I'm Not Going
"LilHa~ welcome, everyone."
This was my first stream in three days — three days since the Pharaoh's Interference Dungeon. I'd taken a break partly to let the firestorm of buzz around me cool down, and partly just to rest, but judging by the chat, the topic hadn't died down one bit.
I'd titled the stream "4th Advancement Test" — the very test I'd been too out of my mind to run back then.
"Today is the 4th Advancement Test. I didn't really get to show you last time, did I?"
"What I awakened isn't a complete 4th Advancement. There's a time limit, and honestly it's closer to a nerfed version than anything."
Instead of elaborating, I activated the 4th state right then and there.
Divine Thaumaturge (Lily Elbrit) has temporarily reached 4th Advancement: Path of the Saintess.
(Temporary) Unique Divinity has been unlocked.
User Lily Elbrit is undergoing Union of One and Hwa.
Limited awakening. A maximum daily time limit of 3 hours has been imposed. (02:39:21)
Divinity poured into the empty vessel of my body and soul, and a translucent veil of light cascaded down behind me like a long cape. My divinity stat had ballooned enormously, just as before — but this time, I didn't draw out my wings.
Even so, an afterimage lingered, faintly tracing the shape of wings in the air behind me.
...I don't like that.
I'd have to erase even the afterimage next time.
"...This is the form of the 4th Advancement, the Path of the Saintess. There was also a Path of the Spear in a different quest, so the two are probably split as separate skill trees."
Classes transformed in special ways as you climbed through your 2nd and 3rd Advancements. Two players might start as the same mage or the same swordsman, but the direction they chose split their path into wildly different branches.
Mages divided along elemental lines — fire, water, earth, and more — while warriors branched into berserkers, raging battlers, greatsword masters, dual-blade specialists, and so on. Your choice carved out your destiny.
In my case, it's more like unsealing a seal one by one.
"Ooh... then from the 4th Advancement on, this must be on a whole different level from your old class."
"I'd imagine so. It's not something you can awaken into easily."
"Wow... I'm so jealous. That's our Lily for you."
A swordsman who had somehow slipped into the edge of the camera frame gave a big thumbs-up. Beside him, a woman shook her head slowly and let out a sigh.
The camera naturally panned toward the Guild Master and Sub-Guild Master. The man bowed his head, and the woman bowed hers as well.
"Hello! Guild Master of the Vitamin Guild — Vitamin C here!"
"...A pleasure. I'm Yeomhwa, the Sub-Guild Master."
"These are the folks from the Vitamin Guild helping me with today's test. I'll keep it short — they're just lending me a hand."
"It's not a collab. They're the ones who lent me this hunting ground for the test. In return, I promised to help them out a little."
"That's right."
"This is a spot where high-level monsters respawn — every hour, the Black Hor—"
Neigh!
The moment the words left my mouth, the patches of red grass scattered across the wide plain rippled, and Black Horses appeared.
Time was up already.
"Well, let's take a look."
The Vitamin Guild members smoothly shifted into combat stance. The Guild Master drew the yellow sword slung across his back, while the Sub-Guild Master's twin gauntlets ignited with flame. And so the battle between the Vitamin Guild and the red-horned Black Horse began.
The Black Horse used its powerful body to target the weaker guild members, but someone in the back drew out green threads and bound its legs. The horse neighed and thrashed, shaking off the threads in no time — but it couldn't block the attacks that came flying in during that window.
Wounds carved themselves into the Black Horse's flesh. Not enough to deal a fatal wound, but enough.
"Everything landed?!"
"Yes!"
"Good!"
The condition had already been met. The Sub-Guild Master's flaming punch hammered into the Black Horse's upper body, and the Guild Master's sword cleaved through the stumbling beast's neck.
It looked like a fairly respectable chain of coordination, but...
Compared to actual rankers, their strength was nothing special. They had fifteen guild members, but only around five had actually taken part in the fight — and of those, even the remaining three had only held back the other ten members to give up their "hunting shares." The only ones who had actually dealt damage were the Guild Master and Sub-Guild Master.
The Black Horse vanished, and the Guild Master collected the red horn it left behind before looking at me.
"That's the last of it."
"Good. Now the test begins."
I lightly extended my hand. A pure-white magic circle unfurled from my fingertips.
Back in my days as a Saintess, the very first thing the Primordial Saintess taught me was the Rite of Resurrection. Resurrection was the root and foundation of a Saintess's power, and I had used it countless times. There were so many souls in this world that fizzled out without ever getting the chance to bloom their talent.
Into the Rite of Resurrection, I poured the Divinity of Healing.
The light of divinity crashed down onto the spot where the Black Horse had died, and before long, the Black Horse showed itself again.
Neigh.
"Up to this point, it's not so different from what I could do before. I could already resurrect even before the 4th Advancement."
The Rite of Resurrection was simply a type of magic. With knowledge of magical formulas and enough divinity, it was a straightforward spell anyone could cast. The real issue was the cost.
Unlike the past, my divinity had dwindled considerably, and this "red-horned Black Horse" was in a state of being continuously resurrected by some special, unknown force. Because its soul was bound, forcing it to revive on my terms — overriding the conditions of whatever kept bringing it back — naturally consumed far more divinity than usual.
Sure, the pre-4th me could probably have managed a few resurrections before running dry, but...
Flash!
"That's...!"
"Whoaaa..."
"What the — are you kidding me?!"
Neigh! Neigh!
My resurrection magic had revived every single Black Horse on the plain — all twenty of them at once. Each of which had its own one-hour respawn timer.
Watching the guild members stand there slack-jawed, I withdrew the hand that had cast the spell.
"See? It barely costs anything."
So this was the Divinity of Healing. The cost of resurrection had clearly dropped through the floor. If the original figure was a 10, it was now maybe a 1 or 2? In terms of pure efficiency, my resurrection power was on par with the me of twenty-five years ago.
I'll never match my old raw power, though. Looks like only the healing line got maximized.
My offensive capability hadn't been restored to compensate, but there was nothing to be done about that.
Scrolling through the chaotic chat, I checked the Black Horses scattered across the plain. As expected, thanks to the trait that wiped their memories on resurrection, the horses showed no change whatsoever.
"Whoa... so we just kill all of these?"
"Thank you so much!"
"Let's kill them fast! Once I bind them with threads, then right away—"
BOOM!!
Neigh?!
Before the guild members could even step forward, countless white threads shot outward and bound every Black Horse's legs in one go.
I wasn't about to wait around killing them one at a time.
"Kill them."
"...Huh? Uh, yes?"
"These threads. They're my skill, you see..."
"I practiced copying it a little."
Not a bad imitation, if I said so myself.
One of the guild members who'd been spraying threads nodded along, fumbling.
Whinny...
Thud!
"We... we killed them all."
"I leveled up!"
"Me too!"
"Great, then—"
Flash!
"““......””"
The twenty Black Horses the Vitamin Guild had slain so painstakingly revived once more. The resurrection had taken all of three seconds.
Already seven times in one hour — a hundred and forty kills total — and the guild members turned toward me with exhausted eyes.
"Uh... um... excuse me."
"Keep killing them. I still have plenty left over."
"W-we're good now, really."
"You're sure?"
Opportunities like this didn't come around often.
I was only doing this briefly for the test, and I had no intention of making a habit of it. The only reason farming like this worked at all was because something on this plain was resurrecting the monsters on a fixed cycle. If you killed and revived any ordinary monster wandering down the road, no experience would come of it. A monster's total experience is a fixed pool, and once you've drawn from it, you can't draw twice.
In other words, the continuous experience and resources from these "red-horned Black Horses" flowed from that special, unknown something.
"An opportunity like this may never come again. It looks infinite, but once it's depleted, the whole thing loses its meaning."
"This is plenty. We've already finished our levels for the day. You should use the remaining time for yourself, Miss Lily."
"Is that so?"
Worked for me.
One by one, the Vitamin Guild members filed away. After checking on her people, the Sub-Guild Master, the last to leave, pointed at a small cave across the plain.
It looked suspicious at a glance.
"Oh, and one more thing — please don't go in there, no matter what."
"Why not?"
"No idea. The owner of this place told us not to. Anyway, we'll be off!"
The plain emptied, leaving me alone.
"Hmm."
"I'm not going."
Probably.