Chapter 18: The Power of the Saintess

Joyce started our conversation by bombarding me with a couple of questions. "What powers did you gain? How did you rank up so easily right in front of me? And how come you could beat the metal dragoon which requires someone to be at least a Rank-3?" I explained to her that the power I gained is from a novel that I read regarding a teacher who helped mankind avert a disaster. And that I ranked up because the power I gained has provided me instructions on how to get onto the next level and I just followed it. As for the metal dragoon, it was tough, but my awakened power also granted me a tough body that I can cultivate which then granted me the strength to slice through the dragoon's body. I decided not to tell Joyce about the library and just tagged everything to happenstances of my powers from awakening. It was all technically true, but I am not actually quite sure how strong I am in comparison to others.

I then said to Joyce, “My turn to ask questions now. How did you become the Saintess? How is everybody doing? And... have you seen Anne?” Joyce then clicked her tongue and said, “You, having powers this comprehensive in the beginning might be a curse or a boon. It means that you’re an early bloomer. We all thought that it is the best power growth type since there was a clear disparity of powers when people awakened, but actually, the most potent powers were the ones that started out slow, take for example my power.” Joyce then raised her hand holding a dagger and stabbed herself in the other arm. I was quite shocked to see this, but Joyce then explained, “I am the Saintess. My power, unlike yours and everybody else's, wasn’t tailored after a fictional character that we knew but based on an idea. It is based on the idea that I wanted to save all those people around me." Joyce continued on explaining and told me about her powers. "I have two powers. The first being my ability to heal people." Joyce then let go of the dagger in her hand and waved over the wound. Her hand waving through the wound started glowing gold and gold light shined right through her wound. You can see the outer perimeter of her wound healing. Joyce then pulled out the dagger while the gold hadn't dissipated yet and the hole in her hand healed magnificently. You can also see that there is some discoloration on her new skin for it hasn’t yet been hit by sunlight to have the same color pigmentation as the rest of her arm. “And my second power is to turn back a person’s condition although for a set limit.” She waved her hand again but this time, there was no colored light glowing from it. I can see that she is expending mana towards her arm and afterward, Joyce’s healed wound slowly opened up again and then closed but now, the color of the skin covering her wound matches with the rest of her arm. “They call me Saintess because my power is solely focused on healing. And now to answer your other questions, our circle of friends is still pretty healthy and active, they also became the pillars of our little kingdom. As for Anne…” while Joyce was saying those words her face turned a bit sorrowful. “Anne came by here 10 years ago, fit as a fiddle, but as soon as she heard what happened to you, she cried for 9 days and 9 nights and on the 10th day she suddenly recovered and seemed to become more powerful and said that all hope might not be lost for you yet and left. We couldn’t track her after a short while. The last thing I heard was that she's leaving the Philippines to train to a higher realm.” I did not know what to say or feel upon grasping the information I heard about Anne.

Joyce then continued and discussed with me that currently, there are two classifications of power-users in our new world. First, there are the “Fighters,” those that use mana to augment their bodies to do impossible feats. Second, there are the “Mages,” those that manipulate mana in their surroundings to do all sorts of phenomena. She also mentioned special cases like me, who belong to the first-generation mana-users. These mana-users use fictional stories as an impetus to say how we should manipulate the mana in our surroundings. Right as we were talking, someone ran past the gate of the gazebo and headed straight towards us.