Chapter 131 - Lily Chen (Patreon)

I'm not going to lie. I think I am amazing, like really, really amazing. And I think that's even underselling it a bit.

The reason?

The spear made of my mana that I just gave Lily. It's dark blue with wisps of light blue mana inside of it. I didn't push that much while creating it, so there isn't a chance that it would untangle and hurt Lily.

Instead, the weapon is just slowly dissipating. If I'm right, it should be able to hold strong for 15 minutes, and after that, it will become much weaker. Then, in five more minutes, it will disappear.

I used a lot of my mana to create it, yet it will only last that long. I could probably increase the duration by infusing more mana, but hey, I don't want to kill off our healer. That would be dumb.

Yet, I think I can say with confidence that for these 15 minutes, it is at least as strong as the common weapons I saw here on the third floor and through the rewards for the side quest.

Oh, and I am also dumb. Like really dumb.

I realize it only after I gave the massive spear to Lily, and she awkwardly grabs it into her one hand, barely able to balance it properly. Her eyes turn to look back at me, and I can see that she is trying hard not to laugh.

Still, she makes fun of me by waving the stump of her left arm in front of me. The arm has regrown slightly under the elbow.

Dang it.

"Sorry," I say, and my voice sounds weak even to myself as I grab the spear out of her hand and make it shorter and thinner. Even though it's made of mana, it has some weight to it.

"Don't worry about it!" she giggles. "It's kind of fun to see you so speechless. You should see your eyes when you came to realize it." The petite brunette covers her mouth as she continues to smile.

When I hand her the new spear, she grabs it and tries to swing it around, nearly cutting me before I step back to observe from a safe distance.

It seems much better now. Yes, her handling of it is terrible, but it will improve with time.

She then hands me the spear back after examining it for a bit. "It's nice. I can feel how much skill it takes to create it!"

Oh, a compliment! Finally, someone appreciates my talents. Feel free to praise me a bit more. But why are you giving it back to me?

"Oh, you wanted me to fight with it," she declares as she comes to the realization, and a big smile blossoms on her face. "Thank you, but I won't need it! Let me show you how I fight!"

*****

So, how does a petite, innocent-looking girl fight? The person who has healing powers and is nice enough to sacrifice their own arm for some maniac she just met?

You would think from a distance, right? Keeping herself safe so she can heal others. Maybe using a bow? Having skills to increase the abilities of others?

Nope. Lily fights up close and personal.

I watch as the last surviving Rottenfang vermin I left alive jumps against her, and she just stands there. The moment it reaches her, Lily punches it with her tiny fist. A flash of grayish mana appears on her fist and eats a good chunk out of the monster's body where she punched it.

The vermin doesn't feel the pain, so it attacks again, only for the girl to nimbly move away. Her stats aren't that high, so there is a lot of predicting the monster's trajectory on her part, and she punches the monster again as it passes by. Again, a chunk of the monster's body disappears.

When it attacks again, Lily doesn't dodge, and the monster bites at her. I'm about to kill it before it does, but her eyes turn to me for a second, making me stop.

So, I do not move, and when the vermin bites into her arm, she smiles at me thankfully for not stepping in. Then the monster's head explodes in a flash of gray mana, half of its head destroyed by her skill and it falls down, unmoving.

Lily then kicks it one more time, making sure it's dead before happily moving towards me. As she does so, I can see warm white wisps of mana around the wound on her hand that heal her quickly enough for me to see her wound closing and soon disappearing without any trace.

She then stops in front of me, shy yet proud as she looks at me.

"What do you think?"

What do I think about this innocent-looking brunette with a cute small face and a tiny nose punching giant decaying rats, even letting them bite a chunk of her so she can kill them?

"Lily, you are so goddamn cool."

As I said, and I'll be repeating it up until my last breath. No one from the bus passengers of Group 4 is normal. I'll practice, and I'll even create a construct that will activate when I die and will make me move one last time and make say that no one from Group 4 is normal.

Not a single person, not a single corgi.

"I much prefer healing. It feels better, and I'm more useful that way. But I know that I have to level up too. But Nat, you should have seen Kim's face the first time he saw me fight," she giggles deviously, her eyes glowing as she remembers it.

"He totally did not expect it, and neither did you! I saw you wanted to help me at first," another smile appears on her face. "But I'm glad you didn't. Kim wasn't able to and kept trying to help me. It was kind of annoying."

*****

It's a bit later, and after a few more fights, as we sit there and she is healing her freshly wounded right arm, I also watch as the wounds slowly disappear, and even her missing piece of a pinkie finger is restoring.

"I'm stronger now than I was on the first floor," her eyes seem distant as she says so. "So I won't be a burden, and I'll learn to control all my skills, not only healing." A small wisp of gray mana, her skill [Disintegration], appears around her hand, only to slowly disappear as she clenches her fist and stands up.

"I want you to let me try to fight an Alghoul this time," she is serious as she says so.

I'm sure it will hurt, hell, it might even come close to killing her. From some point of view, it might seem like a bad decision, but from mine, it seems... reasonable.

People that are nice to me should be able to live their life as they want, to change the way they want.

"Sure," I say simply. I'm sure she has thought about this a lot, judging from the look in her eyes. She already saw me fighting two Alghouls after her first fight against the rat so she knows what to expect.

Ten minutes later, I watch her stand against one of the lower-leveled Alghouls. It continuously attacks her, much faster and stronger than her. Yet, the girl has surprisingly high constitution, probably even boosted by some skill. Even as she is thrown around, she gets back on her feet, and white mana appear on her wounds, closing them with a speed that is possible to watch with eyes.

She does not scream, she does not ask for help, and she only glances towards me a few times, as if wanting to stop me from interfering.

But I just stand there and watch while she is getting hurt.

At first, it seems to surprise her, but later it only makes a small smile appear on her face as she continues to try to hit the monster with her skills.

She has already succeeded a few times, and gray mana has torn off a few pieces of the monster and cut off one of its arms in exchange for multiple wounds on her body.

The interesting thing is that when the monster activates its green flames to heal its wounds, they do nothing. Lily's skill damage doesn't allow the monster to heal.

So the fight continues, and Lily gets thrown around a lot. The monster even tries to tear off her limbs a few times, always quickly followed by the girl's gray mana appearing and stopping it from happening.

What surprises me the most is how fierce she is. She wasn't like this back on the first floor. Or maybe she was, and I just didn't see it? Did she change because of her skill misfiring and killing Kevin? Did something happen on the second floor?

I do not know.

Finally, after what feels like ten minutes, the monster dies, unable to deal more damage to her truly sturdy body and unable to overpower her healing. Lily's [Disintegration] isn't as strong right now, but it's easy to see how powerful it might become in the future.

As I stand there, watching, she slowly comes to me, her wounds still healing, and white mana makes it look as if there is smoke leaking from her wounds. She is moving slowly, tired, but she is smiling happily as she stops in front of me, tired and wounded. Bloodied.

"Thank you for trusting me."

She then passes out, and I grab her before she falls to the ground.

Silly girl.

***

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