Three hyenas laid on the ground lifelessly. 2-peak (human rank) and 1 initial warrior rank.
Hyenas were vicious monsters that hunted in groups, their fighting compatibility made them a dangerous opponents.
After a week of hunting in the forest, Nile and Darren had come across a group of hyenas that were feeding on their prey. Among the 8 hyenas, 2 had a cultivation level of an initial warrior rank, 3 were at peak or latter stages of human rank and 3 had mid-human rank cultivation level.
Nile and Darren had taken down 3 monsters already, leaving 5 alive out of 8.
"Nile you take care of the two on the left with mid Human rank cultivation, I will handle the remaining." Darren shouted and ran straight towards a group of 3 hyenas.
Nile nodded and tossed 2 small knife-shaped icicles at the remaining 2 hyenas, to get their attention.
The 2 hyenas who were rushing towards Darren stopped in their course, glared at Nile, and started rushing towards him.
Nile raised his hand and froze a small part of the ground just a few steps ahead of one of the running hyenas.
The rushing hyena stepped on the ice and slipped to the ground while the other hyena pounced at Nile. Nile rolled on the ground evading the attack, while rolling he threw his dagger at the Hyena on the ground. The hyena jumped to a side missing the dagger just by few inches, Nile quickly created an icicle and threw it at the other Hyena who had pounced at him earlier. The hyena jumped in the air to dodge, seeing the hyena in mid air a grin appeared on Nile's face. Nile changed the course of direction of his icicle and sent it flying towards the hyena in mid-air.
'Keeeeeehhhhhhhhhhh' the hyena wailed in pain before dying. The icicle had pierced through the monster's stomach and was sticking out from his back.
'Thudddddd'
The dead body of the hyena fell to the ground.
"WATCH OUT" Darren shouted, trying to warn Nile.
Nile sensed a lethal strike just inches away, behind his shoulder. He did not even try turning or evading the attack, he knew it would be fruitless. He utilized every ounce of energy left in his body and used his skill to create a thick pauldron (shoulder piece).
'CLANKKKKKKKKKK' a sharp noise resounded at the battleground which was followed by a loud bang.
'BAMMMMMMMMMMMMM' Nile was sent flying by the impact of the attack and had slammed onto a tree a few meters away.
"AHHHHH" Nile groaned in pain, as a severe pain ran through his ribs as soon as he tried getting up from the ground. After a few seconds, he slowly and gently crawled to a tree and rested his back on it watching the fight. Within a minute Darren had killed all the remaining hyenas.
As soon as Darren was done killing the monsters he rushed towards Nile who was sitting down while resting his back on a tree.
"I am really Sorry Nile." Darren said with an apologetic tone.
Earlier when Darren was busy taking on the two hyenas, the third one with warrior rank cultivation had sneaked and had rushed towards Nile as soon as it saw Nile killing one of them, which led Nile to such a condition.
"It is okay Darren, the cut on the shoulder does not look deep and it would take just a few days to heal the broken ribs."
Due to Nile's quick thinking, he had protected his shoulder from being severed, if he had tried doing anything else in those few seconds he had, he would have had taken severe damage rather than just a cut. Even a single strike from a warrior-rank monster could prove fatal to someone having human rank cultivation.
Analyzing Nile's condition Darren took out a green pill from his pouch and handed Nile the pill-"It is a healing pill, it will heal 60% of your injuries."
Hearing Darren Nile was shocked and started at the pill quizzically-'Just 60%, what kind of cheap pill is this.'
"Don't worry, your health matter more than the cost of this pill." Darren said while failing to read Nile's expression.
"Darren what is the cost of this pill ?" Nile asked casually.
"In terms of quality it is a medium-quality healing pill, it costs around five thousand gold coins." Darren replied.
Nile's eyes widened hearing such high prices for such a cheap quality pill. Nile thought for a while and asked some more questions- "Darren how efficient are low-quality and high-quality pills and what price do they sell at ? Also tell me how many times these pills can be consumed ?"
Darren gathered his thoughts and spoke after taking a deep breath- "Low-quality pill can heal upto 50% of the injuries and costs a thousand gold coins each, as for high-quality pill they cost ten-thousand gold coins each and has a healing efficiency of 70%. The gap between consuming 2 pills should be at least 10 hours or it won't have any effect."
"WHATTTTT" Nile was shocked, he tried getting up but a severe pain ran through his body, "Ouuuhh"
"Take it easy Nile, don't get so overwhelmed." Darren said reminding Nile of his condition.
"Darren I don't want to have it." Nile said while giving the pill back to Darren.
Darren was shocked, he thought Nile was not consuming the pill due to its high price-"Nile I told you, your health comes first take it fa-"
"I won't consume it, this pill is trash." Nile pasued for a while and said with a stern expression- "Darren can you lift me back to the cave."
"hmm....Ohkkk" Darren was confused why Nile wasn't consuming the pill but he did not try persuading him further. All the time Darren had spent with Nile, he had realized Nile was someone practical and everything he did was for a reason. So Darren agreed and gently lifted Nile from the ground and made his way to the cave.
All the way back to the cave Darren had a single question running in his mind, Why Nile had denied taking the healing pill, but Darren had a strong feeling that he would soon find the answer to his question.
Once they had reached the cave Nile pointed in a direction and asked Darren to place him there.
Once Nile was comfortably seated on the ground he asked- "Darren can you bring some ingredients for me" Nile paused and looked at Darren who had a confused look, so Nile further added- "I want the ingredients to create a healing pill."
"Huhhhh..... but how ? what ingredients ?" Darren stuttered in astonishment.
" I will tell you everything once I have successfully made one. It won't be difficult to look for the ingredients, I can assure you."
"okay." Darren agreed.
"Bring me the root of Kiara plant, it should not be more than a month old. A raccoon and a coyote monster the cultivation level doesn't matter, even a wolf will do just fine as a substitute for the coyote." Nile stated the three things he wanted, all the things Nile had mentioned were in abundance in the forest.
After Darren had blocked the entrance of the cave, he left in search for the ingredients.