Tutorial (Part 2)
It began as a mere coincidence.
Bored with tedious duties and looking for a breath of fresh air, Asselina had been wandering through the streets when she encountered a child. Or perhaps it was fate. After all, the girl possessed every quality necessary to become a Saintess. Her innate gift for divine power was peerless enough to stand proudly above every Saintess in recorded history, and the Divine Eye—capable of peering directly into the mortal heart—declared her soul to be goodness itself. She was a canvas of pure, untainted white, radiating warmth and innocence.
And that such a heart belonged to a frail young girl burdened with disabilities—a child for whom merely surviving in this harsh world ought to have been an unending agony—made it impossible to look away.
When several malicious boys noticed her blindness and deliberately tripped her, Asselina felt an uncharacteristic jolt of fury and shock. Yet what followed defied all belief.
‘This cannot be…’
Even after enduring such cruel torment, even as the boys jeered at her sightless eyes, not the slightest flicker of hostility or hatred bled from her heart. She simply brushed off the dirt and moved to stand, as though nothing out of the ordinary had occurred at all, facing the pitch-black darkness that enshrouded her with quiet, unyielding grace.
Perhaps that was why Asselina—or rather, the ancient Guardian Dragon cloaked in the guise of the venerable Pope—found her gaze drawn so irrevocably to the child. Stepping forward with deliberate care, she retrieved the cane meant to guide the girl's steps and gently settled it into her small hand.
“Are you unharmed, Sister?”
“…?”
The girl offered no reply. Wondering if her words had failed to carry, Asselina tried calling to her once more. This child had the makings of a true Saintess. In these turbulent times, when demonic legions would soon descend to engulf the mortal realm, divine revelation had commanded the church to seek out the holy maiden who would save them. Asselina had dared to hope this very child might be the one. And so, intending to guide her back to the Great Cathedral, she spoke again.
“Can you… not speak?”
“…”
As she wondered whether the girl was mute, a dreadful, almost absurd realization struck Asselina. Or rather, a truth she desperately wished to reject. Could this child be not only blind, but deaf as well?
If that were so, her lack of response ceased to be strange. She had not ignored the inquiry; she had simply never heard it. From the girl's perspective, a stranger had merely pressed a cane into her hand and refused to let go. Indeed, despite Asselina addressing her from mere inches away, the girl merely tilted her head in faint confusion at the hand holding hers, standing vacantly as if no sound had ever touched her world.
“Can you truly… not hear my voice…?” Asselina asked, her tone trembling.
A heavy, sorrowful sigh followed. The child had not chosen silence. She was entirely incapable of answering.
‘Ah, merciful Heavens…’
The blind and the deaf certainly existed across the land, but most had lost their senses to tragic accidents, and congenital afflictions rarely struck both faculties simultaneously. Even in cases of traumatic injury, the miraculous ministrations of a high priest could restore a body's natural function. Yet this girl bore no physical scars. No trace of illness or affliction marred her flesh. She had been born into this world entirely deaf and blind.
‘Goddess above… How could You allow this…?’
By her very nature, a Saintess was bound to endure a harrowing path of thorns, carrying the salvation of the world upon her frail shoulders. But to burden this pitiful child? Neither the blessings of a high priest nor Asselina’s own ancient power could ever grant her natural sight or allow her to hear the music of the world through mortal ears. Why grant such vast, unfathomable sacred power to one so profoundly broken? Was this not far too cruel a fate for a pure and innocent soul? However desperate these turbulent times might be, was it truly right to guide such a helpless girl down the bloodstained road of martyrdom?
‘Is it right… to lead this innocent soul down the path of a Saintess?’
Yet such radiant sacred power, such immaculate purity, pointed unmistakably to one reality: this child was destined to be the Saintess of this world. The fate of the mortal realm, or the peace of a single unfortunate girl?
Asselina made her choice. In truth, she had never possessed one to begin with. For the guardian of worldly balance, only a single path remained.
“[Oh dear, forgive me, Sister. I had not realized you were unable to hear.]”
Gathering her thought resonance, Asselina projected her intent directly into the girl's mind. She resolved then and there to take the child under her wing. A girl who could neither see nor hear, wandering the crowded thoroughfare completely unaccompanied, was proof enough that she possessed no guardian. Though her attire was humble, it was neatly kept, and her features held an ethereal beauty far removed from that of a commoner. Reason dictated that a child afflicted by both blindness and deafness could never have survived alone to this age without someone caring for her. That she was now wandering alone could mean only one heartbreaking thing.
Lost in somber contemplation, Asselina gently guided the child toward the grand spires of the Great Cathedral.
Taken in by Asselina, I naturally began my new life at the Great Cathedral as an apprentice nun. Even after settling into the clergy, the fact that I was completely blind and deaf remained unchanged, meaning I relied heavily on Asselina’s gentle care to navigate daily life. If there was one stroke of fortune, it was that pouring every single bonus point during character creation into divine talent paid off spectacularly, allowing me to master Thought Resonance Control—a high-tier holy technique—with almost effortless ease.
‘I can’t see my status window anymore, but the build is working exactly the way I set it up.’
Asselina praised me with genuine astonishment, marveling at how anyone could pick up such an advanced art in mere days. Next, I practiced casting my divine power outward in subtle pulses, using the ripples of holy energy to map out my immediate surroundings. After spending about a week alongside Asselina getting the hang of my sacred power, the results were promising. Though still somewhat clumsy, I could walk without my cane now, and my awareness stretched out in a two-meter radius around me. Best of all, with my mental resonance finally under control, I could hold proper conversations.
“[Truly remarkable. To reach such a level in a single week…]” Asselina praised, her mental voice laced with genuine wonder.
“[It is all thanks to your guidance, Grandfather… Thank you so much.]”
I meant every word. Honestly, I had been staring down a sheer cliff of despair just days ago, so running into Asselina on the street was nothing short of a miracle. Had I missed her, a blind and deaf girl wandering the alleyways would have been kidnapped by slavers or suffered an even grimmer fate. Frankly, even getting kidnapped would have been a mercy compared to dying cold and alone in a gutter with no one to help me. Thanks to her intervention, I had survived, keeping my grand goals alive: slay the Demon King, roleplay as the ultimate self-sacrificing Saintess without ever letting my closet masochism leak out, and return safely to my original world.
“[There is no need for such humble gratitude, Sister.]”
Asselina chuckled warmly. Ancient dragons really were something else; her acting as a kindly, doting old grandfather was utterly flawless. Had I not possessed meta-knowledge of her true identity, I would have sworn on my life that she was just a sweet, benevolent Pope.
Which brought me to the next hurdle.
‘Now all that’s left is the Baptism.’
Normally, one earned the formal rite of baptism to become a full-fledged nun by serving a long apprenticeship until the right time arrived, or by performing an act of extraordinary virtue that made it impossible to keep them as a mere initiate. And once that rite was performed, my destiny would be sealed by the divine: I would be chosen as the Saintess. I needed to clear this tutorial phase as swiftly as possible so my self-sacrificing Saintess concept could truly begin.
At an apprentice nun’s level, all I could do was burn my own stamina to patch up minor scrapes and fatigue. That was completely useless for my build. My roleplay required me to become a full Saintess—bestowed with the absolute authority to sacrifice her own flesh and absorb the lethal wounds of the dying, pulling them back from the brink of the abyss no matter how severe their injuries.
Well… was it really just a concept, though? At the end of the day, I wanted to become a Saintess purely because I was a degenerate masochist.
“[Um, Your Holiness…]”
“[Yes, my child? What is it?]”
“[I… I wish to undertake Penance.]”
I had no time to waste. That meant I had to gamble.
Penance itself wasn't complicated in theory. A normal apprentice spent her days practicing healing arts, studying scripture, and offering prayers. Only when her accumulated sacred power was deemed sufficient would she finally receive baptism. But Penance was a different beast altogether. It demanded that an initiate wander the world for a full week, completely fasting without a single morsel of food, sustaining life solely through raw divine power while dedicating every waking moment to acts of mercy.
It was a grueling, agonizing trial, but if one managed to endure that week of starvation and relentless virtue, they were immediately granted the baptism to become a full nun. Could someone just loaf around outside for seven days and come back? Out of the question. When the time for baptism arrived, Goddess Rumania herself judged the deeds performed during the penance to determine whether one was worthy. In fact, the divine grace bestowed upon those who completed it was so immense that successful candidates often advanced straight to high priest rank.
In the game, players either ground through long levels as an apprentice nun or opted for the high-risk Penance trial. Failing to hit the designated level within the strict time limit locked you out of the Saintess class change permanently. And even if you did grind the levels, you only earned basic recognition without any bonus stats. Power-gamers aiming for optimal stat ceilings always picked Penance.
My situation, however, was far more desperate.
‘I don't have time to grind.’
To blow past this tutorial and claim the mantle of Saintess, there was only one move.
‘I have to force an opportunity during my Penance.’
I had to step out onto those streets fully prepared to die. Because the opportunity I needed… was to drag someone back from the jaws of death, even if it cost the life of a lowly apprentice nun.