17.

Pain. Crushing pain. My stomach was made of fire, each muscle screaming in agony as I opened my eyes. I hadn’t expected to be able to open my eyes again, and at the moment was regretting that I could. Death was preferable to how I was feeling right now. Every breath was exacerbating the agony of my stomach and chest, enough pain that I actively tried to limit every breath.

The infirmary of this fort was the same as the original fort’s. Simple beds lined the walls. I was pushed up against the far wall, without anyone near me. Turning my head was difficult, but I was able to see a few other forms huddled on their beds around the hall. I ignored them and looked at my bedside visitor. Bobby was sitting on a stool and looking down at me without any sympathy in her hazel eyes.

“I’m alive,” I manage to squeeze the words out. The fire was inching its way up from my stomach and into my chest.

“Obviously. If this was the afterlife, well, I would have to question your choices in life,” she let a small smile escape from her stony expression. Bobby was perched atop of a stool, at her feet sat a bulging bag. Spilling free from its open mouth was a wave of mana hearts. Way too many for a day or two to accumulate.

“How long was I out for?”

“It’s the fifth day. You’ve woken up briefly a few times, but never stay awake for more than a few minutes. Enough time to shove another draught down your throat and then you’re asleep again.”

“How goes it? The status of the refugees?”

“Miguel and Agatha are fine by the way. I’m sure you care about them deeply,” Bobby said drolly. She rolled her eyes as she said it. I felt a connection to the woman, nothing as romantic or frivolous as friendship. We had seen glimpses of each other in that fight, in the blood and snow as we held the gate open. The real us, the facade of our personalities that we presented the world having shattered apart in the bloodshed and chaos. I didn’t hear disdain in her voice as she gently rebuked me, she knew what I cared about more than anything else. She had seen the iron determination, I had seen the bloodlust.

“Anyways, there’s fifty-eight survivors currently. Nine didn’t make it to the gate in time, and we lost another seven on the wall. Speaking of the wall, the attacks at night have been getting more vicious. More of those commander type enemies, waves of the crabs. We’re getting more beasts coming from further inland too. We have to keep rotations on the wall constantly.”

“What type of beasts?”

“Bears from the North, those rabbit wolves from the South East. Also these poisonous crocodiles from the sea. Only in the daylight though, they don’t come with the nightly attacks.”

“That all the mana hearts, then?” I nodded my chin at the bulging bag of hearts at her feet. The crystals were gleaming in the faint light of the infirmary, a temptation that called to me.

“No, these are just from the last day or so. Those that we decided to give to you. The rest of us have been taking plenty of these for ourselves, and we felt bad about you not being able to advance while we were making gains.”

“Others?”

“Just our group. The mountain folk have been leveling normally. It would take too many hearts to bump their stats now. I didn’t tell them why we’re taking them.”

A little relief seeped through me. I ignored the rankle of her telling me that they decided I would have some. As long as our team built our foundations for growth, slow and steady.

“Did you know that you level faster if you don’t use your stats? Or, at least thats what I’m thinking is happening. I’ve been discreet, but over the last day or so the mountain people are starting to plateau. Around level ten or eleven and it starts taking a lot to go up the next level. I’m at fifteen and gaining levels every night. I’m thinking that our experience gain is based on stat to stat comparisons. It’s the only thing that makes sense to me.” There was true excitement in her voice as she talked about her hypothesis.

“I didn’t. Just another reason for us to keep banking the points.”

“It’s getting dangerous. There’s multiple commanders in every wave. Along with their honor guard. If we don’t get them with the scorpions, we risk losing someone every time. Four of the seven we lost have been to commanders. Their stats are way higher than ours, and every wave they get stronger.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“The tutorial is trying to force us to level and apply the stat points. We keep our path.” I was serious about this. The image of Luke’s focused face flashed in my memory, of the sheer dedication of every moment. No wasted time, I had no doubt that he was a true monster now.

“I’ve talked to the others. They agree. Miguel is excited about seeing the bank of points increasing so much. He has nearly thirty free points now too. Agatha has decided to share her hearts with her granddaughter. She’s going to want to keep the girl with us by the way.”

“We won’t be going anywhere anytime soon I think,” I waved down at my bandaged torso.

“I’ve got more draughts for you. Then the hearts. It should have you on your feet by tonight.”

“I’m sensing an edge of urgency. Why do I need to be up by tonight?”

“Another faction finished claiming their keeps. We got the alert this morning. If we were right about the waves getting stronger after every fort and their keeps are claimed, then tonight is going to be rough.”

“Well fuck.”

“Yup. So let’s get you on your feet.”

She proceeded to shave a healing draught down my throat. The earthy liquid was a relief, smothering my pain. The taste of dirt clung in my mouth, even after drinking from a canteen of water. Bobby was nice enough to bring me food and start cracking open mana hearts to feed me. She hadn’t been kidding about getting me on my feet as soon as possible. A stone bowl was used to collect the liquid from the mana hearts. As she broke the brown constitution hearts, one after the other, she told me of the defenses.

“When you went down, I was able to access the fort’s building menu. We’ve been using golems for the last three nights. We get two golems for every constitution heart. I was able to raise the walls by ten feet and add another half dozen scorpions. We’ve been scavenging the armor sets from the bodies of the commander’s. Unfortunately, they don’t change size like the fort armor does. Only a few people are able to wear them, but that’s better than nobody. We’ve killed nine of them so far, not counting the one you got. All the swords have been claimed.”

“Of course they have. Everybody wants to be a swordmaster.” I was feeling better now as the draught worked. It wasn’t igniting an inferno of pain every time I breathed.

“We haven’t had time to use the courtyard to train. Most everybody is learning through real time fights. Miguel managed to find a skill for Agatha though.”

“That should have been earlier in the conversation.”

“A lot has been going on, you’ll have to forgive me for not remembering to say it right away.” Bobby punctuated her faux apology by bringing the small hammer around and shattering a smaller heart in a spray of crystal. I decided not to criticize for a while.

“Here, drink this.” She shoved the stone bowl into my hand, the contents sloshing dangerously close to the edge. I had lost count of how many she had cracked into the bowl, but her bag was half deflated now. I took a moment to appreciate this moment, I had yet to have a single heart, let alone however many it took to fill this big bowl.

It tasted like ass.

Choking it down, a new heat raced through me. Not the agony and pain of having my innards pierced, but like the kill energy. Just more intense. A few seconds later as I shook the bowl for the last few drops, the heat of the liquid intensified. Oh, there was the pain. Similar to heartburn, the most severe case of indigestion I had ever experienced. Bobby took the empty bowl from my hand as I clutched at my chest.

The hammering continued as I waited for the pain to dissipate. After a minute or so, it lessened enough that I felt somewhat normal. Pre-stabbing normal. The intense pain from my stomach had faded away too. Then Bobby was shoving the bowl back in my hand, this time with orange liquid. Only half the volume as the constitution mana hearts had given.

It had a bitter, acidic aftertaste. The surge of energy rushed through me, causing me to spasm. The stone bowl tumbled from my suddenly weak hands, falling towards the ground. Part of me noticed Bobby catch it, and start to crack open more hearts. Two more times she shoved the bowl into my hands. Once with red liquid that tasted like blood, and the second with gold liquid that was similar to pineapple juice if it lacked every ounce of sweetness. I brought up my stats as Bobby collected all the broken up hearts, shoving them into her bag.

Lvl. 11

Perception: 6

Intelligence: 7

Strength: 9

Constitution: 10

Vitality: 6

Endurace: 5

Dexterity: 6

Mana: 0

Gains to constitution, strength, vitality, and dexterity. I wanted to leap to my feet and start testing out my new growth. The twenty-one free stat points in my bank had me salivating at the prospects of future growth. I had gained five levels from fighting and holding the gates. I doubted I would keep that up, killing the commander had obviously been a massive boost of experience since I was only a few levels behind the rest of the team. I had no desire to meet another commander though, not unless it was from the wall as I fired a scorpion at it. That wouldn’t be too bad.

“Happy?”

“Jumping with joy,” I said with a smile. I wasn’t jumping, but I was trying to get out of bed. Bobby offered me a hand, but I brushed it away. My legs felt weak and wobbly; but as we walked out of the infirmary and into the main hall, I could feel myself growing more firm with every step. Also a hunger, regardless if I had just eaten, likely caused by the recent boost in points, it had me ravenous.

“What was the skill Agatha gained?”

“Some type of analysis. It lets her peer at something and figure out its weakness. Uses perception and intelligence. It’s what allowed us to kill those bears and crocodiles. She took one look at them and knew where they were vulnerable. A few well applied bolts and they were dead. I like the build she’s going with as a distance fighter.”

“It’s good to have the distance. We need to find a way to upgrade weapons though. If the tutorial keeps upgrading our enemies, soon we will be so far outclassed that we won’t be able to overcome it. Good gear will help us bridge that gap.”

“When you find where we can get better gear let me know. All the commanders are too big, none of their armor fits me.”

“Also need to get combat skills for the two of us. Were there only two skills in the fort?”

“No, there were more, but the mountain group found them. Basic attacks, nothing special.”

“You let them keep them?”

“They all have higher stats than us currently. Also there’s almost sixty of them and four of us. Five if you count Agatha’s granddaughter Olivia. Which we aren’t. She’s the youngest person so far from the two groups. Only fifteen.”

“Fuck. I’m pissed I missed all this time.”

“Just be happy you’re alive. I don’t think anyone expected you to survive a sword to the gut. It was kinda badass, you know, you grabbing him and pulling him closer.”

“Yeah, I don’t plan on repeating any feats like that any time soon.”

“I think you just jinxed yourself.”

“I did, didn’t I?”