I picked up the thin piece of rock in front of me, it was cold to the touch. It had been partially underground when I’d found it, so that wasn’t surprising. The odd part was how round the surface was, it reminded me of pebbles that had been smoothed by a current, but it wasn’t shiny. It had an almost dry feeling? It was smooth without blemish, but it wasn’t slick to the touch. I knew I could snap it into pieces if I wanted to, but I wasn’t sure if that was because I’d gotten much stronger or because it was weak. Maybe both?

More than that I was curious about what else the large object we’d been prodding was made of. Other than the rock obviously. It was likely just some sort of weird plant, but it was odd in general. I could feel my and Aureus’ curiosities feeding off of each other. Just what was this weird lump of rock and plant, why was it just sitting here while we probed it with mana and rocks? Maybe it was just some random rock thing I didn’t know about, an Underhollow living rock or something?

I could hear Aureus take a quick breath through his teeth, “Ow…” He muttered as he cradled his hand. The moss started to fall next to him as the boulder unfolded. The sharp point at one end lifted up above where Aureus stood, spines started puffing out in all directions as it got its feet underneath itself. It puffed up and stood to its full height and I realized it was much larger than I’d thought possible, about the size of a semi truck maybe. How in the world did it look smaller before? That wasn’t the most shocking thing about it though.

“It’s a fucking dinosaur…” I mumbled, “A dinosaur?!” I said again, but louder and more bewildered.

Rather than a dinosaur it was more like a creature that resembled our depictions of one, but didn’t quite match any that I knew. The pointed ledge was apparently a beak of some sort or something. It stood on four legs, but had hand-like feet in the front with long claws. The body shape itself was hard to get an idea of since it was lost behind the quills that stuck out in all directions. A portion of its back though was obscured where what I then assumed actually was its shell stuck to its side. It looked as close to a carnivorous triceratops mixed with a hedgehog as I could imagine. Though it lacked the iconic frill it still had the horns and was more reptile than mammal.

“I don’t… I feel weird…” Aureus slurred out. He was looking tired and was still clutching at his hand.

“Shit. Shit, shit, shit,” I cursed as I scooped up Aureus and started running off into the treeline. We should run right? I mean he’s hurt, we don’t know anything about that… thing… I rationalized our retreat as I quickly but carefully weaved my way through the vegetation. I snuck a look over my shoulder as it roared. It wasn’t following us? I slowed to a stop hesitating. It never even tried to come after us. It just sat back down and began to curl back up again. Its skin, which I’d only just noticed had changed to a darker green, slowly started adjusting back to the color of its shell.

I hadn’t even gotten fifty feet away and it was already ignoring us again, I wasn’t sure to be scared or relieved. What if it has a mother? It clearly has some sort of shell or rock or whatever that is. It did just roar, so maybe that was it calling for her. Or not? I don’t know. I glanced down at Aureus, his complexion was turning dull. His normally bright rose gold was dimming and turning a bit green. And for the first time ever, he was sweating, quite profusely at that. I examined his status and my heart dropped.

~~*~~

Poisoned

Description: User has come into contact with cerapin poison, and will continue to lose 1 HP per minute while the user has the debuff status. This debuff inflicts other debuff(s)

Time Remaining: 2:59:43

~~*~~

~~*~~

Delirium

Description: User will be inflicted with confusion and lack of awareness of their surroundings. They may also suffer decreased abilities in other mental faculties as a result.

Time Remaining: Dependent on [Poisoned]

~~*~~

~~*~~

Hyperthermia

Description: User is experiencing internal and/or external temperatures excessive for their constitution. They will experience a reduction in stamina and mental clarity. User may also experience nausea, vomiting, rapid heart beat, shallow and/or rapid breathing, and excess sweating.

Time Remaining: Dependent on [Poisoned]

~~*~~

He didn't have enough HP, he couldn’t last three whole hours. Fuck! Fuck, what do I do? I cursed while I ran deeper and deeper into the forest. I didn’t know which direction I was going, I just ran. There wasn’t any way I was going to make it out of that forest without Aureus anyway. I dodged hanging vines and jumped over bushes while my mind raced. I need to level up. That’s the only way he’ll have enough health to get through this. I tried to relax, it was a clear solution, we haven’t really killed anything in the forest anyway so there should be plenty of XP around. I tried to reassure myself despite the fact that I hadn’t run into a single monster since we landed, well… other than the pincushion that hurt my baby.

After I had put what I felt like was enough distance between us and the perpetrator I popped up the camper. It barely fit between the trees and I carefully swaddled Aureus’ body into blankets out of habit, but he threw them off in a fit.

“Hot! It’s too hot. Stop smothering me…” his voice trailed off as he tugged at his clothes. They were already soaked and clinging to his skin uncomfortably. Duh! Mia you idiot. I chastised myself, he was burning up. I shouldn't make him hotter. I picked him up from the couch where I initially laid him and brought him to the bathroom. I needed to cool him off. I stripped him down and made a makeshift bed from as many blankets and pelts I could and set him down in the shower. The shower water would help with the heat… probably. I wasn’t really sure what to do or how to take care of a sick and feverish child, and I couldn’t make ice like Aureus could so that was the best thing I could come up with.

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“It’s going to be alright darling, I’m going to go level up and everything will be fine. Don’t worry I’ll be right back.” I choked out and tried to suppress my tears. His body was heating up quickly undeterred by the water pouring down on the both of us. I was starting to get worried that he would be dehydrated soon or the heat would cook his brain. I turned his head down and to the side, I didn’t want him drowning in the shower water or vomit if he ended up throwing up. The whole process he’d been muttering random nonsense, the clearest thing he’d said other than asking me not to smother him was him cursing out the monster that landed him in this mess.

I caressed his face one more time and looked around the room frantically, “Am I missing anything? Do you need anything?” I waited for a response but nothing. “Okay.” I said to myself with a deep breath,“I love you Aureus.” I cringed when my voice cracked. I wanted to sound confident to assure him. I wanted him to know everything was going to be fine, but was it?

Don’t go. He had been slipping in and out of consciousness. Stay here.

I’ll be back soon. I rested my forehead on his for a moment and swallowed my tears. I didn’t want to leave. I didn’t want him to suffer through it alone, but I had to go. He needed help, and every second that passed was wasted time. Three hours wasn’t enough and I didn’t have any way to heal him anymore, not without Reid or his lackeys. Should I have stolen one? Maybe I should have loaded emergency healing spells on my staff. Fuck. Why hadn’t I done that?

And then my mind wandered to things I didn’t want to imagine. What was going to happen if he died? Would I lose the abilities I gained from him? Could he come back when I finally got to level 50? Or would that be a new familiar in the shape of him, someone else? The skill said that they were independent creatures not summons. I was spiraling, how long had my heart been pounding so loud I could hear it in my chest? I pushed open the door to the camper and stared out into the forest. I was overwhelmed, I didn’t know where to start. We had barely even set foot there and now I had to level up again? I was struggling to think clearly.

Damn it. We just leveled up, I’ve barely killed anything and now I need over 100,000 XP just to get to the next level.

Scanning the tree line nothing initially stood out. What I needed was a large amount of moderately easy monsters to slaughter, but all I could see were trees, vines, and mushrooms. Fuck, there had to be something I was over looking, a better way to hunt or something. Just wandering off into the forest was a surefire way for me to lose track of Aureus for good, but I needed to venture out or I wouldn’t have anything to kill there clearly wasn’t anything around here. I debated for a couple more seconds and ultimately decided to attempt to leave a bread crumb trail of sorts.

After the last few uneventful weeks I’d managed to get a nice 29% mastery over elemental manipulation. Which I initially considered impressive, but now I felt it wasn’t even remotely close to enough. Every so often I had to stop and plant my palms to the dirt to create a little earth obelisk to ensure I could find my way back. It was such a waste of time.

I got nearly a hundred feet away and a few obelisks built, but still hadn’t found something to kill. Either there still weren’t monsters in this area because of what I now assumed was a field boss, or I just wasn’t seeing them.

Where are they? Are they hiding? Why would they? That doesn’t make sense. That thing that threw stuff at us as we flew over the forest seemed aggressive enough. Am I not that enticing of a target so they’re ignoring me? How am I supposed to find them if they won’t come to me? I don’t want to get too far from him…

Everything around me started to feel further away, like I was underwater. I started to get the chills and my heart rate increased. He’s going to die if I can’t find something. I need to do something. I clung onto the newest obelisk I’d created and tried to breathe, but no matter what I did I couldn’t get enough air. I need… I need… I need… Fuck what do I need to do? How can I? I ran my hands through my hair as I rested my forehead on the cool stone and cried.

“What am I going to do?” I muttered, my mind started going blank. Emptying itself of everything and anything as I stared at the timer on Aureus’ debuff. 54. 53. 52. Seconds ticked away. It’d only been about twenty minutes but it felt like hours. Messages zipped past it to the side. I hadn’t opened or really glanced at the GGC since I’d left my house weeks prior. But a phrase in one of the message previews caught my eye:

“Dumbass forgot about the shop.”

I groaned as my emotions lurched through excitement, shame, and anxiety. I can’t believe I forgot about the shop. God I’m stupid. I thought as I opened up the shop tab and searched for poison antidotes and health related items. I was open to anything, health potions, one time use healing items, or even just herbs that would be used for detoxification. Anything.

Unfortunately for me, the shop completely relied on a bartering system at the time. As time went on the crystals found in monsters and other universally valuable items would become one of the common currencies, but that wouldn’t become a regular practice for quite a while. Even if it was one at the time, I had already consumed all of mine.

A pit was forming in my already flipping stomach as I looked through my barren inventory, I didn’t have much of value. Most everything I owned was useful only for my own niche needs. A saddle for Aureus, my equipment, a moderately used bone weapon, blankets, pelts, meat, potatoes, and various other monster byproducts. Sure, they weren’t useless, but medical items were a rarity and extremely expensive. And selling my equipment was a last ditch effort, it might be more dangerous than helpful.

I began to wrack my brain, thinking that there must be a way that I could haggle something useful out of someone. Rather than sales listings with prices, items were put up in various categories and either people offered a trade to the seller or the seller listed what items and quantities they were looking to trade for.

“What even… are these items?! Slime extract, ice essence, groad(?) tar??? These are common enough that people accept them as default payments? How would someone even have 1,000 of any of these? I killed plenty of slimes and never got any items out of it!” I whined.

[ “Witch of the Wellspring”: Hey does anyone know anything good for poison? ]

I anxiously sent out a message to the guild executives’ chat, pacing in circles around the obelisk while I waited. As the seconds quietly passed by. After a few minutes I gave up, and turned to walk back to the camper.

Ding.

A message came back and my breath caught in my throat, not because I was excitedly checking what response I got, but because something hard and blunt slammed into my back sending me staggering forwards. I didn’t fall but it knocked the wind out of me. Of course. I thought to myself, it was just my luck that when I decided I didn’t want to find something to kill that they would pop out of the woodwork.

I instinctually leaned against a nearby tree while I heaved in an attempt to breathe properly again. My vision swam with stars due to lack of oxygen, despite that I closed my eyes tight for just a second before I searched for the creature that attacked me. My untrained eyes glided through the trees ineffectually, the blurring of my vision didn’t help. I didn’t even know what I was looking for. Motion? Eyes? Anything that resembled a threat? Regular animals in a rainforest type ecosystem were already exceptionally good at blending in with their surroundings and camouflage. I still expected to be able to see something. My comfortable experiences since awakening and a false sense of superiority led us to that point and I was still stupidly expecting to excel. The only thing on my mind at that moment was detoxifying Aureus, I didn’t even consider being in the middle of a monster ridden forest.

I never caught sight of the assailant as several more softball sized objects were hurled towards me. Awkwardly I sidestepped some of the projectiles, but others I clumsily shot out wind at to deflect them. My shoulder thudded into the trunk beside me when I tripped over something while trying to avoid getting hit.

You! Move! Aureus screamed through our connection. And for the second time that day I lurched forwards because of a strike from behind. I fell awkwardly into the gap between the obelisk and tree, smashing the shit out of my shoulder in the process.

Aureus?! I yelled back, I could feel the heat radiating off of him and his small hands wrapped around my waist. Before I could turn to check on him a loud thump sounded and a sharp pain shot through my leg.