Chapter 7

“OH MY GOD, IT HURTS. IT FUCKING HURTS!” Mei Ling screamed. The poor young woman was rolling back and forth on the ground, curled in a fetal position while her hands were clutched over her face, one of the Cholla Beast spines sticking out between her hands.

“Mei Ling! Mei Ling! Circulate your Ki!” Chad practically shouted, trying to get through her agonizing screams. While he wasn’t a trained EMT, he had plenty of first aid practice, and was even Red Cross certified at one point in time. He was trying to both assess her injuries and at the same time, reminding her that her Ki could help heal her wounds. While mystical energies like Mana and Ki rendered most of what he knew as useless, the principals behind it all were still valuable.

Looking at his team, Chad nodded to himself. “Everyone, check the perimeter. I don’t want anything sneaking up on us. Connor, I want you to loot the monster.”

“What are you going to do?” Javier asked.

“I’m going to make something to help her with her pain so she can focus on trying to heal herself. Luckily, she isn’t bleeding. But until she can get her Ki moving, I can't risk pulling out the spines. I don’t have anything that can keep her from bleeding out yet.”

Javier nodded, and Chad turned to his task. First, he pulled out his portable alchemy kit, along with a short table. He’d looted the table a while back from an abandoned house, figuring it would come in handy for situations just like this. He placed his mortar and pestle, alembics, Ki based Bunsen burner and other various tools. Next, he went through the ingredients he’d been gradually stockpiling. “Let’s see. Blood root, for the fortifying effect, Arid Spilanthes flowers for numbing, Wrenwort for antiseptic properties… what else? Damn, this is going to barely count as alchemy. It’s one step above herbalism.” He muttered under his breath. He pulled out a refilling canteen that ran on Ki and set it next to the herbs he’d pulled out.

With everything laid out, he grabbed his herb knife and cutting board and started slicing the Wrenwort. its thick leaves resembled the small plump-looking birds in profile and oozed a lot of sticky, milky-white sap. Collecting all the sap, he dripped it into a round-bottomed flask that was clamped in a small clamp and suspended it over the burner. He didn’t light it just yet, instead he cleaned his cutting board and knife in pure water, then set to chopping up the dried bloodroot before putting it in his mortar and carefully grinding it with his pestle until it was as fine a powder as he could manage. Setting it to the side, he peeled the outer parts of the Arid Spilanthes and exposed the stamen. Plucking them out with a tweezer, he dropped them into the bloodroot powder and ground it some more. He added some water to the mortar and blended it until he had a thin paste that he then added to the flask. With some additional water, he stirred the contents in the flask with a long glass rod. It was only then that he applied a trickle of Ki to the burner and slowly heated the solution while stirring constantly.

Eventually, the slightly grainy mix started to smooth out. It was at this point that he added a trickle of his Ki directly into the liquid. Still mixing slowly, he focused hard and spread the energy evenly and waited. As soon as his Ki saturated the potion, he turned off the burner. It didn’t look very appetizing.

Poured water into a bowl and slowly placed the flask in the bowl. He knew the glass was tough and could resist rapid temperature changes, but he didn’t want to test its durability. Once the bulb of the flask was fully submerged, he stirred the brown liquid around, helping it cool faster. As it cooled, he checked his results.

Basic Numbing Potion

Type: Potion

Rarity: Common

Description: This murky brown potion provides basic pain relief and antiseptic properties, suitable for minor injuries and discomfort.

Primary Effect: Reduces pain by 19% and increases infection resistance by 9%.

Secondary Effect: Slightly fortifies the body, granting a +3% resistance to physical damage for 38 minutes.

Duration: Primary effect lasts 76 minutes; secondary effect lasts 38 minutes.

Cooldown: Can be used once every 88 minutes.

Usage: Drink 1 oz.

Ingredients: Blood root, Arid Spilanthes flowers, Wrenwort, purified water.

Crafting Requirements: Alchemy skill level 1, basic alchemist's kit.

Side Effects: Bitter taste; may cause mild stomach discomfort if consumed on an empty stomach.

Dosage available: 5/5

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Weight: 0.5 lbs.

“Damn, only a nineteen percent pain reduction, even with my twenty-one ranks in alchemy and the twenty-five percent potency skill perk. Maybe if I added more Ki? what if I infused the flower before I ground it up? Why does this have to be more art than science? Whatever. It’s better than nothing.” Chad pulled out four potion vials. They each were about the size of his pinky and could hold one ounce of liquid potion each. Popping the corks out, he carefully filled each one and corked them before placing them in his storage ring. With the last portion still in the flask, he gently touched Mei-Ling’s shoulder. Fortunately, she’d stopped screaming, but had curled up as tightly as her injuries would allow and was freely weeping into the parched soil.

“Mei Ling, I need you to drink this. It won't taste good, but it will help with the pain.” He waited a moment and tried again, then one more time. But she seemed to have sunk deep into her own world of pain and was oblivious to the world around her. As gently as he could, he turned the girl onto her back and lifted her head up. Her hands still covered her injured eye, but he was able to dribble a tiny amount of the potion into her parted lips. The taste must have been worse than he’d thought, because that snapped her out of her catatonic state and she gasped.

“Easy, easy. Mei Ling, this is a potion that will help with the pain. You need to drink it down. I know it tastes bad, but drink it fast. You will feel better.”

The girl didn’t answer, but after another she licked her lip and grimaced. She opened her mouth. Chad poured it in carefully. Mei gagged for a moment, but managed to choke it down. Faster than he could believe, or faster than he would’ve believed before the apocalypse. Her tense muscles eased slightly, and she slumped.

“Water,” she croaked. He pulled out a bottle of water, one of his backups in case he ran out of Ki, and trickled a little bit of water into her mouth. She swished it and then spat weakly to the side, before opening her mouth again and he gave her some more. This time, she drank it as quickly as she could.

“Thanks,” Mei Ling managed to say in a hoarse voice.

“Now, I need you to focus. I know you don’t have your Heart Meridian cleared yet, but you need to cycle your Ki through all your meridians. I need you to focus on preventing blood loss. These spines don’t look barbed, so we’re going to carefully pull them out one at a time, except the one in your eye. We need serious healing to deal with that. Can you do that?”

She didn’t answer verbally, giving a slight nod instead. Once Chad could feel her Ki moving through her body, he started on the spines in her arms and legs, pulling one out at a time. She winced with each extraction, but the girl, No, young woman, he corrected himself. The young woman was a trooper. She kept up her Ki, focusing on her Dermal Meridian where the punctures were. Only a tiny trickle of blood managed to leak out, and he could see the surface wounds closing up before his eyes.

The spines in her torso were trickier. He didn’t have much to worry about in her extremities, just blood, muscle and bone; but her torso had all of her internal organs, and the risk of internal bleeding was much higher. Going even slower, he did his best to pull out each spine in exactly the same direction it had gone in. it was hard, since some had shifted when she was dragged out of the fight, but he managed. Once he had pulled out every one besides the one that destroyed her left eye, he triggered Identify to check her status.

Mei Ling

Cultivation rank: Body 3

Health Points: 26/98 (54)

Stamina Points: 14/150 (83)

Ki: 46/125

“You did great. We’re all done for now. You rest here for a minute; I’m going to check on the others.”

Mei Ling nodded. He kept her eye closed and seemed to be focusing on her breathing. Dusting off his pants, he made his way over to the test of his team.

“How is a jovem?” Carlos asked.

Confused, Chad asked, “A what?”

“A jovem,” Javier explained quickly. “it means the young woman, or young girl, compreender?

“gotcha. She seems to be okay for now. Her Health and Stamina Maximums are reduced, so aside from her eye, she’s suffering from some kind of debuff. Here’s what I need you all to do. I want each of you to help load her into the van and take her back to the Hamlet. They have all of that instant cure faith magic stuff. They can take better care of her than we can out here.”

“Wait, you said you wanted us to take her back.” Connor said, accusation heavy in his tone. “You expect us to just leave you out here by yourself? Fuck that. I need Experience points to get stronger. I can’t just sit around with my thumb up my ass and get more powerful. Those two can take her back. They’ll be in the van; she’ll be just fine with them. I’m coming with you.”

Chad sighed internally. He really didn’t want to deal with Connor’s attitude after everything with Mei Ling, but he didn’t have a better reason than not wanting him around. From their stances, Javier was worried about Mei, and the way Carlos was looking at Javier, he was worried about his nephew. Those two wouldn’t give him any trouble with sending them back. Chad refrained from sighing physically and just nodded instead. “Fine, you can come along. You two take her back. Carlos, can you lay down your seats so she can be as comfortable as possible?”

“Sim claro, no problem,” Carlos answered. “I’ll bring the van in now.” he then turned and jogged back to his vehicle. Without having to be sneaky about it, Chad saw the man arrive in just a couple minutes. Before long, he had driven it back and parked near the injured girl.

When he slid the side door open, Chad saw the seats had disappeared and there was a large padded area that looked similar to a futon mattress attached to the floor. Javier and his uncle lifted Mei Ling up and eased her onto the pad. When Carlos used some kind of netting to secure her, Chad made his way to the back and retrieved the drone charging dock and stored it in his ring. Carlos gave Chad a thumbs up once the back hatch was closed and the two Brazilian men climbed into the front and slowly pulled away, heading back home.

“Yo, you ready to head out?” Connor asked. There was an eager gleam in his eye and Chad noticed the young man fondling the blood red dagger sheathed at his waist.

“Give me a minute. I need to clean and put away my alchemy set.” It didn’t take him long, but Connor still ended up pacing with impatience. Once everything was properly cleaned, dried, and stored away, Chad got to his feet once again. “Okay, Let’s go.” He said curtly, then they jogged out of town. They would have to come back later to scavenge what they could from the town.