Chapter 40: Chapter 38- Conflict (3)

 

Heal Heal Heal Heal!

“It’s good. It should be enough. One Heal for each limb. If you have mana left afterward, then you can cast Heal again. For now, move on to the next person.”

I went back to Rudolf’s house after dealing with his body. The three people I wrongfully attacked earlier were lying down on the floor, unable to move. They were still hallucinating and had yet to realise the situation they were in. I could not confirm whether they had anything to do with Rudolf, but I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt since I got back my Nazlock Coins.

I could not use my spells yet because of my advancement and as a result, I requested for one of the healers of the village to come and help me. Jacob, Elisa and Eric soon came to the house and they brought the healer from Eric’s team to assist me. I agreed to pay one point for every Heal spell she would cast. I did not have any mana stones on me, having already used it to advance and I did not mind paying a premium since I was wrong in the first place.

I briefly went upstairs to clear Rudolf’s room. It was easy to identify since it was the only one with opened windows. Unfortunately, I found nothing valuable there; all of Rudolf’s wealth has been safely stored in the storage pouch that I now held at my waist.

I sat in the living room after getting rid of the incense pot, guiding the healer through the process. The female healer, Hannah had a pale face and felt repulsed by the bloody injuries. Nevertheless, she did a decent job and closed their wounds. The three men were safe and would be back in shape after a few days of rest. As for compensating these men for hurting them, I left Rudolf’s pair of boots and coat behind. These two pieces of equipment should be worth more than what they would have gained from hunting.

“You were really ruthless.” Eric commented after seeing the state the three unconscious men were in.

“I did not know who Rudolf was; it could have been any of them.”

“Still… You really do not care about public image. He did wrong you but now, you will be labelled as a criminal and a murderer.” Eric said cautiously with a meaningful stare.

“Who cares about that? It is not as if we are going to spend a lot of time together. In at most two weeks, I will leave this place and we’ll never meet again. I’ll stay away from the others.” I replied casually. I could not care less about the opinion of irrelevant people. If I did not remember any of them from my previous life, it simply meant that they held little to no influence. As I was not planning on climbing up the tower, I did not care about making allies either.

“You are planning to leave so quickly…” Eric said thoughtfully. “I have something to ask you. It is about the children and how many people are regularly coughing and some are even sneezing. Many thinks that it is because they caught a cold, but you mentioned something a few days ago…”

“Right… This matter… Did I not tell you to give the kids more mana stones for them to consume? You asked your fairy about how to increase your mana pool, right?”

“Yes I did. My team usually collects around 250 to 300 mana stones every day. We initially distributed them equally but after you told me to give a few more to the children, I gave them 40 each. I cannot give them more or it would look too unfair to the others.”

“40 mana stones… It should be enough to help the children sustain themselves, but it will take a while for their system to recover. How many elements do the kids have?”

“I asked them about it. Sonya said she took eight elements and Greg, the other child in my group has ten.” Eric answered anxiously.

“Eight and ten? That is way too much for a human body to handle, let alone the body of a child. Did they not speak with their fairy before choosing their elements?”

“Well… When I asked them, they simply said that their fairy told them to pick the yellow orbs because it would be easier for them to learn these spells. As a result, they ended up picking up all the yellow orbs they found.” Eric replied, scratching his head. The children just did what a child would do.

I heaved a long and frustrated sigh and fell silent.

“Is this cough really that important?” Eric asked for clarifications.

“It starts with a simple cough… Then slowly turns into a fever until you feel too weak to even move and end up dying.”

“We can end up dying as a result? It is that serious?” Eric blurted out, not hiding his surprise.

“It varies from person to person. In short, we did not receive the ability to use spells for free. You noticed how I took out a mana stone from Rudolf’s skull earlier, right? We all have a mana stone in our body that turns us into magical creatures of the tower. However, this mana stone puts a certain toll on our body. It absorbs the energy and mana from our body to function and the more elements a person has, the higher the energy and mana demands are. If you do not consume enough mana to maintain these elements, they will start draining your body’s vitality instead and as a result, your body will retaliate and treat them as harmful substances which is why you often end up with the symptoms of fever.”

“The number of elements you choose is important. Your fairy should have warned you about the consequences of taking too many. It would be too convenient if anyone could pick all the twenty elements. In general, as long as you use your spells every few days and consume a few mana stones for each element, you will be fine. The kids are suffering right now probably because they either neglected a couple of elements, or simply suffered when they were on their own and were unable to collect enough mana stones.”

“Naturally, the richer you are, the more elements you can sustain but it does not necessarily mean that you are stronger. For humans, the maximum should be five elements and even then, having so many will essentially kill all potential growth. The elements are like capricious kids. They will fight each other as soon as you turn your back on them and if one can overwhelm another, you will end up with the same sickness as your body will try to get rid of that dead element. Three elements are acceptable but will be hard to perfectly balance the growth of the elements. Most people should have gone for two but if they make a single mistake and do not use both elements equally, an imbalance will occur.”

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“At the end of the day, the number of elements you choose should be proportional to the number of mana stones you think you will be able to collect in the future. Right now, it is relatively easy to hunt monsters but things get harder upstairs. Therefore, it is better to underestimate your hunting ability.” I concluded my explanation and let Eric and the others digest the information I gave them. It should not be completely new to them but should help shed some light on the fine details.

Eric lightly tapped the armrest of his chair with a thoughtful expression. I turned my attention back on the three unconscious men who have been successfully healed. Red marks were still present where I stabbed them, but it should not have much of an impact on their fighting ability.

“May I ask a personal question? How many elements do you have?”

“Me? Only one. It is not a secret. You can ask Jake since he is in your team. I only have the Healing element.” I replied casually.

Eric nodded lightly. “I did ask Jake, but I thought you simply hid your elements. Considering how fast you are hunting, should it not have been better to take two or even three elements? Furthermore, with how daring your actions have been, I was expecting more.”

“How could I have predicted my success? Besides, I do not consider myself a talented person able to juggle two elements. I am not planning on climbing the tower and therefore, I do not really need other elements. The hunters have never seen me fight but since I am at the top of the daily ranking, they all believe that I am the strongest with many trump cards. As long as this illusion holds, they won’t be too reckless and target me.”

“You are not going to climb the tower? Then what are you going to do? You are earning points so quickly that I thought you wanted to become the strongest and lead everyone.” He asked with uncertainty.

“I am simply going to become a healer and make a living off my healing spells. For me, the zeroth floor is like the final sprint before reaching the finishing line. I worked hard to gather enough stuff to be able to retire early.” I explained as I recalled the hardships I went through in my past life. As long as I leave the village in the next two weeks, I should be able to avoid a direct confrontation with the hostile races.

“You are really not planning on taking the lead in conquering the tower? Don’t you feel any sense of responsibility? As a human, I feel that I must do what I can to help humanity as a whole.” Eric said as he focused his gaze on me. He seemed determined and expectant and yet, I was about to disappoint him.

My heart throbbed as I listened to Eric’s sincere words. I have heard this argument many times about how as a human, I should thrive to raise the status of my race. I have been guilt-tripped countless times into continuing to fight on the frontline. In the end, I managed to steel my heart and came back in time. I was not going to let the same arguments change my mind again. “Not at all. I already did what I could and now, I have the right to rest. I will just push myself a little bit more before being able to rest quietly. Just consider myself as an outcast, it will make things easier for you. You can use my name to solidify your position as the village leader.”

“…”

Eric did not immediately speak. He noticed the determination in my eyes and knew that it was pointless to argue. He let the silence erase our previous discussion before changing the topic back to the children.

“About the children. Since they clearly have more than five elements. Is it already too late for them or is there a solution?”

“Just give them more mana stones… a lot more since they have so many elements… but moving forward, they should get rid of some of their elements. Same for the other hunters. People may think that I am trying to weaken them by asking them to let go of some elements, but it is the only way they can live healthily.”

“And the hospital can help with that?”

“Yes. The hospital will house a healer like me but unlike me, he won’t be limited to weak spells. The hospital is designed for groups who end up having no healers or in case all the healers leave the village. But the hospital can also be used by hunters to remove the elements they think they won’t need. Think of it as performing a surgery but of course, there is a price to pay for the surgery. The hospital provides the opportunity to make up for the hunters’ mistake when choosing their elements.” I explained calmly. I remembered the details since in my past life, the hospital was one of the most popular buildings set up; many went through the process of discarding their elements.

“The hospital, huh? I looked into it. I believe you but 1000 points is not a small sum. I do not know if the other teams will agree to pay such a high price.”

“That is up to you to convince them. Although I personally don’t need to use the hospital, I’ll contribute 50 points to the building if everyone else agrees. You should go and speak to the other hunters. They think of their coughs only as a cold, but the situation will quickly worsen if nothing is done. Think of it as a tumor; the earlier they get rid of their excess elements, the better.”

We exchanged a few more words before our conversation came to an end. I agreed to stay away from the other hunters for now which I was already doing. In short, I would not suffer much consequences for my actions.

It was already dark outside as I returned to my house. I found the door still open, left in the same state it was in when I arrived. I went in and latched the door before taking a deep breath. My return journey has been a little too eventful for my taste.

Now that I was alone, I opened the storage pouch I took from Rudolf and took out everything. I was curious about what that bastard has bought with my coins.

‘Less than 200 Nazlock Coins were left… That bastard… He wasted it all.’

My heart sank as I counted the small pile of Nazlock Coins. The storage pouch was mostly empty, containing mostly recovery potions that I presumed were bought with the Nazlock Coins. The only positive note was the size of the storage pouch. Compared to mine, this storage pouch had a volume of 10m³ but this still did not explain where all the Nazlock Coins went; storage items were expensive but would never cost that much.

After carefully looking around for a little while longer, I could only conclude that the rest of the Nazlock Coins were spent on a small clay jar which contained a thick brown paste. It looked awfully similar to the Revitalising Mud but did not have the same repulsive smell. I vaguely recalled seeing the clay jar on the shelf dedicated to the artefacts on the second floor of the merchant tower. However, no matter how hard I tried, I could not remember its effects. I could only wait for the next day to ask the clerks of the merchant tower.

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