Rules of Biomancy: A LitRPG Healer Fantasy

They made it back to the others before the sun fell under the horizon. Even when they were bruised and tired, the group still made their way through the forest, traveling for a good six hours before feeling safe enough to make camp. Even if every outlaw was meant to have been dealt with, Elijah refused to take chances.

The forest refused to do so either. Through his steady guidance in the passing day of traveling, he could accelerate the devouring of the outlaw camp. What should’ve taken months would only take a week, as the earth opened up to welcome inside every piece of flesh and material gathered in that wretched clearing. The others had made comments about it being wasteful, that some of the items could’ve been salvaged, but Elijah refused the notion. The forest had been promised compensation and this was it.

And it wasn’t as if their own group was any less busy. Fade still suffered the effects of her head trauma, needing to rest inside the back wagon without much disturbance, Elijah still had to deal with his broken forearm that didn’t heal as fast as he wanted it to and the girl… The girl that had been found was still here, still scared beyond belief, and she still needed their help.

Aleksi had looked at Elijah so smugly when they’d brought her back to their caravan. No words had been said, no dry comments about their habits of finding troubled youth, but those eyes had carried meaning more than well enough.

The giant had nothing against the introduction of the young girl, of course. He welcomed her as warmly as he’d done any other child for the past few decades, being as doting and protective as he was allowed to be. Aleksi’s history with the younger generations had been troubled, in more ways than one, but there was little chance he could ever do anything but care for those who needed it.

“We never did get to hear your name,” Elijah had commented on that first night after the girl had been brought to the caravan. It had been during their time in the back of the front wagon, where he had spent hours making sure she wasn’t in any danger. Wounds had been cleaned and closed, bruises had vanished, and some rations had been pulled out to hopefully help against the girl’s thin form. “If you don’t want to talk, it’s not a problem, but I’d still love to know what I should be calling you. ‘Girl’ doesn’t feel right.”

“... Mila.”

No last name.

“It’s nice to meet you, Mila,” Elijah said, not pressuring her for more information, as she returned to her quiet state. The night was well upon them by the time he’d finished dealing with most of her injuries, and she had been given his sleeping mat while he stayed up.

She’d been out before he could blink, breathing so softly he was afraid she’d passed.

It was a very stressful time, though the others didn’t treat it as such.

While Elijah spent his time reading through his book, trying to understand the fundamentals of flesh manipulation, Jack and Sasha were trying to befriend Mila. The former doing as much had come as no surprise, the man prone to such forward actions, but the latter… Elijah hadn’t seen such care in her actions before.

Where she would otherwise be blunt and passive-aggressive with her words, she was now surprisingly cautious. Sasha didn’t critique, she didn’t waltz through without a care for the others, but instead, she sat down and kept a safe distance from Mila while she talked to her.

Jack had tried to be more direct in his approach, treating her like any other child, but the powers of a Stormcaller had manifested yet again and he’d learned to stay away after that.

Regardless, days of steady bonding, talking, and trying to connect with the young girl had allowed some small amount of trust to form. Elijah could still see how Mila never calmed down when the others were within reach, how she made sure to have the wall of the wagon behind her so she had a full view of her surroundings, and how the snapping of branches made her wince.

A troubled mind, with scars that weren’t healed so easily.

Elijah couldn’t say if they ever would.

“She was a lucky find when the leader was out tearing apart one of the larger caravans,” Fade explained to them sometime after the worst of the concussion had faded. “A child with an Affinity was valuable in the markets, dead or alive. Others were brought along to calm her down, but they were all forced into those cages before long. Not a fun way to go.”

“How long was she trapped in there?” Aleksi asked, to which Fade could only shrug. The leader’s memories of placing Mila inside were blurry. Nothing of importance to the Force Mage, and certainly nothing that had been given much thought. “Despicable.”

“Those on this side of the law usually are,” Elijah commented. They’d all known it by heart already, but a verbal reminder never hurt. “Which markets?”

“The Castillan ones,” Fade supplied, bringing out the documents that she’d grabbed at the camp. All of it had already been reported to Vera, and they’d been given some minor comments about it that first night, but recovery had taken priority. Even the prince hadn’t been told about this in full detail. “Our former compatriots have been in dealings with this group of outlaws for the past years, but their trading increased in frequency heavily some six months ago. They were given hints on which route would provide the most benefits, and whenever something truly interesting came along the leader sent a message out about it.”

A good deal for the outlaws, a perfect opportunity for Castilla to attain information about the merchants inside the country, and a terrible situation for Serenova. Many of the merchant caravans killed through the months had been of high respect within Kulvik, and it was easy to guess the financial ramifications that would come from a blow like this.

But this was still on a smaller scale. Proof of foreign influences within the borders, yes, but this alone still wasn’t on a level where they had to return to the capital.

“What are the chances of more outlaw groups being connected to Castilla?” Louis asked.

“Almost a certainty, but nothing in the leader’s memories or these documents hinted at them knowing about others,” Fade explained. “No surprise there, since Castilla was always scarce on information to deployed companies, but we’re working on the assumption that other groups are out here.”

Even if they didn’t return to the capital, Vera had altered their instructions to fit around this new problem. The freedom of choice, when it came to picking paths to travel down, was removed, and the most popular route was chosen for them. Likewise, Fade’s recommendation of switching up the positions in the caravan was set in stone, and the prince was made to travel with Elijah, Aleksi, and Mila at the front while the others were in the wagon in the back. Even if all their lives held value, it was made clear that the prince was a priority.

Elijah didn’t object, since the royalty carried such privilege as a standard. He only wished that the passive arrogance of the prince didn’t ruin his focus.

“The others told me your name was Mila,” Louis commented on the first day of their new arrangements. Elijah tried to ignore it, as he read through the detailed instructions on accelerating the regeneration of bone marrow. “It’s a good one. Very regal. Mine’s Louis. It’s nice to meet you.”

In his peripheral vision, he could easily see the lack of movement from Mila, as she stared down the prince from the other side of the wagon. Even if they hadn’t talked in the days prior, Louis had heard the consequences of getting close to the girl, which meant a healthy distance was kept between them.

But curiosity and time had a way of breaking down wariness.

“I know you can talk. You did plenty of that this morning with Sasha,” Louis continued, when the passing seconds made it clear Mila had no desire to do anything but sit without moving a muscle. “Hello?”

Elijah lowered his book the slightest amount when Louis looked ready to make a move, but it wasn’t needed. Mila flinched, Louis froze, and he returned to his original position inside the wagon in silence.

No more attempts were made to talk through the entire day. It was only silent practice, as Elijah did his best to understand the machinations of the flesh while dealing with the idle pain in his right arm. Even when he used the same pain remedy that he’d brewed for Jack, that mild pounding of the blood vessels kept him up during the nights.

At least it was a good motivator to learn.

During the quiet hours of the day, hours could go by without Elijah raising his head from the book. The great tome was filled to the brim with neatly written words and diagrams, forcing him to experiment and reread every page to make sure he truly understood. The act of manipulating flesh through Biomancy was a very complex subject, and that was made clear from the first page alone.

Elijah knew that learning the sub-field wouldn’t be an easy task, but he had hoped for some innate understanding of the bare basics. Something akin to his natural connections to plants wouldn’t have been too bad, and yet there was none of the sort. It was an entirely different framework. Too… fluid in its methods.

Plants were complex, they were prone to change, but their physical structure was an entirely different challenge than human ones. They were more willing to be altered, they didn’t cascade into catastrophic failure when poked the wrong way, and they listened to him.

A sunflower could break, and his guiding words could mend the stalk and make it twice as strong. A broken bone… that was another question.

Human flesh and bone didn’t have the same presence. It wasn’t a single mind that sat within but instead millions of billions of them. To give out one order individually, to guide them like Elijah did the plants, would be impossible, but managing them as a group likewise caused imperfect results.

And imperfections came with instant self-destruction, as the cells of the body refused anything outside of the standard process and speed.

So if I want to both accelerate the rate of recovery and change the final result, it’s going to take more control than what I have now.

It was no wonder that the Flesh Bond Spell was Tier 4 when it had these requirements.

Even so, however, Elijah pushed on. Attempt after attempt, he got a little closer to having stable control over the flow of energy in his body. His forearm was still healing at a faster rate than normal, as he guided the recovery ever-so-slightly. Soon, the world would hopefully recognize it as enough to note down the Spell in his Status.

“What am I doing wrong?”

Elijah looked up from his musings, at the prince’s words. They’d stopped for camp for the night, had eaten, and now everybody but he and Aleksi were meant to sleep while they kept watch.

That fact had been forgotten by the prince, when he settled on the rocks next to Elijah, staring into the fire.

“I need some context here,” Elijah replied, sending a look towards the giant who hadn’t warned him about Louis’ approach. Aleksi just shrugged, throwing some more wood into the fire.

“The girl, Mila,” the prince continued. “She’s scared of me.”

Taking a moment to gather his thoughts, Elijah sent out a pulse through the earth to check on the aforementioned young girl. Just as he’d hoped, she was sleeping cozily inside the front wagon, far away in the lands of dreams and unable to hear him.

“She’s scared of most things at the moment,” Elijah fired back. “Don’t feel shame for being included in it.”

“She’s not scared of you,” Louis pointed out, not backing down yet not meeting his eyes either. “She’s not scared of Jack and Sasha, she’s not scared of that hulk of a man there, but she is scared of my bodyguard and she’s scared of me. Out of everybody here, it’s the Woman of Nightmares and me that’s a problem for her.”

If Fade had been awake to hear it, Elijah didn’t doubt that clear disdain would’ve grown on her face by now.

“The others have shown they are to be trusted,” Aleksi supplied, the ‘hulk of a man’ offering advice where Elijah couldn’t. “They have spent days talking to her quietly, explaining their place in the world to her, and telling her stories. They’ve proved themselves, and Mila trusts them because of that. You have not done this, so you are still a threat in her eyes.”

“But I did try to talk to her!” Louis objected, forcing his voice to be low. There was no reason to wake up the others. “You saw what happened. She didn’t say a word to me.”

“It took many hours of tending to her wounds before she could tell me her name,” Elijah said. “She’s seen you from a distance. A few words aren’t going to help convince her you’re not to be feared.”

Some part of him wanted to explain the issues that came with selective mutism manifested from trauma, but Elijah held back that urge. It would do little to help.

“But… right, yeah, you’re right. I’m being stupid,” the prince said. He looked like he wanted to protest further, to have his views be the right ones, but the reality finally seemed to settle in as he leaned back in defeat. “Can I come back from this?”

“Maybe,” Aleksi said. “Maybe not.”

“Speaking from experience?”

“You could say that.”

Aleksi hadn’t gained the title of ‘Butcher of Verness’ for nothing. Elijah knew that for a fact, having seen the people who had been cut down to make the giant earn that name. There was a reason Aleksi was so careful around the youth these days.

“Well, fine, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try again,” Louis supposed, getting back up on his feet. “More patience, nothing that would make me seem threatening, and… don’t be so quick to anger.”

“A lesson that would serve you well for most aspects of life,” Elijah muttered, making the prince look down on him.

For a moment, Elijah thought he was about to witness the red-faced royal show off his well-known bursts of anger.

Instead, a chuckle left the young man. A brief one, lacking in frustration followed by wishing them a good night.

…

Even the shortest fuses can adapt with time, I suppose.

For the next two days, Louis told them about his youth. Not everything there was, and certainly nothing heavy-hearted, but the tongue of the royal only briefly took breaks. And, before they knew it, Mila thanked the prince for one of the stories.

Neither Elijah nor Aleksi commented on the tears that might or might not have appeared in the young man’s eyes.

Not that anybody had much chance to focus on the scene, as the smell of salt started to steadily be caught by the wind. Though there was still some distance to cover, the small caravan was slowly approaching their target destination.

The port city of Melrond.