Phoenix Healer - A Meaner Azarinth Healer

With a raised eyebrow, Monica looked at the rare Loot Chest she had just gotten.

“Is that a Rare Loot Chest?” Tertius asked from the side.

“Dude, I can’t believe it!” Ted exclaimed.

Both young men kept her company while Lucas organized the rest of the sick people. Monica had briefly wondered whether she should have left Ted protecting Madeline and her children, but the village was so small that she could just glance toward their house and see if everything was okay.

“Rare?” Ted proceeded with his hand tics. “Do you know how valuable that is? I’m not even sure you should open it. You could sell that for a fortune!”

“You could sell that for a fortune,” Tertius commented, still frowning, with a hint of jealousy in his eyes. Clearly, the noble child still had a long way to go in terms of character. Which, to be honest, could also be said for Ted.

Monica could recognize talent when she saw it, and she could feel that among all of them, Ted was definitely the most promising of the bunch but perhaps also the hardest to develop into a man. Both Lucas and Tertius had something they looked forward to. Ted clearly had no idea what his place in life was—or, at the very least, there was no place he had yet to accept as his.

Without further ado, Monica opened the Rare Loot Chest. Somewhat surprisingly, unlike the other ones she had opened before, the chest creaked open almost by itself. And inside, there wasn’t an object. Just a ball of darkness.

“This is the first time I see a Rare Chest open in front of me,” Ted muttered.

The ball of darkness slowly levitated in front of Monica, then she extended a hand and touched it. Immediately, the dark shadows coagulated in the ball, attached to her skin like sticky ink, and crawled all over her. The two young men were alarmed, but Monica, not feeling any hostility from the item, just stood there calmly, letting her arm fall to her side.

The shadows extended all over her body except for her head, arriving right at the top of her neck, just below her jaw. As soon as they had covered every inch of her body except for her head, they started shaping themselves.

“Oh, I think it’s armor,” Ted said, excited.

Monica looked as the shadows took shape, molding themselves below the golden Twin Phoenix Bracers. I won’t have to take them off, at least, Monica thought to herself. Even though this was a Rare item, she wouldn’t have traded it for literally divine armor.

After a few more minutes, the shadows slowly receded, consuming the robe and regular clothes Monica had been wearing. In their place, Monica now had sharp metal armor. It started with boots with mechanical articulations on her ankles and rose slightly above her knees, allowing her to flex her joints without any problem. Then the armor went from her waist to her chest, extending into shoulder guards. It looked like a leotard that also encompassed her shoulders. Thankfully, before the shadows fully disappeared, the tops of her thighs also got metal protection, extending from the previous leotard-looking armor.

At least I won’t be putting on a show wherever I go, Monica grinned to herself.

Not that she felt any shame about it, really. Shame wasn’t in her vocabulary at all, it appeared.

As the darkness receded, it coagulated around her neck, leaving another piece of metal that joined above her chest into a dark gem. As all the darkness got sucked into the dark gem, she had to admit there was quite a bit of skin exposed going from her thighs to her arms, to a small section in her midriff, and most importantly, above her rather generous feminine attributes on her chest.

When she found the two young men staring at her, she teased them. “That’s not where my eyes are, boys.”

Both cleared their voices and looked away. She looked at the armor and the gem right below her chin. She tapped it curiously, and as soon as she did that, the shadows came forth again, filling all the spaces in her armor that had been left open. A viscous substance covered her skin, leaving a black film over it. So shallow she could still make out all the bumps and ridges of her flesh. But when she touched the film, she couldn’t really feel her hands on her skin.

“Ted, give me your knife,” Monica told the young man.

He turned, seeing the bodysuit made of shadows behind her armor and finding it almost even more attractive than the naked skin. He fumbled with his belt and gave Monica his blade.

Monica looked at her elbow pits where the Bracers ended and plunged the knife into them with as much strength as she could. The film of dark shadows hardened in an instant, blocking the knife. She tried driving it with as much strength as she could, and only after ten seconds or so did she feel like she was reaching her skin.

“This is pretty good,” Monica said. Finally, she heard a notification ring in her head.

*Ding*

You obtained ‘Nightshade Battleware (Rare)’

* * *

"Can you tell its ability?" Ted asked excitedly as they walked back toward Madeline's house.

"No. If you want, I can inspect it for you and show you its description. I've trained my Inspect Skill since I was a child. I skipped, well, a few years of training, but as long as you give me the right to it, I should be able to, at the very least, tell you what the armor can do."

Monica gestured for Ted to go ahead, but the young man said, "I need your actual permission. Like, you have to say it."

"You have my permission, Ted. Check out the armor," Monica nodded.

On the side, Tertius looked skeptical.

"What level do you have Inspect? 10? Because I have Inspect Level 23."

"87," Ted said with a smirk. As soon as he activated the Skill, he heard the level up. "Actually, make that 88."

*Ding*

Auxiliary Skill – Inspect reaches Level 88

Tertius' eyes went wide, and Ted ignored them. "Nightshade Battle Wear. Rare. Actually, sorry. Scratch that."

*Ding*

You have successfully inspected Nightshade Battle Wear!

Nightshade Battle Wear (Rare)

Durability: 20/20

Enhancement Slots Available: 2/2

Shadows were woven into Dark Side Steel to craft this armor.

Ted raised an eyebrow at the short description. It was much shorter than the description of his Defected Dwarven Mandolin, which was Uncommon. And to be fair, his Defected Dwarven Mandolin, despite having only thirteen Durability left, had a hundred when pristine. It also had five enchantments and two more slots for more. But the Nightshade Battle Wear’s ability, unlike the Defected Dwarven Mandolin, was fully functional.

Special Ability: Shadow Pact The shadows aid your natural speed. The wearer's natural speed increases by 15%.

Limitations: Shadow Pact can only increase speed up to 400 Dexterity.

Ted immediately shared the window with Monica, who looked a bit nonplussed.

"15% speed? That's all?" Monica frowned. "Then you say the Rare equipment was supposed to be extremely strong?"

"Flat percentages are the rarest bonuses one can find," Tertius suddenly explained. "My family only owns two items that have flat bonuses like this one. And they have stricter limitations. The fact that this armor allows you to reach 400 Dexterity before exhausting its effects is much stronger than you realize."

"He's right," Ted said. "15% means you're 15% faster at everything. You can attack faster. You can run faster. You can flee faster. It's massive."

Monica shrugged. "Still doesn't sound like that much to me."

"Milady," Tertius said, trying to take a more respectful tone, "you are the Avatar of the Twin Phoenix. I suppose that is why it doesn't sound that amazing to you. If I ever had an item like yours, my brother would have considered taking it from my cold, dead hands to get it."

"Alright," Monica said, raising her hands defensively. "I don't mean to offend either of you. It just... 15% doesn't sound like much. I understand it's strong." She paused, then fished some money out of her Inventory. "Anyway, Tertius, Ted, why don't you guys go see if you can buy some food for dinner?"

The two looked at each other, and Tertius voiced a small complaint. "Milady, one of us is sufficient. You don't need to send us both."

Monica took out four silver and gave two each. "Let's make this a competition. You get bad food, you sleep on the ground." She smiled wickedly. "I'm very hungry. I haven't had a proper meal since I literally had memories."

Monica's voice trailed off. All the food that wasn't human food—as in made of humans—had been extremely plain and either smoked or pickled so it would not spoil. Monica craved a real dinner tonight. And if she had to put two young men against each other for her amusement to ensure she had said great dinner, she would.

Tertius nodded curtly and turned on his heels, immediately going for the plaza where they had been staying up until a moment ago.

Ted looked at Monica with a confused expression. "I don't mind sleeping on the ground, and he's too intense. Can I just let him do it?"

She narrowed her eyes at Ted, wondering what could have motivated him better. Tertius clearly cared very much about not disappointing Monica, also because his life was quite literally in her hands. Ted instead was... well, he was Ted.

"I'm sure Heidi will really appreciate a nice meal, and she would be very grateful to whoever fetched it for her," Monica said with a straight face.

Ted scratched his chin and wagged his finger in the air. "Good point."

Without another word, he turned on his heels and went for the village as well with an extremely determined gait.

That's all about the right incentives, Monica thought to herself and entered Madeline's house.

* * *

Motivated by the lofty goal of conquering the icy Healer, Ted had gone all out. Even though Tertius had returned with some pork and a few vegetables an hour and a half earlier than Ted, the other young man had returned with bread, cheese, more pork, beef, milk, and many more vegetables than Tertius.

"How did you get all that?" Tertius asked, confused. He had asked where to buy food and went to barter with a few locals, but he had no idea where Ted had gotten all this food. He had considered his own results quite bountiful, but Ted had returned with enough to make a feast for all of them.

"Well, I was talking to Gertrude," Ted said with a shrug. "She told me she had some extra milk because they have a cow, and she also has a Skill to keep beef. So I asked her if I could have some."

Tertius looked confused. He had also talked to Gertrude, but she had just sold him some vegetables.

"I spoke to Gertrude," Tertius said to Ted.

"Oh, yeah. She wasn't going to sell me anything actually because you had gone there first. So I just asked what she was doing and what she does every day. And she talked a lot. She also invited over a few people, and we had a little tea. And when they heard that I was trying to make a feast for Madeline after she was cured, they all wanted to sell me something. Actually, at first, they didn't even want to take money, really. Apparently, they all felt very bad about Madeline being so sick and bullied by Ivor, which, by the way, apparently, the Blacksmith has taken Ivor in his house and is letting him sleep this one over. They also think that Monica should probably help Ivor with his teeth because he's very depressed right now since he cannot chew."

Tertius looked at Ted as if he was talking to a boss monster out of a dungeon. How has this foolish idiot gotten so much from the villagers? he thought.

Ted gave the food to Monica who, not knowing how to cook in the least, limited herself to teaching Ronnie the best ways to punch someone's teeth out, which the kid absolutely loved, while Dotty helped their mother prepare food.

The only comment to Monica hearing about Ivor being very sad about his teeth was, "I think I can heal them back, but I still haven't gotten an apology first. And most importantly, I have yet to figure out where I'm bringing him and his thugs."

However, a couple of hours later, when Madeline was done cooking all the food and laid it down on the beautiful marble table in her living room, Monica heard a notification go off in her head.

*Ding*

Quest Received - ‘No Man’s Land III/III’

Locate the nascent Crystal Wolves Lair following the Quest directions and quench it.

Rewards:

Loot Chest (Rare)

Chain Quest - Corrupted Gods