Eight Era, cycle 1721 – cycle of the squatting dog, season of Unkh, day 223
Amaka woke, which was both a surprise and somewhat unwelcome at that point. It was a welcome surprise how quickly her mind seemed to be working this time, and the absence of pain.
Her legs were cold, but she quickly found they rested in the cold water. It took a moment to catch her breath, mentally speaking, but she seemed to have time.
New quest: save our souls (SOS) 1
Your friend Sejal was sucked into a corrupted soul crystal and trapped as a tormented spirt. Your witnessing of such an atrocity sparked a burning ambition in you to free your friend. Yet there are others lost to this tainted magic.
Freeing your friend will give you a massive boost in any relationships with any mages who are repelled by tainted magicka rituals, but will also make those who use such magicka view you with suspicion.
Failing to free your friend will see her used to power tainted magic spells and tortured for eons.
New quest: the house of Steinar 1
Sejal charged you to find her sister and give to her the family heirloom; you can choose to either pursue this quest or keep the ring for yourself.
You were knocked unconscious.
This is the second time in short succession where you have lost consciousness. This is extremely bad for your brain, and the effects have been increased. You should see a healer as soon as possible to check for further potentially lasting damage.
Lose 12% of cunning, 24% of insightfulness, 9% of vitality, 12% of willpower, 4% of strength and 13% of dexterity.
You have severed your arm.
Lose 25% of your strength
New item: lungs-of-a-whale ring
This ornately designed ring allows the wearer to breath in water for up to 5 hours. This ring is made out of 24-carat gold and has a blue sapphire set into it. This is an exquisite example of quality, and has 1 hour 25 minutes of charge left and its durability is 30/30. It weighs 0.3 kg. Grades of rings are (in ascending order) shoddy, delicate, intricate, exquisite, one-off and mythical.
That would explain how she survived unconscious in the water. She hoped the ring could be recharged, or she’d basically destroyed a family heirloom.
Severed arm? That couldn’t be right. Amaka struggled to sit up and then looked at her injured arm; her right arm ended prematurely.
Amaka couldn’t move.
Her hand was gone; her arm was severed! For a long time, the world spun, and her mind was paralysed with shock. She’d lost an arm; could it be replaced? Healed? What would she do if it couldn’t?
Round and round her mind spun; disbelief, anger, fear and despair all overwhelmed her. It was a sucking vacuum pulling her down into a shell of cold emptiness. Her heart was palpitating, cold sweat prickled her forehead, and her chest felt like a fist was clutching inside her. She’d never cup a flower to her nose, scratch a dog feverishly with both hands or run her hands through her hair in nervous consternation.
Eventually, her cyclical thoughts slowed enough that she was able to stagger to her feet. The panic attack lessened as she moved; the simple act of walking was helping to clear her mind, and she started to meditate – each footstep was slow and in time with a breath.
Amaka was unsure how long she walked in meditative contemplation, but, eventually, her mind settled, the shock lessened, and she started to study her surroundings.
Looking around, Amaka found that she’d washed up on a sort of beach; she looked out at the river and noticed it had no noticeable current. Curious; how had she washed ashore without a current pushing her?
The thought made Amaka’s skin prickle, and the hairs on her neck rise slowly. The feeling that she wasn’t alone crept over her, and Amaka turned unhurriedly, expecting someone to grab her or thrust cold steel through her at any moment. Yet, after she’d turned a complete 360°, she hadn’t spotted anyone.
Amaka turned again, this time looking more carefully, but the presence eluded her; instead, Amaka looked at the ground for evidence of someone else. It made Amaka uncomfortable that her would-be rescuer seemed ill-disposed to show themself. Unless it was the same person who took her to this strange land, but then why were they so intent on her surviving after letting her fend for herself for so long?
Taking a deep breath, Amaka tried to think through what happened. The pain from the experience seemed unreal; she felt completely fine now. So if someone was there, they pulled Amaka out, healed her and left. It didn’t sound like something an enemy would do.
With a last steadying breath, Amaka called out, ‘Hello, hello?’
No response came to her calls; the words echoed and died, like rats scurrying away from a clowder of cats.
‘Hello, who’s there?’ Amaka called again, and she strained her ears for any response.
‘Some questions should not be asked; some answers should not be known,’ came a voice. The voice was – well, it wasn’t so much a voice as it was an audible earthquake – a baritone that could level streets. Her diaphragm rang for a good few minutes after it had spoken, and her insides quivered from the bass in a not unpleasant way.
‘Some knowledge should not be shared,’ the voice continued.
‘Please, I just wanted to know who saved my life,’ requested Amaka.
‘No names; a friend.’
‘Who’s friend? My friend, someone with a genial sense of duty, a friend from a third party, or perhaps the sort of “friend” who stands before you with a knife and asks for your wallet?’
‘No tricks, and you speak well.’
‘Thank you for healing me and for pulling me out of the water. If you can’t tell me who you are, please could you perhaps tell me where we are?’
‘This place has no name; it is just yet another pit in another misbegotten cave.’
‘Oh. What language are we speaking?’
‘It is an old language, and one of the first your kind spoke when brought to this world. It is one of the few I speak.’
‘I’m grateful that you pulled me from the water and healed my injuries, but… but why did you save me?’ Amaka asked.
There was a deep rumble, more felt in Amaka’s belly then heard; it made Amaka wonder exactly what it was that she was talking too.
‘I am so very old, and you are so very young and in so much pain for someone so young. It didn’t seem fair that you should die whilst I lived.’
‘My arm did hurt.’
‘Not that, but the sterile lights and thinking machines, the tubes of suffering and blue suits of mercy. The little pebbles that make you sleepy, make you sweat and make you better, but you feel worse. The days-cum-weeks spent on a bed on wheels, and the slow, lingering death.’
Amaka blinked; as it spoke, elusive memories flittered in her mind, here and gone before she could get a full grasp of the meaning.
‘The hospital,’ Amaka said slowly. ‘I was sick – I remember being sick. But I can’t remember what happened next.’
‘Perhaps that was intentional, so that you didn’t have to take the memories of dying with you to here.’
Amaka didn’t know how to feel about that answer. Then she spotted a glint of light and started to move towards it, but carefully so as not to alarm whomever she was speaking too. The light seemed to be emanating from a source hidden from view, and then the light blinked out before reappearing.
There was something like a grunt, a hit of hot air passing, and the smell of dampness but it was warm, like clothes drying over a fire.
‘So this place has no name and no markers to distinguish it from any other cave?’ Amaka questioned softly; there was a thought trying to get her attention, so she change topic in the hope it would appear by itself.
‘I believe it was once called Malox Passage; he made it to sneak through the forest above. Over the years, many of the tunnels collapsed, and monsters infest it.’
Quest update: the dying of the light
You have got lost in Malox Passage, a gruelling-level cave.
The levels of cave are den, worth 500 experience points; hideout, worth 2,000 experience points, gruelling, worth 11,000 experience points and 350 accolade points. Beyond this, the cave is upgraded to a dungeon with the levels being sprawling, worth 34,000 experience points and 900 accolade points; raid, worth 100,000 experience points and 10,000 accolade points; legendary, worth 345,000 experience points and 50,000 accolade points; and mythical, worth 600,000 experience points and 100,000 accolade points.
Fight your way through or find your way out. Before it’s too late…
Additionally, you have discovered others are trapped here. Continue onwards and free them, or leave them to their fate. The choice is yours.
Rewards: upgrade to your navigation skill, reward for clearing out a cave, other reward unknown
Failure or refusal will mean spending your life lost in the dark.
Warning: you do not have the appropriate specialisation to acquire these accolade points
New badge awarded: discovering a lost location
Although you didn’t know you were discovering it. I’m sure we had a badge for that!
New badge awarded: off the beaten track 1
You took to the path less trodden and ended up somewhere special: ↑ endurance, ↑ fitness.
‘Every time I think I’ve escaped, it pulls me back in,’ moaned Amaka.
The voice chuckled; it made Amaka’s legs quiver in a not unpleasant way.
Amaka cocked her head to the side, as the idea of one of those puzzle posters popped into her mind, as if the rocks around her were in a recognisable shape, or like when you’re looking at the clouds and suddenly think it looks like a famous person or a logo. Amaka let her eyes relax, and the realisation of what she had been looking at sunk in.
The light swivelled and tracked her; the lines of what Amaka had thought of as cracks and weathered rocks all joined together to become the outline of an elongated face. There was a splash as Amaka stumbled back into the river.
‘Take care; I might not fish you out again,’ the voice concluded.
The light blinked again and focused on her; it was an eye holding near infinite depths of intelligence, yet that somehow also seemed to hold an unfathomable level of sadness.
‘Dragon,’ Amaka breathed.
‘And who are you to stumble around in a carok domain?’ it asked.
Amaka’s mouth was dry and refused to close; she would have crapped herself if she’d eaten anything in the last day. Amaka started to breathe fast, almost hyperventilating, and her tongue started to move slowly, spit was pushed around, then her mouth started to jerk. Finally, in a weak voice Amaka managed to make a vague remark. ‘I’m someone wandering half-blind in traps,’ Amaka didn’t know what made her say it, and it sounded almost like an insult to say such an odd thing to a dragon, but it didn’t seem to take offence.
‘That is no good thing to be, not at all,’ it replied.
‘I was one who wandered half-blind into traps; “Was” being the operative word, hopefully anyway.’
There came a noise that could have been a chuckle; that or Amaka was standing on a localised earthquake.
‘That is a fine way to talk to dragons, for they are cunning and powerful and not at all genial to strangers.’
‘It’s how Bilbo Baggins talked to them.’
‘He sounds like a very smart person.’
‘Yes, but… um, what do you mean by “they”?’
‘Do you mean grammatically?’
‘No… well, maybe… I mean, aren’t you a dragon? Or do you mean that other dragons are cunning but you’re benign?’
‘I am not a dragon, but I am of the draconic persuasion. What is it that you hope to gain down here?’
‘Escape. Freedom.’
‘Death is freeing.’
‘No. I’m not sure I hope to gain anything; I fell into this cave system and, since then, all I’ve wanted to do was escape. Yet now I’ve lost what could have been my first friend in this world to a soul crystal, I want to save her, if that’s what you mean? I’ve found out others are here as well and I want to help those trapped here. But what I want… what I really, really want… is that I want to get out of here. I feel claustrophobic; I want to feel the wind, the rain, the sun, a eat a steak!’ Amaka said.
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‘That is a good purpose, if there is any.’
‘Well, it’s proving impossible; if this cave had a mind, it’d be daemonic.’
‘Gods and daemons are merely public-relations perspectives. You have an affiliation with a god, yet here you are. The word does not mean good, but simply powerful. A purpose is important; far more important than your affiliation. You must now think broadly of what you will do with your future and your power, as all could be powerful in this world, and how your will and your power will affect those around you. When it is most difficult to decide who to be, that is when it is most important to be something.’
‘Life advice from a dragon – er, not-dragon.’
The not-dragon’s eye contracted, the elliptical pupil dilated, and the golden light of its gaze dimmed. With a grunt, the pupil reduced.
‘What dragon would suffer the ignominy of living here? In my time of quiet contemplation, I have had a chance to think about the nature of life and the mind, and what purpose there is, if any. I am old, perhaps I have matured, perhaps I have grown weak, but I think how your life affects others is important. I am still alive, but what use is that if none think of me or even think of me badly. Once I am gone, what will be left? This legacy has been on my mind for the last few aeons. To live and live well is the best for the current me, but what of future me and the time after? For this, how you treat others is vital and so is giving the greatest feeling to the largest number; this is what I have come to in my contemplations.’
Amaka swallowed; she felt suddenly like this was a dangerous conversation, as she felt like it was an emotive subject for the creature and that perhaps – should Amaka prove unworthy – the creature would not let her go. ‘That is a mighty thought; one so small and young as me cannot fathom its depths.’
The creature grunted. ‘You do not need to placate me; I will not eat you if you are selfish.’
‘I’m not selfish! I mean, not overly selfish. I mean, a little selfishness is good for self-preservation.’
‘Do not worry; you have already answered me that you wish to escape, and yet you also mentioned others you wish to help. Whilst you are no paragon of virtue, you seem genuinely concerned for others.’
‘Oh, well, good. Speaking of others, when I’ve looked at other creatures, I got a description of what they are. Why haven’t you got one?’ Amaka asked instead.
‘I mask my presence; it’s a simple spell, but one that has scaled better than any other.’
‘Do all spells level? My healing spells don’t have a level number.’
‘The spell itself will not level, but all skills will change as your attributes increase. There is no minor spell and master spell; the mastery comes from your attributes. What you can do with a spell and what others do with the same spell will differ depending on what attributes you have levelled and what someone else has.’
‘Oh, so my spells will get stronger?’
‘Perhaps, or perhaps they will stay the same but have a longer use or affect more people. It all depends on your stats.’
‘Well, that’s good. You’re being so helpful and saved my life. Is there anything I may help you with?’ Amaka enquired, feeling like owing the creature a favour wasn’t a good idea.
‘I did not save your life to hold power over you.’
‘Nonetheless, I want to help you if there’s anything I may do?’
‘I have few needs or wants; however… The caroks are vile creatures; we should have acted when we first discovered they were spreading. If they remain here, then others will come here eventually to clear them out. In so doing, they may well find traces of my presence. I’m not fully healed and do not wish that to happen.’
New quest: let sleeping dragons (dragonoids) lie 1
You have discovered one of the old races, a dragonoid, which is – so far – still live. The not-dragon has given upon to you a quest: clear Malox Passage of all hostile creatures.
The reward for completing the quest is unknown; the consequences of failing to do so are also unknown, but will surely mean suffering the wrath of a dragon!
Congratulations, you have discovered a rare race: dragonoids
Although the draconic race has long since been considered extinct, thanks to you, this is no longer the case. The news of this rediscovery will spread far and wide; those students of lore will have received a prompt of this iconic event.
Many stories of dragons still circulate and monuments to their power still stand. Although this race was believed extinct, their existence wasn’t dismissed as with the quixotic races. This is still a significant discovery, and, as such, you receive 2,500 experience points and 175 accolade points (1,721 experience points to the next level).
Warning: you are not a scholar; you have lost these accolade points
Skill increased: lore level 8
Congratulations! Due to your commitment to knowledge and discovery, you have progressed to level 8 in lore. You get 500 experience points for reaching level 5 (1,221 experience points to the next level).
‘I keep losing accolade points,’ grumbled Amaka.
‘Good; an accolade in one school is notoriety in another. You are too low of a level to be getting so much attention,’ confirmed the not-dragon.
‘What do you mean “notoriety”?’
‘Some schools are opposed to other schools. The watch school provides the law keepers of towns and cities, and anyone from a school of assassins or bandits will find their accolade is better than a big wanted poster. There may be better examples, but I have been long out of civilisation and am no longer sure which school opposes which. The necromancy school used to be targeted by the paladin school.’
‘What’s that?’
‘Paladins are a sort of Templar or military force tied to a god rather than a city. Necromancy is the act of summoning the dead. “Necro” as in necrophilia, Necronomicon and necrotic poisons.’
‘Since you’re helping me understand this world, what about fighting?’
‘What about it?’
‘Well, in my lands, fighting is frowned upon.; also hunting. It was something I found hard to wrestle with, as my father, being strong into his aboriginal heritage, used to hunt. I found the idea of something where you use binoculars and high-powered rifles (with scopes) capable of taking down massive, peaceful, defenceless creatures from miles away to be a barbaric act. Using a bow and arrow – that’s a challenge. My father said he tracked with his own senses, yet it was a point of contention between us. But this world rewards it.’
‘Hunting the animals in the non-combatant class is acceptable, as most people won’t eat anything with a combat class. Although there are plenty of beasts and some intelligent creatures who do eat combat classes, but – in towns and cities and things – the inns and taverns won’t sell food made from them, and it can be illegal to eat anything in the combat classes. However, to hunt non-combatant creatures purely for the increase in stealth attribute points, with bows and things, is considered unworthy, but to hunt for food and up those skills is fine.
‘The gods reward us with experience for fighting, so it is considered acceptable to fight; yet banditry such as preying on the weak or theft is still considered a faux pas, and the rulers of the land will offer bounties and quests for killing them.’
Amaka scratched her head. ‘I’m not sure I follow everything; however, as I have no intention of banditry or killing any and all beasts I come across, I think I shall be fine with the rules of etiquette I do understand from your speech. There is something else. I’ve seen different damage types, fire and bleeding seem self-evident, but I don’t get impact and piercing and things.’
‘Blunt weapons such as hammers and clubs use impact damage, which is used to break things such as the skin and ribs. Blunt damage is also the best damage type for skeleton warriors or thick-skinned creatures such as trolls, or shields. Yet you can get a hammer with a pointed end; this would puncture the skin or armour, and this is piercing damage. My skin is some 4 inches thick; to have piercing damage against me your point would need to be longer than that. Rapiers are another type of piercing-damage weapon. The best way to think of it is that it comes from anything pointed. Slash damage comes from items such as a machete, which are long and sharp, but also wide and not pointed like a piercing weapon. Slash damage causes cuts and produces bleed damage; this is best used against creatures like you – cut your skin and you can bleed to death. My healing is such that, even when I lost my leg, the wound closed; it would take a poison to stop me.
‘If you’re a magic user, then the three main physical damage types are difficult to use, unless you summon a weapon. Mages deal elemental damage, which I won’t go into detail about as there are so many. Suffice it to say that the more varied a mage’s elemental attacks are, the trickier they are to fight. A fire mage may be able to summon massive fire hurricanes, but you at least have a vague idea how to fight them: jump into a large body of water. But someone with fire, electric, gravitational, ice, healing, toxic and corrosive spells… well, how would you even start dealing with that?’
‘So magic wins,’ Amaka concluded.
‘People who want to throw magic around will need to spend their precious attribute points on a wider base of stats than a weapons user. As such, it requires a higher-level to become proficient in than melee fighting. But once you get to the higher levels, you can cast magic armour and buffs to make you stronger and quicker, and the greatest powers in the lands and the most respected kings tend to have magical abilities.’
‘Oh, apropos of nothing, that nasty smell. Is that me?’ Amaka enquired, sniffing the air then her pits. ‘Yep, that’s me!’
‘The healing required rather a lot of your body’s energy, not that you had much, but it meant that some of the little fat you had left was taken and you sweated an awful lot. It means that you are close to anorexic and will reek of body odour.’
‘Reek? I don’t know if I reek; I’m pungent maybe or have a rather forthright odour, sure, but I don’t mind the weight loss.’
‘My sense of smell is different to humans; your smells are too subtle for me to find offensive; our scents are far more complex odours.’
Amaka sniffed. ‘I can’t smell you.’
‘Maybe not, but to another dragonoid my smell can tell them my clan, my stage in the lifecycle, what magicka I have an affinity to, and many other things.’
‘Well, that may be, but do you know of a source of light nearby? I would like to get clean and this magical vision doesn’t help.’
Above the dragon appeared a spotlight, angled in such a way that the dragon remained cast in shadow.
Amaka thanked it and turned to the water to watch her reflection. Her face was blotched with all manner of things, her hair was a tangled mess, and her clothes were so dirty it was almost an offence. Amaka reached out to take some water between her cupped hands, but, of course, she couldn’t.
Amaka stripped and used her robe as a wash cloth. She spotted numerous bruises and cuts all over her body, and no doubt if she shaved off the weeks’ worth of hair on her arms and legs she’d find countless more. Amaka also winced at how thin she appeared in the reflection; half-starved was not a good look on her.
After cleaning herself, she was cold – although that was nothing new – and the dragon’s breath was warm and pleasant. She watched her reflection for a while. She’d lost weight, too much for her own taste. There was also a livid scar above her right eye, probably from when she’d suffered the skull fracture. Although the healing spells from the ebu gogo and the dragon had healed the wounds, they hadn’t removed the scars, or the physical and mental fatigue.
It was nice to not smell sweat, piss and shit; she’d got use to the caroks discharging their bowels on death, but now, in the smell’s absence, she felt like the world had got larger; like the smell had been confining her senses.
‘What happened?’ Amaka asked, meaning her arm.
‘The axe blow bit into the bone; by the time I fished you out, you were technically dead and had been so for about thirty seconds. I have some talent in healing and resuscitation, but, even at my level, I could not heal your arm and had to remove it,’ explained the dragon.
‘Dragon’s kiss of life?’ Amaka enquired with a hollow laugh. ‘Where is it?’
‘The kiss of life you mean? I don’t know what that is.’
‘No, my arm.’
‘It’s gone; I didn’t think you’d want to see it, should you wake.’
It was a stupid question, and she nodded at the reply. ‘So this is it: the end of my adventure already.’
‘How so?’
‘Well, I can’t climb mountains to lost temples one-handed, I can’t fight with a shield and sword one-handed, and I can’t use a bow…’ Amaka said, trailing off.
‘You’d be surprised what you can do with one hand; perhaps you should rest. I can see the affliction from lack of sleep.’
‘True, it’s surprising how real the afterlife is,’ Amaka declared, finding a comfortable-looking rock to use as a pillow.
‘This is not the afterlife.’
‘Well, whatever it is.’
‘It is one of many realities.’
‘One you only get to through dying?’ Amaka asked with a yawn.
‘No, most of us here were born here, but I have heard rumours.’
‘In a cave?’ Amaka questioned sceptically.
‘Careful, young one; do not forget who you talk too. The gods have always looked for powerful pawns to use in the Great Game. If you truly are from another place, then you would have been caught before your spirit passed into the ether, but after your physical body perished.’
There was a soft snoring noise; the dragonoid looked down and chuckled
*
‘It strikes me that you are hardly in shape to clear the cave for me,’ the dragonoid said as Amaka picked through her dirty clothing.
‘I’m doing alright so far,’ Amaka stated defensively.
‘You have no weapons, you’re half-starved, you have lost an arm, you know no fighting styles so your ability with weapons will never get above level 5, and you know no offensive spells.’
‘Thanks for the confidence boost.’
‘I am in a place of responsibility; I saved your life as it wouldn’t look well if I then sent you off to your death. Especially as I gave you a request to clear the levels, knowing that it is beyond your current ability.’
‘So, what, you’re going to keep me here?’
‘Well, this is the dichotomy. On the one hand, I don’t want any other adventurers coming here to investigate, but, in good conscience, I cannot send you to your death. It is a rather delicate indecorous juxtaposition of death over security, and your death solves nothing for me. So, I think it behoves me, as I am – as it happens – in a place where I can offer you clothing, weapons and food for a start.’
‘Food?’ Amaka asked sitting up.
‘What do you think I live off?’
‘So where’s this food?’ Amaka requested, trying not to salivate. ‘And what do I call you?’
‘Call me Masinga, and follow the light.’
The spotlight started to drift off, and Amaka followed after it. When it came to a rest, it was shining over a large body of water, and Amaka could see a bounty of fish.
‘They are salmon; I caught some whilst you were asleep and can keep you well fed with them,’ offered Masinga.
‘Finally, a bit of good luck!’ Amaka cried.
The spotlight swung and illuminated a field of fungus.
‘Here are mushrooms, and a few other vegetables during the height of summer – for a few months, the sun’s rays even reach down here, and I get a change to my diet of mushroom and fish soup,’ stated Masinga.
The spotlight moved, and what looked like one of the creature’s scales was placed on the floor with a still steaming – well, soup would be too good of a word for it, but it was the best meal Amaka had eaten since her arrival. The fish was in large chunks, ripped up by claws, and there was still silt on some of the mushrooms and vegetables, but Amaka ate it all.
‘I think, as I could not save your arm, I shall offer you some training and some conditioning. Are you willing to become stronger?’ the dragonoid queried.
‘Sure,’ Amaka said shrugging. She had food; she was hardly listening at this point.
‘You want me to what?’ Amaka asked; now she’d eaten and rested a bit, she wasn’t so amenable.
‘Do a series of exercises to build core strength,’ Masinga said.
‘I hate exercise.’
‘I have barbecued rat for your dinner, or lamb; it’s your choice.’
Amaka started doing squats so quickly that there was a whip crack.
‘No, no. You should start with hops, turning as you jump from left to right. Good, now at the end of each hop, I want you to crouch. Very good, now as you crouch, pretend like you’re trying to block a strike with your arms; no, no you need to move quicker. Pull your elbows up and out. No, the crouch and block need to be done together.’
Masinga continued ordering Amaka to perform various exercises, and her stamina level dropped slowly; some exercises made it drop quicker and some actually allowed it to grow back – although at a reduced rate. Yet, eventually, it got below 15% and the yellow stamina reading turned vibrant. When it did, her muscles started to burn and a stitch started in her side; as the number dropped, her limbs started to shake, and it hurt to breathe. Amaka kept stopping, as the effects of the lowered stamina became more and more painful, yet she was forced on with promises of food, a bath (that one gave Amaka 10 minutes of determination) and other veiled promises and threats, until the number hit 5%, and Amaka fell to the ground exhausted.
Masinga let loose a large burst of air from its nostrils, and its voice was filled with what Amaka could only take for pride. ‘Excellent; this will make your body burn and ache, but pushing yourself to such limits gives better results. I will not give you a stamina potion as, for this phase of your training, it is best to fight through the pain. You will also find that your stamina restores more slowly until it reaches 20%, then it will restore as normal. Once it reaches 100%, the pain will go, but you may find your stamina is capped at around 80% until your body recovers. However, tomorrow, we go again, and I doubt that, at your level, you will have fully recovered. The higher your natural fitness, the quicker your stamina will recover, both in the lowest percentile and from being capped due to fatigue.’