Tutorial (6)
For now, we had somehow weathered the immediate crisis, but...
As was usually the case in such small, backwater villages, an ordained sister capable of casting Heal was practically nonexistent, and even low-grade potions were rare commodities. Aside from the healing I provided, there was simply no way to save the wounded youths of the village.
I treated every single one of those who were too gravely injured to move, stabilizing them one by one just enough so they wouldn't die. By the time I finished, my stamina was utterly depleted, to the point where I couldn't even lift a finger.
What was more...
There were so many of them that I nearly dipped into my life force once my stamina ran dry...
Burning through my life force here was strictly out of the question. Every drop of my vitality was earmarked for another purpose entirely.
Even if I spent it here, it would certainly project an immaculate image of a saintly maiden. But given my overarching roleplay principle—to recklessly fling myself forward and save everyone without regard for my own safety—holding back or rationing my output was out of the question. So in reality, I had been treating them while practically begging the heavens inside my head: Please, just don't tap into my vitality!
Fortunately, the hamlet wasn't particularly large, meaning the young men who had joined the fray hadn't sustained catastrophic injuries on a mass scale. Thanks to that, the treatment didn't drag on for too long, and I was able to patch them up one by one, stopping just short of collapsing into an immobile heap on the ground.
The moment the final patient was tended to, however, my body gave out completely. Unable to keep myself upright any longer, I crumpled to the floor.
“A-Are you all right?!”
“Hey...!”
Sensing the two figures rushing toward me in alarm after I collapsed, I let out a silent sigh of relief.
Finally, it's quiet...
Earlier, wails and agonized groans had echoed from every corner, loud enough to make me wonder if I had ever experienced such a racket in my entire life. Now, an appreciative calm had settled over the room.
Even if my Heal only matched the potency of a low-grade potion, in a village where even such rudimentary draughts were priceless, a blessing that could ease pain and keep death at bay was a godsend. I didn't regret my choice in the slightest.
However, as I mentioned earlier, my Heal fundamentally consumed my physical stamina as the fuel for casting. Tending to so many people back-to-back inevitably took a brutal toll on my frail vessel. In the end, my body was so utterly drained that I couldn't even walk, leaving me no choice but to be carried piggyback to our lodging.
“Thank you... Thank you so very much, Sister...!”
All while being showered in the village chief's tearful gratitude.
Still... there wasn't anything truly dramatic about it.
It was a bit of a shame.
Expending my physical stamina to heal others was certainly a virtuous deed, but since I didn't actually suffer any acute agony from it, the emotional impact—the feeling of a noble soul directly sacrificing herself in devotion to others—felt somewhat diluted.
“[I am... sorry... for being such a burden...]”
“...Enough. We were slated to depart tomorrow anyway, so rest thoroughly so you can at least move your limbs by then.”
Danas... was that his name?
Since my only means of discerning people relied on reading the contours of their mental resonance and tracing their physical outlines through sacred power, identifying individuals was an excruciatingly difficult chore. Even so, the man carrying me on his back possessed a frame so much larger than anyone else's that he was impossible to mistake.
To think that a man who treated me so coldly just a short while ago would tell me to rest up after I apologized for inconveniencing him. This didn't feel half bad, did it?
Though honestly, it would be much better if he stayed cold to me.
Because what I was about to pull off was hardly the kind of stunt anyone could readily forgive. Of course, it wasn't as though I would be committing the deed with my own two hands... I was merely exploiting an in-game event, after all.
Now that this world had become reality, there was no telling if things would unfold precisely as they did in the game. On top of that, pulling it off required nailing the "timing"—the single most unpredictable variable of them all. Yet ironically, being weakened like this made coordinating the timing far more convenient, so perhaps it was a blessing in disguise.
A wry smile crossed my face.
“[...Thank you.]”
Since things have turned out like this, I'll make sure to heal that eye of yours, no matter what.
Even if I called it exploiting a game event, it really wasn't that complicated. Nor was it guaranteed to work in the first place.
Monster spawns in this game varied depending on the time of day. Naturally, "spawning" was just game terminology; in terms of the world's lore, it simply referred to the creature's active hours. And right now, for the commission we had undertaken—exterminating an Orc Settlement—I was planning to lure in an entirely different beast.
A race endowed with low intellect but compensated with overwhelming physical might. A monster so formidable that it served as an early-game boss. Yes, the very creature found lurking in almost every forest worthy of the name.
An Ogre...
Originally, my plan was to release a scent that attracted Ogres at the precise moment to instigate a three-way battle, but doing that carried too high a risk of getting caught. The best I could do instead was scatter the scent throughout the forest on our way here.
During every night watch, I had dispersed a powder stored in a glass flask—a substance that emitted an odor detectable only by Orcs. In the game, it was an item used to spawn the boss monster Ogre, purchasable in monster black markets.
There were two reasons I didn't use it directly on the spot. First, I couldn't afford to let anyone discover that I was the one who scattered it. If word ever got out that someone revered as a Saint had lured another monster and nearly brought about the annihilation of her own party, all hell would break loose.
Nor could I allow the Goddess watching from above to catch wind of such a deed. That was why I had purchased it under the cover of night—when divine observation was blind—cloaked my appearance, and sprinkled it with utmost discretion. Surely, it would be fine.
The second reason was that this entire forest fell within the Ogre's roaming territory.
Indeed.
Simply dusting the forest with that powder was enough to ensure the Ogre would linger nearby. Furthermore, given the nature of a low-intelligence carnivore, if the stench of blood wafted through the air, it would instinctively converge on the source. Since no one would ever suspect I was the one who spread it, it was, for all intents and purposes, a perfect crime.
The Ogre would "merely" be drawn by the scent of blood looking for a meal, "coincidentally" stumble upon us while we were subjugating the Orc Settlement, and we would "inevitably" be forced to do battle with it.
A B-Rank adventurer party might not overwhelm an Ogre, but taking one down wasn't out of their reach. All that mattered was that someone sustained grievous injuries while defeating the beast.
It's a gamble heavily reliant on probability, but...
Even this was more than enough. The harsher the penance, the greater the stat gains awarded.
The only reason I went out of my way to invite this misery upon myself was to turn this into an arduous ordeal and ensure I was chosen as a Saint. If someone here suffered critical wounds, I could nurse them back from the brink of death—sacrificing myself in the process to reap even higher stats.
Whether I'd actually become a Saint... well, that remained to be seen. In the end, the choice belonged to the Goddess.
Thankfully, the utter exhaustion that had rendered me immobile improved significantly after a good night's sleep. Still, due to the nature of my ascetic penance, which forbade food, my body remained predictably sapped of strength.
“...What are you doing?”
Ah...
I had stopped by to check on how the villagers I treated yesterday were faring, only for the adventurer named Danas—the sole person who had shown me any warmth—to approach and question me. No matter how much my goal revolved around suffering and self-sacrifice, I wasn't so insane as to deplete my stamina healing people right before our departure. What I had done yesterday was more than enough.
“[I am sorry. I only wished to see if everyone was doing well...]”
After pouring so much effort into healing them that I couldn't even lift a finger, checking up on their recovery was fair enough, wasn't it? Not that I could actually inspect their wounds, being blind and all.
Will I be able to see once I grow more accustomed to handling sacred power...?
It was truly heartbreaking that I couldn't gaze upon this world—the very realm of my favorite game unfolding right before me—with my own two eyes. Had I known things would turn out like this, I would have dropped the 'Blind' and 'Deaf' traits, even if I was starting as a Saint.
Even if I could glean what people wanted to say through the mental resonance carried by sacred power, and even if I could map my surroundings by rippling out waves of divine energy, it only allowed me to intuit the shape of things through sheer sensory perception. It wasn't the same as actually seeing with one's own eyes.
To draw a comparison, it felt like playing a pitch-black game where you were forced to navigate entirely by staring at the minimap.
It was inconvenient. And... it didn't feel like I was truly alive.
“Then that is fine. Let us make haste and depart.”
“[Yes.]”
Still, what could I do? It was an unavoidable sacrifice if I wanted to maximize my bonus points.
It was a path I had chosen myself... so I could only hope that one day, the moment would come when I could behold the world with my own two eyes.
Though I doubted that day would ever come.