The Two Week Curse
Page 11
“My cousin went off. Now he’s a true sword warrior. All of the girls flock to him when he comes back into town. Even got two Lesser Mortal beast cores by himself!” the stoker defended.
“He’s the lucky one. Most people who head to the Beast Mountains turn into beast food. Unless one gets into one of those good mercenary outfits,” the other smith replied.
“Though with all of the rare materials, beast meat, hide, and even monster cores, you’d be a made man!” The stoker continued to talk about his dreams.
“If you can somehow kill a lot of monsters, yeah, you might make a lot of coin to retire and live out the rest of your life. Hell, might be possible to ascend to the Second Realm. Staying alive is the issue. There are thousands of monsters in the Beast Mountains. All of them fight one another, but they hate humans even more,” the older smith said, seemingly taking pity on the young lad. “Just don’t forget your friends here when you write up your will!”
The others laughed as the young stoker closed his mouth, flushing in embarrassment.
Beast Mountains? I wonder if they’ll be like that gorilla? Rugrat thought.
After seeing Gu Shi work for some time, Rugrat spoke up as he was resting.
“Mister Gu Shi, how much does an iron ingot cost?” Rugrat asked. Being a stoker wasn’t that glamorous. He’d watched the smiths for some time and got some basic understandings of how to work with metal.
Gu Shi smirked. “Thirty-three coppers each, though for a go-getter like you, why not get a smithing manual for five silvers. Or better yet, one of the three forging blueprints in Chonglu City!” Gu Shi raised his voice so the other smiths and stokers could hear him.
They all laughed and jeered at Rugrat. To them, he was just a simple beginner who wanted to jump from Earth to the heavens in a single leap. How could it be that easy! Didn’t he see the suffering that they went through?
Rugrat frowned. Shit. Well, looks like I’m going to need to make some damn coppers!
Chapter: Healing Stall of the Chonglu Market
“Tsk, what a waste of coppers, coming out here to sit around and not sell anything,” one person said as they were waiting for the goods to be loaded into their cart.
“He just showed up today,” the person loading the cart said.
“Some people don’t want to put the work into earning money,” another agreed.
Erik heard this but he didn’t care. Instead, he was looking around his stall with distaste. If this was back on Earth, he would have fired himself for offering health services out of this stall. There was food, animal feed, animals themselves—all kinds of possible infections just waiting around. Though with magic, the risk of infection? Gone with a simple spell. Antibiotics? What was that? A health potion? Some healers even used the same bloodied tools on different patients, not needing to wash them as their healing spells cleared out any infections automatically. Some of the patients might even be stronger against different infections as their body, following the Body Cultivation path, had defeated it and become stronger.
Erik sighed to himself as he sat there. He pulled out his guidebook and started reading as the day continued. It started to look as though his idea hadn’t worked.
Knowing that few people could read, Erik didn’t think it would be a problem if he read the guidebook.
Erik heard a yell as someone started screaming. His lazy demeanor vanished and his book disappeared; he was ready to pull out his rifle as he looked over in the direction of the noise.
People around Erik felt the pressure, looking at him in a slight shock.
Most of them weren’t that high of a level. The pressure Erik was giving off didn’t match with his laid-back appearance. The dangerous and cold atmosphere made some of those from a higher level look at one another in shock.
A man had been loading barrels of drink onto a cart and one of the planks had moved, the barrel coming back on him and crushing his leg.
Erik saw that people were looking over but few were looking to help him.
The people at the store came out with sour expressions.
The injured man was barely twenty years old with a crushed leg.
Erik quickly moved over, scowling as people were looking at one another.
The owner was frowning but it was clear he didn’t know what to do. In this kind of society, there was no such thing as worker’s comp.
“Give me some room.” Erik didn’t move the barrel that was on the man’s leg. His hand rested on the leg and he used his Simple Organic Scan.
His face turned serious. Not only had the barrel shattered the man’s leg, it had sent bone shards into the main artery that ran through his leg. He was bleeding internally.
Erik stood and grabbed the barrel. With a yell and a grunt, he picked it up and tossed it away. “This is gonna fucking hurt.” Erik looked into the man’s eyes as he held his shoulder and his other hand grabbed his leg.
There was a grinding sensation in his hand as the boy cried out. The others around all winced and moved away.
“Hold him down!” Erik said, looking to one of the strong men nearby.
“What are you doing to him?” the man demanded.
“Healing him! Now hold him down or else watch him die!” Erik barked.
The man gritted his teeth and held the screaming man to the ground by his shoulders.
“You—get his other leg,” Erik barked.
The clear command in his voice made the other man move to help.
Erik held down the top of the injured man’s leg. He used a healing spell to stabilize the man. A magical circle appeared around his left hand; his right hand moved down the injured man’s leg, pushing and twisting the four different sections of bone back into place.
The man passed out from the pain as Erik worked quickly and efficiently.
The bone was all lined up as he cast a healing spell with both of his hands. The man’s leg started to straighten out as the artery was sealed up. The blood was pulled back into the man’s body; the bruising and swelling started to fade as the man’s pasty and clammy appearance started to reverse. Veins were reconnected and the bones fused back together.
Erik looked over the man’s leg once more and checked the man’s body. He used his healing spell to clear up some bruising on the man’s brain before he released his hands.
The people who had been watching had seen the boy’s leg coming back together in shock.
“He must be from the healing house,” someone said as Erik leaned back, clearly drained. The two strong men released the man on the ground, their faces pale from shock. They had seen the changes from up close.
“Healing house? Have you seen them ever work on someone before they asked for money?” another person chided.
The man woke up screaming, making many jump away in alarm. The man seemed to discover himself and where he was as his screams died down, replaced with heavy breathing and a look of confusion.
He looked down at his leg that had stopped hurting. His whole body shook as he looked at the tired man who was slowly getting up.
“You probably feel hungry as hell. Go have a big meal and you’ll be fine. Check the plank next time before you try to roll a barrel up it,” Erik advised.
“Y-yes.” The man looked at Erik with wide eyes.
Erik patted the boy on the shoulder and stood. He returned to his seat and pulled out some jerky he had, feeling hungry after everything.
As he was eating, he checked his notifications that had popped up.
==========
9,180/23,000 EXP till you reach Level 7
==========
==========
Skill: Healer
==========
Level: 18 (Novice)
==========
No bonuses at this time. You must prove your skills first.
==========
Erik nodded to himself. One’s skill level was not only based on the amount of times they p
erformed an action related to a skill. If one showed advanced knowledge, then the skill would increase rapidly. If not, then no one would care to learn anything, simply repeating the same process over and over again to become masters.
People continued talking to one another as the boy was pulled to his feet and walked away by his friends, shock still on his face.
They grilled him as more than a few curious gazes were shot over to Erik and his stall.
Sometime later, a middle-aged man walked over, holding his hat in his hands. “Mister, are you able to heal others?”
“Depends what it is. Minor problems, two coppers; major problems, it depends on the resources needed. I won’t charge you unless the person leaves my stall healed.” Erik raised his voice a bit so that others could hear before quieting his words. “What is the issue?”
“My father, he had a bad case of coughing, but now all the strength has left him. He made me take him out to the market, but he can’t walk more than five minutes without wheezing,” the man said.
“Is he nearby?” Erik asked.
“I can bring you to him!”
“I’m young and my legs work fine. Is he in the market still?” Erik asked.
“Yes, yes!” The man’s hands shook in excitement.
“Lead on,” Erik said. This was the first real business he had; no one had shown up at his stall yet. If he was correct, the old man had some kind of cold or infection.
They walked through the different stalls before reaching an old man who sat at a tea shop. He was coughing heavily till his face turned red. When he stopped, he leaned back in the chair, all of the energy gone from him.
“Dad, this man here is a healer. I brought him here to take a look at you,” the man said.
“There’s no need to waste a healer’s time on this,” the older man said, hurriedly standing before another coughing fit shook him again.
He dropped into the seat as Erik put his hand on the man’s back and used his Simple Organic Scan.
“Your father has liquid in his lungs and a nasty infection. It’s only a minor affliction,” Erik said.
“Two coppers was it, sir?” the man asked, trembling.
“That’s right. I’ll heal him first,” Erik said.
The old man was wheezing, trying to get his breath back.
Erik cast his healing spell on the man and watched what happened inside his body.
He wasn’t directly healing the problem. Instead, it was as though he were rapidly increasing the rate that the old man’s body healed and his immune system worked.
He watched as the infected tissues weren’t magically replaced but the healing spell increased the rate that the immune system functioned. In just a few moments, the old man’s immune system had created an immunity to the infection and overpowered it, the man’s body clearing it out of his system.
Hidden injuries within the man’s body that hadn’t healed were revitalized. Small breaks in the man’s hands were healed. Unlike how when someone usually broke their bone, the bones didn’t simply fuse and leave a weakness there; instead, the bone was regrown completely and the break became stronger.
Erik had seen this in the man with the broken leg, but after seeing two patients, he could confirm his original thoughts.
The old man’s wheezing was cleared up. He looked tired but there was a glow to his eyes as his normal complexion returned.
Erik pulled his hands away from the old man, a small smile on his face as he was thinking on what he had seen.
I need to get more healing spell books!
Chapter: Focused Heal
The old man took a deep breath in and out. A look of joy filled his face as he didn’t find any difficulty in doing so.
He laughed out loud and made to stand up as Erik held him down gently but firmly.
“You had a nasty infection. Your body is going to need food. Also, that annoying pain in your left hand should be fixed.” Erik smiled.
The man wiggled his fingers and his shock only deepened.
The young man held out two coppers to Erik.
Erik held out his hand; the middle-aged man looked stunned as he dropped them into Erik’s hand, as if expecting something else to happen.
“Good to do business with you. Please let any of your friends know that if they need some healing to come over to my stall. I’ll be there today and tomorrow,” Erik said with a smile that was slightly forced. He didn’t have the funds to keep on paying for the stall as well as a room in the inn.
Erik turned and left.
“Thank you, master healer!” the old man said gravely, cupping his hands and bowing deeply from his seat.
“No problem.” Erik returned the gesture and left easily.
He checked on his blinking exclamation mark symbol, finding two screens.
==========
10,520/23,000 EXP till you reach Level 7
==========
==========
Skill: Healer
==========
Level: 20 (Novice)
==========
No bonuses at this time. You must prove your skills first.
==========
He moved through the market again. He wandered through the market a bit to waste some time before he needed to sit at his stall again.
He got near his stall to find that a few dozen people were there with bandages, or other ailments.
Erik moved past them and sat in the chair out front of his stall.
The different people there looked at him. He looked back at them before shrugging and started to open his book. He wouldn’t go to each of them if they weren’t willing to come forward.
Finally a woman with a bad complexion walked forward.
Erik put his book away and smiled at her.
“Are you able to heal people?” she asked in a faint voice.
“One of my specialties.” Erik smiled.
“I had a nasty cut, but now my entire body is in pain.”
“Did you cut yourself on metal?” Erik asked.
“Yes.” The woman sounded shocked.
Erik pulled out another chair from behind the stall and put it down in front of his chair. “Please.” He waved to the seat.
The woman sat down hesitantly.
“I’m just going to check on your condition.” Erik held her wrist in his hand and used Simple Organic Scan. Based on her symptoms, it looked like she had tetanus.
Erik quickly used his healing spell. He pushed until he was at fifty percent Mana and continued to let it flow as fast as his Mana regenerated. That additional Mana gate being opened really helped him.
The woman’s appearance got better rapidly before she looked completely healthy.
“Two coppers if you’re happy with the healing,” Erik said.
“Yes, thank you so much.” The woman passed him two coppers, tears filling her eyes.
“Don’t worry. I think that you should now be immune to rusty tools,” Erik said. Everything he had seen showed that once someone had overcome a problem, then they would never encounter it again, at least as far as infections went.
Two screens popped up.
==========
11,300/23,000 EXP till you reach Level 7
==========
==========
Skill: Healer
==========
Level: 24 (Novice)
==========
No bonuses at this time. You must prove your skills first.
==========
Based on what Erik had learned, one would go from a Novice to an Apprentice once they reached level twenty-five, which would gain them a bonus and Experience.
The next person walked forward with a hobble, their leg in a splint. “Could you help me, mister?” the man asked.
“Please take a seat,” Erik said. The man did so and Erik put his hands on the man’s leg. The bone hadn’t set right and it would lead to the man not walking
normally again in his life.
“Tell me if you feel anything.” Erik wasn’t sure what would happen as he put his hands on the man’s leg and used a healing spell.
The man’s face went pale as he screamed out.
Erik released his hands as the man was holding his leg, hissing through his teeth.
Erik only quickly glanced at the screen that appeared before dismissing it.
==========
11,320/23,000 EXP till you reach Level 7
==========
“The bone hasn’t healed right. There are two treatment methods. One, I heal it as is. It will take longer and be painful, as you’ve experienced. Or the second, we re-break the bone and I set it. Again, going to hurt, but it will take just a few minutes. If you have anything that you can get to numb the pain, I would suggest getting it if you wanted to continue,” Erik said.
The man looked at Erik. Seeing his clear expression and the steady way that he talked, the man nodded.
“If we re-break it, I’ll do it at four coppers; if the slow heal, ten coppers.” Erik really wanted to just break and set the bone. It would be simpler.
“Thank you.” The man nodded. He got up and walked away.
Erik thought on what had happened in the man’s leg. The bonds on the bone had weakened as the muscles around it moved the bones into their true position. The process was slow. Erik increased the power going in for a split second and it sped up, but it was clearly incredibly painful.
Also, when he didn’t completely heal the man, he had only gained a small Experience increase.
Erik looked up and another person moved to the chair. It was a mother and her son. Erik looked at them both. The little toddler was lethargic as his mother told Erik about the toddler’s declining health.
A little healing spell and the little boy’s viral infection was cleaned up.
Erik was even shocked himself. Viral infections were not something that could be cleaned up with antibiotics, but healing spells, with enough time, had been able to defeat the virus.
The boy’s body even became stronger as the virus had a tempering effect on his body. Unknowingly to others, the little boy had stepped on the path of Body Cultivation, his eyes brighter as his muscles contained greater power and his circulatory system hummed with vitality.