Victor woke last to see them cleaning up the camp. “You sleep like a log.” She looked at him a bit astonished.
“Yeah I tend to never wake up in the middle of the night unless someone wakes me up.” Victor noted.
“MY MAGE NEEDS HIS BEAUTY SLEEP!” Cawthorn crowed.
“Thank you Cawthorn, you a beacon of confidence in an uncertain world.” Victor gently pet Cawthorn on his head. Cawthorn closed his eyes completely engrossed in the experience.
“MY MAGE NEEDS CONFIDENCE! HE IS EXCEPTIONAL!” Cawthorn insisted.
“We should get going. My arm is definitely broken. Best guess is a month to recover and every day I have to walk it gets one day longer to heal.” Gargrim sighed.
“So you’ll need 30 days of rest not just 30 days?” Victor asked.
“More or less, if it’s more serious then even longer is possible. So kindly let us go.” Gargrim noticeably didn’t have his gauntlet on his left arm and had used a leather strap to sling it to his neck.
“Do you think we will encounter more enemies?” Victor asked.
“If we found a troll I’d be shocked if this road had been cleared recently by adventurers. This is one of the most dangerous situations for an artifact hunter I’m far from my goal, wounded, and on a dangerous path. If we encounter another troll or I didn’t have the two of you I’d have to go back and hope the town wouldn’t get attacked for a month.” Gargrim noted. “It’s unlikely but it might happen and I’d still die.”
“Is this area known for monsters?” Victor asked.
“Mostly low level monsters, the issue is the mountain range you see to the north. It divides Peria and Hoxal and the massive amount of dangerous monsters there forms a natural border. The monsters that live there are very powerful with it being rumored that a tier 7 party disappeared in the network of caves. The caves are also strange because people have a notoriously hard time finding their way out. It’s possible you see many more powerful monsters as you get close to the border. If you two can’t take the monsters we encounter we will go around. We can’t risk a fight like this.” Gargrim nodded.
“But like what level range could we expect?” Victor asked confused.
“Any tier 2 to tier 7 monster could appear here. Your crow, Cawthorn was it? Cawthorn is our best hope to stay alive.” Gargrim nodded as they walked.
Serena grabbed his head. “If we encounter something like the troll we are not fighting it. Full stop. Do you understand?”
“Well we-” Victor started.
“Do you understand?” Serena gripped his hair hard and shook his head back and forth. “If it isn’t something we have an advantage against we avoid it.”
“Fine.” Victor resigned himself really wanting to reach level 10 for the specialization but wanting her to be happy far more.
“Cawthorn can you scout for us?” Victor asked.
“OF COURSE MY MAGE!” Cawthorn took off his wings flapping aggressively to get ahead of them.
“Cawthorn is great. I really like his attitude.” He nodded as Cawthorn took off into the distance. Victor opened Swordie and added. “You could learn something from him.”
“Like common?” Swordie asked.
“Touché” Victor replied.
“Sir I have something to discuss with you in private.” Swordie wrote noticing Serena looking over at him.
“I lack that, you can tell all 3 of us.” Victor noted.
“No sir, I cannot.” Swordie insisted.
“Is this curse related?” Victor asked.
“Yes.” Swordie added.
“I will be honest with both of you Swordie knows about my curse and everything related to it. He needs to speak to me privately almost definitely about them. If I walk behind the two of you will you promise not to listen in?” Victor asked.
“I want to but won’t.” Gargrim nodded.
“Aw come on! Just tell me. I’ll keep it a secret.” Serena protested. “Fine.” She pouted with her arms crossed. “I promise I will walk in front of Gargrim to avoid listening in.” The two of them started walking away until they were able to just barely see Victor around a corner. “IS THIS FAR ENOUGH?!” She shouted.
Victor held up a thumb and started walking after them. “Ok go ahead.”
“I believe the abomination is watching us.” Swordie noted.
“Isn’t he always ‘watching’ me as you put it.” Victor asked.
“In a sense yes, however I believe he is intent on actively pushing you to your limits on this trip to increase your level. Your skill Luzuzal’s Promise Rank 6 is not currently active. However I can sense it being active anyway at a lower rank. When I brought up your status sheet to analyze it I realized you actually have an invisible skill. Luzuzal’s Promise Rank 1 invisible skills are very similar to hidden skills but are completely hidden from the status sheet even the owner of the status sheet.” Swordie explained. “This skill isn’t nearly as benevolent as the other one by my estimation; it seems to have duration of 1 hour remaining. Ordinarily having the same skill at different ranks is impossible, a higher rank of the skill overwrites the lower one. However given it’s source I am not shocked that it violates normal rules.”
“Okay but is that bad?” Victor asked genuinely curious.
“On its own it might be acceptable however that is not what occurred in the previous encounter. Gargrim noted the troll should not have arrived in front of you yet it did. Gargrim could have done that without being hurt, he even made a comment about getting old. If he intended to increase your level then he wouldn’t have let Gargrim get hurt. He intends to kill Gargrim.” Swordie stopped.
“You can’t be serious.” Victor pointed out. “I’d gain far more levels with him than without him.”
“He needs you to suffer sir. He needs you to lose and to feel the suffering of that loss. Gargrim is a crutch that aides you. You must face your delusion and deepen it after encountering something that damages your dream. That will likely empower him.” Swordie became very serious and underlined his response. “ He does not have the same goals as you . You are a tool to him.”
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Victor started to panic and began hyperventilating. “What… What can I do? There’s no reason to tell me this if you’re just going to make me terrified right? You have to have a suggestion!”
“It’s dangerous. Extremely dangerous and I hesitate to suggest it but can think of no other way to resolve this without fatalities.” Swordie stopped.
“Don’t you dare mess with me right now. What do you want me to do?” Victor practically begged.
“Sir, you’ll need to nearly die. You need to use your newly acquired Vitality Boost to take a few hundred damage and then win the fight allowing the vitality boost to lapse immediately after that. If you do this you’ll remain at 0 health until you effectively regenerate all of that health. It’s a status effect unconscious. They lack enough potions to make you immediately conscious. This is extremely likely to kill you, and if you do it not even Gargrim can be told. No one can know. If Gargrim does live he cannot stay with you.” He noted.
Unconscious: If you would lose maximum health causing you to drop below 0 or are under the effect of a skill that delays or prevents death you must heal to full health before you regain consciousness.
“This isn’t the time for credit, we can’t let him die.” Victor insisted. “Isn’t Luzuzal watching me right now?”
“The abomination could be reading me but he’s currently ahead of us helping to set up a monster. I can sense his absence. I’d explain how but it’s best to think of it as an angel’s sixth sense. It pains me to say this. I know that you will use this plan. It’s something I believe even you sir would figure out this plan before it was too late. The issue is that you must risk your life.” Swordie stopped almost seeming to stop knowing how Victor would respond.
“He’s saved my life already; don’t I at least owe him mine?” Victor asked.
“Regardless of your choice do not speak of this again sir, unless I bring up that Luzuzal is not around. He will be enraged if he knows that you know about that skill.” Swordie noted.
“I understand Swordie, from the bottom of my heart thank you for everything.” Victor nodded.
“Sir if this is the last time we see each other, it’s been a beautiful and short journey learning what the best mortals can act like.” Swordie created a picture of him as an angel saluting Victor.
Victor nodded to him wiping a tear from his eyes. He tried to collect himself breathing deeply trying to stop panicking he started to run toward them. He reached them out of breath and the two of them turned to him. “Sorry for that.” He sniffled and took a deep breath. “I had to deal with that.”
“Your curse must be exceptionally bad.” Gargrim noted.
“What’s wrong honey?” Serena asked.
Victor immediately turned with a smile. “Honey?”
“What’s wrong?” Serena sheepishly corrected herself.
“No no, the other one.” Victor smiled.
“What’s wrong honey?” She asked this time much more self conscious and seemingly nervous.
“It is curse related unfortunately.” Victor nodded biting both his lips not ready at all to push himself to the edge of death. ‘If I do this and it works at least I’ll wake up at the town.’ He tried foolishly to look at the upside.
Cawthorn flew toward them squawking. “SPIDER! GIANT SPIDER AHEAD! I WATCHED IT SNATCH A RABBIT OFF THE ROAD!”
“Cawthorn says there is a spider ahead, a really big spider.” Victor noted.
“Does he know if it has a web or if it was underground?” Gargrim asked.
Victor relayed the question to Cawthorn who replied. “UNDERGROUND! IT WAS REALLY FAST!”
“It’s underground and really fast. It sounds like a giant trapdoor spider.” Victor noted.
“That does sound plausible. It’s beatable too. They are usually around level 10ish.” Gargrim noted.
“Then given Gargrim is hurt I propose something. I will activate my speed and vitality boost skills. I will try to dodge and even if it hits me it shouldn’t do enough damage. One swing from Gargrim should take it out.” Victor proposed.
“NO! You are a MAGE! You will NOT be bait. I’ll do it even with your boost you’ll be slower than me.” She answered.
“The boys plan could work if he actually dodges the first hit. How much health do you have Serena?” Gargrim asked.
“150” She answered.
“The boy’s boost gives him far more health for a single hit. I’d estimate that unless it hits his head the spider would do between 70 and 110 damage. He could survive 2 hits, you probably can’t, and if it’s a little stronger it could kill you in one bite.” Gargrim explained. “We could also go around but that is still risky if monsters have been spilling out around here.”
‘No matter where we go we will have to fight until Gargrim is dead or I am knocked out.’ Victor wanted to shout that at him knowing that convincing them here would be the only way Gargrim would stay alive. “If the area is infested with monsters someone might be headed to the village we came from and clear everything in front of us, no chance of that if we go off into the woods.”
“I really like you but your lack of self preservation is never going to stop irritating me.” Serena groaned pulling out two daggers. “Fine, but if you get hit you owe me something. I don’t know what yet, but something…”
“Deal.” Victor sighed knowing this plan was the only possible way Gargrim lived. ‘I hate that I have to actually get hit here. I want to know if I could dodge this.’
The three of them walked up and noticed a well hidden hole in the road. Victor took a look at the sky then looked at Cawthorn. “Can you make sure there are no other monsters nearby Cawthorn?”
“OF COURSE MY MAGE!” He flew off circling them returning a moment later. “THERE ARE NO ENEMIES BESIDES THE SPIDER MY MAGE!”
Victor took a deep breath and stepped forward. “Speed Boost, Vitality Boost.” He stepped forward just within range. The speed shocked him. He put his foot within range and with his speed boost all he could do before getting his was lift it off the ground. The spider’s bite came so fast Victor couldn’t react. Serena fortunately could react but just barely, landing two daggers in the it’s front eyes. The pitch black arachnid sunk its fangs into his leg and bit down hard.
-143 Health [Ambush Bite]
Spider Poison Rank 1: Take additional damage and take a random status down ailment based on the spider. -20 speed
Bleeding: 20 damage per minute while moving.
Victor screamed “JOLT!” Blasting the creatures head stopping it from munching him
-89 Health [Self inflicted]
-20 Health [bleed]
Gargrim flew in decapitating the creature in a single hit. Victor instantly downed a potion and his antidote.
Regenerated 5 Health
Bleeding Removed
Poison Removed
…
Regeneration 5 Health
Health 138/390
Giant Spider 12: 16.3%
Current Exp to Level 10 69.3%
Victor Vomited blood after downing his potion, he let his speed boost expire. He looked down at his leg. His pants had been torn straight through and blood ran down his leg. Serena ran to him to hold him. “DON’T YOU DARE DIE!” She screamed choking back tears and pulling out a potion.
“MY MAGE!” Cawthorn swooped down.
“I’m going to lose consciousness. Don’t waste the potions on me please. If you heal me we won’t have potions left. I believe in you. You’ll make it.” With that he ended his spell falling into blackness in Serena’s arms.