Ackster couldn’t wait until he gently managed to apply the Sun-kissed grass to his wounds. So, in his feverish state of mind, the obvious solution was to press the herbs between his body and the ground and hope that their effect would reach his body. Thankfully, he had already taken off his shirt to make a sling for his broken arm. Not that there was much left of the sling after he crawled around on the ground like a maggot.

However, Ackster was so feverish and delirious that he didn’t feel the pain in his arm any longer. And since he was quickly losing the barely regained clarity, he lunged at the Sun-kissed grass with almost the same frenzy as when he attacked the goblin.

Eventually, Ackster covered his body in bits and pieces of broken plants. But it wasn’t enough. Ackster was too desperate. And since the poison or whatever it was that put him in such a state was inside his body, Ackster quickly figured out that the best way to fix it would be to shove the Sun-kissed grass where the poison was.

Ackster opened his mouth and munched on the herbs he could reach before swallowing the bitter plants down through his swollen throat. Their juices and effects filled his mouth like an allergic reaction, and he felt his esophagus heat up and begin to itch. But he didn’t stop eating the herbs.

The Sun-kissed herbs were edible, even in an unprocessed form. Of course, wild plants weren’t as gentle in taste as the ones grown in a greenhouse or on a farm. They could even be contaminated by other plants or creatures. But whether they tasted like raw coffee beans or hair, whether they itched and got stuck in his throat on the way down or not. The Sun-kissed grass was Ackster’s only hope of survival.

And if he could endure realigning his arm bone, Ackster felt like he could endure chowing down on some weird plant. Besides, his fever made everything feel like a dream. He wasn’t even sure if he was actually in a glade of Sun-kissed grass or if he was hallucinating it all and was, in reality, eating his fill of poisonous mushrooms.

However, Ackster’s mind reached its limit before he could find out, and he passed out.

Contrary to Ackster’s worst fears, he didn’t die. He actually survived after successfully finding a meadow of Sun-kissed grass and eating his fill of them. But his head and body ached as if someone had decided to treat him like a wasp. He almost thought it would have been better to die than to endure the pain eating his sanity.

It wasn’t as sharp and excruciating as when he realigned his arm bone. But it was neverending. In hopes of them beating his pain, Ackster ate a few more leaves of the Sun-kissed grass.

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However, he didn’t notice a difference even after several minutes had passed. And he realized that he didn’t have time to sit around and wait for his pain to go away, especially not when it didn’t look like it was ever going to fade. His only viable option was to endure it and stand up so that he could start moving.

A feeling of vertigo washed over Ackster as soon as he tried to sit up, and it forced him to lay back down again, his eyes swimming. When the vertigo faded, he made another attempt, only to be faced with another wave of dizziness. But this time, it was endurable, and Ackster held up his upper body with his arms and waited for the dizziness to fade before he tried to stand up.

Just getting up on his knees forced Ackster to close his eyes, and he held them closed as he exchanged one knee for a foot and put his hand on that knee.

Then with a final push, Ackster stood on both feet with his arms stretched out to either side, and he bent his knees a little so that he wouldn’t fall. He finally opened his eyes and took in the sight of the wrecked meadow of what had previously been peacefully thriving Sun-kissed grass.

He then looked at his body and saw that the green pus oozing from the scratches on his side was slowly, very slowly, clearing up. That was a sign the Sun-kissed grass had worked. Ackster still felt like a squashed bug. But he was improving by the minute.

He also touched his arm to see if the Sun-kissed grass had helped him with that as well. But he quickly retracted his fingers after he sensed how his arm was still cleanly snapped in half. Being able to wave his wrist and hand without actually bending his wrist was an inexplicably uncomfortable feeling, one he didn’t want to experience again.

Unfortunately, his makeshift sling was too tattered to be used anymore, and he was forced to walk with his arm dangling loosely next to his body.

Ackster’s arm throbbed and dangled worryingly with each step he took, but the only other option he had was to take off his pants and turn those into a sling. And if he did that, he wouldn’t be allowed back inside the city, which would be even worse than having a dangling arm.

Eventually, Ackster found his way back to the goblin’s body, which was nauseatingly close to the meadow of Sun-kissed grass.

In his fever, Ackster felt as if he had walked and warmed through the forest for hours. But he had barely even taken a detour. At least he was fortunate that it was so close to the goblin. If the Sun-kissed grass had been further away, he really might have lost his life.

But now that he had gotten past the worst part, it was time to return. He had wasted too much time due to the goblin’s poison and wouldn’t be able to look for his target anymore if he wanted to make it back before the people in the estate began waking up.

Ackster bent down and snapped the goblin’s fingers before retracing his steps and returning to the city gates.