Chapter 272: Imperial Ranking War: Hunting (II)

--

The return of the hunting team caused a small commotion throughout the Rock.

Ren already knew why.

His sensory network had been watching the surrounding area for quite some time, and although he wasn’t personally following every single movement of the hunting team, he was more than capable of keeping track of a fight happening within his range.

So when the ten-man team encountered the mutated monster pack, Ren saw it.

He saw how their carefully planned ambush fell apart.

He saw Sieg make that mistake.

He saw the monsters attack.

He saw several members of the team get injured.

And, most importantly, he saw Sieg get exposed to the radioactive contamination.

Ren already knew that the boy was going to be in trouble before they even made it back to the Rock.

That was why, when the doors to the treatment room opened and Aria practically rushed inside with Sieg, Ren wasn’t surprised.

Aria, however, was clearly terrified.

"Ren!"

She rushed toward him, barely stopping herself from crashing into him.

"Please, you have to save him!"

Ren looked at her.

Aria was pale, her breathing was uneven, and her usual composure was completely gone. This wasn’t the calm and elegant Aria that most people in the team were familiar with. She looked desperate.

"Sieg’s chakra is getting worse. The healers already treated his wounds, but they can’t do anything about the radiation. His chakra is unstable and he’s barely responding."

"Calm down."

"I can’t!"

Aria’s voice cracked.

"Please, Ren. You can do something, right? You know how to deal with this!"

Ren sighed.

He wasn’t dismissing her.

He understood why she was panicking.

Radiation poisoning was something they didn’t have a reliable treatment for yet. The GMU had been studying it for a long time, but even they hadn’t developed a proper solution that could simply be used whenever someone was exposed.

And Sieg had been exposed directly.

Ren walked past Aria and approached the bed.

Sieg looked terrible.

The healers had done a good job with his physical injuries. The burns had been treated, the claw wounds had been cleaned and bandaged, and his breathing had been stabilized.

The real problem was his chakra.

It was unstable.

Ren could see the foreign influence inside it almost immediately.

The radiation wasn’t simply sitting inside Sieg’s body. It had interfered with his chakra circulation, making it harder for his body to naturally filter and expel the harmful substances.

Fortunately, this wasn’t as complicated as everyone seemed to think.

Ren placed his hand against Sieg’s chest.

"Everyone, step back."

The healers immediately gave him space.

Ren closed his eyes and began manipulating his chakra.

He wasn’t going to heal Sieg.

That wasn’t necessary.

Sieg’s body was already doing most of the work.

The problem was that his natural resistance was being overwhelmed by the radiation’s interference with his chakra.

So Ren simply amplified it.

His chakra entered Sieg’s body and carefully followed the existing circulation. Instead of forcing the contaminated chakra out, he guided it, strengthened the natural purification process, and gave Sieg’s body the additional support it needed to resist the radiation.

It was a delicate process.

At least, it should have been.

In practice, it was almost ridiculously easy.

Ren’s chakra control had reached a level where manipulating another person’s chakra wasn’t particularly difficult anymore, especially when he wasn’t trying to change anything complicated.

He wasn’t rebuilding Sieg’s body.

He wasn’t removing the radiation through some miraculous technique.

He was simply helping Sieg do what his own body was already capable of doing.

The unstable chakra gradually became smoother.

Sieg’s breathing steadied.

The strange fluctuations disappeared.

The color slowly returned to his face.

And then, just like that, the crisis was over.

Ren opened his eyes.

"Done."

Nobody responded.

The room was completely silent.

Aria looked at Sieg.

Then she looked at Ren.

Then she looked at Sieg again.

"That’s... it?"

"Pretty much."

"But the radiation?"

"His body will deal with the rest naturally. I only amplified his resistance and stabilized his chakra circulation."

One of the healers looked completely bewildered.

"But we couldn’t stabilize his chakra at all."

"I know."

"You did it in less than a minute."

Ren shrugged.

"Yes."

The healer looked like he wanted to say something else, but couldn’t find the words.

Ren understood.

From their perspective, Sieg had been on the verge of a serious crisis.

From his perspective, it wasn’t really that complicated.

This was one of the advantages of having ridiculous chakra control.

Aria slowly lowered her head.

Only now did she seem to realize how hysterical she had been moments ago.

Ren looked at her.

She was clearly embarrassed.

He didn’t blame her.

If anything, Ren found the whole situation slightly amusing.

"Take him back to his room."

Aria immediately looked up.

"He’s going to be okay?"

"Yes."

"When will he wake up?"

"An hour or two, probably."

Ren glanced at Sieg again.

"He’ll also be hungry."

Aria blinked.

"Hungry?"

"Very hungry."

Ren knew Sieg well enough to predict that much. After pushing his body through a fight, getting contaminated, and then forcing his chakra to recover, his body was going to demand a ridiculous amount of food once he woke up.

"Let him eat when he wakes up. Don’t give him anything too complicated, though."

Aria nodded repeatedly.

"And what about training?"

"No training for three days."

Ren’s tone became slightly more serious.

"No hunting, no sparring, and no trying to prove that he’s fine when he’s obviously not. He can practice the Green Lotus Core Technique for fifteen minutes in the morning and another fifteen minutes in the evening. That’s enough."

"And after three days?"

"He should be mostly recovered."

Ren paused.

"If he still feels weak, give him another day or two. There’s no reason to rush him."

Aria looked at Sieg.

The fear that had been visible on her face earlier was finally gone.

"Thank you, Ren."

"You’re welcome."

She carefully took Sieg with the help of another member of the team and carried him out of the treatment room.

Ren watched them leave before turning toward the other injured members.

"Alright, let’s deal with the rest."

The remaining injuries weren’t nearly as serious as Sieg’s.

One member had a badly burned shoulder from the mutated monster’s acidic secretion. Another had several deep claw wounds across his thigh. Lucian had suffered bruising around his ribs and a cut on his forehead, while another member had a fractured arm from being thrown against a tree.

Ren treated them one by one.

Again, he wasn’t doing anything miraculous.

There was no reason to completely heal injuries that their bodies could naturally recover from. That would only waste chakra for no real benefit.

Instead, he strengthened their natural healing, stabilized their chakra, and helped their bodies resist the contamination they had been exposed to.

The treatments were quick.

The healers watched quietly.

They had already done everything within their own abilities, so there wasn’t any resentment toward Ren. If anything, they were simply amazed by how different his approach was.

Ren finished with the last injured member and looked around.

"That’s everyone."

Adrian, who had remained in the treatment room, finally relaxed.

"So Sieg is really fine?"

"Yes."

"Even after the radiation?"

"He’ll recover."

Adrian nodded.

"Then that’s good."

And just like that, the crisis was over.

A hunting team had gone out to hunt a mutated monster pack.

They had been ambushed.

Several people were injured.

Sieg had been contaminated by radiation and was in the worst condition among them.

Everybody had thought they were dealing with a serious problem.

Then Ren showed up and fixed it.

It was almost anticlimactic.

But honestly, Ren preferred it that way.

A crisis that ended without somebody dying was a good crisis.

Ren left the treatment room and returned to his office.

The commotion outside was already settling down. The injured had been taken care of, the hunting team had returned safely, and the rest of the Heavenly Bronze Team had gone back to their usual responsibilities.

There was no reason to keep worrying about it.

Sieg would recover.

That was all that mattered.

Ren sat down at his desk.

The calamity, however, was still going.

That was the real problem.

He looked at the maps spread across his desk.

The Nuclear Fallout had already lasted for two weeks, and there was still no sign that the secret realm intended to reset itself. The pollution was still there, the radiation was still there, and the monsters were continuing to mutate.

The longer this continued, the more dangerous hunting would become.

The stockpile was large enough to support the team for quite some time, but Ren had no intention of becoming complacent. Their resources might be sufficient right now, but there was no guarantee that they would remain sufficient if the calamity continued for another month.

And there was always the possibility of another calamity appearing afterward.

Ren didn’t know what that would be.

Nobody did.

That was why he had to prepare for it anyway.

He picked up a pen and began modifying the hunting schedule.

The number of people sent outside needed to be adjusted.

The hunting teams needed more support.

The temporary runic tattoos needed to be improved if possible. Twelve hours was useful, but it wasn’t ideal when they had to travel farther and spend more time outside.

He also needed to continue monitoring the monsters.

The mutated pack they encountered today was proof that things were changing faster than expected.

They weren’t simply getting stronger.

They were becoming smarter.

That was much more troublesome.

Ren leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling for a moment.

"At this rate, things are only going to get worse."

He wasn’t complaining.

He already expected this.

The Imperial Ranking War wasn’t going to be decided by whoever could fight the best.

Not right now.

The current game was survival.

And so far, the Heavenly Bronze Team was doing just fine.

Ren looked back at the documents on his desk.

There was still plenty of work to do.

The crisis in the treatment room was over, but the calamity was far from finished.

So Ren continued planning.

After all, there was no telling what this secret realm was going to throw at them next.