Arthur woke up groaning. His head pounded and his stomach—his core—pulsed from the strain of his earlier actions. His side still ached too, and the cuts on his arm pulsed in slow, aching rhythm in counterpoint to one another.
Hissing a little, Arthur tried to sit up, only to fold back down on the bed even as his eyes struggled to open fully, the world a blurry outline of dark blues and browns. Memory of his battle with the gang leader and his own wounds clamoured for attention, even as he delved within, searching for the poison.
A poison that had grown quiescent. He could not feel it at all, a rather disturbing notion. Rather than worry, he sought illumination, allowing the notifications that the Tower served to spring to mind. Somehow, he doubted he was in danger. Considering how he had fallen asleep. Not just yet anyway.
Well, that was better than he had expected. He could not help but do the math. In general, a single cleanly broken bone could take three to four days to heal, depending on the size of bone and the Body component of the cultivator. A base seventy percent increase to that meant that an injury with a four-day healing period would fix itself in three days now.
Strained muscles would be gone within a matter of hours, if not minutes. Torn ligaments took around the same time to heal as broken bones, though that depended on which ligaments. Obviously, hamstrings and ACLs were going to be a problem.
Which made Arthur wonder if increased stiffness and wasting was a problem now. Would he need to stretch and move normally in those few hours, just so that he did not harm himself? Or was the magical, unnatural method of healing by the Tower already taking care of such minor inconveniences?
Putting that aside, the doubling of his healing speed while concentrating and actively using the ability meant that he would be on his feet within days rather than bedridden for days on end. Taking all that into mind, he gauged the damage on his side, trying to remember how much of it had been healed during his more intensive process.
In the end he gave up, not able to work out how much time had passed.
“Perhaps in the future. I can work out the speed. With a pedicure. For it is a need.” Even Arthur winced at that one.
More interesting was the ability to redirect the healing process to damaged portions, and to speed and overcharge the healing. It had saved his life before, and he expected it would do so again in the future. If he managed to get this healing process to even higher levels, it would make him a truly formidable opponent.
“Wolverine, here I come,” Arthur muttered to himself. Reaching up gingerly, he rubbed at his eyes, clearing the sleep from them and cracking his gaze fully open. The blues and browns resolved to the wall colouring and ceiling beams, though the room held no clues as to where he was.
Prodding at his notifications even as he looked around at the empty room, Arthur read through the remainder of notices quickly. There was little of note, ranging from an indication of a strain to his core—
which explained why it throbbed—and an estimated healing time—in mere hours now—as well as a warning that his store of refined energy was dangerously low.
Again, not surprising.
He would need to cultivate and restore some of that energy, but it was more important for Arthur to work out where he was. Somewhere safe, he assumed. Then, smacking himself on the head, he walked over to the window and peered out, edging around the corner just in case someone wanted to shoot him.
No arrow or crossbow bolt went for his eye, and the view was sufficient to confirm his suspicion. He was in his own clan building.
Paranoia set at ease, Arthur made to explore his rooms again. The bedroom itself was of modest size, with the bed and desk taking up the majority of space within. Two doors led away from the room, the first to a living room with an attached kitchen where Yao Jing lounged. Arthur could not help but snort, spotting how the man was lying on the sofa with his legs up on the table, mouth open and snoring.
“Some guard you are,” Arthur muttered.
Closing the door silently, he made his way over to the other door. No surprise that it turned out to be a washroom, one that he made quick use of to wash away dried blood, dirt, and sweat.
Was it strange that even now, he still had to brush his teeth? If the Tower could take away anything, change them so massively that they no longer needed to eat or defecate, could it not fix bad breath? And if it could have and chose not to, what did it say about its makers?
Lazy? Uncaring? Slobs?
Pondering these deep and meaningful thoughts, Arthur searched through his closet for clothing, grateful that whoever had dumped him here had at least planned ahead for his waking. Dressed soon after in new clothing, mindful that he had just destroyed his last new piece of clothing in the fight with Boss Choi, he grabbed the kris—which had somehow been returned—and his spear before exiting his bedroom.
“Wake up! Time to break up!” Arthur shouted when Yao Jing did not stir.
The poor cultivator nearly leapt out of his seat. He stumbled and fell as his legs got tangled in the table and then managed to sit up enough to put his hands up. To Arthur’s surprise, rather than reaching for a weapon—in fact, did he never wear one?—Yao Jing’s arms were glowing, aura sheathing his arms.
“Betraying me already?” Arthur said, looking hurt. “So quickly do you turn on your benefactor.”
Silence greeted his words, as the other man breathed heavily. Then, slowly, he straightened, eyeing Arthur askance. “You always like this, ah? When there’s no crisis happening?”
“Like what?”
“An idiot.”
“If I’m an idiot, why are you following me?”
“An even bigger idiot, of course.”
Arthur laughed then, and Yao Jing joined him a moment later. Tension left Arthur’s shoulders as the earlier sentence filtered into his brain, reminding him that finally, finally, all the present crises were over.
“Alright, enough fun and games. Tell me how long I’ve been out, where everyone is, what happened while I was unconscious, and what new problems I’ve got to handle.”
Now, he just had to deal with the upcoming ones.