Luke found his way to one of the injured people.

  Inspected Integrated: Layton. Rogue. Level 2.

  The arm was gone, twisted off and lying in the grass next to him. Blood gushed out, and his health bar trickled down at a worrying pace. When Tiffany, with her Healing Aura, got in range, the health drain slowed, but it did not stop.

  "This is a problem with my aura," Tiffany murmured. "It's slow. Don't think it's meant to be used as primary healing."

  "I can do this," Luke said, grabbing the severed arm. A wave of nausea struck, and he stifled a burp as he positioned the arm back in place. He delved into Layton using Threads of Mana and keeping Weaver's Eye active. The rogue was unconscious, his face pale. His arm was not the only injury, but Luke pushed the other ones out of his mind. One thing at a time. Fight the overwhelm.

  Using Needle of Life, the damn thing shook and trembled, making it difficult to control the mana threads as he made the first stitch, pulling the skin of the arm together with the shoulder. Knitting the body back together was a gruesome task, even when performing it from within his mind. But Luke focused, pushing himself to work fast.

  "Luke!" Sean shouted.

  Luke slipped, lost his focus with a muttered curse, and looked up to see a massive arm plunging toward him. He got one foot under him, grabbed Triss's arm, and pushed off, throwing them both to the side. The Groll Champion's arm crashed down right next to them. When it rose back up, Layton was gone.

  "Damn it!" Luke spat, giving the Groll Champion the finger in frustration.

  There were other injured, though, and Luke got practice in repairing broken bones, cuts, and slashes. Minor things sustained when fighting the goblins, and the odd crushed limb from someone who'd survived an attack from the Groll Champion. They squirmed and complained under his ministrations, but ultimately thanked him. Most of the time, anyway.

  Triss's spells were adding up fast, and she was not the only one with that sort of attack. The Groll Champion was down to less than half health, but the many wounds and status effects agitated the creature, who got down on all fours and began rolling back and forth in the clearing, crushing those who were unfortunate enough to stand in its way.

  The metal armor warrior from before rose to the challenge. While he was small compared to the boss, he still stood his ground and stopped the rampaging monster for a moment. That was enough. Luke saw the combined efforts of all the humans still alive in the clearing. They all focused on attacking its head now that it was near the ground. Then Triss stepped up next to him, raising her open palm in front of her.

  "Check this out," she said, gritting her teeth while closing her hand into a fist.

  A ripple went through the Groll. Sores opened all over its body, weeping blood and pus as it screamed and shrieked, its health depleting. Within moments, it had stopped moving, dead. The dead monster's putrid stink filled the clearing. Several people vomited. Luke didn't blame them.

  System Message: Congratulations! You have reached level 5!

  Many around them were dead and disappearing, or injured. Luke ran up to the closest person and sent his Needle of Life into them, with Threads of Mana affixed to it, as a Weaver's Eye identified several terrible wounds within the woman's body.

  Luke mended broken bones, seared off blood-spewing arteries with mana, and drained blood pooling inside her skull, stabilizing her. It took him around five minutes. Still slow, but much quicker than his first fumbling attempts.

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  Once her health stopped dropping, he moved to the next person. She was awake, sitting against a rock, pressing both hands to a terrible wound down the front of her left thigh. Her flesh yawned open, her hands covered in blood. Tears ran down her cheeks as Luke sat down.

  "Let me help you," he said.

  "You're a healer?" she stammered, face white, lips trembling.

  "How did you get a wound like this, anyway?" he asked. This was not something from a goblin's blade, nor the crushing attacks of the Groll Champion.

  "I don't know," she said. "It just appeared out of nowhere. That Groll thing wasn't even close to me, I just don't know."

  "Doesn't matter. I'll help you," Luke said, keeping his voice calm. "I'll stitch you back together."

  "Didn't you say you were a healer?" she asked.

  "Shush now," he said, putting a hand on her knee just below where the wound ended.

  Needle of Life punched through, deep into the skin and flesh, went across the wound and into the wall on the other side, tying the thread of mana off before moving into another stitch. The woman screamed and shook, shaking her leg and unraveling the thread.

  "You're hurting me!" she screamed. "It hurts!"

  "I'm helping you," he barked. "Now sit still or you're going to bleed out."

  She leaned forward and pushed him, but was too weak to manage it. "What kind of sicko are you?" she asked. "You'll kill me with that pain."

  Luke snapped his fingers in front of her face. "Listen to me. This is how I'm helping you. It hurts, but you can bear it. I believe in you!"

  Her mouth turned to a line, and her eyes dimmed from the pain. Once she stopped moving, he plunged the needle in again. That renewed her screaming, and she kicked out, her leg catching his arm, and pushed Luke back onto the grass.

  "Goddamn asshole!" she cried.

  "Listen here," Triss shouted. "Keep still or you'll die!"

  A bright glow surrounded her out of nowhere, and Luke watched in astonishment as the wound closed all on its own in less than a second, and her health bar filled right up to max. He narrowed his eyes. No, the wound hadn’t closed. It was still there beneath the skin, open but closing at a snail’s pace. It was the reverse of how Luke's healing worked. Like with the health potion. Quick and dirty with immediate effect that looked a little too good to be true. Because it was.

  The young woman let out a sigh of relief, and color returned to her face.

  "There, that should be better, yes," the newcomer said, walking up to the no longer wounded young woman. He was maybe fifty and wore a white robe without a speck of dirt on it and held a book cradled in his left arm. Thick-framed rectangular glasses sat atop a squat nose, and the balding man pushed the glasses in to keep them from falling forward.

  Inspected Integrated: Richard. Faith Healer. Level 5.

  "You healed her," Luke said.

  "No one in my presence shall suffer," Richard said, holding out his palm toward Luke. "Cause no harm is the creed of all healers."

  "I am not causing harm," Luke said. "A little pain is to be expected, dealing with a wound of that magnitude. Your healing and mine are just different. If she's wounded again before she's restored, it would only be worse. Don't you see?"

  Richard raised an eyebrow. "See? I saw a young woman in need of aid, and my healing restored her. Have faith in my abilities, my son."

  Triss pulled on Luke’s arm. "This old guy is too creepy. Let’s go."

  Luke allowed himself to be dragged away but kept throwing glances at Richard as the man walked around, casting his healing spell and restoring people in an instant. From the looks of him, the spell required no concentration, and it allowed him to heal from a distance. Those were some serious advantages.

  A list of items appeared in his interface, bringing Luke out of his contemplation. This was another raid-specific thing, he guessed, as he began perusing the list.

  Sword of Goblin Slaying: Cut off Goblin limbs with ease.

  Staff of The Magi: +2 Intelligence.

  Leather Armor Set of Stealth: Improved Stealth.

  Ring of Focus: +10 Focus.

  Groll Champion Monster Core: The Core of a Groll Champion.

  Luke was able to select whether or not he wanted each item. Most of the things were useless to him. But the ring would make a real difference. After selecting the ring and monster core, he received a short message telling him the items had gone to someone else.

  He pushed that message away and added all five attribute points from his level up to Vitality. No matter how you looked at it, it would be an important attribute, and he didn’t want the mental aspects to outpace the physical ones too much, since a lot of what he did required Luke to stay close to the fighting. Checking the skill menu without expecting much, he was pleasantly surprised. New skills were available. Perhaps level 5 was a threshold. These were interesting. Interesting indeed. Now, to choose which one he wanted first.