The angel lifted herself out of the dirt in short order and crawled over to the waterlogged girl she’d rescued. The woman was a Celian of the hare or rabbit kind. Lephori was their indigenous name, Brivaria thought. She wasn’t entirely certain. There were over a hundred different kinds of Celians and they all had their own specific name that was only sometimes related to the animal, beast, or monster they resembled. If Brivaria was pushed, she could maybe remember half of them and that was pretty good by intervention standards.
The Lephori girl had tall ears covered in brown fur. Her hair was a matching color of brown made darker by the water. She wore lighter armor than her male counterparts and lighter than even Brivaria, weight enchantment aside. It was some kind of brown padding or hide but the angel couldn’t tell more than that. The important part was that it had been light enough and flexible enough to let the woman stay above the water.
“Don’t move, I’m going to heal you,” Brivaria said as she began examining the other girl. The angel also needed some healing after that tumble but she didn’t have an actively bleeding wound so she could wait a little bit. Bringing her hands to the woman’s side where the bloodstain was darkest, the winged girl activated Healing Touch. Just as with the dog, mana flowed through the angel and into the prone girl.
The bleeding came to an end as the wound sealed itself. Several more points of mana were expended and the sound of a dislocated arm popping back into place was audible. That got a grunt of pain from her patient. It hadn’t been a gentle rescue. A length of rope might have changed that but that was something to talk to Balthazar about later or maybe a merchant in a nearby settlement.
“She can fly and heal. What do you say, Penry? Shall we keep her?” a man’s voice called out from behind Brivaria. The two adventurers had no doubt dispatched the last of the plant beetles and moved down the stream to find them. Brivaria finished healing the woman and gave herself a couple points of healing before looking up to face them.
“I don’t know Rake. A high level Zephyri healer might be outside our budget. We just got our asses kicked by a bunch of bugs and there’s not a single coin to be made off the things.” The second man to speak was a Celian. Brivaria wasn’t going to bother wracking her brain for his indigenous name in the moment. He had a large, toothy maw and a lizard frill that extended outward beneath his helmet. He was also larger than the first man by a significant margin.
“True enough. Thank you, lady healer. We were attacked by gods-damned army of those giant bugs and then our dumb dog ran off. Was looking like a real bad day until you showed up. I’m Rake Ivers and this overgrown lizard is Penry Darrow. The girl your healing is Meia Stone. We’re the Second Sword adventuring team. Is Meia going to be alright?” The dog let out a pitiful whine as it was maligned by its owner.
“I’m Brivaria. Meia will be fine. Your dog is the one you should be thanking. It’s the one that found me and lead me back to your group.” The angel’s words got a happy wuff from the dog. The dog’s tail wagged as it padded over to Brivaria and nuzzled her. Rake just grimaced.
“We’ll give her a proper treat this evening then,” Meia said as she pulled herself up. She was exhausted and visibly shaken. The smile she offered was very forced. “I’m out of mana and stamina. I’d be dead if not for wings here. We need to talk about the situation, Ivers.” Rake grimaced a second time at Meia’s words.
“And we will. Penry is out of stamina and I’m low on everything. Let’s head down stream a ways so we’re not near the hive of these bugs and make camp. I’d prefer our conversation to not include the chance of more visitors. Brivaria, I don’t know where you’re heading but would you like to join us?” Rake’s offer was sincere but she could see the way Penry was holding his side. Meia wasn’t the only one who could use a little bit of healing before the day was through.
“Sure. Also those were plants, not bugs. They just looked like bugs.” Brivaria’s words got three pairs of raised eyebrows. Upon seeing the looks of confusion, she continued. “They’re low level dungeon monsters. The carapace doesn’t just look like bark, to a certain extent it is bark. The vines are also part of their bodies. Cutting them repeatedly wears them down. I’m guessing there’s a new dungeon with a nature or nature-related aspect nearby.”
Her words drew a curse from Penry but Rake’s expression was carefully neutral. The adventurers and Brivaria made ready to head downstream. Meia’s mood worsened upon learning that one of her swords had vanished into the flowing water. Rake spent the hike downstream assuring her that they’d replace her missing weapon and that they’d be on the look out for bug armies going forward. The rabbit-eared woman was not convinced.
Penry and Brivaria ended up walking a little ways back from the bickering pair. The dog, whose name was Trixie, followed alongside the two. Her tail was wagging with excitement the whole time. Penry was jovial and, after Brivaria gave him a quick boost with Healing Touch, was happy to chat.
“What’s a Zephyri healer doing in the forest? Get separated from your own group?” The lizardman was a good foot taller than the angel so he had to look over and down at the winged girl.
“I wouldn’t know.” She flashed a smile. “I’m neither Zephyri nor strictly a healer. I’m an angel and I just happen to have a healing skill.”
“Works pretty well.” For emphasis, he knocked on the side of his metal armor which now sported a solid dent courtesy of the monsters. “Don’t know what an angel is but you look like Zephyri. Thanks for the help all the same. Rake and the rest of us came out here on a scouting job from Keaton.” Upon seeing Brivaria’s blank look, Penry explained further.
“It’s a growing town further downstream. There’s been some talk of some folks leaving Keaton to start their own settlement further upstream. Anyway, someone put up a guild request to go scout out the land. The Cassmer Forest is or was a pretty safe place. We figure we spend a week walking through the woods, take note of any animals or monsters we find, and hunt for a good spot to put a bridge. Get back to town, collect some coin, and then maybe we have a second request to do the same thing but with one or two people with the skills to verify our findings. Easy coin and maybe a bit of experience if we run across something.”
“You didn’t expect dungeon monsters in the forest,” Brivaria assumed. This drew bark from Trixie and Penry nodded.
“We did not. Rake is good at pathfinding but only decent at scouting. Our team is copper rank. That’s the lowest rank. We’re all new to this, comparatively. The bugs didn’t look that threatening but Rake misjudged the numbers badly. We thought there were only about ten of the things, not thirty. It wasn’t until they were swarming us that we knew we were in trouble. Worse, their vines meant they’d have snared us immediately if we ran.”
“So you fought,” Brivaria finished.
“So we fought,” Penry echoed.
“So what’s her story?” Brivaria reached down to pet Trixie. The dog had been glued to her since the battle finished. The angel had only ever seen friendly animals during a few interventions. They were a very rare sight.
“Treasure sniffer. Supposedly. Yet another reason Meia is furious with Rake.” The lizardman gave the winged girl a toothy grin.
“I’ve never heard of that. Is it what it sounds like?” the angel asked.
“Exactly what it sounds like. Animals get skills, just more slowly and usually to better help them hunt or survive. Domesticated animals sometimes get more unusual skills. Dogs are known to sometimes get the Treasure Sniffer skill. We don’t know if that’s the actual name for it or not but it lets them stumble across treasure.” Well, that explained why they had a dog with them. She asked the obvious question next.
“That sounds like a good thing. Why is Meia upset about it?”
“Money. Rake spent coin buying the dog. Meia thinks he was swindled and we’d be better off with potions.” Brivaria nodded at that. She understood something about how the locals of the planet traded goods for currency. If she had to live on Zlithia long term then she would need to acquire some of this currency.
“You don’t seem upset about it,” she observed. Penry’s broad shoulders rose and fell in a shrug.
“I’m not sure potions would have saved us back there. Trixie finding you did. I think Meia knows that too but Rake spending the group’s coin without approval is a big problem. Plus if Trixie hadn’t found you then we’d be without the dog, the potions, or the coin. Maybe worse. Luck was with us today but won’t always be. Rake has learned his lesson, I hope.”
Brivaria took all that in and gazed down at the dog walking next to her. Trixie’s big brown eyes looked up at the angel and Brivaria felt a powerful urge to pet the dog some more. She did so and checked her notifications. The level up notifications consolidated themselves into a single notification upon being checked.
You have reached level 9.
Gained +6 Physique, +3 Endurance, +6 Arcane, +6 Spirit, +3 Awareness, +7 Presence.
Gained two new skill selections.
Two new skills to pick. At level ten she’d need decide whether to advance her class or keep the one she had. Brivaria decided she’d go through her options as soon as they found a place to stop. For now she was just content to see that her level had risen quite a bit in just a handful of hours. Perhaps reclaiming her lost levels wouldn’t be so bad after all.
Name: Brivaria
Race: Angel
Class: Winged Templar
Level: 9
Stats: Health 12/34, Mana 20/51, Stamina 14/39
Attributes: Physique 23, Endurance 17, Arcane 24, Spirit 25, Awareness 17, Presence 26
Active Skills: Healing Touch, Holy Bulwark
Passive Skills: Inventory, Lesser Flight, Lesser Shapeshifting, Rest, Traits (Angel)
Unspent Skill Points: 2