8 Having a Party

I looked through Luna's character sheet to see if I could spot any reason for her current state. From first aid training in my past life, I also knew not to move a person with unknown injuries.

Name: Luna

Gender: Female

Race: Canus (Dogman)

Age: 18

Class: Spellslinger

Level: 2

EXP: 6,504/2,000

Stats

HP: 10/66

Status Conditions: Unconscious, Recent Injuries (Broken Ribs, Fracture Femur), Long Term Injuries (Repetitive Strain Injuries, Scarring, Docked Tail)

MP: 90/90

Strength: 14

Agility: 14

Stamina: 11

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 12

Charisma: 10

Skills

Spell Rod Mastery (Journeyman): The skill holder is proficient in handling, using, and maintaining Spell Rods. The skill Holder is now experienced enough to wield in either or both hands.

Slave Marked (No Owner): The Marked is branded with a magically imbued tattoo, forcing them to be utterly loyal to their current owner.

Equipment

Chest Wrap

Tattered Gown

Collar

Pulling out one of the health potions I got from the tutorial, I examined it to see how to use it. I read that one could consume it, or there was a slightly less effective skin contact absorption method. Worrying about the risk of choking, by making someone in her state drink the potion, I chose to slowly pour the potion over her clothes, allowing it to soak into the fabric to make sure it is held against her skin. Activating my Mana Vision, I watched as the magic in the liquid was slowly being drawn into her body and becoming the same colour as the magic that already dwelt inside her. I also noticed that the collar was inert, not magical in any way. Deciding it was safe to attempt removal, I gripped the lock holding it on and crushed it in my gauntleted hands. After removing the iron collar, I watched as the chafed red skin below absorbed the mana from the potion and healed in a few seconds.

Rechecking her status, I noticed the status section no longer listed the recent injuries, and even the repetitive strain injuries had disappeared. The scarring and docked tail remained, unfortunately. Her status also now listed her as asleep instead of unconscious. As I watched her character sheet, I could see her HP slowly ticking up. Wanting to let her sleep it off, I started making some preparations.

First, I recovered the hatchet from my storage to clear a small area of brush, about 7M x 7M in size. The site was about 20 M back from the road, just behind an incredibly dense thicket of trees in the woods. After clearing the foliage, I used my Gauntlets for ripping out any troublesome stumps. Then I followed it up with a few light Ground Smashes, where I had to focus only a bit of mana and power on letting me level out the ground. I received two bonuses from this, first, a compacted earth floor beneath my feet, and second, I acquired a new skill at level 1 that I had not seen in my available list earlier; Mana Control. Pulling the tent from my storage, I was glad to find that rather than a fantasy-esque tent, I looked like a modern tent had been crafted from local materials. Reading the instructions that were included on a scroll, I was able to set up the tent quickly by myself. Thankfully it had a waterproof bottom, so I did not need to improvise a tarp to put under it.

Setting up the sleeping bag inside, I then proceeded back to the carriage. I gingerly picked up the sleeping dog-girl. Taking gentle even steps, I carried her back to the tent and placed her inside the sleeping bag. I brought out a provision from storage. Inside a small wooden box, there was a selection of dried meat, hardtack and dried fruit. I quickly wolfed one down, followed by a few swigs from the waterskin I also had in my inventory. I then placed a second provision next to Luna, as well as the waterskin. Once I ensured she was still sleeping soundly and had food and water if she awoke, I returned to the road where the battle had taken place.

I checked through the carriage, where I found several items of interest. On the back was where the storage trunks had been. Cloth, thread, needles and other raw tailoring materials mostly filled them. I put all of the supplies I found in my storage. I also found a book titled "The Slave Owner's Manual." I put it into my storage to learn more about the slave seal I had seen in Luna's Skills section. There were also provisions, waterskins, silverware, a trunk of money bonds, several luxurious silk robes, pens and partially used stationary, which I pocketed as well. I then used my gauntlets to finish tearing apart the partially destroyed carriage. I stored the scrap wood and a few metal nails and bits of the undercarriage in my storage. Next, I looted the corpses, keeping all the weapons and currency I found. Altogether, I got about 40 Gold worth of coins, quite a few rings from the merchant and half a dozen swords from the men. The axes of the orcs were too crude to be worth much, in my opinion. Using Ground Smash, I dug a trench just off the side of the road where I placed the corpses and leftover armaments.

Arriving back at the camp, I recovered the bench from inside the carriage and used some additional scrap wood pieces and a few of the nails to make a freestanding bench for myself to sit on. After creating a comfortable seat, I next focussed on finding some rocks and digging a small pit to set up a campfire. Using some of the dryer pieces of brush that I had cut earlier, scrap wood from the carriage, and the flint from my storage, I got a warm little fire started. My next task to get things ready for Luna once she awoke. I took out some of the sewing material and the shirt and pants that I had earlier. I then hemmed them to a more appropriate size.

I placed the now comfortably sized clothing next to the tent's sleeping girl, along with some scrap cloth and a washbasin I had found in the merchant's stuff. I also swapped the bag of endless water with three normal water skins after I confirmed that the water inside them was clean and potable. I left the front flap of the tent open. This way, I could see the girls sleeping figure from where I sat on my newly made bench. When she wakes up, I want to show her that I mean her no harm and hopefully get the story of what happened from her.

While I was waiting for her to wake up, I decided to make some additional necessities that I felt I would need and that I surprisingly had not found among the merchant's belongings. Grabbing bits of tree and a knife I had collected from one of the dead soldiers, I started making drinking cups, plates, and a raised bed platform, plus anything else that came to mind.

Before I knew it, several hours have passed, and the sky was now pitch black. The orange glow that radiant from the fire showed me that the sleeping figure in the tent was now stirring and waking up. Pausing what I was doing, I waited until the sleeping girl sat up. As she was looking around groggily, I broke the silence with a, "Hello there."

Her eyes quickly focused on me. "Where is my master?" She immediately asked. "I must return to his side before he notices I was gone."

"If you mean the fat merchant. He is dead." I replied, gauging her reaction to my critical words about her master's eight. I watched as several reactions flittered across her face. Shock, elation, then doubt. "Are you sure the fat, disgusting whoreson is dead?" She spat out.

Upon hearing the words leave her lips, she clamped a hand over her mouth. "He must be dead if I did not feel any pain after calling him those things..." she muttered to herself. She then quickly hiked up her rags as she looked to her stomach, just below her belly button, where a pink tattoo was emblazoned on her skin. The tattoo was a series of ruins arranged into a heartlike shape. There seemed to be an empty spot in the centre, and as she seemed to notice that open spot, she ran her fingers over it before suddenly bursting into tears.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

Raising her head, she saw me looking at her. She then immediately dropped into a deep kowtow on top of the sleeping bag. As she directed evident reverence towards me, she exclaimed, "Thank you for killing that horrid man! I don't know why you did it or what you plan to do to me, but I do not care so long as I am no longer bound to that man."

"I think you have a few things confused.." I stated, trying to get the girl to stop bowing. "I came along after he was already dead."

With that, she raised her head from her full bow to look at me before tilting her head to the side, "Oh?"