I finally got the name of the group, and it was unimaginative. The "Ruby Mace."

I can see the inspiration in the name since a blunt instrument is a traditional weapon to counter shields.

It doesn't matter if you block the blow if it still breaks your arm. But did the group need to add a red color to the name?

I guess ruby is also a gemstone, but it doesn't work well. Was the "Ruby Hammer" already taken? Even if they wanted the opposite of cerulean, a blue color, they should've gone for a orange color. Technically that's the opposite of blue.

Yellow is also the opposite in different systems. Colors are complicated.

I'm sure these eight people aren't the founders of the organization. Since the organization is in direct opposition to one of the three largest guilds, it being shoehorned by a group of level 100s wouldn't make sense. I won't hold the name against them then.

Ruby Mace's goal in Goldenfield is obviously to undermine the Cerulean Shield. Honestly, with all this espionage and sabotage, I'd name the guild the "Vermilion Dagger," but that's probably taken.

Shit, maybe naming things is trickier than I thought.

They needed a healer because all the ones in the city are currently under the Cereluan Shield's control. They aren't using the prospect of healing to extort people in need any more than the medical industry already does, but there is an issue.

They are gatekeeping healing.

Healers working for hospitals can refuse service with some exceptions. And independent healers can't just put up a stall and charge people for healing—something about medical malpractice and being able to be sued quite easily.

It's social hypocrisy that famous rankers can go about healing people willy-nilly and get praised for it. However, a person without that fame could be sued to oblivion and even jailed for not wanting to work for the conglomerate that is the medical industry.

The people who are being gatekeeped seem to be random since they get turned away for various reasons. But the parallels between those people are that they are a part of or have relatives in guilds that are not aligned to the Cerulean Shield.

I'm not just talking about Caliphaxe either. Huge guilds like the big three would have sub-guilds having their own beef with guilds on their level.

I didn't understand before, but a branch office is just a term for one of the sub-guilds.

They're different since they aren't guilds that were subjugated under their name, but something deliberately set up so managing the entire guild wouldn't fall on one person.

A king and his vassals.

I'm not sure how healing these people would change anything. Without healing, I guess they would eventually need to support the guild or something, but leaving the city and going elsewhere would suffice unless it's that critical.

Regardless I'll do the job if it will get me paid. Ruby Mace asked if I wanted to be paid in credits, but instead, I wanted something more specific.

I wanted some grimoires that Duchess could study so she could expand her magic. There was a lot of deliberation about what exactly we were negotiating for, but I managed to get three grimoires for around a day worth of work.

It looks like I'm getting the better end of the deal, and that's what I wanted. Ruby Mace needs an unaffiliated healer, and I'm all they got.

They could smuggle their own healers from outside the city, but they'd rather pay me than risk their healers dying. Lucky me.

We finished the deal, and now I'm sitting in my plague mask, healing everyone in this pop-up tent in the slums. I'm not trying to catch a lawsuit regardless, so I'm keeping my face hidden.

[Scientific Insight+] helps me identify what's wrong with my patients as I blast them with [Heal Anything].

I reread my skill.

[Heal Anything U lv1

You can spend mana to heal any target.

Mana to Health conversion 1-5.]

Can it heal "anything?" It can 'heal' any 'target,' but that's not the same as healing 'anything.'

I don't think I can heal concepts or death. At least not right now.

Most of my patients come in with fractures and breaks, and a few wounds still need to be stitched up.

The average level 50 human, with all their attributes balanced, would only have around 250 health. That means I can heal about four people on the brink of death before needing a break.

Luckily for me, all I need to do is patchwork.

My beasts, excluding Flash Gordon, had to stay away from the tent because their presence would only bring stress. Apparently, people don't like giant snakes staring at them or a shiver of sharks circling their bloody bodies. Not to mention Rob, the undead are still discriminated against heavily by most if not all races.

My mind starts to drift while I set the broken bones in a burly man's hand.

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

The only undead I have run into are the skeletons found in the Endless Graveyard, the first fracture I fell into. Most nonsapient creatures are called "mobs" because they usually come in crowds. Those skeletons are perfect examples.

Unthinking creatures only focused on base instincts or the commands of a higher power. I can argue that I've met a few "mobs" amongst the human population in that case.

Then there are cases like Rob, who is obviously an undead creature with sapience and higher thinking. He has hobbies and wants. He can think for himself and feel emotion. He loves that puzzle cube I gave him on one of the first nights I tamed him.

He's a good boy.

He's different from the undead I've met before, maybe excluding that champion.

That arena master would showboat and had the honor of a warrior, definitely not another drone.

Where was I? Undead discrimination.

The massive threat of unyielding monsters with undying envy for the living would cause the many races to exterminate them on sight. But not every undead is a rampaging monster. Rob hasn't killed anyone without my express command.

What classifies as undead? Is it a body that moves without life? Would a golem made of a corpse be considered undead, or would that just be a fucked up golem?

Can you do "necromancy" without "necromancy" in that case?

I scan my [Lexicon] while sending the confused man away, as I have said nothing to him and caressed his hand until it was healed.

[An undead creature can usually be distinguished with the senses. Visually they can be grotesque with exposed bones or the telltale signs of decay. The scent is a factor to tell if it's someone who's goth or a threat to your safety. The living have a natural instinct to detest the smell of rot. Use your instincts if all else fails. Skeletons usually make rattling sounds, and zombies shamble. When you don't hear the undead is when you are in trouble.

If you can touch or taste the supposed undead and still can't identify that it's undead, then you won't need to worry for much longer. Or at all, for that matter.

-Dardragon's Guide to not Dying: Undead Edition]

Not that helpful. I continue skimming.

[Six distinct characteristics classify an undead, and each undead must have at least three of these classifications.

No Breathing. The undead has no need for breath except for specific instances. Some undead 'breath' out toxic fumes or necrotic energies. It's unknown whether they need to breathe in, but as a technicality, they can 'breathe.'

Specific Sustenance. All beings need an energy source to move and 'live,' but the undead does it differently. They sustain themselves on mana (the blood of life), but how they get that mana differs for each kind. Skeletons naturally absorb the mana, but they typically need mana-dense locations to survive for long. Most spirit-based undead feed off emotions or the soul. We believe they siphon the mana from the soul rather than eating it wholesale. We still are looking into how our feelings carry mana.

No Exhaustion. It seems redundant to put 'exhaustion' on the list. If the undead needs to 'eat,' the undead would eventually run out of energy. Right? Wrong. When we run out of steam, we pass out from exhaustion, but the undead just dies. They can sustain themselves on very little and store a ludicrous amount for as long as they 'live,' but if they run out, they die. We are specifically looking for signs of exhaustion. Look out if they need to rest or enter a 'sleep' like trance.

Holy Magic. It's scientifically proven that the undead is vulnerable to holy magic from gods that view them as abominations and cannot cast such spells. However, the opposite is true as well. Undead typically have affinities with domains falling under evil gods such as...

Immortality. Undead do not perish from the sands of time. Bodily functions do not matter. Rot and decay are signs of malnutrition rather than age. Undead who shares the exact figure and face as when they were alive do not get older past that point.

(Un)Death. Undead are creatures between the dance of life and the call of death. Creatures that have died before and now bear most of the characteristics above are usually the benchmark for proving if something is undead.

Addendum. Undead created from mana has been documented but not replicated outside of temporary puppets. Places with natural undead usually are filled with death and miasma. It's the undead version of the primordial soup.

-Unnamed Scientific Findings.]

Pity that the names of the evil gods were not there.

Most of that information is redundant, but I'm glad I found what I was looking for. Let's grade Rob to see if he is undead.

Rob doesn't need to breathe, and he abuses that fact to bury himself regularly. One checkmark.

Rob doesn't need to eat or sleep. He likes to pretend to do both to fit in, but I haven't seen him do either. I assume he sustains himself off of me since I'm his tamer. Two more checkmarks. Technically he passes already, but let's continue.

He breaks from anything, so I'm not sure if he would be vulnerable to holy magic or if he is just susceptible to everything, but Rob is immortal. He's even self-assembling. I'll give him two more checkmarks.

Fuck. Is Rob natural, or is he the reanimated corpse of a child? There are humanoid races around Rob's height, and sometimes humans can get that short, but his initial bone structure was suspiciously 'young.'

This is fun.

I start putting random creatures or people into those categories to see if they are undead. I'm definitely not undead, and neither is anyone else around me, so I start categorizing known undead creatures.

As I heal the back pain from an old lady, I start meticulously classifying undead based on how "undead" they are.

Most ghosts get a 5/6 since they usually have a "wail" or an "icy breath," and I think that's a technicality.

Ghouls were a funny one to categorize. They are emancipated humanoid with sickly pale skin that eats dead bodies and takes the form of the last person they ate. They naturally secrete toxins from their grotesque hands and have mouth bacteria so toxic it could send people into shock.

They get a 3/6, barely passing. Ghouls eat dead flesh, and they'd typically kill you before they eat you. Since mana doesn't stay in the body for too long after death, and ghouls aren't picky on what kind of dead body they eat, that points to not sustaining themselves on mana but meat. They also sleep and breathe. It might be a side effect of transforming into their last meal, but they do both nonetheless.

Vampires were next, and I was surprised. They both got a 6/6 and a 0/6.

They don't need to breathe, but they do. Vampires need blood from the living to sustain themselves, but they rarely can substitute with meat. They don't exhaust themselves but could enter a trance purely for mental fatigue. They can deplete their minds without dying but can't tire their bodies.

I'll get back to holy magic.

Vampires do not age, but they sure as hell have bodily functions. Some even have faint heartbeats. And vampires aren't born from corpses. My [Lexicon] doesn't have the exact process of turning into a vampire, but it heavily implies having a vampire do something to you that puts you into a pseudo-death that could kill you. They don't just pop up.

The interactions between gods and vampires are funny because there has been a documented case of a high-ranking follower of a "good-aligned" god becoming a vampire and not suffering from the holy vulnerability. They still lost all favor with their god and became an outcast. Holy water, holy light, holy wood, holy food, anything holy should be able to hurt a vampire, but that's not the case all the time now.

Being a vampire must suck. All the negatives for being undead, while still having living needs.