379 Treating Elizabeth
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“But still! She can’t even move!” Erika reprimanded me.
“Don’t blame me for this.” I sighed. “And don’t get ahead of yourself, Erika. Since when you have spoken to me in such a tone?”
“Ah… Sorry…” Erika apologized. “I am a bit agitated after everything…”
“Hmph, well. You were the ones that decided to come with me after all my warnings. I told you dozens of times how dangerous this trip to the swamp would be, yet all of you insisted on coming to prove yourselves to me.” I said. “Don’t get cold feet because we fought a lot of Undead. You’ll be fighting even more soon.”
“Ugh…” Sighed Eric. “Okay… But I just hate their horrible smell.”
“T-Their rotting faces and all… Uegh… I am going to have nightmares today.” Chris said.
“I guess this is the first time you see Undead.” Eleanora pointed out, emerging at my side. She had fighting in the frontlines all this time with Blood, her loyal Blood Wolf, and the support of a small Fenrir Squad.
“Have you seen them before?” Wondered Erdrich.
“Yes, it was back in your house.” I said. “It was not something you would like to hear, but there were Undead monsters there.”
“I-I see…” Erdrich muttered, he didn’t wanted to really talk about the time his mother went nuts and tried to kill everybody.
“…Nonetheless.”
I quickly kneeled and looked at Elizabeth, checking her temperature. She was feverish, a common symptom created by overusing Mana. If this is not treated this will only get worse and incapacitate her, or it could even cripple her Mana Cultivation.
However, it seemed as if her HP had gone down. I had also seen this before, when Mana was overused more than the limit shown in numbers, HP would be used instead, and in large quantities, usually by a range of 1 MP = 10 HP. Her HP was extremely low, even when I couldn’t truly see it.
“Here, drink this.”
Swiftly, I took out a potion from my pocket and made her drink this. It was an experimental potion that used Apples made from Apul as a primary ingredient, they were able to heal a large quantity of HP and even restore stamina and exhaustion. But because it is hard to create, I only have a handful of them.
“Hmm… It tastes like apple juice…”
Elizabeth slowly drank the red-colored potion, as she suddenly burped and blushed, covering her mouth.
“A-Ah, sorry…”
“It’s fine.”
I head patted again to reward her for her efforts. However, I could also feel the strangely jealous glare of Eleanora and Erika behind me.
“Oh…” Elizabeth quickly felt better, as a glow of mana flowed across her body. I had also given her a small Lesser Mana Potion, which also restored her MP enough for her to feel better. “I feel better now, thanks a lot, Blake!”
Elizabeth innocently thanked me, although the rest were still slightly mad at me for having “forced” her to over exceed herself, even more because she didn’t got angry at me for that.
“Can all of you stop glaring me like you want to kill me now?” I sighed, quickly taking some sandwiches from my bag. “Here, let’s eat something.”
Their faces quickly changed from narrowing eyes to eyes wide open with happiness clear in the brightness coming from them, they immediately snatched the food from my hands and began eating. They might be quite intelligent and mature compared to other kids their age, but kids will always be kids anyways. Simple minded and easy to make happy with the simplest of things.
“Oh, this sandwich is different?! What is this white sauce? It is so creamy…” Erika pointed out.
“I had never eaten something like this. It’s certainly not cream though.” Eric said.
“Woah, it is quite eggy too? But not too much.” Erdrich noticed.
“Ah, that’s mayonnaise. It is made out of eggs and oil.” I said. “It is technically a whipped cream. Its flavor is a good complement for sandwiches.”
“A-Amazing…” Elisabeth wolfed down her own sandwich in a matter of seconds, drinking some more potion she had left afterwards.
“I want another!” Erdrich asked like a spoiled child. Well, he used to be nobility so some habits die hard.
“Me too! Seconds!” Erika said. “Or I won’t keep moving!”
“Don’t worry, I prepared a lot.”
I quickly shared more as I saw them all eat. I also ate one myself, but these kids had a very hasty metabolism and felt hungry all the time. Although my Physique asked for tons of calories to develop, I had eaten a lot of meat before coming here to save up energy in my physique, an ability I had acquired by its power developing.
Food made through the [Cooking] Skill was certainly useful. It was like mini potions, as I saw my HP and MP go up by a few digits each time I took a bite out of the sandwich, perhaps one of the reasons it was so addictive for them was this.
Because of the power the [Cooking] Skill granted to my food, I had felt motivated to cook more food and save up on potions, whose materials were rarer and more expensive. I had been making potions for a while now, trying to save up as many as I can for when I open my shop.
However, we couldn’t sit down here for too long, there was a whole abandoned dungeon-like underground area we had to explore, and the enormous magical power coming from its depths indicated there was a big boss waiting for us. I could already tell it was probably a member of the Cult that inhabited here not so long ago, who had, for some strange reason, rejected the idea of leaving this place.
Perhaps the Necromancer behind this Undead attack had some sort of specific grudge against our village as a whole? Maybe he could even be the culprit behind the Wyvern’s attack for all I know.
Well, I’ll only know when I get to him. But if he’s truly a Necromancer capable of controlling D Rank Undead, then he’s no small fry.
It is not an exaggeration to say this could be our greatest challenge so far.
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