A half hour later, most of the group sat or lay on the ground, panting and sweating.
Interestingly, only the group members who didn’t have Energy were hungry or thirsty.
“Exercising in this heat is a nightmare,” Faith complained from where she lay. She looked over at Lena, who was still naked. “I think you have the right idea.”
“She totally does,” Brandon agreed. “Feel free to join her.”
Faith rolled her eyes and poured some water on her face.
“Don’t waste it!” Kevin shouted at her.
“I’m as warm as the rest of you.” Lena glared up at the sun. “Hope I don’t get sunburned.”
They’d successfully tested out their stats, and Wyatt was fairly confident in their functions now.
It wasn’t a perfect experiment for many reasons, but it was clear now that Soft Tissue increased strength, and Nervous System increased reaction speed. Endurance seemed more affected by Immune System, but Wyatt couldn’t rule out the possibility of the other stats having a smaller effect they were unable to detect with their imprecise measurements.
Other than trying to break someone’s bones or chip their teeth, he couldn’t think of a way to test Hard Tissue.
And no one was willing to volunteer for that.
Maybe once Camila could heal people.
Assuming that’s what her skill actually did.
There was also no way to test what effect any of the stats had on Energy regeneration, since they didn’t know how much Energy skills used, only seven of them had skills at all, and they were all different.
Wyatt was probably the best choice for that, but that would require him using the Augment Orb or fighting monsters and getting more quintessence with Devour.
“So who’s getting the orbs?” Brandon asked.
Wyatt made a show of thinking about it, but really, it wasn’t a decision at all. “Camila still makes the most sense for the Augment Orb. If she can heal us, that’s more useful than anyone else’s skill. For the Essence Orbs, let’s see Camila’s skill in action first.”
No one argued, surprisingly, and he handed the orb to Camila. “Put one point in Energy first.”
“I’m supposed to eat this?” She looked hesitant. “It’s pretty big. I have a small throat.”
“It doesn’t look tasty to you?”
She gave him a flat look. He had no idea what it meant.
He shrugged, gave a half-smile. He’d been forgetting himself recently. Don’t piss off the healer. “It seemed tasty to me.”
“Me as well,” Lena said.
Jasmine, Regan, Tyler, and even Patrick all agreed.
Camila sighed. “It’s not that. I… don’t like choking.”
“No one does,” Wyatt said in confusion.
“That’s why you wouldn’t eat it earlier?” Patrick exclaimed.
She sighed and rolled her eyes at both of them, then popped the orb into her mouth and swallowed.
“That… wasn’t bad. I guess.”
“Put—” Wyatt began.
“I know,” she interrupted. “Energy. How— Oh, that was easy.”
He pointed at Emma. “Try healing her shoulder.”
“Uh, that’s okay,” Emma said.
He glanced at her. “She’ll heal you.”
“You think.”
“Yes. That’s why I want to test it.”
“Then you be the one to test it.”
He looked at Kevin’s bandage-wrapped foot.
“Oh no,” Kevin said, holding up his hands and taking an awkward step back. “I’ve had enough of skills being used on me thank you very much.”
Akira stepped forward, unwrapping the bandage from his arm, revealing the gouges from the first monster they’d fought, the ahuitzotl. “Go ahead.”
“How—” Camila began, but then stopped. “Why do I know how to use the skill?”
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“Creepy, isn’t it?” Jasmine chuckled.
Camila shook her head, frowning, then focused on Akira’s arm.
Her hands began glowing golden-green.
A moment later, his arm took on the same glow and the wounds slowly vanished.
Professor Dave whistled in amazement.
Akira looked at one arm, then the other, then gave a nod of thanks to Camila.
“Holy crap!” Tyler exclaimed, a broad grin spread across his face. “That’s so badass!”
“I feel like I should be filming this,” Jack muttered to himself, but made no move to pull out his phone.
“What the fuck,” Faith breathed, looking between Camila, and Akira’s now-unscathed arm. “You can heal people. Like magic. Actually heal people.” She looked around the group, as though she was expecting them to be as shocked as she was.
Brandon nodded. “I mean, I’ve played plenty of games with healing mechanics, but to see it happen in real life? Pretty mind-blowing. I wonder what else she can heal. Is it only wounds, or like, diseases too?”
Grace shrugged with a gesture toward Lena. “Nudist girl here turns into a giant snake, and Jasmine eats monsters and turns them into items, and Wyatt got his head chomped off and yet here he is, hale and healthy. Don’t get me wrong, I’m psyched we have a magical doctor, but we’ve seen a lot crazier shit recently.
“How do you feel?” Wyatt asked Camila. “How much Energy did that use?”
“Not a lot, I think.”
“Do you want to try it now?” he asked Emma.
“I’ll wait to see what side effects there are.”
“It worked. There’s nothing to be hesitant about.”
She just shook her head.
He was confused as to why she was so hesitant to be healed.
But it was par for the course for her.
He looked at Tyler’s bandaged arm.
Tyler shrugged, unwrapping it and holding it out for Camila, then smiled. “YOLO, right?”
She smiled back with a slight shake of her head and healed him.
His arm had several small puncture wounds from the ratapua’s spikes, which all healed over the course of several seconds.
“Giving you the orb was definitely the right choice,” Tyler smiled, rubbing his now-healed arm. “Good as new.”
Kevin grumbled something under his breath and hobbled over. “Go ahead.”
“Asking so nicely makes me so eager to heal you,” she replied.
He rolled his eyes. “Please can you heal me, Ms Camila?”
She snorted a laugh and did.
Kevin let out a sigh of relief. “Didn’t realize how much that was bothering me.”
“Can you feel your Energy?” Wyatt asked Camila. “How many times can you use the skill?”
“I’m not sure. It feels… it feels like it’s different each time. I think the more wounded, the more Energy.”
Brandon nodded. “Makes sense.”
“Does anyone have any cuts or bruises they want healed?” Wyatt asked.
Surprisingly, no one did.
“No one else is injured?” He looked around.
Head shakes.
That was unbelievable. They’d fought off two waves of monsters, and only Tyler had been injured during the actual fighting, and only minorly.
Maybe this team wasn’t so bad.
Wyatt had been knocked around a bit by the mummies, but had no outward wounds except for a small friction burn on his arm from his shield’s strap and some scratches from the ahuitzotl. He might have a lingering concussion, but he wanted something more grievous and obvious to test the limits of Camila’s Energy.
He went to the pile of items Jasmine had created and picked up one of the swords. Instantly he felt the Energy drain from him and was forced to drop it.
That was faster than the runes on my shield drained me.
He pointed at the sword, looking at Jasmine. “Pick that up and cut me.”
She smiled. “That’s too kinky even for me.”
“I want to test—”
She grunted. “I know. Jesus you’re—” She cut off, shaking her head as she picked up the sword. “Hold out your hand.”
He did.
She ran the blade’s sharp tip lightly over his palm, drawing blood.
She winced. “Sorry.”
He frowned at her. “It’s exactly what I asked you to do.” He looked at the sword and the other items. “Maybe you should come with us…”
“Come with who where?”
‘People can’t read your mind, Wyatt.’
Right, he hadn’t told them his plans yet. It could wait.
He went back to Camila. “Okay, again.”
This time she ran out of Energy using the skill. The wound on his palm had only partially healed.
“Put another point in Energy. It will give you more right away.”
This let her heal the wound fully, but she was drained.
He opened and closed his hand, looking closely at where the cut had been. “Completely healed. Takes a lot of Energy though.”
Camila shook her head. “I could feel that Kevin’s foot was worse, but healing you took more. Tyler too, I think. I’m getting a better sense of it as I use it more.”
Wyatt brought up the team status. Kevin was still level 0, as was Camila, while both he and Tyler were level 1.
So the higher level, or the more injured, the more Energy required. That makes sense.
“Okay, so you’re the healer,” Wyatt said. “Until we can do more tests, don’t use the remaining three points. We need to know if Energy alone affects skills, or if the other stats might reduce their Energy usage or increase their effectiveness.” He glanced around the group. “We need something that has an obvious manifestation…”
The only ones in the group who had points they hadn’t spent were Camila now, Tyler, Lena, and Regan.
Regan had Navigator, which wouldn’t tell them anything. Tyler’s Warrior skill used all of his Energy, and boosting his physical stats hadn’t changed that.
Which just left Lena’s Beastborn. She’d said it took a lot of Energy to stay transformed, so she could boost Nervous System or Hard Tissue—since Energy seemed to travel from the brain through the spine and then into the rest of the body—and see if either reduced the Energy draw.
But would she be able to notice a difference even if it did?
Besides Emma, Wyatt had Energy the longest, and even he didn’t have a perfect grasp of his own Energy levels.
I guess the best thing to do would be to get another Augment Orb for myself or Quintessence with Devour, that way I can increase Nervous System and see if the number of stacks of Debuffer or their cost changes.
I actually need to do that anyway, since I’m level 1 now. I wonder how that will affect my skill, or if it will.
It’s too bad Analyzer doesn’t work on—
His thoughts halted.
Wait, would it work?
He hadn’t thought to try, since his stats were just a message and not a physical item.
He brought up his status.
Wyatt Willaby Johnson
Level: 1
Stats:
• Nervous System: 13
• Immune System: 9
• Hard Tissue: 11
• Soft Tissue: 11
• Energy: 6
Skills:
• [Debuffer]
• [Analyzer]
• Empty
Only a bit of his Energy had regenerated after being drained by Jasmine’s sword, but Analyzer used hardly any. Focusing on Nervous System, he activated it.
But instead of the normal message he got when he used Analyzer, his status message itself changed.