"System! System, save me!"
Syl frantically summoned the system in her mind.
"Hello, is there anything I can help you with? ^^"
"Can I really drink this medicine? I have absolutely no faith in the goddess of hope. Will something bad happen if I drink it?" Syl looked at the holy medicine in front of her, her body gradually stiffening.
"What's wrong? Saint Syl?" Seeing Syl suddenly fall silent in front of her, Sharon asked with some confusion.
"N-nothing…" Syl stalled for time while frantically urging the system in her mind.
"Of course you can, just don't rank up too high ^^_"
Syl had realized by now that whenever things weren't that serious, this system loved to spam creepy emoticons.
Hearing the system say it was fine, Syl relaxed slightly.
Reaching out to take the holy medicine from Sharon's hand, Syl asked worriedly, "Uh… are there any side effects? To this medicine."
"This is only the first bottle of holy medicine for the first Holy Ladder. Given the Saintess's aptitude, there shouldn't be any problems." Sharon noticed Syl's nervousness and comforted her with a smile, "Besides, I'm here watching over you."
"Mm… okay." Syl took the holy medicine. Surprisingly, it wasn't cold to the touch; the bottle was even slightly warm.
"Should I drink it now?" Syl shook the bottle and blinked at Sharon.
Sharon nodded and explained, "Yes. Digesting the first bottle of holy medicine as soon as possible will prepare you for the next two bottles. This will allow you to gain some self-preservation abilities more quickly."
"Self-preservation abilities?" Syl asked curiously, "Is it like that bad guy, the ability to release wind from your hands?"
Looking at Syl, Sharon couldn't help but recall how she looked when she was first found, covered in blood and gore, which made Sharon feel a pang of heartache.
This innocent, pitiful child before her had endured suffering no one her age should have to bear. May the goddess bless her…
Sharon comforted her softly, "Of course not. The abilities of the goddess of hope are very gentle, unlike those mages who only know how to pursue destructive power."
"Oh…" Syl lowered her head slightly, feeling a bit disappointed.
So it really is a healer?
Although she could roughly guess from her memories that it was a church of healers—otherwise, given Sharon's strength, it wouldn't have been dragged out for so long.
Damn it, couldn't it be a cool mage? Even a Sett Holy Ladder would have been fine!
Facebreaker! Knuckle Down! Haymaker! The Show Stopper!
However, now she could only heal others.
"A healer it is, then. I'll just use the character card to drink the other holy medicines." Thinking this, Syl raised the holy medicine in her hand and drank it all in one gulp.
The holy medicine burned her throat as it went down.
It felt like swallowing a small sun. Syl's whole body began to glow, turning white until she was almost translucent. All her blood vessels, veins, and arteries were clearly visible to the naked eye.
A wave of warmth spread from her stomach to her blood vessels and then throughout her entire body, restoring Syl's previously exhausted spirit to its peak.
After a long while, the white light on Syl's body gradually faded, just when Syl thought everything was about to end.
A voice appeared in Syl's mind.
"Boring." "What are you searching for? Why help the system search? No matter how you think about it, it's a huge pain, right?"
"Commoners? What does that have to do with you? Don't tell me you were stirred by that little girl's pitiful look and developed some pathetic sympathy?"
"Boring." "Just ignore everything." "Just lie here forever! Sleep forever!!"
"You're a Saintess anyway!!! You won't starve even if you don't do anything…"
Just as Syl was stunned, the ravings in her mind gradually evolved into roars, then into musical notes akin to mental pollution, constantly stimulating Syl's nerves.
What on earth is this voice? It actually knows about the system!?
Syl frowned deeply and shook her head vigorously, as if wanting to shake the voice in her mind away.
"Saint Syl, don't worry, that's just the ravings left behind by the holy medicine in your mind," Sharon stood up from the stool, sat beside Syl, and reached out to stroke her head. "This is a trial given to us by the goddess. Everyone hears and feels something different. You must make your own choice to complete the Ritual."
"Just follow your heart. With the goddess's protection, there won't be any problems. You digest it yourself first; call me if you need anything." After speaking, Sharon stood up, preparing to give Syl a quiet space to digest the information on her own.
After Sharon left the room, Syl struggled to sit up from the bed, panting slightly. She didn't even notice the strap of her nightgown sliding down her shoulder.
"System… System?" Syl called out in her mind.
"Is there anything I can help you with?"
"The holy medicine… that voice…" Syl frowned, recalling carefully, "Why does it feel the same as what I heard with the clown card and the physician card?"
"That's truly top-tier, my old baby ^^"
Although the system's reply was very unserious, Syl vaguely felt that her character card seemed to have some connection with the holy rank.
"Right, system, one more thing," Syl seemed to have thought of something and curled her lips into a smile, "After a character card upgrades, will the new character inherit the old character's abilities and holy rank?"
"Of course it inherits them. In essence, it's still the same character ^^"
"What about the negative ravings? Will they be inherited too?" Syl continued to ask.
"Once the compatibility reaches 100%, the ravings will naturally disappear, Host ^"
"What about the negative ravings from the holy medicine?" Syl pressed, "Will they disappear when the character card promotes?"
The system went silent.
"They will disappear too, right?" Syl smiled until her eyes narrowed into slits, "Doesn't that mean when my clown card reaches 100% compatibility, I can just drink all three bottles of holy medicine in one go?"
"And then choose to promote the clown card, the ravings from the holy medicine will disappear, and I can basically free-ride a holy rank without having to digest them bottle by bottle, right?"
"No, wait. As long as my inspiration is high enough and my mental strength doesn't collapse, I can drink holy medicines for more than one holy rank in one go, skip levels directly, and then choose to promote before I go mad, right?"
"Hey, answer me. Can I do that or not?"
If it really could be done according to Syl's idea, it would mean she could chug three bottles of holy medicine in a row, force a promotion in holy rank by toughing out the side effects, and then eliminate the side effects by promoting the white character card to blue.
A true bottleneck-free promotion.
"…"
"It's just a small bug, don't be so stingy." Syl wouldn't let this chance to roast the dorky system slip by.
"You can… but it requires your main body's inspiration to be high enough."
Not using emoticons now, are you?
Feels good~
"It's fine. This ability will be very useful when I'm training new cards; I won't have to slowly digest holy medicine from scratch." Syl thought happily in her mind.
She could completely rely on the advantage of the Saintess identity to first raise her main body's holy rank, then collect holy medicines of other pathways, and then force-feed them to her character cards to boost them directly. Moreover, as long as she played the role well, her character cards would have almost no bottlenecks in promotion.
The rich get richer!
I really am a genius!