Liam’s body started to stir as he let out a groan. His consciousness started to wake him up as his eyes slowly opened. He blinked a couple of times due to his sight being blurry. His thoughts raced as he tried to figure things out.
Whe…where am I? Liam thought to himself.
A rush of memories from fighting the giant suddenly filled his mind. Panic filled his entire body causing him to wrench his eyelids open wide and shot himself up into a sitting position.
The movement sent an echo of pain coursing through his body making him wince and grimace from it. He was about to shout that they needed to get out, but as he opened his mouth he was thrown into a coughing fit.
“Liam!” someone shouted as a few people rushed to his side.
“Calm down Liam!” another yelled.
He felt a few hands touch his shoulders and arms. The feeling of their touch sent another wave of pain through him, causing him to let out a weird noise of pain and agony mixed with some coughing.
“It’s alright Liam,” a third voice said as calm and soothing as it could.
“You’re safe now. We’re all safe,” a fourth voice said.
Liam grit his teeth and tried to open his eyes once more. As soon as his sight cleared up he noticed a good portion of the corner of his sight was darkened.
“What the fuck?!” Liam tried to say. His voice was barely able to get the words out as it felt dry and sounded very hoarse.
“What’s wrong?” Artem questioned bringing Liam’s attention to him.
Artem was standing over him to his left.
Artem’s eyes widened as he looked in Liam’s. “What the hell?”
“What is it?” Avery, Ariyana, and Mercer asked as panic started to fill them.
Liam couldn’t see where they were due to the darkened areas in his sight, so he turned his head to the right to try and find them. As he did this, a pain ran down his spine and made him wince.
“Ow,” Liam hoarsely said before he was finally able to find them staring down at him with worry in their gazes. As he turned his head he saw Blair and Roman were right by Artem.
Ariyana gasped as she looked into Liam’s eyes. Mercer and Avery’s mouths were wide open, but they didn’t say anything.
“What is it?” Liam tried to ask. His voice came out quietly and felt like sandpaper was rubbing against his throat. A few coughs escaped his mouth making him feel like he had entered some desert area and hadn’t drunk anything for days.
“He needs some water,” Mercer said as he looked at someone. Judging from the angle it was probably Artem.
“I’ll show you after you drink something,” Avery informed, giving him a concerned look.
Liam slowly turned his head trying not to cause any more ripples of pain. Even trying to slowly turn his head was painful, but not as painful as it was earlier.
As he watched Artem hand him a bottle full of water, Liam looked down and then realized something he should have after his sight came back. He was no longer in the dungeon.
He was sitting on a bed in a strange room. The room didn’t have much in it. There were a few chairs around the walls, a couple of small tables with Yooperlite lamps to light the room up. A window was behind Artem, and a door was on the opposite wall.
Artem gave him a concerned look as Liam slowly looked around and took the room in. “What’s wrong?”
Liam looked back at him and said in almost a whisper, “Where are we?”
“We’re in a make shift medical room in the Training Hall back in the Tutorial Town,” Mercer informed as Liam turned to look at him. “We’ll answer any other questions you have, but you need to drink first.”
Liam nodded before trying to reach for the bottle of water. His arm started to shake as he tried reaching for it. The shaking was subtle at first, but the farther he lifted and reached out the more it increase.
“I don’t think he’ll be able to handle drinking on his own for right now,” Avery stated with a worried look on her face. “You’ll have to help him Artem.”
“Alright,” Artem said as he opened the top of the bottle and slowly tipped the bottle back against Liam’s lips allowing the liquid to slowly enter.
Liam took a few sips. Small amounts at first, but then took more as he realized exactly how thirsty he was.
Artem brought the bottle away from him, so he didn’t drink too much too fast.
Liam swallowed the last bit he was able to get before turning his attention back to Mercer.
“Okay,” Liam said, noticing his voice sounded much better than earlier. He still let out a couple of coughs, but it wasn’t as bad anymore. “What happened?”
Before Mercer could say anything a voice replied, “That’s what we would like to know.”
Everyone in the room turned their heads to look at the door.
Walking in were Adva, Phorge, Nabal, and Nalia. Each wore different expressions on their faces.
The four new arrivals looked at each of them before setting their gazes on Liam. Looks of confusion ran across Phorge’s, Nabal’s, and Nalia’s faces as Adva let out a gasp and ran to his side.
“What is that?” Adva questioned as she pushed Artem out of the way, placed a hand on Liam’s cheek and turned his face to look towards hers.
“Ow, ow, ow,” Liam protested.
“Oh sorry,” Adva replied as she moved her hand away. “I forgot that you’re still hurt.”
“What is it that has everyone so worried?” Liam questioned as he slowly brought a hand to his chin and softly rubbed it.
Nabal and Phorge looked at the other members of Liam’s team. Before any of them could ask anything, Adva questioned, “Has no one told you or shown you?”
“No,” Liam replied.
“Hold on,” Adva said as she looked like she was staring at something far off. After a moment had passed she pulled out a mirror from nowhere and handed it to Liam.
Liam slowly reached for it and grabbed it. His hand was still shaking a bit, so he brought it down to his lap. He then titled his head to look into the mirror and was shocked. All around the outside edges of his eyes was a dim pale white fog moving like it was some liquid.
“What is that?!” Liam asked with some panic in his voice.
“I’m not sure,” Adva said with concern in both her expression and tone. “I could have sworn that I cleansed any and all ailments on you.”
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“Are you sure about that?” Nalia questioned.
Everyone turned their gazes to her. They had forgotten she was in the room.
“What do you mean Nalia?” Adva asked.
“I mean, are you sure you cleansed and cured any and all issues he had?” Nalia repeated as she clarified.
“I may not be a healer type class, but you know the healing capabilities I have are close to a healer my level,” Adva stated, confused at what she was getting at.
“Let me take a look then,” Nalia stated as she took a step towards the side Adva was on.
Artem, Blair, and Roman took a protective step forward to block her way.
“Oh please, I’m not going to hurt him,” Nalia scoffed before pushing her way between Artem and Roman. “I’m going to see if I can identify what is wrong with him.”
After she approached Liam right next to Adva, Nalia leaned forward and stared right into Liam’s eyes.
“Hm,” Nalia muttered as she studied the pale white fog swimming around the edges of his eyes. As she stared at them she saw them flash for a brief moment. It was dim, but it was enough for her to catch it. “Interesting.”
“What is?” Adva asked.
Nalia straightened her body. She wrapped one of her arms across her stomach under her breasts as she brought the other to her cheek and said, “Tell me, boy. Did any of the opponents you fought on that floor have Lunar Magic?”
Liam and his crew tensed.
The question caught them off guard especially Liam. Warning bells ran through his mind as he tried to think of something. The rest of his team weren’t sure what to say or do. They too were thinking frantically about what to say.
Before they could be pressed, a weird sound came from the foot of the bed. It was Phorge. He was choked up by what he heard. He let out a cough to correct himself before asking, “Lunar Magic?” Even though his speech was corrected his body language still looked surprised. His hands were half way up from his sides and palm up. “What do you mean Lunar Magic?”
“I mean, he has been afflicted with a Lunar Affliction. It has gone down some, probably since a day has gone by…,” Nalia started as she stared at him.
Liam’s eyes widened at her words. Both shocked and confused, Liam suddenly asked, “A day has gone by? What about everyone else? Did they all make it?”
Feeling the sudden panic growing within him, Adva said in a calm and soothing voice, “Everyone is fine. No one died. They were badly hurt, but we took care of them.”
The worries Liam had felt that were blossoming into panic started to calm, but his body tensed again as Nabal asked, “What do you mean that he was afflicted with a Lunar Affliction? Which one?”
“I think it might be a certain one, but I need to know something else,” Nalia stated as she looked from Nabal to Liam. “Tell me. Does your body hurt?”
Liam slowly nodded, unsure why she would ask. After what he went through, of course his body would hurt.
“Where does your body hurt?” Nalia asked.
“Everywhere,” Liam reply slowly as he kept his eyes on her.
“Okay. Now tell me,” Nalia started back up. “What debuff or debuffs do you see?”
“What debuf…,” Liam started to say until he noticed a few icons next to his stats.
Liam’s eyes widened. He wasn’t sure how he had missed them. As he looked at each icon he noticed one had an x with the number two next to it. He focused on it and brought it up.
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“Stellar Affliction From Within – Level 2. Level 2 effects – Mild blindness and Muscle Overuse. Time until debuff reduces to level 1: 12 hours 47 minutes 23 seconds. Time until Stellar Affliction from Within fully disappears – 1 Day 12 hours 47 minutes 23 seconds.”
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How? How did I get this debuff? When? Was it because I used Flash Step too much? Liam thought to himself as he stared at the notification with wide eyes.
“You have one don’t you?” Nalia questioned as she stared him down.
“I have a Debuff called Stellar Affliction From Within,” Liam answered cautiously. He then added, “It says it has a timer of twelve hours, forty seven minutes and twenty three…no five seconds till it reduces to level one.”
Nalia’s eyes rose. “It’s at level two of that Debuff?” She then brought her hand to her lips as she started mumbling something to herself.
“Level two? What does that mean? I haven’t heard of any affliction type debuffs having levels,” Phorge questioned. “Hell, I haven’t even heard of that kind of affliction before.”
Nalia turned her focus on Phorge. “Stellar Affliction From Within is a very nasty Affliction type Debuff caused by Lunar Magic. It’s rare and I mean super rare for anyone to have it. Not many monsters can use it as well. I don’t know a lot about Lunar Magic, but I have heard about that debuff and how nasty it can be. At level one you get acute blindness, not enough to really hamper your sight, but it can be annoying.”
“After level one it gets complicated. From what I was told by someone who was trying to research it, the effects get deadlier. Your body starts to feel like the muscles are being torn and overused and the blindness grows. Level three the blindness covers almost half of your sight and you start to take some damage from internal injuries. Don’t ask me what because I don’t really know. However, at level four not only do you go blind, but the injuries inside you gets worse. At level five, well…I don’t know what happens except you wish that your dead.”
Nalia turned her attention back on Liam. She had both a curious look and one that said she wanted to experiment on him.
It gave him goosebumps.
“It seems, judging from the amount of time you have been in here recuperating, you had reached level three of the affliction. I am surprised you were able to handle it,” Nalia stated.
“What?!” Adva shouted before turning to look at the boy. “If that is the case then that would explain why his body was the way it was and why it was so hard to stop the bleeding. But it all should have gone away after I healed him. Why didn’t it?”
Nalia shrugged. “I’m not too sure. I know Lunar Magic acts differently after it hits level two. So, when it gets to level one you should be able to fully wash him clean of the taint.” Her eyes narrowed as she looked at him with a quizzical gaze, “What kind of monster did you fight that would leave this Debuff on you?”
Liam slowly looked at her, confusion etched on his face.
He wasn’t sure what she meant. Why was she asking what monster placed this debuff on him? Did she not know he could use Lunar Magic? As these thoughts ran through his mind, a memory of his talk with Eri appeared.
“Lunar Magic is super rare, especially for someone at your level.”
Does she not suspect me to be able to use it because of that reason? Liam thought. He internally nodded as he figured out what to say.
He then looked at her and said, “I don’t know. I don’t remember a lot of the fight.”
Nalia’s brow rose as she stared at him. “Are you sure? Why don’t you remember? You’re not lying to me are you?”
“Nalia!” Adva scolded. “He is a patient under my care right now. I will ask you not to pummel him with questions. His memory might be muddled due to trauma. Whatever they fought in there was something low levels like themselves would never go up against till they reach the sixties or seventies. Regardless of if the Tutorial magic sealed the levels of the monsters or not.”
Nalia stared at Adva for a few seconds before letting out a huff. “You’re right. There is a chance that whatever was in there was scary enough for all of them to accrue some form of dissociative memory lose to protect their mental state.”
Liam grew even more confused as he listened to her.
What does she mean by all of them? Liam thought. Is everyone claiming they don’t remember what happened?
He wasn’t sure what Aranis, Inyis, and Jude were thinking. He wasn’t lying that he couldn’t remember, but that only applied to the part after he accepted Eri’s request to be her…
His thought process began to work on overdrive as he remembered accepting being Eri’s champion. That was when things went crazy. He had no control over his actions, his body, nor his mental state. It was like something had taken over him and kicked him to the back seat with a bag over his head.
Nalia watched and studied Liam. After a few seconds had passed she added, “Or it could be they do remember and none of them want to share what had happened.”
Liam and the others were about to argue with her until Nabal cut them off.
“I think that’s quite enough. You have gone above and beyond your usual decorum with them,” Nabal started then added under his breath, “Surprisingly.”
“Hey,” Nalia went to argue but was cut off again.
“However, if what you said is true and he needs another twelve hours before Adva can fully heal him then I suggest we give the boy some more time to rest. We can come back another time to ask him questions. Maybe after being fully healed, he might remember something,” Nabal stated challenging Nalia to argue with him.
Nalia narrowed her eyes on Nabal. After a few seconds of silence she huffed, “Fine.” She started to walk towards the door, but before she walked out she turned around and announced, “I’ll be back tomorrow to ask more questions.” She then turned and walked out of the room grumbling, “Someone’s got to have some clue what happened in there.”
Adva and Phorge shook their heads.
Adva then turned to the others and said, “You guys too.”
Mercer and the rest of the team were about to argue, but Adva cut them off, “No buts. He is a recovering patient and still needs his rest.”
“Fine,” Majority of Liam’s team stated while Avery turned to look at Liam.
Liam saw something pass through her eyes. Hesitation? She looked to be contemplating something. However, before Liam could ask what was wrong, Avery suddenly went down and hugged Liam.
This not only caught him off guard, but with some of the others.
As Liam froze in place he felt Avery suddenly move her hands down to his side and felt something weird right next to his leg under the blanket. He stared at her as she pulled back.
“I’m glad you came back to us,” She whispered in his ear as she pulled back. A warm smile was on her face before she replaced it with a stern one and followed the others out.
Liam watched as everyone walked out of the room. A lot had happened, and he was still confused about a lot of things, but his body tensed as he caught Nabal staring at him.
It was for a brief moment, but after the moment had passed he too walked out and closed the door.
“I don’t like the look on his face,” Liam quietly muttered to himself.
After he said those words a notification suddenly popped up in front of him causing him to grow wide eye and alarmed.
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“Neither do I. – Eri.”
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