Three days passed by, and Mio was getting worried.

With the assistance of Amara’s potions, Brock had managed to heal back almost entirely. His face and body were still dotted with pinkish scars where skin broke and bone cut, but for the most part, he was deemed well. And that was where the problem lay. His condition should have been good enough, yet he was still unconscious.

Amara had neither the teach nor abilities to monitor Brock’s vitals, although they had both confirmed that his pulse was steady. Despite that, if she took his comatose state into account, Mio found herself betting that the issue was due to brain trauma. The man had taken an absolutely savage wound to the head, and it was impossible that his brain wasn’t injured by that. She just hope it healed sometime soon.

They had also noticed that the colour of his veins was starting to shift from blue to black, and Mio had been forced to explain to the panicking alchemist that it was due to a separate matter entirely. As far as Mio could tell, the reason for Brock’s death and illness was that his body was slowly failing, the organs and blood decaying within him.

That few months the doctor had given him was beginning to look rather generous.

Hissing out a breath as she sat beside the man’s bed, Mio rested a hand on her forehead. The eerie quiet of the garage was populated only by the wheezing sounds of other patients breathing and the clinks of beakers and flasks as Amara worked. She had seemed oddly determined to fix his issue of a slow death when Mio had told her about it, though she doubted the woman possessed the means.

If there was one thing Mio could be thankful for, it was that Zin Keene hadn’t followed them back. In the three days she’d been in this town, she hadn’t felt his aura even once. He truly seemed unable to track her through her shadow teleportation.

That knowledge, did, however, breed the idea of warping her and Brock back to Meiyo now that her aura was fully replenished, though as she thought on it, she decided to discard it. Brock may never have been to Meiyo on foot, so he had no aura trace to follow regardless, but even if the Oni couldn’t track her shadow jumps, it was better to be safe than sorry.

She couldn’t risk leading that man to the city. Mio sighed.

Difficulties were only stacking up. Brock was comatose and running out of time. A monstrously powerful being was on the prowl for them. And, they had nowhere to go to seek help or assistance. The two of them were backed against a wall and left with very few options here. She had to say, while she enjoyed the trope of desperate struggle in her books, it didn’t translate well to real life.

“You said Brock was suffering from a lack of ‘lifeforce’?” the voice of Amara addressed her and broke Mio from her thoughts. She glanced over. The woman hadn’t removed her gaze from whatever she was concocting.

“Something like that, yes.” No response came back other than a nod, and Mio found herself attempting to peer past the alchemist from in her seat and glimpse at the project hidden by her body.

If Amara thought something like her healing potions would work, then she was sorely mistaken. While they had indeed healed Brock, his decaying condition only continued to worsen. Mio had already concluded that the potions only boosted regeneration, not lifeforce.

As for the reason the potions weren’t staving away the effects, Mio believe that with his current lifeforce, his sickened state was his peak. Healing effects always had some baseline of when one was fully healed, and she believed she had discovered that one’s lifeforce determined that.

Unfortunately, that didn’t benefit Brock in any way.

The clinking of glass resounded, and Mio saw Amara holding a flask to her eyes. Within was a red fluid, not a green one, “And how long he’s been like that?”

Mio shrugged, although she was aware the other woman couldn’t see, “No idea. Weeks, maybe.”

“Hmmm.”

Silence again.

Mio felt herself starting to get restless, being unable to do anything to help. She needed to move her body, do something productive, anything. Yet she feared leaving Brock’s side. She knew it was foolish, but there was always an odd attachment between oneself and a wounded companion, she supposed.

“I think…” Amara turned, and Mio met her eyes. The crimson fluid within the flask was inert, lacking a luminescent quality. She could tell it was incomplete, “I may have found a short-term solution.”

Mio cocked a brow, sceptical, “Really?”

“Yep,” the alchemist glanced at Brock, her eyes unmoving for a few seconds. Finally, she seemed to snap out of it, and she wiggled the filled flask in front of her, “My impression is that his initial condition worsened after… his injuries?”

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“His lifeforce was strained to keep him alive, yes.” Mio nodded. She felt a small flame of hope ignite within her chest.

Amara nodded slowly and placed the flask back on her bench. Whether she realised it or not, she started to pace, “Well, the understanding I’ve gathered from the analysis of several blood samples is that the ‘System’ stores… well you could call it the DNA of one’s stats; the coding-”

“And you found this out how?” Mio narrowed her eyes.

The other woman glared at her, “We injected some of the blood samples into mice. For a short period – only a few hours – they exhibited extremely enhanced physical capabilities. Those capabilities matched the stats of those who the blood was donated from. Therefore, my thesis.”

She crossed her arms, annoyed, “Can I continue with what I was saying earlier?”

Mio clicked her tongue and nodded.

“The System stores the coding of one’s stats in the blood, meaning the blood is the path directly to someone’s physical state,” she gestured behind her at the flask of fluid, “all this leads me to believe that if we inject something with an equal amount of healing potential – sudden healing potential, not over time – to the amount of decay, it should essentially stall the regression of his physical state.”

“The information about how he should be - his stats, lifeforce, whatever – is stored in his blood. His draining lifeforce is therefore the most probable reason for its darkening colour. Blood cannot decay inside a being. Only a severe and prolonged lack of oxygen can be responsible for that. So if we were to administer a large amount of abrupt healing to combat the decay-”

Mio found her mouth moving before her brain did, “Then it would neutralise the effect by cancelling each other out, short circuiting the System’s blood coding. Buy him some time.”

Amara paused for a second, but nodded her way, “You know chemistry?”

“Was an elective in high school.” Mio shrugged. She understood the basic principles of it.

“Nice. But yes, that is theoretically what should happen,” Amara leaned back on the bench, resting her elbows behind her, “but whatever the System actually is, I somewhat doubt that chemistry would be enough to circumvent its control. It gave us superpowers, after all.”

As if demonstrating, she outstretched her hand idly and lightning crackled upon her fingers.

Licking her lips, Mio considered all that had been said. It… well it sounded plausible, quite out there, but plausible. The reasoning was there, although perhaps a bit patchy from a lack of System understanding, but it was there, nonetheless. She threw a glance Brock’s way. Blackened blood was dribbling from the corner of one of his eyes.

She had no idea if it would really work, and even then, it was only supposed to be a ‘short term solution’ as the alchemist had said, but it was better than nothing. Time was an invaluable asset here. As long as Brock had time, they could figure out how to permanently solve his solution. Hell, for all she knew, he had already learned how to solve it.

That would at least explain why she had found him in the middle of a desert. Sort of.

Mio spun around in her seat and faced Amara fully, “So, what would you need then? It may be a long shot, but it’s better than nothing.”

“You’re not wrong,” Amara agreed, “as for what I’d need, it’d have to be something that could output more healing than the current berries I use. I have the solution complete, I just need something to act as the healing catalyst.”

This… would pose a problem. Forget finding a better substitute for the berries, Mio hadn’t even known such a berry existed until a few days ago. She could scour the countryside perhaps, although that would mean leaving Brock alone, and even then, she had no idea what to actually look for. It’d be a fool’s effort.

Hissing out a breath, Mio racked her brain for anything that might be of use. Anything. What did she…?

Wait…

Several images came to the forefront of her mind, each detailing one of the various fruits she had consumed over the past few months to boost her race. While they didn’t exactly heal, they did benefit the body greatly. From what she knew, they refined it to a more efficient, more powerful state.

That… might work. Mio glanced at the flask’s contents, “Would a refining agent work? A Treasure?”

“A Treasure?” Amara’s eyes narrowed, and Mio could see the gear turning in her mind, “That could work, maybe. I’d have to alter the solution to accommodate it. Do Treasure’s still work when juiced?”

That was actually a question Mio often asked herself, yet never wanted to waste a Treasure to test it. She grinned, “There’s only one way to find out.”

The alchemist grinned right back, “I suppose there is.”

All that was left now was where they were going to find the Treasure. She doubted Brock had any stored inside his ring, as anyone in their right mind would either consume it themselves or give it off to others. And as she was already aware that he had given a small haul to his companions, she knew he’d be empty.

Just like looking for better healing berries, going out and searching for Treasures by herself, or even with Brock’s help, would be a game of luck. Commonly, they only grew in places occupied by monsters. The leading theory was that the aura they passively emitted encouraged growth. The fact that the fruit’s colour corresponded to the blood colour of the powerful beast guarding it certainly supported that.

Hmmmm.

“I assume you don’t have any Treasure’s on hand?” Mio asked, covertly eying the crates under the benches. Her cells were unresponsive.

Amara sighed and shook her head, “Nope. But, I do happen to know where you might find one.”

Her face broke into a manic grin, and Mio narrowed her eyes. If not for the fact that the groaning of a man filled the room, she would have followed the woman up on her words. As one, the two of them glanced over at Brock as he stirred, his eyes fluttering and his arm coming up to his forehead, nursing what seemed to be a killer headache.

Immediately, they rushed over to him, and his eyes inched open. They were glazed, and his face was weary, but he was finally awake, “I feel like… I’ve been hit with a bus.”

“That’s not far off.” Mio snorted. To her side, Amara closed in and came up right to Brock’s side. Her hands fell on his face, and moved his head left and right while her eyes meticulously studied his condition.

She stepped back, finally, nodding, “Glad to see you’re awake.”

As if the voice triggered something within Brock’s mind, his eyes regained clarity and his pupils flickered over to the woman’s form. They held her gaze for several seconds, and slowly, recognition flared within. He looked… profoundly confused.

“…Amy?”