Chapter 43

  Orders From Above

  Ever have one of those moments where you realize that you might have done too much. That you achieved something so monumental that you wouldn’t possibly be able to actually accept the reward?

  That was me, right now.

  Before me, I saw it, a shiny new Class Skill just waiting for me to accept it, right there.

  Yet, that Skill was the last one I could hold for the moment. As I already had three of my four currently available Class slots filled. Worse, I had a binding contract forcing me to use the fourth Skill slot on a Mana circulation Skill. A Skill that I have not even had a chance to sit down and read the manual on.

  Then as if to spite me, here I am with yet a third wild Skill available to me.

  While I am not entirely certain what this Wild Skill’s unlocked Attribute will be, I assume it will be similar to the Class Skill that offered the same exact option for growth. That Skill being my Golden Life Ratio Mana Regeneration* Skill that has drastically improved my Mana efficiency and generation process for Life attuned healing Skills. Well, the one Life attuned healing Skill that is surprisingly versatile.

  Inhale.

  Exhale.

  Taking a deep breath, I force myself to focus, realizing that if I take this Skill, I will break my pact and therefor lose all access to the system.

  I am about to reject the option, but I pause.

  An unbearable pain seems to form in my chest as I am mulling over the option.

  Movement to my right.

  Taking the distraction for what it is, I turn half expecting an irate Leah the Destroyer to come up and try to exact revenge for my nearly tackling her out of the way. Yet, to my surprise it is Markan moving close to me, his hand up to prevent people from reading his lips, while also directing his voice directly into my hood covered ear.

  “The boss says for you to take the Skill,” Markan whispers.

  “The boss?” I ask, turning my head to look at Markan and make sure that his body is showing no signs of deception.

  Even if this was a deception, I almost want to take it, knowing that this wouldn’t count as a purposeful system oath break, if he was lying as I acted in good faith. That said, I needed to confirm this with my own eyes. My ears had already confirmed this, but my mind could not process this without seeing Markan’s body language firsthand.

  His body was solid, showing no signs of trying to force a nonchalant pose, or seeming too antsy with my sudden inspection of his body.

  Then as if reading my mind, he turned and pointed out to the audience, at a section of seats just above the one way polarized protective screen around the arena. There at the heart of where he was pointing was an absolutely vibrant and glowing Madame Bloom, who seemed to glow with an unnatural radiance even in the darkened arena seating area.

  Focusing on her, I felt my eyes focus once until they blurred, then blinking my eyes readjusted, and focused again until she was the only person my Eagle Eye Skill focused on.

  Seeing my full attention on her, she gave a crisp queen’s clap. One that seemed both delicate and capable of performing maximum volume sounds with minimal action on her part. Then she nodded towards me.

  I pointed at myself. That’s when Madame Bloom again, ever the dignitary just nodded.

  For a moment, I wanted to triple check. To ask how Markan knew her thoughts, but figured they had some type of communication device or Skill. At least that was the logic I used to validate that this was in fact her order. After all, Madame Bloom seemed to be an ardent supporter of taking these so called Wild Skills when they appeared. As such, this was not too far out the realm of possibility of belief.

  Feeling that my own personal conscience was satiated by taking the Skill, even if it meant my pact with the Blooms would last that much longer. At least until I either maxed out one of these Skills, which given that most are Unique Skills and capable of advancing with me, doesn’t seem that probable. Or I wait until my base Attribute score of at least 40, which should unlock the Epic level of my Unique Class and allow for an additional Class specific Skill slot to open. That said, some Unique classes require more to unlock different tiers of power, depending on how powerful the Class itself is considered to be.

  Also, this is still my Class’s molding stage, which means that it is expanding to meet both my current needs and my body’s capabilities. This is why Madame Bloom was so adamant that I don’t look at my Class’s bonuses yet, as they are still subject to change and can be pushed to improve with enough effort on my part.

  Again, all of this goes back to the idea that my choosing to accept this wild Class specific Skill should happen. There is also the fact that a movement related Skill would be very important, especially if I wished to follow the guidance I received from Mr. Yi on Skill usage, and ways to avoid incoming attacks by going all widdershins.

  Realizing that in my heart, and as far as the system are concerned there seems to be nothing wrong with my taking this Skill, first exhale.

  Then upon inhaling, I accept the Skill.

  Once again, this Life Attributed Skill further unlocks the Life Mana Attribute. I almost wonder why, but then the message prompt from the system informs me why it added to the same special Attribute of adding to my Life Mana attribute.

  Those are the same exact bonuses that Golden Life Ratio Mana Regeneration* offered. Furthermore, it also had the same notification about having achieved maximum efficiency, which forced the Skill to evolve.

  For a moment, I wonder if this is something that is documented somewhere? Had Madame Bloom known this all along?

  Also, this does seem to prove the fact that all of my new Skills that I learn within this Unique but limited Class will be altered in such a way. That said, having more mana to use my class specific Skills is not a bad thing, at least not in my opinion.

  With that, I take one last look at just the bare bones of my status screen.

  That is it, that is all I am, and all I will ever be for a while. My only way to change slightly is to try to knock out the three Uncommon ranked Skills and improve my base attributes so that I can unlock the Epic level of my Class.

  It’s sad in a way, as this means that everything I do from this point forward should be on improving and knocking out these Skills, otherwise my road to advancement will be stopped. Still, four badges, a fully awakened bloodline, a fully filled out Class, along with my Free and Personal Skill slots filled does feel like I am finally getting close to reaching my full potential. At least, today’s full potential.

  That said, the fact that my current full potential doesn’t include a spot for Madame Blooms second part of her contract seems to dictate that I will be bound to the Bloom household seemingly indefinitely. Knowing now that all future Class related Skills will become radicalized, I make a note to only take the Bloom family Skill as my next Skill.

  Whoosh!

  More green lights erupt from my body, as I feel the new Skill take hold and seemingly push out a bit of my Life attuned mana.

  Poof.

  I watch as the streaming motes of light fall, onto the still prone form of the knocked-out Gale. Seeing her in this state, I know I have done everything I could do to protect her. I’ve healed the minor fractions in her skull and body. Increased the rate of blood flow out of her skull and alleviated the areas of impact that were already swelling within her skull.

  In terms of her medical state, her body was perfect.

  Now I just needed her mind to catch up and realize she could once again move. Still, I take the moment to watch the tiny motes of light fall, like little green glowing snowflakes.

  The moment the first green snowflake lands on Gale’s body, I see the way it instantly melts into her body, and gets absorbed into her skin instantly. Then the next and the next.

  I am so lost in watching the green motes of mana disappear into her body, that I almost miss the moment when her body first begins to twitch. The strained flexing of a leg, the twitching of her eyes under her eyelids. Seeing her reaction, I pause and hold my breath, and finally when opens her eyes and lets out a long gasp, I exhale as if mirroring the opposite of her action.

  “GASP!”

  Gale’s consciousness slams into her body as she violently raises her head into the air, her body doing a violent sit up that is stopped by my outstretched hand.

  Snarl.

  For a moment, her mind reacts primally to the appearance of my hand as she all but snarls at my touch. Only after I send in a gentle wave of healing through my hand to her shoulder does she stop.

  Blink.

  Shaking her head, she closes her eyes for a long two count and reopens to see first my hand. Then she follows my hand to my arm, and quickly my face where she locks gazes with me. With that stare, she seems to process something. That’s when I speak, having had enough of trying to improve my Actor Skill, for the moment.

  “You’re okay, do you know where you are?” I ask.

  Gale slowly nods, and half expects her head to hurt, but only after giving a feigned wince does she stop and hold her head. But the hand she holds up just touches the left side of her skull, the part that was partially fractured a moment ago.

  “It doesn’t hurt?” She states, somewhat surprised. That’s when I hit her with the seven most overconfident words, I almost instantly regret saying due to how cheesy they sound.

  “I’m a healer, it’s what we do,” I inwardly cringe right after those words left my mouth and once again wish I kept to being the mute persona. Realizing it is too late to redeem myself with a cooler quote, or by saying nothing at all I just begin to rise slightly. Resting my weight on my toes, I am about ready to stand up.

  “You think you can stand?” I ask, Gale nods gently, and that is all the confirmation I need as I grab her under her armpits and begin raising her up with me. Her feet quickly dance under her once she gets to a good enough angle and then after staggering for half a second, she gains her balance and pauses.

  Then after a moment Gale takes a cautionary step back, her arm still holding onto my shoulder for balance.

  CHEERS!

  The crowd erupts, seeing that Gale is safe and able to stand up on her own. I watch as Luna, the dark-haired ring girl who comes up and seems to take over for me, as she gently begins walking Gale down the secondary side of the ring, the challenger’s section. Their hands clasped together as Luna goes first, and then gently waits for Gale to make her way down the metal steps.

  With that part over, I take a deep breath, and turn to see that Leah the Destroyer is right there. Tall enough to block out the artificial lighting that is now shining down on the stage and highlighting her back for the audience.

  Seeing her, I am prepared for a lot of reactions, anger, rage, reluctance, these are all emotions I almost expect to see on her face. Especially as I plowed into her leg, knocking her down and spinning her out of the way to protect Gale. Who apparently had really annoyed Leah.

  As the person who broke up that annoyance and clearly took the other side in the fight, I fully expect at least part of that initial rage to be transferred to me.

  Which is why I am shocked when I see her face, and rather than rage, I see tears. Tears that look like they are about to burst from an otherwise beautiful face that is about to burst in what is clearly going to be some of the most ugly face crying I have ever seen.

  Blur.

  Of course, I only see the tears and beautifully distorted face for a moment. Then she darts forward and hugs me tightly, burying her face into my dark robe, where I feel her tears easily bleeding through the thin black cloth that serves as my covering.

  “Thank you,” she begins, and hearing her, I reflexively reach up and pat her on the back, my arms wrapping around her muscular stomach and torso as I place my hands on her back and begin casting Rejuvenation Healing on her. At the very least I can heal the damage to her hand, knee and anywhere else that is still hurting. Oddly enough, her back is still a sore spot for her, which is good as I am right there. As I begin to pump in healing energy into her, she continues.

  “I don’t know what I would have done if she didn’t make it, I was just-just so mad that she left. Then she mocked me. . .” Leah began, her words fusing into a deep sob of regret.

  Hearing her words, I can only pat her on the back with my hand that is not directly infusing mana into her body. Then I say the only words that make sense to me at this moment.

  “You should say this to her,” I begin. Even as I say them, I can feel Leah’s large muscles tense up, a sign that she is doubting or at least resistant to the suggestion. Seeing her response, I continue, “while it might not fix everything, at least it can begin the healing process between you two.”

  With that, Leah took a half step back, and stared at me. Her face puffy and her eyes still red from pain, as the last few tears desperately slid down her face for freedom. Locking gazes with me, she nodded, opened her mouth like she wanted to say something, but then just stopped.

  The referee seeing this as a moment, came over and grabbed Leah’s hand, raising it high into the air.

  “The Winner!” The referee exclaimed.

  Leah for her part turned, showing her puffy and crying face to the crowd on all sides before making her way out. Only as she left the ropes did she stop to turn back to me and mouth out “thank you.”

  It was clear she would have shouted the words had they been available, but she was still dealing with a lot emotionally. Going from rage, to apparently shock, and then finally settling on joy that she hadn’t ended her former apprentice’s life.

  Seeing her relief, that’s when I realized, this was an awesome class, and moments like that are why I will continue to work to become the best I can at healing. I will do my best, in this life, just like my last. Though this time I know I can do better.

  per day, until our reign on the top 50 stops.

  1,000 Followers!