Apocalypse Healer - Path of Death-Chapter 40B2 - Search

"That’s it," David said, wiping his sweaty forehead.

His chest heaved, and his head had been throbbing for a while, but he was satisfied with the work results of the last few hours. By using his Blood, draining Source, and depleting all storages, he succeeded in restoring the lost limbs of nine men and women. It was an extraordinary feat, but what made him happiest was that his Blood Storages remained intact even after all his Blood had been drained.

"Thank you for helping us," the elderly woman standing beside him said, her voice dripping with sincerity. She pulled him closer and embraced him tightly. David was drenched in sweat, but the elderly woman—one of the Clerics tending to the wounded—didn’t seem to mind.

She said more, but he barely listened. He didn’t like how tightly she held him, and it took a great deal of control to force her to release him. Fortunately, the Cleric let go after a few seconds, patting his arms and smiling warmly.

David tried to force a smile, but each "thank you" issued between sobs made it harder to maintain. When the gratitude escalated into "What would we have done without you?" and various versions of "You are our savior!", David had had enough. He rushed out of the gymnasium without a word.

These crazy… David shuddered as he stepped outside. A warm evening breeze fluttered around him, but all he could think about was how Zora had left him to deal with the elderly Clerics alone. It had felt like she was the only one protecting him from their overwhelming gratitude, and now he regretted pushing her too much. But how could he have known she would leave so soon after their little chat?

David hadn’t seen her life signal in a while. If she wanted to avoid him, so be it. He would survive a few more days with the Clerics. For the sake of the wounded, of course, he thought, glancing at the first notification glowing in the corner of his vision.

[Your Source has grown. +2 Blood]

Unfortunately, his Skill hadn’t improved. Then again, it would have been too easy to increase [Greater Restoration]’s rank if a few restored limbs were all it took. Maybe the Blessing of the World had spoiled him too much.

David smiled grimly, striding through the now-empty streets of Ashville as he checked the notifications he had missed.

[Proficiency of Slash reached 100%.]

[Tier-0 IX] → [Tier-0 X]

[Slash reached its limit. Initiate Tier progression.]

[Slash: Tier-0 X] → [Aether Slash: Tier-1 I]

[Proficiency of Eagle Eyes reached 100%.]

[Tier-0 IX] → [Tier-0 X]

[Eagle Eyes reached its limit. Initiate Tier progression.]

[Eagle Eyes: Tier-0 X] → [Heightened Vision: Tier-1 I]

It was about time. His last bound Tier-0 Skills had finally advanced to Tier-1, yet nothing seemed to have changed. His Runes had already been the size of Tier-1 Runes—though he couldn't say for how long.

"My vision has already adapted to [Heightened Vision], but how long has it been?" David wondered aloud, only now realizing that Bloodthrone Dominion had been showing him everything with much more clarity. He no longer had to channel Blood into his modified eyes to distinguish the life signals of everyone in Ashville. Even the men and women guarding the town’s edges were now visible to him with ease.

I can be foolish sometimes, can't I? David snickered inwardly, making his way back to Maja’s house. She was back, her restless life signals telling him she was in her room.

He opened the door and stepped inside, noticing Maja’s life signals flickering. One moment, she was in her room, and the next, she was sitting on the couch with a book in her hands.

What was that? he thought, walking into the living room.

Maja turned to him with a faint smile. "Oh, you’re back already?"

She tried to sound calm and composed, but it didn’t take a genius to see she was a mess. Her voice cracked, her eyes were red and swollen, and something—desperation?—flickered in them.

"What happened?" he asked calmly, walking to the bathroom. David left the door open, listening as he removed his clothes. He cast [Purify] on his body and garments before retrieving a neatly folded set of clothes from his storage necklace.

"N-nothing…" Maja muttered, her voice cracking worse than before. "I-I don’t want to waste your time, but… can we resume training tomorrow?"

He slipped into more comfortable clothes and returned to the living room, his brows knitting together.

“What happened?” David repeated, more sternly this time.

“I—” A tear welled down her cheek. “I hopped through the towns. And… and I went farther this time. I was trying hard, you know? And I got lucky.”

Her voice was laced with self-ridicule as she spat out the last word.

“You found survivors.” David didn’t phrase it as a question. He could tell she had found the same—or something very similar—to what he had seen in the Goblin settlements.

Maja flinched but nodded slowly, more tears dripping onto her leggings. She looked exhausted, mentally and physically drained, but David caught a whiff of defiance in her as she looked up again. The tears didn’t extinguish the fire in her eyes.

“I want to train. I need to train!”

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Something about her had changed. Whether it was a good change, he had yet to find out.

“Because of the Goblins you found? Or…” David asked, not finishing the sentence.

Maja pressed her lips into a thin line. She swallowed before nodding. “I found survivors in a settlement. And I teleported straight to them. I… helped them out.” She clenched her fists tightly. “Everything was supposed to be fine.”

She started to sob again.

“But some of them were already gone, even though they were still alive,” David said.

He had struggled with what he saw in the Goblin settlements, but he’d had enough time to process it. Now, he understood.

While physical deaths were the most common, they weren’t all that mattered. The moment the mind ceased to be, the body became nothing more than a husk. Everything ended with the death of the mind, no matter how healthy the body remained. It had been ever-present before the integration as well, though most tried to cast it aside. Was it fear, or was it something else? David didn’t know.

However, he knew that the situation and condition of the women in the Goblin settlements were the same—though much worse—than anything he had ever heard in the Earthen Union’s news.

Maja’s sobs grew louder, and it didn’t take long before she bawled her eyes out. David ignored the tightness in his chest and walked over to her. He sat beside her and patted her back. Yet, rather than calming her, his attempt to console her failed. She cried harder, more desperately than before.

This is so fucking awkward…

***

“You said you wanted to train,” David said, pulling back once Maja’s tears ceased.

Her weak nod was answer enough. He jumped to his feet and pulled her up. “Let’s get started then.”

Maja’s eyes widened. For a moment, she regarded him like a man who had just lost his sanity before glancing at the backyard. “Now?”

The sun had nearly set, and it wouldn’t be long before the only light illuminating Ashville’s surroundings was the moon and ambient Aether.

“If you don’t want to…” David shrugged.

Maja groaned and teleported them outside Ashville in an instant.

“Today’s training will end when you collapse,” he added, conjuring three bloody projectiles. “Evade the projectiles. I lowered their damage output as much as I could, but you better avoid them if you don’t want to sleep with bruises all over your body.”

Maja vanished and reappeared several meters away at his words, bringing a smile to David’s face. He sat down, closed his eyes, and felt the surrounding energies.

“What are you—Ouch!” Maja started to ask, only to get struck by a [Blood Blast].

“I don’t need to see you to sense you,” David commented. He couldn’t afford to neglect his own training—not if he was going to train Maja for weeks.

He heard her groan, but she didn’t complain. Not until she dodged two [Blood Blasts], only for a third to strike her in the back. She teleported around, evading several attacks, but while Maja seemed to improve, so did David.

The evening passed quickly, and so did the next few days.

David and Maja spent the mornings separately for the first few days. He spent most of his time restoring lost limbs and only stopped when Maja arrived to pick him up for their daily training. David was surprised to find that more townspeople were missing limbs or suffering from diseases that ordinary Clerics couldn’t heal. Interestingly, that included cancer and other terminal illnesses.

Fortunately, [Greater Restoration], once overclocked, could heal almost anything. It was draining, but by tapping into his reserves of Origin Essence, David managed to do things others could not. Then again, he had to cut open a few patients and remove parts of their ‘damaged’ organs for [Greater Restoration] to work efficiently. Not everyone liked that. He often earned shocked and appalled looks when leaving the gymnasium, but his patients never died. Quite the contrary, they felt much better—healthier—once his treatment concluded. Anyone who dared to complain about his methods would have to do better. But no one could. He was the best Healer they had.

David couldn’t help but smile at that thought, recalling the elderly Clerics’ horrified expressions when he severed the cancer-ridden parts of the last patient’s lungs. That was a sight to behold. Even better, however, was that his Source had expanded and now contained 25 Blood Droplets.

Maja, on the other hand, was not as bloody as David. At least, he hoped so. Then again, what she was doing was likely far more dangerous than anything he had done in the gymnasium.

She mentioned expanding her search for survivors, but David heard from others that she had yet to return with anyone. Regardless, he learned a lot about other settlements and Sanctuaries dozens of kilometers from Ashville. According to Maja’s reports, most cities and larger towns had been destroyed. However, those who survived were thriving—with the help of foreign entities.

Maja hadn’t learned much about the foreign entities since she never entered the Sanctuaries or settlements. She didn’t appear afraid, but being fearless didn’t mean recklessly walking into danger was a wise choice. David took note of the change in Maja’s attitude and smiled. Even if her experience with the ‘survivors’ from the Goblin settlements had been devastating, it had forced her to grow—to adapt and overcome or to fail and wither.

Maja was striving, or so it appeared. Their training, which started in the afternoon and lasted until late at night, had turned out much better than expected—for both of them. David learned how to multitask: he attacked Maja with six [Blood Blast] while simultaneously using [Meditation] to kickstart his progress with [Soul Domain]. Meanwhile, Maja evaded most attacks instinctively by this point. The only problem was the portals and the dense ores used as ‘enemies,’ which were not represented by the three freely moving projectiles.

She hit them a few times, but her success rate was lower than expected.

“I’m done tending to the wounded in the infirmary,” David commented after a long week of training. “I will start searching for my family and friends soon. Two friends of mine should be in or near the Sanctuaries and settlements you’ve found.”

“Should we enter the Sanctuaries to search for your friends?” Maja perked up, her concentration slipping. The portals collapsed, and the truck-sized ore crashed to the ground with a heavy thud, sending tremors through the earth.

“If you’re up for it,” David nodded. “I cannot be certain my friends are alive, but if they are, it shouldn’t be difficult to find them.”

Maja’s expression soured, but that was the reality of their situation. He hoped they survived, yet he couldn’t be certain. Maybe his parents were dead too.

“We can leave right away,” Maja declared, bringing a smile to his face.

“That’s not necessary. I doubt Protectors—or anyone—would be happy about strangers trying to enter their territory. We can go tomorrow once your Mana Core is full and your mind clear and free of strain. If Basti and William are still alive, they will survive another night without me,” he said.

His friends didn’t need him to hold their hands to sleep. If anything, they might have been better off without him.

I was a bit of an ass, David recalled with a sigh. Then again, he doubted he had changed much.

He might be a jerk, but he didn’t mind. That was who he was. At least, he hadn’t crossed any lines that shouldn’t have been crossed.

Though… some were close calls, David thought, shuddering.

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