Before Red could reply, he felt her fluctuation diminish just as quickly as it had increased. A few moments later, it was even weaker than it had been originally. This also reflected on Eiwin.

The woman lost her balance, falling down to one knee with a grunt.

“Eiwin!” Narcha ran towards her in worry.

Red also tried getting up, but he felt a pain spreading around his midsection.

‘That’s right… I was stabbed.’

The boy had almost forgotten this after witnessing Eiwin’s transformation. He reached down, feeling around the wound. Blood was still pouring out, and Red considered himself lucky that the tendril hadn’t pierced higher into his body, around his chest cavity. Nonetheless, this was still a serious injury.

He didn’t pull the tentacled embedded into his wound, though, as it would only let the flow of blood run free. He was wondering how he was supposed to fix this, though.

While the boy was focused on his own wounds, he heard the women’s conversation on the other side of the room.

“I’ll survive!” Eiwin said. “Go help him!”

“R-Right!” Narcha sounded nervous

A few seconds later, Red heard approaching footsteps. He looked up, noticing Narcha crouching down by his side.

“Still conscious? Great!” the woman seemed relieved. “How’s the wound?”

Red grunted in pain as he shifted around. “It… It didn’t pierce through. It’s still bad.”

Narcha frowned. “Let me see.”

Red did as he was told, shifting his hand away from the wound.

The warrior’s expression worsened once she saw it. “You’re leaking blood!”

Narcha immediately moved her hand over the wound, applying pressure around the area to stop the bleeding.

“Fuck! Fuck!” she cursed to herself as she examined the puncture. “It might have pierced an organ! We need to put pressure!”

“I… I can do that myself.” Red shook his head.

“No, you can’t! You just got stabbed in the stomach! You’re going to bleed out if we don’t treat you quickly!”

Now that she mentioned it, Red noticed he had bled a substantial amount of blood. More than a normal person should be able to afford to lose, much less a child. Yet, while the boy felt weak, it didn’t feel nearly as bad as it should be.

“Agh, I need to find something to staunch this…” Narcha looked over her shoulder at her bag, hoping to reach for an item, but still hesitant to let go of the pressure on the boy’s wound.

Then she spotted Reinhart. The man was standing on the side, observing the situation with a curious expression on his face.

“You!” Narcha howled at him. “Aren’t you going to help?!”

“Hm?” Reinhart looked at her with a surprised expression. “You didn’t ask!”

“You fucking bastard! Just get me a cloth or a gauze to apply pressure here!”

The knight nodded. “Right away.”

Reinhart pulled some white cloth out of his own bag and approached Narcha.

The woman extended one of her hands. “Give it here!”

The knight handed it over with no protest. Narcha put the cloth over the wound as it quickly became drenched in the crimson fluid.

“We need to keep pressure on this for a while until the bleeding stops.” she said to Red. “After that we can clean up and dress the-”

“Hey.” Reinhart interjected, calling her attention.

“What is it?!” Narcha glared at the man with hateful eyes.

“Your other friend doesn’t seem to be doing too well.”

“What?!”

Narcha looked over in Eiwin’s direction, noticing the woman had collapsed to the ground.

“Gods fucking damn it!” she gritted her teeth. “Eiwin, are you awake?!”

No response. Narcha seemed to hesitate.

Red, however, held on to the cloth over her hands. He nodded at the woman. “I’ll live. Go tend to her.”

All hesitation disappeared from her expression once the boy said that. She got up and looked towards Reinhart. “Look after him!”

The knight nodded, and Narcha was off to tend to Eiwin.

Red, in the meantime, did as he was told and applied pressure to his bleeding. Still, he already had other ideas.

“Help me up.” he said to Reinhart.

The man frowned. “Why?”

“I need to do something.”

“You’re bleeding.”

“I won’t die. Bring me to where they are.”

The knight sighed. “Fine.”

Reinhart walked over to him and held onto his shoulders before helping him up. Red felt unsteady on his feet, but the man helped him keep his balance.

They walked over to where Narcha was looking after Eiwin. The warrior had an expression of worry on her face as she examined her companion’s body. There were no signs of serious injuries on Eiwin, and although she seemed unconscious, she was still breathing.

Still, Narcha’s expression was enough for Red to guess things were not as simple as they seemed.

“What is going on with her?” the boy asked.

Narcha looked over at him in surprise. “What are you doing here, you moron?!” she glared at Reinhart. “Why are you holding him up?!”

“He asked.” the man shrugged.

“I’m… I’m fine.” Red tried to assuage her worries. “Trust me.”

“Trust you?!” she glared at him. “You’re bleeding to death!”

“… I’m still standing.” the boy said between heavy breaths.

“Ugh, fine! If you want to kill yourself, at least don’t bother me!” Narcha turned back to her unconscious companion.

Red pulled himself out of Reinhart’s support and sat on the ground with some difficulty, still holding onto his wound.

“What is going on with her?” he repeated his question.

Despite her words, the woman still responded to him. “It’s a side-effect of what she did.”

The boy could tell she was being deliberately vague, so he didn’t push the matter. “Is she going to live?”

“She will, but…” Narcha gritted her teeth. “It will take a bit for her to recover.”

“Don’t you have any more of that medicine?” Reinhart asked.

The warrior glared at him. “If we had any, do you think I would be waiting around?!”

The man shrugged. He looked at Eiwin. “How long until she’s conscious again?”

“I don’t know… Hopefully soon.”

The room fell silent as Narcha continued to monitor Eiwin’s situation.

…

Red, in the meantime, was looking for something in his surroundings.

He was indeed worried about Eiwin’s state, but this wasn’t the reason he had asked to come over to them. A few seconds later, he was able to spot small streaks of blood not over three meters away from him.

It was that parasite’s blood. Red intended to use it to heal himself.

He was aware his injury wasn’t life threatening with proper treatment, but it would most certainly be debilitating for a long time. The boy couldn’t afford to be this weak at this juncture of the trial, so he decided to use his recently discovered power to heal himself.

This decision wasn’t made on a whim. In truth, Red would rather not use the power at all before he understood it, but he simply did not have any choice as they had no more healing medicines with them.

Red took advantage of a moment when Narcha and Reinhart were looking away, and slid himself over to the pool of blood. Then he reached into it with one of his hands.

The reaction was immediate. The boy felt a burning sensation spread over his hands, towards his arm and the rest of his body. Unimaginable pain assaulted his senses, reaching into the very core of his being and into parts of his frame Red had never sensed before.

The boy couldn’t hold back. He let out a scream of agony.

Narcha and Reinhart looked over at him in shock.

“Kid, what is going on?!” the woman rushed over towards him.

Red didn’t respond. In fact, he couldn’t respond. He curled up on the ground in torment, feeling the horrible sensation spreading towards all parts of his body, before focusing on the area around his abdomen, where the boy felt his flesh shift and mend itself.

The reaction eventually subsided after ten seconds, but Red felt as if an eternity had gone by. When his senses recovered, he felt Narcha shaking his shoulders and glaring at him.

“You little shit, tell me what’s going on!” she said, looking down. “You need to keep the pressure in your wound, or it’s going to… It’s going to…”

She trailed off. Red looked down, knowing what had caught her attention.

Beneath his blood smeared abdomen, the puncture wound had disappeared. The tentacle that had been stuck in his injury had fallen off, bringing bits of flesh and blood with it. His wound had completely healed.

Narcha seemed shaken up by the sight. “H-How?”

“R-Red, are you okay?”

Before the boy could reply, another voice interjected. They looked over, noticing Eiwin had recovered consciousness and was sitting up.

“Eiwin!” Narcha let Red go and rushed over towards her companion.

“W-What about, Red? Is he okay?” Eiwin asked in a weak voice.

Narcha nodded. “He’s fine! But what about you?! You shouldn’t have done that!”

The younger woman shook her head with a smile. “If I hadn’t done that, we might have died.”

“You still look like you can die!” Narcha glared at her.

Indeed, Eiwin’s countenance looked extremely pale. Red could also feel her fluctuation looked very weak, no stronger than a normal individual’s. Whatever price Eiwin had paid, it was reflected within his crimson sense.

This was an important clue to Red, but it was not something he was interested in looking into right now. He walked over to the woman.

“Are you okay?” Red asked.

“I’ll be fine.” Eiwin nodded with a weak smile. “W-What about your wound??” she had noticed his puncture wound had disappeared.

The boy hesitated. “… I’ll explain it later.”

“I see…” the woman’s attention shifted, looking over at Reinhart, who had a thoughtful expression on his face. “What about you, Mister Reinhart?”

“Me?” the man looked surprised at the question. “I’m fine. I was just wondering…”

The knight trailed off.

Eiwin shook her head and sighed. “If there’s something you wish to ask, go ahead, Mister Reinhart.”

Reinhart smiled. “Oh, I’m not going to pry into your secrets. I was just wondering, shouldn’t this parasite have a monster core? It seemed to be in the Lesser Ring Realm, but I found nothing of the sort.”

The younger woman frowned. “I’m not too certain myself. I know little about parasite monsters, but they should still have a monster core.”

“Shut up, the two of you!” Narcha interjected. “You shouldn’t even be talking in your condition, Eiwin!”

“I said I’ll be fine, Miss Valt.” Eiwin said, taking a deep breath. “… I might not be of much help moving forward, but I’ll live. We still have to find your pill, don’t we?”

These words seemed to sting at Narcha, who gritted her teeth in anger and shame.

Eiwin, however, didn’t pay attention to her companion’s reaction. As the seconds passed, she seemed to recover her composure and strength bit by bit, but Red could tell from her fluctuation she was far from being healed.

Still, the woman tried to get up. Narcha seemed like she wanted to protest it, but one serene look from Eiwin was enough to make her swallow her words. The warrior just helped her companion to her feet.

Once Eiwin was up, she looked over at Reinhart, who still had a thoughtful expression.

“So, have you decided to abandon us?” she asked.

The knight smiled, but didn’t deny her accusation. “You’re wounded.”

“I am.” Eiwin nodded.

“You will hold us back.”

“I probably will.”

Reinhart shook his head. “I’ve gotten too far to be held back at this juncture.”

Narcha scoffed. “I knew this would happen. This is who this man is, Eiwin! We should be thankful he didn’t stab us in the back before leaving!”

The knight laughed. “I didn’t say anything yet. I would like to continue working with you lot, but we can’t do it with an injured person holding us back.”

The warrior frowned. “What are you trying to say?”

“It’s simple. Leave her here, where we know she will be safe and let the rest of us continue on her stead.”

“It’s not happening.” Narcha didn’t even deign to consider his suggestion. “She’s coming with us.”

Reinhart sighed, as if expecting this reply. He looked over at Red. “What about you, kid? You should be more reasonable than these two, right?”

Red also shook his head. “I can’t leave them.”

They had done too much for the boy. Although he knew Reinhart was being logical, Red was no ingrate, and he would never turn his back on people that had helped him in the past again and again. It just wasn’t the type of person he was.

Reinhart sighed again, this time somewhat disappointed. “I expected more from you, kid.”

“You have your answer.” Narcha interrupted him. “Now, are you leaving or not?”

The man shook his head. “I guess I’ll stay with you until we leave the building. After all, we aren’t done exploring this place, right? Who knows if there are still any dangers around?”

The warrior glared at him. “We don’t need your-”

“We’ll be thankful for your help, Mister Reinhart.” Eiwin interjected.

Narcha stared at her, but fell silent under her companion’s gaze once again.

Reinhart smiled. “Great. So, should we see what’s beyond that corridor, then?”