Now that the fight was over, I was shocked at the carnage which we’d unleased up on the roof in such a brief period of time. Isabella came rushing up to me and her face was white. Well, whiter than usual anyway.
“Are you OK?” I asked, concerned. She wasn’t normally this pale at all. Something was wrong , and her eyes were wide and very large. (And quite lovely to be honest. I’m glad the she doesn’t have to have the glasses to hide her face anymore.)
“Are… are you OK?” Gingerly she reached out and touched the spear thrust through my side.
“I’m fine,” I grunted. “I’m still bleeding though. I’m almost at 60 life now, and I seem to be losing a point every 6 or 7 seconds. I think it’s the spear,” I told her calmly. It was odd, but even being skewered didn’t hurt so badly. It was a dull throb like the onset of a toothache, except in my side.
“I.. I don’t know what to do,” she admitted.
“Well,” I released my tail-spike and let if fall and then grabbed the handle of the spear, “I’d say we need to get it out. Somehow I don’t think keeping this here looks that good on me.” I was trying to make a joke about the situation so Izzy wouldn’t panic. I still had a lot of life left, and even if it all ran out, I’d be back. As much as I hate the process, I always come back. Even if I died, I’d consider this death to be a worthwhile one. I managed to keep the beasts from harming her, and that’s all I really wanted to do anyway.
I didn’t think trying to pull the tip back through me was a good idea, and I didn’t want to try to break it. Could you break the shaft of a spear stuck in your gut? I couldn’t. The thought of what might happen if it broke wrong, or left splinters inside me while yanking it out and then got infected was just too strong in my mind. I’ve always been good at imagining terrible things happening to myself.
Grabbing the shaft with both hands, I pulled the spear forward about a foot while Isabella gasped. “Grab the backside and help yank,” I told her. I’m not really certain if this is such a great idea or not, but I knew it couldn’t remain. Down to about 50 life. Between the bleeding and pulling on this spear, this was dragging me closer and closer to death.
Seeing what I was attempting to do, Isabella drew back her hands, yelled some more jumbo-mumbo and a burst of blue flame burst the spear inches from my stomach. Good girl! I couldn’t bring myself to break it, but I don’t think I could’ve pulled the whole length of haft through myself in time. Coughing, I tried to push on the smoldering end while she ran behind me and grabbed the other side and started to yank.
Soon it was pulled too far in for me to do anything to help, so I just sank to my knees and leaned forward. I placed my hands around the hole in my stomach to slow the blood loss as much as possible, and watched as my health slowly dwindled away point by point. After what felt like forever, Isabella finally pulled what was left of the spear out of the back of my gut with a sickening squish sound. Blood sprayed everywhere.
Looking at my health, I was down to less than twenty life now, and I was still bleeding. There probably wouldn’t be time to bandage my wound, and even if there was, neither of us knew enough about first aid to stop a wound this size from bleeding. I was going to tell Isabella to just let me die, when a sudden searing flame burnt into the back of my flesh. Blue fire flicked around my fingers where I was clutching the front of my stomach, and I let go with a jerk.
Isabella had used her magic to cauterize my wound, but it was a close thing. When all was over, I just laid back with my health all the way into the single digits. It was going to take me hours to recover from these wounds, but at least I didn’t have to feel the pain of dying once again.
Slowly, I managed to gasp out, “I… I’m… I’m OK.” Compared to the pain of being fed on from healthy to near death time after time after time over the last few weeks, I didn’t find this impossible to bear anymore. At one time, I simply would’ve curled up and whimpered, but now the pain just seemly passed over me and even though I hurt, it didn’t affect me as it once had.
“Go and make certain they’re all dead. Don’t let one sneak up and get you.” I closed my eyes to just rest, and Isabella leaned down and kissed me on the cheek.
“Don’t worry,” she assured me. “I’ll make certain they don’t get back up.”
A few moments later, I heard her dragging metal across the rooftop and lie it near me. I figured if she needed me, she’d let me know, so I just waited and concentrated my best in trying to heal as fast as possible. After a while, I heard a slight ding sound and I slowly opened my eyes. There before me was a floating information window:
You can acquire the skill Physical Amelioration (1) for 10 CP.
Do you wish to do so?
Wuah? What the heck was ‘a melon ration’? I had no idea what type of skill that was, but it was expensive at 10 points just to buy it! It only cost two points each to start learning the other skills I’d picked up – the club, dagger, taunt, and roar, and the harvestings. But this was ten points!
Glancing around, I could tell that Isabella was grabbing everything off the goblin corpses and dragging all their stuff over to a pile near me. As she came back with a small bag in her hands, I struggled to sit up and asked her, “Hey Iz, what’s ‘a melon ration’?”
She blinked a few times and then giggled lightly and sat down beside me. “A melon ration? I guess it’d be a piece of a melon someone had cut into specific size to eat for a meal. Why?”
I scratched my head and shook it from side to side. “I don’t think that’s it,” I told her. “There’s a screen here asking me if I’d like to purchase a physical a-melon-ration skill for 10 points.”
“Physical Melon Ration?” She giggled.
She told me, “Spell it for me,” and I did, which then got her to giggling at me. “I think it’s probably something to help you with healing,” she said.
I growled, “Well, why the flip didn’t they just call it something like ‘Better Healing’ and be done with it?” I was hurt, and I wasn’t in the mood for these annoying popup windows and their terrible naming sense.
Sighing, I said, “Yes.” Anything that can help with healing has to be a good thing. I guess all my almost deaths finally were enough to help trigger some sort of new skill.
*Dumpt* *Dumpt* That stupid no-no noise had went off again, and another popup appeared.
You do not have enough points to acquire that skill.
You only have 9 of the required 10 CP.
Do you wish to ask your party to assist with the purchase of this skill?
Ask my party for assistance? I didn’t even know such a thing was possible! I hesitated over saying yes, but this was only a single point which I needed, and I thought it’s be good to learn some more about this system.
“Yes,” I finally decided.
Isabella titled her head to the side and read something for a moment before also saying, “Yes.””
Ding!
Congratulations! You have acquired the skill Physical Amelioration (1)!
Pulling up my skills window, it seems like I got it, and looking at my status window I was now completely out of cheat points once again.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Did you get a window to popup a moment ago,” I asked Isabella.
She nodded. “I did. It asked me if I wanted to help purchase the skill Physical Amelioration for Bloody Hell, for two CP, and of course, I said ‘yes’.” She smiled, leaned over, and stroked my cheek lightly.
I wrinkled my nose a little. “That’s not right. I had nine of the ten points it needed for the skill. I don’t like that it took two from you. I shouldn’t have asked.”
Isabella just giggled and then leaned over and flicked me on the nose lightly. “You should have, and I’m glad you did. You’ve been letting me take energy from your health, and if it helps you heal faster, it just means I can feed off you again faster. You learning that talent may end up helping us both in the long run.”
I just grunted. Still, I didn’t like the idea of her spending her points on me like that. They should go to helping her grow herself and become stronger. I’ll just have to start saving more points, and stockpiling some extra for in the future. Eventually, I’ll be able to repay those points back to her for something.
“So what’s our haul?” I asked while looking at the pile of stuff she’d gathered beside us.
“These guys seemed to mainly be carrying spears for weapons,” Isabella told me. “I’ve got a whole stack of them, and they had several small belts and pouches, which seem to have more of those silver marbles in them. I’m beginning to think that’s their money. I don’t know how valuable they consider them to be, but we’ve gathered quite a few of them. I’ll put them with the others in the room and count them all later, but I think we’ll have close to twenty or thirty of them.
“And these other little sacks, they seem to have waterskins in them, and something else you’re probably not interested in.” She giggled as she said it, so I knew it was something unusual.
“What’s that?”
“FRUIT!” She hopped up and down and waved her arms enthusiastically. I was so happy with the news, I struggled to get myself upright and hug her. Hot damn! Something besides rat! Isabella just leaned lightly against me and did her ‘toe-dance’ of excitement where she bounces up and down onto her tippy toes.
I groaned a little, but slowly I leaned down and picked up one of the knives lying nearby, and then I forced myself back upright and unsteadily walked over to the nearest goblin. “Izzy, you grab those pouches and take them back to the room for us. Get that little punk to come back here and help you carry things. He should know who’s in charge now. If he refuses, just eat his ass until he gets up and moves like you want. If he tries to run, it’s too bad, but he’ll just need to roast.”
“And watch out for any more of these guys,” I reminded her. “I hope they didn’t send more than one scout group, but we can’t know for certain.”
“I’ll be back in a moment,” she assured me as she grabbed a few of the pouches and ran down the steps and out of sight. Swallowing back the bile in my own throat, as well as any feelings of guilt or conscious I might have, I knelt down beside the goblin corpse and began skinning it. If Isabella was going to spend her time learning all those appraising skills, and if she was going to spend her points so I could acquire skills to help me heal more rapidly, I was going to do my part and learn to harvest anything that we might run across that I could harvest. Since they had some fruit on them, I wasn’t desperate enough to eat a goblin yet, but you never know what the future brings. If I had to, I would. A man did what a man had to do, and that’s all I was doing.
A little while later Isabella came back with the goblin following behind her with a noose tied around its neck. Isabella looked almost like she was leading a pet on a leash. Slowly, she went over and pointed to one of the spears, and then she bent down and laid it across both her arms, as if she was carrying firewood. She then held it out towards the goblin, and motioned a few times until finally it held its arms out like it was going to try and carry firewood. At this point, Isabella walked over, petted the thing on the head, and then pointed over to the pile of loot we’d acquired.
Like a puppy trying to please its owner, the goblin scurried over and started collecting weapons and bags for her. “Be careful with him, “ I reminded her.
“I am being,” she reassured me as she pointed for the goblin to lead the way back down the stairs once its arms were full. Thinking it over, I went ahead and sliced a few chunks of long tough looking meat off the goblin. Isabella and I might not eat something so human-like yet, but that little pet of hers could. We’ll fry it up, mince it, and make the thing eat it if we have to. It’s learning its place, and it made an excellent way for her to recharge her energy without draining mine all the time. Once we found a replacement, or once it seemed like it might be growing the least bit stronger or more dangerous, we could get rid of it.
It took Isabella and the goblin a few trips to gather up all the supplies that the seven had – or maybe I should say it took the goblin a few trips while Isabella escorted it ready to blast its head off if it tried anything. Finally they came back and Isabella simply stood silently and watched me impassively for a several moments. What I was doing bothered me, but if it bothered her, she didn’t show any sign of it.
“Umm… I’ll be a while skilling up on these guys, Iz.” I was trying to think of anything I could which meant she didn’t have to watch me do this. “Why don’t you take that little thing down and watch the hall, and make certain Jello-Muncher or another patrol doesn’t come this way.”
Gently, she leaned over and rubbed her hands through my hair. “I can do that,” she told me as she pointed back to the stairs and followed the goblin who hopped to obey. I’d always heard stories and seen movies where goblins were servants for other people and monsters. I could see why now; they quickly learned their place and rushed to please the ones stronger than them.
“Hey!” Suddenly a thought hit me as they were nearing the top of the stairs. “I imagine there’s a lot of earrings and jewelry and such in the first room at the end of the steps. There was a little goblin in there, and he seemed to have collected a whole bunch of corpses to play in. Let that little fellow root around in there and see what it can find for you, as long as you think he’s safe.”
“He’s safe,” she assured me. “And don’t worry, I’ll teach him to sniff out the jewelry, even if he has to use his tongue to do it.”
From the way she sounded, I believed her.
I tried not to think about it as I continued my harvesting of the goblin bodies and the morning slowly drifted by on into the afternoon. By the time I was finished, I’d recovered nearly half my health, but I think I’d lost at least half my humanity. From what I can tell, those little guys didn’t seem to me like they were built very differently than what a child would probably be built. Once the skin was off them, I could almost imagine they were children’s corpses that I was chopping up and desecrating. But even then. Even thinking like that, I didn’t stop. I simply did what I told myself I needed to do, and nothing more.
Exhausted, more mentally than physically I think, I grabbed up my gear and headed down the steps. Isabella was out in the hall, and a few rooms up from the teacher’s lounge, when I saw her. When she glanced back and saw me, she whistled lightly and the goblin came scurrying out of the room beside her, on all fours, and rushed over towards her. She simply pointed to the teacher’s lounge and it dashed that way and into the room as Isabella slowly walked down and into the room before.
As I walked into our little sanctuary and shut the door behind me, I was once again left wondering; humans and monsters, was there any real difference between us at all?