Back to Gula

"Doc! Hurry up to the emergency room! A kid is carrying his grandma by hand, the grandma is in a critical state!"

Only hearing the last part of the nurse's sentence, the doctor ran to the emergency room as fast as he could.

Lucas sat in the hospital's waiting room as he stared at the room next to him.

The room was sterile and no outsiders could get in, but Lucas just couldn't sit still knowing his grandma's sickness had relapsed.

The second he shouted at his grandma and she couldn't respond and just kept on clutching her chest, Lucas wasted no time opening the door and carrying his grandma straight to the hospital.

It was already night time and in such a rural area, it would be hard to find any transportation that could take his grandma to the hospital.

So instead of just praying for a fortunate event where a taxi was coming near him or calling online transportation, which would also take time, Lucas decided to take his grandma to the hospital on his own.

Lucas tried to be lowkey with his newfound strength, but if it involved his grandma's life, Lucas spared no effort in using his strength.

Without caring for any witnesses, Lucas activated the basic body-strengthening technique and carried his grandma by hand.

With his enhanced strength, his grandma barely weighed anything as Lucas ran as fast as he could toward the hospital.

His physique was already way above an ordinary human when he started cultivating, added with the basic body strengthening technique, Lucas moved more than a dozen meters per second.

Fortunately, the hospital wasn't that far away and Lucas could reach it in just about 5 minutes.

The attending surely didn't expect a 17-year-old kid carrying his grandma to bust out into the emergency room.

The nurse wasted no time other than asking a short 'What Happened?' and hurriedly went to fetch the doctor, telling Lucas to put his grandma on the bed.

The doctor did a quick check on his grandma and instantly ordered the medical team to usher her into another room where they could stabilize her condition.

Knowing that he and his grandma didn't have any health insurance, when the doctor put his grandma inside the other room, Lucas told the nurse to wait as he ran outside once again.

This time, his destination was the teleportation hub as he exchanged all the remaining gold coins he had for W$.

Maya stayed silent throughout all this as she knew that not a single one of her words could help him.

Even though Lucas spent all the gold coins he had which would make him literally dirt poor in Gula, Maya kept her silent.

If she was in his position, and she knew that her one and only, dearest family member needed everything from her, she would give it without a single thought.

She would do anything to help them, something that she didn't get to do before while she was only a weak cultivator.

Lucas then returned to the hospital.

And now, he was still sitting in the waiting room, hoping for good news to come to him.

Fortunately, he didn't have to wait for long as the doctor soon came out of the other room.

"Are you her family?" He asked, seeing the teenager who stared holes at him.

"Yes. How is grandma doing?"

"Her illness relapsed and she was in a critical condition before. Good thing that you brought her here fast enough.

We're still able to stabilize her condition for now and she will be fine continuing her normal activities after a few days' rest.

But if her illness wasn't treated, then it would only get worse. She would relapse more often and each time she did, it would become harder and harder to stabilize her condition."

The doctor's explanation hit Lucas like a truck.

He already knew those facts as the previous doctor also said that her illness needed to be treated as soon as possible so that she could recover as best as she could.

The more time passed, the more the illness ate through her body, making it harder and harder for her to recover and return to her old healthy body the more the procedure was denied.

Lucas knew about that and yet, he wasn't able to do anything.

Although he had some money right now, it was only enough to buy her decent meals. 

It was nowhere near the amount he needed to pay for the operation.

With his thoughts still filled with the thoughts of his grandma, Lucas took care of the hospital's administration and decided to spend more money so that his grandma would be taken care of in the hospital.

He already had a goal in mind about what to do, but he just couldn't leave his grandma alone with her current condition.

Hence he decided to inpatient care for his grandma. Spending most of the money he got from exchanging the gold coins.

He still has some left since the hospital bill wasn't as expensive as he thought it would be, but it was a negligible amount.

Lucas then left the hospital, knowing his grandma would be safe there, and decided on his next course of action.

'Let's return, Maya.'

'Yes. There are a lot of ways you can earn money in Gula, and you would have more time there to do it with the time flow difference.'

With Maya's calculation, an hour in Gula was about a minute on Earth.

That means that one day there were only 24 minutes on Earth. If he spent a week in Gula, only about 3 hours would pass on Earth.

With the amount of money Lucas needed, which was about 100 gold coins, he would need all the time in the world to gather it.

The more time the better, and Gula gave him an abundant amount of it.

A full day on earth meant 8 weeks in Gula, and Lucas would use all that time to get as much money as he could.

Lucas then went back to his grandma's house first to make sure that it would be safe for him to leave on its own.

After locking the door and putting the key in a secret spot that only he and his grandma knew, Lucas headed straight to the teleportation hub once more.

Lucas went to the receptionist and asked him how he could go back to Gula.

"You just need to go into one of the rooms, similar to the ones that you came out from, and activate the device there."

Sensing mana in Lucas' body, the receptionist spoke,

"You can already manipulate mana so you won't need a staff to help you. You just need to pour your mana into the device and it would do everything else on its own.

The first time you go back to Gula is free since the Aarush kingdom decided to sponsor your return, but the next time you want to use our service, you will be charged 10 silver for it. 

Please don't come back empty-handed from Gula as we don't accept cash payment for this service."

Noting down the important things the receptionist told him, Lucas nodded and was given a string of codes to open one of the teleportation rooms and a number to tell him which room was open.

Lucas then walked to the hallway behind the receptionist and found the room he was assigned to.

He punched the codes into the electric-lock door and the door opened.

Inside, different from the room that he spawned in, which was just an empty one, this one had a device in the middle of the room.

Rather than a device like an electronic appliance, it was actually a stone block that had countless symbols engraved on it.

Lucas walked over to the stone block that was about as tall as him and took several deep breaths.

'Here we go, Maya. Please help me...'

'Yes. I've promised to help you cure your grandma after all.'

With Maya's confirmation, Lucas nodded before he poured his mana into the stone block in front of him.

His mana became a trigger of sorts as all the symbols engraved turned on and a massive amount of mana, not from Lucas filled the stone block.

The light then flashes bright, blinding Lucas as his body is transported back to Gula.