"Sebastian... Sebastian..." ... "Oi!!" Jin shoved Sebastian to try and bring him back to his senses.
"You've been holding onto Melissa for quite some time. Let her go will you? Are you alright?"
Rivie motioned for Jin to stop. She reasoned with him in a hushed voice: "He is dealing with his trauma. Remember he saw an adventurer die in front of him the first time he came. Also this might have been related to his death, from the way he is reacting. Give him time. Tend to the others please."
Jin slightly nodded to signify he understood before he moved to the rest of the group. "How about the other members? Are you all okay? Let's set up a perimeter as we tend to the wounded and decide what to do next." Being a guardsman and an adventurer for a few years definitely developed his sense of leadership.
"Got it. I'll scout the surrounding areas. If I see anything I'll come back and report. Nothing near us for now." Becky saw the wounded adventurers and decided to take an active role herself. She seemed like a different person when it came to other adventurers, Jin thought.
"I have a mana-restoring potion if you want it. You did use a high-tier spell after all." Ellie offered her one and only mana potion to Rivie.
"I'm okay. A single spell like that won't burn out my mana. Though I need to rest after that. You keep it for emergency purposes."
"I see. Thank you. Are you the magick teacher from the monastery? I didn't see you for a long time. Did you quit your job?"
"No, I was busy developing a training regimen for teenagers who came from the countryside. They're a bit behind in training compared to children born in the city so they need a faster method of training that also produces results." With a white lie like this, Rivie was confident there wouldn't be any other questions.
"Anyway it's really good you were nearby to help us out. We wouldn't have survived without your help. Thank you." Tears welled up in Ellie's face as she looked at the injured swordswoman, Melissa. She was still sleeping soundly.
"No worries. You have the rest of the party to thank as well." Rivie was back to her usual smiling self.
Sebastian snapped out from his trance as he looked around his surroundings. Looking at the wounded Melissa on the ground, her brutal injuries replayed in his mind. He felt the world spin again.
'[Augment] Steel body and mind!'
Slowing down his breathing, he took a look at the people around him again. Everyone seemed to be tending their injuries while Rivie and another elf were looking at him and Melissa.
"Ahh, I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Sebastian."
"You actually did introduce yourself when you first came over." Ellie chuckled. "I think you were under some sort of shock so we didn't bother you. You can let go of Melissa's arm now."
When Sebastian looked down he was still holding onto his makeshift tourniquet, though without force now. He loosened it when he blanked out.
"Ahh! I'm sorry, I'll let go now. It seems that I was too eager in applying first aid. She seems stable now. Where is Becky?" He looked to Rivie for answer with worry in his eyes.
"Don't fret too much. She's just scouting the area, making sure there aren't any other enemies. She actually volunteered for it." Rivie was still smiling, it almost became mysterious now.
"I see. With an injured party here, should we go back to the city? We already hunted quite a bit so I think we did our share. The plan was for us to take a rest at night and continue hunting in the morning anyway."
"I'll follow your decision. Let Jin and Becky know as well."
Sebastian stood up silently as he spoke with Jin and Becky about going back to the city with the other adventurers in tow.
'I wonder why Rivie didn't want to go over and just check their situation in the first place?'
***
"The monastery building is being used as a recovery centre right? I need a healer on this side please! We have adventurers with light injuries!"
"We also need a healer please! He's bleeding out! Please [Heal] as soon as possible!"
"Where was the healer here? We still have more injured adventurers coming! Make way! There's still lots of spaces here in the courtyard!"
Leo casted basic [Heal] spells whenever he could. He paced around the monastery as he gave orders to the healers and the staff there. He tried to organise the mess in front of him - which would explain why he looked serious and angry while he was walking about.
'This amount of damage just from mutated wolves? It's just not normal! If I didn't know better, this almost seems like a war zone.'
"Leo we've come back from our patrol. We've hunted at least 11 wolves within our area alone. We've brought an injured party here for treatment. Is everything alright here?" Sebastian couldn't help but think that it was like a busy emergency department when he looked at the scene in front of him.
'There was this much damage? We got off light!' Deep down he knew that Rivie played a major role in keeping their damages to a minimum.
"Place them on that side. We need to treat the seriously injured first. We seriously underestimated this quest." Leo was still busy casting [Heal] around him as he was talking to Sebastian.
"With your permission, I'll set up a triaging station. I'll stay by the doorway to organise where the injured adventurers should go. I'll direct the lightly injured towards that side, while the more seriously injured go towards the other side. For the deceased adventurers - I'll direct them to the backyard." Sebastian almost choked as he spoke the last part before continuing. "Have your healers take shifts to prevent mana burn out."
"That actually sounds good. Take Rivie with you to direct the flow of injured adventurers."
Although there was a bit of nostalgia involved, there were a couple of times when Sebastian had to use his [Augment] Steel body and mind as he worked through the night.
"That was a reasonable suggestion. Is this related to your previous life?" Rivie quietly asked as she had a cup of herbal tea with Sebastian. When the seriously injured adventurers stabilised, both took the chance to swap out with other healers and rest.
"Yes, it did remind me of some medical centres in Earth during my time there. It was bad like this, but having someone able to cast [Heal] is very handy. It makes a world of difference." Sebastian lightly smirked when he realised he made an unintended pun.
Sebastian then yawned as he stretched his weary arms. He didn't learn the magick spell [Heal], but he used his medical experience to triage the patients, apply first aid, and even to comfort the wounded adventurers overnight. Even with [Augment], his body was already near its limits.
"Let's rest for today. Both of our conditions are not suitable for another hunt. Jin and Becky will be busy handling the loot today anyway." Rivie stood up as she signaled for Sebastian to head to his rented room in the inn to recover.
'I shouldn't use [Augment]. I need to recover.' With an almost drunken gait, Sebastian headed to his home and slept until the next morning.
***
"Here's your share of the spoils." Jin handed Sebastian a small pouch of coins when they met up the next morning, refreshed.
Sebastian was about to put it away in his rucksack when Jin stopped him. "Aren't you going to check it? I just said that the rest of the loot sold for 40 silver - leaving everyone with 10 silver coins each. We sold what we could while the others we had it smithed into armour and weapons. The whole city has a surplus of mutated wolf parts so the price wasn't that good. Wait, you didn't even open your pouch to see if I gave you the correct amount of coins?"
Sebastian couldn't help but smile unconsciously as he thought that Jin's energy came back. He wasn't in serious need of money owing to the previous Forgotten One, but he didn't tell it to anyone else. "I trust you. Also when we come back, the amount of coins inside will still remain the same, don't you think?"
"Well if you put it that way, I can't argue with that. Let's head off then! I think we should still stick to the same patrol route, and if we don't find anything else we can expand it then. What does everyone think?"
"That seems logical and very safe. I support this decision." Becky looked like she was brooding so early in the morning, but the rest of the party didn't seem to think it was off.
"Yes, let's do that today. After the damage we saw yesterday, it would be better to play it safe." Rivie agreed with the suggestion, bringing the voting to a close.
Jin lead the way to the same part of the forrest during their last hunt. It seemed that there were a couple of mutated wolf stragglers they encountered along the way, but it was lesser in number compared to the last time.
"[Poison Strike], [Rock Kick]!" With her tenacity, Rivie didn't seem to hold back when she was fighting the mutated wolves, however she made use of her agility as much as possible and she was saving her mana whenever she could.
The mutated wolf looked like it was struggling to keep its balance as it wobbled side to side.
"[Spear Thrust]!" Jin brought their current encounter with the mutated wolf to an end.
"Your new skill is really handy. Did you learn it yesterday when we were supposed to rest?" Sebastian found a deeper respect for Becky. She realised that her [Dagger Thrust] didn't do much damage to mutated wolves, so she chose to learn a new skill. It applied damage over time and was perfect for drawn out fights like these.
"Is that why you looked so haggard? Were you practising it yesterday? Wow. You're that dedicated for our party. I'm so touched." Jin couldn't help but chime in as they both praised Becky while poking fun.
"Unlike the both of you, I actually take adventuring seriously. Did you learn anything from this experience? Are you both still considering this as your 'training'? Honestly." Becky was back to her usual harsh self, although at this point the other members weren't hurt anymore. She cleaned her daggers as she sheathed them before heading forward again. Her serious personality meant that scouting was done in an efficient manner.
"There's three more up front, by that tree. How should we proceed?" Becky's sharp senses made her more attuned to the surroundings, it was almost like a permanent [Augment] ability, Sebastian thought. It was definitely a useful innate ability from the beastkins.
"Let's do the same as before. I'll draw their attention, then you two can focus on one wolf. Please kill quickly, I'm not sure I can hold out long against two mutated wolves." Jin functioned as their leader for now, since he had experience working as a group. Sebastian didn't have that much adventuring experience, and Becky was simply out of the question.
"Follow my lead! [Shield Bash]! [Spear Thrust]!" When his two offensive skills hit two different mutated wolves, all their aggression simply focused towards Jin. The wolves begun to circle him as they emitted a low growl.
"[Poison Strike]!" Becky snuck up behind a wolf that stayed too far out of their formation.
"[Augment] Steel body and mind, hyper sense, reinforce leg muscles!" Sebastian weaved in and out as he kept slashing the wolf to distract it while causing damage. As soon as the wolf tried to jump back, Becky was waiting for it.
"[Dagger Thrust]!" She aimed for the wolf's throat as she caught it unaware. "This one is down! Help Jin!" Becky sensed the wolf falling limp as she promptly called out to Sebastian.
"Got it! [Augment] reinforce leg muscles!" He further reinforced his leg muscles to give him a burst of speed. Sebastian sensed that the muscles on his legs were at their limits with multiple augmentations already. He knew that if this fight continued, he would have to rely on basic foot movements for combat. 'So this is my current limit for [Augment].'
Jin skillfully used his spear to keep one wolf at bay while he allowed one wolf to approach him before using his shield to parry the wolf away. He kept this dangerous dance while the other two dealt with the third wolf.
He didn't realise that the wolf at his spear side was slowly circling outwards, causing him to turn further away from the one on his shield side.
"[Spear Thrust]!" Jin suddenly dashed forward as his spear caught the wolf in an awkward angle. It lodged in the wolf's side, however it suddenly jumped offside, bringing Jin's spear with it!
"Shit! My spear!" Jin felt his spear yanked away from him as he stabilised his position while holding his shield with two hands. He quickly stepped back as he turned to face the other wolf which was now in his blind side. He turned to find that he was looking into the mutated wolf's mouth!
CCCRRAAACCCKKK!!
The wolf used its body weight to bite into Jin's shield, causing him to kneel down as he absorbed the full shock of the force.
SNAP!! "AAGGHH!"
Jin felt his left arm snap as the wolf tried to wrestle the shield away from him. He was left with no choice but to use his right arm to support the shield and his left arm while he maintained defense.
While his body was reeling in pain, he only had one thing in mind:
'This is it.'