Chapter 89
“Waking up somewhere else.”
Pain engulfed her as thick shadows devoured her world.
Her consciousness seemed to come and go as the fear of being unprotected in the middle of a dungeon where at any moment other monsters could come and devour her as they saw her helpless grew.
But beyond the pain, dizziness and weakness, Kalysto could not even move a finger.
She didn’t know how long she was like this, though it seemed like hours. Until finally she could open her eyes, but all she could see was nothing but blurry, formless blobs. A pitiful moan escaped her throat as soon as she tried to move to shield her eyes from the strong ambient light.
Where am I?" It’s too bright for it to be the inside of the dungeon...Did the guards come in to take us out? Her thoughts jumped back and forth as she closed her eyes again. At least now I can feel and move my fingers. She assured herself. And a pitiful moan escaped her throat.
Seeing that she was having difficulty moving she extended her mana, trying to mimic what she had done to sense the monsters in the cave, but unlike before, she could only feel two presences near her, and one of them was getting closer and closer. Frightened at the thought that it was one of the two guards guarding the entrance wanting revenge for her not taking care of the other guard, she tried to get up, causing a wave of pain to shoot through her torso, leaving her breathless.
“Wait! Please don’t move!” said a soft, feminine voice, which Kalysto was sure she had never heard before.
“Who are you? Where am I?” she murmured, feeling her throat rasp as a sky blue light flooded her blurred vision, but the pain remained. “Why can’t I see properly?”
“I’m sorry, Miss Luna. You are now inside the royal palace infirmary. The guards brought you next to a badly wounded soldier. Because his wounds are much more serious, I have been given priority to him. Even though I am an intermediate level water mage, the rest of the mages were dispatched to tend to the survivors of the last city that was invaded by monsters. For the moment, I am the only one in charge.”
“What’s wrong with my eyes?”
“Due to the large collection of wounds, your broken ribs and the severe blow to your head, I have been using water magic and some ointments to heal you. Please don’t try to open your eyes until I remove the medicine," the feeling of a wet cloth passed over her eyes, forehead and eyebrows before the unknown woman spoke again. “Ready. You can open them again!”
As soon as she did, Kalysto could see the white walls of the infirmary along with the collection of empty stretchers, except for hers and the guard’s, whose leg was now bandaged.
“His case is rather sad, isn’t it?” whispered the woman, who looked to be in her thirties. “Thank goodness there is a new saintess in the temple. We are waiting for her to arrive at the palace since I could not stabilize him enough for him to be transported. I hope the new saintess can also check on your condition. I am concerned about your head injury. Although I was able to patch you up as best I could, I’m sure the new saintess can do a better job. Besides, I can’t repair broken bones, only speed up the body’s natural healing," continued the sympathetic woman, who looked tired.
“The temple?” whispered Kalysto, wanting more information as she feigned ignorance and began to cough.
“Here, drink this pain potion," said the healer as she handed her a green vial and helped her drink it while a pair of notification windows appeared to her left.
[The passive skill Pain Resistance has been activated.]
[The passive skill Mental Defense has been activated.]
“My apologies. I completely forgot that you are not from this world. The main temple of the capital belongs to the goddess of light, but since the old gods went to sleep centuries ago, it has been the goddess Mhiralla the only one who stayed to watch over humanity” then she lowered her voice, as if she was telling her a secret, “although she is actually the daughter of Arharella, the goddess of light and Fieal, god of ether. And not a main goddess, but a minor goddess.”
Wasn’t Mhiralla the name of the fairy queen’s enemy? Kalysto worried, remembering that it was Mhiralla who had attacked them and brought plague to her people. How is it that a goddess, or daughter of gods, can bring plague and create monsters?
“Recently, the goddess Mhiralla chose a new saintess," she added excitedly. “Which is great, considering that the previous one is an arrogant woman who thinks she’s a big shot and only dedicates herself to heal the nobility from time to time, without fulfilling almost any of her duties as a saintess. Besides, there have been several problems with her,” she whispered. “And well, everyone knows she is the king’s mistress” as soon as the words left her lips, she covered her mouth. “I shouldn’t have said that!” she said, looking around as if the walls could tell her secret- “You must not repeat that! It’s something everyone knows, but you don’t say it out loud!” she urged her.
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“Don’t worry about it. I won’t tell any ‘person’ about it,” she said with a smile, wanting to calm the brunette woman down. “By the way, how is it that you can heal someone with your magic?“ The surprise shone again in the brunette’s eyes, so Kalysto hastened to explain. “It’s just that in my world neither magic nor mana exist, so for me this whole process is supremely strange.”
“Oh, I see! Of course I can explain." The woman was thrilled to be able to move on to a much safer topic. The element I chose years ago when I was barely into my teens when I awakened the system, was water. With my two older brothers being one a knight and the other an adventurer, I thought it would be the most useful thing to be able to help them. Besides, in Thuzar, the small village where we were born, there were no healers. And I had heard from one of my brothers that water healers could heal people. Which made me think that it was an excellent option back then to earn money since we lived in a very poor village," she commented sadly. “Unfortunately, back then I didn’t know that it was so difficult to level up the mage class, let alone that I had to go all the way to level 21 in order to awaken the first healing skill. If it wasn’t for my brothers, I would never have made it. It took years before I could level up, until I finally awakened my skill and dedicated myself to healing everyone in town, especially my brothers. It was after I leveled up water and mana manipulation to level 10 that I was finally able to unlock the second level of the healing skill.”
Another skill I need to level up! She thought.
“There are several levels? How many are there?” Kalysto interrupted her.
“There are three levels: basic, intermediate, and advanced healing. There are very few healers with an advanced level of healing, as far as I understand they can heal serious internal wounds, but even if we can close wounds and accelerate the healing of tissues, we cannot make a leg grow back, that is something only a saintess can do," she said, giving a sad look to the young soldier. “Still, while there is much a healer can do with their magic and the aid of potions, it can never compare to the great healing power of holy water, with which even broken bones can be healed in a matter of minutes. It is because there has been a shortage of it for years that water mages like me have been able to get work, but with the arrival of the new saintess that will change in a few years when she can up her skill," she added grimly. “If it weren’t for my hometown being destroyed by a monster invasion a few weeks ago, I would be planning to return there.”
“My condolences. Both for the loss of your village and the future loss of your job," Kalysto sympathized, remembering all that she had suffered for lack of money.
“Thank you,” she whispered, lowering her dark black eyes to her clasped hands.
“And what do you plan to do when that happens?” the mage looked at her blankly. “It’s always good to be prepared in those cases. I’ve been without a job before too. It’s horrible and sometimes it takes months to get a new one,” she added with genuine concern.
“Well, in my case, my older brothers are both in the capital, but Jhon, the one who is part of the adventurers’ guild, told me the other day that it would be better for us to travel to the kingdom of Bhallys. There, wizards are well received and there are no prohibitions for potionists like me, so I could live with peace of mind. Just as many other wizards have done after fleeing from here,” she added the last in a low voice.
“Bhallys?” Kalysto asked, recognizing the name of the kingdom that performed the summoning in the book of ‘Hero’s Fall’.
That’s where Thomas is!
“It is a good place to live, but the south has been invaded by monsters. Even so, the capital is safe since they have a better military power than ours. And it’s much safer there than here," she commented, giving a sidelong glance at the sleeping soldier, who was deeply asleep.
“Why is it no longer safe for a wizard to live here?” she asked curiously, lowering her voice.
“Well, it’s not that it’s not safe per se, it’s just that the king has issued so many bans in recent years in his attempt to monopolize the potions business that many wizards have fled to other realms in order to continue their business," then she leaned closer to her, as if she were telling a secret, and whispered. “The potions business used to be the domain of the mage tower, but after the large number of monsters and the dangerous dragon that came with the hero summoning and the king wanted to force all the registered mages in the kingdom to go after him, all the mages in the tower fled. For the moment I am safe as I am only a healer, but my brothers are very worried about my well being.”
After a couple more hours of chatting, in which she explained in great detail how she raised her healing skill to the intermediate level, the kind brunette had explained the geography of the continent and Kalysto paid special attention to the villages near the capital. She also discovered with joy that the kingdom of Bhallys was right next to Balsac.
After giving her more pain potions, and a watery, tasteless soup made of milk and soaked bread. A knight from the temple came, carrying the wounded soldier to the temple, announcing that the saintess could not travel all the way to the palace just to heal a mere soldier of minor rank. And despite the brunette water mage’s insistence, the knight refused to take Kalysto.
After assuring Jhuliana, the kind healer, that she just needed to rest. Kalysto was taken to her room.
“Are you sure you’ll be all right?” She asked her for the tenth time, after unlacing her boots, putting them next to the bed and helping her to cover herself. As if Kalysto was a little girl who needed all her help and care.
“Of course I do. A couple of hours of rest will do wonders for me.”
“I’ll still talk to the marquis so they don’t force you to train tomorrow. I’ll come check on you in the morning," she said, before depositing a collection of health, revitalizing and pain-relieving potions on the bedside table.
As soon as the woman left, Kalysto sighed in relief and pulled the bottle of high quality holy water from her inventory and took a long swallow, feeling the itch on her head and torso as it healed.
She then took the opportunity to use a skill she had been ignoring until now.
“Mana detection!” She whispered as she watched the vision of her body change, acquiring dark spots that began to diminish as the holy water healed her injured internal organs and broken ribs.
As soon as the pain subsided and she felt better, she got out of bed and took one of the revitalizing potions Jhuliana had given her, and move the couch to make sure no one entered the room without her consent.
Then she turned around and observed her room.
“All right! I’ve got a lot to do!” She whispered excitedly.