Chapter 733 Odd Encounter
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Atop his loyal steed - eh, atop his loyal wolf, Lex was suddenly reminded of the fact that even in his most desperate situation, he really wasn't alone. The nefarious system added all kinds of restrictions to prevent his escape to the Inn during a fight, but there was no such restriction on bringing in members of the Inn.
The moment he felt his connection to Fenrir restored, he did not hesitate to summon him over. Lex could instantly tell that Fenrir had grown much stronger, and from him Lex could feel an aura that was oddly similar to divine energy, though not quite.
The pup was momentarily startled by its sudden arrival in a battlefield, but it did not affect its performance. It had been fighting nonstop until its trial ended,and so it had really honed its instincts. Although a battlefield was a very different environment to fight in from a forest, the pup adapted quickly enough.
With the ferocity that befitted one who had been originally summoned as a protector for the Inn, the pup tore through the horde as if it was paper. Whether it was one insect in front of it or a hundred, its claws felt no difference.
Gisele was genuinely surprised now, and finally a tinge of curiosity awoke within her. Deflecting the blow of an immortal did not make as much of an impression on her as Fenrir did, as she was deeply knowledgeable about beasts, and could tell that Fenrir's origins weren't simple.
Lex, who did not doubt Fenrir's capability at all, was not paying attention to it at all. Instead, all his spirit sense had converged within his body, more specifically his back, as he tried to communicate with the Lotus on his back.
It had been oddly silent for a while now, which suited Lex fine most of the time. But now, he needed its help. Originally Lex never dared to ask the Lotus for things like this, because he was always too worried about maintaining the prestige of the Innkeeper. But now that he was slowly and steadily becoming more powerful, he was a lot less concerned about that - at least as far as the Lotus was concerned.
With time, as he grew stronger, he would have to pretend less and less, as he would eventually completely come into the role of the Innkeeper, and perhaps even surpass it one day. With such a mentality, he did not shy from making use of the Lotus when he could.
"Hey, wake up," he transmitted his voice into the tattoo on his back. The Lotus did not immediately respond so Lex gathered up his energy and focused, doing his best to summon the authority and aura of the Innkeeper he had nurtured on his own, not the one given to him by the Host Attire.
Fenrir, Gisele, and all the immortals in the vicinity noticed the unusual aura gathering down below, but none other than the first two could tell where it was coming from.
"Wake up," his voice echoed, and this time, the Lotus roused from its deep slumber.
"My body is injured," Lex said, his tone unchanging. "Do you think you can speed up its recovery?"
"Yes of course," the baby Lotus responded timidly, and immediately began channeling its aura and circulating around Lex's body, drastically speeding up his recovery.
"Is this kind of thing a burden for you?" Lex asked again, just to be sure.
"No, not really. But I can't spend much time awake. I have already used up a lot of my energy without getting enough rest, if I keep this up it'll be really bad for my growth."
"I understand," Lex said as he felt his body recover. He decided not to bother the Lotus unless it was a real emergency in the future. But with so many allies around him, Lex's confidence grew once again.
Despite how casually Lex was taking it, the battle was actually extremely intense. Too much time had passed already, and Belle decided to end things once and for all, even if she had to pay a price.
The six illusory wings behind her spread, glowing with light so bright it blinded the eyes and spirit sense of all in the area. When the light receded, it took the shape of an armor and sword made entirely of light. Her helmet of light did not even leave any gaps for her eyes, though at her level such things hardly mattered.
When the remaining insects caught sight of her again, she had already critically wounded one immortal, and swiftly moved to injure another. Alarmed, the insects began working together, not harming her but keeping themselves from harm as well.
Feeling frustrated, she held back no more and activated her tenets, which began affecting the environment around them, and made the situation even more dangerous. The entire continent under her suffered an earthquake and the fighting on the ground stopped momentarily, and the scenery in the sky changed.
As if alarmed by the sudden change, all the immortal insects suddenly focused all their attacks on the shining angel in the sky, Belle.
Though she could have avoided it, she allowed herself to be hit as she gathered her strength. Their attacks could not penetrate her armor anyway. Like a comet, she crashed into the ground killing countless insects. Yet that brief departure from battle also gave her the time she needed to prepare her final attack.
She looked up, ready to hone in on her targets, but saw a white wolf standing above her, looking down at her oddly. Atop the wolf sat a man wearing a devilish mask and a woman, also looking down at her.
While her aura should have prevented anyone not immortal from even approaching her, these few all seemed unaffected.
The wolf, as if deciding it was uninterested, turned away and continued to fight the insect horde. Belle, due to her excellent senses, heard the devilish man mumble, "I should really get a pair of sunglasses," while squinting away from the light her body was emitting.
The… odd encounter did not even give her a moment's pause. She had no time to wait, and finally, her full strength was unveiled. Her Valkyrie soul was awakened, and she, as a human, channeled the racial powers of the angels.
She unleashed an attack so bright, for a moment the light from the local star even seemed to dim in comparison, before flying off into the sky. She never meant to kill the insects anyway. Injuring them was more than enough to hold them off until reinforcements arrived.
Chapter 734 ACA Lex
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It took Lex a few moments to realize what happened. The earth immortal with angel wings had launched a devastating attack that heavily influenced the battle in the humans favor, before disappearing into space. Although her target had been other immortal insects, the collateral damage from her attacks drastically dropped the number of enemies the humans had to fight.
It made life easier for Lex too. With fewer obstructions, Fenrir quickly navigated his way from the very thick of battle towards the center of the stronghold. With the armies well trained coordination, it was only a matter of time before they won the war outright.
With the pressure off him, Lex easily soon exited the battle, though no one seemed to notice the giant wolf as it openly marched through the vacant streets.
"You're leaving the battle?" Gisele questioned, a hint of disapproval in her voice.
"Certain matters require urgent attention," Lex replied, paying her no mind. He had officially brought her to the stronghold, and even helped her escape the fight. If she wished to go back, he would not stop her nor interfere in her matters. His focus was entirely on the cure.
Gisele hesitated, but decided to stick with him. Lex was right. Her priority in the current situation was to check on the kids who had been with her, not the fight.
Lex was beginning to feel that the worst was behind him, when suddenly Gisele coughed. It was not a bad cough, and it did not happen again, but at their level, even a cough was a significant matter.
He was suddenly reminded that she was poisoned, as possibly everyone else in the area as well. Lex and Gisele looked at each, both aware of what the cough meant.
"Let me see if I can slow down the poison," Lex said as he lifted his hand, but waited for her to agree. Considering that Lex's performance was quite remarkable so far, and that he himself had yet to show any signs of suffering from the poison, she nodded.
Lex placed his fingers right below her wrist, as if checking her pulse. But he was not investigating her situation. Instead, he asked the Lotus, "can you check the body of the woman I'm touching? Can you find a cure for the poison in her system?"
"Let me check," the Lotus said, and allowed its energy to travel through Lex's fingers into Gisele's wrist. Gisele, who was being investigated, suddenly stiffened. The spiritual energy which had entered her wrist was beyond overbearing. If she tried to resist in any way, there was a very good chance her meridians themselves might tear.
After a few moments of investigation, the Lotus replied, "yes I can remove the poison, but this poison is incredibly powerful. I'm afraid the moment I finish removing it, I'll fall into a deep sleep."
Lex frowned, and then removed his hand. This was the first time he had encountered something that gave the Lotus some kind of trouble. Whatever the poison's origins were, they absolutely weren't ordinary. For now, it wasn't worth putting the Lotus to sleep to save one person.
Although he said nothing, the frown on his face informed Gisele of whatever she needed to know. She wasn't particularly disappointed, for she didn't expect much. If the poison were so easy to remove, she would have already done it. Little did she know, Lex really had removed the poison from his own body. Although technically, that was a result of his body's own reaction, and was achieved by removing the infected area, such as a piece of his lung or his blood.
"Let's hurry," was all Lex could offer as he spurred Fenrir to pick up the pace.
It had to be mentioned that the poison remained unidentified even by the Fancy contact lenses, and the same could be said for the strange insects. Lex could accept the absence of information of the poison due to how unusual it was, but considering the lenses came from the Emporium, he expected them to have a detailed database of all common and uncommon creatures in the Origin realm at least.
This point was highly suspicious, but Lex could do nothing about it, so he put the matter at the back of his mind.
"I'll get off here, the apartment I left the kids in is in a different direction," said Gisele as she hopped off Fenrir.
"Good luck," offered Lex, before he continued on his way. He was not roaming the stronghold randomly, and was heading towards the main command center in which they even had their teleportation formations. If he wanted to ask about the poison, he would either need to find a doctor, or someone higher up along the chain of command.
The building, surprisingly, was not unprotected as Lex had expected. There was a heavily armed guard stationed at every corner.
At a glance Lex could easily determine that these were not the usual guards, but instead were probably some of the reinforcements that had teleported over. He didn't know what they were waiting for, but he knew that if he revealed himself they'd probably ask him to reveal his identity.
Fortunately, Lex had an official identity with the Jotun forces. He asked Fenrir to shrink down as they hid beside a nearby building, and Lex dismissed Notorious Anonymity. He even changed out of his suit so that no one would associate him with the crazy devil guy who had diverted an immortals' attack. Gisele was the only one who knew his identity, but he did not really expect her to tattle. Even if she did, he was not too concerned for the nagging feeling his instincts gave him to hide his identity had vanished.
So much movement caused his pain to once again spike, but there was nothing he could do about that. At least the Lotus was healing him, which helped reduce the pain somewhat.
As soon as he neared the main building, the stationed guards noticed him and aimed their weapons at him.
"Identify yourself!" one of the soldiers yelled in an extremely aggressive and hostile voice.
"Auxiliary Combat Aid (ACA) Lex," he yelled back, as he walked back slightly hunched. "I'm severely injured, I need medical aid!"
The guards finally lowered their weapons and approached Lex, but even then, no one seemed to notice the little white pup following behind Lex. Fenrir's abilities had really grown during his time away.
Chapter 735 Mysterious Healer
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Two soldiers slowly approached Lex to ensure he had nothing suspicious planned. Although they knew the ongoing battle was against some foreign race, they were under the highest level lockdown so they had to take every precaution.
"What's the matter with you? You don't look injured," said one of the soldiers.
"It's the bones in my right arm. They're completely crushed. I need to see a doctor," confessed Lex, telling the truth. This was a much quicker way of getting close to the medical professionals then showing up and directly asking for the cure. Besides, he was not sure if more immortals would be showing up. If that were the case, using any kind of coercive means would end badly for him. Not to mention, if he got to experience the medical system of the empire first hand and liked it, there was a lot he could learn.
The soldier scanned Lex with his spirit sense, and was alarmed to see the state Lex was in when he checked his body. Naturally, Lex allowed the scan, otherwise his state would remain undetectable from the outside.
"My god, how are you standing?" the soldier asked in shock, and immediately cleared the way for Lex. It was not long before a floating gurney was brought for Lex to lay down on, and he was quickly brought inside, little Fenrir following them the entire way.
Lex had not yet had time to question the pup about its new abilities, but he was thoroughly impressed by the little he had seen. He remembered that while the pup had always had an advantage in stealth, previously it would still have to stay out of sight to keep that stealth active. Now, the pup was prancing about in plain sight, and all were ignoring him.
During the fight earlier, he had used this to his advantage to wreak havoc among the insects, all without getting targeted even once as none of the insects could detect him at all.
Pretty soon, Lex was brought into an overcrowded room that looked like it had previously been an office, and was now being used as an emergency room. Makeshift beds produced by joining two small tables together, multiple IV drips and overwhelmed medical personnel could be seen everywhere.
Lex was brought to a doctor as well, but after scanning Lex once, he was designated as a non-emergency case and was only given a single painkiller and moved to the side of the room. The outfit was clearly understaffed as soldiers were running about, using their emergency first aid training to follow the instruction of a few doctors.
The room was not filled with wounded soldiers, but countless civilians who all seemed to be suffering the effects of the poisoning. In such a chaotic situation, no one noticed Lex's spirit sense, which subtly moved about the room and closely listened in on the conversation of various doctors.
He was trying to figure out if they had any cure from their conversations, but that was easier said than done as they only seemed to be giving out orders for how to handle their patients.
His instincts weren't particularly helpful at the moment either, so all he could do was wait. Fenrir too was exploring the place in secret, though Lex did not know what to expect from the pup.
With the battle outside all but taken care of, Lex had enough time to spare until he found out about the state of things. Moreover, now that he was within the main office, he was aware that a stream of reinforcements were constantly teleporting over.
It could not be said that everything was going great, but it was going well enough. Until it suddenly wasn't. Lex frowned when his instincts began warning him of impending danger, and sure enough, soon Lex saw a panicked soldier run through the halls. He found a superior and whispered something in his ears, but Lex heard what was said.
The soldiers who had been affected by the poison were able to hold it off using some of the best medicine the empire could supply, but the strain of combat increased their metabolism, which aggravated the poison's effects. Soldiers had started to faint in the midst of combat.
This was suddenly going from a sure victory to an impending disaster. It was also at that point that Lex found out the state of the poison's cure. There was none.
The empire had no idea what the poison actually was, although apparently someone who could, through some unusual means, delay the effects of the poison had been discovered.
Despite the critical situation, due to the empire's phenomenal training, the soldiers did not fall into too much confusion. With a clear chain of command, someone took over and began giving out orders.
Lex, who was being completely ignored, decided to stop delaying matters. He called back Fenrir, and used the pups abilities to suddenly vanish from sight as he moved towards the mysterious healer that had been discovered.
Any time something inexplicable happened, Lex thought of systems, so he had to investigate this healer no matter what.
Shortly after, Lex followed the soldier outside the building and to a nearby park where hundreds of civilians were lying on beds of leaves. A bunch of kids were running around obeying orders, and in the middle of the park standing atop a monument was a young, fair man wearing a doctor's white coat.
The doctor was extremely skinny and seemed like he would be blown over by a single breeze, yet at the same time he exuded an aura of confidence and stability.
Lex could not help it, and tried to use his Targeted Scan.
Name: Charles Best
Age: ?
Sex: Male
Cultivation Details: ?
Species: Human
Remarks: An old soul in a young body, or just a young man pretending to be a stoic.
Lex frowned. The fact that even some information was available meant that the man did not have a system, which was unexpected. Lex stepped away from Fenrir and revealed himself, curious to see what kind of treatment he could get from this mysterious healer.
736 Quack Doctor
As Lex limped closer to the healer, he could hear in on the conversation the soldiers were having with him.
"...not a barbarian, I am a doctor. If you must stretch things, then at most I am somewhat of a shaman. I absolutely cannot enter the battlefield. If any soldiers require medical attention , you can bring them here."
"The situation does not allow for that…"
"Screw the situation! I'll be no good to you dead, and that's exactly what I'll be if I enter the battlefield. If you're unable to hold the line, then just say that, and instead of finding me, begin evacuations! Now if you'll excuse me, I have patients to attend to!"
Lex frowned. The warning from his instincts was getting dire, and it seemed like the empire was not able to get a handle on the situation. It was strange, though. According to Lex's understanding of the empire, they should be fully capable of reacting to even an emergency such as this.
His mind wandered towards the terrorists, who had been secretly as well as openly orchestrating the situation from behind the scenes. Maybe there was something else at play.
Once Lex reached such a conclusion, he decided to wrap things up here. Although he wanted to help out as much as possible, especially since Alexander had originally asked for his help, one must also know when to retreat.
But… despite the ever increasing danger, Lex was sure he had enough time to test out this doctor first.
"Doctor, please, I need your help," Lex said, attracting the skinny young man's attention. "The bones on my right side are crushed, the pain is overwhelming," he said, though honestly he had to admit, the painkiller given to ripping, to simply making him want to die immediately so that the pain would end. Of course, with his will power as strong as it was, he was not about to do that.
The doctor, ignoring the soldier attempting to be domineering, came towards Lex and without hesitation puthis fingers on Lex's neck. An unusual yet warm energy flowed into his body, and for some odd reason, Lex felt like he wouldn't be able to block it even if he had tried.
The doctor did not have any change of expression, but clearly he was alarmed by Lex's state as he abruptly started shouting at his assistants - the small children in the park.
A whirlwind of activity surrounded Lex, and in a few moments, he found himself shirtless and laying on a bed of leaves, freshly laid out just for him.
"Inject 30 CC of Gurling worm venom in the right arm, lather Durbid root sap on his chest, and bring me a fresh bushel of Bailing berries," the doctor commanded as he began injecting his strange energy at various points across Lex's body.
'Does this count as acupuncture?' he wondered as the energy effortlessly pierced his skin, and activated strange reactions across his body. Although Lex was not cultivating, his body started to absorb the ambient spirit energy, and it seemed to be disappearing somewhere unknown within his body.
The kids proved to be competent nurses, as they quickly followed through the doctors orders, though there was one tiny hiccup. When the kid tried to inject the 'venom' into his arm, the needle broke but Lex's skin remained smooth and flawless. Lex and the kid shared eye contact but said nothing, as the embarrassed kid quickly changed needles.
He tried again, only to fail once again, though admittedly this time the needle only bent and did not break.
"Uh, doctor, sir, we have a problem," the kid said, scratching his head.
The doctor noticed the issue with the needle, and took over. He did not replace the needle, but only coated it with his energy. This time, even Lex was unaware of what the result would be. A moment later, the energy effortlessly entered his arm, yet the needle was still unable to pierce his skin.
This time, Lex and the doctor shared eye contact, and Lex saw genuine surprise.
"How the hell did you even get hurt?" the doctor asked, but then decided that he didn't care. "Here, take this and inject it into your right arm. Do it yourself. I'm just a doctor, not some body builder. Don't make me do such things."
Lex smiled awkwardly, and used his nail to forcefully create a small cut on his right arm before quickly shoving the needle in, and injecting the venom.
The doctor continued to use strange and rare local herbs to treat Lex's body, and the rate at which his body was absorbing spirit energy kept increasing. As strange and unbelievable as it was, Lex felt that the doctor's efforts were contributing nearly as much as the Lotus in healing his body.
After a short while, the doctor told Lex to continue lying down for a short while as he moved to treat his other patients, as his recovery would take a while.
Lex complied, not because he expected to completely heal, but because he wanted to see what the doctor did to treat the poison. Although, regardless of whether he was able to get any results or not, Lex had already decided to hire this Doctor Charles Best to work at the Inn.
For a very long time, he had been looking for a doctor, as he did not want to limit his treatments to just the pods. Although he did not know the extent of Doctor Best's abilities, just that fact that he could speed up Lex's recovery was enough of a reason for him to be hired.
Dr. Best moved towards a new soldier who had been brought in, and though he was bleeding heavily, it was the poison that was truly killing him.
The good doctor had the soldier's shirt removed before… Lex did not know how to respond. The doctor stuck leeches on his chest, and put a small broken piece of chocolate in the soldier's mouth.
The good impression of the doctor which Lex had built up took a nosedive, and Lex began to wonder if he was looking at the fabled quack doctor, who would write any prescription a patient wanted, and did things seemingly randomly.