WeTried Translations
Translator: [IncomeElastic]
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became an Undetected Priest Impersonator ◈
Chapter 26
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I Became a Demon Hunter (5)
[Question: if Tier is the problem, can't you just switch the Gallery off and on a bunch?]
ㄴ[You fool, a Tier is like a water bottle. And the Gallery, by analogy, is a hole.]
ㄴ[If a hole has been punched, naturally water can't be filled above that hole, and the contents are bound to leak. Nor will plugging the hole make it fill up right away.]
ㄴ[And lastly]
ㄴ[Every time that stunt is pulled, the Gallery is sure to get wrecked, and thou wouldst have me watch it with mine own eyes and even clean it up? I would sooner die]
That was the last comment from the fixed-nick Whitemage Begone.
…
-Your Tier is rising? No, this is..
-Your Tier is recovering..!
The Demon cried out as though it couldn't believe it.
Now that it had realized, there was no time to hesitate.
As if it couldn't stand by and let me recover any more strength, it put all its power into a shockwave and slammed it down.
Boom!
-If you won't fall into a nightmare, then just die!
Pure physical force, different from before, struck hard.
Dust billowed up thick.
"Cough, it's only proper not to attack someone mid-transformation, but you don't seem to know that."
I coughed once, having breathed in the dust.
"And it's a mistake to think a healer can't even cast a single Barrier."
At the sight of me weathering the attack so calmly, the Demon's eyes went wide.
-..I should have known when you withstood the nightmare.
"Seems the polite speech isn't coming out of you anymore. You have to use it daily, like I do, for it to become second nature."
At this reaction of mine, the Demon shut its mouth, dumbfounded.
After a short silence, the Demon was the first to speak.
-Didn't I ask earlier whether we should call it a draw?
-Fine, a draw it is. Let's each go our own way.
-We can't seem to settle this either way, after all.
"Hm, that's fine by me."
There was no reason not to accept.
When I readily nodded at the Demon's proposal, the Demon laughed in good spirits, saying it had expected as much.
-As expected, a priest who understands reason!
"But even if it's fine by me, I wonder whether the Saintess feels the same way."
-..?
The Demon was about to ask what I meant.
Scorching heat beat down.
The heat I'd written off as the beach's usual blazing sun was steadily climbing.
It was, in fact, heat radiating from one particular person.
At the blinding light and scorching heat, the Demon cried out in alarm.
-You!
-You woke the Saintess!?
At the Demon's shock, I shrugged calmly.
"What are you talking about? Healing people is my duty."
That wasn't exactly untrue.
"Besides, a healer is never going to be the one out front."
To begin with, none of my skills were attack-related.
That was due to the innate limits of healer awakeners.
"So I have to put forward someone who knows how to fight."
No sooner had the words ended than flames engulfed the Demon.
-Damn it!
The Demon, scorched all over, escaped from the flames.
Even with the difference in affinity, the Demon's Tier was the higher one.
But the Saintess's attack didn't end with a single blow.
-Why won't you fall into the nightmare!?
Of course, the Demon hadn't simply been burning in place.
It had fired off wave after wave to put the Saintess back to sleep.
But the Saintess ignored the mental attacks as if they no longer bothered her, and pressed the Demon without a moment's rest.
-You!
The reason the Saintess's Mental Barrier, so wretched for her high Tier, had turned solid was obvious.
-Flower Priest!
The Demon's words went no further.
The sun had fallen upon it.
‘I didn't have the strength to give her any other buffs, but I needn't have worried.’
A moment later, a charred lump of a figure emerged from the flames.
The Demon, burned by the sun, was falling just as it was.
-..Maybe I should have accepted the offer from the start.
-..Nothing in this world can be foreseen even an inch ahead.
Those were the last words the Demon spat out before it crashed to the ground.
Thud.
At last the Demon had fallen.
And the moment I approached to confirm the Demon's end, I couldn't help being struck by an odd feeling.
‘This demon was all gear.’
When I pried away the black Magic Stone it had been gripping, the presence I felt from the dead Demon was only B-Rank.
‘..Was smashing the Magic Stone at the start a mistake?’
If I'd searched slowly and found the Demon first, I wouldn't have had to go through all this trouble.
With that thought, I couldn't help feeling a wave of deflation.
"Priest Flowie."
I turned my head at the voice from behind.
The one staggering toward me was the Saintess, who had just burned the Demon down with her own hands.
"You saved me."
"Not at all. If anything, I'm alive because you took down the Demon, Saintess."
But the Saintess's complexion as she thanked me wasn't very good.
I'd experienced it too, if only briefly, but she'd had a terrible nightmare.
I wanted to at least air out her mind for her, but unfortunately I had no strength left.
I'd spent it all on waking the Saintess and raising a barrier around her mind.
All I could do was comfort her with words.
"..May I ask you just one thing?"
The Saintess hesitated, biting her lip, then asked.
"What nightmare did you have, Priest Flowie?"
"…"
"How were you able to wake up so quickly?"
At the Saintess's question, nearly desperate, I let out a troubled sigh.
"I can't tell you that. Talking about it isn't hard in itself, but honestly, it's rather sickening."
"Ah.."
At the plain refusal, the Saintess's head dropped.
But there was nothing I could do about it either.
‘Honestly, how am I supposed to say this?’
The nightmare I'd had was from when I was isolated in the Tower.
To be precise, it was the memory of cutting off a companion's arm and eating it in order to survive.
Of course, it had been at the companion's request, and I'd regrown the arm with Heal every time I cut, but that didn't change how nauseating the situation had been.
It was the reason I'd held back even with the goddess.
The Saintess apologized briefly, as if she'd been rude.
"I'm sorry. ..For bringing up a bad memory for no reason."
"It's really fine."
As I'd already told the Demon, it was long over, and I'd been treated well in psychiatric care.
"..Still, if I may offer some advice, in my case, the harder I tried to force myself to forget, the clearer it became."
She listened quietly to my words.
"Just as you stop noticing the scent of flowers if you smell them often, some things only dull once you face them."
The Saintess seemed to sink into thought for a moment.
"Then I'll rest a little. I'm sorry, but I truly have no strength left."
And there was one more thing to check.
While the Saintess went back, a little late, to wake the fallen party, I took the black Magic Stone and made my way to where the orc village had been.
‘I had a hunch, and sure enough, it reacts.’
The black Magic Stone soon began to react with the totem in the village.
Before long, a familiar message appeared before my eyes.
-You have retrieved the Original Piece of Floor 60.
-Floor 60 of the Tower is being restored.
-Rewards are distributed to all participants according to their contribution.
-You gain a large amount of experience proportional to your level, based on your contribution.
-A special reward is granted based on your contribution.
-You gained 4 contribution points.
With this round's points added, that made 5.
Fifteen points remained until I got a Tower entrance ticket.
I still couldn't be sure, but a way back was slowly coming into view.
‘..Not that I want to go back if it means going through this much trouble.’
…
Those trapped and flailing in their nightmares came to one by one.
And before long, the dungeon slowly crumbled.
It was because I'd destroyed the Magic Stone to keep the same thing from happening again.
But I couldn't say everything was over.
[The universe went off for a moment, no, a fucking long time]
[●▅▇█▇▆▅▄▇Everybody lie down!]
[Mommyitwasscarymommyitwasscarymommyit..]
[I'm dumping every goblin naughty pic I've ever saved!!!]
[♿♿♿Hoo+rah❗+rah❗+rah❗+rah❗+rahh❗]
[●▅▇█▇▆▅▄▇]
[●▅▇█▇▆▅▄▇Head Admin, explain yourself right now!]
[If you don't explain, I'm going to shit my pants]
"…"
I couldn't bring myself to open my mouth at the karma being tallied.
The Gallery was restored, but public sentiment wasn't.
‘Too many disgruntled users to bring out the stick.’
If I tried to suppress them, the resistance would be considerable.
In the end, it was time to bring out a carrot instead of the stick.
Title: A New Feature Has Been Added to the Gallery.
Author: ㅇㅇ(123.123)
New Gallery Feature: Communication has been activated.
Please use it often.
[The new feature is com-ㅋㅋmuni-ㅋㅋㅋㅋcation]
[You think you can bribe us with a lame feature like that!]
[I'm disappointed, Head Admin, taking me for a rice monkey who'd be satisfied with shoddy feed]
[Upvote if Head Admin has lost the people's trust, starting with me]
I'd started to wonder if it was a little too weak to turn things around.
The mood flipped fast.
[What the hell is this godlike new feature]
[Fuckㅋㅋㅋ this is just a live stream feature]
[Praise Head Admin]
[This much should count as a brief maintenance ㅋㅋㅋ]
[I'd scold them for saying that, but it was too good a feature..]
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