Chapter 276 - Vitalist (Patreon)

Around half a day passes. During that time, I keep infusing my mana into my disciple. She is still sick and woke up only once, briefly enough for me to let her drink some water.

When the transmitter in my hands finally attempts to connect me, I accept it quickly.

(Darren here. We have confirmed your story, Nathaniel. To be honest, I didn't expect you to leave the items there as well.)

(It's a risk from my side as you can take them and disappear, but take it as a show of my goodwill and some trust I put in you.)

(I see.)

As I wait for the answer, I decide not to tell him about the tiny anchor I left on one of the items. The anchor I created using my [Tether] will be used to teleport to where they are the moment he refuses me.

If he does so, I will just force them to heal the little half-demon that has so far only given me trouble.

Darren continues, (You will find what you are looking for in one hour at this location.) He then carefully describes how the area looks and how to get there.

He also warns me not to attract the attention of any veilshriekers, just in case.

When our connection ends, I put the transmitter away and look at the girl under the blanket, with a few thermal orbs near her.

Both of us are surrounded by a barrier that disrupts the mana we are letting out, making us much harder to detect. The room we are in is dark, moldy in the corners, but it's deep within one of the skyscraper-like buildings.

The interior is simple; the furniture is broken or eaten away by the passage of time.

“You are causing me so much trouble,” I sigh and poke the cheek of the sick girl. Then I pull on one of her tiny horns.

Well, it's probably my fault too, but let's not mention it. This should help toughen her up. Back in my days, I went through much worse.

I open the community and this time click on Hard difficulty.

Noname (Hell, group 4) - hello

FoodFood (Hell, group 4) - food!

Damn it, Biscuit, what are you doing here.

Noname (Hell, group 4) - food food.

FoodFood (Hell, group 4) - food food!

Samuel (Hard, Legion) - Hello, Noname.

Emma (Hard, Legion) - Another person from Hell difficulty, hello Noname, I hope you are doing well!

Fox (Hard, Hoarders) - Noname, run or these military psychos will get their hands on you, lol.

Eagle (Hard, Hoarders) - run run run run run.

Samuel (Hard, Legion) - Fox, once again, we are part of the US military, we are not “military psychos” as you like to call us.

Fox (Hard, Hoarders) - the world will go to shit and you are still playing at soldiers, how can you expect anyone to take you seriously?

Emma (Hard, Legion) - You can ignore them Noname, group Hoarders is a bit more open-spirited than they should be.

Samuel (Hard, Legion) - As Emma said, Noname, just ignore them. I hope we can talk during the tournament. I will be honest with you. We don't know how many people got into the tutorial and how many rounds there are going on. Nor do we know what's happening to Earth so I hope you will see some reason and need for some rules for people that will get out of the tutorial.

Noname (Hell, group 4) - We can talk, but I don't promise anything.

Samuel (Hard, Legion) - Even that is fine. Sset already told us your group is from the US and you can imagine how terrifying an uncontrollable returner can become to people from Earth. There need to be rules.

Fox (Hard, Hoarders) - For all you know the Earth is already overrun by monsters or people from the first 4 rounds of the tutorial. There is no need to feel any responsibility to your country. They can't control you anymore.

Emma (Hard, Legion) - Fox, some surely think like that, but not all of us are like that. We were given these powers for a reason.

Eagle (Hard, Hoarders) - Heh, you can do whatever you want. You can even try to control all people from Hard difficulty, but I'm sure just one person from Hell would be enough to mess you up.

Emma (Hard, Legion) - Logically people from Hell are the strongest, but I don't think it's possible for them to fight against all people from Hard difficulty. We have over 5 times more members.

I don't know. I'm pretty sure I could take on a few dozen people from the Hard difficulty, looking at what Cipher, Goldie, and the frosty guy were capable of.

I read a bit longer, but they seem to be too into fighting, so I just turn off the community, rather deciding to save my limit and try my luck with more reasonable people.

Once again, I poke the cheek of my disciple. It's getting really frustrating that I'm incapable of learning a healing skill, and I start to wonder if there is a reason for that. Is it a limit of my talent? Is it just that a healing type of skill something that I'm not a good vessel for? Am I blocked by the system?

I don't mean a passive skill or a trait; I got offered plenty of healing ones, but all of them were for myself only.

Could it be because of my subclass? Is Pride something that won't allow me to heal others? That doesn't make too much sense, I think. It also doesn't feel right that the system would actively “block” something like that, but it already blocks the amount of passive skills I can get, so maybe?

Another question to get the answer for.

Deciding to already head to the spot, I pick up the little half-demon and shrink the barrier. Then I create a small anchor and leave it here and head outside.

After getting on the rooftops of the building, I move slowly. I try to keep as much mana as possible inside of my body and to stop it from leaking, so I only boost my body and jump. The feeling of that is something I would usually enjoy, but the risk of failing my Floor quest after it already started somehow takes away from that.

Maybe that was the intention of the system, to give me an annoying quest and watch me suffer, or just force us into situations where we have to improvise and adapt.

After half an hour of such traveling, I stop on one of the rooftops. This one is different from every other rooftop I visited, but it's hard to describe.

Only after I get closer do I start to pick up on it. There is a weird field around the rooftop. I barely sense any mana from it, even when I'm so close, and from a further distance, I didn't see anything. Just passing by, even closer, I wouldn't notice any of it.

Taking a few more steps, I pass through the barrier, and the moment I do so, what I see changes. Finally, I can see a small cottage-like building at the top of the skyscraper.

The cottage is made out of wood and looks simple yet cozy and clean. All around it are pots with hundreds of grasses or flowers and even a few smaller trees.

It's just like straight from a fairy tale and so unfitting here.

“Don't knock off any of my pots, young man, they are annoying to replace,” sounds from the inside.

Walking carefully between them, I reach the door and then enter without hesitation.

“So brave,” the ancient-looking woman inside giggles almost childishly.

[Vitalist - lvl 101]

“I expected just some items,” I say and stop.

The inside of the cottage is as cozy as the outside. Old wooden furniture but well taken care of. Extremely clean interior with carpets and flowers and weird glasses with colorful liquids everywhere. I notice plenty of pairs of boots near the place where I stand and looking up, the Vitalist is wearing only some warm-looking interior slippers.

Deciding that there is no reason to be antagonistic yet, I take off my shoes while still holding my disciple and step in my socks only.

“So very handsome and well-behaved. An unusual combination indeed,” the old woman gestures for me to move closer and points at the bed nearby.

Carefully, I put the little half-demon on it and step back.

Then I let out some of my mana and use it for observation only.

The woman notices and asks, “What would you do if I hurt her?”

“I will kill you before you can,” I say simply to clear things out.

I saw Lily healing a lot of the time and even felt it on my skin. I will be capable of sensing if she tries anything else.

As if expecting that, she laughs again, “Darren warned me about you. Things like: 'He saw Veil Guardian and survived, you have to be extremely careful!' or 'You dumb old woman! Do you have any idea how many people rely on you? What if he kills you?'”

Her hands carefully touch the little girl and even after seeing little horns under her head, she doesn't say anything. I, on the other side, intensify my observation and collect some thermal and kinetic energy inside of my body.

Without saying more, she just heals her. The mana she uses isn't exactly the same as Lily's. The old woman's mana feels more rough and weaker, but at this point, I'm not that surprised. I long since got used to the fact that us people from Hell difficulty often have superior skills or abilities.

"Poor little girl. Pummeled, internal wounds, poisoned, tears in her tissues, high internal temperature, shock, small concussion," she names all the wounds one after another.

When she looks at me, "I can heal her, but what will you give me in exchange, young man?"

The granny is totally shameless.

"Ask Darren," I tell her.

"Fuck Darren," she answers simply.

She is quite feisty, isn't she?

She continues, "You can have Darren still owe you, but I will want something as well. The little girl would die without my help."

"You would heal her even without me giving you anything in exchange," I say.

Her eyebrows move up, and a light behind her eyes flickers.

What now, granny? Do you think I wouldn't notice how worried you became? How quickly you started healing and signs of relief as the girl got better?

Even though she is acting cheeky, the granny seems to be kindhearted, well, at least to kids.

"Maybe, but I think I will still get something out of you. A small service or help. Nothing too difficult because that would annoy you and you would just refuse. But if I ask for something small, you will help."

Is there something wrong with my face? Is the system giving the ability to people to read me like a book at times? Or is it the power of the true extrovert I hear about so often? The power of someone feeding on the energy of us introverts to survive and learn to read people not because of talent but because of a sheer amount of interactions.

"I'm right, I think, hehe, I will ask you later! The little girl is already healed and will wake up soon!"

Acknowledging that with a simple nod, I pass by her and grab my disciple, then turn around to leave only to be met by the old woman blocking my way.

"Leaving already?" she asks.

"Yes, this place is making me sleepy," I take another step.

Her smile only deepens, seemingly not bothered that I identified one of the effects of the field that is set up around the rooftop of skyscraper. If I were weaker, I would already be asleep, left defenseless to be killed or anything else. 

It irks me, but I have gotten used to natives from Hell difficulty being dangerous when you let your guard down. Plus, she helped my disciple, so I will let it go.

I also identify its source, some small item inside a compartment inside one of the walls.

She finally lets me pass, "I think you should talk with Darren. He would find use for someone like you, and I believe it would be worth it for you as well."

"Yes, yes," I put on my shoes and then turn to her.

For a moment, I think of releasing some of my mana and scaring her a little for such a cheap trick, but in the end, I decide against it.

It seems like I will be dealing a bit more with these people. This kind of "Locating survivors" didn't seem to count as finishing the side quest.

In the end, I just step outside and purposely knock over two older, cracked flower pots while the granny screams something at me.

I then jump over the side of the building with my disciple in my arms and head to one of the empty skyscrapers.

***

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