Chapter 10 – LV.One Priest Seo Yun – [Five]

Next, Oh Haengbok took Seo Yun to another tent.

It was a building used as the village’s treasure storage, and Oh Haengbok took out two rings and handed them to Seo Yun.

“What are these?”

At Seo Yun’s question, Oh Haengbok explained.

“Rings of Minor Concentration. They double the usage count of First-Tier Spells? Since you have two, you can now use First-Tier Spells twenty-seven times. And if you separately wear the Priest’s Vestments on top of that, you can use First-Tier Spells eight more times… So you could make about twenty-five fires, right?”

Oh Haengbok smiled with satisfaction.

“Twenty-five households could live separately.”

After that, Oh Haengbok kept talking about how they could now try boiling water to generate electricity, and so on, before suddenly looking at Seo Yun and smiling again.

“Anyway, our pretty one…”

Seo Yun felt a chill, but she tried not to show it on her face.

Silently, she put the two rings she received on each hand. She felt her mind expanding.

With her now-clearer mind, she suddenly remembered something and asked.

“By the way, don’t you need to go see Park Taeyang?”

“Huh? Why him?”

“He’s also working as a Priest right now. He must be busy making Small Suns in the fields, so shouldn’t you take care of him too…”

Oh Haengbok made a disgusted sound.

“I can’t go where he is!”

Seo Yun, who had wanted to get away from Oh Haengbok, was disappointed.

“Why not?”

“I’m a Vampire, right? The things a Sun Priest makes are treated as real sunlight, so I’d burn to death.”

In the end, Seo Yun and Oh Haengbok continued to go around to various tents, lighting fires over and over.

Each time they created a fire, the number of Spellcasting uses decreased, and the reduced Spellcasting uses did not recover while the fire was maintained. They planned to create Fireballs until only ten Spellcasting uses remained.

So they had to visit over twenty tents.

And each time, the families living in the tents expressed their utmost gratitude, meaning Seo Yun received thanks from nearly a hundred people in just one day.

“Thank you so much!”

After lighting a fire in yet another tent and coming out, Oh Haengbok chuckled as he heard the words of gratitude directed at Seo Yun.

“This is the dignity of a noble Priest. A lowly Warrior like me could never dream of such treatment.”

Seo Yun responded with a bewildered feeling.

“They’re paying Contribution Points as fire usage fees, yet they’re so grateful…”

“The waiting list for fire is incredibly long. They all know that Contribution Points aren’t what’s important. By the way, Seo Yun, isn’t this great?”

“Huh?”

“You like earning Contribution Points, right? Now you’ll get exactly 25 Contribution Points every day.”

Seo Yun hesitated a bit before speaking.

“I don’t really need to receive them.”

“Huh?”

“Actually, I don’t really need them anymore.”

She swallowed the words: I have so many of those points that they’re useless to me, but for ordinary people living by farming, having to give up about 1/6 of their daily labor’s worth would be burdensome, wouldn’t it? Because it would sound like she was pretending to be kind.

And Oh Haengbok laughed.

As he opened his mouth, the sharp, protruding fangs unique to Vampires were revealed. The smile Oh Haengbok showed when they first met was like that too.

No matter when she saw it, it was a bizarre smile, and Seo Yun flinched, but Oh Haengbok paid no mind and said.

“I understand your feelings, but you still have to accept them!”

“Why? Because other Priests would feel pressured?”

“That’s one reason… And because there needs to be give and take for an equal relationship.”

In front of another tent, a different family was waiting for the Hearth Priest. It was a middle-aged couple and their children, living by helping with farming in the village.

The weather was terribly cold. They were shivering because they had come out to greet them, looking almost pitiful. Waving his hand to tell them to go inside quickly, Oh Haengbok said.

“Actually, even now there’s a hierarchy… But if it’s completely one-sided receiving, people become even more miserable. A complete top-bottom relationship forms in the interaction… Do you understand what I mean?”

“Yes.”

Oh Haengbok grinned, then muttered in a barely audible voice.

“If it becomes like that, they’d truly become nobles. Not just Priests, but Players too. That can’t happen…”

Oh Haengbok walked quickly to usher that family into the tent. Seo Yun blankly stared at his back before entering the tent.

By the time they finished lighting fires in twenty-five tents, the day had grown dark. Normally, Seo Yun would have gone on Night Patrol Duty now, but Oh Haengbok personally prevented her from doing so.

“Now you really can’t!”

When Seo Yun asked why, the answer came back that Priests must be protected as the top priority. Priests aren’t the ones who should stand guard; they are the ones who should be protected by the guard.

To Seo Yun, it seemed half-forced. Originally, Oh Haengbok had been very displeased with a little girl participating in Night Patrol Duty, and it was clear he was using that Priest profession as an excuse to outright forbid it.

As Seo Yun showed signs of resistance, Oh Haengbok argued like this.

“Why, didn’t you say you don’t need Contribution Points anymore?”

“That’s true, but…”

Seo Yun trailed off and thought.

Actually, besides the purpose of earning Contribution Points, there was another reason she diligently stood Night Patrol Duty.

‘If I don’t stand guard, I’d have to stay in the dormitory, and that was uncomfortable…’

Seo Yun’s dormitory was a tent exclusively for women. As a man, sharing a room with women was beyond uncomfortable; she even felt a sense of guilt. She needed an excuse not to be in the women’s dormitory. She used to stay up all night on purpose through Night Patrol Duty.

But now, there was no need for that.

In the end, Seo Yun headed to her dormitory without standing Night Patrol Duty. Not toward the tent where over a hundred women lived together, but toward the new tent she had just received for herself alone.

Even Players who could pay any amount of Contribution Points were in principle supposed to live together with everyone if they weren’t married, to save fire, but Hearth Priests were an exception. A Hearth Priest could create and extinguish their own fire anytime. Thanks to that, having a tent to oneself was a privilege exclusive to Hearth Priests.There had been concerns about the danger of a seventeen-year-old girl living alone, but Seo Yun ultimately succeeded in securing her own tent. Glancing back, she saw Oh Haengbok waving his hand from behind.

“Then rest well, pretty one! You really worked hard today! You were always a remarkable kid, but now you’re a real treasure…”

Seo Yun stepped into her tent. The interior was neither too spacious nor too cramped, with a single brazier placed squarely in the middle.

She knelt before it, offered a prayer, and kindled a flame.

After some time passed, the tent was filled with light and warmth. It was cozy.

For the first time in a very long while, Seo Yun lay down flat on the floor.

‘This is nice.’

She didn’t fall asleep right away, but simply lay there, doing nothing, her mind blank.

It was a respite after two years.

She lay like that for hours, and before she knew it, daylight had broken.

The Players who had successfully completed their Class Change numbered seven in total. Four Warriors, two Priests, and one Rogue.

Oh Haengbok looked at the seven gathered before him and muttered.

“That’s a large number for one Party? Splitting into two would make them too small.”

The Mage standing beside him chimed in.

“If we include the Martial Artist, that makes eight, so wouldn’t two Parties work?”

“Don’t talk nonsense… For now, we’ll form one Party like this, and later, if we get more recruits, we can create another Party or something.”

“Come to think of it, two Priests in one Party is too luxurious, right?”

“A waste. Other Parties would be jealous.”

Meanwhile, Seo Yun observed the other Party Members besides herself.

Her eyes met Kim Jihyeok’s. The guy grinned, which Seo Yun found absurd. Kim Jihyeok had only been in this village for a year to begin with. Naturally, his period of swordsmanship training and physical conditioning was short, so it was a mystery how he had managed his Class Change.

She looked at the others like Seong Juri and Lee Jongho, and finally her gaze settled on Park Taeyang.

Park Taeyang was still glaring at her. She could roughly guess why he was acting like that.

‘The Priest, who should be the sole deity of the Party, has become two, so his authority is diluted, right? And he doesn’t like that, right?’

Perhaps sensing the mood, Lee Jongho, who had pretended to be friendly until the Class Change, no longer spoke to Seo Yun.

Anticipating that Party life wouldn’t go smoothly, Seo Yun sighed inwardly.

I really should have run away from this damn village.

But now, Seo Yun had to weigh which was more important: the happiness of the twenty-five generations within the village, or resolving her own anxiety.

Ultimately unable to decide, Seo Yun remained in the village. Already regretting that fact, Oh Haengbok made an announcement.

“The Party Leader is Kim Ak. See that bearded man over there? From now on, listen well to what that man says, kids!”

Immediate opposition flared up. Park Taeyang asked, almost shouting.

“Why isn’t it me?”

Oh Haengbok frowned.

“Because Kim Ak is twenty-eight, the only adult here, you brat. What exactly is the problem?”

“I…”

Park Taeyang only hemmed and hawed, failing to provide a proper explanation for why he should be the leader. Seo Yun thought.

‘He must have a reason that’s awkward to voice out loud.’

It seemed Oh Haengbok had made the same guess as Seo Yun.

“Are you, by any chance, thinking that because you’re a Priest, you should openly take the role of Commander? That as the central figure of the Party?”

Under Oh Haengbok’s interrogation, Park Taeyang faltered.

“That’s not it…”

“Looks exactly like it, you little shit. If a Priest should be the leader, should we make Seo Yun the leader? She’s been outside all the time, so she knows the surrounding geography well and is knowledgeable about Monster ecology, making her actually more reliable than Kim Ak. How about that? Huh? You fucking little bastard!”

The sudden roar froze everyone. A brief Silence fell.

For Oh Haengbok, it seemed to have been an impulsive outburst. Perhaps he hadn’t meant to get angry on purpose, as he cleared his throat belatedly and said.

“Anyway, you little… So, Kim Ak will be the leader, and from now on, you all need to spend time training together. But as far as I know, I believe the main instigator and the victim of Ostracism are both here…”

Oh Haengbok pointed his finger alternately at Park Taeyang and Lee Jongho, then continued.

“Get along, okay? If not, you’re dead. Got it?”

Lee Jongho bowed his head deeply and answered hastily.

“Yes, understood…”

In the midst of this, as Park Taeyang didn’t answer, Oh Haengbok seemed to flare up with anger again.

“And why are you keeping your mouth shut, you little shit!”

And it seemed he barely stopped himself from shouting again.

As if suppressing his fury, Oh Haengbok bit his own lip. His protruding canine tooth pierced his lip, causing blood to flow, which only made the atmosphere freeze over even more.

It was a situation far too hostile for the moment of Party formation. Everyone stood around awkwardly, not knowing what to do with themselves.

Perhaps realizing his mistake again, Oh Haengbok sighed towards Kim Ak and said.

“Kim Ak, you’ll have a tough time. You’re the adult, so you have to handle it well, okay?”

Kim Ak answered with a thoroughly fed-up expression.

“Yes…”

And Seo Yun thought again what she had just thought. Should I really have left this goddamn place?