Maximilian was doing his best to stay calm, but the weapons pointed at him weren’t helping.

Cool head skill acquired.

*neat.*

Maximising the new skill, he immediately retrieved his calm but joyful attitude he always seemed to have.

"who are you ? "

The one talking to him was Arca, Maximilian took a few seconds to looked at her, scanning her at the same time.

*semi-orc… half human so… should have figured. Warrior style, light green skin with apparent muscle, just enough. She has an Amazon physic, at least from what I can see with her armour on. Long black hairs, brown eyes. Her weapon and style of armour suggest a heavy fighter, high strength. Talking about that…*

Looking at her level, Maximilian saw she was level 39. Scanning around, it appeared to him she had the higher level of the group. The other one with a level approaching, 38, was an elf woman with dark skin, long silver hair going down her back, a Mage staff and robe showing a cleavage who alone, by not sagging with that size, proved the existence of magic in this world.

*yep…this is a wonderful world Odds send me to….*

"answer me! Immediately !"

Maximilian ‘s attention came back to Arca, who seemed kinda irritated by the lack of an immediate answer.

Maximilian smiled at her, a slight salute of the head to accentuate his salutation.

"My name is Maximilian Baltazard Van Nilmerus, pleased to meet you all."

Maximilian was answered by a heavy silence, some of the soldiers looking at each others a moment, certainly wondering what kind of person they just came across.

"Aren't you gone introduce yourself in return?"

This time, the soldiers looked at The green skin semi-orc lady, waiting to see what was gonna happen .

"Arca is my name, what are you doing here?"

Maximilian, taking a look at the three swords pointing at him, swallowed before answering.

"Before I answer you, wouldn't it be possible for your friends here to put their blade away from my throat? I feel kind of unwelcomed here..."

"No one said you were welcomed either, and we still don't know if you can be trusted. I think you have enough space to answer my questions."

Maximilian sighed a bit.

Of course, he could have forced them to drop their weapons if he wanted to. To be frank, he could have obliterated the entire party without breaking a sweat, but that's not what he wanted.

*This is an adventurer's camp, the kind of place where mini quest appeared here and there and allow you to gain points of trust in RPG. I'm sure as hell not gonna miss this because of a sexy warrior a bit on the defensive. I'm gonna have to play it smooth if I want to win this one... hmm?*

His attention was caught by a young human girl with long red hairs. He hadn't really paid attention to her, her level being only seven.

Under a travelling cape, she wore a robe of a visibly good quality, as were her travelling shoes and leather gloves. She wasn't equipped with any weapon, not even a knife or dagger of some sort, making Maximilian frowned a bit.

*That seems pretty risky, even if she's some kind of nobility, she should not be left unprotected.*

It was evident for Maximilian, seeing the disposition of the group, she was the leader...or at least the one they were supposed to protect. Even Arca, as she was questioning him, was standing before her. Maximilian had spotted her because she had stepped a bit to the side of the semi-orc to see him better.

As the deep blue eyes of the man met the green one of the girl, she avoided his gaze by looking down, making the man smiled a bit.

One of the three soldiers, a woman, who was menacing him with her sword saw who he was looking at and put the blade on his neck.

"You dare to look at our lady? Bow your head you ruffian!"

"No"

A simple answer came from the man to the general surprise. The soldier in question clearly didn't believe what she just heard.

"What...what did you just say?"

"I said no, isn't it clear enough?"

"You would dare to refuse to bow to a roy..."

"MARTA!"

The woman put a hand on her mouth as if realising the error she made. Arca, the one who just shouted her name, didn't look pleased.

Not wanting to cause trouble to the soldier woman, Maximilian said.

"If you are upset because she said the girl is a royalty, don't be, I had already guessed it."

Arca smirked at his words, clearly not believing him.

"Of course you had..."

"No, really. A bunch of experienced adventurers taking along with them a little girl, a girl not carrying any weapon should I add, whose dress I'm sure could be sold to pay an entire year's soldier's salary. And even without all those details, anyone could notice your disposition...you clearly are protecting her. So yeah, even if I didn't know for sure if she was a royalty, I was sure she was some kind of noble."

The elf woman hid her laughed behind her hand while Arca looked at him, dumbfound.

"He's quite an observant one..."

Arca looked with a death glare at the elf woman.

"Shut up Alariel, he could be a spy. Who knows, he can have a plan to arm or even kill lady Arima."

Maximilian coughed slightly, taking back the attention on him.

"I'm not a spy..."

Arca laughed sarcastically.

"Ho, if you say so. Then all is fine. Drop your weapons soldiers, let him share our food. Do you want women of the group to sleep with you tonight too?"

The soldiers laughed a bit too, following Arca's example.

"That would be lovely, thank you."

All stopped to laughed, excepted for Alariel who was clearly amused by Maximilian's answer.

Arca stepped forward, making the three soldiers stepping back. She drew her sword and pointed at Maximilian with the massive weapon, clearly not amused.

" You seemed to have a long tongue, maybe I should cut it off...one last chance, how can I be sure you're not deceiving us?"

Maximilian let his hand dropped then shrugged.

"Well...if I wanted you dead, I could have just looked at your group being eaten by the spiders...don't you think?"

Arca seemed honestly surprised, as much as were the other adventurers. Maximilian wasn't sure why.

"Why so surprised?"

"You...you were the one helping us before?"

"Well...yeah, I though it was quite obvious. I mean, it's not exactly overpopulated around here. To be frank, you are the first living people I have met since I started going up."

Around him, Maximilian could hear the soldiers spoke among themselves. Words like "archmage" and "so young" or even "fucking liar " came to his ears. But Arca was the one speaking to him directly.

"I don't believe you. The one who helped us was clearly an experienced battle mage, maybe even an archmage. You are clearly too young for using this kind of..."

Not letting her finish, Maximilian raised one hand before him, palm up. First, he made a fireball appeared, the size of a human head . If for others, this would have required an incantation, his assimilation skill made this level of magic now so simple to him he could do it without opening his mouth. He then made the fireball disappeared to make an arrow of ice levitated at one or two centimetres above his palm. With a thought, the ice arrow disappeared, Maximilian looked a bit around him at the different person in the room. The faces were, approximately for everyone, showing an expression of amazement. Even the elf woman was clearly impressed. Arca swallowed a bit before talking again.

"You...you can use magic without a catalyst ?"

"A catalyst?"

Alariel lifted her mage staff up, showing it to him.

"A catalyst my dear, a mage staff, a sceptre, those kinds of thing. Mage usually uses them to amplified their power... don't you know that?"

Maximilian smiled awkwardly, scratching his cheek.

"Sorry, I'm a newcomer on this land, there is a lot of basic knowledge I'm not aware of...but, to answer your question, I don't need a catalyst ."

Alariel had a very intrigued look on her face, Arca and the soldiers had a worried look on theirs.

"It's amazing, truly am...."

She was interrupted by the poisoned woman coughing loudly, blood coming out of her mouth.

"Do you mind If we wait a bit for the questions, I wish to help this woman."

Arca shook her head as if getting out of her thoughts.

"There's no way I'm letting you touching her, who knows what you could do to her."

"She's dying you know."

It wasn't a question, Maximilian was announcing a fact to the semi-orc lady.

"What exactly do you fear I could do to her? As she is now, she won't pass the night... I don't see how I could do any worse."

"I...I..."

"Captain..."

This time, it was the laying lady who spoke, her voice weak. Arca turned her head to her, listening to what she had to say.

"I'm already as good as dead because of those spiders...let him try...please..."

Arca looked at her, then at the elf lady and the noble girl, who acquiesced. She stepped on the side, pointing her sword down.

"Do what you can...but we will be watching."

"Thank you..."

Maximilian advanced and came kneeling next to the poisoned woman who looked at him, her eyes hardly opened anymore.

Before doing anything, he took off his gauntlets, not wanting them to bother him.

"Hello there, I'm Maximilian, how may I called you my dear?"

"Milne."

"Pleased to meet you, Milne. You don't mind if I take a look at your wounds?"

"Do as you please, I don't really have a choice."

Maximilian looked under the cloth they had put on the wound, her armour tossed on the side, unusable due to the poison who had eaten it away.

*Those spiders did that? Nasty stuff...it seems a bit acid.*

Milne's armour had taken the biggest damage, so the flesh of the woman wasn't destroyed, but the poison had visibly started to attack it, her skin taking an ugly green colour, like a rotten fruit, with what seemed to be burned marks here and there. There even was abscess and pus, all of that disfiguring her well-trained body.

"Ugly to see?"

The woman was talking to him, trying to know what he thought. Maximilian immediately started to search the Havenbag.

"Ugly it is...but I'll be damned if I let a pretty lady like you getting eaten away by something this despicable. Hang it there, I'll cure you. But you, you have to stay awake, fight."

Inspire skill acquired.

Maximilian looked Milne in the eyes and saw the resolution she had, a will to live still not completely extinguished. At that, Maximilian smiled.

"Good."

The book he had read about alchemy was a complete one. It described how to make different poisons, but also described their effect and how to fight them. It had a chapter concerning natural poison, those coming from plants, and others from animals.

The one from giant spiders, apart from the acid part, wasn't to dangerous if taken care of immediately. But if not, it would slowly kill the victim in a slow and very painful way.

Thanking once again his assimilation skill, Maximilian acted like he knew he needed to.

He took several things from the Havenbag.

First, an antidote who was, strangely enough, a green colour looking a lot like the poisoned flesh of the woman. He lifted her head slowly and made her drank it, she grimaced at the awful taste.

"It's horrible."

"No, dying is horrible. This is just not tasty."

She looked at him, smiling a bit at his bad joke.

"Really?"

"Good, if you can endure my humour, you're not in that bad of a shape."

"What did you made her drink?"

Looking an instant over his shoulder, he saw the one asking the question was no other than the little girl called Arima, her eyes full of curiosity.

"This, lady Arima, is an antidote."

The girl seemed surprised.

"You...you know my name?"

Maximilian pointed at Arca with his thumb over his shoulder.

"She said it earlier when she thought I was a spy."

He didn't look at her, but Maximilian perfectly heard the semi-orc facepalmed.

"Oh... is she safe now?"

"Not yet. The antidote is taking care of the poison itself, but her body his infected and this won't suffice."

" I knew it, he will not save her."

This was coming from Arca, clearly not appreciating Maximilian observation of the soldier's condition. Not letting her distracted him, he pursued.

"That's why I need you to boil water, I'm going to operate next."

"Operate?!"

This time, the objection came from...well from most of the group actually. Maximilian sighed.

"Listen, the one concerned has already told you to let me help, so would you kindly let me work and help me, instead of bothering me?"

They all looked at each other, then nodded.

"Perfect. Miss Alariel, can I count on you to manage a fire powerful enough to boil a basin of water ? The quicker the better."

He was looking at the infected parts once again when he heard some soldier telling Alariel they would not be able to provide enough water, the rations they still had barely sufficient for a meal. Maximilian called the noble girl and threw her his waterskin.

"Use this, don't worry about water and don't waste time asking questions, I need boiling water."

She nodded and got to Alariel to help the elf women for the water. Arca wasn't pleased with him ordering the noble girl around.

"How dare you ordering my lady like a mere servant..."

"Shut up a minute and make yourself useful would you."

The semi-orc was clearly taken aback by the authority in the man's voice. It has been long since she felt authority coming from someone like that. So, maybe even without noticing, she approached and asked.

"What do you need me for?"

"I need you to hold Milne's shoulders, I'm going to be the more precise possible, but she will feel pain, and if she moves in a wrong way, it could be very bad. You, Marta."

The soldier woman from before pointed at herself as if wondering if he was really talking to her.

"Do the same with her legs, and be quick please, we've lost enough time like that."

Marta seemed to hesitate a second but one look from the semi-orc lady convinced her.

As they were taking place, Alariel and Arima came back with a steaming basin of water.

From the Havenbag, Maximilian had taken out some pieces of clean cloth he used to make compress he disinfected in the water.

He also took out a little straight knife. With two fingers, he made a little flame appeared, under the look of everyone in the room, even the patient on the ground, clearly not at her best right now. Concentrating, he made de flame smaller and more powerful, using it to sterilised the blade.

"Ok Milne, I'm going to take care of the abscess on you, try to not move, but be free to scream if you need to...sorry if that sound sadistic."

He took the knife in one hand and a soaked tissue with the other, then proceed to make very slight cut where it was needed, taking out the pus and other rotten fluid from the poisoned lady. Maximilian was impressed with her, she had just grit her teeth a little, but hadn't moved that much, giving little to do to Arca and Marta.

Humanoïd anatomy knowledge skill acquired.

He already had the blade mastery skill, so the manipulation of the knife to operate was fine, but this new skill, when mastered, helped him in the process, the extraction of unwanted parts on Milne's body.

There was little parts of the skin that were already dead, necrosed. Maxilian had to cut them away or they would get infected again.

Looking at Maximilian working, Alariel didn't miss a single action he was doing.

* What a strange way to do things, I've seen healers using healing spells and druids using plants and nature magic to help the recovery of poison victims. I even assist a human surgeon when he needed to cut a soldier's leg when it was beyond saving....to be frank I thought this woman was done for. But here, seeing this man working so hard to purge her body from the filth inside is truly a wonderous thing to see.*

She saw the water in the basin getting dirtier, Maximilian using it to washed away the filth from the pieces of tissue, and decided to boil another one. Lady Arima was seconding her, wanting to help the best she could.

Arca, for her part, was observing the body of the woman being operated, mesmerised by the speed at wich Maximilian was handling his knife.

*How in the world can he be this skilled with a blade and at magic at the same time? All mages I've come across in my life were basically weaklings when it came to any physical attributes. But him, I cannot say why but...I want to fight him...I want to evaluate him.*

The new basin came and go, replaced by a third one when the second water dose was once again to dirty to used.

One by one, every place on Milne's abdomen was taken cared of, letting her flesh visible where Maximilian had to cut the skin away. The laying soldier was very brave, but could hardly repressed her complaints anymore, the operation making her suffered greatly.

Arca, worried for one of her subordinate, growled at Maximilian.

"You're torturing her!"

"I said it was gonna hurt...I'm finished."

Putting the knife away, Maximilian seemed satisfied.

"Second parts, done, I took care of the unhealing parts, now..."

He took out a blanket from the havenbag and tore some strips from it, making a bandage. He turned his attention to Arima and Alariel, giving them the blanket.

"Use this, make bandage like I just did, I'll need them."

Next, he took out a clay pot he opened, revealing cream coloured ointment inside. He used his hands to applied it on every centimetre of green skin he could see, which there was a bit of. The soldier had been hit on her side, and the poison had started to expand on her. To be exact, from the hip to just under her breasts, it was nearly all of her side that was now infected.

Milne literally sighed with pleasure has the ointment covered her wounds.

"Feels good, isn't it?"

She looked at Maximilian smiling at her and smiled back, not having enough force to speak yet. Alariel, having finished making the bandage with Arima, was curious.

"What did you do to her? I could be certain I heard...pleasure sigh?"

"This ointment will help her wounds to closed, but some plants used in it can be...quite pleasurable when directly in contact with the flesh. When you think about it, it is a chance in her condition... the bandages please."

Arima handed them to him, they were already rolled to be easier to used.

"Here you are, is it good enough?"

"Perfect lady Arima. Arca, lift her up just a bit, but make it slow, she's still hurt."

Arca nodded and did as she was asked. Using some bandages, Maximilian covered the zone where he had put ointment. All of the woman's abdomen was soon covered in bandages.

Once finished, Maximilian let Arca laid the soldier again.

"And it's done, now all she need is something to eat. Seriously, that's a bad idea to try fighting monsters with an empty tummy."

"Thank you..."

Milne smiled at him, visibly happy to still be alive.

"My pleasure miss."

Maximilian stepped away to washed his hands while the companions of the woman came to see how she was doing. He took back his waterskin from Arima who followed him with Alariel, wanting to talk to him.

"Mister Nilmerus?"

Looking at the little girl, he laughed a bit.

"Please, lady Arima, call me Maximilian, or even Max. Mister Nilmerus was my father."

"Ho. Alright, Maximilian then, we want to thank you for helping her."

"No need to, it was my pleasure."

Alariel stepped further, talking next.

"Even so, you demonstrated a high skill at that moment. May I have the honour to know the name of your master?"

His master? That was to be expected, showing of skill like he just did was certain to gather attention.

*How the hell am I suppose to explain the fact I learn almost everything by myself in this world? Ho wait a moment...*

"I'm sorry Lady Alariel, my master has been dead for some time now. And to be frank, I doubt he would have appreciated the attention."

He wasn't lying. The only one Maximilian could consider as a master was Dragnïr, who was dead for "some time". And if he was living in this place, it was certainly not for the sociability.

Alariel was clearly disappointed by Maximilian's answer but quickly continued the talk.

"I'm sorry to hear that...he was certainly a wise man. May I ask what you are doing here?"

Maximilian was going to answer when he was interrupted by sounds of dispute coming from the group of adventurers.

"And I told you I'm not falling for it, who knows if she will pass the night? We have barely enough food as it is, I don't see why we should waste it on a dead woman or a slave!"

The bearded man and Arca were arguing with other soldiers about the stocks of food they had...more precisely, the lack of stock. Arca had given the order the shared the portions of bread and water, and the size was visibly not enough to satisfy them.

The stage of the dispute was the place where Milne was laying. Next to her was the little silhouette with the cape and hood, the very one who was going to be caught by the spider on the bridge earlier when his fireball killed it.

"I sure am not wasting a single piece of food on them, I'm hungry and I'll eat, even if I have to take it from them myself. You! Slave, give me what you've got!"

Joining gesture to speech, the man put a hand on the hooded figure, ripping the hood and cape apart.

Maximilian opened his eyes wide as he saw the little black furred round hears on the head what appeared to be a little girl. She wore nothing more than rags under the long cape. Her feets were bare. She was thin, malnourished. Her short hairs were black, while the fine fur covering her body was white, her eyes were emerald green, surrounded by round black patch of fur. As she lifted her hands to protected her head, Maximilian saw they were human shaped, but covered in black fur with tiny claws in place of nails.

*A panda girl!*

"Please no ! I don't have anything!"

"DON'T LIE TO ME!"

He raised a hand to hit the little panda girl...then he was sent flying by Maximilian, with a punch that echoed in the room, under the eyes of the other adventurers and the slave girl, all didn't know how to react.

Maximilian looked at the man on the ground several meters away and said.

"You won't touch her. Not while I'm here."