Chapter 97: Raised Stakes

Chapter 97: Raised Stakes

With my agreement, we began heading through the tunnels to reach an opening to the surface. Gong had the spiders create one within the building, that she could then conceal later, after we leave.

As we get closer and closer to the opening, its easy to tell that gong is pretty nervous.

Something seems a little strange. I feel like shes told me everything about the contract, but is there something else I should know about this?

Hey, Gong? Hey, James?

We both seem to have spoken at the same time.

Jinx? I say, hoping to lighten the mood. Though, I quickly realize she has no context on that. Fail.

She swallows, not seeming to catch my attempt at a joke. She speaks, as if what shes about to say is causing a burden on her.

James? When we do this, we may need to get rid of anyone who cant be trusted. Specifically, what you may not know about contracts, is that the intent of a person may automatically cause a breach. This isnt just a half-assed intent either. It means that the person is fully committed to making the breach. While it is possible, the person could change their mind later, its very likely that is not the case. Youll have a small period of time to decide what to do in the case of an intent breach dont hesitate. It will make it worse.

Her lips purse and she actually touches my hand with hers, looking me in the eye with a soft look.

Its going to be difficult, especially considering the type of person you are. But you will need to make the hard choice of actually going through with it. So, well need to work together on who to save and who to not save. Okay?

Thats a bit of a strange way to word it, but I can understand where shes coming from. Someones truly looking to do harm or betray us, then we will really have no choice.

Yeah, I can definitely understand that. Ill do the right thing.

She still looks apprehensive, but nods back.

Let me explain what well be doing

Well be transporting anyone who agrees to be part of our group, to an open cavern underground, so we can be secure when actually healing them.

She pauses, glancing at my bag of potions and elixirs.

You can use your alchemical skills to keep them alive before then, on the surface.

If any in the Demi human group reaches a Nascent Soul or the group opts to take part in and win specific contests in something called secret realms, then the curse will be removed from the race.

What the fuck? If this was a game, this would be that giant red flag, thats marked as a quest you cant go anywhere near, because youll fucking die.

Should I let Gong know this?

Yeah. I need to. Its their journey. This makes this that much more important for them to know.

I relay that information to Gong. She stops in her tracks, yet again. Before long, she continues moving.

Though, not before whispering a thank you and looking ahead.

Finally, we reached the opening.

As we walked out from the sloped tunnel entrance, I could see that the spiders had already laid out everyone that was injured in order of severity. Because of this, at the worst, the patients are on a slow decline.

I immediately switch over to the worst patients and begin applying a lesser version of the little Phoenix potion to heal a man with a heavy neck and body wounds. He is also missing an arm.

Unlike what I did with Jenn, I make sure just to seal off the injuries, but not regrow them.

If they actually decide to come with us, then I can use my higher levels of healing to take care of them. Unfortunately, at this point in time, I still have to maintain somewhat of a facade that those ingredients are expensive.

However, that commitment is immediately dashed, as I see a child that is lost both their legs because of the fighting. Its clear there would be a hard life from there on, if I didnt help.

I end up using the undiluted little Phoenix potion on him. Looking back at the man with the missing arm, I cant help but sigh and walk back over to him. He seems to have regained consciousness, so I have him raise his stump up. I pour a bit of the potion directly onto the stump, but not nearly as much I had done for Jenn. Since hes no longer in a life-threatening scenario, there is no need for extra amounts to sustain his life.

The potion itself replaces and speeds up healing, allowing it to create additional parts and also make the body restore itself naturally as well in a better way. Once again, this only works for non-cultivating demi humans because of the special way Qi interacts with their bodies, using the Qi to generate healing-based effects. The batch Im using can also be used for non-cultivating regular humans, but will mostly just speed up healing. The infusion of Qi will help them with replacement, though.

This combination of ingredients would not work for cultivators, though. Those would require much more refined processes and ingredients.

Ultimately, I make my way through the entire group and by the time Ive finished, Jenn has arrived from the tunnels.

My stocks are pretty much empty now.