Rules of Biomancy: A LitRPG Healer Fantasy

Most of the dwarven warriors returned to the tunnels, carrying the dead back to Darim for proper burials. Only two remained by Lord Greyhelm's side as they travelled through the green plains at the speeds allowed. Elijah had briefly questioned the Earth Mage's intent to follow along, with the deaths caused by the ambush, but the dwarven lord had been unwavering.

Perhaps that had been the right choice. With Elijah dosing the horses to keep them awake and steadily healing the wounds that came from being overworked, they travelled day and night for three days straight. It would've taken longer if the dwarven lord hadn't improved the quality of the road as they went along, stopping the small bumps from further slowing them down, and they managed to reach Kulvik in record time.

"These lands truly have changed since the last time I walked here," Lord Greyhelm recounted, watching the approaching city walls. "What humans can create from nothing in only two hundred years intrigues me to no end."

"I've heard that having one of the most powerful human Earth Mages in recent history helps a bit," Elijah replied, getting a chuckle out of the dwarf. "Before you get too happy about the sight, remember the warning."

"Don't worry, lad. I can already sense it."

Like Hafrad some weeks ago, Lord Greyhelm showed great discontent at seeing the Tarrasque in person. The dwarven warriors had the same reaction, though their large helmets hid most of their expressions.

The guards didn't stop them at the entrance, as a wave of Elijah's hand had them move over the queue to allow the group passage. Likewise, the crowds inside the city weren't bothered, as they took an off-route for a more discreet path towards the castle.

Somehow, Harper still stood ready at the castle gates, looking like she'd been standing there for quite a while with her hair mildly ruffled up..

"You're back early," the Illusionist noted, eyes briefly resting on the dwarven lord. "We were sent no message."

"The depths weren't kind to our methods," Elijah explained vaguely, while Lord Greyhelm was helped out of the wagon by the dwarven warriors. "We were attacked on our way back. Get Vera and Alin ready."

"They were called for the same second your group appeared in the accompaniment of a dwarven lord."

Things moved quickly; a set of servants attended to the wagon and tired horses, while the group was escorted through the castle. Some small comments left Greyhelm about the decor, a few compliments here and there, but Elijah could tell that the dwarf was saving his words for when he faced the maker.

And that he did only a few minutes later, as they reached the meeting room in the largest royal garden, where Vera and Alin were already enjoying some tea. Neither looked too awake nor properly dressed, Vera not out of her morning robes and missing most of her jewels. The only expensive choice had been the blue necklace around her neck and the red and white ring that could be spotted on her left hand.

Wonder when that happened.

"Welcome," Alin greeted, rising from his seat, manifesting his staff to help with the balance as he moved over to them. Elijah was given a nod, Grace a hug, and then the old eyes reached the dwarven lord. "Ah… a follower of the same path."

"A true brother of rock and stone," the dwarf agreed. His arms spread wide as the two old men hugged tightly, their auras meshing together perfectly. Despite being of different blood and race, despite never meeting before his moment, they had a connection that most couldn't have forged in a lifetime. "Many have tried to describe you, but no words could accurately portray what I now see before my eyes."

"Ah, you are too kind," Alin said, inviting them to their seats. "Especially as a dwarf of your status. While I must admit that I have not kept up with the dwarven families of Stroham for many decades, I still recognize the Greyhelm insignia. Your family was one of the first five who walked with Duron at the first river."

"A brother of stone and a brother who knows the stories of my people?" Greyhelm theatrically murmured, the dwarven warriors behind him grinning. "It pains me that I did not visit this beautiful city of yours before."

"Do not be sad for what you did not do in the past. Be happy for what you can still do in the future," Alin countered. Another laugh, though one that faded soon after. "Do forgive me for distracting our guests, Vera. It is not every day I meet kin."

"No harm done, Alin," Vera said. She thanked Harper as the Illusionist appeared to hand over a set of documents. "While I haven't gotten the full picture of what has happened during your excursion, I hear that it did not end positively."

The smile on the dwarven lord deflated as the pleasantries ended and reality reappeared. As Elijah recounted their experiences, it only worsened. He told them of Jack's success in upholding their end of the original, that the crown had been repaired and given to Darim's king, and that the resulting feast had been mighty in size. But he also revealed the horror that reached them when within Serenova's borders.

"Hafrad Silverstone had centuries left to make his family proud and show the world what a Silverstone could do, but cowards not brave enough to declare their intent before they struck stopped that potential from being realized," Lord Greyhelm remarked dryly. "Human assassins, whose affiliation wasn't determined."

Elijah noted the lacking note of the insignia found on the armor. He supposed the two warriors still behind the dwarven lord weren't allowed to hear it, even if they were under the service of the lord's family.

"There are very few groups who could be behind this," Vera noted.

"Yes, but we don't have proof. Only speculations that, while sound, are not enough," Greyhelm countered, tired but steadfast. "The killing of a diplomat in a way such as this is a slight upon the dwarven people. The Silverstones, while a minor family, have ties to nearly every other family in Darim and Stroham, and they have been direct advisors to Darim's king for several generations. If we knew, without the slightest doubt, who was behind this, Hafrad's life would be avenged. The dwarven people do not forget transgressions of this degree, we do not forgive the killing of the innocent, and I know for certain that my people will not let anything stop them from justice."

"So, if we bring proof of who was behind this, you believe Darim will rally?"

Neither mentioned who they believed to be the culprit, but there was no mistake in those eyes. And, even if Vera betrayed no emotion in her voice, Elijah knew she was ecstatic. A golden opportunity to be armed with not just armor and weapons, but also countless companies of determined dwarves.

"If you bring proof irrefutable, impossible to reject, the old agreements will no longer stand, and the dwarven king of Darim will declare war," Greyhelm confirmed. A sigh did escape the dwarf a moment later, however. "An near-impossible task, I'm afraid, but I pray to Duron that you will accomplish it. I made a promise to keep Hafrad safe, and my failure will stay with me until I know his life has been avenged."

"I promise that we will do our best," Vera replied. Elijah was confident it was the most sincere she'd been in months. "Though, with the pressing matters encroaching on our borders, I fear that we might not get the chance."

New developments from Castilla? An eyebrow raised towards Alin got a small shrug in reply. Elijah would be told later.

"Difficult times hardly allow for any form of certainty," the dwarven lord said. Finally picking up the tea that had been offered by one of the servants, the dwarf tried it. "Take it from a commander of another ancient war, one still being fought against the Drow in Stroham's depths. The only matters you can have any chance of being certain about are those that have already passed, and, even then, memory has a way of playing tricks on us."

"We'll keep that in mind."

The topic concluded soon after, moving over to the armor and weapons promised. Elijah's mind fogged soon enough, as countless numbers and expected dates were exchanged. With each piece of armor of a particular size came different amounts and delivery times, with possible adjustments to optimize speed by splitting up the packages.

Serenova needed as much as possible as quickly as possible, as the expected time to use the gear sat at 'in one minute to a few months.' They were stressed for time, the human forges already ran at max capacity, and gearing the soldiers up with mediocre protection and weaponry was already a difficult task.

But, after twenty minutes of discussion, each side finally grew restless enough to accept the current set of modifications and dates, pencils going down and the papers being sent to the administration office to get copied.

"While we wait for any news, I must ask how long you expect to stay in Kulvik," Alin asked, while the others got out of their seats. "While I would love to show my kin around in the city, I wouldn't want to push you away from other obligations."

"To be honest with you, my hope was for my stay in this city to be as long as it would need to be," Greyhelm answered, causing some momentary pause from Vera, who had seemingly been ready to excuse herself to get into more formal clothing. "Since hosting a dwarven lord is seen by some as a burden on their resources, I will, of course, be supplying my own personal security. The normal size would be a group of ten, but with the recent attack, I feel that… Let's say a battalion of five hundred from my family house, which would include seasoned warriors, archers, and mages. In the name of my personal security, as long as you don't object."

Even the servants stopped their work, as the implication became obvious.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"I… No, we would have no issues with that," Vera assured the dwarven lord. "Food is plenty here, and any issues with barracks can be rectified quickly."

"Perfect," the dwarf said with a smile. "Now, Alin, I believe I sensed some rather interesting multidimensional rune-work inside the castle walls. I'd love to see it."

Though he didn't admit at the time, Elijah felt some small enjoyment from seeing Vera's stupefied expression, as the dwarf's leave allowed for her real thoughts to surface.

"We're having a conversation later," she told Elijah, before making her own escape, Harper coming along without comment.

The rest of them split up quickly. The past week of troubles had Grace on her last legs, and the idea of sleeping in her own bed had the Wind Mage stumbling away within the hour. Aleksi followed her along, partially to ensure she got back safely and otherwise because of the prospect of getting a proper bath for once.

As for Jack and Sasha… Elijah wasn't sure where they went. The former likely moved to some of the small workshops in the castle to work on his weapons, while the latter went to visit a certain Chronomancer.

Elijah could tell that the past days hadn't been easy on Sasha. The recent revelation about her abilities as a so-called Absorber, the fact that she could absorb Mana from Necromantic spells just as well as kinetic energy and light had made her quieter. She'd never seemed to care much about her own gifts, Jack spending more time theorizing about her capabilities than she did, but something about her growth weighed on her.

Why that was, he couldn't say. The dwarven warriors hadn't treated her differently afterwards, other than Greyhelm congratulating her quick thinking, and he and the others certainly hadn't paid it any mind. Elijah could admit that he had felt some primal fear at first, the sight of her withstanding a beam of death incarnate frightening him, but rational thinking had overwhelmed the instinct soon enough.

What does she know?

"Damn it," Elijah cursed, as his nose picked up traces of burnt Firebloom. With the free time and space allowed by their arrival in Kulvik, he could work in the laboratory once again. Now, without being restrained to the potions and concoctions that didn't require a sterile environment or specialized equipment, he could resupply with whatever had been lost.

One of these was the liquid fire, of which he had sorely needed in the last part of his journey in Darim's Dungeon. Annoyingly, one of the main ingredients, an unstable variant of the Fireblooms, required a constant temperature of eighty degrees Celsius for twenty minutes. Any fluctuations, be that from the wind of a window or Elijah hitting the table by accident, meant a sudden change and an outburst in response.

"Mistake of an amateur," Elijah muttered, as he cleaned up the mess. Bringing out a new boiling flask, he added the necessary distilled water before waiting for the temperature to rise once again. "Or maybe I'm just old."

… Elijah chuckled at the thought. As if he would let himself blame age on that mistake.

'Somebody is coming,' Dawn commented from her spot by the window, her head twisting around to look while Elijah busied himself grinding fire amber into a fine powder. 'Small.'

'A dwarf?' he asked, not looking away from his work. While the laboratory had an entire box filled with the fire amber, Elijah more than remembered its pricing on the black market.

'No. Too small.'

Now that piqued his interest. With a careful hand, slow to stop any sudden shakes, he put away his current work and turned around. He could hear a small noise of effort, as even smaller hands pushed open the door. Small hands he'd held not many weeks ago.

"Mila, the little Stormbringer," Elijah said, putting a smile on his face as he saw the wet eyes. After wiping his hands, he got her up on his lap. "Anything wrong?"

Using his magical senses to look through the walls, he found one servant walking back out of the corridor. And, as Mila revealed, Sasha had told the servant to bring her to him.

"She wanted to talk with… a bald man," Mila explained, eyes still watery. Elijah nodded slowly, wondering what Cas thought about that title. "Said I couldn't go."

"Well, the streets are quite busy at this hour. She wouldn't want to frighten you with all the noise," Elijah consoled, putting everything into remembering how Aleksi had handled this. While Elijah had been put to work taking care of kids before, he usually had the giant around to hand them off whenever they got difficult.

This was an example of that.

"How about you go about helping me, while we wait for Sasha to come back?" he proposed, smiling again when he could see the young mind distracted. "I started having fun with alchemy when I was around your age. No harm in letting you try a little as well, right?"

So many lies smushed into one breath, but it worked regardless. Like all children, Mila was fascinated by anything colorful or strange, and the idea of being allowed to mess around with them got a laugh out of her.

'Be ready to help if needed,' he ordered Dawn, as he helped Mila get on the smallest laboratory coat they had. It still required rolling up the sleeves halfway, but the girl didn't seem to care, scrambling up on one of the chairs to look at what sat on the high table. "Let's start with a little introduction to what we're looking at. See these two things? The one spitting out fire is a Controlled Burner. By using Mana, it can create a flame that we can adjust, making it bigger and smaller."

Not wanting to disturb, Elijah pulled out a second one, demonstrating the ability to adjust the size of the output flame. An expensive device, but one perfectly able to improve a young girl's mood.

"Careful with the twisting," Elijah advised, slowing down Mila's fun with going back and forth on the minimum and maximum settings. While he knew it wouldn't reach the ceiling, the speed of the changes had the chance of making a ball of fire dangerously close to her face. "It's fun, right? But you can do more with it than simply adjusting. You can use the flame to heat something else, like the water and flowers in this boiling flask."

"You're making tea?" Mila asked. He chuckled at the thought. Even the more expensive cafes down the street wouldn't waste their money on equipment with this price tag.

"Not quite, though you are very close," he replied, pointing at the flowers that had been cut out in these strips. "These are a variant of a Firebloom called Flaming Night. Very pretty when they grow, with their red and golden colors. It's part of the reason they became so hard to find in the past, because the richmen would have scavengers pick every flower found in nature, so they could be used as gifts for their wives, and… right, sorry."

As he strayed in his explanation, thinking back to the troubles he'd gotten into while stealing some from a merchant's garden, Mila began to look weirdly at him.

I must've been around her age when I did that.

How time flew.

"What does it do?" she asked, bringing the focus back to what was in front of Mila..

"Well, that depends on how you prepare it," Elijah answered. When he saw that that answer wasn't enough, he kept on. "Right now, I'm boiling it, which is the first step of many to make something called Liquid Fire. If I wanted to use it as a mixed spice for fattier meats, however, I would first—"

"What's Liquid Fire?"

"A volatile concoction that bursts into super-hot fire when it is exposed to air."

"Cool."

"Yes, Liquid Fire is very… 'cool,'" Elijah supposed, not liking the word. It felt like something Jack would say and chuckle about. "However, if you are helping me, I think it would be much more fun to make something else, you can get from boiling it. A sun cream to be exact, which can stop you from turning red for days without—"

"I want to make the fire."

A little too dangerous for you to help with.

"What if we save the liquid fire for another day, and we start with the sun cream this time?" he suggested. Mila's mildly teary eyes made a solid argument against it. "Or we could start with Liquid Fire."

From how quickly the tears turned to glee, Elijah had to wonder how Alin had taught her while they were away. This confidence was a little too developed for somebody who'd been very polite weeks ago.

"Let's make sure you know what to do then," Elijah gave in, trying to figure out how much he could trust her. "Let's have you on the most important job to start. Watching duty. See this number on the burner?"

"Yes," Mila said.

"For the next… four minutes, it is meant to stay at eighty degrees Celsius," he began to explain, before realizing a possible issue. "Do you know what eighty means?"

"I can count!"

"Never said you couldn't."

"I know eighty!"

"Oh, you do? Well, what number is it sitting at right now?"

"Eighty!"

"Lucky guess."

It became less a matter of letting her do a lot of work, and more her keeping an eye on things for him. Elijah would tell her what to look out for, be that a change in color, viscosity, or if a liquid started to bubble. While she seemed very impatient, she still listened to his words, asking questions about why some of it was done. Mila was interested in the work.

"While it's heated up, it stays a liquid, but when you get it down to room temperature, it starts to crystallize. The problem is that we want to grind this into a fine powder afterwards, so we want the smallest crystals to start with," he said, while placing the beaker into the bowl of ice. "If we allowed the room's air to cool it down, the crystals would have more time to create larger structures, and we would get some bigger than your thumb."

"Sounds pretty," Mila said, comparing her thumb to one of the empty beakers nearby.

"They are, but also very… prone to surprising us, and not the fun kind of surprises," Elijah added, forearms tensing a little at the old injury. The skin on his hands had felt tight for weeks afterwards. "That's why we put it in ice. It speeds up the process and allows it to finish in a fraction of the time."

"Wow."

Despite the frequent pauses to explain what he was doing, Elijah finished the batch of Liquid Fire quickly, letting Mila perform the final step in the process.

"The powder and the mixture are now in the vial but not yet mixed," he explained, adjusting Mila's grip on the vial. It might not have broken from any accidental throws, as he'd picked the durable variety for Mila's sake, Elijah felt that others might comment on his decisions if she ended up hurting herself. "And, we wouldn't want that yet either, because…"

"It will explode into fire!"

"Precisely," he confirmed, with a smile. "That's what this little ball at the top helps us with. After it cracks from your shaking, it will remove all the air inside, rendering it safe for us to be near. Try it out."

The second he released his grip on the vial, Mila immediately began, doing her best to mimic the shaker that he'd shown off an hour before. It wasn't the fastest or most efficient technique, but the vial was nonetheless giving out a subtle, orange glow a minute later.

"I did it!" Mila shouted, hugging Elijah while pressing the vial against his head. The top of the vial nearly poked his eye out, and yet he couldn't find it in himself.

"That you did, Mila," he agreed.

Maybe Aleksi shouldn't have felt too special about his prowess in handling the youth, with how Elijah's day was going.