41 beastmen have become your followers
Total follower count updated. Total followers of [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]: 10073
Well, that sucks!
It was this close, so close I thought my plan was about to finish without a hitch! I had such an amazing, but simple, idea to wipe out all 23 opponents inside the castle, leading to us seven and one additional contestants to become the top eight survivors. Larent and I planned on having that assassin be the last person, as we wanted to know who they were and pay them back for interrupting our duel.
However, for some reason, that weird poison guy became the last member of the top eight. I was this close to smacking them with my glaive to end it all, but noooooo, that assassin dude did something! I was sure of it! I had Rajah sniff around the castle just in case, after all.
And it was such a perfect plan, too… Everything was…
In the end, I decided to stop complaining as the arena changed around us. Castle Fatalisa and the battlefield of Schrade disappeared before the eyes of our alliance — and that poison dude. As we hovered in the sky, the world turned completely white.
After a couple of seconds, the ceiling of this endless white world opened up and our feet began to touch the ground. A moment later, and it was all done. We weren’t in the match anymore, we were now in the arena, being watched and cheered on by the crowd.
“Dammit, you damn Folschreckian! Just one more kill! Just one more kill! You lost me a fortune!”
“Hand of Heaven, yeah? More like, hand in my ass! You lost against a kid, you knight-wannabe! Go retire already!”
Well, it was a 50-50 when it came to the cheers. A lot of them were extremely angry at Larent for some reason, actually, a vast majority were shouting at Larent and how they were disappointed at him for losing against me in the “kills” race. He took most of the negativity, but quite a few were leering and jeering at the poison dude, whose name was Greisha.
On the other hand, the rest of us received praises for our performances, complimenting what we did best. It was amazing! Like, it really raised my mood as my heart began to beat faster from this joy. I wanted to win, and I did, and now I was being rewarded by this crowd congratulating me for what I did.
“Amazing fight! You really showed everybody how to take over a castle!”
“Frickin’ hell, love the magic! Need some explosions sometimes, or all that sword fighting gonna bore everybody!”
Ghorush and Arlond raised their arms up, taking in the celebration for their hard work. Arnold especially was dazzling the women with his looks, instantly making me regret thinking he was a good guy. Womanizing was such a turn-off for me.
On the other hand, Naemon and Joek were bowing slightly before they started looking like they wanted this over with. It didn’t seem like those Evidian mages liked the spectacle much compared to me. Chahayat, from the look of it, seemed to fall into this category, also.
Which left the reactions from Larent and that poison dude. To say the least, they looked awkward. Larent had a wry smile on his face while the poisoned dude looked like he just experienced the biggest relief in his life. Well, he almost lost, so I guessed?
“Noble ladies and gentlemen! Blood enjoyers! All hail to you, may I ask, have you enjoyed this MAAAAATCH?”
““Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!””
““Wooooooooooooo!””
The people in the free seats erupted in jubilation at the announcer’s nudging, while the nobility sitting in a separate section simply clapped in response. There, I also saw Prince Markval and his mother, the Princess Dowager, watching us. While the prince looked like a kid in wonder after watching his favorite anime, his mother looked like the sorta parent who would scold you for watching “some stupid cartoon.”
I waved at them and also to the people sitting below them, which were Jethro and Princess Anasthasia. While the prince couldn’t act out of place with his mother on hand, Jethro gave me an understanding nod despite frowning, or maybe that was his natural expression, and the princess clapped in appreciation.
Since I was planning on performing a concert in Elyonda, I had to give a sample, right? Hopefully, the princess understood it and could help with the advertisement process. I had to introduce her to Amelia tonight for the concert preparations.
“Yes, yes, I know you all liked that! I JUST WANTED TO HEAR YOU SAY IT OUTLOUD! ‘Cuz that was INCREDIBLE! I dare say, God Yeostar must be proud of what he observed here today! Not only did she survive a blast of the dragonator, she also saved ‘Auegor’s Blade,’ and then led a war party to conquer Fatalisa! The first time in the Arena of Yeostar’s history where somebody managed to conquer the castle during an actual match! Give it UUUUUP! For ‘Crimson Scale’ Hestia, our top ‘kill’ ranker!”
“IDOL! I am an idol!” I shouted against the announcer as the crowd cheered. “Stop giving me that stupid name! At least, call me ‘Crimson Idol’ next time!”
But, as you would expect, with the crowd exploding like this, it was hard to give my opinion on it without resorting to [Aerokinesis]. Besides, I didn’t want to ruin the mood. An entertainer had an obligation to not do something that petty, as the enjoyment of the adueince came first. As such I kept quiet and simply basked in it with a smile.
However, I could feel the stares and glares. Not only were a ton of my competitors sitting in their seats right now, having had the luxury to watch the whole battle royal, the ones behind me were the same. Chahayat and Ghorush were definitely opponents I had to worry about, not to mention Larent. I didn’t have any opinion on Naemon or Joek, but they were mages from Aleistunum so caution should be important.
Arlond and that poison dude would probably be easy matches, though.
In any case, I—
[“Master, I need to tell you something!”] Rajah suddenly called me while hiding in my shadow. [“I remember now! I forgot about it, sorry!”]
[“Huh, what is going on, Rajah?”] I could hear his voice cracking a bit, mostly from his excitement at him successfully executing a mission. I was a bit worried he might get hurt, but I was so incredibly proud he managed to bring down the castle’s gates in time.
[“Master, I overheard those humans speak. They said they got poisoned by the bad person. There. Over there.”] Rajah’s mental image was pointing my attention at Greisha. [“They said, there is no cure! The only cure from him and his brother!”]
Rajah’s speaking habit was still a bit scuffed at moments, but it was easy enough to determine his motives and ideas through our telepathic link, and this one was huge.
“What?!” I shouted at the precariousness of the situation. I glared at Greisha for a moment, causing him to twitch a bit.
No time!
Arlond and Larent told me a little bit about the poisoned dude and his brother, telling me those two were infamous black mercs specialized in assassinations with toxins. It was said their toxins could kill even those with immunity against them, saying they were potent enough to kill even A rank adventurers.
If that was the case, then I couldn’t waste any time here!
I activated my rocket boosters and shot up in the sky, only to suddenly hit a mana barrier right in front of the audience. While caressing my poor horns, I ignored the shocked audience and turned to the announcer, shouting, “Open the barrier or gates! I need to get out!”
“Uh? What? Hey, lass, we got your celebration for being top eight in a moment. If you need to go to the toilet, hold up a bit.”
“I don’t need the toilet!” I replied with a small blush. “There are people about to die in the infirmary! I need to get out now!”
However, he didn’t comprehend what I was trying to do. If the opening to the audience was protected by a mana barrier, then the gates would be, too. Either I could try to explain things to the announcer again, or I could break through them. Or, ask Mother to do so. This shouldn’t count as a strike to send me to Miononbolax, right?
However, before I could say anything, somebody else came to my rescue.
“Open the gates, now! That is a royal order!” Prince Markval stood up and shouted his order to everybody before his mother pulled him back into his seat.
“Son, what—” She tried to say something, but the prince kept on going, defiantly.
“I said, that was an order!”
“O-Oh, uh, YES, mi’lord!”
The gates were immediately opened and I zoomed towards where I remembered the infirmary was. I was confused why they couldn’t open the mana barrier, but I guessed the safety of the crowd was a bit more important to him. Regardless, once I was close to the infirmary, I started to hear extreme amounts of groans and moans as alchemists and white-robed priests went in and out of a room in a panic.
Here!
Once inside, the chaos I heard wasn’t for show. Multiple men, probably the twenty people we kicked out the castle, were clutching their stomachs and chest as they released bellows like animals. Their faces were red like tomatoes and some even began puking out bloody vomit.
Alchemists were trying to have them ingest potions, but anything they drank was immediately expelled. The healing from the priests and priestesses were too slow, and with how the injured were flailing their limbs around erratically, some of them even backed away from fear.
Quick! Sacred Field!
I cast a white magic circle inside the room, large enough to reach every single patient. As the white light began to illuminate the dim room, surprising the medics at the sudden spell, I cast [Sanctified Blaze: Halo of Consecration]. With the white flame halo above my head, a wave of white flames burst from it, enveloping not only patients but the infirmary’s personnel.
“Argh, what is this?!” and “Flames, help!” all of them screamed, forcing me to quickly calm them down by bringing their attention to me. As I pulled out my blessed amulet of Aurena and explained to them how I got here, meanwhile, my white fire was slowly entering each poisoned patients’ body.
All of them had [Poisoned (Major)] as I took the chance to identify them and from the look of it, the venom had already made itself around their entire bodies and into each cell. In Arlond’s case, he only had the status ailment for one or two seconds at most, since my white flames could cure him there immediately, preventing the venom from spreading around his body in the first place.
They need more.
“Watch! In the name of the Goddess, I will bring the light of hope back in these patients’ lives!” I slipped through all the panicking alchemists and priests, moving towards the person in the most dire situation.
[Miraculous Heal] is overkill. This should be enough!
I increased my body temperature before blowing a stream of white fire on the man, all my halo was creating more and more, to the point any onlookers would think the room was being burned down.
“Uwaaaghhh!” the man screamed, still being consumed by the venom.
“Hey! Stop!” One of the alchemists charged forward as he heard this, only for him to be stopped by one of the priests. “Wha—?! Are you mad! That lizard is killing him!”
“W-Wait! The beast woman said she’s a priestess. That [Sacred Field] is proof for her claim. If you assault her, then you will be punished by the church!” He didn’t sound too sure about that claim as he nervously glanced at the burning patient, but he defended me anyway in the name of the church of Aurena.
“Are you out of your mind?! Didn’t you say the venom was above moderate?! Can you not hear! Listen!” The alchemist grabbed the white-robed priests on his shoulder and pushed him to watch and listen to the agony-filled fillings and cries of all the injured. Suffice to say, my flames were cool like a breeze; this alchemist just didn’t listen to me when I explained that to him.
“You let this random girl come here and kill these people, you’ll be the only one getting on the church’s bad side! Everybody!” He pushed the priest on the away before drawing the other alchemists’ attention. Immediately, all of them materialized a blue magic circle, chanting and readying their water spell. “Douse them now! And then get the Empire-issued antidotes. Quickly!”
“““Greater Create Water!””””
The custom spell immediately produced a bucket amount of water before it was thrown onto various patients. A normal person would have expected the flames to be doused, but sadly for them, with the mutation skill [Inferno Coating] in my [Hellblade Dragon] skill, as long as the flames were connected to my body, they couldn’t be extinguished.
Which also included Mother’s ice, funnily enough. Even if I was elementally overwhelmed, they couldn’t die off, however, Mother could just lower the temperature until it was useless, which was an effective workaround and counter to the skill. But, if you didn’t do that, even a tsunami couldn’t stop my [Symphonie des Feuergottes] or [Solar Beam]’s overdrive mode.
“Wha-?! It won’t die!” The alchemists cried out, causing the one ordering them around to pale, before snapping his head around to me.
“Hey, you! Stop this at once, please! These men need help! They will die if they—Ark!”
“Hrrrrr!” Rajah suddenly jumped out of my shadow, hissing a bit to scare the man away a bit.
“Sorry, but like I said, I am here to help,” I said while manually controlling my flames through the man’s inside, using [Mana Eyes] to see the concentration of foreign mana, in this case, the venom. “Just saying, but you’re an alchemist. Why hasn’t my flame caused any smoke yet?”
“Wha-?!” The realization seemed to have hit him.
“Like I said, I’m a priestess of the Goddess, and if I can help out then I will. So, please, put your trust in me for this moment and allow me to save some people— There!” As I was trying to reason with the alchemist, the amount of venom inside the mana has been reduced to the point where his [Poisoned] disappeared entirely. With his heavy breathing slowing down, steadying itself, it gave me the confirmation to move to the next person.
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Whirling the white flames surrounding the person into a ball, I left a few tiny embers in his body behind to cleanse the remaining threat. I then turned around to the next person and basked them in the flame also.
“Now you can help. The venom is almost completely gone in his body, just give him some minor antidotes or body boosters to help his recovery,” I gave the flabbergasted alchemists and priests that order before putting my entire focus on the next patient.
“U-Uh, y-yeah! Hey, you and you! Clean up the water puddle. The rest, get the herbal tonics out!”
“A miracle! She just cured a major stage venom! Brothers, we need to assure everybody survives until our sister can do her miracle!”
“““May the light guide us!”””
“Yeah, may the light bless you and so on and on,” I mumbled at whatever they just said, too focused on the amount of venom was inside these people.
It’s like they’re a colony of them. What the hell is this?
I knew my poison and venom. I wasn’t a true expert in them as all of my knowledge of toxins was self-learned, either coming from me experimenting on the concoctions I made for myself or reading about them in books. I couldn’t tell the little details a true toxicologist would, but I knew about the practical application of them.
From observing the venom inside these two patients, I managed to identify this venom to be a slow acting one, staying dormant and then activating once they infected a cell’s nucleus. The venom then rapidly ages the cell, causing a pseudo-necrosis, before they explode, releasing the venom and spreading with an almost virus-like contagiousness.
From the look of it, quite a few cells were on the brink of this, showing signs of growth fatigue in the form of dry, black remains. Almost as if there was an attempt to push back the danger before the venom burst up and spread. It seemed like torture to me, honestly. Did those poison brothers seriously do this to people to make them win them a single tournament match?!
I snapped around to the praying priests. I would probably cause even more panic if I cleansed them with my flames at this point, so I had to have them help themselves. “All of you, cast [Cure] on everybody who came even close to this room. The venom spreads like an illness.”
“Wha-What?!” Instead of the priests, one of the alchemists overheard me and ran over to me to confirm it. “Are you serious?! Is this a gaseous venom? Pollen based? Do you get infected through breathing?”
He seemed like an expert. Most of my experience with alchemists was mixed. I had a terrible experience with them in Firwood and Estralia, while my only good impression was with Krymdar, that dark elf alchemist. Too bad the guy could be a real prick towards humans, otherwise I would look more favorably at him.
“The venom infects every fiber of the body, until it explodes and becomes contagious.” I didn’t know if they knew about cells, so I had to give a simple explanation. “I am immune to common venom, but this one can supposedly ignore resistances. I can heal myself, but you need to take care of yourself. Where do the tournament losers get teleported to after their defeat?”
“Here!” The alchemist ran to a door inside the infirmary. “There are multiple infirmaries depending on the injuries a participant receives. This ward is for those with life-threatening injuries, ones the arena cannot cure itself. Reserved for toxins, blood ailments, dehydration, and so on! There is a platform behind this door where every is teleported towards.”
“Good! So those infected are either inside this room or— Arck! The top eight! Rajah!”
Larent and the others, those who fought side by side inside the castle might have been infected. As such, I had to make sure they were okay, so I called over Rajah and cast [Sanctified Blaze] on him. Immediately, the magic circle burst into flames, entering Rajah’s body as if he had an injury or not.
Yeah, that’s the case alright!
“Rajah, go run to Larent. Inform him what happened and have him explain everything to the others. After everything is done, just rub against their bodies and let the white flames do the rest. Do you understand?”
[“Yes, Master!”] He nodded before running off like the wind.
I then returned my attention to the patient after the priests understood the situation, beginning to take care and isolate everybody inside of the room.
Jeez! Ten minutes? No, the amount of infection has to range from 30 to an hour. I deduced after all the information I found on the venom and how far it had spread inside this person.
I didn’t know how long the battle royal actually lasted, not after I spent most of it being lackadaisical. However, using what I knew about my own toxins, this venom probably could kill a grown adult by ten or 20 minutes, depending on the dosage. It only needed to infect your brain or heart, and it would be over for you.
However, this venom was everywhere. Lungs, liver, muscles, literally in every section of the body. No way would this be possible before somebody turned into a corpse. My fastest acting venoms could kill a troll after two minutes, using their natural regeneration to literally torture them. I knew my venom timing.
Disgusting…
I bemoaned the poison brothers and what they did to these people, only to remember what I had done to my enemies using my toxins. I wasn’t any less innocent in this matter, really.
Healing these people wouldn’t make up for my past, even if I only used them on my enemies, their deaths could only be described as cruel, really. I even gave Saori and my allies access to them, and I was using my [Corrosive Fire] freely without repressing despite knowing all of this. Needless to say, I probably wasn’t better than the brothers in this aspect.
However, why should I care about my self-deprecation if good could be done?
“Done!” And the second patient was cured, and then the third, and then the fourth, and so on and so. It took a while due to the amount of venom, but my white flames were still powerful enough to get this job done after I understood what the threat was.
“Priestess, here you go, some fulinoe tea. Please, drink it.” After we were all done, I slumped on a chair as I felt arcane corruption affecting my concentration now.
The alchemists told me I looked slightly blue, so they brought out some fulinoe leaves for me. As expensive as these herbal leaves were, especially with Elyonda being so far from the Belzac forest, the fulinoe leaves' original home, I couldn’t help but want to reject it, even if I had the money to pay for them. But after they told me it was to apologize for their previous demeanor and for my heroic actions, I nodded and drank it.
Not as good as Tasianna’s, sadly.
“I have some leaves with me where I’m staying. I’ll repay them back,” I told them, but the alchemists just shook her hands.
“As we said, priestess, you have our thanks. All these men have you to thank for their lives, so please allow us to pay you back. It's all right, the money for these leaves come from noble subsidiaries to the alchemists guild, hahaha!”
… I wonder if those ‘noble subsidiaries’ aren’t just government funds or donations. Whatever. There was no need to think of that.
The patients were all sleeping right now. The stress and exhaustion from having that venom eat you up was showing with how dehydrated and malnourished they looked. Unless you were an outrageous spell like [Miraculous Grace], normal healing magic accelerated your body’s healing factor. Healing yourself could be draining,
Speaking of draining, I was exhausted, too. The battle royal took a lot from me after meeting Larent. That duel was the first time I used my temperature control in a battle setting, not to mention testing my skills against a master swordsman. In a straight out weapon fight, I was hopefully overwhelmed, which meant I still had a long way to go to master my glaive. Magic and dragon abilities were still my crutches for that.
Then again, he’s level 147.
I was starting to feel something gnawing inside me. Something that felt like “I want to grind exp, instead of doing all this rubbish for the gods!” And it was making me uncomfortable as hell, even with all the training I was receiving from Mother and Master. Yeah, sure, I would receive a level from fulfilling Yeostar’s Divine Quest, but come on.
Sorry, I didn’t want to complain. I just feel weak, right now.
In any case, since I was done here, I better get back to the others. I bet they must be worried about how I just dashed away like that. Rajah also hadn’t come back. Was he with the others? If he was in any trouble, he could just communicate with [Telepathy] or enter a shadow, so there was no need to worry about him.
“I better make a report to the operators,” The head alchemist spoke with the head priest of this infirmary. “Can you look out for everything while I’m gone?”
“Of course, we must give our prayers for today’s success, after all. The Goddess or God Yeostar must have looked amicable on these contestants for sending such a skilled priestess.” The flattery was nice to hear.
And they did just that, with the alchemist doing reports and writing what happened like doctors, while the priests gave prayer — some were directed to me which also caused a deja vu moment.
4 humans have become your followers
Total follower count updated. Total followers of [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]: 10077
Honestly, why don’t I do this more often? Easy follower gains.
I guess being of the same faith and also displaying amazing elemental spells aligned with that church’s Origin God was super helpful. I did wonder if I could do the same with any Shiterno followers, but then I remembered, why should I? Shiterno was supposedly getting punished by Plesia anyways, so it was even better for me to stay away from him.
In any case, I said my goodbyes to the priests and alchemist before trying to find my way around the arena’s hallway. If I remember correctly, there was still a second battle royal which was about to happen. The winner’s ceremony should be beginning right now, so there was still some time before everybody would leave their seats.
Should I skip it? Would be a bit awkward. Hmm…
But before I could do anything else, the voice of my current “employer” rang in my head. He probably wanted me to attend the ceremony, since it would do me good as a champion, I presumed.
Oh? Sorry, I’ll—
Choice?
… I guess?
Yeostar seemed like a bit of a weirdo, honestly. He seemed so stern and taciturn when I met him, but he seemed like a history nerd who took historical accuracy seriously, probably more than Saori. And then he had that whole problem where his country seemed less and less like a noble, knightly country, and more like a bunch of wannabes who liked blood and were intolerant towards beastmen. And Yeos’s nobles disliked women in power!
But I didn’t think he was a liar. He might deceive people during a war or something — he seemed like a “win at all costs” kinda guy — but lying to me now would only antagonize me. So, I dashed towards where that ward should be with Yeostar’s direction, only to suddenly hear a commotion and countless people in armor standing before a room.
“— go of them now! Surrender, Kraegar!”
“Move one more step and all of you are dead! Move out of the way! Now!”
That voice?
I just heard that voice. It was the same growly voice that poison dude from before had, but was a bit less deep. However, that armored person — probably a soldier from how he shared the armor design with the eighteen other people next to him — just called him “Kraegar,” the name of the younger poison brothers.
“You have one last chance! Let that person go, or I will execute your judgement before you receive a proper trial in the Empire!” However, what drew my attention next was the person who appeared from behind all those soldiers. Brilliant, well-designed armor which gave you a powerful knight-esque impression, however, with his helmet on, it was hard to see his face.
Only moments later, a small vial of dark liquid was thrown on the floor, crashing and splintering glass all before the knight, causing him to take a step back. For good reason, as that virulent fluid began to sizzle, eating away at the floor like acid. Purple gas began to emit from it, prompting the knight to tell everybody to move back.
“Back! Back, now!” He did so himself. “That gas will get you into armor! Get behind now!”
A rune on his shield activated, creating an auracoil around him and his allies like a giant bulwark. The knight drew his sword, looking ready to charge in at any moment. I thought he would do it immediately, but instead, he waited there until a hand appeared from behind the door, holding onto another vial of black liquid.
“Stand back!”
The alchemist from before appeared, the one who went out to report on everything. However, unlike before, his expression was a deathly pale, sweating cold sweat as his eyes darted from the vial to the sinister-looking dagger held to his throat. A moment later, a familiar man appeared. He still had a slightly crushed face from the time Ghorush smacked him on the ground.
Poison dude #2.
“Come, try me! Your Agility against mine, but the moment you take the gasses in, you’re dead. Everybody in the infirmary will be dead!” Poison dude #2, Kraegar, shouted like a madman, however, from the way his eyes were darting around at the soldiers, looking for an escape plan, he probably did it with calculated aggression.
“Say what I told you!” The dude shook the alchemist, drawing the sinister knife closer to his throat.
“Hiiek!” The man shrieked, shivering like crazy. “H-He planted vials in the room. It’s been perfuming the room for a while now. He will leave behind the antidote if you let him leave the city! Otherwise, all of them will die!”
“Krk! Do you not have any antidotes for them?” The knight asked as calm as he could, seemingly in control of the situation.
“N-No, we already tried— B-But we haven’t tested the more potent tonics yet! We might—”
“No need.”
“Huh?”
“Huh?”
“Hu- Grk? Huh?”
In the span of two second and everybody going “Huh?” on me, poison dude #2’s arm was swiftly cut off by a purple flame crescent, thrown out using my tail. By the time he faced me, he already let out a small groan before watching his forearm falling off his body.
“— Ark! Gaaa— GUACK!” And in the next moment, my scales had already wrapped themselves around his dagger, preventing him from killing the alchemist before I could do anything. All so I could turn the flame crescent into obsidian as I manipulated it with [Pyrokinesis] to pierce his armor, digging right into his stomach.
“Kuek!” However, instead of screaming his pants off, he grit his teeth and wrapped his left arm, his uninjured one, around the alchemist, starting to choke him as if he was trying to pull the man with him into his grave.
However, I was calm about it as I saw the knight rushed forward at blinding speed, for a normal person, cleanly slice off the poison dude’s arm without injuring the alchemist and pulling the latter away from the former.
“Argk! Grk!” he groaned and moaned, only to force it all up into a wide smile. “K-Kehehe! Kuef! Have fun dying you, you damn bast—”
“Antidote, now! We can still heal you, so give it up already!” the knight demanded, pointing his bloodied blade at the merc’s throat.
“Kehehe! Sorry, but it's gone the moment you cut off—”
“Oh shut up.”
Too much time would be lost if I let this guy keep yapping his mouth off, so I did the merciful thing and just dashed towards him with [Wind Blast] and slammed his head on the ground, far harder than what Ghorush did and turned it all into mush. Gruesome or not, from one poison user to the other, this death would be less painful than whatever we could concoct.
Experience has reached multiple breaking points. [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]’s Secondary Job [Virulent Corrosion] has risen from [Level 1] to [Level 9]
Attributes have increased due to level up
Damn! He must have been high level. Only 21 more levels until it's maxed
“H-Hey!” The knight was about to speak up about it but I simply shoved my amulet of Aurena into his face, telling him I was a priestess.
“Mister alchemist, you haven’t told me your name yet. My name is Hestia. You know what I am about to do, so please explain everything to the gentleman.” I shoved the alchemist into the knight’s way, drawing his attention away before I recast [Halo of Consecration] above myself.
In one wave of flames, the two spilled acid-like toxins dissolved into thin air. I went in to the infirmary, noticing unconscious people on the beds and also the tied up personal hogging a single corner of the area. Smelling the putrid scent of the poison vials, I quickly put all of them up and began burning them all up with my white flames. Although, I did keep a tiny drop for my collection.
Toxin collection was still a hobby to me, as morbid as it sounded. I think I could finally answer the question I posed to myself when I was still in the Belzac forest. Yes, I was crazy for having such a bizarre hobby.
After I freed the personnel and made sure the vapors were gone, I did an emergency flame healing session on everybody inside the infirmary, making sure they would stay alive. Once they were all healed up, I left the room of appreciative priests and alchemists, only to find the group of knights all standing in front of the door. The body of that guy was gone, but there were still hints of his death.
11 humans have become your followers
Total follower count updated. Total followers of [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]: 10088
“Uhm, hello?” They looked at me with piercing gazes, making me feel slightly uncomfortable.
“Priestess Hestia!” But pushing himself through the soldiers, the alchemist from before ran over to me, bowing repeatedly. “Thank you, thank you so very much! Not only did you save all those patients before, you also saved my life today! I am of no words! I cannot thank you or even imagine how I would be able to repay you for all of this!”
“Oh, uh, that’s okay.” Was what I could eke out, too flustered by his sudden sincerness. “Like I said before, I just did what I thought was right. There’s no need to repay me back, seriously.”
“… It’s as Brother Colm said, you really must have been sent by the Goddess! Oh, please, forgive me, Goddess! I had doubted your path of light for too long! From here on out, I promise you, I will act more faithful! Starting with your messenger!”
1 humans have become your followers
Total follower count updated. Total followers of [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]: 10089
He prostrated himself, praying loudly to the point it was obnoxious.
… Cool, another follower! I had to just ignore how zealous some people could be.
Determined to leave this place before he stood back up, I was about to move through the way the alchemist made in the soldier wall, only for the knight from before to walk in front of me, blocking my way.
“Lady Hestia, could you come with me for a moment?”
… Am I being arrested again?