The first problem was hunger – I needed to find something edible. Without food, proper regeneration was out of the question. I decided to change location immediately. In the first wave, the clan had sent ordinary soldiers to sweep the district, but soon system-users specialized in tracking stealth types would arrive – and then they'd find me sooner or later. Inaction wasn't an option, though fear smoldered inside me. Maybe I'd been burned once and was now blowing on cold water – just as harmful as overconfidence. I decided to act bolder – I left the house in my robe and walked unhurriedly toward the gate.
Of course, I knew the city exits would be blocked, but this city was suffocating me, and I had no other plan. At the end of a small street stood a soldier checkpoint, carefully inspecting everyone who passed – one man was ordered to remove his hat. Apparently my burned face had become my calling card. I hoped to quickly raise Minor Heal enough to get rid of the disfigurement. I figured the clan would expect me to try slipping through at night – I didn't want to go out in sunlight either, but that very expectation might make them send their strong, sharp-eyed hunters closer to evening.
Reaching the checkpoint with about five or six soldiers, I attacked without a word. My actions were meant to exploit the element of surprise – they wouldn't expect such audacity from me. With one hand, I threw a knife at the nearest soldier from two meters away – hitting the throat wasn't hard. With my left hand, I cast a Dark Arrow that struck another – enough to kill an ordinary man. Without stopping, I struck a third in the throat with straight fingers. The remaining two managed to draw their swords and attack me. I didn't even draw my own sword – I just dodged and struck each in the throat. Ordinary people were no longer threats. But I'd already paid the price for overconfidence, so I'd be more cautious regardless.
I left the bodies lying, retrieved the knife from the first victim's throat, and quickly left the scene – not out of the district, but back into it. Let them think I'd left; instead, I headed deeper into the neighborhood.
One of the hovels had a fenced yard with chickens. The two-meter fence protected the birds from the locals, but I jumped over it, wrung two chickens' necks, and stuffed them under my robe. Wandering through alleys, I came across a burned-out shack – a strong fire had destroyed the roof and part of the walls. But inside was a room enclosed on all four sides, probably used as a kitchen. The key point: if I went in there, no one would see me from the street. Fresh footprints in the dusty floor showed soldiers had checked even this place.
The plan was to lie low until I recovered even a little. My bones had healed, but my muscles were still in bad shape. The maximum goal was to raise Heal to level 10 and remove the burns from my head. I'd be found here quickly, but I had a plan. I entered the room with intact walls and started digging. I dug using cleaning magic – I poured more mana into the wind rune and less into the gathering magic, but I used three gathering runes and only one wind rune. This reduced the radius to a meter and pulled earth faster. For 40 mana, I got a funnel with a radius of one meter and a depth of 10 centimeters. I used it eight times, spending all available mana – resulting in a hole 80 centimeters deep and eight spheres twice the size of a golf ball. I sat in it and meditated for an hour to gather mana.
I decided to help magic with muscle – I took my sword and loosened the earth to the full length of the blade. After using the rune weave, the sphere came out twice as large. In four hours, I'd dug two and a half meters. There were no wooden beams left in the house – either burnt in the fire or taken for neighbors' stoves. I had to make a long row of spheres; I'd learned from my ice roof experience and studied the connection rune weave on the way to Djer. It consisted of six runes, including a Chaos rune – I never understood its principle, but it worked. I connected the "cleaning" spheres end-to-end – they were harder than granite – making three beams just over a meter long. I placed them overhead as supports. From the next room, I brought larger pieces of broken wall to cover the hole as a ceiling, resting them on the sphere beams. Then I climbed into the hole and waited.
On the other side of the interior wall was a "mine" – but instead of fire, I'd put a wind rune. When it exploded, the wall collapsed onto my head. Sand and small pebbles fell through the cracks, but the ceiling held. I was now under rubble, with air getting in. Someone came at the noise, loitered above for a while, but never approached the collapsed wall. I finally plucked the chickens and ate the raw meat. After a hearty meal, I went to sleep – "lay down" was an exaggeration; in a meter-wide hole, I had to curl into a fetal position, but I still slept over ten hours.
I woke up shattered – maybe the chicken and sleep had helped my body, but I didn't feel it. The burns still ached and stung. Weakness lingered. My endurance/ki bar was at 130 – it should have been higher. I sat in lotus position and entered meditation. My meridians seemed dried out; natural circulation bypassed some parts – basically, the wiring was shot. Also, my core felt light gray – almost all the black was gone. I focused on my surroundings and began drawing shadow ki – there wasn't much, but not too little either. The ki particles absorbed with difficulty. In 4-5 hours, I restored only 300 ki on the status bar. Ideally, I needed Deep Meditation, but this wasn't the safest place – what if tomorrow they decided to clear the rubble and build a new house? Unlikely, but not with my luck.
I decided to focus on magic – it was relatively okay. I restored my full reserve and started casting Minor Heal on myself.
You have raised the skill "Minor Heal" to level 10. The skill has transformed into "Medium Heal."
The skill heals moderate injuries; several applications can mend bones.
Costs 80 mana.
Cooldown: 5 minutes (depends on Intelligence and Mana Channel Toughness).
I immediately applied it to myself. The first difference was that the healing warmth didn't spread throughout my body – it affected the place where I placed my hand. And my hand was on my stomach – the burns there immediately stopped hurting. The next time I could cast it in 2.35 minutes, and I held my hand on my vagina – the worst burns were there, and that's where the most pain came from. A warm wave passed through my lower internals, and the pain subsided by about 30%. After three more casts, I felt no more pain there. Then I started healing my face. It itched terribly, but after three hours, feeling my bald head, I found smooth, tender skin beneath my fingers.
All this led to ravenous hunger again – I could have eaten my own arm. It was time to get out.
It was midday outside; no one came to investigate the sounds of me digging out. I dusted off my battered robe and walked in the opposite direction from the last skirmish. In fifteen minutes, I reached a local market selling fruit, meat, and household goods – it was large, but there were guards. And I had no money. I had to go around and keep walking. Five minutes later, on some small street, three thugs with knives tried to rob me – ages 17 to 30. I let them lure me into an alley, then knocked all three out. A quick search showed these thieves didn't have an easy life – I found only one silver and forty coppers. I didn't want to go back to the market, so I kept going.
Following my nose, I found a tavern in two minutes and went in. It was a top-tier roach motel – dirty and reeking of vomit. But hunger was driving me crazy. An old man stood at the bar; when I asked for a meal for one silver, he welcomed me like family. Fifteen minutes later, a large piece of some animal's meat, a big bowl of bean soup, and a large hunk of bread were brought to a far table. I devoured it all in ten minutes and left.
I ducked into an alley, removed my hood, and tried to see my reflection in my sword – but it didn't work; the blade was far from shiny. I cast Medium Heal three more times on my face and moved on.
Evening was approaching. I quickened my pace toward the city center – I needed to get to the other side to meet Part. First, I wanted to restore my ki core in his basement, near the source of darkness. Second, I needed shelter – getting out of the city anytime soon wasn't happening. I skirted the aristocratic district for two hours and approached Part's neighborhood. Last time, I'd been caught somewhere around here – I didn't want to repeat that success. I listened to my instincts – no one was paying attention to me. I walked openly to the house next to Part's, entered the alley between them, climbed to the second floor, and entered through a window.
To say I was surprised would be an understatement. Part lay in the same place with his legs broken again. I listened and sniffed for anyone else – but the house was empty. I hid behind a cabinet, sat on the floor, and waited – in case someone was lying in wait in stealth. From now on, paranoia was my favorite character trait.
In the morning, two men came to Part, carrying a basket of food – the clan must have learned of his recovery and decided to keep tighter control. He ate everything they gave him apathetically. These sadists didn't want to just kill him – they forced him to survive in these conditions.
I didn't go to him – I went straight down to the basement. On the first level, in the far corner, were stores of dried meat, wine, and hardtack. The crates and barrels had some runes on them – probably preservation. I took a large supply and went down – or tried to. Near the door, my core began to ache. I sat right on the stairs and entered meditation. My core struggled to absorb such concentrated dark ki – apparently, it needed long recovery. I meditated right there on the stairs, slowly circulating ki. The core ached, but gradually filled with black again. On the second day, I moved down two steps and continued meditating. After two days, I could enter the room and sit in the corner. My ki bar filled completely (6300/6300), and then cracks began appearing on my core. I didn't understand what was happening, but instinct told me this was normal. The cracks multiplied, and soon pieces began flaking off – in the end, the core shrank by 20%. The problems had likely started when I was hit by the light radiation – and rapid development in this room only added to them; when my energy was completely drained in the torture chamber, the issues surfaced.
Core Formation: 56%.
I needed to stop continuously pumping ki without reinforcing the foundation. The only skill that actively used ki was Shadow Leap – it drained ki quickly. I needed to continuously fill and expend ki to strengthen the foundation. I decided to stop for now and go up to Part. Honestly, his face showed he wasn't glad to see me. I entered the room and sat down in front of him.