We limped along at what seemed like a glacial pace, sweating in the summer heat. I expected another attack at any moment, but somehow we reached the crest of the ridge line without any further trouble. That put us maybe a quarter mile from our objective.
I paused to distribute a bit of healing with the mana I’d recovered, while Earl climbed a boulder to get a look around. My reserves fell back to a third of normal all too quickly, and I decided that was as low as I was going to let myself get while we were still in danger.
“Why did those stupid things go after me?” Bob grumbled as we set out again. “You’re the healer, and the mage.”
“It’s not like they know that,” Earl pointed out reasonably.
“Actually, I’ve been thinking about that and I have a theory,” I said. “The last time we saw them most of the Dragonslayers were wearing some kind of armor. But their mage is a tall, skinny guy wearing street clothes, and their healer is a short girl with dark hair. So who did the monsters focus on when they attacked us?”
“The guy wearing blue jeans and a tee shirt, and the short girl with dark hair,” Earl said. “You may be on to something. I hope you’ve got some defenses you haven’t shown, because that means next time they’ll focus on you.”
“I’ll protect you, Tom,” Shasa assured me. “Unless it’s bugs. I hate bugs.”
“Me too,” Jenny agreed.
“Shut up, people!” Mitsi hissed. “You make more noise than a herd of cows.”
“It’s not like they don’t know we’re here,” Jenny pointed out.
“That doesn’t mean we should make it easy for them,” Mitsi insisted.
“She’s probably right,” I said. “Back to stealth mode, everyone. We’re almost there.”
There was a big tree covered in suspicious-looking vines partway down the slope, but it was easy enough to just circle around it. A strangely appealing scent wafted off of it, making me think of fresh berries and shade. But none of us were dumb enough to fall for that.
A bit further down the slope we found the scene of another battle. Broken and trampled underbrush, lightning-blasted trees, blood and shell casings everywhere - it looked like it was quite a fight. Earl paused as we came to the corpse of a giant pig monster, and sized it up.
“I wouldn’t want that coming at me in the open,” he drawled.
“That’s for sure,” I agreed.
The thing was as big as the hell cows we’d fought that morning. The front of its body was armored with a dense coat of bristles that seemed to behave more like iron wire than hair. The beady little eyes were protected by heavy ridges of bone, and enough bristles to make them more or less invisible from the front. Its tusks had torn huge gouges out of the trees, and they were liberally coated in dried blood. There were dozens of bullet holes in the carcass, but it had nevertheless lived long enough to do some damage.
Earl rapped the front of the skull thoughtfully, and shook his head. “Not sure if a spear would penetrate that.”
“Let’s hope we don’t find out,” I said, turning back to the trail. “Come on, we’re nearly there.”
Sure enough, it was barely a hundred yards further on that the character of the woods abruptly changed. The brambles and thickets came to a sudden end, replaced with a field of lush grass under a broken canopy of fruit trees. Clusters of flowering bushes dotted the field, and I could just make out a pond some distance ahead of us.
Mitsi crossed the boundary, and stumbled. She backed up hurriedly, throwing suspicious looks around. Then she turned around, and waved us over.
“What’s wrong?” Shasa asked her as we approached.
“Walk past me, and see if you feel… weird.”
I frowned, but the guileless dog girl complied before I could say anything. She stopped dead just past the point where Mitsi had, and put a hand to her head.
“Oh! I’m all tingly and warm. What… oh, I get it. That’s neat!”
“Easy for you to say,” Mitsi said sourly. She turned to point an accusing finger back at us. “Nobody get me pregnant while we’re here, understand? I’m not getting eaten by some monster just to scratch an itch.”
“Wait, what? Is the treasure grove some kind of sex zone or something? I have to try this,” Jenny said, and rushed up to join them. I found myself facepalming at her antics, but after a moment she frowned. “Hey, nothing’s happening. What a rip off.”
“You were already in season,” Shasa said. “How would you tell the difference? Anyway, I smell people here. There’s something else, too, but I’m not sure what they are. Just that they smell really nice.”
“That figures. Well, there had to be some reason Sheryl isn’t answering her phone. Who wants to bet this place is a big honey trap?”
Earl scanned the trees with a thoughtful frown. “That would be a first. But if there’s a treasure here, it would make sense that there’s a guardian.”
“Maybe it seduces people, and leaves them in an enchanted sleep,” Bob suggested.
“Oh! Maybe there are tentacle monsters,” Jenny said, sounding disturbingly hopeful about the prospect. “Wouldn’t that be awesome? Consentacles are the best!”
“You think the System is going to ask nicely?” Bob asked, sounding skeptical.
“Normie. It’s not rape if I get hearts in my eyes.”
Mitsi shook her head, and started into the grove. “Humans are so weird. System, status, show active effects. Huh. Eternal spring and aura of peace. Don’t try to hurt anyone here, or you’ll let the monsters in.”
“That sounds like an important thing to know,” I grumbled. I pulled up my own interface, and found the section she’d referred to.
Aura of Peace (Zone Effect - Grove of Renewal)
Hostile entities are unable to enter this area, or to initiate attacks against anyone inside. Broken by violence.
Eternal Spring (Zone Effect - Grove of Renewal)
The magic of spring brings growth and renewal to all friendly entities. Grants moderate enhancements to all physical attributes related to healing, vitality or fertility.
“I see why you were worried about getting pregnant,” I told Mitsi. “Okay, it definitely looks like this is supposed to be a noncombat encounter, and we don’t want to find out what the penalty is for breaking the rules. So put your weapons away, and don’t attack anything while we’re in here. Mitsi, do you know anything about what counts as an ‘entity’, and what makes them hostile or non-hostile.”
The catgirl shrugged. “An entity is anything that has a Status screen. The rest is obvious. Hostile entities hate us and want to kill us. Friendly entities are on the same side as us, so we can talk to them. Neutral entities haven’t picked a side yet, but they can whenever they want. So all the monsters are hostile, humans and people like me are friendly, and we haven’t met anyone neutral yet.”
“So ‘friendly’ really just means they aren’t murderous psychos? Alright, then if we meet anything that can talk we’ll treat them like we would humans. Don’t start anything, but keep your guard up and don’t be surprised if they try something. Just because they can’t start a fight doesn’t mean they don’t have more subtle options.”
By now we were well into the grove, which seemed to be a bit bigger than it had looked on the map. It was maybe a couple hundred yards from the boundary to the shores of a large pond, which was about the size of a football field and seemed to occupy the middle of the zone. There were clumps of fruit trees dotted around, interspersed with larger shade trees and patches of flowering berry bushes. It was a very pretty scene, but the fact that I didn’t recognize any of the plants kept me from relaxing too much. I wasn’t exactly a botanist, but I’d grown up in a small town. Surely there ought to be something familiar?
“Oh, visitors!” A voice exclaimed from somewhere off to our right. A pretty blonde peeked around the trunk of one of the fruit trees to check us out, and smiled. “I thought I felt the boundary ping. Welcome to the Grove of Renewal.”
“Hello there,” I called. “Don’t mind us, we’re friendly. I take it you live here?”
“Yes! I’m Beri, one of the attendants of the grove. Is one of you Tom?”
“That’s me,” I admitted. “Do you know where Sheryl and her group are?”
“Thank goodness, I was getting worried. Yes, please follow me. Some of the wounded aren’t doing well, and our healing powers are still very weak.”
She stepped out from behind the tree to guide us, and as I’d half-expected she turned out to be naked. Also a complete knockout, because why wouldn’t she be? Obviously she was supposed to be some kind of nature spirit, and the legends always depict them as being beautiful. Judging from the narrow waist, wide hips and massive, implausibly perky breasts she was probably some kind of nymph.
“Succubus,” Bob muttered under his breath behind me.
Jenny heard him, and shook her head. “Dryad, obviously. Bet she was inside that tree, and just didn’t want us to see her step out of it. Damn, if that’s what I’m competing with I need to invest more points in my bod.”
“She smells nice,” Shasa put in. “Think she’ll pet me?”
Jenny smirked at her. “Oh, I just bet she would.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Everyone buddy up with someone, and make sure they can’t get you alone,” I ordered, keeping my voice down. Then I went on, louder. “Beri, it sounded like things were stable when Sheryl called me earlier. Did something happen?”
She huffed, making her impressive breasts bounce. “They split up to harvest the blessings of the grove, and then one of them decided it would be a great idea to try to cheat the rules. The crows had some of their pig friends patrolling the boundary, and he attacked one of them from inside. That broke the protection, of course.”
I winced. “They didn’t see the status effect warning?”
“Oh, no, Anthony is a ‘leet gamer’, whatever that means. He’s far too smart at finding all the ‘exploits’ in this ‘game’ to bother listening to us plebes. He got gored and trampled, and Sheryl almost got killed getting him up a tree, and two of my sisters got stung by wasps before they could hide. Then Hana and Jason got hurt trying to save Greg and Jimmy, because they were already too hurt to move. Lady Shaylis had to intervene to restore the protection, or half of them would be dead. She’s still upset about having to pay for that, so don’t expect her to do it again.”
“Is she your queen or something?” Jenny asked.
“No, she’s our creator,” Beri replied. “Be respectful if you meet her, she’s going to be a goddess soon. Here are your friends.”
There was a little hollow hidden by a clump of trees and bushes, which had concealed the group until we were right on top of them. Good thing, too, because the kids were in no condition to defend themselves. Three badly wounded guys were laid out on the grass, covered in blood and makeshift bandages. Sheryl was sitting up with her back against a tree and a rifle in her hands, but one of her legs was a bloody ruin. A tiny Asian girl was curled up against her side, apparently unconscious.
“Looks like you’ve had a bad day,” I said.
Sheryl started, and stared at us. “Tom? Oh, thank God. I was afraid you wouldn’t come.”
“It took some persuasion, but here we are,” I replied. “Jenny, Shasa, stand guard while we talk, would you?”
“Okay!” Shasa exclaimed, her tail wagging. “Nothing will sneak past me, Tom.”
That’s what I was counting on. I approached Sheryl, noting that her wounded leg was immobilized with an improvised cast made duct tape and a couple of sturdy sticks. Someone here had at least a little first aid training to go with the magic, then.
“How bad is it?” I asked.
“Poor Hana’s been burning all her mana every time she wakes up, and then collapsing again for hours. We kept everyone alive, and she says I’m pretty close to being able to walk again. But Greg, Jimmy and Anthony are all in bad shape. I hope you’ve got a lot of healing, or enough guys to move stretchers.”
“You’re welcome to leave the boys here to recover,” Beri put in. “We’re supposed to make the grove a place of healing, we just aren’t strong enough to handle such terrible wounds yet. But if you can get them stable we can care for them until you come back for them, or until they get better on their own. Just not Anthony. He offended the lady with his reckless disregard for the rules, and she wants him gone as soon as you can move him.”
“I can’t say I’m surprised,” I said. Earl was already moving to take a look at the worst of the wounded. I set my spear and rifle down, and frowned. “Hang on, weren’t there more of you? What happened to Dale and the others?”
“We paired off and split up to search the grove for treasure not long after we got here,” Sherly said. “Dale and Tyler were going to do a sweep around the other side of the lake, but they never came back. After the fiasco with the boars Jason went to find them, since a busted arm doesn’t keep him from throwing lightning. But it’s been a couple of hours, and he hasn’t come back either.”
Jenny groaned, and threw Beri an accusing look. “Let me guess. Your grove sisters are seducing them, and luring them off someplace where you can have your way with them forever?”
“Not forever!” Beri protested. “They can leave whenever they want. Or, you know, once everyone’s tree is fertilized we might encourage them to move on. Besides, how do you know they didn’t seduce us? They’re horny humans with years of experience, and we’re just innocent young dryads. If they made a move on their guides the poor girls would be putty in their hands.”
“Uh huh. How many of you are there?”
Beri bit her lip cutely, and looked away. “Um, the apples are really good at restoring stamina. I’m sure it will be fine.”
“Yeah, okay, I get the picture,” I grumbled. “So first we make sure no one is going to die, and then we need to go drag the boys back to camp.”
“It can’t be that simple,” Sheryl objected. “Tyler is kind of a horndog, but Dale wouldn’t get distracted like that, and Jason knew something was wrong. They must have some kind of charm power.”
Beri scoffed, and hefted her mountainous breasts. “Why would we need spells to get a man, when the Lady gave us such irresistible womanly charms? You should spend some of your points being pretty instead of deadly, Sheryl. Then you’ll understand.”
“I don’t need giant fake stripper boobs to be pretty,” Sheryl growled.
“She’s just trying to distract you,” Jenny said. “Spells aren’t the only kind of power, and notice that she didn’t actually deny it? They’ve probably got points in pheromone scent, or a magic seduction skill, or something else that isn’t technically a spell. But it obviously isn’t very strong, or they wouldn’t be so careful about only targeting isolated people. I bet half of us are immune.”
“Because half of you are girls?” Sheryl asked. “They didn’t go after Hanna, and she’s a lesbian.”
“Hanna is perfectly adorable, and half the grove is hoping for a chance to show her a good time at some point,” Beri retorted. “We didn’t bother her because she’s better at healing than we are, and we’re trying to help you ungrateful louts. Ugh! Isn’t it obvious that sexy time comes after everyone is safe and healthy?”
“Human mythology is full of monsters that disguise themselves as pretty girls to lure people to their doom,” I told her. “This early on no one knows what kind of threats the System is going to make, so everyone is kind of nervous. If you girls really are just trying to be friendly we’ll work things out, okay?”
Beri huffed. “I guess that makes sense. We’re still trying to figure out humans, too. But you know, there’s a reason we can talk. If you want to know something, maybe try asking us?”
“That sounds perfectly reasonable to me,” I said. “Just don’t blame my team if we’re a little paranoid until we get to know you. The System has been trying pretty hard to kill, and every time I start thinking I’ve got things figured out it springs a new trick on us.”
“I guess I shouldn’t hold that against you,” Beri said. “Does that mean I can get some of my sisters to come help with the wounded, and miss trigger-happy here won’t shoot them?”
I looked at Sheryl, and raised an eyebrow. She flushed, and looked away.
“I was scared, okay? Hana knocked herself out turning stamina into mana, and I was still the only one left who can fight at all. The way everyone who left the group kept disappearing, it was starting to feel like a horror movie.”
“I can see that. Well, I think we’ve got a handle on things, as long as no one lets the monsters in again. So let’s see what we can do for your friends.”
It was immediately obvious that I wasn’t going to get everyone back on their feet. All three boys looked like they’d been knocked down and trampled by those massive boars, resulting in an assortment of broken bones and ragged wounds. One had been badly gored, and while his guts were back where they belonged now his abdominal cavity was still torn open. The other two had an amazing number of wasp stings and spider bites on their arms and legs, and were still struggling against the poison.
“Before the System these kids would have been DOA,” Earl mused as we worked. “They must have put a lot of points into health and toughness upgrades to survive all this. Can you check that abdominal wound for infection?”
“Looks clean to me,” I said. “I think that Hana girl must have a sterilization spell. But there’s some debris in the wound, and I don’t have an easy fix for that.”
“Shit. That’s a job for an ER, not a couple of field hands. Best I can do is get my tweezers and pick out the obvious shit before you close it up. If we can get him back to base I reckon Linda can handle the rest.”
“That’s Anthony,” Sheryl said. “So he has to come with us one way or another. What about Greg and Jimmy?”
I considered that as I checked them over for internal bleeding, infections and other problems that my magic was better suited to find than Earl’s visual examination.
“They’re both going to be struggling with the poison for hours, at best. They’re tough enough that they might survive on their own at this point, and I can give them a boost by fixing some of the damage. But I can’t just neutralize the poison, so I doubt they’ll be up to a long hike through the woods anytime soon.”
“We can give each of them another apple in the morning, to keep their vitality up,” Beri put in. “I’m not sure how long it normally takes a human to heal from such awful wounds, but the apples are supposed to make it happen twice as fast.”
“They’d still be here for months at that rate,” Earl said. “They need a good hospital or a lot of magic healing, or they’ll never really be back to a hundred percent. But if we can get them stabilized, and you ladies don’t mind taking care of them, we can always come back in a few days. Maybe we can get an ambulance up to the road, or figure out a way to get Linda here safely.”
“We’d be happy to help,” Beri assured me. “Like I said, Lady Shaylis wants us to turn the grove into a place of refuge and healing for humans who fight monsters. Our healing powers are still weak, but we can certainly feed them and keep them comfortable.”
I wasn’t happy about that, but I had to admit they had a point. “We may need to take you up on that. We might be able to get one invalid back to the cars, but not a whole group. Sheryl, what’s the story with your leg?”
She grimaced. “I was hauling Jimmy’s butt up one of the trees, and a boar caught up with me. Darn near tore it off before I could get out of reach. Hana stopped me from bleeding out, but there were some really bad breaks that she’s been struggling with. I’m just glad she’s got a spell for the pain, or I’d be no good to anyone right now.”
“So she’s been working on fixing it? Let me see how far she’s gotten.”
I touched the girl’s ankle to cast my diagnostic spell, and winced. The boar must have gotten a good grip and twisted, from the way the muscle was torn up. There was a really nasty spiral fracture of the femur, which probably would have severed an artery and killed her if she was just a normal girl. But she’d sunk as many points into durability as the boys had, and I could practically see her body fighting to put itself back together. Hana had already managed to coax all the bone fragments back where they belonged, which must have been like doing a jigsaw puzzle. But she’d run out of mana partway through fusing them back together, leaving about a dozen separate pieces I’d have to join into one. The surrounding muscle was still badly torn up, which would take even more mana to fix. I suppose Hana had just stopped the bleeding, and then started working from the inside out.
Interestingly, I couldn’t see any trace of wasp or spider venom in her system. As far as I could see none of the smaller monsters had touched her all day. Maybe she was really good at dodging? No, there were too many big bruises from being knocked around by bigger monsters. But if she was a good enough gunslinger, maybe the fragile creatures just couldn’t get close to her without getting shot?
Estimating the amount of mana it was going to take to get her back on her feet, I paused with a frown. Went back to the boys, and took another look. My frown deepened.
“What’s wrong?” Sherly asked.
“Just confused about Hana’s priorities. This guy here-”
“That’s Greg,” Sheryl interrupted.
“Okay. Well, he’s got a broken arm, a couple of cracked ribs, some nasty-looking bite wounds and a lot of poison in him, which looks really bad. But they’re all simple wounds, not too hard to fix, and he’s got a ton of vitality. If her magic works like mine, all of it together would be easier to deal with than your leg.”
Sheryl gave her sleeping friend a quizzical look. “Really? I was just trusting her to know how to use her magic. I guess maybe she really wanted me back on my feet? We’ve been good friends for years, but I don’t think she knows Greg that well. Plus, well, he’s a great guy, but he’s not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.”
“You might want to look into that later,” I suggested. Then I turned my frown on the tiny healer, who had yet to stir even after all this noise. “Is it just me, or is it weird that all this noise hasn’t disturbed her? I can see that she’s got some kind of healing sleep thing running on the guys, but there’s no reason she’d use it on herself. It doesn’t seem like it would help with mana recovery.”
“Now that you mention it, I was a little worried about the way she passed out,” Sheryl agreed. “She’s been pushing herself way too hard, so I figured it was a good idea to let her rest. But she’s usually a pretty light sleeper.”
I came over to kneel beside the girls again, and put my hand on Hana’s arm.
“Shit,” I muttered. “You said she had some ability that turns stamina into mana? Did she buy that before or after the System turned off that fancy help feature?”
“After,” Sheryl said, suddenly worried. “She’s been researching all kinds of healing powers since yesterday, and she said she remembered what to buy. But she didn’t have it written down. You think she did something wrong?”
“She’s dehydrated and starving, and I don’t think she got that way naturally in a couple of hours. Does that healing sleep spell of hers cost mana to maintain? Because if she ran out, and she’s got something automatically turning metabolic energy into mana to keep her spells running…”
“She might never wake up,” Earl finished. “Better figure out how to cancel those spells, before the combo does her in.”
Sheryl shook her head in frustration. “Why can’t you be more careful about your own health, Hana? Ugh! Okay, this isn’t as bad as it sounds. She told me she has to stay pretty close to her patients to keep the healing sleep going, and the other thing only activates when she’s completely out of mana. So if one of you guys can just carry her off a couple dozen yards and then come back, that should do it.”
I turned to Earl. “Can you give that a try, while I get started on healing? I think I can get Anthony and Sheryl walking again before I run out of mana, but my spells won’t do anything for Hana.”
“Not a problem. I’ve got an IV kit and a couple bags of saline in my pack, in case breaking the spells doesn’t wake her up. Mitsi, you mind watching my back while I walk in a big circle?”
The catgirl gave the bushes around us a wary look, and nodded. “Protecting the healers sounds like a smart idea.”
“Pretty much everyone agrees on that one,” I said. “Okay, let’s get this done.”