This chapter has been proof-read by: AnthonyL
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We made our way inside the castle with the guards and employees of the castle bowing as we walked by them. We eventually reached a long corridor with a giant golden door at the end of it. After reaching the door the prince made a short pause before telling us to wait to be summoned.
The prince then entered alone as we stayed there waiting. Nargaroth and Mendy were standing behind me silently, under the gaze of the two guards operating the giant door. It was perfectly silent and everything seemed calm when a loud voice suddenly erupted from the other side of the doors.
“YOU WHAT??!!!” (???)
[...]
“DON'T LIE TO ME SON OR I SWEA-...” (The king?)
[...]
Everything went silent once again. We stood there, waiting for what felt like an eternity. We could feel the tension in the air and the two guards seemed nervous as well. After a certain amount of time a voice suddenly came from the other side of the door.
“LET THIS 'KING' IN!” (The king)
I knew this was addressed to me so I said to Mendy and Nargaroth to wait for me right where they were and entered the throne room. I walked on the long red carpet and stopped next to the prince before giving a courteous bow to the king.
“Is what my son told me the truth? You are a king recognized by the jumpers? And you hold information about the dragon who attacked our border villages?” (King)
“Yes great king. I saw the beast with my own eyes and barely survived the encounter myself.” (Kneeko)
The king was a high elf so he had blue eyes and long blond hair with a few grey hairs betraying his old age. He also had a nicely kept beard giving him a distinguished appearance.
“Sighh* First things first, my name is Hofhray Stafelh, king of Niflin kingdom. My son told me you were a certain Elvis Presley, is that information also correct?” (Hofhray)
“Yes king Hofhray.” (Kneeko)
“I heard about the deal you wish to conclude but I see myself obliged to refuse. I will reward you for the help given to the citizen of my country and for rescuing the villagers of Nimirth town but you being a king of whatever is still unverified information to me. I will not allow access to our vault to any stranger that comes asking for it.” (Hofhray)
“I understand from your answer that his highness has some relation with some of the dragon clans' leaders. You most likely wish to gather this information on your own but I can assure you that if the group we are talking about feels threatened, these leaders will soon be removed from their positions. Who knows how many traitors are among them.” (Kneeko)
“I will be the judge of that. Now leave! My guards will reward you with a bag of gold.” (Hofhray)
This ass-hole is pissing me off.. I am the KING for fuck's sake! Even more famous than him I certainly am! Tch... I knew this was a possibility, luckily I had gathered information about the departed queen during my talks with the prince. Time for the offer he can't refuse.
“Alright, I will be leaving then. Ho and by the way, did I even mention that as a scholar I also knew a lot about medicine? The queen's condition was easily curable for someone with my extended knowledge.. Ho well, farewell dear king and prince.” (Kneeko)
“WHAT DID YOU SAY? WAIT!” (Hofhray) Adrenaline could be heard from his loud voice which was very good sign to me.
“King Hofhray?” (Kneeko)
“Are you telling the truth?” (Hofhray)
“I never did anything else other than telling the truth great elven king. Actually my first purpose for travelling to your lands was to offer my services. But since I am not wanted here I shall continue my journey elsewhere. Farewe-” (Kneeko)
“WAIT! You mean not only resurrecting her but fixing her heart for good?” (Hofhray) He abruptly interrupted me.
“What else could I be talking about? The queen's condition wasn't that hard to cure, but to do so you needed knowledge from the jumpers' world.” (Kneeko)
“You are talking as if you have already been there before...” (Hofhray)
“Am I? Ho I guess I truly am mysterious after all... Anyway, my services and information aren't free. I need many cores for my research and if I am not allowed to access your vault, I have no need to be here.” (Kneeko)
“Can he really save her? If he can, I would obtain information about our attackers, plus it wouldn't cost us anything since he is offering to pay for the cores... I have nothing to loose with this deal.“ (Hofhray)
“Of course if I go as far as using miraculous medicine on your wife, you will be the one providing the resurrection spell-scroll and also give me the cores in your vault for free. I also want 1000 sets of clothing of all sizes and armour and also weapons. Ho! and since you just insulted me, how about giving 50 of the worst criminals “male and female” of this kingdom currently in your custody for my experiments as a bonus.” (Kneeko) I said in a tone showing that I considered myself to be greater than him.
“HOW DARE YOU!!!!!! LUDICROUS! GUARDS!!! KILL HIM!” (Hofhray)
“It all depends on how much you value your wife's life, great king.” (Kneeko)
The guards closed in on me while the king was still conflicted. To ease his decision I decided to show a bit of my power. That way he would understand I could kill him right here and now and that it was better not to fuck with me.
I used quick footwork to close the distance between me and one of the 4 guards coming my way and sent him flying across the room before crashing into a wall. At first I wanted to rip his head off but I hadn't worked this hard at being friendly to destroy it all on a whim.
The remaining 3 guards abruptly stopped, paralyzed by fear since my intimidating aura skill was working at full capacity. [TerrorEyes]
“Hofhray! I came here in peace but you dare point weapons at me? I AM THE KING! I am your equal if not more powerful than you are. I have no hostility toward you and you can either accept or refuse my offer. If you attack me, there will be heavy repercussion. IS THIS HOW YOU WELCOME A FOREIGN KING?? You may not be the great king I first thought you were.” (Kneeko)
“M-my lord?” (Soldier) The soldiers asked the king if they should keep attacking, visibly shaken by my display of strength. The king as well was agape and glaring at the prince.
“Wasn't he supposed to be a mage?” (Hofhray)
“Yes father, the villagers and I have seen him using clay type magic so he definitely can wield water and earth magic. If I may add, he didn't lie a single time to me since I met him. He is a mage who possesses that much strength, certainly he is an extraordinary man.” (Elnfrid)
The king then paused for a long moment of reflection. I could hear his thoughts, unused cores, a few military surplus and criminals meant to be executed or sold to brothels weren't that hard to provide after all. Seemingly resolute, the king finally spoke.
“I accept your offer. But hear me well, you will not get anything until you have proven you can truly save my wife's life. Once I have confirmed that she is perfectly healed, only then will you get what you asked for.” (Hofhray)
“I have no objections. Let's try to be friendlier to each other from now on shall we?!” (Kneeko)
“I-I agree. Apologies about earlier. Tell me what you need for this miraculous medical procedure you spoke of.” (Hofhray)
I began to explain what I needed for the surgery. Yes, I was thinking of performing surgery on the queen. I basically had a medical encyclopedia in my head and knew by the symptoms described by the prince what I was dealing with.
The queen had a hole in her heart. A hole in the heart is a type of simple congenital heart defect – a problem with the heart's structure that is present at birth. Congenital heart defects change the normal flow of blood through the heart.
The heart has two sides, separated by an inner wall called the septum. With each heartbeat, the right side of the heart receives oxygen-poor blood from the body and pumps it to the lungs. The left side of the heart receives oxygen-rich blood from the lungs and pumps it to the body. The septum prevents mixing of blood between the two sides of the heart.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Some babies are born with a hole in the upper or lower septum. A hole in the septum between the heart's upper two chambers (the atria) is called an atrial septal defect (ASD). A hole in the septum between the heart's lower two chambers (the ventricles) is called a ventricular septal defect (VSD).
A hole in the septum can allow blood to pass from the left side of the heart to the right side. This means that oxygen-rich blood can mix with oxygen-poor blood, causing the oxygen-rich blood to be pumped to the lungs a second time.
To keep it simple it was something very simple to fix. I simply needed to suture the hole to prevent future strokes. Even me who had only knowledge and a few videos to go with should be able to do this type of operations.
I explained to the king that I needed some tools, scalpel, simple needles and strings made out of boiled plant fibres that would easily and safely dissolve after a few months. I needed a room perfectly cleaned without a single spec of dust as well as mask and white clothes that had been sterilized in boiling water.
There was a very long list of items and procedures so the king's assistant noted it all. The assistant looked like Yoda. He was so old and hunchbacked that it looked as if he was fighting a losing battle against gravity. The old man also had white hair and a long beard reaching his belly.
Then I told the king that I would keep my information secret until I was given what I had been promised after healing his wife. It would take the king at least 24 hours to prepare everything so my acolytes and I left to do some shopping for the rest of the day. I had removed my Elvis suit and was wearing my old tattered clothes to avoid drawing too much attention.
I commissioned many sets of clothes for myself and everyone else in the Vindictae clan. Of course I also commissioned a butler suit for PorkFace and a maid outfit for PigFace. I bought many random items and at the end of the day spent quite a bit of money.
I had also bought a few items at auction a while back and was happy to finally get to pick them up from an auction house. As we went through the market place we came across a merchant who was selling tons of animals in cages.
I asked how much for all his birds, then gave him double the amount before breaking all their necks and simply left as the merchant looked at us with terror in his eyes. Next I went to the adventurer guild and posted a simple request.
[table=#800000]QuestType:MiscDifficulty:EMinimum rank:ETime limit:2 DaysA rich noble is in need of someone capable of using spiritual type magic to unlock a secret chest.
The nobleman offers half of its content to the one willing to help open it with their magic. (Spiritual unlocking spell provided)[/table]
Guhuhuhu* With that I should soon be able to use runic magic as well. After doing this, we were heading back to the castle for the night since the king had offered us his hospitality. On our way there, I decided to check my 'special' compass as I do everyday.
“Ho... Guhuhuhu* We need to hurry, Damyon has finally made his move.” (Kneeko)
“How do great leader know?” (Nargaroth)
“Guhuhu* Simple, my precious third wife has begun to move toward the dragon land. Time for the gears of my plan to get into motion. Guhuhuhahaha*” (Kneeko)
I needed to quickly complete what I had to do here and get moving. I was able to move faster than them but I needed to reach their convoy before they entered dragon territory.
+++
STATUS
[table=#800000]PROFILENAME:KneekoLEVEL:278GENDER:MaleMONEY:120451G 23S 29CRACE:(Chimeric) Newt "Tadpole" (Common)MONSTER RANK:LowHEALTH:7160STAMINA:6090MANA:12100STRENGTH:1758 (+550)(M)INTELLIGENCE:595 (+600)SPEED:1472 (+150)DEXTERITY:73 (+150)(H)VITALITY:1 (+700)CHARM:1 (+415)LUCK:55 (+215)AGILITY:368 (+150)RESISTANCE:224 (+700)(S)ENDURANCE:94 (+500)SKILL POINTS:0FAME/INFAMY:-71500 (Seriously Evil)CLASS:-------------------TITLES:
Spoiler :
☑ Death's Demise
☑ Divinity
☑ Don Juan
☑ Dungeon conqueror
☑ Elemental Master
☐ Grave Digger
☑ King of the pond
☑ Sphinx Slayer
☐ Stone turner
☑ Toxic Powerhouse
☐ Tree puncher
☑ Tycoon
☑ Vindictae Clan Member
PASSIVE SKILLS:
Spoiler :
Amphibious (-)
Anti-Reptile Venom (S)
Basilisk Acid ©
Blunt Weapon Mastery (E)
Dual Weapon Mastery (D)
Intimidating Aura (On)
Obscuro Poison (B)
Poison Immunity (-)
Unarmed Mastery (D)
Viper Neurotoxin (A)
ACTIVE SKILLS:
Spoiler :
Deadly Breath ©
Gardener touch (S)
Humanoid shift (-)
ID Hide (-)
Luminar (E)
Poison Spit (D)
Sad puppy eyes (B)
Tail Whip (B)
TerrorEyes (B)
Vindic Flames (B)
Vindic Wave (B)
Vines Hell (B)
Viper Bite ©
ARCANE LIBRARY:
Spoiler :
Arcane ClayBolt
Arcane EarthBolt
Arcane LightningBolt
Arcane MagmaBolt
Arcane FireBolt
Arcane FrostBolt
Arcane WaterBolt
Arcane WindBolt
Arcane Gatling
Immovable Mountain
CHIMERA FORGE[/table]