Genshin Impacti: This Priest is Cringe, But She's Also Unbeatable — Chapter 18

Chapter 18: The Gloomwood and the First Battle (Part 2)You're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.

It was as if Celeste had grown eyes on the back of her head.

She didn’t even bother to turn. Guided solely by the whisper of displaced air and the spike of raw killing intent behind her, she launched a vicious counter-attack with her staff. The pink scepter carved a sharp, whistling arc, its passage tearing through the damp forest air before it connected with pinpoint precision on the joint of the ambushing wolf’s foreleg.

Crack!

The sound was sharp, a brittle snap of bone that could set one’s teeth on edge.

The Gloomwood Venomwolf let out a truncated, piercing howl as its leg bent at a horrifyingly unnatural angle, its body tumbling gracelessly to the forest floor.

In the very same instant, Celeste spun her staff in a fluid, practiced motion, tracing a perfect semicircle before her.

Clang!

The body of the staff met the fangs of the second wolf, which had lunged from the front. The impact rang out like metal striking stone, sparks flying in the dim light. With an expert flick of her wrist, Celeste skillfully deflected the force of the beast’s charge, sending it stumbling sideways. Its momentum thrown off, the wolf lost its balance, exposing the soft, vulnerable flesh of its neck.

Celeste didn’t waste a fraction of a second. She closed the distance in a single step, raised her staff high over her head, and brought it down with the crushing finality of a war hammer.

Thump!

The last wolf’s head made intimate, forceful contact with the ground. It collapsed without another sound.

From start to finish, the entire battle had lasted no more than a dozen seconds. The three Level 18 Gloomwood Venomwolves hadn’t even managed to force Celeste to cast a single basic Healing Spell.

Selene stared, her mouth slightly agape, as her sister calmly retracted her staff. The polished pink shaft remained pristine, unblemished by even a single drop of wolf blood.

She couldn’t help but mutter in awe, “Celeste… I’m starting to seriously suspect you were a nation-destroying general in your past life.”

Celeste paid her sister’s dramatic teasing no mind. She walked over to the first wolf, which was still twitching and struggling on the ground, its leg a mangled ruin. She pressed the tip of her staff against its throat and delivered a final, merciful blow to end its suffering.

The point counter on her wristband ticked up, now displaying a total of 45.

“Wolves are pack animals,” she analyzed calmly, her gaze sweeping over the three corpses with a flicker of regret. “The smell of blood will only attract more trouble. We shouldn’t linger.”

‘Tch. The system inventory won’t store loot that isn’t a system drop,’she thought, annoyed.’Otherwise, these fangs and pelts could have fetched a decent price.’

Just as the two were preparing to move on, the faint sounds of battle—the clash of weapons and the distant shouts of humans—drifted towards them from deep within the mist to their front-left.

Judging by the intensity of the commotion, the fight was a fierce one.

Selene glanced at Celeste, her eyes silently asking the question: Should we go take a look?

Celeste lightly tapped a fingertip against her pink staff, her expression thoughtful. After a moment’s consideration, she gave a firm nod.

‘Know yourself, know your enemy, and you will never be defeated,’ she reasoned. Understanding the strength of the other teams and the true nature of the monsters in this Domain was essential intelligence gathering.

The two sisters immediately suppressed their auras, moving with the silent, predatory grace of cats. They crept forward, using the gnarled, giant trees of the Gloomwood as cover.

Pushing aside a fern leaf the size of a water basin, the scene that unfolded before them sent an involuntary chill crawling up their spines.

These were no ordinary monsters.

Before them surged a living, black tide composed of countless giant killer bees, each the size of a grown man’s fist. Their wings vibrated at an ultra-high frequency, the combined noise a scalp-numbing, deafening buzz. The venomous stingers at their tails, long and sharp, glinted with a cold, metallic light in the dim forest.

The information on their wristbands flashed frantically.

【Gloomwood Venom Bee Lv.16】

【Points: 10/each】and support the real translator.Read at elysianreads.com This is a stolen translation. You're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.

【Traits: Swarm, Highly Poisonous, Paralysis, Hive Mind】

“Wait a second… isn’t that Zhang Xuchu’s team?” Selene suddenly whispered, her voice tight with shock.

Celeste narrowed her eyes, taking a closer look. Sure enough, struggling for their lives within that black tide were several familiar faces from their academy.

The shield warrior at the very front, holding the line, was none other than Zhang Xuchu, the student famously known as the “Immovable Rampart.” At this moment, his prized enchanted tower shield was so densely covered in bee stingers that it resembled a grotesque, oversized hedgehog. The protective layer of Khvarena shimmering on its surface flickered erratically, threatening to extinguish at any moment.

Zhang Ming, the team’s fire mage, was being swarmed so relentlessly that his Fireball incantations were constantly interrupted by the fearless, suicidal attacks of the venom bees.

The ranger, Li Jun, loosed arrows into the swarm, but they vanished into the buzzing mass without a trace, failing to stir even the slightest ripple in the insectoid tide.

The most miserable of them all was the priestess, Kael Lin, positioned at the rear of the formation. Her face was ashen, slick with cold sweat, and the healing light emanating from her staff was as faint and fragile as a candle flame in a gale.

What made the situation truly desperate, however, was the source of the unending swarm. Behind them, nestled in the hollow of a massive, withered tree, was a writhing, disgustingly large beehive. It pulsed like a diseased heart, continuously spewing out more and more venom bees.

“It’s the hive! We have to destroy the hive, or we’ll never kill all of these things!” Zhang Xuchu roared, his voice thick with a mixture of fury and despair. His left arm, exposed beyond his shield, had already swollen to an abnormal size, a clear sign he’d been stung.

“Their priest is almost out of mana! Zhang Xuchu can’t hold on much longer either!” Selene grabbed Celeste’s arm, her grip tight with anxiety. “Celeste, what do we do? Should we help them? They’re our schoolmates; we can’t just stand by and watch them die!”

Just then, the struggling Zhang Xuchu caught sight of the two sisters half-hidden in the shadows of the trees. A flicker of hope for survival ignited in his eyes, but it was just as quickly suppressed by the stubborn pride of a top-tier student.

However, when another vicious wave of bees slammed into his shield, nearly knocking him from his feet, that pride was finally shattered by the raw, primal fear of failure.

He bellowed with all the strength he had left, “Celeste! Selene! Do us a favor!”

While desperately shoving back a wave of bees with his shield, he shouted himself hoarse. “We’re willing to pay 200 points as a reward! Just help us destroy that hive, and we’ll transfer the points immediately! If we have to use the life-saving talismans to withdraw, this whole exam will be a failure for us!”

Before Celeste could even formulate a response, a familiar, far-too-chipper sound rang in her mind.

[Ding! Emergency Elation Coins quest issued: Hive Rescue Operation]

[Quest Requirements: Serious combat does not align with this system’s core principles. Host, please complete the rescue in an unconventional manner and create a joyful scene.]

[Quest Reward: Elation Coins will be awarded based on the resulting joy effect. Base reward is 100 points.]

The corner of Celeste’s mouth twitched. ‘An unconventional manner? At a life-or-death moment like this? Create a joyful scene? Are you for real?’

Her gaze drifted from Zhang Xuchu’s grotesquely swollen arm and the priestess’s deathly pale face, then flickered down to her system inventory. Her eyes landed on an eye-catchingly pink bottle labeled: “Highly Effective Insect-Repelling Love Fragrance.”

An absurd, outrageous, yet somehow perfectly fitting idea—one that catered directly to the system’s perverse sense of humor—began to crystallize in her mind.

“Celeste?” Selene asked, confused by her sister’s sudden, unnerving silence.

Celeste took a long, deep breath, her knuckles whitening as she tightened her grip on the pink staff in her hand.

“Selene, prepare Sacred Shield Impact.” Her voice was terrifyingly calm. “Aim for the hive. You just need to clear a path for me.”

“Huh? Sister, what are you planning to do? You’re not going to charge in there alone, are you?” Selene asked, her eyes wide with disbelief.

Celeste didn’t answer.

Instead, she silently reached into her equipment inventory and retrieved the pink spray bottle. Its packaging was aggressively girlish, the bottle itself shaped like a cartoon heart.

Her expression was a deep, tragic-comic mixture: the grim solemnity of a soldier marching to their doom, and the utter despair of someone about to suffer a catastrophic, public social death.

“I hope,” she muttered under her breath, her voice heavy with grim resignation, “that auntie didn’t lie to me…”You're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.