The glitchlings were told to rest and to recover on their own in a bed in the hall. They did so. Kiresula and Kju were told to rest in two beds on opposite sides of the hall while Mayana was treated with spells. Kiresula looked around. Most people looked as if they were in a much worse state than she was. They were missing limbs, had wounds on their faces or in the case of the person next to her, were so wrapped in bandages that no skin was seen at all. She could do nothing but wait until Mayana returned and she did so quietly, trying to keep an eye on the central area and making it patently obvious that she was staring. She was in pain and the wounds were painful and, even worse, itchy, and she tried her best to keep herself from scratching herself as this would not help at all. She just listened to the din of this

place and wondered what would happen to Mayana and her.

After a while, Mayana was released from the treatment room and put into a bed in the room. This one was opposite her, She asked: "Are you okay?"

And while other patients tutted, she said: "Much better."

Due to the pushback, she was quiet afterwards and just stared ahead. Eventually, a nurse came by and offered purified water to the patients who drank eagerly. The nurse came to Mayana and offered her water. Kiresula saw that the nurse spoke with her wife and there were gestures and some back and forth in hushed tones. Kiresula worried about what Mayana got herself into now.

Afterwards, the nurse walked to Kiresula and quietly asked: "This woman is your wife?"

Kiresula looked at Mayana, smiled like a teenager who just got their first date and nodded: "Indeed. She is the one I love."

He nodded, as if this had just been an initial agreement on anything that had to be reached before a heavier topic could be breached: "She had mentioned that it might be possible to modify a healing spell so it worked on glitchlings. She had given me an idea as to how to do so.”

Kiresula nodded and responded: "Yes, this sounds like it should be possible. This is how Mayana created the rods to detect sy... broken magic."

He smiled. "May I attempt to do so?"

Kiresula breathed in, breathed out, then asked: "What is the spell you try to convert?"

The nurse responded: "It is [Minor Heal]. I am sorry, but I have not yet learned any more effective healing spells."

Kiresula gave a thumbs up: "That is fine. If it was a more effective one, I'd be afraid of repercussions if things went wrong, but a minor spell should be okay."

The nurse moved his arms and shaped now invisible magic towards Kiresula, who braced herself with a racing heart. There was a momentary pain in her chest and then, it lifted and she felt marginally better. She checked her status and noticed that she had gained 5 points of health. She gave the nurse a thumbs up and said: "The initial spell establishment was a bit muddled, broken magic is not quite as volatile as regular one, so you cannot just make a minor kushgibi, but you have to both exaggerate it and slow it down a bit."

He looked surprised at this and asked: "How do you know?"

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

She said: "I used to be a teacher of magic. While I cannot cast any healing magic, I know how it is set up."

He nodded and tried again, this time changing the spell establishment to the requirements of her. She then noticed two things: Feeling better immediately and the nurse glowing slightly as if they had just levelled up. She checked her status and noticed a recovery of 50 points. She smiled broadly and said: "This is amazing! I recovered 50 points of health with this one. Ten times as much as before."

He looked in shock: "50‽ This spell should not be able to restore that much."

She explained: "Glitchlings have much more fine-grained stats, so it probably comes from that."

He looked at her uncertainly, but didn't say anything.

Kiresula continued: "Sometimes, things are a bit different for us. Don't worry about that."

He smiled at her: "The [System] has also confirmed that I learned the spell. Thanks for being my test subject. I will happen by later and help. I don't want to overtax either of us right now."

She responded: "Certainly so. Please also go to Kju at the other end of the hall and help him. He too was injured."

He nodded: "Certainly so."

Kiresula then looked at Mayana and gave her a thumbs up. Mayana repeated the gesture to her.

The rest of the day, the group recovered quietly. Occasionally, the nurse, Barish, came by and cast a subtle [Minor Heal] on her as he distributed purified water. In the evening, a nurse brought gruel as dinner, which the patients ate, some hungrily, like Kiresula, some hesitantly. Afterwards, the light was dimmed and the patients could rest and sleep -- or pretend to if

they were, like Kiresula, not in any mood to fall asleep. Kiresula was afraid of the next day, of the Holy Order, of their questions and of the consequences of the group's journey to Ilkshehir and in addition, she was full of regret of what she did and how she made their identities known. She hated herself for what she did and she made sure to put the 5 free points she had into Cunning, in order to decrease the chance that this would ever happen again. As she was silently fighting her own mind and trying to force herself to sleep as if fighting moles with a frying pan, she heard the person next to her sobbing. She forced her mind to the external and to listen. The voice was sobbing about eagles, someone named Metsi, the tree, and always the tree.

Kiresula asked: "Was Metsi a group member on your delve of the forbidden dungeon?"

There was a pause. Then a nod. "When the spire fell, Metsi didn't make it to the tree in time. Who would have imagined that the entire fucking spire would fall?"

"We only realised it because we had an enchanter in our group who could read the enchantments on it." Kiresula said.

The person made a questioning noise: "What was your party composition?"

Kiresula said quietly: "One Enchanter/synthic enchanter of level 42 and 6 who also is a Swift Blade Warrior, one Cleric who also is a Gravitational Elementalist, Level 10 and 3, and one Seferian Mage who is also a Somatic-Elemental Mage, Level 7 and 3. I guess we were so underleveled that even the dungeon had mercy and let us out after the fight against the eagles."

The person thought that his injuries were playing with his head. "Okay, you need to tell me this when I am less zorked. I understand that most of you were under Level 10?"

Kiresula explained: "We didn't expect to go in there. We just... stumbled into it."

The person hissed angrily and quietly: "So, you are telling me that you got out of that thing at level 42 and the rest under ten?! Prove it to me! Cast the Forbidden Fruit spell."

Kiresula asked: "Can you tell me what it does? You seem to know a lot about it."

The person scoffed: "You really don't know?"

Kiresula nodded: "We stumbled in there, without knowing a lot. It is not explained either. So yeah..."

There was a nod: "Eating the forbidden fruit gives full immunity to status conditions for 8 hours. The problem is that casting it depletes all your magic and your stamina."

Kiresula understood: "I see. That’s actually quite convenient. Let's cast it together."