I wasn't able to treat two people at once, so I looked over the two to see who should take priority.

One was a small scrawny man whom I had seen cast some magic before, but I didn't know which kind of spells he had been using. He didn't have any deep or critical wounds, but was bleeding badly out of multiple scratch and bite wounds all over his body. They were bandaged with some clothes, but hardly stopped the blood from flowing, because they were done poorly. I was sure a normal medic with some equipment and experience could save this man, but like this he was soon going to bleed out.

The woman who was lying next to him was the complete opposite. She was a tall amazon with a massive pack of muscles. My own body hadn't changed at all while gaining more of the strength stat. Did the size of muscles serve any purpose at all? Now I also wished I had taken a quick shot at analyzing the mammoth. When it had almost crashed through the wall of logs that was nothing the wolves could have accomplished. To propel this much mass far more strength would be necessary. Was the scaling of classes different depending on the size of the body, so that an animal double the size gained double the amount of strength or was the same amount of strength worth double the actual power? I had little data for a possible comparison, because wolves, which I had analyzed almost exclusively were similar to humans and not heavier by a factor of more than ten like the mammoth. But I couldn't collect that data right now and I was also getting off track while below me two people were possibly dying.

The amazon was almost unharmed except for her head which had taken a bad hit. Without treatment she would definitely not wake up, but I could somehow tell that she was in no immediate danger. Thus I turned my attention completely to the mage.

Fixing scratch wounds was something I had a little experience in by now, but that didn't mean I was much faster in the treatment. After all this was something I just followed along. It was still far easier to do than organs, where I first had to study the surrounding structure before I could actually begin.

Priestess has increased to level 9.

The entire process must have taken me two to three hours. I had closed all of the scratches, and repaired the bite wounds as far as I could in this amount of time. At least it was enough to ensure he would be able to recover on his own from here on.

I was utterly exhausted. My mana regeneration had just barely kept up with the work I did, but right now I was basically empty and the strain on my concentration and the fight my body had with its own state had weakened me so far, that I had done most of the work while lying down.

Captain Windon had not been happy about me lying down while treating his guards, but he realized I was hurt myself and it hadn't stopped my efforts.

Although I would have liked to move on to the woman's head injury, I became aware of my limits. A quick check reassured me that her condition was stable. I looked around, but the Captain and Arienne were both gone. James kept a silent watch, though he wasn't very aware of his surroundings.

“James?”

A few moments later I called out again, this time louder, though my throat didn't enjoy it: “James!” He slowly looked up at me.

“This woman is stable and will survive another day like this. I have to take a break myself now, but I will come back later. Can you pass that on to Captain Windon when he returns?”

He silently nodded. I left him to himself and was somehow able to get up. Very slowly I left. I didn't want to ask James, who was this absent minded, for any assistance.

The camp had been rebuilt a little bit in the meantime. Out of the many tents which had been run down in the fight a few had successfully been set up again, but most of them were lying around in tatters. One large tent now served as accommodation for almost everyone. A table had been set up just in front with some food openly available. Everyone was either resting or busy with something, so there was no regular meal. Considering the situation the organization of such things was still remarkable. I barely managed to gulp down something before almost dropping dead on a place to sleep.

I actually fell into something almost resembling sleep. It was like a feverish nightmare, where one is never quite asleep and still very much conscious, but still loses perception of outside events. nonsensical visions swam before my eyes.

This kind of half sleep was the closest I had gotten to actual sleep since eating the fruit, that is without counting being unconscious by force. When I regained some of my awareness it was day.

On waking up pain is always more intense than after a long day, where it has time to slowly dull out. I immediately became aware of everything that was still wrong with me. I tried to avoid moving where I could and tried to find some more rest in a state that was neither feverish nightmare nor the pain of moving.

It proved to be impossible. Unable to rest further I began to work again. First I wanted to take further care of myself. If I delayed, my state would slowly deteriorate and I already felt bad enough. The guard woman could wait a little longer.

Unsurprisingly the condition I was in had worsened. Again ignoring my outer looks I did what I could for my vital functions. Although I felt better after quite a bit of effort, I still had a long way to go. It would be more appropriate to say I felt less bad.

But as long as I didn't get into another fight or had to exert myself physically, I should be fine. I lifted myself up and struggled out of the tent. A few people were still inside, after all I wasn't the only one who had had a long night.

Outside I took some of the freely available food and took a moment to look around. The chaos had been reduced. There were no longer any dead bodies lying around, neither of humans nor beasts. I trotted over to the tent where I had treated the mage in the night. He was still inside and apparently sleeping. Next to the woman was one of the prince's healers. It seems by now they could spare to help out the other groups.

The healer was not actually practicing her art, but instead just studied the head wound. When I came in, she looked up.

"I can't do anything here, try your luck if you want."

She then left me alone with the two wounded town guards. I took a quick look over the mage I had treated yesterday, but there was nothing of note that had changed.

Then I began to study the head wound of the giant woman in detail. It certainly was interesting how the brain was so interconnected.

The first part of the healing was straight forward, fix up the skull, release a bit of pressure, structural things in nature.

Then I had to consider what the actual issues were with my patient. As a whole the head looked ok now, so what where the real issues? There were flows of energy all through the brain and I could sense some areas where that flow was slow or stuck. When I then inspected the underlying physical structure as far as my kind of sense allowed, I could in fact make out inner wounds. Some lines that weren't connected any more. I put them back together.

The flows resumed somewhat, but the woman didn't wake up anyway. Then there were parts that appeared like roads that had not been repaired in ages.

I didn't think those were the problems that actually caused her situation, but I had heard, that the brain could restructure itself by using what it had available to replace what was damaged elsewhere. So if a few underused parts were fixed up they might later help her to deal with issues in those parts of the brain that were the actual problem but which I couldn't identify. Maybe. I didn't really have any idea, but she wasn't waking up and I had nothing else to get busy on with my current understanding. I was aware I might cause other issues, but repairing things couldn't be all that bad a decision.

So I renewed those pathways.

Priestess has increased to level 10.

I focused only on those parts of the brain where I could detect the most obvious energy blockages, the brain is after all really vast and I only had so much time. I didn't really do a lot in the end, but maybe it helped her somehow.

"Shalyne."

...

"Shalyne!"

I was distracted from my fascinating study. Arienne had called me out of my concentration. Next to her unsteadily stood Richard and behind them was a zombie. Brinnia really can't have been resting much these days.

Richard: "Do you have time for a break or are we interrupting you?"

The woman was still lying unconscious. I sighed, I just didn't know enough about the brain to tell what the issues were. There were no more pressing issues left over and I could spend days if not weeks on the fixing I had begun. I suppose a little break would not be an issue. I got up and winced when I became aware of the pain I had all but ignored just now. I then followed the others but was still a bit absent as I tried to process the things I had picked up.

Outside of the tent Captain Windon stood with an anxious look.

"How is she? The other healer said that nothing could be done."

"I honestly don't know. This is really complicated. I did what I could for now and there is no danger to her life. Hopefully she will wake up on her own."

"I see. Thank you for your effort."

His sincerity shook me a bit. He really cared about his people and losing so many must have been very hard for him. I might have held an unfair bias against him because of his weight, but would take care to look past that from now on.

"I feel bad I couldn't do more."

The others led me to what had to be dinner. My stomach was growling. While I devoured what I could, I listened in on the others talking. I had not paid much attention to events around the camp, trusting others to do something about it, but it wouldn't be bad to know about the current situation.

Me: "Where is Tarvek? He looked alright yesterday."

Arienne: "He is on duty right now. He is one of the few who are in a relatively good condition."

Richard: "We are currently at great risk if there is any attack, but so far the area around us appears to be completely deserted.

We have been discussing a lot if we should cancel the mission, but it will still take a day or two until we can move without leaving anyone behind. I'm afraid the prince will soon ask you to pick up your job at the monolith. By now all who survived are in a stable condition and the regular healers should be able to take care of everything. Once they get enough rest.", he added with an obvious look towards Brinnia.

She reacted with a little delay, but ignored his last comment:

"We should get out of here before anyone else gets hurt. This is too dangerous. Richard and Shalyne, you both barely survived, Orlund and Vina are dead. This is no job for us. Let the army handle it. I can't take any more of this."

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Richard: "I'm afraid that decision is out of our hands. When we signed up we agreed to follow their orders."

Brinnia: "I know, but this can't be a good decision. We won't survive another attack like this. And we can't do the same miracle with Shalyne like last time either."

We fell into silence. I was also afraid. As if it were ignoring us the monolith loomed over us. I was constantly reminded of my failure last time and now I might have to try again. Hopefully we would cancel this mission. I didn't care about the money. There were fates much worse than being poor, and besides, if I got the time I could continue working on the big order of Lord Quay again.

Perhaps they had realized that I was no longer busy healing, because Prince Nelantis and Captain Ravon headed over to us once we had eaten. No more space for formalities, when they came over instead of inviting me to come to them. Come to think of it, I hadn't interacted with any of them since the attack. Everyone had been busy with something since that time.

Prince Nelantis gave me an obviously pitying look, while Captain Ravon remained stern.

Prince Nelantis: "I am sorry about what happened to you. Sadly there hasn't been time to talk until now. Don't worry, there are some very good healers in the capital who can even repair the damage to your skin. It won't be difficult for me to organize an appointment, if you would like to."

Captain Ravon: "But for now..."

The prince didn't seem too happy about it, but continued in another direction:

"But for now the monolith has to be dealt with. Although we have suffered some bad losses, we can currently hold this location without any resistance. This chance is too good to pass up. Tomorrow you will continue the process of dismantling the monolith. Take the night to prepare yourself. If you need any assistance we can provide, just ask. I am aware this is no easy task, especially for you after what happened."

I simply nodded. I certainly wasn't happy to try again, but there was little alternative for me right now. Taking the chance to retreat undisturbed I went into the big tent and laid down for a while. It wasn't as comfortable without any privacy. Almost everyone now had to stay in here next to each other and that forced me to keep up appearances.

It wasn't even late, but I felt my body could use the rest. I pretended to sleep but instead switched to floating around in my energy body. One thing that began to trouble me was what reaction the distant aura would have to our continuing presence and the battle.

If one of the beasts rushed over there directly it might already have arrived there. I made sure to completely suppress my aura and headed over in the direction of the aura.

For now it didn't appear like it was heading in our direction, and it was still very far in the distance. I flew in the general direction while I observed the area I crossed over. My speed couldn't be compared to anyone who had to travel on foot, so I had passed a very long distance when I saw a wounded wolf heading straight to the northeast at about two thirds of the way.

It might have been the general direction it headed, or how purposeful it didn't stray from the path even after I had observed its track for some distance. In the end I reached the conclusion that it had been part of the beasts we had fought and I didn't want it to report.

I was the only one aware of the aura and that meant I was stuck at the monolith even when I saw it moving directly to us. Only if I revealed my abilities I would be able to warn the others.

Just when I wanted to take care of the wolf, I got a faint sensation on my shoulder. It was very vague, but I feared it had something to do with my body. I felt for the connection to it and let myself drop through it.

"Ah, you're up. I was worried about you, you were lying so still, I wasn't even sure if you were breathing."

Arienne had given me a light shake to wake me up.

"I was sleeping really well just now. Did you have to wake me up like that?"

It was the first time I had to return like this. There was a reason why I didn't like leaving my body behind in uncertain circumstances. But my annoyance aside, Arienne wasn't aware of that and was just worried.

"Sorry, I didn't mean it. But I really need my rest right now."

"I didn't really want to wake you either, I was just following a hunch. Hmm does 'four' mean something to you?"

"What do you mean with 'four'?"

"Really no idea, but I have learned to trust the little inspirations. It's ok, now that I have said it. Don't think about it, things usually only make sense in retrospect. It's also boring if you know about the future before it even happens. You will only worry and continue thinking about it. Not I! But there was a guy I met who was always considering every little thing that might or might not happen. Little good it did him, when I warned him about something he didn't listen. Turns out only I survived when the bandits attacked the caravan I was guarding back then, because I was looking for something on a tree. I can't remember if I found it but at least nobody was looking up when they were attacking the camp. I was still weak back then or I would have taken care of all the bandits on my own. It was a pity I didn't get paid though, or I could have bought a new weapon sooner..."

"Arienne, I want to sleep now."

"I will just tell you later then. Don't scare me like that again."

"Don't wake me up like that again. My sleep can be very deep."

Once Arienne left again I resumed my activities. It didn't take me long to track down the wolf again. I thought about how to best eliminate it. I carried a good part of my magic ability with me when I traveled in energy form, and this capacity had steadily increased until now. The only disadvantage to casting while in this form was how my form faded when I used up mana. I decided to use another cheap cast of searing light right into the brain to conserve energy.

The distance to my physical body didn't affect my power and the wolf collapsed. In case that there were more messengers I got closer to the vicinity of the most distant monolith while keeping up my search for any other beasts.

Not that much further ahead of the wounded wolf I made out a bear that had the same kind of drive to reach a certain location. In contrast to the wolf it was a healthy beast, but that didn't help it get much further. I also killed it, although I had to use a bit more energy to overcome the resistance of its aura.

I continued my search and was getting nervous when the huge aura I had even avoided looking at too intensely was getting dangerously close. If I missed a messenger I might however get into an even less fortunate situation.

Just a very close distance from its final goal away, I detected one more wolf. he was hurt much worse than the one I had killed before, but had still gotten this much further. Two arrows pierced his body and his paws showed a sickly flow of energy.

This wolf might have been the one I had analyzed before. The aura felt familiar to me and he had a high capacity for mana. I hoped the increased strength would not block my attempt to kill him and I cast another searing light.

The strength of the aura weakened the build up time of my spell considerably and before it could manifest and deal any damage the wolf pushed my control and my spell out of itself. he stopped and wildly looked around. Although he was unable to detect even a trace of me, I was also in a dilemma if I couldn't take care of him.

I tried to feel out the resistance of the aura, but now that the wolf was aware and actively defended himself there was a constant pressure pushing out. I was unable to affect his body directly without expending a lot of force. So I went over to targeted spells.

I formed a bolt of shadow and flung it at the wolf. I can cast very quickly and there was no danger I had to avoid. I could fully concentrate on weaving my mana and was even very close to my target.

The wolf had no chance. He wasn't even able to detect the formation of the spell before it struck right through the middle. The high vitality, that must have helped him to endure his wounds until now, was enough to keep it alive even now, but the wolf was dying.

It dropped to the ground, unable to continue. Although the wolf should be dying, he was somehow clinging on to life, although the strength of his aura slowly faded away. Before its death I began to test out the resistance of the aura again, but there was hardly any strength left to push me back. I could now penetrate into the insides even more easily than when the wolf had become aware of me at first.

I pushed my senses inside and observed more closely. There was something at the very core of the aura, and without much resistance I could take a closer look at it.

Perhaps the wolf sensed this intrusion, because now he began to put up a last desperate struggle again. He was too weak though and I could break through to the core.

Was it the familiarity of the action, or curiosity? I can't say why I proceeded when the death was already ensured. I pushed with force right at the core, broke it and it came apart and dissipated. There was no massive reaction like when I had done this to the angel in the gray lands. This time there was only a weak effect when the aura began to disperse into the surroundings. The energy soon disappeared completely from even my ability to perceive it.

I floated above the empty corpse in consideration of what I had just done. Had I sped up a natural process or taken apart something more special. My thoughts just came up empty. I didn't even know how to begin to interpret this. No lightning came to strike me down, it was actually very peaceful right now. I let myself float in a strange empty emotion for a while and then decided to look for any other messengers I might have missed.

A look at the strong aura close by revealed no change in behavior. Not that I was directly looking at the current behavior, it just didn't wildly stamp into the direction of our camp.

Perhaps that was the sign that I had stopped the fastest runner successfully. I began to swipe over an extended area, looking closely for any animal that headed directly to the northeast. I found none that were suspicious, but still killed a few different beasts I encountered. I refrained from repeating my former attack and stuck to searing light.

After I had closely looked over even a large area behind even the slowest of the three messengers I wanted to stop the task and return to my body. But for some reason the 'four' popped into my head and I continued to look for a forth beast. If it hadn't been for that strange suspicion, I would never have been so thorough and even looked at places even further away from the last monolith.

Somewhere not even close to half of the entire distance a lone rabbit made its way along the same path as those before it. This time I was sure I had encountered the right target. There was no resistance and even though the rabbit was among the strongest of its species it died immediately.

Without further ado I finally let myself return.

I had used up a lot of time on my search, but I had gone to bed very early and it was still deep night. A short look around revealed that most of the sleeping places around me were filled up and just three persons stood a silent watch outside.

There was another task I wanted to accomplish this night before rising in the morning, and that was creating a plan for completing my mission without another encounter with death.

Last time I was sure I had isolated the sensor, but apparently the signal that triggered the attack was not activated by the sensor, but by the stop of contact with other units. The first few units had not behaved this way, so I was dealing with a mix of both types. Perhaps leaving the type intact, that had led to my injury, would trigger an attack as well.

One important question was what actually made the sensors aware of my presence. Nobody else had been shot at, so I expected no attacks as long as my sense didn't intrude. If I could hide the origin of my sense there would be no target to shoot. The beam had been very powerful, but I doubted it could be fired indefinitely. Consequently it might be possible to draw its attention elsewhere until it was drained.

How could I do tests without the death penalty? Completely hiding my aura might already work, last time I had shown the light part of it. It seems everything I did led me to keeping my aura hidden at most times.

If I did my work in energy form from a different direction I might also be able to avoid any retribution. And my last idea was putting up a prepared barrier that did have the strength to resist the beam. But even preparing only one might cost too much time. As a last line of defense it might be nice to have, but it wasn't practical for any other uses. I put a bit of my mana aside to start refilling my reserves, but even with an active regeneration potion I was rapidly using up my reservoir just as I was regenerating it. I really needed some larger storage capacity. I quickly woke myself and drowned another mana regeneration potion.

Since doing the work in energy form while simultaneously hiding my aura was the best idea I came up with for now, I would follow through on it. If this didn't work out I was pretty much doomed anyway, so I figured I might just as well start right away. I was paid for the task and not for the hours so the sooner I was done the better. If I actually finished in the night I would have to add some pretend work when the others saw me working.

Once I floated next to the other side of the monolith I tested out the responses. I repeated the same deactivation as before and waited for a possible response. Once a sensor from a different location tried to lock on me, but came up empty. I disenchanted it.

I couldn't really remember the parts I had deactivated before, but I could swear they had been restored. If that was the case I was really dealing with a work of the highest quality. Even now my destruction became undone shortly after I had gone over to other corners of the construct.

I wouldn't be able to finish if this kept up, so I had to destroy the plans it used to restore itself, or attack the power supply that was used for doing so. I didn't necessarily have to follow the order of starting with the sensors anymore, so I began to penetrate deeper into the monolith with my sense. Various sensors activated, but couldn't react to me. I was worried for a while, but no collateral attack on the vicinity followed.

The inner reserves where huge. Various large backup pools of mana were waiting for requests from other functions and there were even loading stations that enabled recharging from the outside. One drew on the surrounding energy. I would love to get my hands on that construct, but couldn't see through the inner workings. Another could draw from a donor who touched the monolith and there also was a smaller but steady stream coming in from the distant aura.

These energy cores were easy to detect for me, but the plans that had to be inside for reconstruction were a different matter. I destroyed another of the sensors, which had constantly been searching me, so that I had grown used to by now and observed the parts that activated afterwards. After I repeated the action a few times I could make out one of the most complex sections that didn't use all that much energy. I wasn't sure but hoped this was the object of my search. If I could somehow take this along with me it would be a great prize. If I could do so without anyone's knowledge, even better, then I would be able to keep it. Copying it was out of the question, that would take me far too long. Cutting the part of the monolith that served as anchor out would be difficult to do and also to hide, but I could do things remotely, so it might be possible after all.

Perhaps I would do so later on, though I might have to look for some self destruct mechanism, even if the plans were the only part that was affected.

Scribe has increased to level 16.

Although I didn't build up anything on my own, I still began to increasingly comprehend parts about this complex structure. Now for the cutting out.... I could see people moving around. I looked up to see the rising sun. Sadly I would have to put my work aside for a moment and show myself for a moment before getting back on task in a more official setting. I was glad that the fear that had held a grip on me was mostly gone now.

The life outside quickly pulled me back into its grip. Pretending I had been asleep and unable to comment on the results of the night. At least my body had profited by this period of rest.

Nothing of consequence happened and I went through the motions. Brinnia seemed to be worried about me, and thought I dreaded the upcoming job, when the opposite was actually the case. She was worried about a lot of things and also the one who took the situation the worst. I hoped she would get through this.

To Arienne I gave a quick thanks for the 'four', but kept anything beyond that to myself. She was easily distracted from asking any details. Not that she was that attached to such knowledge anyway.

I took seat next to the monolith the moment I could start on it and then let my attention draw away from the activities around me.

My understanding had grown quite a bit and now I put it to use. I kept an eye on the construct's plans the entire time.

First I cut off the power storages, except the one connected to the entity in the distance. If it was still unaware I wanted to delay alerting it as long as I could.

Then I cut the connection to the plans. There were fail-safes for a lot of eventualities, but the repair function finally seemed to be disabled. The monolith was still working perfectly as far as I could tell, but from now on every action I took would stick.

I began to disassemble the outer layer. One after the other the sensors stopped working. There were sensors for other things than my sense as well. One constantly scanned around for what might be explosives. A barrier function was connected to it.

Finally I felt it time to get busy with the mechanism itself. The other functions had been attached to the outside and I could understand their function, but the core stood on its own and was by far larger and more complicated. If I started to disconnect parts of it now I couldn't even guess how it would affect the system in its entirety. From here on out I had to take greater risks again. As long as I took care of the last great power cell the effect should be limited. It was time to talk to the prince again.

It was already late again and I hadn't really kept up with the time. I tried to get up, but the constant sitting had taken a toll on my legs. I couldn't really move and had to slowly wake them up again. Maybe in full health I could have been sitting like this for an extended period of time, but now it was too much.

A quarter of an hour later I could finally stand again and then I hobbled over to Prince Nelantis.