"We should take a break here." Brutus pointed to a clearing beside the stream they were following. Tyr nodded in agreement then sat down, finding a flat place to sit on a rock. His wounds from the battle with the death knight were severe. Their pace was slow due to his injuries, despite not encountering any new enemies. Looking at his right hand that had been kicked by the death knight he grimaced. It was swollen and his pinky finger was clearly broken.
"Do you have any medical skills?" Tyr asked while pointing, indicating his injuries with his other hand.
"Nah man sorry, if this were the real world I could help but I'm useless here in that regard."
"What is it that you did in the real world?"
"At one point in time I was a paramedic." Brutus' eyes darkened and he leaned back against a tree, "That was before my accident of course. I'm paralyzed now, so I'm stuck in a wheelchair." Tyr looked up at him with surprise and felt a pang of guilt for having asked so carelessly.
"I'm really sorry to hear that."
"Don't sweat it man." Brutus laughed heartily, "I get to spend far more time living in awesome worlds like these that let me have my legs back. It's one of the reasons I wanted to be this class, I want to move around, I want to fight, and I want to do things I would never be able to do in the real world."
"Well, there's some silver lining for you then."
"Yeah dude. I'm happy being able to do this, which is why I didn't want to stop last night." Brutus smiled brightly, "What about you man? What are you in the real world?" Yes, what are you in your other world. I'm curious myself.
"Oh, I'm nothing spectacular. I work in an office filing paperwork on complaints from companies arguing about the prices we charge for electricity usage."
"You work for the electric company?" Brutus chuckled.
"Yeah, it's not very spectacular but it pays pretty good. I get bonuses for collecting money from customers that have been delinquent. Those bonuses are how I was able to afford coming here."
"Well that's cool man. I got a pretty big settlement and being disabled means I pay discounted rates for games like this." Tyr nodded in silent reply. I couldn't imagine how he must feel being able to move around freely like this given his circumstances.
"Well since you used to be a paramedic how about some field medicine? What should I do about my hand?"
"Don't use it. When you get a chance to get it healed you should. A healing potion should repair a lot of it, but the bones look broken." Brutus had pulled out his copy of the guidebook and was flipping through the pages, scanning for a moment then moving on to another section, "I guess you'll have to get the bones healed by an actual healer."
"Bummer." Tyr had been hoping that he would be able to just rest and repair. He hadn't gotten far enough in the guidebook to have learned otherwise. "Do you know if NPCs are able to perform any healing magic? I doubt we're going to see any players that do unless we head back to the starting town."
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
"Angvarde City," Brutus corrected while standing upright, "The guidebook doesn't say, but it does say that healing kits drop rarely from some enemies. Doesn't say which ones though."
Brutus continued reading through the guide. As they were continuing their rest, Tyr noticed some berries on a bush next to where he was sitting. He started picking some and a popup appeared indicating the quantity he was collecting. He clicked the dialogue, ???, but it didn't have any information for any of the fields besides the quantity.
"Weird," Tyr turned to Brutus, "These berries don't even have a name listed. I thought once I collected them that I'd get their name and effect."
"Nah man, it's like in real life until you know what it is." Brutus smirked, "You can always eat them to find out their effect."
"Heh. Nah." Tyr moved the items into his storage. General storage looks limited, you'll need to get a bag extension at some point. "Yeah I know."
"Huh?" Brutus looked perplexed, "Then why did you ask me about them if you know you gotta eat them to find out if they're poisonous or not?"
"Oh. I didn't even think about them being poisonous." Tyr backtracked as he realized that he'd responded to Shadow aloud. "I was just thinking to myself that my hand hurt like hell."
"Ah, well we'll need to get-" A branch snapped just behind Brutus and he swirled while drawing his sword. Standing before him was a teenage boy, with black hair and brown eyes. His face had traces of acne, and his features were sharp. It looked as though he didn't eat nearly as much as he probably should. His clothes were too small, very worn out, loosely spun rough woolen shirt, and pants to match. His clothes had holes in many place, his lack of shoes showed bloody ankles. Above his head hovered
"Please! I'm sorry, I- I- I didn't know the army was hunting in these woods sirs. Please forgive me. I'll go straight home. Just please. Please don't kill me." The boy dropped to his knees, tears forming in his eyes.
"We're not going to kill you. We're not part of the army." Brutus said with a tone as sincere and consoling as he could muster, "We're just passing through these woods and got lost."
"Not part of the army?" The boy started trembling, his eyes grew even wider. "Renegades? Bandits? I have no money."
"Nothing like that at all," Tyr cut in while stepping forward, "My name is Tyr, and I'm just a man passing through here with my friend. However, I was injured by a monster living far deeper in the woods and I need someone to heal me. I'd be willing to pay the person who helped me to find a healer, and I'd feed that person as well. Do you know of a person I could rely on like that?"
"Food? You have food?" Bryan's eyes lit up, "Better not be those berries I saw you picking mister. Those'll kill you quicker than a cat kills a mouse."
"That depends, do you know someone who can heal my hand?"
"Aye," Bryan nodded. "Granddaddy Hunterson can do that for sure. You best bring him a rabbit at least though or he won't be seeing you." Tyr smiled and nodded. Opening his menu he reached into it to retrieve some rations he'd gotten from Angvarde City. Bryan gasped and his eyes grew wide with fear watching Tyr's hand disappear into the air. When Tyr's hand reappeared with a pouch of jerky the boy looked just as scared.
"I know some magic." Tyr said with a shrug, and he tossed the pouch to the boy. Bryan opened it and gingerly put a piece into his mouth. After a moment he was devouring it.
"I'll lead the way." Bryan said while tossing another piece into his mouth. "Granddaddy Hunterson lives outside of town though, it'll take us longer to get there from here." Town. We went the right way after all. You didn't know where we were going? I know we are now.