Arthur stood in front of Ashley Rhye; The failed blood beast with Iris beside him. The poor woman was by all means dead to the world, her only concern being the wailing babe stuck inside her stomach. It was a disturbing sight to see, even compared to some of the more grotesque things Arthur had witnessed in the wake of the system’s arrival, a mockery of the intimate relationship between a mother and her child.
Ashley didn’t acknowledge their presence even considering how close they were and the threat they presented to her race. Arthur wondered if there was anything of her humanity left, any sparks of her previous life present. There had to be if he hoped to have any chance of healing her. He’d considered everything and decided the steep cost of trying to help the woman was worth it, for personal gain and his conscience. If it worked in the first place. If a legendary healing skill can’t do anything, then it was impossible in the first place.
“If we’re going to do this, then we need to hurry up,” Iris warned. She looked up at the dark crimson clouds. “I think we’ll be getting our visitor soon.” She spat the word like it was a filthy curse, “I came here to escape all the sycophants and politics in my father's court. A baby tier-1 world. No one of note should bother with the planet for the next thousand years.” She shook her head morosely. “Sometimes I wonder if I’m cursed to live such a chaotic life.”
Arthur didn’t quite know how to react to her outburst and so focused on the part of the conversation that concerned him. “Visitor? Do you know who they’ll be?” Do we need to get ready for another fight? He didn’t mention the second question aloud, but Iris understood what he was asking.
“With how powerful you are, I almost forgot how new all this system stuff is for you. It’s been what… five, six weeks since the world evolved?”
“Something like that,” Arthur replied dryly. “Though it's felt far, far longer.” That’s the understatement of the century. In the past month and a half, Arthur had fundamentally changed as a person, mentally and physically so much so he doubted the old him would even recognise the person he’d become.
“Well, to answer your earlier question, a little context wouldn’t go amiss,” Iris began. “Tier-1 planets are terribly fragile, especially in their conception stages. It’s why Earth is having so much trouble right now. The ether concentration is also abysmally low, though I’m sure you're already well aware of that since unlocking your class. Honestly, I’m still amazed by that. You threw around an absurd amount of energy during that fight and I’m sure you have to pay a much higher upkeep to maintain your existence here. I have the advantage of my fae heritage that makes my ether usage hyper-efficient and I still need to take an E-grade ether stone once a week.”
“Sorry, I digress.” She apologised. “What I’m trying to say is that anyone with a modicum of power will be hard-pressed to enter this stellar system after passing level 200.” She quickly clarified when she saw his raised eyebrow. Her definition of ‘a modicum of power’ was probably quite different to his own. “I mean those individuals who've established a sufficiently strong foundation that it’s reasonable to expect them to break the class barrier and go beyond level 300 in their lifetimes.”
“That means that any observation of this planet and subsequently our fight, was done via divining magic or the use of extreme perception skills, most probably done from outside the stellar system so the dimensional fabric present here doesn’t tear further. One of the rituals I set up before the fight worked to counter such magic sufficiently so that our observers wouldn’t have a clear picture of what exactly transpired here. You can count on me and Ayesha to keep our mouths shut and Captain Arencia is on the same page. If he betrays us… well, he only saw the last portion of the fight where you didn’t use any flashy skills so it's not the end of the world.”
Arthur was happy to hear that he wasn’t in as much danger as he’d expected, though it galled him that he had any reason to worry in the first place. By all accounts, he’d accomplished a great deed, so why then did he need to fear the consequences? How strong did he need to get before he could stop hiding just how powerful he was? Whatever the case, he was certain he would get there in time, though it had become increasingly clear after this battle that his progress would not be taking place on Earth. He’d fought and defeated a bonafide world threat, with help, yes, but the monster had represented a danger on a near-apocalyptic scale. And he’d only gained two measly levels for his troubles. Facing the lich queen and her armies would help him progress a little more, but after that… it would be between leaving and stagnation. That was hardly a choice at all.
“So if the people watching us can’t come here, then who's this visitor they’re sending?” Arthur asked.
“I was getting to that. For one reason or the other, Earth has been placed on dimensional lockdown. Even if these people wanted to come here, and they could if they were willing to pay an earl's ransom, right now it’s all but impossible. My guess is they’ll send a researcher of some kind, someone with a low enough level that being here won’t matter. I’m unaware if Lady Sleyca has anyone with a cloning skill in her entourage, or I’m sure we’d be meeting with them instead.”
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There it was. That name again. Arthur hoped that the noble lady was off in a far-off galaxy somewhere and the only reason she’d directly messaged him was because his achievements had merely pinged in her radar. Unfortunately, it looked like she was much closer to home, and even more unlucky, she’d been put in charge of whatever hair-brained scheme was taking place on Earth. If Iris had noticed his reaction to Sleyca's name, and he was sure the perceptive woman had, she chose to say nothing. Placing her hand on the golden barrier surrounding the failed bloodbeast, the seer released the magic.
Ashley Rhye didn’t do anything with her newfound freedom. She remained seated on the cold hard ground, hands cradling her unborn child's head, a keening sound of despair and anguish coming from her mouth. Arthur was no stranger to human cruelty, he’d seen his fair share of cartel executions in his time spent surfing the darker parts of the web, but what had been done to this poor woman was perverse and wrong in a way that seemed to reject all that was right and good. It physically hurt him to look at her, and Arthur had to wonder if a concept was at play here.
“I’m not saying I doubt your abilities,” Iris began, “But are you sure you can heal her? Her soul shell has been warped to reflect this monstrous abomination. People don’t recover from that. Unless you're absolutely certain you can return her to human form, it would be kinder to put her out of her misery now.”
Iris’ advice was sound and he agreed with it. If his healing only stopped the timer to her death and did nothing else, he’d be doing nothing but consigning her to a tortuous existence. Still, Arthur wouldn’t have tried to help if he wasn’t certain of success. One of the first things you learned in medical school was to recognise your limits and know not to offer empty healing to those beyond your capabilities. It was needlessly cruel and damaging for all parties involved. He wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t confident he could do something. Even so, Arthur couldn’t help but feel he might be in over his head.
Ashley Rhye had changed so drastically. She wasn’t even the same species anymore. Was that something he could reverse? His skill description certainly seemed to think it was up to the task.
A homunculus Healing (legendary+) level 1- Base effect: Select up to ten individuals. You will heal them at a rate equivalent to 10% of your maximum health pool every minute.
Cost: 3000 ether/minute
Secondary effect: You are capable of healing damage inflicted via poisons, curses, debuffs, disease, illness, concepts ( dependent on concept mastery) and soul damage. (As long as the soul shell maintains 70% integrity)
Cost: Variable
Tertiary effect: You may store healing affinity ether that will recover health equivalent to 50% of your maximum health pool (Maximum health pool at the time of skill usage). This healing energy will persist in the target for seven days before dissipating
Cost: 40,000 ether.
Quaternary Effect: You may bring back a person from beyond death's door and return them to their most recent peak stat so long as their soul remains attached to their body.
Cost: 100,000~1,000,000 ether +10% of total healthpool reduction for 7 days
Cooldown: 60 days
All things considered, his upgraded healing skill was completely broken. Even the primary healing it offered meant he could heal over 25,000 points of damage in a single minute, a number that was far greater than most people's entire health pools. The secondary effect onwards was where things started to get a little insane, with each ability the skill offered being game-breakers in and of themselves.
The skill's fourth effect was what he’d be using to try and heal Asley Rhye. It quite literally offered him a way to reverse any damage and turn back the clock on death, though the costs reflected the magnitude of the promises the skill made. A maximum cost of 100,000 ether was far beyond him right now, especially following the massive energy sink the fight had been, and it was the main reason why he’d enlisted Iris’ assistance. She’d be the one to provide the energy. All he could do was hope it’d be enough to bring back Ashley Rhye. Arthur was a little worried that the presence of the unborn child may interfere with the healing, the skill only worked on one person or if he was being technical, a single soul, and whilst he couldn’t sense a soul in the deformed child, there was certainly something there.
It was the main reason why he hadn’t chosen to heal captain Henderson instead. The man's soul had been merged with two others which went beyond the single greatest limitation of A Homunculi's Healing.
“Are you ready?” Iris asked.
Arthur nodded his head. The first thing the seer did was focus her scrambling ritual around them. It would make what happened in the next few minutes impossible to observe except with the naked eye, and no one on Lady Sleyca’s roster had the requisite perception to see past a million miles. Next, she pulled out ten glowing purple vials from her storage ring, which his skill identified as concentrated Ether flask [Epic-superior grade]. Each of them contained 20,000 points of extremely pure refined ether and cost as much as the more highly sought-after rare skill crystals on the market.
Arthur wouldn't be taking them himself, as they far eclipsed the maximum ether his body could hold and were a higher form of the energy than his body produced, something he’d only just found out you could improve upon. Instead, Iris would absorb the energy and use a ritual to transfer it to him at an equal rate to his skill's energy consumption. Generally speaking, you could only take one such regent every 48 hours, any more and you’d run into the complication known as potion sickness. Even with her unique fae physique, Iris would contract a fairly advanced variation of the illness by the end of this procedure and it surprised Arthur that she was willing to go through with it. Healing Ashley Rhye would cost her far more than it did him.
“Are you ready, Arthur?” He nodded his head. “Then let's begin.”