He grasped for anything. It felt like he was drowning, and standing was out of the question. His whole body ached as though it had been through a vat of acid. He took a ragged breath and turned his head. Tony was still bleeding out, his blood doing nothing to help him as it trickled out. Mel was honestly surprised he was still alive. When he first saw the wound he was certain he would bleed out in minutes. Mel wasn’t injury free either. There were at least three places he couldn’t move without causing intense pain. He didn’t know what bones were broken, but he knew better than to try to mess with them.

He tried to call on the strength he had earlier. The reservoir felt more defined after drawing on it for hours. He needed to get up and help. The pool of something responded quickly by completely emptying out with no effect. Mel laid his head back down. Tony was going to die. Because he couldn’t understand what he was doing.

There was a clatter of metal nearby, and a dwarf emerged from somewhere. Mel couldn’t see all that well, but he seemed to be wearing a soldier's uniform. The dwarf drunkenly glanced at the two before contemplating. “Oi Eikinkast! We got visitors!” He bellowed.

Another dwarf emerged, not nearly so drunk looking who immediately rushed toward Tony. “He’s dying you idiot! Go get some of the medics.”

Mel looked at the dwarf who was helping Tony, before deciding it was okay. Then he went to sleep. Or rather, passed out. He woke up in a stone bed wrapped in furs. His chest was bound with glowing bandages and his legs both had braces. A bowl of cold soup sat on a table next to him, and Mel helped himself to it. It was actually quite good despite being cold. Would have been better hot though.

Well. No one else was in the room, and even if someone told him that the sun itself had exploded, he wasn’t getting out of this bed. He piled the furs back over himself and went back to sleep. He didn’t get long, or at least if felt that way, because a furious looking dwarf with a hole in his leg came to visit. “Sup Tony.” He mumbled while waking up.

“The army didn’t die Mel, they just stayed up here drinking their lives away.” He quietly seethed. That seemed unfair. If they hadn’t stayed, then he would have died.

“I mean, they probably had a reason. Who would willingly stay up here forever. And you gotta consider that no one knew about it. That means not a single person was willing to go send a message or tell people. Even secretly.”

Tony seemed to chew on that for a moment before grabbing a chair out from under the bed. Mel watched as he folded out a solid piece of stone until it was a comfortable seat, before finally sitting in it and assessing Mel. It was odd to see someone look at him so inquisitive. Unwanted too. He was tired, and had important information to process. He had leveled up, he could feel it. He just didn’t want to deal with it just yet.

“I’ll put it solidly. You saved my life.”

“I seem to be doing that a lot since I got my class. Almost makes me think there's a correlation.” He joked. It was actually starting to become a solid belief. It would make sense that there wasn’t a class in existence that wasn’t meant to serve a greater purpose. After all they were designed for a war.

The plain looking dwarf rubbed his chin, very clear in it’s lack of a beard. They were something of a status symbol, only the proudest members of a clan were permitted to grow them out. He knew that because it had inspired a great number of stories about the bearded elites.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Your classes have that much impact on your lifestyles?” He asked quietly.

Mel thought solemnly, before responding. “Some Scholars believe that our class changes the shape of our souls to fit our classes better. Servants find themselves submitting to any figure that acts as an authority. Warriors and Knights often find themselves defending the weak and training desperately, even if just days prior they were coward layabouts.”

“Huh. Oddly similar to selecting an Implement. The choice becomes a defining part of who we are. That's a big part of why I wanted to bond with the city. An artifact of this level could literally make me a leader. It could make me someone who could inspire people. But instead I nearly lost my leg and had to be dragged for hours.”

Mel glanced at the downcast face of the dwarf and tried to muster up some words of encouragement. None came. He was tired, and his entire body ached from the toll of yesterday. He had been so stressed out for such a large portion of his journey so far, and he had seen maybe two things worth it. Three if you counted the weird stone pillar. He missed his parents, he missed not having to worry about just things. It was very clearly his fault too. He kept running into bad decisions and strife. Sure, he ended up helping people, and that was a reward in and of itself, but it was stressful.

“I’ve just burdened you more haven’t I? I’m sorry Mel. I promise I’ll make it up to you. For now, I’ll let you get your rest. I’ll just go find out more about the situation here.” He said before sullenly walking out, crutches doing the work of his injured leg.

Mel watched him go, feeling half sorry. But he went back to bed. It was just so hard to keep a positive outlook up all the time, and he was simply exhausted. The following morning he got up out of bed feeling significantly better. Maybe half of the way to actually wanting to be awake. But he dragged himself out of bed and ate the soup he once again found at his bed. This time it was graced with a small bit of meat, and wasn’t somehow below room temperature.

He got up and tried some stretches. His body did not agree at all. For one, his ribs absolutely refused to let him take a deep breath. Then there were his legs which couldn’t actually handle the weight of his body. The pain was the worst of it though. It felt like the weight of the world was crushing him once again, as the pain made him lean back into bed and give up.

A dwarf in clean white robes gently opened the door. “So how are you feeling? If you're in any pain I can get you some medicine to ease it.” He said soothingly.

Mel gave a small nod and the doctor pulled out a tiny grey disc before asking Mel to stick his tongue out. After he placed the disc on his tongue and told him to swallow it, the dwarf pulled out a small metal rod. “This will help me check on your condition. It is my Implement. It was initially meant to be used to discover the internal stresses in metals, but I figured out you could use it to observe the inside of bodies.”

“How did you figure that out?”

“I stole it from my Carver and poked myself with it over and over. Eventually I figured out I could see my bones. After that it was just a matter of figuring out how to tune the image to what I want to see.” He laughed. “My name is Derik. Tony has been talking about you whenever he takes a break from trying to figure a way out of here. So Mel, my only question for you is why?"

Mel looked at the bright and curious eyes of Derik and felt horribly embarrassed. It was one thing to say it was an impulse decision that you agreed to visit a moving city, and entirely another thing to say that about literally carrying your dying friend to a massive artifact that had wiped out armies. Or rather, imprisoned an army. Shouldn’t exaggerate, especially when the tale is already awesome enough.

“I uh, have poor decision making skills.” He admitted.

Derik looked up from his rib cage before howling in laughter. “Oh man. He was serious. Well damn, you really went through all of this because you wanted to visit somewhere cool?” He cackled.