Maxine woke up in the back of a covered wagon on a pile of straw while surrounded by several crates filled with food, clothing and other traveling goods. She could faintly hear arguing coming from outside and the scent of animal manure and dirt. I guess this is better than waking up in a war zone. That would have sucked. Still, I need more information and I need to find the others. I doubt that they would be too far away considering they think I'm still unconscious.
To find Emily, Howard, and Silky, she extended out her spiritual sense and found them rather quickly. They were only a dozen or so feet away. Howard was arguing with what appeard to be a guard to a walled city. Unfortunately, she couldn't understand a word of it, but that didn't stop her from noticing mounted turrets on the walls every thirty feet. So, Guan sent us to the world with all of the heroes and now Howard is trying to secure us entry into the city. But how are those two able to speak so fluently? Guan must have given them a knowledge crystal with their language imprinted on it.
Maxine quickly checked her surroundings and luckily, she found the knowledge crystal in question hidden in one of the wooden crates next to her. It was a simple task to send her spiritual sense into it even from a distance to read it and as expected, it contained all of the knowledge pertaining to the local language.
After learning the language, she checked back on Emily and Howard. "... like I said. Unless you can tell me exactly what your friend's powers are or provide me with some identification we can't let you inside," the guard replied calmly, but a moment later, his eyes filled with lust as his gaze settled on Silky, "But I could be persuaded to bend the rules just this once." Maxine was instantly enraged and wanted to beat the living shit out of the man. Fucking pedophile.
Maxine got out of the wagon with an expression of barely contained rage on her face. She walked straight to Howard and stated, "We're leaving."
"Maxine, you're awake!" Emily shouted as she hugged her. Not to be left out, Silky shouted with glee as she hugged Maxine as well.
The guard was stunned as he looked at Maxine and his face quickly twisted to one of anger. "Get that filthy fucking elf out of here!" the guard roared. Elf? She quickly looked at her hand and saw that it was silver colored. How did I not notice that? No matter. In any case, this guy is prejudiced towards me for a reason. Either that or there was a recent war involving elves. That would explain his hostility. Regardless, I didn't want to stick around if this guard is any indication of how the rest of them are going to behave.
"I already said we are leaving," Maxine answered with cold fury.
"I already told you her appearance changed after her powers awoke," Emily snapped at the guard.
"I don't care. She looks like an elf. Therefore she is an elf. Get the fuck out of here before I call the heros to deal with the lot of you," the guard growled, "You're lucky I havn't done that already."
Maxine glared at him angrily. However she let go of her anger. She couldn't risk angering the humans on this world by beating the living shit out of a guard for not liking his attitude. Not to mention she didn't want Emily to see her violent side. Anyways, it was only a matter of time before this idiot would get himself killed with his behavior. However, an idea popped into her head just as she turned around to leave.
Maxine looked around and spotted an older wolfkin watching over some children. She approaches him and asks, "Hello, Elder," Maxine said politely, "Can I ask you a question?" He looks up and he's momentarily surprised before smiling kindly at her.
"Certainly, what is it that you wish to know?" the wolfkin elder replied.
"What would happen to that guard over there if he were to chase away two healing-type heroes?"
"Well, healers are a rarity, so I would imagine they would punish him quite severely. But they won't outright kill him. I believe the standard punishment is being assigned as the vanguard of the defending forces during any kind of attack for no less than five battles per offense," the wolfkin elder answered. I thought that might be the case.
"Thank you for sharing your wisdom, elder," Maxine said with a slight bow.
"Think nothing of it," the wolfkin elder said with a wave of his hand.
Maxine walked up to Emily and said, "I can't stand to see all of those people hurt. Let's heal the most badly injured before we leave." Amusement instantly appeared in Emily's eyes as she nodded her agreement. She must have heard what the elder wolfkin said.
"Silky, stay with Howard. He will keep the bad people away from you," Maxine said and glanced angrily at the guard.
"'Kay," Silky said as she ran over to Howard.
The guard looked confused for a moment as he watched Maxine and Emily walk towards the injured refugees, but she saw his face begin to pale once Emily started healing a small child. Maxine flashed him a cruel smile before she found a man that looked to be just a few hours from death. She checked on him with her spiritual sense. His wounds were worse than they looked, but were still fatal if left untreated.
He had lost alot of blood, but that isn't what worried her. He several of his internal organs were damaged. It was as if something very large had hit him and he got cut up after landing in some thorned bushes. However, it was within her ability to heal. It will be better for me to establish myself as a healer on this world. I've only shown myself as a warrior. This will make it harder for anyone to realize who I am.
She quickly wove her essence and mana together to repair his damaged blood vessels first. It wouldn't do any good to heal everything else if he bled to death. Next she worked on repairing his damaged organs. It wasn't as draining as she feared, but it still took a bit out of her to heal him. Thankfully she only spent about five percent of her total reserves healing the poor man.
Maxine stood up and dusted off her clothes. She looked over to the guard again and saw two men in combat armor watching her carefully. They almost looked ready to attack her on the drop of a hat, but the guard, on the other hand, was sweating bullets. She ignored him as turned to see several people bringing their wounded to her. These poor people they see me and Emily as the only means to save their loved ones. They don't care what my race is.
A corpulent man with a minor wound on his left arm forced his way infront of them and demanded, "Elven bitch, heal me or else." Without even blinking, she backhanded the fat bastard away from her and unintentionally sent him flying. Wow, I didn't mean to hit him that hard. I just wanted to smack him to the side. I really need to get a handle on my new strength. Thankfully, it doesn't look like I kill him, so he should just take it as a lesson not to call anyone a bitch. She heard a couple amused chuckles behind her as well as a groan of pain to her left, but she ignored all of her distractions as she examined injured the boy.
He was covered in bruising and had multiple broken bones. Inflamation inside of his head was quickly becoming an issue. She deftly used her essence to drill a hole in his skull to relieve the pressure and began healing him. His wounds were consistent with being trampled. He must have gotten knocked down while others were panicking. I'm surprised he lived through that.
"Will my boy live?" the boy's father asked.
"Yes, he will. He just needs bedrest and something to eat," Maxine told them before she moved to the next most badly injured person.
She kept going from person to person until she ran out of essence and mana. She sat down on the back of the wagon she had previously been inside. She was exhausted, but she had managed to heal a total of forty two people. Most of which would have died without her help. Emily had healed over fifty and was still going strong. Divine essence really is matchless when it comes to healing efficiency.
"You have a very kind heart for an elf," one of the men in battle armor from earlier said, "There are countless more people within the city that could use your help. You could do more to help by joining the heroes of Kalindor." They are already trying to recruit me? This asshole isn't even mentioning the benefits for joining. He must either think I'm stupid or a saint. Although after my little display, he is probably thinking more along the lines that I'm a saint.
After a moment of silence, Maxine answered, "I couldn't stand watching those innocents suffer. I simply did what was right after I was turned away from your fair city simply based on my appearance."
"Oh? And who turned you away?" the man in combat armor asked with a hint of anger in his voice and Maxine finally noticed a hero's badge on his shoulder. That makes things a little easier to understand.
Maxine pointed at the now pale and sweating guard as she answered, "Him. He wouldn't even let me tell him what my abilities were."
"I see. He has caused trouble before and was assigned here thinking he couldn't mess this up. He won't be able to avoid his fate this time," the hero said coldly. However both of them turned to look at a nearby commotion.
"There! That's the elven bitch that tried to kill me!" the fat man from before roared without warning as he pointed at Maxine while being flanked by two soldiers. She gave the fat bastard a withering glare, but the hero beside her quickly put himself between Maxine and the fat man.
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"I'm Hero Katarn and this elven maiden is a skilled healer. That idiotic man attempted to impede her when she was performing life-giving treatment," the hero said loudly, "If anyone should be punished, it's him."
"But that bitch is an elf! I don't care if she's a healer or not. She should be strung up for daring to hit a human!" the fat man roared.
"And I don't care what your opinion is on the matter. She is a healer and regardless of her race, we need every healer we can get. I can't let this stupidity slide and I will punish you according to the law," Hero Katarn said calmly as he pointed at the fat bastard and immeidately after the guard, "Send those idiots to the front lines."
"Sir, yes sir!" the two soldiers said before they grabbed the fat man and the guard before dragging away the kicking and screaming duo.
"Thank you," Maxine said, "Can my daughter come with me into the city as well?"
"All your family members can come in with you," Hero Katarn said and he looked around, "Where is your daughter by the way?"
"She's over there," Maxine said as she gestured towards Howard, "She's the little girl with short black hair."
"She looks nothing like you," Hero Katarn remarked.
"She's adopted. I found her a couple years ago in the woods. She was all alone and I wasn't going to leave her there," Maxine said and called for Silky, "Silky, come over here."
"Coming, mama," Silky said as she jogged at a normal pace to Maxine. Oh? Silky is trying to be incognito as well.
"This is Hero Katarn. He's going to let us into the city," Maxine said.
"Thank you!" Silky said while smiling widely.
"You're welcome, little one," Hero Katarn said with an equally big smile.
"Mama, when can I get changed?" Silky asked innocently, but she knew what Silky meant. She wanted to revert back to her arachne form. She had to once every month to avoid stunting her growth. Oddly, Hero Katarn seemed to pick up on something that wasn't said.
"What do you mean by that?" Hero Katarn asked, "Can't you do that here?"
"My teacher told me not to let anyone other than mama, grandma or my future husband watch me do it," Silky answered, "And you're not any of them. You're just a pervert!" Maxine stiffled a laugh at Silky's ingenuity.
"Silky can it wait until we have a place to stay?" Maxine asked after straightening her expression.
"Yes, mama," Silky answered.
"Well, can you arrange for me and the rest of my group's lodgings?" Maxine asked Hero Katarn.
"Yes, there are two mansions specifically constructed and reserved for healers and their families," Hero Katarn said proudly, "Healers are so rare that we have to encourage them to come to this city by any means necessary. You and that other young woman would be our fourth and fifth healers in this city." Jesus, that's rare. On Earth, one out of a hundred cultivators can heal. These guys have it even worse.
"I see, so that's why that man said he doubted that two healers would appear here," Maxine said more to herself than anything else as she nodded her head, "Now, I need to recover my strength. I drained myself considerably by healing so many."
"I understand. There will be a squad of B class heros here shortly to assist me in escorting the four of you to your new homes," Hero Katarn said, "And tomorrow, you need to go to the Hero Registration Center to determine your rankings, but I imagine you must be at least an upper B rank."
"Thank you again," Maxine said and got into a meditative pose on the back of wagon.
The first thing she did was check on her ki core. She had to make sure the spiral inside of it wasn't malformed due to her rapid rise in cultivation. Thankfully, the spiral was only slightly out of balanced and would take mere minutes to fix. Thus she began to cultivate all three energies in the air to correct the problem.
She sense the arrival of four peak iron stage cultivators just as she resolved the issue with her ki core. However before she could stop it, essence, mana and ki surged into her body forcing her to remain cultivating or risk injuring herself. Guan had warned her that when her cores were ready they would breakthrough to silver stage. She just hadn't expected it to be so sudden. She just hoped the breakthrough from Iron to Silver stage wouldn't be too spectacular. Guan had warned her that it might be.
Unfortunately, her fears were proven correct as three huge spirals appeared infront of her. There was one infront of her forehead, one infront of her chest and the last one appeared just below her navel. It bothered her a lot that she was in public for her breakthrough, but she doubted they would attack her. She was technically a healer and if anything, they would want protect her. Gradually, her cores were shifting to silver stage as they took on a glossy grey metallic shine and the spirals vanished as she finished her breakthrough to silver stage.
When she finally finished and opened her eyes, everyone were looking at her with shock and dismay. It made her self conscious about her appearance and she retreated into wagon.
"Form up around the wagon!" Hero Katarn shouted as Silky and Emily joined her on the back of the wagon, "Open the gates! We've delayed here long enough!"
As they went through the gates, Maxine peeked outside and saw several modern buildings to either side of the street. None of them were within fifty feet of the defensive wall and there wasn't a single modern vehicle to be seen. She could only guess that they simply didn't have the oil reserves to have any.
A few of the citizens within the city got a look at her and gave her hostile glares. She didn't know why humans were so hostile towards elves. It was something she would have to investigate later. I really wish I had noticed that I was in Shadow Queen form before I made my appearance now, but no going around it now. They already know me as an unusual variety of elf. No point in changing it now. It would only confuse them if changed now.
However she noticed something that caused her anger to ignite: explosive collars on beastkin. She quickly forced her fury down and had to remind herself to remain Calm down. You have no idea why they have those things on them. They could be putting those collars on criminals like they did on Earth and none of them look like they are being abused in any way.
It wasn't long before they reached a group of small mansions that were walled off from the rest of the city. Even without actively using her spiritual sense, she knew that there was only one healer present and this middle aged man barely qualified as an iron stage cultivator. Well, that confirms one of my suspicions. These people either havn't developed a cultivation technique yet, no one is sharing one, or it can only be used by a handful of people. That would definitely explain why I didn't detect anyone use their spiritual sense earlier as well. It could be as simple as they don't know how to use it yet.
As soon as the wagon was pulled infront of one of the mansions, everyone got off of it. The mansion itself seemed like it had enough space for their entire group with room to spare.
However before she could even take more than a step to it, a gardener roared in anger as he threw his shovel at Maxine. She deftly caught it midair at the sharpened edge with two of her fingers.
"Give me back my son, you elven bitch!" the gardener roared, but fear seemed to keep him from charging at her.
"I'm not an elf," Maxine snapped as she dropped the hurled shovel onto the ground, "Not a pureblooded one in any case. While I can appreciate your anger towards the one that is responsible for your son's death, I had nothing to do with it." She glanced at the heroes, but not one of them had moved even an inch. Those fuckers are prejudiced too.
"What is she doing here?" one of her new neighbors asked in a neutral tone while the gardener left the walled off area for the healers on his own, "I was under the impression that not even half-elves were allowed in the city."
"She's the exception. She's an A class healer," Hero Katarn answered, "The other young lady is at least a B class healer. Both of them are more powerful than you, Carl."
"I'm going to complain to the govenor about this," Carl said angrily, "That halfbreed shouldn't be allowed in the city. I don't care if she's A class or not." I'm getting real tired of this racism bullshit.
"Who do you think approved for her escort into the city?" Hero Katarn said in amusement, "And even if the govenor hadn't, I would have recruited her myself. She earned that much after selflessly healing over forty refugees that would have died otherwise."
Carl harumphed at Maxine before walking back into his rather large home. Hero Katarn looked at her apologetically and lead her to one of the two empty mansions.
"It seems a little wasteful to have such a large home for just myself and Silky. Can the four of us stay in the same home?" Maxine asked.
Her question seemed to surprise Hero Katarn as he answered, "It's standard practice to grant healers and their family a mansion. It's odd that all of you want to share these accomodations."
"Emily's my lover and she's the only reason I'm here at all," Maxine said while giving Emily a loving gaze and Emily returned it in kind.
"Uhhh, right," Hero Katarn said uncomfortably before he regained his composure, "The four of you can stay in one mansion. Your house keepers will greet you inside. I have to go back to my duties. I will try to come by and visit you another time." Maxine could have sworn he winked at her before he left. Oh, so he's in to elves. That's why he was so eager to help me. Too bad for him I have no interest in him.
"Shall we?" Maxine asked as they walked into the mansion. As expected, she was greeted by ten servants and the head maid lead them each to their rooms. Afterwards they met up in the entertainment room and sat down infront of a holographic television. The only channel that they had was the news and it recounted the latest battle against a beast horde at a neighboring city.
[Maxine, I don't think anyone here knows how to use spiritual sense,] Emily said via spiritual sense halfway through a news cast, [I haven't once sense anyone talking with each other using it.]
[I noticed,] Maxine agreed and remembered Guan's message before she passed out, [By the way, daddy mentioned you were going to fill me in on what's going on with me. I don't like being left in the dark.]
[Sorry, I havn't gotten to it yet. I was distracted,] Emily apologized, [I know you already figured this much out, but Guan faked your death. He has your clones and since they are techinically still living, he is making a show of taking care of them in hopes that your soul will reform in them. But as you know, it's just a facade.]
[You're right I already guessed that,] Maxine admitted, [What about me being a Shadow Queen? And did Turan ever explain why they needed me?] I'm not going to trust what Avernus said unless Guan corroborates it.
[Yes, he did. Their race is dying out. Only a few of them can still reproduce and they were hoping that their ancestor would be able to fix the problem,] Emily answered, but hesitated for a moment before continuing, [But that isn't all of it. Even if they couldn't get him to come, they had another plan. They ... they were going to use you and your clones as breeding stock with the few members of their race still capable of having children, but now they don't dare anger Guan any further by taking your clones away.] Those motherfuckers!
[And how did daddy react to finding out those details?] Maxine asked tentatively as some of her angery leaked through their spiritual sense connection.
[Please, I rather not talk about it. Just listening him explain how he would kill those responsible gave me nightmores for a week,] Emily said while looking ill. Well, it must have been pretty brutal if it had that kind of effect on her. Although that body melting poison sounds nasty enough. How could it be worse than that? On second thought, I rather not know.
[It's alright. I know he can be brutal to the extreme when angered,] Maxine said and change the subject, [How did everyone take my 'death'?]
[A few politicians came by to give condolences to your parents, but beyond that, only our friends and family showed up pay their respects. Still, I never expected Patrick of all people to cry,] Emily answered.
[Seriously? Patrick cried? I thought he hated me,] Maxine said.
[So did everyone else,] Emily said.
[Weird,] Maxine said while shaking her head and saw the time, [Well, we better head to bed after dinner. We both have an errand and probably medic duty tomorrow. We will need our rest.]
[Agreed,] Emily said, [Before that thought, I just want to cuddle.] Maxine happily obliged Emily by wrapping an arm around her and got more comfortable. I don't think I could stand being separated from her on a near permnament basis again and tomorrow shouldn't be too hectic. They already know that I'm silver stage or rather A class.