He cut his hand and let the blood drip onto the substitute scarecrow. After nearly thirty seconds, the blood-soaked straw doll gradually transformed into a miniature version of Tsubaki. The connection was complete—but the prolonged bleeding had left Tsubaki noticeably pale.
Bell reached out and lightly traced the bleeding area on her hand. The flow stopped almost instantly, with only a small cut still oozing.
"Oh! Bell, you can heal too?"
To Tsubaki, it looked like magic.
She knew Bell had some unique magic, but healing like this—especially without chanting—was rare in Orario. She hadn't heard a single spell. Did healing magic without incantations even exist here?
Right now, everything about Bell could be summed up in one word—'bizarre'.
"It's just another way of applying what I know."
Bell didn't act proud in the slightest. Seriously, anyone who understood Runes could do this. He was just doing what was natural.
If he hadn't acquired the Rune magic from the Caster Hound, he wouldn't have been able to reach this point. It was thanks to the versatility of Runes that he'd come this far.
"Alright, the link between you and the substitute scarecrow is complete. If you suffer a fatal injury, it will automatically transfer to the doll. But remember—only fatal damage can be redirected."
Bell made sure to stress that point after confirming the connection.
"I got it. I'll remember."
Tsubaki's face was still a bit pale. She'd lost a lot of blood—half a minute of steady bleeding was no joke. No matter how tough someone was, they couldn't handle that kind of blood loss.
An adventurer's blood volume was fixed. Without healing magic to replenish what's lost, the resulting weakness wouldn't go away.
Bell gave a small nod and brought out four more space pouches. Including the one he'd taken out earlier, that made five—just as promised.
"Tsubaki, drip the rest of your blood onto these space pouches. I'll handle the linking."
No wonder he didn't heal all the cuts on my hand.
Noticing the small wound still on her palm and the blood still seeping out, Tsubaki grinned and dripped blood onto each of the five pouches.
Bell waved his hand over them, and the blood was quickly absorbed. The link with Tsubaki was successfully established.
"Done. You only need to wear one space pouch regularly. The others can be stored inside that main pouch. When you need one, just take it out and use it."
"And one more thing..."
Bell lightly snapped his fingers.
Snap!
A faint green glow surrounded Tsubaki's body. As the light settled over her, the dizziness faded, and the weakness from blood loss seemed to vanish, as though her body had been replenished.
"That should count as treatment."
"Whoa!"
Tsubaki looked at her hand in amazement. The cut in the center of her palm was completely healed, and her strength had fully returned. She felt incredible.
"Bell, I remember you sell Rune Stones, right? Do you sell any with healing effects?"
"..."
Bell knew his Rune healing could rival, if not surpass, even the most expensive recovery potions on the market—but this wasn't something he could just sell.
"I'm sorry, Tsubaki, but I really can't sell this."
"You have to understand, a lot of Familia in Orario make a living off potion crafting. If I started selling that kind of Rune Stone, our Hestia Familia might end up in a death feud with them."
Taking away someone's livelihood is no different from taking their family.
The appearance of Rune Stones had already cut into the profits of many magic sword businesses. While the offensive-type Rune Stone available for sale was just one kind and didn't hurt high-grade magic sword sales much, it hit the low-end market hard.
Even with less favorable attributes, a single Rune Stone only cost 100,000 Valis, yet its effects were comparable to a magic sword.
A low-grade magic sword could cost millions of Valis. But for the same price, you could buy dozens of Rune Stones, each one matching a sword in raw damage. That was enough to shake up the entire market.
Bell had only introduced Rune Stones in the first place because he had no choice. If he didn't get his name out there, no one would take the rest of the Rune Stone business seriously.
But now that Rune Stones had become well-known, Bell didn't want new types flooding the market in Orario...
After hearing this, Tsubaki finally realized just how much their own magic sword business had been impacted. She remembered how much of a headache it gave her when she first found out.
"You're right. If those Rune Stones hit the open market, they'd make us some serious enemies."
"When you released Rune Stones back then, it hit our low-grade magic sword business hard. If your Rune Stones hadn't been sold through our Familia's channels, we might've suffered even more."
Low-grade swords just couldn't compete with Rune Stones in cost-performance. Hephaestus Familia had no choice but to phase out that part of the business.
Fortunately, Bell hadn't rolled out more Rune Stone variants. Otherwise, the whole magic sword industry might've collapsed.
Even so, Hephaestus Familia got off easy. Since the Rune Stones were sold under their name, losing the low-end sword market didn't matter—the Rune Stone market more than made up for it. In fact, they sold even better than magic swords and were turning a good profit.
Tsubaki also understood just how many people Bell had offended with Rune Stones.
What made it worse was how good the effects were. There was nothing to criticize—people had no choice but to buy.
Besides the fire-type offensive Rune Stones, both "Weapon Sharpening" and "Self-Enhancement" were bestsellers. Every time they were released, they sold out instantly.
Even though those two sold for 500,000 Valis apiece, buyers still lined up for them.
Tsubaki knew full well—when something works that well, only a fool would pass it up. For adventurers, they were some of the most useful and practical consumables out there. It didn't take long before those three Rune Stone types were selling just as well as potions.
If Bell ever released a healing-type Rune Stone, the Potion-making Familias would be flooding the Guild with complaints.
But Tsubaki quickly thought of a workaround.
"Then how about you do what you did with Loki Familia—supply us with a few special Rune Stones for internal use?"
"...It's not out of the question. But most of them wouldn't be useful for blacksmiths. If you're interested, I can give you a list."
"That'd be great."
...
(100 Chapters Ahead)
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