The Healer Appears [The Saintess with Magnificent Tits]

That was Yeon Dohui's Status Window.

Taeshik had taken everything she'd told him and organized it in a notebook.

"Saintess... huh? It actually kinda suits you."

Looking over Dohui's Status Window, Taeshik found himself wearing a peculiar expression. There was a lot to unpack in that window — more than a few things worth lingering on.

The word Saintess itself was strikingly unique. And the fact that it had attached itself to Yeon Dohui of all people was almost too perfect. Dohui's looks were already in goddess territory, so she more than lived up to the image of a Saintess. Separate from that, though, the class seemed to align uncannily well with her personal history.

A Saintess, in the end, was a vocation devoted to serving a god. And Yeon Dohui was a woman who possessed holy power on account of the illness she'd suffered. Taeshik had thought his own awakening abilities lined up pretty well with who he was. Dohui seemed to take that even further.

A Saintess? Yeah, Hidden Class is right. It'd be weirder if it wasn't.

The mere appearance of a Hidden Class was surprising enough on its own. But the class name Saintess was so eye-catching that the Hidden designation had gotten somewhat buried.

"Yeah. It weirdly suits me."

The two of them were sitting on the living room sofa in the bunker. Dohui had her arms crossed, looking like she had a great deal on her mind.

"You know, Taeshik?"

Her voice came quietly, after a moment.

"What?"

He looked over at her.

"I told you my dad was from another world, right?"

Yeon Dohui brought up her father.

"When he was there... in that other world, he was a priest. Someone who did work similar to the Saintess class I just got."

She told him what her father had done during his time in the other world. Her expression was calm, but her voice was steeped in something like regret.

"Ah...? So he was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a priest..."

Taeshik had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠only ever heard that her father was from another world. He hadn't heard what the man had actually done there, or what kind of person he'd been. The specifics had landed on him rather suddenly.

That look on her face just now... yeah. I get it.

Hearing that her father had been a priest, he could finally understand what that regretful expression had meant.

"My dad used to wonder if the reason I was sick as a kid was because he'd been a priest. Not just because he was from another world."

"He served a god, after all. He figured that might've had a huge effect on me."

Dohui laid out the burden her father had carried. Taeshik's guess had been right. Her father ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had blamed himself severely for the suffering his daughter had endured as a child. Speculating that she'd gotten sick simply because he was from another world had seemed like a stretch — but hearing the deeper story, it made sense.

It was probably similar to how a shaman parent feels when their child inherits a shaman's life. And now that Yeon Dohui had awakened with the class of Saintess, that feeling seemed to have hit even closer to home.

"But hey, looking at the result, I guess I have my dad to thank for getting a Hidden Class, right?"

Yeon Dohui smoothed out her expression. It felt like a courtesy to Taeshik, who'd been sitting there watching her in silence.

"Right! Healers are like nobility in a party. An essential class — you literally can't do without one. The one thing we were actually weak at was treating injuries when somebody got hurt!"

As someone whose entire brand was enthusiastic agreement, Taeshik had no choice but to play along. For a guy who'd died mid-jerk and accepted that death without missing a beat, this was the easiest thing in the world.

"I looked it over earlier. Lesser Heal's that kind of ability."

"That's what was written on the Status Window."

The moment Taeshik jumped in with such vigorous agreement, Yeon Dohui had gone ahead and recited everything the Status Window had to say about Lesser Heal.

"She's a real healer! The noble class that gets VIP treatment in games — that's exactly what she is!"

He clapped his hands, sending a huge message of affirmation. The reaction wasn't just to comfort her. Healers were the God of Gods of classes in an apocalypse. From what Dohui had just described, she was clearly that aristocratic healer every game party would fight to recruit.

"Is that a good thing? I don't really play games."

Dohui, on the other hand, apparently wasn't familiar with games at all.

"You don't even need to think of it as ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a game. In an apocalypse, the most precious thing is a doctor. That's how you should look at it."

No need to go as far as games. Even in a war, doctors were the ones the other side didn't kill easily.

"For the weapon, it'd be better to see it in person, right? If I hit the Retrieve Special Weapon button?"

Dohui looked at him as she said it. Judging by her words and the way her hand was poised, the Retrieve Special Weapon button was up on her screen.

"Yeah, that would be good, Dohui."

"With weapons, seeing the real thing and getting the explanation at the same time is going to be a lot faster than just hearing a description."

He nodded in agreement. Dohui's Status Window would have the Awakened Staff displayed as a three-dimensional model, but he had no way of seeing her window. Abilities and stats he could grasp from a description alone. A weapon was a different story. Better to look at it with his own eyes.

The instant Taeshik suggested they see the weapon itself, Yeon Dohui pressed the Retrieve Weapon button without a second's hesitation.

The same alert Taeshik had seen when he'd retrieved his Awakened Iron Pipe appeared on Yeon Dohui's Status Window.

She grabbed the Awakened Staff without a hint of hesitation.

A blinding surge of light erupted — the exact same effect that had gone off when Taeshik summoned his Awakened Iron Pipe. In the same instant, the Awakened Staff materialized in her hand with a rushing roar.

The summoning effect is the same as mine.

Even from a glance beside her, it was obvious the Awakened Staff was not a nano-particle weapon. Nano-weapons really were exclusive content of the Nano Warrior class, then. Everything else about the effect, though, was identical to when he'd summoned his Awakened Iron Pipe.

"Hmm...."

Dohui turned the newly manifested Awakened Staff over in her hands, examining it at a leisurely pace. Her expression, as usual, was perfectly calm.

"Oh! That's cool!"

Taeshik, on the other hand, was genuinely impressed. His own weapon had a strong cyberpunk feel. Dohui's, by contrast, looked like it had been pulled straight out of a medieval fantasy — a Saintess's weapon through and through. The coolness was off the charts. As someone who'd played more than his share of games, the sight of a weapon that fantasy-coded made the whole superpower thing feel real in a way nothing else had.

It's called a staff, but...

Right alongside the admiration, a considerable amount of puzzlement flickered through his mind.

That's basically a mace, isn't it?

To Taeshik's eyes, the thing labeled Awakened Staff looked like a mace. It was metal, a hundred and forty centimeters from end to end — a perfect length for Dohui to grip with both hands and bring crashing down. And then there was the head. Blunt and thick like a mace, with a large crystal orb half-exposed at the tip. Anyone looking at that chunky, mace-like head could tell exactly what it was for: busting open zombie skulls.

Honestly, a healer — and a Saintess, no less — beating monsters to death with a blunt weapon is pretty much the law of the land in this genre...

Puzzlement had been the first thing he'd felt upon seeing the Awakened Staff. But that feeling soon gave way to genuine interest. For someone who'd spent as much time in games as he had, a healer going full berserker was sacred tradition. And in any game about smashing zombies or monsters, that cliché was even more set in stone. Crushing a zombie's head with a blunt weapon was the kind of thing you could call a romance.

Dohui, who had no way of knowing what was going through his head, began reciting the Awakened Staff's specs from her Status Window with a look that said none of this was a big deal.

She read every last line, then looked over at him.

There it is! Now her Status Window was finally admitting that thing was a mace!!!

What Dohui had just read made it unmistakable. The object standing before his eyes was a mace disguised as a staff.