SSS+ Rank Healer

There was nothing to deliberate. The conclusion had already settled itself.

If chaotic energy was going to keep turning up, and I now knew divine power was poison to it, then failing to raise an ability tied to that power would be nothing short of dereliction of duty. Die in a Level 2 Biome or a Level 3 Biome the way the previous owner had, and I wouldn't even have the right to call it unfair.

Still, I was human. In some corner of my heart a spoonful of romance kept surfacing, and there was nothing I could do about that. Honestly, with my skill, the math had even worked out well enough that I could have walked away with only an S in the Magic stat and still picked Summons or Magic at SSS+. If the first main quest handed me an SSS+ choice, then the next one—or the one after that—could always produce another SSS+ ability pick. It amounted to the same promise.

In Farming World, that is exactly what I would have done. If the Secret Farming Map Farming World had given me were truly a game, I wouldn't have bothered with melee weapons in the first place. I'd have taken SSS+ Summons from the opening minute and lived a happy little summoning life, savoring a viciously hardcore run for the fun of it. Screw the difficulty. I'd have walked the razor's edge, not even a Black Monkey in sight, just minding the Goblings' moods, scraping together whatever I could to eat and survive, betting my life on raising summons one at a time. Die, and you come back. Burn the farm to nothing, and you reset the server. Grab even a single thread, endure only the early stretch, and the summons you had raised, invested in, and stacked high would show you filial piety someday.

But that was a game.

Reality had already taught me otherwise. Even when I chose only what was safe and certain, SSS+ difficulty was nothing gentle—hadn't I felt it in my bones, fighting the Corrupted Ogre? This was supposed to be a difficulty with no danger and no threat. In the Level 0 Biome my stats and abilities were so overwhelming that a mutter like this isn't working should never have left my mouth. And still I had nearly failed to bring the Corrupted Ogre down. The money I'd already spent in the real world alone was past twenty billion won. My choice had proved itself righter than romance, so this time would be no different.

"Evolve into an SSS+ Rank Healer!"

"...What are you talking about, Oppa? You hurt somewhere?"

I'd been standing perfectly still, then spun in a circle putting on a one-man show, and Kim Sujeong shot me a baffled look while she sorted the little bits of junk in the box. She was hee-heeing over how every last one of them was a good find, so she hardly looked in her right mind either. I ignored her completely and pulled up the status window.

The newly added Divine Power was corrected to a base of S once again, and the Corrupted Ring's effect pushed it to S+. Divine Power, like mana, drew on an energy of its own—divinity.

Mana sat at 110 on a mere C-, yet Divinity was only 20 even at S+. The formula must have been different, or else the divinity a skill consumed simply wasn't calculated the same way. I'd learned the ability for the sake of chaotic energy, true enough, but that didn't mean the performance itself was lacking. Divine power for dealing with that energy was obviously the first thing I looked for—but among those options, it also had to be something I could use right now, the way Melee Weapons was. That was a close second, and it mattered.

Divine Magic. No need to make it complicated. Call it a healer and you were close enough.

In the world of Farming World, magic split broadly into ordinary magic, divine magic, and black magic. Ordinary magic was elemental. Divine magic was the recovery school used in the temples, and black magic was the blanket term for summoning arts of the necromancer sort, or ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠for curse magic. Choose black magic and you didn't gain a fresh stat like Divine Power; you spent Magic as it stood. Divine Magic, same as Melee Weapons, tossed in one skill as a free gift the moment you learned the ability.

The description itself felt a little vague. Grant ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠divine power. Double the effect of divine magic. Luck rises greatly—and not a word on how greatly. Not very Farming World of them, I thought, but it was fine.

"Oh, this is good."

It was the skill I had wanted, exactly as it stood. The decisive reason I had chosen Divine Magic was simple: when the time came to face chaotic energy, I wanted the damage for free. With this passive, I could lay divine power over a weapon whenever I pleased.

A low thrum rose from the steel.

"Whoa!"

"Hah— Master, is that divine power?"

Into the clammy dark, the deep uneasy color of a sewer, a brilliantly shining white light took root. It surged upward like an aura and evaporated, looking for all the world like an enhancement effect out of a game. It wasn't merely an effect. Divine power really was wrapped around the weapon. And that power wasn't poison only to chaotic energy.

Divine power had any number of effects, but the basic one was this: coat a weapon in it, and on the standard of pure S+ Divine Power, final damage rose by 10 percent, no questions asked. A passive. Grant the power, and I was simply ten percent stronger. An SSS+ skill, and only 10 percent? Someone might scoff. As a side dish served when something else was the main course, though, the flavor was on the good side.

Besides, I had already tasted a Legendary Box today. Now that I understood how much luck mattered, word that my luck would rise by a wide margin was about the finest hit of dopamine I could ask for. From here on, whenever a high-grade reward appeared, this skill would come to mind first. And I would start expecting things. The +100 percent to divine magic hardly needed saying. It was limited to divine magic, yes—but put it in melee terms, and it was a melee skill hitting twice as hard.

"What? Oppa, did you actually become a healer too?"

The two of them were dying of curiosity, so I showed them my Farming Window.

"Eh? What? SSS+ Divine Magic? What even is that?"

"You've learned a second ability! Congratulations!"

"Hold on, Oppa. You can learn abilities? Isn't that completely broken?"

"Broken as hell. This whole dimension is broken as hell."

The shock landing on their faces was pretty satisfying. Since I'd learned the ability anyway, I took a look through Divine Magic as well. Same as Melee Weapons, there were a handful of skills I could pick up for ten points.

Those two were all I could learn for ten points. I'd meant to window-shop, take anything worth using, and otherwise stick to Divine Imbument for the time being—but the names alone proved, once again, that a line I had made up myself wasn't wrong. The skills bundled with an SSS+ ability really were a free bonus.

Orthodox from the very name, weren't they? Heal and Purify. The flower of divine magic. The most basic of the basics.

"Now that is the stuff!"

Beautiful. Could a skill even be this beautiful? I'd forgotten it for a while, busy putting Melee Weapons to work, but magic was the flower of skills—flashy, lovely, full of charm, a bloom in every color. The magics of different abilities each carried a charm so distinct that every effect had a taste of its own. The flavor of the first divine magic to enter my real life was warmth. Cozy and warm just to look at.

A mid-grade healing potion? A high-grade one? One cast of Heal chewed them up and spat them out: ninety percent of my vitality, restored. Of course, even S+ Divine Power had the nasty habit of running dry after four uses. Worse, Divinity didn't refill twenty percent a minute the way mana did. It came back at ten percent, so a single Heal took three minutes. Even so, this absurdly broken skill—ninety percent vitality every three minutes—settled warm over my heart.

I will never die.

Once, looking at a skill like this, that is what I would have said. But this faint, unpleasant unease... maybe it was because I had come back from the Corrupted Ogre.

"There's a Corrupted Ogre out there. Ninety percent vitality ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠every three minutes is actually showing some conscience."

Mm. Quite right.