Rastel ignored the gloomy woman and walked up to Myra's sleeping form and knelt down beside her to check on her condition. The woman who had collected Lana from Rastel walked in and dropped her gently before leaving the inn, the old man shut the door after her.
The gloomy woman who was grinding some herbs looked up at Rastel with lifeless eyes before resuming her work. She had ground up an assortment of herbs that Rastel could not recognize with his basic level 1 herb picking skill. After she was done, she poured in a little water and let it sit for a while. She did all these movements with swift and confident movements and control. After a few seconds, she did something that Rastel had only heard about but had never seen with his own eyes until that moment.
With a wave, a pale green light appeared on her hands and imbued the liquid mixture in the wooden bowl. The mixture was lifted out of the bowl and was churning and bubbling energetically as it floated in the air. He could see the woman squint her eyes in concentration as she controlled the mixture of herbs with her hands.
She made a lot of subtle movements with her fingers and the light enveloping the herbs changed from pale green to a deeper shade as the intensity of the churning rose and fell. After a few seconds, she moved her hands and directed the mixture she made back into the bowl slowly.
The resulting mixture was nothing like the mish mash of assorted colors that was in the bowl initially. The bowl was filled with a clear bluish green liquid that seemed to have a slight glow.
The woman picked up the bowl and gently lifted up Myra's head and fed it to her. Myra swallowed down the liquid on reflex and her face seemed to scrunch up a bit as she did.
'Is it bitter?' Rastel who had been sitting quietly by the side thought to himself. He had been awed by the sight of the woman performing what he recognized as alchemy.
Although he had never seen it before, he had seen on the internet and heard about players who took the class of Cleric. Alchemist was a branch under the class that was the closest equivalent of a doctor in the real world. Although it could be taken as a sub-class, all clerics would have the ability to make the most basic of pills and potions with the alchemy skill as although Cleric was a healing class, not all injuries and ailments could be healed with the wave of a hand and a few spell chants. This wasn't popular with most players though as been an alchemist would require someone to read and study the flora and fauna of this massive new world, be willing to go around picking top quality herbs, collecting rare ingredients and also have a lot of money to spend.
Because it was such a hassle, not many wanted the sub-class. But even with all the apparent setbacks, it was a class well sought after. All guilds nurtured their own alchemists as alchemists were the only class that could create things such as healing potions, mana potions, strength and magic boosting potions that could significantly increase the strength of a person or even an army in the right quantity. It was also a good source of money as these pills and potions were expensive on the market and could help in financially building the guild. A guild that could wield the full potential of a top class alchemist would have an unstoppable army!
Myra's face relaxed after she was fed the potion and after a while, he could hear her breathing turn really peaceful as she went into a deep sleep.
Seeing that she was now taken care of, Rastel turned to the woman and old man who was standing by the corner and expressed his gratitude. "Thank you, I would have been lost without your help" he told them honestly.
The old man simply grunted and mumbled some things under his breath while the woman stared at him for a moment before speaking. "She had emptied her mana reserves and strained her body to perform a very powerful spell. All she needed was a potion to quicken her mana regeneration and heal her internal injuries."
Her voice sounded very conflicting to Rastel because although he could tell she had the soft melodic tone you would expect of a young maiden, it was also hoarse and scratchy as If she either made it a hobby to yell at the top of her lungs every morning for hours or she hardly spoke at all. 'Probably the second one' he thought inwardly to himself.
"She would sleep till noon before she can recover fully" the woman paused at this point. "1000 kryts" she suddenly added.
'Ehn?' Rastel's mind froze. 'Money? She wants payment? 1000 kryts? I can't tell if this is right or too expensive. But thinking about it, potions are supposed to be expensive. 1000 kryts seems too much though'
Rastel who had been feeling good about his meager fortune of about 5000 kryts that totaled from the quest reward and taking down the mage's henchmen was suddenly feeling pained. He went into his inventory and counted out a 1000 kryts from the quest reward and handed over the rest in the small pouch.
The woman ignored the fact that he had taken the money out of thin air and put it in the herb basket by her side that he hadn't noticed till then.
"Yer a summoned?" the old man walked towards him energetically as the transaction ended.
Rastel nodded as he turned his attention to the old man. The woman ignored them and paid attention to the unconscious Lana who had been laid beside Myra.
"Perhaps yer can do someth'ng then" the old man muttered something under his breath before speaking.
"Did yer see what attacked the little girlie? Did yer see em?" the man asked him.
"Undead" Rastel silted his eyes in displeasure at the incident. "Lots of armed undead" he gave the old man a summary of what he saw.
"Yer mean she took out all of em!" the old man's eyes opened up as wide as saucers as he stared at Myra's sleeping form in shock! Rastel just nodded to show confirmation.
"These disturbed ones have actually been visiting these parts for years. They come you see, once a year, we can't predict when. But we do know one thing, it is the work of a single man." The old man was in full flow as he explained.
'A single man? To control that many undead?' Rastel was suddenly alert. He thought that maybe the undead may have been cause by a group's effort or the effect of some natural occurrence like chaotic mana but one man!?'
"How could one man create so many undead?" Rastel asked the question bothering him the most.
"How should I know? What are yer asking eh? We had reported it to the lord a few times but It never works. Before any patrol or officer comes by to investigate, he would pack away and vanish without a trace! No one comes by anymore so we had accepted our fate and lock our doors tight whenever there are sights of his undead in the forest." The old man seemed really pissed off at this point as if recalling some painful past memory.
Rastel thought about the entire situation as the old man laid out his grievances. There was actually a single enemy who seemed powerful enough to raise a vast army of undead, this couldn't be simple. And the man made it a habit to travel around while dragging his army of skeletons with him, on the run from whatever authorities were trying to hunt him down probably.
If Rastel would gauge his powers based on the amount of undead, he would put him at a level just about 50. He would be a boss level character with that army backing him up. 'But Myra took care of what should be most of them didn't she?'
If he were the person responsible and noticed that all his deployed undead were suddenly wiped out at the same time. He would either start preparing for a fight or pack up his luggage and run!
'The Necromancer responsible for this shouldn't have that many more undead under his control. There should be at least not more than five or so by his side for protection if talking within reason, necromancers were known for their limited spell ability anyway. Though, there might be one or two undead that would be stronger than the norm.'
He on the other hand could control 3 golems simultaneously and adding up Amba who could fight without his guidance, he had 5 people on his side including himself.
'5v6 should be manageable. Although the enemy might be far stronger than me, as a necromancer, he can only use spells that exist in the mind and curse domain which won't work on my golems. As long as I am careful, I should be able to win'. He calculated his chances before giving his opinion.
"You want me to help take down this necromancer?" his tone became serious.
"Better time than ever in this situation, can't have him running away and possibly coming back for revenge against who he thinks is responsible" the old man shook his head slowly.
Rastel agreed with him, he was planning to leave immediately to deal with the matter but.
"I would leave immediately and apprehend him but, do you know where he bases?" he asked the old man.
"This 'ere is the problem young lad. No one was brave enough to go looking so we unfortunately don't know either" the old man shook his head.
"I know the place" a voice spoke up. The woman had just finished treating Lana and stood up to look at the two men. "I know the necromancer's lair"