"So you want me to keep the wyvern blood that I purified?" Lily asks.
"Yup," I say. "For now. If I feel like I am properly prepared, I will, sometime during this floor, strengthen Mana Vessel to the second stage. During that process, you will inject me with the wyvern blood and empyrean ichor I have gathered. Then, during the trait strengthening, I will support my trait, which will surely clash against the wyvern blood and ichor."
I squint and look at some shiny structure in the distance, likely a corporate building, and continue to talk to Lily. "If I am very lucky, Mana Vessel might evolve, though I think it is a really high-grade trait even as it is, so probably not. I could also probably hunt down Savi and take from him the sample of Nyssa's primordial blood he scavenged, but I think that dealing with three bloods would kill me even with your help."
"It is also possible that the ichor you got will forcefully strengthen your ichor trait," Lily says.
Meanwhile, we watch Tacita running nearby, playing catch with an awoken baby ferret that, even if it does not move as quickly as she does, is extremely nimble when changing direction. Still, the mute girl must hold herself back so much, even if the baby ferret is likely faster than all Hard difficulty attendees and plenty of Hell ones.
Out of nowhere, I mutter, "I almost want to meet Lissandra and ask her what she has done to check on Biscuit as per our deal. I mean, I do not suspect she broke her promise, but did she not just fuck off to the Labyrinth? Does she plan to do it later, or did she get a vow from the wyvern and delegate it to it?"
"She would have told you if she thought he was in real danger, would she not?" Lily asks.
I think of it for a moment and conclude that she likely would. Lissandra is not someone who would hold back her words because it might hurt someone.
"I think I want to talk to the wyvern if possible, but that asshole refuses to talk in a normal language, so that could be a problem." I let out a sigh and ask Lily, "Have you been making shards as you should?"
To that, she rolls her eyes. "Yes, I have been. I met with that mora trio from Crimson Forge and connected with some healing guilds so they can pass me some jobs, of course, for the provision, which I have been able to negotiate to 10 percent for them."
"No hidden payments or clauses?"
"I had the contracts checked."
"Good."
"I guess. It does not take much effort, and the shards are nice. Do you want to know how much I made, Nat?"
As we walk, I give myself time to think and then close my eyes and sigh again. For some reason, I noticed I do that a lot when dealing with group 4.
"Is it a lot?" I ask.
"Millions."
"How the hell are you making millions already for just some healing?!" I raise my voice.
"Right?!" Lily raises her voice as well to match mine. "It takes me only a few minutes. They even schedule the meetings, so I do not have to wait and waste time, so I just walk in, heal, get shards, and leave."
"Is it at least for something difficult?"
"Not really? I mean, maybe? I do not know. It is much more difficult to heal your body. Like, healing you is like what I imagine doing surgery on a hummingbird, while most of the people they want me to heal feel like surgery on an elephant. I have so much space for mistakes, it is crazy. And then they just go "whoa" and "wow," while staring at me with wide eyes. Nat, the last time, they gave me two hours to regenerate an arm of some high constitution A-rank and to heal some nerve damage. It took me five minutes, and most of it was because he kept annoyingly complaining about pain."
She lowers her voice and mutters, "Sometimes people come to beg me to heal their bonds. Cute animals. Lizards, foxes, wolves, ravens, and such. I give those people a big discount, though, since I did that, more of them started coming and saying they were not able to pay the previous prices, but I do not mind at all."
"Our cute Lily made an enemy of a few healing guilds that got angry because she kept undercutting prices they set and giving discounts to everyone she felt the slightest pity towards," Tess says.
"They won't do anything about that," Lily answers with an uncharacteristically angry voice. "Some of them came to me to try to make me change my mind, but I threw them out. Through the walls. I also think Tacita killed a few that were more ill-intended." She looks at the mute girl, who playfully boops a golden ferret and then runs away from it.
Lily smiles at the sight. "But I also have been shamelessly spreading that I am in the same tutorial group as the Guild Master of Primordial Knights, and plenty of them stopped after that. I think most of them gave up and are waiting for me to complete the tutorial or get bored."
"That guild master must be a menace," I say.
"He is the worst," she chuckles. "But, as you see, I am making some decent money. I am being financially responsible. I think I will spend it on passives. Soon, I might even start selling healing marks. I am working with a few healers my handler recommended on making them difficult to copy. Though I'm hesitating about this, I think it would be nice if many more healers could create such healing marks, it could save a lot of people."
It takes me a few moments to realize it is mostly meant as a question, and she is waiting for a reaction from me.
"Lily," I say.
"Yes?"
"Do whatever you want."
"Of course you would say that."
"So stop asking me."
"But it is nice to hear it out loud," she says.
"Sure, sure. But you know, if other healers start copying you, you can just improve the healing marks, right? Then the other healers would take care of the lower segment, and you would sell your much better healing marks for a much higher price to the rich ones."
"Huh."
"Of course, it would be nice if you could put some sort of backdoor into it. Like, if someone tries to kill you while bearing such healing marks, you could just destroy the marks from a range or make them useless."
"I... probably?"
I nod twice. "We could also try to come up with some spatial component to your healing mark. Imagine if you could place a mark only once, and then recharge it from a distance. For a subscription or such."
"I..."
"Lily, I think Nathaniel is mostly teasing you and joking. Mostly," Tess says.
Looking at me, our black haired healer narrows her eyes. "Did he always have such a punchable face?"
Around an hour later, we reach another member of Group 4. From the hot haze of the desert, we see Dennis moving out at high speed.
Even before he reaches us fully, he weaves his [Connection] to make a telepathic link between us. He does so surprisingly quickly, making me think it is in tandem with Aaron.
Then the first thing he does is charge me and pull me into a hug.
"Nat, you stupid, beautiful, annoying, perfect motherfucker," he says with a surprising dose of emotion. He is even shaking a little bit, though I can see him smiling widely as he looks up with that low, pristine crystal imbued in his forehead.
"I want 1% of those ten million shards you got, so you do not have to than-"
I do not get to finish as he interrupts me, "Not that! I am talking about Iant!"
"Oh, Diligence’s vessel you got as a handler. What about him?"
He smiles so brightly, I think it might be brighter than the desert. "Iant said Diligence might be able to help us! Of course, it will not be now, and it will not be for free, but Iant said our [Connection] skill and what happened to our minds and the connection as twins is very fascinating, and Diligence might want to study it."
"Dennis, you-"
"Yes, yes, I know: be careful, do not put up much hope, be careful, and then once again be careful to not get scammed by the Ruler whose full intentions we do not even know, and such."
(Yeah, Nat, we are not dumb! If you think of it, we are a superior species with human brains. Diligence is just an ant!) Aaron also sends through the connection.
"What exactly did Iant say?" Tess asks curiously as Dennis lets go of me and gives her and Lily a quick hug.
"Nothing concrete for now. He was a bit vague, but I made him use a vow. He did not lie. He just said the cost might be high. We might have to spend years on Domus to be studied and such," Dennis says.
(We also think he probably wants to use Nathaniel through us. Diligence is… well, super fucking diligent, everyone says. He likely plans really far ahead and likes to create contingencies,) Aaron also throws in.
"Well, feel free to use me in such a way. I do not think Diligence would truly try to push me if he wanted something from me, so we could always just negotiate. And your state otherwise?"
(Currently, we are in the Third City of the second floor. We talk to Spark a lot, and he is showing us techniques to stabilize our minds. That sweet little guy does not even ask for anything, and only says he can understand what we might go through.) Aaron’s voice turns gentle and thankful. (Of course, there are still dangers. A powerful mind mage could erase me. A powerful mana disruption that would break Dennis’s natural barrier, probably as well, and some other things. I will tell you all about it later, as I think it is safer if you know.)
His brother then completes the thought for him, "But we can do that over a drink."
In agreement, we then continue to move while sharing what has happened. Most of the time, we do not even bother trying to hide anything from Tacita, and she does not seem to care at all. She often disappears far away, likely to examine something she found interesting, and then returns. She also often moves around me, pointing at Veto until I give her the dagger so she can hold it for a few minutes and sadly return it to me.
I also use that very same dagger to stab myself to examine how it locks each of my skills.
From that, I learn that the skills I always thought of as higher grade are blocked for a shorter time, and the skill level influences it as well. It is very fascinating to watch how my level 83 [Focus] gets turned off, with me having no chance in hell to reactivate it until the effect wears off. There is also no cooldown on the dagger; once my skill is unlocked, I can stab myself, and it blocks that skill for the exact same duration.
The only difference is that while a skill is locked, if I stab myself, it locks another skill.
As for [Focus], it gets locked for ridiculous 8 seconds. [Mana Manipulation] gets locked for 4 seconds, and for example, level 19 [Selective Adaptation] gets locked for close to one minute.
And no matter how much I observe the process or try to fight against it, I find no way of shortening it or blocking it. I know I just started experimenting, and in a few days or weeks, that might change, but it still annoys me. The fact that it will lead to me improving my hold on my skills does not matter that much currently.
Lily joins me too, stabbing herself a few times as well, fascinated by her locked skills. As if to follow our lead and not be left behind, Tess also joins.
Dennis does not. Almost with horror, he reads the description and widens his eyes as he takes a step away from the blade, as if its presence could lock the skills that might or might not be the only thing keeping his brother with him.
The realization makes me apologize to him as I store the dagger away, and even though he smiles, I see that the fear the dagger brought to the surface. For the rest of the time, he then follows Tacita, trying to learn from her and constantly pushing himself to try to use his skills and his doubled stats to catch up to her.
The next members of Group 4 we meet are Sophie, Izzy, Noodle, and Blackie.