Lord: Starting from a Goblin Nest

When Ron awoke from the darkness once more, he was in a wooden building, lying on a blanket-covered bed with two quilts tucked over him.

”Hey! Hey! He’s awake! Ron’s awake!”

He thought he heard the boisterous shouts of the earth goblin Delaford, but with his hearing somewhat damaged, the sound was as grating as a neighbor doing construction in the middle of the night.

”Don’t... be so loud...” Ron mumbled. In his daze, he thought he saw a little girl who looked like a doll approaching.

Oh, that was no little girl; it was an adult Half-Elf.

”You’re awake. How are you feeling?” Buni asked, looking at Ron with concern. She reached out to touch his forehead. Thankfully, while he still had a fever, it wasn’t as high as before.

”How... did we get back?” Ron groaned. ”Who else made it back?”

”We all made it back! Everyone’s injured, but we’re a long way from death’s door!” Sera’s booming voice rang out from somewhere nearby. Judging by the sound of it, she was full of vigor.

”You’re the most seriously injured right now,” Victoria said, moving closer to the headboard. ”Almost all of us passed out after the fall. Delaford was the first to wake up. He found us and sent a small animal to climb to the surface and guide Klade and the others to our rescue.”

She wasn’t particularly fond of rats, so she used ”small animal” to describe it.

”I didn’t actually pass out from the fall. In fact, I passed out *before* falling and the impact woke me right back up,” Aive said with a wry laugh from nearby. Judging by her voice, Ron guessed she was lying in a bed just like him. ”But both my legs are broken. I can’t move an inch.”

”Good thing you had that tower shield,” Klade said cheerfully. ”If it weren’t for that big shield, we’d have had no idea how to haul you all up, especially you and Ron!”

”As long as everyone’s alive...” Ron whispered weakly. ”What about the Mad Frogmen? Didn’t they give you any trouble?”

”We didn’t see any Mad Frogmen. Looks like they all left,” came the earth goblin’s voice. ”Which I think is great. They loved collecting valuable little trinkets, and now they’re all ours.”

”What about the Little Mire Throat Monster?”

”It fell down with us. I saw it disappear into the cavern with my own eyes,” Aive cut in. ”And I know what else you’re worried about: Ming Datiss. He’s completely dead. The ’killer’ was you.”

”You’re an absolute War God!” Sera hobbled over, leaning on a crutch. The fall had clearly done a number on the lightly-armored barbarian, but she was obviously far tougher than the others. ”Once you’re feeling a little better, you have to tell us how you managed to beat an Elf to death with your bare hands! Do you have any idea how shocked I was when I saw it?!”

”It wasn’t that difficult, really. I just used a bit of my knowledge of herbs.” Ron managed a few dry coughs. ’The medical treatments in this world are quite powerful,’ he thought. ’Even with these injuries, I can already breathe and speak normally. The fever is probably from a microbial infection.’

”We were both injured. While we were hiding, I found two types of moss in the cavern: one was harmless, while the other was highly toxic and causes severe contact dermatitis.”

”That alone isn’t fatal. However, when I attacked his wounds, triggering symptoms like rashes, bumps, swelling, and numbness, Ming Datiss was bound to think it was caused by blood loss. If he was carrying a Healing Potion, he would definitely drink it.”

”An Elf zealot trying to revive the Hailan Empire wouldn’t be short on money. He was bound to have a Potion,” Lavinia said as she walked over. After Victoria helped Ron sit up, Lavinia had him drink a bottle of some unknown alchemical concoction. ”But I don’t understand. The ingredients in a Healing Potion don’t react with any kind of toxic moss.”

”You’re right, they don’t,” Ron said, feeling noticeably better after drinking the Potion. ”But did you know? The antigens for contact dermatitis are mostly simple chemical substances, known as haptens. They have to bind to a carrier protein to form a complete antigen before they can cause sensitization in the body.”

”The substance they form then combines with an alkaloid from one of the herbs in the Healing Potion, creating a weakly acidic intermediate. After that, the sap from the vines I wrapped around my hand is a mildly toxic substance on its own. But when it combines with that intermediate in the bloodstream, it becomes lethally toxic, causing ventricular standstill. The heart loses its normal ability to pump blood, cerebral blood flow is suddenly cut off, and the person loses consciousness.”

”If there’s no immediate medical intervention... it causes sudden death. Why is everyone staring at me?”

Sera’s, Klade’s, and the others’ eyes had glazed over. Even though Ron had skipped the most technical parts, his explanation was still far beyond their ability to comprehend. In fact, even Lavinia, who was well-versed in Herbalism, felt her scalp tingle just from listening.

”You came up with all that while your lung was punctured?” Lavinia stared at Ron as if he were a monster. ”I really want to dig out your brain and see how it’s put together!”

”A flash of inspiration brought on by oxygen deprivation, perhaps?” Ron smiled. ”I mainly did it because I couldn’t find any natural poisons, and I couldn’t beat him in a fight, so I had to make my own.”

”It would be best not to do things like that too often,” Victoria said, glancing worriedly at Ron. ”Forget about Ming Datiss; the symptoms you brought on yourself were countless. If I hadn’t discovered I could also use the Secondary Healing Technique when I woke up, Buni wouldn’t have been able to save you by herself.”

”I certainly won’t do it again,” Ron said, expressing his sincere gratitude to the two Priests. ”Thank you for saving me. I definitely wouldn’t have made it otherwise.”

Ron knew better than anyone just how dangerous it had been, but desperate times called for desperate measures. He had no choice. ’Who would go in swinging their fists if they could be a Mage?’

(Except for the Martial Monks of the Four Symbols Sect, of course.)

”Oh, right. Speaking of Ming Datiss, we think you should see this,” Victoria said, taking a Gemstone sphere that radiated a blue-purple light from her satchel. ”We found it near where you were fighting. It’s the key he used for that Lightning Bolt.”

”We feel that as the main player in the only real nasty fight we had, you’re the only one with the right to use it. But maybe wait until you’re feeling a bit better? After all, we have no idea what’s really inside it, or what might be required to activate it.”

”I’m honored,” Ron said, accepting the Gemstone, which had already been cleaned. He turned it over in his hand for a moment and could easily perceive the Magic Item’s function:

[Bearer is immune to lightning damage. Can cast Lightning Bolt up to six times per day. The item recharges 1-3 uses daily at dawn. Current Charges: 2]