Pain, sadness, heartache. Brivaria felt powerful emotions all around her but she was trapped and unable to respond. She just felt weaker and weaker like everything was peeling away piece by piece, bit by bit. She’d never died on an intervention before. Was this what it felt like? She didn’t know and her consciousness slipped away before she could consider the matter further.
It was a cool and pleasant day as the sun hung overhead bathing the Cassmer Forest with its golden rays. The warm light was contrasted by a cool wind that blew through the trees causing branches to sway and the rustling of leaves to join the many forest sounds.
Brivaria awoke to the warmth of the sun upon her hair and the gentle breeze of the forest tickling her wings. Her blue eyes opened and she breathed in the earthy scent of the woods around her. Peace. Tranquility. Calm. She closed her eyes as the wind gained strength. She listened to the leaves and to the birds happily singing. The breeze was refreshing as it passed over her and she extended her wings to feel it tugging against her feathers. It was wonderful.
“Brivaria.” The sound of her name totally incongruous with the serene forest but it was spoken softly and with such a gentle inflection that it did not disturb the tranquility of the moment. It came from everyone and nowhere so it was magic. Balthazar was, in fact, not their with her. That was not good.
“Balthazar. I’m glad to hear your voice. Something went wrong, didn’t it?” she asked. Her words weren’t frantic or frightened. They were simple acknowledgments of facts.
“Something did go wrong. You picked up a passenger before returning. We aren’t certain how to handle it yet but it seemed like putting you back on Zlithia was viable as a temporary remedy.” Balthazar’s voice held concern though Brivaria was certain her old mentor and friend was vibrating with worry. Brivaria couldn’t remember a single time in her lessons of the intervention program’s history where putting an angel back on the planet was the solution.
“Am I dying?” It was painful to ask and she knew the answer would be painful to hear. She had to know. Were these her final moments?
“No. Your condition is stable as of now. Anriel is monitoring you and everything stabilized upon your return to Zlithia. In fact, you’re not degrading.” Balthazar’s words were a surprise and her eyes snapped open. Angelic forms always degraded away from heaven. No angel could manifest in another realm for overly long. Every foray into another world was forever limited yet that was not true for her?
“Does that mean I will be staying here?” she asked.
“For now. You are intact and stable. There are no signs of degradation of your current physical body or otherwise.” The old angel’s laughter was audible. The way the System translated information to spoken language was miraculous and sometimes more than a little peculiar. “We’ve provisioned you with what we had available. Your armor has been replaced and we’ve provisioned you with nourishment and other supplies necessary for longterm intervention. Well, it may not be intervention, exactly, but that’s what we’re calling it for now.”
“I understand.” She opened her System status screen to look at her condition.
Name: Brivaria
Race: Angel
Class: Winged Templar
Level: 3
Stats: Health 0/25, Mana 0/30, Stamina 0/26
Attributes: Physique 14, Endurance 12, Arcane 15, Spirit 15, Awareness 12, Presence 15
Active Skills: Healing Touch, Holy Bulwark
Passive Skills: Inventory, Lesser Flight, Rest, Traits (Angel)
“Ah, I’m level three. Health, mana, and stamina are all zero. I suppose that’s why I feel so content to sit here and not move.” She laughed at her own sorry state. She’d lost one hundred and fifty eight levels. She was too tired to be upset. It was so much progress and she’d worked so hard to gain those levels. Truthfully she was lucky to be alive and that had to be the way she looked at her situation.
“Anriel said you were losing levels. Heavens, I didn’t think you’d lose that many. I’d have packed you a bigger sword or maybe a smaller one.” Balthazar’s laughter came again and it was a balm for Brivaria’s heart. “We’re not abandoning you down there. We’ll find a way to cure your condition and get you back. I’ll be checking in on you and I’ll let you know as soon as we have good news.”
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“So what do I do now?” Brivaria looked up at the sliver of blue, nearly cloudless sky she could see through the tree canopy. It was beautiful. She’d been to Zlithia so many times but it was almost always dark caves and dungeons. The angel had never considered what a gorgeous view lay overhead until now. She almost didn’t hear Balthazar’s reply. Almost.
“Honestly, kid? Do whatever you want. You’re off the job for now. You’ve attended enough intervention trainings sessions to know broadly what not to do. Relax, make nice with the locals, don’t start any interdimensional wars. Just be. The System is a little funny when it comes to generating anything resembling currency but if you need food or supplies then I’ll see about getting them to you.” She nodded at Balthazar’s words even if the other angel wasn’t physically present to see it.
“Just be. I think I can do that. For now, I think I’ll just wait until rest kicks in.” She thought about asking where Balthazar put her but it didn’t matter. There were hundreds of forests across the large world and she knew precious little about them. If there was a significant threat to her then she trusted Balthazar wouldn’t have put her here.
The conversation continued a little longer but Balthazar didn’t have much else to tell her. He wasn’t a healer and didn’t understand her condition any more than she did. It was just comforting to know he was there, that her people were there. She was alone in one sense but she felt their support despite how far away they were now.
The Rest skill had a timer before it activated but the time remaining was shorter than the angel expected. She’d been down here for a while before waking up. That was interesting. The timer was still over two hours which was less interesting.
All creatures had a recovery skill. This was the skill that restored health, mana, and stamina. One of her many lessons on the planet included the the fact that most creatures on Zlithia had Sleep as their recovery skill. Some had Meditate or Rest. A few other, very niche skills were also present. For the most part, everyone and everything had Sleep.
Sleep was the best recovery skill in Brivaria’s estimation. One could sleep for six hours for a partial recovery, eight hours for a full recovery, or ten hours to gain a full recovery plus temporary attribute bonuses alongside faster leveling. A creature with ten hours of sleep had a massive advantage in any situation over another creature of equivalent level and skill undertaking the same task.
Meditation also took six hours for a full recovery but did not come with the drawback of near complete sensory deprivation. In fact, Meditation gave an awareness bonus while meditating. Having one person meditating while everyone else strove to gain ten hours of sleep was the ideal configuration for mortal groups in Brivaria’s eyes.
Finally, Rest was the skill Brivaria had and it was very simple. After two hours of relaxation, it would start the recovery process. Once four hours had passed in total, one would be fully recovered. Most of the time, three hours was all one needed before they could resume whatever it was they were doing. Needing only three hours of rest in most cases resulted in a lot more time on hand to do whatever one desired to do.
Unfortunately Brivaria would need the full time now. Zero mana meant she couldn’t activate skills that relied on it such as holy bulwark. Zero stamina meant she couldn’t activate skills that relied on that or use it for bursts of speed or strength. Finally health at zero meant her body would have to rely on physical, non-System healing or lack thereof until it replenished. Having zero health wouldn’t kill someone but taking a mortal injury while at zero health would.
Since she wasn’t going to go anywhere while resting, Brivaria checked her inventory. It wasn’t especially large, maybe the size of two or three backpacks. Magical storage that couldn’t be lost or stolen was valuable though skills were precious so there was always a bit of debate as to whether it was worth taking the skill or carrying an item that could replicate it. Brivaria was glad she chose the skill when she checked her inventory via the System and found all of her provisions, supplies, and more inside. There was even a tent though Brivaria couldn’t imagine why she’d need one of those.
She also noted the changes to her equipment. She wasn’t wearing the common plate armor that was given for intervention but a thin set of magically reinforced and magically lightened chain. That was good since she doubted she could fly with heavy weight or bulky armor in her current condition. Her sword was the same thin, double-sided blade that she’d always wielded. It was magically strengthened to be more durable which was good since the thin metal would otherwise snap under the force of any significant impact. Her shield was also downgraded for her condition. They were necessary sacrifices but lamentable all the same.
Brivaria checked her status, looked through her inventory, and swiftly ran out of other things to do. She checked the timer on her rest skill and distressingly found she still had two hours to go. The angel resigned herself to the wait and turned her gaze upward to watch the fluffy, white clouds sail through the sky.