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Apocalypse Healer - B1 Chapter 21
🕑 Added 2024-10-27 11:12:54 +0000 UTCClerics grew stronger from using their abilities. To be precise, by healing others. However, [Holy Touch] was the best example of a Skill Rune, showing how to rank up without healing others. But while it worked, [Holy Touch] wasn’t as effective as his other Skill Runes since it didn’t fulfill all requirements given how it was used. That was what David suspected.
He would have to be with others, healing them and himself, constantly using his other Skill Runes, or [Holy Touch], which had the main purpose of cleansing and healing to grow stronger even faster. But was that feasible?
Maybe in the future, but not now.
Right now, David was alone, ready to grow stronger, even if that meant he had to hurt himself.
The first thing David did was to learn how to sense the surrounding Aether and to absorb it to be able to replenish his Holy Sea at all times. To do that, David had to gain a deeper understanding of [Holy Touch] first. The Skill Rune was his best means to easily replenish his used-up holy power.
That was why he had to train how to use [Holy Touch] in every possible situation at all times. It had to come to him as easily as breathing.
Achieving something like that was a great deal. It was an enormous challenge, but it worked out. Somewhat.
David learned how to use [Holy Touch] at all times, covering several body parts with an incredibly thin layer of pristine light to more easily perceive and absorb the surrounding aether. His plan worked out, but it took much more effort and time than David had planned.
Several days passed in the blink of an eye, yet David hadn’t left his temporary home often. Part of the reason was that David was at a loss when the system boon disappeared. He’d expected to have learned enough to understand how to alter natural Aether and how to access the surrounding Aether to absorb it. David had been sorely mistaken about that.
David's rapid progress stagnated once the system boon disappeared after 48 hours. It decreased, forcing David to experiment and practice much to return to his former progress. Everything worked out somehow, but it had been frustrating. He’d wasted a full day, though.
But now, after several days, David was at a good point. He was done experimenting and had improved a lot. Most importantly, he still had some food left.
He reached for canned peaches, opened the can, and started snacking while checking his interface.
Name – David Stears
Class – Cleric
Rank – Iron VI
Body –Middle(-)(Basic)
Mind – Middle(-)(Basic)
Soul – Low(-)(Basic)
[Skill Runes]
[Cure Wounds] – [Tier-0 IV]
[Cleanse] – [Tier-0 II]
[Holy Touch] – [Tier-1 IV]
[Bless] - [Tier-0 I]
Attribute Points – 0
David progressed a lot. Not only did [Holy Touch] improve to Tier-1 IV, but David’s rank increased to Iron VI. When he reached Iron V, David learned a [Bless]. The Skill Rune was good. It was still no attack Skill Rune, but [Bless] allowed David to bless multiple targets, increasing their speed and strength momentarily. He’d used it on himself a few times and experimented a little, but the Skill Rune had yet to rank up.
Mind is finally strong enough to use [Holy Touch] for a prolonged duration.
David smiled at that. His Soul stat was still rather low compared to Body and Mind, but with his means to recover his Holy Sea at an accelerated rate, Soul could be considered his strongest stat and [Bless] boosted Body.
Thus, David had an easy time concluding.
I have enough food to travel without hunger for two…maybe three days. That should be more than enough.
He nodded slowly, put on some clothes, and prepared everything. His backpack was almost empty as he left his temporary home through the backyard. He jumped over the fence to reach the neighbor’s backyard and climbed a small wall, only to freeze as he made eye contact with a towering giant—an Infected whose height surpassed four meters.
It moved fast, lifting its hand to sweep David from the wall.
David responded instinctively, his hands shooting at his weapons. He activated [Bless] and used all of it on himself, boosting his agility and strength. David was about to unsheath his weapons when something in the corner of his eyes attracted his attention.
A small but burly man carrying a shield crashed heavily into the Infected, stunning the creature for a quarter of a second. The burly man roared and retrieved a large Warhammer from behind the shield. The Warhammer struck the Infected’s leg, the deafening crunch indicating its terrifying, bone-crushing force.
David’s eyes widened in surprise, his feet rooted atop the wall, but he was about to move when a ball of fire crackled through the air. The fireball curved beautifully as it impacted, hitting the Infected square in the chest.
The Infected responded differently than David expected. It moved away from David, retreated a step, and clenched its burning chest. Then, it tore a massive chunk of rotten flesh out of its body. The infected hurled the rotten yet burning chunk of flesh at the small, shield-wielding man.
The man’s eyes widened, a trace of panic flashing as he jumped back, but he was too late. The chunk of rotten flesh hit his chest, and a trace of the Infected’s bodily fluids splashed on his face.
“Fuck!!” He roared, “I got infected!”
Since when does the infection spread this easily? No, more importantly. Since when are there Infected like this? This is a fucking giant?!
David’s eyes narrowed to tiny slits as another man’s voice rang out.
“Don’t panic, Torb! We will defeat this shitty mutant and bring you back…” The other man’s voice died as David, coated in a faint glow from [Bless], appeared beside his friend.
Torb, the small shield-wielding man, had noticed David earlier but didn’t pay much attention to him. They had bigger problems to solve. However, when David appeared next to him in a moment of distraction, his shield shot forward, ready to block an incoming attack, when David’s glowing hand covered a part of his face.
David used [Cleanse] in its lowest form to remove Torb’s infection before activating [Bless] to target Torb and his long-eared friend.
Wait… Long ears?
David’s eyes lingered on the young-looking man with flawless skin, pointed ears, and silky, golden hair.
“An Elf. Am I tripping or what?!” David exclaimed in confusion, only for the small man beside him to add, “So what if Melach is an Elf? I am a Dwarf, and you are a Human. Are you one of those disgusting racists?!?”
“No?” David responded while spinning around to face the towering Infected again. The Infected hadn’t attacked them. That was already odd enough. However, even worse was that the missing chunk of flesh in its chest was regrowing.
“What the hell is that?” David murmured.
Uncommon Infected had already been annoying in the past, but this was a whole different level of annoyance. The giant Infected was huge, fast, and strong and regenerated rapidly. But the worst part was its intelligence. The undead wasn’t supposed to retain any intelligence, but given how it reacted to the Mage’s fire, David could only assume the worst.
“A mutant, obviously,” Melach commented, but not in an unkind voice, “That thing merged dozens of corpses and triggered a mutation. How about you help us deal with this?”
David shrugged. The thing would go after him once Torb and Melach died either way.
He unsheathed the longsword and followed Torb when he charged at the Infected again. This time, the Infected was prepared for the charge. Its arms crashed down on the dwarf, forcing him to lift his shield. A cracking sound rang out at the impact, and Torb groaned, but he wasn’t dead.
A fireball sizzled past Torb, hitting the Infected’s shoulder while David appeared on the other side. He lifted his sword smoothly and cleaved down. The blade cut deep into the Infected’s arm. It hit the infected’s bone and cut into it, yet David’s attack wasn’t strong enough to sever the undead’s arm in one go.
The Infected responded much faster than anticipated. Its upper body creaked as it twisted, hitting David with a backhanded slap in the chest.
Several ribs broke in one go. They shattered just like that.
David grit his teeth, but endured the pain. Instead of crying out loud, he might use his Skill Runes to heal.
First, David activated [Cure Wounds] to target his upper chest, only to add [Holy Touch]. He sent pristine light through several energy pathways that connected to his upper. By doing so, David altered the natural Aether accumulated within the pathways to recover the holy power he’d just used up while simultaneously accelerating his natural recovery.
[Holy Touch] couldn’t be compared to a Skill Rune that focused solely on wounds and how to tend to them, but it was highly potent, had healing properties, and aided [Cure Wounds] rather than working separately. The compatibility of [Holy Touch] and [Cure Wounds] mended David’s wound rapidly. His ribs weren’t put together with one use, but the pain permeating his chest was no more.
David rolled on the ground, but not for long. He jumped to his feet, only to hear Torb shouting.
“Aren’t you a Cleric?! Use Purification while you fight the undead, you idiot!!”
“I don’t have [Purification],” David shouted back, the corners of his lips curling upward.
But I have something better!
“You don’t have [Purification]?! What kind of weird Human Cleric are you??” Melach shouted, beads of sweat trickling down his temples.
“Who is racist now?” David chuckled, his tight around the warrior longsword tightening.
He kicked the ground and propelled forward. Simultaneously, he used [Bless] again, using one instance of the ability’s charges on everyone. David accelerated, and he started glowing in pristine light. His skin shimmered vibrantly as warmth and vigor filled him to the brim.
[Holy Touch] traveled across his skin. It resonated with the adjacent Aether as it surged toward his hands, but the pristine light didn’t stop there. David increased the influx of holy power, draining his Holy Sea rapidly.
His Holy Sea was churning, depleting much faster than David had anticipated, but the longsword was coated in pristine light.
“You have this, but not [Purification]?!” Melach asked while Torb dashed to the Infected with a smile.
“I am collecting weird-ass people!!”
You’re the weirdest, dude!
