Al was still reluctant to develop his muscles too much this early in his development, so he decided to hold off on that for now at least until he was 3 or 4 ‘That sounds weird’ and to train the best substitute there is on hand, [Body Enhancement]. Al knew from second hand information that Mid proficiency would give the skill a big boost in power, or efficiency, depending on how you see it. He wasn’t sure about High, but he seemed to remember that it did something else.

In any case, for the next few days Al left the skill constantly on, or at least he tried to. He could manage using it on the lowest output, where it barely did anything, for about 75% of the time. He could technically keep it on forever if he was always focused on constantly absorbing mana from the enviroment, but he wasn’t that desperate to level the skill up.

A few days later, and a few night visits to the forest, he got the awaited notification.

[Body Enhancement] Skill has reached Mid proficiency. Mana conversion efficiency is now 150%

“Well dayum!”

He was really happy with the increase. He hadn't encountered anything other than weak and useless Rank 1 beasts these past few days, but this upgrade would help him immensely in any battle against the stronger beasts. It was basically 50% more power for the same price, after all.

Al sneaked back into the building like he always had done these past few days after his nightly hunting, but then remember it wasn't necessary this time sice half of the staff had gone to the village for the weekly resuply run, so no one would be awake at this hour.

Or at least that's what he thought.

Just when he was entering his bedroom, he heard shouts coming from the path leading to the village. He went outside to see the three men that had gone out (all the male staff of the orphanage) coming back. But the oldest one, 'What was his name, Chu-Pei or something? I know it sounded stupid in English' was painfully limping along, one arm hung around each of the other two men.

It seemed they had been attacked by a badger-spine, AKA Sonic boi, and Chu-Pei had taken the brunt of it. His body was peppered with holes, most of them in his legs, but one specially nasty one was piercing where Al guessed his left kidney would be. Most wadn't been pulled out, which was a good thing, but that was probaby because Xhu-Pei hadn't been able to stand the pain, and not to prevent blood loss.

Al was overanalising the situation, but nothing could deny one fact. 'This is all my fault.' Al could've warned the adults that some Rank 2 beasts were now in these woods, but he didn't, just to save himself some bothersome explanations. But it wasn't time to brood now, and he rushed over to see tje state of the man.

"How much time has passed!?" Al asked.

Thet seemed too distressed to realise the question was coming from a 1 year old, and one of them hastily replied "The sun had set not long before we got attacked, and we ran back as fast as we could. We lost the thing after it fell into a pit"

'Ah, I think I know the pit you're talking about' he felt a bit better after knowing that he had been both their demise and their savior. 'So, 30 minutes to 1 hour since the damage... he's saveable' Note, Al was no medic, but he had treated his fair share of wounds, most on his own body, and he knew how to handle a a needle or a lighter. Unfortunately he had none of the two, so he asked for the second best thing.

He looked at the man who had answered him earlier, and by his expression he seemed to have realised he was talking to a child. Al ignored it and commanded him "Bring me a fire gem, wine, and a wet towel"

Then he looked at the other one "You, go wake up the other two." He was referring to Khan-Wan and her female colleage, the two remaining adults.

They both wordlessly went to carry their task, almost as if in a trance.

Al looked at the consequence of his poor decision-making. The man had his eyes clenched tightly shut, thick beads of sweat running down his face. He suddenly clasped Al's arm, and muttered, the strain showing to his voice "what... will happen to me?"

Al felt his expression sour, but he didn't let it show in his voice as he said "You'll be okay. I promise you will pull through this one"

The man's expression changed to that of calm im mere seconds. He had passed out.

Al took the opportunity to inspect the man's wounds. They weren't bleeding too much, so he wasn't in danger of imminent death, but his leg bones seemed to be broken at 3 different points at least, and with this world's medical level, it was unlikely he would ever be able to walk again.

When the adults finally arrived, he told them to move the man inside. He couldn't operate in a freezing winter night after all. Once the patient was laid on one of the futons, Al moved over to the patient. They seemed reluctant, but Al's decisiveness was like a beacon of light in the middle of muddy waters. They knew he was no normal kid.

Al started pouring mana into the fire gem as he went over to his secret stash, without worrying about prying eyes, and grabbed the Horn-ductor. This was no time for puns, but he had baptized the horn some days ago, and there was no going back. The fire gem was starting to get too hot for comfort, so Al placed it on the floor and poked it with the Horn-ductor, sending his mana through the horn instead.

Just when Al felt the gem was hot enough, it exploded into shards.

The four adults in the room panicked, but Al stayed calm.

He started a process where he pulled out a spike, poured wine into the wound, then squeezed it out, grabbed a fire shard with his towel-covered hand and used it to cauterize the wound. The heat from the shards slightly burned his hands even with two layers of wet towel in between, but luckily he had recently improved his Toughness.

After he sealed all the wounds in the legs, he moved onto the kidney.

Je had no hope of doing anything special here other than thoroughly desinfecting the wound and making sure no bits of dirt or spike were caught inside before he closed it. Whether the kidney would regenerate or lose function altogether, it was in the hands of fate. With that, Al could finally rest easy.

And rest he did, since he collapsed on the spot when the operation ended, not waking up until next morning.