Mr. Thomas sat behind his desk with his hands clasped before him, resting on the wooden surface. He wore a mage's robe, like the one Eli had seen on the HR women. It was colored a deep, dark red.

"That's a nice robe you have there, sir," Eli said, sitting down in a chair in front of the desk.

"Thank you, Elijah. One of the peddlers started with dyes and she graciously sold some to me for the low price of one hundred copper coins and some health potions. The red color adds 5% damage to my fire spells."

"So you did go for fire as your element, then."

"I did indeed, Elijah. I did indeed. I have to say I'm quite pleased with the result, all things considered. Now, where have you been?"

Eli saw no reason to lie. "There's a graveyard about half an hour in that direction," he nodded. "We went there and killed some zombies before being chased off."

"Is that so?" Mr. Thomas asked. "Did I not explicitly ask you to remain inside the building?"

Eli frowned. "No, I don't think so."

"Oh, well, I meant to. Apologies accepted. Please remain here from now on."

"With all due respect, Mr. Thomas, I don't think that's a good idea. You've reached level 2 now from casting all these small fires, I'm guessing. Most of everyone else is either level 1 or level 2."

"Yes?"

"We have to get stronger if we want to make it here. Don’t you agree?"

"Yes. Well, we have a need for planning and preparation, so we can decide who to send out and who to keep here. You're one of only two healers, Elijah. That makes you invaluable. We need you here in case something goes wrong."

Too tired to argue his point more in that moment, Eli changed the subject. "So what happened while I was gone?"

Footsteps thundered into the room. Dana stopped, panting hard, sweat running down her face to make streaks across her dirt and blood covered cheeks. Blood was spattered across the front of her clothing, and she was obviously wounded with several holes in her tunic.

Eli immediately healed her.

"Thanks," she panted, but Eli saw her health bar still dropping. He healed her again and inspected her health bar. There was a status there:

Injury: Bleeding.

He tried casting Lesser Cure, but that didn't help.

Dana's legs were shaking, and she had trouble gathering her breath even after being healed. "Russ. Injured. Bad. Please. Come."

"What is this? What is happening?" Mr. Thomas asked, his voice booming.

Eli got up and hurriedly threw all his health potions into Dana’s hands before healing her again. "Drink these until I’m back."

He set off at a run and heard Mr. Thomas's words behind him. "See, Elijah, I told you. You are needed here."

Eli took the steps two at a time, then three and four, practically flying down each flight to the point he kept crashing into the wall to turn. When he slammed his head, he forced himself to slow down a little. It wouldn’t do Russ, whoever that was, much good if Eli fell unconscious before even getting down the stairs.

He drank a mana potion to top himself off after healing Dana and kept racing down. His mad dash drew attention from others. They shouted questions after him in the stairwell, but he didn’t have the breath to answer. People soon began following him down.

Eli soon found himself at the bottom of the stairs. He threw his shoulder against the door and stumbled into the foyer. There, Daniel and Marsch were hunched over a person on the floor who was bleeding profusely, gravely injured. The pool of blood grew around him as Eli approached. The guards watched the door anxiously, as if afraid someone—or something—would come through it.

He knelt and inspected the injured man:

James. Human. Level 4 Fighter (Warden).

With health dangerously low and dropping, already below 10 HP, there wasn't much time to lose. Eli healed him and cursed. Bleeding again. Same as Dana. Eli's pitiful heal worked well enough in closing the wounds and replenishing James's HP, but it did little for his paleness. He had lost a lot of blood.

A level-up ding chimed, but it sounded a little different from before. It wasn't a character level, he realized, but his healing skill. Pitiful Heal leveled up and transformed into Minor Heal.

Minor Heal (Rank 3):

Mana Cost: 10

Cast time: 1s

Cooldown: 0s

Description: Heal your target for a small amount of HP, close minor wounds, and mend injuries. Undead type beings are vulnerable to this spell and take double damage. Scales with Wisdom.

That new modifier was just what he needed: a new modifier: Mend Injuries.

"That's great," he exclaimed and healed James again. The bleeding icon disappeared immediately, and he regained some of his color, but despite that, he remained unconscious.

People were gathering all around him on the floor, and quite a few stepped toward the door to peer out, holding different weapons in trembling hands. Eli didn’t pay them any mind. He'd received the ability to heal injuries the second he needed it. Convenient timing. A little too convenient.

"He should be fine," Eli said. "Get him somewhere where he can rest."

A few people he vaguely recognized gently lifted James and carried him toward the staircase.

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"How many were in their party when they left?" He kept his voice low so those around him wouldn’t hear. The crowd was cheering and slapping hands anyway, not paying much attention.

"Six of them left, not long after your group went outside. Him and that other woman returned," Daniel answered.

Eli nodded and stood to join those peering out. Since it was dark out now, he couldn’t see very far. In the far, far distance, the active volcano kept throwing up molten lava into the air, but another point of light drew his attention. It was in the direction of the endless, empty field of grass.

Apparently, it wasn’t so endless and not so empty. A small light moved and flickered before disappearing. A torch.

Amy: What's the commotion?

Eli: Dana was out with a party. Don't know what happened, but only Dana and a Fighter named Russel returned.

Amy: Oh no.

Realization dawned on him and Eli shouted, "Dana!"

She was coming down the stairs just as he was back in the stairwell. The bleeding injury was gone from her status. It must've timed out on its own.

"James?" she asked.

"Healed him. He's fine, but still unconscious. They brought him to the second floor."

Dana's shoulders lost some of their tension and she breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you."

A bunch of health potions popped into her hands and she tried handing them over.

"You keep those," Eli said. "I can heal myself."

"What happened out there? Goblins?" he asked after she put the potions back into her inventory..

Dana shook her head and a river of words flowed out of her, the tone of her voice shaken and small, full of anxious fear. "No, I don't... We were in the forest, found a cave. It was just dark. None of us had any spells to light the way, and the torches we lit didn’t last long enough. We were attacked by something big. It sounded like some sort of monster. I couldn’t do anything." She glanced up at the warp of light hovering over Eli.

"Do you think any of the others could still be alive? Should we go back right now?"

She shook her head sadly. "No, I'm sure of it. From those sounds..." Her face went pale. "None of the others made it. Russel and I just took glancing blows, but that thing was strong—whatever it was."

"Where exactly is that cave?" Eli asked. "We're heading to the forest tomorrow."

"You shouldn’t," Dana said.

"We need to find Amy some stronger pets. She's a Shepherd. The forest is our only option, as far as I can tell."

"The blind girl?" Dana whispered. "I still don't think you should go near that cave. But if you won't back down, I'll come with. Just promise to keep that light going."

"Are you sure?"

"I want to help retrieve the ones who didn't make it."

"Okay," Eli said, adding her to the party.

Eli: I invited Dana to the party. She'll guide us to the cave in the forest tomorrow. Whatever attacked her group is in there.

Charlotte: As long as it's not undead.

Dana: Hi guys. Thanks for helping me out with this.

Amy: Of course. How is Russel?

Dana: Going to check on him now. Your boy Eli just saved his life. And mine.

Dana waved goodbye and turned around to run up to the second floor, leaving Eli alone to trudge all the way back up.

The door to Mr. Thomas's office was closed, so Eli searched until he found an empty couch. A sudden weariness coming over him. Long day. Some sleep would do him good.

All those pop-ups he'd mentally waved away kept flashing for his attention in the corner of his vision, even with his eyes closed. There was no way he could sleep with that. Instead, he opened up his status screen to see that he was now level 8. He'd leveled up six times and had 30 attribute points to distribute.

He added 4 points to Constitution to reach an even 10, upped Intelligence to 15, and then dumped the rest into Wisdom.

Wisdom must have reached some threshold because a small chime sounded again for a new skill:

Improved mana regeneration: The mana regeneration for Meditation now applies to all mana regeneration.

"Whoa, that's not bad," Eli murmured. It would help him immensely. Truth be told, his mana points had gone from 30 to 180 already. It was a great improvement. Now he could sustain his skills more even with the increased mana cost. "Not bad at all."

Looking over the rest of his status screen, he saw both the skill window and talent window blinking, trying to get his attention. He opened the Skills window first and saw his new sitting there. Now that his healing spell had leveled up, he saw small bars under each skill, indicating they would level up with use. Interesting.

He cured himself a few times saw the bar slowly fill up. It would take all night to level it up in that manner, but at least it allowed for some true grinding. Two skill points were available, with small plus signs right by each of his skills. Did that mean he got a skill point each time he leveled up? Time would tell. Rather than leveling up his heal right away, his eyes were drawn to a new button.

Select New Skills (2).

Eli clicked it and began perusing the list. The first one made his eyes goggle.

Warp: Teleport yourself to a previously marked location.

The amount of possibilities with such a spell was endless. So much time to be saved. This was a no-brainer, and he picked it right away.

The rest of the list wasn’t very long:

Increase Max Mana: Maximum MP increased.

Bless: Increase a target's Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution by 15 points.

Cure Poison: Cures Poisoned status.

Sigil of Light: Place a sigil on the ground. All party members within its bounds are continuously healed for a small amount.

Burning Light: Light in The Dark now damages targets on contact and has physical mass. Has a chance to apply status: Blind. Required skill: Light in The Dark

Eli read the list through twice and settled on Burning Light for his second spell. Their current party lacked in damage and would be even more hard-pressed when fighting anything not undead. Bless was an interesting choice, but fixed attribute bonuses never amounted to much in the long run. Cure Poison was another important one, but he figured Zack might be able to brew up a potion for that. Sigil of Light would ultimately end up being a mandatory spell, he figured, but for now he could rely on his trusty old single target Minor Heal. Increase Max Mana was wholly unnecessary at this point.

When he returned to his Skills window, his two skill points were gone.

"Huh. So I can either pick new skills or level up existing ones. Not both," he told the empty office.

Unable to hold off his excitement about the new skills, he immediately cast Warp. A blank list showed up before his inner eye. The list was empty, but from it, he was able to mark a place. Eli marked the couch, then got up and re-cast the skill. This time, the list wasn't empty:

Infinite Innovation Solutions, Floor 13.

A flash of white was followed by him lying down on the couch. He laughed. "Amazing!" It had taken almost half his mana, but that was a small price to pay for the infinite time he could save with this.

Amy: What just happened?

Eli: ?

Amy: Your name just blinked on the party screen.

Eli: We have a party screen?

Opening it with a thought, a new screen appeared. It showed everyone's levels, health, mana, and stamina.

Eli: You won’t believe this, but I just teleported!

Amy: Healers get teleport? So unfair. Where did you teleport?

Eli: From my floor to the couch. I can only go to locations I've marked.

Charlotte: But you’ll lose the glory of speeding toward your goal, adrenaline pumping!

Zack: Can you teleport us too?

Eli: Don't think so.

Amy: Boo.

Zack: Boo.

Charlotte: Boo.

Dana: Boo.

Eli: Boo-hoo. Going to sleep now. See you tomorrow.

Amy: Don’t forget to pick a talent! I think we all got one at level five.

Amy: There’s some interesting stuff in there that can change your class quite a bit.

Eli: I'll check it out. Good night.

Zack: Night.

Amy: Nighty-night.

Dana: Cu.

Charlotte: SLEEP WELL FELLOW BARBARIANS.

Charlotte: Dammit. I meant to say goodnight.