Not to butter his own biscuit, but was this really right? He had only trained for a few days, yet he had actually managed to put a hole clean through the ground?
The ground had even cracked slightly, revealing more ores underneath. He was bewildered, but also wary. He glanced around, and to no surprise, every single person present had seen what he had done, Light included.
Despite that, none of them said a word, as they all had their own problems to deal with. He wasn’t the only one who had been attacked by one of those strange beetles. Most of the miners had one or two drop down on them.
They weren’t as lucky as him. Most of them lacked his reaction time and speed, so the beetles had pierced through their skin and injured them. Some had their flesh gnawed off, while others had clean holes punched through their limbs.
Horrible, screech-like screams resounded through the cave from the injured miners, making his skin crawl. Despite that, he didn’t let the screams or the sight of their injuries get into his head. He’d experienced this before. He was going to experience it again in the future.
And since he had already made up his mind the day before, Arthur held himself together and began doing his job.
"Aaaaah! M-My fucking leg!"
Arthur emerged from the side and placed his hand on the man’s leg, immediately activating his healing skill.
[-150 MP | 1,730 / 1,880 MP (x1 Healing Touch)]
[Healing Touch successful!]
[Healing Area Selected: Lower Body Region]
[Single Area Healing Bonus: x2 Heal Power and Healing Efficiency]
[Target recovered 800 HP.]
[Target HP: 428 / 428]
The overheal was insane, and since he had targeted a specific region as well, the man’s leg healed incredibly quickly. Using the surrounding skin tissue to close the hole, it didn’t even leave behind a scar. Not to mention, the man’s body began glowing black for a brief moment when, all of a sudden, Arthur saw a pop-up appear in the corner of his vision.
[Element Attunement has activated!]
[Poison Affinity detected within the target.]
[Healing Touch has absorbed trace amounts of Poison Elemental Energy.]
[Target’s Poison Resistance has increased.]
[Target’s Poison Affinity has increased!]
[Current Poison Affinity: 0.00% → 1%]
[Element Attunement allows you to strengthen the elemental affinities of those you heal.]
[...]
[Congratulations!]
[You have awakened a Latent Poison Affinity for the target.]
"..."
Wait... What?
When he had read the description of the skill, he had thought it was above average or so. Not super overpowered, but not entirely useless either. But never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that he could awaken a Latent Affinity in other people.
But if that was the case, then he was an anomaly just like Victoria. Arguably, if he could awaken dozens of Affinities within other people, he might even rival Victoria’s influence.
It might be revealed when I go for testing. Well... Let’s hope for the best.
Now that he knew just how overpowered the skill really was, Arthur went ahead and began using it on everyone. None of them gave him any strange looks, so they likely hadn’t even seen the pop-up about the new affinity.
Not to mention, each heal and affinity awakening had given him a fair chunk of experience. By the time he was done healing everyone, he had risen several levels.
Mystic Healer (Lv.5 → Lv.7) [Experience: 2,359 / 7,000]
[Bonus: 5 MP / Minute → 7 MP / Minute]
[Healing Touch (Lv.5 → Lv.7)]
—Heal 400 HP → 1,500 HP when making contact with someone.
Cost: 150 MP → 250 MP
[Element Attunement (Lv.1 → Lv.7)]
1,500 HP per heal, and it’ll be 3,000 if I heal a certain area. It also looks like the skill stopped doubling. It went from an 800 HP heal to a 1,500 HP heal instead of 1,600.
Anyhow...
"Arthur, was it? I don’t mean to pry, but have we met before? Perhaps at the Vivum Academy?" Light said. His golden scarf began moving on its own, trying to reach out toward Arthur. However, Light controlled it and made it back off.
"I doubt it. I haven’t started going to the academy yet, but I will soon."
"Oh? If you’re coming in the new batch, then I might be able to get you into Z Class. It’s the best of the best, and if you do well, you might even be able to join the High Echelons."
"What’s a High Echelon?" Arthur asked.
Light raised a brow. "The top brass responsible for recovering human domains?"
"Don’t get me wrong, that’s cool and all, but I’m not sure if that’s what I want just yet."
"So you’ve not made up your mind, huh? Well, try to stay alive while Black Flash deals with the new boss monster."
"Why do you guys call yourselves by nicknames?" Arthur asked. He had been wondering about this ever since he met Light.
Light let out a chuckle. "His name is Nathaniel. It doesn’t roll off the tongue as easily as Black Flash. As for me, my name really is Light. Also..."
Before he could finish his sentence, a couple more beetles descended from the ceiling, but the scarf made quick work of them, severing them all into several pieces. Arthur immediately got an idea.
"Hey, so since I might be joining Z Class soon, do you think you could do me a favor and keep these monsters alive so I can land the last hit on them? I need the experience."
"Hahaha. Sure. Let’s head toward the boss room, then, since that’s where the exit portal will open up." Light glanced around and whistled loudly, gathering the attention of every single miner in the cave.
"Everyone! Follow me closely. We’re heading deeper into the cave. Move fast, people. For the inconvenience, you’ll all be getting a very big bonus!"
With that, the miners all gathered into a tight line. They wielded their pickaxes fiercely, hiding behind Light. Although Arthur was a lot stronger than the miners, he was still far weaker than Light.
But one thing did irk him a little. Light was so fast that he could have easily saved everyone from getting injured, so why hadn’t he? Something wasn’t adding up.
Not to mention, there wasn’t a single monster in sight all the way to the boss room.
And when they eventually arrived inside the boss room, Arthur finally realized where the source of his unease had come from.