I finished fixing his jaw a while later, at least most of the outside later. Next was his two cracked teeth.

I looked at his face for a moment instead of just focusing on what I was hearing. He looked… regretful?

What would he regret even? We’ve done basically everything he’s wanted except for hang out with Absinthe.

I frowned briefly and shrugged my shoulders before getting back to work.

Ah well.

The teeth were more difficult. Teeth didn’t heal by themselves.

I wish they did.

At first I just started with connecting the enamel of each tooth like I did with the jaw, just a little more thoroughly so there was no cracks or holes or anything. I fixed it completely. Behind the enamel there was dentin, at least, that’s what the System called it. Apparently that would heal on its own. Finally, there was the most daunting part; the nerves and blood vessels in the center.

I let out a breath and shook my hands loose, they’d been in clenched fists the whole time, at least whenever I wasn’t gesturing.

Now that I think about it, I must look kind of stupid.

I let out a snort.

My eyes are all squished shut, I’m waving my hands around, and facing directly at Ismund. Too late to do anything about that now I guess.

I couldn’t help smiling, even if I was tired and had a headache at this point.

I did my best to match my energy to the one in his blood vessel exactly, at least the outside of it, I wasn’t going to do anything more complicated. Then, I pulled it towards the part it had broken off of. With the energy there already matching the other piece, it was pretty easy to make them attach. I did this with the rest of the blood vessels wherever I absolutely needed to, along with the nerves. Whatever could heal by itself I left.

I sat there rubbing my temples (partially from thinking, partially from the headache), mumbling to myself about this and that idea, cautiously, carefully manipulating my energy to fix this, that, and the other for a long time. I didn’t know how long other than Abs had gone to bed, the fire was out, and Ismund looked like he was barely staving off sleep.

Then, I finished.

Okay,

I let out a breath.

Done.

I leaned back with my weight on my hands and looked up.

“I fixed you’re broken teeth most of the way,” Ismund made a sort of surprised noise.

Did he not notice that his teeth were broken? Or maybe it’s that it was quick.

I smiled a bit.

I hope it’s the second one, I’m getting better at this. Like a lot.

“and I also have the bone around the outside of your jaw mostly fixed. I’m going to let the nerves and whatever else inside there fix itself. So, you can’t take off the bandages quite yet.”

Ismund seemed to deflate at the end, but it was hard to tell with there not being much light. The light bulbs had been dimming and flickering ever since we killed the monsters in here. It was going to be pitch black soon.

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> [Congratulations! Thanks to your hard work, your soul stat has improved!]

> [Soul: C- (3/1,000 -> 12/1,000)]

“Hey, my soul stat went up!” I smiled.

Ismund didn’t smile or keep a passive face like I expected. His shoulders slumped in a bit more and his head dipped lower. I couldn’t see much more, but I knew enough.

Alrighty then…

I clasped my hands together.

Well, I should probably take a look at his eyes next. Everything else can heal on its own, but I don’t think his eyes would do that.

He does have a bit of a concussion, but the dungeon’s accelerated healing should do the trick, and I’m not nearly good enough at this to even touch the brain, assuming that it would even be possible.

> [The brain cannot be manipulated by anyone unless the being who possesses the brain helps with the manipulation process. Additionally the one altering the brain must have a complete understanding of how it works if they want to alter it.

> After running some of my own trials-]

What do you mean ‘own trials’? Have you tried altering peoples’ thoughts before?

I sucked my teeth nervously. There was so many directions this could take, and I liked to think the System didn’t lie, but I wasn’t too sure.

> [-I discovered that the more advanced a mind was, the more innate/natural defence it had against alteration.]

I went still. My eyes went wide. I stopped breathing. My heart felt cold. I stopped thinking. The System had attempted mind altering. It didn’t necessarily mean anything had been successful, just that it had tried. Well, it didn’t actually mean that it tried, now that I think about it. It could’ve very well have just taken notes from what cult members were doing. Cults aren’t really known for their open mindedness.

It could listen in on whatever I thought, so I had made sure to not think my thoughts aloud, I would only feel them out. It made everything more muddled, but, I didn’t know what the System would think of my thoughts.

Thank you System!

It could probably tell how I was feeling. It knew how intoxicated Ismund was down to the very last detail, why not this too? But, I might trip it up a bit if it gets mixed signals from me saying something else. That said, I was a horrible liar.

I wouldn’t call the System malicious. It was getting rid of the monsters and the people helping the monsters and sacrificing things to the dungeons was horrible. So it really couldn’t be all that bad just… invasive.

Yeah, that’s what it is. I’m fine.

> [Yes you are doing exceedingly well at you magical development. The research is being put to good use.]

Thanks.

I tried to smile. I don’t know if it looked real though.

How should I heal his eyes? I don’t want to mess it up somehow. If it scars or something I don’t think I can get him back to one hundred percent unless I get a lot better.

> [The location of primary damage is the cornea and minor injury behind it. It seems that the primary cause of scar tissue forming in most cases is healing over a long time, especially with infected, irritated, or wounds otherwise compromised in cleanliness. It is recommended that the eye is healed quickly if you wish to avoid scarring.]

Alright… I just need to figure out how to heal it at all.

I sat there and thought, holding my chin in one hand.

I don’t think the staple idea from before will quite work, the eye is more complicated. I think the bone healed earlier from the energy being around though, right? If I’m careful, I could probably feed his eyes energy to increase the healing process.

In the dim, flickering light, I saw that Ismund was asleep. He wasn’t in his tent like usual, that was weird.

I guess he didn’t care enough once he got some alcohol in the system. Now that I’m thinking about it. This is probably going to cause some real issues with Ismund really fighting. We can’t have him getting drunk from attacking a monster and then getting dizzy or something from it in the middle of the fight. I really need those two to get along. At least to the point where Abs won’t compromise Ismund.

It’s probably best if I leave that for when he’s awake so he can give me like a thumbs up or down or something depending on things.

I let go of some of the energy I was holding at the ready and relaxed. After a second or so I relaxed more and just laid on the ground. My eyelids were heavy and it felt like just a few deep, slow breaths would knock me out. But I just had to ask a question.

What’s the boss?

> [You must fight the boss first to discover.]

But, like, Abs fought the boss before and he’s helping us. Please? It would only help our chances for helping you get rid of the monsters, right?

> [Processing…]

I wasn’t able to find out last time, but this situation was a little bit different and I wanted to at least try.

> [Granted. Boss is composed of a large amount of snow. It must be conquered by either the elimination of every bit of cold energy, or the cold energy being confined into the shape of a [cannot grant information] for [censored] reward.]

I had just felt like falling asleep a moment ago, but now, now I was paying attention.

Time waits for no one and I need to practice.