Chapter 91
“The warning of the wolves.”
The next time Kalysto opened her eyes, it was already daylight.
Her stomach growled, reminding her that she had skipped dinner the night before. The pale tones of the castle infirmary greeted her as the former waitress sat up on the stretcher she had been sleeping on for the past few hours.
Her movement caught the attention of a red-haired woman dressed in a blue robe, who was quick to approach her.
“Miss Luna, how are you feeling?”
“...Fine," she replied, looking around looking for more people. But they were the only two in the room, full of empty stretchers. “Where is Jhuliana? How did I end up here?”
“Oh! She’s resting today. Last night, when Jhuliana went to bring your dinner and check on you, she found you delirious and with a high fever, so the guards brought you here. We suspect you had an allergic reaction. Do you remember eating something that might have made you sick?” As soon as the woman said that, an idea came to Kalysto’s mind.
“ To tell you the truth, the soup they gave me yesterday at the infirmary didn’t agree with me, but then when I got to my room there was this little flower arrangement that as soon as I got close to smell it just... everything got worse,” she lied, trying to sound as pitiful as she could while she found a way to make sure they wouldn’t put flowers in her room again and so she wouldn’t have to worry again about when they would use the famous flowers with which summoners killed the summoned heroes. “After that, I’m not sure what happened next." She lowered her head and looked down at her hands in an effort to sound more convincing while trying to look as confused as she could.
The redhead seemed to believe her.
“I will inform the maid who attends the heroes not to put flowers in your room again, as a precautionary measure. And I ask you to be very attentive to your diet from now on. I imagine that being in another world, allergies are not something strange to develop. Although this is the first time I’ve heard of a hero who gets sick to their stomachs with our food. For now, it would be best to concentrate on eating only fruits and gradually try other dishes. Stay away from soups for the time being.”
After a couple more advices she was allowed to return to her room, accompanied by a servant girl who shortly after brought her a tray full of fruits.
Kalysto looked at the fruits with distrust for several seconds, and after assuring the servant that she would go to sleep after eating, she put the fruits away in the inventory, entered the bathroom and after locking the door from the inside, took out the home stone. Appearing back in her room in the fairy kingdom, where Tsuki greeted her by jumping on top of her while wagging her tail back and forth.
Kalysto laughed at her antics.
“I missed you too!” She commented as she hugged him and stroked his soft fur. “But let’s get something to eat first, then we’ll check on those sick fairies and then take a little walk in the forest, shall we?” Tsuki barked excitedly, and immediately turned to the bedside table where a tray full of food lay, filled with bread, theles, cheese, juice and several sweet fruits that he had not been able to touch thanks to the protective barrier that Alynn always left activated through a magic stone that Tsuki had not been able to deactivate.
Kalysto took the dirty tray out of her inventory and sat down to eat, breaking a couple of breads in half for Tsuki to eat and as soon as she finished eating, she put away the rest of the food in her inventory, then they both left towards the room where the sick fairies were.
But unlike last time, Kalysto wanted to make a small change before she started healing them.
“Mana detection!” Said Kalysto, approaching the first patient, observing for the first time how the internal organs of those who were infected with the plague looked like, and being surprised to see that many of them already had some organs that had begun to petrify. “Blessing!” she said, pointing to herself and feeling a slight increase in her power. Suddenly, the vision of the diseased organs was much clearer and sharper. “Ezhil Purification! Jhil Ezhil! Dispel Ezhil! Mana manipulation!” She added, concentrating her mana on healing the organs she saw in the worst shape, thus speeding up their healing.
And that’s what she did for the next hour.
[The skill Mana Detection has leveled up to level 2!...]...
[The skill Mana Detection has leveled up to level 7!]
[The skill Mana Manipulation has leveled to level 11!]
[The skill Mana Manipulation has leveled up to level 12!]
The higher she leveled up her ‘Mana Detection’ skill, the easier and quicker it became for her to determine where she should concentrate her mana to speed up the healing of each of her patients. And her efforts were rewarded when, after a little more than an hour of hard work, ten of them were completely healed.
As soon as she finished, she took a revitalizing potion to minimize her fatigue, feeling satisfied with all the progress she had made.
“Had I known earlier how useful it was to combine detection with mana manipulation and Jhil Ezhil, I would have finished healing the fairies long ago,” she whispered, surprised at how well those skills worked together despite being of different classes.
“Good morning, champion.” Galatea greeted her. “I thought you would be resting in the human kingdom instead of healing the sick," she frowned, curious about the unexpected encounter.
Kalysto grimaced as she remembered what happened with the two-headed monster’s core.
“I ate something there that went bad. So I preferred to eat here and check on the progress of the patients I’m missing. Now I’ll go to the forest with Tsuki to see if he finds more slimes to level up and I’ll take the opportunity to purify the surroundings” Galatea nodded her head.
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“Hanna told me about the infected monsters you two encountered the other day. For your safety, don’t stray too far. Although we’ve been checking the perimeter and everything seems fine, it’s best not to take any risks.”
“Of course," she replied before she said goodbye and left towards the forest with Tsuki, while she purified everything around her as a way to practice the skill and keep up appearances.
Tsuki, on the other hand, was happy to be able to run around freely instead of being locked up in the lonely room.
“Don’t go so far, Tsuki! Remember what Galatea said!”
“Arff!” answer the excited puppy, who took the opportunity to relieve himself behind a tree and mark his territory.
“I hope the fairies won’t be upset about that," she whispered, “And I hope you bury it well, Tsuki, because I’m not going to clean that up!” She scolded him. “Ezhil Purification!” she conjured several times. She wasn’t sure if it would do any good, but at least she could get rid of the bad smell.
After Tsuki finished marking a couple more trees, they went a little further into the forest as the puppy sniffed the ground.
“Arff!” Tsuki suddenly got excited.
“Did you find something?”
“Arff!”
“All right, come here!” And as soon as he did, she knelt down beside him and placed a hand on the puppy’s furry head. “Blessing!” The golden glow surrounded him completely. “Ready! You can go and finish them off now! Ezhil Purification!” She commented before following him to find a group of thirty slimes around a small cave surrounded by trees.
“At least this time none of them seem to be contaminated," she reassured herself. And she sat down under a leafy tree while letting Tsuki do all the work.
As if she had all the time in the world, she bundled several dozen leaves.
“Blessing!” she said, pointing to the first one. “Strength enchantment!” The leaf immediately disintegrated. “As soon as I can conjure it safely, I’ll use it on Tsuki," she muttered.
Although on second thought, it might be better to put a necklace on him that has all the possible enchantments to help him in combat.... Yes, that might be more useful.
Excited at the thought of a new project, she continued practicing with another hundred and sixty-six of more leaves, until the change in the tone of Tsuki’s barking alerted her that something was wrong.
[The skill Strength Enchantment has been leveled up to level 2!]
Kalysto ignored the notification window, tossed the leaf aside, jumped up and ran to where her pet was being cornered by a group of fifteen wolves half her size slowly advancing towards Tsuki’s small, furry figure.
And where did these come from? She worried. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of over fifteen slime cores on the ground as the surviving slimes fled to their cave or the surrounding area to hide.
The wolves growled as they continued to approach the cub with the intention of intimidating him, and small bolts of electricity erupted from Tsuki’s body in response. One of the wolves stopped keeping its attention on Tsuki and watched Kalysto and as soon as it noticed her presence, it raised its head and let out a prolonged howl, calling for reinforcements.
Shit!
“Ice blades!” Kalysto shouted, slashing the skin of the wild animal’s freshly exposed neck and silencing the howl. “Water blades!” She continued, casting the spell into the eyes of another wolf as she continued to run towards them and drew one of her bows. “Ice arrows!” She launched the three arrows at the head of a third wolf that was next to the other two.
At that moment, the body of the first wolf fell to the ground and the rest of the pack rushed towards them. Kalysto stopped three meters away from Tsuki and began to shoot the arrows she had conjured before, to the eyes, chest and paws of the wolves, making them stumble and fall to the ground. “Ice creation!” She added, creating a sharp ice arrow and launching it right in the middle of the eyes of a wolf that was getting too close to her.
Killing it on the spot.
Several notifications appeared to her left, but she ignored them.
[You’ve gained 5,000 experience points!]
[You’ve gained 7,000 experience points!]
And as Tsuki discharged thin bolts of electricity at anyone who came near him, Kalysto noticed with concern that four wolves were watching them from a distance. Two of which had paws and snouts completely dyed a brilliant shade of black that stood out against their thick, light gray fur.
“Ezhil Purification!” she shouted immediately, recognizing the meaning of those shiny black spots. But they were too far away and the bright golden glow of her skills could not reach them. “Damn!” she complained. Then she put her bow back in her inventory. “Ice daggers!” Two beautiful daggers appeared in her hands. ”Ice manipulation!” She added as she ran towards the six wolves that had rushed at Tsuki, who kept electrocuting them in an attempt to defeat them, but although her puppy could keep them at bay, it wasn’t strong enough to kill them.
Kalysto lengthened the daggers, turning them into thin and very sharp swords, while with her characteristic agility, she ran towards the wolves and cut the first one in half with both weapons, piercing its stomach.
[You’ve gained 5,000 experience points!]
“Tsuki, stop attacking them and get away!” The puppy obeyed her immediately as she slit the throat of another wolf. And two others rushed at her with their sharp fangs exposed.
[You’ve gained 5,000 experience points!]
[You’ve leveled up to level 23!]
Kalysto had to jump backwards and then sideways to evade them, falling just less than an inch from the outstretched claws of another wolf. She barely managed to evade the claw in time and cut off the wolf’s paw when several gusts of wind appeared out of nowhere and cut the wolves’ bodies to pieces.
Immediately, Kalysto turned around, alarmed that she had been turning her back on a possible enemy far more powerful than the wolf pack, only to meet Hanna’s worried gaze, with her bright pink sun-kissed hair and pretty violet eyes.
But before the fairy warrior, who seemed to have run up there as if her life was at stake, and opened her mouth, Kalysto turned to see the pair of wolves spreading the plague. Whose bodies began to regenerate, thanks to the dark liquid coating their paws and snouts.
“Impossible! How could they get through Lady Artemis’ barrier if they were infected?” But instead of answering the surprised and kind fairy, Kalysto ran towards them and before they finished regenerating completely, shouted.
“Ezhil Purification! Ezhil Purification! Ezhil Purification!” And as she did so, the magical wind produced by the fairy, who Kalysto had sworn was a warrior like Galatea and not a mage, continued to cut their bodies into small pieces. Until the thick black liquid was disintegrated and purified by the golden light of Kalysto’s skill. Causing the wolves to stop regenerating.
[You have gained 1,000 experience points!]
[You’ve gained 500 experience points!]
Both women continued to watch them in complete silence for a few more seconds.
What’s really strange, is that although they can infect other species, they don’t seem to infect each other.... Are they intelligent enough to choose who they infect? Kalysto worried, as Hanna approached the bodies and examined them.
Tsuki barked, reminding her mistress about the slime cores he had obtained earlier and immediately Kalysto went over to pick them up and began to put them away in her inventory, but before she could finish doing so, Hanna interrupted her.
“There’s no time for that, Champion! You must return to your room immediately! We’re under attack!”