Chapter 202: Medical Care

Finally, the enemy felt despair amidst this crazy slaughter, and the low morale brought a chain reaction like an avalanche. At this moment, the enemy’s true nature as non-regular troops was fully revealed. They were not retreating in an organized way, but were scattering in small groups toward the distant wilderness.

In the blink of an eye, all the attackers who could still move broke contact and ran completely out of the strike range of Bolerum and his group. Many of them could not keep their balance while fleeing, and their movements could truly be described as rolling and crawling.

However, even so, George and his group did not pursue. The reason was that they simply did not have enough manpower. Under such a huge difference in numbers, they could form a defensive formation during a frontal battle.

But if they pursued, George’s small group would be like white sugar scattered in clear water. They would truly experience what it means to be swallowed by the vast sea of people’s war.

Before entering the Red Iron Rank, it is hard to survive in a chaotic army. Before reaching the Black Lead Rank, it is hard to influence the outcome of a battle. This saying, passed down through the ages as absolute truth, was something George had no intention of challenging.

Most importantly, if they wanted to capture prisoners for interrogation, there were plenty of them on the ground. At the very least, a large portion of those who looked relatively powerful had been left behind here.

Now they needed to search and see if any of them were still alive. After all, in this world, those with greater strength often held higher status. So, they might know far more secrets than ordinary cannon fodder.

Although George did not expect to learn all of the enemy’s plans at once, he still had high hopes of identifying a few spies hidden within the territory.

However, after George calmed down and looked around, he saw a scene of total devastation before his eyes. The weapons, armor, and shields of the attackers who had just turned into a defeated army were scattered everywhere. Fortunately, no torn battle flags or similar items were left behind. But the corpses still smoking with gunpowder emitted a strong smell of blood.

At the same time, the blood covering the ground slowly gathered into small streams, gurgling past the broken bodies. Not far away, a wounded man was still groaning, desperately clutching his severed leg.

George turned and waved to the soldiers. These veterans of the battlefield did not need orders; they immediately began cleaning up the battlefield. Soon, the few enemy personnel who looked alive and held higher status were pulled out separately. They were the most important captives. Even if they could not be ransomed, they were a very important source of intelligence.

Next were the local personnel who were still alive and not disabled. This group was very likely to become important free labor for the territory in the future—or one could even call them slaves. However, one absolutely could not use such a term. One should say they were paying the price for the crimes they had committed. Otherwise, with a kind Paladin and a Righteous Camp priest standing nearby, would you want them to start fighting each other immediately after the battle?

Setting that aside, George immediately went to the side of Priest Mario, who was treating the wounded, and asked, “What is the situation with the casualties?”

“Two soldiers died on the spot. They were not followers of Our Lord, so I am powerless to help in this matter.” Priest Mario shook his head to give this explanation. Although he had not prepared the spell of Raise Dead today, even if he prepared it a few days later, the necessary conditions would not be met.

Raise Dead is a 5th-level spell for priests. Its appearance can be said to be an important dividing line that distinguishes priests from other professions. After all, bringing someone back from the dead has a very significant impact on the entire society.

In this sense, once a priest enters the Black Lead Rank, they truly have the ability to decide life and death to a certain extent. Although 5th-level spells belong to high-level abilities, they can be mastered at the very beginning of the high-level stage. Because of this, this spell has quite a few restrictions on its use.

Although this spell can restore the life of a dead creature, it can only resurrect a creature that has been dead for no more than one day per caster level. Given Priest Mario’s current abilities, having just entered the Black Lead Rank not long ago, he could at most resurrect someone who died within ten days.

Similarly, the creature’s soul must be free and willing to return. If the creature’s soul refuses to be resurrected, the spell will not take effect.

Moreover, dying and coming back to life is a painful experience. At the same time, restoring the body’s functions requires a significant personal cost.

When the target creature is resurrected by this spell, it will lose one class level. In other words, the resurrected person’s strength will drop significantly. For example, if Hiren is currently at the entry level of Black Lead Rank, after being resurrected by this spell, he will immediately drop back to the Expert level of Red Iron Rank.

This is not the same as the previous state of being just one step away from the threshold. To recover, a very long time of re-accumulation is needed. Of course, for those who have already crossed that threshold, it can save quite a bit of time for realization and understanding.

And if the deceased was not a professional but an ordinary person, this process will permanently damage their health. According to long-term investigations, this damage is roughly equivalent to one energy level. If this causes the target’s Constitution attribute to drop to 0 or lower, they cannot be resurrected. So, for an old man to use this spell to extend his life after death is mostly impossible.

Most importantly, this loss of strength or constitution cannot be recovered in any way other than through retraining. This makes it impossible for the same user to cast it frequently.

Similarly, after resurrection, the target is only restored from a state of death to a state of near death. Everything still requires follow-up treatment. Although ordinary poisons and diseases are cured during the resurrection process, magical diseases and curses do not disappear. These are also issues that need to be considered during follow-up treatment. Do not let the ridiculous thing happen where someone is resurrected only to be killed again by a curse on their own body! No one can withstand such back-and-forth torment!

More importantly, although this spell will heal fatal wounds and repair most damage, the creature’s body must be complete when it is resurrected. Otherwise, the body parts lost at the time of death will not be restored upon resurrection. In other words, the hand that was cut off will still be missing, and the foot that was cut off will still be missing.

A spellcaster who died with prepared spells has a 50% chance of losing any prepared spells upon resurrection, plus the spells lost due to the drop in their power. A creature that does not need to prepare spells to cast—like a Sorcerer—has a 50% chance of losing any unused spell slots as if they had been used for casting, plus the spell slots lost due to the drop in power.

So, even after resurrection, it is not an easy thing to make them immediately regain their combat power and rejoin the battle! Therefore, in war, it is best not to rely on such spells.

Even so, you can still imagine how depressing it would be if George finally managed to kill an enemy, only for the enemy’s body to be snatched back, and within a few days, that guy would appear before George again, jumping and lively.

Even if the enemy’s strength drops significantly, that feeling can be described as extremely frustrating.

So, the best choice after every battle is to take some measures to destroy the bodies just in case. This avoids being disgusted by such things in the future.

Of course, things like this were mentioned by the experienced Knight Val when he was lecturing everyone. Otherwise, with George’s current experience, he would never have encountered such things.

Of course, releasing such a spell requires a huge cost. Not to mention the cost of a Black Lead Rank priest’s service, just the materials consumed during the casting, such as diamonds. A large piece of diamond, according to current prices on the Western Continent, is worth at least 5,000 Gold Coins. This is not something that can be repeatedly recycled; it is directly vaporized after the spell is cast.

Such a price is not affordable for ordinary people. This is why commoners have never heard of such a spell. Even if a family like theirs tried, they could not gather such wealth in a lifetime. Of course, occasionally, the drama of poor people coming back to life is basically the Church’s self-promotion, taking a loss to gain a name. It is like the presidential election in the White Eagle’s country.

Having said so much, of course, there is the most important point: a priest can only use this spell for those who agree with their faith. After all, in this world, a person’s soul will go to the Divine Realm of the Deity they believe in after death. To resurrect someone, you cannot do without the soul!

But to get the Deity to release the soul, there is no other way besides the request of a priest under their name. Let me give an example: You certainly cannot ask the White Eagle’s intelligence department to openly grab people in Tianchao! For a Deity, whether a believer’s soul returns to the Divine Realm to become a petitioner sooner or later is not a big deal. Moreover, the miracle of resurrection is very helpful for expanding and consolidating faith.

As for the non-believers! It seems they are not restricted in this regard. The problem is that except for the first few minutes, no one knows where the soul has gone. Even if you want to resurrect them, there is no way! To take advantage of this loophole, you not only need power but also very critical timing and god-tier luck.

Of course, even if Mario could save the two soldiers in front of him, George would not choose to do so, because they are not worth the cost George would have to pay. Although many people say life is priceless, for an overlord like George, everything can be weighed on a scale.

To him, the value of anyone can be divided into utilitarian value and emotional value. The two in front of him did not even reach the minimum requirement for George to pay the resurrection price.

As for some people thinking this is an act of winning hearts, if you resurrect someone for free today, tomorrow that person might have the same idea. The complaint of “not having enough but fearing inequality” has happened countless times. You cannot make this a normal practice! No matter how wealthy Bolerum Territory is, it cannot withstand such waste! Besides, Bolerum Territory usually does not even have a Black Lead Rank priest.

However, not everyone is unworthy of George paying this cost. Let alone someone close like Hiren; even any professional who has entered the Red Iron Rank and has hope of entering the Black Lead Rank is worth George’s investment. Besides, death in this world is not the end of everything, but the beginning of another life.

Of course, there is a way to kill someone completely. For example, using Greek Fire to destroy the body is the simplest thing. Of course, it is said that priests, working with mages and paying a huge cost, can break through this limitation. But if they really encounter such an enemy, they probably wouldn’t care about this issue anymore.

As for the legendary act of imprisoning or even destroying the enemy’s soul, this could solve the problem once and for all. Unfortunately, not only does George not know such a spell for now, but even if he did, he would absolutely dare not use it casually. Because harming souls will label one as an absolute Evil entity in the eyes of the universe. Maybe within a short time, a dozen Paladins would come to hunt him down. He is living a good life now and has no intention of becoming a villainous big boss!

It must be said that Priest Mario definitely did not expect that his polite remark would cause George to have such a long period of association and reflection. The struggle and helplessness in this were indescribable. After a while, George finally spoke up and asked, “Then how are the wounded to be handled next?”

“Five are seriously injured, but thanks to my treatment and Alamil’s, they are no longer in major danger. However, three of them are too severely injured. One has lost his right hand, and the other two have ruptured internal organs. Unless Regeneration is used for treatment, they will never be able to return to the battlefield again.” Priest Mario did not stop wrapping the bandage on another wounded man with his hands. He just lowered his head and gave George the answer he wanted. As for the minor injuries, he thought there was no need to mention them.

This really is like the style of an Adventurer! Because after every mission, adventurers often make their next choice based on the final situation. Either they quickly move on to the next task, or they find a town to rest and recover. In most cases, they do not fight continuously like an army, needing to consider how much combat power they have left to deploy immediately.

As for the Regeneration spell he just mentioned, that is a spell that clergy members can only master after reaching the peak of Black Lead Rank or even entering the Bronze Rank. Its greatest function is to make the lost body parts of the target, such as fingers, toes, hands, feet, arms, legs, tails, and even the heads of multi-headed creatures, as well as broken bones and damaged internal organs, grow back.

After this spell is cast, if the lost body part is reattached to the target creature, regeneration takes only one minute to complete. Otherwise, it takes about an hour to regrow the new part.

While repairing the missing parts, Regeneration also heals a large amount of damage. Its effect is roughly equivalent to a Priest’s 4th-level Divine Arts spell that heals fatal wounds. It also frees the target from the fatigued or exhausted state and removes all non-lethal damage the target has taken.

Basically, it can be said that as long as a person is alive, this spell allows them to quickly recover their combat power. However, based on known information, the frequency of using this spell is not much higher than that of Raise Dead. So, the next few of them will have to retire.

“Alright! I leave these wounded to your care.” George said solemnly.

Having temporarily finished his current tasks, Alamil, who could now free his hands, stood up and replied, “Rest assured, leave it to us! But do you need treatment as well?”

Alamil was covered in traces of the recent battle. The scratches and abrasions on his armor were quite obvious. His messy hair seemed to be stuck together in clumps due to blood and water. His whole appearance was quite miserable. He no longer looked like the sunny handsome man he was when they first met.

Although George did not know what he looked like now, the few people in front of him were reminding him with their own examples that his condition was definitely not good either. At the same time, his right leg and ribs, which had been attacked, were still aching slightly. Even with the double protection of the Force Field and his armor, it only changed the damage from sharp blades into blunt force strikes.

Moreover, during the previous chaotic battle, George could only protect his vital parts in the midst of the chaotic army. To be completely unscathed, he was still far from that level.

Feeling that his injuries were not serious, George waved his hand and said, “No, no need! I just have some bruises and contusions. It will be fine to wait a little while. Those lying on the ground who are wounded are more urgent. By the way, how is your companion doing?”

“Besides Stone Marx, whose injury is relatively serious, the rest are basically minor injuries. But don’t worry, even Marx’s injury is not considered serious. The current problem is Green Beren and Fral Ursin, who have not returned yet. I wonder how they are doing.” Although Alamil’s words sounded quite relaxed, there was a hint of worry in them.

“You are worrying for nothing. Our situation is much better than Marx’s!” As if speaking of Cao Cao, Cao Cao appears. These two adventurers, covered in rags and mess, appeared before everyone.

Just hearing their voices, Priest Mario drew this conclusion: “It looks like your mission failed!”