The Saintess Trial (1)
★ Damage dealt to targets under a status effect +13%
★ Damage dealt to targets under a status effect +13%
★ Damage dealt to targets under a status effect +13%
"Hah. Now that's radiant."
The first time I rolled for a Badge, I'd felt a little resistant. They were character-bound, for one. You had to equip three of them, and as if fusing and pulling them over and over wasn't enough, you then had to roll the options on top of that. Worst of all was the talk that the numbers barely even showed unless you had all three equipped. I liked the easy kind of thing—tap it the way you would a unique option, and actually feel it the moment the stat popped. Once I actually pulled them, though, the feeling was different.
"Whoa. If I equip all three of these, I'm going to absolutely wreck people, right?"
"Oh, for real?"
This was news to me too. I would have had to look at other ordinary mages' skills to know. Lim Sarang, a mage by origin, kindly explained it.
"Status effects aren't exactly easy to land. There are quite a few of them among magic skills, but they take up a skill slot, and if you usually mix one into your casting it's a DPS loss. People don't use them just to get this option's effect. It's not worth it, so they mostly don't."
"Huh..."
"Right now you've got status effects stuck on Fireball and Ice Arrow, haven't you, Siwoo? The way I see it, those being SSS-grade means they're special options that only attach to a four-star special option. I've never seen an option like that before."
"...Oh."
"Ice Arrow, and Fireball too. Seeing them attached to the four-star options, I'm probably right."
I checked the skills at that. She was right.
Why had I assumed a status effect just landed on its own whenever a spell connected? I must have mixed them up with elemental skills. Once it was settled, I actually felt more at ease. So this wasn't an option every mage could make use of. It was a disgustingly broken option only I could use.
"Another rewarding stream today."
"Right? This game isn't usually like this."
Lim Sarang tilted her head too, looking back over the day. I'd been feeling it myself lately—like things were going well.
"This game isn't the kind where you pull one of these a day, is it?"
"...No."
"Yeah... I can't even remember how many days I spent rolling just to get a four-star SS special option."
How to put it. It felt like I'd picked up a lucky charm.
"It feels like I've gained a human totem."
Whatever it was, it was a good change for a Haven that had been on the verge of getting dull.
I'd been practically living in Haven for another few days, so to mark rolling the Badge options I announced that tomorrow would be a day off from streaming.
I felt bad for the viewers' grief, but I had a life to live too. Haven was starting to become my life, sure, but I wasn't living in order to play a game. Reality had plenty of fun in it. If I started listing it all, I couldn't even count.
Eating a full table set by a six-star hotel chef, in a penthouse with all of Seoul spread out below, was its own small happiness. Watching the dramas and movies I'd fallen behind on over a meal like that was good too. So was just putting on a video channel and watching cleverly edited Haven clips. I played to spend money, but Haven really was another world, just as Windy had said—there were that many users out there making and enjoying content more varied than reality itself. Streamers wandering the fantasy tourist spots laid over Earth's own backdrop were a perfect example.
Going to a bar alone now and then for a single drink was nice as well, a chance to sink into thought. At times like that, I occasionally remembered my conversations with Lee Yeonju. In a way, she had been the only relationship with a woman I'd had in the real world.
"No word from Yeonju these days."
The last time we met, it had felt like she was trying to put a little distance between us. Maybe that hadn't just been my imagination. I wondered why, and when I thought back to how I'd talked about Lim Sarang, maybe she assumed things were going well between Sarang and me. If that had actually been true, I would have let it go—but it wasn't, so it stung a little.
I'm a man, so being with a beautiful woman is nice. Lee Yeonju especially had been good because I could see her without any real strings attached.
"I should reach out sometime."
The more I thought about it, the less I seemed like someone with a huge sex drive. In porn webtoons and smut mags, guys with no money still went through every kind of desperate stunt just to get with a woman. I enjoyed it when it happened, I wanted it, and seeing a pretty woman did stir the urge—but I couldn't be bothered to text first and ask for it. Maybe it just didn't pull at me that hard.
Letting the stray thoughts drift, I turned over my plans for what came next. Up to now, just stepping through the piled-up ways to raise my specs meant I never had to wonder what I was supposed to do. Clearing one- through five-star dungeons raised my level, a full item setup let me take down field bosses, and with the Badges finished, next came taking on level 11 one- through five-star content solo. And even that didn't look like it would be hard.
And after that?
"Should I just level fast?"
Level 20. And level 30. Those were the levels I had to reach if I wanted all three Badges equipped. From 30 on, resurrection went paid, and plenty of people said that was when the tutorial really ended. If I wanted to stand on the same line as the other rankers, even if not level 60, I'd probably need to be around 40 or 50.
"Hmm."
There was a lot I wanted to do. The final goal was to become the best in Haven. Along the way I wanted to found a guild, clear regions that were still undeveloped, become the lord of those regions, and try my hand at a siege. It would probably take a long time.
"I'll just keep doing whatever I feel like, the way I am now."
The moment I tried to lay out a long-term plan, my head started to hurt. I gave up on planning right then and decided to keep enjoying Haven the way I already was—do whatever showed up in front of me, goof around, and take it easy.
Honestly, there was no reason to sprint. If I just kept slowly stacking my foundations one by one, countless viewers were already calling me the predetermined number one of Haven. More than anything, this sweet, ticklish time with Lim Sarang was good too. Right now, that might have been more urgent to me than being Haven's undisputed best.
I enjoyed a rest I hadn't had in a long time.
Lim Sarang was summoned to the Temple.
When she arrived, the Sun Saintess was standing there with the 1st Holy Knight Order that kept to her side. The Grand Archbishop sat in the seat of honor. Beside the Moon Saintess's place, a familiar face and a line of somewhat green holy knights stood in formation.
"Hello?"
"Greetings, Saintess."
Having received her greeting, GoldenHolyKnight returned it stiffly, his face rigid, his eyes darting as he read the room. It was the Temple, after all. That must have been why. She took the empty seat, and the Grand Archbishop spoke.
With that solemn announcement, a quest window appeared.
The sun and the moon cannot coexist. The first trial to choose the Saintess of the Temple of the Goddess of Healing.
The role of the Goddess of Healing is to strike down evil and save the world. Choose one Holy Knight Order and liberate a single region that has not yet been opened.
"Whoa..."
In all her time playing Haven, Lim Sarang had never received an SS-grade quest. To get something on the level of SS, you had to take a main quest from an institution that carried enormous weight in Haven—the Temple, the Magic Tower, places like that—and a four-star user struggled to meet the contribution those quests demanded. A Root Class really was as good as people said.
As she read the quest carefully, the Grand Archbishop spoke.
"The Sun Saintess has chosen the 1st Holy Knight Order, with whom she has always worked. For the Moon Saintess, we have provisionally assigned the 7th Holy Knight Order, with whom we have heard you share a bond. Should you not wish it, you may select another order."
Lim Sarang asked back.
"And if I choose the 1st Holy Knight Order as well?"
"The right of choice would then pass to the 1st Holy Knight Order."
She was no fool. She could tell at a glance that the 1st Holy Knight Order, always glued to the Sun Saintess's side, was the strongest—but they could be of no help to her. What she needed instead were the practical questions that would let her actually clear the quest.
"So whoever liberates a region first wins?"
"From the moment this gathering ends, the side that liberates a region first passes Trial (1)."
"The Sun Saintess looks like she's a much higher level... is there no restriction on the region?"
"The region to be liberated may be chosen freely, but only from among those matched to the Saintesses' levels at present. When a Holy Knight Order enters the region in question, their power is automatically limited to match the Saintess's level."
"Is there a reward for the Holy Knight Order that passes the trial as well?"
"Of course. Temple contribution, naturally—and each of them may select one item from the Temple vault."
Lim Sarang looked at GoldenHolyKnight. He wasn't letting it show, but tears had gathered in his eyes. Desperate tears.
"Pfft."
The laugh burst out of her. Then she said it.