Arthur’s prodigious ether reserves were completely full and he’d managed to grow his (uncommon) Regeneration skill to level 3, which was certainly the highest anyone on Earth had managed to level any skill. Sure, certain people had managed to evolve their skills, but it was a very recent occurrence.

People simply didn't possess the necessary ether reserves to power level a skill beyond the initial ten levels of system assistance and evolve them and the few that did tend to be fighters. No healer was levelled high enough to just spam their skills like Arthur had done. And they certainly weren't willing to give up on the system assistance provided at earlier levels by experimenting. Healing was in high demand and was highly regulated by the government and those in power.

That was the only reason Arthur had been considered for the job of healing the injured alverin kid. He was the only known healer in America to have foolishly rushed through the period of system assistance without taking any time to try and learn anything, albeit he hadn't known he was being assisted at the time.

He had rushed ahead and was left with a lowly uncommon skill to pay for his troubles. Perhaps if he'd taken his time and properly analysed the usage of ether in healing, he could have pushed for Rare, but there was no point crying over spilt milk. It wasn't all terrible, as it was the primary reason he'd been given this opportunity to rub shoulders with the upper echelons of power. It turned out that the system assistance provided in the first ten levels of any ether skill was a double-edged sword. Whilst it provided a great deal of control and power to any spell someone used, it didn't quite improve it in any way. Sure, it was stronger, but it was like adding the water tank from a fire engine to a Nerf super soaker. Sure you had a massive supply of fuel, but it didn't change the fact that at the end of the day, you were using a water gun.

In terms of healing, this assistance translated to a great ability to heal deadly injuries and regrow limbs, even organs for those more talented, but only for humans who hadn't reinforced their bodies by levelling too high. Individuals with beyond fifty attributes dedicated to a single physical state were far harder to heal.

The alverin boy thankfully didn't possess such stats yet. No, his issue was sadly far more difficult to deal with. The injury he'd been dealt had come from a beast over level 150 that specialised in poison. This meant that his wounds would similarly require a far more concentrated healing skill to deal with than the watered-down stuff the system provided.

Hopefully, Arthur's uncommon skill would be up for the task.

And yet, as he looked down at the young Alverin boy before him, he wondered if it would be enough to heal him. Several tubes and wires were connected to the young alien who looked no older than 10 and yet the boy looked like he was simply sleeping in complete comfort, completely unaware of his current state.

Arthur too would have probably believed that that was the case if not for the gaping wound on the boy's chest. Around 30% of it was simply missing as if it had never existed in the first place and Arthur could see a weakly pumping heart within the boy's ribcage. It looked like a simple injury at first glance, something any healer could deal with, but like Tamo's injury, the presence of an underlying corruption prevented any recovery. The alverins anatomy was thankfully extremely similar to humans and Arthur already had plenty of experience treating them.

He only hoped that the skill would translate to the procedure he was about to undergo. Arthur was frankly shocked that the kid was even still alive with the fact that half of his right lung simply wasn't in his body anymore, thereby invalidating the entire use of such an organ. It really drove home just how miraculous the results could be when ether and magic were paired with modern science.

They were practically bringing someone back from the gates of death and Arthur hoped that one day he’d be able to go a step further and conquer the barrier that was death itself. Heck, he was practically Jesus right now. A second-hand discounted Jesus from Wish but still damn cool nonetheless.

Arthur took a deep breath, preparing himself for what he was about to do. Like usual, he felt himself enter the ‘zone’, a place in which nothing existed besides himself and his patient, the piercing gazes of all the spectators and even Alyssia's dominating presence all but forgotten.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

None of that mattered now. No political game, no enemies, no impending threats, no nothing. Just the job he had before him. Placing a hand lightly on the Alverin boy's chest, who he had come to know as Artemo from his conversation with Alyssia, he drew on his vast reserves of ether. Barely anything at first, only a measly 10% of the precious energy source. Nowhere near enough for the job at hand, but he wasn't really trying to heal the boy yet.

Like he had done when treating Tamo for the first time, as well as any other difficult patients he had dealt with since, he was first going to use his regeneration skill to cast a diagnosis on the Alverin boy. The skill wasn't really made for such a purpose, but Arthur had little difficulty in getting it to do what he wanted. He wasn't the best healer on Earth for no reason after all and his uncommon rank skill vastly understated his true potential as a healer.

Alyssia's sharp intake of breath when she felt him use ether for the first time as well as the excited murmur of all the personnel present was just background noise and didn't even register in Arthur's senses. He was in his own world now. A place of wonder and intrigue, where every cell was an entirely new land that needed cultivating and every iota of foreign ether a great beast that needed to be conquered.

It was much easier to locate the source of Artemo's problem than it had been Tamos, and yet when Arthur laid eyes on it, he felt his heart plummet. This would be a lot of work, far, far harder than anything he had treated before. The foreign ether felt toxic and poisonous like a clogging serpent of disease and death that continued to grow and evolve, almost like it was a living thing.

He had never seen an injury of the sort before, having never even known that ether could be used in such an insidious, invasive way. It was completely new territory for him and for a brief moment, Arthur wished he’d had some time to practice on similar cases before the procedure. He quashed that desire quickly.

There was no point in complaining about his lack of experience, it would get him nowhere, never had, never would. One thing Arthur was certain of, however, was that the monster that had inflicted such a grievous wound was far beyond the estimated level 170 that the government believed.

190, 200?

He glanced back at Alyssia. The woman had told him that the beast would have been little trouble if not for the presence of her brother. It truly put into perspective just how vast the gulf in power between them actually was. His ether scan had finally been completed and he didn't like the results he had learnt from it.

Not one bit.

To heal the boy, Arthur realised he would have to use his regeneration skill to somehow battle the foreign ether and he had absolutely no idea how he’d go about doing that. How the hell was he supposed to use a healing skill to do battle, especially when his skill description was so precise and limited? That was something that was supposed to be impossible without an epic heal, perhaps rare with all his unique advantages. Nonetheless, he was nowhere near ready to do it at the moment. Arthur felt the beginnings of a headache start to form behind his eyes and a slight stream of frustration flowed through him as he tried to think of a solution to the conundrum before him.

After almost 2 minutes of inactivity, the people around him started to realise that there was a problem when there were no changes taking place in Artemo’s condition, though Alyssia still seemed to be perfectly at ease as if the recovery of her brother was already set in stone. Her absolute belief in Arthur’s abilities would have given him a vote of confidence if he noticed it in the first place, though there was little chance of that happening whilst he had his eyes closed and all attention focused inwards.

Finally, after 7 minutes of absolutely nothing, the tension in the room was so thick that you could cut it with a knife. Arthur opened his eyes and smiled. He had done it, he now knew what he needed to do and the blue system message waiting in front of his eyes just widened his grin further.

Congratulations! Your insight into the meandering pathways of the healing arts has led to a breakthrough.

Error...

Host's aptitude was miscalculated...

Self-correcting procedures initiated...

Regeneration (Uncommon)➵Overwhelming Regeneration (Rare)

Skill levels will be maintained.

Rare skills are far more versatile and can be pushed from their parameters far easier than uncommon skills. Dealing with the remnant ether from attacks has now become mildly easier.

Overwhelming Regeneration (Rare) Level 3- Use healing Ether to regenerate your body at 1.6% of max health total per minute of usage. Efficiency drops by 40% when used on another individual. Can be supercharged to target foreign energy and poisons present in wounds.

Cost of usage on host: 25 Ether/minute

Cost of usage on another: 35 Ether/minute

Secondary Effect: 160 healing affinity Ether may be stored as OVERHEALTH in the target of this ability to be used for recovery when the individual is injured. This stored Ether works under Host-Use efficiency levels. Overhealth can be stored in host but undergoes a degradation process. Current time limit: 24 hours

Host's stored overhealth can be used as a single-use attack that will greatly slow down the target's natural regeneration rates as well as destroy ether at a 2:1 ratio. Current ether destruction: 80

Rare skills cap at level 30