Chapter 202 - Recovery

Much to Zaos's surprise, nothing happened. According to Erean, the forest around the mountain still seemed creepy, so he assumed that they were being watched, but they weren't attacked even a single time.

"That is certainly weird…" Zaos said and then tried to get up, but then a wave of dizziness made him sit down again.

"You are too weak to move," Ameria said. "Erean said that you should keep resting until your wounds are properly closed. Any mistake now and they will open again and this time you will have to worry about an infection as well."

"Oh, well…" Zaos said and then sighed. "Might as well do some research since I can't move my body properly."

While Zaos was unconscious, it seemed that everyone worked together to find some clean water and food in the area. Since that part of the island was almost abandoned, they didn't have to worry about running out of either. Even better, despite their fear, after they saw the results of the battle three days ago, these one hundred or so people realized that their lives were really on the line, and they needed to work together if they wanted to survive.

Although Zaos's mana still wasn't full after three days of resting, he still used some to heal the wounds of his legs. Since he didn't have to fight any time soon, he could afford to wait for the other parts of his body to heal by themselves. Once he did that, he approached the campfire in front of the mine, and Ameria couldn't help but sigh… Zaos was sure was stubborn.

When morning came, Erean showed up and finally saw Zaos up. He sighed in relief as well but then took a deep breath since Zaos was already with his nose on his books again.

"I guess that means that you are fine," Erean said.

"It seems I didn't miss much fun while I was unconscious," Zaos said. "Do we have any idea why the assassins aren't attacking?"

"My best guess is that the perpetrator of this incident decided to use a more direct method to deal with us," Erean explained. "The assassins won't be a problem for the time being, but we might have to worry about real armored soldiers next time."

That seemed like a real pain in the ass. Zaos didn't like the feeling of cutting down humans in half, but he disliked even more having to fight armored individuals. He never thought about that before, but it seemed that he was a pretty good fighter when the enemies were people who didn't like direct confrontations.

"Did you talk with Orleand about this?" Zaos asked.

"Yes, he says that with good wind hundreds of soldiers from nearby islands can arrive on the main island in one week," Erean replied. "We can consider that this Ferdinand guy won't be able to convince all the soldiers to work for him, but at least half will since he is very generous to those who worked for him."

"Great… we have four days to try to get on their way," Zaos said.

"Not us, Zaos," Erean said. "You are wounded and it is thanks to you we survived that battle three days ago. If you hadn't lasted so long, we probably would be in a worse state than you. You have done plenty and you leave the rest to us."

"As much as that sounds interesting, but I can't relax," Zaos said. "I mean no offense, I want to return home as fast as possible, and I can't leave that in the hands of others."

"All right… if you can be completely recovered by tomorrow night, I will let you come with us," Erean said. "But you will have to show me that you can use your sword without any problems."

"That is a fair deal," Zaos said.

It seemed that Erean was underestimating the power of Zaos's magic… he had no idea that he was equally good at all types. The only problem was the stamina… even if Zaos recovers his wounds, there is no way that he will recover his stamina that fast. That was the spell that Zaos have been looking for in the past two years, and now that he himself needed it, he still didn't have it.

Fortunately, after doing some research, Zaos had a certain idea. While he couldn't even hunt animals properly yet, he solved that problem by relying on rapid-fire crossbows. So, he obtained a lot of food in the blink of an eye, but he didn't stop there yet.

"What are you looking for?" Drannor asked as he saw Zaos looking around. "We have plenty of meat already."

"Aha! Got it," Zaos said and then picked a weird brown herb. "This will help."

"What is that?" Drannor asked.

"An herb that helps with digestion and also makes meat taste a bit spicier," Zaos replied. "Remember about the encyclopedia I had? I am making good use of that knowledge to recover a bit faster."

Drannor saw Zaos picking herbs many times, but he couldn't help but wonder if those would be enough to help him recover. He looked at Ameria, who was also taking a walk with them, but she just shrugged. She didn't know much about herbs.

After the hunt, Zaos gave the maids some tips on how they could cook the meat and the herbs at the same time. Then, he spent the day eating as much as he could and meditating. During the rest of the day, they saw his wounds healing with their own eyes as if that wasn't enough. His body also gained some color.

The next day, a few minutes behind sunset, Zaos was back. He was standing still and playing with his sword. The people who saw what Zaos looked like during the last few days couldn't help but feel surprised. However, those who knew him could see him sweating cold. Using his sword was too much for him right now… maybe in two or three days, he will be back on his feet completely, but he wasn't fine yet.