Lee followed Fatalina down the clean hallways of the large military hall as she speed-walked as if on a mission. He assumed she had a good deal of dexterity, as her movements appeared to be casual, but her standard walking speed was just… too fast to be normal. Deciding to use his new found Chromatic Intuition, he Identified her.

Fatalina Castana - Half-Elf (Human/Elf) - Level 189: Banshee Wraithblade (Epic)

Lee choked down his gasp as his eyes nearly bulged at the information. That level was no joke. He was conflicted on if it actually made sense or not. While being the head of the military of a kingdom amounted to a position of power, was she out and about slaughtering foes alongside the rank and file? If not, then her class quests must be insane… Or she’s been alive for longer than he previously assumed.

Neia was several hundred years old and actively fought monsters, albeit mostly low level ones, and he didn’t think she was that high of a level. While Lee wasn’t an expert on guessing the ages of elves, he had thought he had a pretty good grasp on it. Fatalina appeared to be younger than Neia, but maybe it was her half-human side showing its effects?

“Pretty high, isn’t it?” Fatalina said with a casual tone without turning around as they both exited the front doors of the building, leading outside to where everyone was suddenly much quieter. Everyone out and about on the streets were no longer chatting, and people walked carefully as they flicked their eyes nervously toward the general.

“It’s quite high, yes.” Lee said, not knowing how she knew he’d used Identify.

Fatalina looked up and down the street, deciding on where to go. “You should have done it as soon as you laid your eyes on me. You got the ability for a reason, might as well use it.” She chose her direction and started speeding off. “Come along.”

As they strolled through the logistical city of Selldun, Lee observed as the normally bustling city slowed to a crawl and the ambient sounds faded away as they passed. If he was being honest, it was really fucking creepy.

Once again, almost as if she could read his mind, Fatalina started small talk. “I assume you have questions. Feel free to ask while we have some time. It’ll take an hour or two to scrounge up people for you to teach.”

Lee stared at the ground at the immaculate paved street as he thought about what to ask. He had so many questions, ranging from how much did she know about his origins, his relationship with his uncle, the war, the sanctum… everything.

In the end, he decided to ask for advice. “Given my origins, are there any tips or recommendations about how I’m going about things?”

Fatalina answered without missing a beat. “From my reports, you don’t seem to use many skills, or if you do, they’re passive ones. I understand you might not be aware of many skills, but surely you are capable of learning quite a few of them. I know about your teleportation skill and your healing conversion, but not much else. Work on skills, they might not seem to be that important in life, but they make a world of difference. I’m going to assume most of your skills have been rewards from the system or were acquired through happenstance?”

Lee nodded, but as Fatalina was facing away from him, he opened his mouth to reply, but she spoke regardless. “That’s what I thought. Learn more skills and try to enhance them by learning even more skills aligned with them all. Do you know about enhancements?”

“Yes. I have one enhanced skill. It happened by accident and I haven’t put it to use very much. It enhanced after learning Tracking.”

“Stealth then, a common skill. A good skill, but not very useful for a healer I imagine. Troubles when starting out I suppose?” Fatalina asked, sounding genuinely intrigued, but Lee was so put off by the casualness of the conversation and her seemingly infinite sources of knowledge that he wasn’t sure what to say.

And then, for the third time, she spoke as if she knew his thoughts. “Get used to it. While you may have seen some high leveled people before, they were not my equal. And no, I can’t read your mind. I get that a lot. Next question.”

“While I am well aware of my unique capabilities regarding healing—teaching it, really… Why had there never been someone else? I refuse to believe that I was the only person who thought to learn and discover it.” He asked.

“A complicated answer with many moving parts. One, the Healer’s Sanctum stonewalling all progress. Two, religious fanatics. Three, seclusion and conflict. Four, technological advancements. While I’m not certain, where you’re from is more than likely more advanced than we are. Correct?”

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Fatalina sharply took a turn down a side street, causing Lee to nearly stumble as he answered. “Not to be rude, but yes.”

“Out of pure curiosity, how primitive are we compared to your kingdom?” She asked.

“I wouldn’t call it being primitive… but from what I’ve heard and read, you’ve all been locked in what we would call the medieval times for… a long time. We no longer fight with swords or spears, wear suits of armor, or use wagons and horses for transportation. It’s a whole different world—no pun intended. I think it took a few hundred years for us to move past all of what you find normal. That’s not to say that you also aren’t advanced in certain areas either.”

Fatalina slowed as she listened intently, giving Lee’s burning calves a break. “You have magic, skills, abilities, levels… we had nothing. What we learned was through trial and error with baseline stats. Everything we had or did was mundane. No self cleaning clothes, no light spells, no battle magic, no looting monsters—no monsters at all, really. Everything was slowly built up from knowledge and trial and error. While you may not believe it, we even landed on the moon. We could talk to anyone in the world in seconds, we could fly through the sky, we could do a lot. But all of it was a slow process with trial and error. We didn’t have any other way to progress, unlike how it is here.”

Lee glanced around at those he passed, and was wondering if this was an okay thing to talk about out in public, but Fatalina didn’t seem to care. “Very interesting. What weapons did you use?”

With a snort, Lee shook his head. “Nice try. Not gonna happen. I wouldn’t even know how to make them even If I told you. I’m here to heal, not to create destruction.”

“Can’t fault me for trying. Here we are.” Fatalina easily dropped the topic and swerved off the road. They walked up to an enormous… colosseum? She strode forward and entered into the tunnel-esque entrance like she owned the place—which she might have, Lee wasn’t actually sure.

He followed along, getting shocked glances from those he passed thanks to his two titles on full display, and soon realized what this massive construction was for.

The large building was, in fact, a colosseum. He had never been to Rome, but this was what he imagined the building to look like. Although this one was domed, it was made of solid stone with rings of arched entryways that led Lee and Fatalina to the center. In the center of the large building, rows and rows—hundreds if not thousands of people were laid out on makeshift stretchers, or sitting chairs.

Surprisingly, none of the injured were dirty or covered in a smattering of blood and gore, much like what he’d seen before. These people were clean, had stark white bandages on their wounds, and weren’t cramped. Some chatted to those next to them with familiarity and comradery. Others tried their best to sleep while fidgeting and wincing from their terrible wounds.

With a quick glance, Lee could see amputated limbs, terrible burns, and numerous gashes and slashes which cut down to the bone, causing lack of movement.

Fatalina stood straight as she turned to face him. “Regina has listened in on your classes enough to send us recommendations on treatment. We haven’t gotten anybody to create healing spells, but we have some with the Life element.”

Lee nodded with approval as he scanned the scene. “You’ve done a great job. I assume you want me to heal everyone here?”

Fatalina stuck a hand in one of her pant pockets and withdrew a pouch which clinked and clanked with the sound of coins. She casually tossed it over before crossing her arms and staring ahead at the wounded soldiers. “Yes.”

Lee peeked into the bag, then instantly shut it closed. What he’d seen was what must have been over a hundred gold coins. “Give me an hour.”

Fatalina turned and firmly placed a hand on his shoulder. “You’re a good man, but naïve. I don’t say this as an insult, but I thought you should know. I’ll be back with some mages you can teach. Also, thank you for your help. While I may be the general in charge of a kingdom, I can admit that you’ve done us a great favor. I know you don’t know much about me or Thexis as a whole, but we’re good people.”

Fatalina walked off before he could utter a response, leaving him standing in the entryway staring at a sea of injured people. He didn’t know if he could believe her, but he hoped he could. He was, like always, out of his depth, but at least he knew what he could do now. There were injured people in front of him.

As he walked forward, Lee turned on Healer’s Beacon and Medical Attention just to make sure nobody was about to drop dead in front of him before he could reach them. His silvery aura expanded, drawing the gaze of everybody in the healing colosseum. After quickly clearing his throat, he tried to speak loudly so that all could hear. “I’m Lee Barnes, a healer. I’m here to help.”

He slowly walked through the rows of patients, staying long enough so that his Medical Attention told him that everyone in his range was healed before moving on. As the colosseum held what must have been a thousand people, his estimate of it taking an hour might have been bravado.

When he was about halfway through, about forty-five minutes into his stroll of healing, one of the women he’d walked by broke down in a choking sob. While this wasn’t a rare occurrence, as many had cried tears of joy upon being hale and whole, this woman’s hand was still gone. Those around her gave her solemn looks of pity as she bawled her eyes out with shuddering breaths.

As Lee slowed, taking in the scene of the healed woman with a missing arm, Fatalina spoke from behind him, causing him to jerk in shock. “Soul damage. If you don’t get healed quick enough, the injury leaves an imprint on your soul.” She pointed to the scar on her eye as she gazed deeply at the poor woman.

“That… is unfair.” Lee said, blankly. He felt sorry for the woman, but he didn’t know anything he could do to heal the soul. While his class was that of a Miracle Worker, he wasn’t capable of healing that—not yet.

“It seems I was faster than I thought, or were you exaggerated your speed. Maybe both?” Fatalina said jokingly, trying to ease the mood.

“Both. Let me finish up here, then I’ll go and teach…” Lee said as he went about the room, continuing to heal.

He didn’t want another person to lose a limb, or worse, because he was slow.