July 22, 491 U.C.

Ancient trees tower around the city of Valta. Like silent sentinels, they watch over the entrance into the rainforest. And, like the foolish Vuln pioneers, I was about to enter it. My dad is not a patient person, so I built up my courage while I stood atop the wall.

With a deep breath, I turned and descended the metal ladder built into the wall. If you’ve seen Vuln wildlife, you’ll understand why they never bothered removing them. If they can climb, the ladder doesn’t matter.

Hitting the bottom, I turned back towards the forest, slipping between the strands of barbwire just outside. I crossed the cleared portion, walking into the dim area beneath the canopy. Puddles from the recent rain dotted the muddy ground. I avoided them and the worst of the mud as I walked into the forest.

The forest was wild; the vegetation had grown thick. I scrambled over a root that was roughly half a meter tall. Then I peered through the shadows.

Struggling to see, I embraced my fae self by pulling off the amulet. My eyesight cut through the shadows better than before. I navigated around roots and hopped over a fallen tree that was rotting. Avoiding some insect mound, I continued forward toward the sounds of water.

It took me a few minutes to find the little stream. It was a meter or two across and seemed to be headed for the river. I followed it upstream and found some cufrot. It’s a stalky, green plant that grows on the banks. I promptly harvested it. Wild cufrot isn’t great. It has thick, green stalks that taste like bland spinach. I filled a biobag with the stalks. Then I carefully dug out some roots, placing the bulbs in a bag for later.

After stashing the plants, I rinsed my hands and continued my exploration. Hearing a noise, my hands descended to swords. Then I saw the rotk about twenty meters away. It pecked away at some nut. Easy food today! Grabbing my knife, I hurled it. The knife whizzed through the air, taking the bird’s head off. On one last mission, the headless body ran forward and then tumbled over a root, running against the ground.

After it stilled, I grabbed the carcass, slit it open, and gutted it. All of it went into a biobag. Then the trek resumed. I climbed over some massive roots from one of the bigger trees. Jumping down, a pleasant aroma from some nearby flowering trees hit.

Enjoying the smell, my ears caught a different type of chirping. Dropping low, I moved quietly through the trees. With my knife in hand, I crept forward. That’s when I saw a kiltr for the first time. It was about fifteen meters away. For those who don’t know, they are like red-feathered secretary birds. They are about a meter tall with really long legs. They have a nasty beak and nasty talons. This one had a snake hanging from its beak. It lurched, trying to swallow it down its gullet.

I opted to capitalize on that fact. I aimed and hurled the knife at the creature. The blade shot through the air. It hit the bird in the head, clanging off its skull and drawing blood. I grabbed my swords while wishing that I had more knives while the bird’s eyes locked onto me.

It raced towards me while abandoning the snake. Using haste, I dodged to the side. Then I took its head off with a sideways chop. Its head rolled away as I released the spell. Grabbing it, I pulled out a bio bag to drain the blood.

A snap rang out. Adrenaline lanced down my spine. The bag dropped as I spun, triggering my spell in a panic. Seeing talons, I dove to try to avoid the kiltr in mid-leap. While that stopped it from hitting my chest, it did not stop it from embedding talons deep into my leg. I screamed as I fell. It clamped its talons down harder, drawing more attention to the unpleasant feeling of talons in my leg. My flesh started to tear as the smell of my blood hit like a metallic sledgehammer.

I grabbed my sword; it used its beak to rip into my leg. Blood spurted while my scream rang through the air. Rearing back, it opened that terrifying, bloody beak. I slammed the blade into its head in reckless abandon to prevent it from pecking my face. It crumpled, tearing more flesh as its talons ripped out of my leg.

Cutting off part of my jeans, I tied the fabric tightly around the wound. The lancing adrenaline began to fade, leaving agony in its wake. With my painkiller fast leaving, I forced myself to pull the bandage tight and tie it off.

I stood, water gathering in my eyes. Like a horrible painting, blood was splattered around me. I tried to ignore it while grabbing things.

Once I had my stuff, I turned and began hobbling back out of the forest; my legs throbbed. The feeling of having blood trickle down your leg is not pleasant. It’s just a constant reminder that you are in trouble. I tried to ignore it and the pain while hobbling towards home.

I journeyed towards the wall for what seemed an eternity. Any joy from the forest was drowned in the ocean of anxiety and pain. After an eternity, I finally saw the break in the treeline. With tears on my cheeks, I put on the amulet and hobbled forward to the wall.

The climb over the wall sucked. While I did gently lower myself down, my leg throbbed with every step. Dizziness spiked as I stumbled down the streets. Opting to not make the trek to the house, I turned to the closest option. I limped down streets to the back of a butcher shop and knocked. I was in no shape to walk the streets like this.

“Yes?” Job asked as he poked his head out. His smile turned into a frown. “Get inside.” The man shook his head as he looked at the leg and wound.

I hobbled inside with tears on my cheeks and blood all over me. “- need - medkit,”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Damn foolish of you.” Job pulled out a medkit. “Set your things down.”

I placed the things down. Then Job picked me up; his military tattoos rippled while he flexed. He carried me to a bathroom, pulled out a blade, and cut off my bandage along with more of my jeans. They went in the trash.

“Nasty things. Those talons rip deep. You shouldn’t have tried to kill them. And you shouldn’t be out there.” Job pulled the end of the shower down and flushed the deep gouges.

I screamed bloody murder while he winced. He flushed the wound, sprayed it with medgel, and bandaged it up.

Finishing his bandage, he gave me a look of anger. “What the hell were you thinking, Casey?” He vented his frustration by blasting my shoes with water.

“Sorry,” I murmured, while wiping away my tears.

“Did you at least learn a lesson?” Job asked with a huff.

I nodded and looked back at the floor. That had gone horribly.

He killed the water. “Good. There is far worse out there too. Don’t go out there.” He frowned and cut the other pant leg off, turning them into cutoffs.

“Thanks, Job,” I said softly, leaning against the chair.

“You’re going to pay for it.”

I hung my head in shame.

Job placed my shoes on. “Do you know how close you are to death?”

“Yes,” I whispered.

“Don’t do it, Casey. Your life is worth more than a few things from the wilds.” Job handed me some water. Then he took out a syringe and filled it with something. “I can’t believe I’m using combat training on a twelve-year-old,” he said angrily.

He injected the syringe into my arm. “That’s for tetanus and other infections. It also has some painkillers.”

“Thanks.”

Job picked me up and carried me to the other room. Then he set me on a chair.

“Let’s have a look.” He turned and looked at the tubers, the rotk, and the birds. “Let’s start with the price of treatment. That’s going to run you twenty-five credits.”

That was pricey. He was probably trying to teach me a lesson. I couldn’t fault him for that. He took the rotk and the tubers.

Job sighed. “Now, I’m going to ask you something. Do you need more supplies for hunting inside the wall?”

“Can I get a medkit and more knives?” I asked while looking up.

“Yes. But don’t go out there again.” Job grabbed the medkit and three throwing knives. He placed them down. “That is all you can afford.”

I nodded, keeping my head down from the irate man above me. You know the look.

“Does your father know you were out there?” Job asked with a stern frown.

“It was his idea,” I admitted.

Job’s kind face contorted further, moving from pissed to livid. “Don’t listen to that shit. Get child services if you need to. I’ll do it if you want. Hell, we’ll take you if that’s your worry.”

“He just didn’t realize,” I clarified.

“He almost got you killed,” Job snapped back. “If you are that hard up, come work for me. I could use your butchery skills. There are far better things to do than go out into the jungles here. If you had run into something with high mana, you’d be dead.”

That surprised me. “You’d let me work here?” I asked.

“Yes. I’ve seen your work with a blade. I’m still tempted to call child services. He should know better.” Job frowned.

I looked up. “Sorry. I’ll tell him it’s a bad idea.”

“Do so. I’ll chat with him too. Here. Have some bonus med-gel. It never hurts to have some of that around.” Job tossed a tube into the kit with an angry huff.

“Thanks, Job.” I went to stand.

“Stay put for now. I’m going to check your blood. Something tells me it is low.” He pulled out a scanner. I put my hand on it.

He frowned. “Your blood is low. You can go home; do not run. Take it slow. And take the rest of the day off. Eat a cookie too.”

I nodded and stood.

“Have a good day. Play some games. No more killing today.” He patted my back gently.

“Thanks.” I turned and headed for the door. Then I hobbled out the door and down the streets. After another long hobble, I finally made it home.

Walking inside, I headed to the bathroom and stripped off the outfit while wishing for body armor. Then I washed off all the blood and got dressed. Finally, I moved to the patio. The biobags of blood went into the composter. Then I began weeding our little garden. Today was ideal for it; the terraformer was functional, and it was nice out. I spent about twenty minutes pulling weeds while trying to ignore my leg.

As I pulled out yet another spiky weed, the door slid open.

“What happened?” Dad asked.

I tossed the plant into the composter. “Kiltr.”

Dad frowned. “How bad?”

“Job patched me up. It was bad, Dad. I can’t go back out there.” My throat swelled. “It ripped my leg open. I almost bled out.” Then I started crying again.

Dad shook his head and patted me on the back. “I’ll work on real armor. I’m sorry, Casey. Fish for now, please.”

“Thanks,” I said with a breath of relief.

“Did he take a cut?” Dad asked.

“Yes. I used the money for the medkit and some more knives too.”

“What went wrong?”

I blushed and dusted off my pants. “There was a second one that I didn’t notice until it was way too late.”

“We’ll practice that in two days,” Dad said. “I need you to be able to react rapidly.”

I gave him a pathetic puppy look. “Dad, please. I need a break.”

He shook his head. “You need to be able to react in less than a second, especially given your tendency to zone out.”

“Can I get meds for that?” I asked.

“You don’t need meds. You need to focus.”

I looked back at my leg, hoping it would heal quickly. Then I turned back to the little garden and resumed weeding, getting distracted by a dark green spider that was crawling around. I watched it spring forward and bite some small ant thing. The voracious spider began sucking out its juices or something.

“Come inside and practice enchanting,” Dad called. “I’m thinking a returning enchantment on the knives.”

I nodded and hobbled back inside. Walking into the room, I grabbed a knife. Then I began forming the spell inside of it while reviewing the book.

Minutes passed while I tried to perfect the pattern. Once I had that, I was forced to make another around it to seal the enchantment. My mana dropped to nothing as I used that second spell. That set my stomach off. My enchantment began fading. I sighed and went to get food while prepping myself for a nap.

Dad walked into the kitchen. “Enchanting?”

“It didn’t work. I’m out of mana.” My stomach grumbled. I patted it and opened the fridge.

“Get some food. Take a nap if you need to. Then try it again.”

“Thanks.”

I did just that, fading off rather quickly as the exhaustion hit me like a rock.

Current Level 2 Current XP 92.15% Current Max Mana 22.74 Regen per minute 0.19 Growth Time (Days) 5.96 Potential Mana 2.90 Reputation 50

Tier Skill Cost Tier 1 User Time Dilation

- User experiences 4 seconds for 1 earth second. - Costs 1 mana per earth second.