Unexpected Healer Book 2 -- Chapter 30

Chapter 30

The sight that Thaden caught as he looked over the edge of the rock pile wasn’t a good one.  It seemed as though he was a few seconds too late to help, as the commotion was wrapping up even as he peeked down at the scene unfolding in front of him.

A total of 15 Contenders of different races, genders, and Classes, who all ranged from Level 18 to Level 20, had apparently surrounded three female Contenders a short time ago and killed them.  How?  Because the corpses of the trio, who had either had their throats slit or had been stabbed through the heart, were all Level 21.

Katelynn (Deceased)

Human

Level 21

Gabriela (Deceased)

Human

Level 21

Basma (Deceased)

Human

Level 21

While it was impossible to tell that if they were originally a party or not, the three deceased Contenders were at least varied enough in their appearance that they were likely a Fighter, a Mage, and a Scout Class, but any more information than that was hidden from him.

Meanwhile, the three full parties of lower-Level Contenders were milling about, looking at the bodies; there were a few that were audibly celebrating with each other and giving out high-fives, as if they had suddenly accomplished a great feat, while at least half of them had guilt written all over their faces and in their very demeanor – something that Thaden was intimately familiar with after Forgestone.  This guilt, however, was the guilt of deliberately taking another Contender’s life for the sole purpose of removing them from the Rankings and improving the killer’s chances of coming out on top.  It was the same thing that many of the Contenders back in Ashcleft had tried to do to Thaden, but he had escaped because of his ability to avoid being hurt by anything. 

These unfortunate women, however, did not.

“This doesn’t feel right,” he heard mentioned in a low tone by one of the guilty-looking murderers to another.  “Are you sure that this is what we’re supposed to be doing?”

The speaker was answered with a head shake.  “No, not at all.  I know it was mentioned multiple times during Training, but I don’t remember the Assimilators requiring it of us.  It makes no sense, anyway, because shouldn’t the strongest of us survive to protect—?”

“That’s because we’re supposed to be strongest,” said a different voice, and Thaden saw a woman swaggering over to the two guilty Contenders as she cut them off.  If there were a female version of a Chad, Thaden thought that this would be her to a T.  “If they had been stronger, they would’ve been able to get away before we could surround them.  That won’t be happening to anyone in the Reapers Guild, obviously.”

Reapers Guild?  There are more Guilds here like the Harvest Guild?  Must be common around the cities.  Childishly stupid name, though.

“Yes, but don’t you think it’s a little unfair how they can’t fight back?” the original guilty individual that had spoken asked.

“Not at all.  It’s survival of the fittest out here, and they should’ve known that they would have a target on their back as soon as they hit Level 21 and obtained their new Class.  Only the stupidest Contenders would do such a thing without a plan in place to avoid being taken out immediately.  Without a Guild backing them, they had no chance.”

Thaden listened to them talking and began to wonder if he was wrong about the reasoning behind the whole Contender-versus-Contender system that was put in place.  Or is this simply where all the bloodshed I assumed would come is starting?

He didn’t know, but now that he was seeing what he had prophesized coming true before his very eyes, he didn’t like it.  His thoughts were running along the same lines as one of the guilty murderers, as he thought the entire thing was unfair, stupid, and destined to fail.  He had originally thought that it would simply weed out all of the psychotic murderers over time, but so much talent would be wasted just to avoid ending up with a Contender who couldn’t be trusted not to have murderous tendencies as soon as they left this development world.  

What made it even worse was that those of a higher Level couldn’t even fight back after being attacked, which was obvious by the fact that none of the murdering Contenders appeared to have been hurt at any point.  They might have been healed by the three Support members of the parties he saw, of course, but there was usually some sort of blood or torn armor to show the damage they took, and there was nothing of the sort.

What kind of asinine thinking led the Assimilation System to do something like this?

As he watched the lingering Contenders eventually group up together and leave, unable to even loot the corpses of those they killed because it wasn’t something the System allowed – yet another reason why the whole thing didn’t make any sense to him, because then there might actually be a logical, if flawed, motive to kill other Contenders – he had already switched out two of his Access Slots to fit in Lesser Resurrection.  While he waited for the 10 minute cooldown to end, he contemplated what he was about to do. 

Obviously, his conscience wouldn’t just let him walk away at this point without bringing them back to life with Resurrection, but doing so would be complicated.  The last time he’d done it, he’d brought the party he’d saved into a dungeon with him; at the time, the act had been motivated by a desire to learn more about what he didn’t know that the other Contenders did.  He was the first to admit that he was still ignorant of quite a few things, but he’d learned enough from Sarah and the others that he didn’t feel like he was floundering around anymore.  In short, he had no desire to bring these Contenders into a dungeon, nor did he want to inadvertently expose his identity.  Fortunately, with his nametag and Level hidden from them, as well as his face, even if they suspected that he was the individual at the top of the Rankings, they wouldn’t know what he looked like.  He also couldn’t really disguise his voice very well, and doing so would only be even more suspicious.

Therefore, the only solution for that was to not talk at all.  Heh.  Perhaps I’ll go the ‘mysterious mute stranger’ route with this.  It seemed like the ideal way to deal with the situation; as soon as he was done bringing them back and healing them, he would swiftly take his leave and make his way to Rageharbor.  He had no responsibility to them, after all, as after their resurrection he would leave them to figure things out on their own – even if doing so might eventually lead to their deaths at the hands of those who’d already done the deed once.

Thaden waited another ten minutes before he climbed over the rest of the stone pile and made his way down to the corpses.  He immediately had to stop himself from throwing up as he looked at their slack faces frozen in expressions of pain and horror, and the blood that practically covered them was sickening.

He’d seen dead people before, of course, such as the local Charee Adventurers that had died near the Mausoleum as well as Sarah and her party, but somehow this was viscerally different than those times.  Even if the damage that had been done to them by the Undead had subjectively worse, the scene in front of him was the result of murderous intent, perpetrated by his own people.  The monsters of this world would and could kill a Contender without a second thought, but Humans from Earth should know better; it was as if the baser instincts of his kind had emerged from the illusion of civilization that kept them from simply killing each other like mindless beasts. He still didn’t understand the thinking behind it, either the act or the System that put it in place.

Are the lives of family members back home really worth the knowledge that they killed another person in cold blood?  It was hard for him to answer that, given that he didn’t have the same motivations that most of the others seemed to have, but logically there had to be at least a small portion of the Contenders that were in a similar position.  He couldn’t be the only one that didn’t have anyone back home counting on him to succeed. 

He just shook his head, knowing that just standing there wouldn’t answer those questions.  Before he did anything else, he used his Major Mana Transformation spell to increase his Personality stat, boosting it from 26 to 78 in a few seconds; he didn’t feel any different, but if he was going to be interacting with other people, even while staying relatively anonymous, he figured it couldn’t hurt.

Looking around one more time, ensuring that none of the murderous contenders were still nearby – despite seeing them quite a distance down a pathway that he was fairly certain led to the city of Rageharbor – Thaden raised his hands toward the nearest body, Katelynn.  She was a Fighter Class based on her chainmail and steel armor, battered shield stuck halfway into the ground, and wicked-looking warhammer lying next to her.  In an instant, the magic left him and entered her battered body, immediately healing the wounds that had killed her, which included the slit throat that had basically painted her front side red.

A few seconds later, he watched as her eyes snapped open with a scream on her lips, and she jumped to her feet.  Seeing a figure in a black robe and hood standing approximately 15 feet away, she seemed to instinctively lean down to grab her warhammer from where it lay, before immediately launching herself at him with a twohanded downward strike of her weapon that would’ve smashed his head open like a ripe watermelon if it had hit.

Fortunately for him, he had already been prepared for such an attack after remembering what had happened when he’d Resurrected Sarah’s party, and had both of his Fields protecting him.  The warhammer hit his Major Repulsion Field and rebounded instantly, and the repulsion effect send her flying backwards.  Landing on her back, she groaned in pain, not because he did any damage to her, but because she was still wounded with only a little more than half her wounds having been healed from the Resurrection.

“Filthy bastards!  You’ll get what’s coming to you!” she shouted even as she struggled to her feet. 

Thaden cast Major Regeneration on her, followed by Major Healing Burst, and then channeled Major Healing into her, making the healing energy connecting them together obvious what he was doing since the others were instant-cast.  The step Katelynn was about to take toward him froze in the air as she registered that she was being healed and not attacked, and her mouth opened in a wide “O” of shock.

She was completely healed in the first second as Healing Burst did most of the work, but he figured it couldn’t hurt to make it obvious what he was doing.  He didn’t want her attacking him again, after all.

“What?  Who—?” she began to ask, before she seemed to register what had happened.  All it took was a simple glance at her still-deceased companions before she burst into tears, collapsing by the side the one called Gabriela.  “No!  Look what those sons of bitches did to you!”

Gabriela had been pierced through the heart, from the back it seemed like, and there was a gaping hole in the woman’s robe where whatever weapon was used to do the deed had torn it apart. 

Katelynn whipped around after a few seconds of horror and anger making her entire body shake in reaction to the scene, and she stared at Thaden with a determined and hopeful expression on her face.  “Can you… can you resurrect her too?  I’ll do anything—”

Thaden held up his hand as he maintained his silence, as he didn’t want her to continue whatever she was going to say.  He simply nodded his head in response to her question, and she practically collapsed in relief.

“Where did you come from?  Who are you?  How did you heal me so quickly?”  The questions started coming rapid-fire a moment later, ending and anger-filled query of, “Where are those murdering bastards from the Reapers Guild?”

As tempting as it was to say something, Thaden kept his mouth shut and simply stood there silently, to the mounting frustration of the Fighter.  But she seemed to relent after a few minutes of assaulting him with questions, sighing heavily as she turned away.

“Not very talkative, are you?  That’s fine, I’m just grateful that you happened along when you did.  Or are you… part of the Assimilation System?  You don’t have a nametag, which is hella strange, but I guess I don’t get to know.  Whatever.”  She stayed kneeling by Gabriela’s corpse, staring down at the Mage with a distant expression on her face for a few minutes before looking back at Thaden.  “How long until, well, you know?”

The Lifewarden looked at the cooldown and saw that it was nearly up.  He held up both hands with his palms facing out, before he started to count down from 10 by ticking off his fingers one by one.  She seemed to understand what he was saying, and looked back at the woman on the ground, holding her cold hand in her own. 

The next Resurrection went off without a hitch, and with Katelynn nearby, Thaden wasn’t attacked again.  He looked away at the reunion between the two formerly dead Contenders to give them privacy, because it seemed as if there was more than just a professional relationship between the two, but he soon felt their gaze on him and turned back.  What he saw in their eyes made him slightly uncomfortable because there was something akin to adoration or hero-worship that virtually sparkled in their eyes.  With both of them still on their knees facing him, it was almost too much to bear.

“You’ve done so much for us already, but would you be able to resurrect Basma, as well?  We would be oh so grateful and would be willing to repay you however we can—” Katelynn said with a very obvious tone to her voice, but she was once again cut off by Thaden’s raised hand.

The Lifewarden was glad that his Hood hid the cringe he was sure was written all over his face as he nodded.  He had no desire to ask for any “favors” that these women seemed eager to impart, which was extremely odd to him that they were doing it in the first place.  Sure, he could understand them being grateful, but to imply that they were willing to pay for such a service with—  His thoughts froze as he came to a realization.

Is this my Personality at work?

Thaden immediately felt disgusted at the whole basis behind the Personality stat.  He had thought that it would make him more friendly and likeable, putting those he interacted with at ease, but it seemed to do more than that.  Granted, he doubted that having a high Personality would allow someone to simply walk up to someone and seduce them against their will, but in certain circumstances – such as being extremely grateful and thankful for being resurrected – it seemed to tilt the scales in that direction.

He nearly canceled the boost because it made him feel slimy and disingenuous, but he kept it on until he was done interacting with these women.  He was worried that a sudden drop in his Personality would alarm them as they would no doubt feel the extreme difference, and that was the last thing he needed in this situation; he could handle their System-forced adoration for a short time longer.

Thankfully, it didn’t go so far as to make them act entirely out of their normal actions, so he didn’t have to worry about them throwing themselves at him or demanding that he allow them to “pay” for the resurrections and healing.  Instead, they took his denial in stride and moved over to their other party member, softly talking between themselves as they stole furtive glances in his direction.

He did his best not to listen, but he could hear snippets of a conversation based on “getting revenge” upon those that had killed them.  Thaden wanted to reach out and tell them that such an idea was stupid and that they should just move on from this, but he kept his silence.  What they did after this was no business of his, and he had no desire to get involved in anything more than what he was already doing.

The Lifewarden gave them another warning when he was about to resurrect the last woman, and they were overjoyed as they spoke with Basma about what happened even as Thaden healed her to full as well.  While he was doing that, he had cancelled his Personality boost and waited for the cooldown to end before boosting his Celerity once again.  Even as the three women spoke happily amongst themselves, tears flowing freely as they realized they had all been brought back to life, their miraculous and mysterious healer took off, not desiring to stick around any longer.

He was a half-mile down the pathway the murderous Contenders had taken earlier before the three freshly resurrected women even noticed.