[Victoria’s POV]
"..."
"What is he thinking?"
Victoria sat up once again and glanced in the direction of the smell.
Even though it was pitch-black, she could vaguely see colors. She could see the steam rising from the food...
It smelled delicious.
She couldn’t resist herself, so she used a form of Telekinesis to float the food over to the bed. She immediately began eating, stuffing her face and dropping the elegant-girl persona she had been trying to uphold for the public.
I thought he was just a muscle-brained idiot, but he’s actually a good cook? Wow... I should act like a damsel more often so he cooks me something this delicious.
Victoria continued eating as she glanced out the window again.
She had been doing so ever since she woke up, and the reason was simple.
"Ah... I can see the moon clearly, just like the sun."
She was blind, but for some strange reason, the sun and the moon were the only things her eyes could see clearly.
There were also dozens of colors floating all around her, each one representing a different Law she could grasp and control at will.
She found it strange, but figured that by observing the sun, the moon, and the strange colors, she could eventually find a way home.
There was another thing.
Arthur Vegas.
She was sure she had never met him, so why did he seem so familiar?
She couldn’t put her finger on it, so instead, she focused on the one thing she could control.
And that was filling her stomach with all this delicious food while carefully keeping track of Arthur’s location.
***
[Arthur’s POV]
"Hmm~ Oh? Nico, you’re here."
Arthur waved at Nico, who seemed much livelier than yesterday.
Not to mention, Nico had lived up to his word.
Glancing past him, Arthur saw at least ten different people from the slums, all with varying degrees of injuries or illnesses. Most of them seemed to be part of the groups that went into dungeons and killed monsters.
"I’ve come just like I said I would." Nico puffed out his chest. "Does that mean I can be the first one to get healed?"
"Haha. Sure."
Arthur was going to pick him anyway since he wasn’t missing much experience to level up.
Once he reached Class Level 3, his Healing Touch would become even stronger.
So, he walked up to Nico and cast two heals directly into his heart.
[-60 MP | 520 / 580 MP (x2 Healing Touch)]
[Healing Touch successful!]
[Healing Area Selected: Heart Region]
[Single Area Healing Bonus: x2 Heal Power and Healing Efficiency]
[Target recovered 200 HP.]
[Target HP: 522 / 1,000]
Nico took a deep breath and flashed a surprised look.
"My lungs don’t hurt anymore. Even the phantom pain has lessened. You know, this is much better than yesterday. Did you get that much stronger?"
Arthur simply chuckled and glanced to the side.
[Ding!]
[+250 Experience]
Mystic Healer (Lv.2 → Lv.3) [Experience: 75 / 3,000]
[Bonus: 2 MP / Minute → 3 MP / Minute]
[Healing Touch (Lv.2 → Lv.3)]
—Heal 50 HP → 100 HP when making contact with someone.
Cost: 30 MP → 50 MP
[Mana: 58 → 59]
I was expecting it to heal 75 HP rather than 100 HP. It doubled. Does it double every single level, then?
Arthur smiled and moved on to the next person.
They weren’t very talkative, but their circumstances were similar to Nico’s.
They had all been injured by monsters inside their respective dungeons. It was just that their dungeon-diving organizations didn’t cover their medical expenses, so for the people of the slums, getting stabbed or badly cut was often a career-ending injury.
That only made him want to fight monsters less and less.
He needed the Levels eventually for the bonuses, but truthfully, he was intimidated.
Though, he’d deal with that issue once he had a better grasp of this giant world he was in.
After two hours of working and healing the people of the slums, everyone finally scattered.
Only Arthur and Nico were left.
Speaking of Nico, he was practically a fanboy now.
Arthur never expected his first-ever fanboy to be pushing fifty.
"That was awesome. Why don’t you take on a part-time job? N-Not that I think you should, since that’d mean we’d need to pay for your services, but still... To me, it seems like a waste of talent."
Arthur shrugged.
"I don’t really care about all of that. A job would mean less freedom, and I kind of like just popping up here in the middle of the night, then going back home and sleeping. And what talent? Haha. I’m just lucky. Luck isn’t a talent."
"If you say so."
Nico shrugged and stood up.
"I’m going to hit the hay as well, then. You should get going, since what you did tonight drew a lot of attention. I wouldn’t be surprised if tomorrow you have half of the slums waiting for you."
"Pfft. Let them come. Just tell them my Mana isn’t infinite."
Arthur sent him off.
After a few minutes of simply lazing around, he stood up as well and began walking back home.
The walk was quiet as usual, but for some reason, he had a bad feeling about today of all days.
He stepped into an alleyway that served as a direct shortcut back home.
The moment he did, he heard something scraping against the wall behind him.
When he turned around, he saw two masked men standing there, wielding dual daggers.
Even with his life in danger, Arthur could admit that these guys looked badass...
Until he saw that their assassin attire also had capes.
That pretty much made him lose all respect for them.
"Where’s the third musketeer?" Arthur asked.
But instead of answering his silly question, the two assassins charged at him with their daggers drawn.
Arthur reacted immediately, of course.
Like the excellent fighter he was, he dodged both attacks by squeezing between them.
Then, he tactically retreated, jumping over a fence and running toward his home.
The assassins chased after him, throwing knives and trying to immobilize him.
But clearly, whoever hired these fools hadn’t spent much money.
That, or they had underestimated Arthur’s rapid power growth.
Whatever the case, Arthur caught two or three of the knives and outran the assassins before jumping over one final fence and entering his neighborhood.
As expected, the assassins backed off.
If he had to guess, they were probably with the government, or perhaps one of the dozens of factions interested in Victoria.
For his first near-death experience since leaving the army, Arthur felt pretty peachy.
With his new knife collection ready to go, he decided he’d practice throwing knives tomorrow.
They weren’t that strong, either. Nico mentioned he was around Level 18, with most of his stats sitting around 100 and his Strength at 160. If stats really increased somewhat consistently with Levels, then those assassins were probably around Level 5 or 6.
Either way, it’s just a guess...
Was it really that hard to Level up in this world that the government couldn’t be bothered to hire better assassins?
Or were they really just that cheap?
That, or whoever those two people were, they weren’t sent by the government at all. Perhaps someone from the slums had sent them.
That seems a bit more likely. Well, my stats will be higher tomorrow, so I’ll capture them if they try to attack me again.
Finally, Arthur made his way home, determined to check in on Victoria.
Yet the moment he opened the front door, the sight before him made his eyes widen.
"What are you doing...?"