Rona, The Healer

Miles opened his eyes seethingly, and looked around. He was in the forest, and there was a campfire nearby. He looked at his body and realized he was covered with gauzes. Besides the necklace on his neck and Coin on his arm, the rest of his upper body was naked. He wasn't feeling any pain, and there was a warm current swirling inside his body. All in all, he was comfortable.

Miles looked around and failed to see anyone. "Coin, where am I?"

"Coin?"

He looked at his arm and realized Coin was turned off. There was a turn-off button at every wristwatch for safety. After all, humanity never trusted AIs and wanted Mother AI to put a switch for safety purposes, but how did Coin get turned off, and who healed him?

Miles pressed the power button to wake Coin up.

"Good morning, buddy," Miles said with a smile. For a reason, he was feeling happy.

"Miles, watch out, the witch, the witch—" Coin started to warn Miles as soon as he was awake, but he was cut off by someone, "Who do you call a witch, you dumbass?"

Miles turned to look at the speaker and was surprised to see a woman with long white unkempt hair. Her hair was touching her thighs and was really messy. On her face, there were tattoos covering her skin, even her face. They were strange motifs in the shape of stars, moon, and lines. With the monster skin clothes she was wearing, she indeed looked like a witch.

"Hello." Miles smiled and thanked, "Thank you very much for healing me. How can I pay you back?"

"How do you know it was me who healed you?" The girl was taken aback and looked at Miles warily.

"I can feel the energy inside me resonating with yours," Miles said, unsure. He just felt the source of the warm energy inside him was the same as the girl's. But he couldn't understand why the girl was looking at him like that. Then he realized what was going on.

"Are you hiding from someone?" As soon as Miles said that, the girl's pupils dilated to the limit. She looked like a cornered animal about to attack for its survival. Miles understood what was going on as he put everything together. It was easy, really. She had a rare healing element, and if she didn't have any backing, her situation would be expectable.

At first, Miles didn't realize why the girl dressed like that, and only thought she was lost, maybe hunting a monster and turning back to the stronghold wasn't convenient. But when she heard that Miles could feel it was indeed her that healed him, the girl got scared. After all, Miles was only a puny Grace-Rank hunter. He shouldn't have been in touch with energy, even if he knew its existence, he shouldn't have sensed that the energy in his body actually belonged to the girl.

But Miles wasn't a normal G-Tier, he indeed started to use energy not long after he entered the Portal World. If it was a normal person, they would die, but because Miles had used Strengthening Serums, he was able to cope with the side effects, although it caused a wreck in his body, he was able to survive. And as he kept on using it while strengthening his body even further, he was able to use it without any side effects for a time now. It wasn't really hard to feel that the energy in his body was similar to what the girl was emitting. It was like smelling. It was second nature for Miles.

"Did they send you? Are you here to hunt me?" The girl looked at Miles with her guards up.

"C'mon now. Why would anyone send a helpless Grace-Rank hunter after a Form-Rank?" Miles shook his head and asked.

"Right." Girl let her guard down a little, but asked again, "Wait. You were able to kill that Frenzy-Rank monster. Then it only means you are strong enough to hunt me."

"I nearly died when fighting with that monster. If it wasn't for you, I would be deader than a nail." Miles refuted.

"Right." Girl approved once again, and pondered, her chin in her hand.

"You said I was able to kill the ram?" Miles asked. He passed out when ram clashed with him, so he didn't know if the monster was dead or alive. He thought it was a girl who killed the monster and healed him afterward.

"Yeah, by the way, I took the orb as a payment to heal you." The girl said with a manner of protecting her treasure.

"Sure, thank you once again for saving me." Miles smiled and thanked again.

"Are you not going to wager over it? It is pretty strong." The girl was surprised to see Miles wasn't interested even a little bit. It wasn't greedy at all. All the people she knew were greedy after all. Treacherous, greedy bastards.

"Of course not. Also, I can't make use of it even if I take it. So paying for your services with it is a better option for me." Miles was sincere to say so. The most precious things for him were his life and Coin. Since the girl saved one or possibly two of them, he was more than willing to let the girl take the orb. He wished he could pay her more. After all, what the girl did was a selfless act.

But his words had a lot of different impacts on the girl. She felt her whole world was crumbling on her.

"How long do you live in the Portal World?" Miles asked, pulling the girl out of her stupor.

"A few years I guess." She said without realizing then looked at Miles and asked, "So what are you doing in F-Circle?"

"Long story short, I was here to watch the Graders Competition, but then had to return by myself," Miles said.

"That is impossible. You can only enter and exit the arena through a special device, and cannot leave its premises." The girl looked at Miles with doubt.

"I guess I have to explain from the start." Miles sighed and explained how aliens were discovered, how an alien declared war and canceled the system running the arena. With every detail, the girl's mouth opened more and more as he spoke. She was surprised to hear so much happened while she was hiding from those chasing after her.

"I am Miles by the way. Sorry for my late introduction." Miles said after the girl somehow calmed down.

"My name is Rona." The girl said but was too distracted. "Shit, I shouldn't have said my real name." She outburst with panic.

Miles sighed helplessly, as he tried to calm her down. But the girl was too afraid. Miles tried to learn who was after her to help her, but she didn't speak about it no matter what. After eating the ram's meat they said their goodbyes and both went in different directions. Miles and Rona exchanged their information, and Miles told her to call him if she were to return to Earth. He would do his best to help her, any way he could.

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