His sleep lasted for a good while, before being woken up by the annoying, mechanical clicking of keys, accompanied by the usual electrical static buzz.

  Arthur's eyes slowly opened, groggily glancing around the room to find the source of the sound. In front of him, the Archive had opened itself, the words too blurry for him to make out just yet.

  With a tired grunt followed by a yawn, he sat up straight. His body was still numb from the sleep, and his senses had not quite woken up completely.

  He stretched his arms first, joining his hands and extending the limbs in front of him until he felt the pull of the muscles.

  Then, he did the same for his back, holding his hands above his head and bending his torso laterally. First to the left, then to the right.

  After finishing this routine, he moved his muscles some more, pushing back with his shoulders and circling his arms, to get a better feel of his body.

  This was something he used to do a lot in Malkuth, but with how hurried his two last awakenings were, he had little time to do a comfortable, waking up routine.

  Only after doing everything, did he notice another figure on the opposite side of the room, unaware of him having woken up.

  A cascade of long, brown and wavy hair hid the back of her head, making Arthur suppose that figure was a woman, rather than a man.

  Her clothing was composed of a linen shirt, of which Arthur could only see the back, a tied apron and a pair of work pants.

  Considering she was in a medical bay, it was probably some sort of surgical apron, to avoid staining her clothes with bodily fluids or medical substances.

  She was busy handling materials and ingredients, Arthur could not know what for, emitting a feeble but bright light.

  He noticed that the Archive, which woke him initially, was in fact recording the woman's actions. Perhaps it was some process which could help Arthur in the future, so he didn't mind.

  Although, that clicking noise was getting more annoying by the second. He sighed, now that he was awake, he might as well make use of it.

  Not to mention, even if he tried to go back to sleep, he would probably fail. That was a habit he had back in his old body. Once he woke up in the morning, even if it was really early, he found it extremely hard heading back to sleep.

  He stretched one last time, before addressing the unknown woman on the opposite side of the room. She jumped slightly, startled by Arthur's sudden “Good morning”.

  “Oh my! Did I wake you? I'm really losing my edge, hmm…” The woman turned around, looking Arthur in the eyes. Her features were soft, and her face was sprinkled with freckles, mostly on her nose and cheeks.

  More notably, from the top of her head, a pair of horns extended out and upwards. Each horn branched off into two structures. Perhaps, it was more accurate to call them antlers, rather than horns.

  Additionally, her ears were more similar to Arthur's own, rather than to a human's. The outer layer seemed to be covered in fur, being long and twisted.

  Arthur glanced at the Archive, still busy typing away and recording her working process. An additional window popped up, quickly explaining the nature of those features.

  Irene was a Behemoth, a race of humans descending from dragons, and thus possessing similar features. Similarly, that woman seemed to be what was known in Irminsul as a Tribefolk.

  A race of unknown origins, which gave humans animalistic features. How many features one inherited seemed to be mostly random, as some had only antlers, animalistic ears or tails, while others had entire bodies covered in fur.

  Although according to the Archive the origins of that race were unknown, that also applied for most other races of humans in Irminsul. Arthur snickered, if he asked the Archive about it, it would probably repeat [That information is too dangerous for your mind].

  Out of curiosity, he tried to ask the Archive that question, on how those races came to be, and surprisingly, that actually was the answer given to him by his Gift. Arthur looked at the text window dumbfoundedly for a moment, before shrugging his shoulders.

  His attention switched back towards the woman, who had been talking to herself, trying to speak to Arthur, for a while now. She pushed up the bridge of her nose the pair of glasses she was wearing, before clearing her throat.

  “… Sorry again for waking you up, usually I'm quieter when preparing medicine. That said, how are your wounds feeling? Of course, the bleeding and superficial wounds have already been treated, no need to thank me, but I do have to note, especially since you're amnesiac, that the worst part of a Gemstone wound isn't the flesh wounds, but rather…”

  For how serious she looked while working, she seemed to be quite the chatterbox. She kept talking without leaving Arthur a room to respond, explaining what medicine she was preparing, and why.

  He nodded to himself, now understanding the purpose of the ingredients on her table. He could see some sort of crushed powder, a pestle and bowl, various herbs, leaves and flowers, and more materials which he hoped he saw wrong.

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  One of those ingredients looked oddly like an overgrown mosquito, and he was sure he saw her putting part of it inside the bowl. He gulped.

  “You see, the worst part is the damage to your Ley Lines. Ah, if you're wondering, Mr. Sol told me about your amnesia. Oh, don't worry, he didn't tell me anything about you apart from that, except that you're a prisoner. Oh, well, I can see that anyways.

  “Do you need me to explain Gemstones and Ley Lines to you? Hm, no, I suppose if you were working in a Refinement Facility, you remember at the very least the very basics. If not, you'd verily be a very dumb… Very… Person? Hm, I lost track of the pun…

  “Right, your Ley Lines. They got cut up. Using any Ark might be dangerous for you right now, so you might feel a bit weaker. Don't worry, after some time resting here, and only… Hm… Taking this delicious medicine a few times each day, your Ley Lines should be all patched up!”

  He doubted the truthfulness of those words, specifically the ‘delicious’ part. Although that was an interesting concept, the fact that something physical, like a Moonstone, could damage something like a Ley Line.

  Maybe it was due to the innate presence of Archê inside of the gemstones, something along the lines of interacting with similar materials. Perhaps the damage wasn't due to the physical shards, but from the explosion.

  More than that, it was also worrying, finding out that even if he wanted to, it'd be dangerous to use magic in his current situation. He understood how it worked somewhat, and wanted to try and cast spells on his own.

  However, if even that would prove dangerous, or harmful for his condition, then he'd have to wait even more to try and make use of that energy known as Ark. Arthur clicked his tongue, before shifting his gaze to the medicine.

  After explaining the effects of the wounds to Arthur, the woman had turned back to her work, finely grounding the ingredients into a paste, before moving the bowl on top of a small sheet of paper.

  On it, Arthur could see some glyphs and circuits, although he couldn't make sense of what they meant. Instead of asking the Archive, as always, he tried to make conversation with the woman.

  “Is that some sort of, uh, fire Gemstone? To heat it up?”

  The woman tilted her head, turning back towards Arthur, and chuckled in amusement at his question.

  “Of course not, silly. Right, right, amnesia. This is just a prayer enhancement.”Speaking, she slipped the sheet of paper from under the bowl, holding it up towards Arthur's eyes. Once again, he could see the symbol of an upside-down arrow, drawn inside a circle. Small glyphs and symbols surrounded it.

  “You see, when making medicine, an extremely important step is praying, for whichever God you believe in to purify the elements of the ingredients, and have a successful concoction. It's unclear what exactly separates prayers requiring medicine from non prayer requiring ones… Oh right, there's some medicines that don't need any preparation, and are good to take as soon as they're mixed.

  “It’s unclear, but if you consume medicine which requires prayer without any praying, well, it has the completely opposite effects. Not exactly the opposite effects, but it's pretty much poison. It depends from medicine to medicine, really, and seems to depend on the ingredients.

  “For example, this is a mix of Feathered Daffodils, Night Reindeer antler powder, and an extract of Phantom Shark scales. Oh, the antler powder is from me, by the way. Actual Night Reindeer antlers cost way too much for my poor pockets…”She pointed to her own antlers, before sighing, probably thinking of her own saved up money. Now that he was taking a better look, Arthur could see a transparent, dark coloured veil covering her antlers, with a few glimmering spots. It resembled the night, starry sky, somewhat. Perhaps, that's where that race of reindeers, and of the identical Tribefolks, took the name from.

  “… If you consume those together, or while ground into a paste, well… Well, they're some of the least worst ingredients, actually. At worst, you'll be vomiting for a few days straight, with some difficulty breathing.”Arthur swallowed hard.

  “And, at best…?” He asked hesitantly, not daring to wonder what would happen if he consumed some of the worst, worst ingredients.

  “Well, at best, it's a perfect medicine for healing damaged Ley Lines! That is, after a prayer. So, now that I explained everything to you, I would reaaally enjoy some quiet, to let me concentrate.”

  Despite her kind expression and soft features, Arthur was somewhat afraid at that moment, so he complied. She probably wouldn't hurt him directly, but she was the one handling his medicine, so he wouldn't risk it.

  He didn't want to end up hospitalized for even more time, vomiting and not even managing to breathe, so he let her do her thing. In the meanwhile, he directed his attention towards the Archive.

  ‘That process, the prayer enhancement, is also ritualistic magic?’ That was a doubt which appeared in his mind when he saw the upside-down arrow symbol, and heard the explanation of the God granting the medicine its effects.

  The Archive took a few seconds to formulate a response, while keeping another window open to record the process of the prayer enhancement.

  [To call it a ritualistic magic with the purpose of enhancing the medicine's ability would be incorrect. The actual prayer acts upon the properties of the ingredients, to make the medicine effective.]

  [However, any further information would be dangerous for your mind.]

  Arthur nodded, by now he was expecting that answer. With how common it was starting to get, then maybe a lot of things about that world just weren't supposed to be understood that easily.

  ‘Though, understanding how a prayer works does sound sort of hard…’

  Meanwhile, the woman was chanting in a language Arthur didn't understand, most likely that world's version of latin, or some language only used for prayers.

  The glyphs written on the prayer enhancement sheet of paper started glowing, the light seemingly being absorbed into the bowl. After some minutes of repeatedly praying and mixing the concoction, she stopped, breathing a sigh of relief and wiping a bead of sweat away from her forehead.

  Bringing the bowl towards the bedridden boy, he could finally peek inside at the mixture. It seemed like a thin, purple paste, slightly glowing with unnatural light.

  Arthur was surprised, although that seemed like common knowledge, the prayer seemed to really have effects on the medicine. It wasn't even as flashy or as glorious as he imagined it to be, simply a chant and some elbow grease.

  “Do I just, eat this? Drink it? Or maybe put it on my wounds?” He asked with curiosity. The woman shook her head, producing a few sheets of paper from her trousers.

  “No, no. I'll make some pills for you to take, twice a day. One in the morning, and one in the evening, got it? Once you run out of these, your Ley Lines should be all good and patched up.”

  After packaging the medicine, she handed it to Arthur inside a small tin container. The pills ended up being enough to be consumed twice a day for two weeks straight. Which meant, he had to be hospitalized for at least two weeks. He sighed.

  While humming a tune, the woman cleaned up the table which she had been working on, putting all the utensils and materials into various pockets of her clothes. Only after that would she head to the door, leaving while waving at Arthur.

  A few seconds later, Arthur slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand, trying to get out of the bed but failing due to his tired body.

  “I forgot to ask her name…”