James woke up, feeling oddly damp. His first thought was Why did I fall asleep somewhere I could get wet? Then he tried to get up. His second thought was far simpler: Ow. He suddenly remembered the fight with the phoenix. He opened his menu.
James Boksae
HP: 5/100
Burns (-1 HP/minute)
STR: 8
CON: 10
DEX: 13
Compass pending
James groaned as he felt his health tick down to 4. He knew he wasn't going to last long. He cracked his eyes, determined to have a last view of the forest he'd loved so much. Instead, as he cracked his eye open, all he saw was a red glow. Turns out the phoenix still hadn't died. James let out a low chuckle, despite how much it hurt. Well, I guess you got the best of me, didn't you? As he waited for the blow that took his last few HP, he felt all of his worries slip away. He'd done his best, but a phoenix was just too much. And now, there was no point in worrying, there was nothing he could do.
He lay there, facedown in the sand, waiting for a few seconds. Why isn't it finishing me off? He cracked his eyes open again, this time blinking a few times to get rid of the blurriness. Where he'd thought he'd seen the phoenix, instead there was a flaming feather lying in the sand by the lake. James smiled again, despite the pain. He may not have lived to tell the tale, but not many could say they took down a phoenix with nothing but a homemade spear.
As he felt his HP tick down to 3, he looked at the beautiful feather lying just down the shore. It flickered with all the hues of a fire, red near the center, fading to orange and yellow at the edges. As he looked closer, he could see a thin band of blue at the very center of the feather, fading to white before it darkened to the red he'd seen initially. The feather was beautiful, flickering with a gorgeous mother-of-pearl finish that accentuated the flickering flames the feather embodied.
Wait. His father had mentioned a mother-of-pearl look that showed him his compass. Suddenly, a dim flicker of hope ignited within him. A phoenix feather was one of the rarest treasures he'd ever heard of. The bonus from a compass like that might be enough to save him. He just had to touch the feather. In his injured state, however, that seemed a monumental obstacle to overcome. Still, the flicker of hope flared within him, and he started to move his arm. As it moved the first few inches he groaned in pain. The burns had created blisters and he'd just dragged them on the sand. Tears blurred his vision once more as he slowly, painfully, inched his hand closer to the feather. It was so close, yet so far away.
Eventually, his arm was fully extended. His fingers were an inch from the feather. He groaned as he realized he would have to move his whole upper body. Still, while he had been moving his arm the little flicker of hope had become a flame. He felt his HP tick down to 1, and his vision started to go black. He let out a snarl and lurched his body towards the feather. The pain almost made him black out, but he forced himself to remain conscious, knowing that falling asleep would be the last thing he'd do. Half an inch to go. One more lurch and he felt his finger brush something soft. He could no longer see due to the tears, but he saw a menu window pop up.
Select compass treasure?
Accept
As his vision faded to black, he hit accept and felt his HP hit 0.
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He woke up again, still partially submerged in the water of the lake. He felt much better, though that wasn't saying much. He still felt like he'd fallen in a fire and then a stampede had run him over, but at least he didn't feel moments away from death. He opened his eyes. His fingers were still resting on the feather, which was no longer glowing. Still, it looked like a moment of flame frozen solid and changed to feather form.
He looked at his menu.
James Boksae
HP: 15/130
Burns (-1 HP/ 20 minutes)
STR: 8
CON: 13
DEX: 13
Compass acquired
His maximum HP was a lot higher than it used to be, and he was taking less damage from the burns. Part of that was probably that his body had had time to heal, but his increased constitution also would reduce the damage he took. Still, that was reduced even further than he'd hoped. He looked at the feather again and examined it.
Sapphire phoenix feather
Abilities:
+50% damage dealt with fire spells
-50% mana required for fire spells
Compass abilities:
+3 Constitution
Improved rate of natural healing
Resistance to fire damage
Additional abilities revealed as discovered.
That explained how he was doing so much better than he'd expected. The second and third benefits weren't very precise, which was unusual. He thought about it and decided that the bonuses probably depended on other factors. Perhaps he had better resistance to certain kinds of fire attacks than others. Also, he had a Legendary compass? He had a feeling there were going to be some really impressive other benefits he hadn't found yet.
Still, none of those would help him if he didn't make it out of this forest alive. Impressive compass or not, almost any predator could take him out in his injured state. He may have increased healing capabilities, but he was still badly injured. He got up. It still was very painful, but he could clearly see the benefit of increased healing. He looked at the sun. It was already sinking below the western horizon. He'd been lying in the lake for hours.
He started toward the village, walking on a path that he knew had an abandoned cave not far from the lake. He would stay there with his father when they wanted to come to the lake early in the morning but didn't want to sleep close enough to scare the game away. Normally it was a 5 to 10 minute walk, but now he had to be far more careful. Fortunately, the burns were on his upper body and arms, not his legs, so he could walk. Still, it was surprisingly painful, and he soon realized how much you use your upper body to do something as simple as walking. Also, pushing through low-hanging branches wasn't really possible right now, unless he walked backward so the branches were hitting his mostly unharmed back instead of the burns on his chest and arms.
Still, within an hour he made it to the cave. It wasn't large, but his father had a few containers of water that they left there. James realized he hadn't drunk anything in hours, and his throat was extremely sore from fire flowing down it. As he slowly sipped the cool water, he felt it soothing the burns on the inside of his throat. There was no food in the cave, as that would attract predators, but just the water felt wonderful. James wasn't sure he would be able to fall asleep with the pain from the burns, but he lay in the cool cave until eventually he slipped into a restless slumber.
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James woke to significantly less pain than the night before. Still, the outside burns looked much the same. He decided the improved healing was focusing on the inner damage first. Which was both good and bad. It was good because those were the most dangerous wounds, but it was unfortunate because he would still have to avoid low-hanging branches on his walk back to the village. At this point his health was only dropping one every few hours, and the increase from the healing should offset that. He took a few more sips of water and headed off.
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It was a long walk to the village, he didn't think he could make it in one day. He started walking, remembering a place he could sleep for the night. They didn't sleep this close to the village very often, because it was only about an afternoon's walk away, but there was one place. As James slowly walked, avoiding all low-hanging branches, he watched for anything he could eat. He hadn't eaten in over 24 hours, and the water had made him realize how empty his stomach was.
Soon he found a berry bush and ate some of the berries. It wasn't much, but it would hopefully help him to have the needed energy for the walk home. He kept walking. His destination was a small grove of trees that he'd built a small shelter in with his friends when he was younger. Since it was about 2 hours from the village for a 10 year old, it was far enough that to a ten year old it seemed like the middle of nowhere, yet close enough that there wouldn't be any predators and one of the adults (usually his father) could keep an eye on them while hidden. It would make a good place to stop for the night.
As he walked, he kept a careful eye on his surroundings, watching for anything that might attack him. At this point he was weaponless and injured, but many predators could be scared away by acting large and dangerous, but he'd have to do so before they realized he was injured. The forest was quiet. Everything seemed to have hidden away when the phoenix came through. That was good for James, although it was a long, tense walk. Fortunately, the trees overhead kept the temperature nice, and he slowly felt better and better. He could get used to this improved healing thing.
He arrived at his destination just as it was growing dark. He slipped into the grove of trees and crawled into the little shelter. There was a bit of jerky in one corner. He ate half, saving half for in the morning. It was pretty bland, but would help supplement the berries he'd eaten that afternoon. He was getting pretty hungry at this point, and the last bit of jerky looked really appealing. Still, he decided to leave it for the next day. Tonight the pain was far less, and James was tired enough after 2 very active days and one poor night's sleep that he fell asleep fairly quickly.
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When James woke up, it was already around noon. He was happy to find he felt much better. He looked at himself, and much of the swelling was going down, although he still looked really bad. James hoped he didn't give his mom a heart attack when he got home. Then he smiled as he realized he'd just thought "when" he got home. It started to sink in that he'd actually survived. It didn't even dampen his spirits much when he realized some small critter had come and stolen his last piece of jerky.
As he started walking, he smelled something that made his good mood immediately evaporate. Smoke. He groaned. Not again! He quickly looked around. Nothing. Then, through a break in the trees, he saw it. A large plume of smoke from the direction of the village. He'd never felt so happy to see smoke. As he started walking again, he wondered why the village was having a bonfire, which was the only thing that would make so much smoke. Perhaps the hunters had brought home an unusually large kill. Sometimes the village would have a feast for something like that. Or occasionally an adventurer party came through, and they had killed some large beast they wanted to throw a party with. Either way, James was just glad it wasn't another phoenix.
Along he trudged, until he was a bit under a half hour from the village. Suddenly he heard a deep voice call out. "Who goes there?"
Startled, James froze. Again the voice called out. "Who goes there?"
James tried to speak. Nothing came out. He realized he hadn't spoken since the fight. He tried again, trying to get a sound. Instead he started coughing. Apparently his throat wasn't yet fully healed. He tried to stop coughing, but started coughing harder, eventually coughing up a big batch of blood. His eyes teared up from both the coughing and the pain.
As he continued coughing, a massive man came around from one of the trees, holding a massive maul. "Holy cow! Are you OK?" Apparently realizing how stupid of a question it was, he patted James on the back and called out. "Healer! We need a healer over here!"
Pretty quickly a young woman ran up on the path, accompanied by another man carrying a sword. "Oh my!" She ran up to James and put a hand on his back. Suddenly he felt like cool water rushed over all of his burns. He gasped in relief as he realized just how much pain he'd been in. He looked at his menu.
James Boksae
HP: 95/130
STR: 8
CON: 13
DEX: 13
Compass: Sapphire phoenix feather
Now able to talk again, James gasped out his first words in nearly 3 days. "Thank you! Thank you."
The woman smiled. "It's what I do." Her face grew more concerned. "What happened to you?"
As James was about to answer, the first man butted in. "I have a feeling Marcus should hear the answer to this."
James wasn't sure who Marcus was, but the other two nodded, and the first man motioned for James to follow. They went down the trail just a little further, then split off to the side. James realized they were heading towards the main road going into the village. He didn't know where these people were leading him, but the woman obviously had magic and the other two were also clearly adventurers. Besides, they'd helped him, so he was willing to follow them as long as they didn't show any signs of wanting to do him harm.
They walked through the forest for a while until, as James had expected, they emerged onto the main road. What he hadn't expected was the huge camp set up on the road. There were dozens of tents and quite a few people walking among them. As they approached, the first man James had met called out to one of the guards. "Hey John! Go grab Marcus, would ya?"
The guard, John, nodded and ran into the camp. The man stopped James with an outstretched arm, although James had gathered from his sending the guard to get Marcus that the man didn't want him in the camp yet. They stood there and waited until a man came walking out of the camp towards them. "What is it, Steven? I was right in the middle of writing up my report, and I want to head back as soon as possible! You know I hate leaving the fort undermanned!"
The man, Steven, called back. "I have someone for you to meet. This man here was walking through the forest looking like he'd just stepped out of a bonfire. Figured you might want to hear his story."
Marcus looked at James. "Indeed I do. What brings you to these parts of the woods?"
James wasn't sure why they were so surprised to see him, but started to explain. "My name's James. I live in the village just down the road, and I just finished my compass challenge. I was on my way back when I ran into Steven here."
Marcus's expression softened. "You're from the village, are you?"
James nodded. Marcus continued. "How did you get the burns?"
Now James was a bit nervous. He didn't want to reveal his compass. He knew it was far more valuable than he could protect, but he didn't see any way around it. He had a feeling lying would be a bad idea. "As I said, I just finished my compass challenge. During my challenge, I killed a phoenix."
Eyes widened all around, before everyone glanced at the woman. "It's the truth." She said simply.
James looked at her, confused. She noticed and smiled back. "I have an ability that lets me know when someone is lying. You'd be surprised how often an adventurer tries to tell me some big story about how they got injured when they really cut themselves while practicing with their weapons." James could see how that would be a useful ability.
Marcus spoke again, looking sadly at James. "Well, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news. We are from the adventurer’s fort a few days' travel south of here. We came because there was a report of dungeon monsters roaming the area." He paused, looking at James. "I don't know how to tell you this, but your village is gone. You are almost certainly the only survivor."
As James' world shook, the adventurer, Steven, put one hand on his shoulder. Questions ran through his mind. His village gone? How? Why would a dungeon attack them? Was he really the last survivor?
Marcus spoke up before James could go into a full panic attack. "Don't worry about where you're going to live. We found some money in the ruins of the village, and we'll bring you back to the fort with us. You won't be rich, but you'll be fairly comfortable."
Honestly, concerns about money and where he was going to live had been a long way down the list of his concerns, well under his family and other friends from the village. He only had one small spark of hope left. "Couldn't you have missed others who ran away, like you missed me?"
Marcus shook his head. "No, we did a spell to watch what happened to the village. We actually saw you leave at the very beginning of the time we watched, but also saw the phoenix following you and assumed you were dead. No one else left the village since you did, so unless you know of someone who left before you did, there are no survivors."
James' hopes fell. The only one who regularly left the village for long periods of time was his father, and he would have been waiting for James to come back. Again, James started to think about all of those he'd known and loved in the village, unable to believe they were actually gone.
The woman spoke up. "Marcus, he should probably rest. He looks like he's dead on his feet, and magical healing takes a lot out of you, especially when he's not an adventurer. Some rest will also give him time to come to grasps with this new information you've given him."
Marcus nodded. "That's true, this will all seem a bit less overwhelming after a good night's sleep. It won't help a lot, but it will help some." He looked at Steven. "Find the lad somewhere to sleep for the night."
Steven thought for a second. "One of the men in my tent has guard duty tonight. I'll make sure James here gets a bed for the night."
Marcus nodded and headed back into the camp. Steven and the other two talked in hushed tones for a minute while James just stood there, numb. Eventually he felt someone take his arm. "Let's go." Steven led him to a tent in the camp, and James could see some beds. Steven gestured to a bed, and James curled up on it, too tired and numb to even try to change, even as he realized he didn't have anything to change into. His shirt was basically tatters at this point, most of the front having been burned off by the phoenix. His pants were still mostly intact, and he slipped his hand into his pocket, where he could feel a soft feather.
As he drifted off to sleep, he had one last thought. He didn't know when or how, but he would make the dungeon responsible for this pay.