The Innkeeper

As Lex limped closer to the healer, he could hear in on the conversation the soldiers were having with him.

"...not a barbarian, I am a doctor. If you must stretch things, then at most I am somewhat of a shaman. I absolutely cannot enter the battlefield. If any soldiers require medical attention , you can bring them here."

"The situation does not allow for that…"

"Screw the situation! I'll be no good to you dead, and that's exactly what I'll be if I enter the battlefield. If you're unable to hold the line, then just say that, and instead of finding me, begin evacuations! Now if you'll excuse me, I have patients to attend to!"

Lex frowned. The warning from his instincts was getting dire, and it seemed like the empire was not able to get a handle on the situation. It was strange, though. According to Lex's understanding of the empire, they should be fully capable of reacting to even an emergency such as this.

His mind wandered towards the terrorists, who had been secretly as well as openly orchestrating the situation from behind the scenes. Maybe there was something else at play.

Once Lex reached such a conclusion, he decided to wrap things up here. Although he wanted to help out as much as possible, especially since Alexander had originally asked for his help, one must also know when to retreat.

But… despite the ever increasing danger, Lex was sure he had enough time to test out this doctor first.

"Doctor, please, I need your help," Lex said, attracting the skinny young man's attention. "The bones on my right side are crushed, the pain is overwhelming," he said, though honestly he had to admit, the painkiller given to ripping, to simply making him want to die immediately so that the pain would end. Of course, with his will power as strong as it was, he was not about to do that.

The doctor, ignoring the soldier attempting to be domineering, came towards Lex and without hesitation puthis fingers on Lex's neck. An unusual yet warm energy flowed into his body, and for some odd reason, Lex felt like he wouldn't be able to block it even if he had tried.

The doctor did not have any change of expression, but clearly he was alarmed by Lex's state as he abruptly started shouting at his assistants - the small children in the park.

A whirlwind of activity surrounded Lex, and in a few moments, he found himself shirtless and laying on a bed of leaves, freshly laid out just for him.

"Inject 30 CC of Gurling worm venom in the right arm, lather Durbid root sap on his chest, and bring me a fresh bushel of Bailing berries," the doctor commanded as he began injecting his strange energy at various points across Lex's body.

'Does this count as acupuncture?' he wondered as the energy effortlessly pierced his skin, and activated strange reactions across his body. Although Lex was not cultivating, his body started to absorb the ambient spirit energy, and it seemed to be disappearing somewhere unknown within his body.

The kids proved to be competent nurses, as they quickly followed through the doctors orders, though there was one tiny hiccup. When the kid tried to inject the 'venom' into his arm, the needle broke but Lex's skin remained smooth and flawless. Lex and the kid shared eye contact but said nothing, as the embarrassed kid quickly changed needles.

He tried again, only to fail once again, though admittedly this time the needle only bent and did not break.

"Uh, doctor, sir, we have a problem," the kid said, scratching his head.

The doctor noticed the issue with the needle, and took over. He did not replace the needle, but only coated it with his energy. This time, even Lex was unaware of what the result would be. A moment later, the energy effortlessly entered his arm, yet the needle was still unable to pierce his skin.

This time, Lex and the doctor shared eye contact, and Lex saw genuine surprise.

"How the hell did you even get hurt?" the doctor asked, but then decided that he didn't care. "Here, take this and inject it into your right arm. Do it yourself. I'm just a doctor, not some body builder. Don't make me do such things."

Lex smiled awkwardly, and used his nail to forcefully create a small cut on his right arm before quickly shoving the needle in, and injecting the venom.

The doctor continued to use strange and rare local herbs to treat Lex's body, and the rate at which his body was absorbing spirit energy kept increasing. As strange and unbelievable as it was, Lex felt that the doctor's efforts were contributing nearly as much as the Lotus in healing his body.

After a short while, the doctor told Lex to continue lying down for a short while as he moved to treat his other patients, as his recovery would take a while.

Lex complied, not because he expected to completely heal, but because he wanted to see what the doctor did to treat the poison. Although, regardless of whether he was able to get any results or not, Lex had already decided to hire this Doctor Charles Best to work at the Inn.

For a very long time, he had been looking for a doctor, as he did not want to limit his treatments to just the pods. Although he did not know the extent of Doctor Best's abilities, just that fact that he could speed up Lex's recovery was enough of a reason for him to be hired.

Dr. Best moved towards a new soldier who had been brought in, and though he was bleeding heavily, it was the poison that was truly killing him.

The good doctor had the soldier's shirt removed before… Lex did not know how to respond. The doctor stuck leeches on his chest, and put a small broken piece of chocolate in the soldier's mouth.

The good impression of the doctor which Lex had built up took a nosedive, and Lex began to wonder if he was looking at the fabled quack doctor, who would write any prescription a patient wanted, and did things seemingly randomly.