Chapter 72: Where i stand is...

This again.

Not just big bro Luke, that senile old geezer, and now this traumatized elf prince, too. Why was everyone so obsessed with where I stand, anyway?

"And why do I have to choose?" I glared at the elf prince.

"Not choosing is also a 'choice'." He glared back.

"No, what I mean is, why do I have to tell you my choice?"

"Because I will decide your fate depending on your answer."

"I will decide my own fate, not you."

'BAM!'

The ground beneath us shook the moment I used my psychokinesis skill. The neat thing about training with Elena, was that she specifically taught me about exclusivity, which was basically restricting my area of effect to only a specific area.

I raised the ground beneath us in an extremely fast motion, and launched us high into the air.

"Jeanne! Help!" I shouted at her.

A few seconds ago, while I kept arguing back and forth with that elf prince, I was actually stalling the time to send a secret message to Jeanne using my mentalist skill. The content of the message was simple and short, which was 'me launch us. Pls help wind. Thank.'

"Okay!" Even though her face was already flushed and she was sweating profusely, probably from the poison's effect, she still managed to muster up a strong gust of wind to swoop the four of us away while we were launched up in the air.

"Those bastards--!" I could hear the elf prince's faint cursing words coming from below us.

"So long, suckers!" I flipped him off and plucked out a few trees around them using my skill, and used those trees to smash them hard.

'PSHOOT!'

"Gah!" I blasted flame from my hand to propel myself sideways in order to dodge the sudden incoming arrow.

"Careful! They're not dead yet!" Jeanne warned us, as she struggled to manage her wind magic.

"Firiell! Hold on to me!" I reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her closer to me so I could protect both of us at the same time.

"Fire!" The elf prince's voice roared from far below us, and my vision was instantly filled with a barrage of arrows.

"Agh! Annoying!" I yelled as I activated my psychokinesis again, but this time it was to stop the arrows that were about to hit us. I couldn't stop all of them, but at least I could keep us from being hit.

"Careful!" Jeanne's voice entered my ears.

"What-- AAAACK!"

With one final gust of wind, the four of us were sent flying far away into the air, without me knowing where we would land.

"Gah! This is a bad idea, after all!" I cursed as I tried not to puke while praying that we land somewhere safe-ish.

--------

'SPLASH!'

I immediately held my breath the moment I felt cold water touching my skin. I braced for ground impact, but thankfully, there was none. Considering our fall height, even if we crashed into the water, we should still fall pretty deep. But since we didn't hit the seafloor yet, this body of water must be pretty deep.

Which means--

"Ggh--!" A muffled voice was heard nearby, and I immediately recognized it as not Jeanne's nor general Emilio's, so it must've been Firiell's.

I forced my eyes to open, although the water stung my eyes, and looked around for a little girl. Once I spotted her, unsurprisingly drowning, I swam towards her and brought her over the water level. Thankfully, she wasn't very far because I tried my best to hold her as tight as I could while we flew.

"Phuwa!" I gasped and filled my lungs with air as I made sure Firiell's head was also above the water level.

"Over here!" Jeanne's voice came from my right.

She was swimming towards the ground while dragging general Emilio's body with her. I immediately followed her and dragged Firiell until we were all completely out of the water.

"Water, huh? Great decision, Jeanne!" I hugged her tight, thankful for saving all of our lives.

"A-ah? N-no problem." She replied, flustered by my sudden gesture.

"You're a lifesaver, Jean-jean!" I laughed.

"No... I'm most unworthy of that..." She gazed downwards, looking sorrowful.

"Why--"

'Thud!'

Just as I was about to tell her to not be too harsh on herself, Jeanne's body fell on the ground right beside general Emilio's unconscious body, panting heavily.

"Oh no! The poison's effect must be getting worse!" Firiell cried out in panic, "what do we do? We don't have the antidote..."

"It's okay. I got this." I calmed her down, and opened my shop window.

"Do you really?" She asked.

Actually, yeah. Did I really? I wasn't 100% sure that this would work, but I figured this would be better than getting killed right over there or being enslaved by those elves.

[Would you like to purchase the item 'Grade-D skill book' for 3500 gold?]

"Yeah." I said. I was answering the system, not Firiell. But she seemed to had taken my 'yeah' as a reply.

[Would you like to use the item 'Grade-D skill book'?]

I pressed the 'yes' button on the screen in front of me, and a long list of skills appeared before my eyes. I didn't need to look at them again, though, since I've already looked over it once when I used the same item a while ago. Now, I was looking for a certain skill that piqued my interest.

[Acquired skill: Extract Debuff]

[Effect: Allows you to extract all debuffs in a target's body (Effectiveness depends on your intelligence)]

Alright, now for one last touch.

[15 Stat points have been used]

[Intelligence: 79 (+5) --> 94 (+5)]

"Alright, please work!" I touched general Emilio first, since he was the first one who collapsed, and judging by the wound, he was exposed to way more poison compared to Jeanne.

A soft red glow emanated from my hand, and seeped right through general Emilio's chest until the red glow was covering his entire body.

"Are you casting magic on him?" Firiell came beside me and asked.

"Ye-- Ugh!" I was about to confirm her statement, but then I felt the same burning pain I felt earlier running throughout my whole body.

Gah, so that was why this skill was only grade D. It extracted the debuff, in this case the poison, and transferred it to me. Man, if only I didn't have my poison resistance skill, I'd probably be dead for the second time today.

A few gruesome minutes passed as I continued to extract the poison out of them, with only the sound of my skill leveling up as my comfort. I had no idea what became of my insides, but please hold on a little more, my organs!

[Poison resistance +1 (passive) --> Poison resistance +2 (passive)]

[Poison resistance +2 (passive) --> Poison resistance +3 (passive)]

'Thud!'

I threw my sore, exhausted body on the ground as I gasped for air. Right now, even keeping my eyes open felt like a chore to me. I couldn't wait to get this whole mess over with and go back to Elena's bed... Wait, why was I so eager to go back to prison? Ah, I couldn't wait to get some money and buy my own house and bed...

"Chaerin!" Jeanne's voice snapped me out of my bed fantasy, and I lazily opened my eyes, meeting her pair of worried ones.

"So you're a healer? I thought you were an assassin-type." General Emilio's voice also popped up.

"I saved you, and all you have to say to me is a question about my type?" I frowned.

"That's general Emilio's way of acknowledging your help," Jeanne explained, "he's not good with expressing emotions, forgive him."

"Huh. Peculiar. But whatever, I need a rest." I let out a long, deep sigh.

"Let me carry you, Chaerin. We have to get away from here, fast." Jeanne said as she helped me stand up by circling my arm around her shoulders.

"Ah, right. We need to hide before those elves catch up." I grimaced at the thought of meeting those bastards again.

"That's not it, Chaerin. The orc kingdom is located in the middle of a plain." Jeanne said to me, her voice filled with hurry.

"Oh, I remember Elena told me about that..." I answered sluggishly, as I still felt quite dizzy from my work before.

"Yeah, and we just fell into a lake," Jeanne said, "which means this is a man-made lake... Or probably elf-made."

"Hey, you have a point--"

"What are you doing in my lake?" A new and foreign voice caught our attention.

"That's..." Jeanne's eyes widened and her mouth fell open once she noticed who the owner of the voice was.

"Aren't you... Humans?"

I sighed and observed the creature in front of me that just popped out of nowhere so conveniently when we were just about to leave.

Yellow, silky smooth hair? Check.

Beautiful green eyes that compete with nature's beauty? Mm-hmm.

Pointy ears? Yup, definitely.

Annoyingly beautiful face that I've got tired of looking at because I've only had bad encounters with them so far? Sadly, yes.

"Don't act surprised. You know we're humans, we know you're an elf. State your business or scram." I growled at him.

Unexpectedly, his shocked face morphed into a smiling, relieved one, "come now, no need to be hostile with each other."

"You asked what we were doing here? We were running away from you guys, because you guys were hostile to us," I pointed at him, "and we came here with a hostile intention, too, anyway, so that's fair."

Man, I was getting more and more hypocritical the more I spoke.

"Oh? Are you planning on pillaging us again?" He calmly asked.

"Why should we tell you?" This time, general Emilio answered for me.

"Then just tell me, are you on our side, or against our side?" The beautiful man smiled at us.

"Ah, what's with you guys and your obsession with sides!?" I yelled, putting my palm on my face in frustration.

"Chaerin?" Jeanne looked at me, surprised by my sudden outburst. Oh, right. She had never seen me throwing a fit until now. Well, it was practically impossible for me to keep my calm after enduring that poison and exerting so much mana at once.

"You wanna know where I stand?" I asked, "I stand with my comrades, and we are free people who have our own wills and goals, we are not bound with your alliances or whatever. Satisfied?"

I sighed after yelling that without a pause, and observed the foreign elf in front of me. Now that my mind was starting to be less foggy, I realized that this man was wearing quite a fancy outfit for an elf.

"Yep. I'm satisfied." He smiled.

"Yes, what?" I tilted my head to the side, confused by this man's response.

"May I get your name, humans?" He ignored my remark and extended his arm at us.

"No?" I replied simply.

"Ah, I guess you'll be more convinced if I introduce myself first." He giggled, looking so happy for an unknown reason.

"No, not really."

"Allow me to formally present myself," he disregarded my rejection, and put his arm across his chest and lightly bowed, "I am Erenduill, the third and current king of elves."