Chapter 33:

Chapter 27: Healers

Your Healer

Chapter 27: Healers

Just before 6 pm, I arrived outside the room where all the healers met to discuss our role in this Dungeon Raid.

I hoped it would be over quickly; my headache was gone, but somehow, I was tired and wanted to sleep as soon as possible. Plus, I was eager to talk to the others about our guild's weekly plan. Luna and Lilith are currently looking for suitable dungeons for our guild. They were signing us up for each one while Kajsa and Miko were probably glued on Miko's phone watching videos.

At least initially, the overarching strategy Lilith announced yesterday at the bar was to go for quantity over quality. Since our three active members are pretty strong, it's actually somewhat counterproductive for them to clear D and C-rank dungeons because we're taking away the chance for lesser-skilled mages to make themselves useful. Still, on the other hand, we're making sure that none of these weaklings get hurt in the process.

And even if someone gets hurt, I'm here to heal them and earn points myself. It's a bit insensitive to see injured people as simply a means to an end, but somehow, they're here of their own free will, so they can't really complain if they get a broken bone or two.

"Don't you want to go inside?" a deep voice spoke directly behind me while I daydreamed about some mages in pain asking me for help. My time with Miko really made me a worse person, at least as far as my trains of thought were involved.

“Sorry, I was lost in thought.” I chuckled awkwardly and looked at a man I would definitely describe as attractive. Long hair tied up in a messy bun, three-day beard, tired eyes, and the scent of a slightly sweet and fruity fragrance hit my nostrils as he walked past me.

His only minus point was his height. We were almost at eye level. Not that I want to talk badly about shorter men, but I'm more into tall guys... With Miko, I don't mind that she's about the same size as me.

"I've already noticed," he said, looking at me as if he'd already had enough of me but held the door open for me anyway. I stared at him for a moment, trying to make sense of his behavior, and entered the room with a slight nod that was meant to express a silent thank you for his kind gesture.

When I walked into the room, the eyes of five other people were fixed on me, or perhaps not? When I saw three young women almost swoon with excitement, I realized that these amorous glances were directed at the middle-aged man who had just passed me as he walked towards the desk in front of the row of chairs.

"Kayla?"

"Hm?" Who knows my name? I looked to the source of the voice and gazed into two beautiful, deep green eyes. That was all I needed to recognize, the only other healer I would call a friend.

"Hannah? What are you doing here?"

"I'm doing an internship and assisting Dr. Rayan for the next three months." She gave me a V-sign with her fingers up and smiled happily. I guess this handsome guy was the doctor.

Hannah was naturally delighted because it was no secret that she liked being around people like him. I mean people with knowledge and skills, someone she can learn a lot from... you know, things about healing and medicine, after all, he looks like he is experienced.

"Sit down, let's get started." Dr. Rayan said.

"We'll talk later," Hannah whispered, winked at me, and quickly ran over to him.

The doctor looked at a list and sighed: "One person is missing. We'll wait another two minutes." Enough time for me to look at the other people in the room. In addition to Rayan and Hannah, who were sitting in front of us, there were three other people to my left.

A boy who looked no older than fourteen or fifteen, with dark hair that almost covered his eyes and hid a large portion of his face.

Next to him was a girl, probably the same age as the boy. She looked mature in her body, but her baby face and how she presented herself gave her a youthful, innocent expression.

And on the outer edge, another woman whose age was difficult to guess. But it wasn't so important to know her exact age to realize that this group of healers was very young.

When I look at our group and see the total number of 300 mages, it's depressing. I knew that healers were rare, and I knew that most died young because they were the main target of monsters with a spark of intelligence, so most people who were able to use healing magic never joined or stayed in a guild for long. They preferred to work in regular doctors' offices or hospitals, as far away from dungeons as possible.

Now, it makes even more sense that we must offer our magic for a certain number of days. I really wonder how all the guilds manage without their own healers. How can they throw themselves into danger without knowing that there is someone nearby who can help in an emergency?

As I finished my thoughts, someone walked through the door and apologized with a snippy "Sorry."

Another face I recognized... it was the red-haired woman from the King's Guild, who was part of Jora's personal entourage. The one who was so insulted by Miko's declining to talk to her king.

"So insolent to come so late," I said quietly but loud enough for her to hear.

She sat down, ignoring my comment. And so we could finally start the meeting of this Dungeon Raid's group of healers.

"I don't want to waste any time, so I'll just tell you what you need to know. We have rented a former doctor's practice near the hotel. We want it to be staffed 24 hours a day if possible. With a total of 6 healers, my current plan would be to have a team of two healers working 8-hour shifts at all times.”

How can a voice sound so good… please don’t stop talking

“But this is far more than the mandatory requirement, so my assistant Hannah and I will always be on call for emergencies, and you will be in the office every two days. Today is Saturday the 4th, so I expect you to be in the office on the 5th, 7th, 9th and. If you want to earn extra points, I'll give you a pager that I can use to call you in. This year is my fourteenth Dungeon Raid, and I can promise you that the first call will come before the end of the day. It's now 6:07 pm, so guilds have been able to raid dungeons for just under an hour. So, who's ready for extra points?"

Dr. Rayan grinned as he saw every single one of us raise our hands.

"Great, let's go to the practice and draw up a shift plan."

No sooner said than done. The office was a five-minute walk away and looked as good as new. The equipment was no longer the latest; otherwise, it had been cleaned to the required standards of a doctor's practice.

We only planned for the first week. As expected, two of us were underage. Even though the normal laws for the protection of minors played absolutely no role for us mages, we adults unanimously decided to allow the two of them to work during the day.

The doctor tried to summarize: "In short… Hannah and I work from 10 pm to 6 am today. From 6am - 2pm Kayla and Enya. From 2pm - 10pm Rafa, Maisy and Alma. We will test this for a week and then look for adjustments."

I know, lots of new names. I'll try to summarize, Dr. Rayan is 37 years old and works as a freelance healer, so wherever the money takes him. Hannah, 19 years old, is a student at a school for mages. Enya, 26 years old, is one of two healers from the Kings' Guild. She is the mean redhead. Maisy is 16 years old and the second healer from the same guild as Enya. Alma is 31 years old and the healer of a relatively large B-rank guild. Rafa is 15 years old and the healer of a new small guild with only ten members.

“So we are free to go now?” Enya asked, looking at her wristwatch.

“Yes, of course. I see you at the shift change.”

And with that, Enya left the building, Alma and Rafa did the same, leaving Maisy, Hannah, Rayan, and me behind. I wanted to have a chat with Hannah, but I'm not sure why Maisy had stayed.

“You still got some questions, Maisy?” the doctor asked her. But she simply shook her head and suddenly looked at me.

"Thank you so much for saving Krystoff. Ever since he joined our guild, I've really enjoyed working."

Before I could reply, she quickly disappeared through the exit.

Oh, Krys, you seem to have an admirer

“Krystoff was that dude who got pierced by a sword, wasn’t he?” Hannah asked, giggling.

“Yes, he apparently joined the guild of the King.”

“I know, Alex told me, but at least he can feel safe now that he knows you're here. If something happens, you just save him again.”

"I'd prefer it if he didn't end up dying again."

“So tell me, what's the latest news? Unfortunately, I've already heard about your mission from Nada, but what else? How is Miko?”

I told her some news, mostly about my relationship and our new guild members. The doctor just stood there and listened to us while he seemed to be waiting for work, without saying a single word.

"I knew you were going to be a couple. You could have gotten together sooner, but I guess you just didn't have the guts to seriously tell her how you felt."

"Hey, that may be true, but you don't have to rub my nose in it like that."

We spent another 20 minutes talking about all sorts of things until the first patient came in. At first glance, it looked very much like a broken arm. But I wasn't on duty, so it was time to go.

MIKO

“Kajsa now!” I shouted while running away from a huge boar-like creature.

After we cleared around ten C-Rank dungeons in the first three days, we registered for a B-Rank dungeon for the first time. We chose this one because it wasn’t cleared even after three guilds had already entered it.

It was already fully explored; they even found the dungeon core inside this boar, but no one was able to finish it off. Although the creature was classified as a B-rank monster, it had A-rank defenses.

After a brief strategy talk, we decided it was time to kill it. Kajsa was very confident of being able to slay this thing.

Back to the present: after provoking this five-meter-tall piece of meat, I ran away. Kajsa hid on a ledge at the top of one of the cliffs surrounding the boar's nest.

Although I had concentrated mana in my eyes to follow the monster's quick movements, I could barely make out Kajsa crushing the creature's head with her bare hands.

She was not proficient in using spells, but her physical strength was frightening, which convinced me even more that she had deliberately not attacked Kayla with full force during their first encounter.

"The dungeon is beginning to disintegrate. We have to get out of here." Luna said over the headset. During our brief demonstration of power, we had several spectators. The most important of them was the observing mage from the Ministry. He was the one who evaluated our performance and gave us points for our rank advancement.

Next Saturday, the first ranking list will be published, and we will find out how much our efforts were worth. We shared every bit of information with Eliza, who was holding down the fort at home. But she was not uninvolved, keeping statistics for each of us and trying to figure out how we scored the most points.

◆◆◆

"How was your day?" Kayla asked as she hugged me from behind while we lay on the bed together. I found her there when I came back from the last dungeon. She had just gotten back from work, and her mana was pretty exhausted, so she was tired.

“Better than yours, I would expect.”

“I just don’t get it. How are these idiots getting injured so much? Even the A-Rank guilds are regulars already.”

"But you quickly got used to the new situation." I wasn't even sure what I was trying to say. I just felt that Kayla was doing well, almost too well. It felt like she didn't need any of us, let alone me.

"I'm barely managing to survive because I know I'll see you again at the end of my shift. Now let me suck up your energy." She began to hug me tighter and rubbed her face against my back.

"If you say so, I'm all yours."

Kayla kissed my neck, and I felt her hands moving upwards my body.

“Stop it, that tickles.”

"But you said it, you're mine." She sounded whiny. Sometimes, she was so needy.

But she was right. What was supposed to happen? What was I afraid of?

Her hands reached my chest, yet after one firm squeeze, it felt like all her strength had left her.

"Is everything all right?" I asked gently but got no answer, only to find out that she had fallen asleep. I slowly unwrapped my body from her arms and threw a blanket over her.

How could she fall asleep at the moment when things were getting exciting? My heart was beating faster than the moment this huge boar charged towards me... Something was wrong with me, wasn't it?

So what should I do now? I could check on Lilith. I've only seen her at our morning meetings before we went to the dungeon. I could write her a message and ask where she is ... but maybe it's more fun to start a search through the hotel? Sounds much better if you ask me.

I'm not stupid. I first headed to her hotel room next to ours and knocked, but obviously, no answer. So, the first floor was my next destination.

Since the dungeons were officially open to enter, the corridors felt abandoned. I guess Kayla had more contact with other people in this emergency center than I did in the dungeons and the hotel combined.

By the way, just for scales. After the Dungeon Raid started three days ago, 26 dungeons were cleared in the capital and the towns close to it. In the same amount of time, eight new dungeons spawned. It's estimated that the raid will clear around 600 dungeons in the span of 3 months. The first month is always the best, but even after the first few weeks, it's most likely that single mages or whole guilds will stop participating because of exhaustion or fear of getting killed in the process.

Usually, you can clear about 3-4 dungeons per month in an average guild. Here, you can do the same amount in a week, with no significant breaks in between. It's a huge opportunity to earn a lot of money and improve your skills, but with every day you fight longer, the chance of losing your life increases.

Although this was my first raid, I knew that this facade of joy and anticipation at the opening ceremony was faked to some extent, or rather, they were fooling themselves.

It's all the more bizarre that I was walking around this hotel playing my own game of "Find Lilith" and still feeling a bit strange after being fondled by my girlfriend. I doubted anyone else had problems similar to mine right now. Ignorance is bliss, I guess.

I arrived at the site plan of the hotel, trying to guess Lilith's most likely location. The pool-sauna area was a potential spot, but at this time, she could actually try to get in touch with some important people and convince them that she should be nominated for Queen of Magic.

If I was unlucky, she was outside the hotel eating herself through the menus of several different food places, drinking a wine or two. Yes, that sounded like something she would do.

Oh man, why did I even go? I could have just snuggled up to Kayla, snoozed a bit, and done something with her as soon as she woke up. I think I'll get some sweets to snack on. I know she will love me even more after that.

The hotel kiosk must have something good, so let's go there. It was also on the first floor. You just had to go to the right from the lobby. I took the elevator, of course. Who would take the stairs? Once I reached the bottom, I headed straight for my destination before I saw someone with a nervously wagging tail in front of the shop's entrance.

She was normally incredibly perceptive and felt every glance at her. Still, I managed to stand right behind her without her reacting. By now, I'm almost certain I know that Kajsa was always so absent-minded when she was deep in thought, just like any human would be, but for a demon princess, it seemed strange for some reason.

"I know you're there, Miko. I can smell you." She said without turning around.

"Come on, don't make me feel insecure with your inhuman nose."

"You smell wonderful, don't worry." It's true when it comes out of her mouth, somehow, she doesn't really understand the concept of lying.

"Thank you very much. What are you going to do now? Raiding the store now that you're already bored of clearing dungeons."

"Do I look like I'm bored?"

"No, it was meant to be a joke."

"Aren't jokes supposed to be funny?"

"Wow, wow. Where did you get that attitude?"

"Probably from Luna."

"I think so. So, what's up? Do you want to buy something?"

"Yeah, Luna gave me some money and told me to bring us something."

"So you're hanging out in your room?"

"No, she's waiting in the outside area behind the building."

"You should get her some alcohol if you want to make her happy."

"I don't think so. She said she would stop drinking for good after the other night when she threw up again, even after healing."

“Sounds too reasonable for her.”

“Why are you here?”

“Getting some snacks for Kayla and me.”

“Oh, how is she doing?”

“She's doing great, but she is tired a lot. She is not used to burning all her mana on a daily basis.”

“If she manages to keep that up for the whole three months, she will improve immensely.”

"Mhm."

I don't know why, but I wasn't looking forward to it. Yeah, I was babbling on about all this witch-raising stuff, but Kayla was already impressive, and I didn't want her to get any more of that praise she actually deserved.

I wasn't seriously worried that she'd leave me or anything. Still, influential people would probably start paying attention to her and try to exploit her abilities.

“Are demons not allowed in that shop?”

“Who's asking?” Kajsa said as we both turned our heads to look at a man, maybe around thirty years old, with long dark hair. He looked even more tired than Kayla did.

“My name is Rayan. You both are in Kayla´s guild, right?”

"That's rare, a doctor who doesn't introduce himself by his title." I knew this guy even before Kayla told me about him. He was the one responsible for the mark on Lilith's face.

He's a specialist in manipulating the mana system of other people and creatures. Although he is a great healer, he was more known for turning mages into normal humans by taking away their ability to produce mana or use magic.

No one but him and Lilith knew what precisely the seal on her face would do if she decided to use her magic, but I was sure it had to be a serious consequence.

"How's Kayla doing? She already looked bad at the beginning of her shift."

"Just a little tired." I didn't feel like talking to him.

"I offered to transfer some of my mana to her, but she thought it was some kind of pick-up line."

"Stay away from her."

"Don't worry, I'm not interested in younger women."

"You know exactly what I'm talking about."

"Come on, don't take it so seriously. We're on the same team."

"He's right. There's no point in getting hostile." Kajsa sighed. For a demon, she was very much against showing aggression.

"Come on, I'll treat you. Let's go inside at last." I didn't want to get anything from him, but Kajsa was all for it, so the three of us entered the kiosk, and after he had paid, we parted ways.

When I returned to our room, I found Kayla sitting in bed, yawning.

"Where have you been?" she asked with her adorably sleepy expression.

"I was getting us some snacks."

"Aww, I love you."

"I know. And I met that doctor."

"Rayan? He's great, isn't he?"

"I guess so." I couldn't tell her how much I despised him, even though it was the first time I'd met him in person.

“Come here.” She waved me over, and I sat down on the bed next to her.

"What's wrong?"

"I was just about to ask that, too. You look worried."

"I'm fine. It's just my head. I keep thinking stupid things and getting hung up on them."

"Do you want a kiss?"