Belinda’s words rang in her mind. It was still hard to believe she finally had a moment of respite, after having gone through so much chaos and violence in her first few hours in this place. She wasn’t sure how many more spikes of adrenaline she could still go through; even with all the pain, she was above all, extremely exhausted.

But of course, she still wasn’t really safe to rest. Considering her injuries, if she doesn’t start healing herself right now, the next time she closes her eyes might be the last.

“Book.” Still on the ground, Maggie called the Book, manifesting it before her face.

“Bel… How?” She asked. Considering all her injuries, talking, —as much as moving— was still an active effort, and now that the adrenaline was leaving her body, it was becoming even harder to exert it. Thankfully, she didn't need to speak aloud for Belinda to understand her.

You will have an understanding of the magic as soon as you activate the card; how much of its healing capabilities you will have at your disposal, and how much will be needed to heal an injury you are focusing on.

Maggie nodded, and extending her arm, she touched the Healing Salve card.

As soon as the spell activated, a green bright light emanated from her hand and her whole body became increasingly heavier. It didn’t feel exactly like being physically weighed down, but more like she was holding an enormous amount of energy and needed to send it somewhere fast. Her arm was moving slowly, like passing through molasses, and she finally understood why that was not supposed to be used in an unsafe environment.

Now, beware. I don’t think a single copy of Healing Salve will be enough to heal all of your injuries, so you need to prioritize your worst wounds. Ignore the shallow cuts, pass briefly over the bigger ones, hover over your torso to fix anything you had crushed inside, and use most of it to heal your arm.

Acknowledging Belinda, she started going through her torso, healing her broken ribs so she could breathe properly and get back to a sitting position. As soon as her hands hovered over the injured area, she felt a strange, uncomfortable sensation, like being punched, but in reverse order, with the pain in that area immediately disappearing a moment after her bones were melded together.

“Okay… Much better.” Her whole body was still a painful mess, and she could barely think straight with how much her arm was hurting, —she had to put in a lot of will effort to not just use all the magic to fix her arm and be done with it— but she needed to do it properly, and at least now she could force herself to sit and continue the healing.

After that, she passed through the area where the Imps perforated her. She didn’t stay long enough to fully heal the damage, but enough so she wouldn’t bleed to death. As the wound began to close, though, an orange-colored liquid left her body, alarming her.

“Belinda? What is that!”

That seems to be a byproduct of direct healing spells. I believe it might be a substitute for blood, in cases of major blood loss, and it tends to leave the wound as it is closing.

“Hmm, come to think of it, wasn’t there a puddle of this in the room we started?” She asked, slowly —and painfully— extending her arm backwards to hover over her back injuries.

I’m not entirely sure if it was the same thing, but it did visually resemble it, yes. So maybe there was something related to healing over there. Perhaps what brought us here.

“Ugh. Why every time we discover something new, we end up with even more questions?”

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Such is the nature of our existence in this place.

Shaking her head, she continued with her task. The center of her face was still pulsing, and very painful to the touch, so even though she couldn't spare much healing, she passed over it just for a moment, to make sure there wasn't anything there that could cause a problem for her in the future. And to no one's surprise, she yelped in pain as her nose snapped back into place, a trail of orange liquid running down her nostrils.

“Oww. I knew I had broken it!” She said, rubbing her nose clean from the liquid with the back of her forearm.

She wanted to heal a little more of the wounds dealt by the gerbils and the Imps, but she felt like if she did so, she wouldn’t be able to get her arm back to a usable state, so after quickly hovering over her back injuries and nose, she started to slowly pass through her mauled arm, wincing in pain as she felt the unsettling sensation of her bones shifting inside her body like it was just a meat and blood bag, and snapping back in place.

In the end, the spell’s healing properties were depleted before she could fully heal her arm. It no longer felt broken, and she was amazed at how she managed to heal in just a couple of minutes something that would take many months, and advanced medicine to probably fix it with some permanent side effects, but her arm still felt weak, and her grip was trembling. She should probably avoid using it for now.

The Salve will also further increase your natural regeneration speed for a few hours, helping with concussions and minor injuries. With that, and the Blood Clotting Pills’ effect that is still going, just give it some time and your arm will feel much better. Said Belinda, trying to comfort her. But don't expect it to make miracles, it is, after all, still only your natural regeneration sped up.

“Right.” Forcing herself up, she stumbled forward, going after what was left of the Troll. She desperately wanted to plop down anywhere on the floor and rest for a while, but if her experiences so far tell her anything, is that danger won't leave her alone for long, so she better get her weapons back before resting.

“Can you see anything yet?” She asked Belinda, stopping midway to grab her crossbow. She was still a bit proud of herself for having hit that one shot, even if it didn’t really harm the thing. Tucking the crossbow underneath her arm, she approached the Troll's corpse. The creature was still burning, with dark smoke rising towards the cave’s tall ceiling. She had to put an effort to not gag at the putrid smell of its burnt flesh.

Give me a few more seconds. Answered Belinda.

From the gaping bonfire that was the troll's mouth, Maggie kicked where her knife was stuck a few times, releasing the blade, or what was left of it. The fire wasn't strong enough to melt the blade, but the knife was completely blackened by it, and a good part of its tip seemed to have broken at some point during the fight. But the worst part was, its wooden hilt was completely gone, having snapped from its place due to the intense heat and disappeared somewhere amidst the charred interior of the Troll's head.

“Aw, crap. My knife is a mess.” She mumbled, carefully picking the still-hot blade with some straps of her robe.

Ah, now I can see. Said Belinda, her field of view finally expanding far enough to see their surroundings.

You did a number on this juvenile Troll. Congratulations.

“Ju-juvenile? Are you telling me this wasn't a fully grown Troll?”

I think this one still had quite a bit of growing up to do.

“Wait. Did I just kill a child??”

No. Infant Trolls are not this big, and they tend to cling to their adult progenitor.

But this is strange. The knowledge I have on the subject says that an adult Troll would never leave a young one alone. Even if it doesn't have any direct predators in this area.

“What you think happened?”

I have three hypotheses. Either my knowledge of these creatures is wrong or lacking, or something forced the adult out, or an even bigger threat killed it.

“Yikes. Do you think we should keep going? I’m not gonna lie to you, this floor is looking very comfortable from where I stand now, even though it stinks like hell here. All I want to do now is plop somewhere and rest.”

Belinda took a moment to think on the subject before answering.

Hmm. This might be the safest place we have found in a while, and there are some things we must do before we find a way out of this.

As hard as the Troll was to defeat, there was a good thing to come out of it. We gained an extra 12 hours.

“12 hours!?” She still wasn’t sure of how this timing thing worked for killing other living beings. But considering she had been getting minutes from the other creatures, this one young Troll that very nearly killed her seemed to be way higher on the list. “Wait, that means we can rest, right?”

We currently have 13 hours and 40 minutes at our disposal. I agree you should take at least a short rest here. But after that, we must find a way to leave.

I don't feel any other presence right now but be wary that something is definitely wrong here.

“Oh, thank Glob.” Despite Belinda’s ominous last words, Maggie didn’t think twice. She just found an opportunity to take a nap and the best part of it, probably nothing would try to kill her while she did it! So going to the opposite wall to where the Troll was still burning, she plopped on the ground, and in less than a minute she was out cold, deep in slumber.