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1067 Words
With Liz’s help, he laid back down, and she pulled his shirt back. Matt had to grit his teeth at the ripping sensation of his undershirt sticking to torn flesh and muscles as it came off. His back was carved up in rows of lines from their claws and covered in circle shaped puncture wounds from the bats’ teeth.
Peak Tier 6 monsters were still outside of his ability to block reliability.
From his other side, Aster nudged his cheek with her snout, and he reached around to kiss the fox on the head. “It’s okay, Aster. Just a few scratches.”
The fox whined and whimpered. He was careful not to let the burning pain leak through their bond, while Liz washed his wounds with a potion from their medical kit. The expanded [Endurance] did an amazing job at boosting the body’s natural healing, but it was still better to use the potions to prevent any potential infection.
Camilla came over and watched Liz and smirked at the prone Matt. “Bet that feels great.”
Matt laughed at her attempt at humor. “Actually, yes. Little did you know, this is exactly my definition of a good time. You should see me on the weekends.”
Camilla laughed and continued to banter with him while the cooling potion was spread over his back.
Malcolm came over, and Matt watched as he saw the state of Matt’s back. The shining example of a perfect adventurer immediately turned and vomited at the sight of his wounds.
Camilla didn’t bother to turn and rolled her eyes.
While the man was retching, she whispered, “Look at the bandage he wrapped his leg in.”
Matt did as she suggested and saw that the man’s entire leg from ankle to knee was wrapped in what looked to be an entire roll of bandages. The wound wasn’t nearly large enough to require that kind of wrapping. Matt had seen it. It was two inches long if you were generous.
Camilla stifled a laugh, but now it was Matt’s turn to roll his eyes. The man was so green and inexperienced it was almost unbelievable.
“Hey, Liz? Are this how other kids that come from higher Tier backgrounds are?” There was little reason to embarrass the man, so he whispered the question.
Liz scoffed and pushed a little too hard on Matt’s back, causing him to wince. “No, not at all. This is the type of drivel you’d expect from more upper-middle, Tier 20 parents or so. The truly strong make sure their children are ready to go out into the real world, or simply won’t let them come to places like this. If I had to guess, he was born on a higher Tier world, and cultivated ambient essence. If he had been carried through a rift, he would have at least seen blood and killing before. My best guess is that he struck out on his own after using his Talent to find whatever item was best for his advancement.”
Matt thought that over. It seemed like a reasonable explanation. Before he could put his two cents in, Malcolm came over and held a hand over his eyes, so he wouldn’t have to look at Matt’s back.
Using his access to Liz’s AI, he checked his back from her view, and didn’t even think the wounds were that bad. None of them were very deep, just numerous.
“Are you two...” Malcolm swallowed hard, “ready to take over the watch?”
Camilla nodded, and the man fled to his tent.
“His Talent is weird, though. Strong as hell. I’m surprised he wasn’t snatched up by a guild. He can find the entrance to a ruin by Talent alone. That’s gotta be rare as hell.” Matt said once they were alone.
The two of his friends nodded at that. The man’s Talent was absurd.
Liz mused, “It could be incredibly strong with the right questions. I’m assuming that it doesn’t work on anything higher than his Tier, though. And those seeking Talents all have limitations. I know of one that can’t find anything with a certain shade of blue. They aren’t perfect in their finding, or they aren’t perfect in their directions. Something is always given up for their ability.”
Camilla c****d her head. “Oh? What gives you that impression?”
While Matt couldn’t see it, he knew that Liz had gone into lecture mode, and already had a finger raised. “Well, first off, any seeker Talent usually has that restriction. At most, they can jump up a Tier. Second, he picked us, one of the first Tier 5 teams. He said he got bad feelings from the others and mentioned Tier 6 teams. He probably can’t get a read on anything above his Tier, since he didn’t mention anyone higher than that. It could be more restrictive, and he might only be able to see at his own Tier as distance increases.”
Matt had a thought, and messaged his interim nurse, ‘‘Did you happen to message you know who?’
“Of course, he’d love a Talent like that. Sadly, he won’t tell us anything, even if he already came over and snagged it. I don’t know. He might already have something better, but Talents all work differently, even if the AI says they work the same. There can always be little differences.”
It was weird that the Emperor could have been inches away, and they would have never even noticed his presence.
Matt wasn’t sure how Liz dealt with the lack of privacy.
Are her parents watching us right now?
From all the stories he heard of her and Travis, it was a distinct possibility.
No, wait. They’re probably still dealing with the dragon blood rift.
Travis had been ecstatic that his parents would be occupied, and Matt finally understood why.
He laid there in contemplation as Liz put a few bandages on his back.
She’s probably using less than Malcolm used.
The thought made him chuckle slightly, which caused pain to radiate down his spine.
Liz ran her hands through his hair and said, “Okay, you’re good to start channeling [Endurance] now.”
She then flicked his forehead. “Next time, put the [Hail] in front of yourself first.”
- Writer
