“I know it looks painful, but it doesn’t actually hurt so I don’t get why you insisted on waiting to come here. Now it's infected and I have to use a lot more mana, plus it's going to take longer. You are just lucky I am a restorative healer and won’t be cutting out the muscle that is infected” Looking at the swollen wound leaking pus I wondered about the folly of fools. Who is too scared of fire to get healed? The cut wasn’t too long, about half the length of his calf, but it had gotten quite bad over the last day.
Sighing I set my hand just over the centre of the cut that ran down James leg. Damned fool thought he would heal from a wound he got from a Monah that tried to come into the camp, a lizard the size of a small pig known for the sheer amount of bacteria its claws carried. As the flames poured into his wound and the smoke bled out I turned to the Overseer Mircha. “I can’t do much about people not being comfortable with how my healing works, so you might need to say something, but I am also happy to start healing the most petty or small of injuries if you think it will help people warm up to the idea?”
“Honestly I think between seeing you pour flame into wounds, living in a cave at the back of our town, then on top of that every morning you work out like a monster yourself only to have smoke come off your skin, even out of your eyes. After all of that you then have the gall to act perfectly normal and kindly to everyone” laughing Mircha seemed very unconcerned that people were avoiding healing even when it was free as eventually taxes would pay for my wages, a fairly standard deal in most settlements. “Look, folks are going to take some time, if you were just strange or scary that could work with it, but they are having to accept your a young woman who is a perfectly normal part of our little village who just happens to have an unusual class. Most of them grew up with healers who use light magic, druidic abilities, or something else gentle. So seeing flames seal a wound with no scaring is taking some adjustment. I will start getting them to see you for small things though, that isn’t a bad idea and will get them used to coming to you for help” Having said his piece, and seeing that James was healing up steadily, Mircha headed off.
*Ding: For healing a person in your village 10 Experience gained.
“Right, I know a stone bed isn’t the most comfortable but you were an idiot ignoring that wound so to bad. Next time come straight to me, no screwing around, or I am going to find something heavy to throw at you. Rest here for a bit then head off when you're good.”
“Thanks, I know logically it's fine, but after having only had fire thrown at me by angry mages, angry monsters, or in one case a drunk mage riding a monster, I just find the idea of willingly letting someone pour it inside of me disturbing. That ain’t your fault so I am sorry, but thanks all the same for the healing” As he finished speaking James laid back, the stone bed did have a spare bedroll on it so it wouldn’t have been too bad, but the man was also clearly emotionally spent.
Leaving him to rest I headed back out to the entrance of my cave, Bren had even made a little raised stone for me to sit cross legged on, so if anyone needed me they could see me but I was also able to work on my mana stone.
Mana Gem - Phoenix blood - Created.
45 Exp earned for creation of uncommon item
Finally, it had taken a few days to get it done, but I had made my very own mana gem. It looked much like the seed had, just instead of the size of a large grape it was the size of a small apple now. Inspecting the mana gem I confirmed it would work as I hoped.
Phoenix fire gem: A mana gem made of Phoenix fire aspected mana. When ignited by a suitable compatible mana type this gem gives off a moderate amount of warmth, light and contains a minor restorative effect.
Moving into the cave I went into my bedroom, figuring I would appreciate the light most in here, and placed my mana gem into the holder Bren built. Pushing a small bit of mana, only two mana in total, into the gem it ignited. Steadily a flame grew from it burning steadily out of the holder, and already it was warming the chill the small stone room held.
Glad for this achievement and improvement to my living situation I took a moment to walk through and work out how many more gems it would take to finish the cave. Bren reckoned that with the three stone beds, plus the walls, it would require the mana gems as well to finalise the cave then complete my founders quest.
Two for my room, one at each side wall, two for the guest room. Four to cover the storage room, being two on the back wall and one for each side wall. Two for the hallway between them all one for each end. Then out the front would be the real cost, I needed two for next to the hallway door, another two for the corners of that back wall, then three more for along the walls plus one for each stone bed. I figured as they had a passive healing effect I would get Bren to make something to mount them with so each bed had their own.
So twenty three, twenty two not including my already made one. An impossible sounding amount of mana, but worth it to create a place to grow in and to keep the village safe by providing a healing place that would hopefully even outlast me.
“Hey, hopefully you're done with James and not too low on mana?” Sven came wandering up with a pair of hunters following him.
“Not if someones hurt, happy to be active, I have had so little to do the last few days I have actually finished that mana gem” Saying such I realised I was going to get Sven to inspect it before I slotted it into the wall, but he couldn’t share any insight with me for another few weeks so it wasn’t a big deal.
“Not here for healing today, hopefully, while we were hunting, I found a small nest of vine badgers. Not sure if you have heard of them before? But their bite is nasty, contains a toxin that doesn’t do a lot of damage but lasts days and causes muscle spasms. They are also literally made of vines, so when I spotted them and I know we have a fire using healer who hasn’t gotten to do her levelling hunt recently I figured it would be a waste not to come find you” As Sven spoke his companions found comfortable spots and sat down, resting in the seconds between actions seemed to be a talent all of the hunters shared.
“I have never fought without a combat assist before, the guards usually basically had me provide some soft healing for them so I would get some experience. If you don’t mind helping me I am happy to fight, but I also don’t really have combat spells beyond covering my fists in burning mana and wailing on something” while we spoke I started packing up my few items that were outside of the cave, my bedroll I was sitting on and some books, to put away before the trip.
“No worries, honestly most combat healers either become very dedicated to learning long range spells or find a good close combat style they like after their first real taste of combat. For now use what you have, just be very aware we are depending on you doing your part, this is not a combat training exercise some guards are running to feed a pet healer. Are you good to go now?”
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“Yeah I just need to throw this stuff inside, and we can head off” Quickly running in I put my things away and grabbed my leather trousers and jacket quickly changing.
“Good to see you have some armour as well, these things aren’t low level but they are an ideal match up for you so it should be fairly balanced. Silence once we hit the trees, we will discuss what you need to know at a safe point before the nest” Immediately Sven and his two hunters started walking into the forest away from the side with the river, following along I hoped this would go better then the butterflies in my stomach were suggesting.
As we walked through the forest I realised compared to the hunters just how badly prepared I was for hunting, the sheer amount of noise I made alone was far more than I was comfortable with. Although being a healer stealth wasn’t really my core focus it wouldn’t hurt to practice sometime.
Suddenly after about fifteen minutes of walking Sven held a hand up and shifted to be facing partially towards our group. I noticed that so long as I was looking past Sven we were all positioned to have full 360 vision around each other in total, and I hadn’t even noticed I was being positioned. I idly wondered if they nudged me to be where I needed to be before we stopped or if they repositioned to account for wherever my untrained ass ended up.
“Right, about one minute ahead there is a small hill with a burrow. It's not very tall but it's also not deep, so if we make some noise they will come out rather than get trapped inside. There should only be two, I will take care of one of them but the other is Styx’s. You are the healer, I do not expect to intervene, but we will if you're at risk of anything major. We need this to be a proper fight to help you develop, both personally and system wise. Now fairly simple, avoid the claws and teeth, they do carry a toxin that is awful so if they get you prioritise healing over fighting. Make sure to use your mana, normally it's a bad idea but considering were in a forest and its fire you shouldn’t attract much that would be problematic.”
As he finished speaking Sven watched for a nod from everyone, before starting us over towards this burrow again.
Looking at the small burrow I was starting to realise what I was about to do, use my mana to set my hands on fire and hopefully kill a wild monster with no real safety net. On one hand this is what I had been looking forward to, and disappointed about with my guard training, but on the other the risk was real and I had the option of being a ‘pet healer’ as Sven called it so it was hardly my only path forward.
Knowing I couldn’t ever look myself in the face if I went that route I nodded at Sven who was watching me waiting for a final check to make sure I was good, before he went over and started pulling some items from his jacket pocket. Quickly I realised it was a small ball made of fibre, and he used a flint and striker to start a small fire in the ball, before throwing it into the burrow.
“Be ready, don’t hesitate, and listen to any orders that get yelled out. See you on the other side” Moving off to the side Sven drew a pair of small looking battle hatchets from his belt, getting ready to take his opponent.
Suddenly I saw movement coming out of the burrow, and a strange growl almost like a wild dog but with more bass in it.
As they rushed out I realised just how perfect this hunt was, as terrifying as it still was going to be, coming up to my hip the badgers were vicious looking and their jaws were dripping with drool that I knew to be toxic. However everything on them was made of plant matter. Their fur was made of a vine-like material, their teeth and claws made of really dark wood, their eyes even looked wooden but clearly still worked somehow.
Realising I was panicking I quickly pushed mana out to my hands coating them, hopefully Sven was right and the flames would make this easier to manage.
As the second one came out I shouted getting its attention, really hoping this went well.
Staring at the monster charging me I realised just how heavy it had to be based on how loud its running steps were. As it charged I got into position to try grappling it, hoping to drive it to the ground.
Just as it was about to reach me and raised its maw to bite at me I panicked, and swung a fist at its face. Hot lancing pain shot through my hand and wrist, but as I jumped back I realised the fire mana had caught on the fur starting to burn the Vine Badger. Bellowing it swung a clawed paw out at me, which I batted down the top of with my own hand setting it on fire as well.
Clearly enraged, the badger started swinging at me, just barely jumping back in time from each strike. I tried my best to tap it back with my hands to start further fires. As the fire burned in it was clearly slowing it down allowing me to keep my distance, but my right hand was functionally useless spiking in tremendous pain everytime I moved it around.
Eventually after another minute the badger was notably slowed, the fire was at least smouldering all over its fur now and had started burning well into its skull. While it was slowly I tried ducking to my left and grabbing onto its side, pouring mana into my left hand to try to get more fire to take. Bellowing in anger the badger slammed its side into me before falling on top of me.
While the flames weren’t causing me any pain, then smoke was making it hard to see and the smell had started to reach my nose. As I tried to lift the badger I released I had definitely broken my wrist, and would need to heal that if I wanted a chance to get the almost dead badger off. Quickly checking my mana I realised I had 21 points left, burning it into the air without a skill to cover my hands was really expensive, which should be enough to heal my wrist but not much else.
Quickly I activated my heal, the fire in my hands going out and my wrist igniting inside making the skin see through for a moment. Screaming in pain as the bone realigned and fused I used the pain and anger to shove and get the badger up enough to get my hips out and pull my legs up and over so when it dropped my legs were up over its back instead of underneath it.
As I rolled away, too tired to stand but very aware the badger could move until I got the kill notification, suddenly the most beautiful screen of my life appeared.
Kill notification: Vine Badger (level 16) killed. Due to difficulty bonus experience awarded. Due to support from other combat users, experience deducted equal to their support. Total experience granted: 1600 experience gained
“How did you go for experience? You handled it well all considered, some panic, a lot of bad decisions, but for a healer not bad at all” as Sven spoke and wondered over I fell back on my ass breathing as deeply as I could, before realising how bad of an idea was as the smell of burnt damp vine-fur hit again and I threw up.
Looking up I realised I had just accidentally painted Sven’s boots, “Sorry, but that smells awful, is it always that bad?”
Almost falling over Sven started laughing hysterically “Lady, you realistically got close to dying there and killed something in hot combat, from your screams you also broke then fixed something near the end there as well. But your complaint is the smell? Well yes, your a fire magic user your going to make a lot of bad smells, but if that is the worst problem you have then we will do just fine with you”
Ripping up some grass Sven started to clean off his boots, I was really glad I didn’t have to do it for him but I still felt bad. I would make it up to him back at the village somehow, maybe offer some healing after the hunt for a few days to help his refinement or something.
“Move away from the bodies, the lads here will do some harvesting, then we will head on back home. Jokes aside you did well, almost had to step in a few times, but you did well enough that I am happy bringing you on some bigger hunts to get levels up” With that Sven went over to help his men while I convinced myself to stand up and walk a bit away to rest, rather then just crawl.
Drinking some of one of the water skins the hunters had sat near a tree I reflected back, and realised maybe hunting would be the highlight of my time here, the feeling of achievement and of besting a monster was like nothing else I had felt before.