From the respectful gazes of those around him, it was clear that the man was the leader of the slums. Not only that, but his physique was noticeably more robust than the others.
Standing in front of Fia, she had to look up to see his face, as he was at least two meters tall.
Without wasting time, Claire asked as she entered the tent, “How’s the situation?”
“Before dealing with those infected by the Darkspawn disease, please have Doctor Claire look at this one first.
He went up the mountain last night to gather herbs and was nearly killed by a wild wolf.
If we don’t do something, he’s not going to make it.”
Following the man’s gesture, Fia saw someone lying motionless on a bed inside the tent.
The ground around him was stained with blood, and a deep wound across his abdomen was visible, so deep that pink internal organs could be seen, with countless flies crawling over the wound.
Additionally, half of the man’s scalp was missing, and his arms were covered in bite marks from beasts.
Only the slight rise and fall of his chest indicated he was still alive.
The entire tent was filled with the stench of blood because of this man.
Fia couldn’t help but turn her head slightly, not out of fear of blood, but out of compassion.
In her own time, such injuries would be easy to treat, but in this other world, where even blood transfusion technology didn’t exist, the man was as good as dead.
“Leader, did you find a doctor?” A young woman who had been by the injured man’s side quickly ran over when she saw the leader enter with two women.
Her face was covered in dust and tears, her red-rimmed eyes and occasional sobs indicating she had been crying for a long time.
She was likely the injured man’s daughter.
The injured man appeared to be in his forties, while the young woman was clearly just an adult.
The girl glanced at Claire, showing a moment of fear, then turned her hopeful and pleading eyes to Fia, tears brimming, almost ready to kneel and grab Fia’s skirt.
“You must be the doctor, right?! I heard elves are good at healing magic.
Please save my father.
I can work as a maid at your house as payment, and my father can work as a laborer! We’ll pay any price if you save him!” The girl was clearly panicked, her speech becoming incoherent.
Her shabby clothes and malnourished appearance already indicated her family’s poor condition.
It wasn’t a pleasant sight.
Fia gently reassured her, “We’ll do our best, please calm down.”
“You’ll only get in the way of the treatment here.
If you want your father to live, be quiet and get out.” The man referred to as the leader pulled the girl away and then quietly asked Claire, “Claire, can he be saved?”
“How long has he been like this?”
“It’s been three hours since we found him.”
“So, it’s actually been longer?” The leader lowered his head in shame.
“Yes…”
“You should know that only healing magic can work on injuries this severe.
I can’t guarantee he’ll survive, but I’ll do my best.
Is that okay?”
“It’s fine.
Trying is better than not trying.
I’ll make arrangements.
Everyone except Doctor Claire, get out, and take this guy with you!”
“Miss, you must save my father.
We’ll give you everything we can! Please!”
“Alright, shut up and get out.”
Under the leader’s arrangements, the people in the tent quickly moved, and the pleading girl was dragged away by the leader, leaving only Claire and Fia inside.
Watching the girl leave, Fia’s expression was complicated.
“Does Claire often encounter situations like this?”
“Sort of.
But more often, people choose to send their loved ones to the temple for treatment, and then sell themselves to slave traders to pay the temple’s fees.” Claire was preparing the tools she needed when she suddenly stopped and turned back, “Is Fia okay?”
She was likely referring to the bloody scene in front of them.
“This kind of scene doesn’t scare me,” Fia replied.
She had even touched skeletal remains before, so such injuries wouldn’t frighten her.
However, Fia doubted that Claire could save this man; the blood loss was too severe.
Even if the wound was stitched up, it wouldn’t change the outcome.
Although healing magic existed in this world, it wasn’t omnipotent.
Old wounds or injuries that were too severe were beyond even healing magic’s capabilities.
Fia’s doubts made Claire shake her head slightly, her expression filled with helplessness.
“I’m just doing my best and leaving the rest to fate.
My only flaw is that I can’t use healing magic; otherwise, I could heal him quickly.”
“Hmm…” Hearing the word “fate,” Fia paused.
For some reason, she was quite sensitive to that word.
When she heard Claire declare that the man couldn’t escape his inevitable death, a strong sense of unwillingness rose within her.
This unwillingness wasn’t purely out of sympathy but stemmed more from herself, as if she had once been toyed with by fate and had tried to change it, only to be defeated in the end.
Therefore, whenever she heard the word “fate,” she couldn’t help but feel angry.
If Fia still had her memories, she would have been able to pinpoint the source of this unwillingness—heat death, the irreversible increase of entropy over billions of years.
“Tch.” The frustration in her chest made Fia click her tongue.
If fate truly existed, then she was someone who opposed it.
She took a step forward, her ruby-like eyes filled with determination.
“Claire, can I give it a try?” Although she didn’t have ‘healing magic,’ she possessed abilities similar to it.
‘Particle Repair’ and ‘Nanomachine Body’ were absolute healing “magic.”
Claire paused her potion application, her beautiful face showing hesitation.
“Are you serious, Fia? This isn’t just for fun.
If you fail, the psychological burden will stay with you.
It’s wiser to do nothing.”
“I won’t carry a psychological burden over something like this.” If this man didn’t have to die and it was her unnecessary actions that caused his death, she would feel guilty.
But now, no matter what she did, the man was unlikely to survive.
It was better to try, so even if she failed, it would just be another defeat to fate—no, this time, she wouldn’t lose.
“Alright.
But if it fails, don’t say it was you who did it, little Fia.”
Without answering Claire, Fia took Claire’s place, looking at the motionless man in front of her, and exhaled softly.
Although it wasn’t ideal to use you as an experiment, this was the only way to save you.
Gathering courage in her chest, Fia aimed her palm at the man’s abdomen.
Following the information in her mind, she used ‘Particle Repair.’ As its name suggested, ‘Particle Repair’ was a restoration method precise to the particle level, used to create or repair objects.
In Fia’s world, ‘Particle Repair’ could even bring people back to life, but the energy consumption was enormous, affordable only to the wealthy.
However, Fia didn’t feel the connection that indicated the successful activation of magic.
“Hmm?” She instinctively furrowed her brow.
Could it be that her magic power wasn’t enough to activate ‘Particle Repair’? But even after using ‘Orbital Beacon Bombardment’ continuously, she hadn’t felt any signs of magic depletion.
Logically, she should have enough magic to repair one person.
Once again, Fia used ‘Particle Repair’ on the man, but the result was the same as before—nothing happened.
Damn it.
Her brow furrowed deeper, and after a moment of thought, Fia suddenly realized the problem.
Lacking a sample.
Particle repair requires understanding the sample of the object, which is the information that makes up the object, before it can proceed.
It’s like needing a blueprint before building a house; without the object’s information, particle repair is just a hassle.
She wasn’t clear about the information that made up the man in front of her, so particle repair couldn’t take effect.
She had forgotten this point.
Calming down, Fia began to try other methods.
Only the ‘nanomachines’ were available.
Nanorobots usually flow with the blood, and as long as she gave the man a drop of her blood, the nanorobots would activate inside him, self-replicating and repairing his body.
However, because she was the host of the nanorobots, once their stored energy was exhausted, they would self-destruct inside the man’s body and couldn’t stay there for long.
“If it’s too troublesome, just leave it to me…” Seeing Fia not moving for a while, Claire asked softly.
“No, it’s fine.”
Although she didn’t know where her dissatisfaction with fate came from, Fia didn’t plan to give up.
She took out the silver dagger she had previously scavenged from the desert hut, and slowly pressed the blade against the pad of her index finger.
However, because her body was extremely tough, the silver dagger couldn’t successfully cut her skin, so Fia had to use a bit more force to barely feel the pain.
As a small scratch appeared on her fingertip, a drop of bright red blood surfaced on Fia’s fingertip—the dagger wasn’t made of pure silver, otherwise, it would have bent and dulled.
“Fia, you…” Without responding to Claire’s shock, Fia extended her hand, letting the bright red blood fall into the man’s wound.
Then.
As if adapting to a new environment, the nanorobots didn’t move at all until a breath later, when a sudden change occurred.
Like a fast-forwarded scene in a documentary, pink fibers that could be called granulation tissue rapidly grew from the wound’s edge, and the darkened blood seemed to dissolve into the flesh, gradually disappearing.
Along with it, the man’s waxy pale complexion quickly turned rosy.
In just under two minutes, the man’s scalp and shoulder, which had been bitten off, were restored to their original state, and the gaping wound across his abdomen was sealed as the granulation tissue on both sides joined together, no longer exposed to the air.
The newly grown skin was as tender as a baby’s, forming a stark contrast with the surrounding dark skin.
Although the man still showed no signs of waking up, there was no longer any worry about his life being in danger.
If this were a game with an HP bar, Fia could be sure that the man had recovered eighty percent—during the recovery process, the man’s fingers even twitched twice.
This time, she had won.
“Is this… healing magic?” The tone was full of hesitation, as the “magic” that accelerated the flow of time made Claire’s eyes widen, her beautiful face filled with disbelief.
“But I didn’t feel a trace of magical fluctuation, that’s impossible.
Little Fia, are you a god—”
