Chapter 24 - Ale & Ormon Juice

I held the fruit over Jack's back and poured its juices on his open wound, hoping for the best, yet what happened looked more like the worst.

After just a few drops, every muscle on Jack's body started twitching aggressively. A pained scream escaped his mouth with every drop of the ormon fruit's insides.

I hesitated. And then I stopped. What was going on?

"It doesn't seem to be working!" I said, panicked, at Guen.

"This is exactly what it seems to be doing! Keep pouring it no matter what!"

Guen and Wrel kept him down, preventing him from moving—or at least trying to—while I poured the rest of the juice on Jack's back. The inarticulate screams of the man were getting louder by the second. His twitching more vigorous.

"No! Please stop-o!" He screamed.

"Don't you dare stop, you idiot!" Guen said to me to make sure I would keep going.

"Just-o kill-o me already!" Jack begged. I could only imagine the pain he was going through.

There were just a few more drops left inside the fruit, which were the hardest to pour as Jack was now not only twitching but actively trying to break free and escape from this torture.

I dropped every last drop on top of him and suddenly, Jack's color started becoming white again, like my ale's foam. His wound started closing and the atrophied, seemingly dead flesh around it returned to its old, healthier-looking state.

Slowly, the twitching and the screams faded away too, leaving behind a relaxed but exhausted Jack laying motionless on the bed. Just breathing, trying to collect himself.

After a few minutes of that, Jack found the strength to get up and sit on his bed. The dark circles that had formed under his eyes betrayed his tiredness.

"Quick! Drink this!" I said as I hurriedly gave him the glass that contained the ormon fruit juice.

Jack, seeing how urgent my tone was, grabbed the glass from my hands and drank it all at once immediately.

He spat it on the side, right on his pillow a second later.

"What-o the fuck-o is-o this-o!?" he asked, looking at the glass with disgust.

"Why did you spit it!? It's ormon fruit juice! You need to drink it to get better! This was my last remaining juice, I don't have any more to give you! Quickly, if you lick it from your pillow, you might still be fine!"

Guen and Wrel burst into laughter, unable to hold it back any longer.

"What? Why are you laughing?"

Guen wiped the tears of laughter that were forming on the edges of her eyes before saying, "he doesn't need to drink it, he is fine. It was a prank."

The two kept laughing and Jack saw I was getting mad, so he tried to make me relax.

"It's-o okay, you couldn't-o know that-o," he said.

"Yeah, it's not your fault you're an idiot," Guen added.

"So you're fine now?" I asked Jack.

"Yes-o, good-o as-o new," he said holding his shoulder and moving his arm in circular motions. "I don't-o even-o want-o to die anymore."

"At last! It's finally over..." I said and let out a sigh of relief. I sat back and all the exhaustion of the day suddenly hit me like a brick now that I had relaxed.

Apparently everyone noticed, because they proposed to go to sleep and discuss everything tomorrow morning, with fresh minds, which I happily accepted.

I took Kiril in my room with me that night; I did not want anyone to step into a room with Kiril alone, mistake him for an enemy and try to kill him. He would be safer with me until we made things clear tomorrow.

Now that I was in 'my room', I was safe and relaxed enough to sit down and distribute the points of my new level up. I put everything in Agility last time and that wasn't that bad, but I should give some love to the rest of them too.

I decided to give three points to my Wisdom. Now that I had a new [Ability], increasing my Wisdom could potentially be quite beneficial. I gave two points to my perception because I felt that I was not putting enough points on this lately, and finally, I put my last point into Endurance to counterbalance Illuminator's effect.

I was thinking about putting that point into Vitality, but I had been managing things pretty well lately and did not feel the need to.

I pressed the 'Submit' button and felt the warm stew in my mouth that I oh so liked and was not able to savour it during the last level up. I enjoyed it to the fullest and that was the last thing I felt before falling into a deep, carefree sleep.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

Name: Jinden

Race: [Anthir - Lvl. 11]

Class: None

Affinity: None

Attunement: None

Stats:

[Available Stat Points: 0]

[Vitality]: 15

[Strength]: 20 (+3) {=23}

[Endurance]: 15 (-1) {=14}

[Wisdom]: 16

[Agility]: 27 (+2) {=29}

[Perception]: 16

Skills:

[identify]

[Item Throw]

[Active Rest]

Abilities:

[Gale Slash]: Lvl. 1

[Demon Rage]: Lvl. 1

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As it usually happens, a new day followed the night.

And, as it usually happens, I was not waken up by the sun's warm rays caressing my face.

No, this time it was Kiril lightly punching my stomach to wake me up. Of course, he passed out a few hours before I got to do so, so the little fucker was now full of energy. Or maybe it was a [Spider Fiend] thing. Maybe that is the time they usually wake up.

No matter the reason, the important thing is that I was awake while I did not want to be. After a bit of rough-around-the-edges communication, I finally understood that Kiril was hungry and wanted something to drink.

I wondered why he did not want something to eat instead, but then I remembered that he had a chelicera instead of an actual mouth.

I opened the door and we walked out. This time there was no expedition going on, so there were no people running around, getting ready and tying each other up on pillars and poles.

This morning, the guild looked exactly the same as it looked last night, before I went upstairs. People laughing, drinking and yelling. Who starts their day with tankard of ale after tankard of ale? Maybe they never stopped.

I walked down to the counter to talk to the racist geezer and everyone was giving weird looks at Kiril and me, which meant that they did not go drinking all night long. They were more sober now and were actually able to notice that something was off. They did not notice Kiril yesterday.

I told Kiril to ignore the stares and sure enough, they stopped staring a minute later and went back to drinking.

"Hey, innkeeper," I said once we reached the counter. I was able to sit down normally. Kiril needed some help to climb up. "Do you have anything nutritious that he can drink? Maybe some spare boar blood or something."

The innkeeper had already left and came back with two tankards of ale just as I finished my sentence.

He slammed them down on the counter.

"Here you go, you won't need anything other than that. This is the true healing potion! It cures you from everything - hunger, thirst, wounds, poisoning, broken heart, you name it!"

Kiril and I looked at each other, confused. I did not know what good would come out of drinking ale first thing in the morning. Kiril did not know what ale was.

"These ones are on the house, by the way," the innkeeper said in a more calm, relieved tone. "Thanks for saving Jack last night. I was afraid it was time for him to pass through the pearly gates."

Kiril made some hand gestures asking me if the innkeeper meant the gates on the city's walls when he said "pearly gates," to which I shook my head negatively.

"Well, this ale is free. And free is good. So, we might as well drink it," I said.

I grabbed my tankard and tilted my head back to drink my ale. Kiril saw me and tried to do the same. He did not have a mouth to pour the incoming ale into and it all ended up landing on his face and soaking the rest of his remaining body.

The innkeeper brought him another tankard and this time Kiril approached it in a smarter way. He let it on the counter and brought his head over it, slowly sipping a few drops.

He lifted his head up and waited for a second. His eyes widened in shock. He looked back at the tankard and then went back in for more, almost attacking the ale. He finished his whole tankard in mere seconds and then repeatedly slammed it on the counter to let the innkeeper know he wanted more.

"Seems like we have a lush here," the innkeeper said while taking the tankard and heading to refill it with some more golden juice.

Kiril instantly drank his second tankard as well and signaled the innkeeper to bring yet another one, smashing harder the tankard on the counter and unconsciously making a slight mumble with his chelicera.

"Okay, okay, but this is the last one for now, you didn't even have breakfast yet. Actually, I don't even know why the hell you're here in the first place."

Kiril, the [Spider Fiend] waved his hands in a way that said, "okay, whatever, give me moar!"

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Soon enough, everyone had waken up and was now on the inn's ground floor, including Jack, who was feeling better than ever after his whole back was bathed in ormon fruit juices.

Everyone in yesterday's team, including Guen, who was not officially a part of the team but happened to be there too, was having breakfast, like normal people, but was also having ale on the side, like less normal people. This was supposed to be a guild, not alcoholics anonymous.

We all sat down on the same table. There were a lot of things to discuss. After everyone had a few bites and was awake and full enough to have a proper conversation, it was time to talk.

"What the fuck!?" we all said in unison, each one for their own reason.

"We will talk about everything one topic at a time," Wrel said. Even outside of battle, she was the voice of reason - the one who put everything and everyone in order.

"Let's start by addressing the [Spider Fiend] in the room," she said. "What is this thing doing here?" She pointed at Kiril, who, completely drunk now, was desperately trying to get every last drop of ale out of his tankard.

"It's simple," I said.

I then proceeded to explain to everyone everything that happened between me and Kiril, how I rendered all eight of his legs useless, how he ended up helping us when we needed it the most and how he lost his two main legs to the [Flion].

"I could not leave him behind," I said. "He is a friend now. A spider friend."

Kiril was unable to hold himself back and cracked up in laughter as he remembered the joke again.

Meanwhile, I could see that small ponds of water were starting to form in Jack's eyes. He was trying his hardest to keep them from falling down his cheeks.

"That's-o such-o a tragic-o story!" he said. "He is-o indeed-o a spider-o friend-o. Don't-o worry, Kiril-o, we will-o find-o a way to fix-o your-o legs-o! And-o you can-o stay here for-o as-o long-o as-o you want-o. The Peacemakers'-o guild-o always-o has-o space for-o peop— for-o fiends-o like you."

Everyone simultaneously nodded in agreement, while wiping a tear off their left eye.

"Okay, it's my turn to ask a question," I said.

"This was supposed to be an easy mission, right? One where the newer, less experienced members of the guild learned the ropes in a nice, safe environment, with a high-level mentor to guide them, right? Some good ol' spider-killing fun, right? No offense, Kiril," I said but Kiril was not even paying attention at that point.

"Instead, we ended up with this!" I yelled and flared my arms. "You almost died," I pointed at Jack. "You almost died," I pointed at Tim and his now perfectly healed right leg, "and everyone else was lucky they didn't almost die! How the fuck did you allow for something like this!? I've seen enough friends die already!"

I felt a hard punch on the head from Guen, sitting on my right, almost making my face hit the table. Thankfully, I was able to stop just a few inches before touching the wooden surface. I turned my head to yell at her hitting me once again, but I saw her... sobbing. I let it go this time.

"Idiot..." she said.

"You are right," Wrel said to me. "And it's normal to be mad, but we did not plan for something like this either. It was indeed supposed to be some good ol' spider-killing fun. No offence... uh... Kiril. They have never been this close to the City of Prosper before."

"They? Who's they?" I asked