Ch. 13 Honoring the Duel

"H-he teleported!" Bryan yelled out as he tried to remembered what had just happened.

John had raised his sword in the air, and a powerful swirl of mana engulfed him before he suddenly just disappeared!

The moment Velonin saw John charging up mana, he instantly realized what was to come. He waited until he was sure John was going to attack, until he jumped to the side, only for a searing pain to engult him as his right amoured arm was severed off of his body.

"ARRRGGGG!!"

"GAAAAGHH!!"

In an instant both John and Velonin yelled out in pain. Turning around, Velonin saw John collapsed on the floor as his shin bone was sticking out of his mangle right leg and a white light wrapped around it.

"Hahaha that was close disciple of Roukels, but you spend too much time charging up, your master could do it instantly!" Struggling up, Velonin picked up his sword in his off hand and started walking towards john until....

"Hey bastard!! Fire spe-" "JANEL!!!!!"

An overwhelming and spine chilling bloodlust poured out of John and filled up the boss room to the point even Velonin felt a shivers.

The fire that was beginning to manifest Infront of Janel extinguished like she had been through in sub zero water, her teeth chattering in fear.

Struggling to stand up, the white light still hadn't heal John's leg so he had to use Roel as a walking stick

"DONT YOU DARE MAKE ME A LIAR! I SAID NOT TO INTERFERE IN THIS DUEL!!"

Despite his bones sticking out of his leg, John once again started channeling the Mana into his legs, as he felt the memories of the technique clear up slightly. He remembered how Roukels defeated the vampire duke using this technique.

'Flash Step!!' using the remaining mana in his body to supercharge his leg muscles, John focused all of his weight onto Roel and stepped forward using his uninjured leg.

*CRACK!*

As John felt his left leg snap under the immense pressure of his mana, he was launched at blinding speed towards Velonin and was barely able to hold Roel forward.

John didn't see anything, but he ffelt his sword make contact with Velonind body, before his body slammed into the Living Armour like a bullet, slowing his speed down as he collapsed to the floor.

-Verifying assault, measurement complete. B-rank dungeon, clear.

-Verifying the existence of a new item.

The measuring tool reacted in his pocket.

Heavily panting on the ground, John raised his hand up "Absorb!". A large stream of mana flew out of the dead boss and into John's hand, quickly filling up his empty mana reserves and threatening to explode him from having too much!

He immediately began healing his broken body before looking down, and spotting bones shards jetting out of both legs. Knowing what he had to do, John acted without thinking too much about it.

Grabbing the broken bone on his right keg, John gritted his teeth in agonizing pain before he crammed it back into place. Still reeling from the pain, John wanted to be done with this as quick as possible and grabbed his left legs bone before also cramming it into place.

With his bones back into his body, the healing magic could begin to work properly as he felt the intense pain finally beginning to subside.

"H-Holy shit John, You basically solo'd that boss" moving over next to him Bryan started praising him, but John's hand never left Roel.

John didn't feel like Bryan or Janel would betray him, but he was incredibly vulnerable at the moments and had to be ready just in case.

John spent two and a half hours on the floor healing his injuries, while he watched the two loot the boss. He witnessed how they had only taken it's crystal and nothing else but he swore that hed seen his measuring device say that there was a new item.

Taking it out, John looked at the reading and it did confirm a item was found. Finding it strange, John coincidentally waved the device over Roel and it went off!

-Verifying the existence of a new item.

The measuring tool reacted in his pocket.

"A new item?"

E-rank item.

Verifying Lightweight effect.

Verifying Dormant Potential effect.

Verifying Past Life Awakening effect.

Additional effects unknown.

'Holy moly Roel! It looks like you also ranked up. Although the enchantment doesn't look like much, its still progress!' lifting his sword up, instead of the usual resistance that he usually felt, the sword was as light as a feather.

Unsteadily standing up, John felt pain in his legs but they were no longer broken, just incredibly sore and swollen

Shakily walking out, John, Bryan and Janel exited the dungeon and John manage to get a ride with them, seeing as how his weakened legs couldn't ride a bike.

Entering the building, the trio went over to the counter and sold their stuff.

"The sale of the magic stones comes out to $300,000. How shall I proceed?"

"Please deposit $150,000 Into John Jackson's account, and split the remaining money into the two others.

Just like she promised, she gave him half their total earnings. The dungeon run had taken more than nine hours, but he had amassed a fortune of $150,000.

Looking down at his pants that's now had bloody tears in them, John didn't know if it was even worth it monetarily but he did feel himself gets stronger from that fight.

"I appreciate all your hard work and cooperation guys," John said as he started walking away from the duo.

"Excuse me, one moment please," Janel asked quickly

"What's up?"

"First, I'd like to say that I'm extremely thankful. If it wasn't for you, Bryan and I would've died to the ghoul pack back there," Janel gave a heartfelt thank you to John

"I just did what any party member is obligated to do, especially a healer who is ment to save lives" John responded Kindly.

Pulling out her business card from her chest pocket, she handed it to John.

"Phoenix won't forget what you've done for us. Bryan and I were able to survive thanks to you, John. If we get the chance, we'll make sure to return the favor."

"I'll keep that in mind," John responded with a genuine smile. The Phoenix Guild was a mid-ranked guild, so having them owe him a solid was very good.

"You plan to rest today, right? If you don't have any special plans, how about briefly visiting our Guild House?" suggested Janel

'Shes probably trying to invite me into her guild, too bad I'd never work for someone else.' John didn't have just memories of some random swordmans, he had the memories of Roukel, a King! The idea of working beneath another revolted him!

"I'm sorry I was planning on setting an appointment for a D-rank dungeon solo run," he said, trying to change the subject about her guild.

"Right now!? You just cleared a B-rank dungeon, John. You need to heal and rest!" Janel said in astonishment.

It was actually because he wanted to heal that he was going to the dungeon. If John waited naturally, it would take him a couple hours to get the mana needed to heal, then it would take multiple hours to actually use the mana to heal himself.

He decided that absorbing monster mana would be much faster than idly waiting close to ten hours to be healed, besides he wanted to quickly amass a fortune before allowing himself to rest

So after conversing for a few more minutes with her, John went to the clerk to schedule a solo run.

"You cleared a B-rank dungeon and came out just a moment ago. Are you sure you'll be able to proceed immediately without any rest?" the clerk asked cautiously

The clerk had looked through John's info in order to schedule an appointment and realized that he had just finished clearing a B-rank dungeon. She knew it hadn't been very long since his last dungeon run, so she was obviously expressing her concern.

"It doesn't matter. Please proceed normally," John said

"I understand," the clerk replied. A clerk didn't have the right to force a Hunter to change their decision.

"Thank you." John bowed slightly and walked out of the Hunter Bureau with his shaky and weakened legs.

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He came back three hours later.

"I came to schedule an appointment for a dungeon run," he repeated, this time looking much better than before.

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"An appointment for a solo run, please," John requested.

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"I'd like to schedule a D ranked solo run please." John said to the receptionist.

John went on to solo dungeons late into the night and came to the Dungeon Bureau early the next day, repeating this for multiple days in a row

"Did you come to schedule an appointment for a D ranked solo run?" The cheery clerk girl said in a casual tone.

"Of course." John didn't tire thanks to his heal, and now that he could recover his mana he could theoretically continue forever.

'If I want Walter to get the new treatment, Ill need a lot of money,' he thought.

A little while ago, John spoke face-to-face with his brother's attending physician. He had heard that there was a new treatment being developed in Switzerland for his brother's blood cancer, hematologic malignancy.

Although the price was inordinately high, it wasn't impossible for John to obtain the money. The problem lay in the application deadline, so John attacked dungeons continuously for the next few day. Deciding that Roel's wood handle, vehicles and houses could wait until his brother was taken care of.

Five days had passed and John teappeared at the Dungeon Bureau.

"Look, it's him, the Legendary Healer!" A man decked out in silver armour said to his new recruit.

"Legendary Healer?" The leather wearing greenhorn said in wonder.

"That man had the weakest body, and worst healing spell In all of mankinds, yet over the course of this past month he manage to shatter records, and lead a challenging B rank dungeons. The mans work ethic is insane, just yesterday he cleared 5 dunegons and only stop because he reached his limit for D ranks that day!"

"WOW!" Looking at the grey haired man walking towards the front desk, the young greenhorn was excited to meet such a man in person.

"So he is The Legendary Healer"