Thanks for all the comments, they help.

This chapter was going to be bigger, but given that I wanted to add a part from Sam's perspective tinkering with magic I thought it was better this way. The next chapter is halfway done and I hope to release it soon.

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Apparently the night where no monster appeared gave us some sort of name between the survivor’s people. The night was filled with discussions, yelling, cheering and stupidly great amount of lust heading my way. Which given my story was getting quickly on my nerves. The people were nice once you get to talk to them, just a bit obsessed with what happened.

Not to say they didn’t have a reason to be happy. Despite how organized they might seemed last night the fact remain that the monsters spawning had made wounds in them. Some people had died inevitably, and others were hurt. Every night they had to face that knowing someone may die, and being free from that certainly helped.

Fortunately the whole thing had its perks, and with my new found fame I had asked everyone to come and talk about my plans.

“Alright gentleman this is a map of the town,” I said. “The plan is simple, we are going to travel through the town avoiding the big groups of zombies, wolves, spiders, trolls, bandits, orcs, more zombies, knights that make ni!, and evil plants of doom.”

My friends, the soldiers, Amelia and a few survivors stared at me.

“Once we have passed through the infested hellhole the plan is simple. Here and here are the banks and jewelry shops that should have gold, silver and other things if no one had bothered to steal it.” I continued pointing at several points in the map. “Which they shouldn’t because it’s useless right now.”

They stared at me again openmouthed.

“And we are going to steal it,” I said slowly giving time for my words to sink in.

Knight blinked, looked around, and then asked. “What?”

I shrugged and ignored him. “This is a map of the only bank in town. The vault is protected by cameras, heat detectors, lasers, automatic turrets, fembots, god on Fridays, and it’s impossible to open without the right combination of numbers that changes every twenty seconds. Any questions about that part?”

Silence ensued.

“Good, well, this is the plan,” I continued clearing my throat loudly. “Sam cuts the power to the lasers. Knight seduces the fembots. Your soldiers ran towards the turrets like idiots and die. I pray to distract god, and finally John stuffs himself into a tiny box that somehow manages to enter into the vault and gets everything inside.”

 “And if all of that works are we supposed to walk out without the authorities noticing something is off?” asked Knight.

“Exactly.”

“Huh. I’m in,” said Sam.

Everyone looked at us for a minute.

“What?” asked John.

Knight and Sam lost it, and started laughing. I smiled looking at them, glad they still get me.

“Plebs, they never get it.” I sighed.

“When you asked us to come here I thought it was to discuss something important. Not to do…” Amelia sighed. “Whatever this is. We have to prepare for a battle.”

“Fine,” I said.

And then I took a knife and slashed my arm open with it. The soldiers jumped almost at the same time ready to stop me, and then stopped seeing what I have done.

“What are you-?” started asking Amelia.

With my other hand I casted the seed over the wound. A single green outline floated over it before the wound closed fast enough for everyone to see it. The soldiers stared and Amelia frowned. She walked closer ignoring the soldiers trying to stop her and touched the skin, inspecting it carefully.

“Start from the beginning,” she said.

And so the meeting started with me explaining my healing powers over the surface. I didn’t want to explain everything. I trusted them but I was not an idiot, and I left out some of my powers. The faces of my audience were priceless as I demonstrated it again.

John took the opportunity to point out the need for food, hunting enough monsters for everyone to eat. He started using the map I brought to suggest a rudimentary plan on how to start, pointing possible places to trap animals and where to find them in big enough numbers according to his brief look at the town the day before.

Then Sam continued explaining about magic circuits. Again in very wide terms that didn’t compromise anything, but left it clear he could help with their temperature problems and ‘other things if needed’.

Knight was trying very hard not to laugh every time the soldiers gaped.

“So to recap,” coughed the sergeant a bit put off. “You can heal, and you can make magic equipment.”

“And John is a postman,” I nodded.

The soldiers looked at each other. Amelia planted her face in the table

“Not that I’m complaining on having you on board. Given your abilities I’m a lot more confident on surviving the next week,” said the Sergeant, “but why did you start all of this with your plan to rob a bank exactly?”

Knight coughed. “Please forgive my brother. He tends to jump a few steps of the plan because he is an idiot.”

“Hey!”

Sam raised his hand timidly. “Actually not taking into account his wild assault into the vault it’s a good idea. I will need some materials to work with and both silver and gold are on that list. Getting food should be the priority but if you could get some of that it will help.”

John nodded. “We will.”

“I think I will be the one to decide that,” said Amelia rapping her fingers on the table. “What do you think about the plan?”

The sergeant bowed over the map slowly. “We haven’t had much luck with hunting, but I will be the first to admit that I don’t have much experience in that regard. His plan seems solid, and for what I see he has more idea on this than me… I think we should try.”

Amelia made a weird face. “Wow. That’s the first time I see you being nice to somebody Cooper. I thought you didn’t have it in you.”

Cooper growled. “Not many reasons to be nice since the camp fell ma’am.”

The soldiers cringed visibly.

“Well,” I coughed awkwardly. “When do we go?”

And somehow after all of that and half an hour casting the seed for every soldier that wanted to go I found myself following Amelia while Knight and John prepared to go out without me.

“Can you explain to me again why I can’t go with them?” I asked.

She growled. “I have sick people that I can’t help but apparently you can.”

“Oh, that,” I turned to Sam. “And Sam?”

“Where you actually in that meeting?” asked Sam. “They have some copper cable that I can use.”

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I nodded. “That makes sense, but I still don’t remember why I offered to do this instead of going with Knight…”

“You didn’t,” said Amelia.

“That explains it.”

Most of the soldiers were already preparing to go out following Knight and John. We continued until the third floor. The dark room that wasn’t so dark in the morning with some light filtering through the closed windows. There was enough light to see the chaos that was the entire floor filled with crap from top to bottom. High end computers decorated the walls all around along with giant TV’s, spare electronics and furniture.

Some soldiers remained inside saluting to Amelia when we passed until we made it to the room. It was a wide room with a big Playstation sign. Well illuminated and filled with beds we arrived at the infirmary, and I… broke a little.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen plenty of awful things. Working at the hospital is inevitable to come across some pretty messed up stuff, and unfortunately some of those things are done by people which kinds of make you lose any remaining faith in humanity, but this… The first person I noticed was missing a hand, bandaged almost completely and writhing in his bed from either the pain or the fever. About thirty people on the room and they were all more or less in that level.

I breathed deeply trying to rein my emotions. It didn’t help matter that I could feel how bad they were at the moment. I turned to look at Amelia.

“I tried to stop the infections, but without medicaments it’s impossible,” she said looking for the first time lost and hopeless. “Can you do something?”

“Sam can you do your thing without me?” I asked.

He looked around inside the room, pale. “I... Yes, if someone points to where I can find the wire.”

I nodded absently.

“Tell one of the soldiers,” she said.

Sam went his way looking torn, and I went to work.

The situation wasn’t good. They were at the brink of death only held by a thin line of will and determination. They actually looked better than they were which said everything I needed to say. I walked to one bed and made a few quick checks.

“How much time had they been like this?”

“Some of them days, some of them weeks. Not many had managed to survive much time in any case,” she said.

“What?” I yelled, causing a few people to wake up in pain. I whispered closer. “If you wanted the infections to stop why did you put them all in the same place?”

“Because I don’t have more space, and I didn’t want to infect the entire camp,” she snapped. “The people in the camp are weak enough to die from a cold. I didn’t want to take risks, and this was the only option given the circumstances.”

I grunted moving to another that looked somewhat better. I closed my eyes and started to concentrate casting the seed over his heart. A pale light vanished as the tendrils of magic started to work inside him repairing the damages. In a brief moment the skin returned to a healthy color, wounds that had been bandaged closed as if they never existed, the heartbeat turned normal, and the respiration became steady.

Amelia stared flabbergasted.

“That is amazing!” she said moving and checking the quicker heartbeat.

“Nah, I always have that reaction in men.”

She looked at me.

I blinked. “I admit I didn’t think that one, but is still true.”

“It is unbelievable,” she continued ignoring me. “The fact that you just used magic is unbelievable for starters, but this is… A miraculous recuperation. And you said this lasts for hours? Have you tested it?”

“Well, not exactly. I didn’t have much time with the thing about running for our lives, but I did test in my brother,” I coughed. “Cutting him repeatedly. He didn’t like it much, but it was for science…”

She started removing the bandages, and passed a hand at the new skin. The stitches that had held the wound closed were now there out of the flesh in one piece.

“Your magic takes stitches outside the body? Impressive.” She muttered.

“Huh… That’s new.”

She rolled her eyes. “We will have to test your ability more thoroughly.”

“Yes. Well, as I was saying. The seed remains in the body for about two hours but it can run out of power if it has to heal too many things.”

“Good to know. Now we just…” she started to say.

Amelia frowned a hand over the forehead of the patient. Her expression changed and I could feel the doubt and rage bubbling on the surface. I gulped fearing the worst and cheeked. The temperature was still high, and the seed was still repairing the damage.

“Shit.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Amelia added. “Your… magic is repairing the damage the infection is doing to the body, but is not touching the infection itself. Is fighting the symptoms but not the cause.”

“That…” I started and then blinked. “That actually would explain why I couldn’t heal the somniferous from the plants.”

“What?”

“Long story,” I shrugged.

Seed of regrowth. Lv. 2 Learned Ability. The gods of light and the spirits of nature have recognized you as a Druid and bestowed you with the knowledge to heal the wounds of your allies. You can create a seed completely made of mana that remains in the body until the host dies or runs out of power. Active ability. Duration: 2 hours.

It was a problem, but on the other hand it was an opportunity to try something new. I already knew that some my abilities had some secondary effects that I could unlock like with my green hand. It was just a matter of figuring out how to do it, and it wasn’t a stretch to think the healing abilities of a druid couldn’t do it. Given that it was just a matter of keeping them alive until I could heal them. Or…

With a swift movement I took some of the medicines that were in my inventory and dropped on Amelia’s hands. She stared for a moment in confusion only for her eyes to widen at the sight.

“How?” she asked blinking rapidly.

“I’ll try to stabilize them and figure out a way to help them, but that should help in something,” I nodded ignoring the question.

Tendrils of mana danced in the room as I closed my eyes. I knew I couldn’t cast the seed in everyone today. I was too tired after doing that with over a dozen of soldiers, but I could cast something a bit of it on everyone. Just enough to keep them alive. The ordeal was still exhausting, but it wouldn’t kill me.

Half an hour passed from one blink to another. I opened my eyes looking around, they patients seemed better. Still dying, but better. Amelia passed from one to another helping them swallow the pills. I dropped down in one of the chairs with a heavy sigh looking at her.

“Tell me something,” I started. “How did things became so bad here? I thought… Well… I thought if you got out alive from the camp you will have some medicaments. You had some there and… What happened?”

She didn’t stop nor reacted to my words and continued to work, but communion warned me instantly. The tension coming from her grew, pain and rage lashed.

“Sorry,” I muttered going back to work.

What I wanted to do wasn’t easy. I wasn’t even sure how to do it, but I had a better idea where to start than last time. I glanced quickly to Amelia for a second and started.

With mana manipulation I had much better understanding of what I was doing. One thread of life mana appeared around my hands. I twisted it making a circle, and then made it spin slowly. I grinned, it was completely useless but cool as heck.

With another twist I made the circle stop and made the letter A. I breathed deeply and slowly made the shape a seed looking as all the parts were formed. A round seed appeared between my hands, dozens of little pieces of magic interwoven. With a flick of my fingers I took the pieces a part separating them in the air. I knew what all of them did, one recognized the body and all its parts, one healed the cells that could be repaired, one grew new ones, another replenished the blood in the body…

There was nothing there to kill things that were harmful, just to repair damage. A few minutes passed by as I spun the several pieces of the seed in the air trying to come with something.

“I couldn’t save them,” said Amelia.

The seed disappeared with the sudden change. Pain filled the air and I looked at her. Amelia was bowing over a patient still working.

“When the fall camp fell,” her voice broke just for a second. “It was chaos, a wolf ripped the commander’s head right beside me and I almost… The soldiers that tried to contain the situation died, and only the ones who…”

She stopped trying gulping visibly.

“Only the ones who ran survived.”

I winced. “I understand.”

“No you don’t understand!” she snapped looking suddenly at me. “I was the second in command of that operation. I was supposed to keep them safe, to make sure the camp survived until they could be moved to a more secure location and… I ran.”

I nodded grimly. “Not like you could have done anything, but…”

“I could have organized the soldiers. I could have tried to hold a position to help the rest of the camp ran, but…” she sighed. “There were three thousand survivors in that camp, and by the next day there were less than a hundred.”

“And you think that a few soldiers working together could have made something different? I mean, they may be good, but if thousands died I doubt they could make a huge difference at the end,” I said.

“I made an oath,” she continued weakly.

“To protect humanity from the zombie apocalypse if it ever happened?” I grinned. “Me too! The Hippocratic oath was a bit dry for me and I added the zombie part. Of course I wasn’t expecting an actual zombie apocalypse when I did it, but now I’m set for life.”

Amelia snorted turning back to the patients. The pain weakened.

“We didn’t have the medicines after that,” she continued. “Well, sure some of our people knew something about plants and medicinal properties, and I remembered something from my studies. But with all the monsters and magical crap it seems all ‘normal’ plants are out of commission from the time being.”

 “I thought something similar,” I smiled. “Actually I have a flower with sleep inducing properties.”

Amelia frowned. “Really?”

“I can show you later, that and a carnivorous moss,” I blinked.

“A what?”

I ignored her suddenly thinking of something. With a thought a piece of blood moss appeared in a metallic stool. A knife appeared in my hand and I cut a few hairs, then I tossed close to the moss. I looked at the reaction in the magic seeing as the magic attacked the hair and started to eat it. It was very quick process and it took a few seconds to catch it.

I smiled. The seed reformed again around my hands and I pulled new strands of life magic resembling what the moss did. It was almost the same thing copied perfectly with an only exception, it was tied to the piece that recognized the body as benign. The seed reformed under my hands quickly around the new piece.

Sub-skill of Seed of Regrowth acquired:

Purge

Eliminates harming elements from the body.

“Okay. Show time.” I smiled turning my eyes to the first patient and starting to cast.