Reincarnated as an Energy with a System

1695  A Taste

The doctor frowned. "You should have your arm regrown as soon as you can. Before it is too late," he said.

Ning frowned for a moment. "Are there healers around that can do that?" he asked. He knew there were usually healers in big cities with the power to cure diseases, heal wounds, or outright regrow limbs in some cases.

He had of course thought about them in the few days since he had lost his arm, but since he was on the run, he couldn't go to any major city and thus hadn't thought much of it afterward.

In all honesty, Ning believed more so that he was going to end up finding some healing potion in his system's point shop and use that to heal his arm.

He hadn't thought the doctor would tell him to go to a healer instead.

"I had come to assume you were always one-armed the way you handled yourself. To think you had only lost it a week away. Are you not in pain?" Ning shook his head. "I mean, there is some pain, but not enough to stop me from doing something."

"Good thing you got those bandages properly put on or else your stump might have ended up rotting if left alone. I cannot imagine the level of infections that could happen to such a fresh wound," the doctor said.

Ning nodded, but he didn't need to worry about it that much. He knew quite a bit about medicines himself, at least enough to know what he needed and did not need. Not to mention, his own body's healing ability was much higher than a regular person. It also countered any infections on its own.

Once the doctor told him such, he left to go look at the other ones.

"You alright?" Dema, the bald man, came to check on Ning. "I heard you were the one that noticed the lions at first"

"Yeah," Ning said. "I got up to take a piss and heard them. Damn lucky I needed to piss when I did."

"Lucky indeed," the man said, looking around. "Still, confusing, isn't it?"

"What is?" Ning asked.

"The lions. They never come to the caravan. There is a reason we light the campfire at night. Most beasts stay away from the fire since it is so unknown to them. Over 5 years of doing this and never had the lions attacked us. Was this a coincidence?"

Ning had thought to himself something along the same line. Had that been a coincidence, or had the lions actually attacked them for other reasons?

"Maybe they came to drink water and were scared by us," Dema said.

"I don't know," Ning said. "They came directly toward me. It felt like they wanted a piece of me. If I'm not wrong, these lions have had a taste of human flesh and have grown an appetite for it."

"Do you think so?" Dema asked, frowning. "That would be bad. I do not want to think of having to fight the mountain lions every single night like this. Just a few minutes of clash and so many were injured."

"We killed a few too," Ning said, looking at the few corpses that lay on the ground, immobile. "Who gets all of these?"

"Our master buys it," the man said. "We get a share of the money for our involvement. Injured people get a little more for their sacrifice. I will put in a few words and you should get a bit of it."

Ning smiled. "That would be nice."

Ning imagined how much a mountain lion's corpse would fetch for the nobleman. He was bound to turn its hide into leather and use the rest of it in other ways.

One could even make a taxidermy of the animal and hang it in their room as a showcase of their might.

"Are you okay?" Shara came running. "Yeah," Ning said. "Are you okay? The lions didn't come to you, right?"

Shara shook her head. "I was by the horses, ready to use my power should the case arise. Thankfully it didn't," she said.

Ning nodded.

After a while, the commotion died down and people returned to their sleep, with more than a few people on the lookout. Given how black the mountain lion's fur was, they needed more people than regular to keep an eye on them.

Ning went back to sleep, feeling the dull ache in his body after having to fight multiple of those lions at once. He had killed two by the end, so he felt quite accomplished. Still, he couldn't shake off this dull thought at the back of his head. A question had arisen after some thought was given to the matter.

Where had the lions gained a taste for humans?

As far as he was aware, this was the only caravan that made its way through this mountain range, except the occasional carriage that needed to cross in a hurry, and those hadn't gone around in a long while. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

He quickly let go of that thought as the pain and fatigue as well as the lack of sleep soon took over him. Before he knew it, he fell asleep.

Ning woke up to the sound of a knock on the side of the cart. He opened his eyes slowly and looked out to see Shara.

"Get up. You need to eat quickly. Everyone is ready to leave," she said.

Ning got up and looked around. He had slept for a bit longer than he wanted to. People were already eating breakfast and packing up as it was time to leave again.

Ning went by the lake to freshen up with its cold water and returned to the cart to eat the morning meal, which was a little more than some leftover stew from last night that was reheated.

Once he ate that, he sat at the front of the cart and shook the horse's reins to start moving along in their journey once again.