Emily

I heaved out a sigh. I was exhausted. The night had been spent trying to keep Kent alive and heal any of my allies' wounds that got too bad. I had basically had to force Brock to get healed otherwise he would have just bleed to death. I had also had to relocate Minyas arm after a particularly strong wraith had tugged it out of its socket.

She had screamed the whole time, and it had scared me to death. “I never want to do that again.” I grumbled to myself. Unfortunately I was overheard.

“Um, excuse me? That night was heck itself but at least we got a ton of benefits out of it! We are all at least level 12 and now we have unlocked our path, whatever that is, AND we have finished one of our quests.” Minya said getting very defensive.

“I never said it was bad, just that I don’t ever want to do it again.” I told her trying to placate her.

She mumbled something under her breath but looked over at Kent. “How is he doing?” She asked me.

I looked over at him as well. “He is doing alright. He should wake up within a few hours and then we can dive into this Path stuff as a group.” I told her.

“Good, we need every small advantage we can get. So the faster he is awake the faster we can start taking down bosses.” She said and went over to Drake to talk to him about something.

I looked over at Kent. He was sleeping fitfully, the poor thing. He was tossing and turning on the small cot they had made from some animal skins Drake had skinned with some of his old world knowledge. Apparently he had been some sort of ranger for a while.

I walked over to him and checked his pulse. It was steady and consistent, just like it was the last time I checked. I couldn’t help it, I was mothering over him. My friends in my past life had called me the mother hen of the group, always fretting and fussing over all of them.

We had all gained a lot from that battle but we had decided to not do anything with our paths until Kent was awake. I had finally used my spirit points and just gone with my gut. I really hope I haven't made a drastic mistake by doing that.

Kent stirred and I jerked my hand away from him, suddenly self conscious about touching him. Even if it was for medical reasons. He opened his eyes and stared straight up at me. He blinked. I blinked back.

He yelped and tumbled backwards. “What the heck are you doing so close to me?” He said to me, shocked.

I blushed. “It's not what you think!” I squeaked. “I was checking your pulse! You’ve been unconscious for over 12 hours.”

He just nodded and stood up. Brushing his dark brown hair out of his eyes. He turned to me. “So, what's the game plan?” He asked me glancing around the clearing and smiling at the progress that had been made to our little camp. Not that it could be called that anymore.

We had made a central house with simple log walls and a flat roof. The inside had a makeshift table and bed, with fur carpet. We had killed many bears and wolves for all of our fur, and Drake had been working non-stop to get all of the skins ready.

Outside out the house was an empty field until you got closer to the forest. There was a small campfire that both Layton and Drake had set up together. Brock had chopped all of the trees and left only stumps in the few dozen feet surrounding the clearing. We had been making walls and currently had low walls surrounding the camp.

The walls weren't much to brag about. They were only a half dozen feet tall and made up of logs stacked horizontally on top of each other. Every few feet there was a goblin spear embedded in the wood to keep it all together.

It wasn’t much, but at least it was something. Drake had even made little mats for them to meditate on, and they were super soft. They also had enough meat to easily last through the month.

Kent smiled and looked around. “You guys were busy while I was out! What level did you all get too?” He said, eyes widening in anticipation.

I smiled at him. He reminded me of my old puppy. So excitable and cut- I cut off that line of thinking and blushed before responding to his question. “We all reached level 12, and that includes you. We never took you from our party so that you could level up with us,” I smiled brightly at him. “We were actually waiting for you so we could find out the stuff about our paths.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

I grabbed his hand and dragged him over to the others. “Guys! He’s awake!” I called out to them. Minya huffed and set down the game of cards that she and Brock had robbed off of a goblin.

“About time you woke up sleepyhead. I want to learn about the path stuff SO bad.” she exclaimed dramatically and jumped to her feet. “Let's go over to the meditation area.” She ran over to the pads that she had just dubbed the meditation area.

I groaned and dragged Kent after me again and he stumbled and ran along with me. We got to the pads and sat down. Minya was already gaping at her screen. “Guys! You need to open your path selection as quickly as you can! It is so cool!” she said, fangirling all over it.

I rolled my eyes and sat down on one of the mats. Despite my attitude, I was really excited for this. I wanted to know what our paths were as much as Minya, if not more.

I quickly pulled up my status to view my option.

Emily J. Robbin

Level:

12 (F-Grade)

Race:

Human-Fairy

Bloodline:

Human 9 pints, Fairy 1 pint

Class:

Healer

Stats:

Body:

END: 12 VIT: 12 STR: 11 AGI: 32

67

Mind:

INT: 40 WIS: 41 CHA: 11 PER: 22

114

Spirit:

WILL: 32 SOUL: 21 LUCK: 18 FOC: 20

91

Traits:

Evolution(Human), Well of Healing(Fairy)

Skills:

Wand Mastery(Human+Fairy), Mana Manipulation(Fairy)

Spells:

Weak Heal, Weak Group Heal, Weak Mend

Path:

Choose

I breathed out deeply and selected choose.

Path of Healing: The path of healing is one of helping others and striving to become a beacon of light in a world of darkness.

Path of the Fey: The path of the Fey is one of magic and illusions. The Fey are mischievous and magical.

Path of the Lover: Your power comes from those you are close to. Love is everywhere and you embrace it.

I stared at the words. The first 2 made sense and the last 1 was very… random.

I debated for a second before choosing the path of healing. I had been doing healing for the longest time so it just felt right. I closed out of my screen and glanced around.

Minya was ecstatic and was grinning in a slightly creepy way. “I love my path, how about you?” She asked, turning to me.

“Mine is perfect.” I told her, smiling as well.

Brock was the next to stand up. “I got the path of unyielding strength.” He told us all. Equally as giddy as all of us.

Minya spoke up. “I got the path of lightning. It is kind've stereotypical, but that doesn’t mean it is any less powerful.” She told us all sagely.

I looked over at her. “Mine is even more stereotypical. I got the path of healing.” I was still happy with my choice but it was less cool than all of theirs.

Drake was the next up. He came over to us with a predatory grin. “I got the path of flowing blood.”

I shuddered. It was totally his style but it didn’t make it any less creepy.

Layton stood up. She ran over to us and exclaimed, “I got the path of beauty! It had such a nice description and was by far the best of my 3 choices!”

Drake looked over at Kent. “What's taking him so long?” He asked us. I shrugged.

Layton also glanced at Kent. “Knowing him? He probably gets to choose 2 paths because of his double nature.

Brock snorted. “Kent always pulls the most crazy and ridiculous ideas and has amazing luck. It's what makes him such a good ally in battle. I would trust him with my life a hundred times over.

Kent finally opened his eyes. “I got 2 paths!” he shouted at us.

“Why am I not surprised?” Minya muttered to herself.

Layton turned to her. “Called it.”

Kent looked at us confused.