Jonathan entered a small and cozy round room. A fireplace was happily crackling on the far side of the entrance, filling the room with warmth and soothing sounds of the wood burning. What truly caught Jonathan’s attention were the people inside.
“Jonathan!” Thalco beamed, getting up from his pile of pillows and moved to hug him.
Jonathan wrapped his arms around his friend in return. Was this a memory? A dream? Didn’t his group, his family die? Or was that the dream? Too many questions. Whatever the answer was, Jonathan didn’t care and just enjoyed the moment. Looking over Thalco’s shoulder, he saw Leoric smiling at him, Tori sitting on his shoulder in the middle of tying pink ribbons to his bushy hair. Finally, there was Bartholomew, holding a glass of wine while lounging on a plush armchair.
“You finally got a chance to visit!” The light walker grinned at him, raising his glass in greeting.
“Visit where? Is this real? Am I dead?” Jonathan asked, breaking away from the oni’s embrace.
“No. Just a near death experience.” Thalco patted his back and moved back to his previous seat. “It came sooner than we expected. You need to take it slow moving forward.”
“Forward?”
“Yes. It is not your time yet. But since you’re here, why don’t you join us while you can?”
Jonathan moved further into the room, taking a seat on a sofa he was sure wasn’t there when he first entered the place.
“Where are we?” He finally asked after looking around.
“Can’t tell.” Leoric grunted, throwing another piece of firewood into the flames. “It doesn’t matter in any case. Well, it doesn't matter to you.”
“You don’t know? None of you?”
“We know!” Tori rested her head against Leoric’s. “But we can’t tell you. Against the rules, you know?”
“What rules?”
“Can’t tell that either.” She threw a ribbon at him, striking his forehead. “So why don’t you stop asking stupid questions and relax for a while. Enjoy the moment.”
Jonathan tried to calm down, but new questions kept bubbling in his mind. Bartholomew seemed to notice his desire for answers as he placed his glass down on a side table, that kind of just materialized out of nowhere, and leaned forwards.
“Alright, Johnny. Ask your questions. Like Tori just said, there are things we cannot talk about, unless you already know the answers. But whatever we can tell you, we will.”
All eyes in the room turned on Jonathan, as he tried to decide what he needed to know first.
“This isn’t real, is it?”
“That is a loaded question. While the answer is yes, at the same time it is also a profound no.” Bartholomew explained, and as Jonathan was about to open his mouth, the man raised his hand. “Don’t ask me what that means. It is for you to discover.”
As much as Jonathan wanted to argue, he finally relented after seeing the expression on his friend’s face. He knew from experience that if Bartholomew didn’t want to talk about something, he wouldn’t.
“Alright. Next question then. I can’t see Vilian here. Does that mean she is still alive?”
“Oh I’d love to have her stuck here with us.” Leoric cracked his knuckles. “I still owe her for killing me, and would just love to pay my debts.”
“Like you said,” Thalco took the reins from the goliath, providing a more informative answer. “Vilian isn’t here. We do not know if she survived the ley-line rupture, nice work there by the way, but if I had to guess, I’d say yes. She is still alive and out there.”
Jonathan nodded. He had already figured as much out. Vilian was far more powerful than they had been, so her surviving the aether was to be expected. Speaking of Vilian, another question escaped Jonathan’s lips before he even realized.
“How did Vilian do all that? Use fire, life drain, light! It should be impossible for a nature mage!”
“It’s… not impossible.” Tori started, pausing to formulate her full response, which really spoke about the seriousness of the topic. Much like Alice, Tori also spoke whatever came to mind without really giving it much thought. Instead of an answer, she threw Jonathan a curveball “What do you remember from Dalmatia’s destruction?”
The question caught him by surprise.
“I…” Jonathan started, but for the life of him, he couldn’t remember the details. “I don’t remember. Why can’t I remember? All I know is that I arrived in Dalmatia. There was fighting… We were fighting… What’s going on?”
Tori nodded sadly.
“Vilian did something to Dalmatia that affected the planescape as a whole. I cannot go into further details, but if you figure out what she did, you’ll figure out how she used spells impossible for a normal being.”
“Does it have something to do with Aether?” He asked.
“YES!” Tori beamed at him! “It has everything to do with Aether! You’re on the right track. But without more solid information, we cannot-”
“Can’t say more. I get it.” Jonathan thought for a moment, his eyes fixed on the ground. “So what now?” He finally asked.
All at once, his friends rose up and walked in front of him. A strange feeling overcame Jonathan, and as he looked up, he saw the reality around them starting to break down. He jolted up, not wanting the reunion to end.
“Now,” Thalco said, his eyes growing black. “You get out there.”
“You’ll get more powerful,” Leoric grinned, his eyes glowing hot orange.
“You will learn.” Tori told him, her eyes electric blue.
“You will survive.” Bartholomew finished, his smile stretching to his radiant white eyes. “We will be with you in spirit.”
Jonathan embraced his fading friends in a group hug, desperately wanting to cling onto the peaceful scene. The room crumbled around them, leaving the group floating in gray nothingness. Jonathan held them tight, but no matter his efforts, his friends slowly faded out of the makeshift reality, leaving only four glowing orbs hovering in place. Jonathan drew the orbs closer and they sank into his chest, filling his body with warmth. Then even he disappeared, as the dreamscape collapsed and the cold hard reality took its hold on him.
Jonathan slowly regained his consciousness, memories of the pleasant dream still lingering in his mind. Inside, he felt peaceful. The rolling turmoil of emotions that had driven him ever since waking up the first time having lessened slightly. Somewhere on his left he could hear an elderly voice of a woman shouting.
“I think he’s awake! Go fetch Nathan!”
A moment later Jonathan could hear people buzzling around his… He didn’t know where he was. The voice that had spoken earlier was gentle, matronly, but aside from that little clue, he had no idea. The last thing he remembered was pain. Four claws scored his flesh, before he had over exerted his body, running away from the zombie bear. His vision was mostly dark, aside from the tiny box at the corner of his eye, indicating pending notifications in his progression sheet. That could wait a bit longer. He needed to get a better sense of his surroundings.
Jonathan felt hands lifting up his head, and the tightness around his head he hadn’t even realized was there soon lessened. More and more light became visible as bandages were wrapped off of his face. Soon enough, Jonathan could see the room. For a second, his heart jolted. The memory of the dream still fresh in his mind, mixing the two spaces together.
The disappointment of the reality wasn’t as hard as he would’ve expected, but it still stung. The room was small and rectangular. He was laying in the middle of it, tucked in a surprisingly comfortable bed, while a pair of people dressed in long brown robes were bustling around him.
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“Ah! Good to see you awake lad,” The ancient looking man that had removed his bandages said with a smile. “You had us worried, being out as long as you were.”
Jonathan tried to speak, but his throat felt dry and scratchy. The matronly woman also wearing brown robes handed him a steaming cup of something, and helped him sit up slightly to drink. Thin, but tasty soup ran down his throat, taking the dryness with it.
“Where am I?” Jonathan asked, coughing a bit from the effort before looking around the room again.
“You are in a house of healing,” the woman replied. “Your friend brought you here. She was worried about you.”
The memory of the bear fight and their desperate escape flashed in his mind, followed soon after by foggy images of pain.
“Alice is safe then?” He asked the woman, “How is she?”
“Just fine, although a bit shaken. I only heard snippets of your recent misfortunes and wouldn’t have believed her story if it wasn't for your injuries.”
“How long-”
“Alice brought you here, unconscious, about four days ago,” The man interrupted him and nodded at the woman who laid his head back on the bed. “We’ve been taking care of your wounds ever since, and the signs are positive. You should be able to get up in a couple of weeks, although a full recovery will take time.”
“The young lady has been visiting you every day,” The woman added kindly. “Oh, you should’ve heard her asking about your condition. You are a lucky man to have such a devoted friend.”
Jonathan didn’t know if her visits were due to obligation or genuine concern for his well being. In either case, he was beyond grateful for the woman for getting him here. He made a promise to himself to make it up to her, once he was back on his feet.
The healers then went on to explain the recovery process, detailing some of the wounds he had sustained. His left arm, where the maggots had dug in would take the longest to recover, and without magical intervention, would never be the same again. His other wounds would leave nasty scars, but he wasn’t worried about them. The biggest concern he had came when the healers told him about his eye.
Not having noticed half of his field of view missing, Jonathan closed only his left eye. The world darkened, revealing the truth of the healer’s words.
“It is not that bad,” The man, Nathan, tried to reassure him. “The city’s glassblowers make excellent glass eyes, and I hear eyepatches are very fashionable in northern parts of the ring.”
Jonathan wasn’t sure if that was an attempted joke, or just awful bedside manners. In either case, Jonathan burst out in laughter, taking whatever humor he could find in the situation. The healers exchanged concerned looks, and soon left him to rest.
Alone again, Jonathan felt a mixture of emotions as he processed the recently gained information. Alice and him were safe, he would recover and would rise again. The thing that kept bugging him was his dream. Hours later from waking up, he could remember every bit of detail from it. It had been so vivid, felt so real, the more Jonathan thought about it, the more convinced he grew that it was, in fact, real.
He closed his left eye again, still adjusting to the loss of vision. Thoughts rampaged through his mind, making rest difficult. What had that circular room been? Some kind of a mindscape? A contact from the beyond? Did it matter? His friends had all instructed him to seek more information, to learn the answers himself. Once he recovered, he would. Gods be damned if anyone dared to stand in his way.
Jonathan spent the next several weeks recovering in the house of healing. The place greatly resembled hospitals back in Dalmatia, surprising him with the level of sophistication the healers had in their methods. Alice visited him regularly, keeping him updated of the events outside of the house. The first time she had come after Jonathan had woken up, she had embraced him so fiercely, and Jonathan could’ve sworn some of his ribs broke under her squeeze. After calming down a bit from the rush of relief, Alice explained what he had missed on their journey back.
He couldn’t help but admire her efforts in order to save his life. Refusing to leave a person she hardly knew behind, she had dragged him all the way back to the city through difficult, mountainous terrain. Even though the journey had been rough, she hadn’t given up on him. It showed her strength of character in a way that was difficult to match.
As the days crawled by, Jonathan’s wounds slowly started to mend. He spent most of his time reading the few books the house of healing carried, trying to get a better understanding of the ring world’s lore and history. Alice’s near daily visits were a welcome break from the otherwise monotonous routine of the recovery ward. She often brought him books from her own personal collection, delighted to discuss the various stories she had read growing up.
One evening, when Alice was coming to visit him, Jonathan could sense her increased strength down from the hallway. She came bursting through his door, seeming eager to share the news:
“I did it!” She exclaimed, crashing into her usual seat. “I got my sword proficiency up to middle ranks!”
“Congratulations!” He smiled back to her, happy for her development. Alice was following the progression path of mastery, meaning that her levels didn’t come from defeating monsters, but from advancing her chosen skill. It was a popular option for fresh mages and craftsmen, since you didn’t have to put your life in danger in order to improve. Jonathan had been on that path when he had been studying under Vilian, but it had started to give diminishing returns after a while.
“How many did you get?”
“Nine! That got me right up to level sixteen!” Alice was proud of her achievement, and it showed, her spirits being even higher than usual.
A childish twinge of envy at her progress made itself known back in Jonathan’s mind. His own path, the path of trials, left him unable to power up while recovering. He pushed the feeling aside as soon as he recognized it. Alice had worked hard on her skills ever since getting back to the city, and had more than earned the levels. So what if he would need a bit of time to catch up.
“That’s impressive! Have they put you on more missions yet?”
“Yeah, There have been a few I’ve been on. Just some minor local ones, but I have a feeling they will give me more responsibilities now that I can handle myself a bit better. You wouldn’t believe the craziness going around there. Rot ghouls, zombies, normal ghouls. Undead have been sprouting like mushrooms the last few days!” She paused to catch her breath, “The whole Order has pretty much mobilized to fend them off. More villages have also been razed. The city leaders set up a bonfire near the lake for a mass burial.”
“Hmmm…” Jonathan hummed. Something wasn’t quite adding up. “Alice… are they burning the corpses from the villages?”
“I believe so, yeah. The undead are usually destroyed where they fell, so… oh!” Her eyes widened at realization.
“Exactly. Where are the undead coming from?”
“I hadn’t really thought about that.” Alice said, her expression growing serious. “But now that you mention it, it is a pretty obvious question. I’m sure the higher ups in the Order have theories, but I don’t think they would tell me. What are you thinking?”
“Some ideas come to mind, and none of them are particularly good for us. Say, are there any dungeons nearby?”
“Crap. There are a few that the Order knows of, but they don’t produce undead creatures. Do you think there has been an outbreak? ”
“It could be a new, undiscovered dungeon. Or something else entirely. Like I said, it is just an idea.”
Jonathan sat back in his bed. The idea of a dungeon outbreak was worrying. As unlikely as it was, his guts told him that his theory was correct. Mysteriously appearing undeads and a vampire death cult going on a killing spree without taking the bodies. There was a clear connection between the two, but he couldn’t quite place his finger on it. What was he missing?
“Alice,” He started, “I’m getting discharged in a week. Once I do, I plan to get back into action. Do you-”
“Yup! I’m not letting you rush off to some suicidal mission alone. The next time we come across something that will get us killed, you’ll do as I say and escape.”
Jonathan couldn’t help but laugh, which he immediately regretted as his still healing cheek muscles were stretched, breaking some of the scabs open.
“It’s settled then. No unnecessary risks, I promise.”
“Good. Otherwise I’ll beat you into the recovery ward myself.” She promised in turn. “I’ll leave you to rest then. Oh! I’ll probably be gone the next few days, but I’ll try to make it in time for your discharge. I’ll see you then!”
With a wave, she exited the room, leaving Jonathan determined to make his recovery in no time.
Hours before he was officially declared healthy enough to leave the house, Jonathan opened up his progression sheet to review the changes one more time. He had already gone over the changes briefly after waking up, but now that he was about to leave, it felt like a proper time to allocate the most recent attribute points.
Jonathan Dalmatian
Level: 3 → 7
Title: Windwalker
World: Ebenoss (Planar identifier: Ringworld)
Path: Trials
Attributes:
Strength: 10 → 9
Dexterity: 10
Body: 12 → 6
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 10
Mana: 200/200
*Unallocated attribute points: 4
Traits:
Awakened Planar Core (Air), Aethermerged
Jonathan’s eye scanned through the changes one more time. The fight with the rot ghoul had garnered him four levels. His path of progression, the path of trials, didn’t need one to kill their opponents to grow stronger, but rather overcome obstacles. It could mean either defeating a foe that was stronger than you, or surviving a desperate encounter.
His strength had gone down a point, most likely due to his lost muscle mass. It was regrettable, but his build didn’t focus on strength. The most drastic change was on his body. Losing six points put him drastically below average, meaning that his natural recovery and stamina would be limited. The silver lining on it was that the previous number was crossed over, meaning that the change was temporary. Strong enough magical healing could fix him in time, but until then, he would be best avoiding further injuries.
Jonathan sighed in relief. Things weren’t great exactly, but the damage wasn’t too bad. The four free points were dumped into intelligence, bringing his mana reserves up considerably. It seemed like each point did indeed give him double the usual mana. How far would it scale like this? Was there even a limit? He would find that out soon enough..
As Jonathan closed his sheet, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of determination. He had made some grave mistakes on his first go at the ringworld. Mistakes that had almost cost his and Alice’s life, but now, with a renewed sense of strength and purpose, he felt ready. Jonathan hoisted himself off the bed, leaving the room without looking back.