The Saintess (3)

That day too, Saintess Alka descended into the dungeon.

Saintess Alka was an existence specialized in solo dungeon conquest.

Her combat power as an individual was naturally excellent, but she also possessed the super-rare skill [Revival]—she would come back to life even if she died. Since she retained her experience from each death upon revival, she would eventually be able to conquer any dungeon.

Because she could revive even after death, she had used numerous expensive skill scrolls that would never be given to ordinary soldiers and acquired many skills. In particular, she had an abundance of skills suited for dungeon conquest.

Thanks to the [Storage] skill, she could dive into dungeons without worrying about water or food. With [Healing], she could immediately heal minor wounds. She even had other skills like [Dungeon Trap Detection]. This was a skill that allowed her to sense dungeon traps.

However, something strange was happening in this dungeon—the saintess's [Dungeon Trap Detection] skill barely functioned at all.

She didn't know why. Of course, like the Light God's divine protection, the skill wasn't omnipotent—it had its limitations, such as not reacting to traps set by people. Still, normally it would detect ten out of ten dungeon traps, yet in this dungeon, it could only detect about three out of ten.

She had been relying on this skill when diving into dungeons recently, but since it was practically useless here, she switched to searching for traps using scouting techniques that didn't depend on the skill. It had been a long time since she manually searched for traps, and she got caught by more than expected, making exploration difficult.

At least, traps she triggered once were recorded by her [Mapping] skill, so she wouldn't get caught by them a second time.

Once she cleared a maze, the path would be perfectly recorded. On top of that, she had negotiated with the guild from the start to obtain a map, so her conquest was progressing relatively smoothly.

The saintess passed through the second and third floors, which were the labyrinth area. She looked back and reflected on just how many times she had died and returned…

"… I suppose I'll venture deeper."

After the labyrinth area, there was nothing in particular. Apparently there used to be a riddle door here.

Since there didn't seem to be any traps nearby either, she continued deeper. The saintess would not turn back. If she ever did, it would only be when she had conquered the dungeon and had the leisure to walk out.

Beyond the fourth floor, there was a spiral staircase. As for traps… she couldn't detect any with her skill, but… based on trends so far, there probably were some. She carefully descended the spiral staircase—the wall jutted out, nearly pushing her into the open center. She hurried down the stairs.

No, let's correct that. A stair suddenly gave way and she lost her footing—she fell.

"Oghff—!? …■■, ■■■■■■—[Healing]…"

The impact broke several bones, but she wasn't dead yet. She healed the broken bones with recovery magic. If she had no means of recovery, she would have had to kill herself instead… With her injuries healed, she resumed her exploration.

After descending (or rather, falling down) the spiral staircase, she found herself in a room. The moment she opened the door, an eerie, lukewarm air brushed against the saintess's skin. She got goosebumps despite not being cold—she sensed bloodlust. When she looked, there was a black wolf.

An instant after she saw the black wolf leaping at her, she was dead.

"Haah!"

"You're awake, Alka-sama! Is your body alright…"

"… I'm fine… Phew, so I died."

The saintess woke up in a room at the inn. Her upper body had been bitten off, and she had lost consciousness as she was being swallowed.

The sensation of her own body being ground up. Pain and discomfort that no normal person would ever want to experience even once.

Yet the saintess remained calm. She was used to dying by now.

It was likely this lack of resistance to death, combined with a spirit strong enough not to break even after experiencing death countless times, that allowed the saintess to be a saintess.

Or perhaps she had already broken long ago…

At the very least, from other people's perspective, the saintess could hold a normal conversation and seemed like someone you could talk to, so there was no problem.

"The target… the one from the request, got me."

"I see… Will you be accepting the request?"

"Yes, let's observe the situation a bit more. Well, I did make it eat my poison… but I don't know if it had any effect."

The saintess had various poisons on her person. Therefore, if a monster without poison resistance ate her, it would be her victory.

These poisons were meant to poison enemies in an emergency by letting them consume her whole body, and also served as a means of suicide if she found herself in a situation where she couldn't move. Besides what was on her clothes, she had several hidden inside her body as well… Though she hadn't used it this time, there were even occasions when diving into other dungeons where she would drink a slow-acting poison timed to her expected return.

"In any case, I'll go check again tomorrow. It would be nice if this settled things."

"I hope so as well."

Her attendant Cent nodded at the saintess's words with a smile that seemed somehow lonely.

 

＊ ＊ ＊

 

I confirmed that the saintess, after being bitten by Rin and turning into particles of light, had revived in a room at the inn.

For now, things should be fine for today. Her daily DP had dropped to 225 again… I thought her entire upper body got eaten, but maybe that's unrelated.

"Heh, you positioned that wolf right past the spiral staircase area."

"Yeah. Traps won't work twice on that saintess… so we just need to station a stronger monster and have it defend. It's even better if we can overwhelm her head-on instead of relying on ambushes."

Though if I were in her position, I'd be thinking "What is this garbage game balance?" But it took so much effort to lure Rin there, so this much should be fine.

"Hey Kehma, did that, relieve your stress?"

Rin howled, calling out to me.

… Good girl. Let me send a messenger golem filled with sweet syrup. Rin seems to like sugar water flavoring.

Hm? The saintess didn't fill your stomach, but she had a tingly sensation and a mellow taste that was pretty good?

It was a nice snack, huh. Feel free to keep eating her whenever she shows up.