“Hrm... This is hard...” grumbled Roslia.
After running into Diego and Lou on floor 23 the other day, our parties had explored together for a bit. Since Liberation already had experience on the floor, we’d made sure to observe their tactics and formations carefully. Lou was a crestcaster, and their healer was another rare battle style—a shaman—but the member that stood out was definitely Diego. The Marksman of the Holy Gun was on another level. He could shoot straight through the mechanical soldiers, advancing like a one-man army.
Thanks to that, our combined group had reached the boss chamber like it was nothing. It was hard to believe that the Arrivers struggled before meeting up with Liberation. Losing a sword had left Force in less than ideal fighting condition, but when Diego and his teammates shared that getting to the boss was actually harder than fighting the boss, we decided to give it a go. The Arrivers then made quick work of the sniper and returned to Puriff victorious.
It had been several days since then, and Roslia and I were now back in the dungeon to train. Diego had pointed out that she hadn’t yet fully mastered Guide of the Holy Sword, but since we didn’t know what her sword’s special ability was, we couldn’t experiment with it in town. We’d instead chosen an early floor that was relatively empty in case something big happened...but so far, we’d gotten no results.
Sofie, who’d come along to help with training, scolded Roslia. “Take this seriously,” she said.
“I am! In fact, that’s my line, Sofie! You said your High Appraisal would help, but you haven’t given me any advice whatsoever! Just what is my holy sword’s ability?”
“I don’t know. I can’t see it. It might not be fixed yet.”
“How does that work?”
“I don’t know that either. Just focus on your original goal of mastering the holy sword’s magical power. That might naturally awaken its special ability.”
“Fine! I was only complaining because that’s not going well.”
With that, Roslia began pouring magical energy into a cheap sword she’d grabbed from the bargain bin at the market. Its blade let out a faint glow before cracking.
“See?! This isn’t working after all! The magical energy is too concentrated! I can’t control it!”
“Less talking, more training.”
“You’re too strict, Sofie! There’s no way a cheap sword like this can withstand Fractus’s energy. We should’ve bought a more expensive—”
“We don’t have the funds for you to break item after item. Unless you’re personally willing to foot the bill, that is.”
“Ah, never mind. Let’s stick to the discount swords.”
Roslia took out a new blade and again tried channeling holy magical energy into it. The process wasn’t easy to master. She’d already broken dozens of swords this way.
“If it’s too hard to control the raw magical energy, why don’t you try casting a spell with it?” I suggested.
“Did you already forget about the explosion when I first tried that?”
“Fair... Skip that idea, then.”
When we’d first entered the dungeon for the day, Roslia had tried using her holy sword’s energy to cast Impenetrable Fortress. She’d subsequently lost control of the souped-up spell, inciting a huge explosion. The two of us had gotten caught in the blast and nearly died. Only Sofie had escaped unscathed, albeit stunned, thanks to her Iron Wall skill.
“Let’s stick to practicing with the other swords for now, and maybe if that goes well, we can come back to spells,” I said.
“That sounds good,” Roslia agreed. “I’m not trying to self-destruct here.”
“Well, we won’t be doing any serious dungeon diving until Force gets his hands on a new sword, so it’s definitely not worth risking your life over.”
Force had lost his prized blade Gleaming Beast to a sniper shot from the boss of floor 23. That left him with only his second sword, Purgatory, a cursed weapon that consumed both its targets and its wielder in black flame. Force had learned to resist its damaging side effects during his training over the Arrivers’ off year, but it was still deleterious to use over long periods of time. And since the dungeon demanded back-to-back fighting, Force wanted to find another sword he could use reliably.
“I gotta say, though, Guide of the Holy Sword sure is proving to be a mysterious skill.” Roslia poured holy magical energy into yet another cheap blade, which shattered just like all the others before it. She gazed at its remains and muttered, “It’s supposed to be incredible, but it’s impossible to figure out how to use... I’d rather have Superior Sword Mastery than this.”
“Aww, don’t say that,” I replied. “It’s EX rarity.”
“Actually, speaking of, isn’t Neme’s skill EX rarity too?”
“Now that you mention it...”
Roslia was right. Our priestess also had a mysterious skill called Saint’s Authority. According to Diego, the sacred skills were a series of legendary weapon skills championed by Roslia’s Guide of the Holy Sword. Saint’s Authority supposedly fell into a different category.
“Say, Roslia, do you think it’s possible she’s not using her skill to its fullest either?”
“Sofie, can you tell with High Appraisal?”
“Me?” The question caught Sofie by surprise. She cocked her head, puzzled. “Kind of...”
“So what’s the answer?”
“It’s true. She might not be capitalizing on its full potential.”
“Wait, really?!”
“But in a different way from you, Roslia. For starters, Saint’s Authority isn’t a combat skill. Instead, it’s where she gets her high-level arts and original spells. They’re a byproduct of the skill.”
“A byproduct?”
“Yeah. Originally, Saint’s Authority was apparently used to receive divine revelations.”
Here we go with talk of the divine again... Our talk with Lou the other day briefly came to mind.
“What do you mean ‘apparently’?” Roslia asked. “That’s a little vague.”
Sofie shook her head. “High Appraisal doesn’t tell me everything about what a skill can do. I see the text description rendered on the divine slate, but I rarely learn any more than that. That includes your Guide of the Holy Sword.”
“Divine revelations, huh...? Do you think Neme’s ever had one?” Roslia asked.
“Yeah... I dunno about that,” I replied.
“I was curious and asked her about it once,” said Sofie. “But she said no. It seems to be too difficult for her. That’s why I said she wasn’t using the skill to its full potential.”
“I see.”
That made sense. Neme didn’t really strike me as a recipient of oracles in the first place. She was supposed to be a priestess, yet she barely practiced the beliefs of Cecinaism. Maybe that was why she couldn’t hear the words of God.
“Well, it’s not like divine revelations would have much impact on dungeon diving.”
“You never know. What if they could tell us a shortcut to the last floor?”
“If God was that benevolent, then this death trap of a dungeon would never exist in the first place.”
“Still, it might answer the question of who actually made it.”
“That’s a good point. Let’s ask Neme when we get back.”
With that, we wrapped up our chat and returned to Roslia’s training, completely oblivious to the catastrophe unfolding around the priestess in question at the exact same time.