The sun rose with the chirping of the birds. There was renewed energy to their music. They seemed to be still celebrating the recuperation of the queen.

Iris woke up first and saw Jude sleeping next to her. It was unusual for them to be asleep at the same time, so the fact that they were able to rest for the first time, without worries, since they were abducted, refreshed her further.

“Wake up, sleepyhead,” she said as she nudged him a little.

Jude stretched awake, and still with his eyes closed, he asked, “How are you feeling?”

“I leveled up!”

“OH! Nice!”

“Yeah! When I woke up this morning I got a notice saying that Purify, Heal and my own level had increased.”

“That’s great! Any new perks?”

“I haven’t checked. Let’s see… Status.”

As soon as her status window came up, she shared it with Jude.

[Name: Iris Lee

Occupation: Healer

Sub-Occupation: Unknown

Equipment: Unknown Fae Garb (Unique-F)

Lvl. 2

Health: 300

Mana: 150

Dexterity: 20

Strength: 5

Agility: 20

Stamina 15

Intelligence: 50

Notice: More status options available at level 5.

First-Aid lvl. 10 (Max)

Heal lvl. 2

Purify lvl. 2]

“I wonder if the new stats were near those levels and you just couldn’t see them before. That’s a massive increase! Do Heal and Purify do anything different at level 2?”

“Heal recovers more health on cast, and the amount of mana used didn’t change, so that’s great. Purify is stronger, meaning I won’t have to cast it multiple times to clear the rot off someone who is infected the same as the queen, and it can now work offensively too. If I cast it on an item, it’ll carry the purification for a time. Like, if I cast Purify on a fishing spear, you can catch multiple fish with that one cast.”

“These are all insane! And taking into consideration what we might have to do, they are perfect.”

“What we might have to do?!”

“Yeah… I’ll tell you what I learned last night when you were asleep.”

Jude recounted everything the queen had shared with him and added in the information about his own dream, of the crimson tower and the red pulse.

“Do you think the same people that took us did this?”

“It’s possible.”

“But why? Are they just going everywhere destroying things?”

“Could be that. Could be they needed a place for us.”

“A place for us?”

“Yeah. Think about it. They needed to create an environment for us to grow, or whatever they want from us. If we had come here when it was peaceful, at least you wouldn’t have leveled up by now.”

“All that destruction for that? Every time I learn something new, I hate them more.”

“I can’t argue there.”

“Oh! Did you notice the Fae garb is listed in equipment?”

“Yeah, unique and, I suppose, grade F.”

“It’s unfortunate it’s so low.”

“True, but taking into consideration that both of them adapted to us, I have a feeling they can be upgraded.”

“That would be amazing! Do you think I’ll be able to change how it looks? This works for now, but if we go back to Earth, it will be too conspicuous.”

Stolen novel; please report.

“Hopefully we’ll learn more about them from the queen.”

“Right. We should probably get up now.”

They were still lying down side by side, their heads touching while they stared at Iris’ status screen.

“Sigh… This feels so nice, but you’re right. Let’s get up.”

Jude got up first and offered his hand to Iris to help her up. She took it, and he pulled her up into an embrace. He kissed her forehead then and said, “Good morning.”

“Good morning,” she replied, standing on the balls of her feet to give him a kiss on the lips.

They parted with their lips and headed out.

Queen Millicent was outside conversing with the birds. Nothing had changed from the previous night. The rot was growing and the Devourer persisted. When they saw her, the queen immediately turned to them and said, “We see the Healer’s recovered.”

“I forgot I don’t understand anything,” Iris whispered to Jude.

“Don’t worry. You got me here,” he replied, adding, “We are well,” to the queen.

“We would like to request further aid,” the queen continued. “Our people are in stasis. Safe. The birds are not. Possible to heal?”

Jude had been relaying everything to Iris concurrently, so she simply replied, “Yes, but let’s start with the ones worst off.”

In truth, while there were multiple types of birds, they weren’t as numerous as Iris had first thought. There were maybe as many as 50 birds, and about a fifth of them couldn’t move anymore.

The queen turned to a bird, a specifically large one that stood at attention next to her, and whispered a song to it. The bird then bowed low to Iris.

“Rost is king and shows gratefulness,” the queen explained.

Seeing the bow and hearing of the bird’s stature, Iris curtsied as best as she could. Jude held in a smirk at the sight of her awkwardness, but made no noise. After that, Rost took off to the highest branch above the realm to watch and protect them.

Meanwhile, Jude and Iris followed the queen to the sick birds. Although they did speak, the birds were still animals, so Jude’s skill didn’t work on them. The queen would have to act as intermediary.

“These children have little time,” the queen said when they arrived at a large nest with ten gravely infirm birds. They were both the older birds and the very young.

Iris wept at the sight. She had grown accustomed to seeing humans with all kinds of injuries, and even the queen herself was humanoid enough that the parallel was maintained, but animal suffering was something that brought her significant pain.

“I hate this. I know that they are not like on Earth, but they still look so innocent,” she said.

“You’ll help them,” Jude replied.

“Of course,” she said as she wiped her tears off her face, “Let’s get started.”

Iris didn’t know anything about bird anatomy, but she could see massive patches of featherless skin brought on by the rot, so she decided to tackle those first. She once again cast First-Aid in hopes that it would tell her how to proceed, and again, because its level was maxed, and because her intelligence stat was so high, she was able to come up with a plan. Unlike the queen, who had been almost a walking corpse the previous day, with her insides visible, the birds’ skin wasn’t rotted open.

“I can’t see what’s going on inside them. Some of them are blind and featherless, and their beaks are starting to crumble, but that’s all I can tell. Fortunately, I leveled up, so I think this will work. Could I get some water?” Iris asked.

Jude told the queen that they needed water for the procedure, but she replied, “Contaminated. Unclean. Impure.”

“No worries. I’ll cleanse that too,” Iris said confidently.

So, they walked to a short, vertical, hollow stump. There was cloth lining the bottom, and since it was Fae-made, it didn’t leak. The stump acted as a drinking bowl for the birds and as a well from the Fae, but even lookin at it now, they could see swirling wisps of red in the water. Although the well was contained, it was very deep, so they were unsure of when it was contaminated. Anything could’ve fallen into it, even the smallest bit of rot would proliferate enough over time to make everyone sick.

Iris looked down at it and said, “After I do this, have the birds that are in better shape drink from it,” and she cast Purify.

Despite the amount of water contained in the well, Iris used only five mana to cleanse it completely. Queen Millicent, astonished by the feat, announced, “Savior!”

At that moment, an announcement from the system triggered in Iris’ mind.

[Title Acquired: Savior of the Fae]

[Description: White Magic cast on creatures of the Fae Realm will have increased effect. Fae will view you with benevolence. Bonus: +50 mana.]

Iris turned to Jude with a start and said, “I just got a title! You can get titles for doing unusual actions!”

“This is a game. There’s no two ways about it,” Jude replied.

“Yes, and since we know that, we can get stronger. Survive.”

“You’re right. We’ll make it.”

“Let’s talk about this later. I should help the birds now.”

After saying that, Iris created large syringes with her First-Aid skill. She dipped them in the water and filled five of them, leaving her with 95 mana, and headed back to the birds.

Queen Millicent went off to announce that the other birds should drink from the well as soon as possible, so Iris would be able to communicate with the dying birds on her own. Still, they had already decided to trust her after seeing the Fae queen walking around with regained vigor, so when Iris approached them and raised the syringes to their beaks and poured half of the liquid in for each bird, they drank all of it. Iris had created panacea with the well water. She had overpurified it to the point where the characteristics of her Purify skill remained in the water for a short amount of time. She guessed it would stay like that for an hour before reverting back to regular water. So, everything the birds drank purified them from the inside. Iris couldn’t see their organs, but the liquid allowed the purification to be easily distributed to them.

After each bird had drank of the panacea, Iris started casting Heal on them. Her skill had increased, and it only took one cast per bird for them to start breathing better. After that, she repeated the process of purifying the well, having them drink the water and healing them. Her mana recharged passively, although slowly, due to how magical that realm was, so she was still able to heal all of the birds a second time before all of it was depleted again.

By then, the birds that had been at death’s door just a few hours earlier were able to stand up. They hadn’t regained their plumage yet, but those that had been blinded by the rot became able to see again.

Iris, who was exhausted, sat against a branch near their nest, and the birds, who had been given a second life, sat down surrounding her. They knew what she had done for them, and even in their imperfect state, they wanted to protect her so that she could rest in peace. The birds that had drank from the well, had recovered completely, their plumage now devoid of any red rot.

Rost, Avian King, descended upon the branch where Iris was resting. She looked at the majestic bird, and it bowed again, but this time, it touched its beak against Iris’ head.

[Skill Acquired - Keen Vision (Unique-F)]

For a second, the pupils in Iris’ eyes enlarged like a bird’s, and she was able to see farther across the sky than she had ever been able to.

She had acquired a title and a new skill that day, and just like her new clothes, the skill also had a rank, but no level. If Jude’s guess was right, that skill would also evolve eventually, and maybe that was the only way it would get stronger. However, at that moment, all she wanted to do was close her eyes and sleep for a couple of hours.