Doomed Fate

“Cursed Healer?” I said with a heavy amount of disbelief. It was still unknown to me, but even without that it sounded like an exaggeration. Though who knows what they felt ‘Cursed’ meant in their context.

The King motioned with his hand to try to calm the voices around the chamber. It proved curiously difficult for him. But once most of the random noises cleared away he provided an answer. “From our experiences with previous Passers, it is the worst healer to be granted. None of them with it have lived long as it has no healing spells.”

‘A healer class with no healing? Is that even a healer then?’ Tapping on my wrist, I navigated the menu and opened the spell and ability page of the Astral Priest. It had just two things listed, one spell and one ability, Lunar Ray an attack spell and Gracious Exchange, the more interesting of the two.

‘Gracious Exchange – Apply to self or party member. 25% of all damage while active from self will be converted to healing to target.’

So not a direct healing spell, but it was still healing just a regen, which did carry some valid concerns with burst damage situations. But this was also a level one class, it had to get something later on. This goddess or whomever that created these classes couldn’t have made something completely ineffectual at its role.

I saw Tatsuya eying me with great interest to either rebuke or confirm the King’s statements. Admittedly, the royal did speak with familiarity that we lacked. But he even admitted a rather big flaw with their assumption about this class, it’s unknown. But a high mortality rate was definitely worrying. It also proved nothing about the prospects of the class in the future.

“It’s technically true. As a level one class, he’s right that there’s no healing spell. It does have what amounts to a regen, but if this is any indication of how the class is meant to be used. It’s more of an offensive healer that attacks to restore the health of the party members. Which truthfully isn’t always what you need in a fight.”

Healing was something that I felt experienced. However, my analytical explanation of it only seemed to make things worse for the others. They were sweating already. And I think Azumi was one nudge from screaming. I looked to the King. “Surely, you’re exaggerating. It can’t be that bad.”

King Edwind seemed ready to be turned into a cloak with how blue his face matched his crystal wardrobe. With him unable to speak, his wife spoke in his stead. “Our records aren’t perfect and only speak to our Kingdom, but Sir Mathews died when a Crimson Theric slew Sir Mills, their shield. The blows of the mighty beast were too much and overwhelming the limited healing until Sir Mills died and the rest followed. Lady Torres died due to the party being overly cautious to account for the diminished healing. As a result, they were unprepared for a real threat and slain at the foot of the Urth Mountains. I can recount more if you wish.”

I shook my head. The King wasn’t the only one suffering from sickness anymore. “What about everyone else’s classes? Maybe they’ll make up the difference.” Hopefully, that’ll redirect some of the anxiety away from me.

Tatsuya nodded, still looking a little stunned by what he learned. He silently checked on what his class was. “Dragon Knight?” I could only shrug at him as he seemed to be seeking me for information. No clue if that was a DPS or a tank class or maybe some other sort of hybrid type given my non-standard healer.

I checked on the King’s reaction who looked like he was struggling with some bad fish. Not a good sign then. But we moved on to Akihiro. “Beast Tamer.” That I could actually make a fairly accurate guess at, but I had a couple of different ideas of how it worked in my head and one of them wasn’t good. The King finished up a five hour drinking session with his buds at an izakaya.

We looked to Azumi to maybe break our losing streak. She still looked heavily distracted, but went through the motions swiftly enough. It didn’t look too foreign for her. “War Monk.” A few ideas came to me, but the more promising sign was the reaction from the King who looked like his exam just cleared a passing grade for the semester.

“How bad is it?”

“Give me strength…Dragon Knight is a strong bulwark against your foes, but requires entering into a pact with a dragon to gain their true strength.” I lightly mouthed ‘tank’ to Tatsuya when he looked at me pleading for a definition of bulwark. Thankfully, he seemed to understand that. “Beast tamer does battle against your enemies through creature allies. And War Monk is a supportive ally with strong fighting potential.”

None of it sounded bad, but I could see the problem. Most of our classes were late bloomers, if it was just one it wouldn’t be as problematic. The others could support them, but it sounded like only Azumi was in a state to be an effective party member right now.

“We can find you someone that’ll be able to heal your party.”

“Wait a minute, just because it starts out bad doesn’t mean it’ll always be like this.”

“None of our records show the Astral Priest ever obtaining a healing spell. And what do you intend to do when one of your comrades' lives is in danger? Every past Astral Priest has been the direct result of the death of their companions.”

There wasn’t a defense I could find. But to just take me from my home and then blame me for their future deaths. I had to fight the rising anger.

Tatsuya looked back at me as he looked over the others. “He brings up a valid concern.”

“You agree?”

“No, I’m just saying the dangers are real. As much as this looks like a game, it sounds like our lives are still irreplaceable. We need to be careful.”

“Perhaps I can offer a suggestion,” Akihiro said, motioning from his corner of our circle. “Minoru believes something can be made of it and the King can provide someone in the meantime. Take some time to find out how you can make it work and rejoin us.”

Fury still burned inside, racing my heart. I really wanted to yell at them, but the looks only silenced me. The decision had been made. They just sought the polite way to give me the boot. This was certainly a record. ‘Better now than later.’

If I reframed it, going alone probably would make it easier. I could only heal a single person with my ability. I glared over at the King. His worry didn’t matter anymore to me. ‘I’ll figure this out and prove you wrong!’

“There’s someone that could go with you,” Tatsuya added. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to save face or sweeten the deal.

“No, that’d just be moving the risk to other strangers. I may not level fast, but I’ll make it work.” I didn’t think I could live with taking someone else with me and being the reason they died. That’s too much responsibility for me. “I’ll be fine. Just give me some starting gear and I’ll spare you my weak ass.” Tatsuya looked a little troubled by that, but I just smiled at him.

I stepped forward to the King not really sure what the plan was past this point. “Show me where I can set up and I’ll be out of your hair.”