Darion slowly woke up, and his eyes stared at the lazily moving roof fan. He gave a heavy sighed, for he recognized the place. He is now again a residence of the base field hospital. He'd been sent here during training so many times he lost count.

A pretty woman wearing a doctor's jacket approached his bed. His peripheral vision noted the rows of other medical beds on each side of him and the other row opposite his own side of the room. He noted that there are only a third of the 50 odd beds are occupied today, so he concluded that it is a slow week for the doctors. There are times when his visits are so full that he thought the staff is doing the age-old medical triage just so they can manage the volume.

"Darion," The doctor said. Her long black hair is in a neat ponytail, and she adjusted the glasses demurely resting in her aristocratic nose. Darion always finds the smattering of freckles on her neck as cute, but he never said anything to the doctor since she is one of those no-nonsense types.

"Doctor Sinclair," Darion greeted her and nodded back to her. He squirmed slightly since he is fully aware that he is naked under the sheet.

Doctor Emma Sinclair stared at the young man a bit longer than necessary. Despite the bravado he posed like every other young buck, he always finds it intellectually intriguing that somehow, this boy has a special spot in her. There is a kind of naïve vulnerability and a psychic hurt in him that you just want to nurse to health. Like a bruised puppy. It didn’t help that he isn’t aware of how boyishly handsome he is.

"I've been treating your wounds for several weeks now, and I've probably seen more of your body than your girlfriend," She said with just a twinge of annoyance. "Call me, Emma."

Despite his bruised body, Darion couldn't help smiling at her. "How much of my body have you seen then?"

"I said you can call me by my name," She said bluntly. "It doesn't mean you can start flirting with me."

"Well, I can only try..." Darion said lamely.

"Please," She said, while she wrote something in her datapad. "Your puppy eyes don't work well with me. I'm a cat person. Besides, I don't like handicapped people."

That sobered him up when he remembered the crack sound he heard from his ankle before he fell. His eyes involuntarily looked at his cast covered left leg. "Shit, how's my leg?"

"You're a vegetable for the rest of your life."

Darion winced. He tentatively tried to wiggle his toes, and to his extreme relief, it moved without any problem. He knew the bedside manner-challenge doctor is joking, but he is still glad when he receives tentative proof that she was joking. He glared at her.

"Oh, stop being a pussy," She said. "It was just a severe case of a sprained ankle. You'll be walking in a few more hours."

Darion blinked at the doctor. He definitely remembered hearing a snapping sound when he turned. "Are you sure, Doc?"

She nodded wearily. "I know what you said to the medic that you heard a crack noise. And the initial x-ray did show broken bones. But after we opened you up and prepared a standby awakened with healing skills, we realized that the x-ray was wrong. Your bones are intact, although there is some flaring with your muscle tendons.

Darion kept a straight face. As the doctor talked, he saw a minimize message in his peripheral vision, and when he opened it up, it answered some of his questions.

Congratulations! Due to your diligence, you are able to unlock the new power: Accelerated Healing

Requirements: CONSTITUTION 1

Current level: 1

Description: Every level you increase this skill will double the speed of your natural healing until you reach level ten, wherein you will have almost instantaneous healing, including growing severed limbs. Warning, if your head is severed from the rest of your body, then no amount of healing will save you, and you will die.

Effect:

4X speed of natural healing

He slowly closed the message with a thoughtful look on his face, ignoring the doctor's

bored diatribe.

Okay, that explains a lot, Darion thought.

“Are you listening to me, young man?” the doctor said, annoyed.

Darion stared back at her blankly. What was she saying again?

Unexpectedly, her eyes grew softer as she misread Darion’s silence. “I know the training is tough, but you are actually doing great. Just hang in there, Mr. Libinski, and sooner or later your hardship will pass. You just need to endure another week.”

Darion’s eyes twinkled at that. Oh, don’t worry doc, He thought excitedly. I’m going to milk this training for all its worth.

“Thank you, Doc,” Darion said

“Emma.”

“Thank you, Emma,” he said instead.