Chapter 112 – LV.Nine Priest Seo Yun – [One]

This mountain valley camp was originally a cluster of Korean restaurants with a folk concept.

Five hanok-style houses stood side by side between the mountain valleys, though they only looked like hanok on the outside and weren’t proper examples of traditional architecture.

Still, it seemed the Meteorites found them acceptable. This was evident from the fact that the Gutworms had smashed all the surrounding commercial buildings but left these hanok houses intact. To the Meteorites, busy demolishing modern structures, these must have been recognized as exemplary medieval buildings worthy of preservation.

It was inevitable that survivors from Gangwon Province would gather in these intact buildings.

Thus, the mountain valley camp was born, where some Players and their families and acquaintances lived for several years. During that time, they neither maintained a particularly strong force nor led stable lives. The lives of the people in this camp weren’t becoming more familiar; on the contrary, they were growing increasingly unstable.

Amidst this, the camp’s invitation to the three teenagers wasn’t born from the people’s affluence or a sense of adult responsibility to care for the young boy and girls.

It was because one of them was a Priest girl.

A Priest with a high Level who, judging by appearance, didn’t seem particularly dangerous? Just bringing her into the village would be a huge gain. Clearly, letting her go would be foolish and idiotic.

Based on such calculations, they brought in the Priest girl and her companions, and it turned out to be a pretty good decision.

Having three high-Level Players suddenly enter the camp didn’t mean they had to serve three demanding masters. For someone who had declared herself a Senior at the first meeting, the Priest girl didn’t particularly lord her Level over them. In today’s world, that alone was enough to consider her a person of character.

Moreover, the Priest girl didn’t even eat food. Quite a few people were impressed by this fact, mainly older adults who used to attend church frequently.

As in any RPG, Priests are useful. This is especially true in Immortal Kingdom, which openly encourages theocracy-style play.

Over the past few weeks, Seo Yun stayed at this camp and did what a Priest should do. As a Hearth Priest, she created fuel-free fires for the kitchen and bedrooms and cast Spells like the Disease Cure Spell or the Hearth Sanctuary Spell. These are essential Priest Spells beyond combat.

She used Healing Spells particularly often because people frequently returned to this camp injured.

Lately, the people of this camp were engrossed in hunting. Hunting soldiers.

The camp people actively ambushed soldiers who had become drifters in the area. At first, Seo Yun thought this hunting was an activity driven by some grudge, but that wasn’t the case.

The camp people wanted the items the soldiers possessed. They killed the soldiers to take their guns and ammunition, and even the meager Provisions they had. And they showed no particular guilt, not because they were exceptionally cruel. They seemed to think roughly along these lines:

‘Those Military Grunts are scum who loot and kidnap, so what’s wrong with killing them and taking their stuff? In fact, the more we kill, the safer this area becomes, right?’

And that was the truth. The dying soldiers had no place to plead that their lives were precious, as the Dawn Corps was notorious even within Gangwon Province. Among Gangwon Players, quite a few had been taken by the Dawn Corps and never returned.

Today too, the camp Players went out soldier hunting, and one of them returned alone, blood streaming from his shoulder.

“Ugh… Priest-nim?”

“What about the others?”

“I was the only one injured, so I came alone…”

Seo Yun extracted the bullet from the wound and then cast a Healing Spell for him. Then, as had happened over the past week, if this had been Happy Village, she would have received thanks and praise she couldn’t have gotten for just doing her job as a Priest.

“Thank you… thank you…”

The treated man repeatedly bowed his head, muttering incessantly, and his family and comrades joined in beside him.

Their obsequious attitude was by no means etiquette directed at a doctor who had treated them well. It was closer to the attitude one shows when a distant master bestows a favor.

Seo Yun struggled to suppress a sigh.

“Go rest once it hurts a bit less.”

At Seo Yun’s words, the young people withdrew, but a group that looked elderly at a glance did not.

Middle-aged women and grandmothers and grandfathers. They remained, fumblingly pulling things like banknotes from their pockets, extending trembling hands toward her, and making requests.

“My hands have gotten dry and cracked lately, could you take a look…”

“I’ve been coughing up blood and it hurts a bit…”

Seo Yun silently nodded, accepted and pocketed the banknotes. Then she performed the treatments they desired. Beneficial Spells often activate through contact. While casting the Spells, Seo Yun didn’t just move her lips; she also held their hands and such.

After taking care of them as they wished, they would bow with satisfied expressions and withdraw.

This time too, as their bent backs were receding into the distance…

Had he been watching the situation just now? Han Siwoo’s voice was heard.

“Why accept useless banknotes? Planning to use them as toilet paper? You don’t even take a shit…”

Seo Yun clicked her tongue. Why was that guy suddenly so irritable?

“I need to accept something so those people can feel at ease.”

Then Han Siwoo said in a flat voice.

“Just tell them not to feel at ease. Aren’t those humans putting on an act even though they’re not in pain?”

“What?”

“Aren’t they just scheming to hold your hand for no reason, even though they’re not in pain? You know, right? Those old folks don’t think you’re human.”

Seo Yun also knew how those old people regarded her.

It’s a world where interactions between different groups aren’t active. They were probably seeing a Player Priest for the first time. And the Disease Cure Spell and several service Spells Seo Yun provided when she first came to this village must have made them feel something beyond surprise—a Miracle.

Add to that the fact that she didn’t eat food and her distinctive appearance, which became proof that she wasn’t human. That’s likely why they regarded her not merely as a Priest by profession but as a being of Miraculous Efficacy.

Even though she hadn’t revealed her Angel Race, they acted like this, which gave Seo Yun a headache. So, if those old folks came trying to pray or something, she openly showed her distaste.Given that Seo Yun disliked being treated religiously, the old folks were saying that they came under the pretext of seeking healing just to try and hold hands with the miraculous girl.

Seo Yun also thought that interpretation seemed plausible, but she shook her head.

“They might have come because they’re genuinely sick.”

At that, Han Siwoo immediately retorted.

“Just because they’re genuinely sick, do we have to heal them? You’re already using healing spells on every injured person that shows up. It’s not like we have any obligation to do more than that.”

“Even without an obligation, we should do it.”

“Why?”

“Because it puts my mind at ease.”

Han Siwoo stared blankly at her. Seo Yun spoke.

“I have a body that can survive without eating, you know. My profession is a Priest, revered everywhere… In this harsh world, I’m essentially exempt from hardship, right? And you know the saying, ‘Kindness from the storehouse’…”

“I know it, but what? You’re showing kindness because you have the luxury to live?”

“Well, something like that. When I have it this easy, being cold to pitiful people feels a bit wrong, doesn’t it?”

And though she’d never told anyone, she had died once and even been resurrected. In this ruined world, she had received far too many benefits all by herself.

Amidst all this, it was difficult not to feel some sense of duty towards people struggling to survive. It might be a sense of debt stemming from the fact that while their lives are so difficult, hers is manageable.

‘Perhaps even that sacrificial spirit of wanting to level up a lot and play the role of a Goddess, something not in my destiny, also came from that sense of debt…’

Seo Yun said with a slight smile.

“Don’t worry. I won’t be a burden to you guys while doing this.”

Han Siwoo looked at her as if he wanted to say something more.

And then it happened. From beyond, a ‘bang’ sound—a gunshot everyone had grown accustomed to by now—rang out, and someone shouted.

“Attack!”

“What attack?”

“Military Grunts again! Don’t you know when you hear gunshots, you idiot?!”

Listening to the story, it seemed soldiers had attacked.

The Players who had gone out hunting soldiers hadn’t returned to the village yet. Only one injured person had come back. Did they know that and attack?

With the main combatants who defended the village currently absent, it was her turn to earn her keep.

“Let’s go.”

Seo Yun headed to the village entrance with Han Siwoo.

At the mountain valley entrance, there was a barricade made from sacks filled with dirt, and behind it, a sentry had fallen and was bleeding. Seo Yun approached quickly while reciting a spell.

“Hearth Spirit!”

Soon, a Flame Spirit that had swallowed the surrounding air and manifested charged in that direction. Soldiers were over there. A few bullets they fired passed through the spirit’s fiery body, but bullets can’t extinguish fire.

In an instant, the soldiers scattered in panic to avoid the Flame Spirit that had reached them.

Meanwhile, the Flame Spirit’s movement speed wasn’t slow. It could have caught up with the fleeing soldiers if she had commanded it to, but Seo Yun didn’t specifically order it to do so. If she cruelly burned them to death, she might earn the soldiers’ hatred and get shot in the head while traveling later, and she didn’t necessarily want to kill them anyway. Among the fleeing soldiers, there might have been someone she knew.

“They’ve all left!”

After the situation ended, cheers poured out while Seo Yun was healing the gunshot sentry. They were cheers for the savior and healer who had protected the village.

Although Seo Yun liked such attention and praise, she couldn’t enjoy the enthusiastic response directed at her now. The situation was far too grim for that.

“Chase them!”

The few able-bodied men in the village didn’t let the fleeing soldiers go. They ran out of the village as if intending to pursue them to the end.

Gunfire was aimed at the soldiers’ backs. Finally, one fleeing soldier fell, and cheers erupted again. This time, it was probably cheers for a successful hunt.

Seo Yun sighed while focusing on healing.

A short while later, the men who had chased the soldiers returned carrying guns, ammunition, and such in both hands. Likely items stripped from the corpses.

It was quite unpleasant to see, but Seo Yun couldn’t stop their actions.

She already knew why they were so desperately collecting the soldiers’ belongings.

To survive. To trade them for provisions.

From what Seo Yun heard, if you collected guns and ammunition, they could be traded for food elsewhere. An outsider who would buy these collected items was said to visit the camp in a few months.

Seo Yun also had many items among her belongings to trade. Because she had stuffed things like cigarettes, which she wouldn’t even smoke, into her Bag of Infinity.

When that aforementioned outsider arrived, she would also roughly trade her items and then leave. She could probably leave some of the fire she had created here to prevent them from begging her to stay. After all, she was level 9 now, so the number of uses for level 1 spells had greatly increased…

She was deep in thought when a man approached, grinning broadly, and spoke.

“It was too harsh an event for the new year, but thanks to you, it was resolved well, so that’s fortunate, right? Anyway, thank you very much… and Happy New Year!”

Seo Yun looked at the blood-stained helmet in the man’s hand and asked.

“Today is New Year’s?”

“Yes! Not that we’ll have any feast or anything…”

After the New Year, which no one commemorated, arrived, another few months passed.

The outsider the camp people mentioned finally arrived at the camp.

And Seo Yun’s simple plan to just trade, replenish provisions, and leave didn’t proceed as smoothly as she had thought.