course, the odds weren't as bad as winning the actual lottery. It was closer to a mobile gacha game with a pity counter. Keep pulling without abandoning your divinity, and eventually you'd hit it.
That was why hunters traveling through Shareltea witnessed it often enough to consider it commonplace. So I had assumed I'd encounter the miracle someday.
I just never expected it to happen here. And definitely not now.
Still, the situation itself isn't too bad.
I thought this calmly, almost obnoxiously optimistic.
When a blessing descended, it came with two distinct traits. They could be either a stroke of luck or a curse, depending on how you looked at it.
"Aaaah—I can hear it!!! As the World Tree commands, I shall crush the bastard nearby and offer him up! Please watch over me from between the rays of light!"
The first trait was that light exploded from every single hole in the recipient's face. It might have looked cool, but if it truly had been, the blessed wouldn't have been frantically searching for me when I was standing only a short distance away.
As expected, the light weakens their vision. Can't be avoided.
What looked like a blinding flash was only effective at close range. To handle longer distances, they'd have to rely on their other senses.
The second trait was the massive shockwave that blasted everyone around the blessed. The problem was that in reality, "around" didn't come with friendly-fire detection.
"Gehak."
"@$$@$@#$@!!!"
"Mommy, save me!!!"
Just as expected, the blessing's aftermath had caused a full-scale team kill. All the other prisoners had been sent flying and were now embedded in various surfaces. The chains on either side of the blessed had snapped, but the rest remained intact. The group restraint was still in effect. On top of that, the physical shock they'd received made escape impossible.
I could stay at a safe distance, disrupt their hearing, and take them down that way. It would have been more than enough.
The only problem was that reality didn't allow for that kind of neat, one-sided fight.
"Ugh... huh?"
Cheon Mari finally pried herself out of the wall. She looked around and took in the sight of the virtual streamer candidates rolling across the floor and dangling from the ceiling.
"You son of a bitch!!"
It was an unparalleled level of shock. She flew into a rage at the sight of her money being destroyed.
"How dare you lay a hand on our company's assets!!!"
"Company assets...? That voice belongs to the elf bitch who hit me!"
"Yeah, it's the woman who hit you, you fucking property-damaging piece of shit!"
Treating people as property? Especially when they hadn't even been submitted yet? The reason for her fury was strangely specific.
My train of thought hit a bottleneck.
What the hell?
Cheon Mari paid no attention to her friend's confusion and charged straight in. Her eyes had already rolled back as she drew her sword. I came to my senses a beat too late.
"Cheon Mari, you fucking idiot! Ah—wait, damn it! Shannon! Grab the porter and hide!"
My perfect plan to walk the path of the ultimate pathetic househusband was completely ignored. Instead, the hot-blooded, gallant solution that a certain Portuguese woman so admired was chosen.
The blessed, detecting the sound of footsteps and a sword being drawn, gritted her teeth. Following pure instinct, she began gathering sacred light in both palms.
"Aaaah! I'll offer you up as the World Tree's first sacrifice!"
"Then I'll chop your corpse into pieces and sell it to the necrophiliacs at the academy!"
With senses sharpened to an extreme degree by the blessing, the woman aimed directly at Cheon Mari. Light converged in her palms like it was about to erupt. She thrust both hands forward as if firing a beam.
"Die!!!"
Drip... drip...
The light crawled forward like a stream of piss. The so-called beam drew a pathetic curve and splattered onto the ground.
...Yeah, that's what happens when you've never actually used holy magic before.
It was a classic trait of enemies in the game who couldn't wield holy magic despite having the aptitude. The sight of someone with the ability but no proficiency to actually hit anything at range was just sad.
"Uh, uhh?!"
"You're dead now, you pathetic fuck."
Cheon Mari gripped her sword so tightly that the muscles and veins stood out below her elbows. She swung at the enemy, who was panicking despite having received divine descent. A horizontal slash, aimed straight at the neck.
It looked like I could sit back, but I wasn't stupid enough to try. I dashed forward.
Thud!
The opponent raised her arm with reflexes that defied belief. The sword should have sliced clean through, but the blessing made it lodge in her arm instead.
Cheon Mari, as if she'd predicted exactly this, unleashed a barrage of punches. She hammered the lower abdomen and chest, then finished with a lethal roundhouse kick to the head.
"You... you infidel bitch!"
An attack that should have turned her skull to paste. Yet she endured through sheer spite and willpower. She immediately countered with a fast punch of her own. Her fist carried sacred particles—holy power—proving she'd been a close-combat fighter.
"Die!!!"
Thud. Thud. Thud!
With sounds like ripping air, her fists slammed into Cheon Mari's chest in rapid succession. But Cheon Mari held her ground just as stubbornly as her opponent.
HP:10/10
SHIELD:0/5
Even though her shield was completely gone, she could still read the opponent's attacks. She deflected the fourth punch. The blessed's posture crumbled as she failed to handle the counter.
Cheon Mari seized the opening, twisting both of the woman's arms and locking them down.
"Let go!"
"Is it because you've got a chopping board for a chest? Your punches are pathetic."
Then she headbutted her. The sudden strike made the woman stagger, her vision spinning wildly.
...Now!
The gap was clear. Cheon Mari released her, retrieving the sword still lodged in the woman's arm. She gathered every ounce of strength and muttered something under her breath. Magic power surged into the blade. She swung upward with everything she had.
Thump!
The blessed floated into the air. But the blow hadn't inflicted even a scratch.
That part was my job.
"Kang Sian!!!!!"
When the blessed turned, she saw my sword hurtling toward her. It was incredibly fast, thick with dense magic power. Suspended helplessly in midair, her only option was to take the hit head-on.
I swung for her neck. She tried to raise a hand, but her reaction was far too slow. I was certain I could kill her. I'd poured every drop of my magic into the strike, and her movements were still amateurish.
"You damn infidel fu—"
Clang!
Blue and white particles scattered. The blessed was slammed in the direction of my swing. I rolled with the impact and landed at a distance. Instinct screamed that something was wrong, so I kicked off the ground again immediately.
"Shit! I didn't kill her!"
"What?!"
There was only a shallow cut on her neck. She was still standing, perfectly functional.
"Ugh...!!! You bastards!"
Pain was clearly there, though—she rose with tears in her eyes. Her pupils darted rapidly as she assessed the situation. Cheon Mari was closing in from the front, sword raised. The distance was short. There was only one way to respond.
The blessed threw a punch at the incoming blade. Metal met flesh. Neither gave an inch. The first thing to break, therefore, had to be the weapon.
When Cheon Mari put more force behind her swing to knock the fist aside, a loud crack split the air. The blade shattered.
Clink!
There was no time to pull back. Half the sword exploded into fragments that scattered everywhere.
The opponent was stronger than I'd anticipated. Startled, I lashed out with a kick, but it didn't land cleanly.
I need to overpower her with raw strength rather than technique!
We began exchanging blows that carried heavy power and magic instead of speed. Fists and kicks flew back and forth. We dodged by a hair's breadth, countered instantly.
"Keuk, kaaah! You damn bitch!!!"
Cheon Mari was better at enduring. The problem was that her opponent could endure almost as well.
"Damn it! What the hell did the World Tree feed her to make her this hard to kill?!"
It was the moment we were trading blows like a whirlwind. The blessed roared and threw a punch with all her might.
"Impact Punch!"
Her fist slammed directly into Cheon Mari's chest. Tough skin reduced the external force, and the shock-absorption pouch from her jealousy trait wobbled to dampen the internal impact. But this attack wasn't meant to be lewd. As the name suggested, the shockwave erupting from her knuckles sent Cheon Mari flying.
"Ah?!"
Cheon Mari shot backward. She didn't just fly—she crashed straight through the second-floor wall of a nearby building. What happened inside didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was that she was temporarily out of the fight.
With the bigger threat removed, the blessed whipped her head around. She spotted me running forward after tossing aside an empty potion bottle I'd drained completely.
"You bastard!!!"
I'd recovered every last drop of magic power in one go. Seeing this, the blessed unleashed her holy power with everything she had.
It was fast, but I had no intention of taking it lying down. I dropped low and slid forward. Both of us were quick, but her technique was garbage. She couldn't react properly until my hand was already pressed against her stomach.
"Penetrate!!!"
Boom!
She floated into the air again. Just like before, I carved into the defenseless target repeatedly. The blessed screamed in utter agony. Yet even after I exhausted every drop of my magic power, she still didn't die.
"This fucking magic capacity!"
I regretted focusing solely on technique and physical training instead of rapidly increasing my total magic power and esper abilities. A faint thought crossed my mind that I'd need to find some drastic remedy once I got back, but that wasn't important right now.
The blessed crashed to the floor. With an unbreakable will, she forced herself up again. Even though my magic was depleted, my sword still came screaming toward her as a lethal threat. She tried to keep up with the speed and respond somehow.
"Keuk!"
The gap in skill was fatally decisive. She couldn't even dodge, let alone deflect. The attacks were less powerful than Cheon Mari's, but far more refined. They were driving her insane.
Finally her eyes blazed even brighter as she gathered power in one hand. The instant I sensed danger and tried to retreat—
She punched the empty air where I no longer stood.
"Force Punch!"
A massive translucent fist slammed into me. The tremendous force sent me flying. I landed low to the ground, skidding to absorb the impact. She could have followed up while I was airborne. Instead, the blessed staggered in place. She collapsed to her knees and vomited blood and chunks of flesh onto the ground.
The amount was far from small. It gave me a clear picture of how badly damaged her body was.
"Khek, khek, kheeeeuuaaak...!"
So it wasn't a meaningless attack after all.
But letting the current situation drag on wasn't going to accomplish anything good. It was a waste of time, our supplies were limited, and our stamina was finite. On top of that, her magic consumption was on a completely different scale from previous enemies. Every clash drained me completely—an amount of magic that could have taken down a D-rank boss with power to spare.
Regret for growing complacent with reality. A short-term solution to break through it.
In the end, I bit my lip.
Should I just go full crazy and play as dirty as possible?
It was a thought I reluctantly dragged back up again.