Book 2: Chapter 17: Diagnostics and Smirk
"I was sure the next time I'd see you, Wilbur, it'd be at your eulogy," a young woman with small, rounded and grey rabbit ears said sharply before fully opening the door to her home.
She pushed up her glasses and glanced at Lone strangely. "Odd company you're keeping during your final days."
Wilbur waved dismissively as he grunted, "He's my new assistant. Lone, meet Rella the Pygmy Rabbitkin. Rella, meet Lone the Golden Foxkin."
"A pleasure," Lone said with a charming smile.
"Primals you're handsome. Why are all Golden Foxkin so good-looking?" Rella grumbled. "Why're your ears and tails tipped with black? You've awakened to Sky but that blackness makes no sense. It's in your eyes too."
Lone's smile cramped up a bit. "It's a curse. I'd rather not talk about it."
"You're gonna have to if my job is to cure it," Rella countered.
Wilbur shook his head as he walked past the woman who was barely any taller than himself. "We're not here for him."
Lone bowed his head in apology as he followed his smithing tutor into the rabbitkin's home. "I'm sorry to intrude on you. I hope we aren't being too much of a bother."
Rella rolled her eyes as she closed the door behind him. "Handsome and polite. I swear, it's a good thing your race disappeared. Altros doesn't deserve a group of mysterious but incredibly good-looking and nice people on it. You're welcome in my home but don't break anything with those massive tails of yours."
"I... see. I'm good at controlling them just as if they were an arm or a leg so I'll make sure not to touch anything with them," Lone replied as he thought, 'This person's a bit... heavy.'
"So, if you don't need me for king fluff over here, then who?" Rella asked Wilbur. "Not you, I hope. You're a lost cause. No amount of healing - magical or otherwise - can rejuvenate the old."
"Cheeky bitch. You're barely any younger than me. We need you for his human lover," the old dwarf answered with an angry expression. "Boy here tells me that she and him got hit with some pretty powerful Darkness Corruption."
Rella raised a suspicious eyebrow. "Really?"
She stared at Lone and said, "He looks fine to me," she stated, completely ignoring the crude insult of Wilbur's.
Lone smiled awkwardly. "I'm a bit... special."
"... Right... Keep your secrets, damned mysterious Golden Foxkin... Meet one, you've met them all," she sighed.
She trailed after Wilbur to her living room where she gestured for Lone to sit.
She then asked, "So?"
"So what?" the white-haired dwarf asked back.
"Where's the patient?" Rella asked in a tired tone. "I need to see what I'm working with before I can charge you for my services. I also need you," she said pointing at Lone, "to sign a magic contract to not tell the authorities about me."
"I can do that," Lone agreed. "I'd need to read it thoroughly first, of course, but that's not a problem. As for the patient... I have a, uh, summoning magic-based skill that can bring her to me when needed. Should I?"
He really hoped that he could pass this off as some obscure summoning or enchanting magic skill of some sort.
Passing off his status as Void's avatar as a curse was easy enough due to general ignorance, but he was absolutely the novice in the room when it came to matters of the arcane.
Rella shrugged. "Do what you gotta do."
'... Well, she's technically a criminal, right? Gramps too, when I think about it... It should be fine and Sophie and Soph's well-being matters infinitely more than one secret. Worse comes to worst, I'll just pass it off as a world skill. Those are a thing, or so I've read,' Lone decided before he said, "Summon Sophie Vladimirovich."
He held his arms out and carefully cradled the cocooned girl as she appeared. Quickly, tendrils of nature shot out from the mass of roots and started sucking the life out of Lone.
Rella twitched her nose as she gazed at the pair sceptically. "That doesn't look healthy. Should you really be holding... that thing like that?"
She eyed the cocoon a bit more closely before her eyes widened in shock. "Hey, ain't that the Root of Life skill from the nature magic tree? I never knew someone in Krieg Moor had that skill in their repertoire. Didn't whoever used that on her tell you everything you needed to know? They're a master at nature magic so they can probably do what I can, if not even better."
"Uh... It was me," Lone professed. "I used the skill on her."
Wilbur raised an eyebrow. "Didn't know you were a mage, boy."
"He isn't," Rella countered. "He doesn't have a drop of magic in him. Stop lying. It's fine if you're protecting someone's identity but claiming you performed a tier-three spell at your age? Fat fucking chance."
'So even though my MP is full and I can forcefully access it with an orb, to other people it looks like I'm MP-less? Interesting,' Lone thought before he frowned. "What do you mean 'at my age'? I'm a beastkin just like you. I could be a thousand years old for all you know."
"Hah, as if. One, I had a connection at the Golden Foxkin Clan when they were still around and I've never heard of them having a nine-tailed brethren, meaning you were likely born after they disappeared. Two, you're only a D-ranker which implies your age on its own. You wouldn't have had the time to learn Root of Life. Trust me, kid, I know a young man when I see one," Rella explained as she folded her arms arrogantly.
"... Does any of this matter? Whether I'm lying or not is irrelevant, right? I need you to check her condition if you can, please," Lone said, getting the subject back on track.
Rella shrugged. "I guess it doesn't."
She got up and approached Lone before saying, "You can afford my services, right?"
Wilber coughed lightly then said, "If he can't, ah can foot the bill for him."
"Has seeing your own tomb being built awakened some hidden kindness in you, old man?" Rella asked as she adjusted her glasses.
"Haha, somethin' like that. Ye know ah was a mess when Ickold was dyin'. Ah brought him here so ah should at least be responsible for him, right?" the old dwarf chuckled with a wink.
Lone appreciated the gesture, but it really wasn't necessary. "I can pay, Gramps. Don't worry about it."
"Gramps? Hah. He really has gone senile to let a beastkin address him so affectionately," Rella teased.
"Oh, shut it. Get on with yer job, would ya?" Steamforger Wilbur prompted with a grumpy tone.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm doing it now," the rabbitkin replied.
She then pressed a palm against Sophie's cocoon and muttered, "Full Body Diagnostics."
'What kind of skill is that?' Lone wondered. 'It sounds... mechanical. Is it a magic skill? I somehow doubt it...'
Wilbur saw Lone's intrigued and confused expression so he said, "It's a rare world skill. Was created by old Altros when some hero who came from a weird world made entirely of metal impressed her. It's quite the tool for finding hidden issues with the body."
"A world skill..." Lone felt his greed for skills rising. 'With Creation Magic, I can heal pretty much every injury out there, sure, but if I had a diagnostics-based skill for anatomy... well, I would know so much more before committing MP to the healing. I could have replaced Soph's eyes with far less of a cost with that skill I'd bet. Might not have fucked myself over for a year in that case.'
20-minutes of idle conversation between Lone and his smithing master came and went before Rella finally removed her hand. "This skill always takes so long to use... Down-side of skills not meant for combat, eh?"
Wilbur grinned. "Ye sure it ain't just because ye haven't bothered to level it up?"
"Shut it, you. It's not my fault the damned thing had been stuck at the intermediate rank for over a century now," the rabbitkin claimed.
Wilbur shook his head. "It's exactly yer fault. Don't tell me ye've forgotten how world skills work, have ye?"
"Yeah, yeah. 'They don't level with use but with enlightenment like personal ranks'. Spare me the lecture, would you? We're almost the same age, for Primal's sake," Rella said as she adjusted her spectacles.
"Uh..." Lone was quite interested in this back and forth since this was knowledge concerning skills which Milindo's library didn't offer much insight into but he had more pressing concerns.
"Is she okay?" he asked, gesturing with his head to Sophie's root cocoon.
Rella held out a palm in Lone's direction. "Money first."
"Ah, of course... how much do I owe you?" Lone asked.
"20-gold," Rella said coldly.
"Wow... illegal stuff sure is expensive," Lone remarked as he reached into his pocket and, by extension, his Dimensional Storage.
He retrieved a pouch that held exactly 40 gold coins. After handing it to Rella, he said, "Can you use the skill on me too?"
She juggled the coin-full purse inquisitively. "If this is about your curse, this skill can only tell me about physical ailments."
Lone smiled. "I know, and I'm fine with that. Who knows if I have a hidden condition or not though? I've lost my immunity to ageing, after all."
Sympathy entered the rabbitkin's eyes before a sigh escaped her lips. "I'll only take 35. Consider it a fellow beastkin discount, eh?"
'I'd certainly appreciate that. I can't magic up more coins out of thin air anymore since my mana organs are all sealed up,' Lone thought. "Thanks."
Wilbur nodded proudly. "Ye're too soft for this black market life of yers, Rella. Good thing too. If it weren't for nicies out there like ye, then the authorities might actually care about under the table shite like this."
"Oh, can it, you. Go think on that tomb they're building for you again," Rella snorted before getting to work using Full Body Diagnostics on Lone.
Lone tilted his head a bit. 'Wait. They're seriously building a tomb for him? I thought that was a joke... Well, old as he may be, he's still a dwarf. I bet he has a few years left and he's just preparing early.'
"Ah, by the way, the girl's doing fine. Root of Life is doing its job. It's a nasty wound so the skill may need double the regular time to heal but she will be healed once it's done," Rella casually claimed.
Lone breathed out a sigh of relief. "That's great to hear... Really, thank you. I was so worried for the longest of times."
Getting verbal confirmation from a professional eased the burden on Lone's mind far more than he had expected it to, in all honesty.
He gently caressed Sophie's cocoon as he smiled from the bottom of his heart. 'I'll make sure to keep you safe until the roots have finished their job. Don't you worry. I'll also try my best to make it up to Breena for snapping at her... Uh, that one may be a bit tougher but I'll try, haha...'
Lone thanked Rella and Wilbur both as sincerely as he could; the former for the good news and the latter for introducing him to the rabbitkin healer.
Apparently, she was skilled in many medicinal-focused skills that didn't need MP but thankfully she didn't need to use any of those today. The diagnostics alone were costly enough.
Speaking of the diagnostics, once he had successfully picked up Breena and personally explained Sophie's situation to Mister Fits'war who was a bit stressed to lose a good guard but was ultimately understanding, Lone returned home to check the details of his new skill.
World Skill: Full Body Diagnostics
A world skill of learning and identification.
Grants the host the ability to fully diagnose the body of a living being using WF.
Limits: 1 time a day.
Details granted: minimal.
Cost:1,000 WF Mastery:Beginner Level 2
"It took over 15-minutes to 'calculate the host's compatibility' with the skill for me to only get beginner-level-2," Lone shook his head and laughed mockingly. "Even with Growth Accelerator, it doesn't change my talent, huh?"
World skills were special in that they weren't learned traditionally like all other skills. They were much more like unique skills in that they were gifts.
However, instead of being a prize for successfully transferring to Altros, they were given by the world itself to those it felt deserved them. At least, that's what the books said.
They were rare, weaker than unique skills, and notoriously hard to level since just using them didn't result in them growing at all.
The host had to actually understand the skill to get a better level of mastery over it. The same went for the energy these skills used; WF, or, as the status screen listed it, World Force.
To gain more of that the host had to better understand the world itself, though Lone suspected he may be able to siphon some from killing beings that owned the energy themselves.
"Oh well. At least it's something," Lone said as he slumped down onto his bed with Sophie's cocoon at his side.
He felt he could finally sleep since he knew Sophie was safe from any fatal risks, so he closed his eyes and tried to go to sleep.
Slumber found him quickly but he wasn't greeted with the empty bliss of unconsciousness nor his usual nightmares.
No, he was back in the Farwinds and a figure was stood before him with a mischievous smirk on its lips.
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