Chapter 109: Who said greed was a bad thing (two)

"What more did you expect? We're not living in the stone age you know." The nurse packed up everything and bandaged my hands. I guess I shouldn't have trusted John's words in the first place. "How did you get such wounds and why didn't you come here in the first place?"

But now the nurse caught me just where I didn't want to be caught. This was bad. Very bad. 

"Well, I kind of forgot." But in the end, I just had to come out clean. 

"You forgot for a week and a half?" She raised a brow, and her voice rose up too. 

"I got these yesterday." 

"What! When did you get fast healing? These wounds are at least a week old!"

"Trust me, it hasn't been twenty-four hours yet. And if they were a week old, you'd have seen them last time, remember?" I tried to be reasonable. But judging by that look, she wasn't taking me seriously. "Last time I didn't have these, did I?"

She wasn't believing me one bit though. "Could be a latent potential I suppose?" And she was wondering aloud too. Well, at least she was considering that I was speaking the truth. 

"Say, how'd you know I have sepsis? And not to mention wasn't sepsis extinct or something?" All my life I hadn't heard of a case of sepsis. I did read about it in the history books. But I never saw people actually getting infected around me. 

She looked at me with disbelief and sighed. "Why do you think I have this job while I can't use anything more than just elementary healing? "We exchanged awkward looks. "Anyway, I'm an expert when it comes to detection, that's why there aren't many instruments here." She was awfully proud of the fact if nothing else. "And no disease ever goes extinct. We have antibiotics but the bacteria are evolving too. And the more antibiotics we use to cure us and kill the bacteria, the stronger the surviving ones get. So it's just a matter of time before the bacteria strikes back. And there are plenty of cases worldwide. It's nothing major these days so people don't make a fuss. "

"Uh-huh." I'd lived a relatively disease-free life, so I didn't want to hear that. I cleared my throat. "Anyway, guess I'll leave now." My pockets were full and so were my dreams. Now all I had to do, was run wild, at least for today. 

"Oh and-" She stopped me by placing a hand on my shoulder. "I'd advise you to not forget the next time. Your wounds suggest you got potential for rapid healing, but it's not regeneration. So don't you dare-"

"I won't, I won't, promise!" I smiled. 

"Good." she sent me off with a smile. "Because if you forget, your mom would love to hear about all these." For a moment I'd actually forgotten she was friends with mom. 

There was nothing pretty about her. If I didn't know better she became more and more like mom ever since the two became friends. 

I sighed a little but life wasn't so bad. My hands didn't hurt as much and I had loads of cash to burn. 

So, with a smile, I headed to the convenience store first. 

***

An expensive chocolate.

Another expensive chocolate. 

Wow! More expensive chocolate. 

But there was one problem. I couldn't eat chocolate. 

"Then what's the point in having so much money!?"

I looked around in horror. There were a lot of things here. But no matter where I looked and no matter what I thought, my mind always ended up near the chocolate. There was no escaping this. 

'Maybe she'll have mercy if I pretend to be sad?' But then again, I was already sad, so it was more of an exaggeration, rather than just pretending.

I sniffed, prepped myself for a long conversation, and gave mom a call. The least I could do was beg her to let me eat dark chocolate. 

"Hey, mom?"

"What?" For some reason, she was awfully in a bad mood. 

"Something happend?" I didn't want to ask but I had no choice. 

"I just got a call saying you got both of your hands burned and sepsis. I was just about to call you. Care to explain?" Mom wasn't speaking sweetly, like when she was mad. Rather she was speaking harshly, oh, she was extra mad. 

'That woman!' The damn nurse still sold me out. "Well, I told you about the refine, remember? So, I tried to use my powers on the refined sword and well, I created blue and white plasma."

"Blue and white? Really?" 

"Yeah, and they were a lot hotter than I thought. I ended up burning my hands." I tried to chuckle but instead, sweat started to our and drench my sleeves. 

There weren't many customers around me, so talking in the store didn't seem like that much of a bad idea. But I still got occasional stares from the guy at the counter. 

"Oh really?" Mom still wasn't in a good mood. "Well, I did see dad using plasma before. But I never thought you could go higher than blue. White plasma was way out of his league." She sighed. "Well, we both know you are special."

"Does that mean-" My mood brightened up a little. 

"Okay, so next, why didn't you go straight to the nurse? And what's this unnatural healing I've been hearing about?"

'That damn woman!' She had to snitch everything!?

"I don't know… I kind of forgot and-" I really didn't have any excuses. 

She sighed again. I could feel it over the phone, she was mad and she was mad big time. "First Elsa has to do that and now you too? Argh! Why can't you two just behave!"

"She did what?" I felt like my existence was shrinking by the minute. 

"She drowned seven boys and eleven girls today. All are in the hospital. I think they'll live but we might need to change homes again."

"Why would she do that?" I kind of knew that there must have been at least some reason. But still getting people in the hospital like that wasn't something she should have done. 

"Why are you pretending like you don't know? The boys were after her, the girls were after you." She sighed again. But this time, out of frustration. Was it me, or was mom sighing more than me? WTH! "I was under the impression, you called me to discuss something?"

After all this time, I kind of forgot about chocolates altogether. 

"You see, I kind of killed a rare Mutor and got three of its core shards. I used one for the saber, one for the payment and one, I sold. I got 10 gold now." I kept everything brief and paved my way to the land of chocolates. Now all I needed was the permission to enter. 

"Wait, ten gold for a shard? What color and what type?"

'Wait, you know about colors and all that!?' Was I the only one who didn't know!?

"It was pink, I think-"

"Pink? That's it? And you still got ten gold? Well, that was a steal."

I got the impression, I shouldn't tell mom that I actually sold it for one hundred gold.

"Yeah. Well, it did supposedly had regenerative powers-"

"Wait-wait- regeneration? What did you fight and how good was it?" Now, mom was interested. 

"It was a two-headed snake and had the body like a dinosaur. Oh yeah, it regrew its head every time I cut one off."

"Just regrew or did it double?"

"Double. Why?"

"You idiot! That shard was super rare. Anything with that level of regeneration is always rare and not to mention you had a dragon type."

"What's a dragon type?"

"Let's just say they are rarer than anything else. Anyway, can't you just revoke the deal?"

"It's already struck, so I can't change it. But would you mind telling me more about these things? All this time, I didn't even know these things had stuff like this inside."

Mom groaned. "Enough! I'll give you a detailed lecture later. Why did you call?"

"Oh yeah. I want to try some almond milk and chocolate."

She sighed. "You're still not over that? Fine, just go buy a pill and drink whatever. But only once in a week, got it?"

"Wait, a pill? That's it! I thought this stuff was incurable!?"

"Why would it be incurable? Besides, you just have a mild case."

The ground beneath my feet shook again. 'What the hell? Then why did I go through all that much suffering!'

"You're serious?" I still couldn't believe half of this. 

"I didn't know you were this much of an idiot." Mom really was sighing too much today. I guess she had a rough day too. "Since you have enough money now, go buy a Holo, a memory instiller and some good quality gloves. Don't cheap out on them. I've to go."

"Bye, mom." I cut the call but I was devastated. 

For two minutes that is.

Afterward, 'well, I can still have as much I like today, right?'