“Okay…Just a little more,” Loran said, kneeling over a crippled player, eyes closed in concentration. Soze stood next to them, watching as Loran channeled a tremendous amount of mana into the incapacitated player. “And…That should do it!”

As Loran rubbed his temples the player before him sat up on his own for the first time in weeks. He stumbled as he tried to move too quickly, but was caught by a smiling Soze.

“Holy hell, I-I wasn’t sure I’d ever move again,” the player said, his voice shaky with relief. “T-thank you so much, man.”

Loran shrugged. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Just try to not get crushed into a paste again alright?” Soze asked half-jokingly.

The player chuckled nervously as he recalled getting crushed by that enraged Mountain Goat months ago during the mapping expedition. “I-I’ll try,” the player said as he got up to leave, eager to go find Bates and his other teammates.

“Alright, is that everyone?” Loran asked, holding his hand out to Soze. After discovering the healing spell that could remove debuffs, he started going around to patch up all the players that needed attention. He quickly worked his way through several players who had been hurt during the recent raid before moving on to the small minority who had truly debilitating injuries.

“All that’s left is Dorak from Bates’ team,” he said as he pulled Loran to his feet. “You know, the one that had his leg amputated.”

“His name was Dorak? So where is he?”

“I think he’s been helping out in the Workshop, let’s go.” The two started walking in silence. Loran let his eyes wander while flexing his newly restored hand, still not over the excitement of having it restored.

“So do you really think you can give him his leg back?” Soze asked, a slight bitterness in his voice.

“Probably. I guess there’s the possibility that this spell can’t regrow flesh.” Although Loran’s new spell was definitely capable of repairing the damage that caused physical debuffs, there was a huge difference between restructuring bones and recreating an entire limb.

“That’s what I’m worried about.”

Loran shrugged. “We’ll find out, one way or another.” He glanced at the shorter player. “You good?”

“What?” Soze asked, taken off guard by the sudden question.

“You’ve been…I don’t know, off all morning. Is something up with the raid?”

“No, it’s not that.”

“...Is it something personal?”

“Pretty much.”

Loran took a deep breath, asking his next question hesitantly. “Do you…want to talk about it?”

“Why do you sound more uncertain about this than I do?”

“I mean…I don’t really want to pry into your business, and I definitely don’t want you spilling out your whole backstory to me like Yang did, but if you’re going to be distracted by this then I can listen.”

Soze chuckled and shook his head. “I’m fine. I’ve just got a lot on my mind. And this whole PvP thing isn’t helping.”

“Sorry, I’ll try to take everyone else out at once,” Loran said jokingly. "Make things easier for you."

“Sure you will,” he said, shaking his head.

A moment later they made it to the Workshop. The air was thick with smoke and the smell of burning plastic, a muggy heat surrounding them despite the open nature of the area. The players here were constantly at work, every repaired or completed item was quickly replaced with a new project in a neverending cycle. In the center of the area, the huge bloomery was spewing out foul-smelling smoke as several players took turns pumping the bellows.

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It doesn’t take long for Loran to spot the former member of Bate’s team. He is sitting off to the side, using a gleaming iron knife to cut various hides into ready-to-use leather. Next to him is a wooden crutch and his left pants leg is tied up to avoid dangling loosely.

“Dorak!” Soze shouted, getting the player’s attention.

“Hey, do you guys need something?”

“I made a spell that might get your leg back,” Loran said bluntly.

“You wha-ack!” Dorak was so surprised that his hand slipped, causing the knife to cut into his palm.

“I guess I’ll be fixing that too,” Loran sighed. “Let me see.”

Dorak held out his hand and Loran began healing.

“You really think I can get my leg back?”

“Well it managed to fix my arm,” Loran said, holding up his newly healed limb to show off the unscarred flesh. “Regrowing a limb might be a problem, but I can probably work around it.”

Dorak wasn’t entirely convinced, but after his hand was healed up he undid the knot in his pants and rolled up the cloth, exposing the scarred stump that used to be his leg. “Just try to not give me some kind of club foot, okay?”

“I make no promises.”

Loran activated [EXTREME PERCEPTION] and started casting the spell. Almost immediately Dorak began to tremble, the feeling of his flesh and bone moving and growing at such a rapid pace was unimaginably uncomfortable. The two remained like this in uncomfortable silence for the Skill’s entire duration. When it finally went on cooldown, Dorak’s leg now ended a few inches above where his ankle would be instead of a few inches below the knee.

“Well that looks promising,” Loran said calmly. “Still need to see if the ankle grows properly but if nothing else there’s enough leg there for the crafters to attach something to now.”

Dorak closed his eyes and slowly took a deep breath. “Please don’t suggest that I’m going to need a peg leg.”

“I mean we don’t know for sur-”

“Just stop.”

“So are you guys poaching my crew now?” Rika asked, approaching now that Loran was no longer concentrating on the spell.

“Sorry boss,” Dorak started. “I-”

Rika cut him off with a shake of their head. “Don’t apologize for getting your leg back. I always knew that this would be a temporary thing.”

“Really?” Loran asked. “You were sure I would figure out a leg-regrowing spell?”

Rika shrugged. “Or that we would come up with some kind of prosthetic for him. Heck, maybe we could have voted for something to help during the next version update.”

Loran’s brow furrowed. “Right…the next update is coming up.”

Dorak’s eyes widened. “Wait, it is?”

Rika shrugged. "Well it's gonna happen eventually, right?" They turned to look at Loran. "But you make it sound like it's gonna happen sometime soon. Why?"

“I mean, the last one happened after, what, ninety days since the game started?”

“Something like that,” Soze said.

“Well, it’s almost been another ninety days since the update. Assuming these updates happen periodically the next one would be happening soon.”

Rika nodded. “It would make more sense for them to have some kind of schedule. What would be the point of making them random?”

“To screw us over?” Dorak suggested.

“Possibly,” Loran said. “But I still think having a schedule makes more sense.”

“Hm…” Soze thought for a moment. “Maybe we should skip the next raid then.”

“You sure?”

“Maybe? If the update happens right before the raid then there’s the possibility that the ants could suddenly get stronger.”

“That doesn’t seem very likely,” Loran said. “...personally I’ve been worried about magic getting nerfed, so it’s possible that we could get weaker.”

“Either way, the update could mean a massive change out of nowhere, which is the last thing you guys need right before a big battle,” Rika said.

“Exactly, and that’s assuming the update doesn’t happen during the raid,” Soze said, causing the other three to shudder. Even if they knew it was coming in advance, the unpleasant and unnatural sensation they had all endured during the first update had the potential to leave them all disoriented if it happened during battle.

The chances of it happening were so small as to be almost non-existent, but if it did happen the casualties would be unprecedented.

“I say you guys should hang back,” Rika said.

“The chances of this happening are so low though,” Loran said, getting a nod from Dorak.

“Yeah, but if it happens then the entire raiding team could get wiped out,” Soze said. “I suppose we can have everyone vote on it tonight, but I say we skip this one. It’ll give us more time to prepare again anyway.”

Loran sighed. “Alright then…”

The four continued to talk about the potential update as they waited for [EXTREME PERCEPTION] to come off cooldown. It took nearly an hour of repeated casting, but eventually, Dorak’s missing leg was fully regrown. He wobbled as he stood up for the first time in months, smiling as he practiced walking normally.

“God I missed not needing a crutch.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet,” Soze said flatly.

“I guess you’ll be going now?” Rika asked.

“I’ll probably come back to help out every now and then,” Dorak said. “But yeah, I need to get ready for that contest in a few days.”

“You’re joining that too?” Loran asked, surprised.

“Yeah. I don’t really need to, but with how long I’ve been stuck here I really need to get back into fighting shape.” He gave them a determined smile and walked off, eager to find his former teammates.

“...Does anybody want to tell him that the rest of us are at least ten Levels higher than him now?” Soze asked in a low voice.

“He’ll figure it out,” Loran said as he started to walk away. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go prepare too.”

Soze looked at him questioningly. “Doing what?”

“I’ve got a bunch of new spell ideas. I need to see how many I can make useable in two days.”

“...The Training Field is the other way?”

“Yeah, but I’m competing against other people this time. I’m going to go train in the woods.”

Soze rolled his eyes. “Alright then, try not to die.”

“I make no promises.”