Chapter 34: Skill Tree 4
The greatest change that occurred when Heroines Chronicle became Heroes Chronicle was undoubtedly the balance.
A prime example of this is 3 Grace.
In Heroines Chronicle, 3 characters were known as good-looking mascots, meant to be more of a collector's item.
They possessed pitiful abilities that were unsuitable for actual combat.
However, in Heroes Chronicle, Grace had a level of exploration skill that could be useful in the forest and even had the potential to reach the upper floors of the tower if she grew.
"My divine magic is... a bit more extreme compared to the others."
Irene whispered, lowering her already quiet voice and blushing as if revealing her weakness.
The divine magic of a priestess was typically composed of healing, purification, shields, and various buffs, like what you'd find in an average fantasy novel.
However, according to Irene, her talent was a bit more skewed to the extreme.
"It's difficult to heal anything but residual wounds immediately and my shields are a bit... exaggerated compared to others."
To summarize, her heals healed over time rather than instantly, her purification also granted immunity buffs, she can cast powerful shields that consumed a lot of magic, and finally, she lacked stat buffs that were typical of priests characters.
Isn't this more of a mage-type tank?
From a gamer's perspective, the lack of buff skills was a bit disappointing, but considering her 5 stats, she was a top-tier healer.
Moreover, if Han Se-ah were to provide her with a skill, she might gain access to previously unavailable buffs.
However, when viewed from the perspective of the temple, Irene's divine magic had many disappointing aspects.
"That's why I must ascend the tower to convey the Goddess's will."
One of the temple's duties was to help the injured within the city, acting as a sort of emergency room.
What was needed in such a place was a powerful healing spell that could immediately revive patients on the brink of death, not slow, continuous healing.
As a shield-specialized priestess, her low healing efficiency made her unsuitable for helping the general populace.
Other priests were much better at healing and it was impossible to just force more magic into her spells.
Unless a plague swept through the city, there was no need for immunity buffs from her purification skills.
Although she was a priestess with the title of "saint candidate," she seemed more ashamed of her low healing ability than proud of her powerful purification and shields.
To her, Han Se-ah asked a question.
"Then, why did you choose our party? Not to mean that I dislike it or anything!"
"Yesterday, I saw Sir Roland training alone on the 11th floor. When I asked the leader of the party, I learned of your name. You broke through up to the 37th floor of the tower without a single scratch and saved countless people outside the tower as well."
So, the tanker with the Kite Shield knew who I was.
Well, adventurers around the middle floors tend to know most of the higher-ranking adventurers.
It's similar to how people working on a film set would know the faces of actors and famous directors.
It was common to meet them while taking requests outside the tower or when sending supplies to the top floor.
Anyway, I did save a lot of people outside the tower... after all, I solved quests that others avoided even though the rewards were little.
As for me, I've been working hard to achieve my dream of having my own home, but for those devoted to the temple, it must have seemed like I was leading by example in doing dirty and troublesome tasks.
No wonder the priests I met during quests were quite friendly.
"I'm embarrassed to say this, but I thought I could spread the will of the goddess even with my humble divine abilities if I were with someone like you," the priestess said, her cheeks turning red.
She wanted to accompany someone who wouldn't get hurt since her healing abilities were lacking.
Han Se-ah was busy trying to comfort the priestess, who seemed to be feeling guilty.
"Everyone has their strengths, and finding ways to serve your faith despite your limitations is commendable! If you think it's not shameful in the eyes of the goddess, then what's the problem?!"
Han Sae-ah, who usually stutters when speaking informally or lying, speaks as eloquently as a politician starting their election campaign.
The priestess appeared quite timid, as her voice and gestures indicated that she felt guilty by requesting to join the party.
Naturally, it's not a crime or a bad thing for priests to request a party transfer.
After all, adventurers often fight and break up.
If it's a decision made for religious reasons, it's even more understandable.
There were cases where people embezzled party funds or had extramarital affairs with other party members.
"Thank you for saying that."
"Of course! Recognizing one's own shortcomings is better than not knowing them at all. Oh, did I say that right?"
I liked the idea of having her join our party, specializing in protective shields.
If no one gets hurt, healing abilities become useless.
It would be much more convenient for her to stick close to Han Se-ah and hold out with her protective shield while I go wild on my own.
Anyway, Irene seemed to feel the sincerity in Han Se-ah's messy words, gently smiled, nodding her head.
"I want to accept the transfer request right away. Ellis, it's okay for her to join our party, right?"
"Of course. The priestess herself wanted it, and there's no reason to disqualify her. Asking for consent from previous party members isn't exactly mandatory either."
"Ah, I explained it to them yesterday."
Her previous party members reluctantly agreed while respecting her wishes.
After all, no one would forcibly retain a priestess who wanted to move on her own accord. It seemed like they unintentionally lost a talented individual, but I wasn't concerned with their situation.
Han Se-ah sat on the left, Grace on the right, and Ellis behind.
Irene, buried between the women, whispered in a small voice, and the three enthusiastically responded.
Han Se-ah was captivated by the 5-stars, Ellis was smitten with Irene's beauty, and Grace was heavily superstitious and God-fearing.
"Then, since we're all together, can we check your divine abilities?"
I gently cut off their conversation.
It's always a welcome event when a priest joins a party, but we can't just blindly head to the tower without checking our compatibility first.
Han Se-ah vigorously nodded at my words. She seemed eager to see the power of a 5, with an excited and curious look in her eyes.
Given Irene's seemingly passive personality, this kind of attention might be burdensome, but she confidently nodded her head.
"Let's head to the open area behind and check your protective barrier."
"Sure. How will you test it?"
Despite the fact that her healing didn't help the citizens, she had a strange confidence that her protective barrier would work inside the tower.
If she didn't have at least that much self-esteem, she wouldn't have decided to climb the tower.
Ellis and the rest of the party headed to the guild's open area.
It was a rare sight to see four beautiful women gathered together, causing some men in the area to flex their muscles in an attempt to impress them, but they failed to draw any attention.
"Can the barrier only be used for yourself?"
"Yes, it can protect a certain range centered around me."
With a clearer, yet still small voice, she raised her short staff.
It was slightly shorter than a mage's staff and had a religious symbol instead of a magic stone at the top.
"O light, grant us protection."
The symbol flashed, and a different kind of shield from a mage's formed - a brilliant white curtain of light enveloped the women.
The shield was large enough to protect Grace, Han Se-ah, and Ellis, even as they maintained some distance from Irene.
It was much more intense and expansive than Han Se-ah's shield.
"Hmm, this is quite impressive..."
In fact, it was an incomparable light to any other priest's protective barrier.
It wasn't an exaggeration to say that it was more radiant and beautiful than any barrier I had seen in my various quests.
I reached out my hand to the shining barrier.
"Uh, um... huh?"
I pressed my index finger against the barrier, like I did when testing Han Se-ah's shield, but it didn't budge.
It's unbelievable that it could be so strong.
I put more force into my grip, as if I were digging my fingers into clay.
"What is this?"
My fingers slipped off with a terrible noise, unable to leave a scratch on the barrier despite my enhanced strength.
It was impressive that it remained unscathed even with the force that could have crushed a monster's skull like an apple.
"Wow, it's very strong."
"It's a priest's divine protection. It's so beautiful."
From within the barrier, the women marveled at the flickering light, but I was simply bewildered.
Irene's barrier remained intact until I put all my strength into a magic-infused punch.
With a loud crash, the barrier shattered into pieces.
Irene looked at me with confused eyes, but it seemed that there was no damage to her when the barrier was destroyed.
It was Han Se-ah and Grace who were startled instead.
"Kyaa! What, what is it?!"
"Ah, I just wanted to test something. You're not hurt, right?"
"No, breaking the barrier doesn't hurt me."
Although I hadn't seen the character Irene, the saint candidate, before, I had an idea of what her passive ability might be.
It seemed that characters with 5 or higher had a passive ability from the start, like me.
This was the same protective barrier passive that the Steel Saintess, Johanna, had.
In Heroines Chronicle, Johanna completely nullified damage over time effects such as poison, burns, and bleeding.
-Complete negation of damage below a certain value.
***
Decided to block most of the dating ads as I go through the ad list... sorry guys no meeting asian singles here.
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