Alex quickly grabbed a bucket from among the medical items he had and scooped up water from the river before drenching his back in it. His blood flowed down his butt crack as he acted quickly.
His "broken" arm was handed suturing materials by his battered arm and he stiffly sewed up his back wound. It was very crude considering he couldn't see it and could only feel his way around. He even had to "break" his other arm at some point to help finish the job by holding down the string used to patch him up.
When it was all done, he slowly and carefully fixed his arms again before they got back down to his side like nothing happened. He wheezed out more as he grabbed the bucket and dumped it over his back one more time.
He then slowly cleaned himself again as he laid back on his spare change of clothes. His chest rose up and down violently and he continued to cry from all the pain. He had managed to fix himself but it was an unbearable feeling to inflict so much pain on yourself.
The grotesque thing he just did to his body was a certain medical technique called the Kristcomer'thi which in the language of humans, translated to "Kill me now."
It was a technique created by an old and extinct Beastman Clan that was developed by one of their kin who was a solo explorer several thousand years ago. However, once the clan died out, and the humans won the human-beastmen war, it was treated as a human achievement.
He had learned this technique from Sharla actually, who had learned it as a part of her training as a doctor. She of course didn't need to but she thought it was important to preserve the knowledge of the past. Considering humans took this medical achievement away from another race, she didn't feel they deserved the credit after her own research on the topic. And in another life, maybe she could have helped the beastmen get the credit they deserved.
She had taught this to him during his medical training that Alan made him do and he thought it was weird that the man decided to disappear and let his wife teach him but he didn't realize the man was just fleeing.
The moment he saw her arms crack and bend like she was being tortured made Alex puke. However, she still had a smile on her face the entire time and it quickly turned into a scene from a horror movie as she went on all fours with her neck and limbs twisted around backward.
He directly passed out after that before she explained to him what she did. This technique was made for solo adventurers who were not medical experts or anything like that. The beastman, whose name was lost through time, was a flexible man and had a skill that helped him move his body unnaturally like that.
He realized that after fights where he got back wounds, this way of self-administering medical care to his back was great for people who fought by themselves. He worked on it to make it as simple as possible and even to change the structure of his body temporarily for those who didn't have a flexibility skill like him.
His achievement was eventually awarded by the Gods when it appeared in his system and he named it "Kill me now" in his native language because he constantly felt like dying from all the pain he felt.
He may have been feeling a ton of pain, but he was actually just fine. It was just a side effect of defying the natural body structure. As for Alex, it felt even worse since he didn't have the skill yet and until he got it, it would feel like torture.
He fought to stay awake and got himself packed up before leaving towards the outer rim of the Ether forest. Right now he was considered to be in the second outer ring.
The Ether forest was a vast place filled with hundreds of thousands of different kinds of monsters since the entire forest stretched over an area of similar size to the entire Eurasia plate back on earth. The forest was also divided into several "rings" that weren't necessarily rings, with the outer rings being home to lower Ringed monsters while the higher and strongest beasts lived in the inner rings.
It was predicted that there were about 10 rings, one for each level but it was uncertain if that was true since humans had barely explored a fourth of the entire place. And that fourth was mostly discovered by beastmen since the Ether forest outer rings used to be their home.
With their destruction, the beasts began to flourish and eventually make their way to the outer rings and terrorized the people there. Floren was lucky to have Alan or they would have had to build a bigger wall to fight against the beast waves that happened when the population became too big.
He was right now in the 2nd Ring, which held mostly 2nd Ring monsters while he traveled as fast and as carefully as he could to reach the edge of the 1st Ring. He was not in good shape and it would be dangerous to stay in this place any longer.
He had fought 4 2nd Ring monsters within a 2-day time frame with three of them being back-to-back. He was exhausted and his organs were damaged. He hadn't even bothered to take off the gauntlet with his smashed fist and only used it to help hold something when he worked on his back.
He managed to get closer to the outer ring before he couldn't go on and found a tree to sleep in before immediately passing out.
- - -
The seventh day came around and Alex woke up for the umpteenth time feeling like a truck hit him. He groggily got up and stretched himself. He still felt awful since his entire body was like one big bruise.
The technique he used last night left his muscles torn and bruised heavily. He then looked down to his hand still in the gauntlet before gritting his teeth and pulling it off.
He almost threw up and had to look away as his fingers were bent in different directions and the bones were sticking out. His hand was almost split in two and all his flesh was just a bloody mess that threatened to fall off.
He threw the hollow reed back into his mouth as he spent the rest of the day trying to salvage his hand. He took many breaks in between before spending the next several days just resting.
He made it back to the outer ring with no problems and only encountered monsters that he had to kill for food. He was also able to find that 1 species of 1st Ring that he couldn't find before. That was because it lived underground when it looked like it would live in trees.
He spent another 5 days just healing his body before he decided to go back out into the forest to finish his job.
- - -
In another part of the forest, the man named Don the Skullcrusher launched an incredibly powerful punch at the monster in front of him. The creature squealed in pain as its face was smashed in and it died in one hit.
It was a 2nd Ring creature but it wasn't a problem for someone like him in the 3rd Ring. He flung the blood off his fists and looked around him. There were a few corpses around him as he fought a pack but he looked just fine.
"Where the fuck is that kid?" He grumbled as he continued running through the forest.
He initially thought this would be an easy clean up job but soon realized he couldn't find the kid in this vast forest. Instead of blaming it on his incompetence, he blamed it on the kid who was running away from him.
He had no idea that the kid didn't even know who he was or who wanted him dead but he wouldn't care anyways. A job was a job but he now had to find a source of water and begin surviving out in the wild.
Although he had some knowledge about that stuff, it had been almost 15 odd years since he last had to do something like that. He had been living in luxury for so long that he forgot about the outside world and now he was regretting it a bit, a very tiny bit.
He quickly pushed that feeling down however and began laughing. It definitely wasn't his fault in his mind. He was a powerhouse and he even took the forest lightly. He had only encountered 1st and 2nd Ring monsters so he immediately thought that all the rumors about it were hogwash.
He laughed into his surroundings again attracting more monsters as he slaughtered his way hopefully toward his prey.
- - -
In another, another part of the forest, a fire crackled as a hand tossed a log of wood into the fire. He poked around the fire with a stick as someone next to him bumped him and handed him a mug of Ale.
"Here Brian, this is the last of it for now. We need to hit another caravan soon." A man with scars all over his face said.
Brian looked at the man and nodded before drinking. Brian sighed before looking at everyone else around him. They were all men, a total of 7 and they all drank and ate as they joked about various topics.
They all wore really worn down and rusted armor and weapons of a similar condition were scattered around the campsite. In a few of the tents, some sexy noises could be heard but they all ignored it since it was a normal occurrence.
The men around the campfire sat on logs and rocks with the tents behind them. Most of them forgot that they were even in the Ether forest after they had made it their base of operations a year ago.
Since hardly anyone came here, there was no point in going anywhere else and the road they were closest to, also was a caravan route in the direction of the capital of Sorketh.
The moaning in one tent soon stopped and a rouged man was tying up his leather pants as he came over to the men around the fire without his shirt. When the others saw him, they all went quiet.
Brian and many others were fearful of him as he was a powerful 2nd Ring existence! For the rest of them, they were measly 1st Rings so they had to follow the alpha. The 'alpha' took the cup of one of his subordinates without asking and finished off his drink.
It was the last of their drink but the man who lost his drink could only look down depressed. He was not brave enough to stand up to his boss, and he would definitely die if he spoke up. As a group of bandits, this was their life.
They killed and stole from the weak, but when anyone stronger came by, they suddenly became obedient puppies.
As they waited for their boss's words, rustling was heard behind Brian. Both he and the person next to him immediately turned around grabbing whatever was near as a weapon. The person next to Brian managed to grab a sword but for Brian, he only had the warm stick in his hand to use as he turned around with it.
The bushes revealed a figure wrapped in dark clothes and a little bit of worn armor before they put down their hood. The men there gawked as a woman revealed her rough black hair and tanned skin. She had scars that covered her once pretty face and her body was muscular for a woman of this era.
She would have looked more like a man if it wasn't for her big boobs, slim waist, and mother-bearing hips. Her long legs made all the men gulp except for the boss.
"Kate how was it?" the boss spoke bringing everyone out of their stupor. They wiped away their drool as she glared at them before answering.
"Boss Geren, the caravan should be in the kill zone tonight, I suggest we strike now before they set up camp for the night."
Geren nodded as he put a hand to his chin and stroked his scruffy grey beard. He was an older man, closer to his 70s but looked more in his 50s and his grey hair made him look wise. He was an ex-adventurer but became a bandit when he found that he could make more money that way than risking his life fighting monsters.
It paid better to steal and not risk his life. He then looked to the scouting woman known as Kate. She was also a 2nd Ring existence but for some reason, she never bothered with challenging his authority. She was also the most mysterious, as she never talked to anyone unless it was about work.
He didn't trust her so he was always on guard, but he had good intuition. A strong, smart woman was always a dangerous opponent.
Geren thought for a moment before nodding and yelling out,
"Pack up, we leave in 10! It's time for a fight!"
"YEAH!!!!" All the men cheered and finished their drinks before going to get their old gear. Kate and Geren stared at each other as if waiting for the other to attack before Kate moved on to get ready.
There was always bad tension between them but they both worked for a similar cause so they had a partnership right now. He knew he would never get into her pants like he did with one of the many kidnapped girls they had but he didn't really want to anyway.
He was more into the innocent, young types and that woman would only cut off his dick.
He sighed before going back to his tent and getting ready.
All the while Brian was still sitting in his spot feeling stupid for wielding a stick against the second strongest person in their group.