As we reached the others, I saw Ghost sitting up, pale as a…well, as a ghost, with a Melody who was carefully checking him over. Next to him sat Dawn, a makeshift splinter on her arm as she gazed off into the distance. Lemon sat quietly, just staring at his hands. Aerith also sat there, tears running down her face before they looked at us. She ran over to us before hugging me tightly.

“Idiot! We were so worried! Why did you do such a stupid thing!?” Hearing her sobbing into my chest as she kept calling me an idiot, I could only stand there, supported by Sheep, unable to pat her head or comfort her. We kept forgetting a really important fact; Aerith is only fourteen.

“Sorry, Kate.” Only managing those words, I knew that my actions would’ve caused everyone to panic and worry about me. Looking at the others, I saw Dawn still staring into the distance. Ghost looked at us with a grin while Melody had a face of relief. Aerith moved away after a few minutes, a few hiccups coming from her as Sheep escorted us over, placing Winter and I down gently.

“You two sure know how to make an explosive scene.” Ghost grinned as Melody slapped his head.

“Shut it, you.” Melody took out bandages, powders and potions. “I can’t do anything about your broken arms or legs, but at least we can treat the burns.”

Thanking Melody as she started treating us, I looked at Dawn and followed her stare which had been locked onto the corpse of the butterfly. Seeing it from this angle, I felt my heart sink as I saw it.

A small crater sat underneath it, the exoskeleton completely undamaged, but everything including its insides still burnt. The damage to the surroundings made it clear to me that if Rebecca hadn’t kicked off when she had and sent us flying, we would’ve been dead.

Seeing this sight, it became a reminder to me that we truly didn’t understand this world. We had thought the only danger would be the Husks, yet this monster had been chilling not even half a day from our base for who knows how long. The dragon we defeated paled in comparison to it, the System didn’t give any warnings or quests to run away from it. My talent which had easily blown Husks up barely bothered this thing, the only time I had hurt it being when I caught it off guard.

The dragon we defeated easily because we caught it completely off guard yet this thing wasn’t bothered when we did the same. Feeling the burning of the powder doing its work, I hissed as Melody chuckled.

“You’re both going to have really cool scars from this.” Melody reaches down, grabbing my shin. “Ready? This is going to hurt.”

“Go for it.”

“Okay, in five…four.” At four she pulled back and reset my dislocated knee as I screamed due to the sudden pain. Giving her an annoyed look, she just grinned. “If I reached zer-”

“Yea yea, bandage saying, etc.” I sigh as Melody grins and starts on my arm, painfully rearranging the broken bones before putting a splinter down and wrapping it tightly.

“Alright, now your turn.” Melody moves to Rebecca as my eyes turn towards the exoskeleton of the butterfly. Staring at it, I couldn’t help but be fascinated at how intact it is. Looking at the various flashing notifications from the System, I sighed and ignored them for now, planning to check them when we got back to our base.

“Dawn, are you okay?”

Dawn blinks and looks at me before smiling softly. “Sorry, just a bit dazed. Midnight, what do you think?”

Tilting my head, I asked Dawn what she meant. She lifted her working arm and following it, I saw the wings a bit away from the corpse as her follow up words made my mind spin.

“Something ripped this butterfly’s wings apart, wouldn’t that mean there are more monsters like this?”

She’s right, we didn’t cause that damage. Clearly something had ripped the wings apart. Imagining this monster being able to fly sent a shiver down my spine.

“Why haven’t we seen monsters like this before?” I looked at the corpse, voicing my thoughts before Aerith spoke.

“We have. The dragon.” Realising what she meant, I frowned while in thought. The System had said the dragon had been a Husk, but Aerith’s words made me realise that the dragon is in fact a monster like this. Standing up, I buckled as the recently set knee shot pains through my body. Sheep caught me before I fell on my face, throwing me a look of question.

“The exoskeleton, I think we should take it.” Seeing his gaze turn to the corpse, which had now burnt out, he nodded and turned to Lemon.

“Can you drag it back? It’s too large otherwise.”

“A-ah, yes.” Lemon gives me a small smile. “I’m glad you’re both okay.” Before walking over to the massive exoskeleton. Grabbing a part, he dragged it and nodded. “I can drag it back, but the trees might be a problem.”

Deciding to just try anyway, I approached the exoskeleton with Sheep’s support and looked at where my arrows had struck. Seeing it up this close made me realise how much trouble we would’ve been in if I hadn’t suddenly found a way to see a weak spot. Sitting at about ten centimetres thick, the exoskeleton had two layers, a soft outside that felt like thick wool and a very hard inner layer.

Moving slowly to where Lemon had targeted with his rounds, I saw none of the bullets had pierced the outer layer either. I looked at Sheep who looked back with a fearful face as we both came to the same conclusion. We had gotten lucky, extremely lucky. If this butterfly could fly and land at our base, there would be nothing we could’ve done, we would have died in seconds. No wonder why the System called it a disaster level monster, thankfully something else had crippled its ability to fly.

“If we could make armour with this…” Sheep looks at the exoskeleton shaking his head. “Well, I guess when we get back we can look at assigning a few people to Armorsmithing.”

“At the very least replicating it would be massive. Alright, let’s just head home, we need to get treated properly. We set up some medics, right?”

“Yea, we’ll head back and get you guys treated correctly.”

With Sheep supporting me, Melody supporting Ghost, Aerith helping Winter and Dawn being able to walk on her own, we slowly made our way back with Lemon bringing up the rear, dragging the nearly two story tall exoskeleton with him. This little trip had reminded us of our mortality, causing all of us to remain rather quiet as we were left to our own thoughts.

With a bit of trouble, thanks to getting the exoskeleton out of the woods, we finally made the trip back to the car. We weren’t affected by the decay any longer either, meaning that the butterfly had indeed been the source. We didn’t understand how it worked, just that it had been stopped, meaning the base wouldn’t be affected anymore. Tiredly stacking into the car, Sheep and Lemon put the exoskeleton on the top and somehow got it balanced, though the weight did sink the roof slightly.

We stayed silent on our way back, Winter and I sitting next to each other holding hands. I remembered the feeling from earlier ever so well and didn’t want to part from her, not for a while at least. Seeing the base coming up, we drove through into the main part, surprising people. Sheep got out first and called out for the medical team, consisting of three people.

Seeing a group of people rushing over with Jupiter following behind, we got out of the car with a bit of trouble. As soon as we showed ourselves, those around us stared at us in disbelief before being shooed away by Jupiter and Geralt, who had rushed over. Being supported once again, we were led to the office, as we hadn’t built a medical building yet and checked over.

“Just what the hell did you guys fight?” Geralt came over to me as the Healer, Joseph, looked over my injuries.

“Ah, you know, a butterfly.”

Geralt raises an eyebrow before I gesture for him to sit down. Joseph removes the splinter, causing me to hiss in pain as my arm is moved slightly, as I started telling Geralt everything. He sat there, stunned before looking over my body.

“I have never seen a monster, only Husks. You’re telling me this world has monsters so dangerous that a group of well coordinated Lvl 2s nearly perished?”

“Exactly what I’m saying. If we didn’t take our full loadout, we would be dead. If that thing could fly and had flown into our base…” Pursuing my lips, I saw Geralt and Joseph, who had started applying plaster to my arm, both pale.

“All done, Madam Midnight. At my level, I can only heal minor wounds, a broken arm like this is out of reach for me. I can see your burns and scratches have already been healed. Mister Geralt, I must ask you to leave so I can check over Madam Midnight’s injuries.”

“Hm? Oh, right. I’ll go check on the others.” As Geralt leaves, I strip down to my underwear as Joseph checks over the rest of my body, applying some of Melody’s powder to burns that had spread throughout my body. Thanking him as he finished, I put my clothes back on as he handed me a stick…no, a cane.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“You don’t happen to have an eyepatch as well, do you?” Chuckling, I accept the cane as he smiles.

“We do, though not on me. Your knee should take a few days to be able to support your weight while your arm…two months is standard, but these estimates are based on our world. As a Lvl 2, you might heal faster than that. Please come and get it checked in every week.”

“Will do.” Hanging my arm in the sling, I move out of the room and head towards the room Winter had taken. Entering, I saw her with a plaster on her leg and arm, happily chatting with Asura, a Medic. Upon seeing me, Winter grinned as she pats her good thigh. Sitting down gently, I leaned against her as Asura smiled.

“It’s good you’re both well, Madams. If you’ll excuse me, I will go and ensure everyone else is okay.” Asura leaves as I lean my head on Winter’s shoulder, closing my eyes as I shift myself closer as she hugs me with her good arm, leaning her head against mine.

After nearly thirty minutes of silence, Winter spoke in a low voice. “We nearly died, Ruby.” Not saying anything, I just hugged her tighter with my arm. I knew we got off lightly, a few broken limbs and plenty of burns sure, but we got off lightly. After a few more minutes, she spoke again. “We have to get stronger.”

“Mm, we do.” Lifting my head up, I looked deeply into her eyes before sitting up. “Let’s see what the System has to say, it’s given us far more notifications than before.”

“Maybe it’ll give us another trip home?” Rebecca chuckles as she sits up. Bringing up the System, I bring up the first notification.

You have learnt: Expose

By using magic through your eyes, you can find spots that expose a target’s skin.

“Oh, it’s not a spell to see enemies' weak spots?” Telling Rebecca, she smiled while listening to me. I then turned to the next notification.

You have defeated a Plague Bearer: Demonic Butterfly.

+100 Class Points

This is your first kill on an enemy of this type!

+200 Class Points

You have defeated a Disaster-Level Monster, a feat that should have been impossible for this stage of this iteration. Rewards need to be calculated for such a feat…

“Three hundred Class Points?! Holy shit.” Rebecca, sounding shocked, looked at me.

“You got them too?” She nods before looking at the System. I turn my attention to it as well, a final notification flashing.

Rewards have been calculated. As you are now eligible to advance to Lvl 3, these rewards have been tailored to that Lvl.

Entity Midnight receives the following:

1x Necklace of the Lotus Protection

1x Fragment of the lost Machinist Kingdom

1x Decay Knowledge Book for Machinists

1x Ring of Small Storage

1x Legendary Sniper’s Scope

1x Sharpshooter’s Talent Stone

Clan Unity of the Lost receives the following:

Unique Title: Plague Clearers - All those within Unity of the Lost will be given a 10% discount in the Shop.

50,000 Prime Coins

200 Clan Points

Emergency Quest Failed. Punishment is intended for failed quests, however due to overcoming a disaster-class monster, there will be no punishment for failing this quest.

“Holy mother of rewards.” Seeing them all appear nearby, I looked at Winter who stared back in disbelief at the small pile of rewards that had appeared. Both piles sat next to each other and helping each other up, we both carefully sat down to sort through the rewards. My eyes locked onto the ring of small storage first.

Ring of Small Storage

By weaving a small amount of mana into this ring, you can store objects within or withdraw items. To store, simply touch an item and to withdraw just visualise an item. Can not be used on living beings or magically enchanted items unless they are owned by you.

Current Storage: Roughly the size of a house.

“Fucken hell, that’s going to be incredibly useful.” Slipping the ring on, I nod with approval as I try it out on the cane. With a little practice, I finally store the cane within it before withdrawing it. I found that by just putting mana towards the ring without withdrawing or storing I could also sense what was inside. Grinning, I turn to see Rebecca with a similar ring and a smile on her face. Turning to the rest of the rewards, I picked up the necklace. A silver chain with a beautiful blue lotus on it that had a soft glow.

Necklace of the Lotus Protection

Protects you from one spell once every three months.

6 Charges.

“Oh, that’s rather handy…it’s quite nice too.”

The Legendary Sniper’s Scope is indeed just a scope, and the System said as much but there weren't any other notes. Closing one eye, I looked through it and saw nothing, as if vision had been blocked. Frowning a bit, I decided to just put it in the ring but found I couldn’t. Shrugging, I put it into my shirt pocket and picked up the Fragment, using it. As usual, the junk knowledge filled my head and the counter went up to four out of sixteen. My attention then turned to the book.

Appropriately named ‘Decay Knowledge for Machinists’ I flipped through it to find it’s about preventing decay from affecting machines. It didn’t have blueprints, but rather provided methods to prevent decay from ruining machines too quickly, though decay would eventually destroy the methods listed would at least delay it.

Storing it in my ring, I picked up the last one, the talent stone. Looking at it, I couldn’t help but grin at the thought that Lemon would have also received one, meaning he’d also get the talent that he really wanted before we fought the dragon. Using it, I saw only two choices.

Please select one of the following talents:

Refilling Rounds: Gain a shield depending on the distance between you and your target when you strike, gaining 1% of your maximum health as a shield for every ten metres after 300 metres, capped at 200%. Shield lasts for one minute. Additionally, gain health and mana depending on the amount of damage you deal, up to 100% for both.

Surprise!: If your target is completely unaware of your presence, your first shot will deal 10x its normal damage. Additionally, you will create a mirage of yourself after your first shot at your location.

““Holy fuck.”” Hearing Rebecca say the exact same words as me, we looked at each other, both holding the talent stones. She gestures to me. “You first.” I told her about my talent choices, with Rebecca hissing at the two choices.

“Hot damn Ruby. My choice is between a talent called Repeater or Decayer. Repeater repeats the shot that I do without using ammunition and the second shot does three times the damage. Decayer causes my bullets to spread decay on my target, similar to the butterfly but spreads fast. Either burst or sustained damage for me.”

My choices revolved around survivability or burst damage and after the butterfly, I knew exactly what I needed. I selected Refilling Shots with no hesitation. Surprise would’ve been an excellent choice, it certainly may have dealt with the butterfly easier, but I couldn’t help but remember how it shrugged off my attacks even with Long Distance Sniper Call adding crazy damage.

Storing everything into my ring, Rebecca follows my action before I stand with the help of my cane. Rebecca, with a crutch, looks me up and down and giggles.

“We should dress you up in that suit Tess bought you.”

“We just experienced a near death experience and you’re here suggesting roleplay.” We both laugh as we hobble towards the door, both of us looking at the last notification from the System.

You can now advance to Lvl 3 Sharpshooter.