Chapter 41: A Cold Situation
Finn got out of the room and stretched his body. It was still early in the day, not even sunrise yet, but he was already exhausted from all the midnight activities. "I suppose with how low my stamina is now, it’s a given."
That said, he didn’t want to go straight to bed without doing anything, so he set up a few traps again so he could have more fresh meat when he woke up.
He also went near the corpses and went to the shrubs near them. At the very least, it was unlikely for anything to attack him with a small mountain of carcasses in the way.
After getting a few handful of edible fruits, he placed them in the kitchen before he dragged himself back to his bed for a little power nap.
...
He woke up after a few hours with several stat points already recovered. The first thing he did waking up was to check on the patient, with a bowl of new crushed leaves, of course.
She was breathing softly and evenly, and his eyes fixed on her for a few seconds more than proper as he replaced his poor attempt for first aid.
The leaves had already lost some luster and dried out, and he carefully took them out to replace them. When he saw that the wound was already scabbing, he couldn’t help but flinch.
"She’s already healed?" he asked, surprised. Didn’t they say the extra high recovery rate was only for the innkeeper? Did her level—whatever it was—give that much recovery buff?
The rate of healing was akin or even superior to him, the dormant Innkeeper, right?
"Well, regardless, it’s good that she’s recovering well," he said, turning his attention back to the sleeping beauty. He looked at the scabbing wound, messy with old and older bits of paste, and he felt bad that he couldn’t clean up anything.
He could only be reassured that they wouldn’t get infected because what kind of healing facility would allow that to happen?
Bored, Pang shrugged and about-faced. "Well, I’m getting hungry, I’ll wait outside," he said. The panda gave one last look at the now-occupied sofa, which was his usual space to lounge about, before really heading out.
Finn shook his head as he focused on his task. He was very gentle in his application of the replacement paste, afraid to disturb the woman.
It was just that, just as he was finishing the treatment, the beauty abruptly opened her eyes.
Finn gasped when he saw the incredible shade of crimson. It was...ethereal in appearance. Even gems like rubies could not compare.
Similarly, they were now wide in shock at the sight of him. "YOU—"
He gasped, also surprised, gesturing to step away from the bed. He also lifted his hand to show he was harmless. Sadly, it was too late.
[Statis Snap]
He felt his body literally turn cold from the feet up. His eyes widened as he literally saw his body getting frozen from below.
"Wait—"
His eyes twitched.
Ah, he forgot that he had made her an exemption to the rules for a few hours...
"Who are you?" she asked, velvety voice stern and cool, her expression guarded. "Where are my items?"
She had, fortunately, left his head unfrozen. His entire body, including his two hands that were unconsciously up, was stuck. "Check the table p-please," he said, shivering.
The cold was starting to get painful. It felt like he would lose an appendage if this lasted longer.
The woman turned her head to see her pouch and an intricate token at the side. Seeing her items relatively untouched, her guardedness softened a bit, though unsurprisingly still high up.
Judging her as willing to listen, Finn immediately explained his situation. "You c-came by my h-house and used my b-b-barrier," he said, teeth chittering. "You also left quite a few monster corpses at my doorstep."
This seemed to be enough to jog her memory and she flinched, immediately embarrassed at the misunderstanding.
Further, the vague dream-like memory of warmth
passed by her head and her red eyes flickered. The eyes that looked guardedly at Finn changed subtly, and Finn wasn’t quite sure what to make of it.Immediately, the ice around him cracked, bursting into small granules as they fell down the floor underneath him.
He also watched as she raised her palm and literally took away the water left in his clothes, completely drying him up. He blinked when the small water ball disappeared, evaporating into thin air.
He gulped. He was really thirsty. Could he drink that?
It was here that the door burst open, and it bounced the so-called spirit. "I felt an anomaly here!"
Finn sneered. "Yeah, a year ago," he sarcastically snapped.
"Huh? You weren’t here a year ago."
"Where have you been?" As the spirit of the inn, maybe he could’ve stopped the attacks on him in the first place if he had been here.
"I was checking the meat," Pang said, shrugging. He meant the traps of course. "The traps are empty though."
Finn couldn’t help but cross his arms as he glared at the casual panda.
While he didn’t feel much hostility from the elf, what if it were other people who did want to hurt him?
Hey, did that mean he could really get attacked while inside the inn?!
"Don’t worry la, if there’s true hostile energy, this Great Spirit would’ve been alerted much earlier la," the panda said. "She probably just wanted to question you. It’s not our fault you’re so much weaker than we are."
"..." Wow...the gaslighting...
The woman watched their interaction quietly, though she couldn’t help but look away in embarrassment. "I apologize. And you have my gratitude."
This made the brewing argument stop and the two turned to the elf. Finn couldn’t help but stare at her. He cleared his throat.
"I have been wanting to ask this but..." he paused. "Do you have water?"
He saw how she dried him instanateously and took out the water from his clothes. Just the sight of the clear liquid made him parched!
"Potable water, I mean," he quickly added, afraid she’d give him dirty water because he wasn’t specific enough. "I’m quite thirsty right now, you see."
"A-Ah," she said, summoning what was probably a water bottle from somewhere and handed it to him. It was also a waterskin like his, but it was much better made and more intricate. The outer lining looked like it was made of silk, too.
Of course, these details didn’t interest him for now. He quite literally just gulped it down and exhaled a long sigh of relief of finally, er, lubricating himself.
"That was great! Thank you," he said, taking several more sips. At least that was the plan. He ended up consuming the whole thing. "Err..."
Damn. How shameless of him. She needed water, too!
Seeing him like this, the elf’s embarrassed expression softened to a pretty smile.
"...I’m sorry."
"It’s just water," she told him, waving a finger and condensing some more water in the air. The small water snake moved gracefully around him, ending up on the waterskin. "You can drink as much as you want."
Finn brightened at this. "Thanks! This is gr—"
At this, Pang practically slapped his leg. BANG!
His eyes twitched. It was a light tap, but his knee buckled. It actually kind of hurt!
He was about to chastise the spirit when he heard its next words. "Ask her for essence cores!"
This made Finn flinch, the words of annoyance dying in his mouth.
Oh.