Fight. Level. Survive.

Chapter 73 - An Unfortunate Affliction

Thankfully, the potion had not shattered when it had fallen. Now that he was looking at it up close, it really didn’t look like anything special. The bottle was well made and beautifully crafted but had the tiniest crack in its bottom, where he suspected the liquid had escaped through over the last gods knew how many years.

Elixir of Pana (Legendary) is an incredibly powerful regenerative potion that can regrow limbs and cure any injury down to the cellular level. This elixir is so potent that if given enough time, it will slowly regenerate itself, creating a limitless supply. WARNING: Prolonged or continuous exposure to this potion can do some extremely weird things to biological creatures.

Nina, having completed her transformation back to human, was lying on the cave floor. He saw her chest still moving, so he didn’t worry; anybody going through a change like that was bound to need time to recover.

“I think I figured out how the Abominations were created,” he whispered to Mayry. He read her the description, making sure not to let Nina hear. The girl seemed trustworthy, but he didn’t know her well enough to tell her the whole truth about his abilities.

“I reckon the potion must have been what started this whole mess. Slowly leaking out of the crack for who knows how long. The abominations probably started out as… rats, Insects, maybe moss, then exposed to the potion over years and years, slowly mutated them into this fucker.” He said, pointing to the abomination Mayry sat on

A crease formed on Mayry’s forehead, “If it’s that dangerous, should we even keep it?”

He thought for a while before answering, “I think It’s worth keeping. We just need to not rely too heavily on it. Whatever the abominations started out, were probably exposed to this for years and years.” He looked at the monster again, then added, “On second thought… maybe we’ll have Viv take a look at it first, just to be safe.

“I’m exhausted, can we all just take a nap in the trunk before we head off?

He laughed, “There is no way I’m letting anyone get in the trunk smelling like this. I’d never get it clean!

“Grr fine. Where is the elemental?” She looked around, but it was nowhere; it had either wandered off or its summons time had run out. “Maybe we can find a ritualist in a town nearby?” She added after deciding she didn’t have the energy to look for the creature.

A mumble came from Nina’s prone form, still lying on the floor.

“What was that?”

“I said I’m a ritualist. I can do the cleansing spell… I don’t have the stuff I need with me, though, so yes, on the town… just give me a few more minutes…” She yawned and went silent for a while before forcing herself to stand up with what looked like a great deal of effort.

Mason took the opportunity to check out his character sheet. He’d levelled twice and wanted to see how close he was to pushing his intelligence to 100 and those sweet, sweet upgrades.

Name: Mason Hughes

Level: 30

Current XP: 32000 / 32420

Race: Human

Class: Hunter

Health Points (HP): 890

Mana Points (MP): 610

Stamina Points (SP): 390

Stats

Strength: 67 (+15)

Agility: 69

Endurance: 58

Vitality: 79

Resilience: 60 (+26)

Intelligence: 93 (+10%)

Perception: 63

Willpower: 59

Free Points: 0

Skills

Identify (Expert), Mana Control – INT (Expert), Emotional Outburst – PER (Expert), Lesser Invisibility – PER (Expert), Random Greater Summon INT (Expert), Sarcastic Prick – INT (Expert), Mental Manipulation – WIL (Expert), Mental Resistance, Ballistic Touch – STR (Expert) Division – INT (Expert),

Teleport – AGI (Expert) Sacrifial Healing – VIT (Expert)

Base Skills

Universal Translator, Inventory (Advanced), System Guidebook (Basic)

Class Skills

Basic Monster Tracking, Evaluate Monster, Gather Intel

Progress was being made; it was slow, but it was at least somewhat consistent. Hopefully, once he got to taking out some others, he would be able to speed it up.

He wouldn’t mind so much about the speed of his progression and would be more than happy to take his time and plan out his every move; only there was the small matter of him maybe having to fight god, demons, and who knows what in only a matter of years. He still needed to absorb the chaos orbs but unless those boosted him by an unbelievable amount, he was going to have to figure out a way to move forward faster.

Maybe if he could absorb more iterations of chaos…

This thought was interrupted by Nina letting out another yawn, pushing herself up, and reluctantly calling over to them that she was ready to leave.

***

“It’s really not that bad,” Mason insisted, “Please just let us in and we’ll-“

“No, no, I assure you, sir, it is that bad,” The guard said bluntly. “You smell worse than my grandma does, and she died before I was born. You can’t come in. You’ll stink up the entire town, and I simply refuse to take the blame for it!”

Why did it seem that every single guard in this world hated him? Every single time he came across one, it felt like there was trouble. At least this one had a valid reason.

The guard in question was a slightly hunched, older man who spoke in a blunt yet eloquent manner that surprised Mason. He didn’t seem like he was suited for guard duty as he walked with a limp and held a cane.

Mason could quite easily bypass the gate by teleporting them, but the guard didn’t seem like a bad guy; he was just doing his job and didn’t want to get in trouble.

“Okay, my friend here is a ritualist. She can do a cleansing ritual on us, but she needs a few things. Is there any way one of us could quickly grab the stuff from the apothecary and then come back? Then we can get all clean, and you can let us in, right?”

The man thought about it but shook his head slowly. “I know the owner of the apothecary. She’s a mean old hag. She’d kick you out before you said two words smelling like that!” He scrunched up his face as if considering something. “What is it you need? My shift ends soon; if you write me a list, I can get you anything you need.”

Mason removed some paper from his inventory and handed it over to Nina, who scribbled down a list and handed it to Mason, who passed it on to the man along with a few coins. “This is very kind of you. Thank you so much.”

Just then, a much younger man wearing the same guard uniform approached. The moment he came close enough to smell them, he made a face and shouted. “No. No way, Alfred, there is no way we’re letting them in!”

“I already told them that, you buffoon,” he knocked his cane against the man’s head and then started to hobble off.

Before he got more than a few steps, Mason called him back over. The man sighed, turned and came back. As soon as the man was within reach, Mason reached out and put his hand on his shoulder. His hand glowed, and the younger guard started to draw his sword, but before he could, the previously hunched-over older guard stood up straight, staring at Mason with wide eyes. “What did you do? I-i feel- I don’t feel. The pain, it’s gone…”

“I healed you; sorry, I probably should have asked first.” He hadn’t really thought about it. He had seen how much pain the man was in and had acted.

The man laughed and did an experimental jump in the air. “I feel amazing, I’ll get you those ingredients right now,” he handed back the coins, “Take this back.”

Mason tried to refuse, but the man skipped off down the road, telling anyone who would listen about the foul-smelling healer who had fixed the back pain that had been making his life miserable for decades.

The younger guard eyed Mason suspiciously. “Can you heal anyone, or is it just old folk pain?”

***

He was annoyed with himself; he had gotten a healing ability a while ago and had never even considered going around healing people who needed it. The limitation of him taking on the damage of whoever he healed was annoying, but with his Resilience and Vitality stats, he doubted anything these people could handle would put him in any sort of danger.

The ritual had been pretty straightforward. Mason had been very excited to see one done finally but had ended up disappointed, as it was very simple. All that had happened was that Nina placed a few things around them and said a few words, and then there was a flash of light, and they were clean. She promised him that she would show him a flashier ritual some other time.

After they were clean and no longer smelled like rotting carcasses, they were finally allowed into town. The two women went off to find an Inn while Mason stayed behind.

Thanks to the guards, word had spread about the ‘healer’ that was in town. It only took a matter of minutes for the village people to form a line in front of him, each of them waiting for their turn to be healed. The guards had even brought a chair out for him, saving him from having to stand.

He was tired, but he wouldn’t feel right turning any of these people away. He’d hardly noticed anything he had absorbed so far, so he was more than happy to do what he could. These people needed help, and while a health potion would have probably fixed most of these people’s ailments, a lot of them didn’t look like they could afford such luxuries.

Before he started the healing, he wanted to make sure he wasn’t going to accidentally cripple himself with something he wouldn’t be able to get rid of from himself. He made sure everyone could hear him as he announced. “Hi, everyone! If you could all let me know what you need healed before I start, that would be great; the way my power works is I temporarily take on whatever I heal, and I’m not sure how it reacts to anything magical and I don’t want any surprises! So let me know beforehand if you have anything that might be particularly painful or anything that might linger! Thanks!”

The vast majority of people only had simple things like the flu or a persistent stomach ache, but a few were a bit more serious. One older person had the beginnings of dementia, which left Mason feeling quite out of it for a few minutes after he had absorbed it.

When an adorable little old lady, wearing a vibrant yellow dress, asked him if he could do anything about her arthritis, he immediately assured her that he would do his best. Like usual, he took her hand in his and activated his ability. Mason felt something from the woman move out of her and into him and was surprised when he got a notification.

Status effect: Affliction—‘Super Herpes’ has been added—Intelligence -5% Vitality -5% + 500% itchy genitals.

His eyes widened as he read. He squirmed as a sudden and urgent itchiness struck him.

The old woman he had just healed innocently asked, “Are you okay there, young man?”

He narrowed his eyes at her and, through gritted teeth, said, “I’m just fine. Was it just arthritis that was bothering you?”

The old woman barely managed to hold back a grin as she replied cheerily, “Yep, that was all deer; I feel much better now, thank you.” And hobbled off, entering the nearest pub and exiting less than a minute later with, surprisingly, a much younger man.

There were still dozens of people in the queue waiting to be healed, but the affliction wasn’t disappearing as the others had; the itchiness was only getting worse.

He stood suddenly as the urge to scratch himself intensified. He muttered an apology to the next in line and turned to rush off when he came face to face with Mayry and Nina.

“Heya! We found an inn…” Nina said, trailing off when she saw the look of urgency on his face. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Err, that’s great,” he replied, using every ounce of willpower he had to avoid giving in and scratching himself. “I jus- excuse me for a second.” He teleported away, leaving Nina confused.

She turned to Mayry and asked, “How many abilities does that man have?!”

Reappearing on the opposite side of the street, he ducked into an empty side street and downed a healing potion. His HP was already full, so it had no effect. He whispered desperately to his system, ”Help, Super Herpes not fading from Sacrificial Healing.” He begged his system to take pity on him just this once. After a few agonising moments where nothing happened, he finally got a pop-up.

Help—Sacrificial Healing is fully functional. Due to their increased complexity, magical afflictions fade over a longer period of time.

Crap. Did that mean he just had to wait it out? How long was that going to take? He was going to find that old lady and… probably not do anything, but he wanted to! How the bloody hell did someone even get magical super herpes?!

He was in extreme discomfort and was considering using the Elixir of Pana to get rid of it. Surely a single use wouldn’t have any negative side effects? The only thing stopping him from dousing himself in the elixir was the horrifying image of the abominations still burning into his mind. He wasn’t entirely sure the potion would help as the description states it could ‘regrow limbs and cure any injury.’ It wasn’t worth the risk, maybe after Viv had taken a look at it.

Right now, he just needs something to occupy his mind. He took out one of the chaos orbs he had taken from Aiden and forced his mind to focus on trying to draw from it.

At first, he didn’t feel anything. Then, a slight tickle presented itself in the back of his mind and started to grow into a headache, then that spread downwards. The pain intensified as it moved until intense pain filled his mind and body, completely replacing the discomfort from the herpes. It wasn’t at all an improvement, but it was more bearable than the pain he had felt when absorbing essence directly from the Mayor. That had felt like he had swallowed hellfire; while this felt more like his insides were boiling, painful, it was far more tolerable. He was only pulling from it as slowly as he could, he could pull harder, but he got the feeling that doing so too soon could cripple him. While holding the orb, he could tell how much essence it contained, and at the rate he was currently pulling, it would take months to empty it.

The pain suddenly spiked, making him drop the orb. Mason opened his eyes and was surprised to find that he was facedown on the ground. He pushed himself up and looked around to find that it was dark out. How long had that taken? It felt like a few minutes at most, but it must have been hours.

*DING*

Achievement unlocked! Power hungry!

You have absorbed chaos essence from more than one external source without needing to kill it!

- Reward: New system guidebook page, Essence distribution, unlocked.