Last Pact Standing (5)

[02:14:56_13]

[02:14:56_12]

[Teams left: 69]

As Julien had guessed, Amelia and Jackie were indeed highly skilled.

Amelia managed to restore Jackie's arm, even though it had been severed into small pieces and scattered across the battlefield. The cells were dead, the nerves were severed, and the situation seemed hopeless.

Yet, Amelia claimed she could heal it—provided every single piece was retrieved and two high-quality healing potions were brought to her.

Though Julien wasn't entirely sure what qualified as high-quality healing potions, he figured the ones he'd obtained from Christopher Ingress would suffice. That cruel sadist likely came from an influential and wealthy family, so it stood to reason that he'd possess top-tier items.

The quality was then confirmed by Amelia and once it was there, they began searching for the missing pieces. 

Amelia couldn't see, but she crawled on the ground and hovered her hands above the grass, magically obtaining the arm pieces. 

With the three's collective work, all the pieces were eventually found. 

Amelia used her Arcana Cards along with a high quality potion to glue the pieces together. It took her a solid ten minutes to do so and she didn't need their help in piecing everything together! 

Julien was fascinated. He did not know how, but she perfectly knew where each piece was supposed to be and glued them. 

The corpse-like, on the verge of rotting flesh was restored to a somewhat healthy shade by the kind nun.

Amelia then glued the hand to Jackie's shoulder and immediately made him drink a high quality healing potion. 

Julien saw tissues, muscles, nerves and blood vessels erupt out of Jackie's shoulder and attach themselves to the damaged arm. 

Jackie stated it felt ticklish when flesh came out, but overall, there was no pain. 

Within minutes, Jackie could feel his arm once again, and tears welled up in his eyes. He thanked Amelia repeatedly, while the nun simply patted his head and comforted him. 

There was not a single scar on Jackie's arm and it was slender, smooth, soft and without any blemishes. This further proved how skilled Amelia was as a healer. 

With Jackie's hand taken care of, Julien focused on himself. Up until this point, he was still in his torn clothes. He had to suck it up and ignore because restoring Jackie's arm was more important. 

Though, doing so actually turned out to be a wise decision on Julien's part.

Amelia had drained a significant amount of her Essence during the healing process and was now too exhausted to even stand. Jackie, noticing this, asked Julien to take care of her and then abruptly vanished, leaving Julien puzzled as to where he had gone.

Half an hour later, Jackie returned with a few sets of clothes, potions, elixirs and individual tokens, completely dumbfounding Julien. 

Eventually, Julien carried the sleeping Amelia on his back and went to the token deposit center with Jackie. 

Malnourished Santa met him once again and flexed on his magic trick. 

Four pacts were dissolved due to his magic and the total number of teams came down from 73 to 69. 

For each token, the merchant gave them food, water, and fresh sets of clothes. 

He did magic again and recreated the clothes they were wearing and gave it to them. 

Julien did not bother knowing how he did that and left the place as soon as he could. 

Along the way, he came across a cave beneath a mountain that gave off heat. As it was going to be night soon, he decided to check why the cave was warm. 

There was a hot spring inside the cave along with glowing algal blooms on the wall. The cave looked mystical and cozy, thus, Julien decided to spend the night here with his two subordinates. 

Julien woke Amelia up and told the two that they would be spending the night here. The three had dinner together and talked about the trial. 

Once done, Julien got up and stretched. 

"We have enough clothes so let's throw away the dirty ones. Me and Jackie will go and have a bath first, Amelia you can have it after us."

Amelia gave a curt nod in understanding, however…

"Wait, Master."

Jackie had some problems. 

"What is it, Jackie?" Julien asked, yawning. 

"Um…" Jackie fidgeted and looked down. "…I think we should take turns with the bath."

Before Julien could ask any question, Jackie hurriedly continued, "I-I-it's because we all are very tired. Amelia is dozing off while sitting there, and what if Master and I fall asleep in the waters? It would be a problem for all."

"One has to be awake and look for potential. I'll be the one to stay awake first, and since—"

"Okay, okay, I get it." Julien yawned and walked away while cutting Jackie off. 

There was such a long explanation for something so silly. Jackie could've said it straight that he wanted some alone time and Julien would've understood. After all, getting naked in front of someone wasn't easy, even if the person in front was someone of the same sex. 

When Julien went away, Jackie heaved a sigh of relief and patiently waited for him to come out of the bath. 

Once back, Jackie sent Amelia first with the excuse that he was in the midst of sharpening his sword and preparing for tomorrow's adventure. 

Amelia went and came back, feeling refreshed and relaxed. 

There was a patch of grass in the cave that felt soft to be upon. The three had laid worn out and extra sets of clothes on that, and planned to sleep on it. 

Since both had gone and come out, there was no rush and Jackie took the sweet time to sharpen the sword until both fell asleep. 

It was only then did Jackie feel relieved and went to take a bath.

Jackie came back after a while and stood on guard, letting the two teammates sleep peacefully.

Once a few hours had passed, Amelia was woken up, who then stood on guard and asked Jackie to sleep well. 

…..

The next day. 

[02:03:49_04]

[The safe zone is shrinking.]

[Stay within the safe zone to avoid disqualification.]

Passing beneath the colossal roots that twisted through the forest floor, Julien and his teammates moved carefully. The towering trees loomed overhead, their immense trunks making the trio feel like ants in a world built for giants.

"How do you know you aren't in the safe zone?" Julien asked the two.

"The token blinks, Master." Amelia answered. "And with the lord's blessings, we seem to be inside it."

"I see." At this point, Julien had gotten used to Amelia's way of speaking. 

"Master, look!" Jackie's voice rang out.

He was pointing at the sky.

Through gaps between the canopies of the towering trees, a trail of red smoke could be seen. 

"What is that?" Julien asked. 

"A drop. Periodically, supplies would be dropped and in that, we can get swords, armor, food, clothing, bedding, and even rare items such as Arcana Cards and Relics." Jackie answered. 

"Oh…" Julien murmured, the realization dawning on him—it was a classic battle royale scenario. He had played games like this before, but who would have thought that one day, he'd be in the middle of one, with his life hanging in the balance?

"We must be careful. Many would be moving towards it." Amelia added to the conversation. 

"Yes. This presents an opportunity, but also heavy risks."

Jackie replied. "We must tread carefully."

"Do you have a way to look in the distance?" Julien asked Jackie. 

"My apologies, Master, I don't." Jackie shook his head. 

"Well, then we better get going and reach there quickly."

"Yes."

"Let's go."