38 Poison?

'Ouch!' Finn felt a stab of pain coming from his hand. It woke him up from an unpleasant dream. People in the factory were kicking his stomach repeatedly.

'Ouch!' Another sharp pain from his hand. Opening his eyes a little, the bright sunlight was blinding. Finn moved his hand and was startled by a sudden fluttering sound. It sounded like birds.

His eyes adjusting, Finn sat up and looked around. A couple crows were eyeing him and then cawed at him in anger. Another crow landed on his foot and gave it a good pecking.

'Get off!! Shoo!!!' Finn kicked the crow and it flew back to the rest of them.

Sitting up Finn saw that he was on a roof. He remembered the fight and losing consciousness, he also remembered his horrible wound. Grasping his gut in panic, Finn found that the blood had dried and although still painful it seemed to be healing.

'What about the poison? Was that a bluff?' Finn thought, 'or does that just not work on me anymore?'

Standing up gingerly, Finn winced a little from the pain. His muscles were sore all over, and his stomach hurt. He also felt extremely hungry.

'How long was I out for?' Finn wondered. Doing the math in his head he estimated it had been around twelve hours at least. It was evening when he started the fight, and now the sun had probably been up for a couple hours.

Finn picked up his crossbow, daggers and throwing knife. One knife was lost near the warehouse, so now he only had two. The crossbow bolt was still in the agent, so Finn went to recover it.

Shooing away the crows that had gathered, he noticed the bolt was snapped. Finn checked the body for valuables and found some good stuff.

A pouch with a couple silvers and a few coppers, a case of smaller crossbow bolts and a strap to attach it to his thigh, and a pair of matching daggers. The sword seemed to have slid off the roof and disappeared.

Finn decided against keeping the daggers, they were too flashy and might be recognizable to other agents. What Finn really wanted was that hand crossbow. Searching back were the agent had dropped it, Finn found it caught in the roof's gutter. Rescuing it from falling, Finn put it in the holster he had taken from agent.

Finn remembered his fight and near death experience. That was a close shave, what if the agent had chopped his head off? Or stabbed his heart? Fast healing probably had its limits, and Finn didn't want to find out what they were.

The company was probably expecting the agent to return soon. Although they wouldn't be checking the roofs first, Finn thought it was time to get going.

Finn left the body where it was, the crows would be able to take care of the evidence if they were left alone.

Finn leaped over to the next building and almost stumbled and fell when a sharp pain came from his wound. It seemed his body wasn't fit to be jumping yet.

Climbing down slowly into a back alley, Finn was glad no one was there to see him. He then limped back to the guild like a wounded dog.

Jess was waiting for him at the entrance when he arrived. She must have found out that he hadn't returned last night.

'What happened to you? You look horrible!' Jess commented as she followed him inside. 'Go clean up and get some food, that should probably make you feel a little better.'

When she noticed Finn keeping a hand on his stomach she frowned. 'Did you get injured? Let me have look.'

Finn helplessly lifted up his armor to show the wound underneath. A red gash was visible, it was obvious from its shape what had happened. The dried blood was like a dark patch all around the wound.

Jess was shocked, 'that looks really bad! Who did this to you? And, how are you even walking around right now?'

Finn gave a weak smile and didn't other answering that last question.

'Calm down, the one who did it to me wont be stabbing anyone else ever again. You're right though, it looks awful. Feels pretty bad, but a lot better than it did twelve hours ago.'

Jess frowned, 'well I guess you know your body best. Don't let it get infected though, there's a large chance of that happening if the blade pierced your intestine. It might seem fine but I know people who claimed to have healed and then died a week later due to an infection.'

'I'll be ok, I might need to put off doing that task with you until I feel a little stronger though. Sorry about messing up our plans.' Finn apologized.

'What are you saying? Of course we can't do the task now. Go get yourself cleaned up, and make sure to get your wound checked. I have other things I can do today so don't worry about me. I'll be back for dinner, but don't do anything to strenuous while I'm away.' Jess gave him a stern look before heading back to her room to fetch her things.

Although Jess might have seemed a little tough to the others at the guild, Finn new she was genuinely worried about him. It felt nice to know someone cared that he had almost died, it was a new experience. Back at the factory when he was a slave, people would disappear but things would go as if nothing had happened.

Finn took off his armor and cleaned himself in the shower. Looking at his wound, he saw that it was filled with the jellylike blood he had seen in his other wounds. As he rinsed away the dried dark blood on the surface, small bubbles of blood came out of the wound.

The bubbles stayed intact until they came to the surface. When they popped, a dark colored and bad smelling substance was released. Finn kept rinsing until the bubbles stopped.

After drying off, Finn thought the wound looked a lot better, it no longer hurt as much either. Thinking about the gross stuff the wound released, Finn remembered the poison.

'Could that have been the poison?' Finn thought. 'No wonder the wound still hurt that much previously.'

Finn had gained a new understanding of his healing ability. It seemed like poison was mostly harmless, it would only slow down the healing until he helped his body expel it. This was great!

Finn cleaned the blood off his equipment and armor before he went to eat.

At the bar, Finn asked Anthony what was on the menu for the day. It was still morning, so there were only a few breakfast options.

'Do you have any steak? Or other red meat? I'm really craving something satisfying like that.' Finn asked.

'People generally do breakfast for dinner rather than the other way around. Your an unusual chap, but ok I'll find something for you in just a second.' Anthony went into the kitchen to look.

When he came back he was holding plate with a thick steak on it.

'It's still raw so It will need a little time to cook. How do you want it done?'

'Last time I had it rare, the juiciness was amazing! I'm also starving right now. Give it to me extra rare, I don't want to wait too long.' Finn ordered his food wit excitement.

'Ok, this will cost you a bit extra you know. Special orders are only for those who have the coin.' Anthony smiled.

Finn realized now why Anthony could get this job, this was just a different kind of mercenary! Handing over all the money he had found on the agent, Finn topped up his tab.

'I think I'll be ordering a special steak rather often in the future.' Finn said in excitement, 'so I think I deserve a little discount as a vip, right?'

'No you don't get that, the rates are fixed, even Mürstein has to pay full price.' Anthony said proudly. 'Otherwise, with the way people around here behave, I would have to haggle with every last one who wants to get a discount for this or that.'

Finn understood, this whole guild was full of money loving cheapskates.

When Finn cut into his steak, he found it to be extra juicy. The raw bloody middle was tender and flavorful. The blood still in it mixed with the smokey juices from the exterior to form a complex flavor that left Finn wanting more. He savored every bite slowly, but was still sad when he had finished it all.

It was only when he finished that he noticed an itchiness around where his wound was. It had started healing at a faster pace.

'Seems my body was lacking the nutrients needed to do the repairs.' Finn thought. Maybe he would be in good enough shape by this evening.

Finn spent the rest of the morning learning how to use the hand crossbow. Th me thing was much smaller and quicker to reload. It would be more useful than the heavy crossbow if he ever is attacked in the future.

The heavy crossbow was still valuable, it could shoot further and hit harder. Perfect for taking out an unaware opponent from a distance.

After that, Finn practiced mage hand. After last night's fight, he felt it was easier to control the spell. It seemed the near death experience and intense use of the spell had resulted in an epiphany. Then Finn realized it was probably due to the hints and tips Mortimer had given him.

Either way, he now had another tool he could use when out and about.

Feeling exhausted, Finn decided to take a nap. When he awoke, it was already time for dinner.