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While Morthar was eating, Zane was not idle either.

“Wake up! Wake up!” He gently tapped the goblin’s forehead.
“Am I… already dead?” Kanrel asked weakly.
“Nope! The Diamond Lizard was taken down by us!” The blonde girl before him replied with a face full of pride.
It took Kanrel half a minute to react before he exclaimed in disbelief, “What???”

***

After gathering all the loot, Endless Sea looked at the party, half of them marked in PvP Status, and said, “We can’t stay here.”

The members of Rainflower had already discovered them. Though that guild was practically a rabble, sheer numbers could still overwhelm them! If they gave up leveling just to harass, there really wouldn’t be much they could do.

Besides, the players at Cragstone Rise were already close to saturation. If they kept grinding here, conflicts with other players were bound to break out, especially with Mindstones being so highly contested.

The materials DumbCitrus had were already enough for her to advance to a Level 4 Alchemist. There was no need to stubbornly stick around.

Suddenly, the world announcement rang out.

A pillar of pure white light descended upon Cragstone Rise, and from it emerged Seraphine’s figure. Although her equipment looked the same as before, her entire body now carried an indescribable aura of divinity.

This world announcement had the player base in an uproar. Another hidden class? And a healer at that? In an instant, Seraphine’s friend request notifications came pouring in without pause. She quickly muted the sounds, but the looks from surrounding players had already changed!

“Boss lady, join our party! We’ve got DPS and tank covered, we’re just missing a big-time healer!”

“Babe, don’t listen to them! They’ve only got a level 19 mage, an 18 swordsman, and a level 17 knight, and they dare call that a full team? Shameless! Join us instead! Our captain is a level 20 mage. With Pyrestorm around, we guarantee your leveling speed will soar like a rocket!”

More and more people crowded around. Seraphine rejected them one after another, but the party invites popping up on her screen refused to stop.

“Make way! Move aside!” Endless Sea and Zaria pushed to the front. With two strength-heavy classes opening the way, they forced their way through the crowd.

“Zaria!” Seraphine’s face lit up with joy at the sight of her teammate, and she rushed forward to give her a warm hug.

“So she’s into girls, huh… sigh…”
“Isn’t that even more exciting?”
“Babe, don’t go! Won’t you consider joining our party?”
“Aren’t these the guys from the rankings? The ones who suddenly shot up this morning?”
“Eh… damn, it really is! I heard they’ve been running with Stardust and Emberveil!”
“Quick, snap a pic, holy crap!!”

***

After much commotion, they finally managed to make their way out.

“So many guild leaders have been *whispering* me… asking if I want to join their guild.” Seraphine let out a sigh.

Hidden healer classes were in exceedingly high demand. After all, every guild could only raise a limited number of Priests, and no one ever complained about having too many support classes. What’s more, this was a hidden class, bound to be far stronger than an ordinary Priest.

“Do you want to go?” Zaria asked.

“No.” Seraphine answered without hesitation. She and Dukeette had only started playing for the experience. That was why she picked the simple Priest class—just healing, no need to fight monsters directly.

For her, running around with everyone, exploring and grinding mobs every day like this was already satisfying enough. There was no need to join some guild.

“Then just block them.” Zaria said indifferently.
“But… I’m worried they’ll cause us trouble.”
“They won’t,” Endless Sea replied calmly. “As long as you haven’t joined a guild, you’ll always be seen as a target to recruit. They won’t risk turning you into an enemy.”
“Well, alright then.” Seraphine nodded. She cleared all the logs in one go and blocked private messages from anyone outside her friend list.

“My dear, come into my arms!” Dukeette closed her eyes and spread her arms wide.
Seraphine walked right past her and said, “By the way, the S-rank evaluation gave me an extra skill, Feast of Light.”

“I’ll show you my class panel.”

“…” This was the first time the group had ever seen the star-based growth system of a hidden class. Zane had never shown them his.

“Damn!” Nangong couldn’t hold back a curse. “This Lightbringer is practically a walking blood bank!”

With such potent healing, who couldn’t be kept alive? Unless they were one-shot, she could fill an empty health bar back to full in an instant!

And that Feast of Light was even more terrifying, a true weapon of mass combat! Group healing plus group damage! The only drawback was that it wasn’t an instant-cast skill. If she got crowd controlled, the channel would break, which served as its balance.

Still, any party with a Lightbringer could probably challenge dungeons far above their level!

“No way… how did you even clear that trial? Are hidden classes really this easy to get?” Dukeette asked in astonishment.

“Well…” Seraphine began, “once I activated the Trial Certificate, I was transported into a small village…”

The village was ravaged by a terrible plague. Watching one NPC after another die of sickness, Seraphine’s heart ached. Even though the time spent together was brief, they felt like real, living humans to her.

Before his death, an old man conveyed a message, only the legendary Lightbringer could cure this plague… or perhaps someone who wielded the forbidden arts of legend.

But that was impossible. Without passing the trial, she couldn’t acquire the Lightbringer class to heal them. And if she couldn’t heal them, then she couldn’t complete the trial. So how was she supposed to pass the trial? By obtaining the Lightbringer class.

Heal, Refresh, and Purify only served to buy her a little more time. Even she herself had become infected with the plague, her ability to move weakening with every passing moment. Even speaking had become a luxury. It was clearly just a game… yet it felt unbearably real.

Should she go search for this so-called forbidden art? She had no clue where to begin, no hints at all… and her body could no longer hold on. This plague was by far the most terrifying debuff she had ever encountered.

‘What would happen if I died here? Will the trial end in failure? Starry… I’m sorry.’ As her consciousness grew muddled, it suddenly struck her, if she collapsed here, wouldn’t that mean everyone in the village would be doomed?

Gritting her teeth, she sat up again and stared blankly at the wall beside her bed. A mess of scratches and markings.

‘Wait… why are there children’s doodles on this wall?’ Before she realized it, her eyes had traced the entire scrawl across the wall. These weren’t doodles at all. They were… the forbidden art spoken of in legends.

Sacrifice.

By performing the ritual depicted in the strange runic circle on the wall, she could burn away her own life as an offering. Doing so would strengthen every aspect of her abilities, enough for her healing arts to finally take effect.

The price, however, was severe: all attributes would be permanently reduced by 200, and her level would be reset to 1.

She hesitated. Should she really scrap her character because of some absurd storyline?

“Hmph.” Seraphine couldn’t help but laugh, then collapsed into the circle.

***

“You can’t be serious! You actually dared to go through with that?” Dukeette said, her voice full of pain.

“See? I’m fine, aren’t I?” Seraphine spun around a few times. “Completely unscathed!”

In truth, she had her own reasoning. If it failed, she could always sell off her gold, hand her gear to Dukeette first, then delete the character and start over. After all, leveling in the early stages was quick.

This Trial Certificate was never meant to be obtained in the first few days of the game anyway. Normally, one would only get it by clearing the first floor of the Forgotten Tower much later on. At that stage, making such a choice would be far more difficult.