Although I feel bad fer the lad, something about seeing someone get kicked in their family jewels really makes fer a good laugh. Apart from the headache I have from worrying how I will get buried in debt fer repairs fer the pile of broken items and equipment that used to be me pride and joy, and worse than that, me best buddy got himself kidnapped. If I get more stressed out I might get bald even before this mission end. So the laugh was a welcome change, even at the expense of our peerless leader getting his nuts kicked in.

"Could you stop laughing now? You're too loud and I can't focus on healing my injury." Philip protested. He seem a lot more stressed than before. But it is to be expected. Not only did he get his balls kicked, his balls was kicked in front of the person he likes. Even a blind person would see that the kid had the hots fer the Elf, with that awkward way of stealing a glance from the girl. Although I am not sure if she is aware of his infatuation with her.

"Okay I will stop now. I'll leave ye to focus on healing yer balls now." I answered as I stifle another laugh. My attempt to lighten the mood earned me a piercing glare from our peerless leader.

Philip then just huffs and closed his eyes to meditate. Kurtis is teaching Cloud to do the same but from the looks of it, the lad is having troubles healing his own wound. Figures, the act of healing wounds need expert level of self-examination and an even greater amount of control of one's own energy, be it mana or Ki. The practitioner then guides his energy to the wounded part to stimulate the healing process, using his mana or Ki to kicks start the process and also act as the fuel to continue the process until it is fully healed. The speed on which a person heals himself depends on the skill of a person. Such simple process only works on minor injuries. A missing limb or organ would need not only an expert, but a true master of the arts since they will need to guide the energy to recreate every tissues of the part they want to heal.

Hmmm… If I remember correctly, I made something that assist on healing. I haven't tested it on other people yet since no one seem to want to use it. I don't bloody know why. I used the damn thing on meself when I got cut by a bandit and it worked fine. I think I have it here. I pull out me list and saw it in the catalogue. Goody, it is not busted. As I search fer the damn healing pad and somewhere on the back of my head I know that I am forgetting about something, what that might be I don't know but I can't shake the nagging feeling that it is somewhat important.

The thought slips from my mind when I found the healing pad. "Hey Philip. I think I have here in me hand a way to speed up yer recovery. Just slap this sucker on yer balls and boom, it is healed." I declared while waving the healing pad in front of Philip's face.

He brushed away my hand and with an annoyed look on his face he replied. "No way am I going to put that near my groin." Honestly, the amount of contempt from his voice hurt my artificer feelings. Why doesn't anyone want to try this on? If I offer any device other than this I am sure they will jump on the opportunity to try it.

Haaahhh… I don't even know why I am trying. Maybe I should just focus on creating more items and equipment that can be used in battle. I know there is where the gold's at. Just ask my traitor of an apprentice. He sure is living the life of a king after stealing my work and look at me, risking life and limb just to earn enough fer the next project of mine. I can't even afford to test my grander plans. I am afraid they will just stay as scrawls on paper, unless I sell it to another who has the brains and the gold to build one and I would sooner gut myself with a rusty bread knife than to do that again.

The image of my cursed apprentice flash on my mind. That son of a whore gloating on fame and glory which he did not deserve. If only I have not been too arrogant and show the blueprint of my latest work to the lad, all the riches and recognition would've been mine. Fer thousands of years, Dwarven Kingdom's magic cannons just lie there, mounted on the walls of our castle gathering dust. It was a good deterrent fer possible invaders that's fer sure. It is the pinnacle of Dwarven ingenuity.

The cannons were able to harness the energy within Mananite crystal and convert it to non-elemental magic able to obliterate hundreds of enemies stupid enough to get within its range with just a single shot. But even with its vast potential fer destruction, there is a reason why our race will not, or could not use its strength to expand our territory. Its's because not only it was fragile, the amount of equipment to make it work makes it hard to transport.

The army once loaded a cannon to transport towards the front line in order to push back a group of barbarians but they were ambushed and the cannon was destroyed, not even able to fire a single shot due to its need fer at least a minute to charge up an attack. Just like that. Millions of gold was wasted. Since that day the cannons stayed where they are. Gathering dust in the castle walls, waiting fer a chance to be used.

Most have tried to tweak the design of the cannon, to make it less fragile and more maneuverable. But their attempt was fer naught. Either the cannon they create blow up on their face or it doesn't work at all since the runes and it's pieces were so delicate that if it was rearranged even just by a little bit, there was a chance it will self-destruct or not work at all.

I went a different route from other artificers. Rather than work on how to make the cannon less fragile and mobile, how about we make a weapon of the same principle that our people can arm themselves with to battle? That is how I started working on the hand cannon.

Using all that that I know in rune smithing and artificing, I was able to create such weapon. But I encountered a problem that got me stuck. The hand cannon I made explodes after just a single use. Fer months I was stuck, not knowing if I ever could solve the problem at hand.

That was when I met Bronn. He begged to be my apprentice, adulating how great of a rune smith and artificer I am. I admit I was a bit arrogant back in my days and after months of failure, him stoking my ego did great to recover my self-confidence.

I send Bronn to do menial jobs fer me while I work on my masterpiece. He proved himself respectful, reliable, creative, and trustworthy fer all of those times which earned enough trust that I confided with him about my troubles.

Together we put our mind to task and after grueling months it finally bore fruit. We were able to finalize the schematics of a hand cannon capable of shooting non elemental blast of energy wiithout breaking after use. Although it only retained not even a fraction of the strength of the cannons, it can be produced a lot cheaper and with more numbers than with the wall mounted cannons. Combine the advantage that it can easily be wielded by our troops, ye will have a mobile infantry than can match any mage unit while also needing less training to become effective military unit.

To celebrate the momentous occasion, we went back to my place and we partied and get drunk till the day was over. He then told me that he forgot something in the workshop. After an hour, I heard a report that my workshop was on fire with Bronn still inside.

I rushed there but everything was already burned down. I search through the rubble to see if I can find the remains of my apprentice but I found nothing. I found the safe I hid the blueprints fer the hand cannon and I was shocked to see it open. Only me and Bronn know the combination. At that moment I knew that I was betrayed.

I was right. The very next day, the news of a ground breaking invention spread throughout the Kingdom. The High King himself awarded the inventor of a million gold and a research grant. Who do I see in the podium? It was Bronn himself. After the awarding ceremony I tried to call him out of this blatant crime but I was blocked by guards that are no doubt hired by him. I filed me case in the council but they did not side with me. Their reasoning is that the High King himself awarded the man. It would bring him great shame if the public knew that he made a mistake.

A councilman who was a friend of my late father advised me to flee the Kingdom fer Bronn now have enough pull in the Kingdom to either throw me in jail or get me killed just to silence me.

That range of influence, I felt the very next day.

Slander and insult was thrown my way. They say that I was nothing but a good fer nothing artificer, that all of me achievements were all because of me late father. There are others that say that the items and equipment they got from me don't work or is of subpar quality. Some even accuse me that I started the fire on my workshop myself so I can get insurance money fer I am bankrupt.

All me life I dedicated fer the Kingdom. Every waking moment I toil to make it greater, stronger. Even in my dreams I see myself at the forefront of our people, leading the charge towards prosperity and stability. But now I see that all of that is fer nothing. So I grabbed my stuff, withdraw all of me gold from the bank and left me homeland. But before I left I created this here rifle first. A superior model from the blueprints Bronn and I made. This is the reminder of what I had lost and the man who took it from me.

I shook me head as the bitter memory of me past wash over me. That was all in the past. Nothing about it will change even how much I whine and grumble, and believe me I whined and grumbled a lot the first few days if not weeks after my self-exile. What I can change is the present.

My very first human friend is in trouble and I will move heaven and earth to save him. Not literally of course.

Unless I can invent something that will do just that.

----------------

I can feel it. The Ki swirling within me. Although it is not much at least I can control it at will. Look at the Ki going up and down my body, travelling from my left hand to my right. I make it go round and round going from limb to limb. Playing around my Ki like playing with a ball.

Only problem is it is not doing that.

Hard as I try, the advice of Kurt is just not working for me. Concentrate and look within he says. Visualize and I will become aware of every injury within my body he says. Concentrate your Ki on the injured parts to heal yourself he says.

Well I can't do those shit!

I am concentrating and looking within but other than my Ki, I don't see shit. I am aware that I am injured, I feel it with my every breath specially my shin which is still bleeding. I am trying to concentrate my Ki on my injuries that I am aware of but it is not doing nothing! For heaven's sake just heal me right now and we'll continue this lesson for later, when I am not at risk of bleeding out.

"Your mind is filled with thoughts that are of no importance. That is why you fail. Clear your mind. Think of nothing but be aware of everything. Keep calm. You will not bleed to death. Visualize your injuries and use your Ki to heal. You can do it. I know you can." If I don't know any better, I swear he can read my mind.

He then started chanting. I don't know why but the sound of his voice calms me and helps me concentrate. I feel my Ki clearly. It comes from my core and it covers my body like a protective shell. I don't know how much time passed by, but I just continue to breath in and out. Not thinking of anything but being aware of everything within me. I am not trying to hard this time to visualize the injuries in my body, I just let it come to me. I just focus on feeling, my Ki coursing through me and there it was, as my Ki travels inside my body, I can feel it get interrupted in some parts. Like a clogged pipe, they conjugate in various parts some I recognize as injured parts of me.

Is this what the Monk is telling me about?

I continued visualizing my body and I started assigning colors based on how healthy each part of my body were. Green for healthy and the more the color go to shades of red, the more serious the injury is. I see light green all around my body that might indicate that I got cuts, bruises and bumps all over. I see at least 3 of my right ribs in yellow, maybe that means that it is moderately injured. The bones on both my forearms are light orange, I think it is because it is fractured somehow after blocking that gorilla of a punch by that Knight. The worse is my shin, it is dark orange apparently due to a broken leg and an open wound.

I can see that even without me willing it, my Ki just naturally focus more on the injured parts of my body, speeding up my healing. They are all over as they try to speed up healing all of my injuries at the same time and I notice that it is going slow. Then I had an idea. What if I control my Ki and focus it on a single injury? Would it further the speed of healing? I try applying my idea by willing my Ki to heal the wound on my leg. It takes a lot more concentration than I expected but after a few minutes, I was able to funnel more of my Ki to my leg and I noticed a great increase in healing rate in an instant. Earlier when I was letting my Ki heal my wounds naturally without prompting, the wound on my leg is still bleeding, although it has slowed a bit it was still dark orange in my Visualization. But after a few minutes of concentrating Ki on the wound, it has already changed to orange which is still a serious injury but a lot better that dark orange.

Time pass by as I contently watch my Ki go to work in healing my wounded leg. It fascinates me how useful Ki is. It does not only reinforce my body and increase my strength, it could also heal wounds! If I master this, who knows what I can achieve? Especially if I have the amount of Ki I have before it leaked out of me like water in a broken dam.

More time pass by and still I am mesmerized by the sight of my Ki pouring to my injured leg. Little by little the shade lightens. From orange to yellow. From yellow to yellow green. Then out of nowhere, I was jolted back to reality after I felt a foreign Ki enter my body. It was cool and refreshing. Like rain in hot summer day. I see all the wounds on my body get better as all the colors go to dark green, except for my arms which is still light green.

When I opened my eyes, I felt tired like never before. What the heck happened? I was covered in sweat and feel weak, trembling all over like a new born kitten. Even though I should be almost at a hundred percent, my muscles ache still. It feels like I ran a 20 km run in full sprint and now my limbs feels like lead and I feel I am going to topple over due to exhaustion.

Before I really do a face plant from having no more strength in my body, Kurt quickly lend a hand and supported me. He lent me his shoulder to help me sit near the camp fire. Shit. It is already dark! It was before noon when I started meditating. How long did I meditate?! But more importantly, why do I feel dead tired from meditating?

"This is why ye must never let the novice take much control in their training. The lad almost killed himself from nearly depleting his Ki from healing. Good thing that the Elf informed ye that the lad is about to lose all his energy or we would have a mess in our hands. What use is a healed body if he dies in the process?" Ortho admonished Kurt as he hands me a cup of water. I drank its content in one gulp, as if I was afraid someone is going to take it from me. The cool water travels my parched throat and strength comes rushing through my weak limbs. "Boy, he is a thirsty one isn't he? Don't worry lad. There's more of it were it came from. Big gulps or you might choke." He laughs as he fill my cup with more water.

"Trusting someone that he could do it is far different than leaving him to his own devices." Kurt answered Ortho before turning towards me. "By the way, I must say that you continue to impress me. Although you are far from adequate from healing, at the very least you were able to reach a stage which normally takes months or even years for normal novices in Ki manipulation. I must say, you are natural in this." Kurt said as he hand me a bowl of food.

I look at it, at no surprise, it is vegetable stew. But I don't mind it and proceeded to ravenously eat to refill my drained body.

He contently watch as I eat, which is mildly disconcerting. Don't watch me as I eat damn it. I get shy when someone watches me.

After refilling my bowl of more vegetable stew he continued. "I have something to ask you, but it can wait after we rescue Mark and when we finish our business with the Guild."

His words fly over my head as sleepiness, hunger and thirst fight inside my body as I don't know which to fulfill first. Damn it. If I only know how to eat while I sleep like a certain anime character. That would be great.