I returned to the Adventurer’s guild. I hadn’t collected my DP crystals, but I’m sure they would give them to me later. As we had left the dungeon early, however, there were several people in the training field. Maybe I could get a bit of training in. Two guys were sparing in the middle of the field. I watched them for a few seconds before one of them, a big guy with a club, managed to knock the other guy off his feet. He stopped his next swing just short of the man’s head, and the guy surrendered.

The winner went over to the side and sat down, drinking from a water skin. I walked over to him. “So, would you mind sparring with me?” I asked.

He saw that I was wearing a sword. My shield was in my backpack, which I couldn’t carry properly due to the strap being cut. “Well, you can’t use that equipment in the training field, other than the armor. How about this, you go put away your equipment and give me fifteen minutes to rest, and I’ll spar with you.” I nodded, promised to be back, and went to put my stuff up. I was feeling a bit warm and was getting a headache, so I quickly took off my armor and rubbed it down. Without the armor I wasn’t sweating any more, so I put it in my locker with the other gear. I would go have the strap on my shield fixed tomorrow.

With nothing but my clothes, coinpurse, and water skin I went back to the training field. When I returned the guy greeted me. “Decided not to wear your armor?”

“Don’t really need it with wooden weapons.” I said, grabbing a wooden bastard sword from a rack near the door. I was glad that the guild provided these for their people to train.

I walked to the middle of the training field and he got up and joined me. “Say, how about we make this more interesting. I bet you one silver I can beat you.”

I shrugged. I had some money. “Sure, one silver.” He nodded and ran at me. I blocked an overhand swing, only to see my weapon crack from the force. I had forgotten that his weapon was much heavier than mine. As soon as he lifted his club to swing again, I lowered my sword and hit him in the stomach. He took a step back in surprise. Apparently he hadn’t thought about someone doing that.

He swung at me again from the side, and I jumped backwards, dodging it. One of the things about the club was that its extra strength meant that you had to have high Endurance to repeatedly swing it. I dodged a few times before he got close enough that I had to bring up my sword to block it. The blade broke off completely, throwing him off balance, so I punched with the hand that still held the handle, hitting him in the stomach. He doubled over in pain, so I kicked him in the butt to make him fall over.

I was going to punch him again when he held up his hand. “You win.” he grunted while holding his stomach. “That punch probably wouldn’t do much against a monster, but if we were using real weapons that sword slash would have opened me up, so you win.” I held out my hand to help him up and he accepted.

I sat down on the side of the field as he went to get a silver from his purse. For some reason I was tired. More so than I should be from that fight. Had dodging really taken that much out of me? I had exerted myself more in the fight with the Rat-man and had even used Rage there. I hadn’t used it here because it didn’t seem like the thing you would use in a friendly fight. Besides, last time I used it I abandoned my friends. I needed to learn to control myself better when using it.

He brought the coin over and I stood up. I was sweating, which I shouldn’t be doing after such a quick battle, but maybe I was still tired from the dungeon. I reached into my purse and pulled out another silver, then held the two up. “Anyone want to fight me? I’ll put these two against one of yours.” I said, getting the attention of several men in the area.

One of them, a Musk Ox man, stepped forward, carrying a Great sword. You don’t see many animal people around here, other than the dungeon ones. “Yeah, I’ll fight you.” he said, pulling out a silver. I laid mine on a bench beside the field and he laid his beside it. After I grabbed a replacement for my broken sword, we went to the middle of the field and squared off. I was getting a headache, but sometimes that happened when I worked out really hard. Sparring must be an amazing way to work out, as I was getting tired so quickly.

He swung at me and I barely dodged out of the way. Unlike the club guy, I could tell he had the Strength and Endurance to keep it up for a while, so I parried his blow, forcing him out of position. I didn’t have time to strike back, however, as he brought the blade up in an upper slash and I barely bent backwards enough to dodge it. He had expected it to hit my chin if not my chest, so he had left himself open, and I managed to quickly hit him in the side of the neck, a move that would have taken his head have off if it was a real sword. It merely caused him to grab the side of his neck and yell in pain, dropping his sword. Actually, now that I think about it, as strong as his neck muscles are, I probably would have just cut his jugular vein.

“I yield.” he said, holding the side of his neck and wincing in pain. “I got to go to a healer now, or that’s going to leave a nasty bruise.” The guild had a clinic just outside, in case anyone was seriously hurt, so he left the field and went to the next room over.

I sat down and started panting, sweat dripping off of me. How had that fight taken so much out of me? A minute later a dwarf came up to me. “You able to keep going?” he asked. “Ya look like you’re worn out ta me.”

“I’m fine.” I said. “Just give me a few minutes to catch my breath.” I laid down on the bench and closed my eyes. The headache was getting worse and my head felt like I was moving even while I laid here. The last time I was this tired was after moving bricks for the first time, when my father first brought them home so I could train. I moved so many that I couldn’t stand any more and he had to carry me inside.

After about five minutes the headache mostly went away, my head was staying mostly still, and I wasn’t sweating nearly as much. Why wasn’t my regeneration fixing this? I checked my sheet and I did still have it. There was some sort of status effect, but I didn’t know what any of the words were, so I ignored it.

I stood up and the Dwarf was standing there. “So, ya ready?” he asked, and I nodded, following him to the middle of the field. He had a war hammer, or, as it was made of wood, a mallet. We squared off, and he rushed at me. I stepped to the side and the dizziness instantly came back. I knew I’d have to stop after this fight. I swung my sword down, trying to take advantage of my reach, but he knocked it aside, throwing me off balance. Because of the dizziness, I couldn’t recover and, when he kicked the back of my knee, I collapsed.

I then woke up in a room with just a single bed and white sheets. I tried to get up, but I was too tired. I did manage to look at the door, which had a window with bars across it. Had I been arrested? Probably not. This bed was too nice for a jail cell. “Hello?” I finally managed to say after summoning all of my strength.

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Apparently someone heard me, because a doctor came in, covered completely in white robes. The only skin visible was around his eyes, which were covered by a pair of spectacles. “Glad you’re awake.” he said. “I wasn’t sure if you’d wake up.”

“WH...why.” I whispered, barely having the strength to do so.

“I hate to tell you this, but you have caught Raticus Bacillus Pestis, commonly known as the Rat Plague.” That was those weird words my Status screen had said. Why didn’t it just say ‘rat plague’? “I talked with your party, and they say you were sprayed in the face with blood from a boss rat. It probably got into your eyes, mouth, or nose, and you caught the disease from it.” I also got some from the Rat-man on me, but I guess not on my face. “Rat’s are mostly immune to it, but humans and dwarves can catch it. You appear to have a Major case of it.”

“Healer.” I whispered.

“Unfortunately, it can only be cured by the Master class spell Cure Disease, and no one that works here has that spell. There is one healer in town that does have it, but that would cost more than you have on you. Your team mates offered to help pay, but even together you barely have enough.” Cure Disease must be a super powerful spell. Together we had at least ten gold, especially if we sell the crystals from today. Or was it yesterday?

“Sell crystals. Pay back later.”

“They said that they could do that, but with your party’s mage being down from a wound, they were worried about spending her cut, which they would need to do to afford your payment. They’ll talk to the healer when they open in a few hours, though. It seems that, for now, you’ll just have to power through. It has an eighty percent survival rate, though you might go blind or mute. Still, you’ll live, even if you don’t get the healing.” With that the doctor stood up and left.

I laid there, extremely tired, staring at the ceiling. I had abandoned them, but still, they were willing to sell their crystals for me. Maybe it was the exhaustion, but I started crying thinking about what they were doing for me. I had to find a way to fix this.

I opened my Status and forced my eyes to stay open as I looked through the things there. A Common talent upgrade? Doubtful any of them would help. Buying the healing talent myself? Too expensive. Maybe I could find a monster talent in the city for resisting it? Of was there a human version of one? looked through anything for ‘disease’. Their were a few talents listed for causing diseases, including a Disease Magic talent. Just as I was about to doze off I noticed an ‘Improved Immune System’ talent. The description said something about boosting immune responses or something. I didn’t know much, but I remembered someone telling me that you had and Immune System which kept you from getting sick and fought sickness when you got sick. That must be it. One hundred for petty, three hundred for minor, one thousand for Average. The doctor said it was too strong for normal healing magic to work, so surely Petty and Minor wouldn’t be enough. I wasn’t sure that Average would be either, but I had to try. I selected ‘Average Improved Immune System’ and felt the DP rush out of the middle of my chest and through my body. The quick rush of energy was too much for me to handle, so I passed out.

When I woke up, I noticed that I no longer had a fever. I was tired, but as I laid there I could feel my Troll Regeneration working to give me more energy. My stomach was too empty, though, so it didn’t have anything to work with. I laid there for some time, not sleepy enough to sleep, but still tired. Eventually a nurse came in, also covered in white robes and spectacles, carrying a rag, some soap, and a bucket of water. “Oh,” she said, then called out. “Doctor, he’s awake!”

The doctor soon came in and looked me over. “Well, you appear to be over most of it. You’ll need to sleep for another day to get your strength back, but that was one of the fastest recoveries I’ve seen. Tell me, can you speak?”

“Yes.” I said tiredly.

“And how many fingers am I holding up?” He held his hand in front of my face and held up two fingers.

“Two.” I said.

“Good, you aren’t mute or blind. I’ll have to test your eyesight later, though. Any idea how you recovered so quickly?”

“I bought a talent.” I said, and the doctor looked interested. “Average Improved Immune System”.

“Ah,” he said. “That would do it. I assume you had points saved up and bought it from the DP menu, as I haven’t heard of any talent merchants dropping by.” I nodded. “In that case, you had a good idea. That would certainly help. Unfortunately, no one around here saves up their DP enough to do that. They’re always spending it as fast as they can, wasting it on stat improvements and the like to try and get stronger as fast as possible.” He shrugged. “But that’s just an old man ranting. I’ll leave now so she can give you a bath.”

I realized then that under the sheets I wasn’t wearing any clothes. “But, she’s a girl, and I’m...”

The Doctor laughed. “Do you have the strength to wash yourself?” I shook my head. “Then let her. All that sweating you did is stinking up the place.” Now that I smelled for it, I could tell that I stunk.

She came over and pulled the sheets off me, then lifted me onto a wooden table and started wiping me down with a cloth. Parts of me got too excited by the idea of a woman bathing me and I started to blush. She just smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ve seen it plenty of times before. You aren’t the first man to need a bath here.” She washed the ‘area’, which I was even more embarrassed by, and then went on to wash the rest of me. After a few minutes she flipped me over, careful not to damage my excited bits, and washed my back and backside. This embarrassed me even more. Soon, however, she dried me off, changed the sheets, then put me back into bed. “Do you need to use the bathroom?” she asked. I didn’t, but even if I did I would have been too tired at the idea of her helping me to say yes. I shook my head and she covered me up. “Well, then I’ll go get you something to eat. You must be hungry.” she said, dumping the rest of the water down the drain in the middle of the room and setting the table on its side to dry.

She left the room and I was left there wondering what had just happened. Had a woman just wiped down those parts of me? It was bad enough that she’d seen them. Sure Beatrix had, but I was drunk at the time, and we were both interested in seeing each other’s...parts. That wasn’t the same. I thought about the confusing situation until after she had brought me food and I managed to feed myself. Soon I had worn out my brain thinking about it and went back to sleep. The only conclusion I could come up with was that it was different when you weren’t able to do it on your own.

The next day I had enough energy to bathe myself, so the nurse just handed me the rag, soap, and bucket and a change of clothes. After I was done getting dressed, they let me out of the room. I was still a bit weak, but my Regeneration seemed to be working much better.

The team came by to talk to me. Apparently, they had been told about my miraculous recovery and had canceled the expensive doctor. They insisted on taking me to have my Status screen read again, now that I bought that skill, so after I paid the doctor three silver, one for each day I spent here, I got back my newly cleaned clothes. The nurse was sitting behind the desk and smiled and waved at me. She looked to be in her mid twenties, but had muscles as big as mine. No wonder she could effortlessly pick me up. Now I was wondering how I felt about muscular woman. I didn’t particularly have anything against them, so maybe I’d come by and talk to her.

We all went to the front desk, this time with Cam insisting that I stand in Margaret’s line, even though Graig’s line was the shortest. He said that if I kept going to Graig’s line rumors would start about me and I would have a hard time attracting a woman, even one like that nurse. Margaret was apparently the one beside Graig that had helped me out when I registered.

After getting to the front of the line, I showed her my status and she put it on a page for me, charging four copper for the service. Apparently paper was expensive.

Name: Michael, son of Brin Mason

Race: Human

Age: 18

DP: 15

Status Effects: None

Criminal Status: Banished (Gray Forest Town)

Common Talents

Strength: Petty

Endurance: Major

Dexterity: Petty

Intelligence: Petty

Willpower: Average

Wisdom: Petty

Charisma: Petty

Personality: Major

Perception: Minor

Stats

Strength: 24

Endurance: 30

Dexterity: 22

Intelligence: 11

Willpower: 26

Wisdom: 14

Charisma: 8

Personality: 28

Perception: 17

Talents

Average Improved Immune System

Average Devil’s Luck

Average Rage

Petty Ice Magic

Average Swordsmanship

Monster Talents

Average Troll Regeneration

Minor Tough Hide

Skills

Workout: 10

Study: 5

Spearmanship: 9

Shield: 10

Shield Bash: 4

Use Magic Item: 4

Throwing: 5

Swordsmanship: 11

Dodge: 2

Magic Skills

Freeze Touch: 3

Freeze Bolt: 4

Freeze Edge: 5

Average Improved Immune System was pretty much like my Average Troll Regeneration, only it boosted my ability to fight ‘communicable diseases’ by 900% for petty ones, 400% for minor ones, and 100% for average ones. The Rat plague was an average disease, so I fought against it twice as well as I would have without the talent.

The one that surprised all of us was ‘Average Devil’s Luck’. “Average Devil’s Luck: You have a talent for having what you want happen, though there will be consequences. The better the event was for you, the worse the consequences will be. This may not directly result in death or severe harm to any creature except the one with the talent.” After discussing it, we decided that was how I got the Light Crystal talent, but go the plague in return. It was probably also why I got to sleep with the mayor’s wife, but got banished for it. She was a really good looking woman and I had enjoyed that night.

Margaret explained that it must have been a hidden talent, a talent that doesn’t show up on a person’s Status until they discover or suspect that they have it.

My skills had also improved a bit, and with two combat skills now at or above ten, the team wanted me to train another one up to that level so that I could go up to Copper rank like them. So, after taking my shield to a smith that worked with the guild to have the strap repaired, we went to the training field.