Arcane Sniper [Matan’s Shooter]

“That’s right. Since Pyrot-Cocri’s main body is sealed, our job is to eliminate its fragment before it encounters Bluebeard’s side. The person who can do this is…”

“The ‘Exorcism Cardinal’ and ‘Holy Knight’ should be me… right?”

“However, Master Kay-nim, you are a treasure of our Papacy and we cannot send you alone on a life-threatening mission.”

As the Pope saw the resolute look on Kijung’s face, he smiled once more.

“What?”

Tap… tap…

At that moment, the sound of shoes echoed from behind Kijung.

He quickly turned around, the sound resonating pleasantly against the marble floor of the papal audience chamber.

A woman wearing a ceremonial headdress and holding a staff shyly bowed her head to Kijung.

“Hello, Master Kay.”

“Huh? Saintess Raphaela? How are you here―”

“I was summoned suddenly as well. They told me to come when the person I would assist arrived… and now I am finally getting the full story.”

“Assist? You were unofficially ranked number one as a healer?”

Kijung asked with an awkward expression, and Raphaela nodded.

As Pope Urban II spoke while looking at the two, a holographic window popped up in front of Kijung and Raphaela.

『Turn Undead』

Explanation: “It will be a very tough battle. Please understand that it is impossible for the church to send many people. However, I must tell you that besides Raphaela-nim, there are others targeting Pyrot-Cocri. As the Exorcism Cardinal, you will have to judge the necessary personnel yourself. Then turn the undying general… no, his fragment, back to dust.”

Pope Urban II of Ezwen entrusted a mission that held the fate of the continent. Form a party of five members, track and destroy the clone of Pyrot-Cocri.

Content: Defeat the clone of Pyrot-Cocri

Reward: ?

Condition for Failure: If all party members die

In case of failure: Pyrot-Cocri’s resurrection

Do you accept?

Kijung looked astounded.

A party could be composed of five members.

That meant besides Kijung and Raphaela, only three spots were left.

‘Moreover, I can’t call someone like Alexander. We can’t even recall those who have just been dispatched to the ‘Eastern Expedition’, as the Pope mentioned―’

If the entire party dies, Pyrot-Cocri would resurrect?

Raphaela should also be seeing the holographic window in front of her.

Her eyes slowly turned towards Kijung.

‘Can you do this?’ her eyes seemed to ask, but Kijung didn’t know how to respond.

‘Leeha hyung is… currently logged out… should I bring Bobae-ssi?’

Including himself, Bobae, Hyein, Raphaela, and Leeha.

Wouldn’t a party of five stand a chance?

‘Two ranged damage dealers, one mage… no, we need another melee fighter. Besides Tale hyung, who else could fit in? But how can a single party take down something like that?’

If Middle Earth was a game that didn’t give impossible quests, he could accept it with confidence.

However, how many quests had already been carried out with failure as the intended outcome?

There were quests in Middle Earth that had failed even with all users combined, so there was no guarantee that this quest wasn’t another trap.

“Master Kay… if you find it too burdensome…”

Raphaela subtly suggested declining the quest.

Kijung wavered for a moment at her concern but soon shook his head.

‘Someone has to do it. Passing it to others because I can’t do it isn’t right.’

Responsible as always, Kijung couldn’t do such a thing.

Most of all, if the ‘Exorcism Cardinal’ chosen directly by the Pope avoided it, who else could clear this quest?

Raphaela, known by the epithet of Saint, hadn’t seen the quest’s call or description until Kijung arrived.

It was already clear who the ‘main protagonist’ of this quest was.

“Hoo…”

He had to do it.

Directly.

Once he had decided on a direction, there was no need for further hesitation.

Just moments ago, Kijung’s face had been filled with worry and anxiety to the point of trembling, but it quickly brightened.

“Leave it to me, Your Holiness.”

“Of course… I believed in you.”

The Pope looked at Kijung’s face and stood up from his seat. Then, he knelt in front of his chair.

“Y-Your Holiness!”

The Pope’s personal guards and assistant cardinals quickly rushed to him, but the Pope did not stand.

Quietly, the murmuring sound he made spread gently.

With the light emanating from his body.

─────────────!

“Huh?”

“This is…”

The light seeped toward Kijung and Raphaela.

Pope Urban II cast a spell on you.

You received a limited-time buff―Prayer for the Trinity.

〈Prayer for the Trinity〉

Description: A prayer offered directly by Pope Urban II for those carrying out special missions. Until the mission is completed, despite his busy schedule, he will pray for the participants three times a day.

“May the strength, courage, and wisdom of Ahlo’s light be with you…”

Effect: Resistance to the status effect ‘Fear’ +50%

If the enemy includes undead, all stats increase by 15%.

10% additional damage when attacking undead

10% reduction in damage when hit by undead

Until this quest was completed―the fact that such a buff could be sustained continuously surprised no one more than Raphaela.

Chosen as the ‘Best Healer in Middle Earth’ through a global community vote, she held the nickname of Saintess along with the ‘unofficial’ title of the number one healer.

Even she couldn’t sustain such a high-level buff ‘continuously’.

“It seems amazing―is it really that incredible?”

“Just the resistance to status effects is insane, and with 10% additional damage and 10% damage reduction, plus a 15% stat increase in specific situations! Do you know what that means?! If a level 200 user gets this skill, the actual level increase from the total stat boost is at least 30 levels! Each effect would be impressive individually! Above all, this isn’t just for 10 or 15 minutes; it lasts until the quest is completed indefinitely―”

Raphaela continued to bombard Kijung with explanations in response to his clueless question.

“Right?”

All-stat increase? Damage reduction and additional damage?

Though Kijung answered, he became newly aware of the magnitude of the buff.

‘Well, how many people have actually experienced something like this? It’s a crazy skill that only comes from crazy items.’

Kijung fiddled with his shield and checked his character status window.

All stats increased meant ‘Constitution’ points also increased, which naturally meant his overall HP had risen.

‘Adding Dinosaurization to this… Furthermore, consider Pyrot-Cocri, who is also undead, implying the damage reduction effect… More importantly, rafaella is here. She’s as effective as three top-grade healers combined.’

Having checked his character’s stats, Kijung felt even more resolute.

Although he had not yet met Pyrot-Cocri, he knew there would be a chance of victory.

“Then, I’ll be off. Shall we go, rafaella?”

“Yes!”

Kijung walked out of the papal residence alongside Raphaela.

If it had been Leeha, he might have thought differently from Kijung. Even the Saintess Raphaela had overlooked one crucial fact.

To face the clone of Pyrot-Cocri, such a level of buff was necessary.

What did it mean?

However, neither of them knew anything about City of Pecro, nor had they ever met Pyrot-Cocri. They hadn’t even properly reviewed the records of the Second Demonic War, so there was a tendency to underestimate the situation a bit.

“Hmm, first we should consider the party member composition, right?”

“Before that, there’s something I’d like to ask… do you have a moment, Master Kay?”

“Oh? Yes? Of course.”

Kijung, who was focused on thinking about the party composition, and Raphaela, who was excited about the pope’s authority, contrasted sharply with the gloomy skies outside the Vatican.

* * *

The two headed to a café near the Vatican and began their discussion.

First, they needed to clearly understand each other’s fighting styles to devise a strategy against Pyrot-Cocri, which was the initial purpose of their meeting.

But that was only at the beginning.

Before long, the conversation started to diverge.

“As expected, being a pope must involve a huge range of skills. By the way, Master Kay, you’re the first user to become a ‘Cardinal’, right? Did you gain any skills from that?”

“Well, yes—I did get a few self-buffs for offense and defense.”

“Wow! I thought so. It’s times like these that make female healers feel so unfairly treated.”

“Why? Come to think of it, among Cardinals, there aren’t any women—”

“Not just Cardinals. There are no female Bishops or Archbishops either. Female healers might grow faster early on and have more skills than male healers, but in Ezwen, there are no key positions for them. The highest they can ascend to is the position of ‘Abbess’ of a great monastery. Even then, they have to compete with the male healers aiming for ‘Abbas’. Hasn’t anyone offered you the position of ‘Abbas’? In Minis, there’s a monastery where I’m actually competing for the position of head. If you could visit sometime—”

Kijung’s eyes widened in surprise.

Raphaela, with her nickname ‘Saintess’, always garnered immense popularity due to her gentle manner of speech and her nurturing presence that took care of her party members’ lives.

Seeing her casually chatting about parfaits was naturally unfamiliar.

‘The subject of the conversation is so materialistic—well, but she’s a gamer, not a real clergyperson…’

For Kijung, it was a double shock, once from her appearance and again from the content of her chatter.

It was clear to him that Raphaela, despite being called the Saintess, was deeply addicted to Middle Earth just like any other user.

“At least we’re lucky there’s no time limit on the quest. As long as we manage to kill Pyrot-Cocri somehow, there won’t be a failure penalty. In the worst case, it’s like having an insurance policy to avoid quest failure.”

“Huh? Oh, I see what you mean. But what do you mean by insurance?”

Raphaela had the uncanny ability to quickly switch topics after lamenting about her profession for a while.

Kijung felt dealing with her was more difficult than handling Bobae. Perhaps, he thought, it might be because he had spent considerable time with Bobae already.

‘I miss my Bobae… Women are too complicated!’

However, Raphaela’s words hit the mark every time, making it hard to outright ignore her.

In fact, this quest had only one failure condition.

The death of all party members.

As long as that was avoided, they wouldn’t face the ‘quest failure penalty.’

“One way is to keep one of our party members holed up in the town or even the Vatican itself. That way, we wouldn’t fail the quest—”

“No.”

“What? But—”

Her method was undeniably logical.

Quests didn’t only have success and failure.

Certain quests could sometimes be ‘canceled’ midway through.

Raphaela believed this quest was one of those cases. She thought that if a force other than themselves was targeting Pyrot-Cocri, they could join the fight and avoid the failure condition, making it a virtually foolproof method.

Yet, Kijung shook his head resolutely.

“I think this isn’t a quest that can be completed that way.”

“Then… do you mean all five of us should fight together?”

“Yes, I think that’s the direction this quest wants us to take.”

Kijung realized it was a fundamental difference between the roles of tank and healer.

Both professions were responsible for survival and safety.

Tanks ventured forward, embracing risks while ensuring survival and safety.

The party could only advance if the tank moved forward, leading to rewards for everyone.

Healers, being at the rear, must think about avoiding hazards while ensuring survival and safety— a direct opposition in approach to tanks.