Level Up Saintess

Morning mass was apparently a bit of a misnomer, since it really happened closer to lunch. A lot of people here had jobs that started in the wee hours of the morning, and didn’t end or at least take a break for a while until midday, so that’s when the first sermon was held. It seems the night sermon happened after dinner, when people whose jobs were more of the 9-5 persuasion got off. Unless people just had a lot of time on their hands or were exceptionally devout, usually the two masses had completely different crowds. This means I would have a fairly good horde of people to possibly heal from, although it could easily be that most of these people didn’t need any healing at all, so I should probably hold back my expectations for now.

The mass was pretty similar to how I remembered church being in my last life. The Head Priest got up and did his sermon, there was talking, humming, the crowd followed along to a hymn, some swaying was involved. The Head Priest got on his knees on the steps to the altar and did some big exaggerated praying motions. Meanwhile, through all of this, I was just sitting on a chair off to the side just watching everybody getting into the spirit or whatever. I’m glad the Head Priest didn’t expect me to join him in leading the sermon, at least; I’m sure I wouldn’t know what to say. Worst comes to worst, I’d probably botch everything and say something blasphemous. No, I don’t think I’m suited to a speaking role. I’m much better off just sitting, nodding, and healing, thank you very much.

Eventually, after all the worshiping was done, it was finally my turn. The Head Priest alerted everyone to my presence and told them I was a Saintess. He made sure to warn them that I was new and couldn’t regenerate limbs or anything yet, but everyone went crazy before he could even finish anyways, and immediately tried to swarm me. A little under 60 people rushed at me, looking like a wave that would crush me once they reached. Luckily for me, the Head Priest ran over more quickly than they did, and even Chella popped out from wherever she’d been secretly watching, and they played goalie for me until they could get the crowd to calm down enough and cooperate. Crushing averted. Really really seeming like I was going to need a bodyguard. Maybe multiple. The life of a VIP is looking pretty scary so far.

Anyways, after a bit of fuss, it was time for the healing to commence. Unlike the other times that I healed, this time a majority of the people fawned over me like they were meeting a celebrity. Everybody wanted a chance to touch me for some reason. It’s not like the Goddess’s love would rub off of me or something; I don’t know what they thought they’d get from doing such a thing. Then again, I was never someone who really cared about famous people in my past life, so I suppose I couldn’t relate to their thinking anyway. Oh well.

Most of the time while they were busy being overwhelmed by just having met me, I just appraised them and went to work, while giving my best business smile.

A good portion of the people present needed curing more than healing, although there were still a significant amount that needed it. Whether due to simple illnesses, the occasional debuff, a secret shameful illness they probably hadn’t told anyone about, or just a bit of a recurring cough, I managed to rack up an impressive 39 [Cures]. I used [Heal] mostly to cure people’s cuts, scrapes, and bruises, but since a majority of the people here had manual labor jobs, those were pretty abundant; A good 27 of them needed it. Wonderful.

Only 6 people needed a [Greater Heal], which was quite sad for me. It was mostly older people, who’d hurt their knees or had gotten some kind of hernia. Unsurprising, really. Maybe the night crowd would scrounge up some heavier wounds for me to heal.

Some people brought over their children or babies for me to ‘bless’, which I’m certain I didn’t have the ability to do. At the very least I know I didn’t have any skill that fell under that description. For this, I would always perform a little bit of theater, by closing my eyes, putting my hand on their head, and whispering out a [Benediction]. I did it 10 times. I felt a bit like I was lying to them, but they’d still say thank you with tears in their eyes and give me a little +5xp pop up, so I guess it was good enough. Whatever works, you know? Maybe I should look into getting a real ‘blessing’ skill whenever it’s available. Would be nice to not have to lie to everyone about it forever.

And now for the cheesy icing on the cake: I’ve been using [Cleanse] on every single one of these people!

It’s cheap, morally speaking, and maybe the Goddess will be disappointed in me for gaming the system like this, but I figured if I snuck in a [Cleanse] I could squeak out a good chunk of extra exp, and the people will all feel good from not having a bunch of caked on gunk on them anymore! It’s a win-win, really. And if they mistake it as some sort of extra healing that they got, welllll thennnn… Ya know? Plus this means I get some value out of seeing the people who didn’t need any healing at all, so I definitely want to do it. I certainly have the energy for it, after all.

Oh and don’t worry, I got permission from the Head Priest to do it, although he looked confused about why I wanted to.

This means I got a juicy 58 uses of my [Cleanse] on everyone, for 5 exp each! Apparently the 10 exp I got for cleaning Chella's stuff was just because of the amount of things I cleaned. An actual person’s worth of cleaning is only 5. Sad, but I’ll scrape up any extra bits of exp I can get, so I’m alright with it.

After all was said and done, I’d managed to get a whopping 730 exp from all of this! It’s the most I’d ever gotten in one sitting! I leveled up once, and although I blew through a little less than 2000 energy, 580 of which was just the cleaning alone, that level up basically meant that I was perfectly safe by the end. I’m now a level 5 Saintess, and I’m 490/500 exp from level 6, so I’m pretty much almost there! As soon as the night mass healing hits, I’ll already be working my way to level 7! What amazing progress!

When everything was all finished and everyone had been successfully shooed out of the church so they could go back to their lives, it felt like some kind of storm had passed. I half expected the place to look like some kind of stampede of wild animals had run through it. The Head Priest looked me over, double-checking that I wasn’t showing any of the signs of low energy or overworking myself, and as he stood there in awe at the fact that I was completely fine, Chella came and dragged me away. Just like yesterday she pushed me down onto my bed and told me to get some rest, and just like yesterday, I complied. I hid myself under the covers and waited until she left the room, and then I got to work checking out my character sheet.

I now have 110 health, so if my calculations are correct, that means I get another 10 health on every odd level, right? My max energy went up by 100, just like every level, so that wasn’t much of a surprise. Great, great. Looking at how close I am to 6 is making me really anxious somehow, so I guess it’s making my OCD kick in. Part of me wants to just run over and clean somebody’s room so they have to thank me and give me that missing exp, but I’m just not a weird enough person to just bust into their rooms unannounced to do that. I feel like if I ask their permission to do it first then it might just work, but I’ll have to suffer through embarrassment for no good reason. Yes, waiting feels like the better option.

Well enough of that! It’s time for the most important part: Checking the skill tree!

Oooh, this one seems different. Instead of just one option, this time I had three to choose from. But apparently it says I can only choose one out of the three? I guess I really do have to make a careful choice then, huh?

{[Smite]: Hit your target with the Goddess’s anger! Summons lightning bolts from the sky to strike your targets. (50 energy per bolt)

Note: Committing crimes or hurting others for no reason will cause all current experience gained to drop to 0.}

{[Judgment]: Good or bad, let the Goddess sort them out! Gives out a judgment based on the opponent’s sins. (100 energy)

Note: Attacks may vary wildly.

Note: Committing crimes or hurting others for no reason will cause all current experience gained to drop to 0.}

{[Righteous Holy Fire]: Brilliant holy flames surround you, seeking out those hostile to you while leaving your allies unscathed! (30 energy per second)

Note: Committing crimes or hurting others for no reason will cause all current experience gained to drop to 0.}

Interesting, interesting. I appreciate how thorough the Goddess is with that note. So I only get one of these? That’s not so bad; I didn’t really have any plans for fighting people anyways. I’d much rather follow Seria’s example and have someone else do my fighting for me while I just buff them up. Let’s see… [Smite] sounds fun, but I think I remember lightning actually screws up quite a big area, right? I don’t want to use it on someone and accidentally fry the person next to them too. It’s magic, so maybe it won’t, but it worries me, you know?

There’s [Judgment], which sounds quite interesting. I know it’s based on the weight of each person’s sins, but in a way it kind of feels like a roulette or a lottery, you know? I don’t particularly like leaving things up to chance, but… I’m really interested in seeing what it would actually do. Really interested. Besides, at the very least I won’t have to worry that I overreacted or harmed someone who didn’t deserve it. If I leave their punishment up to the Goddess, then I’ll always know that they got what they deserved, which will be a load off my mind.

Last up is [Righteous Holy Fire], which wow is that a freaking mouthful. I like the idea that I can’t hurt my allies, but I don’t think I really like that it’s channeled. If it’s 30 energy a second, then that probably means it’ll want me to keep doing it, and I worry that if I use any other skills that it will stop. I learned from my rough and tumble previous life that in most fights what you really need the most is to be flexible and able to change up the strategy at any moment, and if I’m stuck channeling when I need to be intermittently healing or anything else… Yeah, I don’t like the idea of that. Otherwise I think it sounds really nice, actually. Oh well.

Welp, if the other two are out, then I guess the one I want is pretty obvious, right? I’ll take one [Judgment] to go, please!