MTLNOVEL Chapter 1715 The Hunt is Over
--- Kat ---
Kat and Lily had found a nice spot to rest up in the ceiling after finishing up at the hospital. There was no way the place was natural. The stalagmite they were resting on had a nice space to sit carved into it and not only that it was easily twice the size of the others nearby. Of course the real reason it was obviously man-made was the fact someone, likely Pebbles, had carved out some stone chairs here and somehow enchanted them to be soft.
"It's about to be all over," said Kat. "We're leaving a lot left undone… and some of it is stuff we really should be on the hook for fixing. Well… 'should be' might be a bit harsh and I do get that we have to leave but I'm feeling a little weird about it,"
"I get what you mean," agreed Lily. "Helping out at the hospital was nice… and there were surprisingly few injuries that we caused so that was extra nice. Though… not much of a hospital,"
Kat winced. Lily was correct. The hospital was basically a quarantine building with a canteen that supplied food. They didn't have any healers here and lacked proper alchemists to heal more extreme things. There was an apprentice that apparently had books on the subject but the best they could do was make a foul smelling paste to help with small cuts. It didn't even work on bruises! Though it was meant to.
At least the locals knew basic first aid. How to wrap and dress a wound, certain herbal remedies to manage the symptoms even if it wasn't proper alchemy. They also clearly knew what a quarantine was. Nobody with differing symptoms was in the same room unless they had an obvious injury that could explain them. The only really complaint worthy aspect was that wounds were cleaned… THOROUGHLY once they got large enough.
It was a painful experience for the patients and not great to watch either. Kat supposed it made sense, infection could be a swift death sentence if the healer that occasionally visited didn't get to them in time or a passing merchant failed to have alchemy wares for them to steal or barter for.
So wounds were disinfected extremely thoroughly with a medical alcohol that BURNED intensely and if the patient had waited too long to come in and the skin looked a bit off? That was sliced away as well. Kat had brought it up to Kamiko, but the smaller girl had said this was normal, and probably the best they could manage. Which was… a hell of a thing to internalise.
"They were doing their best," stated Kat.
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"Agreed," intoned Hunter.
"Yup she's right," added Lily.
Kat and Lily paused for moment. They'd been sharing a chair with Lily curled up against Kat's side and Kat herself doing her best to get comfortable in a chair that didn't accommodate her wings. Hearing the third reply they both glanced over to see Hunter lounging around on a beanbag that hadn't been there before.
"Um… what are you doing here Hunter? We didn't interrupt anything did we?" asked Kat.
"Not particularly. I am just here to hide from Meg," stated Hunter.
"And… it's working?" asked Kat.
"Perhaps, perhaps not. The big benefit of this spot is that it will be harder for her to get here without either destroying the ground upon jumping or taking some time to climb up from the edge. Either option buys me at least some time," explained Hunter.
"How did you get up here then?" asked Lily.
"I used my technique to vanish, waited for Pebbles to solidify the foundation he's working on, and then used it as a springboard to get up here. The ground may have cracked a bit but Pebbles was right there top fix it so I do not consider it an issue. I have been relaxing and using a few techniques to hide while waiting for Meg to find me.
"She's making a game of it. I occasionally glance at her down in the town but I dare not let my gaze linger long lest she figure out where I am hiding," explained Hunter.
"Um… we're not hurting your chances correct?" asked Kat.
"Perhaps," shrugged Hunter. "At this point it has already bought me around an hour's worth of time and Meg has yet to start climbing so I consider it good enough,"
Kat winced. *I really didn't want to cause any issues. I mean, Hunter seems fine with it but I still feel a bit bad. Especially because we're already using what's likely Pebbles' private getaway to relax.*
[Eh if he really wanted to he could've hidden it more so I'm sure it's fine. Plus he seems super chill for a bandit lord.]
*I suppose so…* "So Hunter… um… what are your thoughts on… well everything I guess? Are you happy with how things turned out?" asked Kat.
"Yes I am quite pleased. The drake was dealt with acceptably at first and we managed to hunt down all of the pieces without any significant loss of life. The fact that we will need to leave soon is an excellent excuse to get away from 23HX502 for a time… even if I have made a few promises to her that I'll need to keep.
"The mess here is perhaps the worst one but even still, nobody died from what I understand and the worst casualty is actually Ronldo and I feel no sorrow for him. Strdl's reaction was rather interesting," stated Hunter.
Kat had so many questions but the most important one was… "Wait what do you mean?"
"I suppose you must not have seen. Strdl engaged Ronldo in a duel, initially to the death but faltered at the last second, slicing his arm off as his penance instead of ending things entirely. I watched the entire fight and considered intervening a number of times. Ultimately I did not know what outcome I wished for and as such I did not intervene," explained Hunter.
*Wait… is that why Strdl was so injured?*
[It must be. I mean… some of her injuries might have come from the clones but the big Trvis at the end didn't really attack much and the only thing that might have happened to Strdl was a time freeze bubble that only caught her leg which I think failed to leave a mark.]
Hmm… well it's something to think about. "So you didn't know what to do? Why not?" asked Kat.
"Ronldo may have had information that was necessary to find and defeat Trvis, or his clone, whatever it was. In truth the information was… possibly necessary. Finding the hidden tunnels wasn't hard with his assistance but I am unsure how long it would have taken me without it. The distortion from the corrupted time and space in the area was messing with the smells. In truth though? I likely lost time overall by waiting for them. I do not regret the decision despite that.
"I needed reinforcements in the end anyway, and Lily here was the big hero of the day. I was… perhaps overly reliant on 23HX502 figuring out some weakness in… let us call it Trvis regardless of the truth. It seems I regularly fall into poor habits when she is around. Multiple of them.
"I was not truly looking for an external power source. I had assumed that Meg would uncover a weakness or I would determine that she could find nothing and resort to my rarer ordinance and hope it had some effect. I am unsure if I could have detected the source of things, it was deep underground with no scent. Certainly outside of my common experience…
"Yet that should be no good excuse. I am a hunter, and a hunter who hunts only one type of prey is a joke. Well, that or they are attempting to feed their family. Something I can still respect. For me though? It is an unacceptable level of weakness. It indicates that I was perhaps stagnating in ways I had not considered. I may have refined my techniques but my strategies have atrophied. I will need to request some advice on how to train them. Unless you have suggestions?"
Kat shrugged and looked to Lily who seemed a touch startled at the attention. [Why are you looking at me! Combat is your thing!]
*You found the secret weakness!*
Lily let out a small hiss and turned to Hunter. "I don't really know what to tell you. This sort of thing is all so new to me that I really was just looking for anything that might mean something. Though… um… if I really had to say where I got the idea? It's from stories. I wasn't necessary looking for a phylactery but that's basically what it turned out to be in the end even if the specifics are wrong. So… maybe read some stories to get new perspectives on solving problems? It's the best thing I can suggest?"