Path of the Pioneers

Wounds are vicious, to put it rather lightly. Even after being cut wide open, you’re left exposed to another, worse threat: Infection. This would be the fate of my new friend, unless I found a way around it. With no equipment to speak of.

You had standard treatments, the works of low-class surgeons struggling for solutions. Things like vinegar, mixtures of honey and onions. There’s no way to truly know whether or not these strange concoctions did anything for staving off infection, but I had no actual way of trying them, regardless.

The only truly fortunate thing I could make out of this situation were the locations of her arrow wounds. One went into her arm, another beside one of her lungs, and the last in her leg. The archers responsible were trying to wound her, or weaken her, in all likelihood.

If any of them happened to puncture through her abdomen, I’m nearly positive that her life would have been forfeit. I had no skills to solve a problem like that, and the herbs in the woods outside of Gallwold could only take me so far with [Alchemy], at its current rank.

I looked her up and down. The threat of infection would have to wait a while more. For the time, I needed to remove the fabric from the wound. Even with a fabric covering, I didn’t feel comfortable leaving the wound open. It was time to close it.

I began at her arm. The wound hadn’t been near any major arteries, the arrow had cleanly gone into her bicep. The fabric had been stuffed into the hole in the armor rather hastily, I would need to remove the armor before going any further.

I undid the straps on the sides of her breastplate, careful to avoid agitating her injuries where the dents were. There was only a linen shirt underneath. Once relatively white, one would have to assume. It was now stained an almost maroon where the arrows had been. I took off her shoulder plates and gauntlets in the same fashion.

As luck would have it, the wounds on her body had stopped bleeding. An awakened of her skill would have to be rather resilient. That was something I failed to consider. Maybe I wouldn’t have to worry about her as much as I would with an unawakened.

Right. The first thing to do would be to suture the skin back together. I pulled up the sleeve of her shirt, revealing where the arrow had hit her. As gently as I could, I laid my hand over it.

This was a simple trick, really. And a helpful practice method for controlling mana precisely. I sent out a single thread, and it began pressing against her skin. This was the toughest part. Mana threads were weak, and strengthening them required making them larger. Making them larger would make them less likely to pierce. Well, even if they did pierce, larger threads would be no better than a fourth arrow.

This could only really be performed, at my level, by having my hand against her. I began manipulating the end of the thread, turning it into more of a point. Finally, it went through. I looped the thread around the other side, slowly working my way up the wound with the threads until it was all connected well. With one final movement, I pulled the thread together.

With surprising ease, the end of the thread emerged from the other side. Sure enough, the skin had now come together. It hadn’t been completely hidden, but it had done as good a job as I could hope for it to.

I just needed to make certain the threads stayed there, now. At least until it had healed on its own.

I kept my hand against it, and focused on the threads. They needed to be suffused with mana, made more permanent. “Stay together, stay together…” The skin had been knit, but it was pointless if it fell apart. In fact, it could lead to an even worse injury if the threads suddenly disappeared.

With my intent filling the mana coming from my hand, a pale, white glow covered the area around it. The threads couldn’t just knit the skin together. The threads needed to become part of the skin. I closed my eyes, focusing on the feeling of my mana. I knew that it could work, [Transmutation] operated on a similar principle. I just needed to focus…

The chime of my status window broke my concentration a few moments later.

[Congratulations! A skill has been unlocked: Mend Wound]

My eyes snapped to the status window. It felt as if I finished casting a spell, but still… I looked back, gingerly taking my hand off of her wound. Or.. rather, where a wound had been.

I stared, bewildered, at a smooth patch of skin. “Seriously..?”

Once again, I opened my status window.

Name: Sybil Sagecrest

Class: Apprentice

Level: 9 (95%)

Mana: (74/230)

Status Points:

• Strength: 6
• Agility: 10
• Intellect: 23
• Resilience: 9
• Luck: 14

Skills:

• Telekinesis (D)
• Alchemy (E)
• Flame Generation (E)
• Light (E)
• Barrier (F)
• Transmutation (F)
• Mend Wound (F)

There it was, right at the bottom. With a deep breath, I opened the skill description.

Mend Wound [35]

Stitches together minor wounds.

(10%)

An undoubtedly powerful skill. And it had gone up by 10% from one casting? Or was that a bonus from the initial use? Even the skill was careful to mention that it only stitches the wound together. “Then, it isn’t exactly a substitute for the body recovering itself…”

I put my hand on the wound on her side, using the skill. My hand glowed, and the hole was patched up just the same. Once a skill was unlocked, it could easily be repeated at the performance quality of that rank. To improve it would take constant practice, or finding a way to improve it on your own.

There was still one more arrow wound. It would take the last of my mana, but I thought it best to finish them all off at once.

I nearly blacked out from the final casting draining the mana from my body. I was kept up by yet another chime from my status window.

[Congratulations! You have leveled up! 9 -> 10]

Putting a hand on the ground to hold myself up, still on my knees, I gasped out. “F-four points.. Intellect.” The window sounded out a chime of recognition, doing as I said and then promptly closing itself. As the stat was raised, I almost immediately felt better. Thanks to the mana I received from the increase, I was no longer on the verge of passing out.

That wasn’t to say that it wasn’t uncomfortable. Going from nearly 0 mana to above 40 sent a wave of hot and cold from my head to my feet, a sensation that made me feel slightly sick. It faded fast, however.

I sat down, looking up at the leaves above, and the starry sky past that. With each level gained, a typical awakened acquired one stat point. Every five levels would grant two. As a benefit of my class, Apprentice, my early growth was significantly improved, but I wouldn’t be able to go any further than level 15. Because of that, I gained four points this time around.

My master told me that she knew how to get around the level limitation, but…

After half an hour or so, I stood up once more. We had to begin moving again if we were to have any chance of making a true escape.