“What happened?” I asked, ignoring the man’s question.

The girl looked up at me with a wild look in her eyes. “He fell. Please! He’s going to die.”

I gently peeled the blood-soaked blanket back to see a bone sticking out of the kid’s leg. While I’d never done any bone setting, I instinctively knew to apply my mana directly to the wound. It permeated the boy’s leg, giving me an instant picture of just how the two bones in his shin had broken and why it broke through the skin. I also knew I couldn’t begin healing him without setting the bone first.

“This is going to hurt,” I said, rubbing the kid’s arm for comfort. He didn’t reply as he whimpered with his eyes squeezed shut.

“If you can help him, hurry up and do it,” the girl barked, shaking my arm for emphasis.

“Give me a second,” I replied. “I’ve never done this before.”

“You’ve never-?” She began right when I made my move. Her voice was drowned out by the kid screaming in agony my mana forced his bone back into his body. It snapped together, causing more damage to the soft tissue as it passed through.

I went to work on both the bone and the surrounding wounds. Somebody gasped as the external wound began to close, leaving blood as the only outward proof he’d been injured. The bone was another matter. Not only did I need to mend the bone, but parts of it had splintered off and needed to be eliminated. I knew there was bone marrow as well but as I wasn’t a medical professional, I had to trust that the magic knew what it was doing.

I spent a few more minutes working on him and gave his whole body a fresh infusion of mana to make sure he wouldn’t die on me. The girl shook him violently. “William? Stay awake! Oh.”

She heaved a sigh of relief when he groaned and tried to roll over. The man from the clinic stared at me. “What did you just do?”

I stood, looking down at my bloody clothes. “The question is, who are you and why didn’t you help him yourself?”

The man huffed at me. “You should know we don’t treat strays. They have to go to the church.”

I looked at the girl. “Why didn’t you take him to the church?”

She rolled her eyes at me and scooped up the kid. “You’ve obviously never been to the church. Thanks for your help. We will get out of your way now.”

“What are you going to do about all this blood outside of my clinic?” The man barked after her as she slipped into an alley.

I spoke the words as I used the familiar spell manually.

“Pvruzth”

Nothing happened.

“Pvruzth”

I cursed inwardly at the parental block and altered my mana to fire manually. Flames shot out of my fingers and incinerated the blood like a power washer. The man stared at me and asked, “Who are you?”

“None of your business,” I snapped, racing into the alley after the girl.

The others struggled to keep up while I looked around desperately. “Where did they go?”

There was nowhere a normal person could have gone other than crawling up the side of the wall to the roof. A flicker of movement caught my eye and I looked down at the ground. A pair of eyes looked up at me through a mesh grate that was mostly obscured by debris.

The man from the clinic poked his head into the alley and shouted. “What are you guys doing back there? Don’t make me call the guard.”

I sighed and walked back toward the man, careful not to draw any attention to the grate. Casting an angry look at the man as we passed, I said, “We were just leaving.”

I couldn’t stop thinking about what I’d just seen as I stomped through town. We passed by many stores and attractions I normally would have geeked out over. “I can’t believe that just happened.”

“Yeah,” Marcelle sighed. “That poor kid. The girl should have known where to take him. The church would have helped.”

I skidded to a stop. “Would they?”

“Sure,” Marcelle replied. “Just because they are F ranked doesn’t mean they don’t have resources. The church always keeps healers on staff specifically for situations like this.”

“What I don’t get is how a kid becomes F ranked,” I muttered.

Marcelle shrugged. “They were born into it most likely. Kids don’t want to be separated from their parents and refuse to rank up. It happens more than you’d think.”

Looking at a group of people passing by, I leaned in close to Marcelle and whispered. “Is there a way of telling what rank people are?”

She frowned. “Generally, it’s rude to ask someone what their rank is. It’s only obvious in the lower ranks. Otherwise, you can only tell by where a person lives or what they do for a living.”

“Don’t forget about surnames,” Ulli supplied, holding up a finger.

“Right,” Marcelle gave her an approving smile. “And Surnames, though they could have been born into it like I was.”

Scanning the houses in the distance, I asked, “Where would the D and F rank people live?”

Marcelle looked around for a while until she spotted a series of large buildings in the distance. “There, and there. Standard apartment buildings that are out of the way. You can expect to find mostly D and C ranked people living there. You will occasionally find an F but they usually rise to D when they decide to take jobs. It’s hard to afford a place to live without a job.”

“Where do F ranks live?” I asked.

Marcelle sighed. “Wherever they can. It’s different for every town. Sometimes there is a designated shelter for them to stay in. Others it’s under a bridge.”

“They live in a cave just outside of the gates,” a passing woman said. “I saw what you did for that boy earlier. Thank you for that. There isn’t enough kindness in the world.”

Alfred waited until the woman was out of earshot to say, “I think we should take this conversation elsewhere. It’s not exactly a discussion we should be having out in the open.”

We stopped for a late lunch. Alfred guided us to one of the fancier restaurants in Camelot.

King Arthur’s Steakhouse and Tentacles

I cringed as we walked in the door, asking the waitress. “Can’t you just call it surf and turf?”

She gave me a curious look. “Why would we call it that?”

I shrugged and Alfred spoke to the waitress. “Do you have anything with a sound barrier?”

The waitress nodded. “We do, but it requires a deposit.”

Alfred stopped aside when she produced a payment reader. I raised an eyebrow. “Why do I have to pay?”

He tutted at me and motioned to the reader. “I’m the help, right Mr. Unlimited?”

We were led to a booth in the back after I paid the deposit to a booth surrounded by a translucent blue bubble. The ambient noise from the restaurant died the instant I pushed my way through. Ulli slid in next to me before either of the others had a chance, so Alfred and Marcelle took seats opposite us.

A waiter arrived quickly to take our order, poking his head inside the bubble to speak. I scanned the steaks on the list and promptly determined none of them came from cows. Alfred pointed to an item called Riftwalker Steak. “Try this one. It’s delicious.”

I nodded and Alfred ordered one as well. To our surprise, Ulli decided to have one too. Marcelle surprised nobody when she ordered a dish called Tentacular and requested it to be prepared extra spicy.

Once our food was ordered, we started the discussion. Marcelle looked me in the eye and asked, “What is the true purpose of this outing? You said you want to meet the people but you seem fixated on the lower class. If it’s not too much to ask, what exactly is your goal?”

I rested my head in my hands, still not ready to trust anyone with my mission to get back to Kalli. “I don’t know. When I got here, I wanted to see the world and meet people. Then I saw what we saw at the clinic and I can’t get it out of my head. Did you see they went underground from that alley?”

“I suspected as much,” she replied. “We have something similar where I’m from. It’s not uncommon for those people to find lost caves and structures to live in.”

I sighed. “I want to see this for myself. You don’t have to come with me. I’ll teleport back if I get in trouble.”

“When are you going to learn?” Marcelle asked. “You don’t get to make that decision. If you go, I’m going.”

“I want to go,” Ulli added, bouncing up and down beside me. “It’s like an adventure seeing what you’re gonna do next. I didn’t know you could use healing magic.”

I held up a hand in front of my face. “I learned with Kalli. It all started when she was sore after working out.”

A lump formed in my throat. I had to get back to her. Alfred saved me from the awkward moment when he cleared his throat. “Driving for you is never boring. I’ll come along as well.”

Marcelle had to stop me from trying to shovel food down my throat so we could get out of there. Alfred chuckled and said, “You don’t want to rush this. The Riftwalker is quite delicious when prepared properly.”

“But can’t we get this back at the tower?” I asked, dipping a slice of steak in a thick green paste. It was gamier than beef but melted in my mouth. The sauce had a tart flavor that enhanced the natural juices of the steak.

“Yes, you can,” Marcelle replied. “Alfred is not permitted to use the kitchen on your level. I’m afraid the food he has access to in the tower is nowhere near as good as this restaurant.”

“That sucks,” I said. “You now have a standing invitation to join us for dinner every night.”

Marcelle gave me a stern look. “You do realize that means you’ll have to eat dinner every night now, right?”

“I can make the sacrifice,” I replied, realizing there was a whole universe worth of food I had yet to try. “Alfred can tell me what’s good.”

“What’s wrong with my suggestions?” Marcelle asked with a smirk. To emphasize her joke, she sucked a tentacle into her mouth with a loud smack.

We snuck into the alley beside the clinic. It was the only access point to the underground that I knew of. Fortunately, no eyes peeked up at me when we got to the grate. Reaching down, I grasped it in both hands. It didn’t budge at first, so I was forced to infuse my body with mana. Using Merlin’s advice, I went with the flame element for a burst of strength. To my surprise, the grate not only lifted but went flying in the air

“Oops,” I said as it landed on the roof of the clinic with a clang. “Let’s go quickly before that doctor comes out to see what the noise was.”

Alfred went first and then I lowered the girls one at a time into the darkness. I went last, dropping several feet into running water. At least I hoped it was water. It didn’t smell bad in any case.

“Which way?” Marcelle asked, looking both ways down a long round tunnel.

While I still had the God Eye trait active, I was starting to wish I’d given myself God Ear as well. I could see perfectly well in either direction but both paths turned and I couldn’t tell what lay beyond. As far as sound went, all I could hear was the running water beneath my feet.

“Let’s go this way,” I suggested, deciding to travel against the flow of water.

We trudged through the path for a while before the tunnel opened up into a wider chamber. At the far side was a set of stairs leading up. At least it was dry up there. We made our way up the stairs and entered another long hall. About halfway down the hall, we heard it.

CLANK

The door behind us slammed shut. Ahead of us, a group of men entered the hall. The one in the front wielded a crudely made spear. I summoned my mana blade.