Ahren Fagan, the 77-year-old Irish PC with the unique class, Meridiancer. Logan had met this man some time ago, figuring out that he had declined the quests given to him after too many bad experiences. Though still keeping his powers, Ahren decided to stay in Avanar after settling down with a new family and using his powers to double his lifespan.

Being able to affect the meridians found within people, Ahren could send his power through the nodes and connectors to both flush them of impurities or block their accessways. One such ability, clearing them, piqued Logan’s curiosity in the past but didn’t believe it would immediately help him.

Logan kept himself fed with good food, was healed often by Marcus, and kept himself far from disease with ample use of the Clean mick. However, with the addition of regeneration to his plans, as well as finding it took time to take root due to several factors, the abilities that Ahren held could speed up that process.

Explaining this to his PC ally, Logan was pleased to answer most of the questions given to him. He talked about the trolls he had killed, as well as the other vial being gifted to a cursed Devout to aid her life’s worries.

Moving into the backrooms, Logan saw why Ahren had spent so much time in them whenever he came around.

Shelves were lined with glowing herbs, vials of fluorescent liquids, and dangling lanterns that held within them light sprites. The most otherworldly materials, however, were several stretched pieces of parchment showing diagrams of the humanoid body and its inner workings.

Logan couldn’t help but think back to hospital rooms, where they showed similar depictions. Ahren was only missing the busts of men cut in half to show the interior organs.

Taking off his coat and shirt, Logan stood against the wall as Ahren moved an apparatus on the wall to examine his height and the varying shapes of his muscles.

“I could hit you willy-nilly, but I think you’d not like that. Even a wee walk would feel rough after hitting the wrong spot.”

Logan sighed, “It’s fine. It’s like back when I was young.”

“Go to the doctors often?” Ahren asked as he made notes on parchment.

“Yeah, usual child illnesses and scrapes. I went more as an adult with my dad.”

“You got any conditions?”

“No, it was ‘for’ my dad.”

Ahren took on a more serious look, “Sorry to hear. You did mention him last time you were here. Is it serious?”

“Kind of… I think. He’s been falling asleep at bad times, and forgetting things.”

Finishing the measurements, Ahren moved Logan to the centre of the room and moved some of the lanterns around to get a better look at his patient. “That’s why you wanted to go back?”

“One of the main reasons, yeah. But, he should have helpers to see him through.”

“Your choice of saving Marcus’s life, for whatever anyone will say, was still a ‘good’ choice to make.”

“That’s what I tell myself.”

Ahren looked over his notes, then back at Logan in the light. The Irishman’s eyes lit up a faint green before he took a quill and dotted Logan’s body in several areas.

“Do this much for other people?” Logan asked as he looked at the dots, feeling a slight tingle with each poke.

“Only for three others. My wife, my partner, and someone else that I trusted with this knowledge.”

“You use your powers in this way offensively against many?”

“Yeah. Leaves a lot paralyzed, or numb. It makes fighting opponents quite easy if it works.”

“Guess they are all dead now, right?”

Ahren stopped for a second to think, before continuing to dot Logan, “Yeah. I aimed to keep myself a secret. All records of ‘Oracles’ note that they all died on their journeys. I didn’t want to end up like that, after what I experienced.”

“There’s bound to be more out there that hid themselves too”, Logan hoped.

“Certainly some PCs from below, yeah”, Ahren spoke with a bit of vile in his tone.

“What do you think about this kynecain?”

“Keep your eyes open and the ears perked, something like that… it feels too familiar.”

Logan agreed, it was better to be safe than sorry. He didn’t need to be too cautious in the capital, however, but his next job would take him out more than not.

“All prepped. Take on a good stance, don’t want you falling over”, Ahren instructed as he put down his tools.

Logan took a low and grounded stance, and moved his arms slightly to the side with clenched fists.

Ahren drew up his hands, his hands sparked with electricity before they flowed blue mist. The mist swirled around to his fingertips and made his nails shine slightly. Sweeping a leg behind himself on the floor, Ahren kicked off the ground and landed an index and middle finger poke to Logan’s heart.

A shockwave of cold power washed over Logan, he could feel his heart beating furiously. It was alien, as if it wasn’t part of his body any longer, but a parasite sucking in the blood from his veins.

Logan’s arteries felt as if they clogged up with a thick mist, enlarging within his frame and making his entirety feel tight.

Even with the intense surge of power, Logan’s lungs didn’t feel it at all, he didn’t need to gasp for air, and his instincts didn’t make him sigh out either.

Another jab from Ahren’s other hand went into three marks across Logan’s chest that went to the side and up to his neck. Power continued to rush through the wires that transported the liquid of life around his body. His skin prickled with goosebumps as his hair stood on end.

Stepping to the left, Ahren poked Logan’s arm all over, spun around to the back and did the same on the reverse. With the final jab into his shoulder, Logan felt it go numb and droop to his side.

Ahren moved to the other side, deadening the other arm. Moving to Logan’s front, Ahren let loose a flurry of jabs across Logan’s chest and stomach, this time Logan felt the need to breathe in, though it was quickly pushed out as Ahren spun around to his back to let loose another barrage.

Jabbing into Logan’s neck, the Spellthief fell to his knees as Ahren grabbed his shoulder to pick him up for even more stabs. Twisting him around, Ahren poked Logan’s forehead, sending him into unconsciousness.

Logan awoke sometime later atop an operation bed. It felt as if someone had pushed several wires into his body and cleaned him out entirely. He could feel the blood running through his interior, he felt each organ shift and move, and he felt small sparks at the back of his head.

“Why does it feel like I am piloting myself”, he asked rhetorically.

Ahren walked over from the side as he looked over his patient, “You’ve been refreshed. You’re ‘reconnecting’ everything. How else do you feel?”

“Like…” Logan began as he clenched his fist and wiggled his toes, “like I have a lot of space inside of me?”

“Good, that’s all the space your impurities were taking up. You’re in the ‘prime-iest’ of primes. Doing something similar to myself makes me feel like I’m 20, and not 77.”

“Like a brand new car”, Logan teased.

“Without the new car smell. Damn, you’re making me feel nostalgic for Earth things.”

Logan swung his body to have his legs dangle over the edge of the bed, “So, is that everything?”

“Yep. I handled your lower body when you were sleeping. The top part is easiest while awake.”

“So, it all went well then.”

“No complications at all. I noticed you had a lot of ‘funk’ in your head though. That’ll be down to emotional conflicts. It will build back up again, and I would suggest trying not to think about the bad things, but that’s kinda impossible without focusing on something else intensely.”

“I hear you there. But I will say, my head does feel free”, Logan replied as he brushed his hand through his hair, “Am I good to have the regeneration applied now?”

Ahren’s eyes lit up green again as he looked over Logan, “Yeah. From what I can tell, it should take an hour to complete.”

“Wow. Those powers of yours are quite handy. It’s gonna take the other person a week.”

“The curse combined with impurities in the body, that’ll lead to such a time. It’ll take less than normal since they got a healer on hand to help it along.”

“A week is ‘less’ huh”, Logan thought aloud.

“I prepared the solution, all you have to do is drink it”, Ahren announced as he pulled out a pint glass of shifting clear liquid.

“Where’d the colour go?”

“I know a thing or three more than the average healer. This is how you’re meant to prepare it to get the best effect.”

Logan looked at the concoction, it had a faint smell of blood but otherwise was inoffensive. Raising the glass, the Spellthief downed the drink. Ahren’s eyes stared at Logan’s neck, almost following the liquid as it passed through the man’s system.

As time went on, Logan could feel a slight itching across his insides and his skin, he could feel the potion doing its work. Logan’s physiology was changing once again, though at least this time it was consensual, and not like when he was abducted.

At the end of the hour, as the liquid felt like an icy drink in hot weather through his inners, Logan saw a window pop up with his newly acquired ability.

“That’s a load off my mind”, Logan thought aloud.

“Ay? It work then?”

“That it does. Don’t need to worry about paying for regeneration services anymore.”

“That’s nice then, ain’t it? So, what we looking at?”

Logan explained the specifics of his new ability.

“Stronger in some ways, worse in others, but then the trolls had the third tier of this, right?” Ahren confirmed.

“That they did. It doesn’t note anything about how it’s stopped, so I will wager that fire won’t stop it as it does for trolls.”

“We are biologically different”, Ahren noted passively.

“It will help with the Bloodcasting penalties too”, Logan mentioned as he looked at the last line of the skill, allowing him to recover 20 max HP when resting.

Ahren sighed as he rolled up pieces of parchment, tied them in string, and threw them into his own inventory. “I was expecting nothing to go wrong, glad to meet those. Was there anything else for today? You were out for a bit, but you got some light left.”

Logan stood from the bed and started to put his shirt and coat back on, “Any information on Identification expansion yet?” Logan asked, remembering he had asked off handily about how he could remove the lock on his skill.

“Ah, yes indeed. This is what you’re after”, Ahren replied as he pulled out another piece of parchment from his inventory, handing it to Logan, “A ‘vaskt’. A breed of spider that carries a nucleus sort of core for their eyes.”

Logan glanced over the parchment, a depiction of a 10’ monstrous spider with countless eyes that almost reached the back of its head.

Ahren continued as he stretched out, “Bring that to me, and I can sort out a potion for you. Or, make it yourself. It’s not too hard.”

“Any idea to its strength?” Logan asked as he pocketed the parchment.

“Hard to find a lot on it, through just alchemy channels, but you’re looking at levels 15 to 25.”

“So, it could be quite difficult to bring down then”, Logan replied as he stroked his chin.

“I’d suggest you bring your whole array of spells to the conflict. Either way, they are ‘rare’ one could say. Keep an eye out for a quest to kill them.”

“I can’t get you to hire me, right?” Logan chuckled.

“Could do with the legs, but money is tight for what it would make even if you did pay me for this purifying service. Sorry.”

Logan didn’t take it too harshly. Working the “System” to his advantage was profitable, but it had to be at least somewhat truthful on one side. He couldn’t just give Ahren the money to pay him, nor buy the potions off him in return. He had tried something similar in his experiments before.

“That should be everything I need. Thanks a lot, Ahren.”

“No worries. It’s nice to be able to flex the real me. People asked a boatload of questions with my dialect in the beginning.”

“Same here.”

Saying their farewells, the pair parted from one another. Logan didn’t have to empty his pockets for the procedure as Ahren was more than willing to help out a fellow in a familiar position.

Teleporting high into the sky, Logan teleported to the floor outside the G-Hall, yet again shaking the nearby villagers. Some were getting used to it, but the city had many people that had yet to see and hear his blasts of wind on arrival.

Entering the hall, Logan saw numerous adventurers sitting at tables looking for party members, plenty at the boards to pick up new quests, as well as the counters at the back handling many completed ones.

Adding himself to the group investigation of the quest boards, a dozen wide wooden holders for parchment after parchment stood in front of him. Scanning them quickly, Logan was disheartened to find no such quest to hunt a vaskt. However, since it was such a strong monster, he would find a handful of warnings about its threat compared to his previous assessment of rank 8.

“I’m close to level 17, as good a time as any to get my reassessment before it gets higher”, Logan thought to himself.

Gaining 8 ranks in around 40 days wasn’t unheard of, with Logan’s antics in the Frost Monarch’s Cavern and all his hunter work it was actually to be a bit expected. A level every five days was bound to be accepted, he wasn’t dead and he took on more hunts than most people due to his outward role as a diviner. It was fast though, for how high he was getting.

Making his way to the counter, Logan waited in line for a while before getting seen to.

“How can I help you, sir?” a middle-aged, dark-haired man asked.

“I’d like to sign up for reassessment, please.”

“You’re in luck, we have an evening assessment session in a couple of hours. Would you like to join that?”

“Sure, that’d be best actually”, Logan replied as he placed a tower of 10 silver on the counter.

Taking note of his signet, the man went a bit wide-eyed at the number of quests that Logan had done. Though, Logan was sure it was due to his hunts, not anything else, as he saw the man eye up Logan’s hunter gold armband.

“Please bring this to your reassessment, Sheepdog”, the man asked formally as he handed the normal forms to Logan.

“Will do.”

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