Empire Building With Infinite Warehouse-Chapter 86: The Infinite Catalog

"Julien!" Alice screamed, rushing forward and grabbing his arm.

Chris bolted upright in the bed, his eyes wide with panic.

"Fucker, what are you doing?" Chris shouted, his rough voice echoing in the small room.

"Are you using your soul or something to heal me? Stop it right now!"

Julien stayed hunched over for a second.

He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and slowly stood back up. He gave them a weak smile, revealing blood staining his teeth.

"No," Julien coughed, shaking his head.

"I am not burning my soul. It is just a lack of mana."

He sold his skills just an hour ago. The system literally ripped those abilities out of his body.

Doing that lowered his overall capacity and left him incredibly weak.

And Master Yin’s ancient healing technique demanded a massive amount of energy to run. He just pushed his body way past its absolute limit.

’My core is empty,’ Julien thought, feeling his legs shaking.

’If I push anymore, I am going to pass out.’

He swayed on his feet, ready to collapse into the chair.

But then he felt a weight press down on his shoulder.

Alice stepped right up next to him.

She kept her hand firmly planted on his shoulder.

Her face was set with total determination.

She was not going to let him fall, and she was not going to let him fail.

"Take mine," Alice said, her voice completely steady and serious.

"Take as much as you want."

Julien looked at her in surprise.

Before he could even argue, the dark silver ring on her finger started glowing.

It was her class ring.

Usually, it radiated a cold, creepy energy when she summoned skeletons.

But right now, she was forcing it to work in reverse.

She was acting as a battery.

Green mana flowed out of the ring, travelling down her arm and passing directly into Julien’s shoulder.

The energy felt strange.

It was cool and slightly wild, totally different from his own warm golden magic.

But it filled the empty hollow space inside his chest instantly.

The green mana mixed with his remaining energy. The glow around Julien’s hands flared back to life, shining brighter than before.

He looked at Alice, and she just nodded at him.

"Keep going," she told him.

Julien turned back to Chris, who was watching the two of them with wide eyes. He closed his eyes and pushed the new mixed energy into Chris’s left arm.

The damage here was actually worse. The left arm took the brunt of the recoil when Chris swung that massive sword. The hidden pathways were completely shredded into tiny pieces.

But the green mana from Alice made a huge difference.

Her magic was tied to her class, which dealt with death and binding souls.

It turned out that kind of energy was incredibly good at holding things together.

Julien used his golden light to clean out the dark corruption, just like before.

Then he used Alice’s green energy like a strong glue to bind the torn circuits back in place. They worked together perfectly.

’This is actually working,’ Julien thought, feeling the steady flow of power coming from Alice’s hand.

’She has a crazy amount of mana for someone her level.’

Chris just watched in total silence. He saw the green and gold light swirling around his ruined arm.

He could feel the deep, aching pressure finally lifting from his bones.

After another thirty minutes of intense focus, Julien guided the final neuron back into its proper pathway.

The circuit was whole again.

The mixed light faded away, leaving the hospital room feeling a little colder and much darker.

Julien let out a long breath and opened his eyes.

He did not cough up blood this time, but he was completely drained.

Alice removed her hand from his shoulder and stepped back.

She looked pale and exhausted, but she was smiling.

"Done," Julien said quietly.

Chris flexed his left hand.

The fingers moved perfectly as the curse was gone.

He was whole again.

Chris just sat there on the hospital bed and stared at his fully healed hands. He opened and closed his fingers a few more times. His eyes started getting a little red, and his lower lip actually trembled. He looked up at Julien and Alice, taking a deep breath like he was about to deliver some massive, emotional speech about brotherhood and sacrifice.

Julien saw it coming from a mile away.

He immediately held up his good hand and shook his head.

"Don’t do it," Julien said, his voice totally flat.

"If you start crying, I am going to charge you double for the healing."

Alice let out a loud laugh and flopped back into her small plastic chair.

She waved Chris off completely.

"Seriously, save the tears," Alice joked, though she was still smiling widely.

"You are the one who took a giant boss monster to the face for us. We are just returning the favour. Now just shut up and rest."

Chris let out a shaky breath and laughed.

He leaned back against his pillows and stared up at the ceiling, looking more relaxed than he had in weeks.

The tension in the room finally broke.

Julien turned around and basically collapsed into the spare chair in the corner of the room.

He rested his elbows on his knees and put his head in his hands.

He was glad Chris was okay, but his mind was already spinning a million miles an hour, and he looked over his fingers at Alice.

She was sitting there looking completely relieved, completely unaware that her missing little brother was currently locked up in a military black site.

’How am I supposed to tell her?’ Julien thought to himself, feeling a heavy knot form in his stomach.

’Hey Alice, good news, your brother is alive. Bad news, he is an SSS-rank prisoner held by a rogue army faction.’

He knew exactly what would happen if he dropped that news right now.

Alice would not even think.

She would just stand up, activate her necromancer ring, and start marching straight toward the Republican camp to fight an entire camp by herself and get killed.

He needed a solid plan before he said a single word to her. He had to figure out how they were actually going to get inside that place.

Julien closed his eyes and started thinking about the logistics.

The republic faction was not just a small group of guys hiding in a basement.

There were ten different camps spread out across the outer edges.

And each of those camps was massive.

They were basically the size of a whole city district on their own.

’I can’t just sneak into a place like that,’ Julien thought, shaking his head slightly.

’I am not a spy.’

It was the harsh truth.

The camps had concrete walls, armed patrols, searchlights, and Awakened guards with sensory skills.

A few hours ago, maybe he could have tried it.

But he just sold his skills to the system to pay for Chris’s healing.

If he tried to climb a fence in the middle of the night, he would probably just fall and break his ankle.

Or worse, a sniper would spot him instantly.

He was physically just a regular, weak guy again. Sneaking around like a ninja was completely off the table.

He needed another way in.

He ignored the brand new Tier 3 menu completely because his bank account was basically empty.

He only had a few credits left. Instead, he navigated back to his standard Tier 1 shop menus.

Julien looked at the long lists of items and realised something embarrassing.

He had been an absolute idiot this whole time.

Ever since the apocalypse started, he had only used the system like a cheap convenience store.

Whenever they got into a fight, he would just buy basic red health potions to stop the bleeding or basic blue stamina pills so they could run away faster.

He only bought the bare minimum requirements to keep his friends alive and completely ignored ninety percent of his own class abilities.

He started scrolling through the endless catalogue of items and saw the bitter root sitting in the Tier 1 section.

That was the same rare root he had given Chris a few weeks ago.

It was the item that forced Chris’s body to break its limits and advance to Rank C.

For a normal hunter, finding an advancement item like that in a dungeon was a miracle. But for Julien, it was just sitting right there on a digital shelf.

He had unlimited access to it as long as he had the credits.