Chapter 107: THE MOON SAINTESS AND A NEW PAIR OF WEAPONS

Three hours of rest in the real world felt like three minutes. A bath, an afternoon snack Mira forced on me, and one blood pressure check by Doctor Karin’s nurse, and then I was lying in the capsule again, the hiss of its lid starting to feel like a lullaby.

In the “Silver Moon” inn room, Mirabelle was already sitting on the edge of the bed beside mine, her leather armor neatly fastened and her knife belt gleaming. She looked at me with the face of someone who had been preparing a long speech since last night.

“Syl,” she said, “today I want to play on my own.”

I raised an eyebrow. “On your own?”

“No EXP-jockeying. No you standing behind me calculating firing angles.” She clenched her small fists in front of her chest. “I’m level fourteen. I understand the system now. I want to know how far I can go on my own two feet.”

A thousand worried sentences piled up at the tip of my tongue. What if she got surrounded? What if she lost track of time and her stats plummeted during the dawn transition? What if an elite mob wandered by? But looking into her brown eyes, faintly glimmering red, all I could do was sigh deeply and nod.

“Three conditions,” I said.

“Fine.”

“One, watch your Bloodlust percentage and drink the soup before it passes fifty percent. Two, always activate Blood Sense before entering a new area. Three, the moment the Dawn Transition warning appears, you go straight back to town. No bargaining.”

“Yes, Commander.” She saluted, too neatly to call it playing around.

“And Alya?”

“Miss Alya has sent fifteen messages already.” Mira smiled with amusement as she scrolled through her chat window. “I’ll join her party at the south gate. They happen to be looking for one more person to hunt with. I won’t be entirely alone.”

The weight on my chest instantly felt lighter. With Alya, Yuna, Azalea, and Rara around her, Mira couldn’t possibly be in serious danger. If anything needed worrying about, it was the mental state of the other four girls when they finally learned who Mirabelle really was.

“All right. Be careful.”

“You too, Syl.” She stopped in the doorway, then added softly, “Don’t be too hard on yourself in that temple.”

The door closed. I stood for a moment in the suddenly quiet room, then shook my head and slid my bow onto my back. Time to finish the business that had hung over me for far too long.

The Forsaken Forest was just as I had left it. Cracked gray earth, dead trees without leaves, and knee-high mist drifting lazily like a sleeping animal. The difference was that this time I passed through all of it with Wind Walk without firing at a single monster. The wolves and ghosts stepped aside as if they knew I didn’t want to deal with anyone.

The Abandoned Church emerged from the mist with its half-broken bell tower, and as usual, not a single monster dared approach within visible range. I had stopped wondering about that. Perhaps a system rule. Perhaps reverence. What mattered was that this was the only place in the entire forest where I didn’t have to keep a weapon in my hand the whole time.

I rolled up the sleeves of my military uniform, picked up the palm-fiber broom, and opened the quest window.

[Sub-Quest: Cleansing the Forgotten Temple, Progress 85%]

“Fifteen percent left,” I muttered to myself. “Two hours, at most.”

It turned out I was too optimistic. The last fifteen percent was the most irritating part. Remnants of rubble buried in the corners of the hall, stubborn moss at the base of the altar, and fine dust that refused to be lifted by my rag because it clung in the grooves of the crescent carving. I used my own homemade cleaning solution, scrubbed each groove with a small brush until my fingertips went numb, and moved fallen stones using the Spellweaver’s Dirk as a lever.

About an hour later, I finally scrubbed the green rust from the bronze bell in the tilted tower. I tapped it gently with the base of my knife handle, and its toll rolled long across the dead forest, clear as the sound of water.

“One more hour,” I whispered, and knelt before the altar again.

The work was actually calming. No damage numbers to calculate, no fifteen-second reload, and no enemy whose moves had to be guessed. Just a wet rag, my hands, and a place slowly becoming a place again. For some reason, between the scrubbing motions, I remembered the Head Priest’s gentle touch on my head at the Main Church, and my mother’s hand that used to wipe the fever sweat from me as a child.

Until finally, exactly two hours after I started, my rag touched the last corner of the stone altar.

Ting.

[Sub-Quest: Cleansing the Forgotten Temple, Progress 100%]

[Sub-Quest Complete!]

I straightened my creaking back and almost cheered. But before the sound could leave my throat, another system window appeared without asking permission.

[Main Quest Requirements Fulfilled.]

[Legendary Quest: Heir of the Moonlight, Complete!]

“…Huh?”

I blinked. The main quest? I hadn’t even found the sealed Main Temple, hadn’t opened Mirror Lake, hadn’t touched a single drop of blood for any ritual. This sub-quest was supposed to be just an opening step. Where had the rest of the stages gone, the ones I’d imagined would take days?

The altar in front of me answered in its own way.

The crescent carving on its surface lit up first, pure silver, then the circular ripple lines around it began to glow too, creeping across the floor, the pillars, the moss-covered walls, until the entire church was bright as if lit from within by a full moon. The bell in the tower trembled without being touched. The mist outside withdrew in a single breath.

Then the sky changed.

Through the holes in the roof, I could see the pale blue of dawn that had begun to bloom on the horizon. That color darkened instantly, like ink poured into water, from blue to indigo, from indigo to pitch black. Night returned. But not the night I knew. Not a single star. No clouds, no wind, only a flat, silent black, with one silver circle hanging directly above the church.

A starless night.

My heart pounded. So that was what the ancient manuscript meant.

[Warning: The Moon Goddess’s Baptism has begun.]

[All notifications, messages, and chats are frozen for the duration of the rite.]

The silver light from the altar suddenly shot out and swallowed me. My body rose a few centimeters off the floor, my vision whitened, and the sounds of the outside world vanished as if swallowed by thick cotton. I wasn’t afraid, only warm, like soaking in milk lit by moonlight. Within that light, a woman’s voice, low, calm, and very old, whispered inside my head.

“You cleaned my house unasked. You read my forgetting unforced. Child entrusted to the night, receive my mark.”

I tried to ask something, but my mouth wouldn’t move. My body seemed to be dissolved, then rearranged grain by grain. My ears lengthened. My skin felt light as if cloaked in dew. My hair flowed past my shoulders, each strand trembling like a plucked silver thread.

Five minutes, said the faint timer in the corner of my vision. Five minutes that felt like a single long breath.

Then everything stopped.

My feet touched the stone floor with a soft sound. The light dimmed to a gentle glow, and I stood staring at my hands. My skin, once pale as paper, now shimmered faintly, silver-white, as if a small lamp had been lit beneath the flesh.

I touched my hair, which now fell to my waist. It was still silver, and even glossier than before. And when I looked down at my reflection on the polished surface of the altar, a pair of red eyes looked back at me, exactly the same as before. It seemed the Moon Goddess had changed only the vessel, not the face I already knew.

System windows opened by themselves, one after another, and I barely had time to read them; there were so many.

[Baptism Complete.]

[Race Evolved: Elf → Moon Elf]

[Trait [Albinism] has mutated into [Moonlit Albinism].]

[STR and AGI penalties removed.]

[Moon Elf racial bonus: INT and DEX x2.]

I read that last line three times.

Then I opened my status window with hands trembling, and not from fear.

Name: Syl Race: Moon Elf Level: 35 HP / MP / Stamina: 120 / 6000 / 200 STR: 12 INT: 304 (+3) DEX: 304 (+10) (+3) AGI: 6 VIT: 2

“Three hundred…” My voice came out as a hoarse whisper. “Three hundred four.”

In my life before SWO, the archery athlete I’d been, I never imagined a number that big. Before, my INT and DEX had already been doubled by Albinism, and now they were doubled again by the new race. Four times the base value in total. The gap between an ordinary person and me was no longer a difference in numbers, but a difference in dimensions.

And what relieved me even more was that there were no more red minus signs beside STR and AGI. Both were still small, obviously, and a VIT of two still left my body as fragile as thin glass that shatters when hit by a pebble. But compared to before, when my STR and AGI were punished by the system until I could barely move, this was like emerging from a basement into an open courtyard.

“Not bad,” I murmured, and without realizing it, I smiled wide like a child receiving a birthday present. “Really not bad.”

I had no idea that outside the temple, across the entire continent, thousands of players were staring at the suddenly blackened sky, and forums in the game world were exploding with questions nobody could answer. Messages piled up in my chat box; the red badge in the corner of my vision kept growing, but everything was frozen by the system. And even if it hadn’t been, I was too busy staring at those numbers to care about the outside world.

But the gifts weren’t over. A new box appeared in my inventory, glowing softly.

[New Item Received: Moon Priestess Vestments (Legendary)]

I took it out and immediately regretted it.

A piece of priestess clothing in white and midnight blue, with a silver crescent moon embroidered on the chest. In terms of quality, there were no complaints: its INT, DEX, and MP regeneration stats were excellent, even higher than the military uniform Kitsuna had made. There was just one problem. The outfit was tight. Very tight. Its cut followed the body from neck to thigh, with side slits that let me imagine exactly how the whole world would stare at me if I wore it in the middle of StoneBrook Plaza.

My face instantly burned.

“No. No, no, no.” I hid the outfit behind my back as if someone were peeking. “I’m a former archery athlete. I’m a man in his twenties. I wouldn’t wear this even if the world were on fire.”

The temple, of course, didn’t answer. Even the goddess statues in the corners of the hall seemed to look at me with understanding smiles.

I rolled up the clothing and nearly shoved it back into my inventory until my eyes caught something in the corner of the item window. A small button glowing silver.

[Fusion Available]

“Fusion?”

I tapped the button. A list of compatible equipment appeared, with only two lines in it: Military Uniform (White Commander Set) and Titan’s Ironbark Compound Bow.

My brain started working at once. The military uniform was Kitsuna’s masterpiece, and I didn’t want to lose it. But if fusion meant combining the good traits of both sides, maybe there was a way out of this embarrassing clothing dilemma.

“One try,” I said, and selected the Military Uniform as the base material, with the Moon Priestess Vestments as its partner.

[Confirm Fusion? The old equipment cannot be recovered.]

I pressed Yes before my hesitation could win.

The uniform on my body lit up at once. Silver and midnight-blue light swirled around me, unpicking, joining, and re-stitching the materials in a matter of seconds. I closed my eyes and held my breath, waiting for the result.

When the light faded, I opened one eye carefully, then looked down.

The gold-buttoned crop top with its fringed shoulder cords was gone. The pleated skirt that had always fluttered at my thighs had vanished too. In their place, my body was wrapped in a spotless white outfit buttoned neatly from neck to waist, with a high collar trimmed in red and a pleated white jabot beneath my chin. A golden-yellow crystal brooch was pinned at the center of the jabot. A silver chain hung from shoulder to chest, and a thin red line ran straight down the front of the tunic. A wide black corset circled my waist, decorated with a small white emblem.

My arms were fully covered down to the wrists, with white gloves and black guards around the wrists. From both shoulders, a long white cape fell to my calves, trimmed in red at the edges, with one long red ribbon dangling at the side like a ceremonial sash. The bottom half was now slim white shorts that fit snugly, decorated with a pair of black ribbons on the thighs complete with yellow gems and small lace. The white stockings I used to wear had been replaced by thigh-high white boots trimmed in red, with the same yellow gems at the top.

“This…” I turned slowly. “This is much better.”

The item window opened automatically.

[Lunar Commander’s Vestments (Legendary)]

[All base stats increased. INT and DEX greatly increased.]

[Cannot be destroyed by durability damage.]

[Equipment stats grow with the wearer’s level.]

I read the last three lines with my mouth slightly open: from Epic to Legendary, unbreakable, and its stats rising along with my level. That meant I no longer had to replace equipment every few dozen levels. I no longer had to worry about armor tearing apart in the middle of a fight. And perhaps best of all, I finally had a legitimate reason never to wear the original Moon Priestess Vestments.

Then my eyes dropped to the bow on my back, which was now glowing faintly too, like a child envious of seeing its elder sibling get a present.

“You too?” I asked foolishly of a piece of wood.

A second fusion button appeared. I took the bow, feeling its weight, which I’d memorized like the weight of my own hand, and pressed confirm with a faint smile.

The Titan’s Ironbark Compound Bow was wrapped in silver light, its limbs vibrating subtly, its asymmetric cams turning on their own, and the surface of its wood absorbing the moonlight until its grain seemed to flow with liquid light. When the glow receded, the basic shape of the bow hadn’t changed, but the tips of its limbs now curved a little more sharply, like a crescent moon.

[Moon Bow: Titan’s Crescent (Legendary)]

[All base stats increased.]

[Stats grow with the wearer’s level.]

[Modifiable. Requires Carpenter of Master rank or higher.]

“Master Carpenter,” I repeated quietly. One name immediately crossed my mind: Master Geppetto, who was currently busy leading the construction of the Ironhold gate. Perhaps later, if Arthur would be kind enough to lend his best carpenter to an alchemist already deep in his debt.

I drew the bowstring once, without an arrow. The sound was clear, low, and very pleasant to the ear. There was no trace left of the bitterness from long ago, when I’d had to struggle just to hold the draw.

One more window opened, and this time I had to sit down to read it.

[New Title Acquired: Saintess of the Moon Goddess]

[You have been chosen as the representative of the Goddess Selene in this world.]

“Saintess,” I repeated softly. The word felt strange on my tongue, like clothing I’d never tried on. “Impossible. I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do with that.”

As if hearing my unease, the silver circle in the sky above the church faded. The hole in the roof that had reflected flat black now began to fill with pale blue, then a thin orange on the eastern horizon. The starless night receded slowly like a drawn curtain, and the dawn that had been delayed resumed its course as if nothing had ever happened.

I stood in the middle of the clean hall, glowing faintly, with new clothes, a new bow, a new race, and a title too big for my head. The bell in the tower rang once more, softly.

Somewhere in the real world, my actual body must have been smiling foolishly inside the capsule.

And in my heart, I hoped that Alya, Mira, and anyone who’d been staring at the sky just now wouldn’t immediately conclude who was responsible.