Usually when someone starts a sentence with "weeeeeelllll~," it rarely is anything good.
"You can relax, nothing bad happened."
I looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Seriously, nothing happened, everything is practically the same. Even a little better, actually."
...🫤
"Well, Mom and Dad are out of food and water now, and that's kind of bad."
That sounds very bad to me.
"But since you're getting better, you'll be able to go help them soon, right? And now it will be easier since the number of monsters has decreased."
"Decreased? How?"
As far as I know, when monsters in general are sure there's a food source somewhere, they rarely let go of the bone unless another food source (most likely me in this case) literally passes in front of them.
"Yes, but that doesn't apply to everyone."
Is it worrying that only a day and a few hours have passed, and I'm barely bothered by the fact that my younger sister has basically been able to read my mind on several occasions?
"Actually, that would be the case for particularly afflictive monsters with an aversion to people or ordinary living beings, like the undead. But monsters with a slight intelligence, like goblins, or those created from animals, have an instinct: if they can't secure a food source quickly, they disperse and look for others. After all, different undead beings, if they don't feed, well, you know, they starve to death."
That makes sense.
"Yes, after the initial frenzy caused by the wave of monsters, some either left the place when they realized it would be more work than simply hunting, or they started killing each other, which also helped to significantly reduce their numbers."
That's good for me.
"Being one of the first to leave the place, several flying 'monsters' appeared."
This is very good for me.
"But a group of flying creatures remains quite active in the area, the passing monsters that used to be vultures."
This isn't so good for me.
"Especially with the blood spurt that, well, I wouldn't doubt is impregnated in me."
"And as I said, most of the 'normal' monsters recognize the futility of an attack that I didn't easily break through the barriers and dispersed. But the noise attracted a few more groups of undead."
This isn't so good for me either.
"And apparently the accumulation of living monsters, along with the feces of the 'normal' monsters, ended up causing possible diseases to spread."
"Monsters defecate? I don't think I've ever seen that happen before, thankfully."
Unnecessary and intrusive thought aside.
This is not good for me, and for anyone near that place (except for the group initially responsible for this mess; as far as I'm concerned, they can very well ********** and ********* all over *************). And I don't like where this conversation is going at all.
"Calm down, it was just a comment from mom. Ever since they saw a giant dwarf and an angel, most of the diseases have appeared. Apparently."
The last comment doesn't inspire much confidence, sis.
"Anyway, the point is, they're out of food now, so we have to go there quickly to get them out of there. The monsters have decreased, which makes things a little easier, but the undead have increased. Which makes that whole place a biohazard zone, like a garbage dump full of hospital waste."
An unnecessarily vivid image for this situation, but who am I to judge, right?
"That's it. Get well soon, I'll send Nawa and some chickens to see if any of the houses have any food left and if it's still edible to send to Mom and Dad and... Well, I think that's it. If you need me, I'll be outside keeping watch for a bit, or eating, I barely ate anything yesterday."
She said, getting up and going to the door.
"Oh, wait, Mari!!"
"What?"
"Leave the bottle, when my arms get better I can drink some more and speed up my recovery."
"Oh yeah, sorry, I almost forgot."
She came back, placed the bottle of blood on the floor beside the bed, and went to the door again.
"I... I'm glad you're okay. Really."
Tsk, tsk, tsk, my little sister always has this kind of tsundere vibe.
"Thank you, and get used to it, I don't intend to end up dead at the hands of some monster anytime soon."
She turned, smiled, and closed the door.
I let my body slide down the wall until I was lying on the bed again and looked at the ceiling.
'I wonder how the rest of the people are doing?'
I hadn't had time to stop and think about the others, both other members of our family and my friends and colleagues.
Were they also transformed? Did they get this system? Are they still alive? Did they go somewhere safe? Is there still a safe place?.
'Aaahhhh, no, better not to think about that, focus on what can be done.' Help my parents and then consider what to do, for now I think I'll rest a bit.... Oh! Before that.'
With a command I opened the skills section and searched for the skill that could help me most in this situation.
[.....
Initial Fire Magic l (10AP)
Improved Vision l (-2AP)
Tinker l (5AP)
Potter l (3AP)
Meditation l (4AP)
Brewer l (6AP)
Beginner Archer l (2AP)
Protection l (15 AP)
Initial Wind Magic l (10AP)
Charm Resistance l (10AP)
Fear Resistance l (5AP)
...]
Right here.
[Meditation l: a technique to focus the mind and circulate energy throughout the body, helping to calm the mind and relax the body.
• Improves mana recovery rate by 1% per level.
• Slightly improves intelligence and magic levels.]
From what Mari said, it would also be good to have something like disease or infection resistance, or most likely something like stench resistance would also be very useful.
After all, a place infested with mortals and the living, literal sacks of rotting flesh in the open air, with vultures circling above and defecating below, certainly isn't going to smell like a bed of roses. But so far I haven't found anything like that, and this feeling of my body regulating itself layer by layer is not at all pleasant, and this passage: relaxing the mind and body, must indicate that it can help, even if only a little, with that, right?
Even if it doesn't help, the direct effect of increasing mana recovery is reason enough. More mana, the more the [vampire regeneration] works, the faster I recover.
'Although this isn't necessarily a good thing, since I'll have to go to a place full of rotten meat right after. How are Mom and Dad putting up with this so far?'
*****************
Third-person POV
"Aaahhhhh, this smell is hard to stand."
"Honey, that's the 20th time you've said that in 5 minutes. Please stop."
Clara said to her husband, who was over 2 meters tall and leaning against the wall with a cloth in his mouth, just like the one she was using. These cloths had been made by Vitor using his [synthesis] ability, where two components were taken and combined to form a new one.
According to the description, it was what could be used with metals, but thanks to Vitor's [initial Artisan] work, combined with the fact that he was a giant dwarf—a species that combined the brute strength of a giant with the dexterity of a dwarf—it was a different story. And with the skill now at level 5, it could be used on other materials at a high cost of mana and/or fuel.
Thus, Vitor created these scarves that served as extremely rudimentary gas masks, initially similar to the pointed masks that plague doctors used. They even smelled of herbs they had found along the way, along with some alcohol impregnated in them.
Wouldn't it be easier to do this manually and not so laborious or tiring? Yes, certainly.
However, masks made like this would lose their usefulness in a short time, a few hours or even before that. They had been using these masks since yesterday, and they had been made with very cheap and common materials.
The fact that they are still useful (at least partially) even now shows how useful the skills of an [artisan] are, even a beginner one.