Chapter 17: Getting Back Into Shape

With all of my bones aching in my body, I opened my tired eyes slowly. Ugh, I felt like shit. Looking around in confusion, I wondered where I was. All I remembered was the fight and then….nothing. I must’ve fainted after the battle because of the severity of my wounds. Speaking of my wounds, why wasn’t I in more pain? Turning my eyes downwards, I examined my wounded body.

Most of the left side of my body was covered in some type of moss. This moss had a dark green hue with blue tints around the edges. I tried taking it off at first, but it was stuck to my skin like glue. If I really wanted to I could pull it off, but the whole process seemed painful so I decided against it. It also seemed to be healing me so taking it off would only damage me further.

The moss on my body extended all the way to my neck and to the lower part of my eye. Thankfully it narrowly missed my mouth, so every time I wanted to talk I wouldn’t have to taste moss. As I was examining myself, I noticed that I was on some sort of stone bed. Thankfully there was moss covering the stone bed so I wouldn’t be laying on a hard rock while I rested. Before I could do any more examining, a voice appeared in my head.

“Are you okay?”

The hell? Jumping in shock, I looked for the source of the voice. After a few seconds of searching, I noticed a small creature watching me from a few feet away. Oh, it was just Viola. How long had she been there? Focusing on our mana connection, I began to telepathically speak.

“Yah, my whole body just hurts but that’s still better than being dead. Do you think you can tell me what happened while I was out?”

Someone had to put this moss on me and I highly doubted that it was Viola. I also wanted to know just what happening when I fainted. Twisting my body on the stone bed, I waited for my reanimation to speak.

“After you finished fighting with that one bat, he soon fell unconscious. You ended up following shortly after. I was quite scared since you were bleeding from several different places on your body. I was afraid that you would die and leave me all alone.”

After Viola said this she sniffed a couple of times before she resumed speaking.

“Once the both of you were unconscious everyone in the audience grew silent. A few seconds later someone started clapping. Then someone else did. And then a different someone else did. This process kept on repeating until I was deafened by the sound of all the clapping. I was by your side while all of this happened, but no matter what I tried you still wouldn’t wake up. After I tried everything that I could, some sort of bat with necklaces and bracelets came out. She then ordered some other bats to carry you and your opponent to a different room. This is actually the place she carried you.”

Viola waved her hand around to show me where exactly I was laid.

“After she brought you here she then pulled out a variety of mosses. She then combined various pieces together and applied them to your wounds. She did the same for the other bat. Once that was done she left and went about her business.”

Huh, I guess I had this mysterious bat to thank. From the way Viola described her, I could guess that she was some type of healer. I wished she knew some healing magic, but I would take what I could get. Now that I thought about it, the moss on me was somewhat alleviating the pain. I was still hurting, but not as much as I should be.

“How long was I out?”

From the way Viola was talking, it seemed that quite a bit of time had passed with me resting. I had suffered some serious wounds, so it made since that I would be out for some time.

“I would say around six hours or so. It’s hard to tell time in this cave.”

I nodded my head to show I understood. The next fifteen minutes were spent with me talking to Viola. It seemed that she was quite traumatized by the amount of injuries I had sustained. I tried comforting her as best as I could. And before I knew it, I was once again asleep.

The next day passed by with me waking up periodically and then going back to sleep. The bat who I assumed was the healer fed me with some sort of herb when I first woke up. It helped ease my pain, but it also made me sleepy. I also noticed the she used some type of magic to help my wounds heal faster. It wasn’t immediate, but it helped my bones heal faster than they normally would have. I made a mental note to ask her what she did the next time I woke up.

On the morning of the next day, I pulled myself up from my bed. It was time to stop lazing around. I had things to do. Moving my body painfully, I got into a seated position. However before I got up, I took a look at my status. I was pretty sure that I had gained a skill while I was fighting, but I wasn’t sure.

Status WindowNameColm MarythouAge: 16Race: HumanLevel: 6Gender: MaleTitlesThe Peerless Descender, Undead ProphetHealth: 130/150Mana: 160/160Stamina: 150/150~Strength: 10[5]Agility: 13[3]Vitality: 8Dexterity: 9Intelligence:20Wisdom:25Luck:0~SkillsMana Affinity, Wind Blade, Earth Magic, Necromancy, Meditation, Enhanced Vision, Electric Shock, Wind Gale, ConcentrationUnallocated Points: 0

My mana and stamina had made an excellent recovery while I was resting. My health however didn’t. The reason for that was probably because I was still injured. Until all of my injuries healed, my health would stay maxed out at 130 health points. As my eyes roamed downwards, I noticed something odd. I had two new skills!

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Wind GaleSkill Type: ActiveSkill Rank: CommonSkill Level: 1Exp: 15%Effect: Allows the user to emit a strong blast of wind.

The first one was called Wind Gale. Similar to the name this technique allowed me to cast a strong blast of wind. This technique had saved my life when my opponent tossed me towards the ground when I was in the air. Without it I would’ve had way more injuries. The next skill I got was called concentration.

ConcentrationSkill Type: ActiveSkill Rank: UncommonSkill Level: 1Exp: 40%Effects: This skill allows you to perceive more information at a quicker pace when you are focusing on something.

It seemed that this skill would allow me to concentrate better. The reason I had gained this now instead of before was quite simple. The battle I had just fought was the hardest one I had ever fought. If I had lost my concentration for a single second, I would be dead. This would also help me when I was trying to create a new spell since it would allow me to perceive more information.

Now that I had looked at my two new skills, I needed to think about the battle I had just fought. It had been too close for comfort. Even though he was a higher level than me, I had more skills than him. From now on I needed to fight smarter. I could hardly believe that I forgot the earthen wall only blocked one side in the middle of the battle. If I had just remembered that I could have won the battle flawlessly. This was a mistake I wouldn’t make again.

The next problem I needed to address was what I would do if I faced a flying enemy. I could literally do nothing but wait for him to attack. Since most of my attacks were earth based, my opponent needed to be on the ground in order for me to attack. This would not fly any longer. As I could clearly see now, that was a weakness I needed to address. I needed to create some sort of spell that would allow me to attack creatures that flew. I would come up with one once I was done thinking.

Another problem I needed to address was my enemy’s attacks. I either needed to be fast enough to dodge them or durable enough to withstand them. I had essentially been fucked up by one attack in the battle I had just fought. I was too weak. I needed to get stronger.

Pushing myself off the stone bed, I gritted my teeth in pain. Whenever I moved the left side of my body, a shock of pain rushed throughout my body. Well too bad. I had things to do and I was determined to do them. As I made my way toward the door, Viola took a perch on my right shoulder. I nodded toward her and picked up my spear on the way out. I was thankful for whoever placed my new spear by my bed since I did not want to have to go looking for it. I didn’t even want to walk.

As I walked out of the room, I accidently barged into the bat that healed me. Apologizing, I managed to thank her before she left. Huh, it seemed she was busy. I couldn’t really ask her about how she healed me since she left so quickly. Hmm. I would have to ask her later since I really did want to know what she did.

Limping my way out of the hallway, I soon arrived at the big clearing. As I made my way toward the exit I noticed that some of the bats were staring at me. However instead of hatred or disgust, it was….acceptance? It was hard to tell what they were thinking but I assumed it was acceptance. Before I could think on it anymore, I was greeted by the undead general.

“Prophet, how are you feeling?”

Really? How did he think I was feeling?

“Like shit.”

The man wanted to know how I felt so I gave him the truth. I had just fought the hardest battle in my life so I wasn’t going to be feeling peachy. My irritation died down however when I noticed the look in his eyes. It seemed Viola hadn’t been the only one worried about me.

“Hah, well that’s to be expected. The battle you fought was a challenging one indeed. May I ask where you are going? You need way more rest in order to be fully healed.”

“I plan on going back to my base for a little while. I’ll rest up there and raise my level more before coming back here. As of now I’m too weak and I need to get stronger.”

I wanted to be strong enough to at least see the bat boss’s level. Right now his status only showed question marks and I didn’t like that one bit. I also didn’t like how most of these bats were stronger than me. I would need to change that.

“Oh, I understand. Would you like some guards to come with you?”

“No I’m good.”

After saying this I bid the undead general farewell. The reason I didn’t want any guards was because I wouldn’t get stronger with them watching me. I needed to face my enemies alone so I could create strategies accordingly. Only in life or death situations could I get stronger.

Nodding my head toward the guards that were guarding the exit, I headed toward my base. I needed to check up on my earthen home that I had made. It had been a while since I been there so it was probably in bad shape. I also needed to check up on my garden. Since I had been bedridden for a whole day, I was extremely hungry. I couldn’t wait to get some food in my stomach. With this in mind, I limped my way through the dark tunnels of the sewer.

 AN: Thanks for reading and expect the next chapter in a day or so!