He didn’t use his inventory. His mind was still under too much strain after the battle, and trying to place something as ’heavy’ as a Level 17 Gene Potential or a Life Elemental Stone into storage simply wasn’t possible right now. Low-rank items were manageable, but those two felt far too taxing.
Alex had a feeling he had messed something up inside his own brain during the fight. His vision continued to flicker, and patches of darkness briefly spread across his sight before fading again. He guessed several blood vessels in his eyes had burst from forcing so much unstable mana through his brain, and he would need the healers to patch him up.
Even with those injuries, he felt satisfied.
The battle had allowed him to improve by a huge margin. Boosting his brain with that much unstable mana had been incredibly risky, but it had been a calculated decision rather than a desperate gamble.
The rewards had justified the risk, and they left him in a surprisingly good mood.
After taking a steadying breath, Alex walked toward where Stefan should have been. By the time he arrived, Stefan’s group and his own companions had already gathered together.
One of the priests from Stefan’s group was healing him, but Stefan was barely conscious and looked like he might pass out at any moment.
As soon as everyone noticed Alex approaching, the conversations stopped. A pin-drop silence spread through the group as every pair of eyes settled on him. Fear, doubt, awe, respect, shock, admiration, and countless other emotions were written plainly across their faces, and they were far stronger than before.
None of them had actually seen the fight because the Wild Orc’s Origin Energy had forced everyone to stay far away. Even so, they could see the result now. The Wild Orc was dead, while Alex had returned on his own feet despite the injuries covering his body.
"I’ll be in the shop," Alex said, pointing toward the damaged building beside the road.
Then he added, "Ophelia, Sophia, Charlotta, come with me. Everyone else should rest for a few minutes while Stefan gets patched up. Once he’s stable, we’ll head into the Supermart together."
Everyone nodded without objection. Even Stefan’s group accepted his instructions immediately, regardless of whether they were older or younger than him. Whatever hesitation they might have felt before had disappeared after seeing the Wild Orc lying dead on the street.
Alex walked toward the shop. It was the same building whose upper floor had been destroyed by the Wild Orc’s palm strike earlier, although most of the ground floor was still standing.
After entering through the damaged entrance, he found a relatively intact corner and sat down against the wall.
Charlotta hurried inside with her mother, Ophelia, while Sophia entered a moment later with the elderly woman Rae. Rae immediately moved her wheelchair near the broken wall and raised her rifle, quietly watching the street outside while keeping guard in case another monster approached.
"Can you heal me?" Alex asked.
"Of course, big brother," Charlotta replied with a cheerful smile.
She and Sophia both knelt beside him before channeling Faith. Warm energy flowed through Alex’s battered body as cuts, bruises, and strained muscles slowly began to recover.
There was another healer in Stefan’s group who could have helped speed things up, but Alex intentionally hadn’t called them over.
Sophia and Charlotta needed every opportunity they could get to practice controlling Faith during real situations. Besides, Stefan’s condition was much more serious than Alex’s, so leaving the other healer with him was the better decision. Alex simply leaned back against the wall and let the two girls continue their work.
Ophelia stood nearby with an emergency medical kit in her hands. Although the healing was progressing normally, she couldn’t seem to relax, and her eyes stayed fixed on Alex as if expecting him to suddenly collapse.
"How is he?" Ophelia asked after a moment.
Sophia continued channeling Faith while checking Alex’s condition before answering, "He’s... surprisingly fine. At least compared to how he looked after the fight against the mantis. Honestly, when I saw Stefan’s condition, I thought Alex would be much worse, but it seems my worries were unfounded."
Ophelia let out a quiet sigh of relief after hearing Sophia’s assessment. The tension in her shoulders eased, although she continued holding the emergency medical kit in case she was needed.
Alex remained seated and listened to them while letting the healing continue. At the same time, he kept practicing the Battle Instinct Spell.
He carefully raised and lowered its output in small increments, paying close attention to how each adjustment affected his senses.
His nose twitched every few moments as he strengthened his sense of smell before reducing it again, trying to improve his control over each sense further.
As his gaze wandered across the room, it settled on Charlotta. One of her hands rested on his shoulder while she continuously channeled Faith, whereas her other arm was wrapped firmly around Mia’s abdomen. She clearly had no intention of letting the cat escape.
Alex’s nose twitched again as a faint scent of blood reached him. His eyes shifted toward Mia. The cat looked perfectly clean without a visible stain on her fur, yet he could clearly smell blood on her.
It hadn’t been there before, although with so many corpses scattered around outside, she had probably stepped through some blood without anyone noticing.
Charlotta noticed him staring at Mia and smiled. "Mia ran away earlier. I spent several minutes looking for her, so now I’m making sure she doesn’t run away again!"
"Good job. Keep holding on to that evil cat," Alex replied as he gently patted her head.
Charlotta smiled brightly at the praise, while Mia answered with a cold, unblinking stare. Alex had the strange feeling the cat was keeping track of every insult and inconvenience he had caused her since the midnight. He coughed lightly before reaching into his pocket.
"I’ve got something for you," he said.
Before leaving Stefan’s temporary base earlier, Alex had grabbed one of Mia’s snacks and slipped it into his pocket.
He had expected they would rest somewhere after the battle instead of returning to the base, so bringing it along had seemed like a good idea. He held the treat toward the cat without another word.
Mia’s ears perked up immediately. Being the glutton she was, she accepted the snack without hesitation, although she still tried to bite Alex’s fingers while taking it. He pulled his hand back just in time, avoiding the tiny ambush by the narrowest of margins.
"Bad kitty," Charlotta scolded and bonked the cat lightly, making the cat let out an indignant screech.
Mia immediately tried twisting free from Charlotta’s grip, but after several seconds of struggling without success, she simply went limp and pretended to be dead in the little girl’s arm.
The dramatic surrender earned quiet chuckles from everyone in the room. Even Rae glanced over for a brief moment before returning her attention to the broken wall and the street outside. The lighthearted moment eased some of the tension that had lingered after the battle.
With Sophia and Charlotta healing him together, Alex’s injuries disappeared much faster than before.
Fortunately, the Wild Orc hadn’t inflicted nearly as much physical damage as the mantis had. Aside from the strain on his brain and the burst blood vessels in his eyes, most of his injuries were fairly simple to heal.
A short while later, footsteps echoed from outside before a member of Stefan’s group entered the damaged shop.
He stopped a respectful distance away from Alex before speaking, "Stefan is still unconscious. Elizabeth and Je— the priests said his healing will take some time, so we’d appreciate it if your group could wait a little longer before moving."
..
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