Chương 71: The Life Mage

Arthur and Dolph walked along the edge of the forest. Calculating the trajectory and the force of the attack, Coburn must have flown away from the forest. Hence, the duo slowly walked in the direction moving away from the lake. Arthur's mind was blank regarding the matters that had happened after they decided to attack the monster on the lake. In retrospect, the monster was too strong for his party. Even for two experts and one Intermediate, they could not fend off the big, supposedly Alpha Standard monster.

This failure revealed the reality of this Trial. He was not even able to kill a monster at the Alpha Standard territory. One could only imagine how strong the monsters roaming in the next territory were. As the saying goes, 'No one enters The Maw and returns.' Instinctively, he placed his hand on his head as if the world were to end. However, before the defeat was going to plunge him into more despair, he summoned Antrae. The Skeleton came out with a mountain of materials.

Arthur took enough Cores and placed them in his side bag. First, he was going to evolve his first Core Layer. Following which, he started to absorb the core. After walking for five minutes and being more than 300 meters away from the forest edge, they discovered Coburn. He stood still, with his hand holding a half-broken longsword. Upon closer inspection, it was missing three ribs that were completely broken. Coburn was in a sorry state.

He did not receive any warning or message about the damage the Skeleton had incurred. Arthur activated his Absolute Calculation ability to assess the exact physical changes to Coburn's body after incurring such severe damage. To his surprise, the situation was worse than it appeared. The weak point index currently registered a concerning 10 in the damaged area; previously, its weakest metric had been a 45 on its left shoulder.

Will Coburn be able to fight with the same strength with this much damage and such a glaring weak point? Arthur wondered. If the Skeleton struggled in combat, there would be no other choice but to find a way to heal its broken bones. Without overthinking it, Arthur opened the Marketplace and filtered the available Skeleton Workers by the 'Healer' profession. A total of seven results appeared, ranging in professional status from Beginner to Master.

[Worker Status] Name: Poker Designation: Cleric Specialist: Healing Professional Status: Beginner Monthly Maintenance Cost: 10, 000 Credits Contract Payment: 100 Yarrowvine Stems, 50 Yarrowvine flowers. [Worker Status] Name: Brac Designation: Cleric Specialist: Healing Professional Status: Beginner Monthly Maintenance Cost: 10, 000 Credits Contract Payment: 100 Kexweed Stems, 50 Kexweed flowers.

[Worker Status] Name: Gaw Designation: Druid Specialist: Regeneration Professional Status: Beginner Monthly Maintenance Cost: 15, 000 Credits Contract Payment: 75 Tarnstone. The MMC for these workers was staggering. While the required materials for the contract payments seemed straightforward on paper, physically locating them out here would likely be difficult. Should he try searching for Tarnstone? Since Gaw specialized in Regeneration, it was exactly the kind of magic Coburn needed to restore its missing ribs.

He could ask Zero to search for this stone in the mining cave; if Zero happened to spot it in the quarry, it would be an absolute jackpot. However, that raised a logistical issue: would he have to walk all the way back to the quarry just to issue the command? Arthur pondered this for a few moments before a much more efficient idea hit him.

"Antrae, jump once if you can pass a message to Zero, who is currently working at the quarry cave," Arthur commanded. Although he could not communicate with these skeletons, since they worked together as a party, they must have possessed a method of communication. Instead of going to the quarry to inform Zero himself, he could send Antrae. Once it confirmed its message, it could dismiss itself; then, if he needed, he could summon Antrae back here. If that were to work, it would make a lot of things easy.

He could not guarantee if Zero would follow a command given from here, nor did Arthur know if the connection was still there since he could not feel anything. As Arthur waited, Antrae, who was standing near him, jumped up once. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Very well. Now, convey this message to Zero: if it finds [Tarnstone] somewhere in the cave, it is to signal me," Arthur said. Soon, Antrae started to walk towards the quarry. Before it could walk away, Arthur gave a general command for it to dismiss itself if it encountered any monsters along the way. Once that was done, Arthur checked the remaining list of workers. He simply could not rely on this [Tarnstone], as it might not even exist in the cave mining.

Furthermore, since Gaw was of a Beginner status, he had to check if he could find any higher-status worker. [Worker Status] Name: Rouka Designation: Life Mage Specialist: Regeneration Professional Status: Intermediate Monthly Maintenance Cost: 25, 000 Credits Contract Payment: 750 Gamma Standard Cores (or) 1, 000 Alpha Standard Cores"Woah, jackpot," Arthur exclaimed. Without hesitation, he called back Antrae, who was about to accelerate its sprint.

Since he had found a better skeleton worker with a better status and a contract payment via Cores, coupled with a specialty in Regeneration, this was the perfect skeleton worker he was searching for. Without hesitation, Arthur willed the contract. Instantly, the large mountain of cores lying before him reduced into half a heap. A total of 1, 000 monster cores was spent in a second, but it did not matter; he would gain even more. [Contract Payment Successful].

[Worker Status] Name: Rouka Designation: Life Mage Specialist: Regeneration Professional Status: Intermediate Monthly Maintenance Cost: 25, 000 Credits [More Details…] Arthur summoned the skeleton. It looked a little tall, similar to the combat skeletons, but the imposing stature was missing. In its right hand, it held a cloudy-looking glass Orb the size of two fists. Some kind of energy was moving within it, and Arthur could see it with his naked eyes.

The Rouka skeleton, as usual, possessed three abilities: [Universal Healing], [Regeneration], and finally, [Disease Removal]. Arthur's eyes automatically shone after witnessing the abilities. Every one of them was iconic and very useful. He had only expected Regeneration, but Disease Removal was a big surprise. If he were to get a headache or fatigue, he could be easily healed instead of looking for a potion or medicine. It was a great addition to his team.

"Rouka, please heal Coburn," Arthur said, pointing at the skeleton. Following his command, the skeleton raised both of its hands to its chest and pointed at Coburn. In the next second, the cloudy smoke inside the glass Orb started to move; it did not move violently, but rather, it rotated in a pleasant way. It took two seconds before a strange smoke engulfed Coburn's entire body. The smoke possessed the same texture as the smoke that resided within the glass Orb.

In a few seconds, Coburn fully disappeared inside the smoke. Arthur was unable to see what was happening inside. This was a very new phenomenon for Arthur. Strangely, his mind yearned for this treatment, or whatever it was called. It looked pleasant, like floating on a cloud. After exactly ten seconds of healing, the smoke started to disappear. A pristine, white, bony figure started to appear. Coburn looked fresh, as if it did some spa treatment. The bones shone on the setting, orange sun rays.

He quickly checked the ribs that were missing earlier. Without a doubt, the ribs were regenerated. They looked even sturdy. It was very good regeneration. [Absolute Calculation]. Arthur wanted to check if those weak spots shown earlier were gone. Indeed, they were gone. The surprise thing was that the numbers were higher than ever. The lowest spot on the left shoulder, where it was showing 45, was now 93. This put a different perspective on how the Absolute Calculation ability worked.

It calculated based on how easily one could inflict damage on that spot. This meant that the spot was already broken, or some damage was inflicted on it. If he were to read back the description of the ability, it was structural flaws. But, if a monster never got injured, then it would be hard to find a weak spot. However, that was not the only usage that Absolute Calculation provided. There was one where he could predict biological rhythms.

Like where it could be used for an opponent or monsters, for the next moments and attacks that were about to initiate. Until now, he only used it while monsters were in a still position. But, if he could continuously use Absolute Calculation, it could be immensely useful. But for that, he might have to grow up mentally and physically. Furthermore, he detected that the stronger the enemy, the deadlier the usage of the ability. Earlier, he used it on the Lizard.

He only used it for ten seconds, and he got a nosebleed. So, just gaining an ability was not a big thing. How he used it skillfully mattered most.

"Good job, Rouka. Can you heal me?" Arthur asked. Since he did not sleep properly last night with the uneven terrain, his body was aching. He still felt fatigued. Instead of suffering on these things, he could fix himself since he had a healer now. The healer skeleton raised its hand up. Soon, Arthur witnessed a similar, cloudy fog engulf him. The sensation he felt was soothing. It was like 10 young women giving a massage. Arthur wanted to stay like this forever, and he wanted to sleep for long.

However, before he could fall on that sensation further, it started to disperse. Arthur came to reality.

"Well, it felt like a lullaby," Arthur muttered. He also noticed a fresh feeling on himself. The neck and back pain from last time disappeared. The feeling of the head pressing down on the ground was also gone.

"What a great ability," Arthur muttered.

"Rouka, use your Regeneration on Dolph and Maan as well." Arthur decided to move towards the mountain, so he expected his skeletons to be at 100% capacity. Using Rouka's ability would assure that. Looking up at the sky, Arthur noticed the sun was going to set. Maybe two hours remained for him to find a place to stay.