Pain first and foremost. But also dry. I wasn’t really well acquainted with either before I came to this new world. Really puts things into perspective huh?

The pain was shooting up from my right arm, even shifting around a bit felt like driving metal rods through my limb. So I gave up on that line of inquiry. Not before looking down enough to take a glance though. I really felt like my forearm was thicker then the bandages showed…

My groan of pain did summon some water though. The supple kiss of leather to my chapped lips had become infuriatingly seductive recently. I’d get used to it at this rate.

But okay, someone was holding the water skin up to my lips. I'm fine.. Mostly. The last thing I remembered before passing out was casting that spell.. That felt.. Strong. Maybe I saved the day?

“How you feeling fledgie?”

“I’ve been better”

I let out a snarky reply before even seeing who I was replying too. It looked like the thug, I mean, the Quest giver. He’s looking pretty banged up too, bandages around his head and arms. So maybe I didn’t do as much as I hoped.

“Good for you. You can figure the rest out yourself then.”

Before I could get another word out he stood up and walked away. The bitter tone in his voice was pretty mean considering I literally JUST woke up from risking my life. I could hear him swearing something about milk off on the other side of the room. Well, thanks for the reception asshole.

Biting down hard I endured the pain in my arm long enough to pull myself to my feet. Letting it just, hang. Didn’t seem very good for the wound, but It hurt too much to do much else. And finally I took a good look around the room.

If nothing else it was familiar, in fact it was barely ten feet from where I passed out. I was just laying down inside the Quest giver’s building. It looked a bit worse for wear, crumbled remains of sandstone arrayed outside the counter and a few new holes in its sides.

But I really couldn’t ignore the things all over the floor. Maybe it had something to do with the climate but I didn’t catch a smell of anything rank, but even still I had the urge to throw up looking around. Of course. The place was full of corpses.

So now I was staring out the window at the ghost town. I’d really like to say I had an iron stomach for this kind of thing, if nothing else I’m sure I’m doing a hell of a lot better then most people. But even standing here made me feel… bad. It wasn’t good and that's all that mattered.

“I’m gonna get some air..”

I didn’t stand there waiting for a reply, I banged my limp hanging hand on the counter as I flung myself over it. But I managed to keep in a pathetic cry of pain.

The village itself looked pretty messed up too. Thankfully I didn’t catch sight of any more bodies. But that didn’t mean there weren't dark brown patches on a wall or the rare exposed cobbled street. And the perpetrators left evidence too, little holes in the structures from where their pointed limbs stabbed in. It was nice to know even the buildings would remember what went down here.

There was a solitary question lingering in my brain as I took my walk though. It went something like “what the hell am I gonna do now?” and honestly. It was a good question. Maybe its some kind of human grief response to focus on work or something. But if this place felt empty before, it WAS empty now. I hadn’t seen another living soul since I left the Quest building, maybe more survivors were there, helping with the… Aftermath. But nobody was on their feet when I looked.

When I was in the cellar. The first quest. I remember grappling with the idea that this world wasn’t all a game. I wouldn’t call this me underestimating reality though it was more like… How can this kind of thing happen around here? This is a tragedy, not a fictional one, but like a literal catastrophic event right? There was nothing to blame but my luck for being here when it happened.

Wait. Wasn’t Castel here too..? I mean I hadn’t SEEN him. But I wasn’t back in town for long before the attack happened. He got a huge head start on me because of me rushing things. Its hard to imagine someone as stubborn as him would die off screen…

No. It's not like the people who died here were lacking in grit…

Something is shuffling off to the side. Instantly I was mouthing a swear and gripping at my magic. Shit when did I get so jumpy?

Leaning in closer I got a look through the cloth hanging interior of a nearby building, a pair of withered feet taking trembling steps inside. The Cast tutor. This was her place. If she had spells maybe she made it through the attack.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

I let myself in while knocking on the wall. Didn’t want to be responsible for giving an old lady a heart attack.

“Quest..? No he’s too busy. Who could that be..?”

The familiar voice rambled on half to herself as I pushed through the draped tapestries to reveal myself in all my marred glory.

“Ah it's you sonny, had a feeling you’d scrape by somehow. Lucky it was a short cycle this time.”

“Cycle? I know you have a thing about not telling me stuff, but I could really use a fill in. or if you don’t feel like that.. Just some direction would be nice.. I think my introduction here got… Delayed. A bit.”

Instead of answering me the old woman kept dragging the huge sheet of cloth and sewing equipment towards the stone throne across the room. At her pace it was painfully slow, but it looked convincing enough… Whatever.

“Thank you sonny.”

“You can show your thanks through answering me.”

“Hehe. a real stinker just like I was when I had more stretch in these bones. Alright sonny, let me get situated.”

I was left to stand there for a few minutes as the old crone set up whatever sewing project she was up too. I really didn’t want to be a dick here. But like come on. People were dead all over the place and I wasn’t about to ask the quest giver!

“Cycles.. Well. Those are pretty simple. I think I heard it doesn’t happen where you come from, but around here animals and a few monsters with them are bound to show up every so often. Around here there’s quite a few who appear, but it takes at least fifteen nights between cycles.”

“So there's plenty of time to prepare… I don’t mean to be rude but.. Why wasn’t everyone more ready? It's not like those monsters.. Biters. Where very tough.”

She was glaring. I guess that was a bit too much to ask…

“Prepare how? With what?”

“I don’t.. You can’t buy supplies or anything? People have to eat something and I don’t see any farms around for the crackers.”

I gestured to the pile of woefully dry sustenance besides her. I had a few earlier, they taste surprisingly solid for something that can’t have come from a manufacturing plant. Regardless there had to be some kind of supply line to get these.

“You're digging too deep, sonny. The short answer is that you don’t wanna know about this stuff.”

“I mean.. Maybe If I didn’t almost die because of it..”

The Cast tutor sighed. I didn’t mean to snip at her, I was feeling entitled to some kind of answer considering the pain in my arm. And emotional trauma.

“Best to think of it like we’re loaned everything we’ve got here. Food. weapons. Quest scrolls. Nothing to be done about it besides try our best to get by.

Speaking of, a convoy usually comes after the cycle around here. If you like, you can take that down to the next plane.. Its not exactly a safe place.. But their villages are safe.”

Well, that progresses my main quest I guess. But I still don’t really understand what was going on here. She REALLY doesn’t want to talk about it. Borrowing… Doesn’t that only make sense if you can give something back? I mean a loan shark is gonna hold it over you forever, but you need to be ALIVE to get something out of right..?

“Fine. I guess that’s good enough. So I’ve got another magic question then, can you teach me healing or something? Cause this hurts like hell.”

My first instinct was to wave my injured arm. And that instinct led to a painful reminder of just how much like hell it actually hurt.

“Its.. possible. To learn how to heal wounds I suppose..”

Wonderful, she’s back on this information lock down gag.

“Well, If I don’t learn soon, I might get myself…. Seriously hurt and not get to develop my abilities or whatever you care about.”

“No no sonny. I don’t mean it like that. It's just that.. Well I guess I can say this much.. Most casters who can use healing spells do it before anything else. I’ve never heard of anyone who managed that kind of spell through study.”

“Haaa… So magic DPS locks me out of support spells huh…”

“What… You knew about this?”

I look down at her gleaming eyes. Actually that brings up a really interesting question doesn’t it? Can she actually understand what I’m saying? I kinda threw out some video game jargon there and she seemed to get the jhist. And it's not like I’m having any trouble understanding her despite the fact that they’ve gotta use some kind of new language or dialect here.

“Well, not really. I just had a hunch it might be like that. Actually going off those hunches, is there any other way of healing?”

It seemed… Unlikely. That people could get by in a place like this if you had no real way of recouping from injuries. No matter how strong you are your bound to make mistakes eventually, and if hundreds of biters was really an option.. Yeah there had to be some kind of recovery mechanic.

“I’m no expert. But there are certain Detos that have effects like that. You should talk to the Quest giver, maybe one can be found on a quest.”

Ah right. Quests had item rewards too. It would be pretty punishing if a starting town had nothing to heal with. I guess I’ll have to deal with the Bruiser type guy again.. Ah that word was kinda strange.. Detos. I knew in my head it meant something like 'consumables' so the language filter was helping me out again.

“He seemed kinda busy..”

“Nonesense! You tell that brute it's his duty to help fledglings!”

What? He’s like, burying people's bodies or something lady! I can wait a bit.

Either way, there was nothing more to be done here. So I just kinda let myself out and wandered over towards the Quest counter again.

“What can I do for you?”

The square jawed meat-slab of a man really just asked that to my face like I didn’t know he was ignoring a pile of dead bodies to face me like this. It sounded a bit forced too. Something weird was going on here.. Whatever. It would be rude to stand here and stare at him… Any longer then this at least.

“I heard there might be a quest that can give healing items? I kinda want this fixed before I head off with the suppliers.”

He just nodded like it was the most obvious thing in the world. What the fuck dude? We’re battle brothers and you were gonna hold out on this? I’d probably be really mad if I wasn’t still recoiling from the entire village being dead.

“This is the easiest quest that can give one, I think. It's a bonus objective, so it might be tricky to get.”

The scroll handed over was labeled ‘First garden’. I guess that made sense for another starting level quest.

“Unless you want to ignore my advice again.”

That bastard is smirking at me. I almost died dude!

“I learned my lesson last time. I guess this means I’m good enough to do some quests now.”

Instead of an answer a couple things got pushed up onto the countertop. A raggedy brown coat that looked almost alive.. If it didn’t look so much like roadkill. And a long wooden pole with a blunted tiny excuse for a mace head on the tip. Oh yeah my equipment! I was so busy not dealing with my feelings I forgot I didn't have it.

“..Be safe.”

“Trying my best.”

I’m gonna be deliberate this time. Okay. Just go in. figure the quest out. And leave. I’m kinda battered but this can't be worse than the biter swarm. So just calm down… Or am I just excited to be one degree separated from all the dead people? Who cares. Lets go.