It had been painful, more than he had been expecting honestly, and far less than what he could endure. The most painful part hadn’t been George fixing the semi-set bones in his once shattered knee. Instead, it was him pulling his core and meridian back together.

Just as he had said it would be before he even started.

He didn’t make a lot of initial progress on them, as he was focusing on their placement. The Master Healer wanted to ensure that none of them would get worse while he was away.

So that is what he spent his time doing, tweaking each meridian and shard of core he came across. Pushing and nudging them into slightly better positions.

It was exhausting work for him, and more than he had initially meant to do.

Still, when he left a few hours later, Nate felt better than he had since he arrived.

George made sure to tell him that while he had fixed his knees and the bruises, his core and meridians were far from being better. What he was feeling was simply a sign of how messed up he was. Any change for the better was extremely noticeable.

Nina stood over her son as he lay stretched out on his bed. “We got lucky this time, Nate. I never would have thought that someone like the guild master would come and visit us, let alone care enough to heal you.”

He nodded. “I know, mom. I wasn’t expecting anything like this either.”

She ruffled his hair and smiled lovingly down at him. “Get some sleep. I want to see you going to school tomorrow.”

“I know. I had planned on it.”

Niall walked into the room with a sigh. “This is going to complicate things for us. As soon as word gets out of what George did, the families are going to target us again. They can’t go after him, so they’ll come after us instead.”

Nate groaned. “Is it really that bad?”

His father nodded. “I wouldn’t doubt it. Maybe not right away, but in the next week or two after the excitement from this structure settles… Yes, they’ll come after us.”

“Great.” Nate closed his eyes and slumped against his pillows. “I guess we need to start preparing for that as well.”

“Let us worry about that. You just get some sleep and worry about your classes.” Nina said, pulling her husband out of the room. “Night Nate, sleep well.”

“Night son.”

The door clicked shut behind them, leaving only a thin strip of light coming in from the gap at the bottom.

The next morning, Nate opened the screen on his wrist computer before getting out of bed.

Nathaniel Holmes

Age: 17 years

Realm: Unawakened Mortal (Damaged Core, and Meridians)

Core: Grade ??

Strength: 7(-2.8)

Speed: 6(-3.8)

Constitution: 6(-3.7)

Energy: 4.1

Meditative Art: ??

Energy Skills: None

Attack:

Support:

Companion Beast: None

Dungeon Creation - Current limit 1

Dungeon Interface

Dungeon - 1

Avatar

Equip

Don Avatar

Items

Storage

He took a quick glance at his dungeon to make sure nothing had gone wrong during the night and then returned to the menu. The changes from the healing George had done were small, but were still represented on the menu.

Just having that visual confirmation, that what he had done worked, felt good.

It was with a smile on his face that he turned off the screen and climbed out of bed. Nate paused and took a moment to revel in the lack of pain in his knees. Only moving when his stomach rumbled with hunger, reminding him of the cost the healing had on his body.

It only took him a few minutes to get ready for school and then head downstairs to fill his stomach.

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His mother had prepared a simple breakfast for him, that was ready and waiting for him as soon as he went down.

“How are you feeling this morning?” She asked, sipping at her steaming mug.

“I…” He stopped to chew his toast before answering. “Good, better than I have in a while. My left knee no longer feels like it’s going to collapse with every step I take, and my right one isn’t aching either. The rest of me feels a little better as well. I wouldn’t say that it’s a huge improvement, but I can tell that what he did to my damaged meridians and core helped.”

“That’s good, small but steady improvements until you are back to perfect condition again.” Nina smiled, an invisible weight lifting from her shoulders with the revelation that things might work out. “As soon as you’re ready, your father will drive you to school.”

“Just let me grab my laptop and bag and then I’ll be ready,” Nate said after swallowing.

A comfortable silence initially filled the car as Niall concentrated on the road. The radio was off for the moment as they enjoyed their limited time together. With only a few words being spoken between them the entire drive.

“What are you and mom going to do today?” Nate asked, breaking the silence as they neared the school.

“We’ll probably be watching the TV the entire day. The team was set to depart this morning. Who knows when news about them will start to hit the internet or airwaves?”

Nate shook his head. “They are moving way too fast for this kind of operation.”

“You keep saying that, but they’re really not. All the teams keep supplies on hand in case they need to leave on a mission into the Dimensional Zones. Sure, parts of this are different, but the core of the mission is the same. There is no reason it would take them more than a couple of hours to get everything ready to leave.” Niall explained to his son as they pulled up to the school.

“Huh, I didn’t know that. Either way, it just seems like they aren’t being cautious enough and are rushing everything. I’m glad you and mom decided not to go.” He opened his door and climbed out.

Nate was enjoying not needing to use a crutch or cane to walk around. It was a nice break from what he had gotten used to over the last few months.

“You finally lost the limp.” A somewhat amused voice came from behind him as he opened the doors to the school.

Nate held the door open and stepped to the side. “Angelica, it’s a pleasure to see you this morning.”

Angelica Chrighton was considered a minor celebrity in the school. She was good-looking, with long eyelashes and hazel eyes that naturally leaned towards honey, and tall at five-foot-seven-inches. Like everyone else in school, she was trim and fit. On top of all of that, she had two more things going for her. She was nice, at least superficially to everyone, and her family had power.

“I’ve told you before to call me Angie.” She said, stopping beside him and momentarily blocking the door. “Interesting. You look healthier than you did the other day. Is this why you didn’t come to school for a couple of days?” She shook her head and leaned towards him to whisper. “No matter, but it will draw attention from the others. I hope you are prepared for what that means.”

“No, I’m not. I might look a little healthier, but the only thing that has changed is my knee.” It was the truth, mostly.

She leaned back with a skeptical look. “Hmm, if you say so.”

Nate gently pushed her inside, so they weren’t blocking the door anymore. “I do say so. The alchemy guild still refuses to provide the medication I need to repair my meridians and core. We just finally got a decent healer to come out and fix my knee, that’s all.” It was hard to keep the bitterness from his voice.

“Right, I forgot you needed some specific medicine for that.”

He glanced at the students crowding in around them and wondered why she was still talking to him. Angie had always been polite to him, but it had been at a distance. They couldn’t be considered friends, with their limited interactions.

“What’s going on, Angie? I can count on one hand the number of times we’ve spoken before this. You’re not the type of person to approach me and start a conversation for no reason. That’s not who you are.”

“And you know who I am, do you?” She seemed amused by the claim instead of angry.

Nate shrugged. “I know you hold yourself back from the others in school, and that despite being polite to everyone, you don’t actually care for any of us. I’m not sure I’ve even seen you talk to anyone outside of Lindsay some days.”

“You’re more observant than I thought.” The amused look had gradually disappeared. “Fine, you’re right. I don’t care about making connections with others here. I know that I’ll be fine with just the backing from my family.”

Nate quirked his head at that. To his understanding, the Chrighton’s were a semi-powerful family within the city, nothing more. Certainly not something on the level that she could solely depend on. Either she was over-estimating her family, or there was more to them than met the eye.

He thought it more likely to be the second option. Angelica didn’t strike him as a girl who simply said things for no reason.

His eyes narrowed. “What did you just say?”

“I said I would be fine with just the backing from my family.”

Nate somewhat roughly pushed her into an empty room as they were passing by. Glad that she didn’t resist. With his pitiful strength at the moment, a toddler could have escaped from him.

“I’m assuming that the full extent of your family’s power is known to the people of this city and I’m the only one who didn’t know? Were you involved with the people who did this to me?” His eyes shook as he growled at her.

“What? No, of course, we weren’t involved with that! No one knows about my family. How did you figure it out?” She whispered harshly back at him, making sure no one outside the room could hear them.

He took a confused step back. “You told me.”

He quickly explained his thought process to her. Now that he was thinking with a calmer head, he was glad he had been right, or things could have ended in a vastly different manner.

“That’s an interesting leap to take. You weren’t wrong, but I’m not sure how many people would have made that deduction right away. I’ll have to be more careful to never say something like that again in the future.” She admitted.

“I’m curious as to why you even said it this time. We never got around to talking about why you were even speaking to me.”

“George Trellow,” Angelica said simply.

“The Healer’s Guild Master? What about him?” Nate wasn’t about to admit to anything that might hurt the man who had healed him.

“He contacted my father last night and told him that he had just met a most interesting young man.” She rolled her eyes. “My father was most surprised to discover that this remarkable young man not only went to my school but was in my class. He asked that I speak with you and get to know you better.”

“All because George mentioned me during a phone call?” Nate questioned in disbelief.

“The Guild Master and my father go back a long time. He’s actually why we even live in this city. I guess you could almost call him my uncle, just without the blood relation. Anyway, George never shows interest in anyone.”

“So, when he did, that was enough for your father to decide you needed to speak with me.”

“Got it in one.” She leaned back against a nearby teacher’s desk. “I don’t suppose you know why he found you so interesting, do you?”

Nate shook his head. “I hadn’t realized he did. I thought I was just another job, for the most part. I mean, I know he equated what happened to me to his son from before, but that was it.”

“I… now that I think about it, what happened to you does have some similarities to that incident. But I don’t think that’s enough to draw his interest. For him to heal you, sure, but not enough to call my father.”

The bell rang before they could say anything more.