Beneath the Dragoneye Moons

by Selkie

Chapter 51 – New Skills I

I sat up with a mad cackle, looking at the faces around me. Julius had thunderclouds on his face. Artemis looked at my face, her eyes widened, then she was cracking up, muffled laughter coming from behind her hand. Kallisto looked like someone had stolen his favorite toy.

"Elaine. That better be a damn strong fire class." Julius said, annoyance and disappointment in his voice. Wind him up, come clean. Wind him up, come clean. Which to pick….

"Nope! Red!" I said cheerfully, ignoring the glares, doing my best to suppress a crazed giggle. I failed, and a high-pitched titter left my lips.

If Julius’s face were thunderclouds before, they were a full-on hurricane now. To his credit, he kept control over himself.

"Elaine. Report." Julius ordered. Fine, fine, prank over.

I stood up and saluted the way I was taught.

"Sir! When classing up, I was offered a merged class – [Constellation of the Healer] – a Celestial-aligned healing class. Since it was a merged class, my second class slot opened up. I took a Fire-based class – [Firebug] – to provide myself with added utility, and to help shore up my weaknesses."

Julius’s face went from disappointment, directly to joy, directly to chagrin, as he realized the rest of the unsaid part – that I’d shown off my Fire class first as a prank.

Artemis let her laughter fully go, and between great guffaws, managed to say. "If you’d used [Identify] on her, you’d have seen she was still Healer tagged." She finally got her laughter under control. "Mage?" She asked.

"Mage!" I confirmed. She grinned.

"A baby mage, all for me to train! Huzzah! What else did you get? Moving to Celestial, and a merged class, should give you a ton."

Maximus chimed in. "Also, we should know what you lost. It’s the rare consolidated class that doesn’t lose anything."

I gave them the full details, while continuing to summon and play with the flames. I was rewarded with some notifications.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Affinity] has reached level 2!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Conjuration] has reached level 2!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Manipulation] has reached level 2!]

My eyes widened in realization. This is why Artemis was constantly playing with rocks and lightning! She was grinding her skills! As my thought trailed off, a flame came too close, and singed my hand. I didn’t jump, just looked at the burn coldly, clinically.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Resistance] has reached level 2!]

[Center of the Galaxy] was doing work. Yesterday, I’d have jumped in surprise and started to suck my hand, before realizing I could restore it easily. [Deaden Pain] would’ve turned the pain completely off, but it’d have stung like crazy until I used it.

Now? Now I was calm, collected, the center of all. A mere burn wasn’t enough to bother me, to shake me. I still had full awareness of the pain, but it was like it didn’t matter. It was no longer the all-consuming beast that took up more and more of my head, demanding attention. Instead, it was like a polite, well-dressed butler, informing me that the scuff marks in the entryway had been polished off. A notice of change, but non-demanding.

Good. Upgrades. I realized my attention had been wandering, and I came back to the real world.

"… paying attention?" Julius asked, arms crossed over each other. Whoops.

"Sorry! My new skills are telling me a bunch of things, and I’m still processing them all. My bad." I apologized sheepishly. Julius breathed in, then relaxed, letting the air out explosively.

"Fair enough." He said. "But that just reinforces my point. Normally, you’d be on vacation now, free to do whatever. But we’re cutting it short for you – you need to get familiar with your new skills, your limits on them, and you need to update me by the time we leave, so I know what you can and can’t do. Maximus, Artemis? Can the two of you help her out?"

Maximus had that light of all-devouring knowledge in his eyes, a fancy new lab specimen hand-wrapped and gifted to his doorstep. I was probably in for some problems, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to care, or feel scared. Hmmm.

Artemis looked delighted. "A mage! A mage! A mage for me to train!" She said, practically bouncing with glee.

"Alright, alright, get out of here." Julius practically shooed us out of the wagon.

We all went outside, and Julius, Kallisto, Origen, and Arthur all vanished, their jobs guarding us while we were upgrading done, free to do whatever they wanted. The sun was setting, and with a slightly guilty feel - still remote, still not enough to shake a galaxy – I realized my reading binge had kept them here all day, instead of doing what they wanted.

Maximus and Artemis faced me, as we were in the middle of town.

"What should we work on first?" I asked.

"Depends on you." Artemis answered. "Check out your new skills, or work on your fire magic?"

I thought about it for a moment. "New skills. [Center of the Galaxy] is screwing with my perception, and I need to get a handle on it before I forget what normal emotions are like; before I start to think that this is fine and normal. It started off pretty weak, but I can feel it getting worse and worse as the skill settles."

One quick explanation of what a galaxy was, and the discussion could properly take place.

Maximus and Artemis glanced at each other, worry on their faces. Uh oh. Artemis tilted her head, deferring to Maximus’s experience with the System.

"Yeah, it can be a real problem. Give me the details again." The system expert said. I repeated what the skill did, and how I felt it affecting me.

"For example, I see that my hand’s burnt," I said, lifting it to show the small, weak burn I’d given myself. "and I feel it’s burnt. But since it’s not causing a problem, I don’t see the need to fix it right now."

"Ok Elaine, I want you to focus on your hand. I want you to try and care about the pain. Don’t care about feeling the pain, just the caring part." I focused, suddenly finding the idea of a burn on my hand not to my liking. I focused on [Phases of the Moon] to heal my hand, and stopped. Hang on. I should be smart about this.

On one hand, I could keep healing like I’ve always been healing, focusing on the medicine behind the act. On the other hand, [Phases of the Moon] seemed lunar-focused, with a strong description of the moon’s waxing and waning to heal people.

I should heal my burn in two halves. One by focusing on the [Phases of the Moon] imagery, and one by focusing on the medicine, and see which one worked better. I could use the amount of mana I used to tell the difference.

I lifted my hand up, and decided to use the old, faithful medicine tactic first – I could slice the healing in half that way. I was unsure if I could do it with [Phases], since imagining myself as a half-moon might have unintended side-effects. I focused, watching my burn shrink as it healed. I checked my mana. 14 used.

I waited a few seconds, then repeated the process, this time imagining my hand as a crescent moon, and the light of the moon filling up, to become a whole moon, shining in the sky.

Earth’s moon, not one of Pallos’s monstrosities.

35 mana for that. Inefficient, but it still worked. Thinking about it, that might be why the 4 humor or 8 element theory of healing was still popular here – it did work at the end of the day, just inefficiently.

I saw the tension leaving Artemis’s shoulders as my hand healed. Maximus smiled encouragingly. "Now Elaine, can you try making sure most other emotions are, and impacting you properly? Let’s start with happiness."

Maximus coached me through properly "setting" my [Galaxy] skill, making sure the feelings and emotions I wanted showed up, that I could feel them properly, while less-desired emotions and feelings were suppressed.

"That’s not to say," Artemis started. "that you can’t be taken off-guard by happy news. But in the balance of things, that’s probably a better way to live." I nodded, agreeing with her. No more jump-scares! No more being startled by ambushes! No more freezing when someone gets hit! This skill was amazi-balls, and it was only the first skill!

Ok, fine, the fourth. Affinity was boring as always, and Medicine was same old, same old. [Phases] I’d already done some experimenting with.

"Let’s do [Warmth of the Sun] next!" I said, excited to try out and experiment with my new skill.

"Hang on, let’s first get out of town. You’re a healer, but you’re now also a mage, and skills can get out of hand. Also, you’re a Ranger now – the less people know about what you can do, and by extension your team, us, the better.

"Bluebeard could tell what we did at a glance." I pointed out. Artemis snorted at me.

"Bluebeard knows how we work, and has been in the army since he was 16. Yeah, he knows everything forwards and back. Come on. Let’s get out of town."

We left town without incident, making our way to an isolated-enough spot.

"Right, [Warmth of the Sun] time." I said.

"Ok, see if you can manipulate the range, then see if you can change the healing or calming properties." Maximus whipped out a scroll and some charcoal, to better take notes.

The range ended up being fixed, and we weren’t sure if the healing or calming properties could be edited. I left them on max just in case. The warmth property was felt though – "I thought it was your Fire class, not your Celestial class" Artemis remarked – and I left that on moderately low. It was warm enough anyways, although it’d be appreciated when it got wet and rainy.

Maximus wrote that down – "See if Elaine can dry us with her skill." He tapped his lips thoughtfully, then wrote down a few more notes. Or maybe ideas for other things to try?

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Learning] has reached level 101!]

It wasn’t quite dark enough to try out [Eyes of the Milky Way], but Artemis assured me that they were quite pretty, and that seemed to be enough for [Pretty].

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Pretty] has reached level 97!]

We decided to do [Vastness of the Stars] next, which was all sorts of anti-climactic. I touched Artemis, used the skill, and suddenly, pain didn’t matter to her. She could still feel it, she was still aware of it, it was most certainly an upgrade to [Deaden Pain] – but that was it. We didn’t have – nor were we willing to manufacture – mental anguish to test how well that worked.

That left [Veil of the Aurora], and the display was nothing short of stunning.

I suspect that even if I hadn’t turned off surprise and awe with [Galaxy], that I’d have been moved.

I wrapped Maximus and Artemis with me inside of [Veil], and we gasped as empyrean lights blazed around us, strawberry pink mixing with vibrant greens and electric blues, twinkling and glimmering, a blaze of many lights surrounding us. I gaped as I looked around me, slowly turning to take in every inch, every mote of light. Artemis took a step back, eyes widening.

Nothing was said. Nothing needed to be said. We just stood there, watching the Aurora Borealis, an inch away, blazing away in all its glory. I checked my mana.

Barely anything was being used. I could keep this up all night.

Seconds. Minutes. Hours. Days. I have no idea how long we drank in the wondrous sights, but all good things must come to an end, as Maximus rapped the light with his knuckle.

"This is probably the most beautiful skill I’ve ever seen." He admitted, and coming from someone who actively searched out every skill he could find, that was quite the compliment. I swelled up, half-expecting [Pretty] to level up again. "It did mention a shielding component. Care to try it out?"

With great reluctance I dropped it, and Artemis made a small, sad noise at seeing it go.

Time to see just how good of a shield skill I’d gotten.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 14]

[Mana: 2500/2500]

[Mana Regen: 5069]

Stats

[Free Stats: 0]

[Strength: 19]

[Dexterity: 23]

[Vitality: 41]

[Speed: 32]

[Mana: 250]

[Mana Regeneration: 700]

[Magic Power: 250]

[Magic Control: 775]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 128]]

[Celestial Affinity: 128]

[Warmth of the Sun: 105]

[Medicine: 111]

[Center of the Galaxy: 101]

[Phases of the Moon: 68]

[Eyes of the Milky Way: 88]

[Veil of the Aurora: 64]

[Vastness of the Stars: 70]

[Class 2: [Firebug - Fire: Lv 8]]

[Fire Affinity: 2]

[Fire Resistance: 2]

[Fire Conjuration: 2]

[Fire Manipulation: 2]

[: ]

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[: ]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 71]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 72]

[Pretty: 97]

[Vigilant: 104]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 105]

[Ranger's Lore: 1]

[Running: 70]

[Learning: 101]

Chapter 52 – Shield Skills with Artemis

"Artemis, do you want to handle this part?" Maximus asked.

"Sure! Elaine, barrier, or shield skills, are incredibly useful skills, I think that goes without saying. There’re a few aspects to a shield that help determine how good it is. First is how fast it takes to generate. Second is how well it absorbs or dissipates attacks. Third is how long it lasts, fourth is how mobile you are, and fifth is additional utility or aspects. Quite a lot of that depends on the element it’s made out of. Let me demonstrate mine."

Saying that, Artemis focused, and I could see rocks climbing up her legs, wrapping around her chest, arms, over her head – basically a suit of armor growing under her clothes. When she was done, it was like looking at a statue made out of rock in the shape of Artemis, with Artemis’s head.

"On the first point, this is relatively slow to form, and it has a fairly high mana requirement to form in the first place. However, I don’t need to spend any more mana to dissipate attacks – they’re literally punching stone, and it absorbs and spreads the attack throughout. Biggest point in its favor. Also good against cutting attacks, not that we see many of those. It’ll last a long time – generally until I call the skill off. I’m horribly immobile while using it though, which is part of why I almost never do, and it has utility against the elements. Come look!"

So invited, I went up to the Artemis-statue hybrid, and started circling around her, knocking on the stone, feeling how it was like.

"Let me guess – the immobility is why you don’t use it all the time. Why didn’t you use it in the fight? You were immobile then." I asked after thinking about it for a while.

"High mana cost, and I’ll only use it if something’s actively coming after me. Rare to see something coming from that far away, and it’s generally faster for me to just shoot whatever’s a threat, instead of trying to get my shield up. It’s my least-favorite skill, but it has saved my life too many times for me to consider getting rid of it."

My mind flashed back to that scene all those years ago, when Artemis was telling me about her scars. How an Abelisaurus had broken through, and chomped down on her, and that she’d gotten the scars even with a defensive skill. This must be that defensive skill she’d been talking about! It also gave me a lot more respect for Bluebeard and Katastrofi – no wonder they were a one-man, one-dino murder machine, not if Katastrofi could casually bite through so much stone like that.

And that was a wild dinosaur chomping down on Artemis, not a tamed and trained one. Everyone being nervous around Bluebeard made more sense – it was Katastrofi they’d been nervous about. Well, and Bluebeard being kinda their boss as well showing up when they were doing some slacking.

I shook my head. Focus. This was about me, and my shield skill, not Bluebeard and Katastrofi. [Center of the Galaxy] did absolutely nothing for how distractable I was and my tendency to go off-course, sadly.

"What’s next?" I asked.

"We’re going to test your shield, and we’re going to test the elements one at a time. First, you need to practice you putting your shield up and taking it down, and seeing how much mana that takes, how quickly you can do it, and how precise it is. Shields up!" Artemis cried at the end, doing a long, dramatic wind-up like she was going to pitch a baseball at me.

Or one of her lethal rocks.

[Center of the Galaxy] already was pulling its weight, as instead of screaming, flinching, or cowering, I simply raised [Veil of the Aurora], an explosion of splendid lights snapping into shimmering brilliance all around me.

I wasn’t sure what else Artemis wanted to test, and I couldn’t tell. I figured I’d just keep [Veil] up for now.

A minute passed. Then a second. Still nothing. I shifted from one foot to another, wondering if I should drop the Aurora. Nothing was happening. Might as well.

I dropped [Aurora] only to see Artemis, surrounded by levitating rocks, her hand pointing right at me. I snapped [Aurora] back up, figuring this was more practice, or she was testing me, right as what Artemis said registered.

"Wai-!"

Hmmm. I cautiously dropped [Veil] to see a much-less threatening Artemis, exasperation written on her face. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and let it out explosively, trailing off at the end.

"I should’ve figured you’d have some unusual utility from a skill that evolved from [Privacy]. On one hand, it’s a better [Privacy]. On the other hand, I have no idea what’s going on inside your barrier while it’s up, and you clearly have no idea what’s going on over here either. Plus and minus. You could set up a nasty trick, move to an unusual position, or hide one of us who’ll set up a nasty trick ourselves. On the other hand, someone can do the exact same thing to you." Artemis said.

I thought about it. She pretty much hit the nail on the head with that.

"The skill is fundamentally an upgrade of [Privacy]." I started out agreeing. "The shield aspect seems to be secondary, so I’m not too surprised the ‘main’ part is so good. It seemed to have a fast rise time." I ventured on the last part. It had gone up immediately, and I couldn’t imagine something snapping up faster.

Artemis nodded agreement. "Advantage of Light, and as a result, Celestial, is it does show up immediately, and bonus, it probably takes almost nothing to snap up. Downside is, you probably need to absorb every blow. Here’s what we’ll do. Extend your shield as far as you can, and stay on the right side of it. Keep an eye on your mana. I’ll start hitting the left side of it, slowly at first, then harder and harder. Let’s see how fast your mana goes, what happens when your shield’s broken. After, we’ll see if you can move [Veil] while it’s up, how fast it can move, and if I can move it externally."

We tested. Slow hits. Fast hits. Sudden bursts, sustained damage.

Could I move? Run? Jump? Could I shoot from inside of it? How far could it go?

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Learning] has reached level 102!]

It turned out, my shield worked directly off my mana, and didn’t really care where something came from. No shooting from inside! Breaking felt like a shattering in my mind, as the Aurora Borealis just faded away.

Strangely, and we made a note to ask Maximus about it, I couldn’t move myself and the shield while I was inside it – but someone from the outside could lift me, shield and all, and move me, shield and all. It felt like being inside a snow globe when that happened, and I begged Artemis not to shake it with me inside.

Of course, she shook it.

However, the fact that I couldn’t move it, but people outside of the shield could, left both Artemis and I scratching our heads, trying to figure out why.

"Eh, maybe it’s because of the level." Artemis shrugged.

"Next up! Ground-stuff!" She announced

"Ground-stuff?" I asked, confused.

"Ground stuff." Artemis confirmed. "You have no idea how many Classers have holed up inside a shield of theirs, only for me to drive an earthen spike through them because their shield doesn’t cover the ground. Right. Shield up!"

With that vivid mental imagery in my mind, I snapped my shield up, covering me and an area of ground we’d designated the "testing area". Aka, Artemis would shoot for it, I wouldn’t be in the unoccupied shield-zone, and if she broke through my shield I wouldn’t turn into Elaine-paste. Especially since if my shield was broken, it meant I was out of mana, and couldn’t heal myself. Risky stuff. I’d burned myself down to no mana ages ago, which was fine from a "turn the shield on" perspective, but less fine from a "oh no Artemis just impaled me with her famous spike" view.

I stood there tapping my foot. Artemis had to have tried by now, right? With a noise like shattering glass in my mind, [Aurora] went down, and Artemis was there with her sword.

My barrier used my mana to stay up and block blows, and I’d been running on fumes for a while. My regeneration rate was high enough compared to the initial cost of setting it up – practically nothing – that I could comfortably keep putting it up for experiments, but Artemis was showing a slightly more practical side by breaking my barrier when needed with a weapon, instead of mana.

That, or my regen rate was rivaling, or even higher than, hers. I didn’t ask, but with my focus on control and regeneration, and her focus on mana and power, I might be there. A scary thought.

"10 outta 10 healy bug." Artemis said. "I got no purchase on the ground below you. Seems your shield is properly isolating you, even if it doesn’t look like it. If I can’t get purchase on the ground, hostile skills can’t get in without breaking it first. No surprise butt-spike for you!" She grinned at the last part, and I could feel parts of myself puckering up at the thought.

"Last thing to try for tonight. Let’s see if you can throw up a partial barrier."

"Partial barrier?"

"Yeah, not a full shield. You have almost no cost to a shield, but with the downside of not being able to see or move, it might be worth seeing if you can throw up part of a barrier. Heck, see if you can throw up multiple partial barriers. Some in a row, some connected to each other, let’s see what we’re working with."

More testing, this time of my fine control. I focused, and got a partial barrier up, but it felt, for lack of a better term, "wobbly." With practice, it’d become easier to make strange shapes, and keep them up. I tried to add a second [Veil], nothing. I tried making a second segment of the shield, nothing. I tried to "stretch" and expand my current [Aurora], and got it to expand a bit. From the level of concentration and focus needed to do that though, it’d be easier to just drop the shield and re-imagine it.

I could make my shield in most shapes inside of a roughly 7 meter radius around me. I couldn’t wrap a space that didn’t include me though, and if I wanted to more than "half-wrap" something, I needed to be included.

A shield, not a prison. Protection, not procurement.

Lastly, if I snapped a partial shield up, then walked away, leaving it from my range, it’d fade away once I was too far away. My range seemed to be roughly 7 meters for now.

We ended the session on that note, the sun having set ages ago. I hadn’t noticed – [Eyes of the Milky Way] seamlessly converting what I saw to day time light levels. I told Artemis about that.

"That’s useful, but I’m not convinced it’s worth a full skill. Night vision for a healer that can conjure up not only a light show, but fire? I’d consider ditching the skill later down the road."

I pouted at that – I thought the skill was badass – but I couldn’t deny that Artemis was right. I had a ton of ways to light things up anyways, night-vision was almost useless. That made me realize though.

"Hey Artemis, how can you see in the dark?" I asked. She snorted at me.

"Dark? What dark? You’re a giant, walking display of lights, saying ‘Shoot me! Shoot me!’ from miles away. Good if you get pinned down and need help – we’d be able to see you from a distance. Bad if you’re trying to hide."

She cocked her head, thinking. I beat her to the punch. "Let me see if I can change the brightness when I set up [Veil] – and if I can change how bright it is once it’s up. Might be a poor way to signal someone."

Artemis made an agreeing noise. "Also, if you’re pinned down under your shield, you could flash it for help."

I focused on the brightness of the lights as I launched [Veil]. Launching it was getting easier and easier as I practiced it more, and with some focus, I got a slightly brighter barrier up. Not terribly brighter, but a small, noticeable amount.

I tried to pulse it, feeling that same "lever" in my skill, but nothing happened while it was up. Dropped the shield, repeated the process, but dimmer. Same thing. I could make it a bit dimmer, but I was still a blazing beacon, a light of hope, a one-girl disco show.

"Right, we’re dropping the idea of having you call for help, or for being less-than-subtle. We should ask Maximus though, see if he has any ideas."

"Good job healy-bug. Let’s call it a night. Tomorrow – fire time!" Artemis practically bounced with glee back to town.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Veil of the Aurora] has reached level 65!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Learning] has reached level 103!]

We got to the town gates, only for me to realize that they’d closed hours ago. Artemis looked nonplussed.

"Over or under?" She asked me.

"Uuuuh…" I said, looked around in confusion.

"You’re right, over’s a much better idea. Shh! Be quiet!" Saying that, she grabbed my hand, and suddenly the walls were falling.

No, the walls weren’t falling – we were being lifted up on a rocky platform! Up, up, over the walls, and then we landed on top of them, sweat pouring off of Artemis’s face.

"I thought you were out of mana!" I hissed at her.

"I was out of fun mana. That was my reserve!" She hissed back. "Why do you think I landed us on top of the wall instead of on the ground?"

We tensed up as we heard a patrol of guards, torches shining, start to approach.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 14]

[Mana: 2500/2500]

[Mana Regen: 5069]

Stats

[Free Stats: 0]

[Strength: 19]

[Dexterity: 23]

[Vitality: 41]

[Speed: 32]

[Mana: 250]

[Mana Regeneration: 700]

[Magic Power: 250]

[Magic Control: 775]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 128]]

[Celestial Affinity: 128]

[Warmth of the Sun: 105]

[Medicine: 111]

[Center of the Galaxy: 101]

[Phases of the Moon: 68]

[Eyes of the Milky Way: 88]

[Veil of the Aurora: 65]

[Vastness of the Stars: 70]

[Class 2: [Firebug - Fire: Lv 8]]

[Fire Affinity: 2]

[Fire Resistance: 2]

[Fire Conjuration: 2]

[Fire Manipulation: 2]

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[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 71]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 72]

[Pretty: 97]

[Vigilant: 104]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 105]

[Ranger's Lore: 1]

[Running: 70]

[Learning: 103]

Chapter 53 – Dodging the Guard

I tensed up as I heard them coming, then relaxed, remembering that we were Rangers, and could probably just flash our badges to get out of trouble. I could see them perfectly well, although they couldn’t see me all that well on top of this roughly 20-foot (~7 meter) tall wall. Artemis had a crazed grin on her face.

I knew that look. That was the look she had right before she blew up a pillar as a ‘demonstration’. That was the look she had right before she’d ask me to do some crazy exercise. That was the ‘run now and don’t look back’ look.

There was nowhere to run to. I was in for it now.

In a surprisingly serious tone of voice, Artemis said. "Ranger Elaine. You are trapped on a wall with hostiles closing in. Your Ranger badge is useless. You’re escorting a VIP with no relevant skills, and bad physical stats. Your goal: Get yourself and the VIP to base safely, before dawn. Ready, set, go!"

Crap, an escort mission. Never really played that many games, but everyone moaned about them. I gave Artemis the side-eye. Fine. I had to get us out of here? I’d get us out of here. I grabbed Artemis’s hand, and was delighted in watching her eyes go from mischievous to terrified as I pulled and whisper-yelled, so nobody would hear us.

"Jump!"

The wall was high, but the fall wouldn’t be lethal. Not with an Artemis cushion, and worst-case, I could heal us back up eventually. We stepped off the edge of the wall, suddenly plunging towards the street below. When we were nearly at the bottom, I threw up [Veil of the Aurora], and prepared for a bad time.

No idea why I couldn’t move [Veil], but it’d fall with me. Magic made no sense. We hit the ground, and I felt [Veil] shatter on impact, all 1433 mana I’d regenerated so far being consumed in an instant. I heard a sharp crack from Artemis’s ankle, and she went down hard.

"Fuck, Artemis, are you ok?" I asked, bending down next to her. She hissed in pain, and through gritted teeth, reprimanded me.

"What part about safely did you miss!?" She complained. I smiled cheekily.

"Well, for one, I’m a Healer, so as long as I heal you up between here and there, you’ve arrived safely. Nothing was mentioned about staying safe the entire time. Two, you forgot your pillow. I gave it to you so this wouldn’t happen, hmmm?"

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Ranger Lore] has reached level 2!]

Artemis just groaned as I pulled on her arm. "Come on, up. Let’s get going. Let’s see if we can ask some guards for help." Artemis wrapped an arm around me, and limped alongside with me.

"I said you couldn’t use your badge Elaine." She reminded me.

"I know." I said cheekily. "Who said I was going to use my badge? You’ve taken a nasty accident," Artemis glared daggers at me for that. "And I’m helping you to a healer. Remember, I grew up around guards. I know how they tick." We took a few more limping steps, at which point I hit Artemis with [Vastness of the Stars].

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Vastness of the Stars] has reached level 71!]

I made a surprised noise at the notification, as the pixie-haired lightning mage let out a sigh of relief.

"I leveled." I said with surprise.

"Not surprised. That’s the point of these types of exercises. Puts you under high stress, high-stakes situations relatively safely. It’ll never be as good experience as actually doing it, but it’s solid. Ranger training is basically two years of situational training. By the way, in your plan, how do you convince the guard that you’re taking me to a healer, when you’re healer-tagged?" Artemis said. Interesting. Something vaguely resembling a school did exist, but only for Rangers. Maybe there were more out there, and Aquiliea was just too backwater to know?

"A girl, healer-tagged? Please. They’ll assume I’m an apprentice or something, and I’m taking you somewhere better." We limped along for another few moments.

"Artemis, help me out, as a mentor not as my training partner here for a moment. If we were actually doing this, should I stop for a moment to get enough mana to heal the VIP up, or should we keep moving, and I do the healing once I have enough mana? I’ve been thinking about it, can’t quite figure it out." I asked.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Ranger Lore] has reached level 3!]

Artemis grunted. "Good that you’re thinking about it. The answer is: It depends. Are pursuers right on your heels? Do you need to be moving? Is the injury causing that many problems? Work it out, think about it, then decide. Don’t half-ass things, it’ll mean you die, and worse- fail."

I thought about it for a moment, checked [Vigilant] – all quiet - then plonked Artemis down on the floor of the alley we were in, behind some crates.

"Right, I thought about it. Wait for enough mana to heal you."

Artemis glared at me from the ground, rubbing her butt. "Gentle! I’m a VIP, remember?"

I snorted. "More like a VAP."

"VAP?" Artemis asked, leaning against a crate to climb to her feet. I eyed her appreciatively. Her ankle didn’t hurt, but she knew enough to still keep weight off of it so she wouldn’t do more damage.

"Very Annoying Person." I said, sticking my tongue out at her. I checked my mana – I had regenerated a few hundred points, and I figured I could fix Artemis’s ankle at this point. Touching her and focusing, I used [Phases of the Moon], waiting for a notification.

… Any minute now….

Drat. No level. Artemis could tell what I was thinking, and rolled her eyes. "Decision time healy-bug. Do you want to do this the hard way, or the easy way? I wanted to see how you’d get off the wall – I thought I’d get you trapped - and you did that admirably. The rest is easy mode, especially with your plan of talking with the local guards. Honestly, I wouldn’t have thought of that – guards and I tend to get along like oil and fire. Your dad excluded."

I weighed my options. On one hand, it was fun sneaking around town, dodging guards, pretending I was smuggling a VIP into town. On the other, I’d gotten my fill dodging guards as a kid, and I wasn’t in the mood to do more of it, not after a class up and an intense session of skill training.

"Let’s head back. Today was exhausting, tomorrow’s going to be worse. I don’t have [Greater Invigorate] to help with a lack of sleep either."

Artemis looked at me in horror, seemingly just putting the pieces together. "Nooooo! My morning pick-me-up. Revert! Reveeeeeeert!" She grabbed my shoulders and "gently" shook me at that.

"Alright, let’s head back." It was almost that easy. We just walked back to where we were staying, making a fun little game of dodging guards, but not taking it too seriously.

"Why didn’t [Oath] stop you?" Artemis asked. "I’d imagine it wouldn’t let you shove someone off a wall."

Good question.

"I had a greater reason – the harm from being caught and captured, then injured. I may prevent greater harm, but it needs to be real."

"It wasn’t real though." Artemis pointed out. "It was just for fun."

I grinned at her.

"The real reason? I didn’t push you, you jumped on your own. I had a way to try and prevent harm – [Aurora] – for myself, and that was enough. I wouldn’t practice it though; I could tell it wasn’t thrilled. Not enough to lose a level, but if I did it, say, a half dozen times, knowing what I know now? Probably would get penalized – possibly even more harshly than just losing a level."

We arrived back at the wagon – we didn’t want to try to go into the barracks at this time of night, it’d just be awkward, and as I entered, I encountered a familiar, but strange, sensation.

Darkness.

[Eyes of the Milky Way] had kept everything nice and visible, but being in the wagon made everything dark again. I turned around to see what the outside looked like. Bright and moonlit.

It was bizarre. From how bright the outside looked, inside here it should be well-lit from spillover light. But it wasn’t, since the brightness was artificial, from a skill, not from sunlight. I closed my eyes and shook my head. This would take some getting used to. Might be harder to sleep without shelter as well, unless….

Yup, I could turn the skill off if needed. On, off. On, off. On. Perfect.

"Bit of feedback healy-bug," Artemis said with her mouth full, mangling and mauling the words. "Try to tilt your shield next time, see if you can slide down it instead of making it take the full brunt."

I tried to process what Artemis was saying, but my stomach rumbled, reminding me that I’d spent hours casting skills with no food, and that I’d skipped quite a few meals today, on account of classing up.

"Hey Artemis – " I started to ask before she cut me off.

I heard a gulping noise. "You’re a Ranger now. You don’t need to ask permission." She said, seemingly reading my mind.

With her permission, I grabbed some food, and chowed down, Artemis and I eating in companionable silence in the middle of the night, having the wagon all to ourselves.

We finished up, and I gave Artemis a big hug.

"Thanks. I appreciate everything." I said.

"Awww healy-bug. Anytime for you." She hugged me back, and we stayed like that for a few moments, a moment of peace, of calm, of philia, of ludus.

"Hey Artemis," I asked. "What do you want from life? Do you want to be a Ranger forever? Or is there something you’re working towards?"

"Woof. That’s a tough one. Why’d you ask?"

I stared up at the darkness of the wagon. "Well, now that I’m a Ranger, I wonder. I wonder what it’s like. I wonder why I don’t see old Rangers, or former Rangers. And I want to know more about you. What does Artemis want from life?"

There was a long silence, stretching out awkwardly. A minute passed. Then a second. I waited. It was a deeply personal question, and I could suppress the eternal fidgeting inside of me for this.

"I’m not quite sure." Artemis finally said. "I’ve just been going from one thing to the next, and landed here. Kinda like you."

"On Rangers getting old though – most of us don’t. We’ve already lost two Rangers this run, and we’d have lost Kallisto if it wasn’t for you. That’d have been our entire frontline down, and that’s the start of a Ranger team wipeout. A probable result would’ve been us needing to cut the entire route short, which would be a huge black mark for all of us."

"Has that happened before to you?"

"Yes. Don’t ask."

More silence.

"What do you want from life?" Artemis turned it back on me. I paused for a moment, thinking. What did I want from life?

"Freedom. Sovereignty. The ability to do what I want. But I still have a few more years to figure it out." I stuck my tongue out at Artemis, breaking the spell.

We chatted a bit more around bites of food – we were in town so we didn’t need to ration as much – before eventually going to bed. It was late, tomorrow was going to be busy.

I tucked myself in for a good night’s sleep, ready to ravage the refined rations remaining in Virinum tomorrow.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 14]

[Mana: 2500/2500]

[Mana Regen: 5069]

Stats

[Free Stats: 0]

[Strength: 19]

[Dexterity: 23]

[Vitality: 41]

[Speed: 32]

[Mana: 250]

[Mana Regeneration: 700]

[Magic Power: 250]

[Magic Control: 775]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 128]]

[Celestial Affinity: 128]

[Warmth of the Sun: 105]

[Medicine: 111]

[Center of the Galaxy: 101]

[Phases of the Moon: 68]

[Eyes of the Milky Way: 88]

[Veil of the Aurora: 65]

[Vastness of the Stars: 71]

[Class 2: [Firebug - Fire: Lv 8]]

[Fire Affinity: 2]

[Fire Resistance: 2]

[Fire Conjuration: 2]

[Fire Manipulation: 2]

[: ]

[: ]

[: ]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 71]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 72]

[Pretty: 97]

[Vigilant: 104]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 105]

[Ranger's Lore: 3]

[Running: 70]

[Learning: 103]

Chapter 54 – Shield skills with Maximus

I woke up the next morning to a mighty roar, a lion asserting it was king of the jungle, a dinosaur triumphantly claiming its territory.

My stomach declaring the morning plans, which was FOOD.

I sat up, immediately awake, only to find a bowl of food next to me. My money was on Artemis. I promptly chowed down, got up, only to realize: Now what?

I was supposed to be training my new skills, and today was fire. Fire. Heat and dancing flames. Eventual fireballs. Eventual flying. Couldn’t come fast enough.

I headed out of the wagon, and paused. More food, or training? Heaps of food, or training?

My stomach rumbled. A housecat, asserting dominance. A dog, letting someone know it was his territory. Fine. Food it was, and maybe I could bump into Artemis while I was out and about.

Or Maximus. He was pretty good with the skills thing. I skipped along to market, intending to raid the food vendors as hard as I could with my now-significant funds. I went, got a small mountain of food, then realized something on the way back to the wagon.

I had time off. Actual, real, time off. I’d been moving so fast, for so long, that time where I didn’t have an immediate direction, immediate things to do, felt so long ago. It must’ve been what? The summer solstice? When I last had free time like this? Let me think…

After the solstice was the never-ending cycle of work and chores, then Artemis had showed up in Aquiliea – I suppose eating dinner with her kinda counted as free time, but then again, we always needed to eat – then the whole mess with the fire, recovering, Kerberos, running away from home, camping, bandits, meeting up with the Rangers, and non-stop training.

Yeah. Free time.

What did I even do with my free time? I could play in the park, but it felt almost undignified. I could….

Hmmmm…..

Screw it, I could heal people. Have a little vendor stall, but instead of pitas, ham on cheese on bread (would it kill you to add an extra slice of bread to make a sandwich!?), have discount healing. There might be a Light healer here, there might not be, but either way I’d get healing to people who ordinarily couldn’t afford it.

Was it work? Was it play? Did it matter? It was making the world a tiny bit a better place, and it was already enough of a shit show that every little bit helped.

Operation "Elaine’s discount limb restoration" (I had to work on the name, that was the sketchiest thing I’d ever come up with) came to a screeching halt as I got back to the wagon (something else we needed a real name for), and found Maximus waiting for me. Another Ranger! Perfect!

"Hi Maximus!" I said, bounding over happily. Training time! Fire!

He cuffed me on the head, hard.

"Owe, fuck, what was that for?" I asked him, rubbing my head. It was less about the reaction to the pain – thank you [Center of the Galaxy] – and more about the actions behind it.

"Elaine. You’ve been told not to wander off on your own in towns. We move in pairs for a reason. You don’t have an emergency signal skill, and even if you did, you haven’t told anyone about it."

"But- "

"No buts. As. A. Team. Got it?"

"Yes Maximus..." I said, poutily looking down, kicking a rock. "What should I do if nobody’s around?" Afterall, I’d woken up, and there wasn’t anyone around. What else was I supposed to do but soothe the savage beasty called my stomach?

"You wait. This is our home away from home. Stick to it until someone comes by. For reference, I was just inside the barracks. If you’d waited more than a moment, you wouldn’t have been alone. Notice how I stayed here, waiting for you?" My roasting continued, as I held my head down.

"Ready to start working on your skills?" Maximus changed the topic.

"Yes!" I exclaimed loudly, shame from being scolded quickly burned away. "Let’s go!"

I wanted to sprint to the gates as fast as I could, but the scolding was fresh in my mind, even if the shame was gone. I carefully, carefully, walked with Maximus as we made our way through the gates, outside.

"Right, might as well catch me up on your shield. Tell me all about it." I told him everything we’d learned yesterday.

"What ratio of mana spent on a skill to mana spent dissipating the attack did you end up getting?" He asked at the end of it.

I stared at him blankly, no idea what he was talking about. He facepalmed.

"Of course. Artemis. She’s absolutely brilliant at attacking and finding weaknesses – I wouldn’t have thought to try launching attacks from inside the shield for example – but doesn’t go about things in a rigorous way. She wouldn’t think about checking mana consumption – she’s all about using all her mana immediately." He looked to the sky, arms wide, in a pose of "why me oh Lord. Why must you torment me so."

"Right. Let’s find out how much your shield can take, by the numbers. Shield up! I’m going to launch a skill that takes 10 mana, then 100 mana at your shield. Pay attention, and look at how much your mana drops each time."

I did exactly what he said, noticing a small blip of 8 mana, then 83 mana lost.

I dropped my shield, reporting what I’d found.

"Why don’t we try 1000 mana?" I asked. I got a withering look back.

"Not all of us are made out of mana. I don’t have a mana pool that large. Why do you think it takes me so long to reshape a weapon, and why I do it ahead of time? It’s all on my regeneration."

Whoops. Didn’t mean to show him up. Nobody likes being shown up, especially not by a kid less than half their age.

"Well, at least your physical stats are all really good!" I tried to cheer him up. I got an eye roll back.

"Elaine, my ego’s not that fragile." He crossed his arms, tapping his fingers thoughtfully.

"Ok, you have a solid shield, but you need almost as much mana to oppose a skill as it takes to use the skill. That’s pretty good with your mana pool and regeneration – you should be relatively safe from mages. Unless they burst down your shield using a large mana pool, like Artemis. Also, generally speaking, you can only oppose a skill up to the point of your magic power. Again, someone like Artemis with a higher Magic Power than you can blow your shield up, before getting through all of your mana. However, that’s bad when it comes to physical blows – you’ll burn through your pool in no time. Since your shield actively burns mana when it’s hit, not when it’s created, and it brings blows to a halt, we need to do two types of training with you and your shield."

I was paying rapt attention. I’d been playing with my shield, and I thought I’d come up with some good ideas – like using it to break a fall successfully. From Artemis’s and Maximus’s comments though, I’d just been scratching the surface of what was possible.

"How does [Oath] interplay with that?" I asked.

"No idea. It’s a self-made skill. What do you think?"

I looked over [Oath].

"I think, if I’m shielding someone else, protecting them like I’ve sworn to, that it’ll kick in. Otherwise, it’s just another skill."

Maximus pursed his lips. "Well, better than nothing I suppose. One last note – be careful of shield-destruction skills or buffs. They’re rare, but they do exist specifically to take out skills like yours. Then again, we should be protecting you from that sort of problem, as you protect us. Ah well. Let’s start."

"First off is reflex training. You have a snap-shield, and you’re incredibly fragile stat-wise. I’m going to throw things at you – most of us will, it won’t just be here, today, it’ll be something ongoing – and you need to snap your shield up to block it from hitting you. We’ll focus on speed first, finesse and size of the shield – the smaller the snap the better - second. It’s more important to stay safe than to get it perfect." I nodded along. Good practice if anyone shot arrows at me, and this Ranger business was all sorts of dangerous.

"The second practice is less fun." Maximus started by apologizing to me. That was ominous. Nobody apologized for giving me training. "It’s called ‘Take it or shield it’, and it’s something I made up here."

"Take it or shield it?" I asked as Maximus drew his sword.

"Yeah. Stating the obvious – you’re a healer. If I’m swinging a sword at you, but it’s going to be a shallow blow, it’ll be less mana for you to take the hit and heal it, than to shield it. For example, shield up, one blow." I threw my shield up without a moment of hesitation, almost missing the last part. I watched a huge blow hit my shield, draining 422 points of mana. I dropped my shield, looking at Maximus.

"Sorry." He said, lunging towards me, almost as fast as I could track, sword coming down on a narrow slice on my arm.

I jumped back, [Center of the Galaxy] shielding me from the burning cut along my arm, the pain of betrayal sharp like spilt blood.

"What the fuck!?" I shouted.

"Heal it. Check the mana." Maximus ordered. I did. 32 mana – it was a shallow cut, easy to stitch back together.

"How much did it take to shield the hit? How much did it take to heal the hit?"

"422. 32." I said, eyes widening as I realized what he meant, and what the implications were.

He nodded approval at my epiphany. "Exactly. Shield it, or take it? Blows that’ll be shallow, that’ll be superficial, you should probably take it. Deep thrusts should probably be shielded. Lethal blows, of course, should be shielded. You need to assume unknown blows are lethal, or incapacitating. Arrows are tricky – barbed will be a problem, poisoned will be a problem, but otherwise should be taken. Requires amazing reflexes to tell on the fly, and you quite simply don’t have them…… Yet."

That was the scariest yet I’d heard in my entire life.

"I should also dodge them, especially if I have reflexes like you’re talking about." I pointed out; glad I could add another piece of the "keep Elaine alive" puzzle going. I cast a brief, regretful thought to skipping out on that [Dodging] skill all those years ago. Maximus made an agreeing noise. "And not be in a fight in the first place!" I added in.

Maximus threw a pebble at me, hard, fast. I tried to dodge it, but it hit. Point made, point made.

"Right. Let’s practice shields first, then we can move onto ‘shield or hit’." He said, his point being made. I didn’t have nearly the stats to be dodging blows right now.

"Also, turn off [Center of the Galaxy] while we do this. The pain will be good for learning."

Fuck.

We practiced. I wish training montages were a thing. No. I had to take every blow, feel every unblocked rock hit me. They stung especially hard, knowing they didn’t need to hurt at all.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Veil of the Aurora] has reached level 66!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Learning] has reached level 104!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Ranger Lore] has reached level 4!]

I got some solid notifications and levels out of practicing to snap shields up. [Ranger Lore] was a bit of a surprise, but I guess I was low-level in it, which made it easy to level, and training with a Ranger was Ranger-ish enough for a level.

That was my logic anyways. After a few hours of shield-snapping practice, Maximus called a halt.

"Good work. This will continue, but you’re getting better and better with it. Constant vigilance. It’ll keep you alive."

I giggled, imagining Maximus with a crazy eye. Maybe with some careful editing….

I had [Vigilant]! Maybe it could tell me when something was coming.

Feel an itch, snap shields. Feel an itch, snap shields.

Unless I was in town. There was a constant low-level pinging and itching when in town, usually due to various street urchins eyeing up my purse. It made it nearly useless in towns, and…

Holy shit. That’s why Artemis spent so much time in the baths or with the guards. Her reflex wasn’t a shield – it was lightning and rocks in the general direction of the problem. There had been incidents, and she was trying to minimize them without dulling her reflexes.

I groaned. Would this be my life now?

"Let’s move to shield or hit." Maximus continued on, oblivious to my revelations. I made a small whining noise. "But my tunic…" It was still my only good tunic, and the thought of losing it after only a few days hurt me, hurt [Pretty]. Fortunately, normal skills didn’t lose levels like [Oath] could.

"But my tunic nothing. Elaine, are you a Ranger or a kid?"

I fired up at that. "Ranger!" I said, loudly, proudly.

"Then act like one! We go through dozens of tunics! There will be new ones! Now start!" With that, he whipped some long, flexible weapon towards me, something like a sharp blade on the end of a rope.

The weapon was a bitch. It was medium-range, and it could stab, slash, and move and attack from various inventive angles, as flexible as its user. I’d see it coming one way, and it’d twist in mid-air to strike at a different angle.

‘Shield or hit’ was much worse, and my poor tunic was in bloody shreds by the time we were done. [Center of the Galaxy] was on for this, since it’d help me practice getting hit in a fight and immediately healing – and partially practicing "did this even need healing."

Maximus had brought a handful of blood-restoration potions, which I reluctantly held my nose and drank.

Hang on, could [Vastness of the Stars] help with foul tasting potions? A quick experiment said yes, [Vastness] could help with terrible-tasting medicine. I don’t think I’d ever level from using it this way, but it was creative. I half-expected [Learning] to level up from that.

[Oath] was happy. I hadn’t cut myself, I hadn’t asked to be mauled to heal myself, and so I could happily practice healing under stressful conditions well. I suspected that if I asked to do this, for that purpose, [Oath] might be a little less happy. It was a stupidly complex skill, with shades and nuances I still was unsure about.

I panted as I fixed another cut, throwing up a partial shield to handle another incoming blow. Maximus’s control was perfect – he could make something look like a lethal blow, and if I screwed up or misjudged it, he had the ability to pull it short, turn what would be a massive injury into something less lethal. He still gave me shit over it, but it was reasonable.

All of the training paid off with a bunch of levels.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Veil of the Aurora] has reached level 67!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Learning] has reached level 105!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Ranger Lore] has reached level 5!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 69!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Center of the Galaxy] has reached level 102!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Medicine] has reached level 112!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Warmth of the Sun] has reached level 106!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 70!]

"Good work Elaine. Your ability to work hard at this is fantastic. Let’s take a break, and then work on your Fire skills."

I collapsed on the ground, exhausted. This had taken a ton out of me, and the only thing preserving some modesty with my shredded tunic was the huge amounts of blood coating me. Getting back to town would be interesting to say the least.

Maximus broke out some food, and I happily chowed down. I needed more food. So much more. My morning raid had been paltry, and casting skills as fast as I could, burning mana at the rate I’d been using it at, would mean I’d need even more food.

Still, nothing could extinguish the burning flame inside of me, the passion I had for what was to come next.

Fire.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 14]

[Mana: 2500/2500]

[Mana Regen: 5069]

Stats

[Free Stats: 0]

[Strength: 19]

[Dexterity: 23]

[Vitality: 41]

[Speed: 32]

[Mana: 250]

[Mana Regeneration: 700]

[Magic Power: 250]

[Magic Control: 775]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 128]]

[Celestial Affinity: 128]

[Warmth of the Sun: 105]

[Medicine: 111]

[Center of the Galaxy: 101]

[Phases of the Moon: 70]

[Eyes of the Milky Way: 88]

[Veil of the Aurora: 66]

[Vastness of the Stars: 71]

[Class 2: [Firebug - Fire: Lv 8]]

[Fire Affinity: 2]

[Fire Resistance: 2]

[Fire Conjuration: 2]

[Fire Manipulation: 2]

[: ]

[: ]

[: ]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 71]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 72]

[Pretty: 97]

[Vigilant: 104]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 105]

[Ranger's Lore: 5]

[Running: 70]

[Learning: 105]

Chapter 55 – Fire Training

"Let’s work on your new Fire skills now. From the sound of it, you got classic mage skills, right?" Maximus asked, pacing back and forth in the wooded clearing.

"Right. Along with [Fire Resistance]."

"Ok, first lesson on being a Fire mage: Don’t."

I tilted my head quizzically at that. Maximus grimaced.

"I wish I had Artemis here to demonstrate. Either way, a pure, stand-alone Fire mage isn’t particularly strong or powerful. It’s not the weakest type of mage – Light probably wins that, although you don’t really get Light mages, just healers – but it’s near the bottom."

"Why’s that?" I asked, playing along, prodding Maximus to continue his lecture.

"It’s a lack of stopping power. Yeah, fire’s scary. You hit someone low-level, you hit a non-combatant, you hit someone who spooks, and they’ll flinch, or run. Bonus points there. You hit someone scary? They’ll plow right through the flames to get to you, since the easiest way of dealing with a Fire mage is to kill her. Fire burns, but it takes some time to kill someone, to finish them off. Compared to say, an Earth mage, where a stone through the head is the end."

"Hence, lesson one: Don’t become a Fire mage." Maximus continued.

"Fire is fantastic when combined with all sorts of other elements. Fire and Wood – flaming projectiles. Fire and Metal – Superheated projectiles, possibly molten projectiles. Fire and Earth – trap someone in an area with limited air, then burn the air out, suffocating them. Fought a Classer once that used Fire and Ooze – would create a sticky substance that burned incredibly hot. Stuck to people as well, no way of getting it off, just burning." Maximus shuddered at the memory. "Lost two Rangers putting him down. The point is, Fire alone is weak. Fire combines well with all sorts of elements, as long as you’re smart about it."

"How would it combine with my Celestial Healing class?" I asked.

"Poorly." Maximus didn’t believe in sparing my feelings at all. "If you were after mass destruction, I’d say, for example, you could start a massive fire inside of the forest, then snap your shield up around you. You keep your air in, your mana regeneration rate is high enough that the fire probably couldn’t burn you out, and everyone nearby burns and chokes to death while you’re safe."

"The problem with that," I started, as Maximus finished.

"Is your [Oath]. Yeah, hence Fire being, frankly, a terrible choice for you. Limited utility – sure, making a campfire and keeping us warm is nice, but it won’t do well in a fight – and limited potential in a fight unless you’re quite a few levels higher than whoever or whatever you’re fighting. You also don’t have a second class open to give utility to your Fire class – it is your utility."

He paused, thinking.

"Everyone has a guide when they’re classing up. Didn’t yours give you any warning at all?"

I looked down and muttered quietly.

"What’s that?" He asked, cupping a hand around his ear.

"I said, I just wanted to have fireballs and to fly! She picked the class on that potential future!"

Maximus facepalmed.

"Elaine, you’re brilliant, and sometimes oh-so-dumb. I sometimes forget that you’re a kid. Gods. Ask for utility next time, instead of guessing at it. You’d get something better."

"As we mentioned, Fire has a lack of stopping power, and doesn’t quite have the direct damage like Metal or Earth. However, a benefit of a mage, and the Manipulation and Conjuration skills, is you’re only limited by your imagination. For example, while you can’t light someone who has high vitality on fire directly, you can light their clothes on fire. You can conjure flames in front of their face, preventing sight and vision. You can try to get flames into an open mouth or nose - incredibly distracting, no matter how powerful you are, or how weak the flames are. Incredibly high heat - once you get enough levels, power, and control - can disintigrate monsters, but at a much, much higher cost than other elements to do similar amounts of damage."

"That's kinda the point I'm making. You can do a bunch of things with Fire, but some of them will cost a lot more than other elements to get the same result. On the other hand, some things are easier for you than other elements. You don’t need to constantly focus on your flames – conjure them to start, and let them burn. They’ll turn into ‘real’ flames soon enough, fueling themselves. In that respect, Fire goes a lot further than say, Water or Earth. Be creative. Be imaginative. And now, let’s begin our practical lessons."

Maximus gave me a quick rundown, which basically consisted of practicing making flames, then going through various exercises, making them dance and do different things, and a half-dozen other control exercises.

I focused on the stick, a bundle of dry twigs at the end. Fire. Flames. [Fire Conjuration]. With mana, effort, and focus, the tip burst into flames.

Now, I needed to stop conjuring the flames, and let it burn ‘naturally’. I watched it, meditating, observing, seeing how the flames consumed, the embers burned. I reached out with [Fire Manipulation], feeling myself "connect" with the flames, trying to make them dance to my will.

A pebble came whizzing out of nowhere, hitting my shoulder with a sharp crack.

"Owe, what the hell Maximus?" I asked, healing my shoulder with [Phases]. No need to rub an injury when you could make it go away.

He snorted at me, looking down at me where I was sitting.

"Constant. Constant. Vigilance. That means when you’re meditating. That means when you’re relaxing. That means when you’re playing with fire, and healing. We’re not losing you to a stray arrow, or a random opportunistic ambush. Not when we can prevent it."

That made me think. "How do you deal with attacks?" I asked. I got a frown back.

"I don’t. If I’m lucky, I’ll see it in time to dodge, otherwise, I need to eat the attack. I have the stats to survive it. If I’m lucky. You don’t. We’ve been lucky so far fighting dumb monsters, but the moment we’re against Classers? Elaine, I’m not sure if you’re aware, but you’re the main target. In a fight against someone with intelligence, they’re going to try and kill you first, and you have no way of surviving. You’re Healer-tagged. As a –" instead of finishing his sentence, he threw another rock at me. This one I threw my shield up in time to block.

I tried to glare at him, but my heart wasn’t in it. I hadn’t quite realized yet that there was a giant "kill me" sign on my back, but reflecting on it, yeah, made sense. It wasn’t like Kallisto had a skill to force people to attack him or anything – it was all a decision by the person or monster doing the attacking. Maximus’s words doubled my resolve to strengthen myself. To not be a burden. To save those I could.

I went back to working on manipulating flames, to make them dance to my will.

I wonder if I could make a dress out of flames?

It was hard, like I was reaching through thick sludge, manipulating fine tools with heavy rubber gloves.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Manipulation] has reached level 3!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Affinity] has reached level 3!]

At the low level I was at, I both gained levels easily – much more so with [Learning] being such a high level – and felt the effects of the level up much more profoundly. Suddenly, it wasn’t thick sludge, it was more like a hearty soup. The rubber gloves shed a few pounds, and movements that were previously impossible were now doable. I eyed my mana. 2500/2500. I was using less mana than my regeneration rate.

My stick burnt out, and I figured I’d try pushing [Conjuration] to the limits. I aimed up, and threw out as much fire as I could.

A small jet of flames left my finger, going a few inches then sputtering out. It was a steady stream, and I could hear the roaring of flames.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Conjuration] has reached level 3!]

As I got the notification, the flames roared higher, wider, thicker. Yessss. Fire.

Then some pieces of the puzzle clicked. I’d need to conjure a lot of flames. Which would take a lot of time. A lot of mana. And a lot of food. Leveling up skills like this, grinding like this, never sounded so unappealing.

But Fire.

And fireballs.

It would all be worth it. I just needed to keep my eye on the prize.

A few hours of grinding later, and Maximus called it quits.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Manipulation] has reached level 19!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Conjuration] has reached level 19!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Resistance] has reached level 14!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Affinity] has reached level 19!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Firebug] has leveled up to level 9! +2 Free Stat, +2 Mana, +1 Mana Regen, +3 Magic power, +1 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Strength from your Element!]

….

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Firebug] has leveled up to level 19! +2 Free Stat, +2 Mana, +1 Mana Regen, +3 Magic power, +1 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Strength from your Element!]

"I’m impressed," The too-plain man said. "that you were able to go for so long. I expected you to tire out ages ago."

"What exactly would tire me out?" I asked.

"Well, your… right, your mana regeneration." Maximus facepalmed. "Easy enough to remember when talking about your 128 class. Easy to forget when teaching someone at level 8. I should know better."

His tone turned apologetic. "Sorry about that. Let me treat you to a meal."

Yessss. Free food. The best.

We headed back to town, and I had more questions as my stomach rumbled.

"What should I do about my free stats? I know Artemis wants me to immediately put them into my physical stats."

Maximus hummed thoughtfully. "You’re in a safe spot right now. Let’s just leave them there – I’ll let Artemis walk you through distributing them. I’m not getting between her and her project."

I kicked his shin at being called a ‘project’. My stomach roared, reminding me of my current predicament.

"How do mages normally pay for food? Like, Artemis meditates a ton, and I haven’t really hit this situation before where I’m burning so much mana, although I imagine healers get paid enough to cover their costs." I asked, tagging along in my ruined tunic. We’d get sooo many looks for this.

Maximus glanced down at me. "Julius didn’t cover this with you?" I shook my head. He turned his head up, looking at the gates. "We pay for your reasonable food expenses, especially when training as hard as you’re going to be. Remind me, when we’re stocking up for our next leg to bring extra for you."

I felt my heart grow two sizes at the care everyone was showing me.

"Do you know why I didn’t get a skill at level 10?" I’d been looking forward to my first magic skill.

Maximus shrugged. "In theory, no. We’re not sure why you didn’t get a skill. In practice, people that get a bunch of skills when they hit a class – like most mages – don’t get offered a skill for a while, or only get offered skills rarely."

I wanted to ask more, but we arrived at the gates, drawing all sorts of looks.

"Next." The bored guard called out, as we stepped forward.

"Hi, we’re the-" Our jack-of-all-trades started, only to be interrupted by the guard.

"Hold on. Off to the side." He said, pulling Maximus off to the side. Vigilant itched as a second guard grabbed my shoulders and steered me away.

"Hang on, we shouldn’t be separated!" I said as I was hustled off.

Maximus wasn’t kicking up a fuss, and it was the local guard. I liked the local guard, and my appearance, was, well, concerning would be putting it mildly. Kinda made sense that they’d whisk us away for some extra questions.

I ended up in what I could only call an interrogation room, when a senior-looking guard walked in. Senior-looking by his walk, and by how everyone else was deferring to him.

"Are you ok?" He started off by asking.

"Yup! I’m fine!" I said perkily.

He eyed me doubtfully, looking me up and down.

"You do realize –" He started. I felt comfortable interrupting.

"That you need to know what’s up with all of this?"

He nodded stiffly, clearly many years away from the last time someone flippantly interrupted him. Ah well, he’d live. More importantly, I’d live.

"Training with Maximus. We’re both Rangers." Saying that, I took my badge out from my pouch, where I’d been keeping it safe. My pouch was blood-stained at this point, a dark reddish-brown. I eyed it. It was still solid for now, although I’d have to check if bloodstained pouches attracted monsters in the wilderness.

So many things to check!

The guard looked me up and down again, eyebrows near his hairline.

"You’ll forgive me for wanting to check. There’s a Ranger squad in town right now, if you want to change your story, miss….?"

"Elaine. Yeah. See if you can get Julius. He’s the boss."

"Miss Elaine. You do realize the penalty for impersonating a Ranger is a 5,000 rod fee, which generally means a lifetime of slavery, right?"

"No, I didn’t, but good to know."

The guard hit the table in front of me with a fist.

"Stop lying! How is a girl like you a Ranger!? How can you claim to be a Ranger, but not even know the basics! I’m trying to help you out here, but I can’t if you keep digging yourself in a hole! Bluffing won’t work." He yelled, clearly frustrated at me.

Ah. Hmmmm. Yes. Looking at it from that point of view, I did look like Sketchy McSketchface. Well, honesty’s the best policy, and let me try.

"I got field promoted after the fight the other day. I was the short one next to the flashy mage on the wagon, that ran out when the one near the monster got hit. I’m the team’s healer. I got a new skill out of the fight, a shield skill, and we were practicing it. Part of the practice was taking shallow hits, and healing them, instead of blocking. Hence all the mess." I said, gesturing down at, well, the massive mess.

"I get that it looks sketchy, so I’m happily going along with you for now. But stop trying to do me favors, and get a way to verify who I am. Maximus – the dude with me – should also be verifying."

The badge was still on the table between us, as the guard narrowed his eyes at me.

"Fine. But I’m going to confiscate this first." He said, reaching for the badge.

I half-expected him to do something like that, and the warning ahead of time was enough notice. He was faster than me, stronger than me, but not as fast as a skill, as I snapped up a [Veil of the Aurora] between his hand and the badge, a small wedge of shield, giving me enough time to swipe it back as his hand bounced off of the skill.

"No." I said, looking at him challengingly. Julius had told me to never, ever lose it, and I wasn’t going to cause more problems, not after I’d already been yelled at by Maximus over not splitting up.

I wonder if I was going to get yelled at more for this? Ug. That’d be the worst.

The senior guardsman stood up, drawing himself up to his full height. It looked like things were going to escalate even further, when another guard entered the room. He read the room, then crept over to the guard and whispered something in his ear. I kinda wanted a hearing skill instead of a vision skill right now.

It was like watching a balloon deflate, as the senior guardsman went from "large and intimidating" to "deferential."

"Ranger Elaine. I apologize. You’re free to go. Have a nice day. Just… try to get on some new clothes, and maybe a bath?"

I briefly considered making them pay for a bath for me, but decided that’d be pushing my luck too far.

"Oh, you better believe a bath’s my next stop! Then a tunic store. This was my last one. I should start buying them in bulk!" I paused, thinking for a moment. What would Kallisto say?

"I totally understand where you were coming from though, it does look bad. I appreciate everything you do to keep the town safe."

"Thank you for your understanding Ranger Elaine. Could we, er, offer you a bucket of water and a spare tunic…?"

I thought about it for a moment. It’d be nice to be half-clean again, and the guards probably didn’t want me starting a small riot by walking around like something out of a horror movie.

"Yes please, that’d be wonderful."

Some scurrying about later, and I was cleaner, in a too-large tunic.

"Sorry, it’s the smallest we have, it’s just you’re…"

"Short?" I said, finishing the random guard’s sentence.

"Yeah."

I finished up, meeting Maximus at the exit to the guardhouse where we’d been whisked away to.

"Alright, you’re all set. Let’s head back." He said, pointing his thumb over his shoulder roughly in the direction of the marketplace.

My stomach rumbled, reminding me that it’d been horribly abused, and wanted food now. Off to the market!

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 14]

[Mana: 2720/2720]

[Mana Regen: 5170]

Stats

[Free Stats: 33]

[Strength: 30]

[Dexterity: 21]

[Vitality: 41]

[Speed: 32]

[Mana: 272]

[Mana Regeneration: 711]

[Magic Power: 282]

[Magic Control: 782]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 128]]

[Celestial Affinity: 128]

[Warmth of the Sun: 105]

[Medicine: 111]

[Center of the Galaxy: 101]

[Phases of the Moon: 70]

[Eyes of the Milky Way: 88]

[Veil of the Aurora: 66]

[Vastness of the Stars: 71]

[Class 2: [Firebug - Fire: Lv 19]]

[Fire Affinity: 19]

[Fire Resistance: 14]

[Fire Conjuration: 19]

[Fire Manipulation: 19]

[: ]

[: ]

[: ]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 71]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 72]

[Pretty: 97]

[Vigilant: 104]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 105]

[Ranger's Lore: 6]

[Running: 70]

[Learning: 105]

Chapter 56 – Adventures in Virinum I

Maximus and I raided the market, him treating me. I mostly think it was because he was feeling bad about forgetting how long I could go, and he knew how to get Julius to pay him out of the team’s funds more easily than I did, but either way, I wasn’t going to complain about someone else buying the food, and handing it to me.

"Alright Elaine, that’s probably enough." Maximus said, eyeing me as I scarfed down yet another fish-on-a-stick monstrosity.

"Bumph a wanmph mooar" I said with a mouthful of food. I got an evil eye from Maximus in return.

Swallowing, I tried again.

"But I wanna eat more." I said, with 95% less food sprayed.

He looked at me amused.

"Yeah, but we should head back for now."

I glanced up at the sky. Mid-afternoon by the sun’s position. I guess it wasn’t really food time.

"Fine, fine, let’s go." I said, heading back to the wagon with Maximus.

"You know," I said, nimbly dodging yet another obstacle in the road. "we should name the wagon. Calling it ‘the wagon’ all the time is a pain."

"Go nuts. What do you want to call it?" Maximus asked.

"The Argo!" I said, having thought of this ahead of time.

"Sure. It’s now the Argo. Don’t get too attached to things though, they’ll often get blown up in our line of work. Spears can be fixed and replaced, people can’t."

We made our way back to Argo, where Julius and Kallisto were setting up a tall banner, with the Ranger’s Eagle in full flight, gold on red. I looked at Maximus and cocked my head, silently asking.

"We set the banner up to let people know ‘hey, Rangers are here! Come talk to us if there’s a problem.’ We didn’t do it earlier because we were fighting the monster, then needed a break, and we don’t bother in villages because everyone already knows we’re there. Now that we’re in town, someone will be on-shift to chat with people as needed." Maximus happily educated me

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Ranger’s Lore] has reached level 7!]

"Great, you two are back. Anything interesting?" Julius asked.

"Semi. Elaine’s got the basics down on snap-shielding and basic control over her flames and fire. Too low level to be of any use, but her stamina and ability to constantly output them is impressive – should level up fast. Oh, and we’re throwing things at her now to hone her reflexes."

Three pairs of eyes turned and looked at me, the way a dog looks at a rabbit – playfully predatory.

I wasn’t going to wait around. I snapped my shield up, noticing three dents in my mana almost immediately.

I dropped my shield, and started to gloat.

"Ha! I’ve been practicing! I am invici-" I was cut off as Julius tossed a second pebble at me, too fast for me to notice or block. It hit my shoulder with a sickening crack, and I stumbled and fell.

"Still a rookie." Julius half-smiled, half-smirked at me. "Not bad for just getting your skill – you’re able to somewhat anticipate attacks, and that’s half of it. Don’t think you’re safe though – don’t ever think you’re safe."

I healed my shoulder, feeling something go pop in there as things wriggled disconcertingly back into place.

"Why so hard?" I complained.

"Because you’re a healer. You can take it, so we don’t need to hold back nearly as hard in fights and in training. Get used to it. You’ll improve faster, and we need you improved from where you currently are." Julius said.

"On that note, Kallisto, Elaine, you two are on reception duty for the rest of today. You’re both free tomorrow – Artemis will be taking over."

"She’ll hate that." Kallisto said.

"She’ll live." Julius shot back. "Elaine, I’m delegating telling Artemis to you. She’ll take it better from you." He paused a moment, thinking. "Don’t let her talk you into swapping, or joining her, or anything. Tomorrow you and Kallisto are off and paired up."

I saluted Julius, letting him know I’d gotten it and understood.

Julius and Maximus vanished together, off to do gods knows what. I popped into the Argo to grab a snack, while Kallisto rustled up a table and some chairs from the Guard.

We sat down together, waiting for the first person to show up, as I chowed down happily, dried meat in one hand, hunk of cheese in another. Kallisto eyed me.

"Busy morning?"

"Crazy." I responded as a piece of cheese went down the hatch, before I took another bite of the mystery meat. I didn’t want to know, I didn’t want to know, I repeated the mantra in my head. "Maximus had me practicing all sorts of shield stuff, then we did a ton of fire practice. On top of yesterday’s shield practice with Artemis, I’m ravenous. I could eat a whole cow."

I thought about an entire cow for a few moments there, how big they were, and amended myself.

"A whole sheep. Maybe not a cow. Well-cooked, fresh, tender ribs…. Mmmmm….." I closed my eyes, fantasizing about all the tasty food I could eat.

"Hey Kallisto, I have some questions for you." I asked, bored as we waited.

"Shoot."

"Do mages get fat? If I don’t get enough to eat, will I end up short?" I asked.

Kallisto shrugged.

"I see Artemis eat tons of food, and she’s exceedingly fit and in-shape. No idea about other mages. No idea on the short thing. Why would not eating enough result in you staying short?" He asked.

I facepalmed. Basic nutrition – what little I had left – was still too advanced for here. Whatever. I could almost see Papilion’s point when he shredded my knowledge of Earth. If what I had left was ground-breaking, what on Pallos would what I lost do?

We chatted casually about various things, Kallisto being a surprising font of knowledge on dealing with people, and how to be sneaky in towns. I looked at him sideways.

"I’m sure you put that knowledge to good use." I said sarcastically, imagining the mischief he must get into.

"I do Elaine. I’m not a peeper. There’s no need for me to be one." He said, flipping his hair heroically.

Damnit, he was probably right. He’d just ask nicely and get to see everything he wanted to.

I was brought out of my musing by someone walking up to us, a twitchy, nervous-looking man with teeth stained purple.

"Hi, are you two the Rangers?" He asked, looking up at the banner planted beside us, then down at us – mostly me – doubtfully. I pointed to the badge on my chest.

"Yup! What can we do for you?" I asked in my best customer service voice.

"Well, there are these huge – and I mean really enormous – slimes coming from the sewers. Big as a house! The guards aren’t doing much about them, please can you help?"

I looked at Kallisto, unsure of my response. He put on his best diplomatic smile. "Sure! We’ll take a look into it. Where abouts are they found?"

"I last saw one on the intersection of Potter’s and Fisherman’s street." He said. Kallisto indicated for me to take some notes. I fumbled out the bamboo and charcoal, and started writing.

"Thanks, we’ll look into it." Kallisto politely thanked the man, and he twitchily walked off.

I was in that strangely uncomfortable stage where I’d both eaten my fill, and was ravenous for more. I literally couldn’t eat another bite though.

"Do we go to Potter and Fisherman now?" I asked, eyeing the open back of Argo.

Kallisto snorted. "Unlikely. First off, slimes are a job for the guard. Second off, a slime that big? We’d know about it now, not from a Purple Flower user. Don’t you have a problem with Purple Flower where you’re from, um…"

"Aquiliea." I supplied. "I’ve bumped into users now and then. Couldn’t cure their addiction, but is that any reason to discount what he’s saying?"

Kallisto rolled his eyes. "Yeah. We get dozens of fake or bad reports or requests for every one real problem we get. How credible the reporter is factors in. If the high priest of the temple came to us about a massive slime, we’d probably poke around. If four Purple Flower users came to us about giant slimes, we’d take a look. One person, on a drug known to cause hallucinations?" Kallisto arched an eyebrow at me. "I’ll give it a pass."

A few more people came and went, some with reasonable-sounding tales, others wanting us to slay sea monsters so large, the town would be a single bite for it.

"For that one," Kallisto said as the woman walked off. "if the monster did exist, we’d be bailing, not trying to fight it!"

I chuckled at that.

"Tomorrow, we’re a pair." The Ranger’s tank stated.

"Yes?" I responded, not quite sure where he was going with this. Kallisto suddenly looked uncomfortable for some reason.

"Well, I’m hoping in the evening, that you’d be, ah, more willing to go along with my plans. In exchange, during the day, let’s do what you want!" He said the last part quickly, hoping to skate over the first part.

I eyed up. "You’re just trying to get laid, and we need to stick in pairs." I puzzled out.

"Guilty." He said.

I sighed. "What does that entail for me?"

Kallisto brightened up, practically shining like the metal his hair seemed to be made out of.

"Not much! Just know where I settle in for the evening, and you’re done. If I go missing, Julius would know where to start investigating."

"Wouldn’t walking back on my own also break the ‘stay in pairs’ rule?" I asked

Kallisto shrugged.

"Minorly, technically, yes. No worse than your kerfuffle at the gate earlier. We do recognize that we get split up briefly at times."

I thought about it. I didn’t really have any plans yet, although maybe I could do some healing. Virinum might have a powerful Light healer, but I doubt they did discount work.

"Fine. But help me with what I want."

"What do you want to do?"

"I want to heal a bunch of people, and I want to make it cheap and affordable. So anyone can get fixed up, regardless if they can pay or not." Might even level up [Oath] while I was at it.

"However, I’ve never been particularly good about finding people, or letting people know what I can do. With your gift of gab, I figure you can help me find people, and we’ll work off of that."

Kallisto made some muttering noises to himself.

"You can’t get a clinic started, and I doubt any healer would just let you walk into their place and steal all their business. How do you plan on doing this?"

I shrugged.

"I have no idea. That’s why I’m asking you for help. My goal is to help as many people as possible, that don’t usually have access to the type of healer I am, and to do it in a way that helps them, and keeps me well-fed."

"Let me think about it. I think I can get that to work." Kallisto sounded super excited about this. I suspected it was because I wasn’t contesting his evening plans, giving him a free pass, in exchange for doing not much on his part.

The afternoon slowly turned into evening as Arthur showed up, joining us now and then, but mostly hanging out in the wagon, the occasional foul smell coming out of it killing my appetite.

"Arthur, that better be vented by the time we need to sleep!" Kallisto warned.

"Yeah, yeah, it’ll be fine." Arthur brushed him off.

The guard barracks. I was sleeping in a real bed tonight, away from whatever Arthur was doing.

The day wound down to a close, as Artemis eventually showed up, looking as wrinkled as a prune.

"Artemis!" I said happily, bouncing up to her. "You’re back!"

"Heya healy-bug." She said. "What’s up."

"I got coated in blood today – don’t worry it was mine – " Artemis’s look of concern on her face reminded me that my blood being all over me wasn’t a good thing, ah well, oops. "and I am dying for a bath. And some new tunics. I can’t be solo come with me please?"

Artemis looked at Kallisto, leaned over to see Arthur inside, shrugged.

"Sure, why not."

"Oh by the way you’re on desk duty tomorrow." I said rapidly. I got a sour look from Artemis.

"Julius told me to tell you."

Artemis rolled her eyes. Kallisto butted in.

"He probably didn’t want to listen to you try and whine your way out of it."

A blessedly uneventful, but too-short bath, a shopping trip later, and before I knew it, I was in bed, in the guard’s barracks, drifting off to sleep.

Tomorrow, I’d see just how many people I could heal in a day. 5? 5 was a lot. Kallisto would have to work hard to find 5 people. Maybe 10 if he was really lucky, and word spread a bit.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 14]

[Mana: 2720/2720]

[Mana Regen: 5170]

Stats

[Free Stats: 33]

[Strength: 30]

[Dexterity: 21]

[Vitality: 41]

[Speed: 32]

[Mana: 272]

[Mana Regeneration: 711]

[Magic Power: 282]

[Magic Control: 782]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 128]]

[Celestial Affinity: 128]

[Warmth of the Sun: 105]

[Medicine: 111]

[Center of the Galaxy: 101]

[Phases of the Moon: 70]

[Eyes of the Milky Way: 88]

[Veil of the Aurora: 66]

[Vastness of the Stars: 71]

[Class 2: [Firebug - Fire: Lv 19]]

[Fire Affinity: 19]

[Fire Resistance: 14]

[Fire Conjuration: 19]

[Fire Manipulation: 19]

[: ]

[: ]

[: ]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 71]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 72]

[Pretty: 97]

[Vigilant: 104]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 105]

[Ranger's Lore: 7]

[Running: 70]

[Learning: 105]

Chapter 57 – Adventures in Virinum II

I woke up after yet another terrible night’s sleep, yawning and stretching. At least I was clean. I got my stuff together, heading out to the wagon with the banner fluttering in the breeze. I took a deep breath of the sea air, long years of living next to the sea combined with the season suggesting, hinting with a wink-nudge, that a storm might be brewing, was thinking of coming in.

Today would be fine though. I hung out for a while at the "waiting" desk – Artemis was grumbling under her breath about being ‘stuck here all day’, and generally giving off a malcontent air – snacking on some breakfast, waiting for Kallisto.

Kallisto eventually showed up, and I kept snacking as he grabbed some breakfast, popping back out of the wagon, somehow looking fresh and clean, in spite of never having gone near the baths. I eyed him suspiciously. Did he have some sort of skill for that? Something to help his game? Ah well.

"Ready Elaine?" He asked, polishing off his breakfast in record time.

"Ready! Can we stop by the courier guild first? I’d like to send a letter."

Kallisto shrugged. "Sure, no skin off my back. Day’s yours."

We explored town a bit, asking for the occasional directions to the courier’s guild. We found it, and I popped in to send a letter back home, as promised. I’d delayed on sending it, but a day or so of delay didn’t matter, not when I’d been gone so long.

The letter took a few tries, and cost me a few extra coins as I needed to keep rewriting things. I wanted to tell them all about the monster attacks, and how I’d helped, but I didn’t want them to worry too much. I settled on shorter and sweeter.

Dear Mom and Dad,

Hey! It’s Elaine! I’m still alive and well.

I managed to bump into Artemis, and I’ve been travelling with her and her Ranger team. We’re in Virinum now! It’s both like Aquiliea, and not like Aquiliea at the same time. Lots of clay, not a lot of dyes. I hit level 128, and my classes merged! I’m a Celestial Healer now! The skills are so pretty, I’ll show you when I’m in Aquiliea next!

I’m staying with the Rangers for now – they’re all so nice! Julius is the boss, Origen is the strong silent type with a thousand tattoos, Maximus has been teaching me about the System, Kallisto’s really nice, Arthur’s the size of a mountain and can somehow vanish, and you know Artemis.

I love you two tons! I’m safe and happy. I hope things are going well!

Your loving daughter,

Elaine.

I decided that telling them I was a Ranger now would just freak them out more, and left that out. I eyed my letter critically, the most recent iteration.

A bit smudged, a bit stained, but otherwise good enough. I brought it up to the counter, gave directions where in Aquiliea to deliver the letter, lightened my pouch considerably for the delivery fee, and headed back out with Kallisto.

"Healing," I said, starting a conversation. "how do you suggest I find people to heal?" I had some ideas, but Kallisto was the master. If his idea was no good, I could always fall back on mine.

"Pretty simple!" He said. "Follow me!"

I followed Kallisto to the large, central market.

"We’re not allowed to setup a stall here in the town center." I said, pointing out the obvious. "The local guard would probably be pissed if we setup our own operation outside of the lines, without paying taxes." Ideally, I’d have a place in the center market, but the cost was far outside of what I could afford, especially if I wanted to heal people cheaply. It was an option to setup a stall next to the Argo, but that was kinda out of the way. Not a lot of foot traffic.

"Yup!" Kallisto said. "Which is why we’re not going to set one up ourselves. However, we can ask around, and see if someone would let us use part of their stall."

"Why would they do that?" I asked, dodging another group of people as we were in the thick of the babble that was the market. Big stalls, small stalls, colorful stalls, the main difference being painted ceramics causing the riot of colors instead of dyed cloth.

"Advertising." Kallisto answered, casually slapping the hand of a kid reaching for his pouch. I eyed the kid. Hand didn’t look broken, no need for me to intervene. Instead I protectively grabbed my pouch, and locking eyes with him, stuck my tongue out at him. He scattered. "We get a small corner of the stall, yell a bunch about discounted healing. People come to us, and while you’re healing them, or if we’re lucky, waiting in line for healing, they’re right next to the merchant, who’s selling them things. Everyone wins. Unlikely to work for a specialty merchant, but a general goods or food…. Ahha! Let’s try here."

Saying that, Kallisto stopped at a large, sprawling stall. Calling it four or five stalls glued together would only be inaccurate in the glue part of it. Nailed together? Nailed together. Food, pottery, trinkets of all sorts were arrayed in a dizzying manner all over. The far section even had a nice assortment of jewelry.

Kallisto began negotiating brisky as I looked over the jewelry, eyes widening. This wasn’t the twisty copper that Bakus was making all those years ago. No, these were gold and silver, with Arcanite being used as gemstones. I wanted. I wanted very badly.

"How much?" I asked about the smallest piece I could see to the man keeping close guard over the jewelry. He named a price that I couldn’t come close to affording. My shoulders slumped, and he smirked at me, making a "shoo" motion with his hands.

"Elaine, good news!" I almost jumped as Kallisto started talking with me. "Not only is Kosmimatus ok with us sharing some stall space, he’s even willing to pay for everyone!"

"Oh?" I asked, sure there was a catch. Kallisto leaned down conspiratorially. I threw up [Veil of the Aurora] around us, just another flash of bright skill-color in the marketplace.

"The payment is optional, and sadly we’re touching politics." Politics, bleh. The look on my face must’ve been transparent, as Kallisto followed up. "He’s gearing up to run for Senator. He’d like to buy your services for a full day, and not only will he draw traffic to his stall, he’ll be buying a ton of good will. Not only that, but he’ll be shielding you from the ire of anyone you’re undercutting. Instead of being ‘that wandering healer coming in and undercutting us’ to the local healers, you’re now external hired help, and any annoyance they might feel gets directed to Kosmimatus, since it’s his fault, not yours. Since he’s just doing it to buy good will, they won’t care nearly as much as someone coming in to just help."

This politics nonsense was making my head spin. I just wanted to heal people, damnit! Why was it suddenly complicated? And people getting mad just because I wanted to help, and being less-mad when it wasn’t for a good purpose? People made no sense.

"And?" I asked, knowing there was more.

"And we wouldn’t be doing it as Rangers. Rangers don’t get involved in politics, at all. Too much potential mess. Imagine if every candidate we supported won – or if we supported someone and they lost. Either way our image is tainted, and our work harder. Pins off, and you’re just a healer, and I’m just your bodyguard."

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Ranger’s Lore] has reached level 8!]

Kallisto thought for a few more moments. "I think I accurately stated what you can do, but I might have oversold you. Today might end up being high-pressure, although you’re free to snack on other things Kosmimatus is selling."

Free food? Free food. The politics was hard, but food and jewelry to heal?

"Alright, I’ll do it."

I dropped [Veil], and put one and one together.

"Hey wait, you picked this one because there’ll be more women to flirt with." I accused Kallisto.

"Guilty!" He said, not a shred of remorse on his face. "But it works out for you, so what do you care?"

I rolled my eyes, as we went over to Kosmimatus, a robust man with pianist fingers.

"This must be Elaine!" He said with gusto, with vigor! "Kallisto’s been telling me all about you! Forgive me, you look a tad young, and while you are clearly both Rangers – congratulations on becoming a Ranger at such a young age – I hope you don’t mind if I ask for a small demonstration?"

I looked him up and down. "Sure, I don’t mind a small demonstration, but could I get a small demonstration of your jewelry offering? I hope you don’t mind." I said the last bit cheekily, figuring that while, yes, he’d been asking very politely, and it was a reasonable offer, I’d treat him the same way he treated me. Golden rule and all that.

Kosmimatus blinked a few times, clearly processing what I’d just said. Once it clicked for him, he roared with laughter.

"The audacity! The panache! I like you! Here!" He made a ‘come-hither’ motion with his finger, as a pair of dazzling earrings lifted themselves off of the mini-pillow they’d been on, floating over. "Arcanite ok? I have Arcanite and Metal classes, I’m a [Magical Jeweler], and while I do work with some of the more common gems, well, I don’t have anything for Celestial."

I nodded greedily, looking at the earrings being offered. For a day of healing!

Well, display for a display, and [Veil of the Aurora] was my flashiest skill. I waved my hand – completely unneeded, but I was trying to put on a display – and the Aurora Borealis stretched above us, a dazzling display of lights.

I smiled smugly, half-expecting some oohs or ahhs from the market. Nada. Just another merchant with a light display advertising. Drat.

Kosmimatus got some of his helpers to rearrange things, and soon the stalls were re-arranged into roughly a long horseshoe, just barely wide enough for three people, with me at the "top" of the horseshoe, looking in. There was a small gap next to me for people to exit. I looked at the setup, slightly confused, then got it.

Ah, so as people came to me, they’d have to walk past everything being sold. If there was a line, even better – they’d had to wait next to all sorts of enticing items, and, well, while you’re here, might as well pick up that loaf of bread you needed….

Clever! I admired Kosmimatus’s business sense, of which I had none. Didn’t really have the time or ability, and I’d always allowed word of mouth to do work for me.

I settled into my seat behind the stall, with Kallisto lounging next to me, looking like a cat in the sun. Our pins were off – couldn’t tacitly endorse anyone – and I settled in, waiting for the first person to show up.

I played with my fire as I waited, making sure to keep the flames low enough that my regeneration could keep up. Not as efficient training as just flat-out making things burn, but I’d be able to heal to the best of my abilities if someone showed up.

It took some time, and it was Kallisto of all people who managed to land me my first patient. He was chatting up yet another woman who’d stopped by to look at some of the necklaces on display – I’d already put my earrings on, and I was in the process of attuning the Arcanite to myself – when I suddenly heard my name.

"… Elaine here could fix that. Right?" Kallisto said.

I had no idea what I’d just been signed up for, but I was going to seize the moment. "Right!"

She looked at me up and down, then shrugged. "I do believe it can not get any worse. Alright deary, take a look." She rolled up her sleeve, and showed me her arm, where there was a long, nasty-looking scar.

"Just confirming, you want me to remove the scar?" I asked, wanting to make sure I didn’t punt my first patient after not hearing what Kallisto had been saying.

"If you would be so kind." She responded.

"Alrighty, come here – I require physical touch."

She offered me her arm, and I stood up – damn being short – stretched up and over the stall, touched her arm, hitting her with a [Vastness of the Stars] – healing was itchy and uncomfortable, and I might as well put my best foot forward. I focused on [Phases of the Moon], reflecting on removing scar tissue, bringing back fresh, healthy flesh. The scar vanished, and all my work yesterday paid off, and got pushed over the edge.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 71!]

The scar tissue turned into untanned flesh, marking where she’d had the scar. Her other hand flew to her face, covering her open mouth.

"Oh my! Thank you! What do I owe you?" She asked, reaching for her pouch.

"Nothing!" I said proudly. "Kosmimatus is sponsoring me healing anyone and everyone today, so tell everyone! Free healing here today!" I leaned in, whispering conspiratorially. "I can also restore limbs, and just about any serious injury! Completely free! I’m only in town for a few more days though – let your friends know! I’m sure one or two of them have a scar, or something more serious, they want fixed, or know someone else that needs something fixed."

I winked at her, as she got a thoughtful look on her face. She straightened up, and stalked off with purpose, as Kallisto looked at me open-mouthed in horror, a shocked look of betrayal on his face.

"Elaine! You ruined my chances with her!"

I stuck my tongue out at him. Too bad!

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 14]

[Mana: 2588/2720]

[Mana Regen: 5170]

Stats

[Free Stats: 33]

[Strength: 30]

[Dexterity: 21]

[Vitality: 41]

[Speed: 32]

[Mana: 272]

[Mana Regeneration: 711]

[Magic Power: 282]

[Magic Control: 782]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 128]]

[Celestial Affinity: 128]

[Warmth of the Sun: 105]

[Medicine: 111]

[Center of the Galaxy: 101]

[Phases of the Moon: 71]

[Eyes of the Milky Way: 88]

[Veil of the Aurora: 66]

[Vastness of the Stars: 71]

[Class 2: [Firebug - Fire: Lv 19]]

[Fire Affinity: 19]

[Fire Resistance: 14]

[Fire Conjuration: 19]

[Fire Manipulation: 19]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 71]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 72]

[Pretty: 97]

[Vigilant: 104]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 105]

[Ranger's Lore: 8]

[Running: 70]

[Learning: 105]

Chapter 58 – Adventures in Virinum III

After the lady left – I never caught her name – I went back to playing with fire, trying to make a careful circlet for myself without lighting my hair on fire. I had [Fire Resistance], but my hair wasn’t fireproof.

Yet. One day….

I finally got the flames to play nicely, evenly flaring out to make it more a crown than a circlet, and my efforts and manipulation were rewarded.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Firebug] has leveled up to level 20! +2 Free Stats, +2 Mana, +1 Mana Regen, +3 Magic power, +1 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Strength from your Element!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Affinity] has reached level 20!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Conjuration] has reached level 20!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Manipulation] has reached level 20!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Pretty] has reached level 98!]

[*Ding!* For reaching level 20, you’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Fuel for the Fire]!]

[Fuel for the Fire] You are constantly eating, needing to restore your energy after burning it all away with flames. This skill will help you eat more, eat faster, and convert it to energy more quickly. Increased food to energy and food to mana conversion per level.

I took the skill, eyeing it suspiciously. Really System? Really? This was the first real Fire-mage skill I was getting? Not fireball, but a gluttony skill?

I closed my eyes, breathing in, breathing out. It was a skill. It was magic. I was already becoming old and curmudgeonly, complaining about skills I was getting. Next thing you know I’d be saying that System Day was disappointing! I was turning into my mother! Help, help!

Let’s try this again.

Woohoo! A new skill! [Fuel for the Fire]! I could eat more! I’d top my reserves up faster! Who knows, maybe down the line I could eat interesting things and change my flames! Whoosh! Green fire! Blue fire! Purple fire! More practically, it seemed like eating would help me restore my mana directly.

Maybe it’d let me eat wood, and use that as flames!

I knuckled myself at the last idea. Or I could just light it on fire, like a normal person.

What was a normal person here even like?

"Elaine." Kallisto’s voice snapped me back to normal. "Got anything you’d like to share?" He asked, looking at me significantly.

I threw up [Veil] around us quickly. "Leveled up! New skill! [Fuel for the Fire]! Seems to help me convert food to energy and mana."

Kallisto made an appreciative noise. "Ok, super fast. I’m no Maximus, I dunno this stuff as well as he does. I think your skill is a bit stronger than you give it credit for, especially with all the casting you do. Lemme try to rustle something up for you."

I dropped [Aurora], and started snacking on some food Kallisto rustled up. Probably just asked Kosmimatus for something. I eyed what I was eating. Something cheap.

A second lady showed up, wanting a scar removed. I happily obliged her, and she seemed surprised that yes, it was indeed free. I saw her do some shopping, and happily move on.

The trickle of people turned into a flood, and before I knew it, to my great surprise, I had a line. I never had a line in Aquiliea! The power of PR. Or free stuff.

And, I suppose, the power of being able to restore limbs and scars, along with being free. There were some notable events throughout the day.

A street kid came up to me, wanting me to come with him to fix his sister. I looked at Kallisto.

"What?" He said. "You should stay here."

"I know. I want you to go with him to pick her up, and bring her back here. She’s really sick from the sound of it, and right now I’m Kosmimatus’s golden goose. Nothing’s going to happen to me while I’m here."

Kid had a frowny face. "Kallisto’s great! Everything will be ok." I reassured him.

Kallisto went off with the street kid – I still didn’t have his name – as I saw other patients.

Most of what I fixed was minor. A fish hook that had caught deep in a shoulder that never properly healed got fixed, the man getting a full range of motion back in his arm. An old man, getting cataracts in his eyes as he aged, getting his vision restored back to its prime. Enough lost fingers and fingertips to fill a jar. A wayward nail that’d been stepped on recently. Too many teeth to count – easy to lose, expensive to fix, easy to live without. Removing the "expensive to fix" part changed the math on getting them restored quite a bit.

A few army veterans, wanting a top-off, just to make sure nothing was degrading.

My high control got to show off a bit. An old man who came for a different problem left with his formerly-restored teeth having nerves again. An elbow poorly healed could work properly. A leg with a limp could move freely again. A poorly, bulk-fixed patch of skin from a veteran was reformed and reshaped, becoming more like his original flesh, and less like a flesh-covered quick-fix patch.

It helped me see that my control was much higher than I was giving it credit for, that I was able to do more than some other Light healers. I’d only see the "failed" efforts though, not the successful ones. Reverse-survivor bias at work. I shouldn’t let it go to my head.

Some problems I couldn’t fix. A parent, driven to her wit’s end, with a child that just wouldn’t speak. I explained to her that nothing was wrong with her kid, that’s just the way he was, to embrace it and learn to live with it. Her hateful glare lingered in my mind, as unjustified as it was. A woman, bringing along her ranting and raving father, who upon investigation probably had lead poisoning. Nothing I could do with that. Death. Death was unfixable, permanent. Not everyone had realized that death had visited. I fixed what I could, saving some lives.

Some were strange. A man, lean, with a swimmer’s look, a small, fresh cut on his arm with dirt rubbed in it, intent on sniffing me. I healed him and kept my distance. Diving for the potential loot the monster left behind was more dangerous than I thought. A twitchy-looking man, who insisted on privacy – I offered everyone [Veil] out of courtesy, but he demanded it – who then revealed that he’d accidentally offed his genitalia in an ‘accident.’

"No, please, I don’t need to see." I said, touching him and fixing him. "There won’t be a second time, please be careful." I deeply regretted that Kallisto was off helping the kid. Next time I should have Artemis, and have her with me.

Marriage implications. Soooo many marriage implications. "Oh poor dear, all on your own. I have a son/cousin/brother only 2/3/4/5 years older than you, you two would be just perfect together." Ew no. I politely turned them down, and thought about getting a fake ring to stave off potential other offers.

Interesting that rings were used here to indicate marriage, but they went on the middle finger, not the fourth finger. Arcanite was the usual stone of choice, but if you managed to get your significant other’s elementally-aligned gemstone to their element, that was considered better.

A man with rotting feet. An amputation – they were dead – and a regrowth later (it was easier than trying to restore the feet), and they were as good as new. I suspected the man had diabetes, and while I could fix his pancreas, if it was type II he was doomed to go down the path again. I gave it a shot. He’d have to pray to Aion if it came back.

A reminder that my job wasn’t curing people. My job was pushing back the date that Black Crow would come to collect, and hopefully have people live a long enough life that White Dove would visit instead.

Speaking of Black Crow, Kallisto showed back up, carrying a small girl looking so sick, I could almost see Black Crow sitting on her, pecking away at her life. I got up and rushed over, the latest man in line complaining that it was finally his turn, and who was this cutting in?

I put my hands on her, and not knowing quite what was wrong, focused on healing her back, on beating the disease, on restoring her to hale and healthy. The lack of a good image of what was wrong, of how I was fixing her, caused me to burn a lot more mana than normal. Fortunately I was staying topped up, party due to my new skill. The older brother immediately rushed over, checking over her, making sure she was fine. She opened her eyes, and there was a bunch of crying and hugging.

This. This right here. This is why I healed. This is why I picked healing. These moments, this saving of lives, is why I picked this path, is why I stayed on the path. It was the little moments, the small things, that made it all worth it, that could let me endure the snide remarks about my age and evil glares when I couldn’t fix something.

The two kids had a quick, hurried discussion, then came over to me.

"Excuse me miss," The boy said. Oh gods no I was becoming miss. I was too young to be miss! "are you sure there’s nothing we can do for you?" I smiled at him.

"Tell other people. I don’t know how long I’ll be here, so tell as many people who are sick that I’m around. I’m sure it’s not just your sister with a problem is it? I’m free, there are no strings attached." I told him.

He looked at me suspiciously. "There’s always a price. I was desperate, but I’m ready to pay it."

I snorted at him. "Yeah, there is a price."

"I knew it!" He said, half-triumphantly, half-bitter at being tricked.

"Kosmimatus already paid it. He’s getting paid by a bunch of people knowing about him, and buying things from him. Something about running for Senate. Be nice to him, maybe don’t steal from him. We all win."

The slum kid’s eyes widened, putting the pieces of the puzzle together, as he ran off. Slum kid network was about to see me have a bunch more patients, and Kosmimatus was probably going to see a decline in thefts.

For like, a week. I had no illusions how far good will went when it came to being hungry.

The day continued with brisk business, with a few little snags.

I went completely out of mana a few times, and after some quick negotiations with Kosmimatus, I was allowed to pull the mana out of the Arcanite jewelry he had on display, letting me top up when things were particularly busy, or I had a string of more-serious injuries to heal.

Kosmimatus was kinda mad about the number of street urchins that showed up to be healed, and we butted heads on that. I pointed out that the deal was to heal anyone, while he didn’t see the value in letting "a bunch of thieves" close to his wares where they could be easily stolen – normally they’d be shooed off. The other part was, street urchins didn’t vote, had no political pull. They wouldn’t – couldn’t – help him on his run for Senator.

We compromised – if anyone stole while in line, they’d be kicked out, and it was made clear to them as they got in line what the deal was. Street kids didn’t show up for minor problems, and none of them ended up displaying a willingness to get kicked out of a life-saving chance for healing over a loaf of bread.

[Vigilant] got real annoying, pinging quietly during the start of the day, and increasing in volume constantly. Being the center of attention meant, well, I was the center of attention and people were looking at me. I probably looked wealthy – Healer that can restore flesh, has a bodyguard, was young so probably from a rich family, had super-fancy earrings? Oh yeah, some less-savory types were eyeing me up as a mark. Thank gods for Kallisto hanging around! Bless Julius for making us go around in pairs!

Hard work was rewarded well, as I got a few levels. The lack of stress made it less than a fight, but quantity was a quality of its own, and the variety was staggering.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 129! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 130! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Celestial Affinity] has reached level 129!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Celestial Affinity] has reached level 130!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Warmth of the Sun] has reached level 106!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Medicine] has reached level 112!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 72!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 73!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 74!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Veil of the Aurora] has reached level 67!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Vastness of the Stars] has reached level 72!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Identify] has reached level 72!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Vigilant] has reached level 105!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Vigilant] has reached level 106!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Oath of Elaine to Lyra] has reached level 106!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fuel for the Fire] has reached level 6!]

The day wrapped up without major incident, the market thinning but me still having a line.

"I’m out of mana." I complained to Kallisto as I finished healing another scar – not nearly as well as some others, due to being low, but an improvement on the dude’s face.

"Use another one of the Arcanite pieces." Kallisto said, bored out of his mind. He’d made three – three! – arrangements for that evening, and a dozen more for the rest of the week somehow, and was, in his own words "full up." He’d spent the last few hours looking menacing, but I’d thought I’d heard snoring at one point. I was grateful for him being around either way.

"They’re all dry. I drained them all." I answered back. Kosmimatus was closing down shop, and I could see that he was ready to go, practically rubbing his hands in glee at how much he’d sold, and probably more importantly to him, how many connections and hands shook he’d been able to do. His Senate run was off to a good start, if I was any judge of politics.

"Listen up! Last call! Does anyone need serious healing? Have a missing finger or tooth or something else that’s a problem?"

Someone in the middle of the line yelled out.

"I have this nasty scar…"

"Real problem?" I yelled, even louder.

There was a bunch of disappointed muttering as the few people left in line realized they were missing last call, and they weren’t going to luck out. One woman stayed behind.

"I don’t want to be a bother, but my foot…" She trailed off, lifting the hem of her tunic to reveal a club foot.

"Yeah, ok, give me some time to restore enough mana for that." I said, as everyone was packing up around me.

"Elaine! Any chance you’ll be here tomorrow?" Kosmimatus asked.

"Got more jewelry?" I asked, impish grin on my face. "Oh, and a fresh supply of Arcanite so I can go longer?" Upping my demands! Loot him for all he’s got! CEO Elaine in the house!

"Sure!" Kosmimatus replied with a Cheshire Cat grin so wide I suddenly realized I was the one who’d just been taken for a ride.

Ah well, the levels were good, and the jewelry divine. Hang on, could jewelry end up being actually divine, with goddesses and the like running about? Let me think about –

"ELAINE! Come on, let’s go." Kallisto was shifting from foot to foot, eager to get a start to his evening.

"Fine, fine, coming, see you tomorrow!" I waved at Kosmimatus, who took a moment away from organizing everyone packing up his wares to wave back.

We trotted down the street as the sky rapidly darkened – not that I noticed with [Eyes of the Milky Way]. Convenient skill that, if the worthiness of devoting a whole slot to it was questionable.

"What’s the plan?" I asked Kallisto. I thought I knew, I wanted to make sure.

"Find the place. I go in. You hang out for a short while, check if I get kicked out quickly or not. Usually if I’m inside a short while, I’m able to be there the whole night. Remember where I am, head back to where we sleep, and if I don’t show up in the morning, raise hell and lead the team back here, where they’ll start looking for me."

I eyed him.

"How many times has the team come over, prepared to raise hell, only to find you in a compromising position?"

Kallisto stumbled at that, windmilling his arms crazily to catch his balance.

"Uh, well…."

I snorted.

"Yeah ok. I have another session tomorrow in the market place! I don’t want to be late!" I showed off my new earrings, elegant silver dropping to Arcanite bobble. "I intend to get a complete set!"

Kallisto rolled his eyes. "Those are terrible for a fight. They’ll get ripped right out. Go for Arcanite studs, harder to catch."

I pouted at how right he was. Damnit!

Kallisto found a house, checking it carefully before smoothing his hair back.

"Alright Elaine, this is it! See you tomorrow!"

"Hang on. This seems like a bad idea. Me, walking back alone? I have a skill that helps me sense danger, it was going off earlier you know. Julius did say to stick in pairs."

"Well, is your skill going off now?" Kallisto asked, annoyed at me getting cold feet at the last second.

I checked it. Silent.

"Look, we do this all the time. Do you think Julius watches and waits when we're paired up? Do you think Origen decides to tinker with his inscriptions in the street while I'm having fun? No! They check where I'm going, and head back."

I made an unhappy noise.

"Come on Elaine, are you a Ranger, or a kid?"

"Ranger!" I proudly stated, puffing my chest out, pleased at my new status.

"Exactly! What kind of Rangers would be scared of walking through a town alone? If your danger-skill was going off right now, I'd be concerned, but it's not. Plus those are usually just thieves, and low-level at that - high level thieves can counter that skill."

"Listen, worse comes to worse and someone steals your pretty new earrings - they're gorgeous by the way, they sparkle like your eyes - I'll get you a new pair out of my savings. It'll be all on me."

I weighed my options. On one hand, Julius had said not to be separated. On the other, Kallisto had some great points, and I'd spent half a lifetime sneaking around towns at night. I knew how to sneak around. I could get myself from A to B no problem, I was a town girl! I didn't even need to dodge the guard this time, I could just hook myself up to a patrol until I got back.

"Alright, fine, enjoy." I said

Kallisto gave me a brilliant grin, then turned and knocked on the door. The door opened, he got yanked inside by a pair of slender arms, and all I saw was a thumbs up from him before the door slammed shut.

Welp. I guess I could just head back now, no need to wait. I took careful note of the house, seeing the painted clay pattern that distinguished it from the rest, got my bearings roughly where I was in town, and started to head back.

I was careful - I poked my head around a corner, checked for [Vigilant] alerting me to anything. Only when it was clear, only when it was quiet as a mouse, did I go forward, slowly leapfrogging my way through town. Sure, it was overkill, and the thieves from earlier had moved onto richer targets - why wait half the day or more to try to get a few coins from a healer with [Vigilant] that wasn't even charging for healing and had a bodyguard when there were richer targets that could be stolen from now - but why not play it safe?

I’d made my way down a few streets when [Vigilant] screamed bloody murder at me, went from 0 to 100, and, from my prior experiences, [Center of the Galaxy] keeping me firm and steady, not jumping in surprise, I was able to immediately snap up a full-body [Veil of the Aurora], wincing as I watched my mana – get brutally chunked.

2655/3080 Mana.

I was under attack.

Chapter 59 – Adventures in Virinum IV

I was incredibly thankful for [Center of the Galaxy] – there was no way I’d have reacted in time without it, and I’d be in a full-blown panic right now instead of calmly assessing the situation.

First off, I needed to move, to run. I wasn’t prepared for a fight, I wasn’t a fighter, and this was an ambush. First rule of fighting, don’t. If I stayed turtled up in my shield, it’d get hammered until I was out of mana, break, and then I’d be helpless. Not an option.

I crouched down into a sprinter’s start, ready to move. I dropped my shield, and almost immediately re-formed it into a long, enclosed tunnel that I could sprint down, to the max length of my shield, around 7 meters.

Then I turned around, and kept my sprinter’s crouch, facing the shimmering wall of my [Veil]. Duh I’d run down the tunnel I just made. My attackers saw me ready to sprint, ready to run, saw me put up a tunnel. Of course, I’d be at the other end. I had no plans of being at the other end.

I waited a heartbeat, four, heart racing so fast I could barely count. I wanted to give them enough time to reach the other side, give me distance. I watched my mana drop – 2211/3080 – and knowing that my attacker had hit my shield again, I dropped it, taking off like a shot towards where I’d left Kallisto. I’d take any guards as well.

"Help! Murder!" I yelled out, wanting to cause as much of a commotion as possible, twisting my head to look behind me.

Three men were there. One I vaguely recognized from somewhere, built lean and wiry, like a swimmer, one built like a brick shithouse, lumberjack axe over one shoulder, and one short and skinny man in robes, holding a staff, looking like a stereotypical mage out of a book. I mentally dubbed them "Swimmer", "Lumberjack", and "Idiot Mage".

Idiot Mage slammed the butt of his staff against the ground, and suddenly I wasn’t running on firm road, my feet sinking into the ground with every step. Swimmer started running towards me, and it was like I was being chased by Maximus – not quite as fast as Julius, but oh so much faster than anything I could do.

I snapped up [Veil] to work as flooring, running on a shimmering aura. I checked my mana. 1440. Step. 954. Step. 362. Holy shit that burnt so much mana. I turned it off, feet sinking into the ground, drawing my trusty knife.

Swimmer came at me, and I blasted flames at him, turning the flames as he dodged, keeping them between me and him.

"HELP! MURDER! MURDER!" I kept yelling out. Maybe time to be inventive.

"HELP! FIRE! FIRE!" I continued yelling, performing a bit of arson on the shop behind me. Sorry unknown shopkeeper. My life means more to me. I’ll try to make it up to you.

Lumberjack and Idiot Mage were rushing over, and Swimmer was staying out of the flames. He kept trying to dart in, only for me to blast another set of flames towards him, as hard as I could. I threw [Veil of the Aurora] up as high as I could, hoping that one of the other Rangers just so happened to be looking up, seeing a signal.

Damnit, now I know why signals had to have sound as well.

"You’re sure this is her?" Lumberjack asked Swimmer. "She’s not supposed to have Fire!"

"I’m sure! I checked earlier, she can still do Light and Dark healing! From the looks of things, she classed up and got a secondary element." Swimmer replied.

It clicked where I’d seen him before. The weird patient that had a shallow cut with dirt rubbed in it, who sniffed me weirdly. It made no sense for someone to visit a healer for that, let alone rub dirt in it, but if he was checking that I was both a Light and Dark healer, it made sense.

"This is a bad idea." I said, panicking as my mana was nearly out. "You’re attacking a Ranger. This doesn’t end well for you."

Cries of panic, someone else had taken up my cry of "Fire!", I just needed to stall a bit longer. Lumberjack snorted. "Inventive excuse. Nestor, Paris, take her." Swimmer darted in, incredibly fast, and punched me in the face. My head snapped back, and I windmilled my arms, trying to keep my balance, looking up at the sky, at the moons staring down at me, coldly mocking me with their merciless gaze. I felt my feet get kicked out from under me, as I landed on the ground. Mud rose up around me, trying to wrap around me, cocooning me, and I shot one last desperate blast of flames, a clumsy attempt at the Ranger Eagle in circle on the wall.

The mud wrapped around me, leaving a tiny bubble in front of my face for air. Just enough air for now, they had to let me go soon.

Right? My end wasn’t going to be slowly suffocating in mud. They had to know about air, and that people suffocated without enough air. Especially what seemed to be a mud-mage.

I could feel myself getting picked up, getting moved around. Mostly through dizzying turns – it was completely pitch-dark inside my bubble, as I was entirely encased in mud. I tried moving experimentally, not making any headway.

Mud was conjured, so it was likely that struggling against it with my meager stats wouldn’t help. Otherwise I’d try to drain Idiot Mage’s mana, then make a break for it when he was drained. My mana would be full up soon, and I could work on a break for it then. If that didn’t work, try, try again.

The jostling and moving hadn’t stopped, and the air was starting to get stuffy and warm. Breathing was getting harder, my breaths coming more rapidly. Panic was rising, I was going to die here, die suffocating in an air pocket in mud. I didn’t want to die! I had too much to do, I was finally free, free to live my life! My head started to pound, as I tried to pulse [Phases of the Moon] through me to heal me, to give me air.

I tried to project a skill through the mud I was encased in, but it felt like my skill couldn’t penetrate. Fucking hell.

For some reason, air wasn’t a thing [Phases] could do. Thinking about it, it kinda made sense, but also didn’t for so many reasons. Whatever. Think later. I needed out now.

I hadn’t wanted to use flames earlier – they’d splash right back onto my face, and burn what little air I had, but if I was out of air, I was out of options.

I was steeling myself to endure massive burns again when the top of the mud cocoon opened, and I found myself looking up at Swimmer, Lumberjack, and Idiot Mage. I took some deep, gasping breaths as they looked down on me, thankful for air.

"Question for you." Lumberjack asked. I was in no mood to answer questions, as I blasted fire at all three of them. Idiot Mage leaned back, Swimmer gracefully dodged, and Lumberjack just let the flames splash over him. His shoulders slumped, a disappointed tone to his voice.

"Look, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way. We’re supposed to bring you back in one piece – Elaine, right? – but you’re a healer, and the hard way is a lot harder because of it."

I spat at him. I wasn’t going to make anything easy, and since "dying" didn’t seem to be on the menu, and pain was a distant memory with [Center of the Galaxy], I didn’t see what they could do that’d be worse than the situation I was already in.

Thinking about it, I was half-free, and able to use skills. I threw up a pillar of [Veil], as high as it could go, an attempt to signal that something was here. Idiot Mage walked over, dissolving the cocoon with a tap of his staff.

Honestly, who used a staff and robes? Armor and swords, that’s where it was at. Robes and a staff didn’t do anything! Armor did! Spears did! Gah. That’s why he was Idiot Mage. I started to climb to my feet.

My attempt to get up was cut short as Idiot Mage lifted his staff up, and brought it down on my back. I felt a crack, the wind blown out of me as I rolled in the dirt, tumbling along. I felt something on me, a glowing light coming from my back.

I tried to get up again, and Lumberjack’s eyes got cold and merciless.

"The hard way then." He took his massive axe, slung over one shoulder, and flipped it, so he was holding the blade, with the handle out. It was clear he meant to cripple, not kill. He moved over to me, bringing the handle down hard.

I threw my arms up, trying to defend against the strike, only to see a smirk cross his face. Damnit, I got baited into this. The handle came down on my arms with a sickening crack, as I stumbled back down into the dirt. Fuck. Swimmer came over, opened his mouth. Didn’t care what he had to say. Blasted him with fire. I could fix my arms later.

"Fuck!" Swimmer yelled, jumping back. "She’s got an anti-pain skill of some sort."

Idiot Mage came near, hitting me a few more times with his staff, each blow landing with a crack. Each time it connected, a blindingly bright sticky, squishy thing attached to me. Had to be some sort of skill.

Lumberjack stepped back, hefting his backwards-held axe. "Anti-pain skills can be broken. Nestor, how much longer on your [Glowing Mud] skill?"

Idiot Mage – I had a name for him now, but I was keeping that – jumped forward, hit me again, another glowing blob on me, and jumped back.

"I don’t know! Her Regeneration rate is insane for her level!"

"Well keep hitting her!" Lumberjack snapped back. He looked at me, trying to get back on my feet without using my arms.

I got up, looking at him defiantly, then torched the grass in front of me, a wall of flame and confusion. I took off running into the night, able to now see perfectly clearly, [Eyes of the Milky Way] guiding me, flames flickering behind me. I stumbled on some brush, and suddenly, Swimmer was there, kicking my legs out again, causing me to stumble, fall. I tried to break my fall with my arms, only to watch my forearms fold on themselves as I tried to use my broken, shattered arms.

[Center] pulsed, I could feel the damage I’d just done to myself, a little closer than when they’d first been broken. I tried to get up, and there was Lumberjack, axe held like a baseball bat, swinging for my legs.

I threw up [Veil] in the way, knowing it’d be a heck of a lot more mana to heal that injury than to tank it.

It didn’t matter. Lumberjack went right through it, the shattering noise in my mind telling me I was now out of mana, as his axe handle went through the veil, then my legs, breaking them.

[Galaxy] broke at that, and I screamed as I fell to the ground, all the pain hitting me at once. My broken arms, compounded by me trying to catch myself on them. My legs, in enough pieces to make a spider happy. Some cracked ribs from Idiot Mage, hitting me with his staff. Bruises all over, scrapes and burns and cuts I hadn’t even noticed.

Pain. Agonizing, overwhelming pain. I screamed and writhed, only realizing it made it worse. I tried to hit myself with [Vastness of the Stars], to make it go away, to fade like stardust, but nothing. I screamed as the three watched, heads together.

Don’t talk! Help me!

"Shut her up." Lumberjack ordered, and Idiot Mage gestured, a shot of gunk flying from his hand, hitting my face, sealing my mouth.

I must scream and I have no mouth.

The sharp, piercing cries of agony were replaced with muffled screams instead. Swimmer looked worried.

"Boss, that was a lot of damage we just did. It’d be no good if she died, we won’t get paid."

Lumberjack looked sour. Maybe. I couldn’t tell, not with every nerve on fire, agony wracking my body.

"You have your healing mud right?" He asked Idiot Mage. Mud! Mud wasn’t clean enough to be healing!

Idiot Mage nodded.

"Use that. Good chance she has a passive healing skill as well. Should be enough to prevent a slow death."

He bent down, looking at me.

"Alright, I hate doing things the hard way, but you insisted. Here’s the deal. Kerberos has hired us to bring you back. Now, we have nothing against you, and I don’t take any pleasure in hurting you, but we will if we have to. Cooperate, and the trip’s nice. Don’t, and the trip will be unpleasant, like this evening was unpleasant. The glowing things Nestor has on you eats your mana regen, so no more events like tonight can occur. Understand?"

I nodded meekly, anything to stop the pain, to make it go away. It ate at me, it ate at my resolve, it ate at my ability to think clearly, to think properly. The flames I’d lit were dying out, and I doubt anyone had heard my screams out here, out of town. Gods, if I’d just been able to hold out a few more minutes, there’d have been enough people around that they couldn’t have snatched me.

Why did I let Kallisto talk me into his hair-brained scheme? There’s no way I’d have gotten grabbed if I was in a pair. Or if I had lightning bolts like Artemis.

Idiot Mage wrapped me up in more mud, a slightly different shade of brown, and I felt soothing energy move through me. I seethed with impotent rage. I didn’t want to be soothed. I wanted the pain to go away, and I wanted to dance on their graves. The shell of the mud hardened around me, basically making an Elaine-Mud cigar with just my head poking out.

They rolled me over to a small, open-aired wagon, and loaded me on, me cursing through the Ooze gag on my mouth.

"Ah, treasure. Can’t let you have these." Swimmer came over, and carefully, with a gentleness that belied the prior violence, took my hard-earned earrings off, dropping them into his pouch.

"Look, if you’re good, I’ll return them when we get back to Aquiliea. Ok?" Swimmer tried to barter with me.

Unable to spit, I glared hatred at him. He rolled his eyes.

"Or not. A little bonus on a quest’s always nice."

Gods. Fucking. Damnit.

I hate adventurers.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 14]

[Mana: 0/3080]

[Mana Regen: 0]

Stats

[Free Stats: 60]

[Strength: 31]

[Dexterity: 21]

[Vitality: 41]

[Speed: 32]

[Mana: 308]

[Mana Regeneration: 752]

[Magic Power: 312]

[Magic Control: 818]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 130]]

[Celestial Affinity: 130]

[Warmth of the Sun: 106]

[Medicine: 112]

[Center of the Galaxy: 101]

[Phases of the Moon: 74]

[Eyes of the Milky Way: 88]

[Veil of the Aurora: 67]

[Vastness of the Stars: 72]

[Class 2: [Firebug - Fire: Lv 20]]

[Fire Affinity: 20]

[Fire Resistance: 14]

[Fire Conjuration: 20]

[Fire Manipulation: 20]

[Fuel for the Fire: 6]

[: ]

[: ]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 72]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 72]

[Pretty: 98]

[Vigilant: 106]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 106]

[Ranger's Lore: 5]

[Running: 70]

[Learning: 105]

Chapter 60 – Adventures in Virinum V

I seethed as the three adventurers bustled around me. I was not a thing. I was not property. I wasn’t some errant dog that needed to be fetched back.

The whole legality of it was probably questionable to boot – probably why they’d smuggled me out of the town, instead of going through the gates during daylight. How had they pulled that off anyways? Probably bribed some smugglers or something. Jackasses, the lot of them. Arrest all the smugglers! Throw ‘em all to the lions!

First, I needed to get out of here. The three stooges had demonstrated that in a fight, or running away, I was no match for them at all. Also, while they weren’t actively harming, attacking, or trying to capture me, [Oath] was a nuisance, and was insisting I shouldn’t try to murder them in their sleep. If it wasn’t active self-defense, it didn’t count. No pre-emptive self-defensing, it didn’t work.

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. Planning for later, for when I saw their setup. First, cooperate, get out of the mud prison I was in, get my arms and legs fixed. There was no running away on no mana and broken limbs.

A panicked thought flitted through my mind. What if they didn’t let me go? What if they just left me like this, and my [Warmth of the Sun] combined with whatever low-level healing the mud was doing caused my bones to set all wrong? Could I even heal that? What if I was a deformed cripple for life?

[Center of the Galaxy] kicked back in, turning back on, distancing me from the panic, taking away the sharp edge of pain, giving me clear thinking again. Gods, I wish I’d known I could be tortured until the skill broke. I’d have been 60% less defiant. I was going to give Artemis an earful when I next saw her.

Nah, not Artemis. Maximus. It was his fault clearly, not mine. Plus, Artemis wasn’t the skills expert, that was Maximus.

Thinking of Artemis and Maximus made me tear up again. Would I see them again? Would I fail to escape, and get locked away in a gilded prison for years? I shook my head. Be positive! I’d gotten away once; I’d get away again. On one hand, it’d be harder – people knew I was trying to escape. On the other hand, easier. No town guards to pass through – not that they’d particularly care if I was just running away. A benefit! Higher levels. More survival skills. [Ranger’s Lore] would stop dumb mistakes I’d made the first time I’d run away. It would help me pack. It would help me setup a campsite. It would help me hunt for survival.

That all assumed I didn’t make a break for on the road. Although, if I made it all the way to Aquiliea, I should escape in the direction of Ranger HQ at the capital – it was a much shorter trip than trying to catch back up with the rest of the team.

Speaking of, I wonder when they’d try to find… me…

Holy shit, was that Arthur?

[Eyes of the Milky Way] was a passive like [Warmth of the Sun], which was to say, it was always on, and it couldn’t be disabled. Well, my other skills weren’t disabled, my mana regeneration was disabled, which effectively disabled them. Same difference. If I hadn’t drained my knife and earrings earlier in the day with my healing marathon, I’d be able to draw them in, and use skills.

Back to Arthur. A large, wriggling mass of a person – roughly the size of a mountain fallen over – was moving around on the ground, full of sticks and muds and reeds. However, it seemed that he relied quite a bit on darkness, and with [Eyes], I was able to see him – well, his muddy outline – well.

I eyed my captors. I eyed Arthur. Had he seen me? Was it worth calling out? What would I call out to let Arthur know I was here, without tipping off my captors I was alerting someone? Fuckit. [Galaxy] was back up, and if they decided to beat me again, I’d pretend I was in pain.

I'd take the risk. I worked my jaw furiously to get rid of the gag they'd placed on me, managing to get it open a hair, enough to get some sound out.

I took a deep breath, looking at Arthur, and yelled out.

"Helen of Troy!"

Lumberjack came over and slapped me, hard, my head whipping back and hitting the dried, hardened exterior of the mud prison.

"Shut up! No yelling! Who’s that?" He demanded to know.

I thought fast. Eh, why not give the truth.

"Kidnapped person from a story, brought across the sea. That’s who I am now! Helen of Troy!"

"What the fuck is Troy?" Swimmer demanded, a small, sharp, curved diving knife playing in his hands.

"I’d shrug, but I can’t. It’s a story. Who says the place she’s from has to exist?"

Swimmer pressed the sharp edge of the knife against my cheek, gentle running it down my face. I shuddered.

"No more yelling. Understand?"

I didn’t dare to even nod. I just moved my eyes up and down rapidly, blinking away my terror. Thank the gods for the System.

The mercenaries kept moving around, and the cart lurched into motion. Silver lining time – this was the smoothest ride ever – the mud was absorbing all the shocks, and it was like I was in a luxury car. Minus the bindings. I looked around, trying to spot Arthur.

No Arthur. Nothing. Had he moved on? Did he notice me? I was kinda hard to miss, but at the same time, a head in a pile of mud wasn’t the most obvious way of IDing someone.

Less than a minute into our travels, I heard a high-pitched screaming arrow come nearby, along with a fast-moving light moving high up.

Arthur’s emergency signal.

I started laughing with joy, I started crying with relief. I hadn’t been forgotten. I hadn’t been abandoned. Not only was I found, I was found almost immediately. I’d been scared that it would take them until morning, until Kallisto stumbled back to the Argo, for them to realize I was missing. No, they’d caught on early, and with all the beefs I had about Arthur, I was willing to forgive every single one. Bless our scout. Bless his tracking. I’d sing The Iliad every night for a month if he got me out of this!

"Boss, I don’t like that arrow. Looks and feels like a signal." Idiot Mage said. "We should move faster."

"Yes, let’s move faster. How?" Lumberjack replied, voice dripping with sarcasm. "We can only move as fast as the mule. Stay on your toes, but there shouldn’t be anyone chasing us."

Idiot Mage grumbled to himself. Swimmer came back over, murder in his eyes, twirling his knife around his finger.

"You. I told you to shut up, and yet, you keep making loud noises. What do I need to do," At that he crouched down, gripping the sides of my jaw, forcing my mouth open. He grabbed my tongue, pulling it out. "cut your tongue off?"

I made noises of protest, shaking my head as much as I could with my tongue stretched out, eyes glued to the knife.

"I think you need a bit of a reminder. What I said last time didn’t stick."

He slowly, cruelly, carved shallow slices in my cheeks, four horizontal lines, blood welling up and falling quickly, giving me the appearance of crying blood.

"This is your last warning. Next time, it’s your tongue."

I shut up, not wanting to say a thing, not wanting to provoke Swimmer further. Arthur’s signal had been less than a minute ago, it took time. I just needed to stall for time, and by that, I mean not get murdered before the calvary arrived.

"Why’s the mule so damn slow tonight?" Lumberjack growled. Idiot Mage snapped back. "It’s nighttime! This is the best mule we could afford! No shit it’s going to be slow at night!"

I heard gentle footsteps land – probably Swimmer, since he was the graceful one, Lumberjack would thud and I could barely see Idiot Mage out of the corner of my eye.

"Boss, problem." Swimmer half-yelled, half-whispered out, in that low, urgent tone. "Someone hit the mule. There’s an arrow in its leg, that’s why it’s moving so slowly."

Lumberjack made a disgusted noise. Being purely audio sucked.

"How did you not notice this earlier?" He said.

"It wasn’t here earlier, I swear!" Swimmer protested. "I think someone’s after us."

I smiled, my face out of sight, a cold, vicious smile. Arthur. He was hunting them, and trying to do it in a way to not spook them while everyone else came. He might be able to pick off all three by himself, but there was no need to. It’d be risky, and unlike me, where they had to hold back, they could go for the kill on Arthur. Or just kill me outright. Either way, waiting was the right move.

I just hated it so. I wanted to be free. I needed to be free. To be out of this prison. To dance on their graves. Bah. Someone else would have to make the graves – and make it fast.

Gods I needed to pee. I hope they had some sort of plan for that. Patience Elaine. Patience is a virtue. I needed to just breathe in, breathe out, and wait.

I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaated waiting. Despised it. I needed to tap. I needed to shift awkwardly. I needed to channel my restless leg syndrome. I’d hum and sing dumb songs if I wasn’t terrified of Swimmer and his knife. Let me check if I got any levels from all that fighting earlier.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 131! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Celestial Affinity] has reached level 131!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Warmth of the Sun] has reached level 108!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Center of the Galaxy] has reached level 105!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Eyes of the Milky Way] has reached level 89!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Veil of the Aurora] has reached level 70!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Firebug] has leveled up to level 21! +2 Free Stats, +2 Mana, +1 Mana Regen, +3 Magic power, +1 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Strength from your Element!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Firebug] has leveled up to level 26! +2 Free Stats, +2 Mana, +1 Mana Regen, +3 Magic power, +1 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Strength from your Element!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Affinity] has reached level 26!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Conjuration] has reached level 26!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Manipulation] has reached level 26!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Resistance] has reached level 22!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Vigilant] has reached level 107!]

Welp, if I survived this, those levels would be good. Sadly, none of them helped me get out of this.

An eternity passed, slowly moving forward as the three stooges were jumpy. I couldn’t see them, but the occasional gasp and thunk let me know what was going on. I grinned to myself. Served them right.

A screaming arrow appeared again, taking the mule in the throat, stopping the cart dead. I felt a flash of sympathy for the poor animal – it never did anything wrong – but that was quickly overwhelmed by my desire to be free, hope that help had arrived to save me.

"Rangers!" A voice I recognized as Julius announced. "Weapons down, hands up, out of the wagon!"

"Hang on," Lumberjack yelled from inside the wagon, one hand raised up, one hand on his axe, head lowered to the ground. "Let’s talk-"

Artemis was obviously around, and was in no mood for talking. A rock, larger than normal – I could tell by the sound – went whizzing past me, and from the sickening sound of crushed flesh, shattering bone, and the spray of blood that went up, hit her mark.

No notification for me. He was either alive, or the System didn’t credit me with being involved. Go go team Ranger! Go Julius! Go Artemis! Smash them all!

I hated them. I hated them with a passion I hadn’t realized I could muster up. I despised Kerberos, loathed him, but didn’t hate. Not like this. Not in a visceral way. I wanted to see the suffer. I wanted them to beg, like they’d made me beg.

[Oath] demanded that I do no harm, that I heal those sick and injured. It didn’t demand that I was a perfect person, that I had to think like a saint. All in all, better that someone else do the grave-making. I had some dancing sandals ready.

Swimmer and Idiot Mage promptly left the wagon, hands held up high.

"Down on the ground. Artemis, disable." Julius was giving out orders, both blades out, tensed up. Maximus and Artemis were next to him, none of them in armor, both holding weapons. Maximus had a bog-standard weapon for once – a spear – I guess it was because he’d been in a rush. The two lay down, and Artemis crouched down between them, putting her hand on both their head. A flicker of lighting, and they both stiffened up. Maximus moved forward, putting his spear behind Swimmer’s head.

Artemis got up and sprinted over to me, still bound by mud.

"Elaine, oh gods Elaine, are you ok?" She asked, starting to rip the mud from me.

"No." I choked out, tearing up. I was far from ok. I was rescued, but I wasn’t ok.

Artemis took a look down at the mud, at my tear, blood, and grime streaked face, and her face softened even more. She concentrated, waved her hand, and the mud flew off of me, revealing me with my broken limbs, glowing mud still attached. She focused, grabbed the glowing patches, and peeled them off of me, one at a time.

Rage! Barely contained rage etched every line of Artemis’s face. I wanted to curl up to her as she held me. I didn’t. I don’t think I could move my arms, although my mana was now regenerating at a good clip. Soon. I’d be fixed soon.

"Mage." I croaked out, nodding towards Idiot Mage who was down on the ground.

"Shhh, we know, rest." Artemis said, pulling me closer and hugging me. I buried my face in her chest and cried.

"Julius-" Artemis said, only for him to cut her off.

"I know. I have eyes." He said, fury in his voice.

"Arthur, Maximus – take this one," He said, kicking Idiot Mage. "off to the side and interrogate him. We need the works. Artemis and I will handle this idiot."

A sigh of exasperation came from the bushes – Arthur didn’t like being called out that he was there. A chuckle slipped through my lips through my sobs. Heh. I’d caught Arthur sneaking around.

I focused, using the small amount of mana I’d regained so far to fix the smallest problems I had. I should just wait and start fixing the major problems, but I couldn’t.

"Alright." Julius said, poking Swimmer with the business end of his sword. "Start talking."

Chapter 61 – Adventures in Virinum VI

"First, name. Level. Stats." Julius ordered.

Swimmer promptly answered all the questions. I looked over. He looked like he was both metaphorically, and physically, sweating. Good.

I mustered some energy together. "Julius, heads up." I said. "If you hurt him, I’ll need to defend and heal him. I don’t have the energy to right now."

Julius looked at me, face morphing from enraged to concerned. He nodded.

"Alright, I’ll keep that in mind. You." He said, poking Swimmer with his foot. "Keep in mind that I’ve just gone from ‘poke you with the sword’ to ‘run you through’, so don’t think you’re in a better spot now."

"Now, why were you hunting our team?"

"Your team!?" Swimmer cried out, terrified. "Nobody told us we were hunting a Ranger! We were told to bring back a runaway girl."

Julius looked like he wanted to poke Swimmer more, but thought better of it.

"Why? How did you find her?"

"We figured out she was heading north, and Virinum’s the first town north. We got a hair sample, and waited here. The pay was amazing, so we just waited. Heard about a healer girl in the market, I have a skill that helps with smells, confirmed on smells, confirmed by a description of her looks, confirmed on skills and name, so we watched and waited. She had that big fellow with her – we assumed she was shacking up with him for protection or something – and when the two got separated, we struck."

Kallisto, that bastard. He’d never hear the end of it from me. By the look on Julius’s face, he’d never hear the end of it from Julius either.

"How did you get her hair?" He asked.

"We had to steal it from her parent’s house. They were completely uncooperative. Said she’d taken her chance, that she’d run away, and she’d make it or not on her own skills, and they weren’t going to help anyone trying to bring her back. Had to sneak in while they were gone to get some hair and clothes for a scent."

Go mom! Go dad! My feelings towards them was complicated, to say the least. On one hand, they basically tried to force my life with an arranged marriage to Kerberos. I didn’t appreciate that in the slightest, and was still sour about it. On the other, I did love them, I knew they loved me, and I recognized that, as ill-guided as it was, they were trying to do what they thought was best for me. Almost every person in Remus got married, arranged by their parents. Even most people in the army were married! Artemis was the exception. Artemis, and a few priests, and most Rangers for that matter. In retrospect, I realize they had tried their hardest to get me a "good" future by their standards. Someone my age – not someone nearly twice my age. Someone they put effort into, not just any old person. Someone that promised a secure and safe future, almost no matter how badly things went, it was hard to lose that type of generational wealth their family had.

They just failed miserably on the character check. Or maybe Kerberos could be charming in public. Either way, in spite of their best efforts, their real attempt at trying to improve my life, it wasn’t for me, and here I was.

I hadn’t realized until now that they, if not supported my running away, were ok with it, and waiting to see what happened, of all things. Bizarre. I guess Artemis was more of an influence on them than I expected, or maybe she’d primed them with her runaway talks. Or maybe they figured "Ah, she’ll come home when she’s ready to, and someone dragging her back won’t help at all."

One day I’d need to have a real talk with them about all this. My emotions were complicated regarding it, and coming down off of the kidnapping high was doing me no favors in sorting them out. I’d keep sending them letters, letting them know I was ok. It was the least I could do. They had earned it.

Then again, they’d never ask me or try to convince me to runaway – it’s like being a comedian. Only people that do it in spite of being told not to succeed. Either way, it sounded like I’d get no grief from them.

I felt my heart swelling with love, and with that, more hate towards Swimmer.

More than a bit of hate was bleeding over to Kerberos.

Julius continued to interrogate Swimmer, hardly flinching when he described the fights against me, how they’d worked together to break me, physically and mentally. My mana was being restored at a good pace, and I healed my limbs one at a time, crying in relief, curling up to Artemis. She continued to hold me, stroking my hair as she glared murder at Swimmer.

Lumberjack was lucky he’d died quickly. I think if Artemis had the full story, he wouldn’t have died nearly so fast. I started to breathe fast, rapidly, panting. He was dead. He was gone. I needed to burn that damn axe, but it was over. I was safe.

Julius and Maximus met and talked, clearly comparing notes on the stories being told by the adventurers.

Julius pulled me aside, and asked me for my version of the events. I told him everything.

"Good thinking on the Eagle in flames. The guard promptly got us, asking us what the fuck was up with that. You being with Kallisto, his usual habits, and knowing you had fire, we put one and one together pretty fast. Otherwise it would have taken us ages to find you, the trail would’ve been cold, and this could have turned out much worse."

He paused, looking at me.

"Elaine, are you ok?"

I thought about it some, Artemis’s arms wrapping around me. I shrugged.

"Maybe. I’m getting better."

Julius’s eyes turned cold and steely.

"They’ll pay. Kerberos will pay as well. Nobody- and I mean nobody, not a Sentinel, not a Senator, forget slimeballs – attacks a Ranger and gets away with it. What do you want done?" Julius asked me.

I shuddered. Artemis to the rescue!

"Julius, you can’t ask her that." She said.

Julius frowned. "Artemis, if she’s a Ranger, she needs to be able to hold her own. She needs to make the hard choices."

"Oh nonsense." Artemis snapped back. "Her skill binds her to only make one decision. Or do you think asking for someone to be executed will slide past ‘First, do no harm’? Look, there’s no real question on the events, or the guilt, right?"

"Right." Julius agreed.

"It’s easy. Kill the last two, stick their head on a pike, call it a day." Artemis suggested. "See watch."

"Artemis, wai-" Julius was too slow, as Artemis threw a blindly fast rock at Swimmer, who was still lying down. She followed it up with a burst of lightning, blinding and deafening me from point-blank range.

I blinked, clearing my eyes, ears ringing. A quick shot of healing, and I could properly hear again.

"Elaine, I know you can hear me because you’d heal yourself immediately. You probably won’t be in the situation, but if you need to do something that Julius isn’t going to like, make sure you do it before he orders you not to." She sighed dramatically. "Unfortunately, I won’t be able to get the second one."

Julius finished blinking the bolts out of his eyes. "Artemis!" He yelled at her. She tightened her hold on me. "Hey, you didn’t order me not to. You know I don’t like leaving threats behind." Julius was hopping mad.

"You know not to murder prisoners! That shouldn’t have to be an order! I order you not to murder our last captive in cold blood. Let’s head back, I think we have the full picture."

"Hang on." I said, wriggling out of Artemis’s grip. "Prick had some of my stuff. Stole it off of me." I said, rolling over the extra-crispy dead body. Large hole through the chest. I looked on the other side. Even worse on the front, where the rock had exploded through. Ewwww.

Whatever. I’d seen enough damaged, injured, and dead bodies at this point to be somewhat numb to death. I grabbed his pouch, and opened it up.

My earrings! They were on top, and it took me a moment to process what was under them.

Pearls. Dozens of pearls. All different shades of soft pink to white, all large and white and shiny. Artemis popped her head over.

"Wow, he sure stole a bunch of stuff from you. Good thing you managed to find those pearls again."

Julius stalked off to where Idiot Mage was being kept. "I heard nothing!" He yelled back.

I glanced at Artemis. "You know, Idiot Mage’s still back there." I said.

"Nah. I gotta stick with you for now." She said, wrapping her arm around me in a sort of side-hug. "Going to stick with you for the rest of the trip for that matter. Can’t let my little healy-bug get hurt."

I leaned into her, appreciating the sentiment.

"Don’t hurt Kallisto too much. I did agree, and really, how often are we actually attacked when in town?"

Artemis rolled her eyes.

"Fine, fine, I’ll go medium on him."

"Hang on, I gotta do something." I said, reaching back into the wagon, finding Lumberjack’s axe. I looked at it, the dread instrument that’d broken me, shattered me. I focused on it, willing it to burn.

And burn it did, hot, fiery. It burned until there was nothing left but a red-hot axe head and ashes. Couldn’t quite get my flames hot enough to melt iron or steel, whatever it was.

Julius and co showed up, Idiot Mage walking along, hands bound together, binding back up to his neck.

"Back to Virinum we go. We’ll hand him over to the guard once we’re there." He said.

"Sorry." Idiot Mage whispered to me.

"Sorry? SORRY!?" I turned to him, furious, pushing off Artemis’s hands on my shoulders. "The only thing you’re sorry about is being caught! Abducting a girl, sure! Suffocating her, of course! Beating and torturing her until she stops struggling, why not! If I didn’t have a team, if I wasn’t a Ranger, you’d be merrily carting me off to Aquiliea, letting Swimmer carve out pieces of my face. The only – only – reason you’re still alive is I have a skill that’ll punish me if I burn you where you stand. You’re not sorry at all. You just hate that you got caught."

My [Oath] was a tricky thing at times. Other times, it was crystal clear what needed to be done, as much as I hated it, as much as I didn’t want to do it. An Oath, a promise, a vow, isn’t just for when things are easy. It’s not just to cover the convenient cases. It’s always. It’s a way of life, no matter how much I hated him, no matter how much I despised him and wished Artemis would disobey orders and fry him.

He was a creature in pain. I swore I’d see him as such, and nothing else, when it came time to heal.

I grabbed him, and viciously imagined him being healed back to full health. I didn’t hit him with [Vastness], and I didn’t imagine it in a gentle way. I hoped it hurt.

Pain while healing was, after all, not harm. It was simply a part of healing. It was no violation of the letter of my [Oath].

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Oath of Elaine to Lyra] has reached level 107!]

….

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Oath of Elaine to Lyra] has reached level 110!]

I eyed my notifications. I probably could’ve gotten more levels if I’d forgiven him, and healed him with all my heart. Filling the spirit of the [Oath] would’ve helped.

Damn him though. I wasn’t in a forgiving mood.

Julius was chatting with the other Rangers, Maximus continuing to point a spear at Idiot Mage. I caught part of the conversation as I was invited in.

"I’m thinking of going to Aquiliea myself to handle this." Julius said. "Artemis, you’d be in charge. I can’t have someone putting a bounty on a Ranger – no matter how unintended – and get away with it."

I surprised myself by jumping in.

"No." I said.

Julius turned to me, cocking his head.

"No, Kerberos is my problem. I’m not saying we need to let him off the hook, but he’s mine to deal with. I won’t be able to deal with him now – I don’t have nearly the speed or ability to travel alone like you do – but I insist I handle him. He’s my chain to break. I want to make him pay. I need to make him pay." I paused, saying the next part with conviction, with hate.

"Don’t get me wrong. I will handle him."

Julius eyed me.

"Fine. But I’m sending a letter back to Aquiliea, letting the local guard know. Him – and his family – are going to have to pay an incredibly stiff fine. Unless they’re extremely wealthy, it’s going to mean slavery for one or more of them, but not for terribly long."

I looked down, kicking a rock. "They are disgustingly rich." I muttered. Julius gave me a Look.

"And you still bailed on them?" He said, disbelievingly.

"Yeah. Kerberos was a prick. Not doing it."

Julius gave a low whistle.

"I’d known the why, I just hadn’t quite realized all the details. Good on you." He said, patting my shoulder.

We reached the gates of town, open for once at this time of night, manned by guards holding torches up high.

"Did you find her?" One of the guards called out.

"Yes. Killed most of the team that kidnapped her. They were moderately high level. Got her back in one piece." Julius reported back.

There were some cheers, and some grumbling, as a bunch of coins changed hands. Really? Gambling on my life, my fate, if I’d be alive or found chopped up into a dozen pieces? I took a deep breath. I remembered the patrols I’d tagged along with. The joking nature that many guards had, even on serious cases. It was their way of staying sane. I was just another case, another "dead or alive" coinflip to them. I was alive, people were happy. I should just let it be, not be another victim who screamed bloody murder over the whole thing.

I was never gambling like that again though.

I was never going to be a victim again.

Artemis grabbed my hand, and steered me through the crowd, through the streets, until we’d found a bath that was still open. She guided me in, and we sank into the dark steam together, Artemis continuing to hold me, reassuring in her presence, letting me know I wasn’t alone.

I cried again, held by Artemis, the memory of the brutal beating going through my mind again. She reassured me, listened to me as I told the whole story again, running a hand down my arms as I mentioned them breaking, showing me that they were firm and whole again.

She was, more than anything, there for me, with me in the dark hour, a flickering beacon showing me light and hope.

I must’ve dozed off at some point, because the next thing I knew, I was waking up in the wagon, curled up to Artemis who was hugging me in her sleep, protecting me, shielding me.

Chapter 62 – Leaving Virinum

I got up, yawned, stretched. Artemis rolled over, muttering something unintelligible. I leaned back, pressing up against some chest of supplies or another, and just waited for Artemis to be awake enough to hang out with.

It was the least I could do after last night.

Kallisto eventually showed up, popping his head into the Argo.

"Hey Elaine! Glad to see you made it back safely last night!" He said, dropping off some supplies and picking up some other stuff.

I glared murder at him. Artemis woke up fully at that, and glared extra-murder at him. Kallisto paled.

"Errr… did something happen I should know about…?" He asked sheepishly.

I had fully intended to give Kallisto a dose of [Vastness of the Stars] before Artemis got to him. Oh well.

We all stared at each other for a moment, in some sort of strange stand-off.

"Kallisto." I said, deciding to be somewhat helpful. "Run."

To his credit, he was off like a shot, but there was no beating lightning. I stayed in the Argo, listening to poor Kallisto’s fate. If I paid enough attention, I’d be able to hear his last words. Maybe carve them on his barrow.

"She’s a girl! Not a fully grown man! It’s dangerous for her to walk streets alone, at night, in the shit part of town!"

"But Artemis, she agreed!" Kallisto tried to defend himself.

I peeked out to see what was happening, only to see lightning branching out from Artemis’s fingers, playing over Kallisto, writhing on the ground. Some less-than-convincing screaming was coming from Kallisto.

"Agony. Oh Agony." I raised an eyebrow at that. Not in as much trouble as I’d feared.

"Of course she’d agree to your hairbrained scheme, she’s desperate to stay with us! You. Do. Not. Leave. Her. Alone."

Each of those last words were punctuated with a sharp crack of thunder, hammering the point home to Kallisto.

I tuned out what was happening. He was the tank anyways, and Artemis clearly knew what she was doing. If it got out of hand – which I doubted it would, Artemis had control – there were some other Rangers around. I wasn’t going to stick my nose in that.

What she said was interesting though. I reflected on myself somewhat. Would I really go through any hairbrained scheme, for risk of being kicked out otherwise?

Well, yes and no. Anything obviously bad I wouldn’t participate in. For example, jumping off a bridge. Might be able to survive that though. Would I jump off a bridge if asked or ordered to?

Oh fuck, Artemis was completely right. I would jump off a bridge for the team. I’d probably figure "eh, there’s a reason for it, and I can probably heal myself after", or some other ludicrous self-deluded reasoning. I’d go along with almost any hairbrained scheme that wasn’t "Jump into a meat grinder", or "season yourself and jump into the dino’s mouth", or equally really far out-there requests.

Note to self- reflect on, and think about what I was being asked to do. Follow orders. Think about requests.

Things with Artemis were safe.

Probably safe, I mentally amended to myself, looking at Artemis’s latest stunt. Oooh, that had to hurt.

After some time, Artemis lifted herself back into the Argo. Wordlessly, I headed out, to see a somewhat well-done Kallisto lying on the ground, staring at the sky. I rolled my eyes at his melodrama.

I crouched down, touched him, and healed him all the way back.

"Woo thanks Elaine!" He said, more cheerfully than I’d believe possible. Did he have a [Play Dead] skill or something? "Last time Artemis did that, it stung for a week!"

"Last time?" I asked skeptically, wanting to know more.

"Yeah, when we first got this team together, I tried to get, well, together, with Artemis. She gave a prompt lesson about keeping things professional."

I helped him up, and he turned to me, half-bowing, half-saluting.

"Elaine. I’d like to formally apologize for my actions last night. They were unbefitting a Ranger, and directly caused you harm. Can I make it up to you? Can you forgive me?"

I blinked, taken aback. I hadn’t expected something so sincere from him, taking responsibility and asking for forgiveness.

"Of course, I forgive you!" I said. I wasn’t so petty, so small-minded, that I couldn’t figure out who the real culprit was. Kerberos, and the mercenaries he hired, were the responsible ones. Not Kallisto. "You don’t need to do-" My brain caught up to what my mouth said, and I shut up. I was going to say ‘You don’t need to do anything to make it up to me.’, but this was a chance!

Hmmmm. Kallisto was always happy to give me tips on fighting, on socializing, like the rest of the Rangers were happy to teach me things. What could he do for me….?

Chores. Lots of chores.

"You can do my clean-up tasks." I smiled impishly at him. There were good reasons for me to learn how to do most tasks – setting up and breaking down camp, hunting, cleaning game, and dozens of other chores that I had to do along with the rest of the Rangers – but cleaning? I had two whole damn lifetimes of cleaning things up. I knew how to clean. There was no value in doing it more, and there was no ‘learning’ anything.

"Sure! I’ll be happy to do your clean-up tasks until the next town!" Kallisto smiled brightly, happy to have been forgiven, happy to be let off the hook.

I shook my head.

"No no, you misunderstand me." Kallisto’s smile vanished. "For the rest of the round. Until we’re at Ranger HQ." His face fell.

"Can’t you just roast me for a few minutes like Artemis?" He whined. I pointed at him.

"Maybe this will give you an appreciation for all the women who are expected to clean up after men their entire life! It’s only a bit more than a year and a half, you’ll survive. Who knows, maybe it’ll help you on your adventures!"

"Fine, fine, it’s what you want, I can do that for you." Kallisto said. "And again, I’m sorry. It won’t happen again."

I gave him a quick hug.

"Hey Healy-bug, you’re with me today. We only have a few days left in town, is there anything you need to do?" Artemis showed back up, probably didn’t want to loom over me while I was talking with Kallisto.

"Yeah, I want to talk with Kosmimatus, the jeweler. See if he can help me with-"

Artemis interrupted me.

"-those wonderful pearls of yours, that have always been yours. A gift, from your fiancé to you." She slowly nodded at me.

Right. Technically should be handed over to the local authorities. Everyone was willing to turn a blind eye in this case, but it was a reminder I shouldn’t be crowing about it, or announcing it.

"Yes, exactly! I also need to find a shop, and apologize for burning it in my desperation. Come with me Artemis?"

"Always healy-bug. Always. We should probably leave some coins quietly at the store though – not a good look to have Rangers committing arson in town, mmm?"

We headed back down to market, where Kosmimatus still had his stall, arranged in the same pattern as yesterday – and a line of people who seemed to want me.

"Elaine! My favorite healer! There you are!" Kosmimatus cried out happily, coming over with great exuberance, arms held out wide like he wanted to hug me. No word that it was almost lunch time, and I should’ve been here ages ago, per our agreement.

Artemis stepped in front me of, shielding me from Kosmimatus. "Hey, sorry, she had a rough night last night." Artemis said. "Kidnapped, beaten, tortured, the works. Give her a bit of a break, k?"

Kosmimatus paled, then brightened. "Ah, but you’re here now! Able to heal those who come!" His voice dropped, as he whispered conspiratorial to me. "Or you could join me! Become my personal healer! Just think, safety and security instead of Ranger Danger. I can pay better than they can!" He straightened up, winking at me.

I looked to Artemis, who had a careful poker face on.

"Nah, I’m good. I would like to make another deal with you though." I said, taking out the pearls I’d gotten. "I’d like to trade these in for some more Arcanite. And," I said, taking off my earrings. "These are horribly impractical in a fight. Can you make them a bit more robust, less likely to fall off or get tangled?"

Kosmimatus’s eyes went wide at the pearls. "Of course! Would you like a necklace, or something else?"

"Something else please – I have a pendant from my parents, and it’d just feel awkward wearing the pendant and a necklace or amulet."

"I assume you don’t want me to stud it with Arcanite?" He asked.

I nodded. "No thank you. I like it the way it is. Reminds me of home." I said, touching the pendant beneath my tunic.

"Well then! I have an idea. Trust my judgement?" He asked. I looked at Artemis, who shrugged.

"Julius and Kallisto are the mind readers, not me." She said. "Your call. You’ll never get better if you let other people barter for you."

Welp. On one hand, I trusted Kosmimatus a hair, to do his job. On the other, my experience trying to barter all those years ago reminded me that I was shit at bartering.

Might as well go for it.

"Can you add in a few coins? Add in whatever healing I’m doing today to it. Half the pearls now, half later?" I asked.

"Can do. As for the pearls, all now. I need to check the quality." Kosmimatus said. "No way do I risk pissing off the local Ranger squad while they’re in town. Your stuff is safe."

Kosmimatus went off to both rub elbows with people, sell things, and work on my stuff all at once. Busy man, I could see why he’d gone far with that sort of work ethic, and honestly, skills made it all possible. While a jeweler from Earth would need to spend hours crafting and making custom pieces, he seemed to be idly wiggling his fingers while in a conversation, bits of metal and pieces of Arcanite floating around in a swirl.

Time for me to do my part. Might as well grind some skills while I was here.

I sat down, and tended to a steady stream of patients, being rewarded with a few levels for my efforts.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 132! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic Power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Celestial Affinity] has reached level 132!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Warmth of the Sun] has reached level 109!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 75!]

After a few hours of work, things were starting to wind down a bit. Kosmimatus came back with the modified earrings.

They were a work of art. They were much more closely held to the ear, and surrounding the main Arcanite gem were dozens of tiny flecks of Arcanite, catching and reflecting light into thousands of tiny dazzling rainbows, little pinpricks of light.

"For you! Thank you!" He said, practically rubbing his hands in glee, passing me a tiny pouch filled with coins – my extra. "They shouldn’t move as much in a fight, and see, the edges are rounded," He flipped them over, showing the smooth backs and bottoms of the earrings. "so they won’t catch on things as you’re moving. Granted, I could make them something real special without the requirement, but, alas, you seem determined to continue on. Are you sure I can’t make you an offer to stay.....? I have a nephew that…"

Ack. And conversations with him had been going so well up until now.

"Thank you, it’s lovely. Not interested." I said curtly. My tone softened slightly, becoming more curious.

"Just for my knowledge, how badly did I get ripped off on this?"

Kosmimatus didn’t have the good grace to look guilty. "Everything is a business transaction. You’re happy, you got something of value. I’m happy, I got something of value. It’s hard to quantify just how much you’ve gotten from this, just like I won’t quantify how much I’ve gotten from this."

Artemis and I rolled our eyes in sync. Merchants.

We exchanged goodbyes, and headed back to the Argo, making a quick pit-stop in front of a lightly burned store. I dropped off the coins Kosmimatus left me in the owner’s hand, and walked away, ignoring his confused questions.

"Hey Arthur!" I said cheerfully, seeing him hanging around. "I’m not sure I mentioned it to you the other day, but my skill let me see you when you were trying to hide!"

He grunted. "Which one?"

"[Eyes of the Milky Way]. It lets me see in the dark, when the stars are shining."

"Mmmm. That might do it. At night I rely on light and shadows to help me hide – being able to see right through that hurts. It might also be penetrating other parts of my skills, so it makes sense."

He paused, thinking.

"I’ll have to keep in mind that, under the right conditions, you can see me when others can’t. Julius, Kallisto, and Origen are usually able to spot me when hiding, and I’ll flash signals and information to them. I’ll remember I can also do that with you."

We hung out for a while, Julius eventually showing up.

"Elaine, a reminder that tomorrow’s our last day here, then we’re heading out. Make sure you wrap up anything you need to do."

"Thanks! Will do." I said. I was pretty sure I was all set.

"On that note, I’ve had a long, long talk with Kallisto. I can’t get into all the details, but he’s being fairly harshly punished. Above and beyond what you, Artemis, and Arthur, and everyone else dished out. Don’t make a habit out of it." Julius said, giving me a Look.

"You’re also getting anti-charm training from him." Julius said. "It’s one of the standard courses all Rangers go through, and until the other day, I thought it was one of the more useless classes. Well, you’re going to get it now, and from one of the best." Julius finished.

I wanted to groan. More things to learn and do.

The next day, Artemis and I headed to the baths, our last chance to be properly clean for a long, long time.

While we were there, we had a talk about my free stats, and my physical skills.

"You’ll never be able to take hits like Kallisto can, or be as flexible as Maximus. Fire being your element isn’t doing you any favors – strength doesn’t do much for you. If only you were an Earth mage." Artemis signed dramatically. I hugged her reassuringly. She really wanted me to have been an Earth mage for her to train.

"With that being said, you want most of your points in speed and dexterity, with the occasional point in Vitality. You’ll stay alive by not getting hit, but you need enough vitality to not only keep up with what people are doing, but to survive when you are hit long enough to heal yourself. If you get pasted, there’s not enough left of you to heal."

"With that being said, I’m no Maximus. First, do you have enough points to get those three stats to level 50?"

"Yeah, I should have more than enough." Saying that, I put in my free stats, getting the three stats Artemis was talking about to 50.

Polyphemus would be proud – I finally got most of my physical stats to 50.

"Good. From here on out, for now, let’s distribute your stats 2 in dexterity, 2 in speed, and 1 in vitality. Keep 10 free points spare just incase there’s a problem."

I did what Artemis said, feeling a rush of power well up inside of me, flowing through me. I hadn’t gained this many stats all at once, as a percentage of my total, since I was a kid, and the feeling was indescribably strange.

Stats

[Free Stats: 10]

[Strength: 32]

[Dexterity: 64]

[Vitality: 57]

[Speed: 64]

"Ok, you’ve massively increased your physical stats. You’ve tripled your dexterity and doubled your speed. That’s going to have an impact. Try to swim a bit, get used to your new stats."

I tried cautiously moving, overshooting horribly and slipping down, into the water. Flailing, I managed to righten myself and stand up, only to see Artemis bent over double, howling with laughter.

"Ahahahahahahahahahahaha Oh gods that’s the funniest thing ever. Ahahahaha. Do it again! Do it again!" Artemis said between gasps of laughter.

"It’s not funny! I could’ve drowned!" I protested, moving violently to flip Artemis off, only to overbalance and splash down into the water again. A slender hand came down, grabbing me under the shoulder, hauling me up and out.

A few hours more of splashing around – I’m so glad we did this in an easy-to-fall area – and I had the hang of my new stats, my new body. I could now move with significantly more grace, more speed. I felt like the ugly duckling had become a swan. Look at me! Graceful.

[Pretty] should level up. Anyyyy second now.

Drat.

Artemis and I eventually left the baths, and did some shopping. I grabbed a few spare tunics, as cheap as I could get, for practice – I had no illusions about my clothes lasting any length of time – and the next day we were off.

To Perinthus. Home of MANGOS.

If there was any place I’d be convinced to settle, it’d be Perinthus.

Chapter 63 – Adventures on the way to Perinthus I

Of course, that conveniently ignored the fact that there were two more towns between here and Perinthus. We left town, and my training, and learning, from the Rangers redoubled. I worked on my skills – all of them, from class to general – and continued to learn all sorts of interesting tips, tricks, and Ranger knowledge. A few villages after Virinum, a couple of weeks later, and Artemis started another evening of training after our travelling was done.

"Elaine, your training with the bare-bone fundamentals of fighting are good enough. That’s not to say you’re any good, but you have enough of a foundation where we can move to the next step. I’m going to start teaching you how to use a shield and spear, because you’ll get a lot more value out of learning that immediately, to help keep you alive." Artemis started off training by letting me know I’d graduated to the next level of difficulty.

"For the most part, you won’t have the strength to be going through someone. As a result, your main goals are learning how to block, and learning how to brace the spear, to let a monster – or an idiot – impale themselves on it. Origen’s reinforced the spears, so they won’t break – either the monster will break, or the ground will break."

Artemis walked me through the proper way to hold one of the Legion shields, the proper way to hold a spear. They were long things, tapering off to a point, not at all like how I’d imagined a spear to be.

"Now, just because you’ve impaled something, doesn’t mean you’re safe – far from it. They’re now even closer to you, hurt, angry, and you’re the closest thing to them. Hunker behind this shield," She knocked on my shield for effect. "And possibly layer your skill-shield behind that."

I threw up a full-body [Veil], blocking a rock that Origen threw at me. Artemis glared at him.

"I’m trying to teach Elaine how to use a spear and shield!" She said with annoyance.

"Constant vigilance." Maximus said, not taking his eyes off the dinner he was cooking. I considered throwing a rock at him myself.

"Artemis, if you wind them up, they’ll make a game out of throwing pebbles at me all evening, and we’ll never get anything done. Come on." I said.

Artemis grumbled, correcting my stance, showing me how to thrust with a spear properly, and, possibly more important for me, how to run away while holding onto a spear.

She quickly amended that lesson to "how to run away without tripping over your spear."

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Learning] has reached level 106!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Ranger’s Lore] has reached level 23!]

"Good work Elaine." Artemis said, looking like none of the exertion had touched her. I was panting and sweaty, my tunic practically sticking to me.

"I have an idea." Artemis said, with a gleam of mischief, of happiness.

"What’s that?" I asked, dreading whatever was to come. Artemis’s ‘ideas’ usually meant more torment for me, and I was already beat from today’s exercises.

"A bath!" Artemis said happily.

"Yes, I’d love one. Where?" I asked, managing some sarcasm.

Instead of answering me, Artemis grabbed my hand, and we were off. To the stream we’d camped near.

I eyed the water. "Yeah, that’s nice… and…. cold…" I said, trailing off as the INCREDIBLY OBVIOUS application of fire magic came to me.

"I got it. You make the bath, I heat it up." I said, pieces of the puzzle clicking together.

"Yup! I can’t do it alone, you can’t do it alone, together, team ‘bath on the road!’" Artemis exclaimed happily.

"We gotta keep this a secret from everyone else. Otherwise they’ll all want a turn." I said, thinking fast. Also, more so thinking that if everyone wanted a turn, it would mean less for me.

Artemis carved out a small, cozy bath out of river mud – it didn’t need to be that firm – capturing some water with it. I blew all of my mana applying flames to the construct, and we settled down into the water, [Veil] providing a privacy shield.

The lukewarm water.

Ah well, it was a few degrees warmer than normal.

"Elaine." Artemis said, tone not too pleased. "We have got to get your Fire skills higher level."

I nodded agreement. Baths. A bath on every stop. I’d kill for one.

I’d probably have to.

The next day, I was driving the Argo, all by myself! I’d reached a level of proficiency with keeping the horses on more-or-less the straight and narrow – they were smart, they didn’t need much more from us – and since the rest of the Rangers were sick and tired of the ‘boring’ task, and I was the low girl on the totem pole, it was falling to me more and more often to stare at endless stretches of road, while everyone else was entertaining themselves however they saw fit. Gambling, dice, story-telling, hunting, exercise – there was a lot of "hurry up and wait" going on.

We were entering a forest, and I turned a bend to see some logs across the road, [Vigilant] going nuts.

No shit sherlock. I didn’t need [Vigilant] for this.

"Whoooooaaaa!" I called, pulling the reins back, slowing the horses to a stop. Men – former slaves, marked as dangerous by the brands on their forehead – stepped out from the forest, bows and spears at the ready.

"Halt!" A big, leader-like bandit called out. "The road here is dangerous! For just a small toll, we can clear the road for you, and make sure there’s no more danger for you in the forest!"

I rolled my eyes at him. Arthur was somewhere, and he was either hunting, or had an arrow trained on the bandit leader.

"Juliiiiuuuuuussss" I called over my shoulder. "We’re being robbed."

"Well, see how they do it!" Julius called back from inside, loud enough for me to hear, softly enough that the bandits wouldn’t.

"They want a toll for safe roads, and to remove the logs."

There was the sounds of a brief kerfuffle behind me, some yelling, the oh-so-familiar sound of someone getting smacked.

"Well, go on then. Pay them."

I grumbled in outrage. We were Rangers! Why were we paying a toll to bandits! This was totally, completely, unfair!

"How much is the toll?" I asked sourly.

"Half of all the coins and goods you have!" The bandit leader said menacingly.

"Julius, they want half." I yelled over my shoulder.

"Hey, pay attention to me!" The bandit leader yelled. "It could be… dangerous… not to."

I rolled my eyes at him.

"Eh, half’s fine. Ask if they have a governor’s writ, and which one. Pay them half your coins and see." Julius called back.

I grumbled. Why were we entertaining them?

"Apparently I’m supposed to pay you half of my coins." I said darkly. "My coins! My precious, hard-earned coins! By the way, do you have a governor’s writ, whatever that is?" I asked.

The bandit’s eyes narrowed at me. "We don’t have a writ, whatever that is. Now hand over your coins!"

I snorted at him, but opened up my pouch, checking how many coins were on me. I kept a good amount of my stash in my chest inside the Argo, but I never knew when I’d need some.

20 coins total. I counted out 10 and tossed them to the leader, throwing them one at a time. This one high, this one fast, let’s see if I can brain him.

"Listen here you little shit," The bandit leader was starting to get into a real rage at my cavalier treatment of him, and my complete lack of concern over the robbery.

He never got a chance to.

"I surrender." One of the bandits near the back dropped his spear, raising his hands up. All of us – bandits, bandit leader, me, and I swear I felt some eyes peeking out of the wagon – turned and looked towards him.

"What!?" The bandit leader stomped over and cuffed him over the head. "What do you mean, ‘I surrender’? We’re the Brazen Bunch! We rob travelers-"

One of the bandits coughed at that. "Take tolls boss, we take tolls."

The bandit leader let out an exasperated sigh.

"We take tolls, we don’t surrender to the people giving us protection money! How are we supposed to intimidate-"

The same bandit coughed again. "Protect. Boss, protect, not intimidate."

"You. Shut up." The bandit leader pointed to the interrupting bandit with a lung problem. "How are we supposed to protect anyone if we’re surrendering to them!?"

"Boss, think about it." The kneeling, surrendering bandit said. "Wagon with just a healer girl at the reins. A really fucking high level healer for a girl her age. She has absolutely no fear whatsoever of us – like she’s completely sure she’s protected. She doesn’t give two shits about us, our weapons, or that she’s surrounded. She’s playing games with the coins she’s throwing at us! I don’t know what’s in that wagon, but she’s talking with them, seeing if we should be ‘allowed’ to rob her. I know my odds are better surrendering now, than dealing with whatever’s in there. Look, our best-case odds are the girl’s the daughter of some rich citizen, and she’s driving for a lark, and the wagon’s full of second-rate bodyguards. I have no idea what the worse-case is, but it can’t be good."

That prompted a few bandits to pause and think.

"Or she has an acting class, or skill, and she’s bluffing! You, girl! Open the wagon up! We’re searching it for contraband!"

"Julius, they want to search the wagon." I called out over my shoulder.

"No, they’re not allowed." Julius called back.

"Sorry, you’re not allowed." I told them back. This game of telephone was getting annoying.

One bandit dropped his weapons and ran. We all stared after him in silence. The bandit leader facepalmed.

"This is getting ridiculous." He said. "Our first robbery, and it’s going all to shit."

Interrupting "bandit" – not sure he deserved the title anymore – coughed again. The fakest noise you’d ever heard.

Julius sighed, loudly enough that everyone heard him.

"Elaine, your acting sucks." He said, emerging from the Argo, full armor on, Ranger Eagle pinned to his chest. "Also, make sure you stall longer next time. Well, Brazen Bunch is it?" Julius asked, looking down on them.

There were a chorus of cries of dismay. "Aww fuck, we just tried to rob the Rangers." One of the bandits cried out. The bandit that had preemptively surrendered started chuckling.

"SHUT UP!" Roared the bandit leader. "What does the local Ranger group want? We’re not going back, but we’re not looking for a fight." He said, tightening his grip on his spear.

"Well, mostly I wanted to check if you were a reasonable sort or not. You passed. Not a murderous lot, seem mostly new to this, not inclined to kill people at a moment’s notice, and you’re offering protection along this stretch of road. Here’s your chance at being conscripted into the guard of whatever town’s nearest, getting a Governor’s Writ, and being licensed to guard caravans on the road. What say you?"

The bandit’s eyes were as large as saucers.

"What about us being runaways?" The bandit leader asked suspiciously. Julius shrugged. "I don’t really care about that, nor will the governor. Rather, I’ll make sure he won’t."

An arrow went whizzing from the bushes, close to Julius’s face, impacting one of the bandits with a bow, who went down, foam bubbling from his mouth, blood from his eyes.

I snapped my shield up, careful not to include Julius. I scrambled up, scrambled back, and dropped it right before entering the Argo.

There was some yelling going on outside, but it was strangely peaceful yelling. I popped back out. Arthur was there.

Ah right. That had been one of Arthur’s trademark poison arrows, not the bandits starting to shoot at us. From the look and sound of things, further blows had been avoided.

"Sorry boss. He was lining up to take a shot."

The bandit leader spat.

"He hated the government. Hated the Army, Rangers, Sentinels, Investigators, tax collectors," There were unanimous sounds of agreement from all of us at that one. Common hatred for taxes uniting us all! "all government workers. I can believe it."

I looked at him. "You seem pretty chill for us having just killed one of your men."

"Yeah, well, he almost killed our chance at legitimacy. Not needing to camp in the cold? Being able to buy freely? He just joined recently, didn’t know him that well. Eh." He shrugged.

"Speaking of though," The bandit leader asked. "How can we get anything done with these brands?" He pointed to the brand on his forehead, same as most of the bandits had. A mark, indicating someone was a dangerous slave, usually due to a combination of skills, and a willingness to use them against others.

Julius smiled.

"It just so happens that we have a powerful Celestial healer with us. If you take us up on our offer, you can negotiate with her to get your brands removed."

"How much?" The bandit leader asked. "We can’t afford expensive healing." He said with a frown.

I felt my face grinning, channeling the Cheshire Cat, almost splitting my face as my lips stretched ear-to-ear.

"Half of your coins. Plus ten."

If looks could kill, I’d be dead at the sour look on the bandit leader’s face. He brightened up quickly though, and started tossing coins at me, one at a time.

Some high. Some low. Some fast. Some "Let’s try to brain Elaine." I scrambled to catch them, the points I’d been putting in dexterity and speed paying off.

Fair enough Mr. Bandit. Fair enough.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 14]

[Mana: 3560/3560]

[Mana Regen: 5864]

Stats

[Free Stats: 13]

[Strength: 33]

[Dexterity: 64]

[Vitality: 57]

[Speed: 64]

[Mana: 356]

[Mana Regeneration: 799]

[Magic Power: 359]

[Magic Control: 859]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 132]]

[Celestial Affinity: 132]

[Warmth of the Sun: 109]

[Medicine: 114]

[Center of the Galaxy: 105]

[Phases of the Moon: 77]

[Eyes of the Milky Way: 89]

[Veil of the Aurora: 74]

[Vastness of the Stars: 73]

[Class 2: [Firebug - Fire: Lv 27]]

[Fire Affinity: 27]

[Fire Resistance: 23]

[Fire Conjuration: 27]

[Fire Manipulation: 27]

[Fuel for the Fire: 12]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 74]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 77]

[Pretty: 99]

[Vigilant: 109]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 111]

[Ranger's Lore: 23]

[Running: 70]

[Learning: 106]

Chapter 64 – Adventures on the way to Perinthus II

It took a few weeks, but we made it to the town of Genua without further noticeable incident, and had a nice week off, doing not much. It was a welcome relief from the road, the petty disputes we resolved, the random attacks, the urgent calls in the night. We left Genua, and headed to Salona, the next town on our route.

There was one of those lovely days in late winter when spring was pretending it had arrived, but it wasn’t quite around yet. No matter how I sliced it, it was a wonderful day, a blessed break from the nearly never-ending drizzle turning the ground to mud that was winter in Remus. A break, a change from when I’d left Aquiliea all that time ago in the late summer. Close to five, six months ago. An entire lifetime ago. I was part of the team now, a Ranger. The sky was clear and blue, the sun high and warm. We were a few days out from Salona, having lunch, when trouble struck.

Origen and Arthur were out hunting, while Maximus and Julius were having a light spar. Artemis and I were chowing down as hard as we could – constantly practicing magic did that to your appetite, and it helped level [Fuel for the Fire]. Weird skill. I wasn’t complaining. Kallisto was hanging out, alternating between joining in on our conversation, and yelling commentary at Julius and Maximus.

"Just hit him!" He yelled unhelpfully at Maximus.

"What do you think I’m trying to do!?" Maximus yelled back in frustration.

Julius paused a few steps away, chuckling.

"See, this is why being fast’s the best. You’re higher level than me, but if you can’t touch me, it’s useless!"

Artemis glanced over.

"Elaine could hurt you more than Maximus could, and she’s half your level. And the class that’d be hurting you is like, level 30, compared to both of your 200+ classes." She pointed out. "On the other hand, Maximus would barely notice. You know it’s all a trade-off."

A huge shadow fell over us, and like everyone in the Republic of Remus, young to old, male and female, rural hunters to city-dwellers, we reflexively looked up to the sky.

[Vigilant] went nuts.

There they were. The terror of the skies. The reason for the fear, sharpened so long it had turned to instinct, the doom of travelers, the reason the wagon was encased in metal.

A flock of Ornithocheirus. Flying dinosaurs, nothing terribly special by itself – heck, I might be able to fight one, if I was given full armor, weapons, prep time, excess Arcanite to keep casting fire spells, and an enclosed arena to stop it dive-bombing me constantly – but they travelled in massive flocks, hundreds to thousands strong.

And. They. Were. Hungry.

Their standard tactic was to dive-bomb prey, hitting fast and hard. Hit hard enough, and it was lethal. They’d then start chowing down, ripping and tearing flesh.

You could only pray their dive bomb was lethal, and not crippling.

They were the reason everything was built out of stone. They were the reason hastily constructed shanty towns didn’t exist outside of the town walls. They were part of the reason why it was so hard to expand, to build a new town.

The standard tactic was to duck and cover, to hide inside a building. Occasionally, if an attack got bad, or enough things worked out, a massive effort with spears could drive them off a town. They’d learned that, for the most part, towns were poor pickings. Lots of spears, food was usually in stone.

There was still enough dino-food in a town to tempt them to attack now and then.

We moved as fast as we could. We didn’t bother trying to grab our supplies, pick up a spare sparring shield, nothing. It was directly to the Argo with us, neatly falling into a line as most of us aimed for the back of the Argo, which was the entrance currently facing us.

Our horses were insanely, ridiculously well-trained. Charging into a fight with a Nothosaurus. Patiently standing still when attacked by goblins. Following the inexperienced commands of a 14-year-old girl.

14 and a half! And change!

Anyways. With all that experience, with how obedient they were, it came as a bit of a surprise to me when I heard them whinny, and take off at full speed, loose items coming out of the back door of the wagon.

Our safety was bailing as fast as they could, not that I blamed them.

Julius stepped on the speed, flitting around to the front of the wagon. I’m not quite sure what he did there, what arcane levers were pulled and which straps cut, but suddenly the horses were free of the Argo, running with sharp neighs of terror.

They had a snowflake’s chance in hell being able to escape in their harness. They didn’t even have that chance while attached to the Argo.

The Argo continued rolling down, the momentum combined with the slight slant we were on giving it wind, having it pick up speed. I couldn’t see what Julius did, but he managed to get it to stop, safety once more staying still.

I was the slowpoke. I had [Running], I had 50 speed, but I was still the slowest member of the team, and in the back, falling further and further behind. The Ornithocheirus screamed, and I glanced up to see some of them split from the flock, preparing to dive-bomb us.

Preparing to dive-bomb me.

Maximus made it to the Argo first, promptly vanishing through the doorway, making sure he was clear of the entrance, so we could run in unobstructed. I saw a flash of Julius moving off to the side, as Kallisto and Artemis made it into the wagon.

50 feet. 40 feet. [Vigilant] went berserk. I threw up a [Veil of the Aurora] like a ceiling, only to stumble as it almost immediately broke, taking hundreds of points of my mana with it. A single physical blow, so powerful it overloaded my Magic Power. I still had mana, but the monster had overloaded what the shield could tank in a single hit – a heavy monster dive-bombing from such a height, it was no surprise.

And it was only one dinosaur. The only reason it hadn’t managed to land right on me, was [Veil] had hidden me, had helped foul its shot.

I was alive. But there was an angry, hungry dinosaur staring me in the face, eyeing up its next meal.

I reflexively used [Identify], having never been so close to one, never been this face-to-face with one.

If I ever had been, I’d have been turned into dino-chow already.

[Ornithocheirus].

Surprisingly low level. Strength in numbers and all that. I had no time to try and analyze though, as it darted its beak towards me, jaws open.

I dropped and rolled, throwing up another shield between me and it, thanking all the gods out there for [Center of the Galaxy]. I’d never be able to dodge without it, would be in two pieces, with one of them going into the belly of the beast.

Julius showed up with the wind at his heels, scooping me up, throwing me over a shoulder, running me over to the Argo. I was bouncing over his shoulder, looking back and up, seeing a few more flying terrors break off, start circling. One decided that yes, we looked tasty enough, and dove down towards us.

I stared death in the eye, unflinching, and abruptly the sky turned to metal as we entered the Argo at full speed, not slowing down in the slightest.

With a bang, a thud, and a clatter, along with the highly unpleasant sound of bones breaking, Julius and I came to a halt against the other end of the Argo, the closed and locked door on the other side trembling as we hit it at nearly full speed.

My legs felt cracked, if not broken, and a scream from Julius told me he wasn’t uninjured either. Artemis threw the door shut, but didn’t bolt it.

"Origen." Julius gasped out.

Maximus slowly shook his head.

"Haven’t seen him. Maybe Arthur’s hiding him?" He suggested.

I hit Julius with [Vastness] – our fearless leader might as well have a clear head – as I spent a moment evaluating Julius’s injuries.

There was blood all over his face, but that seemed to be from a broken nose more than anything. His arms were in poor shape.

Fine. Good enough to heal him – knowing what I needed to fix, and how they should be fixed, did wonders for my healing efficiency. It would take an absurd multiplier if I just focused on ‘healing’, versus focusing on what injuries I was fixing where, and how they were being fixed. I touched him, focusing on restoring him, on his arms becoming whole and healthy like the full moon.

Julius shook his head as his arms and face were reformed. I eyed my work. One day I’d figure out cleaning blood off at the same time.

"Elaine, Artemis. You’re both clear to draw mana from the Argo. Keep it over 40% reserves – that’s how much we usually need to fuel the enchantments against one of these attacks."

I saluted my understanding. Artemis probably already knew all of this; it was for my benefit he was reminding me.

I looked at Artemis. Maybe it was also for her benefit, I mentally amended.

"Time to focus." Julius called us to order. "Origen and Arthur are still out there. Arthur I’m not worried about, it’s Origen I’m concerned about. Plans?"

Maximus immediately spoke up.

"Artemis makes a stone tunnel to help Origen make it. Elaine supports with snap-shields as needed."

"Fine. We’re doing that. Kallisto, back door. I’ll handle the front. Elaine, Artemis, top up your mana now."

I put my hand on the walls of the Argo, drawing from the attuned Arcanite that was embedded into the walls. On the other side, Artemis was doing the same. I hadn’t even seen her cast any spells!

"Better idea." Kallisto yelled. "Julius, grab Artemis and sprint to Origen. Artemis raises a hut, camp out in it."

Julius spent a fraction of a second thinking about it.

"New plan. Kallisto’s plan. Artemis, grab as much Arcanite as you can. Elaine, you’re on shields here, back up Kallisto. Remember – 40%."

"He’s here." Kallisto yelled from the back. Artemis and I moved there, as Kallisto slid over to the side. I noticed with a start that he had gotten all of his armor on already, and his spear and shield were leaning up against the rear wall, ready for action.

Julius picked Artemis up in a piggyback as I fumbled my earring off.

Fuck it, I had no time.

I moved to rip my earring off, pausing as [Oath] screamed bloody murder about self-mutilation like that.

Gods damnit Oath. I’m trying here.

I shoved the one earring I’d taken off – the left one – into Artemis’s hand, right as Julius shot off.

I hear Maximus closing and bolting the door behind me properly, as I laid down on my stomach to get a better view of what was going on. Otherwise, I’d be trying to look through Kallisto, as he held a guard’s stance at the door.

Origen had seen us, and gave a warrior’s salute, hand over heart, half-bowed towards us. The only thing I could think of was:

Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant.

Hail, Emperor, those who are about to die salute you.

He looked – he felt – just like a gladiator who was in the arena, ready to pitch his life against the endless hordes of monsters. The only question was, how many monsters would he bring down with him? The ending wasn’t in doubt.

Origen had no weapon. He’d abandoned it, or left it with Arthur, when the Ornithocheirus had shown up. He started to charge towards us, leaping forward to avoid a dive-bombing dinosaur, rolling to the side as another one snapped at him. Even from as far as I was, I could see glowing lines from the inscription all over him, his own personal style of fighting coming to bear as he burned his mana to boost his stats.

Dodging one, dodging two or three was easy. But they kept coming, a dozen more peeling away from the flock above, trying their chance at some fresh man meat. Julius was running, sprinting as fast as he could with Artemis on his back, the occasional flickering bolt scorching the dinosaurs, keeping them at bay.

I frowned. Artemis had more than enough juice to blast them out of the sky – why wasn’t she?

Questions for later.

"We should close the door." Maximus said, eyes glued to the scene just outside. "They’ll attack us next, and they’ll know we’re here once we close up. It makes it harder for us."

"Agreed." Kallisto said, not moving an inch.

"Yeah, we should." I said from my position on the ground, continuing to watch.

"There’s no way we do that before we see what happens is there?" Maximus asked rhetorically.

"Nope." Kallisto and I chimed in together.

We watched with bated breath as more and more Ornithocheirus came down, flocking around Origen.

He leapt over one snapping beak, then bent over backwards to dodge a wing swiped at him. He used that momentum to do a backwards hand-stand, narrowly avoiding a dinosaur trying to land on him.

But there were too many of them. A kick from one of the dinos got his arm, and he went down. A beak went down, a scream came over the cries of the dinos, making it to us, as Artemis and Julius arrived.

I couldn’t hear Artemis speak, not from so far away, but a massive eruption of lightning from their area, and a dozen of the dinosaurs falling, twitching and burning, cleared the area for us to see Origen, streaked with blood. Earthen walls started to rise around them, and -

I felt myself being dragged away from the door, crying in protest. Kallisto closed the door as soon as Maximus finished dragging me away from the entrance, bolting it shut.

I was never a patient person. Waiting in the Argo, hearing the thuds and thumps of the dinosaurs outside, the whole wagon shaking as they butted against it, trying to crack us open like a mussel to get to that sweet, tasty human meat inside.

I put on all of my armor, helmet, shield and all. The enchantments should hold, the inscriptions fresh, the wagon full up on mana. If they didn’t, if by some freak accident they broke in, I was not going to go gently down their throat.

"Why is nobody worried about Arthur?" I asked, only just realizing the obvious question.

"He grew up basically in the wilderness. We suspect – he won’t say – that most of his skills came from needing to survive attacks like this, and worse, regularly. This sort of attack? This is easy for him." Kallisto said.

Hun. Interesting. I’d never thought of Arthur’s background before, but it made sense.

"Elaine, please stop pacing, you’re driving me insane." Maximus ordered tensely. "If you need something to do, check your level-ups."

Ugh. Fine.

[*Ding!* Your Party has slain a [Ornithocheirus] (Air, lv 185)]

13 repeats later…

[*Ding!* Your Party has slain a [Ornithocheirus] (Air, lv 188)]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 133! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Celestial Affinity] has reached level 133!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Warmth of the Sun] has reached level 111!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Medicine] has reached level 116!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Center of the Galaxy] has reached level 109!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 81!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Veil of the Aurora] has reached level 76!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Vastness of the Stars] has reached level 75!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Identify] has reached level 76!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Vigilant] has reached level 111!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Running] has reached level 75!]

Yay. Levels. What about Origen?

I didn’t even care that I was being a grump, I needed Origen to be alive. I continued pacing, occasionally throwing my hands out for balance when the Argo took a particularly bad hit.

"This is a pretty light attack." Kallisto remarked.

"Idiot." Maximus threw a look of disdain at Kallisto. "It’s because Artemis fried a dozen of them. They hate being attacked, but more than that, it means a ton of fresh food for them to eat, and it probably brought down half the flock on their head. We’ll be lucky if they’re alive. Blasted cannibal birds."

I paled at that. I hadn’t realized. Town attacks were always all-flock events, and I hadn’t quite put two and two together on only part of the flock attacking, and them getting pissed. Also, free food.

"We need to-" I started heading towards the door, only for Maximus to trip me with a foot.

"Stay put. If you go out there and turn into their lunch, there’s nobody to heal Origen. Artemis is a survivor. Wait. That’s an order from the current commander."

The chain of command was Julius>Artemis>Maximus>Kallisto>Origen>Arthur. I didn’t yet rate. Plus, if everyone else was gone, I was alone, and in command by default. I’d gotten pulled aside quietly by Julius one night, who told me that if that happened by some fluke, to make my way to Ranger HQ by boat, and go from there.

Blah. I got up, and continued to pace around.

The cries of the Ornithocheirus started to fade, and thumps became less frequent.

"Should we check now?" I asked.

"No. Wait."

I waited another minute.

"How about now?"

"No."

…..

"How-"

"I will say when we check. Not before. Wait."

After an indeterminate amount of time passed, Maximus carefully unbolted the door, cracking the door open a hair. Kallisto was ready in a defensive stance, prepared to bash in any dinosaur poking their long snout in. I was ready to throw up [Veil], which would be much more useful when there weren’t hundreds of feet of momentum behind them. My heart was pounding so loudly I could hear it in my ears.

Nothing. All clear.

"Elaine. Stay." Maximus ordered. "Kallisto, cover Elaine. Our healer goes down here, and we’re losing at least one person."

I wanted to scream in frustration. Artemis was out there! She could be hurt! She needed me! What if it was too late by the time I got there, what if I found her, life slipping away?

Kallisto shifted his stance slightly, seemingly reading my mind.

"You won’t always get orders you like." He said. "But you need to follow them. It’s for all of our good."

I wanted to scream. Instead I waited for the all-clear signal from Maximus. I got it, and Kallisto got out of my way as I shot out, towards the mound that Artemis had made.

The mound, a bright red from blood, painted all over it. The mound, with dozens of dino-prints in it, holes where the Ornithocheirus had stabbed through.

The mound, that was the potential grave of three of my closest friends.

I started to tear up. I couldn’t lose them. I couldn’t lose my friends again. Not like this. I started to claw at the earth, losing vision as my eyes blurred.

I barely saw Maximus doing something out of the corner of my eye. Was he – was he rolling his eyes at me? The jerk! They were his teammates as well! Why –

The mound rumbled, as a small hole was created.

"Awkwardly," Artemis said from inside, as my heart leapt in my chest in joy. "I seem to have used all my mana getting us safe, and I can’t actually dig us out."

I started to cry-laugh in joy, as I fumbled at my other ear, my second earring. It took me four tries, but I got it off, passing it to Artemis.

"Thanks healy-bug."

"How’s Origen?" I called in.

"Eh, without a healer, he would have a bad time. As it is, he’ll be fine." Artemis said.

A slightly exasperated sound came from Julius.

"Elaine, we do know first aid, and how to treat most injuries you know. How do you think the average Ranger squad does it? How do you think we did until now?" He said from inside the mound, voice echoing oddly.

The mound came down, and I rushed inside, touching Origen, healing him up. It would’ve been extremely nasty for him, normally requiring treatment at Ranger HQ, but he would’ve been fine, still able to inscribe armor from inside of the Argo. Fortunately, he was now back up and ready to keep going. He’d need a solid chow-fest though.

Shame there were no dinos to eat. I wanted a taste, after they’d almost eaten me. Eat, or be eaten, never felt so literal.

I cried as I hugged Artemis, then Julius and Origen in turn. I was so thankful they were alive!

"Now comes the hard part." Julius said, stony faced. Everyone else groaned as well.

"Hmmm? What’s up?" I asked, confused. There was some joke everyone was in but me.

"We gotta push the wagon the rest of the way to the next town."

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 14]

[Mana: 3770/3770]

[Mana Regen: 6082]

Stats

[Free Stats: 31]

[Strength: 35]

[Dexterity: 64]

[Vitality: 57]

[Speed: 64]

[Mana: 377]

[Mana Regeneration: 821]

[Magic Power: 378]

[Magic Control: 878]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 133]]

[Celestial Affinity: 133]

[Warmth of the Sun: 111]

[Medicine: 116]

[Center of the Galaxy: 109]

[Phases of the Moon: 81]

[Eyes of the Milky Way: 93]

[Veil of the Aurora: 76]

[Vastness of the Stars: 75]

[Class 2: [Firebug - Fire: Lv 29]]

[Fire Affinity: 29]

[Fire Resistance: 25]

[Fire Conjuration: 29]

[Fire Manipulation: 29]

[Fuel for the Fire: 20]

[: ]

[: ]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 76]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 79]

[Pretty: 100]

[Vigilant: 111]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 111]

[Ranger's Lore: 44]

[Running: 75]

[Learning: 107]

Chapter 65 – Adventures on the way to Perinthus III

Pushing the cart was boring, exhausting work. Blessedly, Julius had us on a sort of rotation, where some of us could get a break. There seemed to be some vague math involved regarding our strength and vitality stats, and how often we were on break. However, having even lower stats then moved the needle back up on how often I was pushing – maybe Julius was hoping I’d get another natural strength or vitality point.

The long and the short of it was, Arthur and I were on break together, and he was taking me hunting! This wasn’t the first time he’d let me shadow him while hunting, helping me blend into the environment, learning what tricks I could without having any skills to back it up.

Usually, I was using a short bow like Arthur’s. I was keeping very quiet on the existence of longbows and crossbows, not that I knew how to make them. Turns out, these short bows, with their poor weight pull and strength, were the best humanity had figured out. After being penalized just from suggesting pulling all the lightning out of a body to kill someone to Artemis, I wasn’t about to start importing improved weaponry to Pallos. For all I knew, I’d get penalized every time one was used.

Arthur got massive use out of his short bow though, skills making up for what materials failed to provide. Made me wonder just how much stronger people would be with good weapons and good skills.

Today though, today I was hunting with my fire. Almost in a primitive, girl vs nature way.

"Won’t always have a bow." Arthur said. "It’s easier to learn how to burn living creatures when they’re your dinner, and not someone trying to kill you."

I’d instinctively tried to burn Swimmer and the rest of the mercenaries back when they tried to kidnap me, but Arthur was right – I didn’t have any experience ‘properly’ burning something to death. From my memories, I recalled it being a particularly terrible way to go.

And I had thought fireballs were so cool. Bah.

However, I set my teeth together and moved on. Being a healer meant that I’d seen all flavors of horrific injuries. Being a Ranger meant that I’d seen all sorts of creatures dying, monsters preying on humans being slain. This was just the natural next step – practice for if, when, I needed to apply my flames to defend myself again.

I suspected somewhat that Artemis had put Arthur up to this, a way to gently ease me into using my flames lethally.

We got ready, which consisted of me rolling in the dirt to help camouflage myself, so I’d blend into the ‘native’ looks, then grabbing all manners of local plants, carefully sticking them to me, weaving them into my clothes and hair, in a way to help me blend in, merge with the undergrowth. In all my times hunting, I’d never been offered a [Disguise], [Hunting], or [Tracking] skill – Maximus said it was because they were rolled into [Ranger’s Lore], and I could feel the skill working as we prepared, letting me know that if I stuck plant A on my shoulder, it’d look wrong when I was lying down, and to instead put it on my hip.

"Ready?" Arthur asked.

"Ready."

We took off on a loping run, to get away from the Argo and the rest of the team huffing and puffing over it – they’d scared everything in a large radius around them, and anything that wasn’t scared off was too big game for me to try and tackle.

I ran directly behind Arthur, which was the only way I could keep up with him. My eyes kept wanting to slide off of him, to keep checking the rest of the horizon. They kept telling me that "this was just more landscape, I should look at the rest of the landscape, keep my eyes peeled, be vigilant for other monsters".

Arthur’s skills at work. I was getting a bit better at seeing glimpses of him now and then, almost always during the night when [Eyes of the Milky Way] gave me an unfair advantage, as Arthur’s attempt to blend into the night was soundly defeated.

[Oath] stated "First, do no harm.". However, it operated off of my thoughts and feelings, to a certain extent, and non-sapient creatures didn’t make the cut. If I was a vegan of some variety, they might’ve made the cut. Skills were weird. It was even harder since it was a self-created skill, that I had nobody to bounce it off of, nobody to compare. Maximus didn’t even have a similar skill that he knew of that he could compare it to – he just guessed off of what he knew, off of basics that the entire System seemed to work off of.

Arthur slowed down, and I slowed with him, then he crouched down. I faithfully mirrored him.

He pointed at some scat.

"Deer." I whispered to him, familiar with this game of his. He nodded, a beaming smile of approval splitting his face. It wasn’t just Artemis that enjoyed teaching me things.

He pointed to some animal tracks that I’d completely missed – I needed more levels in [Ranger’s Lore] – but once I had the start of them, I could follow them, starting to see more.

Fresh deer tracks.

Arthur hung back now, letting me track the deer, proving what I’d learned from him. We followed the trail for some time, before Arthur roughly grabbed my shoulder, pulling me back.

I knew more than to verbally say anything. I looked back inquisitively, to see a serious face, finger over his lips. He slowly pointed. I followed his finger to see what he was pointing at.

Ah. The deer. I’d almost ran smack into them without noticing, I’d been so focused on the tracks.

Arthur indicated to me, letting me know that the ball was in my court. I looked at the deer. Older, male. A perfect target.

The deer was in-range of my flames, but the closer I got, the shorter distance I’d need to have flames travel, the less chance he’d get to notice and run, the higher chance for success.

We crept closer and closer, until I got as close as I thought was possible. I had no weapon with me, just my trusty knife. This was all about using fire.

I breathed in, breathed out, sharpening my focus, letting the world around me fall away. I could do a large cone, a massive burst of flames, or I could have fewer, hotter flames – the power and control required were the same.

I decided on wider flames – they were more likely to hit, to cause some damage, instead of a lucky dodge resulting in nothing.

I mentally prepped myself. This was going to be ugly.

But it wasn’t all that different from using a bow. Was it?

I pointed – an almost completely useless gesture, apart from getting part of me that much closer to the deer – and let out a torrent of flames at the deer.

The deer screamed as flames licked over it, and took off running, the smell of burning hair and flesh filling my nose with a disgusting smell. [Vastness of the Stars] helped – a low cost of mana for an improved quality of life – as Arthur and I took off running after the deer.

It was hurt, badly, that much was clear. It wasn’t so hurt that it fell over and died, but it was going slower than normal, screams of agonizing pain ripped from its throat.

It would’ve stabbed me in the heart, hurt to the quick hearing its pain if it wasn’t for [Vastness], if it wasn’t for [Center of the Galaxy].

Arthur decided that me chasing a deer down for possibly hours wasn’t a good use of our time, and loosed an arrow while on the run after the deer. An impossible shot for a human from Earth looked easy to do coming from Arthur, and the deer slowed down – not dead, not even lethal poison. If I was a betting girl – and I was these days – I’d say Arthur used the same poison he’d used on the adventurer’s mules.

The deer slowed, and I caught up, blasted a stream of concentrated, hot flames at its head.

To my horror, felt at the edges of [Center] but not invading my mind, not impacting me like it should, blessedly not causing me to stumble and fall, the deer survived that, screaming in pain and agony, eyeballs oozing around charred flesh.

"Knife." Arthur told me, and I drew my knife, advancing on the deer, hoping to slit its throat or stab it somewhere vital.

‘No stopping power’ indeed. Maximus hadn’t been kidding.

A short tussle later, and I got a notification.

[*Ding!* Your party has slain a [Deer] (Wood, lv 36)].

Arthur put his hand on my shoulder.

"Good hunt."

I closed my eyes. Was it? Were flames the best choice for me, something that killed slowly, painfully? I still think being a mage was correct for me, but I should look into switching elements. Something that wasn’t as nasty as fire was. I should have a long talk with Artemis and the rest of the team about this. Maybe be a Lightning mage like Artemis.

We brought the deer back, and by that, I meant that Arthur effortlessly picked the entire thing up, slung it over one shoulder, and took off, with me needing to spend all of my effort keeping up with him. The advantage of physical stats once again made blindingly obvious – he had the same, if not longer, reach than a mage, could go on almost endlessly like a physical fighter, and had massive lethality from poison. Compared to shrimpy me, who was good for a short while in a fight, then couldn’t keep up on a run.

I was having some minor regrets about my build.

I shook my head. I was comparing myself, a teenager with less than a year’s real experience, to Arthur, in his physical peak, that had been doing this his entire life from the sound of it. Apples to apples, not apples to whales.

We set up camp after another long day of pushing the cart along to Salona. No more lazing about while the horses pulled! We hadn’t seen hide nor hair of them after the attack, and the smart money was on them being dinosaur scat at this point.

Arthur, Maximus, Kallisto, and Julius were the main force behind moving the Argo, while Origen, Artemis, and I leaned in and put in effort, but we knew it was more to show that we were all in it together, less than any real contribution to the movement. Sure, with Kallisto’s strength, he could probably get the wagon moving on his own, but it was easier for all of us to work as a team.

Julius had also said something about teamwork.

The upshot of all of it was at the end of the day, we were all exhausted and sweaty, and the lack of a nearby river made it all the worse. At least it wasn’t summer or anything like that, although we were creeping further and further north, and it was getting warmer the further north we went.

We set up camp – campfires made easy thanks to me being a mobile flamethrower – and chowed we down on the fresh deer, courtesy of Arthur and I.

As I was playing with the campfire’s flames, manipulating them in various ways – much to Origen’s angry body language as I was making cooking all the more difficult – I got a notification, my earlier experience along with this play pushing me over the edge.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Firebug] has leveled up to level 31! +2 Free Stats, +2 Mana, +1 Mana Regen, +3 Magic power, +1 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Strength from your Element!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Affinity] has reached level 31!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Conjuration] has reached level 31!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Manipulation] has reached level 31!]

Kallisto and Origen decided to spar, which was more practice for Origen than Kallisto.

"Elaine, are you full up and able to heal?" Kallisto asked.

"Yeah, why do you ask?" I said.

"Because we’re hoping to go hard, like a real fight. Just not going for lethal blows. Should help us level up faster. Having you on-deck and ready to heal in case we make a mistake, or land a hard blow, makes it possible. What do you say?"

"This is a bad idea." I said. "You should stay safe."

"Excellent idea!" Artemis said. "I bet Origen does at least one terrible blow!"

"How do you judge that?" Maximus asked. "I’m game, but we’d need a judge. Otherwise we argue if a blow’s terrible or not, and that just causes bad blood."

"Elaine can be the judge, right?" Artemis glanced at me.

"Heck no. I object to this whole idea! I’m not helping."

"Plus she’d just agree with you." Maximus said.

"No betting on this." Julius cut in. "Kallisto, Origen, ready?"

"Ready." Kallisto said.

Origen nodded seriously, not taking his eyes off of Kallisto.

"Hang on, -" I protested, only to be cut off by Julius.

"Go!"

With that, Origen lunged at Kallisto, who stood there solidly, waiting for Origen to commit to an attack before moving his shield in the way, solidly holding his ground, poking with his spear to keep Origen honest.

Origen was the third-weakest on the team physically, but even that was stronger than most guards. It was a testament to the sheer ridiculousness of the rest of the Rangers that he was near the bottom.

Made me wonder – Origen with all of his enchanted armor and other extras he had VS any one of the Rangers without their Origen-supplied enchanted gear. Who would win? It’d probably be close – Kallisto was so far ahead by virtue of the fact that he was only defending with enchanted armor. If he had to land a blow, that’d be a different question.

The fight, semi-predictably, ended in a draw, with neither side landing anything that could be remotely called a terrible blow. I healed both of them of the minor scrapes and bruises, sighing in exasperation.

"Really? Do you really have to go that hard?" I asked them, mostly rhetorically.

"Good practice." Origen said.

"Yeah." Kallisto agreed, panting with exertion. "Good to practice against someone who’s not holding their blows back. We should do this more often."

"This is a terrible idea! What if you’d taken a blow that I couldn’t heal!"

"That’s why they weren’t aiming for the head or neck." Arthur rumbled. "You can heal anything else in time, and it’s not like there’d be so many blows, or people, that you get overloaded."

I growled in frustration, and threw my hands up.

"Fine! Whatever! I completely disagree, but whatever, I can’t stop you."

"It’s good experience for them." Maximus butted in. "The added stress, the fact that it’s live and ‘real’, almost no-holds-barred fighting, means they’ll level faster as a result. Means they’re more likely to survive a fight."

Blah. It all made sense, and I was conflicted. On one hand, yes, they were improving, they weren’t at risk of serious harm. On the other hand, I was being asked to endorse people hurting other people, actively, not in self-defense, which is where my current line was drawn. Hunting? Absolutely. Defending yourself? Of course, I was no pacifist, who insisted that non-violence at all times was the way. Hurting someone else? My current line.

But this was sparring, this was self-improvement. This was helping survival. I shouldn’t have a reason to be against it now, did I? This would take some more thinking, but my mind was slowly- oh so slowly- being changed.

I just hope it led somewhere that I could live with at the end of the day.

Chapter 66 – Adventures on the way to Perinthus IV

Artemis had one of her terrible grins on her face as she looked at me.

"Whatever it is, I want no part in it." I said, cutting her off as she opened her mouth.

Her grin, if anything, became even more terrible.

"That’s the beauty of it. See, you can’t deliberately hurt yourself to heal, or burn yourself for your fire resistance. But if we were…"

I shielded a pebble thrown by Arthur, glaring at him.

"See, my point!" Artemis exclaimed. "We already do ‘shield it or take it’ training with you, we already keep you on your toes with throwing pebbles at you, what’s wrong with adding fire to the mix?"

There were nods going around the circle.

"No. No no no no no." I protested, shaking my head and backing up as they closed in on me.

Long story short, that’s how I found myself tied to a spear-turned-roasting-stick, being gently rotated right above the fire.

"At least do it to my legs!" I yelled in protest. "My poor tunics!"

"We have gone through quite a few of her tunics." Artemis conceded. "Move the offering to the left!" She proclaimed grandly, like she was making a sacrifice at the temple.

Hang on, did the gods go for that sort of-

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Resistance] has reached level 27!]

"Argh!" I yelled in frustration.

"What’s wrong?" Artemis asked, concerned. Good to know it wasn’t all fun and games for her.

I felt dizzy as I was rotated once again. Ground. Artemis. Sky. Julius. Ground. Repeat.

"I hate that it’s working!"

Arthur lost it at that, madly laughing at my distress.

"You know healy-bug, you can always extinguish the fire." Artemis pointed out.

"Duh. I know that." I replied, my voice probably doing strange things as I was rotated as I spoke. "[Oath] seems to bar me from causing harm. It requires that I heal. However, it doesn’t seem to enforce removing harm. But I can’t ask, or suggest. To be exact, I don’t want to, and find out if [Oath] dislikes it. Nor can I suggest hurting someone else. Not that I would – it’s ethically wrong."

Artemis rolled her eyes. "Bah. Ethics. Who needs ‘em?"

Julius cuffed the back of her head. "You do! That’s who!" He gave her a very Significant Look.

"Yes boss." She said respectfully, a hair meekly.

Origen approached my rotating, burning-and-healing legs, sprinkling some herbs on them, while quietly chuckling to himself. He got a laugh out of everyone but Julius, who just rolled his eyes.

"Ok, stop the ride, I want to get off." I said, having had enough of this.

Instead, Arthur started turning the spear even faster, [Center of the Galaxy] having nothing for dizziness.

"I’m… going….to…." I tried to say, as my nausea got worse.

The vomit-spiral was epic. Only a little got on me.

"New rule." Julius said, rubbing dirt to help clump the mess and get it off of him. Couldn’t spare the water, just in case something went horribly wrong. "Do not roast Elaine over an open fire."

"What about a closed fire?" Artemis asked.

"ANY fire." Julius amended himself.

"How about Origen?" I asked darkly. My legs smelled like a well-seasoned steak. It was unnatural. Worse, it was making me hungry.

"Do not roast anyone over any fire." Julius said, with a tone that he was done being asked to rule-lawyer.

The evening settled after that, and most everyone went to bed. Artemis and I drew the short straws for first shift.

"Hey Artemis," I asked, bored out of my mind, scanning our surroundings for non-existent threats. "when you cast [Chain Lightning] the other day against the goblins, how did you get your voice to crackle like that?"

Artemis shrugged. "Just one of those strange system-quirks. Channel enough mana at once, say the skill, and your voice changes a bit. For me, it helps me focus and channel, especially a skill that large. I don’t need to say it, but I had the time to, and with that much going on – especially with Arthur hiding somewhere – it was a solid warning to everyone what was going to happen. The System just amplified it."

I nodded. "Makes sense."

Our watch ended without further incident, Artemis and I idly chatting in hushed whispers to not wake anyone up. Julius and Maximus got the second shift, and I went to sleep in the Argo.

I woke up after a few hours needing to pee. I stealthily slipped out of the Argo, intending to find a quiet bush to put up [Veil] and do my business. Look, I didn’t want to broadcast that I was peeing near the camp by putting up a giant "LOOK HERE" sign in plain sight.

I was sneaking around, when I overheard Julius and Maximus hush-whispering to each other, just like Artemis and I had done, in that unique tone that was both somewhat loud, but yet still registered as a whisper to the sleeping mind. No, what caught my attention mid-sentence was my name.

"… Elaine before. Do we need to have it again?" Julius whispered.

"Humor me." Maximus said. "I still don’t agree. I’m not challenging you in public, and you’re a good leader. I’m trying to understand, so if I end up a team leader one day, I know the why better, the philosophy better."

"I suppose you have earned being humored." Julius said, in a tone that said Maximus had been humored many times before, taking a moment to collect his thoughts.

"What’s the death toll on a Ranger squad?" Julius asked.

"Half the squad per round." Maximus replied instantly. I was able to see Julius nodding clearly, thanks to [Eyes].

"Exactly. We lost two almost immediately. We almost lost Kallisto. Elaine most likely saved his life, and by extension, most of our lives down the line, right there. In that moment when she came up to me, after the hunt, already full up on mana again and able to heal, I saw a few things."

"One – Elaine’s going to end up one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful, healer in a generation."

"Two – There’s no way once she properly grows into her power and skills that the Rangers could recruit her. We offer shit pay, relative to what she could get, and a life of danger versus ease. Yeah, there are the two healers at HQ who help, but it’s more like they heal the occasional Ranger that makes it back to them in exchange for a badge and the rights to call themselves a Ranger, to improve their main business. There’s no reason for them to be on the road."

"Three – I saw that she was able to strike off on her own. There was a cozy, new town nearby. It’d be easy for her to leave, and set up a life on her own. Heck, Kallisto and Artemis told me that in the few days she was around town, she got multiple excellent offers to stay and set up a life. A good life, a solid life, one without threats and danger that she sees every day here."

"So, I struck, then and there. She takes pride in being a Ranger. She takes pride in being one of us. She’s now with us, and will be with us for what I pray is a long and fruitful career. I hope she blazes a new path, a new way – Healers with Ranger squads. If we can stop losing Rangers so damn quickly, we might be able to get enough of us with the experience needed to nip more problems in the bud, instead of traveling town to town on these giant loops. We might be able to have each Ranger team cover three or four towns, instead of the dozen plus we currently need to handle."

Julius paused.

"I recognize your complaint. She’s a kid at heart, no matter if she has those extra years reincarnated or not. For reference, I do believe her, as strange as the story is. The gods have been known to do stranger things. She’s low-level – she came to us at half the baseline level we expect of Rangers at minimum. She couldn’t fight, and even now, she can barely fight. She just barely manages to pull her weight – but she does pull it. I’ll ask you this though: If she was high level enough, would she agree to join us? Would any healer with the requirements we have join us, risk life and limb on the uncomfortable road when they could make ten, twenty times as much healing elsewhere? When they have to leave their families and luxuries behind?"

"I don’t think so."

There was a long pause.

"I still think there had to have been a better way of doing it." Maximus whispered. "There’s a standard process, rules to be followed."

"When we get to the end of this round, we’ll do them." Julius promised. "She’ll have the benefit of having trained with us, of getting levels with us, which should help her through the process. She might get some leeway – we give mages leeway."

Maximus made a soft grunting noise. "Her being a girl’s going to count against her."

"When does it not count against the women who try to join?" Julius asked. "The pricks demand so much more of any woman who joins – which is why every one that does succeed is famous. Artemis. Corvina. Brina. Asena. When it comes to male Rangers, you could probably name just as many that are famous."

I realized that the conversation was starting to drift off of me, and I should probably make myself scarce before they saw me – there was no telling how good their vision was in the dark, my skill wasn’t that unique, and I didn’t want them to think I’d been eavesdropping.

I finished my business, made my way back into the Argo with my sleeping gear, and stared up at the ceiling for a while. Julius had given me a ton to think about.

I hadn’t really questioned the why on Julius asking me to be a full Ranger – I’d been too happy to process it, too terrified that they might change their mind to even allow myself to think the question. It made sense. My original plan was to get dropped off in Virinum, and to try and forge my own life there. Granted, it would’ve been horribly derailed by Kerberos’s bounty hunters, and tagging along with the Rangers was exciting enough that I didn’t want to leave – but Julius wasn’t wrong to worry about it. The rest of his points made sense. Grab the healer while she’s weak and needs protection, get her liking and used to the conditions, more people live. It was cold and calculating.

But Julius, and the rest, had been anything but cold and calculating to me in my time here. I’d never gotten anything but warmth and acceptance, no indication that I was considered anything less than a full member. Sure, I’d just been involuntarily roasted, but that was no worse than Kallisto stealing Arthur’s bow, nor Arthur retaliating by lightly poisoning Maximus’s food, giving him the runs for days. (Kallisto had been mad at Maximus, and decided to get back at him by framing him.)

All in all, Julius was making cold, calculating, level-headed decisions as the leader of the Ranger team, but was a friendly and personable person.

I could like the person, and dislike the cold decisions their role forced them to make. I wouldn’t want to be following someone, taking orders from someone, who was making flighty decisions, less than optimal choices to preserve feelings. There was a real chance we’d all die then. Be unhappy with the role, not the player.

Did this change my decision? Did this change my choice? I needed to think about it more, but I was leaning strongly in the "no" direction. The feeling, the memory, of being so whole-heartedly accepted when Julius asked, at a speed so fast from the sound of it he had no time to plan it, was so genuine, was so real, that I knew in everyone’s heart I was a member, regardless of what had been happening in Julius’s head.

On that happy note, I finally drifted back off to sleep.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 14]

[Mana: 3810/3810]

[Mana Regen: 6100]

Stats

[Free Stats: 37]

[Strength: 37]

[Dexterity: 64]

[Vitality: 57]

[Speed: 64]

[Mana: 381]

[Mana Regeneration: 823]

[Magic Power: 384]

[Magic Control: 879]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 133]]

[Celestial Affinity: 133]

[Warmth of the Sun: 111]

[Medicine: 116]

[Center of the Galaxy: 109]

[Phases of the Moon: 81]

[Eyes of the Milky Way: 93]

[Veil of the Aurora: 76]

[Vastness of the Stars: 75]

[Class 2: [Firebug - Fire: Lv 31]]

[Fire Affinity: 31]

[Fire Resistance: 27]

[Fire Conjuration: 31]

[Fire Manipulation: 31]

[Fuel for the Fire: 21]

[: ]

[: ]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 76]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 79]

[Pretty: 100]

[Vigilant: 111]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 111]

[Ranger's Lore: 48]

[Running: 75]

[Learning: 107]

Chapter 67 – Adventures on the way to Perinthus V

Salona had been relatively relaxing - for me. Pushing the Argo to town hadn’t been any fun, and had the guards make fun of us – until we explained the why. That sobered them up quickly, and had gotten us looks of respect for surviving an attack – Arthur doubly so for doing it without shelter.

Kallisto helped me set up a similar healing agreement with another merchant – although this time it was simple advertisement for him, and patients paid what they could for me – and Artemis and I spent time yo-yoing between doing that, and the baths.

The rest of the team didn’t have it nearly so relaxing. There was some thief around that the guard just couldn’t catch, and unlike my library-antics where the Rangers didn’t care because I wasn’t causing any damage, and the guard only cared because it made them look bad, this thief was causing problems.

As a result, Julius, Maximus, and the rest spent the week running around, talking with people, laying traps, and generally tearing their hair out. It was made extra-hard by the fact that the army recruiters had stepped up, becoming much more aggressive with their recruiting, which had the general population feeling fairly sour towards us.

Their sourness didn’t extend to the "discount healing" though, and Julius had praised me for some good PR. My very full coin pouches were the real reason why I’d been so aggressively pursuing healing. When I got to Perinthus, I was going to drown myself in mangos. Empty out my storage chest to store more. Convince Julius that it should be a standard part of our rations. They were healthy fruit after all.

Artemis and I were mostly useless at this sort of investigation, and it didn’t seem like either her firepower nor my healing would be critical. Time off for us! Carefully not laughing as Origen pulled off half his beard in frustration – it wouldn’t do for us to rub it in that we weren’t helping all that much on this case.

I sent another bland letter off to home while relaxing.

Dear Mom and Dad,

It’s Elaine!

Still traveling with Artemis and the rest of the Rangers. It’s a ton of fun. Very safe. Nothing to worry about.

I realized I forgot to tell you about my new, second class! I’m a Fire Mage now! It’s useful for camping and cooking. I also got an eating-related skill – Fuel for the Fire.

We’re in Salona right now, and Kallisto’s been helping me find people to heal. I have lines now!

We’re heading towards Perinthus, where there’s going to be so many mangos! I can’t wait! I’ll see if I can get some sent with my next letter.

I hope Kerberos’s family isn’t giving you too much grief.

Love you two a ton!

Your loving daughter,

Elaine

They managed to catch the thief on the second-to-last day before we had to leave, which meant everyone else got one and a half day’s worth of vacation. The last day arrived, and we all showed up at the Argo, new, not-as-well trained horses hitched up.

Well, everyone but Arthur.

"He’s probably hiding somewhere; we should just get going." I said.

Julius took a half-hearted swat at me.

"No Elaine. We wait for everyone. He hasn’t checked in or anything. He knows what to do. At the same time, no emergency signal."

Our fearless leader frowned, thinking.

"Artemis, stay with the Argo. Lightning bolt if Arthur shows up again. Maximus with Elaine. Origen and Kallisto with me. Sweep the town, see if we can’t find Arthur."

I piped up.

"Given how, uh, distinct, Arthur is, shouldn’t we ask the guards for some help? They could help us search faster."

Julius nodded, acknowledging my idea, then shook his head.

"If we start to get desperate, yeah, we’ll ask them. Let’s see if we can clean up our own mess first before embarrassing ourselves."

"How will we know to stop?" I asked, trying to make sure we were all on the same page.

"Artemis’s signal."

Right, made sense.

"15 coins that we find Arthur drunk in a ditch somewhere." Kallisto offered.

Origen raised his hand, indicating that he’d take the bet.

"I want in on that!" I said eagerly. I’d dumped most of my coins into my chest inside the Argo – and the fact that it was mine and not just borrowed while I was hanging-on still made me kick my feet in joy – and if I lost a few coins, oh well. It was fun to gamble!

I was responsible about it though – I considered that I’d spent 15 coins having a bit of fun, and I could afford to lose them. If I got anything back, it was a bonus. No gambling problem for me. Nope.

Although, if I wanted to, I could afford one hell of a habit. Hmmmm….

We split up, me following Maximus around, constantly turning my head.

"So, errr… not to ask dumb questions, but what am I looking for? Obviously, Arthur, but is there anything else I should be looking for?" I asked.

Maximus shrugged.

"You basically got it. Arthur, or anything irregular."

I pouted at him.

"I’m too damn short to see ‘anything irregular’!" I grouched. "Not in these crowds."

Maximus shrugged at me.

"Well, keep an eye out for Arthur anyways. He’s tall enough that even you could see him. Squirt."

I stuck my tongue out at him. Real mature of me I know.

We spent a few hours combing streets one at a time, the anxiety in my chest slowly getting worse. Most drunks had woken up by now, were off the street, continuing with their lives. I kept glancing back vaguely in the direction of the Argo, hoping to see flickering Lightning.

We kept searching, and suddenly, with a voice that made my heart leap into my throat, I heard Arthur!

"Elaine! Maximus! Over here!" He yelled.

Maximus started laughing his ass off. I pushed my way through a few people to see what was so funny.

Arthur was looking less-than-pleased in a crowd of about a dozen men, surrounded by Legion soldiers.

"SILENCE RECRUIT." Bellowed a short Legionnaire, in full armor, chest coated with all sorts of medals. I eyed them. From what little I’d been taught so far; I didn’t recognize a single one.

"You have all signed up for the glory of the Legion! Rejoice, a new career awaits you!" He continued to yell, pitching his voice so it sounded lower than his normal timbre. I started cracking up as well, seeing why Maximus had found this so funny.

"Did you tell them Arthur?" Maximus said.

"Yeah! I woke up without my bow, surrounded by these idiots. Won’t believe a word I said. I was this close," Arthur put his fingers close together, with only a small gap between them. "to busting out myself. But Julius would never let me hear the end of ‘be nice to the Army’ and ‘keep the Rangers looking good’, and so on and so forth."

"SILENCE!" Napoleon-Complex yelled, poking Arthur with the butt of his spear. "Your lies will not change the fact that you’ve signed up! You were found drunk, with no friends nearby, no family! We will make something of you, a glorious soldier! One day, you might join the ranks of the elite, the Rangers, but you must start at the bottom!"

Maximus took out his badge, flashing it at Napoleon-Complex. "Hi. Rangers here. He’s one of our teammates. Please let him go before there’s a problem."

Napoleon-Complex managed to somehow look down on Maximus, in spite of only being my height.

"Fool! You will not trick me with some fake counterfeit! The Rangers are like Gods, sent down to walk among us! They are handsome! They are strong! They are the elite of the Republic! The ground shakes where they walk, the heavens split when they speak! You are the most average-looking man I have ever seen, there’s no way you’re a Ranger. This fine man here," He pointed to Arthur, towering above him in spite of being several feet back. "has the potential! And I will bring it out of him!"

Somehow Napoleon-Complex managed to get that all out in a single breath, almost spraying spit as he spoke.

Maximus quite possibly strained a muscle as he rolled his eyes. I hit him with [Phases] just in case he had.

3 mana spent. Either topping up old injuries decaying, or he’d managed to strain his eye.

"Elaine, go to Artemis, get her to signal urgent, then get everyone back here. This could get ugly." Maximus told me.

I saluted him – properly, just to rub it in Napoleon-Complex’s face – and took off like a shot to where Artemis was hanging out with the Argo. Happily, my stats let me properly run and use the White lane.

I got there without further incident, and informed Artemis what was going on. She shot up the signal, and before long, everyone was present.

"Elaine. Report." Julius said, seeing just me without Maximus or Arthur, and making the obvious conclusion.

"Sir! Arthur’s been conscripted into the Army. The officer won’t listen to a word anyone says. Arthur’s a hair from violence, and is hoping to resolve it non-violently. Something about getting an earful from you otherwise."

I then repeated everything the officer had said.

Kallisto brightened up.

"Boss, I have the perfect plan!"

Julius looked Kallisto up and down, then groaned.

"I know exactly what your plan is, and I hate that it’d probably work. Do it."

I looked around, but nobody seemed to want to explain the plan, and I wanted to try and fit in, so I just went with the flow.

Kallisto geared up in everything – full armor, helmet, badge. Turned on his inscriptions, glowed with power. Kallisto was always heroically good looking, and he had taken it up to 11.

As we walked back to where Maximus was, Ranger Eagle prominent, it suddenly clicked what the plan was. I side-eyed Kallisto. Really?

We got to where Maximus and Arthur were, and just in time.

"Prepare to march!" Napoleon-Complex said. "Forward, -"

"Halt!" Kallisto roared, striding forward.

"Sir Ranger!" Napoleon-Complex kneeled down towards him. "It is my greatest honor to meet you! There have been people impersonating your greatness in the city – like that man over there!" He pointed toward Maximus.

I suppressed an urge to roll my eyes. Artemis didn’t. Julius facepalmed, as Origen let out a hearty laugh.

"Holy shit he’s just as bad as you said." Artemis said.

"Yuuuuuuuuuuup."

"You mean my teammate!?" Kallisto barked out. Napoleon-Complex paled a bit.

"Well sir,-"

Kallisto cut him off.

"And why is another one of my teammates surrounded by your soldiers!?" He roared.

If it was humanly possible to do so, I think all the blood would have left Napoleon-Complex’s body. As it was, it was a good thing he was already kneeling, otherwise he would have fallen right over.

He slowly toppled over. Ah. He’d fainted entirely. I rolled my eyes, and walked over to him, hitting him with [Phases], just in case it was something bad. Nothing happened. I eyed him suspiciously. Was he faking….?

"Hey Julius, while we’re here, might as well get the rest of the people conscripted free. I doubt many, if any, of them are here voluntarily."

"No. Elaine, I’ll explain later."

I pouted at him as Arthur was freed, an exhausted-looking second-in-command fumbling to make everything happen fast enough.

"One last thing." Julius said to the second-in-command. "Tell the idiot over there to stop wearing fake medals. Next time, we won’t overlook it."

A deep, weary sigh came from the poor second. It told of uncounted attempts to persuade, of cleaning up messes, of being in poor favor and assigned to this commander. I felt bad for him. He looked down, checking that Napoleon-Complex was still out cold.

"Sure you can’t arrest him for that?" He asked hopefully.

Napoleon-Complex twitched visibly.

"Sadly, he’d get out fairly quickly, and probably be all the more miserable for it. You’d end up bearing the brunt." Julius said apologetically.

Second’s eyebrows moved a bunch, doing some mental calculations. I glanced at Origen. Another Laconian? He divined my question, shaking his head.

Second’s shoulders slumped, sadly said. "You’re right. Well.... good hunting, I suppose."

We left at that point without further incident, and ended up on the road, only delayed half the day all in all.

"What was up with letting the conscripted stay?" I asked Julius, lying on my sleeping bag on top of a pile of pillows, reveling in the fact that we had horses again, that I didn’t need to push the Argo, that I could just laze about during the day. Even Artemis hadn’t seen fit to put me through my paces. That probably wouldn’t last long, but hey! I’d take what I can get.

Julius was of a similar mind, having arranged blankets and pillows to form an impromptu bean bag of some sort. Arthur was on driving duty – punishment for being caught drunk, and rounded up. Something about having more personal responsibility when allowed to go solo with a signal.

"How much do you know about the Formorians?" He asked, answering my question with another question.

"Not much. People keep talking about them like they’re the big, bad, scary thing, but nobody really expands beyond that." Shrugging was kinda hard from my position.

"The short version is – they’re a race of massive, ant-like creatures. Not particularly smart, but strong. Fast. Vicious. And always pushing in from the west. There’s a massive battlefield out there, where we’ve dug in, where the Legions go. All except for the 3rd Legion. The Formorians aren’t particularly smart. Not only are they unable to negotiate or even communicate with us, they simply throw themselves at our entrenchments in massive waves. Makes it easy to pick them off."

"At the same time, they’re strong. They’re powerful. And they’re almost unending. If the fortifications at Gibraldrian fall, the Formorians would sweep across Remus. We could try to build a new set of fortifications, but they wouldn’t be as strong, and we’d have a fraction of the humans to man the walls – while the Formorians would have more land, more territory, to grow and develop, and be able to send more at us."

"In short, we live on the knife’s edge. That’s why there are Rangers, and not an army squad at every town. If the Legions are desperate enough to move towards conscription right now, it means we’re in serious trouble at the front lines, and the commander is asking for more troops."

"Now, it’s possible that the idiot back there was just trying to make his numbers to make himself look good – he was certainly pompous and arrogant enough. Just in case though – I didn’t want to interfere."

I digested that for quite some time.

"They should let women fight as well. Double the number of people that are able to be there."

Julius nodded in agreement.

"Aye. The stubborn old gits in the Senate and the Legion Command haven’t. There’s an interesting phenomenon. High vitality allows you to live long – much longer than someone without it. As a result, people with high vitality have longer to make it to positions of power, and once they get there, last longer than people without high vitality. The older you are, the more set in your ways you become. The natural result is you get a bunch of old relics in the Senate and in the Legion Command, set in their ways. A lack of flexibility might kill us all, and it wouldn’t surprise me if the wall fell before they changed their mind."

"At the same time, part of their logic is ‘women are needed for children, men aren’t, so let men have the dangerous roles and stop women from being soldiers.’ I hate the logic, it feels wrong, but there is a long-term appeal I can see behind it."

"Part of the reason I was assigned to this squad is I’m much more open-minded. Hence Artemis."

The woman in question waved at us, lounging about like a cat – boneless and liquid.

"Speaking of Artemis, do you want to handle what’s different about this leg of the trip?"

Artemis grimaced.

"I hate this part of Remus. Not nearly as tamed as it should be."

"What’s wrong with it?" I asked.

Chapter 68 – Adventures on the way to Perinthus VI

"Nothing’s wrong with this area, so to speak," Julius started to say. Artemis interrupted him.

"Long story short, there’s still a bunch of beasts in the area." Artemis said with a grimace. "High-level Saber-tooth tigers. They’re like Julius and Arthur combined – sneaky, fast, and with high damage. They’re incredibly fragile though, and easy enough to kill, if you survive the initial ambush."

"Oh, and humans are on the menu for them." Artemis finished up.

"That means," I said, slowly putting the pieces together. "That I’m very much on the menu."

"Yup! You’d be a tasty snack for them!" Maximus semi-gleefully informed me. "Small, vulnerable, low physical stats? You’d be an appetizer before they try to eat Artemis."

Artemis swatted at him.

"Stop trying to scare her."

Maximus frowned at Artemis, crossing his arms.

"I’m trying to tell her, nicely, that this area is dangerous to you, let alone her."

"On that note," Julius said, taking command again. "Artemis. I’m sorry. You’re confined to the Argo, excepting bathroom breaks with Elaine, until we get to Perinthus. Elaine. You’re not confined, but I strongly, strongly recommend you stay with Artemis."

Artemis made a noise of protest. "Why am I confined but not her! This isn’t fair!"

Julius made a noise of agreement.

"It’s because you’re already on a hair-trigger. I can’t imagine that creatures actively hunting you will make it any better. It will make it much worse – every cracked twig, every broken fern, and you’ll be sending off a rock in that direction, combined with a lightning bolt. Come on. I’ve talked with your former teammates – like I’ve talked with everyone’s former teammates. Artemis, you haven’t gotten through this stretch of Pallos without a friendly fire incident once. You’ve avoided fatalities, but you’ve crippled two Rangers on this stretch."

"It wasn’t lethal! They got better!" Artemis protested.

"They only got better because you shipped them on a boat back to HQ!" Julius yelled back. "No. This time, you’re getting through this stretch of Pallos without a friendly fire incident. The only way I see that happening is if you stay in the Argo the entire time."

Artemis muttered darkly at Julius.

"Look on the bright side – minimal chores! You won’t need to drive the wagon. You don’t need to brush down the horses. You don’t need to cook, or clean, or anything else. Just stay here like some rich wife while we cart you around."

Artemis was still glaring daggers at Julius. He sighed.

"Alright, fine. You know it’s an order. Tell you what. You can order Elaine around, since she’ll be mostly stuck with you."

I made a noise of protest. This wasn’t fair!

"Elaine, a reminder to you that Artemis has 12 years of seniority on you, and could order you around anyways." Maximus whispered in my ear. "Play along, keep Artemis happy, and we all get through this without being maimed or eaten."

"Arthur." Julius asked.

"Yeah boss?" Arthur sat up.

"I know you like wandering around, scouting about, and generally hunting whatever strikes your fancy. However, I need you on almost permanent overwatch. Your priority order is as follows. Protect Elaine and Artemis when they do have to pop out. Protect the horses. Protect the rest of us. Shoot down any stray cats you see."

"Maximus. You’re on rotation with Arthur. I know you like mixing up your weapons, but can you stick to javelins for this?"

Maximus saluted, hand-over-heart.

"Can I at least have some variations in my javelins?" He asked.

"As long as they’ll still work. I don’t want a repeat of the Protoavis incident, you hear me?"

Maximus simply nodded and saluted again.

That’s how we spent the next five weeks, rumbling down the last road to Perinthus. Artemis and I cooped up in the Argo, going slightly nuts, occasionally feeling the entire wagon lurch horribly as something got too close to the horses and spooked them. Never had to push though, Arthur and Maximus together killed anything getting too close. Night shift, and keeping the horses safe at night, was even more of a chore, apparently. Artemis and I were glad that we didn’t have to participate in that, although we didn’t rub it in the other’s face.

Too much. We were stuck inside, we had to entertain ourselves somehow.

Artemis entertained herself in a variety of ways – mostly bouncing between tormenting me, and having me work on my skills. Her particularly inventive torments combined the two. Arthur would knock on the roof so we could hear him every time he managed to get one. Good experience for him. The frequency of the knocks made me happy we were inside.

"Elaine, my loyal minion." Artemis said, lounging face-up on a pillow fort she’d made out of everyone’s bedding.

"Yes, your royal highness?" I rolled my eyes at her. I regretted telling her stories about queens and castles. She’d decided that while we were cooped up, she was the queen, and I was her minion.

I didn’t even have a noble rank in her made-up world! At least make me a princess, damnit!

"Feed me some ham." She ordered, pointing at a dried leg of something that was most certainly not ham. I rolled my eyes. I was in for it either way. Either I fed Artemis what she was pointing at, and got in trouble for it not being ham. Or I fed Artemis some of the ham we had, and got in trouble for ‘not knowing I meant that thing’, or the variant, ‘correcting the queen.’

Ah well. I grabbed what she indicated, drawing my knife, hearing Maximus knock on the top of the Argo. Twice.

Good experience for him.

I carved the meat – saber-tooth cat, we were as vicious to them as they were to us, ‘eat or be eaten’ distilled down to its most fundamental form – into small, bite-sized pieces, tossing them into Artemis’s open mouth. I tried to carve faster than she could chew and swallow, but no luck.

I absent-mindedly flared [Veil] as Julius threw another pebble at me. To his credit, he was trying to do everything – be on patrol, helping protect us, while also staying in as much as possible to keep us company. The "snap-shield" training was going well – I was rarely getting hit these days, and I was able to get smaller and smaller shields up to protect myself against shots. When they came from a direction I could see.

I’d also managed to get "half-shields", like a turtle’s shell, behind me when I couldn’t see shots from behind. Kept my line of sight open, kept me seeing the world around me, letting me move and react.

"Ah peasant, you’ve done wonderfully." Artemis said, smacking her lips as the last chunk went down her hatch. "Time for your reward!"

"Skill Training." We both said, Artemis with sadistic glee, myself with resignment.

My skills had been slowly falling further and further behind my level, with only my [Celestial Affinity] keeping up. When I had idly mentioned that, Maximus and Artemis had gotten a Look together. The long and the short of it was they were making me grind my skills as much as possible, throwing them through all sorts of exercises, and my skill levels had skyrocketed to more closely match my level. There was also a bunch of grinding on my healer class, but that was more due to patching up the minor scrapes and injuries Rangers constantly got themselves into.

At the very least, there weren’t massive gaps anymore in my skills.

"Which is what it should be." Maximus had told me.

"Peasant!" Artemis said, trying not to laugh as she did her best "queenly" voice. "Crown me with flames!"

I eyed Artemis’s fortress of fluff – that included my pillow. I eyed Artemis’s head, resting on the pillows. The woolen, stuffed with wool, dry, very flammable, pillows.

I looked at Julius, pleading in my eyes. He had no mercy.

"Your queen has given you an order. Now I’m giving you one. Don’t you dare light my sleeping roll on fire." He told me sternly. His tone of voice softened. "It’ll be good practice for your control."

Fine, fine. I carefully lit a flame on my hand, and slowly moved it over to Artemis, who was staying blessedly still for this, eyes closed. The flames got near her, and I practiced cooling them down, making them colder, to not burn her. My high control helped immensely here – I could control the flames, keep them tight, confined, keep them exactly where I wanted them. I could control how hot they were, blazingly hot to incinerate quickly, or cooler, to not set my stuff on fire. Or Artemis’s. Or everyone else’s. Blazingly hot was good. Half-burning just led to animals screaming in pain without killing them, which was no good, tying back to Maximus telling me about flame’s lack of stopping power.

I’d always remember that deer, eyes wide in terror and pain as my flames licked over it, failing to properly take it down, the smell of burning flesh and singed hair searing disgusting offense to my nose. I’d never been more thankful to follow Artemis’s advice and manner, and always be carrying a bladed weapon – dad’s knife – on me.

The answer to my question I asked oh so long ago. "Why do you carry a sword, if you’re a mage?"

The better to kill you with, my dear.

Hunting that day had driven the unpleasant realities of being a Fire mage home, and I was under no illusions on what being a Fire mage meant anymore. It caused pain, it caused suffering.

On the flip side, flames didn’t kill instantly, the same way a rock or a lightning bolt did. Rather, the mana required for an instant-kill with fire was significantly higher, by several factors. If I was facing down a human, it was possible to use flames to incapacitate, then save. Was it better to deliver someone a swift death, or to burn them horribly, only to heal them and bring them back later?

Hard questions. Hard choices. I’d been sheltered in Aquiliea, not needing to stare at these terrible options and choose. I was a Ranger now, and needed to face the reality of the world in a closer, more visceral way.

I focused on the flames continuing to burn while being merely unpleasantly warm, and split my focus to have them also surround her head, like a circlet or tiara. Artemis made some happy noises at the crown, at not being scorched, while Julius nodded in approval.

Another stamp on the ceiling indicated another animal down. I carefully ‘removed’ the flames, and got to eating some ham, to restore my mana.

If there ever was another fire, I would be in a great position to handle it. Grab, and remove.

I was chewing on some food, when I got a long-awaited notification.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fuel for the Fire] has reached level 32!]

"I leveled. I finally got [Fuel for the Fire] to level 32." I said with a tone of some surprise. I’d been trying to get this last level for ages, to optimize my next class-up. Maximus and Artemis had insisted. The lady herself cracked an eye open.

"Congratulations! Time to class-up?" She asked.

"Yup! Well, I need to check with Maximus if he thinks I should get anything else leveled up. Lemme pee real fast first." I said.

Julius popped his head out, where Kallisto was driving.

"Hey, let’s pause for a quick break. Elaine’s at her 32 class-up."

I didn’t see Kallisto’s reaction, but I heard it.

"You know, I’ve been doing this Ranger thing for years now. Seen all sorts of strange things. A Ranger, doing their level 32 class-up though? That’s a new one."

He yelled the second part over his shoulder to me.

"Not that I mind Elaine! Nor am I judging. It’s just… strange. Nobody will ever believe me, and those stories are the best drinking stories."

I laughed at that. True! Nobody would ever believe a Ranger, best of the best, doing their level 32 class-up.

Maximus yelled down from his position on top of the Argo.

"She’s not the first Ranger to do a level 32 class-up! Minatus had a class merger on his level 256 class-up, and got a new secondary class. It’s not that unbelievable Kallisto."

"Yeah, yeah." I muttered, as Artemis and I got to the back of the wagon. Maximus stood above the door, looking around. He stomped twice to let us know we were clear, and we opened the door. I threw up a [Veil], creating a dome that covered us, and the side of the Argo. We hopped down, went to the side – where nobody from inside the Argo could see us, and we were hidden from Maximus on top by the dome.

We finished our business up, and started to make our way the few steps needed to get back in. Artemis’s ear twitched, and that was all the warning I got before a barrage of stones, followed by a pair of lightning bolts, blasted the ground to the side of her, flecks of stone breaking off of my [Veil], showering me with sharp bits.

"Owe, what was that?" I said, healing the little nicks I’d gotten.

"Just a rodent." Artemis said, after having carefully looked down.

"Yikes, no kidding you’re jumpy around here. If I’m not careful, I’m going to be your next friendly-fire victim."

Artemis shrugged at that. "Maybe. I haven’t killed any Rangers though. Julius failed to mention that these beasties do occasionally get the drop on a more fragile Ranger – like you or me – and that’s another Ranger name on the Indominable Wall."

"Indominable Wall? Also, how do normal people get through this stretch?" I asked, climbing back into the Argo.

"Indominable Wall is where all fallen Rangers have their name carved, to remember their sacrifice." Julius said. "The odds are good all of our names – yours included – will end up on it."

"As for how normal people get through this stretch – usually in a large caravan. The more people there are, the less likely the cats are to attack. Loud noises, skills, and it becomes doable. No, what impresses me are the farmers here. There’s not a lot of livestock, mostly grain, fruits, Blue Claw Peppers that alchemists love so much and are staples in so many potions, but they’re able to hold their own."

Maximus yelled from on top of the wagon.

"It’s because all the bad ones are dead! Under the pressure of living here, anyone that survives is going to shoot up in levels. There are benefits to living near the frontier, and fast, high levels is one of them!"

Eh, made sense.

"By the way," Maximus continued to yell. "If you peek out of the Argo to your left, there’s a small herd of Ctenosauriscus off to the side!"

Dinosaurs! I eagerly poked my head out, looking off to the left. Some medium size, lizard-like dinosaurs were grazing. They were four-legged, with their shoulder being a few inches higher than my hips. They had a long, low sail starting at their head, cresting large on their back, then trailing down their tail, with green scales.

"Cool!" I said happily, always one to see a new dinosaur, as much as this one looked like standard boring herbivore #9.

"Tasty." Artemis said. "Hey Julius, can you get Arthur to bag us one of these for later? They’re great eating."

"They’re also tough enough to survive the saber-tooth cats that roam the area." Julius pointed out.

"And Arthur can hunt just about anything." Artemis retorted. "I can’t leave this damn wagon, they’re delicious eating, come on."

"Fine, fine, we’ll ask Arthur to hunt the tasty dinosaurs."

I eyed them up, thinking. On one hand, potential bonded animal. On the other… they weren’t that cute. I passed on asking Arthur to try and find me an egg. Cute. Cute was the name of the game. Cute, and would stay with me forever.

"Artemis, can you go on overwatch for a minute while Maximus helps Elaine before she classes up?" Julius ‘asked’. "Please, please don’t hit Arthur while he’s hunting. Or Origen. Or anyone."

"Sure thing boss."

Artemis climbed up, as Maximus traded spots with her.

"I know most of your stats, give me the quick breakdown of what you have." Maximus said.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 14]

[Mana: 5700/5700]

[Mana Regen: 6031]

Stats

[Free Stats: 44]

[Strength: 36]

[Dexterity: 80]

[Vitality: 65]

[Speed: 80]

[Mana: 570]

[Mana Regeneration: 1044]

[Magic Power: 535]

[Magic Control: 1078]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 144]]

[Celestial Affinity: 144]

[Warmth of the Sun: 118]

[Medicine: 124]

[Center of the Galaxy: 127]

[Phases of the Moon: 105]

[Eyes of the Milky Way: 95]

[Veil of the Aurora: 111]

[Vastness of the Stars: 128]

[Class 2: [Firebug - Fire: Lv 32]+]

[Fire Affinity: 32]

[Fire Resistance: 32]

[Fire Conjuration: 32]

[Fire Manipulation: 32]

[Fuel for the Fire: 32]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 80]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 80]

[Pretty: 102]

[Vigilant: 111]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 111]

[Ranger's Lore: 66]

[Running: 75]

[Learning: 120]

Maximus made a non-committal noise as I went over them all, then shrugged.

"Yeah, I’ve got nothing. We’ve been working on your skills for a while, and that was the last level we thought you should get before classing up. We’ve been working on your skills anyways, and you might as well class up now. Cheers. Remember to ask for exactly what you want – don’t guess at it. See you in a few hours."

"This class is more or less free." Julius chimed in. "You’re here on your basis of being a healer, do what you want with your second class. It’s like Origen with his inscriptions, Artemis with her rocks, and Arthur with his scouting – second class is your call."

Well, that was sudden. I knew that we’d eventually work on getting that last level, and that I’d class-up once I’d gotten it, I just didn’t expect it to be so sudden, so soon after the last one.

I closed my eyes, letting myself fall into the world of my soul.

Chapter 69 – Classing up!

I opened my eyes to see Librarian, cracking a huge smile at me.

"Yay! You’re back!" She bounced over, giving me a bone-cracking hug.

"I’m back! I seem to have free time to read as well, no getting in anyone’s way!" I cheerfully declared. "Barring us slipping up for the first time and someone getting horribly mauled, I’m not needed for anything either! It’s perfect."

Librarian facepalmed.

"Damnit! You just had to jinx it didn’t you!"

My hand flew to my mouth.

"Fuck. You’re right. I jinxed it."

"Yup." Librarian said.

"Directly to the second floor then?"

"Yeah, let’s just go right there."

Librarian and I walked up the stairs to the second floor, seeing the staircase in the middle of the room to the third floor blocked off again by a thin, elegant chain. There was definitely some fuckery going on. I had no curiosity about what was behind it, no desire to circumvent the delicate chain and explore the upper floor. Nor was I mad that I was clearly being manipulated in some way.

It was the strangest thing.

"Weird how it was open last time, and it’s closed now." I commented.

Librarian shrugged.

"Just the way things are."

I looked around at the tables, in neat rows, neat columns. Each one was a standard library "reading table", with four chairs, two on each side. In front of each chair was a book, almost every single one in the room having a red cover.

"Let’s start with the non-Fire classes." I decided. Advanced classes away! Librarian went and grabbed them.

[Artemis’s Enthusiastic Pet - Water] was first. I glared at Librarian. She gave me a sassy smile back.

"You did ask for the non-Fire classes." She said gleefully.

My gods. Was I that obnoxious? I must be. I resolved to be a little less literal, a hair less annoying.

[Queenly Minion - Dark] showed up. Role playing like that was enough for a class? Sheesh. It was good to keep that in mind, if I wanted to move evolutions in a certain direction. I suspected the ‘Dark’ element was more along the lines of ‘Artemis would be the [Evil Queen] the [Hero] needs to slay’, and less about the element itself.

[Purificatress – Pyronox] was next up. I took a quick flip through it. Mostly relating to burning out infection and disease with cleansing flames. I already had that with my [Constellation of the Healer] class though – I didn’t need more healing, the whole point of this class was the added utility. This class, while cool on cleaning, cleansing, and disease destruction, overlapped horribly with my first class. I looked carefully. There were a few things this class could do that my healing class couldn’t, primarily around setting up sterile fields and curse-breaking, but I quickly determined that added too little to my kit to justify an entire class dedicated to it.

Would’ve been useful back when I was treating Lyra.

[Escape Artist – Earth] was up next, giving me a different way to try and escape bindings.

I’ll admit, I wavered. After my experience at the hands of the mercenaries, after the pain and torment they put me through, I never wanted to be at someone else’s mercy again.

Then again, with solid skills, a good class, I wouldn’t be captured in the first place. Getting kidnapped just to level up seemed like a poor decision, and would push me towards getting captured, not away.

[God-Touched Flame-Bearer of Papilion – Mist] – the usual chance to become one of Papilion’s minions on Pallos showed up. How did a class described as Flame be Mist aligned? A mystery I wasn’t eager to explore first-hand. Interesting that it was now God-touched, instead of Goddess-touched. Was it what Papilion was feeling at the time I entered the realm? When Papilion made the class? Or something else entirely?

I was slightly curious at how many stats it gave me, having not checked since I’d seen the class for the first time.

+400 Free Stats per level.

I cursed. Papilion knew how to make his class attractive.

I took a deep breathe in, then out, letting my self-control assert itself over my greed, letting my rationality take over.

Freedom, not godly minion.

"Let’s look at the Fire classes now." I said. I hadn’t expected to change elements, to no longer be Fire, not so early on. It was worth a check, and an easy way to filter out some choices.

I’d accepted Fire. Pallos wasn’t a kind place, a nice place. My youthful naivety had been burned out of me. I’d wanted to be a healer, someone that cured others, that fixed them. I’d wanted to do no harm, and I still stuck by that.

But Swimmer and the others had hammered home that even in towns, other people were threats. The Ornithocheirus attack had reinforced that humans were puny little things in the food chain. We’d worked out that the Nothasaurus had likely been driven away from another zone. The highest-level thing I’d ever seen was too small a fish to survive elsewhere.

I needed to be able to protect myself. I needed to be able to defend myself. The conversation I’d overheard from Julius and Maximus reminded me that while I was a Ranger right now, when this round ended, I’d be at Ranger Academy. I wouldn’t be here anymore; I wouldn’t be protected by this team. A [Pretty], healer-tagged girl? I needed firepower. Mom had amazing foresight to insist I get [Vigilant]. Or just knew the shape of the world. Not really that amazing when I spent 20 seconds thinking about it.

Look at Artemis. The only free, independent woman I knew, and it seemed to be virtue of her massive firepower.

I’d had long talks with Artemis and Maximus about different elements, different methods. Apart from Metal and Earth, most of the elements were a fairly nasty way to go.

Wood could do solid balls of wood, but it had a similar problem to fire, in that it was less-effective. Instead, Wood mages tended to have ‘death by a thousand cuts and splinters’. Possibly a better way to go than burning, but not by much.

Water blasted decently well, but at the end of the day its lethal method was usually drowning, which took significantly longer and was harder to pull off than Fire. It was also easier to ignore water attacks – if someone was strong or heavy enough, they’d just splash off.

A dinosaur wouldn’t stop short of a lethal attack.

Wind was low down on the lethal chart as well, short of being very close range for nasty cutting attacks. Good if you wanted to be up close and personal, and to quote Maximus – "Excellent for hamstringing someone in a fight, then running a spear through them."

Bit of a mixed bag there, but a spellsword could use Wind to great effect. I wasn’t a spellsword.

Light was right out as an offensive element. I didn’t think I was the first to think of hard light, I wouldn’t be the last, and I wasn’t going to try and be the pioneer of it. I’d leave that to the academics, not that I’d seen any of those in Remus so far.

Dark was like a stronger, more lethal Wind. Get close to a Dark mage, and they could just vwooop critical parts of you away. Higher vitality made it harder to just directly… remove… someone from existence, but it could be done. And you didn’t need to remove the entire person, just, say, their wrist. Or their necks.

Exactly like what I’d done to Iola.

It was still painful. I’d come to terms that taking a life in defense of my own would never be pretty, clinical. Fire spoke to me, there was no other way to describe it, and Maximus and Artemis had encouraged me to keep walking down the path I was on. My other two options were a restart, or a side-jump. A restart would have me start over from scratch, and there were no promised that path would be better, prettier, cleaner. A jump would come with a fairly significant loss in power, and it would ripple through my entire choice.

Like how [Shadow Healer] was so much weaker than [Light of Hope], and all of its offered classes would be at least a tier below what a "committed" path looked like.

Evolving Fire into something cleaner, into something that wasn’t as messy though, was on my list. I didn’t like burning animals and monsters to death. I recognized the need, that was all.

Inferno. Steam. Storm. Lava. Pyronox. Radiance. Ash. Those were the advanced forms of Fire I could look forward to, that I could hope to evolve it into. I had done some thinking on them, but hadn’t quite settled on which element I liked the most. I also hadn’t been offered anything interesting enough, so the whole question was moot.

Maximus wasn’t sure what Fire and Metal combined into. Only hole in his elemental knowledge, he claimed.

There were non-offensive Mage options. Wood and Water were solid at that, binding roots, water prisons. It barely slowed down people who could attack me from a distance, and would require me to get up close and personal to kill them with my own two hands. Doing it from a distance seemed better.

One day, I might not have a team of people that had my back. Worse, one day they might die, and I’d be on my own, needing to travel on my own to HQ, to report the loss of the team, bring everyone’s final words back.

I started to walk through the room, just glancing at titles. It was a fairly efficient system – there was no way I could read all of the books here (Ok, fine, I could happily read them all, but I’d jinxed it and didn’t have the time, and half of them were probably just subtle variations on each other). However, what was incredibly obnoxious was the red titles on the red covers, almost the same shade of red to boot – it made me really squint to see the title of each book.

[Hellbelle]. [Inspiring Spark]. [Flame-scorched Healy-bug]. I raised my eyebrows at Librarian at that one. She shrugged at me. Must be something to do with Artemis always calling me healy-bug, and my current class being [Firebug]. Moving on.

[Grill Mistress] caught my eye, just due to the absurd name. Cooking food that boosted healing. And provided some other temporary buffs. Ack! Another healing-related class slipped in here.

It was clear now that my evolutions were strongly impacted by my Celestial class and tag. Good to keep in mind for the future!

[Roaster] I initially assumed was another cooking-class, but when I started reading it, it was more of an insult-based class. Insult someone badly, and the burn would become physical, real. I could literally taunt someone to death.

[Flamebearer]. [Burning Devourer]. [Arsonist]. Burn down towns, get levels. Next please!

[Firehand]. [Pyromancer]. [Spark of Fire]. [Mango-mad Pyromaniac]. I did like my mangos….

[Friendly Fire] was somewhat interesting, in that the flames were all completely harmless. It was more like an appearance-related class, working off of [Pretty], than a "point-and-blast" mage. I suspected some healing elements might eventually work their way into a future evolution as well.

I don’t think the saber-tooth cats would find me attractive enough to skip a meal. Skip that class.

[Emberstorm]. [Flame of the Traveler]. [Guiding Flame]. [Emberbug]. [Butterfire]. [Flambee]. What was up with all of these bug-related classes!?

Right, [Firebug].

[Lady of Fire]. [Flame of Memory]. [Torchbearer of Remembrance]. [Burning Revolutionary]. Being a revolutionary while being a member of the army was a poor life choice.

[Firecracker]. [Firebrand]. [Thermophridite]. [Brand of Fire]. [Flameseeker]. [Thermophile]. Pick Greek or Latin endings, and stick with it damnit!

[Guiding Flame]. [Flame-Kissed Witch]. [Firebender].

The holy grail. [Ranger-Mage].

"Is there a better class than this one?" I asked Librarian, looking around at the dozens of other Fire-related classes being offered.

"Define better." Librarian asked me, hands on her hips.

Mmmm good point.

"Can evolve into me flying. Will help me survive. Will help me contribute to the team." I thought a moment more.

"Yeah, that’s pretty much it." I finished up. "Unless you have other ideas on aspects I might need?" Time to see if I could game the System at all.

"How about stats?" Librarian asked. "There’s another class that doesn’t do some aspects as well, but has slightly better stats. It’d be good long-term thinking. Also, [Ranger-Mage] is also available later on – it’s not just a level 32 class. It’s also a 128 and 256 class."

Oooh, that was attractive.

"Let me see both of them." I asked.

Librarian brought the books to me, as I sat down to look through them.

[Ranger-Mage] Requirements: Mage Class. Ranger’s Lore at level 60 or higher. A member of the Republic of Remus Ranger’s. One of the elite guardians of the Republic, roaming around to solve problems the locals can’t. Defending the meek. Protecting the weak. Solving disputes, and being justice incarnate. Take this class, solidify your identity. +3 Free Stats, +2 Strength, +3 Dexterity, +3 Vitality, +3 Speed, +5 Mana, +4 Mana Regen, +4 Magic Control, +5 Magic Power per level.

[Pyromancer] Requirements: A deep, burning love of fire. Fire-based Mage Class. All Fire-related skills maxed out. You yearn for it. You desire to burn, to blaze, to see the flames roar up. Take this class, and Burn. +5 Free Stats, +14 Mana, +8 Mana Regen, +14 Magic Power, +8 Magic Control per level.

Gods, this was a harder decision than my 128 class-up, when I got [Constellation of the Healer]. They were so close to each other! It wasn’t like one was an Inferno element and the other was an Ash element – they were both Fire. They were both mages, and so close to each other.

"What’s the difference between the two? I need help." I asked.

Librarian shrugged.

"Ranger-Mage is more flexible, it has more miscellaneous utility skills, and obviously it’s more physical. Pyromancer is more ‘point-and-blast’ mage. They’re both as easy as each other to level up – Ranger-Mage will reward you for doing Ranger things, while Pyromancer will reward you more for playing with fire. It’s a toss-up."

I puffed my cheeks out, blowing air through them. Fine. Research time.

I sat down with both books, Librarian bringing me pen and paper. Bless Librarian, able to get me a pen here. There were no pens or paper in Remus, it was so much easier than wrangling with bamboo and charcoal.

I checked the skills, those that I could see. [Pyromancer] was a bit more direct, a bit more blunt, more magical. [Ranger-Mage] was a bit more subtle, a bit more conceptual. All in all, a draw in that category.

Out of a fight: [Ranger-Mage] was probably a bit more useful.

In a fight: [Ranger-Mage] was more useful if someone got close to me. [Pyromancer] was more useful if I was with my team, and I was behind them, protected, sheltered.

Future me, assuming I lived that long: [Pyromancer] gave better overall stats, by a not-insignificant chunk. It played into, and synergized, with my current build, with my current direction.

However, [Ranger-Mage] neatly fed my physical stats, freeing up those free stats to allocate how I wanted.

But I would either put them back into magic stats – a net loss against Pyromancer – or I would be putting them into physical stats, potentially splitting myself too far. I was no Maximus, able to somehow make hybrid stats work – and I barely had any use for them, apart from baseline survival. I wasn’t supposed to be in physical fights, I was supposed to be protected.

But that protection could – and had – failed at times. When I was punched in the face, I needed to be able to do more than stumble back.

Let me try phrasing this another way. [Pyromancer] was a higher-risk, higher-reward pick, while [Ranger-Mage] was a low-risk, low-reward class. Could I stomach the risk?

Let’s see. Goblins had attacked us while we were on the road, but we’d handled that neatly. The terrors from the skies had also tried to eat us for lunch, but we handled it well. As well as it could be handled. The Nothasaurus had been tricky, but we actively went to hunt it. The damn adventurers had hunted and attacked me, but if I had stuck to Kallisto like I should’ve, that wouldn’t have happened. Or at the very least, we’d have given a much better showing of it.

There were constant random, low-level attacks from dinosaurs and other monsters that didn’t quite realize where they stood in the food chain, and they usually graced our cooking pot.

Most of that was before my Fire class even showed up, and my Fire class had been kinda useless until now. If this was my healing class, I needed practicality and healing. This wasn’t my healing class. This was an almost-free secondary class that I had time to grow into something powerful. [Ranger-Mage] would help me today. [Pyromancer] would help me tomorrow. I believed in Artemis, in my team. I would make it to tomorrow, and reap the benefits from having [Pyromancer].

"I just realized. Ranger-Mage was offered to me at level 8, right?" I asked, confirming.

"Right."

"But it’s now being offered again."

"Yeah – your Ranger’s Lore is high-enough level. The class will keep being offered every time, and the higher Ranger’s Lore is, the stronger the class becomes."

"Stronger than Pyromancer?" I asked.

"Stronger than most things you could be offered."

"Alright. I went through Ranger-Mage, I saw the skills, but I wanted to check with you – is there any skill in Ranger-Mage that Pyromancer doesn’t have, that could justify me taking Ranger-Mage over Pyromancer?" I was leaning towards Pyromancer strongly, I wanted to check. I wanted to be thorough.

"There’s a body-strengthening and enhancing skill." Librarian replied. "Best thing it has over Pyromancer."

That did it. My decision was made.

"I’d like to check this book out please." I said, handing my choice over to Librarian.

She looked down and smiled.

"I approve."

We went through the motions of going downstairs, returning my old class book, checking out my new one.

"Goodbye Librarian. I hope to see you soon!" I said, giving her a hug which she returned with enthusiasm.

"Goodbye Elaine. I’ll be waiting for you!"

I left through the door, opening my eyes, and groaning.

Arthur was lying down in the Argo next to me, glowing lines around him. I recognized them as Origen’s healing field, not that he got much of a chance to use it with me around. Arthur was moderately badly injured, lines of blood coming out of a dozen different holes from his chest, legs, and arms. The smell of burnt hair and ozone filled the air.

I had totally jinxed it.

I leaned over, touching Arthur, pumping [Phases] through him, watching his skin re-knit.

"Nice of you to rejoin us." Julius said drily.

"What happened?" I asked, thinking about Arthur’s injuries. They didn’t look at all like a saber-tooth cat attack, nor any other monster attack.

"Well, Artemis is now officially on chore duty for a month once we get out of here." Julius started. I looked over to Artemis who had a mixed look on her face – guilt, horror, and relief all warred on her face.

"In short, you were gone a long time, I went to pee, almost got jumped by one of the cats, blasted the hell out of it, and Arthur justMightHaveBeenRightBehindIt." Artemis said, the last bit in a rush.

Julius glared. "More or less, yes."

"Hey, I was actually under attack!" Artemis protested. "Arthur would’ve been fine anyways, even without Elaine being here." She pointed out.

I thought back on his injuries. They looked awful, but they hadn’t been life-threatening, even before Origen’s inscribed healing field kicked in.

Arthur sat up with a groan, then quickly found his voice.

"How many times have I asked you to check your line of fire for me!?" He yelled at Artemis.

"You’re bloody hidden most of the time! How the fuck am I supposed to check for you!? Especially when a monster is trying to take my head off!?" Artemis shot back, clearly feeling like the wounded party, guilt in her voice indicating she knew she screwed up.

Or didn’t screw up. Depending on your point of view.

"The worst part is, I had a ton of money riding on ‘No Artemis friendly-fire incidents’ on this stretch of the road." Julius griped.

Artemis turned to look at Julius, her face priceless. A mixed look of shock and anger, of betrayal and outrage.

"You – You –" She sputtered, pointing at Julius, at a loss for words.

"Right, I’m going to dodge whatever’s about to happen." I said to nobody in particular, going to a corner and throwing up [Veil].

I did not want to get mixed up in whatever happened next. Time to see my new class!

[*Ding!* Congratulations! You’ve upgraded your second class – [Pyromancer] - Fire]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Pyromancer] has leveled up to level 33! +5 Free Stats, +14 Mana, +8 Mana Regen, +14 Magic power, +8 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Strength from your Element!]

….

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Pyromancer] has leveled up to level 39! +5 Free Stats, +14 Mana, +8 Mana Regen, +14 Magic power, +8 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Strength from your Element!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Affinity] has reached level 33!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Conjuration] has reached level 33!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Manipulation] has reached level 33!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Resistance] has reached level 33!]

…..

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Affinity] has reached level 39!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Conjuration] has reached level 39!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Manipulation] has reached level 39!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Resistance] has reached level 39!]

Chapter 70 – Arriving in Perinthus

A few more days passed, and we were nearly out of the nasty stretch of road, approaching Perinthus. It was getting hot and muggy, practically tropical. Arthur and Artemis were still pissed at each other – Arthur due to taking the flak of one of Artemis’s shots, Artemis because she felt she was being unfairly blamed for what was, in her mind, a perfectly reasonable self-defense response – there had been a monster attacking her, it wasn’t like she jumped at a twig snapping, and Arthur had been doing his normal invisible routine, how could she have seen him? – which made things tense as we rolled along.

"Psst healy-bug," Artemis whispered to me as we settled in for dinner together, away from Arthur. "can you heal me while I eat? I think Arthur managed to spike the soup again, and I don’t want to show him it worked."

I rolled my eyes at her, but did what she asked. No mana spent.

I took a bite of my soup, and almost gagged on it. It was foul, disgusting. I pulsed [Phases] through me, just in case, although I didn’t think Arthur would use anything too strong on a teammate – Julius would quite literally murder him over it.

The fact that I could taste it, and it was so nasty, also spoke to Arthur’s non-lethal attempt.

"Arthur!" Artemis yelled, storming over to where he was sitting. My hair – getting long again – started to rise up around me.

"Artemis!" Julius yelled with a whipcrack voice. "Stand down!" He barked at her.

"He fucking poisoned Elaine!" Artemis yelled in fury.

"I know." Julius said, tone pissed. "Arthur, explain yourself. I get you and Artemis are feuding, but there’s no reason to bring Elaine into it."

Arthur grunted. "Sorry Elaine. I’d made it obvious I’d spiked the soup. I assumed Artemis would force you two to swap. If I’d poisoned Artemis’s soup, you’d have gotten it."

"Right, that’s it." Julius said, still mad. "Both of you outside, right now. No weapons, no skills, you two are going to brawl until this is both out of your system. After this, I don’t want to hear another word about it."

"This is unfair to Artemis." I piped up, loyally defending her. I was kinda mad at Arthur to boot – he ruined my soup, half-poisoning me. I don’t know what it was, but it was dosed for someone with Artemis’s vitality, not mine. "Arthur’s much stronger than Artemis."

Julius narrowed his eyes at me, tripping him up as he was trying to administer discipline.

"Artemis, you can use your [Stone Skin] skill. If Arthur’s willing to hit you hard enough for it to hurt you, it’ll hurt him more. Elaine, you’re on standby to heal – we also need you to enclose the area in [Veil]. We should be outside of the saber-tooth cat range, and we’re not in Serpopard territory yet, but just in case there are some wanderers around. Maximus, you’re on overwatch. Origen, do you have any inscriptions that could help?"

Origen tilted his head, thinking, then shook it.

"Right. Elaine, I want 600 push-ups from you after Artemis and Arthur are done."

I opened my mouth in protest – I couldn’t do nearly 600 pushups, not with my stats – then closed it, realizing the number would just go up if I argued it. My punishment for tripping up Julius as he was trying to administer discipline.

We set up an arena, Artemis and Arthur both taking up stances like boxers as I enclosed the arena in shimmering light.

"Remember. Nothing that might even injure or cripple. Punches only. Nothing at the face, nothing below the belt. We have a healer on-hand, but that doesn’t mean you can go nuts – what if something hits Elaine’s shield hard enough to drain her mana right as you land a heavy blow? The two of you will fight until you’re no longer mad – or too tired to cause problems. Ready, FIGHT!"

At the last word Julius raised his arm, and Arthur charged at Artemis, only to promptly fall flat on his face.

"You’re cheating!" Arthur accused, getting back up and pointing at Artemis, clad in stone armor.

"Me? You’re the one that can’t walk straight! It’s not my fault if you trip over a random rock."

I eyed said rock in question, unnaturally smooth. Artemis was totally cheating. This wasn’t nearly going to be the one-sided beatdown I was concerned about.

A fairly brutal hand-to-hand brawl occurred. Arthur was massive, and had no problems using his size and stats to pummel down on Artemis. Artemis was tricky and slippery – she never directly used a skill, not that we could see, but her footing was always perfect, sometimes seemingly sliding her out of the way, or absorbing hits for her, while Arthur was constantly off-balance, not able to bring his full weight to bear. Artemis’s punches back were slow, restricted by the stone around her – but at the same time, she was coated in stone, while Arthur had to keep punching stone.

After a long, drawn-out slugfest, both Arthur and Artemis were on the ground, gasping for air.

"Are you two finally done?" Julius asked coldly. Arthur nodded his assent. Artemis got in one last punch.

"That was for Elaine." She panted out. "Yeah, I’m done."

"Good. I want no more issues from you two over this, understood?" Julius asked, arms crossed. Artemis and Arthur both mutely nodded.

"Elaine, they’re all yours." Julius said. I walked over, giving Artemis a hand up and healing her, then touching Arthur and healing him. He was much too large for me to offer a hand up to, he’d just pull me down instead.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Oath of Elaine to Lyra] has reached level 112!]

Well, either I was close, or healing someone somewhat happily after they’d lightly poisoned me was good juju.

That was, fortunately, the end between Artemis’s and Arthur’s feud. They didn’t exactly kiss and make up, but things were a lot less tense between them. Arthur didn’t even trip on random rocks anymore! We also went back to having good, freshly caught food – animals were no longer "mysteriously" escaping.

My push-ups though, were harsh. It took me the remaining days until we arrived at Perinthus to complete them, with Julius adding 10% of the remaining pushups to my total every day they weren’t complete.

Arms burning in agony, we arrived two days later at Perinthus.

Well, I assumed it was Perinthus. There was a huge make-shift wooden wall that stretched all around a large area, manned by army Legionaries.

Army Legionaries, facing inwards. Like they were containing something, holding the town prisoner, and not caring at all about threats from the outside.

"What the…." Julius said, looking at what was going on, somehow managing to read the banners that were flying. A theoretical part of my education, I hadn’t quite gotten to the ‘which army banners represented what legion’ yet. It just hadn’t been important enough. "Why’s the 3rd legion here? I know there’s some problems, but the 3rd?"

"What’s with the 3rd?" I whispered to Artemis.

"Internal suppression. They handle rebellions." Artemis whispered back. "Bad, bad news to have knocking on your door."

"Right, I’m going to find out what’s going on." Julius said, hopping down. He trotted over there where a senior-looking Legionnaire. I could tell he was senior because he had more bling on him – bigger helmet, brighter colors, larger plume. A terrible idea, but I guess they weren’t too concerned with other humans spotting them and trying to kill them.

Being internal suppression though, primarily focused on handling other people, I’d imagine they should be more concerned. Ah well, who was I to question military doctrine, and the strange shit they got up to.

After a quick talk, Julius jumped back.

"I knew there was a plague here, I hadn’t realized how bad it was. They’re letting food in, people in, but once in, there’s no going out. They’re trying to contain the plague, and not have it spread. It’s apparently pretty nasty. I’m thinking we should go around. Thoughts?" Julius asked.

"Fuck no!" I exploded, surprised at my own ferocity. "We’re Rangers! What does that mean we do?" I asked.

"Solve the problems locals can’t. This isn’t a problem we can solve though." Maximus butted in. "It’s a plague. Plagues happen. They pop up, kill a bunch of people, then die out. It’s part of life."

"What am I, chopped liver?" I shot back. "I’m a healer. I know more about diseases and plagues than probably anyone in Remus, and that’s with my knowledge being more tattered than a tunic after a training session. I can hit fungus, bacterial, viruses, parasites, and more! Quick, Julius, how do plagues happen?" I asked him.

"Well, they just spontaneously occur when there are enough people in one place." He said, frowning at me.

I shook my head. "No. There’s a cause, a reason. Bacteria, or a virus, causes it, and it spreads. How it spreads depends on a bunch. Maybe it’s the water. Maybe it’s the air. Maybe it’s food, or fleas, maybe an animal, maybe a person has it. I have holes on this – huge holes – but even then I remember the story of ‘Typhoid Mary’, who spread a disease all over the place, unaware that she had it. We should be here. We should be trying to fix this. This is what Rangers do." I said passionately.

Julius hesitated. "You’re right, but you’re just one person. And you’re proposing tying up the entire squad. What can you do alone?"

I shrugged. "My best. Look, the mere fact that I’ve put you onto finding the cause, instead of just waiting for it to burn out, is progress on its own. You’re an amazing investigator, one of the best – remember that thief in Salona? You were able to track him down. This would be similar – find out how the disease is spreading, trace it back to its source, destroy the source. Meanwhile, I do what I can to heal people."

Julius continued to frown.

"Fine. We’re putting this to a vote. This isn’t something we can fight, but Elaine makes good enough points. Elaine, I’m assuming you’re ‘for’ jumping in. Kallisto, begin."

"No way. Sorry Elaine," He turned towards me, apologetic. "but I can’t fight this. I can’t fight disease. If I’m going to risk dying, it’s with a spear in my hand and an enemy I can point to. I already don’t like my odds of surviving this round, I don’t want to make it needlessly worse."

"Origen?" Julius asked.

He shook his head slowly, from side to side, making his vote obvious.

"Maximus?" Julius asked.

"Yes. I want to see if Elaine’s theory is correct. Could you imagine how much it’d expand what we knew if she was right? It’d be incredible! Most of her other stuff has panned out. For the price of a single Ranger squad – which, worse-case, we can hole up in the Argo as Elaine heals us, our risk of death is unlikely – we can leap our knowledge forward. We should go."

"I’m voting no." Julius said. "There’s no telling how long this will take. We could fix a problem here, while a half-dozen other problems fester. Artemis?"

"Heck yes! I’m with healy-bug all the way!" Artemis happily declared, hugging me from behind.

"Arthur?" Julius asked. "You’re the deciding vote."

"Sorry Elaine," Arthur said, making my shoulders slump. I could hear his voice change tone, a grin entering it. "I didn’t mean to poison you the other day. I vote yes. Might be able to incorporate the plague into my poison, who knows."

That was a horrifying thought – Arthur, being able to shoot plague-triggering arrows? I just hoped disease wasn’t in the Poison-element domain.

Julius shot Arthur a foul look, which he returned with a mad grin. I guess he wanted to make it up to me, and stick it to Julius at the same time. Either way, the result was the same.

"Fine. I’m capping our visit here at six weeks – and even then, if we spend that long, our vacation at other towns is going to be cut short. Problems this big should be handled by a Sentinel, but I guess they decided a bloody entire Army Legion would work as well."

"First things first though – food. It’s possible that since this area’s under quarantine, that food’s limited inside. Sure, it’s possible they’re still letting food in – trying to starve a population out is the number one way to guarantee a massive riot and attack, along with a bunch of angry farmers on the outside, but it’s possible that it’ll be limited. There were sixty thousand people in Perinthus before this plague started, so it’ll be ugly. Let’s spend a few hours hunting, as much as possible. We don’t have the best methods to preserve food, but we might be able to trade some of it for preserved food. 5 pounds of fresh food for four pounds of preserved food is easily a good trade for both parties."

Arthur, Julius, and Origen spent a few hours hunting each, bringing back game for the rest of us to skin and prep. We had a small feast, stuffing ourselves, before preserving the rest the best we could before we went to chat with the guards.

We made our way up to the gate, where we were stopped by the guards.

"Halt! Perinthus is under quarantine by order of the Senate. If you enter, the only ways you can leave are if the quarantine is lifted, or in a puff of smoke. If you’re a farmer, please go over there to drop off your goods."

Julius flashed his Ranger Eagle at them. "Hey! Local Ranger squad. We’d like to go in."

That caused a lot of muttering between the guards, as one of them ran off – probably to get another, higher-ranking officer to help out.

The higher-ranking soldier showed up, and after much huddle and discussion, came to us with their verdict.

"Ok, we’re letting you in, but same rules as everyone else – you’re let out once quarantine’s over, or once you’re dead. I don’t want any Ranger fuckery getting you out – the Senate itself has declared this area under quarantine."

Julius frowned at that, turning to us.

"Thoughts?" He asked.

"I don’t like it boss. I assumed worse-case we could Ranger our way out." Kallisto said.

"We still could." Artemis pointed out. "We just might need to leave the wagon behind."

"Or make a tunnel for it with your skills!" I pointed out, eager to steamroll any opposition.

"We’d still like to go in." Julius said.

The soldiers moved around, opening the wooden gates, and we passed on through, to a scene of carnage and death, a thousand black crows cawing as they hopped over a pile of smoldering bodies, picking and tearing at flesh that didn’t quite get consumed by one of what appeared to be dozens of funeral pyres.

"Welcome to Perinthus." One of the soldiers said, closing the gates behind us.

Chapter 71 – Plague I

The gate closed behind us with an ominous shudder, the sound of the bar metaphorically and literally locking us in. We were committed now, surrounded on three sides by the makeshift, manned Legion walls, and the Nostrum Sea on the last side.

I started to have some self-doubt. What had I just dragged us into? Did I really think I could make a difference on my own?

Artemis reassuringly squeezed my shoulder, getting some sort of idea what I was concerned over. A good reminder, that I wasn’t alone, I wasn’t trying to single-handedly solve a plague by myself. There was an entire Army Legion here. I was a 14-year-old girl. Birthday was coming up though, just another week and change! There was no way I was the only healer here. Sure, I was powerful. Sure, I had a solid grasp on what I wanted to do. This wasn’t a dam with a small leak, where one well-placed girl could stick her finger and fix the problem. This was a full flood, where it’d take dozens of people working together to fix and rebuild. My major contribution was already done – letting the people who could do something about it know about the problem, namely that there had to be a source or reservoir for the plague, and work off of that.

"Elaine." Artemis said, seriously.

"Yeah?" I asked, tilting my head back to look at her.

"Stay inside the Argo. Don’t look outside as we’re going through." Artemis said kindly, velvet-wrapping the order.

"Why’s that?" I asked.

"Because it’ll end terribly." Kallisto jumped in, surprising me with his analysis of my skills. "You’ll be obligated to help someone. Then the next person. It’ll be unstructured. Messy. More people will come, demanding healing. Then what? You’ll be obligated to help them. You’ll be out of mana. And I’ll tell you, people, next to a healer that can heal them, fix them, but isn’t? It’s not gratitude you’ll be getting. It’ll be hate. This plague’s been going on for months. These people here are likely stressed, scared, terrified. Give them hope, and snatch it away? They’ll tear you apart, and I mean that in a very real, visceral way. Then we have to step in. Then suddenly, it’s the Rangers invading the town, putting people to the sword. Coinflip if the city’s in a bad way, and it sparks a riot. The 3rd legion here isn’t helping that – usually when they show up, it’s ‘exterminate them all’."

Kallisto shrugged.

"I’m not trying to scare you. It’s just one possibility. The fact that it’s a likely possibility, and the price to avoid it is small, means I agree with Artemis – stay in, don’t look outside."

I crossed my arms and pouted.

"When will I ever heal anyone?" I demanded.

"Carefully. In a controlled manner." Maximus said. "Clinics are common in the first place. People know there’s a place to go and get healed. Heck, some healers might be here, betting they can get enough experience to level a ton. Others might be here to earn their fortune. A healer with the right skills, and a good business sense, could get enough money to last a lifetime from a plague."

"If they live." Julius pointed out.

"If they live." Maximus agreed. "It’s the rare healer that’ll fall to a plague. No, it’s exploiting enough sick and angry people that’ll do it. It’s a fine, fine balancing act to try and make a fortune in a plague. Too much, and you get a mob. Too little, and you don’t make a fortune. Easier to charge almost nothing – or to charge nothing at all, and try to simply gain dozens of levels."

"Listen." Origen grunted. We all turned to him, listening carefully. Artemis started grinning madly, but didn’t bother enlightening the rest of us.

He rolled his eyes at us.

"No, listen."

Artemis’s cackling turned into full-on laughter.

"Listen! There’s a bard of some sort using a powerful skill!" Artemis said.

We all went very quiet, and I could softly hear some notes drifting by, subtle, under the noise of the Argo creaking along, the sounds of anguish and misery getting louder as we approached the town.

"Hey, I got offered a class like that." I realized. "Sound-related, weak healing over a large area."

"Yeah, the dude’s probably getting a level a day, or more, at this rate. His only limit is his mana regeneration." Maximus observed.

I could hear us entering the town. I was concerned that we didn’t seem to stop at the gates at all. That implied that there was no guard, or that the guard was so busy that guarding the gates, one of the fundamental guardy-jobs, was so low priority it was being completely neglected.

It was aggravating, not being able to stick my head out, see the town.

I could smell it though. The rotting stench of foul death and decay, mixed in with the normally-cheery sea breeze.

"How can they possibly quarantine the town if it’s also a port?" I asked.

"Either they have their own ships, or they sank everything. Knowing the 3rd, knowing how they’re usually ‘slash and burn’, and knowing they don’t have any ships – they probably sank everything down to the fishing boats." Julius grimly guessed. "I’d need to poke around somewhat to find out more. Probably have archers nearby to shoot down anyone trying to swim for it."

"That’s going to cause a lot of starvation." I pointed out the obvious, remembering how much of my diet was fish when I lived in Aquiliea. Heck, most of the towns in the Republic were on the shores of the Nostrum Sea, and sea shipping made most of the inter-town logistics. According to Maximus’s lessons.

There were grim looks all around.

"Plagues are bad business. People start dying. Food gets interrupted. Starvation causes more problems. Services are interrupted – sewers, baths, water, guards, food, entertainment, everything. It causes more problems, more deaths, and it spirals horribly." Julius said.

"How are they usually handled?" I asked.

"Usually, we just contain it, and let it burn itself out. This one’s been going on a bit longer than normal, from the reports I got, but it’s nowhere close to the record." Julius said. "If it wasn’t for you being so sure that there’s a source that can be turned off, we’d have skipped this place entirely."

"Not a source." I said, correcting. "A place where it’s stored. This could be a bad water source. Fleas. Rats. Sewers. It’s not the same as a source. Subtle difference, but it’s there. Either way, if you figure out what the reservoir is, and get rid of it, that’ll go a long way to getting this treated."

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Medicine] has reached level 125!]

"How do you know all this? More reincarnation knowledge?" Maximus asked.

"Kinda. A little bit of reincarnation knowledge with [Memories of a Distant life] sharpening them is giving ‘structure’ for [Medicine] to work off of. [Oath] is multiplying my medical knowledge, and all of it combined is letting me see and know enough to get you all started."

Maximus nodded. "Makes sense."

We quieted down as we kept travelling through the town, probably to the main guard barracks where we normally set up.

The sounds of agony and misery were getting louder. A woman, finding her husband had succumbed. A man, grieving over his son. An old woman, a young boy, both begging for food on the street, weakness in their voice.

They didn’t have much time left. Not from the strength left in their voice.

The sound of a scuffle, no holds barred. An agonizing crack, something breaking badly.

It would be nearly impossible to get any sort of medical attention for that. I closed my eyes. What Kallisto said earlier rang true. I couldn’t heal them all. Not here. Not now. I –

[*Error* All Skills -1 level.]

[Reminder: Oaths are Binding.]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Celestial Affinity] has reached level 144]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Affinity] has reached level 39!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Resistance] has reached level 39!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Conjuration] has reached level 39!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Manipulation] has reached level 39!]

Pain. Pain wracked me, tore through my body. I started to scream and thrash, trying to make it go away, trying to make it stop. It didn’t care about [Center of the Galaxy], nor did my attempt at [Vastness of the Stars] do anything about it. This was pure torment, direct from the System, penalizing me for turning my back on someone. I screamed, screamed myself raw and hoarse, and thrashed in torment, as it felt like my whole body was burning up, then freezing, then thrown onto a bed of nails, followed by more indescribable torments.

It was agony. I tried everything to make it stop. Throwing flames wildly. Clawing at my arms, my face. Curling up, rolling over.

Nothing I did would make it stop, would stop the pain from invading me. I still saw, still heard, the world around me, but I was no longer processing it.

After time – indeterminate length, with the pain killing all other senses – the pain stopped, and I found myself lying on the floor of the Argo, coated in sweat, having soiled myself, panting and gasping, tunic in shreds where I’d torn myself. Walls of stone surrounded me, and my fingernails were bloody where I’d been scratching at them, at myself.

"Elaine? Elaine are you ok?" Artemis asked, peeking over concerned.

[Center of the Galaxy] instantly worked its magic – not that it had ever stopped working, just whatever the System had done completely bypassed the skill, totally different from when Lumberjack and co and broken it – and I healed myself, fixing all of my immediate, obvious problems.

"Yes." I said, sitting up.

"What happened?" Artemis said, dissolving the walls, rushing in next to me, embracing me.

"[Oath]." I said. "I heard the fight outside, the person getting hurt. I knew he’d be hurt, be in major trouble without healing. I thought about what you said before, and made the conscious decision to not help. I got notifications – lost a point in all my skill levels, a System reminder that oaths were binding. Then pain."

Artemis said nothing, just holding me tighter. Maximus edged forward a hair, still looking wary.

"Elaine, throw up [Veil] around us, right now." He ordered. I did as he said, seeing him relax.

"Ok, good. No more repeats of that. We should’ve done this in the first place. Didn’t think this could happen." He said.

"Yeah. Why was this response so much worse than last time?" I asked him. "Any ideas?"

He hummed to himself thoughtfully, as I opened my chest of supplies. Spare tunic, spare tunic, ahha! Time to change.

"My best guess – and it’s only a guess mind you – is that last time you accidentally violated your [Oath]. This time, you deliberately violated it."

I frowned at him.

"I had a good reason! Usually that works for the System! It didn’t complain when I let Arthur and Artemis fight, it didn’t complain when I waited to heal Idiot Mage, it lets me spar, it was OK when some people in Virinum didn’t get healing – why was this different?"

Maximus shrugged.

"No idea. Perhaps it was the way you intended things? Like with Artemis and Arthur, you always intended to heal them after. They weren’t your patients then. You did heal Idiot Mage as close to the first moment when you were able to. The people in Virinum were ok with their current state, they just wanted an improvement. This, though… this was the first time you heard someone that needed help, and chose to turn your back."

"Why on Pallos did I level?" I asked.

"You leveled?" Artemis asked with surprise.

"Yeah, right after I lost some of my skills, I got them right back." I said.

"Were those the skills at the cap?" Maximus asked.

"Yup. Ah – they were ready to level anyways?" I puzzled it out.

"Probably. No matter how you slice it, it’s bad."

"Do you think I’ll be ok when healing people in a clinic?" I asked, suddenly worried. If I was going to be penalized even when giving it my all….

"Unlikely. You weren’t penalized in Virinum, or any of the towns and villages we stopped at – you were genuinely giving it your all. I strongly suspect that as long as you’re trying, as long as you’re not turning you back on someone who needs help, that you’ll be fine. It’s only if you decide not to help someone that punishes you. Granted, we’d need to try it out a few more times to know that’s the case… and I suspect you’re against that idea." Maximus finished, as I furiously shook my head.

"Right. Artemis, stay here with Elaine. She was cooped up for weeks to entertain you, now you can be cooped up with her to entertain her." Maximus said. "We’ll knock twice on [Veil] to let you know when it’s a good time to come out."

Blah. Waiting. I let him out, then flopped down, looking at the ceiling.

"Hey healy bug, what do you want to play?" Artemis asked cheerfully, sitting down next to me.

I mutely shook my head, continuing to stare up. I’d been given a lot to think about.

Chapter 72– Plague II

After some time passed – Artemis finally managed to talk me into playing knucklebones with her, but her stat advantage made it frankly unfair – I got a polite "knocking" on my shield. I lowered the shield, and the rest of the team hurried in.

"Shield up." Julius ordered, and I quickly complied, wrapping the entirety of the interior of the Argo in [Veil].

"You know, I could get used to this. Never have to worry about eavesdroppers again." Julius remarked.

"Do we get a lot of those?"

"Usually harmless. Kids that want to listen in on the big bad Rangers." Arthur said. "Also, Origen’s written soundproofing inscriptions all over the place, which work well enough for the purpose."

"Right. Here’s the situation. There are a number of healers working in the town, and they form a bit of an enclave, so to speak. They’re not all working together, exactly, but they meet up frequently enough, about once a week. There’s another meeting tomorrow, and they’re eager to meet you Elaine. We’re going to hold still for now, until you get a better idea of what we’re looking at, what we need to find. Elaine, that’ll be on you. Don’t be afraid of getting it wrong, of sending us in the wrong direction."

"For evenings, we’re all staying in the Argo, doors barred. It’s getting ugly out there, and I wouldn’t put it past this town to break into a riot – disease, starvation, and the pressure of the 3rd breathing down their neck, knowing they’re close to all being exterminated, does not make for a reasonable population. On the downside, we’re clearly Army, in the middle of town, accessible, and with a wagon full of food. On the upside, Elaine’s going to be buying us a ton of goodwill, and we’ll be making it clear that we’re in the same boat as all of them. Artemis also has intimidating firepower should it come to that."

I imagined Artemis with the Argo’s mana reserves vs an angry mob. I didn’t see Artemis winning – but I didn’t see most of the mob survive either. Waves of sharp cobblestone as buckshot into an unarmored crowd? Yikes.

"Time for new standing orders while we’re in town. Kallisto. You’re going to be celibate."

"You can’t –" Kallisto started to protest.

"I absolutely can. We’re basically in a warzone. Arthur. One mug an evening. Bardic activities to daytime only."

Arthur saluted.

"Artemis. I think this goes without saying, but no baths. I don’t even think they’re functioning."

Artemis muttered darkly to herself, then glanced at me with a gleam in her eye. I could guess what she was thinking. Sea water + earthen tub + healy bug’s flames. I looked at her, and shook my head. I wasn’t going to have a drop of spare mana. Or a single spare second.

"Origen. Self-tattoos only. This will be a great victory, worthy of that space between your shoulders you’ve been saving. Delay friend, it’ll be worth it."

Origen slowly nodded his assent.

"Elaine. Feel free to try and heal anyone you come across. Everyone else – feel free to stop Elaine forcefully. The last thing we need is for people to think we’re torturing the local friendly healer, which is what it looks and sounds like when Elaine loses an [Oath] level. Elaine, any problems with that?"

I thought about it, then shook my head. "It should work."

"Good. Every evening when we’re back here, I want you to heal everyone, just in case. I don’t want the plague to take anyone out. I also doubt anyone will have free time to do as they please."

I chimed in. "It’ll also be easier to heal everyone daily. It’d take, for example, one mana to heal you early on, but like 90-100 mana to heal you later. I don’t have the exact numbers – I’ve done no work on this so far – but that’s the idea. No matter how we look at it, constant, low-level prevention is easier than trying to handle it later."

"As for moving around," Julius continued. "We’re going to be broadly moving in two groups. One’s the Healing group. The other’s the investigation or extermination group. Elaine anchors Healing, I’ll anchor Investigation. We need a big signal in each group, which mean Arthur and Artemis. For obvious reasons, I’m sticking Artemis in Healing, which means Arthur’s with me. Origen, you have some extra healing utility, so you’re with Healing. Maximus, Kallisto, you’re with Investigations, because you’re good at it, and if there’s a problem, it’s more likely to be with Investigations than anything else. We’re going to wait and see what the healers have to say about the plague before we start digging into possible causes tomorrow – I honestly don’t know where to start with this sort of thing, so we might as well consult the experts first. Questions?"

"Food." Kallisto asked. "We just came off a long leg, and while we ate a lot of game and foraged a bunch, we’re not exactly in tip-top shape."

Julius nodded.

"I’ll make sure to stock up what and when I can. If it’s obvious we’re hoarding food, or buying food and not eating it, we’ll be a target again. Artemis, hold off on practicing. Elaine, hold off on fire practice. Naturally, if someone’s coming at you, blow them to pieces. Heal people that need it. Any other questions?" Julius asked.

There was a pause as we looked around, a slow shake of the head from Origen. Another shake, and we were all shaking our heads.

"Right. Well, we’re all here for the evening, and since we can’t roam the streets, and there’s no watch to be had – who’s turn is it for a story from Elaine?" Julius asked.

Arthur raised his hand with a grin, and everyone groaned as they knew what was coming. The Iliad.

I didn’t even bother asking. I sighed, then put on my best "singing face", and went to town.

"Rage! Sing Goddess, Achilles’ rage,….."

We woke up the next morning, and I promptly wrapped myself and Artemis in a little bubble of [Veil]. We did our morning routine, then waited. We were moving the Argo to our new base of operation, near all of the other healers, at the grand temple of the town.

I went over what I wanted to say one more time. I’d practiced this. I’d rehearsed it. I was ready.

Clever that, having all of the healers in one spot. Made for an easy place to find healing, and healers could support each other. It was also easier for what remained of the guard to stand watch, be vigilant. This plague only ended in one of three ways – it burned itself out, the healers stamped it out, or the 3rd legion burned it out. By killing everyone and everything here. Nobody wanted that, and everyone who traveled here knew the risks. The people who lived in the town, the victims of the plague though - they never had a chance to evaluate the risks.

Getting inside was tricky, but the Rangers pulled it off, somehow getting me into the temple where the other healers were meeting without [Oath] causing problems. There was only one person to heal, someone sick and lying down in the alley. A quick touch, a quick [Phases of the Moon], a ton of mana, and I was all set.

I hesitated at the doorway. Not because I was about to meet a dozen other powerful healers. Not because I was worried about them judging me, or dismissing me, or not wanting to hear what I had to say. Not because I was concerned about the inevitable dismissals and sexism.

No, the doorway was on fire. Specifically, a sheet of well-contained black flames filled the doorway, replacing it as a door.

"I know that’s Pyronox." I said, eyeing it uneasily. "I’m just having a hard time talking myself into walking through it." Memories of the last burning building I’d been in flashed through my mind, remembering how terribly scarred I’d been from it. Heck, if I hadn’t gotten [Detailed Restoration] then, who knows what my fate would be right now. Much worse, in all likelihood.

Normal flames would be better than this Pyronox. I could seize them, control them, make them bend to my will. Pyronox, for all it acted like flames, wasn't fire, wasn't something I could manipulate with my [Fire Manipulation].

Artemis rolled her eyes, then picked me up, slung me over a shoulder, and started to walk me through the door.

"Wait! Wait! I’ll walk!" I said, not wanting my grand entrance to be slung over someone’s shoulder. Artemis put me down, and I walked through quickly, not wanting to give her another chance to throw me through.

The Pyronox tickled, and was pleasantly warm. Not at all like I’d feared.

The rest of the Ranger squad followed through, as we looked at the large room we were in.

It had clearly been one of the important rooms in the temple – and very well could still be one of the important rooms, just lent out for our meeting – filled with mostly men, wandering around, chatting in small groups.

We were all dressed to the nine’s. Full armor, minus the helmet, but capes – a brilliant red, untouched, unstained by the dirt and muck of the road, designed to impress and do not much else, they were horribly impractical – and our badges, prominently displayed.

A minor susurration went through the crowd – the Army wasn’t particularly well-liked, and at first glance, the Rangers looked like the hard fist coming down.

Or that they were trying to intervene, take some measure of control. Also not desired, not wanted. Us dressing to the nines did give off some of that impression.

I looked around the room, as they looked at us. The colors were mostly muted, undyed cloth. We were on the opposite end of the Republic from where Aquiliea, and the dye industry, were, and showing off wealth right now was probably a poor life choice for healers. "Look at me, I’m rich and charging you money as you’re poor and starving." Didn’t matter if you were saving someone’s life, that just left a sour taste in people’s mouth.

First was a strange person, wrapped in fine bamboo, head to toe. I couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman under all of that, and they were carrying a medium sized harp – anything larger wouldn’t be portable. This was possibly the same person we’d heard yesterday. Mummy-Bard, I mentally dubbed them.

A tattered-looking man was next, who looked to be in his early 20’s, in animated conversation with a second, bored-looking man. The second man was going grey at his temples, powerfully built, with a half-dozen younger men behind him. Interestingly, the tattered-looking man seemed to be roughly the equal of the older man, while the gaggle of younger men stood by, quietly drinking in their conversation. I mentally dubbed them Tattered-Man, Templar (because he looked like he’d be one in another time, another era.), and I lumped the young men behind him as The Apprentices.

A wiry, bare-chested man was eating food, not talking with anyone. Scars crisscrossed his chest and back, in such a pattern that it was clear that he’d been whipped in the past – many times. And his brazen display seemed to want to rub it in everyone else’s face, that he was here in spite of all of that.

That, or he was hot. We were in one of the hottest climates in Remus, during the early spring. I needed to invent air conditioning as soon as possible. Damn you Papilion, if you’re going to rip away the knowledge of how air conditioning worked, why couldn’t you also remove my knowledge of air conditioning? This was not love. It was not sweeter to have loved and lost, than to have never known love. This was just torture.

I mentally dubbed him "Whipping Man". I was sure I’d get his name sooner or later.

Another strange fellow was a short, portly man, wearing a bag tied over his head. He had a pair of body-guard looking fellows following him, and a nervous-looking kid following him around, head on a swivel. With my amazing naming sense – really, they should be paying me – I named him Sack-Head.

There were more people milling about. I spotted a few women here and there, supporting each other. They must be like mom – moderately strong healers, with no real education on the matter, who were rising to the occasion, to heal their sister, their husband, their kid. Their fellow townspeople.

Amazing how suddenly women were valued in a pinch, and were suddenly, seemingly, a vital resource when push came to shove. Maybe some norms would be changed as a result. I could only hope.

A few of the people milling about looked to be more of the trained fighter type than healers. Sure, some healers were clearly fit, clearly worked out regularly – Templar sprang to mind as an example – but they didn’t have that fierce look I’d come to associate with guards, Rangers, and soldiers.

With the way they followed some of the healers around, and they way they were eyeing each other up, it made me think they were bodyguards. Probably not needed here, but who wanted to take the risk? Plus, it was possibly more relaxing to be in here, than out there, with angry people, not knowing what was happening to the person you were supposed to protect.

Or I was being horribly naïve, and there was a dark undercurrent between the healers.

Would be pretty stupid to try and kill someone here though – it’d be like shooting someone in a hospital, except all of the doctors are magically empowered.

Templar broke off his conversation with Tattered Man, and they both walked over to us. A couple more people broke off their conversations, and headed over to us, including, I noticed approvingly, one of the women.

Six healers stood in a semi-circle in front of us. Tattered Man, Templar, the woman, Sack-Head, and two other men. I assumed that this was the de-facto leadership bunch of the healers. Whipping Man, I noticed, wasn’t too far behind them, listening in, but clearly deferring. The apprentices were doing the same, but shooting glares at Whipping Man. No love seemed to be lost there. Sack-Head’s apprentice seemed unsure of himself, eyes constantly darting around.

Templar crossed his arms in front of his chest. Tattered kept glancing back and forth between different members there. Woman Leader stared at us fixedly.

"What can we healers do for the Rangers?" Templar asked, breaking the slightly awkward silence.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 14]

[Mana: 6680/6680]

[Mana Regen: 6111]

Stats

[Free Stats: 174]

[Strength: 43]

[Dexterity: 79]

[Vitality: 65]

[Speed: 80]

[Mana: 668]

[Mana Regeneration: 1100]

[Magic Power: 626]

[Magic Control: 1121]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 144]]

[Celestial Affinity: 144]

[Warmth of the Sun: 117]

[Medicine: 124]

[Center of the Galaxy: 126]

[Phases of the Moon: 104]

[Eyes of the Milky Way: 94]

[Veil of the Aurora: 110]

[Vastness of the Stars: 127]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 39]]

[Fire Affinity: 39]

[Fire Resistance: 39]

[Fire Conjuration: 39]

[Fire Manipulation: 39]

[Fuel for the Fire: 31]

[: ]

[: ]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 80]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 79]

[Pretty: 101]

[Vigilant: 110]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 111]

[Ranger's Lore: 67]

[Running: 74]

[Learning: 119]

Chapter 73– Plague III

"What can we do for the Rangers?" Templar asked sourly. Julius smiled, his best PR smile – brilliant, teeth showing, not touching his eyes at all.

"Actually, it’s more ‘what can we do for you?’" Julius said. "We’re here to help. We’ve brought a fairly powerful healer along with us, and we plan to do some work as a team. We’ll get to that in a minute."

"First, I’d like to introduce Elaine. Her full background is classified – what I can say is she’s extremely knowledgeable, and has an education in diseases and plagues unmatched by most. I can also say there’s some divine mischief going on with her, but I can’t go into exactly what they are. She’s also a full member of the team, a Ranger in her own right. Everyone, meet Elaine."

Julius shuffled around, letting me step forward. I felt imposing, powerful, wise, and oh-so-short. Speech time!

"Hi everyone, I’m Elaine!" I said, giving a little smile and wave. I felt so fake. "I’m a Celestial-aligned healer, and I’m here to help. I have a background on diseases that I’d be happy to share with anyone interested. I also have a powerful [Oath] skill that’s giving me an extra 3500 Magic Power, and 6300 Magic Control. It’s also not particularly high-level – nor am I – and it only gets stronger as I level up, and as the skill levels up. Any questions?" I took a deep breath, having said all that in one go. Public speaking. I thought I’d be great at it, turns out I was only ok.

There was some muttering, then Templar took charge again.

"Welcome Elaine! I’m sure we have a bunch to talk about. Let’s introduce ourselves, then start talking. I’m Markus. I’m a Pyronox-aligned Healer. I specialize in burning out disease and corruption, and keeping areas clean and pure. The doorways are my skill, and it makes sure that anyone entering the room is clean, and the room itself is clean. I don’t know how the plague forms, but even if it’s spontaneous, from too many people, it’d just get burned out the moment it forms in the room. If it spontaneously forms inside of someone, they’d get cleansed before stepping out. These here behind me are my apprentices. A motley mix of Water and Dark, and one of my Light apprentices came along. I’d also like to talk about what role the Rangers will be taking – from the sound of it, it’s not just personal protection, is it?"

Julius shook his head. "Elaine, can you handle this part?"

"Sure! It’s nice to meet you Markus. My knowledge of disease and medicine tells me that there’s a reservoir, a place where the disease is, and how it spreads. It might be in the water, in a contaminated well. It might be fleas, living on rats. It could be people, jumping from person to person. The way the plague spreads might be water, air, bug bites, contaminated food, rodents, or more."

I decided to identify him. [Healer]. Higher-level than some of the Rangers, in the 260-270 range. This guy knew his stuff, and could be considered a classer in his own right. I was close enough to see his eyes, and dark flames flickered in them, the same way lightning flickers in Artemis’s, and my eyes were the stars above.

Pyronox.

Some of Markus’s apprentices scoffed at me. One of them opened his mouth, starting to say something, as Markus whirled on him and cuffed him.

"We listen to all healers, great and small." He said, rebuking the apprentice who was looking down at his feet. His fellow apprentices had mixed reactions – some seemed to agree with the aggrieved apprentice, others were happy it wasn’t them being disciplined. "Yes, she’s young. Yes, she’s low-level. Yes, she’s a girl. However, I don’t see any of you being vouched for by a Ranger squad, and being called a full Ranger now, do I? When the gods step in and meddle with your life, when you feel you’ve learned as much from me as possible to strike out on your own, then you can feel free to ignore other healers. Until then, you follow my lead, my rules. And part of that is listening to other healers, and what they have to say. Regardless of how far-fetched it is." He threw a look at Tattered Man at that. Interesting.

"Eye contact." Sack-Head said. "I’m convinced that part of this plague is transmitted by direct eye contact."

We turned and looked at him, my eyebrows quirking up. Disease didn’t spread by eye contact! That was silly. It was more likely that it was spread by airborne transmission. It did explain why he was wearing a sack over his head though – if he thought it was transmitted through direct eye contact, a sack over his head was a good way to avoid that.

"Nice to meet you Elaine, my name’s Caecilius. I’m a Mist-aligned [Plague Healer]. My secondary class is possibly mage, possibly healer – it’s never been high enough level to tell, and the class itself doesn’t tell me. Does help with my work. I go from place to place dealing with plagues, they’re my specialty."

He was a [Healer]. In the 290-300 range. I couldn’t see his eyes, due to the bag he was wearing over his head, but I was dead curious what Mist eyes looked like. I wanted to whistle. I checked Artemis. I checked him again, carefully. Artemis was a hair higher – in the 300 to 310 range. It was close. This was a strong, strong healer. Wandering around from plague to plague seemed to pay off in spades as far as level was concerned.

"On that note," He continued. "I’m convinced that this is two plagues we’re dealing with, not one. There’s the main plague, with the coughing, the bleeding, the sores, and the puss, and there’s a second plague, with the diarrhea, vomiting, and tongue-swelling."

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Learning] has reached level 120!]

"I’ve told you before, that makes no sense." The one lady present said, snapping at him. "I’ve lived here all my life. We haven’t had a plague here in decades, and you’re saying that we got hit by not one, but two plagues at the same time? You don’t know this place; you don’t know how things are. We’re right next to the Kadan Jungle, we get diseases all the time, but a plague like this is on a completely different level. It just doesn’t make sense that two plagues occur at the exact same time. Plus, a number of people have all of the symptoms – vomiting, diarrhea, coughing, bleeding. How do you explain that?"

"Hi, by the way. I’m Verta, Water-aligned, I’m so pleased to meet you!" She said at full speed, enthusiastically shaking my hand. "I’d love for you to tell me everything you know – and the other healers local to this town who know what things are like here." She said that last part darkly, shooting a glare at Caecilius.

She showed up as [Laborer]. Somewhere around 180. I bet her healing class was at a similar level. Lowest level so far by a wide margin – probably a combination of doing ‘just town’ healing like mom, and not being given the same chances as everyone else – like mom. Normal eyes marked her first class as being one of the base eight elements, not that it’d tell me anything with her displayed class being a non-healing class.

Like me, when I was nothing more than a town healer.

"I’d be delighted to! One of my skills asks me to spread medical knowledge when I can."

"Does that relate to your massive stat increase skill? Or is it something different?" Tattered Man joined the conversation. "I’m Ponticus. Light-aligned healer." Caecilius snorted derisively at him. "Less-than-useful in a plague sadly. I showed up, figuring that I might be able to do something, and, well, Light has a huge hole when dealing with diseases. Sadly, nobody seems interested in handling scrapes and the like – I thought this would be a good leveling chance for me, everyone focused on the plague, injuries occurring, who wouldn’t want your friendly neighborhood Light healer around? Sadly, nobody has any coin to pay for it…."

I checked out his level. [Artisan]. Somewhere between 230 and 240. In spite of his young age, and poor decision to try and be a Light healer in a plague town, he somehow managed to be at a respectably high level. His eyes seemed almost faceted and glimmering, and as he talked, was slowly changing color from blue to green. I glanced at Artemis, who mouthed "gemstone" at me. At that level, his second class – his healing one – couldn’t be too far behind. I was an abnormality with the disparity between my levels.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Identify] has reached level 81!]

"That’s because you keep trying to charge people extortionate prices! This isn’t the capital, stop charging capital prices!" Templar – Markus – berated him.

Ponticus muttered darkly, but didn’t have much more to say. I mentally marked him as ‘brilliant healer, idiot at business’, before realizing to my chagrin that I probably also fell in the same category. Thank goodness I had Kallisto, Artemis, and the rest of the Rangers looking out for my best interests.

"I will say, I’m curious about that skill of yours as well." One of the unremarkable members said. "Can you go into detail about it? I’m Berucus by the way, Dark-aligned healer."

"Sure, I’d be happy to! Fair warning, it’s restrictive, but powerful. Here it is:

First, do no harm.

Healing is my art.

I will use all of my knowledge and tools at my disposal to heal those that come to me.

I will heal those I see to the best of my ability.

I will apply all measures that are required to my patients.

I will never see a patient as anything other than another creature in pain.

I will not discriminate who I heal based on class, sex, race, what gods they pray to, nor by any other means.

I will defend the patients under my care from harm and injustice.

I will only take up a knife to defend myself or my patient.

I will admit when I do not know how to heal a patient.

I will respect the privacy of my patients, and hold in confidence anything that is said to me.

I will teach and spread my knowledge to the best of my abilities, asking for no recompense. "

The eyebrows of the healers were steadily rising in a uniform manner.

"What’s the payoff for something that restrictive?" Templar – Markus, the Pyronox dude – asked.

"For me, 5% increased knowledge, Magic Power, and Magic Control when dealing with healing-related issues. Or, in other words, when it’s level 20, it doubles my abilities. When it’s level 40, it triples my abilities, etc." I said, noticing Verta looked confused, remembering that education was not a strong suite of Remus – especially not women’s education.

"Downsides?" Templar, the Pyronox asked.

"Losing a level in [Oath] under minor breaks. Pain, losing a few scattered levels on medium violations. No idea what deliberately, purposefully breaking or going against it would do." I said.

"Possibly death." Maximus helpfully added in. "Probably just an escalation of penalties. We’re not entirely sure, as Elaine’s been carefully following it, and different oaths have different penalties. Safer to assume it’s lethal. Part of why the System is locked for young kids, to stop them doing something idiotic like making eternal vows." Every word of Maximus was like a knife in my chest. I’d wondered on the consequences of deliberately breaking [Oath], of trying to shatter it. Whoops.

The part about being idiotic also drove a hammer home, my pride and arrogance I’d had as a reincarnated kid not only killing Lyra, but permanently binding me. I could just imagine how much worse it could’ve been if [Oath] wasn’t so well-worded, or so I thought. Bless the self-defense clause.

At the same time, I wouldn’t want to give [Oath] up. It was my promise, my vow, practically a way of life. It gave me structure and meaning, living up to something bigger, better than myself.

Templar turned and looked to his apprentices. "Any of you willing to try this?" He said. "This is a chance for you to shine, if it works as advertised. However, it comes at a risk. Think carefully before you decide."

There were some looks shared, glances all around. Who was willing to step forward, take this Oath, see if it would even result in a skill? Who was going to go out on a limb, and listen to a kid so much younger than them, a girl to boot.

Who would be the first to take the Oath after me?

One of them finally spoke up.

"Ah, I’ll do it. Can’t leave the pretty Ranger hanging now can I?" He said with a wink towards me. I wanted to shudder. His motives were transparent, and he was at least 5, 6 years older than me. Poker face. Now more than ever I needed a poker face.

"You’ll need a strong degree of sincerity to make it work." Maximus jumped in, saving my skin. "Oath, Vow, Promise, and other such related skills require effort and commitment."

"Chill." Laid-back apprentice said. "I got this."

He spoke the oath, suddenly being serious. At the end of it, he suddenly started blinking rapidly, the way someone surprised by a System notification would.

"By Aion." He swore. "That’s some skill."

"Details?" Asked Maximus and Templar – Markus! I had to get his name straight – at the same time, glancing at each other, recognizing fellow seekers of knowledge. Just so happened they overlapped here.

"[Elaine’s Oath]. A healing oath, a solemn vow of your dedication towards helping and healing others. 4% per level to healing knowledge, and magic control and power while healing. A warning, that Oaths are binding."

"Yeah be careful about that part. It’s not kidding." I shuddered at the memory of breaking the oath the other day.

"It’s your call if you want to take it." Markus said. "It’s your chance at greatness – just look at that girl over there. Level 140 or so, and a full Ranger – probably on the basis of her Oath."

"If it helps, you can still defend yourself no problems." I chimed in, eager to have him take it. Hey, who didn’t want their name immortalized in a skill that someone else had? "It just stops you from taking offensive action preemptively. Oh, and don’t ignore people asking to be healed. Kinda hard in a plague actually…" I trailed off, realizing that giving him this skill in the middle of a massive disease outbreak might not be the best introduction to the skill.

"I’ll do it." He said grimly, making up his mind.

"Are you sure?" Markus asked him. The other healers were watching him raptly, eager to see what happened to the first penguin pushed off the cliff. Were the waters safe, or was there a deadly trap in them?

"Yes. You should know why I am." He gave a significant look to Markus.

"You know I’d never kick you out." Markus said.

"Yeah, but I feel like a burden. Maybe this will help."

Markus sighed. "It’s your call."

I could tell he took the skill, as I got a notification at the same time.

[*ding!* Congratulations! A skill you created has been passed along to others! A tiny amount of experience that other people gain with the skill will go to you as well.]

[*ding!* Congratulations! You’ve unlocked the General skill [Teaching]. Would you like to take this skill? Y/N]

[*ding!* Congratulations! You’ve unlocked the General skill [Teaching Medicine]. Would you like to take this skill? Y/N]

I thought about the skills being offered, checking my current general skills. Mmmmmmmmm. [Recollection of a Distant Life] was my weakest general skill, but I liked it more than a low-level teaching skill right now.

Maybe one day I’d be a teacher. That sounded nice.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 14]

[Mana: 3970/3970]

[Mana Regen: 6111]

Stats

[Free Stats: 174]

[Strength: 43]

[Dexterity: 79]

[Vitality: 65]

[Speed: 80]

[Mana: 668]

[Mana Regeneration: 1100]

[Magic Power: 626]

[Magic Control: 1121]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 144]]

[Celestial Affinity: 144]

[Warmth of the Sun: 117]

[Medicine: 124]

[Center of the Galaxy: 126]

[Phases of the Moon: 104]

[Eyes of the Milky Way: 94]

[Veil of the Aurora: 110]

[Vastness of the Stars: 127]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 39]]

[Fire Affinity: 39]

[Fire Resistance: 39]

[Fire Conjuration: 39]

[Fire Manipulation: 39]

[Fuel for the Fire: 31]

[: ]

[: ]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 81]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 79]

[Pretty: 101]

[Vigilant: 110]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 111]

[Ranger's Lore: 67]

[Running: 74]

[Learning: 120]

Chapter 74– Plague IV

Maximus tilted his head at me, clearly noticing that I’d gotten notifications and wanting to know more. I shook my head at him, indicating that I’d tell him later.

"Be careful at first with it, until you’ve got the hang of it. It should level quickly here, which should be quite a boost for you." I said. "Feel free to let your fellow, er, apprentices stop you by the way. No penalty for trying and failing."

"By the way, after this meeting’s over, I’m hoping to give a brief lecture on all the things I know relating to the human body and disease, specifically knowledge I think will be useful for fighting this plague. You’re all invited – and so are all the other healers here – I think it’ll help."

I stepped back, deferring back to Julius.

"I’d like to know what steps you’ve taken so far to handle this plague." Julius asked. "It’ll give us a stepping point to work off of."

"As I mentioned before, I have a few skills relating to plagues." Caecilius stated, crossing his arms. "There’s two plagues. There was briefly a third one, but that vanished almost as soon as it showed up."

"We tried to purify everyone in the town." Markus jumped in. "Had every single person leave the town through one gate, with the help of the guard. Every healer participated, so we could do it in a single go. People lined up, got healed by one of the healers, then stepped through my Pyronox gate just to be sure. Halfway through, people realized that plague was still going from the people outside; was bouncing around from person to person. A minor panic occurred then." From his tone, ‘minor’ and ‘panic’ were both massively understating what had happened. I could only imagine – people being told they were healed, going into a large field outside with a lot of other people, then realizing the plague was ripping through the theoretically safe people? Cripes.

"No healer would confess to having screwed up, and even if they did, my Pyronox should’ve gotten it. The 3rd legion was in the area, and they lost patience at that point. They gave the healers – and a few people per healer, usually the wealthiest who could bribe their way into having a spot with them – an out, then walled the rest of us in. The healers left are the ones who decided to stay."

"Why on Pallos did the 3rd let healers and some people leave, when it was clear they didn’t have it under control?" Julius asked with a frown. "I get letting people who are clear leave. I get forcing everyone to stay. But forcing everyone to stay, and only letting some people out? It smells."

Markus nodded.

"I believe a large sum of money changed hands, and ‘letting some healers out’ was simply a convenient excuse, a cover story. No matter how you look at it, there hasn’t been reports of the plague outside of Perinthus, so either it worked, the plague is localized to sprout here, or they quietly killed all of them once they were out – to not start a riot on ‘they’re killing healers.’"

"To boot, they’re not letting any more healers out." Verta jumped in. "Some bullshit reasoning."

Julius narrowed his eyes. "Once this is over, we might have a visit with them. Before that, we have more pressing issues."

Yikes. That sounded difficult. A mass ‘purify every single person in town’ event didn’t work? People were still sick after it?

Julius was still front and center with Markus, as I turned to Maximus to whisper notes to him.

"My first thought is something that’s both inside and outside the town – I’d lean towards rodents and insects. Although something acting so fast as to be visible still outside the town? Either this plagues an incredibly quick killer, or a healer screwed up and let sick people through. But someone obviously sick wouldn’t make it through – they’d get stopped either physically, or cleansed by Markus’s barrier. I need to know more."

I waited for a brief lull in the conversation, then jumped in.

"Excuse me," I said with all the grace of a wrecking ball. "how could you tell that people were still infected?"

"A few people started coughing and bleeding while outside." Caecilius, the sack-on-head man told me. "It worked on what I’m calling Plague 2, the diarrhea, vomiting, and tongue-swelling one, but Plague 1, the bleeding and coughing one, was in full force."

"That’s so weird. Thanks for telling me." I said, having a bunch of thoughts I was keeping to myself. I knew diseases. Somewhat. Not terribly well. Not as well as a doctor would, but better than most people on Pallos. But if I went around saying "you’re wrong, you’re wrong" to the people that had been here for months, on my first day here? I’d probably end up eating a ton of crow. My social graces were practically non-existent, but I’d been working with Kallisto, and had some vague ideas on how to not be a complete idiot in a social setting.

Contradicting someone more than twice my level, with decades of experience in general and months for this disease specifically, fell into ‘being a complete idiot.’ I’d gather evidence, see the disease for myself, make my own conclusion, talk with them. Try to bring them around to my way of thinking.

Kallisto had reminded me that while I knew my stuff, my credibility was probably pretty low. Directly going against the famous-seeming [Plague Healer] would destroy it beyond repair.

Julius, Markus, Caecilius, and the rest kept talking for a bit longer, me paying rapt attention, but not much more interesting was said. The conversation eventually broke up, the informal leaders wandering around to chat with others.

We split up into pairs, Origen being the odd man out with Maximus and Arthur, Kallisto and Artemis working together, and Julius and I as a team. We weren’t in pairs this time out of a worry that something would happen – Maximus, Julius, and Kallisto were the best at gathering information and investigating in a social manner, while the rest of us were less-useful at that. This way, any good information would make its way back to the Ranger’s collective think-tank.

I started off by meeting Whipping Man, who smirked at seeing my eyes roam over his many scars, lashed into him by the cruel bite of a whip.

"Hi. Hesoid." He said, introducing himself. I used [Identify] on him, and got back [Mage]. Somewhere in the 235-245 range. His eyes swirled with darkness.

"You’re a healer?" I asked, slightly skeptical.

"Decay-mage actually." He said. "Turns out, with the right application of my skills, I can cure some of the people in the town. Caecilius, the [Plague Healer], is completely right in my opinion. There are two plagues. I can cure one, but it’s a coin toss if someone I ‘heal’ from the second one lives or not. Doesn’t make me that popular I’ll tell you, with a reputation that I ‘might’ heal you. Doesn’t help that most people aren’t distinguishing the difference between the two, and just assume it’s one big plague. Which makes sense – how can two plagues descend at once? This area knows disease, it knows how to fight off sickness, so two outbreaks stretches the imagination."

Wow. That was a lot.

"Are you local to the area?" Julius asked.

"Yup! Lived around here all my life. Love this town, greatest town in the Republic. Wouldn’t want to leave here for anything. When the call came, I decided to see if I could stretch my skills to help, and, well, I barely can."

"What’s the story with your scars?" I asked, fascinated. "I can fix them for you if you’d like."

He laughed at me.

"Ah, lassie, I can’t tell you how many healers here have offered that for me, but usually in a pair! It’s amazing how one so young can heal so well. No, I appreciate the offer, but I like ‘em. I was a slave for a few years, working as a field hand. Overseer had a nasty hand, liked the whip. I got my lucky break, little more than a year ago, got offered this Mage class on a class-up, and took it. Worked off my debt, and now I’m a freeman. Too damn hot to be wearing tunics, and I like how uncomfortable everyone gets looking at my scars – too many people are soft, they don’t like the reminder of how slavery can be in the Republic. My little revenge." He said with a smile.

"Neat." I said. I didn’t like slavery all that much, and while I’d seen a number of former slaves, both escaped and those who’d genuinely worked their way out of it, most tried to erase their past, blend in like any other freeman. After all, short of advertising it like Hesoid did, there was no way of telling that someone was a former slave, not unless they’d been branded as dangerous. Most people liked to smoothly integrate back into society, and even owned a slave or two of their own.

Those made the best, or the worst, slave owners according to the grapevine. Either they remembered their time, and were kinder, more humane as a result, or saw their slaves as an outlet for all their pent-up anger, and the cycle continued.

We thanked Hesoid for his time, and wandered the room, chatting with some other healers, getting to know them and their story. They followed a theme – usually a local slave/freeman/citizen from the area – most of the foreign healers bailed when the 3rd announced they were closing the town down – with a Water/Dark healing class, with the occasional rare Light or advanced element showing up. Most were of the opinion that this was a single plague – two plagues hitting at once was unheard of, and this was their town, their whole lives.

They knew how disease and sickness worked, and it showed up in spurts, usually from the nearby Kadan jungle, the healers would fix everyone who got sick, and life went on as normal. If anything, they were more prepared than the average town for a plague, but on the other hand, the fast, constant response to many little outbreaks had left them somewhat unprepared for a larger, sustained outbreak.

Eventually we got around to Mummy-Bard, as I’d dubbed him, holding a harp, with a bodyguard looming over his shoulder. He was standing in a corner, not being terribly social, but at the same time, nobody forced him to be here, nobody was holding a spear to his throat and making him talk to people instead of being outside, playing his harp.

I approached, and he made some gestures to his bodyguard. Interesting. Was he mute? The bodyguard stepped forward, intercepting us, and growled.

"She can talk. You can’t." He said, pointing at Julius.

We traded looks. I identified him, as I was sure Julius was also doing. [Healer]. Either just got his 256 class-up, or was on the cusp of it. I shrugged. Healer-tagged. What was the worst that could happen?

Then again, I was also healer-tagged, with blazing flames at my fingertips. I was still in full armor, cape swirling around me like some sort of hero. It felt frankly awesome. How often did you get to wear a cape and look like and feel like a badass, and not awkwardly being the only one wearing one?

Focus Elaine, I told myself.

Julius shrugged back, and nodded his agreement. I stepped forward, only to feel, less than see, a type of barrier spring up around us.

It took me a moment to realize what had happened. I couldn’t hear anyone else, but I could still see them. Ah, some sort of sound skill. I couldn’t see his eyes – how did [Identify] even work when you couldn’t really see a person, so wrapped up in cloth? Magic shenanigans. – but it seemed obvious that his element was Sound, and creating a sound-proof barrier seemed like child’s play for the element.

"Hello." SHE said with a soft voice. "I’m Glacia. I overheard your conversation earlier with Markus and the bunch. It’s wonderful to meet you Elaine."

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 14]

[Mana: 3970/3970]

[Mana Regen: 6111]

Stats

[Free Stats: 174]

[Strength: 43]

[Dexterity: 79]

[Vitality: 65]

[Speed: 80]

[Mana: 668]

[Mana Regeneration: 1100]

[Magic Power: 626]

[Magic Control: 1121]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 144]]

[Celestial Affinity: 144]

[Warmth of the Sun: 117]

[Medicine: 124]

[Center of the Galaxy: 126]

[Phases of the Moon: 104]

[Eyes of the Milky Way: 94]

[Veil of the Aurora: 110]

[Vastness of the Stars: 127]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 39]]

[Fire Affinity: 39]

[Fire Resistance: 39]

[Fire Conjuration: 39]

[Fire Manipulation: 39]

[Fuel for the Fire: 31]

[: ]

[: ]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 81]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 79]

[Pretty: 101]

[Vigilant: 110]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 111]

[Ranger's Lore: 67]

[Running: 74]

[Learning: 119]

Chapter 75– Plague V

My eyes went wide, like a mango cut in half, and my mouth opened. "You’re a girl!" I said, pointing accusingly.

She laughed, a high, tinkling laugh, like the chime of a bell. "Yes, but stop pointing, or your fellow Ranger will think there’s something wrong. One of my skills stops sound from escaping, but if you look too agitated, he might come in anyways."

"What’s with the…" I gestured broadly.

I couldn’t see her face, but living with Origen had given me a mastery over reading body language. Her subtle shifts indicated annoyance, but a restrained annoyance, trying to not let me see it.

That, or it was the thick layers of cloth she was wrapped in. That must be so hot in this climate! Whipping-man, the bare-chested Decay Mage was closer to my idea of the right way to dress here, not layers upon layers of clothing.

"Not all of us can be a Ranger, with a bunch of Classers as an escort, the fabled name of a Ranger behind them. Almost nobody here knows I’m a woman, and honestly, I’d like to keep it that way. You know why." She said, with a hint of bitterness in her voice.

Sadly, I did. I only had a few years of the nasty flavor of sexism that Remus had, and I was sick and tired and furious at it from the first day, and while Glacia probably had decades of this nonsense. No wonder she found a way to continue working without a constant stream of belittling, nagging, and general put-downs – I approved!

"How do you talk with people that need help?" I asked, remembering her healer tag.

"Like this." She said, with a distinctly masculine voice. [Galaxy] stopped me from jumping, but it was startling. "I also don’t do that much talking with people, it’s tricky and difficult. What I do doesn’t need much face-to-face interaction with people."

"What do you do?" I asked. I had some idea – the harp and the music as we came into town made it kind of obvious – but I wanted to hear it from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.

"Well, I’m a Sound healer. I play music, and depending on what I play, I get to generate a variety of effects." She started.

"Wait, so they’re not all skills?"

Mummy-bard shook her head, a great rustling of cloths rubbing together.

"No, I have three skills working together, and I can make almost any effect I’d like. Usually healing."

"That’s so cool! Can you teach me how to play?" I asked, quite honestly feeling like I was getting side-tracked, but not caring too much.

"Not now. There’s no time." Glacia got me back on-track.

"How do you get paid if you’re doing a town-wide broadcast? How fast do you level up?" I asked.

I got a sense that I’d be getting a Look if I could see her. Instead, Glacia took a teaching, mentoring tone with me that I appreciated.

"Getting paid is hard – I run a weekly collection, and try to get enough to get by. Tough with the food prices, and so many people see me as not needed, so they don’t pay. It was workable before the 3rd closed the town off – I miscalculated how much people would stop paying me. It’s making it rough."

"But enough about me! Tell me all about yourself! A woman healer, a full Ranger, and at such a young age! I’m so jealous, you’ve made it, and openly as well! I simply need to know everything!"

I hesitated. We were keeping our cards close to our chest for a reason, but Glacia should be safe to share it with, right? Another woman healer, someone who could understand the struggles I went through? Artemis was fine and all to chat with, but in some senses we lived in two different worlds, were two different sides of a coin – she killed, I saved.

In the end, I remembered Kallisto, and the brutal anti-charm training that Julius made Kallisto give me as part of his apology for talking me into making a bad decision. "People with high charm, or other social skills can read you, know more about you than you can guess. Only some of it is skill related. Other parts are just pure experience on their part. When in doubt, stick to your rules. They exist for a reason."

This suddenly felt like I was being drawn in, like I was slowly being persuaded to give up information. Sticking to my guns. Sticking to the story.

"Sure! Let me tell you all I can. I’m Elaine. I’m a Celestial healer, from a merger of Light and Dark healer classes. I’m quite a bit older than I look – mostly due to that Divine nonsense with the goddess interfering with my life – and that same Divine nonsense dumped a bunch of medical knowledge into my head. Basics on how the body works, blood and bones, fingers and toes, and the like. I’m a relatively new Ranger, but it’s been wonderful working with them so far. Nice to meet you!"

Practiced. Rehearsed. Gave nothing away that wasn’t immediately obvious, painted enough of a picture to make additional questions and inquiries socially awkward for anyone trying, neatly deflecting them. Was all, technically, the truth – a part I’d insisted on.

Kallisto had spent a good amount of time crafting it for me, and lecturing me on the aspects and benefits of it. There were a lot more parts to it – ‘social obligation’ among other terms – but at a point, it just all went over my head. I might’ve gotten it if I wasn’t so allergic to social things.

"Oh, ok." Glacia said, sounding somewhat hurt.

We chatted a bit more, the tone decidedly less nice – Glacia still sounded hurt, and I didn’t blame her, I was feeling bad as well, then the conversation naturally ended.

"Hey, do me a favor?" She asked me.

"Sure!" I said, still feeling bad.

"Could you not tell other people I’m a woman? Life’s hard enough as-is."

"I totally get it." I said.

We split up, and Julius and I continued rounding the room, talking to everyone. There were only about 20, 30 healers in total, and from the sound of it, from us talking with everyone, this was nearly every single healer in town, apart from one or two reclusive healers. They were either being anti-social, or dead, and their complete lack of presence both at the meetings and healing in general had the betting pool on dead. Still, that put us at either 20 healers left for 60,000 people worse-case, or 30ish healers for 40,000 people, depending on how many healers were left and not talking, and how many people in the town had left before the 3rd closed the town – or were dead.

Tattered-Man – Ponticus the Light healer – was the last person I chatted with at the end.

"Celestial, eh?" He asked me. Given that he knew the answer, I wasn’t quite sure what to do about that question.

"Yup." I finally settled on.

"Got a [Restoration] variant?" He asked. A harmless enough question.

"Yup!" I answered.

"Cool! A neat trick with that is this." He said, drawing his knife. Julius tensed slightly, but didn’t do anything else – he knew he was so fast, being focused on speed, that he could run three circles around Ponticus, do his taxes, and slit his throat before he got close to me – not that we thought there was any threat. He sliced his pinky off, grabbing it in his other hand, and with a sparkling of light, a new pinky was formed.

He then popped his finger into his mouth, and started chewing. Around bites, mouth open so wide we could see what was going on, he was talking to us.

"[Greater Restoration] usually takes a ton of internal energy to use, making it annoying to level up via self-mutilation normally. However, if you eat the offending part, you recycle the food, making it easy and practical to level up!"

He looked at us, a gleam of mischief, delighting in our discomfort. I excused myself, and Julius and I retreated, both looking more than a little green.

"I think I’m going to be sick." I said, holding my stomach. Julius said nothing, but the tight lines all over his face suggested that he’d clamped down hard on his throat muscles, keeping his breakfast down.

"Light cannibalism. Lovely." Julius eventually choked out in a strained manner. I nodded furiously.

"Elaine, I’d like to apologize for the roasting incident. Also, let’s never, ever do training similar to that again. Nope. No way. If that’s what Light healers with a powerful [Restoration] skill do, let’s keep you far away from that."

I nodded hard enough to look like a woodpecker, hard enough to give myself a concussion.

"That was so gross. And I’ve stuck my hands into bleeding people. Grossest. Thing. Ever." I said.

We chatted with the [Plague Healer] next.

"Caecilius, right?" I asked him. He nodded in agreement.

"Phewf, I’m terrible with names! Are these events usually this long?" I asked.

"Not usually – a new healer is cause for celebration, although more and more it’s people getting the chance to class up and choosing healer, at which point they’ll come to one of these events to find a master to become an apprentice to. Sadly, we seem to lose healers at the same rate we get them, and it’s usually the newer healers that die. Which is fortunate, in some senses – we don’t want to trade an experienced healer for a new healer. Every loss is a tragedy though."

"Is that usual?" I asked. My horror quotient for the day had been met, nothing short of Caecilius cutting off a hand and chowing down would disturb me now.

"Speaking of, the first few patients you heal you need to send to me, Markus, or one of the other healers you initially met."

I narrowed my eyes at him, displeased at being told what to do, at this healer thinking he could give me orders.

"Why?" I asked.

"Well, to make sure you can actually cure disease, and don’t do a half-assed job at it. Almost worse than no cure at all, people lose faith in us. We can’t have that happen."

"It’s how Markus works – his apprentices do the bulk of the healing, then they go to him so he can apply the finishing touches. It lets him handle a lot more patients than most healers, and gives his apprentices solid practice and level."

I glanced at Julius, who tilted his head, deferring the decision to me.

"Thank you. I’ll consider it." I said.

"You should level quickly here. This plague’s some of the best experience I’ve ever encountered when dealing with an outbreak." Caecilius said.

There was a lot to consider. My pride warred with keeping things smooth and running. It was likely I rivaled the [Plague Healer] in control, if I didn’t surpass him in it, and I was confident that my knowledge of disease was better than his. On the flip side, he was specialized in disease, which probably granted him a significant boost towards hitting disease.

Fine. I wasn’t as good as the premium plague expert in Remus. I was at least as good as some of the other ‘top tier’ healers here though. Being questioned, being forced to prove my qualifications rankled. On the other side of the coin, I did need them to listen to me down the line, and being a maverick wouldn’t do me any favors.

We all gathered back up as the event wound down. There were sick people to heal after all, and everyone had gotten a crack at the shiny new experienced healer, a rarity when the town was locked down. From the sound of it, these events were usually just a bit of mingling, wishing happy birthday to anyone who’d gotten one in the last week, congratulating each other on some levels – an occurrence so frequent, usually they just congratulated classing up – and sharing any new information among each other, which was rarer and rarer.

We’d spread the news that I was going to teach as much as I could, as much as I knew about medicine and disease after the meeting, but seeing everyone trickle out – including Verta, who’d asked for help, Markus, the Pyronox and his apprentices, the apprentice that’d taken [Oath], and Glacia, sent stabbing pains through my heart.

They’d been happy enough to entertain me, listen to me on the surface, but nobody thought I had any real chops, any knowledge worth sharing. What could a 14-year-old girl, around level 140, possibly know? Really drove home that the only respect I’d gotten, the only reason anyone had given me the time of day, was my badge, and the presence of my team with me.

"Ah, cheer up." Artemis said. "They probably went way over time getting to meet you and chat, and want to get back to helping people. You’ll get them next time!"

I let Artemis give me an awkward side-hug, squeezing me against her.

Markus’s Pyronox doorways flickered and vanished, letting us know he was done, gone, out of range.

"Let’s head back to the Argo." Julius said, and we did just that, piling into the wagon next to the temple. Fortunate back-door into the alley meant I only saw one sick person, taking a moment to heal them and move on.

"[Veil]." Julius ordered, and having practiced, I immediately snapped up a [Veil of the Aurora] around all of us.

"In order. Report. Anything interesting you saw or heard. Elaine, we’re starting with you, then at the end, you’ll give your impressions. Go."

I hesitated over what I was going to say, before coming out and saying it. Team first.

"You know the person wrapped in clothes with the harp?"

"Glacius?" Julius asked, having gotten the name from other conversations.

"Glacia, as it turned out. Sound-healer, a woman under all that apparently."

Julius frowned. "How do you know?"

"Well, she told me."

"With her voice?" Maximus pointed out.

"Yeah, how else would – oh." I said, the pieces of the puzzle clicking together. She’d been able to pitch a man’s voice to me as well.

"There’s no way to tell from her voice alone is there?" I asked.

"No, and everyone else thinks Glacia is a man. So she- or he- is either lying to you, or lying to everyone else. No matter how you slice it, it means she’s lying. I don’t think it’s important right now, there’s no reason for us to care, but it does mean we need to evaluate anything she tells us carefully." Julius said. "Kallisto. Did you pick anything up?"

"Yeah boss – most of the guards are at the temple where we’re at, the marketplace where they distribute food, and the docks, where they’re preventing fights and problems from everyone fishing. Speaking of, it seems like half the town’s given up on their normal trade, and have taken up fishing from the docks. It’s one of the only ways to get food here that the 3rd hasn’t restricted."

"That makes sense with what I’ve heard." Maximus added. "The guard seem to have been particularly hard-hit, along with fishermen and merchants. Apparently, the captain of the guard, and some of the more senior guardsmen were among the first to die of the plague. They’re more than a bit disorganized as a result, which might be part of why we didn’t see them at the gates. I have some thoughts on that, but Elaine, what’s your thinking?"

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 14]

[Mana: 6680/6680]

[Mana Regen: 8785]

Stats

[Free Stats: 174]

[Strength: 43]

[Dexterity: 79]

[Vitality: 65]

[Speed: 80]

[Mana: 668]

[Mana Regeneration: 1100]

[Magic Power: 626]

[Magic Control: 1121]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 144]]

[Celestial Affinity: 144]

[Warmth of the Sun: 117]

[Medicine: 124]

[Center of the Galaxy: 126]

[Phases of the Moon: 104]

[Eyes of the Milky Way: 94]

[Veil of the Aurora: 110]

[Vastness of the Stars: 127]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 39]]

[Fire Affinity: 39]

[Fire Resistance: 39]

[Fire Conjuration: 39]

[Fire Manipulation: 39]

[Fuel for the Fire: 31]

[: ]

[: ]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 81]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 79]

[Pretty: 101]

[Vigilant: 110]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 111]

[Ranger's Lore: 67]

[Running: 74]

[Learning: 119]

Chapter 76– Plague VI

"I’m going to tentatively agree that there are two plagues." I said, thinking about what everyone had told me, evaluating their reliability, just like I had to when on-duty in town to take complaints that Rangers got. "I would guess that at least one, if not both, can be transmitted directly from person to person. There’s no way it’s by eye contact though – disease just doesn’t work that way! There’s no way for the bacteria, or virus, or whatever, to leave through the eyes. It’s possible for disease to enter the body through the eyes if it’s in the air. Maybe that’s what he meant when he said ‘It’s transmitted by eye contact.’"

"Let’s call them the Bloody Plague and the Vomiting Plague for now." I said. "It’ll make it easier to determine what’s going on. From what we know, the Bloody Plague somehow managed to still get outside of the town, in spite of all the healers trying to do a mass-cleanse event. Which is weird for a few reasons. How did it get outside? And assuming it was on something like rats or insects, how did people develop symptoms so fast? You don’t go from ‘infect’ to ‘problem’ within hours, it usually takes days! If it was that fast, why hasn’t it burned itself out yet?"

"However, the fact that the Vomiting Plague didn’t show up outside the town suggests that it’s more normal. I’d guess that it’s sourced inside the town somehow. Our best initial bet with it is to talk with people, see what they all have in common. Maybe they all buy food from the same vendor. Maybe they all use the same bathroom. You know how to investigate better than I do."

"Any questions for Elaine on this initial approach?" Julius asked.

"How do we protect ourselves from getting the plague?" Kallisto asked almost instantly.

"Well, if I knew that, this would be easy. Let’s try sticking to just our food and water stocks for now. Wear a cloth mask. If you believe the [Plague Healer] that it’s transmitted by eye contact, wear a sack over your head like he does. As time goes on, let’s slowly expand what we do – one person at a time – and see if anyone catches the plague. I’ll be healing all of us every evening, and if the plague was so fast to kill people same-day, it wouldn’t have enough time to spread to kill more people – it’d burn itself out too fast."

"But you just said it was going that fast, which made no sense." Kallisto pointed out, doubt and worry in his voice.

I frowned. He had a point. The evidence before me was contradicting what I knew. Be stubborn, stick to my guns, or be flexible, adapt, incorporate the new knowledge into what I knew?

"I hate to say this," Julius asked. "but you mentioned Papilion had done terrible things to your memory. Is it possible – just asking if it’s possible – that this piece of information got removed as well, and you’re not realizing it?"

I thought about it. How much did I really remember of those few, terrifying minutes in the Realm of the Gods? It’d been a long, long time since Biology class, could I simply have forgotten, and not realized it? I could detect holes in my memory, now and then, but there was no substitution for just… forgetting… something.

"It’s… possible." I reluctantly conceded.

"Well, worse-case, if someone comes down with the plague, you can just come to me. I find it hard to believe that it could kill you so fast between showing symptoms, and making it to me. While I’ve only treated that one person, it didn’t seem too hard. I’ll make sure my earrings are always topped up as an emergency ‘heal a Ranger’ reserve to boot." I reasoned out.

I got nods around the circle, and even Kallisto relaxed a hair. Origen gave me a great big toothy grin, and a thumbs up.

"Anything else healing-related?" Julius asked. Heads shook around the circle.

"Right then. Town-related issues that you noticed or heard about. Go."

"There are two cults that seem to have sprung up as a result of the plague." Maximus said, leaning forward. "Like most religious fanatics, they agree on most things, then differ on the details."

"I heard some of that as well." Artemis chimed in, lazily sitting back. "Something about the Fae?"

"Yeah, they’re both convinced the plague is the work of the Fae, it’s in-line with other mischief they’ve worked." Maximus said. "Although, it’s on a completely different scale."

I rolled my eyes. Fairies. Pallos had their fair share of fairy tales, and while I’d initially been excited about them, a complete and total lack of them ever showing up made me convinced they were just that – fairy tales. Sure, maybe they weren’t – there was a higher chance than normal that they were real – but their complete and total lack of touching on my life had me categorize them as "extremely rare" if they did exist.

"What are the differences between the two cults?" I asked.

"Well, one seems to think the answer is appeasing the Fae. Get rid of horseshoes, leave them shiny offerings, playing nice music, etc. The Appeasers. Their logic is that the Fae must be angry, and only by making them happy will we be fine." Maximus explained.

"The other cult thinks the answer is to make the town as unappealing to the Fae as possible. Ward them off, drive them out, and they’ll take the plague with them. Horseshoes, Symbol of the Five Gods, salt, the works."

"Which brings them into direct conflict with each other." Our resident mountain-bear-man hybrid growled out.

"That’s interesting, but does it do anything for us right now?" Julius asked.

"Appear neutral." Origen said, some of his rare words. "Don’t look like we’re on either side."

He looked at me significantly. I looked at him back, blanking. He looked at my chest.

Right, my pendant from mom. Symbol of the Five gods and all that. I tucked it into my tunic, and he gave me a thumbs up. Would it kill him to talk more?

There was some more shuffling around as we hid shiny items, and Maximus reluctantly put away his newest weapon, some monstrosity of spikes and chains that I couldn’t even begin to properly describe, opting instead to carry a standard short sword, made out steel.

"Right, do we need anything else before we go?" Julius asked us. We finally all shook our heads.

"Elaine, last-minute advice how to not get infected?" Julius asked.

"Wear a mask. Don’t eat or drink anything that’s not from our stores. Try not to get too close to people. Wear long clothes, cover your arms and legs, don’t let bugs bite you. Don’t touch infected people. Avoid getting blood in or on you, although I seriously doubt this is blood-borne." I rattled off immediately.

"Ok, Investigation team, grab some food and let’s go, we’re eating as we move. Healing team, Artemis, you’re in charge, do what you want. Let’s go." Julius said.

I dropped my [Veil] – overkill really, in the Argo with the sound-proofing enchantments anyways, and Julius, Maximus, and Arthur all grabbed some food, wrapped a piece of cloth around their face, and headed out. Kallisto made a noise of protest, shoved an entire fruit in his mouth, threw a bag over his head, and scrambled out after them.

He was taking this "don’t get infected" thing seriously. Must be really worried about it.

"Grab some food, let’s go." Artemis ordered. Origen and I quickly grabbed some food, I got myself a waterskin and filled it up from our reserves, and we were off.

We’d parked the Argo near the main temple, which was pulling multiple duties at once. Besides the normal role for worship and acting like a primitive bank, it was also a central location for all the healers to set up their clinics, a single, centralized location for people to come to, at which point they could "window-shop" for whoever they wanted to heal them. It was good for them, it was good for us, and I was forcibly reminded of a food court in a mall. "What do you want, spicy-Water healer for 8 coins, a delicious cheese-coated Dark healer for 11 coins, or a Light-healer that always gives you the runs after for 3 coins?"

We went back into the temple, and weaved our way through the marble halls, the heat and humidity being stifling. Whose bright idea was it to build a temple like this in a tropical location? It made no sense.

Lots of what people did made no sense.

Markus had helpfully set us up with a room, and I managed to get there without too much incident, mostly by repeating the following mantra to myself on repeat.

"I’m here to help, I’m willing to help, they will come if they need help, they are getting help on their own." I repeated it over and over, the truth of the matter helping [Oath] stay happy, even as some sick people shuffled past me, on their way to another healer.

We found my spot at the end of a hallway – subtle snub, or "this is our only free room" – impossible to tell – and I got settled into a chair, while Artemis leaned up against a wall.

Origen was going to be our social interface, our way of communicating and semi-advertising, and would help lead people from the main room people were gathering in to our room-turned-clinic.

We were so doomed.

Origen set up a series of inscriptions all over the room before we got started, as a junior member of the temple stopped by.

"Oh, you’re here, good." He said. "Can I help you with anything?"

"Well, we need some help letting people know that we’re here, and we’re able to help people."

"Right, you’re in the Aster room. What type of healing are you offering, and what price?" He asked.

"Celestial healing, no coins. It’s free." I said.

"Can you do all the Light and Dark tricks?" He asked, seemingly mentally taking notes. Right, reading and writing were rare skills here. I’d gotten spoilt being around the Rangers constantly.

"Yup! Unless there are tricks I don’t know about. Curing diseases, injuries, lost limbs, and the like, I can do."

"Are you sure you want to be free?" He asked. "You could charge quite a bit, and people would pay. You’d be maxed out on patients to heal, and still making enough."

I hesitated at that. It wasn’t that the money was attractive – it was – but if I had extra coins, I could do things, like make sure Glacia had enough money to keep going. It sounded like she was struggling.

"Yes, I’m sure I want to be free." I glanced at Origen. He shrugged. The temple helper left the room, Origen following. Artemis and I settled in, waiting for the first person.

It didn’t take long. All of the other healers had people? Another healer showed up, and was ready to see people? New healer was free? In a short time – if I was a betting girl, I’d say the exact length of time needed to walk from the room to the main chamber, say "free healer’s available", then shuffle back at the speed of the man before me – I had my first patient.

He was coughing, a dry, hacking cough, followed by a high-pitched intake of breath after. He was covered with open sores oozing a disgusting mixture of pus and blood. Yup, Bloody Plague.

I shook my head. I should disabuse myself of these ideas. I should tackle it with fresh eyes, and draw my own conclusions. In some ways, hearing everyone’s thoughts ahead of time had poisoned the well, made it harder for me. I had grooves that my thinking wanted to go into.

"When did you notice the, errr, problems?" I asked, slightly stumbling over my wording.

"Started coughing a week ago, lightly. Got worse. Two days ago, it vanished, I felt like a new man. Then today it came back, worse. Woke up with the cough, and when I saw the sores and pus, made my way over here fast. Thank all the gods and goddesses you’re here, I didn’t think anyone would take me!" He said, grabbing my hand.

"Where do you live? Where do you normally work?" I asked him. He gave me his answers, and I mentally noted them.

The ick was significantly diminished by Ponticus’s display of self-cannibalism earlier, along with [Center of the Galaxy]. I hit him with [Phases of the Moon], imagining the bacteria (or virus – I split my thoughts on it) being burned out, his lungs being hale and whole, the pus gone, the sores closed and healed. Benefit to being Celestial – I could both purge the disease, and close the wounds. Dark and Water healers could purge the disease, but the sores would be left to heal on their own, leaving scars at best, and an avenue for new infection at worse.

I checked my mana. It took 611 points of mana to heal him. With my mana regeneration at around 8785, that was… about 14 people an hour. About one person every four minutes. 140 people in 10 hours, plus a few more for overnight regeneration. With a mana pool of 6850, that was another 21 people or so people I could heal.

"Thank you, oh thank you!" He said, trying to hug me with his pus-stained clothes. Artemis intervened, carefully stopping him from crushing me, separating us. I was never so happy that she was around before, and shot her a grateful look. She winked at me. He read the mood, and left, giving us a brief moment before the next patient arrived.

"Come over here." I told Artemis.

She came a bit closer, and I leaned over, tapping her, pulsing [Phases of the Moon] through both of us. I took a small amount of mana, Artemis took none. She dodged infection this time.

The variable amount of healing needed after each patient – 20 or so many, that might be used not at all if we dodged getting infected, to 40 or so if we both got hit – would throw my calculations on how many people I could heal off.

Shortly after a woman was carried in on a stretcher by what looked like her husband and kid.

"What’s wrong with her?" I asked, as a foul smell reached my nose.

"Started leaking from both ends, hard, like a water-mage blasting someone. Just… not water."

Well, with that disgusting imagery, I looked down at her. There was some vomit caked to her lips, and I didn’t let my eyes wander down further. I placed my finger on her forehead, burning out the bacteria (or virus, or parasite, or whatever else was the problem) out from her.

346 mana. Strange. Why the large difference?

She didn’t get up though, didn’t start jumping with joy. I narrowed my eyes, remembering my [Oath]. I hated doing this. I had to.

I will admit when I do not know how to heal a patient.

"Can you see Verta, or one of the other senior healers with your wife? She’s terribly dehydrated, she needs a bunch of water. I don’t have a skill that can help with that" I said. "You could also boil a bunch of water, and try to feed it to her."

They nodded and hurried off, the son throwing me a nasty look, a look that said "why did we bother with the discount healer."

Bah. She was disease-free. Just wasn’t at 100%.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Oath of Elaine to Lyra] has reached level 112!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 145! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Celestial Affinity] has reached level 145!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Medicine] has reached level 125!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 105!]

I looked at my regeneration. Yikes, going up fast enough that it would cause my calculations to constantly change. Good grief.

I tapped Artemis and I to heal again, neither of us needing any healing. Not directly human to human transmissible? Or just lucky this time?

Chapter 77– Plague VII

Patients continued to come and go, with varying amounts of mana costs. My initial guess had been horribly off. The two patients I’d seen were among the worst cases of each, and established a sort of "cap" on how much mana I’d use at most. Less-severe cases took less mana. Not that I saw many of those.

Once we’d gotten a bit of a rhythm down, it got easier. Origen helped find and ferry people back and forth - the central organization didn’t extend so far as to provide the service themselves, they left it to us. The only other person besides me without an apprentice was Glacia, who didn’t see anyone directly, she just used a massive area heal. And Hesoid, but I had no idea what his system was. Then I healed them, and if they needed water, I’d send them to Verta, or one of the other Water-healers. The length of the hallway, the time it took to chat with them briefly to get an idea of what symptoms they had, what their problem was, and to cure them, was just barely keeping on top of my mana regeneration.

In other words, I could do this all day. As long as I had enough food.

Julius and Arthur stopped by with an incredibly detailed map of the town. I raised my eyebrows. That must’ve been tricky to acquire, although I had no doubt that he was more than happy to ‘request’ it directly.

He looked at me, seeing my gaze. "From the governor himself." He said. "We’re setting it up here, and as we trace different cases, learn where they live, we’ll put a marker on the map. As you find out where your patients are from, you can also put a marker down. Maybe we’ll see something by visualizing it like this."

Artemis and I nodded our approval. Julius placed the large hide map on another table they acquired – fortunately this room was rather roomy, normally being a worship space – and dumped out dozens of tiny pins, each with a small amount of dyed cloth on the end. Probably courtesy of the governor again.

"Red for Bleeding. Blue for Vomiting. Orange for major injuries. Green for other. We’ll swing by now and then, if you change your mind about it being two plagues, let us know, and we’ll merge or split as needed." Julius said, placing down a half-dozen Red and Blue pins. Artemis picked up a few, placing them down where patients had said they lived. I hadn’t realized she was paying attention.

Sometime later, Markus, the Pyronox, showed up at my door, [Oath]-apprentice in tow.

"Elaine, am I bothering you?" He asked, right as I finished healing another patient of the Bloody Plague.

"No, what’s going on?" I asked.

"First off, congratulations. All of your patients are coming out completely clean. You’ve burned the disease out of them well. Good work!" He smiled at me.

I knew I was doing a good job, but hearing it so earnestly, so honestly, from one of the senior healers, someone who had decades of work doing this, to be recognized for what I was doing and my skills, had me resisting squirming in happiness. I couldn’t stop a stupid grin from breaking out on my face though. I completely ignored the fact that they’d been intercepting and checking my patients without letting me know.

Artemis gave my shoulder a friendly squeeze, quietly congratulating me in her own way.

"I’m also impressed that you had the presence of mind to send a patient you couldn’t fully fix to Verta. That was an excellent call on your part, and shows a maturity I wouldn’t expect from someone your age." He continued on.

"Well, she does have some Divine screwery going on." Artemis said, lazily inserting herself into the conversation. "She’s quite a bit older than she looks, which causes her no end of problems. Or do you think we normally let 14-year-olds be full Rangers?"

Markus tilted his head forward, silent acknowledgement of his mistake.

"You can hear it, but the evidence of my own eyes, and her low level relative to the other proper healers here, made me think otherwise. I should’ve properly taken her age into account. I chose to believe what I was seeing, instead of what I was hearing. Now that I’ve seen otherwise, well, that’s part of why I’m here."

"The other reason I’m here is Herodotos here. He took that [Oath] of yours, he’s a Water-aligned healer, I figured I could kill two birds with one stone by lending him to you. You can teach him some ins and outs of how that [Oath] works, he can fix any water-loss problems you encounter, and you stop sending patients all over the place." That last one got me a glare that had me shifting uncomfortably in my chair, amplified by my guard being down from the prior high I was on. Look, it was my first day, ok?

Artemis and I glanced at each other.

"We need to have a quick chat, ok?" She said, gesturing to me. Before I heard his reply, I snapped [Veil] up, the original skill it evolved from brought back to its primary purpose, a private place to chat.

"Thoughts?" I asked Artemis, knowing she clearly wanted to chat about this.

"On one hand, my sense that someone’s trying to spy on us is going off. On the other, all of his concerns and reasons are legitimate, and it’s not like we’re currently running an investigation on them. An extra person to help can probably make us go a long way. Your thoughts?" She asked.

"We’d share anything we learned anyways. Gotta be a little careful about my background, since Julius has suddenly decided it’s classified. However, the help outweighs the problems, and if we need a private chat, well, [Veil]’s here to help.

Artemis snorted at me.

"It’s easier to say ‘classified, Divine intervention’ than try and explain your story. If you want to tell someone, go for it."

Fair enough.

I dropped my [Veil], smiling at Markus and Herodotos. "Sure, you can stay. Pull up a chair!"

"Thank you, Elaine. Looking forward to working with you in the future. You’ll go far." Markus said, as he started to leave the room.

"Oh, looks like your next patient is here. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hold you up." Markus said, doing an awkward shuffle around the door as Origen showed up with the next patient.

"Hello, welcome! I have an apprentice with me today, hope you don’t mind." I said cheerfully. I doubted they’d mind – who got a chance to get free healing.

The woman made a confused noise, pointing back and forth between us, the omni-present stench of death and rot becoming a hair stronger as she got closer.

I rolled my eyes.

"Yes, I’m teaching today, he’s the apprentice. We got it right." I said, guessing and answering the obvious question. The poor lady looked to be in so much pain and misery she didn’t care about the details, just about getting healed.

"Right, Herodotos, what would you do at this point?" I asked him, putting my hand on her arm, in a spot between two oozing sores.

"Well, it seems like this disease causes an imbalance of black bile and blood – too much black bile, and too much blood. The body we see here is trying to expel the excess humors to bring itself back into balance, so we should focus an image on those two humors being in excess, and leeching them out to restore the body."

My eyebrows were practically vanishing into my hair.

"How much mana does it take for that to work?" I asked him.

"Markus is great! He only needs 1800 mana to burn out a plague this bad out of the body, and restore the humors." Herodotos enthusiastically told me, clearly proud of his teacher, wanting to brag about him. "However, it takes me closer to 2400 mana, and I don’t quite get them all. Part of that’s because of my element." He said sadly. "Part of it is my low control, leads to me being inefficient." He hung his head slightly.

I made a non-committal noise. At that cost, I wasn’t going to have my water dispenser on legs waste his mana that inefficiently. I focused, healing the lady up to full, and dealing with the normal enthusiastic greeting that came after. We also got where she lived, and Artemis put another pin in the map. It was slowly coming together – there wasn’t enough showing to get any ideas yet – but it was taking shape.

She left, and Herodotos looked at me strangely.

"So, uh, did you forget to do something?" He asked me.

I could feel Artemis looking at him.

"Forget what? Let me know while the patient’s around if you think I’m forgetting something. Making sure they’re ok is worth more than my ego." I said.

"Payment! Money! Sweet sweet coins!" Herodotos said enthusiastically. "Markus said I’d get half of what you made if I stuck with you."

Artemis and I looked at each other, then burst out laughing.

"Markus pulled a bit of a prank on you I think." Artemis said, unable to shake the chuckles. "We’re not charging anything."

Herodotos’s face was priceless. A mixture of outrage, of indignation, and a bit of chagrin at having been so thoroughly had, at getting pranked by his teacher, and inadvertently, us.

"My understanding of medicine is completely different from yours." I started a short lecture while the next patient was heading down. "To me, this plague comes from tiny, tiny, so small you can’t see them, so miniscule they don’t even have a class, creatures, that invade your body, and grow and multiply. They’re called bacteria. Markus has over a hundred levels on me, but it only took me 770 mana just now to cure her. Part of that’s my high control, no idea what Markus has but I’ve got to be rivaling him. Part of that is I have a much better picture of what’s going on, and what I need to do."

"Ah, but Markus has a boosting skill as well. Not as strong as ours, but he has one! Most people have some sort of boosting skill." Herodotos said, loyally defending his master.

I tilted my head in acknowledgement of him probably being right, of Markus having better stats than me. It just made my accomplishment all the better.

I also remembered Maximus mentioning something a long time ago about most classes having some sort of boost or another. Julius probably had a conditional boost to his speed stat, Origen probably had more control when dealing with inscriptions. Lose a skill slot, get some stats, I’d be crazy to think I was the only one with a skill like this.

They just didn’t have the same raw power – or restrictions – that I had.

He looked at me skeptically as the next patient came in. A short conversation – this was a kid, and it looked like he’d been hit with both plagues – a quick healing, I passed him off to Herodotos to fix the hydration problem – and we had a few more minutes while Origen went to grab the next person.

"Where does bacteria live normally?" He asked, skepticism written on his face. If Markus didn’t have a policy of "listen to all healers, great and small.", I’m sure I’d be ignored.

"Oh everywhere. Air. Water. Other creatures. Our bodies have a bunch of tiny defenders as well, that are constantly fighting them." I was seized by inspiration. "Like how we’re constantly fighting the Formorians. If the walls break, and they flood in and cause a ton of damage, that’s like the disease getting a foothold, and us becoming sick as the disease ravages our body."

The hours flew by, me lecturing Herodotos on medicine, patients coming in and out, pins on the map constantly growing, some from me, some from the Investigation pairs popping in and dumping a bunch onto the map all at once. A shape was starting to form, but I was too busy right now to focus on it. I was low on mana, I’d seen patients at a rate just a hair higher than my regeneration – down to my last 500 or so, and going a bit slower to keep my regeneration abreast of new people coming in – and I glanced over at Herodotos. His eyes were still glazed over. They’d been glazed over for the past two hours or so.

Probably just still processing what I was telling him. I was about to jump into my next lecture – how blood circulated throughout the body – when a knock on the door interrupted my thought process. Artemis tensed. Today had been incredibly boring for her, which, if anything, put her on more of a hair-trigger. She started to wind up a throw, conjured rock appearing in her hand. Before I could say anything, Markus let himself in.

Rude.

Artemis half-stumbled as she aborted the shot, gracefully rolling it into a strange maneuver that I could only think of as "I always meant to do this."

I rolled my eyes at her.

"Might want to wait a moment after knocking." I said to Markus’s surprised face. "Artemis is a hair… twitchy… and having walked through saber-tooth cat territory has done absolutely nothing for her and her reflexes."

Artemis fake-coughed at me in annoyance. My eyes were going to get strained at this rate.

"What can I do for you Markus?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Well, it’s getting pretty late, I was hoping to grab my apprentice back." He said, eyes drifting over to the map we had laid out. "Unless you have any more need of him?"

Herodotos was off like a shot before I could say a single word. "IThinkShe’llBeFineWithoutMeLet’sGo!"

"Well, sounds like you had fun. Let’s go." Markus said, one last long glance at the map before turning and leaving without another word.

I rolled my eyes at him, Origen fortunately bringing another Bloody Plague victim.

"Hey Origen, can you focus on bringing more patients with bleeding wounds, oozing pus? I’ve lost my water source."

Origen nodded acknowledgement, and I continued working.

And working.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 146! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Celestial Affinity] has reached level 146!]

"Elaine, we should get dinner." No need right now, there were people to see.

And working.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Medicine] has reached level 126!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 106!]

"Healy-bug, should we stop? Call it a night?" Artemis asked. I ignored her.

And working.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Oath of Elaine to Lyra] has reached level 113!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Warmth of the Sun] has reached level 118!]

And –

Julius and company came back after another patient.

"Yay, you’re back." I tried to say with enthusiasm, but I couldn’t muster up any energy. Today was exhausting, and I was ravenous. There were more people to heal though.

"It’s incredibly late. We were waiting for you, but when you weren’t showing up, we got worried and came over. Is everything ok?" Julius asked.

"No." I said grumpily. "Too many sick people. Too many people almost dying. Too many…" I trailed off, gesturing wildly at the air around me.

There were glances traded all around.

"We are," Artemis’s words were interrupted by a massive yawn coming from her. "fine!" She said explosively, riding the end of the yawn.

More glances. Use your words damnit. I was tired. I was holding on by a thread. I needed to see another patient. Then another.

Origen brought another patient in, and I waited a few more moments, making sure I had enough mana to properly heal him. I put my hands on him, focusing, pouring mana into him and burning out the disease once again. Ran out of mana. Waited another moment, healed him again. Still had some left. Proper job done. I stifled a yawn as he walked away, peeling off his bloody shirt, seeming to throw it in the hallways as he left. Litterbug. Needed trashcans. Needed… I dunno, I was exhausted and tired.

"Elaine." Julius said, carefully. "You’re out of mana aren’t you."

I nodded sleepily. I wondered how he knew.

In an oh-so-careful voice, like he was talking to a stray cat that he was trying to coax closer, Julius asked me.

"Elaine, why don’t you draw in mana from your earrings, and see if we have the plague at all?"

"Sure thing." I tried to say, but it came out somewhat stifled, somewhat stilted. I wasn’t that tired!

I did what he said, trying to heal everyone from the Investigation team. Everyone needed a fairly solid burn through my resources. The only exception was Kallisto, who pumped his fist victoriously.

"Why don’t you take a short rest?" Artemis suggested gently, after a few more looks around were suggested. "Just until your mana’s almost full again."

I tried to think about it. It was hard, like wading through a swamp. If I waited…. Then healed a bunch all at once… it was the same number of people. Ok. I could take a short break.

I leaned back, and relaxed a hair, allowing my eyes to close.

I woke up to bright light, staring at the ceiling of the Argo the next morning.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 14]

[Mana: 7020/7020]

[Mana Regen: 9185]

Stats

[Free Stats: 198]

[Strength: 43]

[Dexterity: 79]

[Vitality: 65]

[Speed: 80]

[Mana: 702]

[Mana Regeneration: 1140]

[Magic Power: 653]

[Magic Control: 1157]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 146]]

[Celestial Affinity: 146]

[Warmth of the Sun: 118]

[Medicine: 126]

[Center of the Galaxy: 126]

[Phases of the Moon: 106]

[Eyes of the Milky Way: 94]

[Veil of the Aurora: 110]

[Vastness of the Stars: 127]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 39]]

[Fire Affinity: 39]

[Fire Resistance: 39]

[Fire Conjuration: 39]

[Fire Manipulation: 39]

[Fuel for the Fire: 31]

[: ]

[: ]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 81]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 79]

[Pretty: 101]

[Vigilant: 110]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 113]

[Ranger's Lore: 67]

[Running: 74]

[Learning: 120]

Chapter 78– Plague VIII

I woke up, ravenous, and slightly confused. Wasn’t I just in the clinic room inside the temple? As I slowly shook sleep off, and Elaine.exe booted up fully, the fogginess in my head vanishing, I realized what must’ve happened.

My ‘one moment of rest’ had led to me passing out, falling into a sleep so deep I hadn’t noticed being carried back to the Argo. I must’ve been more tired than I thought, gone longer and harder than I believed.

Well, there was no changing what had happened. Time to get up, get back in the clinic, and get back to healing people.

"Morning Elaine!" Artemis jumped on me playfully, having me go half-splat back into my sleeping bag. "How’re you feeling?" She asked.

"Blah." I tried to say. Being hungry, thirsty, and my face in my sleeping roll made it come out unintelligible, even to me.

"Here. Eat." Artemis said, thrusting a bowl of food and a cup of water into my hands. I ate and drank without thinking about it, without checking what I was even eating.

"Welcome back." Julius said drily, in a non-too-amused tone. "You need to work on pacing yourself."

I didn’t agree – there were people to be saved, ‘pacing myself’ just translated to ‘let people die’, but I nodded anyways, too hungry to argue.

The rest of the team was lounging around in the Argo, making it somewhat cramped. Yay for being short! I wasn’t feeling the pinch nearly as badly as Arthur was.

Speaking of, he was still dozing as well, so it was nice to not be the last one awake for once.

We waited for a bit, killing time until Arthur woke up, sleepy and grumpy. Ah well.

Arthur ate, then we got down to business.

"Yesterday, Investigations went around and talked with people all over town. Docks, marketplace, main streets, back streets, everywhere. Stories seem to be roughly the same. Plague showed up about a year ago. People aren’t reliable about the symptoms though – most insist that the plague showed up with everything all at once, a few people say it changed around two months in to include the vomiting." Julius said, quickly summarizing his findings. "We put in as many pins as we found cases of. Also, some of the coins seemed a bit strange to me. Origen, can you check?" Julius asked, handing over a handful of coins to Origen.

"Artemis, Elaine, what were your findings from yesterday?" Julius asked, as Origen started to trace mysterious inscriptions.

"Bleeding Plague is almost certainly transmissible from person to person." I started. "Vomiting Plague isn’t transmissible from person to person. I can’t be completely sure of it, but Bleeding Plague patients occasionally needed me to heal Artemis or myself, while that never happened with Vomiting Plague-only patients."

"Oh," I said, realizing I should state the obvious, even though we’d half-discussed it yesterday. "I completely agree with the [Plague Healer]. There are two plagues, not one. I have no idea what’s going on if they both showed up at the same time. If the second one showed up after the first, it could be enough things broke down to let the plague in." I said.

Julius and the rest of the team traded looks with each other.

"People are unreliable." Kallisto stated. "They think they remember one thing, but they’re completely wrong about it. Who remembers exactly when things start? I bet there are things on this trip we wouldn’t remember, forget the relatively irrelevant details of a plague. All people know is when it started, and that it’s killing them."

"Elaine, I need details on the second plague. Can a person with the disease pass it onto someone else that doesn’t have it, indirectly? Or is there a source constantly spewing out disease? I’m unclear on this." Julius asked.

I weighed what he was saying, thinking about it.

"Indirect transmission, like re-infecting a vector, then having that vector infect someone else, is totally possible." I said. "It’s how the Black Plague spread. A flea had the disease, would jump on someone, bite them, infect them. Other fleas would also jump on later, bite them, get infected. They’d then move onto other people. They were both the reservoir, and the method of infection. Kill all the fleas, and you were set."

"We can’t kill all the fleas in a town." Arthur said. "There’s no way."

"No, but you can kill almost all the rats, and tackle the disease from that direction. And if you know – you announce that fleas are the problem, to kill fleas, to kill rats – people should put forth an effort towards it. Enough to make a dent, and possibly get this under enough control to burn it out, without the 3rd deciding to do their own version of burning." I said.

There was a pause there as everyone digested what I was saying, only for Origen to interrupt.

"Counterfeit. Mage-Conjured." He said, holding up the coin and a metal plate with glowing inscriptions.

"Gods damnit all, another thing to worry about." Maximus cursed.

"20 coins it’s a newish mage that has no idea what they’re doing." Kallisto immediately took out some coins. "The lack of detail suggests a low control level. Any takers?"

Julius said nothing, just had a deep frown on his face.

"No." Origen said.

We all looked at him. He gave an exasperated twitch of his beard, clearly annoyed that he’d have to talk and explain this to all of us.

"No. We shouldn’t go after this mage. He’s keeping the town afloat. How many people did you see with bad coins? Do you think they’re all stupid, all unable to figure out they’re fake?" He said, a month’s worth of words in a single go.

"Laconia is poor. Yes, we have soldiers. We’re the mightiest warriors in Remus."

There were some boos and jeering at that, but it was more of a good-natured rivalry. The floodgates were open though, Origen had found his voice and he was not going to stop until he’d said his piece.

"But none of that money stays. Soldiers come with money, spend it. Then farmers come, take some money. Merchants come, and more money vanishes. Tax collectors. Buying metal. Buying wood. Buying pretty dyes. Wool. Four months after the soldiers have left, the man with 10 coins left is as rich as the governor. Trade stalls. People start getting hungry, not because they don’t work, or don’t have goods, but because there are no coins to make it work. People start bartering, and it gets somewhat ugly, until soldiers come back. Flood the town with coins. And it repeats. It’s why I practice Inscriptions. I want to show my fellow Laconians a new way. A new path forward. People will come all over to see me, to buy my things, and more will follow in my footsteps."

Advanced economics from Origen? You could push me over with a feather, and from the looks of it, you could push almost all of us over with a feather.

"Here has the same problem. Money leaves. Money doesn’t come back. Who’s paying for things from a plague town? Nobody. This mage is the only source of coin, the only reason things in this town aren’t even worse. He’s probably rich. He’s also saved the town. We ignore."

Origen sat down, arms crossed at that pronouncement. Julius was blinking, owl-like, still trying to process what he heard. Maximus had started writing down what Origen was saying, but had paused halfway through.

"Well then." Julius said, pausing. "That’s a lot. Thanks friend, we’ll do as you say. Focus is still on the plague."

"If…" Julius said slowly, thinking about it. "If we hear a large number of complaints about this mage, whoever he is. Then we might look into it. For now, we’ll leave it."

"Question." I said, jumping in, wanting to change the topic. "Could we have another person on the Healing team? Right now, Origen’s on his own a bunch while he ferries people back and forth, and with how important it is to stick together, well…" I said, trailing off.

Julius immediately shook his head.

"Our team splits in two. We talked last night. Origen’s either in the room where there’s a dozen guards, or in the hallway to your clinic. That’s close enough to additional armed forces. You were able to last a solid chunk of time, as a healer with no physical stats, against three level 200ish assailants. Origen is stronger than he looks. Short of the entire guard deciding all at once to murder him, he’d last long enough for you and Artemis to back him up."

"If something can kill all three of you, we’re doomed anyways. We do lose a Ranger squad about once every twenty years that way, either to a rebellion just starting in a town as Rangers arrive, and the team trying to single-handedly suppress it, or due to a Ranger squad being so abusive that the entire local guard comes down on them without waiting for a Sentinel to handle the issue."

"No, what worries me is a riot. This town is prime for one, and it’s only a matter of time before some stupid incident causes the two cults to tear each other’s throat out, at which point the 3rd would be entirely justified at razing the town to the ground."

Artemis had a grim, faraway look, making me suspect she’d been in the midst of a riot. Or two. Or perhaps had even incited one. Knowing her, very possible that she’d incited a riot, perhaps even deliberately.

"Do we need to know anything else before we get going? Or do you need anything from us?" I asked, itchy to start, to get back healing. I was regenerating mana, and my mana pool was full, wasting it. I was cognizant of the time, of every four minutes or so passing being another person I didn’t, couldn’t save.

"A quick round of healing for all of us." Kallisto quickly jumped in, having the sack over his head already.

I refrained from rolling my eyes – a healthy fear of the plague was better than a cavalier attitude towards it, and hit everyone with a dose of [Phases] just in case.

Everyone was fine.

"I think you’re all set. Stay safe." Julius dismissed up, shooing us out with his hand.

I was off like a bolt, Artemis on my heels, Origen slowly taking up the rear. We were still near the temple – where had the horses been stored? – and I quickly found my way back to my work room, Artemis on my heels. Origen had gone directly to the main patient room to grab someone.

I settled in for a long day of healing.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Medicine] has reached level 127!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 107!]

"Elaine, I’m dropping off Herodotos and another apprentice for you. Good luck today." Markus said, Herodotos and another apprentice shuffling in as I continued to stare at the map. There was a pattern here, I knew it. I just needed to see it.

"Welcome. When you’re full on mana, feel free to do a bit of healing. Otherwise, help me re-hydrate people who have the Vomiting Plague. Ok?"

"Ok." He said.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Oath of Elaine to Lyra] has reached level 114!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 108!]

"There’s no way blood circulates. It oscillates. Is this the nonsense you’ve been saying is so good?" Unnamed apprentice said to Herodotos, between yet another lecture.

I wanted to cry in frustration, but Artemis simply filled the room with her power, all of our hair standing on end. It kept discipline, it kept people questioning me, but at the point of a sword – or lightning bolt – wasn’t how I wish it was done.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 109!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 147! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Celestial Affinity] has reached level 147!]

"Artemis, I’m going to dump my free stats into my Mana Regeneration, ok?"

Artemis looked like she wanted to protest, but closed her mouth as another patient was brought in on a stretcher. I could see the gears turning in her mind, the calculation of lives saved, the odds of her changing my mind.

"You know best healy-bug."

[Mana Regen: 11,485] (Per Hour)

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 110!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Warmth of the Sun] has reached level 119!]

"Elaine. Eat." Artemis ordered.

"Just after this patient." I brushed her off.

"You’ve been saying that for the last 20 patients. Eat."

"Hang on, one moment."

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 111!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Oath of Elaine to Lyra] has reached level 115!]

"What do you mean, dead?" The husband was crying, tears flowing down his face, facing the truth, his wife was gone. The son wasn’t accepting it, becoming angry, hand on his sword.

"Liar!" He yelled at me, drawing his sword.

Artemis disarmed him. Literally.

"Behave." She said, as the husband threw himself on top of his son.

"Mercy, please!" The husband yelled. "I’ve lost everyone else."

I sighed.

"Give him here. I’ll fix his arm."

Thousands of mana needed to fix his arm. I gave him an evil eye.

"Because of your rash actions, ten people aren’t going to be healed. I won’t have the mana for it."

The pain of his arm being removed had been enough to cool him down, and he had the grace to look ashamed.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 112!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 113!]

"It’s an interesting question," New-apprentice said, having warmed up to me over the course of the day, regardless of my ‘radical’ ideas. "if you should’ve healed that man or not." He said, referring to the idiot Artemis disarmed.

"Who’s worthy of healing?" He stated.

"Everyone. Not a question." I said, still pissed and sour at him, exhausted from being kind and caring to all my patients today. I just had no bandwidth left, nothing to give to anyone else.

"Well yes. But in his case, if you didn’t fully fix his arm, just stopped the bleeding, he’d live. And you’d be able to save ten or more people from the plague. Was he a good use of your mana? Could there be a better use for it?" He was picking up steam, as I healed another patient, Origen turning around to get someone else.

"Probably not." I reluctantly conceded.

"Which leads to a follow up. You’re healing the very sickest patients. Most of the other healers won’t touch them."

"What!" I squawked out in indignation, looking every inch a 14-year-old. "Why!?" I demanded, turning on him in a fury.

He leaned back, raising his hands up defensively. Artemis tensed – bored and on a hair trigger was a bad, bad combination.

"It’s something Markus teaches all of us! Heal one person who’s going to die today, or heal ten people who’ll die next week. If you heal the one person, seven out of the ten people will need the same level of healing in three days. By then, you can only heal one of them. The other six die. Each person you heal today, when they’re that sick, on death’s door, damns the other six to a grave."

"You’ve must’ve seen the pyres. The gravediggers and their wagons in the street, collecting bodies. Heard the cries of family members discovering their loved one dead. We’re nowhere close to having this under control. By handling the moderate cases, we prevent them from escalating, reducing the overall number of dead. Moderate cases also don’t need whatever touch-ups you’re doing to fix sores, bad lungs, and whatever other damage is present."

I looked at him in horror.

"You didn’t know?"

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Learning] has reached level 121!]

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 14]

[Mana: 2415/7190]

[Mana Regen: 11485]

Stats

[Free Stats: 0]

[Strength: 43]

[Dexterity: 79]

[Vitality: 65]

[Speed: 80]

[Mana: 719]

[Mana Regeneration: 1370]

[Magic Power: 667]

[Magic Control: 1175]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 147]]

[Celestial Affinity: 147]

[Warmth of the Sun: 119]

[Medicine: 127]

[Center of the Galaxy: 126]

[Phases of the Moon: 113]

[Eyes of the Milky Way: 94]

[Veil of the Aurora: 110]

[Vastness of the Stars: 127]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 39]]

[Fire Affinity: 39]

[Fire Resistance: 39]

[Fire Conjuration: 39]

[Fire Manipulation: 39]

[Fuel for the Fire: 31]

[: ]

[: ]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 81]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 79]

[Pretty: 101]

[Vigilant: 110]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 115]

[Ranger's Lore: 67]

[Running: 74]

[Learning: 121]

Chapter 79– Plague IX – The Greater Good

I was familiar with the concept of triage. Badly injured, injured, and weakly injured. Ignore the weakly injured, they’d be fine. The badly injured would take up huge amounts of resources to fix, while the injured were prime targets for healing.

From the sound of it though, what was being advocated was to just hit the weakly injured, the mildly sick, maybe treat the injured, and damn the badly injured, and the terribly sick entirely.

There was knowing the concept as a vague thing from back when I was on Earth, and now being the healer, being the person performing triage, the one who says "I’m sorry. You die, so that person can live."

I was strongly tempted to develop a drinking habit to forget. Living with the choice I’d need to make would mark me.

I spent the rest of the evening healing as I thought on the new apprentice’s words, his thoughts echoing through my head with every patient, sending a stabbing knife of guilt through me.

Did I just damn more people healing that girl? Was the old man’s life worth saving, at the expense of someone else’s?

Should I weigh the two lives against each other, and only heal the ones I don’t find wanting?

How many old people were worth a young boy’s life? Two? Ten? Did I need to calculate how many expected years of life were left, and only when the old-people years outweighed the young boy’s expected life-years, should I heal the elderly?

What about quality of life? The young boy would enjoy life more than any single elderly individual, but then again, I had to look at their aggregate quality of life, not just any one of theirs.

Should I ask them if they were willing to sacrifice their lives for the young boy’s? Was it fair of me to push the burden onto someone else, to force them to collectively decide? Didn’t that pressure the one or two people who felt like they wanted to live, but didn’t want to speak out, to go against the crowd?

No, I’d have to be the one making the decision. I was the healer. The responsibility was mine.

It had never felt so heavy. Being at the bottom of the ocean, crushed by pressure. Atlas, holding up the world. It weighed on me, chaining down my limbs, slowing me down, making it hard to breathe. Making me hesitate.

Damning even more people with my indecision.

"Origen, can you grab four people next time?" I asked, coming to a decision. He nodded at me, leaving me with the most recent patient, a mother and daughter, both sick.

"Hey you," I said to the still-nameless apprentice. "can you grab Markus? I’d like to talk with him about this more."

He opened his mouth to protest, and Artemis stepped in to quash any objections before they started.

"She’s the lead healer here. You listen to her orders. Heck, I even listen to her orders in this room. She’s the goddess here, you’re just her minion."

I shot Artemis an appreciative look, as Nameless Apprentice muttered something under his breath and shot off. Origen showed up with four people, who I healed in rapid succession, throwing up a quick [Veil] around each one for privacy, getting my mana low enough for a moderate conversation to not reduce the total number of people I could heal.

A brief moment of rest, which was rudely interrupted by Artemis physically shoving some food into my mouth.

"Eat." She said sternly, angrily, crossing her arms.

"I thought she was the goddess." Herodotos said sassily.

Artemis casually sparked him, causing him to jump and yelp in pain.

"Tormenting my apprentices?" Markus asked jokingly as he entered the room.

"Yup! Going to do something about it?" Artemis asked, challenging him.

Markus just laughed it off. "Nah, they’re under your supervision, how you choose to run things is up to you. They know they’re free to strike off on their own whenever, and will probably be ready to once this plague’s over. Interesting map." He said, nodding to the heavily-pinned map.

He turned to me, getting serious.

"Elaine, I heard you needed help and advice. What’s going on?"

I explained to him the concept his apprentice had taught me, and explained the turmoil I was now going through.

He sucked in air through his teeth, looking at me with sympathy.

"Interesting. A lot of theoretical knowledge, but not a ton of practical knowledge. I assume Lady Ranger over there will give me problems if I ask too many questions on your classified background, but I’m dead curious who your master was, at the very least."

I shook my head. "Never had one. Learned a bit from my mom, like most town healers. But I was never an apprentice."

That got me a strange look, and a cough from Artemis, reminding me that it was best to keep my background under wraps, and probably pulling double-duty as a subtle threat to Markus. Solid work for a single cough.

"Well, some basics on the concept. You’re right that it’s a tricky and difficult thing. I call it ‘Justice’. Who is worthy? Who isn’t? More importantly, when we can only save some people, not everyone, who do you save? How do you fairly, and equally, distribute scarce medical resources to people?"

He stood up straight, assuming a lecturing posture. Herodotos immediately snapped into a ‘learning’ pose, with a speed that could only come from hours of drilling and practice. I figured it’d be polite to try and mimic him, and I did.

"First off, the choice is always yours to decide who to save, and who not to. Nobody can force you to make a different call, although many will pressure you to heal someone else. Feel free to tell them to stick it where the sun don’t shine. At the same time, it can be worth considering politics. Save the governor’s sick elderly father, or a baby. The baby is almost always right to heal. But if the governor will throw you out of town if his father isn’t healed, you lose access to everyone else in the town, and can’t help a single one of them."

"I’ve been in that exact situation, about, oh six years ago. It’s ugly. There is no right call, both are wrong. You can only make your best call, and pray to the gods."

I closed my eyes, bowing my head. This was making it both worse, and better, at the same time.

"Second off, there are more factors than just the patient themselves. A father, supporting a wife and four kids? Well, saving him saves more than just him, it saves his entire family. If you pick a kid over him, you’ve saved one kid, but damned three more to death."

His tone turned sympathetic.

"Tell you what. I’ll tell you my order of healing. If you’re lost, if you’re struggling, maybe this will provide a foundation for you to work off of. Change it, evolve it, to fit your own criteria."

"I’ll heal babies, kids, young men and women, pregnant women, and people whose entire family depend on them, who are only mildly ill first. I’ll heal anyone else who’s mildly ill next. Then I repeat the same group, for badly ill people, then anyone else who’s close to death after them. Lastly, I’ll heal orphans and slaves, mild to terrible."

"Why are they last?" I said, wanting to burn with rage at his choice, at his casual dismissal of slaves and street urchins.

"They’re unlikely to survive anyways; likely to starve and die even with my best intervention. Why should I waste resources on someone who’s going to die anyways, when there are others who’ll live a long and healthy life?" Markus said, coldly dismissing them.

At the same time, if he wasn’t cold, practically cruel, about it, could he even live with himself? Would the guilt crush him, the remorse kill him?

Artemis put a steadying hand on my shoulder, squeezing.

"I wish you the best of luck Elaine. You’re doing amazingly, and if nothing else, you’ve given hope to the very sickest people who are waiting for help. Most of us are targeting the less-ill, trying to get on top of the disease. The ones you’re healing believe they’re too far gone, and you’re their last hope, their beacon so to speak."

Every word was like a stab into my heart, causing pain. Did he know how much harder he was making this?

"I need to get going now. I hope I helped." Markus said. I mutely nodded my head.

"Oh, something for you to know, since you never had a formal master." Markus said. "Don’t worry too much if you get a kill notification on someone. It happens to all of us."

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Learning] has reached level 122!]

He turned and left, and I threw up [Veil], ran to Artemis, and bawled in her arms. Knowing that would have saved me so many years of torment, nights of anguish, guilt over Lyra no longer fresh, but a constant sore, aching wound across my heart. Artemis didn’t know the full story, but she could guess, as she held me and rocked me.

After a few minutes, Artemis interrupted my pity-party.

"Alright healy-bug. Let’s get you back out there and fixing people. I don’t know what happened, but it’s too easy to guess. What’s done is done. You need to focus on the people in front of you, get to saving them. Here," She said, taking some cloth out, wiping my face and nose. "let’s get your serious super-healer-ranger face on! You can do it! Yeeeaaaahhhh!"

I sniffed appreciatively, getting my super-healer-ranger face on, dropping [Veil].

"Origen." I said, having him pop back in. "New priority ordering. Go in age, from youngest to oldest, grabbing the sickest. Also, if you see something, see someone, that you think should be brought to my attention, who should be healed, feel free to grab them instead."

Origen nodded, showing his understanding, at getting a hint of my dilemma. My solution was far from perfect, might even be worse than Markus’s solution.

At the same time, Origen also knew the crushing burden I was placing on him. In many senses, I was abdicating my responsibility, easing myself into it slowly. By having Origen act as the filter, the decider, of who I saw, he was effectively running triage, being the arbiter of Justice, deciding who got medical attention, and who would have to wait. I’d given him guidelines, I was taking on some of the responsibility, but I wasn’t fooling myself – a non-zero portion of the responsibility was Origen’s.

Bless him. I’d tell whatever tales he wanted.

It sounded like I was the last bastion of hope for many though, and I didn’t want to snatch that away from them, to cruelly crush the last dream, the last hope, that people had.

I used to be the [Light of Hope] after all, and I was sticking to that root.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 114!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Medicine] has reached level 128!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Warmth of the Sun] has reached level 120!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Oath of Elaine to Lyra] has reached level 116!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 148! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Celestial Affinity] has reached level 148!]

Chapter 80– Plague X

The rest of the week passed in a blur, a haze of pain, red flags, sadness, sickness, hide map, disease, death, blue flags, rot, blood, a random scattering of orange flags, vomit, pus, way too many hours spent staring at the map, thinking, trying to tease the pattern out, to see what was happening, punctuated by four rocks from Artemis through an offending limb. She was a hair more considerate, and tended to only take out a hand, instead of the entire arm – much cheaper for me to heal mana-wise. More people saved.

She did some grumbling about "precision shots" and "not good form", but I appreciated it anyways.

There was one outright murder from Artemis, as she "didn’t think she could stop him in time without killing him." I was too numb to care. You’d think people would learn by now that healers had bodyguards, and not to try and pull stunts.

Then again, maybe things weren’t as emotionally charged with the "Sick, but not at death’s door" patients. Another subtle benefit of skipping over the direly ill?

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 150! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

[*Ding!* For reaching level 150, you’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Moonlight]!]

[Notice: All your class skill slots are full. Replace a skill for [Moonlight]?]

[Moonlight]: The phases of the moon are visible to all who look up at them and see them. Able to apply [Phases of the Moon] at range, whenever moonlight touches them. [Phases of the Moon] applies with a significant efficiency penalty. Penalty increases with distance. Increased range, decreased penalty per level. Current range: .1 meters. Current penalty: 1000% increased cost per meter.

I hesitated briefly over the skill, before indicating I needed a quick break by raising my hand. The three apprentices with me – Markus was rotating them spending time with me, partially because I was making them work hard, harder than they worked with him, and partially because he wanted them to have exposure to my "interesting" ideas – all relaxed, tension bleeding from their bodies as I snapped up a [Veil] around Artemis and I.

"What’s going on?" Artemis asked, a graceful mix of tense and relaxed, somehow looking perfect through the exhausting days.

"Hit 150. New skill offered." I said, sharing the details of [Moonlight] with her."

"Take it." Artemis said almost instantly. "[Eyes of the Milky Way] isn’t that powerful, and you gain the ability to heal at a short – soon to be longer – range. You’ll still be mostly hands-on, the skill is limited, but it gives you an advantage, a possibility of stabilizing a serious wound as you’re getting to whoever needs help. Arriving a few moments earlier might be the difference between life and death for them."

"Plus, that sounds similar to how battlefield power-healers work." She said.

I tilted my head, asking the question without saying anything. Origen was rubbing off on all of us.

"They have massive area, well, healing would be putting it a bit strongly. They can close injuries, prevent death, but it’s bad flesh, poorly formed. You’ve seen some of it with injuries that weren’t well-healed. That’s the mark of a power-healer, with poor control. They have a massive range, and if you’re on a battlefield, you want one watching over you – they’ll save your life long enough for a control-healer to reach you and heal, like you do. That fixes the temporary fix, gives it the ability to feel and move properly. Sometimes, there just isn’t a control-healer around to do the secondary fix, and you’ve fixed more than a few of those injuries."

Artemis hummed a moment, thinking.

"Glacia is likely a power-healer, if she counts as a healer. Hard to tell with her skills. Huge area, mediocre effectiveness."

"Also, you’re getting up there in level. I don’t think I was as high as you at your age. You might be offered more skills evolving, than brand-new skills, as you keep going up. Something to consider."

"The long and the short of it is, you’re dipping into the power-healer domain a bit with this. Your class evolved from a control-healer, so it’s not too efficient, but any extra trick is worth it. Your class has evenly distributed stats, which makes me think it wants to be a little bit of a Power healer, a little bit of a Control healer. This seems like a Power-related skill, in contrast with all of your other Control-related skills. I don’t think [Eyes of the Milky Way] are doing that much for you, and the situations the skills are in are similar – at night, under the sky. Seeing more, or healing an injury? Which one’s better in your opinion?"

I thought about it briefly. I had other sources of light – mostly my flames, but [Veil] had some incidental lighting. Not being able to see in the dark would suck a bit, I’d gotten used to it, but it wasn’t the end of the world.

Also, I didn’t think Artemis was completely right. The moons did come out during the day. It was rare, but it happened. At the same time, I doubted it would work during a New Moon, when the moons weren’t showing up. Same difference, but I’d be even more locked towards knowing exactly what the moons were doing at any given time.

I dumped [Eyes of the Milky Way] for [Moonlight]. I felt nauseous, close to vomiting at losing a skill of that level. My stomach was much stronger after seeing Ponticus – the Light healer that ate his own finger – and after wading through a swimming pool’s worth of bodily fluids from my healing clinic. It would be some time before I could start practicing with the skill, getting the level up – the current penalty was harsh, and the range small, but I was sure that would change with time.

"Hey Artemis, um.." I said, trailing off, looking at her hopefully, wishing that she’d read my mind.

She tousled my hair affectionately.

"Yeah, your eyes are still starry."

Yay!

"Elaine, you’re leveling way too fast." Maximus said that evening.

I was too exhausted to really fight or argue with him.

"Is that bad?" I managed to ask, eyelids like lead.

"No, just strange." He said.

I’m not sure exactly what Artemis said, since I was falling asleep, but it was something about how hard I was working.

I stared at the map. Red pins were all over, with a higher density near the shores, and clustered around the temple. Was there something about the sea, something about the temple causing the plague? Or was this just reporting bias?

Were there more people that lived near the docks with fishing equipment, so they were out fishing, and catching it? Or was there a foul wind coming off the sea, infecting people?

If it was a bad wind, why would other towns not have it?

Could it be from rats that came in on ships, and were settled near the docks?

But then why the cluster around the temple? Was that just reporting bias? Round and round in circles I went.

"Plague? There’s no plague!" An elderly man insisted from a stretcher, being carried by his son and daughter-in-law.

They glanced at each other, and turned to me.

"Look, you don’t need to convince him, but can you heal him anyways?" The son – not too much older than me - begged me.

I rolled my eyes and healed the man, saying nothing. Some people, honestly.

I was happy that an older man was showing up. Were we getting a handle on the plagues? Was I enough to tip the scales?

"You think the Fae are behind it, right? Right?" A sick lady asked me.

I made a non-committal noise.

"I knew it! The Fae are mad at us. We need to make them happy, so they leave us alone."

I made another non-committal noise.

The plague was back out in force. I was healing younger and younger people now.

The blue flags were different. One-quarter of the town – the side away from the sea – had almost no infections. Then like there was a line drawn in the middle of town, cases suddenly showed up.

Was there some inscription buried in the town, warding plague off? Why, how, could there be a line drawn in the town, where people living on one side of it got the plague, and people living on the other side were fine?

Hours of staring at the map, thinking, meditating. There was an answer here. I had all the pieces of the puzzle. How did they fit together?

"Elaine, can you check a bunch of people to see if they’re still infected?" Maximus asked at one point, popping in with Arthur. Julius and Kallisto must be off somewhere else, looking into some other aspect.

"Sure." I said.

Over the day, Maximus proceeded to bring in a dozen different healthy people, the vast majority of which were completely fine, and a few scattered here and there needed a few points of mana to heal them.

"Interesting." Was all Maximus would say about the problem, while Arthur frowned. "Very interesting."

I dreamed of the damn map. Every night, it started off blank, then one pin, two, dozens, hundreds more would land in it. Sometimes it was the shape of the real map. Sometimes it was different. Every night it was laughing at me, mocking me. "Can’t you figure me out?" It’d say, sometimes forming a mouth, other times the hundreds of little pins would sing in unison. "Isn’t it sooooo obvious? Every day you can’t figure out my secret, more people die."

Then more pins would come down, a whole rainbow of colors, then turn into flames, burning bodies piled high, evidence of my failure burning into my eyes, filling my nose with smoke, the smell of burning and decaying bodies.

I was going to burn that damn map once we’d figured this out.

"You think the Fae are behind it, right? Right?" A sick man asked me.

I made a non-committal noise.

"I knew it! The Fae are mad at us. We need to drive them out, so the plague will leave!"

I made another non-committal noise.

We got to the day before the weekly healer’s meeting, during the late afternoon, as I looked over my levels gained for the week. They were quite something.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 160! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Celestial Affinity] has reached level 160!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 151!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Medicine] has reached level 149!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Warmth of the Sun] has reached level 125!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Oath of Elaine to Lyra] has reached level 135!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Center of the Galaxy] has reached level 128!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fuel for the Fire] has reached level 33!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Learning] has reached level 124!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Vastness of the Stars] has reached level 128!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Veil of the Aurora] has reached level 111!]

Origen was bringing in another patient – a young kid this time, we’d been slammed hard and I was back to treating very young, very sick children – and we went through the usual routine. Just the Vomiting Plague. Herodotos did some light healing, then passed the kid off to me to finish the job.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Medicine] has reached level 150!]

I gave her parents the usual lecture.

"She should be better now. However, the disease can come back. Be careful around others, be careful with fleas, rats, insects, and bad food. Wear a mask. Or a hood, some people think those help. Boil your water before drinking it." I said, reciting the usual tips and tricks.

"Good luck, and I hope I don’t see you again!" My little joke. Some people appreciated it.

They thanked me profusely – so nice when they did that instead of treating me like it was expected of me, or that I was dirt, or making some snide comment about my age or gender. Herodotos was convinced it was because I wasn’t charging – another lesson of his from Markus, that people were more grateful when parting with their money.

I looked at the map, and suddenly, things clicked.

[Medicine] leveling up. [Oath] applying to knowledge. A framework from Earth. Hundreds of patients with the Vomiting Plague coming through my room.

The line through town. The river, snaking through town down to the sea.

The river, that people drank out of.

Boiling water. Disease in water.

"The Vomiting Plague is Cholera!" I said, getting up so fast my chair hit the back wall.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Recollection of a Distant Life] has reached level 80!]

"You figured out the Vomiting Plague?" Artemis asked. The question was repeated by the apprentices.

"Yes!" I practically shouted. "I figured it out!"

"Get Julius?" Artemis asked.

"Yeah, get him now." I confirmed.

Artemis let off a low thundercrack, reverberating through the hallways. Origen skidded into the room a moment later, hand on his weapon.

"Stay here with Elaine. I need to grab everyone else." Artemis said, off like a shot.

Origen looked at me confused. I was too excited.

"I might have figured out the Vomiting Plague!" I said, jumping up and down with excitement.

The apprentices looked at each other. I pointed to Herodotos.

"Can you grab Markus for me please?"

He scampered off, as I heard the distinct rumbling of Artemis’s bolts through the temple walls. Three bolts, the lowest priority "need you now" signal she had.

In no time at all, Markus, Julius, and the rest of the team were crammed into my tiny room. We kicked the apprentices out to make more room.

"What’s so urgent?" Julius asked, while Markus said the same thing, phrased slightly differently.

"I’ve worked out the Vomiting Plague." I said. "My [Medicine] skill hit 150, and it was like a thousand pieces of a puzzle suddenly came together, and I realized what was going on. It’s a disease called Cholera." I said.

"Look at the map. Look at where the cases are. See the line basically going through town? People drink from the river, and almost entirely, they go to the nearest part of the river to get water from. That’s why there’s the line. People upstream of whatever’s causing the problem are fine. People downstream are getting sick." I said, pointing furiously to every part of the map as I described it, almost tripping over my words in my excitement.

"The way Cholera works is it’s in the water supply. Someone drinks the water; it goes into their stomach. It grows and multiplies, and causes the vomiting and diarrhea. The tongue-swelling is unrelated, I don’t think Caecilius was right on that. People’s vomiting and diarrhea are full of the Cholera bacteria, which then end up back in the water supply, to continue the cycle." I said.

"Towns usually have inscriptions on the grates to handle dangerous things getting in." Maximus pointed out.

"Yes, and that helps with things coming into the town. Not handling things that are sourced, are originated from the town itself." I said impatiently. Couldn’t he see?

Markus held his hand up, interrupting.

"Elaine, this is amazing. This is perfect. The weekly healer’s meeting is tomorrow, it’s already getting pretty late, can you present all of this to us then? This is bigger than just me; everyone should be present to hear this. Less than half a day’s difference won’t matter, and being able to tackle this properly, all of us, is worth the delay."

I bounced my leg impatiently, shifting my weight around. What did he mean, wait? People were dying now! We had to handle it now!

"Fine." Julius said, dismissing Markus with a wave of his hand.

"Details Elaine. It’s better that we hear it now, and we can cross what you’ve told us against what we’ve learned. It’ll make a better presentation tomorrow, and we might be able to act on it." Julius said, pulling out another scroll.

"It’s water-based. Find out where people are drinking their water from, and trace it." I said, giving the bare-bones answer. "We need to keep drinking from our personal stores. It’s primarily in the river, but there are other drinking sources, wells in the town. We need to find out if those are contaminated or not. The primary source is the river though, or at the very least, it’s the most obvious."

I took a moment to stare at the map.

"There’s an extra-large cluster here and here," I said, pointing to two spots on the map. "Perhaps there are contaminated wells there."

"Our water stores are nearly out." Arthur said. "It’s been almost six weeks since we last restocked in Catona."

"Then boil anything for a short length of time before drinking it." I said. "Or drink beer. It should be safe."

Arthur was going to love that.

"Fine, we have enough to work off of. Investigations, let’s go. Elaine." Julius said, pausing to turn and look at me, putting a hand on my shoulder, looking me square in the eyes. "Fantastic work. Worthy of the best Rangers."

I had to turn away as Julius and the rest trickled out. I didn’t want them to see me wiping away tears of joy and happiness that were involuntarily welling up at his praise.

Artemis gave me a hug from behind.

"Good work healy-bug."

The rest of the day couldn’t go by fast enough. I even left willingly at the end of the day, only to find myself staring up at the ceiling of the Argo, unable to sleep.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 14]

[Mana: 9400/9400]

[Mana Regen: 14091]

Stats

[Free Stats: 6]

[Strength: 37]

[Dexterity: 129]

[Vitality: 90]

[Speed: 130]

[Mana: 940]

[Mana Regeneration: 1655]

[Magic Power: 842]

[Magic Control: 1409]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 160]]

[Celestial Affinity: 160]

[Warmth of the Sun: 125]

[Medicine: 150]

[Center of the Galaxy: 128]

[Phases of the Moon: 151]

[Moonlight: 1]

[Veil of the Aurora: 111]

[Vastness of the Stars: 128]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 39]]

[Fire Affinity: 39]

[Fire Resistance: 39]

[Fire Conjuration: 39]

[Fire Manipulation: 39]

[Fuel for the Fire: 33]

[: ]

[: ]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 81]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 80]

[Pretty: 101]

[Vigilant: 110]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 135]

[Ranger's Lore: 67]

[Running: 74]

[Learning: 122]

Chapter 81– Plague XI

The next morning rolled around, and I was jumpy and bouncy as could be. I was the first one awake, and I woke up half the team as I eagerly put on every piece of my armor, greaves banging and clattering on vambraces as I rushed through the process of putting everything on.

Artemis groaned and rolled over, throwing a pebble – without any skill behind it – at me. It was satisfying to hear it clang against my armor and drop off, without me feeling a thing.

I wouldn’t dare to think I was invincible. Last time I’d started to say that, Julius had half-broken my shoulder. There was always a bigger fish. Watching stones bounce off of me without any effect, though, was still incredibly satisfying. Only a few steps down from eating a mango.

Artemis just made another complaining noise at the additional noise she managed to make, and shortly after, everyone was awake.

"Relax." Maximus said, eating his breakfast, as I was shifting from foot to foot as fast as I could.

I gave him a Look, trying to say that I was already using all my self-control to stay in the Argo, to not just run out and run to the meeting hall already, whooping and screaming about Cholera.

It’d probably diminish the impact if I did it that way, I mused to myself. I had to look calm, presentable, reasonable. Not the crazy girl babbling about "wild" and "outlandish" medical theories.

Some of my impatient energy must’ve been transmitted to the rest of the team, as they were dressed and fed in record time.

Well, it was an eternity of torment for me.

We made it to the meeting hall, and we were the first ones there, some temple staff moving chairs and tables around in mysterious ways known only to them and their gods.

Everyone started to trickle in, and Markus spread the word that I had Big News. Waiting far too long, there were finally enough people around for me to start. We commandeered a table, with most of the important healers sitting around it, while I was standing. Most of the apprentices, and a number of the less-powerful healers were just milling about. [Oath] was the only reason I had a literal seat at the table, instead of being one of the nameless background healers that could only look on. Well, [Oath] and being a Ranger. Without [Oath], it’d just be Julius at the table, and I’d get all the news and information second-hand.

To my satisfaction, a good number of the looking-on healers were higher level than me.

We had Markus, the Pyronox, master of a half-dozen or more apprentices. Caecilius, the [Plague Healer]. Ponticus, the Light healer with questionable dietary preferences. Verta, stout head of the local healers. Hesoid, the Decay mage, applying magic in interesting ways. Berucus, the powerful Dark healer. Glacia, still wrapped in cloth, lying to someone, gender still unknown to me. The last healer that was part of the council. I never caught his name, or what he did.

"Today’s meeting should be interesting. Let’s first get some minor points out of the way. Ponticus, would you like to start?" Markus said, bringing the meeting to order.

"I’d like to congratulate both Hesoid and Glacius for classing up this week." He said. A murmur went around the table, a round of scattered applause.

"I’d like to compliment Elaine on her massive growth this past week." Hesoid said next. "It’s good to know that she’s gotten some of that remarkable growth rate we’ve all experienced. While she hasn’t hit a class-up, she must’ve gotten what, 15 levels this past week alone? An astounding growth rate, the likes I’ve rarely seen. By a similar token, I heard that she’s been hitting the sickest patients at an incredible rate. You’re a credit to us all."

There were some congratulatory noises heading my way, and I looked down, blushing.

"Verta? Do you have anything?" Markus asked.

"We lost Daphna last night." Verta said somberly, pouring some water on our celebratory mood.

"Oh no! What happened?" Berucus asked.

"She was mugged on her way home. Didn’t survive." Verta said grimly. "All healers should get a guard escort on the way home. We stay so late, it’s not safe for us on the street. Those of us that are healer-tagged look like targets. If it’s that they think we have money, or just that we seem like an easy target for outrage over the plague, who knows."

"Let’s look into that. Caecilius?"

"Now that we’re in the more serious and somber notes, it seems like the plague’s become worse. More people are sick, and the people who are sick are even worse off." He said.

There was some scattered agreement around the table.

"Julius, do you have any news before we get to Elaine’s news?" Markus asked.

Julius gave a small jerk of his chin, and Maximus and Kallisto were suddenly near the table as well.

"Poor news I’m afraid. In other times us Rangers would come down hard on this, but given the situation, I’m handing this over to the rest of you to determine what happens." Julius said in a serious tone that demanded attention, but not a grim, dark tone.

"Sounds serious." Markus said.

"We’ve determined, using Elaine to confirm, that not all healers are properly, fully healing people." Julius said. "Furthermore, the healer in question seems to be targeting wealthier patients to not fully heal, only suppress the disease, so they have to come back to him later. It’s clear that this healer’s able to fully, properly heal patients when he chooses to, and is deliberately choosing not to."

"That’s preposterous!" Berucus cried out. "I’d never do that!"

Julius looked at him, as everyone else slowly turned to look at him as well.

"When did I ever say it was you doing it?" Julius said softly. Berucus paled, looking around at the table. "I do thank you for your confession though, it makes proving this much easier."

Berucus looked around, panic on his face. He tried to get up and bolt away, only for Maximus and Kallisto to put their hands on his shoulders, keeping him in his chair.

"Right, normally people committing fraud are turned over to the guard." Julius said conversationally. "Given the scale, and the impact of what he’s done, normally we’d step in and administer justice, a much harsher sentence than fraud normally gets, which is a 40 rod fine, or twice the amount stolen, whichever is higher. However, I recognize that these are abnormal times, and I turn justice over to the rest of you to determine and administer." Julius said.

"On that note, if anyone else has similar ideas, just keep in mind that we’re in the area, taking a long, hard look at anything and everything plague-related. We’re all in this together, let’s try not to make things worse." Julius ended his speech.

The rest of the healer’s council glanced at each other.

"We’ll deal with you later." Markus said, glaring at Berucus. If looks could kill, Verta would be charged with murder. Not that she’d ever be convicted.

"Sorry for not looping you in Elaine." Julius leaned over and whispered to me. "Didn’t want your sense muddled by wondering the what-ifs, and you have enough on your plate without worrying about a healer running a scam."

I nodded slowly. I didn’t like not being in the loop, but at the same time, I wasn’t needed for this, besides being a disease-detector. I already had enough on my plate, healing a constant stream of patients, thinking about the disease, trying to work it out, staring at the map, trying to find patterns, wondering if I was damning six other people by healing the one sick person, teaching the apprentices in bursts and spurts. My plate was more than full, and wondering "are some of the healers deliberately not helping" wasn’t something I needed to also be thinking about. I appreciated Julius and Maximus not stretching my responsibilities.

"I’m guessing," the [Plague Healer] slowly said. "that from the sound of it, you have even bigger news?"

I glanced at Julius, who lowered his head fractionally. That’s all I needed to finally explode.

"I think I’ve worked out what we’re calling the Vomiting Plague, what Caecilius called Plague 2. It’s a disease called Cholera." I said, rolling out the map that I’d spent countless hours staring at, hundreds, if not thousands of pin points on the map.

"Quick lesson on germs. There are hundreds, thousands, of tiny creatures living everywhere. Gnats look like giants compared to them. They live in the water, the air, the ground, - everywhere. Most are harmless. Most of the harmful ones our bodies fight naturally, without a problem. The last few remaining ones cause disease."

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Oath] has reached level 136!]

I was getting skeptical looks around the table. Markus rescued me.

"I’ve been having my apprentices sit with Elaine all week, learning her ideas. Most of their efficiency has improved. Given her backing, given what she’s been able to do in a week, I believe it’s worth listening to her, and evaluating the idea on its own merit."

That shut up the mutterings going around the table.

"Thanks Markus."

"The way Cholera works, is it lives in the water. You drink it. It multiplies inside of you. You get sick, you vomit, you have diarrhea. That expels the bacteria, it hits water again, and the cycle continues." I explained.

"Look at the map." I said, pointing to the blue dots scattered all over the city. The other healers huddled around the map, Julius leaning back with a proud smile on his face. "If we assume that the water’s the problem, you can see a line roughly here, going downstream, of people with Cholera, or the Vomiting Plague. Very few people upstream of the river have the disease, but quite a lot of people have it downstream."

"Wouldn’t the river just wash it all away?" Hesoid asked skeptically.

"It should. Which means somehow, more is getting into the river." I said.

"The outhouse on Carpenter’s street." Verta gasped. "One of my healers complained that it was smelling terrible, that the enchantments on it were dead. It’s right there," she said, pointing to a spot on the map right where the river started to have plague cases. "The people responsible for that area are either dead or fled, and it, like dozens of other things, haven’t been fixed or maintained."

"If it’s leaking into the river, that could cause the entire outbreak. Someone gets sick drinking the water, they go to the outhouse, it ends up dumping back into the river." I said. "Fix the outhouse, fix the leak, and it should, mostly vanish. It’s possible that there’s more than one contaminated source at this point, but we’d be playing ‘remove the sources’, and it should get a positive spiral. As we remove a source, hundreds of people aren’t getting it, which means fewer areas are potentially getting contaminated."

"Do you know anything about treating this disease that doesn’t require a skill?" Markus asked thoughtfully.

"It kills via dehydration. You don’t need to cure the disease if you can get people to drink enough uncontaminated water. Boiling water is enough to make it safe." I said, pleased as punch that everyone was listening to me! Things would happen! "Sure, they’ll still feel terrible, but Herodotos, for example, could single-handedly prevent people from dying. Their bodies will fight off the germ invaders on their own, and then they’ll get better."

I tilted my head, thinking for a moment.

"Of course, it might be more efficient, and help stop the spread of the disease, by having him just flat-out heal the patient. Bit of a wash really."

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Medicine] has reached level 151!]

I leaned back as everyone processed the bombshell, eager talking with each other. The hubbub of noise was terrible; so much so that it was attracting everyone else to the table to see what all the fuss was about. I just smiled, and enjoyed.

I’d done my part. Fought the disease with everything I had, worked my ass off, found out what the disease was. Brought it to the attention of people with more local knowledge than me, and Verta was able almost immediately to figure out the problem. Ha! Go local healers. That’ll show the big fancy out-of-town healers who the real heroines were.

The extra levels were just a bonus.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 14]

[Mana: 9400/9400]

[Mana Regen: 14091]

Stats

[Free Stats: 6]

[Strength: 37]

[Dexterity: 129]

[Vitality: 90]

[Speed: 130]

[Mana: 940]

[Mana Regeneration: 1655]

[Magic Power: 842]

[Magic Control: 1409]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 160]]

[Celestial Affinity: 160]

[Warmth of the Sun: 125]

[Medicine: 151]

[Center of the Galaxy: 128]

[Phases of the Moon: 151]

[Moonlight: 1]

[Veil of the Aurora: 111]

[Vastness of the Stars: 128]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 39]]

[Fire Affinity: 39]

[Fire Resistance: 39]

[Fire Conjuration: 39]

[Fire Manipulation: 39]

[Fuel for the Fire: 33]

[: ]

[: ]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 81]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 80]

[Pretty: 101]

[Vigilant: 110]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 135]

[Ranger's Lore: 67]

[Running: 74]

[Learning: 122]

Chapter 82– Plague XII

True to the prediction of Julius and Markus, the Cholera bombshell, the revelation of what the disease was and how to fight it, completely derailed the rest of the meeting. Some couriers were brought in and dispatched, and suddenly everyone was interested in seeing what was going on, in being part of the action.

I’d lit the spark, carefully fanned the flames, and now I could sit back, and enjoy the roaring fire of action it’d become. Something like this was far larger than any one person could do on her own, but I did my part. I’d worked together with a team, we’d figured it out, then brought it to everyone’s attention. They had better tools than we did to actually fix, and solve the problem, and now that they knew what it was? It’d be easy.

Relatively speaking.

Kallisto, interestingly enough, had a good suggestion.

"Boil or Beer." Was the slogan he came up with, to tell people how to safely get liquids. Boil your water, or drink beer, and I suspected there’d be no more beer in town by the end of the week.

I eyed Kallisto. Did he just inadvertently plant the seeds for another riot? The limited food coming into town wasn’t helping at all, although maybe if this plague calmed down the 3rd would relax, and normal trade would resume.

"Might not work." Caecilius said sagely. "I tried something similar with sacks on heads, to stop the spread. Problem was, people didn’t distinguish between the two plagues, and people didn’t wear them right. When people, who thought they were doing things right, still got sick, it undermined the entire attempt. It was soon after the failure of the mass-heal event, and our credibility took an even steeper nosedive."

Ouch.

"Let’s get out of here." Artemis said to me, Origen beside her.

"There’s basically nothing we’ll be able to do at this point, might as well get back to healing people." She said.

I looked around, pleased as punch with what I’d done. I’d half-hoped that between my demonstrated knowledge, and Markus’s apprentices learning from me that I’d be able to give a lecture on medicine, but it seemed like fate was conspiring against me once again. There was always next week.

Plus, I was regenerating mana into a full mana pool. That wasn’t helping people, not directly.

"Alright, let’s go." I said.

The three of us worked our way through the temple, until I got to my work room, Origen off to gather more patients.

I didn’t have the map – it was still being stared over by, well, everyone, but I’d get it back soon enough.

We settled in for more healing, and a more or less normal day.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 161! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Celestial Affinity] has reached level 161!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 152!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 153!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Medicine] has reached level 152!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Warmth of the Sun] has reached level 126!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Oath of Elaine to Lyra] has reached level 137!]

I expected the day to be different somehow. For there to be music in the air, birds bursting into song. We’d figured out one of the plagues!

Well, there was music in the air, but that was Glacia’s doing.

The day wrapped up, and once again I was practically dragged out of my workroom, back to the Argo, where we locked up for the night, glowing inscriptions bolstering our defenses.

Useful things, inscriptions.

I woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and happy. Another day to heal! From the sound of it, the outhouse had some broken pipes, so instead of dumping waste into the sewers, it had been dumping waste into the river. Which had been feeding the cycle.

A pair of wells were also identified, the map returned to me – apparently there’d been a bit of arguing over that, with Caecilius wanting to take control of it, but Julius had put his foot down - and we had a new color marker for "new" Cholera cases, to see if any more sources were identified, we could try to cut those off. There was a strong optimistic air.

"Morning sleepyhead." Artemis said cheerfully, hands behind her hand.

I narrowed my eyes at her.

"You’re far too cheerful and nice this morning." I said. "What are you plotting?" I pointed my finger at her accusingly.

Artemis took one hand out from behind her back, placing it on her chest, looking all offended.

"Me? Plotting? I’d never." Artemis said.

The fact that she was still hiding stuff behind her back made me seriously doubt her.

I looked around. The other Rangers were stifling giggles. Some coins changed hands.

"I feel like I’m being pranked, but I have no idea what’s going on."

Everyone suddenly stared intently behind me, where Julius was. I whirled around, only to see his last finger curl down, the end of a countdown.

"Happy Birthday Elaine!" They all called out.

"Oh." I said, pulling up my status.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 15]

Well. Would you look at that.

"It’s my birthday! Woohoo!" I shouted, to a great laughter coming from everyone else.

I tried to bounce around in my excitement, but the Argo was simply too cramped with everyone to do it well.

Artemis pulled out what she was hiding from behind her back – a mango.

I gasped.

"For me?" I said, hardly daring to believe. The last time I had a mango was near when I’d joined up with the Rangers all those months ago, right after the bandits. Perinthus was the home of mangos, the port where they all came from, but I hadn’t seen any yet, nor was I going to ask. Not when so many people were sick, were starving. Asking for luxury food goods was such a poor choice, even I knew to keep my mouth shut.

Artemis didn’t say anything, instead pushing the mango towards me. I gently, reverentially, took it into my hand, savoring the feel of it, the lush red ripeness, the tender feel of it in my hand, the delicate smell of fresh mango making its way to my nose.

I took a deep sniff, enjoying the smell. Slowly, like I was making an offering to the gods, I unsheathed my knife, slowly splitting the skin, watching the orange goodness emerge as the skin peeled back.

Slice. Eat. An explosion of tasty flavor, of sweet juice. This was love. This was life. My reason to be. My reason to live.

Delicious. Fucking. Mangos.

Too soon, cruel reality reasserted itself as the last bite of mango went down the hatch, the seed sucked clean, every gram of flesh from the skin scraped and eaten. With a longing sigh, I put it down, licking my lips, making sure I got every drop of ambrosia.

"Alright healy-bug, we should get going." Artemis said.

With a small whimper I left the licked cleaned remains of the mango, and went off to continue another day of healing.

It was strange. It was like the plague had mutated. Patients had more symptoms, were bleeding from their eyes, fingers and toes starting to rot. Was it blood-based? Was that why it was hitting so much of the body? Was the immune system being attacked? I was starting to see repeat patients, people I’d healed last week coming back, just as ill as before. Which made sense if they didn’t have an immune system.

Did the immune system of people with the disease not kick in, not learn the disease if it was burned out of them with a skill? Was that why things were so bad? Would things be better if we just… didn’t heal people, let them fight it off on their own?

I was back to staring at the map, little red pins mocking me, laughing at me. "Can’t you see?" It was like they were saying. "It’s so obvious."

The next day, I was healing again. It never ended.

The entire investigation team showed up at one point.

"Elaine, can you take a long break with us?" Julius asked.

"Sure, let me just burn all my mana out real fast. Origen, if you could get five patients on this next run?"

He nodded his head, leaving to grab more people. Kallisto still had the sack on his head. To his credit, he hadn’t needed healing once. I was getting close to recommending it to people.

Origen showed up, I blitzed through the patients, and I turned to Julius.

"Want the apprentices here with us?" I asked, pointing my thumb over my shoulder to Herodotos and another one of the apprentices that’d been rotating through with me. My credit among them had skyrocketed ever since figuring out that it was Cholera, and I was getting more respectful questions and listening, and less dismissive "why am I stuck here with the crazy healer-Ranger-girl."

Julius thought for half a second before shaking his head. "No, they can stay."

"What’s going on?" I asked.

"We’re going to work out once and for all if this plague’s transmitted through eye contact." Julius said.

"First off, Investigations! Turn around, face the wall, eyes closed." Julius ordered.

Kallisto, Arthur, and Maximus promptly obeyed his orders.

"Right, Elaine, heal everyone except those three." Julius said. I obeyed.

"Give it some time. Keep checking everyone except those three for illness." Julius said.

I did what he said. No problems.

"Right, Arthur, Maximus. Turn around, look at Origen and Artemis, directly in the eyes."

Everyone followed Julius’s choreography.

"Elaine, heal everyone."

I did what he said, surprised when Artemis and Origen suddenly needed a tiny amount of healing.

I reported my findings.

"Right. Until further notice, this plague’s being spread by eye contact."

I made a frustrated noise.

"It just doesn’t make sense! How does that even work!" I said.

Maximus shrugged.

"You’re the healer, not me. If bacteria were larger, I’d say they had a class, and a class-related skill. But they don’t, otherwise we’d get notifications about killing them, and they would all need to have the same class, and the same skill. I mean, it could just be bad luck for now. However, you’ve gotten us on a good trail, and we’ll keep going down it." He said.

The Investigation Rangers left, and I pounded the table with my fist. This disease was so frustrating!

I took a deep breath in, then out. Cholera had looked frustrating as well, with a seeming line right through the middle of down. There had been a reasonable explanation for that. There would be a good reason for everything this plague did, we just needed to find it.

Magic though. Could this plague be influenced by magic? What would that look like, what would that mean? I needed to let my pre-conceptions go, and possibly tackle it from scratch, looking at it from that angle.

The problem was, I had no basis, no knowledge, for what a "Magical Plague" could look like or do. For all I knew, it could make you fart unicorns and rainbows.

The day ended, and I let the notifications flow over me.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 162! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Celestial Affinity] has reached level 162!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 154!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Medicine] has reached level 153!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Warmth of the Sun] has reached level 126!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Oath of Elaine to Lyra] has reached level 138!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Oath of Elaine to Lyra] has reached level 139!]

I shook my head. A level a day. Unbelievable. It was no wonder that healers risked their life in a plague for the levels and experience. It was as good as daily fights for your life.

The next day dawned, like so many before them. Investigations went off and did their thing – apparently, they’d traced another bad well, and thought they’d gotten them all, although most of what they did was a mystery to me. We all moved to the workroom, and I prepared for another exhausting day to pass by in a blur. Heh. Who knew the secret to training montages was pure, sheer exhaustion?

"Elaine, you need to eat." Artemis complained at me around lunch time.

"Yeah, I know, I know." I said, brushing her off. My stomach growled, but I ignored it.

"[Veil]." Artemis ordered, tone brokering no arguments.

I was the boss, being the head healer, but I knew better than to try and argue with Artemis when she had that tone. I snapped it up, giving us a bunch of room, having Herodotos crammed into his own tiny space.

"What’s up?" I asked Artemis.

Instead of answering, she yanked my tunic up. I squeaked in protest, as she pointed to my chest.

"Look at yourself." Artemis said, tone cold, tone angry. I looked down, seeing ribs.

"Yeah?" I said, not quite getting it.

"No, really look." She said again, poking a finger between my ribs.

I looked again. I was skinny. More than that, I was skinny. It looked like I’d been starving myself for months, like I’d been training all my life to be a super model or something.

"Using skills takes a bunch of your own energy. You’ve been marathon casting like you’re in a warzone for a week and a half now, and not eating the way you need to be. Eat. Your. Damn. Food. Or I’ll call this whole thing off, and confine you to the Argo until this is over. You can’t kill yourself to look after other people. Don’t light yourself on fire to keep others warm, no matter how much you have [Warmth of the Sun], and your Fire class." Artemis said seriously.

"I refuse to stand by as you ignore yourself, as you ignore your body. I’m trying to treat you like a mature adult, not a 15-year-old, but if you neglect yourself more…" Artemis trailed off, leaving the threat unsaid. My imagination would conjure up worse thoughts than she could utter.

"Fine, hand me what you must have hidden." I said, bowing to Artemis’s superior wisdom. She handed me way too much food – half a wheel of cheese, an entire loaf of bread, and the dried thigh of a saber-tooth cat leg, and folded her arms. How on Pallos did she have that much food tucked away!? I dutifully, slowly chowed down, finding my stomach suddenly roaring back into action as it realized it was finally being paid attention to, that my long neglect of it had ended.

To my great surprise, but Artemis’s complete expectation, I managed to eat all of it.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fuel for the Fire] has reached level 34!]

I dropped [Veil] with Artemis’s approving nod, expecting a patient to be waiting for me. There wasn’t one.

"Where’s Origen?" I said, looking around at the apprentices, expecting him to have left a message or something.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 15]

[Mana: 9740/9740]

[Mana Regen: 14491]

Stats

[Free Stats: 30]

[Strength: 37]

[Dexterity: 129]

[Vitality: 90]

[Speed: 130]

[Mana: 974]

[Mana Regeneration: 1695]

[Magic Power: 869]

[Magic Control: 1445]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 162]]

[Celestial Affinity: 162]

[Warmth of the Sun: 126]

[Medicine: 153]

[Center of the Galaxy: 128]

[Phases of the Moon: 154]

[Moonlight: 1]

[Veil of the Aurora: 111]

[Vastness of the Stars: 128]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 39]]

[Fire Affinity: 39]

[Fire Resistance: 39]

[Fire Conjuration: 39]

[Fire Manipulation: 39]

[Fuel for the Fire: 34]

[: ]

[: ]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 81]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 80]

[Pretty: 101]

[Vigilant: 110]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 139]

[Ranger's Lore: 67]

[Running: 74]

[Learning: 122]

Chapter 83– Plague XIII

The apprentices looked at each other nervously. Herodotos swallowed, paled, steeled himself, then said. "There was a runner. You should go see for yourself."

Artemis tensed, coiled up like a spring ready to fire. Not one of those small little springs that used to be in pens. No, she was one of those heavy-duty large springs, that once it went off, it would ruin someone’s day.

My hair raised up around me, and chunks of stone from the wall separated out, going to Artemis’s hands, where she held a double handful of them.

"Lead." She ordered. This wasn’t one of her nice orders, her "I’m telling you something nicely but expect you to follow anyways in spite of my flippant tone." This was her serious face, ‘Do what I say right now or suffer the consequences.’, the tone promising those consequences would be lethal. Herodotos nervously led us down a hall, around a corner, to where a number of guards were milling around a pair of bodies. This wasn’t Artemis who’d need to snap a stone into existence or use a bolt before hitting a problem – this was Artemis with her weapons at the ready.

From the tone, and how nervous everyone was acting, I didn’t blame her.

"They said they found them here." He said, before wisely bailing.

Artemis pushed me behind her, and we went forward, guards parting. I peeked around her to find Origen and a teenager – probably the patient he was bringing to us – on the floor.

I rushed over.

"No. No no no no." I said, trying to deny what I was seeing, putting my hands on him, trying to pump healing mana through him. I could restore the flesh, then the brain, then spark it back, and Origen would be back, sitting up with a grin, would probably even speak a few words, letting me know it’d been such a close call, and he was so grateful I’d saved him.

"Everyone back." Artemis barked out, hair getting even higher. The guards decided staying near the clearly pissed, hair-trigger mage was a poor life choice, and that bailing was the better part of valor, leaving us alone.

Nothing. He was gone. Massive sores covered him, and he was lying in a pool of blood, like so many other victims of the plague. My healing found no purchase; my skills restored no flesh. If normally I got a vague sense of a moon waxing full, there was no moon. Maybe, if I focused hard, a shattered ring of a moon destroyed. How could the plague take him so fast? This was impossible. He was healed regularly, last time less than 30 minutes ago, even with the break I’d taken.

Artemis put a hand on my shoulder.

"Elaine, grieve later. We need to leave, now."

I shook my head, mutely denying. Artemis picked me up.

"Elaine, until proven otherwise, a dead Ranger is assumed to be murdered. We need to get to the wagon, and notify everyone else. Until we’re together, we’re under attack. Now move!" Artemis yelled the last part at me.

I’d never seen her so scared. I’d never seen her so scary.

I moved, started running down the halls, to the back door where we were parked. Artemis thundering behind me, static electricity charging the air.

We weren’t in a terribly populated part of the temple, and people got out of the way. A door started to creak open as I was running past it, and Artemis sent a rock, followed by a bolt of lightning through it. I hesitated, and peeked in the door as I slowed my run. Those injuries were incompatible with life.

"Keep moving." Artemis said, tone chilly, tone scared. Artemis fully believed she was in a war zone, threats jumping out from every corner, and I couldn’t fully blame her for the belief.

I picked up the pace, back to a full run, as fast as I could in the temple hallways.

If there was no time to heal, no gap between "Fully alive" and "Dead", [Oath] didn’t say a word. It only acted upon things I could act upon.

We made it out to the alleyway where the Argo was, and instead of running inside, Artemis ordered me. "Up, on top of the wagon. Cover my back."

I did exactly what she said, scrambling up on top of it. A single lightning bolt pierced the clear blue sky, shattered the deceptive calm.

Her ‘emergency right now’ signal. Only used in a fight, or the death of a Ranger. ‘Drop everything and come here as fast as you can.’

Artemis put a hand on the side of the Argo, and I could see it glowing as she pulled mana from it.

The door to the temple got closed over with stone, the back of the alley sealed, a stone covering hiding the sun and clouds, and a series of stone spikes, pointing forward at a 45-degree angle, pointing forward, to the entrance of the alley, the only way in. Protection on all sides.

She climbed up onto the Argo with significantly more grace and finesse than I’d managed, then looked around, head on a swivel.

A guard started to approach.

"Excuse me, we can’t have-" He started to say, only for a rock from Artemis whizzing to his feet and exploding in shards to cut him off. He winced in pain, but deciding that there was no reasoning with Artemis, backed off.

Lesson was clear. When Artemis was mad, when she was in this state – stay away. Stay far away. I couldn’t decided if I was blessed to be under her aegis, or strapped to an out-of-control rocket.

It was clear that Artemis still had some control. She hadn’t blasted the guard like she could’ve, it was clear she was firing warning shots.

We spent a tense few minutes, until we heard Julius call out.

"Artemis, we’re all here. We’re going to come around the corner now, ok?" He said.

"Prove it. Badge and ID code." Artemis yelled back. Artemis never asked for ID codes.

There was some muttering, then a hand slowly – oh so slowly – came around the corner, holding four Ranger’s badges. Julius rattled off a seemingly random set of words, and Artemis relaxed a hair.

"Come over, fast." She said.

Julius and co turned the corner, only for their eyebrows to almost uniformly fly off their face. They looked some more, and their gaze turned steely.

"Origen?" Arthur asked, blinking away a tear.

"Dead." Artemis said.

"Right, everyone into the Argo." Julius ordered.

I hopped down, entering the wagon, as everyone else filed in. I felt a rumbling right before Artemis came in, which I assumed was her sealing off the alley’s entrance, providing us a miniature fort in the heart of town.

"Origen’s dead. Looks like the plague." Artemis said, without any preamble. "Patient he was bringing to us was found next to him, also dead of the plague."

"Plagues don’t work that fast!" I cried out in frustration.

"They clearly do." Maximus said derisively, practically sneering at me. "You say plagues don’t spread by eye contact. This one is. You say plagues don’t work that fast. We have a dead Ranger proving otherwise. You’ve been wrong about this, and so many other things, why should we keep listening to you?"

I half-screamed in frustration.

"It’s like the plague uses fucking magic, which it can’t because shit that small doesn’t get classes!"

There was dead silence at that. You could hear a pin drop, the pin drop, as everyone went still, my screaming voice echoing through the Argo in a strange way.

Almost as one, we said the same thing, at the same time.

"Classer."

"Elaine’s insistence that plagues didn’t spread by eye contact should’ve been a clue." Artemis said. "She knows diseases better than any of us, and the [Plague Healer] was sure it was spread by eye contact. We should’ve listened to both, and realized it earlier."

"Everyone’s been commenting on the leveling rate." Maximus said. "They’ve been saying it’s faster, stronger, better experience than any other plague they’ve worked. It makes sense if they’re opposing a classer, not opposing a run of the mill plague."

"The mass-heal event." Kallisto contributed. "It showing up outside of the town? Classer didn’t want to get caught, didn’t want a tried-and-true method to reveal him. Must’ve deliberately sabotaged it."

"The head of the guard being one of the first to fall to the plague." I said, seeing the whole puzzle come together. "It was a targeted snipe, like Origen was. They didn’t want the guard organized and looking for them, they needed confusion and a lack of a strong response. The guard’s been too busy on standard protection and patrol, they don’t have the people that usually notice the patterns around." My knowledge of how guards worked came in handy. How did I not see this earlier!?

Julius closed his eyes in grief, in regret. "I think it’s one of the healers. When we came down hard on Berucus, we mentioned that we were watching them, and we’d find out wrongdoing. We must’ve spooked him into acting, into targeting us directly for kills. Can’t have the Rangers looking too closely, like the guard would’ve. That, and Elaine solving one of the plagues in her first week here. He, or she, knew it would only be a matter of time before we figured it out. Origen was on his own, easiest one to pick off. In the temple, where we think the murderer is. If it wasn’t for Elaine’s knowledge, we’d just think he was just another victim of the plague. Just like the guards thought the head of the guard dying was just another victim."

Arthur grunted. "Killing off an entire town is amazing experience." We glared at him, a fresh reminder of his callous suggestion to poison half of Virinum refreshed in our minds. He held up his hands. "There are other possible reasons. I agree he’s probably with the healers though. When hunting like this, you want to see the response, be able to react to it. The best place for the hunted to hide, is with the hunters. They never look at themselves."

"Real fast." Julius said. "Let’s go down the list of possible people, and the why. Then we’re sealing the temple, and interrogating everyone inside. This Classer’s willing to murder in broad daylight, in the middle of a healing temple, they’re not going to immediately run. They’re going to try and blend in, like they’ve been blending in all this time. First off, who benefits?" He asked.

"Verta." Artemis immediately said. I glared a betrayed look at her. She glared back. "Her, and the other maligned healers in this town, finally have respect. They finally have people looking up to her, up to them. She has a chance to reach 256, a milestone she’d likely never get in her entire life. Elaine, don’t give me that look. 10, 15, 20 more years in your shoes, if you were stuck in town, forced to marry Kerberos? I’d put you at the head of a rebellion, and more than one has started for similar reasons."

I froze. There was no way Artemis could know about me being offered a [Revolutionary] class, but clearly Artemis knew me.

"Markus." Kallisto said. "Has a bunch of apprentices, they’re expensive to feed, hard to get enough experience for all of them, hard to get each one of them the hands-on experience they need. One plague, all of them are high enough level to strike off on their own, rich and famous. He’s been spreading his apprentices all over, in theory to learn from other healers. Possibly to spy on them as well? It’d be a perfect information network. If it’s one of the apprentices, they could keep spreading the plague from different places, so even if someone suspected it was a healer, the pattern wouldn’t make sense. Who keeps track of apprentices anyways?"

"Caecilius." Maximus said. "He’s all about plagues, and at almost level 300, he must be slowing down. Perhaps he’s making a plague to fix, since he might not have work otherwise. He mentioned that his second class might be mage, and might relate to healing. Causing a plague is completely related to healing, in a twisted way. Two classes synergizing like that, causing both the poison and the cure, should, would, cause both to rapidly rise together, ending up at a much higher final point that either one alone."

"Might be his apprentice." I mentioned. Maximus tilted his head to me, acknowledging my contribution, half-apologizing for earlier.

I was still kinda mad at him, and wanted a real apology, but I knew it wasn’t the time or place.

"Hesoid." Arthur suggested. "Not even a healer, might be the cause. Ex-slave, might be out for revenge. Has the leveling pace you’d expect from someone killing a lot of people. Not even a healer." There was some head nodding at that.

"Ponticus?" I suggested timidly. "His sense of right and wrong are, um, non-standard, and he’s been shown to make poor decisions."

Julius shuddered. "He’s a Gemstone Artisan, and while I doubt he has enough gems for a sustained plague like this, it’s theoretically possible. I think. Maximus?" He asked, turning to him.

Maximus hummed, fingers twitching as he did some arcane calculations known only to himself.

"That would be an insane number of gems." He finally settled on. "He can barely afford a proper tunic. Maybe if he spent everything on gems… but he’s so young. The problem with Hesoid being the source, is Decay doesn’t have plagues in its domain. Although Decay is extremely rare, I’ve never met one before." He conceded in the end.

"Bacteria is the source of a lot of decay, I don’t see why it couldn’t expand slightly to include a plague." I pointed out. Maximus shrugged at me.

"Glacia’s been lying to us, and everyone from the start." Julius said. "She – or he – has a demonstrated wide-area effect, large enough to cover the entire town. I don’t know what motive he, or she, could have, but with the amount of lying done, and demonstrated skills and abilities, she’s worth looking into."

There were nods of agreement, and I found myself reluctantly nodding along.

"Do we need to take a second look at Berucus?" Artemis asked. "Seemed pretty mad that we caught onto his scam, and maybe he was infecting people and releasing them, as the source. Easy to disguise seeding the disease as ‘failing to properly heal someone’ – even we thought he was just scamming people for money. Gives the motive as well, he’s one of the healers that’s become incredibly rich as a result."

Julius sucked some air in through his teeth. "Sure, although I was convinced he was just scamming for more money. Worth a second look, people have been known to pull wool over my eyes before. Also, after the penalty inflicted, no longer incredibly rich."

"Right, everyone gear up. Full armor, weapons, helmets. Artemis, Elaine, top yourselves up to max from the Argo. Someone acts twitchy, kill them. This Classer’s killed thousands, if not tens of thousands of people, and has shown a willingness to attack Rangers. Don’t give Elaine a chance to heal them, don’t make her choose. We’re already coming down hard on the healers, and we could spark a riot if we do this poorly."

"We could spark a riot anyways boss." Kalliso said, sliding on his laminar vest.

"That we could. Artemis, only open up the side door. I want this place like a fortress. Gives us a safe spot to retreat to."

A few minutes later, and we were geared to the nines. Helmet, spear, sword, shield – I have everything except a spade with me.

The capes were left behind. This wasn’t intimidation, or looking good.

This was serious.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 15]

[Mana: 9740/9740]

[Mana Regen: 14491]

Stats

[Free Stats: 30]

[Strength: 37]

[Dexterity: 129]

[Vitality: 90]

[Speed: 130]

[Mana: 974]

[Mana Regeneration: 1695]

[Magic Power: 869]

[Magic Control: 1445]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 162]]

[Celestial Affinity: 162]

[Warmth of the Sun: 126]

[Medicine: 153]

[Center of the Galaxy: 128]

[Phases of the Moon: 154]

[Moonlight: 1]

[Veil of the Aurora: 111]

[Vastness of the Stars: 128]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 39]]

[Fire Affinity: 39]

[Fire Resistance: 39]

[Fire Conjuration: 39]

[Fire Manipulation: 39]

[Fuel for the Fire: 34]

[: ]

[: ]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 81]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 80]

[Pretty: 101]

[Vigilant: 110]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 139]

[Ranger's Lore: 67]

[Running: 74]

[Learning: 122]

Chapter 84– Plague XIV

Artemis re-opened the side door, and we strode in. Julius in the lead. Then Arthur, Maximus, me, Artemis, and Kallisto taking up the rear. Artemis for the large line of fire, Kallisto for taking hits, me in the middle, to protect the healer, and Julius in front as the face.

We moved in force, striding in. My hair would be doing wild things under Artemis’s electrical field, if it wasn’t for the helmet over my head. Arthur’s bow was out, arrow knocked. Maximus was making some experimental swings with his latest weapon, a short baton, ideal for enclosed spaces. The only non-lethal weapon out, the better to move through some obstacles. Julius didn’t have his shield, instead playing with the blades at his waist. My weapons were sheathed, not that they were my first or second resort. I still had my short sword, my knife. Kallisto was walking backwards, shield and spear hefted, poised, pointed, at the ready, head on a swivel. We were taking no chances.

We quickly encountered some guards, who snapped to attention seeing us. There was a difference between casually walking around, and clearly being here, ready and looking for a fight.

"Seal the temple." Julius ordered, in a tone all the more dangerous for how soft it was. "We’ve located the source of the plague, and it’s someone currently inside the temple. Seal it, and don’t let anyone in or out. We also need a team to help us organize things, and keep both the worshippers and people asking for help calm, safe, and out of our hair."

The two guards saluted again, had a quick discussion among themselves, and shot off in two different directions.

A more senior guard came up, more directions were issued, and soon we had the three hallways that led to healer’s workrooms sealed off by the guards.

"Sir, reporting, someone killed a healer earlier." One of the guards saluted. "It’s not just your teammate that’s been killed."

Universal glares were shot at Artemis, who stood there, unrepentant.

"That was me. I assumed we were under attack – which we were, which we are – and he startled me, practically jumped out at me and Elaine. I had no time for a proper threat evaluation, and treated him as a hostile. We’re more than prepared to pay the price." Artemis said.

A half-muttered line about "so far under budget for Artemis-incidents", some nasty looks from the guard, and we continued on.

"Tell them nothing, except they’re to stay put, by order of the Rangers." Julius said. "We don’t need anyone getting spooked; we don’t need anyone coordinating together. If guards start dropping dead of the plague, start killing. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but I’d rather have everyone in the temple die along with the source of the plague, than let whoever is doing this loose to continue."

That statement got quite a few looks, and some slow, reluctant salutes. People generally liked healers. The idea of putting the healers, along with the priests and other people in the temple, all to the sword, was not an idea anyone wanted to entertain.

The idea was in their head now, and if push came to shove, they’d do it. Amazing what people could do when it was "us or them."

It’d put me in a hell of a hard spot if that happened though. Already we were playing a game called "keep the sick people away from Elaine", just so I wouldn’t sidetrack us all by stopping and healing them. I’d announced my [Oath] to all the healers, and we believed it was one of them causing the disease. They knew my major weakness, and by extension, they knew the weakness of the rest of the team. It was not a good look.

"We’d like to talk with Ponticus." Julius said. He didn’t share his reasoning with the rest of us, but my best guess? Ponticus was the least-likely to be the source of the plague. His abilities, combined with his age and presumed timing of arrival, just didn’t bear out him being the problem. The more healers we could align, and get working with us, the stronger we’d be, the more weight we’d have, the less we’d need to watch our backs.

We were led to where Ponticus was, and I noticed there were two guards on every door. I approved. I’d been coached early on about interrogations – basically, my role was to shut up, say almost nothing, unless I thought they were lying about something medical. Even then, it was to discreetly let Artemis or Julius know, not start shouting about it.

My prior attempts to interrogate mom, and how masterfully Artemis had managed to tease out what I’d been doing way back when, came back to me, reminding me at how much of a master interrogator I was not. It was possible to do more harm than good by sharing the wrong information, or by speaking out of turn.

We filed into the room in order, all of us standing against the wall, facing Ponticus, sitting in his chair, sweating hard. Heck, I’d be sweating if faced with six angry, armed, ready-for-action Rangers, even if I was completely innocent.

Which I was. Innocent, that is. Most of the time.

We spent a moment staring at Ponticus, before Maximus spoke up.

"It’s clear you’re heavy on gemstones. Please set them down, and step away from them. At the end of this, you’ll get them back, but we’d prefer for you to not have loaded unknown gems at the ready."

Ponticus’s hands clenched and unclenched, as he blinked rapidly, looking from face to face. I was the friendliest-looking one, with only a frown, maybe a tear leaking from one eye.

Tear? What tear? I wasn’t crying.

His shoulders slumped, and he slowly – oh so slowly, in a "please don’t murder me where I sit" way, reached into his tunic, and brought out a long strip of cloth, with gems interwoven into it. A dizzying array of gems and colors. Diamond. Ruby. Emerald, sapphire, purple and green and red, throwing all sorts of colors everywhere.

I saw a few eyebrows go up. This was clearly somewhat unexpected.

The sash of gems, as I was calling it, was passed off to Maximus, who started staring intently at it, muttering under his breath, checking every gem before moving onto the next one. The rest of us stared at Ponticus silently, as he sweated.

"Wha-what’s this all about?" He asked. We continued staring at him, waiting for Maximus. For what else, I didn’t know.

Ponticus seemed to come to a decision, crossed his arms, and sat back, silently staring back at us. After an indeterminate amount of time, Maximus spoke up.

"Can you please demonstrate that your secondary class is Light healer?" He asked.

The not-at-all-reluctant cannibal snorted.

"Sure, let me pull a knife so you can all blast me away and claim I attacked you." He said derisively.

I felt, rather than saw, Artemis roll her eyes, as she launched a tiny pebble at his finger, neatly severing off a fingertip. Ponticus screamed and fell to the floor, as the other Rangers tensed up.

I started to take a step forward – damnit Artemis, you knew I’d have to help, why do it? – when Ponticus stopped yelling, and presented a whole, complete hand. A standard trick of a Light healer, along with other elements associated with it.

"Happy?" He asked in a nasty tone.

Most of us relaxed.

"Yes, sorry." Julius spoke up for the first time. "We’re fairly certain one of the healers is causing the plague, and we needed to establish your elements. Being a Gemstone-aligned Artisan made it both easy and hard with you."

He paused a moment to let that sink in.

"Please stay in the room. Feel free to use defensive skills if you think you’re under attack, but don’t leave. We’re all twitchy here." He said.

Ponticus nodded furiously at that.

"I’m never leaving the capital again." He vowed as we started to leave. "Never, ever, ever."

I rolled my eyes at his cowardice. Expensive gems like that, and not one, but two high-income classes, all while probably being a Citizen and male? He had it made, and was whining about small problems. Toughen up.

We left the room, having a quick meeting together.

"Thoughts?" Julius asked.

"Clean."

"Clear."

"Not our man."

"Exceedingly unlikely to be the cause of this disease. Unless he’s managed to set up an array somewhere to quietly pump the town full, but that doesn’t match up with Origen’s murder, nor does he have anything deactivated on his gems that could do it." Maximus gave a long analysis. We had to trust him on it, none of us had that level of knowledge and expertise in the System.

"Next?" I asked.

"Caecilius, the [Plague Healer]." Julius said grimly. "If he’s clear, he’s a powerful asset."

We marched down the hallway to where his room was, and entered like before, one at a time. Caecilius was in the room, looking calm, while his twitchy apprentice looked even worse than before.

I narrowed my eyes at him. We’d been looking at the main healers, but what about the apprentices?

I quickly used [Identify] on him. Almost the same level as me, if not lower level. Most likely didn’t have the needed magical OOMPH to murder a bunch of people, including downing Origen quickly.

And his level would be much higher after that much killing that much.

"What can I do for you?" Caecilius asked calmly. "There’s clearly some sort of bother, to have you all riled up."

"We’d like you to remove the sack on your head first please." Julius said. "We recognize that the plague’s spreading via eye contact, and we have some questions for you. Serious ones."

Caecilius slowly took the bag off his head, to show the visage of an old, old man. His sharp, intelligent eyes slowly looked at each of us, one at a time, like he was the one interrogating us. They looked distant, like there was a deep fog present in his eyes, waiting to burst out and cover the town. Mist.

"Ah," He said softly. "there’s been a loss. I’m so sorry."

"Healer Caecilius." Julius said softly, firmly, treating him with kid gloves. Interesting. "I apologize, but we have reason to believe that it’s a Classer responsible for this plague. Furthermore, we believe it’s one of the healers. Could we get a demonstration of your classes please, to rule you out?"

"What sort of vile man would deliberately inflict so much suffering?" Caecilius’s veins were bulging, his nostrils flared in anger. "It’s a violation of all we hold sacred! Why, I –"

His apprentice fortunately interrupted him.

"Master, that’s what the Rangers are here for. Give them a hand?" He said.

"Ahem, right." Caecilius coughed awkwardly. "I hope you don’t mind a demonstration?"

Julius shook his head.

"Kinda hoping for one yeah." Artemis said, with a faux casualness that I knew hid a tightly, tightly wound spring. One crossed wire, one errant twitch, and KABLOOY! She’d explode into action, and someone would probably also be exploding.

"Right. First, [Mist of Rejuvenation]."

Caecilius dramatically spread his arms, and a light, airy mist appeared around him, slowly moving to coat us.

It felt good, like the best spray of mist on a hot day, energizing me, filling me with happiness and glee. Some minor scrape I hadn’t even noticed until now itched as it healed rapidly.

"Very good." Julius said. "Can we see your second class please?"

"Naturally. Please be warned, this skill is bright, and potentially blinding. [All is Purified before the Sun]."

A blinding light came from Caecilius, burning away the mist, causing us to turn away at the brightness. It quickly faded, and we turned back to him, and the incredibly spotless room. No grime. No mud. There wasn’t even dust left in the air.

I quickly glanced down. Armor was spotless. That was a handy skill. Kallisto would be pleased he’d have less of my armor needing to be cleaned.

"Radiance." Maximus said, eyebrows quirking up.

Julius half-bowed to Caecilius.

"Thank you. I apologize again for the imposition."

"Let me come with you. Someone spreading a plague? I-I-I-"

Julius could see where this was going.

"Why don’t you stay behind us, in the hallway? You can listen in, and if a problem occurs, you can use some of that healing mist or burning radiance to give us a hand. We’d prefer someone without a combat class to not be in the room, but we’d appreciate you lending a hand." Julius said.

The [Plague Healer] got up, anger at the unknown plague carrier on his face. Couldn’t be good for his heart, not at his age.

"She doesn’t have a combat class." The twitchy apprentice said, pointing to me.

I grinned maniacally, pointing a finger up, flames erupting from them.

"I don’t?" I asked, savoring the look on his face.

Priceless.

Chapter 85– Plague XV

"Right, we still need to talk with Verta, Berucus, Glacius, Hesoid, and Markus." Julius summarized for us once we got out. "I’m not sure if we should talk with Markus first or last. If he’s the problem, and his apprentices are in on it, it’s going to be a fight."

"If it’s a fight, why don’t we separate them first, then talk to them one at a time? If one of the apprentices cracks, we can hit them all first, before tackling Markus." Arthur said.

Julius nodded agreement.

"Right, order’s going to be Berucus, Glacius, Verta, Hesoid, then Markus." Julius said.

We filed along to the next room, where Berucus was located. We filed in, one at a time, the [Plague Healer] staying in the hallway.

"What!" Berucus said, jumping up. "You already handed me over to Verta and the other town healers, and it’s been hell. I haven’t done anything else wrong, please, you gotta believe me. I don’t know what Verta’s said, but I’ve stayed honest!"

His tone lowered.

"Please, is there any chance I could be sold into slavery for a few years instead? Being under Verta’s command is hell. They all hate me. They hate me passionately, and they’re not afraid to show it. Please!" He begged us.

I recoiled slightly in surprise at the strength of the emotions in his words. It seemed like the justice the healers had decided to mete out was to make Berucus subordinate to Verta, and the other town healers. The ones whose friends and family he’d been harming by not properly healing them.

Or maybe, he’d been seeding the plague, under the guise of getting repeat business.

"We’re here on a different matter." Julius said grimly. "It’s become clear now that someone’s been deliberately spreading the plague, and, well, you allowing plague patients to walk away from your clinic, still infected, is a bad look. We need to know your second class and element please."

If possible, Berucus got even paler.

"I have no way of demonstrating my second class." He said.

Glances all around. Hands tightened on weapons. Arthur fully drew his bow, waiting on a signal. Artemis was the only one unchanged, but she was in a perpetual state of being on edge, lightning bolts needing no wind-up time.

"Right, I hope you understand when we ask you to discharge all your mana please." Julius ordered curtly. Our speedy leader called over his shoulder.

"Guards! We need rope, cloth, and a guard here please."

A moment later, four guards came in.

"This him?" They asked, watching Berucus slowly discharging his mana by constantly casting skills.

"We’re unsure, but we can’t verify he’s not. We’d like you all to keep an eye on him while we talk to the other suspects."

Julius paused a moment, looking at them.

"It shouldn’t take us more than a few hours. He might be innocent. We’d like him in one piece please."

Berucus started crying, which was awkward for all of us. One of the guards applied what I recognized as [Guardsman’s Buff], the same skill dad had, which ate up all of his regeneration to boost his vitality. Artemis lightly danced over, tapped him with her hand, and danced back. Her own disabling skill, just in case.

We left him tied up, blindfolded, four guards with their weapons drawn – their everyday-carry knives, not their batons, for a lethality that the guard didn’t usually go for – as we quickly discussed before moving on.

"On one hand, he has a dozen markers of the source of the plague." Kallisto said. "On the other, he’s either an extremely good actor, or just flat-out doesn’t have the mental fortitude to be murdering thousands of people."

"We know this person’s a good actor; they’ve blended in this long." Artemis pointed out.

"Let’s move on. I’m not convinced yet that he’s done it, but it’s a distinct possibility." Julius said.

We moved onto Glacia’s room next. We filed in, and her bodyguard stepped forward, loyally protecting and defending her, even against the might of the Rangers, horribly outnumbered.

"Stand down." Glacia said, in a male voice. I narrowed my eyes. Was she a he, and had been tricking me?

"Glacius. I apologize for the intrusion." Julius said. "There’s a classer on the loose, one creating a virulent plague. Your abilities are demonstrably wide-area, and Elaine’s let us know you’ve been keeping secrets, one way or another. I hope you understand when we say we need a demonstration."

Glacia held her hand up. "Fine. I’m going to use a skill to mute sound from escaping the room. Please do not be alarmed." She said in a masculine voice.

A snap of her fingers, and the same clear, shimmering barrier we spoke in the first time showed up.

"Elaine, I’m disappointed in you." Glacia said with a feminine voice, slowly unwrapping herself. "I thought I could trust you." She said with a voice full of hurt.

I couldn’t look her in the eyes. I felt bad.

"Don’t blame her too much. Someone killed one of our teammates, and frankly, you’re looking likely."

"Why, because I have the audacity to be disguised as a man, just to be treated equally?" She snapped out bitterly.

"No, because the skills you’ve told us about are wide-ranging, you mentioned you can create nearly any type of effect, you have a demonstrated history of lying, and the plague recently got stronger, right as you classed up." Julius rattled off the points on his fingers.

"Can’t be her." The bodyguard said with a grunt. "We showed up months after the plague started. Shouldn’t that be enough to rule her out?"

Julius turned and looked at him.

"Yes, that’d be enough. Could anyone vouch for you?"

"Markus. Hesoid. Caecilius." Glacia rattled off almost immediately.

Artemis and Julius exchanged a look, while Arthur, Kallisto, and Maximus kept their weapons trained on Glacia and her bodyguard. Possibly husband? Friend? Was more than just a bodyguard to be sure, for her to trust him with her secrets like this.

"Right, we’ll check. Stay put please. Feel free to use defensive skills if you think you’re under attack from this Classer, but don’t do anything that might be interpreted as an attack."

We filed out, and had a quick talk with Caecilius. He confirmed that Glacia had arrived far after the plague had started. Something we could’ve checked before, but we wanted to shake the tree and see what fell out.

We went to Verta’s room next, and filed in.

Julius went for the silent treatment, just staring at her with his arms crossed. She started back.

"Fine, you got me." She said, and my mouth almost fell open in surprise. "But I’m not giving up who my compatriots are."

I tensed up, ready for a fight. I couldn’t believe it was Verta! Strangely, nobody else was tensing up.

"So we’re clear here," Julius said clinically. "Are you confessing to being a revolutionary, or the one creating and distributing the plague?"

Verta went white, then green, followed by a lovely shade of red, right back to white.

"I, uh, um-" she stuttered out, hand over her mouth, looking back and forth wildly between us.

"Revolutionary then." Julius sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers. "Let me guess. Surrounded by the 3rd, thinking it was unfair, getting together with other like-minded people to break out, or at least go down swinging, using your spot as a healer to act as central communication, if not one of the leaders outright from your demonstrated leadership and organizational skills. Did I miss anything?" He said.

Verta looked like she could be knocked over with a feather. After a few moments of doing her best fish impression, she shook her head. Words had failed her entirely.

"Any idea on who the source of the plague could be? We think it’s one of the healers." Julius said.

Verta just shook her head mutely.

"Listen," Artemis said, interrupting. "here, today, right now, we don’t care about your plots and schemes. We’re going to figure out who’s doing this, and cut off the source of the plague. Don’t cause any trouble, and we won’t bother you before we leave. Take it from me though – don’t try violence. The 3rd’s all too happy to continue justifying their existence, and they’ve put down rebellions ten times as large, with people twice your level leading them. You’ll do more good for whatever cause you think you’re fighting for by being friends with, or annoying, your town’s Senator. Take it from me."

I looked around, at the other Rangers pretending they’d suddenly gone deaf. More undercurrents I didn’t know about, and, well, when in Remus…

There wasn’t anything else to do, and we awkwardly left the room, and headed over to Hesoid’s room. We paused outside the door.

Quietly, Julius said to all of us. "I’m not liking this. There’s quite a few factors pointing to Hesoid right now. He was here before the plague started. He’s not a proper healer. He has good cause to be angry at people. His rate of leveling is absurd. Artemis, Arthur, he so much as twitches in a way you don’t like, open fire. You’ll get no second guesses from me on this one."

He gave Artemis a significant look, which she just brushed off. The nameless healer’s death meant nothing to her, was just another casualty. He was letting her know that there was no problem here.

We filed into the room, only for Hesoid to smile and wave at us.

"Hey! What can I do for you all?" He asked, still bare-chested, scars coating his chest. His words about ‘his little revenge’ echoed through my mind, making me eye him up. Maybe his revenge was not so little after all?

Julius gave him the silent treatment, only for Hesoid to smile even more while looking at us. Patience. Patience was the name of the game, to see if he’d crack under the silence and start talking.

I haaaattteeeed being patient, at being so quiet and still. I’d pulled it off for the others, but only because they started talking so early.

"Well, we’re here to-" I started to say, only for Julius to cut me off with a slice of his hand.

"Here to what?" Hesoid asked innocently. I got evil eyes from most of the other Rangers, promising an ungodly number of push ups and other terrible retribution waiting for me down the line.

Damnit.

Julius sighed.

"Here to check if you’re the source of the plague. Sorry. We’re checking everyone; we believe it’s one of the healers." He said.

"Ah, how do you plan on doing that? Ask me if I could poison anyone for you?" Hesoid said.

"No. We’re wondering if we could get a look at your second class." Julius said.

"Sure. Bring me a tree, or some other plant, and I’ll show you a harvesting skill. My other class is a [Fieldhand] variant, Wind-aligned." He said.

Kallisto poked his head out of the door, and had a quick chat with one of the guards. A few minutes of silent staring later, with me mostly looking at my feet in shame at having talked out of turn earlier, and a potted plant was brought to us.

Strange that they had those here. Then again, why not have something inside the temple for a bit of greenery?

"Permission to use a skill?" Hesoid asked.

"Granted." Julius said.

With a blur of motion, Hesoid’s hand moved all over the tree, leaves shaking and falling, and his hands expertly catching and stacking every leaf.

"Tada!" He announced.

We all looked at Maximus, who sucked in some air through his teeth.

"Skill. Not stats." Was his verdict. I wish I knew how he’d figured it out.

Julius nodded. "Thank you, we appreciate the demonstration." He said, surprising me by turning and filing out.

Caecilius looked at us, and raised an eyebrow, asking a question. Julius shrugged, then we huddled up and started to talk.

"Thoughts?" Julius asked once we were all outside.

"I hate to say it, but clear." Maximus said grouchily. "That was totally a skill being used there."

"Hang on, something’s bothering me." I said.

"Same here." Arthur and Artemis chimed in unison.

"[Veil]. Speak." Julius ordered. I threw up [Veil], excluding Caecilius.

"Why can’t it be his main class?" Artemis asked.

"That’s the one that concerned me as well. Murder on that scale would cause so much leveling, if his class was secondary, it should now be primary." Arthur pointed out.

"Decay doesn’t have plagues in them." Maximus said.

"Well, why not? And how do we know he’s decay?" I fired back. Bacteria caused decay!

"Well, he told us he’s Decay, and his eyes indicate that." Maximus said defensively.

"Decay looks like swirling darkness?" I asked, confirming.

"Well, ah. I see the problem." Maximus said. "He’s the first Decay I’ve met, and there are more elements I’ve never seen."

"We need to get him to demonstrate his main class." Julius said. "Not by healing a patient."

With horror I put two pieces of the puzzle together, whispered them out so softly, I could barely hear them. [Veil] stopped outside noise, allowing the other Rangers to hear me.

"If he’s a Decay mage, he should’ve been able to hit Cholera." I whispered. "He said he could only hit the first plague. If he’s responsible, he could probably handle his own plague. But not others."

Dead silence. There wasn’t even a rustle of clothes, a clink of armor, not even a breath taken.

"Go hard?" Artemis asked.

Julius closed his eyes. The weight of responsibility. The pressure of command. It was on his shoulders. His word, his action, the wrong twitch of his head, would consign a man to death. Possibly an innocent man. All on my half-remembered knowledge.

"Go hard." Julius ordered.

"Everyone, form up."

The advantage to my shield – nobody could see what we were doing. Nobody could see rocks hovering around Artemis, a sign she was ready to fire dozens of them off. Nobody could see Arthur, drawing his bow to full, additional arrows hung loose in his hand, ready to flip into position to fire faster. Nobody could see Maximus, cursing softly as he put away his weapon, drawing some weapons that only looked like throwing knives. Nobody could see Julius in a sprinter’s crouch, ready to get up close and personal in case our initial barrage failed to kill him. Nobody saw Kallisto, kneeling in front of us with his shield ready, giving us clear lines of fire, while ready to pop up and take the brunt of any retaliation.

The most dangerous spot of all, more likely to take a bolt in the back than something from the front. Complete and total trust in us to not hit him anyways.

Lastly, me, in the back. Not preparing a single Fire skill.

Even against a mass murderer, I couldn’t attack him first. A fight would have to be self-defense. I needed to never let my [Oath] details slip again.

"Elaine, your orders." Julius said quickly, in his crouch. "The guards are going to be in our line of fire. We’re going through them, with no warning. Heal them. Keep them alive. Try to talk with the other guards, stop them from coming down on our head. Caecilius should help with his presence, and his healing. Make sure he doesn’t heal Hesoid."

We turned to the side of the [Veil of the Aurora] where Hesoid’s room was, where he was sitting, waiting, unaware that the execution squad was coming.

"Three. Two. One. GO!" Julius said, and many, many things happened, more or less all at once.

Artemis knew me, probably better than I knew myself. Her first wave of rocks, scattered like buckshot in a wide arc, was launched at her usual blistering rate before [Veil] was even down. The goal was to take out the door, the walls, turn them into sharp shrapnel to pepper the room with lethal debris, and to clear our line of sight and movement for everyone else. This was the attack that was going "through" the guards posted on the door, and we were all praying that it wasn’t immediately lethal, that they could hold on for the few seconds needed for me to get to them.

That the injuries weren’t so bad that I wouldn’t be able to stabilize two of them; that I wouldn’t be made to choose which one lived, and which one died.

[Veil] went down, and the first wave of shots went through the guards, the door, and the walls, smoke and dust exploding into the hallway, obscuring my vision.

From the actions of everyone else, I’m not sure their vision was obscured.

The guards screamed and started to go down hard, as a second and third wave of rocks came from Artemis, going right over the heads of the downed guards. Lightning was avoided, either because she couldn’t actually see, she wanted to hold something in reserve, or that dust + lightning was potentially lethal to us.

Arthur fired off an arrow, then three more in rapid succession, taking less than a second to fire them all. Skills demonstrating their use, no human archer from Earth could pull, aim, and fire that fast. And he was aiming. He notched a fifth arrow, but held it back.

Maximus was the jack of all trades, master of none. He could fill any role, and he threw out several waves of throwing knives, before grabbing his main weapon and moving in behind Julius.

Julius had waited for the initial set of barrages to go off before charging in, which in practice meant he waited a single second before moving. The wall wasn’t even done falling before he moved.

I didn’t have nearly the stats or the skills Julius had. However, once he was off, I was running as well, less than a heartbeat later, a fraction of a second. The guards were finishing collapsing, having been torn apart by Artemis’s buckshot. I slid down next to them, not wanting to foul anyone’s line of fire, touching them both, not bothering checking their injuries, just focused on healing them, forcing [Phases of the Moon] through them as hard as I could, working on making them whole and healthy.

I used the image of a crescent moon becoming full. It was better than no image at all, and seemed appropriate with the skill’s name, and my alignment as a Celestial healer. I felt my mana drain at an alarming rate, nearly emptying out. A combination of their terrible injuries, and my poor image.

They were alive though.

[*Ding!* Your Party has slain a [Pestilence of Hatred] (Miasma, lv 260)//[Quick Field Hand] (Wind, lv 144)]

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 15]

[Mana: 9740/9740]

[Mana Regen: 14491]

Stats

[Free Stats: 30]

[Strength: 37]

[Dexterity: 129]

[Vitality: 90]

[Speed: 130]

[Mana: 974]

[Mana Regeneration: 1695]

[Magic Power: 869]

[Magic Control: 1445]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 162]]

[Celestial Affinity: 162]

[Warmth of the Sun: 126]

[Medicine: 153]

[Center of the Galaxy: 128]

[Phases of the Moon: 154]

[Moonlight: 1]

[Veil of the Aurora: 111]

[Vastness of the Stars: 128]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 39]]

[Fire Affinity: 39]

[Fire Resistance: 39]

[Fire Conjuration: 39]

[Fire Manipulation: 39]

[Fuel for the Fire: 34]

[: ]

[: ]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 81]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 80]

[Pretty: 101]

[Vigilant: 110]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 139]

[Ranger's Lore: 67]

[Running: 74]

[Learning: 122]

Chapter 86– Plague XVI

"Got him." Everyone said, almost in unison, like a practiced motion. Caecilius was a bit slow on the uptake, only just now casting his Radiance skill, burning and purifying the dust in the air, giving me a clear view of what was going on. I took a quick glance at him. He looked sweaty and nervous, and I could see why Julius didn’t want him near the action. With reflexes like those?

The dust was clear, and I could see Hesoid’s body. Rather, it was more mauled and pasted flesh that had formerly been his body, on the ground, in the ruined remains of the chair and table. Rocks had ripped through his limbs and peppered his body. Four arrows were in his chest, in a neat diamond. A single throwing knife was in his leg – not Maximus’s finest moment. His head was cleanly separated from his neck, from what I could only assume was Julius’s work. It was too clean to be Artemis’s work.

This didn’t feel like a fight, so much an execution or assassination. Immediate, overwhelming force with no warning at all. Best way to handle a Classer, someone who could, and from the notifications, was, killing thousands of people.

Speaking of notifications, I probably had a half-dozen of them I needed to check on in a moment. The pounding of guards coming over in a hurry stopped me from checking, and prompted me to double-check what was going on with the guards under my hands.

They were shaking and nervous, understandably so – they’d been on more or less normal guard duty, when outta nowhere they were bombarded with an attack. To them, it seemed like the Rangers randomly fired and attacked them, only to heal them up a moment later. A confusing, and not very fun, position to be in.

"Just stay still." I said. "It’ll be OK. We figured it was Hesoid causing the plague, and we didn’t want to give him a moment to react."

The guards were slightly calmed by that, and my [Warmth of the Sun] was doing some solid work, but they decided that staying on the ground was the right way to stay alive. Rangers walking around killing people and all that.

The guards rounded the corner in force, batons out and ready.

"We got him." Julius said grimly. "Miasma element, the class name made it clear he created the plague."

"Can anyone confirm that?" One of the younger guards shouted out.

Julius just stared at him. Several of the other guards also turned slightly to stare at him. He wilted under the pressure.

"Sorry." He muttered, looking down.

"Right. I don’t want to explain this a dozen times, why don’t we round up everyone who wants to be present in the main hall, and I can explain this once?" Julius said. "It’s been a hard day on everyone, if someone decides they don’t want to be present, they don’t have to be."

All but four guards ran off. Two were still on the ground, but slowly coming to the realization that no, they weren’t in trouble, and yes, they were going to live, and ‘why did I ever sign up to be a guard’ was 50-50 on running through their mind.

"Bring us to our teammate’s body." Julius said somberly. I glanced back at the two guards on the ground. They looked fine. I healed them again, just to make sure.

We moved through the hallways, to a room where Origen’s body lay. Julius walked up to him, then unbuckled some armor, looking intently at his skin, at the tattoos all over his body. Maximus looked over his shoulder.

After some soft muttering and pointing, Julius closed the armor, put his hand on Origen’s forehead, and bowed his head slightly forward, closing his eyes. Everyone else repeated the motion, and I mimicked it, trying to fit in, seeing that it was the right thing to do.

"Origen, my teammate, my friend. You were one of the bravest, most intelligent warriors I’ve ever known. You looked at the town you lived in, that you loved so much, and found a way to improve it, make it better for all your kinsmen. Your selfless impulse led you down this path, not as strong as other warriors. Not as quick. But you found ways to make yourself stronger, quicker. You found ways to make the rest of your team stronger, quicker. You gave up personal glory, for the betterment of all."

Like a chant, a ritual, one known to all the Rangers but not me, everyone said in unison.

"Brave Ranger. Your time to rest has come. May White Dove take you to a better place. Your deeds will not be forgotten. We will remember you."

Short. Simple. I seared those words into my mind. I burned Origen’s smiling face, his twitchy beard, his shoulders which could say so much, into my memory. Below Lyra’s face.

I will not forget you. I vowed, a second name added, a second memory to treasure and preserve.

I opened my eyes, wiping the tears off my face, seeing everyone else still half-bowed, eyes closed, in their own personal recollections of Origen.

Half of a Ranger team doesn’t make it through each round on average. The words echoed in my mind, and I looked around the room.

Looked at Artemis.

This was her 7th round. Six rounds before this one, average of four teammates lost, another three lost so far this round. 27 teammates lost. 27 times she’d bowed her head, recited the words, added another face to her list of memories. Maybe more, she’d mentioned a team wipe at one point. Maybe less – it was only an average.

Those were just her teammates. Her friends and family from when she grew up. She never talked about them, and I knew it was because, apart from my mom and dad, they too, were all dead.

It hit me then, the sheer force of how much Artemis had to be holding back, holding in. That life as a Ranger meant constant loss, constant death.

Why Julius had such a fire to get a healer on the team, even if it was a young, green teenager.

One by one we opened our eyes, tilting our heads up, waiting in utter silence for the rest to finish. There wasn’t a single dry eye, not even Arthur’s.

Julius was the last to finish, taking twice as long as anyone else.

"Right, let’s take his body to the Argo, then handle things here." He said.

We all helped lift him up, in spite of Kallisto probably being able to do it single-handedly. Arthur with his arms down, to me with my arms almost over my head. We solemnly went through the halls, emptier than ever, then out the door, and placed his body in the Argo.

"Right. I don’t mean to be callous, but we need to finish handling things here." Julius said with a slight sniffle.

Reluctant nods went around the room, and we reentered the temple. We weren’t quite as successful navigating the hallways, and I needed to stop three times to heal someone who was just wandering around the temple, looking lost.

The Pyronox doors were back in place, and we entered, a radically different entrance from the first time we came in, capes sweeping behind us. We were dusty, dirty, and tear-streaked.

A commotion started once we entered, and Julius lifted a hand.

Dead silence spread across the room.

"You’ve probably all heard pieces of the story by now." He started off. "This plague was caused by a Classer. Hesoid. We caught and executed him earlier today. Any questions?"

A moment of silence, then the hall, filled with guards, healers, previously unseen priests, and quite a few people – likely people looking for healing that got healed while everyone was waiting for us – exploded in sound, as everyone had a question.

Glacia, wrapped back up like a mummy, slipped up next to Julius, and with a few deft strokes of her harp, complete silence descended upon the room. She pointed to someone, and suddenly we could hear him, and only him speak.

He asked a question. Julius answered. Back and forth it went, questions, answers, sometimes questions that Julius could only shrug and say "I don’t know."

Like "Does this mean the plague will just vanish?"

The question that made me deeply uncomfortable was. "How did you figure it out?" Julius promptly gave me full credit for it, completely glossing over the fact that it’d been a team effort to investigate the cause. The rest of the team showed their affection in various ways at that, from Artemis’s reassuring shoulder squeeze, to Kallisto doing a full-on headlock and rubbing his knuckles on my hair.

After what must’ve been half an hour or so, most of the questions had been answered, most of the non-healers had drifted away.

"Now what?" Berucus asked, as we huddled closer.

"A mass heal event." I promptly answered. "It failed last time due to sabotage. Both plague’s sources have been cut off, the only thing left is remaining human to human transmission. Cleanse everyone in the city, and the problem should be over."

There was quite a lot of discussion over that idea, but in the end, we decided to do it, with the Ranger name being leaned on heavily to make it work. Me being given credit as the woman of the hour helped push the idea through for the other healers. The prior failure of the healers to make it work had somewhat tainted the idea, but Rangers putting their name on the second attempt should make it work.

That was the idea, anyways.

The meeting finally broke up after that, and we met back up at the Argo quickly. I decided to quickly check my notifications, after having put them off for so long.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 163! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Celestial Affinity] has reached level 163!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 155!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 156!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Medicine] has reached level 154!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Warmth of the Sun] has reached level 127!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Oath of Elaine to Lyra] has reached level 140!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Running] has reached level 75!]

I had a feeling – no way of actually knowing – that my experience and gains were due to saving the two guards, and not at all related to Hesoid. My only real evidence for that was [Veil] failing to level up.

"Tonight, we lay Origen to rest. However, there’s still a good portion of the day left. I’m going to visit the 3rd, and have a chat with them. Partially to let them know what’s going on with the plague, and partially to see what exactly happened with them letting some people out of the city, then immediately closing it. Something about that smells, and now that the plague’s hopefully winding down, we can spare some attention to it."

Julius spent a moment eyeing up each of us, some calculus known only to him running through his mind.

"Arthur." He finally decided. "You’re with Elaine the rest of today. Artemis, everyone else, you’re with me."

We all had questions. Nobody argued. We had too much to do.

Arthur and I headed to my workroom, tripping over and healing a half-dozen patients along the way. What were the guards doing? People shouldn’t be leaking through the temple like this.

Along the way, after pausing to heal another person who was lost and wandering the hallways, we passed Markus’s workroom.

"Hang on." I said, knocking politely on the door. I’d thought it was rude when Markus just barged in on me, I wouldn’t do the same back.

"Enter." Markus said.

I popped my head in, looking at his set up. Four apprentices had their own little desk, with Markus having a larger workstation behind them. Dark flames flickered behind him, giving the whole place an ominous feel. Or perhaps a reassuring feel, seeing that much healing power on casual display. What did I know. People went up to the apprentice, got healed, paid their due, then went up to Markus, who finished healing them, checking over the apprentice’s work. Clever that, having all the ire of paying money deflected onto the apprentice.

"Elaine!" He called out cheerfully, waving me over. I came over, Arthur bending under the door to follow in. Doors weren’t built to Arthur-size, or rather, Arthur wasn’t built door-sized.

"Congratulations again on your accomplishment! Your work is amazing. What can I do for you?"

"I’d like to borrow Herodotos." I said. "Have him collect patients for me."

"Of course!" Markus said. "I regret that we haven’t had time to listen to one of your lectures. I’m really beating myself up over that. From the sound of it though, you have so much more to teach than can be captured in a lecture or two."

He called Herodotos over, then hummed to himself, fingers drumming on the desk.

"It’s a shame that you’re leaving, and that you can’t write. Maybe you could ask the Rangers for lessons, then make a manual, explaining all the medical things you know. If I recall, the Ranger Headquarters are in the capital. I’d pay handsomely for a manual written by you, with everything you know. Maybe a project for when you’re on the road?"

My eyes narrowed at him. The idea was solid, but…

"I can read and write." I said coldly, as I turned and left, Herodotos in tow.

"Whoops, sorry!" Markus called out, chagrin in his voice as I left.

We made it to my workroom, where I assigned Herodotos to only grab the sickest patients, no matter what the age. If this plague was winding down – which it better be – cutting off the sickest people from healing might save the most lives. It’d be so much faster to get every person healed if you ignored the few massive resource drains in favor of getting the plague cured faster.

I ignored the little voice telling me that it might take long enough to work through every person in town that this was the wrong call. I had to have faith in myself. I could do this.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 15]

[Mana: 9910/9910]

[Mana Regen: 14691]

Stats

[Free Stats: 42]

[Strength: 37]

[Dexterity: 129]

[Vitality: 90]

[Speed: 130]

[Mana: 991]

[Mana Regeneration: 1715]

[Magic Power: 883]

[Magic Control: 1463]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 163]]

[Celestial Affinity: 163]

[Warmth of the Sun: 127]

[Medicine: 154]

[Center of the Galaxy: 128]

[Phases of the Moon: 156]

[Moonlight: 1]

[Veil of the Aurora: 111]

[Vastness of the Stars: 128]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 39]]

[Fire Affinity: 39]

[Fire Resistance: 39]

[Fire Conjuration: 39]

[Fire Manipulation: 39]

[Fuel for the Fire: 32]

[: ]

[: ]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 81]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 80]

[Pretty: 101]

[Vigilant: 110]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 140]

[Ranger's Lore: 67]

[Running: 74]

[Learning: 122]

Chapter 87– Plague XVII

The day didn’t end up being that long or grueling, from a healing perspective. It didn’t stop me from beating myself up, thoughts going round and round in circles.

All the pieces of the puzzle had been there. All the little things about Hesoid, and the plague, hadn’t added up properly. If only I’d been able to see clearly, earlier. If only I’d put it together. If only I didn’t have the doubts plaguing me. If only I was more confident, more self-assured. If only I knew more about magic and the System. If only I had more lessons from Julius, from Kallisto, in investigations, into solving puzzles when people murdered other people. I could’ve put it together. I could’ve seen he was the one doing it.

I could’ve saved Origen. Now, he was gone forever.

Would Artemis judge me for my failure? Would she look at me with disdain, think it was my fault he was dead?

I shook my head at that. Focus. Just heal. Save this person. Save the next. Redeem myself in some small way. Origen was dead. These 10, 20, 30, 40 people – they would all live.

That had to count for something, right?

I was feeling light-headed and dizzy at the end of the day, when the rest of the Rangers came to tell us they were done, and it was time for Origen’s funeral.

Artemis gave me a Look, and with a start I realized that without her shoving food in me, I’d completely forgotten to eat. Sheepishly, I took the offered cheese and vegetables, and chowed down as we walked through the hallways back to the Argo. I will admit, the food became a lot less appetizing as I had to heal pus-filled sores, and seeing the occasional bloody footprint. However, I chugged along. I’d seen worse. Kallisto looked positively green seeing me heal someone, then immediately take a big bite of food.

I made sure to be pretty visible when doing so.

"How’d it go at the 3rd?" Arthur asked.

Julius half-frowned, half-smiled.

"Good and bad, depending on how you look at it. On one hand, there was some money changing hands that shouldn’t. On the other, it means that yes, there was a problem, and we had to root it out. Some heads will roll, and one of them will literally roll. On a positive note, sounds like they’re going to de-escalate, and maybe even send a detachment over to help tomorrow, and over the coming week."

Artemis snorted at that.

"Yeah, like the 3rd’s ever been helpful before."

"They’re extra bodies."

"That are more likely to spark a riot than anything else."

"They’ll be under our command."

"They’re just trying to steal our credit and the good PR, hoping that some will rub off on them."

Julius threw his hands up in frustration.

"It’s not like I can tell them no! We can only order them around so much!"

We exited the temple, to the alley where the Argo was parked. Artemis had clearly swung by at some point and cleaned it up. The spikes were gone, the earthen walls receded back. There were minor details that spoke to the place having been terraformed recently, a stone too smooth, a wall missing cracks, but by and large Artemis had done a good job.

There was also a small pyre of wood that’d been collected and neatly stacked in the alleyway.

Without much fanfare, Origen’s body, stripped of everything but a simple tunic, was placed on the pyre. We looked at it for a brief moment, then Julius unrolled a scroll he’d been holding.

This was the fanciest scroll I’d ever seen. The back was coated in inscriptions, and it was made out of leather, not bamboo. It was painted in intricate colors, and I saw Julius tucking away a fancy, protective case.

In other words, this was probably the most important scroll we had with us.

He scanned through the scroll, until he found the place he was looking for.

"Origen’s will." Julius announced. Everyone bowed their heads reverently. I copied them, closing my eyes.

"Nothing of mine is to be burned. I will face the afterlife the way I faced this life, with nothing. I will make of myself what I can."

"Give my coin to my sister, Asena, in Laconia."

"For my inscription pens, tools, and notes. Find a boy in Laconia, one who doesn’t want to be a warrior, or who isn’t cut out for it. Pass them onto him. Pass my dream onto him. Teach him that it’s ok to not be a warrior."

"For my weapons, armor, and other instruments of war that are mine, and not from the Rangers. Give them to the town of Laconia, so another warrior may be better equipped. May it protect them, in the way it didn’t protect me."

"I don’t desire a tomb, nor a place to mark my passing, beyond my name on the Indomitable‎ Wall. I wish to become dust, to fly on the wind, to see all of Pallos in that manner."

"I hope this is never read, but if it is, I hope I went down swinging. I hope you got whatever killed me. My only regret is that I won’t see Laconia grow and thrive, the way I know it can."

"My best,"

"Publius Origen Cicero."

Kallisto cracked up and sobbed, two short, curt sobs. He put a hand on Origen’s shoulder.

"You went down swinging. Be at peace." He softly cried.

There were a few more minutes, for us to process our feelings, for us to say goodbye in our own quiet, private manner.

Very private.

"Elaine. Would you do the honors?" Julius asked.

I stepped up, all eyes on me.

I needed this to be hot. Hotter than I’d ever done. Hot enough to cremate Origen, hot enough for the bones to turn to dust, for there to be no smell.

Hot enough to free him, turn him to dust in the wind. Hot enough that all of him could see the entirety of Pallos.

I glanced at the Argo. I wasn’t full on mana, and even if I was, what I was being asked to do, the temperature I needed, would require not only pulling on the Argo’s reserves, but it’d push my Magic Power to the max.

Whatever. Failure was not an option.

Doing this in an alley felt almost irreverent, and somewhat strange. I left that choice to Julius.

With a small burst of flames at the base of the pyre, I ignited the wood. I stepped back for a moment, leaning against the Argo, pulling mana in. I let fire do what fire did best – grow and spread, as it built up power and momentum burning through the wood.

I seized control of the flames, a combination of [Conjuration] and [Manipulation] letting me make the flames higher, hotter.

Bone needed an absurdly high temperature to burn, to turn to ashes, and I kept pushing, pouring more mana into things. The flames got hotter, changing color, from red, to orange, to a pale yellow.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Pyromancer] has leveled up to level 40! +5 Free Stats, +14 Mana, +8 Mana Regen, +14 Magic power, +8 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Strength from your Element!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Affinity] has reached level 40!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Conjuration] has reached level 40!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Manipulation] has reached level 40!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Resistance] has reached level 40!]

[*Ding!* For reaching level 40, you’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Burn Brightly]!]

[Burn Brightly] – You’ve pushed your flames to the limit, and now the limit’s moved. Your flames burn brighter, hotter, stronger, more ferociously.

I took the skill, and half-staggered as with a mighty roar, the pyre turned into a pillar of flames, the heat pressing on me, in spite of my [Fire Resistance]. The other Rangers backed up in a hurry, with Maximus giving me a knowing look with a quirk of his eyebrows.

The faint smell of burning changed, things burning so cleanly there was barely a smell. Well, almost – my eyebrows were getting a little crispy, and I had to keep grabbing and putting out little fires being started from the residual heat.

Burning down the temple was a sure-fire way to start a riot.

I could hear the notifications as [Burn Brightly] leveled up rapidly, feeling mana course through me as fast as I could draw and use it. It felt like my insides were burning up, and pain started coursing through my body, drawing intricate patterns through my body, as I kept pushing mana out as hard as I could.

In almost no time at all, the fuel, and Origen’s body, had turned to dust, were nothing more than ashes, as per his final request. A small amount remained behind, only for a light breeze to pass through, picking them up, swirling them away.

It was probably just my imagination, but I thought I saw a hand, waving goodbye.

So ended Ranger Origen, brave warrior of Laconia, master Inscriptionist.

A solemn moment passed.

Arthur sneezed, and the moment was broken. We went into the wagon, and the last of our beer and good food was broken out. We spent the remainder of the evening getting drunk, and sharing stories of Origen with each other.

I had the presence of mind to clear the alcohol out of my system before going to sleep, and checking how far [Burn Brightly] had leveled.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Burn Brightly] has reached level 20!]

We woke up early the next morning, and it was time for the major project. Attempting to cleanse the entire town, chase the last of the disease out of it. This was going to be a massive undertaking, requiring the coordination abilities of dozens of people, and every single healer.

We dressed to the nines, polishing our armor from yesterday, red capes back in action. When the call had come out that a full-town-cleanse attempt was occurring again, it was under the Ranger name, we were putting our reputation on the line. We needed to be visible, we needed to look good, we needed to inspire confidence that this would work.

All of us bowed as we passed the front of the temple, a statue of Etalix, The Storm, prominently displayed before the entrance. This one was in a different pose, depicting Etalix emerging ferociously from some sort of cloud.

A storm cloud? Dust? Ashes? Something else? From what I’d learned of elements, any number of elements could be responsible for the cloud.

Or was it just another aspect of "Storm"?

Nobody had been able to tell me anything more about the Guardians, although from the way Julius got tight-lipped instead of denying knowledge, let me know he might know a hair. Did he have an unusual upbringing which gave him the knowledge? Or was it something all Ranger team leaders were taught?

We made it to the main gate, pushing our way through packed streets. In spite of people trying to part for us, the streets were still extremely crowded, even at this early hour. Everyone wanted to be first out, to feel the relief of freedom, to remove the Sword of Damocles hanging over their head. It didn’t help that everyone was taking their animals with them. We had no idea how long the event would last, and horses, chickens, cats and dogs, and all manner of other, interesting exotic animals, native of the local jungle and tamed, were present. Minor spats between various animals broke out, and I saw someone get kicked by a mule. I winced. That had to hurt. [Oath] didn’t bother me this time as we continued through the crowd – they were in line to be healed by, among others, me, and apparently saying "Hang on, I need to get in position." Was acceptable, unlike my earlier "I’m going to ignore you."

Good to know. Good to know. How did we not think of this before, and pick a different route to walk down?

What was done was done, and it was good to have this aspect of [Oath] suddenly, involuntarily, explored.

The way it was arranged was like this. A temporary barrier split the street approaching the gate in half. Some members of the 3rd were at the end of the barrier, directing people to the left side, or the right side. One of the uses we’d found for them, where they’d be under our supervision. We didn’t trust them in the town proper, nor did we trust them out of our sight. All of their training was on "kill the hostile/kill the problem", and almost nothing on deescalating. They also didn’t live there, weren’t invested, and would face almost no consequences for misbehaving.

Hence, a short leash. We needed the extra bodies though, and it gave the 3rd reassurance that this was being done properly, and they could go away without razing the place down.

I wonder how they picked the people from the 3rd to come. Were they the ones out of favor? Was this a punishment duty? Or were there some true believers, people who had faith and wanted to see this resolve well?

A mystery. I didn’t care enough to find out, my plate was more like a buffet with how much I had to do.

We split up the exit into two sides. The left side was for people the guards deemed looking healthy. The right side was for people that looked like they were sick in some way. A very simple form of triage.

Caecilius’s apprentice, and two of the town healers under Verta, were on the left side as well. Their job was a secondary screening, to spot anyone who looked like they might be somewhat ill that the guard had missed, and hit them with a dose of healing.

That took the pressure off Caecilius himself, who had a massive fog bank of healing (it probably had some fancy skill name) for people to walk through, to hit any last bit of disease missed, or people who weren’t symptomatic. His job was full-time on working and managing that skill, along with closing it down temporarily if he found himself getting overwhelmed. The majority of the town would be walking through that mist, and he was going to be stretched to his limits, healing literally tens of thousands of people solo. Sure, they all looked healthy, but they probably all had just a little bit wrong with them. The sheer quantity of people he was handling justified his presence doing that alone. Finally, everyone, from both lines, would walk through Markus’s Pyronox flames across the main gate – the final stopgap measure, the final check to make sure no disease escaped the town.

That was the simple side.

The right side was for people who were sick. We weren’t dealing with any injuries, just disease, or at least, that was the official position. Unofficially, I suspected most people who were both injured and diseased as they came through would find their injuries just a bit better. For example, if someone came with a nasty gash, well, healing everything under the gash properly didn’t look any different, but would make a world of difference for the healing itself.

We didn’t want people with persistent injuries deliberately getting themselves sick for the free bonus healing. We had too much on our plate already, without people making our lives harder.

We were set up into waves, so to speak.

The first wave consisted mostly of apprentice, weaker, or newer healers. Generally if you were one of those, you were also the rest. Their main job was triage, splitting people into roughly three lines. The "technically sick", the "moderately ill", and the "barely hanging on." Real formal. They were strongly encouraged to dump any healing they could into people, but quite honestly weren’t expected to manage much. It was more a measure to make them feel good, make the people they were helping feel good, and for them to get a number of levels.

The healers were distributed more or less evenly across the three lines. Healers that were lower-level were more likely to be on the "technically sick" line, while healers with higher levels, or more importantly, higher regeneration and power, were in the "barely hanging on" line.

A healer considered powerful headed each line. Verta headed the "technically sick" line, and that line gave us the most concern. It had the most healers assigned to it, and we anticipated most of the sick people would be in the line. However, as powerful as Verta was, she wasn’t as strong as the rest of the high-tier healers, she was more like the most powerful moderate healer. Most of Markus’s work and mana consumption we thought would come from her line, as even after she was done healing she might not have fully gotten them clean and purged.

Verta, bless her heart, recognized that we weren’t being mean when we made that assessment, that we were being practical. She kept completely, blessedly silent when it was mentioned she’d be more-or-less working directly with the 3rd.

Berucus was heading the "moderately ill" line, his chance at getting back into people’s good graces. There were dozens of eyeballs staring at him, and this was his last shot. Knowledge of what he’d done was not public, and if he managed to pull this off, a stiff fine would be all the remaining punishment for him. His deeds wouldn’t be made public, he’d be free to go home, and he was well-incentivized to make this work.

I headed the last line. The "barely hanging on" line. It was a mixture of acknowledgement of what I’d done, recognizing my skills, a reflection on my history of aiming for and treating the sickest patients from day one. Quite frankly, the number of healers that could be described as "powerful", "in the city", "not assigned to another task", and "could fully burn out disease" was down to just me.

It helped as well that I insisted we try to heal the people "barely hanging on"; that I refused to write them off to better heal others. It would be easier to skip them. It would be faster to skip them. I’d done lots of thinking on Justice, Triage, and ethics; examined my [Oath] and my own mind. I couldn’t leave them behind. I wouldn’t.

I would become powerful enough, strong enough, that it would never be a question again.

After the apprentices got to them, after the moderate healers got to them, and after the anchor, or head of the line, got a chance to heal, they’d then walk through Markus’s Pyronox gateway, our final barrier against problems.

We’d debated them going through Caecilius’s cloud as well, but Caecilius didn’t think he could manage the extra load. He already had most of the town walking through his skill.

Ponticus was still utterly useless as a Light healer, and my understanding of why Light healers were so rare jumped a dozen notches. Handling disease was so much more practical, so much more important, and was seen so much more in day to day life. Heck, look at my leveling rate on my Light class versus my Dark class. There had been almost no demand for my Light healing, while my Dark healing had gotten as many levels in two years as my Light had gotten in six. Sure, age, more stats meant I leveled faster, etc. etc., but the truth remained.

That, and most Light healers weren’t dumb enough to come to a plague town.

However, just because he was useless as a healer didn’t make him entirely useless. He was assigned to act as a mediator, and a central point of contact for healers, to then bring issues and problems to the Ranger’s attention, or to Markus’s attention, depending. He had enough clout, and was recognizable enough, with his gemstone sash on and sparkling in the sun, for people to come to him with problems. A great filter of sorts.

Glacia was staying mostly out of sight, but not out of mind. She was going to play her heart out, doing her best to buff everyone. Invigoration, boosted healing speed, possibly something to help healers. I had no idea how bards or Sound healers worked, and Glacia was not forthcoming with her secrets. Not after my perceived betrayal. With how crowded the streets were, I anticipated she’d get a minute of play time, if that, before running out of mana and needing to recharge.

I’d eat my hat if she didn’t level today.

Glad I wasn’t wearing a hat.

Every healer, apprentice and up, had some member of the 3rd following them around, looming menacingly. Not exactly a great vibe, but hopefully it’d deter violence.

Kallisto was assigned as my bodyguard for this. Artemis had a rock-solid belief that violence was the solution to problems, and people getting lightning-bolted in the middle of town, in a massive crowd? That riot we were all trying to avoid. Kallisto’s method of defense was to put himself between me and the problem, then talk them down. Hits that would be lethal to me could easily be butterfly farts to our golden-haired tank, and he’d be able to talk people down with his smooth social skills.

It also freed up Artemis to be a lightning bolt in the right place, at the right time. Like, say, if the members of the 3rd decided to do something moronic.

As much as we disliked the 3rd being present, they did free up the entire guard to sweep through the town, and patrol it. They had a few different objectives.

First, they wanted to make sure that everyone got out. Some people were stubborn holdouts of some variety. Either they didn’t believe in the plague, didn’t see the value in leaving, were convinced it was a plot to rob their valuables, were concerned about looters, or were just plain too sick, injured, or old to leave town – no matter how it was sliced, no matter their reasoning, they were going round to make sure everyone left.

Or were in fact looters, out to try and snag untold valuables while nobody was around to guard them.

They were also out in force to stop looting, fights, and all manner of other criminal mischief that the less-savory side of town was doubtlessly going to get up to with nobody around, and unsecured houses full of valuables all over the place. The fear of people stealing things wasn’t entirely unfounded.

Their last major goal was to stop anyone from sneaking out other ways. This was, to my brief understanding of how they were going to work this time, and my greater understanding of guards in general, to be accomplished by patrolling the wall, and talking to the local smugglers. A "Hey, look, I know you’re ‘not a smuggler’, but we need no people to escape through other means for the next few days." Conversation.

I suspected that any smuggler who wouldn’t play ball would rapidly find there was no longer a blind eye to them. The guards were pissed after they found out their former captain had been assassinated, and that wool had been pulled over their eyes, and the gods help any smuggler who decided to cross them today.

One or two people with the disease would probably just burn out. There was a slim chance they’d reignite the plague though, and at that point, the 3rd would give up and raze the place to the ground; put every living being to the sword.

The meatheads probably hadn’t thought about what would be done to them after they probably ended up infected themselves.

Most of the healers had gotten themselves some Arcanite, and there was some shuffling, some redistribution of it. Quite a lot of it ended up in a sort of "community pot" that any of the healers could access, although from how some of the master healers and apprentice healers were whispering together, and the envious looks shot at me, the avaricious looks shot at the Arcanite, I suspected they were being told it wasn’t for them.

More Arcanite, more spare mana, for me, Markus, Caecilius, and other powerful, top-tier healers. We were the final line, the ones who couldn’t fall. I felt a bit bad for the other healers, who wouldn’t get this chance to use skills as often. Not as much skill casting, especially for a healer, translated into fewer levels.

Word had also gotten out what we were doing, and there was a request that if anyone had spare Arcanite, to let one of the healers draw off of it, to help the whole process go faster. Who knew how useful it’d be.

Unfortunately, after the last healing event ended in failure, a bunch of healers had left town. Even though the death toll was in the thousands, people were sicker on average, partially because the plague had been spreading faster than healers could contain it, and partially because Hesoid had classed up before we got to him, increasing how deadly the plague was, how virulently it spread, his final "fuck you" to all of us before he died.

The final result was the ratio between healers, powerful healers, normal people, and sick people, had been skewed badly, in the wrong direction.

Another aspect of me being considered a powerful healer. While there were quite a few other healers around my level, with a half-dozen being a higher level than me, [Oath] was providing me with a nearly 8x multiplier to my control and power, bumping me to at least Markus-tier, if not higher. My strong grasp of medicine, and [Medicine], helped me form better images, dramatically increasing my efficiency, lowering my cost of healing compared to other healers. I didn’t know what sort of boosts they had, but at the end of the day, all those aspects came together, to have me be considered another one of the powerful healers.

The line started to move, and after a few minor hiccups, we started to move. Patient after patient, body after body, one person after another came under my hands, was touched as I formed the best image I could, of burning disease out, restoring people, closing sores, bringing them back to the best, the healthiest, person they could be.

It was an endless slog, and the world around me fell away, to just be the person in front of me. And the next. And the next. And the next. And the next.

Kallisto would occasionally move fast, intercept some punch or skill or something. I had no time, no ability, no bandwidth to see what was happening, check what was going on. I had faith that he’d keep me safe. There was just me, and the patient. Two entities, locked in a spiral as old as time, that would continue on until humanity vanished forever. Healer and patient. Doctor and invalid. The great fight against Black Crow and White Dove, pushing back the day death comes knocking. That was my job.

From a baby, sick with a high fever. Not the plague, but some other serious illness, who now had her whole life in front of her. To the great grandfather, who probably wouldn’t make it the week, even after I poured almost 2000 mana into him, fixing his current problems. I wonder how much more that would’ve been if two other healers hadn’t gotten to him first.

Every. Last. Person.

That was my goal. That was my mantra.

"Next person. Next person. Next person. Next person."

There was clearly excitement of various sorts going on throughout the day. I caught Artemis half-flying on one of her stone platforms at one point, willing to burn massive amounts of mana just to get to some problem or another that much faster. I heard one of Arthur’s emergency signal arrows go off, and I half-started at that, hours of drills having ingrained a bone-deep reflex in me. Fortunately, Kallisto grabbed me, stopping me from haring off.

Night fell. The moons came up, glaring down at us. Displeasure radiated from them. "Just let them die." They seemed to whisper. "Just let them all die."

Two moons, slitted like a cat’s eye, baleful orange beating down on us. Two practically identical messages.

I shook my head. I was being silly, letting my imagination run away with me in my exhaustion.

Food was put in my hand. I ate. Another patient came, another patient left. I glanced up. People were sleeping in the street, keeping their place in line. I glanced to my side. Caecilius had closed up shop, needing sleep. The other lines had also closed for the night, and I could see the junior healers looking at me, pleading in their eyes.

I breathed in, breathed out, quickly thinking about it. They were useless burnt out. I couldn’t demand that they keep the same pace as me.

"Go." I said, waving my hand. Some thanked me. Some just left. Cries of sadness, of despair, came from the line.

I glanced behind me. Markus’s Pyronox was still up. A precaution against anyone getting a bright idea to try and sneak through it in the middle of the night. Rather, if anyone was going to be sneaking, we wanted it through his barrier. They’d be cleansed on the other side, and security seemed… lax.

Whatever. Barrier was still up. I could still heal.

"Listen up!" I yelled, not really caring if I woke anyone up. "I’m still open. I’m still going. I’m here until I drop."

There were a few scattered cheers, some happy murmurings. Mostly from relatives, people bringing their sick parent/child/brother/wife to me.

I couldn’t stop. Sure, the other lines could. It made sense. They wanted to be fresh, they could afford the time.

This teenager, that I was healing right now? She might not make it to morning. This 50-something man on a stretcher? Dead by noon tomorrow. A delay now, would delay treatment for everyone in the line, push them all back.

Some past their expiry date.

Two of the attacks Kallisto had deflected had been because of bad news like that, pronouncements that someone brought to me just hadn’t quite been in time. I think. I wasn’t paying that much attention to anything not directly healing-related.

It wasn’t like I could bump them up the line, heal them faster or sooner. This was the emergency priority line. Everyone needed treatment, and they needed it now.

"Healy-bug, you ok?" Artemis asked, and I jumped about a foot in the air. A few guards looked my way, but seeing everything was fine, went back to watching.

"When did you get here?" I asked, half-jumping.

"When the sun set. Kallisto wanted a break. You should also take a short break, get a tiny bit of sleep." Artemis said, hand on hip.

I pouted.

"You’re just going to let me sleep until morning again." I grumbled at her.

"Not this time Elaine. I promise." Artemis said, suddenly serious. Wasn’t even using my nickname.

"Look, your efficiency has got to be dropping like a rock in a well. You’re taking longer and longer on each patient, and as you get tired, your image is getting shaky, it’s not as strong, not as efficient. You end up using more mana per person. I’m willing to bet you’re starting to lean on your moon images, instead of the proper medical images. It’s making things worse. Take a quick nap, heal a dozen people, then take another nap. Rinse and repeat, until you’ve gotten enough sleep. Look, new parents do this all the time, you can do it as well."

Artemis crossed her arms, brooking no argument. The old lady who was next in line, wheezed at me.

"Deary, sleep. I’ve held on for 86 years. I can hold on for a short while more."

With opinion against me, I laid down on the rough stone floor, bunched up my cloak to give myself a fraction of a pillow, and closed my eyes.

It felt like I had just blinked, when I was being violently shaken awake by Artemis. I checked my mana. 400 points or so from full, and my head was killing me. I’d felt clear-headed when I laid down, but now I was fuzzy, the eternal curse of the power nap.

I sat up, healed the old lady. She was right, she’d made it. She made it to the Pyronox gate – did Markus have a skill that let it persist even in his sleep or something? The line shuffled forward, the next person.

"Next person. Next person. Next person. Next person."

I settled into what I was calling my "Night rhythm." I only woke up once to someone bleeding and clutching a hand. I healed him, glanced at Artemis, raised an eyebrow. She shrugged, then put a finger over her lips.

Aka, "Hey, I had to disable him silently. You were sleeping."

Forget the other people sleeping here, Artemis had no concern for them.

I briefly checked my notifications.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 164! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Celestial Affinity] has reached level 164!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 165! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Celestial Affinity] has reached level 165!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 156!]

…..

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 160!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Medicine] has reached level 155!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Warmth of the Sun] has reached level 128!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Oath of Elaine to Lyra] has reached level 141!]

More levels. More time. More regeneration, but a higher max mana. Same amount of sleep. Roughly. Too tired to check if I could get, or lose, a few extra minutes of sleep either way. That time was better spent sleeping.

I fell into a pattern. Sleep. Heal. Bite of food.

Sleep. Heal-heal-heal-heal-heal-heal. Food.

Nine days, a blur of people. Young, old, single, large families. Middle class and poor. Almost everyone wealthy had fled the town when the chance arrived.

Break? What break? A few minutes snatched here and there for sleep was all I got.

Julius wasn’t going to do anything about the people who’d bribed their way out of town. As unethical as it was, in the end, they’d committed no crime.

Things were starting to wind down. Lines were shorter, and there were more people popping their head out, checking out what was going on, then getting to the end of the short line. The "we’re not going to let anyone loot our stuff but not be made to leave." people.

They went through happily.

Then we were in the final stretch. Almost all of the other healers had left by this point, leaving just Verta, Caecilius, Markus, and me left. Most of the 3rd was gone as well, and it was creepy, being in a town that looked empty, without a soul around. Like going to school after hours. There was just a sense of wrongness.

The guards were physically hauling out the last few holdouts. The ones who were convinced this was some sort of conspiracy, those who refused to leave at any cost.

One of the last ones was plonked down in front of me.

"I refuse. I refuse healing, I refuse to leave town, I refuse it all." He said, stubbornly crossing his arms, obviously incredibly sick. Clearly stubborn.

Interesting. I was big on medical consent, and treatment. If someone didn’t want to be treated, they weren’t a patient, and [Oath] released me from trying, or needing, to heal them. This idiot in front of me was, apart from his suicidal desire to not be treated, seemingly sound of mind.

Which brought the question. Should I override his refusal? Did I know better than him what to do with his own body? Good communication between patient and healer was critical. They should know what was going on with their body. They should have sovereignty over their own facilities. It fostered trust. It was the right thing to do.

It was oh too similar to the constant quandary I found myself in, where society thought they knew better than I did what I wanted, how they kept trying to pin me into certain roles, certain jobs.

And yet, the man in front of me was clearly very sick with the plague. If we allowed him to stay, when people came back, he could just reinfect them all, and the outbreak would continue.

Did his right to sovereignty override everyone else’s need for safety and security?

No. There was a limit to selfishness, and that line was drawn when you endangered a dozen others, let alone almost 50,000 people. The problem was laying hands on someone who was moderately high level. Heck, even at level 100 I was able to take off the hand of someone I didn’t want near me, let alone this man at a much higher level, with unknown classes, elements, and skills.

Which is why I wasn’t alone.

I looked at the four guards who’d hauled him over.

"Can you make sure he’s disabled enough for me to treat him?" I asked.

"Hey, wait-" The man protested, before disappearing under a flurry of batons. I winced. That hadn’t been what I meant, and if it wasn’t for me being freed from [Oath] due to his prior refusal of treatment, I would’ve needed to intervene. Ugly on all counts.

A slightly mauled man was in front of me, not resisting at all. I healed him up, purging the disease, then fixing all of his injuries. I threw a foul look at the guards.

"Come on, really? Making me spend that much more mana on him?" I yelled at them, with Kallisto – it was his turn on ‘protect Elaine’ duty – giving them a Look, adding his own weight.

They had the good grace to look slightly embarrassed.

"Sorry miss." One of them said. "We appreciate everything you’re doing, and we know holdouts like this could ruin it all. We live here. We were frustrated, and took it out on him."

"Don’t let it happen again."

It took one last day to get the last few people out of town. The guards were last, neatly arranging themselves into four columns, before jogging out as a unit from the town. Maximus arrived, driving the Argo, horses retrieved from wherever they’d been stored.

Markus walked up to me, his previously impeccable appearance ruined, looking as haggard and exhausted as I felt.

"Solid work. You’re done." I heard him say.

"I can keep going!" I protested. I could keep going! I could keep healing.

"No, you misheard me. We’re done." He said. "The guard’s confirmed the town’s clear, and have left. We’ve cleared all the healers. Rangers got cleared out. It’s over."

"We’re done."

I stumbled over to the Argo, trying and failing to pull myself in. A half-dozen helping hands came out, pulling me up, pulling me in. I took three steps over to where my bedroll was laid out, and collapsed in it, full armor and everything, letting myself instantly fall to sleep.

It was over.

Chapter 87.5 Bonus Chapter: Julia and Elainus react to Elaine running away.

Elainus was on patrol with Catonus through the streets of Aquiliea. Standard. Predictable. Every foot where it should be, every person where they belonged.

It was good, knowing where people belonged, where things belonged. It made it easy to tell when something was different, something was wrong.

Like Bakus today. Bakus always had three tables for his wares, and carefully had four rows of goods, neatly arranged on it. There’d usually be holes here and there, as he sold off his copper wares throughout the day.

Today though, he only had three rows. A small detail, nothing looking obviously wrong, but not all was right. The advantage of always being on the same beat, of talking with the same people. Being friends with most of the community.

"Bakus! How’s it going?" Elainus said, striding up to the table. Catonus kept looking around, keeping an eye on the rest of the going-ons of the street.

"Elainus! Fine, fine." Bakus said, trying his normal cheer. Not quite making it.

"You sure? You seem a bit slim on the goods today."

Bakus grimaced.

"Copper supply’s been interrupted. I thought the trader was late, but no, he never showed up. No idea what happened to him, but I’m a bit low on copper right now. It’ll be a few more days before the next one shows up. Till then…" He shrugged and gestured to his tables. "Fewer things to sell."

Elainus made a mental note to stick around the area a bit more in the near future. It sounded like Bakus was going to be alright – a trader not showing up wasn’t the end of the world, but it meant his business would be a bit slower in the near future. The guard being around a bit more would discourage petty thieves, and give Bakus a bit more breathing room.

And, with this, he could kill two birds with one stone. He’d been planning this anyways, but was waffling over if he should or shouldn’t. This was the perfect little nudge into ‘should’.

He quickly looked over what Bakus had, until he spotted a nice, elegant copper bracelet, with fancy whorls and swirls that reminded him of the sea.

"How much for the bracelet? Elaine’s getting married, and I want to get her something nice." Elainus said, bursting with pride and joy as he told Bakus, his mind wandering to his daughter that had caused him so much consternation and worry, so much joy and happiness.

Catonus coughed, having heard Elainus say this at least 40 times this round alone. Maybe 50? It was getting old, although he understood Elainus’s excitement. His only daughter was getting married!

Bakus named a price, and the haggling started. Elainus didn’t haggle very much. One part out of a superstition that it might bring bad luck, especially on a wedding present, to have too much haggling on it. One part that some people – he suspected his daughter included – weighted the value of an item by how much it cost. And one part trying to subtly lend a helping hand to Bakus, who’d need it in the next week or so. It’d be an insult to just directly buy it, but not haggling too hard was perfectly acceptable.

He dropped the bracelet in his pouch, and they carried on their round. People where they should be. Things where they should be.

Oh sure, it was a town, people were in constant motion, a constant state of change. But it was about the acceptable range. A woman, wearing clothes not as nice as usual? Could just be time for laundry. A woman, wearing a tunic with tears in it, who’s usually meticulous? Worth a quick hi, a quick check of how things were going. Don’t push too hard, don’t be nosy, but give people an outlet, a chance to see if they had a problem to chat with the guard about.

It was also a chance to keep telling people about Elaine. The town was a community, and everyone gossiped. People had told Elainus about happy events in their life often enough, that they didn’t mind hearing about his happy event.

After his round, he made his way home. Pushed the door open, and could immediately tell things were out of place.

First, Elaine’s cot was nicely made. She never made her cot. Her money rod, which she spent so much time and care carefully threading the little extra bits of money she got was empty. None of her usually strewn about clothes were present.

Most telling though was Julia, his light, his love, standing there, arms crossed, tapping her spoon on her arm.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

"Do you know what your daughter has done now?" She said, glaring at him.

It was pointless to point out Elaine was their daughter when Julia got like this.

"If I had to guess, ran away from home?" Elainus said, putting the pieces of the puzzle together. It wasn’t exactly like Elaine was subtle, as much as she tried to be.

Like when it turned out she was the one breaking into the library at night, practicing how to read. Somehow, she thought they wouldn’t notice that she was always tired, with bags under her eyes, on the nights the library was broken into. That she’d been getting some lessons how to read, which occurred right before the library incidents started. That somehow, even spotting her running away from the library, she thought her own dad wouldn’t recognize her.

Elaine was as subtle as a brick when it came to keeping secrets.

"Exactly!" Julia cried out at him, menacing him with her spoon. "This is all your fault! I told you to leave the marriage thing up to me. I told you to let me ease her into the idea. But noooo. You knew better. You had to try and exert your authority."

"On someone who looked up to, and takes literal lessons from, Artemis. Just how exactly did you see this going?" Julia said, getting a head of steam.

"But-"

"I don’t want to hear buts from you!" Julia cried out, walloping him with the spoon.

It made a sharp crack as it hit his arm. It didn’t hurt, not in the slightest – Elainus had long since gotten enough vitality to ignore things like that. He still made a pained noise, like it had done something.

Julia’s life was hard enough. She knew she was powerless in the world, there was no sense in ruining the illusion that she had some small measure of control while at home, in the house. She knew it as well, which is why she never tried the stunt outside the home. It was more reassuring her that yes, he was listening, and yes, they were partners, a team. Anyone would say it was strange. It was just how they operated.

Bless Artemis for playing along.

A long argument ensued. From whose fault it was, to what to tell Citizen Prasinos, to what to do next.

After a few candles of arguing – more subdued, Elainus and Julia didn’t want the neighbors talking that much – something of a truce was established. They’d wait a few days to see if Elaine came back, as most runaways did, before talking with Citizen Prasinos, and letting him know what happened. However, the ‘what to do next’ was still a source of dispute, and they decided that better decision-making could occur in the morning, after getting what little sleep they could from the remainder of the night.

Elainus got up the next morning, and popped over to the barracks to request the day off. "Personal issues." He mentioned. Another guard stopped him on the way out.

"Hey, I saw Elaine heading out the North gate yesterday. Did she make it back home ok? Is everything alright?"

Elainus’s mouth twisted a moment. "Everything’s fine."

He jogged back home, only to find a courier waiting for him.

"Message for you. Would you like me to read it to you?"

"Sure, come in!" Elainus said, excited. News about Elaine, hopefully, although the timing of it was strange.

Julia came out, and they stood in the living room together, clutching each other, as the courier unrolled the scroll, and started to read.

Dear Mom and Dad,

I’m ok, and I love you both very much. I refuse to marry Kerberos, and I’ve decided to make my own fortune. I’ll be trying to meet up with Artemis – I’m sure she’ll be able to help. I’ll let you know when I’ve settled down somewhere.

Love,

Elaine.

Julia was practically crying at the end. Usually, couriers asked if a return message was required. This one was smart enough to read the room, read the mood, and quietly left, leaving the scroll behind.

"Well, she has a plan, which is more than most runaways could say." Elainus said, trying to console Julia.

"So help me, if she doesn’t come back safe." Julia said, threatening.

Elainus could only nod. He wanted to break down in concern as well, but had to be strong. They couldn’t both break down at the same time.

His turn would be later.

"Well, hey, at least she’s willing to let us know she can read now." Elainus said, changing the topic of conversation.

"Think she’ll ever tell us her other secret? The big one?" Julia said.

"I hope she does. We can’t be too surprised that she seems to be god-touched, not after we had to pray so hard for her in the first place." Elainus said.

Julia nestled her head against his chest.

"We got one. One. She’s it, our only child, our only chance. She needs to be safe. I’d call off the marriage in a heartbeat if it meant she’d be home and safe."

Julia started crying. "I thought this was going to be best for her. I thought this would keep her safe, keep her happy, give her a better life, get her everything she needed in life."

Elainus kept hugging her, consoling her.

A few days later, they accepted that Elaine had either successfully ran away, or had encountered some terrible fate. It was Elainus’s turn to break down, as Julia comforted him. The talk with Citizen Prasinos, Kerberos’s father, was awkward, but he was somewhat understanding. Kerberos was there for the conversation, and Elainus didn’t like the look in his eyes. It was the look of a predator, an angry one, and Elainus regretted not being more involved in the proceedings.

A conversation with Julia later indicated that she’d completely missed the look, and thought he’d looked nothing but concerned.

"A mask." Elainus thought. Julia was fantastic in so many ways, but she didn’t have as much experience with the seedier, nastier side of humanity, the same was Elainus did. After seeing the look on Kerberos’s face after ‘his property’ had ran away, Elainus was determined to call it off.

When a trio of adventurers came by, saying they’d been hired to find Elaine, and help escort her home, it was all too obvious what was going on. Elainus and Julia refused to give them any help whatsoever, practically throwing them out of the house.

Almost two months later, the first two letters arrived, just a day or two apart. The first one was from Elaine.

Dear Mom and Dad,

Hey! It’s Elaine! I’m still alive and well.

I managed to bump into Artemis, and I’ve been travelling with her and her Ranger team. We’re in Virinum now! It’s both like Aquiliea, and not like Aquiliea at the same time. Lots of clay, not a lot of dyes. I hit level 128, and my classes merged! I’m a Celestial Healer now! The skills are so pretty, I’ll show you when I’m in Aquiliea next!

I’m staying with the Rangers for now – they’re all so nice! Julius is the boss, Origen is the strong silent type with a thousand tattoos, Maximus has been teaching me about the System, Kallisto’s really nice, Arthur’s the size of a mountain and can somehow vanish, and you know Artemis.

I love you two tons! I’m safe and happy. I hope things are going well!

Your loving daughter,

Elaine.

"She’s alive! And with Artemis! Thank goodness, she’ll keep her safe." Julia said.

Elainus raised an eyebrow.

"She got an advanced element already. Wow."

The courier walked away happy, with almost two rods worth of a tip.

A second letter arrived, from Artemis.

Heya Beanpole and Daisy!

You’re probably aware, but Elaine ran away from home. No worries, she’s safe with me and the other Rangers. We arranged a deal where she’ll heal us, and keep us safe, in exchange for some basic food, lodging, and minor pay.

Last few weeks have been hectic! Went through the Great Bamboo Forest again, saw some wild construction. Didn’t know you could make an entire village out of nothing but bamboo! The roads have been relatively safe, only the occasional little hiccup here and there.

Virinum has fantastic clay, and they make pots and jars, the best I’ve seen in the Republic. I wanted to send one to you, but the courier kept hemming and hawing at the price, and not promising that it’d be delivered intact.

Now he’s shooting me a nasty look.

Now he’s rolling his eyes.

Now –

Anyways! Elaine’s with me, and she’s safe and sound. Don’t worry.

Love,

Artemis

PS: Elaine’s officially a Ranger now. See you in two years!

"WHAT DOES SHE MEAN, ELAINE’S OFFICIALLY A RANGER!?!?"

Julia’s scream could be heard through half the neighborhood.

Chapter 88– Plague Aftermath

I must’ve died.

Something went horribly wrong at the end of the healing session, and I was dead. I’d been good in my last life, and I’d been sent to heaven as a reward for all my good deeds, for healing people, for my [Oath], for saving Perinthus.

That was the only logical explanation as to why I was waking up to piles of mangos heaped all around me!!!!!!!

There was some vague sleepiness, some mild exhaustion, that instantly fled as a surge of adrenaline went through me, as the happy dopamine hit my system like a rush at seeing the almost literal mountains of mangos piled around me.

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnngooooooooooooooooooooos!

Mango mango!

Hardly daring to, with a trembling hand, I reached out to touch a mango, only to pull it back at the last moment. What if it was an illusion? What if this was the product of a fever-dream of some sort, and it would all vanish upon close inspection?

The wagon lurched, a mango fell off one of the piles, rolling down, landing squarely on my head. It was like being punched.

"Ouch." I called out, rubbing my head.

"Careful Artemis!" Kallisto yelled. "Don’t take turns too sharply, you’ll knock the mangos over."

With great effort, I refocused my eyes away from the mangos, to see what was beyond their heavenly visage. The walls of the Argo.

Right. I wasn’t dead, I was still alive. And somehow, somewhere, between the time I’d passed out exhausted from my multi-day healing marathon, and now, we’d acquired a frankly absurd number of mangos, piling them into the Argo.

I fought myself out of my bedroll, noticing that somehow, somewhere along the line, I’d been changed out of my armor, and back into clean, fresh clothing. Bless Artemis.

"Oh, you’re awake." Maximus said, peeling a mango and slowly eating it, once slice at a time.

Alright. I was awake, alive, in the Argo, there was no immediate crisis, and I was surrounded by mangos.

I gave Maximus a half-nod as I greedily grabbed a mango, found my knife next to me, drew it, and dug into the mango. And the next one. And…

"Next mango. Next mango. Next mango. Next mango."

"Oh, Elaine, you’re – holy!" Artemis popped in for a moment, letting the horses drive themselves. She promptly slipped on one of my discarded mango peels.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! You’ve unlocked the General Skill [Traps] Would you like to replace a skill for [Traps]? Y/N]

I promptly dismissed the notification, having no interest in traps.

What? Putting the mango peels away properly took away from precious, delicious, mango-eating time.

Artemis windmilled wildly, catching herself on another pile of mangos, going down with the entire pile. I winced.

Not my fault there.

Artemis came up, bits of mashed mango all over. My eyes widened in realization.

Noooooo! Precious mangos wasted! The consequences of my actions, delivered in the harshest, most immediate, brutal way possible!

Eh, I suppose Artemis was fine as well. Whatever. Second fiddle to the mangos.

I got a glare from Artemis as she tried in vain to pick out pieces of mango from her hair, tunic, hands… yeah, she gave up.

"You know, I had thought you’d be happy, delighted even seeing the mangos we got. I thought, maybe, just maybe, you’d hoard them a little, growl at us like a kitten as we ate some. I never imagined you booby trapping the wagon though."

I lowered my eyes, mouth twisting.

"Sorry." I said, with maybe, oh, 85% of my heart in the apology. It’d been an accident after all! Still my fault.

"How’d we end up in heaven?" I asked.

I got an eyebrow quirked up at me.

"Errr, how’d we end up with so many mangos?" I said, correcting myself.

"As you know, Perinthus wasn’t able to get nearly as much food as normal, leading to all sorts of problems. Farmers didn’t want to bring as much in as normal. That, however, didn’t stop them from growing food, then, well, sitting on it basically. Some shipped it further down the road to Massilix, or to another town. Some just prayed the plague would lift."

"Our work – your work – in Perinthus meant amazing PR. PR occasionally translates into little favors, into life being a hair easier. This time, PR translated into people loving the Rangers, and almost all the farmers have some relative or another in town. A number of people have temporarily fled to stay with their relatives, just to make sure the plague’s gone, or hedging against the 3rd changing their mind."

"We’ve basically been treated like heroes since we left, and when we encountered a mango farmer who both had a large stock of unsold good, a strong need to resupply ourselves, and knowing you were the star of the operation, well, Julius made the executive decision to load up on mangos. Hence," Artemis winked at me. "heaven."

"Go nuts. Not only have you earned it, but you burned all your damn reserves again." Artemis gave me a significant look at that.

"Do that again, and you’ll find your qualifications in jeopardy. You can’t save anyone if you’re dead. You die, more Rangers die, then a lot more people die from problems we don’t handle. Look after yourself first." Artemis told me, flipping to stern.

"She’s right." Julius hopped in, a gust of wind coming behind him. "Protect your team. Protect yourself. Protect others. In that order."

Artemis snorted.

"There’s some philosophical differences on the ordering of the first two points." Julius amended, peeling a mango for himself.

"These are good. I can almost – almost – see why you’re so obsessed with them." He said.

"What levels did you end up getting? Your color has changed a bit, I’m curious as to the exact numbers."

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 166! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

…….

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 180! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Celestial Affinity] has reached level 166!]

…

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Celestial Affinity] has reached level 180!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 161!]

…

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 180!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Medicine] has reached level 180!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Warmth of the Sun] has reached level 140!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Oath of Elaine to Lyra] has reached level 158!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Center of the Galaxy] has reached level 132!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fuel for the Fire] has reached level 36!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Ranger’s Lore] has reached level 81!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Learning] has reached level 123!]

What was [Learning] doing in there? I quickly distributed my free stats the way Artemis wanted me to – 2 speed, 2 dexterity, 1 vitality ratio.

"Bloody hell." Maximus cursed and I jumped. When did he get here?

"Elaine, you are, quite frankly, absurd. You’ve gone from level 100 to level 180 in a year. One year. Yes, it’s been filled with danger. Yes, you’re trying to punch way above your weight. It’s still a leveling rate that can only be described as ‘insane’, ‘absurd’, and ‘unbelievable’. It took me until I was 26 to get a similar level."

"She did just perform a massive feat." Artemis pointed out.

"And I have [Learning]." I pitched in.

"Sure, and you were opposing a Classer with a high level, who was trying to kill you and everyone else, and it was a massive marathon, with every person being life and death. The added stress and difficulty made it easier to level, along with the size of the feat being larger, and the sheer number of people, and…." Maximus trailed off.

"Basically, a bunch of stars aligned, and it was some of the best experience possible." I tried to summarize.

"Yeah, pretty much." Maximus admitted. "I’m still a bit jealous."

"Speaking of, my Fire class is falling way behind. Only level 40 after so many months. Heck, I got as many healing levels in two weeks that I’ve gotten in the what, 8, 9, months I’ve had this Fire class? I need to work on it."

"Yes you do, healy-bug." Artemis said affectionately.

"Usually, one class being much higher level helps ‘pull up’ your other class, so to speak." Maximus said. "Just on virtue of being able to throw more stats at the problem. You saw it early on, when you got those quick, early levels simply meditating and practicing moving your flames around. Well, your class is no longer low-level, and meditating and practicing is no longer novel, so you’re getting significantly less experience as a result. You haven’t moved into proper mage-activities with it on a frequent basis, so it’s no wonder it’s stalling out."

"You probably noticed with [Burn Brightly], but your actions can impact, or influence, what skills you’re offered. Extra-important as a mage, since you’re offered skills so rarely." Maximus said. "Consider what you want, and practice in that direction. If you’re lucky, you’ll be rewarded."

Interesting. I needed to put my thinking cap on. First though, I needed brain fuel to think about this. More mango.

"Did we ever wrap up the counterfeiter?" I asked, thinking back on Perinthus, and the terrible coins being used.

"Yup. I had the guard point him out to me when we were doing the mass heal event. Pulled him aside for a quiet chat. Let him know he wasn’t in trouble this time, but he was now known to guards and Rangers as a counterfeiter, and if any unusual coins entered circulation, he’d be the first one questioned."

"Also gave him a scroll of recommendation to the mint. If he got some more levels, if he wanted to, he could travel to the capital, and get a job there. He’s shown more level-headedness about generating coin than most trained mint-mages."

"Speaking of unfinished business…." Julius said, looking at me ominously. "I believe you owe me 5,000 pushups. 5% added per day they’re not complete."

Damnit. Me interrupting and ruining Hesoid’s interrogating coming back to bite me in the ass.

I decided to not-so-subtly change the topic.

"Hey Artemis, you mentioned you wanted to know more about teaching, and schools." I said.

"Yeah, the idea’s fascinating. Dozens of baby mages for me to train? I-"

Artemis was cut off halfway through.

"Artemis, shouldn’t you be on the reins?" Julius asked. I noticed we’d come to a complete stop. With a guilty look on her face, she exited out the front, and we kept on moving.

"Speaking of, we’re moving through the Kadan jungle now. It’s your time to shine, ‘healy-bug’" Julius said, with a look of glee on his face.

Oh no.

"Oh no." I said, melodramatically acting fearful.

"Oh yes." Julius said, with an all-too happy smile. "See, normally this stretch of the road is almost as dangerous as the last one. Different set of dangers though. Instead of saber-tooth cats, there are seropards. Instead of raptors from the sky, there are all sorts of poisonous snakes, toads, frogs, disease, and all manner of other ugly nonsense."

"Thick underbrush near by when we camp. Water that’ll make you puke out everything inside you. Snakes that look like a stick, that’ll bite you full of poison the moment you touch them."

"You counter every single one of them." Julius said, his look evolving into glee. "Nothing kills that quickly in the jungle, and you can burn down any overgrowth on the campsites at night. Nothing will be able to sneak up close, and when someone does get bitten or sick, you can just cure us. It’ll be perfect!" He said cheerfully.

"I’m not getting a single good night’s sleep am I?" I asked rhetorically.

"Probably not." Julius said, trying to comfort me.

Great.

"Well, if you’re getting sick or hurt at night, I can use it to try and grind out some initial levels of [Moonlight]. From the way it’s worded, I think the first few levels will be the hardest, and it’ll get more efficient from there."

"On a more serious topic." Julius started to say, then paused, stalling out awkwardly.

"What’s going on?" I asked.

He closed his eyes, breathing in and out.

"[Veil] please." He ordered. I complied.

"Origen’s death brings this into sharp relief. Not wanting to be too morbid, but the odds are always stacked against us. Elaine, we need to write your will, so your last wishes are known in case the worst happens to you."

Oof. I’d started to commit the sin every teenager made – that I was invincible. Oh, sure, in an academic sense I knew I could die, I saw people die all the time. It was always something that happened to ‘other people’ though, not me. I could heal myself. I had people protecting me. I’d be fine.

This conversation we were having was a solid wake-up call that no, I was mortal, and people expected me to die.

I thought about it for a moment. It didn’t take long.

"Let Artemis take any memento she’d like from what I have on me. Give the rest to my parents."

"Would you like to tell them about, err," Julius said, gesturing broadly at me, then up in the air.

I thought about it. Did I want to tell my parents I was reincarnated? The genie was out of the bottle after all.

I shook my head.

"No. I want to tell them, but I want to tell them in person. They deserve to know."

Julius scribbled furiously on his scroll, a not-fancy one. I suspected maybe it’d get transferred later, or maybe it had inscriptions to prevent tampering.

"Oh, one last thing." I said.

"Take your time. This is important, I’m happy to stay all week if needed." Julius said, grabbing one of the mangos I’d enclosed with us.

I don’t know if he was trying to subtly send me a message, but the message I got was "I’ll keep eating mangos while we talk, so chop-chop." That’d be totally out of character for him, but my mangos!

"Markus gave me the idea to write a manuscript of all healing-related things I know. If it’s done, or half-done, or whatever, and I die, see if you can get it to him." I thought about my goals and intentions, then amended my words.

"No, copy it. Get it to as many healers as possible that you think can use it, or can spread it themselves. Take it out of my coin, and send whatever’s left to my parents."

Julius nodded at me.

"Wise choice." He said, as he rolled the bamboo scroll up, tying some string around it.

"May I never need to unravel this."

I nodded agreement. Never.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 15]

[Mana: 12940/12940]

[Mana Regen: 17730]

Stats

[Free Stats: 26]

[Strength: 26]

[Dexterity: 220]

[Vitality: 135]

[Speed: 220]

[Mana: 1294]

[Mana Regeneration: 2063]

[Magic Power: 1125]

[Magic Control: 1776]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 180]]

[Celestial Affinity: 180]

[Warmth of the Sun: 140]

[Medicine: 180]

[Center of the Galaxy: 132]

[Phases of the Moon: 180]

[Moonlight: 1]

[Veil of the Aurora: 111]

[Vastness of the Stars: 128]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 40]]

[Fire Affinity: 40]

[Fire Resistance: 40]

[Fire Conjuration: 40]

[Fire Manipulation: 40]

[Fuel for the Fire: 36]

[Burn Brightly: 20]

[: ]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 81]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 80]

[Pretty: 101]

[Vigilant: 110]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 158]

[Ranger's Lore: 81]

[Running: 74]

[Learning: 123]

Chapter 89– Sing my name, for a thousand years

It took us a few weeks to travel through the Kadan jungle, and we were nearly out, setting up for the evening, when Julius pulled me aside.

"I’ve finished my pushups!" I said defensively. I’d expected to be berated about them some more, and I ended up doing almost 10,000 in the last few weeks, as the interest-pushups kept piling on.

By some miracle, I’d gotten a natural point in Strength for my efforts. I’d gotten two more points from [Pyromancer] leveling up twice, my burning deforestation efforts paying off slightly.

He shook his head at me. "I didn’t want to talk with you about that."

"I’ve noticed you’ve changed your sparring behavior." Julius said to me.

I saluted.

"Yup! I had quite a few long talks with Artemis, and I’ve worked out that holding back in a spar doesn’t help. I was too afraid of hurting someone, and causing harm, but after we worked it out, I’ve come to realize it might cause more harm to someone in the long term by holding back."

Julius nodded approval.

"The other thing I’ve noticed is your strength seems to be severely lacking."

I looked square in Julius’s face. A year ago I wouldn’t have been able to talk with him, short of asking for directions to Artemis, let alone square up and confess my faults. Not that I considered my low strength a fault.

"Yup. Only 28. The Fire class is putting some points into it, but the Dexterity trade-off keeps eating whatever few points end up in it." I said.

"No surprise there. Your speed is finally high enough, that combined with [Running], I’m going to give you some lessons on how to fight like a speedster, and how to counter one. We’re called mage-killers for a reason." Julius said.

I’d like to think the lessons were about fighting at high speed. They weren’t. They were more focused on how to carefully place a blade, how to use fine control to overcome defenses, how to spot chinks and cracks in armor, and stab a spear into those openings.

How to simply not be there when someone took a swing at you. How to deflect attacks, instead of trying to take them head on. How to redirect force.

I also got to try Julius’s blades, which were entirely unlike the short sword I’d been using. They were longer, slender and curved at the end, designed only to slice. They reminded me a bit of a scimitar, maybe one crossed with a sword. Hard to describe, weapon terminology wasn’t something I was big on.

I also got to show off some new tricks I was practicing. [Veil] was a fantastic shield. When it got hit, it took mana. I’d learned from the fights I’d been in, against the Ornithocheirus, from the adventurers. [Veil] cost me no mana if it didn’t get hit, and I used it to obscure vision, move, then drop it before it could get hit, keeping all of my mana up and preserved. Helped in a fight. I could also put a this bar up in front of someone’s head, completely blind them.

It only worked on each of the Rangers once, before they figured out they could just headbutt it and drain my mana. Still, a nifty little trick.

Another trick I was working on was taking inspiration from Bluebeard’s story of Fire-Foot Felicity, and her burning footsteps. I couldn’t do exactly the same, but I could make small spurts of fire emerge from under my feet as I ran, which would cause anyone chasing me to have problems.

If it was good enough a trick to get a Sentinel sent after you, it was good enough a trick for me. I’d just need to, you know, not burn down a fleet of ships after robbing them blind, and getting one of Remus’s top killers sent after me.

We sparred over the remaining trip to Massilix, with Julius showing me, in what he considered to be slow motion, and was just barely visible to me, how a speedster would try to kill a mage.

Or a healer. "Same thing." In his books.

Foot-high tripping hazards with [Veil] didn’t work too well, nor did blasts of flames. The best I came up with was a knee-high [Veil], which usually ended up just stalling Julius, as he’d crash into it, stopping, occasionally tripping, but at the same time, breaking [Veil], and blowing through huge amounts of my mana reserves. He’d then get back up, and demonstrate why speedsters were mage-killers.

"Chin up." He said, removing his swords from my throat after another training session where I’d gotten ‘killed’. "You’re able to stall me for a good 10, 15 heartbeats. Should be enough time for a teammate of yours to come to the rescue. If not, well…" He shrugged. "Mage-killers have that title for a reason."

Lovely. I redoubled my training efforts.

We rolled into Massilix a short while later, nearing the Summer Solstice. Usually, there was a great big party on each of the Solstices and Equinoxes, and this time, we might be able to have it in town! Huge party time!

Massilix also marked, in many ways, the halfway point of our round, the great path Ranger Team 4 was on. It was also the northern-most point of the Republic, a contrast to Aquiliea, which was almost, but not quite, the southern-most point. We’d traveled along the eastern edge of the Republic, the land of wild and untamed Saber-tooth cats. Perinthus had been at the northern-most coast of the Nostrum Sea, and we’d gone even further north, through the Kadan Jungle, to Massilix. The vast ocean, just called The Ocean, halted humanities expansion northwards, and by extension, our own trip. The capital was almost dead center of the Republic, although the Nostrum Sea was in a funny shape, almost like three great lakes merged together in the center. It was on the southern coast of that central shape that Ariminum, the capital, was located. Its convenient location in the center of the Nostrum sea, the center of the Republic, let it stretch its long arms all over the place, for better access to all corners of the Republic.

That, or the Senate, and wealthy citizens living in the capital, wanted lots of buffer between themselves and the wilderness. Depended how cynical you were.

The long and the short of it was, every two years, when Rangers completed their rounds, every single Ranger team was in the capital at the same time for the Solstice. It was a time for all the Rangers to see each other, to socialize and mingle, build a sense of comradery.

On a darker note, it was the time to update the Indomitable‎ Wall with the names of the fallen, and for fresh graduates from the Ranger Academy to be integrated into their new teams. For teams to be shaken up, rearranged, balanced.

I’d seen most of the problems Rangers handled, and it was clear I was being put through their own version of boot camp, trying to get me prepped and ready enough to enter the Ranger Academy myself once we arrived. It was ass-backwards – who was a Ranger before they were at the Academy? – but I suspected that in no time at all, I’d find myself knocking on the gates, requesting entrance.

If they even had gates.

Massilix was a strange town in many ways. It was one of the few towns not on the Nostrum sea – instead, it was against a vast ocean, so large nobody had ever seen land elsewhere. They were mostly cut off from the rest of the Republic as a result, with only a path through the Kadan jungle, and a dangerous route down the coast in a ship, to one of the three other oceanic towns, being their contact.

However, they got the best of quite a few worlds. Not only was the weather tropical year-round, practically on the equator, or so I surmised, but there were the luxuries of the Kadan jungle, like mangos, readily available, and the entire grand bounty of the ocean at their doorstep. Pearls, fish, coral, sea monsters of all sorts – the last one was mostly a harvest on high level monsters that had died and washed up, there was no active hunting of them. Legends had it that a fishman once managed to [Identify] one and live, and claimed it was blue in color.

Nobody had any idea what level blue correlated to. If there was any relationship between the color of [Identify], and the color from classing up – my [Pyromancer] class was orange, a whole tier above red. Red was above pink, and most humans were somewhere on the pink to red spectrum.

Orange, a whole tier above that, had offered me 49 stat points per level.

Blue, the class offered by my meeting with Papilion, was 400 stat points per level. All of them free stats, it would’ve been more if they were assigned stats.

And that was a single legend, from a single fisherman, untold decades ago, who survived.

The ocean was a scary place, and I wanted nothing to do with it. Not until I’d gotten a lot more levels. Dry land for me, please and thank you!

The town looked, well, there was no other word for it but beat. Kids weren’t happily skipping along the grey zone, laughing and playing tag. Merchants were half-heartedly shouting their wares. The guards had eyed us with a defeated look, as they let us in, not even asking Artemis to discharge her mana.

We made it to the barracks, and instead of releasing us, Julius ordered us to stay put.

"I’m going to find out what’s going on." He said.

I whined, so softly it could barely be heard. Several pairs of heads turned and looked at me, glaring.

No, not at me, I realized. At Artemis, who’d been significantly more vocal about her unhappiness.

The highest form of treachery occurred as I turned and gave Artemis a glare as well, covering for my own mistake. She swatted me.

We hung around for a few minutes, taking bets on the problem.

"A plague!" I said, feeling fresh and rejuvenated after the last few weeks, ready to tackle another disease, experience those sweet, sweet level ups.

"Monster." Arthur said. "We’re at the ocean."

"Any monster wouldn’t stick around, or we’d be asked to take it out. My bet’s on a Classer." Maximus said.

"Let’s start a pool, 20 coins each?" I proposed, pulling out some coins. Arthur and Maximus quickly pulled out some money, then Kallisto plonked down a handful of coins.

"Corrupt guard." He said. "It’s why nobody’s really willing to chat with us, and why the guard seems to not care."

"People would talk to us though." I pointed out.

"If we had the Ranger flag up, which we don’t yet." Kallisto said.

Artemis threw some coins in the pot.

"Corrupt governor, Selkies, or any other problem not yet named." She said.

We protested that. "Not fair! You can’t claim everything else!" I said.

"Not without a larger buy-in." Arthur said.

Artemis rolled her eyes, threw in a few more coins.

"Happy?" She asked.

"Betting all done?" Julius asked, causing me to jump. When had he gotten there!?

"Yup." Artemis said.

"Who bet monster?" Julius asked.

We all turned to look at Arthur, who raised his hand.

"I’m sorry to say, you win the pot." Julius said, a little smile flitting over his face as Arthur’s face went crestfallen, then happy, scooping up all the coins into his arms, then funneling them into his pouch.

"Sea monster’s been terrorizing the fishermen. Seems to have learned that humans result in good eating. Deep, deep red in color reported from the survivors."

"There are a number of fishermen who are high level, from hunting coastal monsters all their life. They specialize in dealing with these types of monsters, and are almost better than we are at this specific task. When you include how many of them there are, they’re probably better than we are." Julius acknowledged.

"Most of them died trying to fight this."

Grim looks passed around.

"Planning session?" Artemis asked.

"Planning session." Julius confirmed. We unharnessed the horses, putting them away in the guard’s stable, then we piled into the Argo, and I used [Veil] around us.

"First off, I need to know if anyone’s not in tip-top shape. Artemis, begin."

Artemis saluted.

"I have no special, interesting, or otherwise deadlier than normal projectiles." She said. "Furthermore, the combination of jungle and seashore makes more of the native stones around here smooth. Good for speed, bad for penetration and damage. All in all, a little less deadly than usual. Tip-top shape otherwise."

"Arthur?"

"I have every poison I could want, except for one particularly rare sea urchin, which I’m hoping to pick up here. The Kadan is excellent for me." He reported. "Low on buster arrows, but I could always use more. From the sound of it though, I don’t think buster arrows would do much."

"Maximus?"

"Might take a few days to reforge my weapon into something that can punch up to a sea monster. If the locals can’t handle it though, I doubt I can make something better." He said.

"Kallisto?"

"I’d love a floating inscription of some sort. I’m bad at swimming. Barely passed the class." He said. There was a heartbeat of pause, of remembering Origen, and we moved on.

"Elaine?"

"My armor doesn’t fit. Again." I said. Puberty a second time was miserable, and I had a set of sometimes-form-fitting armor that let me know exactly when I’d gotten an inch taller, a centimeter wider. There was something like an uncanny valley effect going on, where armor that used to fit me exactly was off a hair, it was so much worse than regular armor. It kept Maximus on his toes and grumbling, but I’d seen the smile as he got more and more levels in his armor/metal/weapon reshaping skill, as he had to constantly keep up with me.

"Right, Maximus, quickly fix Elaine’s armor – I know it’s a short adjustment time – and Arthur, you get one candle’s worth of time to find your poison before we go and scout this thing out. Kallisto, you’re with me to find a sheep. Break." Julius ordered.

Artemis and I glanced at each other. Enough time to visit the baths….?

Maximus nixed that idea before it could even fully form.

"Elaine, I need you wearing the armor so I know what needs to be fixed."

Fineeee.

In a short whirlwind of activity, we were on the town walls, while a sheep was out on a rickety little boat, at risk of tipping over with any given wave. When the wind blew just right, we could hear some distant, plaintive bleating. Arthur was somewhere down on the rocky beach, hidden. Appropriate, the mountain-sized man finally blending into something vaguely mountain-related.

The locals weren’t too happy about us "baiting" the monster closer, and "teaching it that food is here." The current attitude seemed to be one of "wait long enough, and it’ll go away… we hope.", which was fairly defeatist.

After hearing about how the monster had wiped out dozens of their more experienced big game fishermen, I could see why though. There was nothing to be done, in their opinion, although the town could sustain itself on the local farms and Kadan Jungle well enough. The lack of fishing and ocean products was causing a depression, it wasn’t risking wiping the town out.

The sun was low in the sky, when the monster struck, blindingly fast. It looked like a massive sea serpent, one right out of the books, but was so fast I barely got a look.

Huge. Huge, and much faster than anything that size had any reason being. Monsters getting stats and skills was simply unfair. No wonder humanity was basically cowering around the Nostrum sea, unable to voyage out too far.

We regrouped in the Argo, Arthur having managed to get off [Identify] on it.

"Red. Extremely red. So red everything else I’ve seen is pink." Arthur said grimly.

"I’m never calling anything red again, not unless it’s close to that."

Artemis broke out some cosmetics. I raised an eyebrow – I didn’t realize she had that. Maybe I could "borrow" some to work on [Pretty].

"Do I have a similar shade?" She asked, opening her box of cosmetics.

Arthur hummed as he looked in the box, taking a small splinter of wood, messing around with some of the pigments.

Red

"Right. Placate, Kill, Drive off, or Tolerate?" Julius asked, naming our four methods of handling monsters.

"They’re tolerating it right now." Kallisto pointed out.

"Not particularly happily." Julius retorted.

"I don’t think we can placate, kill, or drive it off." Artemis said pessimistically. "It’s an ocean monster. We are, pun intended, completely out of our depths trying to deal with it."

"We could try to poison it." Arthur said.

Maximus rolled his eyes. Julius held up three fingers. Two fingers. One finger.

"You always suggest poison!" We all chorused out.

I’d been with the team long enough to be able to join in on the chorus, the only obvious difference left from me to everyone else was my short stature, and being obviously a teenager.

Arthur muttered darkly, as our brainstorming session continued.

The major problem was, we’d have to fight on a ship, or in water. Fighting on a ship was three steps away from fighting in water, since the monster could, and would, just destroy our boat. Then we’d be in its element, horribly outnumbered.

At the end of a long brainstorming session that’d gone deep into the night, Julius leaned back.

"I hate saying this." He said. "I think we need to call in a Sentinel for this problem. It’s outside of our paygrade; it’s too large for us."

There were some slow, reluctant nods around the table. I peeled and ate another mango. The piles of them had gotten low, and I stopped eating them as my entire meal.

My personal chest was still stuffed with them though. Emergency rations.

"Who do you think they’ll send?" Arthur asked.

"Ocean. Magic. Destruction. Probably not Hunting." Julius said, ticking titles off his finger. "Bluebeard has some powerful magic, but Katastrophi’s entirely unsuited for the ocean. It’s Ocean’s element and domain, so he has a large leg up, but from the look of it, this monster’s too big. Destruction and Magic might be able to punch up that far, but it’s a long shot. Destruction usually needs a stationary target."

He shrugged. "Won’t be our problem. Arthur, help me write the request? You got the best look at it. Everyone else, you’re free."

Artemis and I were off like one of her rocks, into the dark streets. The baths should be working, but we’d have to work hard to find one that still took people this late at night. A bit of sneaking, a few polite run-ins with some guards, and we found our bathhouse.

Baths, oh blessed baths, oh holy baths, how I’ve missed you so. It’d been almost three months since Catona and my last bath, and in the dim light, flickering through steam, we extricated a whole season, an entire jungle, and a plague’s worth of dirt, mud, grime, and other unpleasantness that had fused into an unholy mess of "ick."

By the time we were done and exited the building, we were blinking in the early morning light. We headed back to the Argo, me picking up a dozen more tunics – in a larger size! – before crashing to sleep in the wagon once we got back.

We were woken up to maniacal laughter, Arthur prancing about the wagon, whooping and yelling in an uncharacteristic display of glee, of joy. He kept hitting his head on the roof, but even those constant hard knocks weren’t enough to get to him.

"I did it! I did it!" He kept yelling.

Artemis threw a mango seed at him, that she’d clearly been keeping for just such an occasion.

"Did what?" She asked. Julius popped in at the commotion, clearly having been on Ranger-help-desk duty.

"Arthur, what’s going on?" Julius asked.

"I did it! I killed the monster single-handedly!" He yelled, finally letting us know what all the fuss was about.

My eyes nearly popped out of my head.

"What level was it?" Artemis asked.

"957!" Arthur yelled, pumping his fist.

"Did you get it as a solo kill?" Julius asked quickly.

"Yes!" Arthur did a happy, walking-backwards dance. The "I’m so good dance."

"Ha! Julius!" Arthur yelled, with a huge grin. "Better start running to catch that courier. They’ll be pissed if they get a request for a Sentinel when I’ve already handled the problem."

Julius cursed, and suddenly it was like the inside of the Argo was filled with a storm, as Julius moved at top speed, grabbing a bunch of gear together, ending up in full armor.

"Artemis, you’re in charge. If I’m not back in three weeks, carry on without me."

With that, he stepped on it, and was gone.

Arthur chuckled, still delighted.

"Heh. Longer vacation, fame, and best of all? I got my 256 class-up from that." He said.

"Man of the moment!" I cheered him on, his happiness infecting me, causing a silly grin to split my face.

Artemis put her hands on his shoulders, reaching up to manage it.

"Arthur. Seriously, congratulations." She said, giving him a hug.

Artemis stepped outside, and I heard triple bolts going off, the signal for Maximus and Kallisto to come over.

"Right, I’m in charge. Tonight, a feast, a party! Tomorrow, you can class up, we’ll guard you while you’re at it." Artemis said.

"They will sing my name for a thousand years!" Arthur cried out triumphantly.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 15]

[Mana: 13220/13220]

[Mana Regen: 17889]

Stats

[Free Stats: 38]

[Strength: 29]

[Dexterity: 219]

[Vitality: 135]

[Speed: 220]

[Mana: 1322]

[Mana Regeneration: 2079]

[Magic Power: 1151]

[Magic Control: 1788]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 180]]

[Celestial Affinity: 180]

[Warmth of the Sun: 140]

[Medicine: 180]

[Center of the Galaxy: 134]

[Phases of the Moon: 180]

[Moonlight: 35]

[Veil of the Aurora: 115]

[Vastness of the Stars: 131]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 42]]

[Fire Affinity: 42]

[Fire Resistance: 42]

[Fire Conjuration: 42]

[Fire Manipulation: 42]

[Fuel for the Fire: 38]

[Burn Brightly: 25]

[: ]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 86]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 85]

[Pretty: 103]

[Vigilant: 114]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 158]

[Ranger's Lore: 84]

[Running: 80]

[Learning: 125]

Chapter 90– Brigantium I

Autumn. Three months after Arthur had slain the sea monster, two months after Julius had made it back, complaining that he "was a sprinter, not a marathon runner" and other such grumblings, we rolled into another town, Brigantium, another stop on our route.

My leveling rate had slowed down massively, and I was seeing glimpses into why people ended up around level 150-200 lifetime, with only the best, the people constantly throwing themselves into danger, getting to the higher levels.

Well, that explained my [Constellation of the Healer] class slowing down. My [Pyromancer] class was doing a "normal" rate of leveling, which for a "get out there and murder things" was more of a slow rate, especially with the stats of [Constellation] pulling it along.

We got to town, Artemis happily fired off a dozen thunderbolts, marking our entrance to town. One day they’d get the idea that hey, maybe Ranger-Mages or other government-related mages didn’t need to discharge their mana before entering a town, that it didn’t take too much time for them to regenerate enough mana to cause a problem if they really wanted to, but for now, that was the way things were. It made me laugh every time though, the glare Artemis shot me. I wasn’t tagged as a mage, I was tagged as a healer, so I was let in no problems, the red carpet practically rolled out for me, in spite of the fact I was a mage as a second class. Not that we advertised that.

Nobody ever gave that particular policy high marks for being well thought out. It was interesting to see a small strand of extremely tall trees right outside the gate though, with nothing else near them. Most likely the work of a Wood mage being asked to blow their mana before being allowed into town.

We got into town, and heard some bards singing songs. I frowned, while Arthur had a huge grin crack his face.

Turns out, Arthur was right. Slaying a monster that high level, single-handedly? Yeah, that was the stuff of epic songs, and before we’d left Massilix, there had been a dozen different songs being sung about him. In the end, there was one really good song that had made it out of Massilix, but it gave him an ear-splitting grin every time we came into a town, and he heard his name being sung ahead of time. No need to hire a bard to write his song, it was already being sung!

On the other hand, my experience was a bit less pleasant. Glacia was a bard at the end of the day, and left Perinthus with a mild grudge against me, for ‘betraying’ her secret, and being part of the group that had come down on her, and all but accused her of mass murder. There was an epic song about Perinthus and the plague, and Hesoid being slain. It was less popular than Arthur slaying the monster by a margin, but it was making its rounds, a song we’d hear once in town to Arthur’s dozen.

My name wasn’t mentioned once. Ponticus, the practically useless Light healer, had the fewest mentions, at eight. Hence my foul mood, and general grumpiness towards bards.

We settled in towards a fairly standard entrance, and started to move towards town to set up at the guard’s barracks, as usual.

Losing Origen hurt. I hadn’t realized just how many little inscriptions and enchantments were in the Argo, making life easy for us, keeping things simple. From minor things like better food preservation, extending how long food was good for by a day or so – minor, but noticeable, done without making things cold, without a fridge like I’d suggested all that time ago when I was first joining up – to making the walls slightly more dust and dirt-repellant, to the more major ones like the horses being able to see in the dark, all of our chore workload had increased with him gone, and his inscriptions slowly wearing out.

Our armor inscriptions were still good, but only due to how rarely we needed to use them. However, we no longer sparred with them, instead saving them for the fights where we needed them. The support, like a good janitor, like a good IT professional, nobody appreciated what they did until they were gone, and problems started to pile up. Not big problems, more like ‘the horses threw a shoe again because they’re no longer magically attached to their feet’ problem. Which means a delay, find a farrier, get it fixed, and move on. Maximus’s metal manipulation only worked for weapons, another twist of skills being funny, and, well, that was that.

Blessedly for me, Kallisto was sticking to his redemption, and was taking on all of my cleaning chores still. He was well and truly forgiven – but it’d be a cold day in hell before I let him off the hook, and signed myself up for more chores.

The long and the short of it was, as the horses pulled the wagon through the street, Artemis and I were subtly inching our way towards the rear exit. I was finally somewhat fluent in Ranger sign-language, and Artemis was giving me a low to the ground countdown.

3.

2.

1.

GO!

At that last signal, Artemis and I burst out of the rear of the Argo, Artemis artfully kicking it with her heel on the way out, causing it to close again. We were off like a shot, losing ourselves in the crowd. It took much longer these days to be done with getting everything set, and we’d quite literally kill for a bath, after a few weeks on the road. Dodging a few chores was dozens of steps below murder.

Sure, Julius could always catch us, order us back, and make us wait until everything was done before we could be off. It was a bad look though, and punishment after the fact also worked, without undermining his authority as badly. Not that escaping like this didn’t undermine him, but….

But I had nothing. Artemis was a bad influence on me.

Laughing madly, we fled into the crowd, a direct line to the bathhouse Artemis had spotted, prompting the countdown in the first place. It was much easier to hop off the Argo near a bathhouse, than go all the way to the barracks, then try to find one.

A hop, a skip, and a jump later, and we were soaking in blessedly warm water, steam so thick it made the area off-limits to asthmatics.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh." Artemis let out a long sigh of contentment as more weeks of dirt were scrubbed off. "Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I’m liking this idea of being a, what do you call it? Teacher? Never needs to go weeks without a bath again is appealing."

"What do they call the people at the Academy who train Rangers?" I asked. There had to be some overlap.

"Instructors." Artemis promptly replied.

I had a [Veil] wrap us, muscles loosened from the hours of soaking, wanting a quick private chat with Artemis.

"What’s up?" She asked me.

"I’m wondering if I should keep allocating my stats the same way." I said.

"Share." Artemis asked, pulling herself upright.

I’d been working hard on my skills as we traveled, but a lack of a Major Incident had more skill levels than class levels go up. [Constellation of the Healer] had also slowed down from town-healing, mostly due to how high of a level it was. I hadn’t really initially bought that people could commit murder against other humans for levels, but seeing how badly I’d slowed down, I could maybe see why. Maybe.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 15]

[Mana: 14150/14150]

[Mana Regen: 18726]

Stats

[Free Stats: 92]

[Strength: 32]

[Dexterity: 219]

[Vitality: 135]

[Speed: 220]

[Mana: 1415]

[Mana Regeneration: 2163]

[Magic Power: 1231]

[Magic Control: 1861]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 183]]

[Celestial Affinity: 183]

[Warmth of the Sun: 148]

[Medicine: 183]

[Center of the Galaxy: 140]

[Phases of the Moon: 183]

[Moonlight: 66]

[Veil of the Aurora: 118]

[Vastness of the Stars: 132]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 45]]

[Fire Affinity: 45]

[Fire Resistance: 45]

[Fire Conjuration: 45]

[Fire Manipulation: 45]

[Fuel for the Fire: 45]

[Burn Brightly: 35]

[: ]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 88]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 91]

[Pretty: 105]

[Vigilant: 120]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 160]

[Ranger's Lore: 110]

[Running: 90]

[Learning: 130]

"It’s mostly my strength I’m worried about." I confessed to Artemis. "I get a bunch of free points into my dexterity, and it keeps knocking down my strength."

Artemis sucked some air in through her teeth.

"Two different paths for you to go down." She said. "The first is you keep distributing the way you have, and you lean more towards a pure healer-mage. You stay away from people, hit them from a distance, and run if they come after you."

"The second path is you put a modest number of points into strength. You won’t be quite as fast, quite as flexible. But if someone gets close, you can try to ram a knife between their ribs, without their vitality stopping you completely."

I thought about it for a moment.

"Suggestions?" I asked.

Artemis promptly replied.

"Get around 100 strength. A hair less, with your element. Then keep your strength at least at 100, and distribute your stats the same otherwise. It’ll cost you not much to get that much strength, while paying off in just about every fight you’re in. Going from 220 dexterity to 270 dexterity is a modest gain. Going from 30 strength to 100 strength triples your strength. Do it once, and it’ll give you enough punch to do some damage if someone gets close."

"Then again, your first, second, third, and fourth plan in a fight is still to not let anyone get close."

I mulled it over. I’d gotten a lot more free stats than I thought I’d get, and my other physical stats had shot up enough to be less-embarrassing. A one-time boost to triple my strength to give me a bit more oomph, or go a bit further down the dex-vit-speed path, seemed like a no-brainer to me. There were diminishing returns on stats, in that going from 50 to 51 was a larger percent increase than 500 to 501.

"Alright, I’m going to put some stats into strength." I said. I put the points in, doing some juggling as my strength ate my dexterity and vice-versa.

Stats

[Free Stats: 12]

[Strength: 101]

[Dexterity: 220]

[Vitality: 135]

[Speed: 220]

Eh, close enough.

Artemis nodded in approval.

"Good choice healy-bug. We try to keep you alive, but you’ll always be the number one person for keeping yourself alive."

I dropped [Veil], and we continued to luxuriate in the baths. I opened my eyes, trying to peer through the dimly lit steam, as small threads of other conversations came to us. Someone had a healthy baby, someone else was getting married. A merchant had gotten a shipment of dyes from Aquiliea, and there was a lot of excitement over it. My jaw practically hit the floor when I heard the price he was selling them for, and not only that, people were buying at that price! It reminded me that I needed to send another letter home.

Artemis’s ears suddenly started twitching, and I was reminded that I was pretty sure she had [Listening] or [Listen] as a skill. I stopped moving, going very, very still.

Artemis’s gazed locked onto a distant place in the baths, and she slowly, carefully, silently, lifted an arm out of the water, and slowly signaled a message. She could’ve asked me to use [Veil], and talk to me there, but, well, we were practicing Ranger sign language.

Hunt.

Alone.

Report.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Ranger’s Lore] has reached level 111!]

More benefits to using sign language.

We had a good rapport, and knowing Artemis, I knew what she wanted.

She’d heard something, some conversation, that had triggered her instincts, her drive to find out more and dig into a problem. Given our location, and the time of day – mid-afternoon, if my time-sense was any good – it was less likely a plot to murder someone or a thief bragging about their latest haul, and more likely someone crying, complaining about being forced into slavery, forced into prostitution.

There were legal ways to make it happen in Remus. Artemis was having none of it, no matter the flavor, and was not above dishing out a bit of extra-judicial, vigilante justice when she believed it was called for. As long as she stuck to the absolute worst, as long as she didn’t make it clear a Ranger was murdering "law-abiding Citizens" who just happened to be involved with "less savory business", as long as she wasn’t caught and didn’t do it too often – Julius, and the rest of us, turned a blind eye.

I didn’t know how Sentinels worked, but they were a check on Rangers like Artemis, and she knew it. It was part of why she refused to let me go along when she went a-hunting – she didn’t want to drag me down into a mess if she kicked the wrong beehive, or if she ended up going a bit overboard, and a Sentinel was sent after her.

That, and she didn’t want me interfering – [Oath] had caused some minor problems in the past, nothing too serious, but it was possible it’d interfere. Women – and sadly girls – always needed extensive amounts of healing after the fact, but it was extremely rare for it to be critical, on-the-spot healing that was required.

Long, long story short, Artemis wanted me to head back to the Argo on my own, grab someone besides Julius, who didn’t want to be anywhere near the action, and be ready to move when we heard rumbling. Generally in the slums, although we’d been surprised once when Artemis’s signal had come from the wealthy part of town.

That one had been a disaster, with the guard eventually asking us for help finding the "assassin." Artemis had a terrible time keeping a straight face during that investigation, and, well, my chores went down while my pay went up for the few weeks after that incident.

Artemis started to slowly, stealthily move in the direction she’d heard a snippet of a conversation, moving in a way that reminded me of a crocodile. Given how ancient crocodiles were, I fully expected to see the ancient variant of them one day, the monsters that competed with dinosaurs, and, by the sheer fact that they were alive and dinosaurs were not, won.

I left stealthily as well, and by stealthily, I mean I walked out like a normal person. I had nothing to hide after all, and someone sneaking around got a lot more attention than someone acting like they belonged. Which I did. Bless Kallisto for lessons in sneakiness.

I was, technically, breaking the "stay in pairs" rules as I dressed and left the bathhouse to get to the guard’s barracks, but it was broad daylight, on the main streets. I got to the barracks with no problem, to find an irate Julius, Kallisto, and Maximus. Arthur was allowed to be solo, Julius was still getting his update from the guard, and Kallisto and Maximus weren’t done with the chores.

Well, time to get to work!

Chapter 91– Brigantium II

I sheepishly slinked back, and started working on the work needed, namely, grabbing one of our massive water kegs, rolling it down to a nearby well, filling it up, and bringing it back. It kept me out of Julius’s eyesight – out of sight, out of mind – and let me have fun with my new and improved strength stat.

Look at me! Bodybuilder Elaine in the house! I could just barely lift the massive keg of water when it was full now, but I ran a serious risk of crushing myself. I rolled it instead, pleased as punch.

With almost no words exchanged, we finished everything up. The look I got from Julius implied that I’d somewhat redeemed myself by coming back early, without Artemis. Interesting… maybe it’d be worth coming back early more often, get most of the benefits of an early bath, then let Artemis take most of the ire? Plans within plans, plots within plots, mastermind Elaine is here and plotting.

"Kallisto, you’re with Maximus. Elaine, you’re with me today." Julius said once we were all settled.

"Errr… could I be with Kallisto instead?" I asked, figuring he was better for handling Artemis’s fallout.

Julius’s eyes narrowed as he looked at me, wheels turning in his head. He put it together. I was back early, Artemis was nowhere to be found, and I was explicitly trying to not be teamed up with him.

He threw his hands up in the air.

"Fine! For the love of all the gods, be discreet this time! We don’t need a repeat of Pisae!"

I nodded sheepishly, while Kallisto grinned roguishly.

"Let’s go?" I asked him.

He nodded, and we headed off to the slums, walking here and there, keeping a weather eye out for strange lightning, or sprays of earth and rocks, or anything that could be a non-standard Artemis signal. If she used one of her standard signals, it meant she was acting as a Ranger, and for everyone to come right now, like what happened in Perinthus. Otherwise, she was trying to stay under the radar. Relatively speaking.

We wandered the streets, armor and Ranger Badge on, seeing what life was like. Some people saw us, and frantically scrambled away, clearly guilty of something. We didn’t care that much, we had no leads, nothing to go on, and whatever they were doing wasn’t serious enough for us to have been told about it.

Other people were happy to see us, a solid, reassuring presence. I had no illusions though, for every person in the slums happy to see us, there were more that were unhappy to see us, victims of perceived or real injustices at the hands of the guard, a Citizen, or someone else. Not my business, not today, although if enough people came up to us, telling us that there was corruption in the guard, we’d take a look.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Julius took a look at them every time, keeping them on the straight and narrow. It was hard for corruption to set in deeply when a Ranger team visited every few months, keeping people honest.

Come up to us and chat, people did. There was a name we heard in whispers a few times, with fear, with people checking over one shoulder before whispering it to us, between telling us perfectly normal things.

"Nero." A teenager whispered to us, fear in his eyes, between telling us what the catch of the day was, and the best place to buy bread. All unsolicited.

"Nero." An old man spat at us, loudly, clearly unafraid of any reprisal saying his name loudly would bring.

"Nero." A woman brought us to a back alley, before tearfully telling us about him.

That did it for us.

"Artemis is about to go head first into that isn’t she?" I asked.

"Yeah. We’re ready to back her up, but it sounds like it might get ugly. Let’s see if anyone else is around to help out." Kallisto said, head on a swivel.

We went to a clear square, and I climbed up onto a slightly higher statue, pointed my hand up, and focusing on [Burn Brightly], made the tallest, brightest pillar of flame I could manage.

Strange how I could manipulate the brightness and color, without changing the temperature now. Less strange was how darn long [Pyromancer] was taking to level up. I was being punished for my impulsive choice in the most boring way possible – a ridiculously slow leveling speed, even at low levels.

This wasn’t my emergency signal- my skills didn’t rate one yet, but if I could make the flames loud enough, I’d qualify – but if any of the other Rangers happened to look my way, they could see Kallisto and I were asking for backup. Not serious backup, but a bit of extra help.

"200 coins says Artemis is after this person." I said, sliding down the statue after a few minutes. Healing was good business, gave me enough coin to make what would’ve been an absurdly large bet a year ago easily. I was starting to see why Rangers had such a hard time getting powerful healers, not when I was making buckets of coin even after I charged a pittance.

"No deal." Kallisto said, shaking his head.

Arthur, of all people, showed up after some time.

"What’s going on?" He asked.

"Nasty fellow called Nero’s apparently around. We think Artemis is already going after him, we’re hanging out as back up." Kallisto said, quickly bringing Arthur up to speed.

Arthur got a huge grin. "Hey, either we get the person, or we get to roast Artemis. Or both. Win-win."

I threw him a look, punching his leg. Arthur winced slightly, and swatted lightly at me.

"Feels like you tripled your strength." He said, rubbing his leg.

I swelled up with pride. My punches had previously been like butterfly farts on him, now a full-strength punch could get him to notice me. Barely.

That was kinda depressing, thinking about it. Ah well, I could always use flames to get noticed. Setting someone’s clothes on fire was a sure-fire way to get their attention.

"Yup! It’s over 100!" I said.

Kallisto rolled his eyes.

"Finally. It –"

He was interrupted by what could only be described as Artemis’s ‘signal’, an explosion of stone, ice, and lightning bolts from three blocks over.

We didn’t even need to glance at each other, we were off like a shot. I was still working on running with flames, and little spurts of flame came out from my feet on every push, trying to give me a bit of an edge, make me move a bit faster. It was on the famous roads of Remus, so there was no chance of setting anything aflame.

We turned a corner, pushing through the crowds of people getting out of the way. Nobody wanted to stick around when Classers started throwing around literal lightning bolts, and a quick glance over my shoulder showed the guard was hot on our heels, heading towards the action.

Artemis was there, panting, blood running down from dozens of ice spikes in her, clutching the stump of her left arm. A stone plate in front of her face dropped to the ground, having protected her head from an ice spike. A head shot was a head shot, and was basically unhealable. A "fried extra-crispy" body was lying a few meters away from her, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out what happened, nor to figure out that this was most likely Nero.

I pumped my arms, moving my legs even faster. Needed to get to Artemis. Needed to heal her.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Running] has reached level 91!]

Artemis was in no danger of dying, not between now and when I got to her, but I was still upset with how the moon was moving, making [Moonlight] currently unusable. I’d love to stabilize her, stop the bleeding, before I could do a more thorough healing session. No luck.

Instead I slid the last few feet to her, touching Artemis and using [Phases of the Moon] as strongly as I could, healing her, restoring her arm, feeling ice shards get expelled from her body, clattering around us, one hitting me on the head.

"Whoof. Thanks." Artemis said, in no position to say more.

Kallisto and Arthur had arrived a moment ahead of time, clearing the way, taking up a defensive pose around her. Arthur’s hand briefly drifted towards one of his emergency signal arrows, before pausing and moving back. Artemis hadn’t seen the need to signal, and the situation was more or less under control, for a given definition of "under control".

The guard moved in a moment later, and now we were in an incredibly awkward situation.

"Thank you for arresting the Classer." The squad leader told us, moving towards Artemis.

We glanced at each other, carefully not looking at Artemis.

"Um. Sure. No problem." Kallisto said, caught off-guard, without golden words on his silver tongue for once.

"We’ll take it from here." The guard said, leaning in towards Artemis.

"Errr, could we handle it please?" I asked, thinking fast. I knew guards. What would they like to hear, that was the truth…?

"This Classer is known to us, and has caused us lots of trouble in the past. We’d like to handle her if at all possible." I said, with a completely straight face.

What? Every word of it was true.

Kallisto had a master poker face, but Arthur had to pretend to be interested in the sky, shoulders occasionally shaking as he suppressed a laugh.

The guards frowned at us, clearly sensing something was up.

"Fine. But the fine still needs to be paid."

I glanced at Kallisto. It’d come better from him.

"Of course."

The guard named a figure that made my mouth drop open. Kallisto raised an eyebrow, while Arthur let out a barking laugh.

"…Sure. Come with us?" Kallisto invited the guard, bending down to grab Artemis.

Most of the guards dispersed, leaving just the squad captain and his partner to follow us as we "escorted" the "prisoner" back to the Argo.

All the gods and goddesses smiled on us, as we didn’t break out into laughter once. A few snickers escaped my lips, which I managed to roll into a cough. I was still getting suspicious eyes boring into the back of my head.

We made it back, and Kallisto went into the Argo, grabbed the main money chest, and brought out enough coin to pay Artemis’s fine. We then unceremoniously threw the "prisoner" into the wagon, and climbed in, closing the door.

I got [Veil] up just in time to contain us all bursting into laughter. Even Artemis had recovered enough to find it hilarious.

"This Classer is known to us, and has caused us trouble in the past." Arthur said, pointing at Artemis through tears of laughter. "You couldn’t be more accurate."

"I can’t believe that worked!" Kallisto yelled, pumping his arm. "So many problems dodged! No need to extract Artemis from jail!"

"On that note," Arthur said, tone becoming serious. "Artemis, you’re probably confined to the Argo for the rest of our stay here. At the very least, stay here until Julius has a chance to stop by."

Artemis didn’t even bother arguing, just flopped down on her bed roll. Arthur left, and Kallisto stepped out for a moment. We were still paired for the day.

"Was it worth it?" I asked.

Artemis’s look turned serious.

"I’d do it again in a heartbeat. That was one of the worst."

I slowly nodded to Artemis, going over to my chest and rummaging through it. Where was it – AHHA!

I tossed one of my few remaining, "eat in case of emergency" mangos over to Artemis, who deftly caught it out of the air, slowly nodding at me. A small speck of stone was conjured, and Artemis started to carefully peel the mango with just the sharp edge, working on her control, finding a way to entertain herself while confined.

"You mentioned wanting to teach one day." I said to Artemis. "Try practicing some beginner lectures. Maybe write down particularly good lines or ideas. Start a manuscript, like I have."

"Good idea. Any ideas where to start?" She asked, looking at the ceiling.

"Start at the basics. What you taught me all that time ago. [Meditate] being the base skill, types of mages, etc."

The look on Artemis’s face grew thoughtful, as she started to rummage around for some charcoal.

I hopped out, joining Kallisto.

"Standard set?" He asked.

"No, I want to help the people Artemis just freed."

"No money in that." Kallisto pointed out. I gave him a flat look.

"It’s not about the money. It’s about helping the people that need it the most. Do you think there’s a more battered group in the town right now? Well, one that we know about? Do you think any of them will get a chance at a healer? They’re scared, lost, and confused, and Artemis being ‘arrested’ instead of getting her usual chance at helping them out is doing them no favors. Come on. You substitute Artemis, let them know what they can and should do now, and I’ll fix them up."

What happened to the slaves when Artemis killed off the ringleader? It was strange.

The easiest was when they were illegally capturing and pimping or selling people. Cut off the head, kill a half-dozen lackeys, and get everyone we could back home. That was easy, simple. "Simple."

From the sound of it, Artemis had stumbled on one of the harder cases, where everything Nero was doing was, technically, legal, just horribly unethical. What happened to his business? What happened to his slave contracts?

Under the letter of the law, they passed to his next of kin, if he had no will. If there was no next of kin, it was handed off to the governor’s office to handle, which usually resulted in a bit of a mess. Generally, the governor simply declared them all freemen, and asked if anyone would like to sell themselves back into slavery. Anyone who chose to do so would be able to keep all the coin they got selling themselves, and send it to support their family, if they didn’t feel they had a better option.

It was a coin toss if people would take them up on the offer if Artemis was the one freeing them. On one hand, she only went after the worst of the worst, people who beat, abused, and mistreated their slaves the worst. Some former slaves still had some fire, some gumption, and were happy to throw off their chains. Others had been in a pit of despair so long, they couldn’t imagine any other future, any other way of life.

We didn’t argue with those. Artemis’s crusade wasn’t against slavery, it was against women and girls being horribly abused.

At the same time, nobody would be freed if the slave contracts went to the next of kin. This is the gap we were stepping into, and, by all metrics, improperly exploiting. Kallisto was going to off-handedly mention that the records were bad, and, well, if they just vanished, just ended up with some distant family, nobody would be able to tell they were slaves…

Our job wasn’t handling or enforcing slavery. Our job as Rangers was handling large threats to Remus, and we could make a very roundabout argument that we were heading off dissent and rebellion in the early stages.

After all, we’d arrested the Classer responsible for the brutal, public murder.

Quite a few hours later – sadly, no levels – the sun was down, and we were heading back to the Argo, for Kallisto to drop me off safely before heading out on his own.

Bless him, he’d learned. He was big, beefy, and could handle himself well enough, while I, well, wasn’t.

We were halfway to the barracks, when the haunting cry of "Fire! Fire!" came up. We glanced at each other, Kallisto kneeled down, and I hopped on his back. Off he went!

Sure, it’d be better for me if I ran there, but I’d get there faster piggybacked. It was pointless earlier due to how close we were, but the red glow was far away. Distance running, a ride from Kallisto, who focused in physical stats, got us there faster.

We made it to the fire, where a familiar scene was playing itself out. A fire brigade arguing with the owners. Blessedly, there were no screams coming from the building, but the fire brigade had made a barrier, not letting anyone else come close.

"Halt! By decree of the governor, only members of the fire brigade may come close to a burning building!" A pompous lackey cried out, stepping boldly in front of us, raising his hand.

I grabbed my badge at my belt, raised it high over my head, angling it to catch the firelight. I glanced up. The moons were out, crimson and ominous, watching our little drama in the corner of the world.

The lackey saw the badge, and his lips curled in a sneer. The sneer was rapidly wiped off his face as he realized that Kallisto wasn’t stopping, and was about to go through him. His paycheck clearly didn’t rely on allowing himself to get run over by Rangers, and he dove out of the way.

The weak link in the fire bridge barrier did not get out of the way, and Kallisto ran through their arms, a crack coming from them. I threw a [Moonlight]-boosted [Phases of the Moon] in their direction, watching my mana drain horribly, but getting their arm fixed.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Moonlight] has reached level 67!]

And we were in, burning wood surrounding us.

I tapped Kallisto and slid down, only now hearing a mild cry for help. Not desperate, not young. It gave the feel of a polite lady asking for help, and could you please hurry along before I get desperate? However, a cry for help was a cry for help, and whoever was making the noise clearly couldn’t get out on her own.

Kallisto shot off, deeper into the flames, while I focused around me, grabbing a clump. Extinguishing it. Grabbing the next set of flames, dousing them. Steadily moving in the direction Kallisto had moved.

[Fire Manipulation] was good for more than just setting fire.

I looked around, trying to find the largest hearts of flame, the places where removing a large chunk of fire would do the most good.

Grab, extinguish. Grab, snuff out.

Pull on the mana stored in my earrings. Grab, quench.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Pyromancer] has leveled up to level 46! +5 Free Stats, +14 Mana, +8 Mana Regen, +14 Magic power, +8 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Strength from your Element!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Affinity] has reached level 46!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Conjuration] has reached level 46!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Manipulation] has reached level 46!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Resistance] has reached level 46!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fuel for the Fire] has reached level 46!]

I wasn’t scared of the flames. Not anymore. They came from me, were a part of me. All I needed to do was reach, and they were mine to control, mine to make dance to my tune.

And tonight, mine to douse.

I had to be careful though. I couldn’t tackle nearly the entire fire – I simply didn’t have the mana for it, even after pulling in all the mana from my Arcanite, even after giving it some time for my massive regeneration to kick in. The scale was completely different from what I could handle, and I needed to be intelligent about what I hit, when, and where.

Instead of say, the entire beam, I could hit the center, and parts of the edges, and kill the fire there. The remainder would hopefully burn itself out.

Grabbing the entire fire, removing all of it at once, was the domain of a power-mage, with massive Magic Power and Mana. I was more focused on Mana Regen and Control, in spite of the distribution of my [Pyromancer] stats.

A hallway. A room. Jumping back as a beam, weakened by the flames I’d just removed, fell down anyways. The place wasn’t going to be in good shape when I was done, but it sure was going to be in better shape than if I did nothing, or if hundreds of gallons of water and sand were poured in.

I followed the path I believed Kallisto had taken, only to see him emerge from the flames like a phoenix out of myth, carrying a woman. I made sure to quickly grab the flames around him, remove them from existence. I walked up to them, touching them both, pulsing [Phases] through them, focusing on burns, on lung damage from the smoke.

Kallisto nodded to me, and without another word, bounded out of the house. He was a tank, able to run through – quite literally – a house on fire, and emerge unscathed on the other side, even carrying someone. Wasn’t built to stay in a fire for a sustained period of time though.

A workroom, filled with dozens of vials, herbs in all states, mysterious implements scattered all over. Must be an alchemist who lived here. I spent extra care making sure his livelihood was saved.

I kept my ears perked, hearing almost nothing. No more cries for help. No wails of a trapped kid. Nothing but the roar of flames, steadily decreasing as I played a one-girl-fire crew.

I spent a half second wondering why more people didn’t take on a Fire mage class, before remembering how slow my leveling was. Who wanted to be stuck as a low-level most of their life? Who wanted to dive into flames unpaid? Speaking of pay, what job could a mage hold, that a specialist in a town couldn’t do better? The charcoal maker was better at burning good, the smith was better at his forge. I was only safe because I could heal myself of most injuries, because I didn’t fear my lungs being seared from the toxic smoke. I was only paid because I was a Ranger and a healer.

Speaking of, I needed to be careful. My hubris in Perinthus was a solid reminder that this world had magic, and with all the herbs floating around, there could be magic smoke of some flavor that could do strange things to me.

Also, normal hallucinogens could be a problem.

I had no idea how long passed, but soon I wasn’t alone in the house, some other people running around, lending a helping hand. A Ranger-Mage, even without the class, diving into your home and killing a ton of the fire clearly inspired confidence, and the low lighting probably meant they didn’t get a good look at me, didn’t have any notions of my skill based on my appearance.

Or maybe, and the thought warmed my heart, they had seen me, and had faith anyways. It put a small, secret smile on my face, casting strange shadows as flames danced around me.

As embers danced around me.

As nothing but ash swirled around me.

I walked out to an irate fire brigade squaring off against Kallisto. He turned and looked at me.

"Oh great, all set?" He asked me, winking.

"Yup." I answered, somewhat tired. Not quite exhausted, but I wasn’t going to have clinic tomorrow. Just a long sleep, followed by trying to get all the infernal smoke out of my hair. I’d let it grow long again, as poor of a life choice as it was, being on the road. I liked it though, and because I liked it, [Pretty] was happy.

Kallisto turned to the brigade, arms crossed, forming a human wall. I stepped up next to him, and we took out our badges.

"Do you really want to continue arguing with two Rangers, after one of them single-handedly took out a fire?" Kallisto asked softly. "How do you think this ends for you?"

There were some nervous looks around. Clearly Kallisto had been waiting for me before challenging them, sticking around to make sure I’d be safe on my way back.

"But-" one of them started to say, getting cut off by another, leaderly-looking one, who was deep in thought.

"Listen. You know where to find us. Lodge a complaint! We’re in town for another week. Or don’t. She’s a healer. A healer. Practically useless by most standards, and single-handedly took care of a fire. Me? I’m a dual-classed warrior, and significantly stronger than she is. Want to see what I can do?" Kallisto asked, flexing.

That got a few of them to leave, muttering angrily about not being paid. It wasn’t fair, or right, having a fire brigade that was privately ran. No fires, no pay. Or rather, no money from the burning house, no pay. That broke them, and more and more streamed away, leaving just the leader, who took one last look at us, snorted, and stalked off.

Kallisto laughed, punching me in the arm, causing me to stumble over from the force.

"That’s how you do it! Alright, let’s go drop you off at the Argo. Assuming Artemis hasn’t burned it down in her boredom. Then I gotta get to the baths – I’m late for my first appointment!"

"What, you didn’t get an appointment with the lady here?" I shot back.

He laughed.

"That’s next week."

I facepalmed. I’d asked, I suppose. Kallisto was incorrigible.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 15]

[Mana: 3854/14290]

[Mana Regen: 18655]

Stats

[Free Stats: 18]

[Strength: 102]

[Dexterity: 220]

[Vitality: 135]

[Speed: 220]

[Mana: 1429]

[Mana Regeneration: 2171]

[Magic Power: 1244]

[Magic Control: 1867]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 183]]

[Celestial Affinity: 183]

[Warmth of the Sun: 148]

[Medicine: 183]

[Center of the Galaxy: 140]

[Phases of the Moon: 183]

[Moonlight: 67]

[Veil of the Aurora: 118]

[Vastness of the Stars: 132]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 46]]

[Fire Affinity: 46]

[Fire Resistance: 46]

[Fire Conjuration: 46]

[Fire Manipulation: 46]

[Fuel for the Fire: 46]

[Burn Brightly: 35]

[: ]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 88]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 91]

[Pretty: 105]

[Vigilant: 120]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 160]

[Ranger's Lore: 111]

[Running: 91]

[Learning: 130]

Chapter 92– Libraries and babies

Winter was here, and it wasn’t that bad. The environment was more conducive to massive squalls and storms, and I had a grand time jumping around in the rain, letting the wind blow, feeling the might and power of the storm. Laughing at the rain, jumping in puddles. Being a kid, free from the weight of saving, healing, fighting.

Killing.

We’d made it more to the north-western edge of Remus, and the next stop after this town was hopping on a boat, and taking a nice long trip on the Nostrum Sea, to be dropped off near the capital, and Ranger HQ, to finish our round. It was looking like we’d finish a bit early, which translated into tons of extra vacation time. Extra vacation time translated into more time to heal people, which in practice meant more time to acquire money, and spent it on mangos, which should be flowing once again now that Perinthus wasn’t under quarantine.

At the same time, getting to Ranger HQ, and the grand Ranger meet-up that happened every two years, also meant that I’d be leaving the team, and going to Ranger Academy for two years. The long and short of it meant, I was being put through my paces at a furious rate, with everyone, and especially Julius, wanting me to do well once I got there.

The best way to gain experience, and to level up classes and skills, was in a fight. Life and death fights were the best, which I somewhat objected to. My objections didn’t mean too much when Artemis carved out a ring with me in it, and Maximus and Arthur would toss in some low to medium level monster they thought I could handle into it.

It was amazing experience, both for my levels, and general fighting experience. I’d become more amenable to it over time. I was fighting monsters that were preying on humans, that needed to be culled anyways. Always in a team though, but I was starting to throw some gouts of flame here and there, usually when the other Rangers determined the monster was so weak as to not be a threat, when the monster didn’t require 100%.

Fighting in a team, not contributing much to the kill, resulted in miserable experience rates though, especially when I only came in when they felt there wasn’t a threat to life and limb.

Not that much could threaten limbs when I could just restore them.

Not that we got complacent – overestimating yourself, underestimating a monster, was how many, many names got written on the Indomitable‎ Wall.

None of that in a town though! I was paired with Maximus today, and we were raiding the town’s library! Happy day!

Sure, it was useless for leveling up any of my classes, but we made a good team. Maximus wanted to get any and all System-related information he could find – information on classes, skills, levels, abilities, elements, really, anything at all – and I just wanted to read, mostly fun or interesting stories.

Turns out, there was a good amount of overlap between the two! Interesting stories usually had great skill descriptions, and information about amazing classes tended to have cool stories attached to them.

We split the library more or less in half, and skimmed through books. If we found a scroll we thought the other person would like, we made sure to grab it for them. Naturally, we picked up cool stuff for ourselves.

I dumped six scrolls onto the table where Maximus was sitting, carefully reading through the record he was looking at, taking notes on his own scroll. Without lifting his head, he pointed at a scroll a bit apart from the rest.

"That one’s the story of Senator Cicero. The politics are somewhat dry, but the historian is well-known for bringing the stories to life. Right up your alley."

I pointed to a scroll, dusty with age.

"I think that one might handle the Fire plus Metal advanced element." I said. "However, it conflicts with itself. It mentioned Mithril, Adamantium, Hihi’irokane, Orichalcum and Electrum as elements, and mentioning there’s more. I have no idea what to make of it."

Maximus, for once, dropped what he was reading and with a strange mix of eager and reverential, seized the scroll. Like the most religious sacrament, he opened it up, starting to scan the contents. A frown quickly went over his face.

"You’re right, this is a bizarre account. It seems to say that there’s dozens of elements for the Fire + Metal combination, each one some type of metal with magical properties. Like they have inscriptions or skills in them by default."

It sounded interesting, but I didn’t see myself going down the magic metal route. I’d never seen or heard of them before this, and I doubted I’d be able to do anything relating to it. I was deep into the account of Senator Cicero. I had to give it to the historian who wrote this – he could make dry, dusty politics the most exciting thing I’d read all year. Not exactly a high bar to clear, being on the road so often, but a girl couldn’t be choosey.

We spent some companionable hours reading, swapping scrolls and analysis. Mostly discussing skills. I’d think a skill was cool, or get an idea for a skill, and Maximus and I would try to work out, with our combined knowledge, if it was possible, and how such a skill could work.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Learning] has reached level 141!]

Solid level for a day’s work in a non-combat setting. Even better because it was fun!

We wrapped the day up, and the next day, I woke up, expecting more of the same. Nope!

"Elaine, I figure today you could use a minor dose of humility." Maximus started out by saying.

I looked at him outside of the Argo, me still inside of it. I thought about what Maximus’s idea of ‘a minor dose of humility’ probably looked like.

I closed the door. Bolted it shut.

A few minutes of banging and yelling on the door later, I relented.

"Alright, fine, do you worst."

We stopped outside of a clinic, the picture of a baby making it clear that this was a healer specializing in childbirth, a midwife. Had to get inventive when people couldn’t read or write!

"I’m going to give them a story. Try not to mention you’re a Ranger, it’ll just get everyone walking on glass around you, which defeats the point of this." Maximus instructed me.

I mutely nodded, pushing down the urge to proclaim and feel like I was the best healer ever. Maximus had clearly been thinking about this, and skills were skills. Mine were, as skills went, extremely broad, and I had a mountain of stats behind my healing skills. However, I had a sneaking suspicion that Maximus was trying to show me something, and after having eaten crow over the plague in Perinthus being transmitted via eye-contact, being magical, I was keeping my mouth well shut, until whatever lesson Maximus wanted to teach me was imparted.

"Hello." Maximus said, walking in.

The woman welcoming people in looked quickly between Maximus and I, and blessedly decided to not make any assumptions.

"What can we do for you two?" She asked.

"My apprentice here has a, shall we say, strange experience set, mostly handling injuries and disease. Hoping that she could work with someone, preferably lower-level than her, and get some exposure to childbirth." Maximus said.

The lady looked between us, clearly having used [Identify], then told us. "Wait here one moment. Let me get the healer."

She popped into a back room, bringing out an older, thinner lady. She looked between us, before lasering in on me.

"You’d like to get some experience with childbirth?" She asked.

I nodded.

"Why?"

Maximus smoothly stepped in.

"She’s incredibly good with injuries and disease, in all manner of high stress situations. I’m concerned that she’s starting to think she can do it all, and childbirth is a solid area where her skills don’t apply that well."

She looked at me, scanning up and down.

"160 coins." She said. "That’s the price for the lesson."

I didn’t even bother looking at Maximus as I counted out the coins from my pouch.

"Alright, come on. You, stay here." She pointed at Maximus, who took a seat in one of the recliners in the lobby.

She strode down the hallway, with me keeping up the best I could. This was a healer who was clearly specialized in childbirth, something mom had wanted me to become when she found out I was a Light healer. Our first big argument, my first major act of rebellion all those years ago, had been taking [Light of Hope] instead of a midwife class like mom had wanted. This was again like looking at a branch in the tree that "might’ve been", a person, a life, I might’ve enjoyed.

Or not enjoyed, depending. Too many what-ifs off of that.

"Breakdown of your healing skills." She asked.

"Pain management, of the ‘don’t care’ variety, medium healing and calming aura, full restoration and disease destruction skill."

She stopped, turned around, and looked at me.

"You have a Restoration variant with an anti-disease skill in the same skill?"

I nodded. She raised an eyebrow.

"What kind of power and control do you have behind that?"

I hesitated a moment, not sure if I wanted to say. I relented, and told her.

"18,000 control, 13,000 power."

I got a whistle at that.

"How have I not heard of you before? And those stats at your level don’t quite make sense." She asked pointedly.

"Errr…." I said awkwardly, not wanting to mention I was a Ranger, nor go too deep into [Oath].

"Anyways, I can see why the person with you – I don’t believe he’s your master, not with your skills and stats – wanted you to come here. Wait here." She said, pointing to a small resting area. "I’ll come get you when something interesting shows up."

Blah. Waiting.

And waiting.

And waiting.

And…

She came back, and found me being silly, playing with fire. I’d made a fancy stage, and I had little flame actors running around, trying to mimic Romeo and Juliet. What? I was really bored, and it was good practice.

I got a raised eyebrow.

"Alright, come on. We’ve got something interesting."

I followed her through the clinic, getting to another room, a woman clearly in labor, a second healer next to her.

This healer was much younger, just a year or two older than I was, with sandy blonde hair.

"Report." The older healer snapped out. The younger healer jumped up.

"Cord’s wrapped three times, water’s broken, fully dilated, breeched." She rattled off.

"What’ll happen if we do nothing?" She asked. I suspected it was for my benefit.

"Death for both." Sandy – my nickname for the younger healer – replied.

The older healer turned towards me.

"Your solution?" She asked.

I tapped my knife.

"Numb pain, slice in carefully, pull baby out, cut the cord, restore mom and baby back." I said, after thinking about it for a few minutes.

I got a raised eyebrow at that.

"Your solution?" She asked Sandy.

"Turn everything around, and it should be easy going from there."

She nodded.

"Do it. Show Elaine here how it works."

I used [Identify] on Sandy.

[Healer], around level 110.

"[Turn]." Sandy said, her hands grabbing the air and moving.

"[Turn]. [Turn]. [Turn]." She repeated.

"And [Out]."

The senior healer cursed, and jumped into position, just in time to catch the baby. Sandy half-collapsed in a chair, exhausted and worn out by her use of skills. I stood back as a flurry of action resulted, mom, baby, and healer doing dozens of things I was entirely unfamiliar with.

After almost an hour of standing in the corner, out of the way, not able to really help or do anything, the senior healer had a moment to chat with me.

"I hope that helped." She said.

I slowly nodded, processing. I was politely but unceremoniously shown the door, and I slowly walked back with Maximus, deep in thought.

"What did you learn?" He asked. He’d also make a good teacher, maybe an instructor at the Academy.

"Well, bringing life to the world is a joy." I started off slowly, stating the obvious. I’d gotten the rush from saving a life many times over, and it never got old. Bringing new life into the world though, was an entirely different story. It was a similar rush, a thing of beauty, but, different, in many ways.

"Also, someone lower level than me, with a tenth of my stats, even someone in my domain, healing, with the right skills, can massively outperform me." I said.

Maximus nodded.

"That’s exactly the lesson I wanted you to learn." He said. "Your skillset is broad, and powerful. It’s what we look for in a Ranger. Never forget though, the more narrow a skillset, the more powerful it is in the right situation. The healer you worked with, she probably can’t set a bone, cure an illness, restore an eye, or a hundred other things you can do. However, in the right spot, she’s more powerful than you are, at a much lower level."

He paused a moment, letting me process what he just said.

"This also applied to combat. Generally, people who are focused in a single, tiny aspect of combat get themselves killed early. They have a single, strong trick, and the moment the trick’s defeated, they’re helpless or worthless. Wind Weasels are a solid example of a monster doing this. Their claws are sharp, and if they can claw someone in the right way, they can punch through defenses of people many times their level, when an ordinary monster would do nothing. However, outside of that single trick, they’re practically helpless. A kid, who hasn’t even unlocked their class, can simply kick them to death. Not generally a threat to people. Extremely narrow focus, but powerful inside of that focus. The broader you are, the more fields you’re invested in, the worse you are in each field, but the more flexible you are."

Maximus shrugged.

"It’s part of why I research skills, research the System. I want to know about all sorts of skills, narrow applications. How far can you go? If instead of one domain, you’re in two, are you half as strong? A quarter? Or are you only nine-tenths as strong? At which point, it’s probably worth being in two domains, not one. What about a third? At what stage is it worth branching out? At what point do you call it quits?"

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Learning] has reached level 142!]

I seized the moment.

"You should work with Artemis. She’s thinking of making a school to teach magic. You could test your theories on young students, see what happens."

Maximus seemed to mull it over.

"It’d be in the capital. Dozens of libraries, hundreds of thousands of people, millions of skills, you’d never be bored."

I had no idea if Artemis was interested in teaming up with Maximus over this, but hey, it couldn’t hurt.

Maximus looked at me thoughtfully, and we continued to walk to the Argo, in silent contemplation.

Chapter 93– A Dozen Different Methods of Death

Spring was here, spring was here! Life was skittles, and life was beer. The most wonderful thing about the late spring, though, was birthday time! Woohoo!

We were just about done with our round of Remus, and the Argo, along with the rest of us, was on a merchant boat, heading towards the capital. We’d hit all the towns we needed to, and going overland back to the capital would take too long. A nice, leisurely trip on the boat was just what the healer ordered, and was some solid winding-down time for everyone.

Heck, even the monsters didn’t bother us, but then again, there were virtually no monsters within shore-view of the Nostrum Sea. Most sailors swore up and down that there was something deeper in, and there were no ships that tried to directly cross the sea.

Not my problem! Being on the ship was boring, that was my problem. People we assumed were pirates sailed close to us at one point, saw the Ranger banner we had displayed, and kept right on sailing. We had fun throwing taunts after them.

I was straight-up banned from using any sort of Fire magic, short of the sails catching fire or something equally catastrophic. Which kinda sucked, because I was a level 59 [Pyromancer], and I was eager to see what my next mage skill would be.

I spent some time running up and down the length of the ship, until someone important-ish – I never got his name – yelled at me, and I went back to the Argo, for some more lessons. Work on the medicine manuscript I’d been writing, taking Markus’s suggestion to heart. I was down to polishing and editing it. Bah, editing. The bane of all writing. It made it better, but it was so boring, so tedious. So painful. I believed it would do the world some good, if only I could get some good PR on it. After some time I might leave and spar with someone – usually Artemis, usually without skills – have a meal, rinse, repeat.

I was in the Argo, lying on my back, feeling everything tilt one way… then the next. One way… then the next, gently rocked by waves. I threw a ball up and enjoyed watching it curve in interesting directions before coming back down. Caught it, repeated. Caught it, and –

We came to a jarring halt, causing me to roll over, ball hitting me on the head. I didn’t care – LAND!

I was off like a shot, out the rear of the Argo, around the front, there was the dock, pump the legs, go, go, go, get ready to jump, kiss the ground and-

Julius grabbed me.

"Elaine, perfect! Can you harness the horses to the wagon please?"

Drat.

I nodded, Julius dropped me, and I trudged off to harness the horses, not quite being able to trade my sea legs for land legs yet.

A few hours later, I wished it was that easy to trade sea legs for land legs, as I bow-leggedly tried to run. Something about "struggling through adversity" or some nonsense.

"It’s funny to watch Elaine stumble around and make bets on it" was more what I thought was going on, with the sound of laughter and coins changing hands behind me.

"Why isn’t anyone else being made to run?" I asked, holding onto a tree for dear life.

"Because the rest of us know how to handle ourselves on dry land, and aren’t nearly so entertaining." Maximus cheerfully retorted.

A few days later, a week away from the capital, I woke up in the Argo as usual, and bounced out of bed.

Birthday! Woohoo!

It was still dark, and Arthur and Maximus were still on night shift as I practically exploded out of the Argo. I had too much energy, and I burned it off running, jumping, cartwheeling, and generally making an early-morning nuisance out of myself.

Wasn’t every day a girl turned 16 after all.

I ducked, dodged, and generally blocked debris thrown at me from an annoyed Julius and Artemis, who were still trying to sleep. I only calmed down somewhat when Arthur pulled out a vial of something, and just held it up ominously.

Ok, ok, hint taken. I didn’t want to find out what that was. I wanted to enjoy my birthday, not spend it in the woods losing my lunch.

After way too long, everyone was up, the horses were fed, and breakfast was had.

"Happy birthday Elaine!" Artemis said. "You remembered this year!"

I stuck my tongue out at her.

"Ha! Anyways, here’s our gift to you." She said, pulling out a package.

I carefully peeled into it, a luxurious black tunic showing up.

"It’s a bit big right now." Julius said, as I turned it over, looking at it. "I took a brief run to the capital to get it made and had one of the highest level [Seamstress]es I knew work on it. One of her skills is a solid estimate of what size it needs to be in the future. The other? You can imbue it with your skills, and it’ll reflect them."

I tilted my head, puzzled.

"It’ll throw off harmless flames." Artemis said. "I have a similar tunic, throws off little lightning bolts. Great fun at parties!"

Ooooh nice.

We spent about another hour celebrating, then we were back on the road, tunic carefully tucked away in my chest.

I looked at my twoish years worth of loot. There wasn’t much. A full set of armor. Arcanite earrings, which had gotten more tiny stones embedded in them as I asked more [Jeweler]’s to improve them over time, a massive reservoir of mana for me in an emergency. My medicine manuscript, the original. I planned on getting it copied a dozen times over by some [Scribe]s once we reached the capital, then giving some copies to Markus, other healers, and honestly, anyone and anywhere I thought would be useful. The new woman’s tunic I’d just gotten, which on Earth would probably be described as a dress. A few trinkets, little mementos from some of the places I’d been.

I’d be in Ariminum for some time. I hope I could add some letters from my parents to the pile. How were they? I hope they were doing ok. It was easy to send letters to them. It was hard to get letters back, as I was constantly moving.

What I thought was an absurd amount of money. Julius had pulled me aside one day and mentioned I wasn’t even making a tenth of what I could be making in the capital, or most other towns, if I settled down and charged appropriately.

"I still choose to be a Ranger." Was my response, which got a brilliant, beaming smile out of him. I did appreciate the candor; how honest and upfront he was about my situation. It’d sour our relationship if he’d tried to hide it, if he was anything less than totally honest with me.

I tried to repay his honesty with honesty of my own, and working my ass off, to make them all proud of me.

Notice I didn’t mention other tunics. That was because I’d ceased to think of them as "mine", and they were more "what’s getting destroyed this week in training." It wasn’t like I didn’t try to wash the blood out and stitch them back together. There was a point where it no longer mattered, where it was easier to chuck them and buy another set. For some reason, [Ranger’s Lore] didn’t help with stitching up tunics or washing blood out of them, which I thought was patently unfair.

After the party, Artemis had an announcement to make.

"Today’s a happy day. I don’t want to overshadow Elaine’s birthday, but I don’t want to have this come as a last second surprise."

We all looked at her, with bated breath.

"I’m announcing that this is my last round as a Ranger. Teaching Elaine has been a great joy, and she’s been whispering about founding a school to teach magic to people of all ages. I’ve got years of pay socked away; I’m going to give it a shot. Gives me time to see old friends, make new friends."

"Even better," Julius said, riding the momentum. "We beat the odds! More than half of us survived!"

That got a grand cheer from us. Hurray to surviving! Hurray to beating the odds!

Well, that had the party extended, and we made it an even bigger party. A Ranger, retiring alive? Practically unheard of. A creature out of myth and legend.

Late afternoon, as we were happily moving along the home stretch, Arthur and Julius had a furious whisper session.

I was as curious as a cat, so I poked my head over.

"What’s up?" I asked.

"Well…" Julius said, uncharacteristic hesitation on his face. "Do you want to find out now, or tomorrow?"

Well, when he put it like that, there was no way I’d say "tomorrow".

"Now please!" I said eagerly.

Julius licked his lips nervously.

"As you know, how you became a Ranger was, shall we say, unconventional."

I nodded, none of this being new.

"Once we get to the capital, you’re going to be recommended for Ranger Academy, and go through their training. Complete the training, and you’ll be properly ratified as a Ranger." He said.

I slowly nodded, not sure where this was going. Arthur interrupted.

"What Julius isn’t saying, is it’s his skin on the line if you fail out. Not because of a failed recommendation to Ranger Academy – because of the field promotion, followed by failure. They could strip him of his leadership role at best, kick him out entirely at worst."

I blinked, taken aback. Julius looked pissed.

"I was hoping she’d go into it low-pressure." He said.

Arthur shrugged. "Better that she know. Might help her hang on when it gets tough."

"Anyways, the long and the short of it is, you’ll be expected to handle monsters of all types on your own, even as a healer. Part of, I suspect, why we just don’t have healers. Most can’t hold their own against even the weakest monster." Julius said. "Arthur’s found a small enclave of goblins, and I was thinking to send you in there alone to take them out. Think of it as a sort of capstone to the round, proof of how far you’ve come, and a pre-entrance exam to the academy, all rolled into one."

I slowly nodded. Made sense, with Julius putting his livelihood on the line for me. It wasn’t ideal, but goblins so close to a major population? Unlikely they could cause problems for the city, but there’d be some travelers they could waylay, and the heart of Remus, where we were in, where the capital was, had more lax restrictions on buildings. Nothing big and scary, apart from the monsters in the sky, made it this far in, and even then, there were enough powerful humans, [Ranger]s, [Mage]s, and more, that could shoot them down, let them know that "this area was off-limits."

"How many?" I asked, getting my game-face on.

Julius and Arthur glanced at each other.

"10." Arthur finally said. Julius raised an eyebrow at that.

"Fine, fine." Julius said, raising his arms in surrender. "We should get settled in for the night, puts us closer to the goblins for you tomorrow."

We did just that. Artemis and I were treated like the richest Senators, practically paraded around as we celebrated again. No need to worry about our food stores at this stage! We were on a fairly busy road, one of the main arteries of the Republic, and got a number of looks at the party we were throwing.

We politely declined some people who asked to join us. This was by Rangers, for Rangers.

I had the sense that tomorrow, it was back to chores for me, and Artemis would practically be carted back to the capital.

We got up the next morning, butterflies in my stomach. I slowly, carefully prepared myself in the morning. Hearty meal. Lots of water. Fresh, new tunic.

Maximus had adjusted my armor again. Laminar vest. Vambraces. Leather-and-metal skirt. Greaves-that-were-more-like-shin guards. Helmet.

Knife. Sword. Those were standard I could wear them, so why not. Spear. Shield. I was going to fight, to kill, not just as support. Swords were side-arms, flexible weapons for a dozen situations. Spears were the main weapons of war, of the cold calculus of death. They were no good in a cramped space, but if I could get some goblins out in the open? There was no better tool.

Goblins were weak enough that even with my low strength, my low physical stats, I could reasonably fight them. They probably had more physical stats than I did, but I was also sitting on a mountain of magical stats, which were my main weapons. The spear, the shield, and the rest were just a bonus, equipment making up any gaps in physical stats.

Killing with a spear took no mana.

Arthur and Artemis took me to where he’d spotted the goblins, Arthur in his usual scouting outfit – light armor – and Artemis in a red tunic, with just a short sword with her. I raised an eyebrow at her over that. She snorted at me.

"What? No monster in this part of Remus can hurt me. Classers can, and there’s more than enough of them in Ariminum, but not monsters."

We snuck through the forest, birds singing, crows cawing, bushes rustling as various animals were startled by our passing. Lucky rabbit, we’re not hunting you today.

We arrived at the top of a hill, and Arthur pointed down. In a little clearing, in a depression in the forest, were a few goblins lazing about, one poking at a cooking pot of some sort. Arthur vanished, Artemis looked at me and nodded.

Here goes.

Goblins were fucking sentient, and it was a miserable day I discovered that. It meant I couldn’t just ambush and pick them off one at a time, they needed to attack me first. [Oath] wouldn’t let me initiate an attack. However, it didn’t mean I needed to be dumb about it. There was no way I’d just walk into their camp, and have a 10 vs 1 start. Good way to end up with Elaine in the cooking pot! Or worse.

I snuck around, trying to find some isolated goblins on sentry duty. Like they had the discipline to post sentries. Nah, more likely to find one returning from a hunt or something.

I carefully moved through the brush, not wanting to be visible to the main goblin "camp."

I spotted a goblin, crouched over some plant or another. A mushroom? Whatever. I crouched down, and gently extending my spear, tapped him on the shoulder, immediately bracing myself.

I’d only gotten a little less than two years practice fighting, from the very first day Artemis taught me how to stand properly, how to fall properly, all the way how to carry and use a spear. With my build, with the time spent drilling versus other Ranger activities, by all reason, I shouldn’t be that good with a spear, with weapons, with fighting.

That’s where I got my most mileage out of [Ranger’s Lore]. It, quite frankly, helped me fight. Gave me instincts. Helped me moved, guided my hand. The massive passive mana consumption it had, along with the level I’d gotten it to, finally made it good enough to use in a fight. Not as good as a dedicated skill to it, like [Fighting], but it was still strong.

But man, skills were weird. It basically translated to "learning about the judicial system in Remus and Ranger’s place in it also improved my ability to fight". Which, by my old-Earth logic, made no sense.

By Pallos-logic, nothing was more natural.

The goblin jumped, turned, had a choice. Walk away, and I’d be helpless to stop him. Run to his camp, get his goblin buddies, attack as a group – nothing I could do there. Maybe be smart about it and retreat.

Be an utter moron, and charge the warrior who was braced with a spear at the ready.

Nobody gave goblins high marks for intelligence.

First method of death. Ran through the chest with a spear. Simple. Elegant. Bloody. Distant.

Not fast. The goblin clawed at me, trying to get to me, screaming at me, until his dying breath. My shield stopped that from being anything close to a problem, but hearing the slowly weakening fists on the shield made me shudder.

[*Ding!* You have slain a [Goblin Forager] (Wood, lv 87)]

I reminded myself that I didn’t make him attack me. That if he was willing to attack a kitted "warrior" at the drop of a hat, he’d do the same to travelers.

To kids.

I had time. I carefully wiped the blood off the spear, wandered around to try and pick off any more goblins.

I was circling around, when I heard a guttural yell from my left. I started to whirl, keeping my spear close, my shield up, before realizing there was a bloody tree in the way of my spear.

Without a moment of hesitation, I dropped my spear, drawing the knife at my hip, as two goblins burst out, charging at me, practically on top of me.

I planted my shield down, as they were too close to do much else, one of them hitting the shield hard.

It was completely unneeded, but I took a deep breath in, then explosively breathed out, summoning flames as I did so, pumping their heat up as high as I could go with [Fire Manipulation] and [Burn Brightly]. Hey, I could pretend to be a dragon, right? The flames bathed the second goblin, causing him to yell in pain, rolling on the forest floor. I hopped back, unable to finish the goblin right now, unwilling to be any closer to a creature trying to kill me than I needed to be.

The first goblin got around the shield, the shield having done its job to buy me critical seconds to deal with the second goblin, and was on me a moment later, tiny dagger in his hands, stabbing at me, trying to reach my face, my eyes. I stabbed back, just as hard, us falling to the ground in a vicious, stabbing, bloody, rolling mess.

He ended up on top of me, knife in my face, as I got a notification.

[*Ding!* You have slain a [Goblin skulker] (Water, lv 83)]

Second method of death. A brutal knife fight. I couldn’t tell exactly which wound had done him in, or the combination. With a squelch, I extracted my hand – and knife – from his guts, and stood up.

I peeled the dagger out of my face, using [Phases of the Moon] as I did so, imagining the flesh, tendons, blood and muscle being fixed and restored as I did so. It came out, and I threw it off to the side with a disgusted clatter. The blow hadn’t been worth using [Veil] to shield, as it was cheaper to heal the injury, than to block it.

I didn’t want to think where, exactly, that knife had been. A surgeon would physically throw anyone out of the hospital who’d offered it to her for surgery.

I walked over to the second goblin, lying down, still. I hadn’t gotten a notification yet, but he looked out of it. Did I need to heal him? He was no longer a threat. He…

[*Ding!* You have slain a [Goblin rogue] (Dark, lv 84)]

The System blessedly fixed my musings.

Third method of death. Technically, heart failure. The burns all over his body caused blood and other vital fluids to leak away, causing a fatal drop in blood pressure. The cardiovascular system couldn’t keep up, desperately trying to pump nothing, coming to a stop. Was it a lack of air to the brain? When is a creature truly dead?

Right now, it didn’t matter.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Pyromancer] has leveled up to level 60! +5 Free Stats, +14 Mana, +8 Mana Regen, +14 Magic power, +8 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Strength from your Element!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Affinity] has reached level 60!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Conjuration] has reached level 60!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Manipulation] has reached level 60!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fire Resistance] has reached level 60!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Fuel for the Fire] has reached level 60!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Burn Brightly] has reached level 60!]

[*Ding!* For reaching level 60, you’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Rapidash]!]

[Upgrade [Running] to [Rapidash]? Y/N]

Rapidash: Move as fast as wildfire, run as quickly as a blaze. Increased speed per level.

I hesitated a moment, then took the skill, watching my [Running] vanish, to be replaced by a level 60 [Rapidash]. Perfect. Free general skill slot to boot. I’d need to work with Artemis to see what I could take for that new, open slot.

I wiped my knife clean and sheathed it. I spent a moment practicing with [Rapidash], running back and forth, enjoying my explosive speed at times.

I’d need a lot more work with the skill, a lot more practice. Right now, I didn’t have the time or the mana for it, and I was leaving little burning trails behind me. In a forest.

I’d be so doomed if I started a forest fire here. Execution was exceedingly rare as a punishment. In the entire round, with all the criminals we’d dealt with, with all the murders we’d handled, there was a single case where Julius had determined execution was the right punishment, ignoring Classers that couldn’t be captured, only put down. The corrupt officer from the 3rd who’d let a bunch of potential plague-carriers out of the town. The army had different rules to boot. But if, somehow, I managed to start a forest fire big enough to burn down the capital, I’m sure I’d face the executioner’s axe.

Which generally took the form of being thrown into the arena, and monsters and gladiators being sent at you until you died. Might as well get some coin and entertainment out of criminals. Better than sticking them on a cross outside of town, and potentially luring monsters closer, teaching them that humans were on the menu.

All the noise from the fight, and from my testing my new skill, had the goblins charge up to me. [Vigilant] gave me a moment of heads up. Instead of immediately charging at me, they used some skills, some tactics, to start slowly circling me. The two dead goblins at my feet made them wary.

I drew my short sword. I had no time to try and find my spear; nor pick it up even if I knew where it was. They’d pounce at that weakness.

They slowly circled me as I twisted and turned, not quite sure the best way to handle this. I knew I didn’t want to give them more time to get into position, otherwise I’d just start eating attacks from behind, eventually getting overwhelmed and killed – or worse.

If they weren’t going to come to me, I’d go to them. With a roar, I burst forward at a goblin with [Rapidash], keeping my shield solidly in front of me, activating the inscriptions Origen had left in my armor. The decaying inscriptions, which probably only had one or two uses, or months, left in them. I’d wanted to keep them as a memento, but there was no point if I was dead.

Ramming the goblin with my shield worked far too well, and I didn’t even need to stab with my knife as the goblin’s head stayed put while the rest of him moved, and I got a notification.

[*Ding!* You have slain a [Goblin Chef] (Fire, lv 91)]

Fourth method of death: Skill-empowered shield rush, resulting in a broken neck.

However, that was not a sustainable method. I felt my arm, my shoulder, my clavicle, go snap, crackle, pop in the most disconcerting way, my arm and shield slumping, no longer responding to my commands properly. I wasn’t a physical fighter, I didn’t have the vitality to be running around the field, smashing into goblins. I was being turned into paste, just like they were.

My money on a paste-contest was the goblins winning.

There were two goblins near the [Goblin Chef] that I’d just battered, and they swiped out at me, one stabbing with a rusty blade, the other slashing with a knife. The stab would be nasty to heal. The slash would end up light.

I threw up a small [Veil], hopefully too small for the goblins to see what had stopped it, large enough to cover the blow, over the rusty blade heading towards me. I threw my arm in the way of the knife, working on deflecting it like I’d trained with Julius, letting it clatter over my vambrace, pushing me slightly off-balance.

I was out of the circle though, and I fled even further with [Rapidash], getting more distance on them. I quickly focused on my broken bones, healing myself with [Phases of the Moon]. I checked my mana.

10598/16760

Plenty of mana left.

I was a mage, not a fighter. Magic stats, not physical. My blades were my last resort, my desperation in-close, not my first move. It had been right to kill the first goblin with the spear – it was easy enough. The second time I was in single combat, it had been wrong to tussle with blades. I wasn’t a close-in fighter, I shouldn’t be letting monsters fight their way. It was a miracle I’d survived that.

I wasn’t making that mistake again.

[Vigilant] was basically useless, since it was constantly alerting me to monsters, but I paid attention to a slightly higher spike of alarm, forcing my screaming muscles to lift up my shield as a crude arrow came in, clattering harmlessly on the shield.

Fine. Extra complications.

The goblins weren’t for tactics anymore, as they rushed over to me, screaming warcries. I really, really hoped Arthur had properly scouted the area, and I wasn’t going to get flooded by more surprise goblins.

It’d be just like him to do something like that, add a few extra goblins to the mix to make it hard, keep me on my toes.

Charging like they were made it a bit easier on me. I threw out a thin, condensed jet of flames, as hot as I could, at the lead goblin’s head and chest. I then threw myself backwards without looking, [Rapidash] working in both directions, and repeating myself twice more, putting so much force, so much heat and mana, behind each jet of flames, spending a few seconds channeling each time, that they just burned and charred their way through the goblins entirely.

No stopping power my ass. Just needed more firepower, that’s all.

Fifth method of death: Torso and head removed by a massive gout of flames.

Sixth method of death: No heart or lungs, removed by a jet of fire.

Seventh method of death: Throat and carotid artery sliced finely, cauterized, burned out, by a thin whip of condensed fire, so close to plasma.

Each kill faster. Each kill more efficient. A small, distant part of me was screaming that I was becoming an efficient killer, that I was a healer, and what was I doing!? I ruthlessly squashed that part of me. Right now, it was me or them. They could walk away. They weren’t.

On the third jump backwards, I rammed into a tree, dazing myself, causing me to fall forward, slump to the ground.

I came to a few moments later, feeling grimy goblin hands feeling me, a goblin standing on me, tearing at my armor. Goblin teeth in my thigh.

I screamed, and unleashed chaotic flames in every direction, wildly stabbing around me with the sword still in my hand. Three notifications later, stopped, only to realize my clothes, the tunic under my armor, the little leather straps keeping my armor together, were on fire, that I’d melted some of the little metal rivets, and they were melting into my skin, burning into my flesh.

[Fire Resistance] didn’t extend to my own clothes. Nor did it work on heated metal pressed into me, branding me.

I would’ve stopped, dropped, and rolled, if I hadn’t already completed the first two steps. I rolled, putting some physical effort into extinguishing the flames, before seizing them and extinguishing them with [Fire Manipulation].

The metal was harder, but was cooling off. I only kept my head thanks to [Center of the Galaxy], but I hit myself with [Vastness of the Stars] to shore it up. I then took my knife, and carefully sliced into myself, gouging out the cooling metal, healing myself with [Phases].

That didn’t quite get everything, and I drew in mana from my earrings, and did a poorly-imaged, full-body [Phases of the Moon] on myself, bringing my back to fully healed. Thankfully, the goblin archer had decided to approach me when I brained myself, preventing a game of cat-and-mouse.

Eighth method of death: Multiple stab wounds from a short sword.

Ninth method of death: Tried to substitute air with fire.

Tenth method of death: Burning.

My outfit was basically completely destroyed, to the point where I’m not sure Maximus could even fix it. There was basically nothing leather left, all the tiny straps burnt away. I was no blacksmith, but I suspected there was some fancy metal-ness going on with the armor, stuff that had been completely destroyed by heating and cooling it down. It’s why I’d been told not to bother with making flaming swords and spears, it just did something to ruin the metal. One point for a mage not wearing armor – they didn’t need to deal with it melting into them when they cast their own spell too closely.

Mages wearing armor had gotten thirty something points this fight. At least.

I waited a few minutes for things to cool off enough for me to carry them back, gathered them up, and looked around, spotting Artemis with her bright splash of red standing on a hill.

Oh. Right. She’d never left; I’d been watched over the entire time. Nerves of steel from her to let the goblins literally climb on me without interfering.

Then I saw him. An 11th goblin. A clever, sneaky, quiet goblin.

One that had been taking a nap, high up in a tree. One with a long, mean butcher’s knife. One right above Artemis, who silently, stealthily let go of his branch, falling to Artemis’s head.

I was nowhere close; I couldn’t do anything. It didn’t stop me from screaming out, from trying to throw a [Veil of the Aurora] as far as I could, hoping against hope that it’d reach, that it’d block the silent, lethal blow from above.

Eleventh method of death: Decapitation.

I was nowhere near powerful enough to heal an injury like that; heck, calling it an injury would be a massive understatement. Decapitation was more than a lethal wound, and I wasn’t in range for [Moonlight], even if there was a moon out. The [Veil of the Aurora] didn’t reach; didn’t come close.

A massive crack split the air, a pillar of lightning erupted, blinding me, deafening me.

Twelfth method of death: A massive lightning bolt, striking three times.

Alternatively: Getting too close to a twitchy Artemis.

I practically cried as I ran up the hill, stumbling, falling at times as I tried to blink the flash out of my eyes, as my ears bled. I dropped my armor when I got close, giving her a huge hug, crying into her tunic.

"There, there healy-bug." Artemis said, consoling me. "I’m ok. I’m fine. I’m a cut above the rest."

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 16]

[Mana: 30/16760]

[Mana Regen: 20363]

Stats

[Free Stats: 138]

[Strength: 116]

[Dexterity: 218]

[Vitality: 135]

[Speed: 220]

[Mana: 1676]

[Mana Regeneration: 2343]

[Magic Power: 1466]

[Magic Control: 2009]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 186]]

[Celestial Affinity: 186]

[Warmth of the Sun: 158]

[Medicine: 184]

[Center of the Galaxy: 158]

[Phases of the Moon: 186]

[Moonlight: 104]

[Veil of the Aurora: 145]

[Vastness of the Stars: 135]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 60]]

[Fire Affinity: 60]

[Fire Resistance: 60]

[Fire Conjuration: 60]

[Fire Manipulation: 60]

[Fuel for the Fire: 60]

[Burn Brightly: 60]

[Rapidash: 60]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 96]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 111]

[Pretty: 120]

[Vigilant: 130]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 167]

[Ranger's Lore: 129]

[: ]

[Learning: 148]

Chapter 94– Entering Ariminum, The Capital

Artemis and I slowly made our way back to the Argo, and when we got close enough, Artemis had me pause.

"Should probably throw up [Veil] for a minute while I grab some spare tunics." Artemis said.

I looked down, at the clumps of armor and weapons held against me, sandals and helmet being the only properly placed items.

"Yeah, that’s a good idea."

I threw up [Veil] for a minute while Artemis made a quick trip to and from the Argo, coming back with a tunic. I quickly got into it, and we made our way back, climbing into the Argo to a pair of raised eyebrows.

"Um." Julius coughed. "Normally I can tell how a strike went by how people come back, but I have no idea this time."

"10/11." Artemis said. "She missed the assassin one, got the rest of them. Last three were an ugly mess, I almost needed to step in to help with them. On that note, Elaine, want to share your good news?"

It took me a moment to realize what Artemis was saying.

"Right! I got a new skill – [Rapidash]! Movement skill, evolved off of [Running], and now I have a free general skill slot!"

"Nice, any other levels?"

Right, levels. I should check on that.

Hang on, my [Pyromancer] class had all my skills capped, and with how much I’d practiced each skill without getting levels in the class, I’d just get spammed with notifications that each skill had leveled up as well.

Let me, for now let’s disable skill level up notifications for [Pyromancer] when I got a level. Oh, but let’s make a system notification for when a skill didn’t level instead. Bless the System allowing for customization like this.

Heck, that customization, and some auto-customization, was how people who were illiterate could understand the System in the first place. A combination of verbal cues, or just telling people made it all work.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Pyromancer] has leveled up to level 61! +5 Free Stats, +14 Mana, +8 Mana Regen, +14 Magic power, +8 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Strength from your Element!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Pyromancer] has leveled up to level 62! +5 Free Stats, +14 Mana, +8 Mana Regen, +14 Magic power, +8 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Strength from your Element!]

I felt slightly cheated at that. Only two levels? Really?

I was ignoring the fact that I’d gotten one mid-fight. How was I supposed to rage against the System if I was being reasonable?

At the same time, it was "only" five, six, a real stretch for seven if you included the goblin I’d shield-bashed goblins, that I’d killed using my [Pyromancer] class, and I was more than twice their level as I did it. From that perspective, two levels was more than generous.

I wonder if [Pyromancer] being lower level than the goblins, and it being a many vs one, situation helped as well. System needed to come with a detailed user manual, not all this guesswork.

Blah. No matter how I wanted to whine, a level for every two goblins I’d killed with [Pyromancer] was solid.

That also leaned even more towards "Don’t kill things with weapons if you don’t have to." Lots of potential experience just poofed into the void, although I did get some residual experience.

Maybe that’s why not everyone was walking around with belts of gemstones, blasting away merrily? A massive reduction in experience gained making it worthless to grind with, only good for last-second life-saving measures?

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 187! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Celestial Affinity] has reached level 187!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 187!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Veil of the Aurora] has reached level 146!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Veil of the Aurora] has reached level 147!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Center of the Galaxy] has reached level 159!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Center of the Galaxy] has reached level 160!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Ranger’s Lore] has reached level 130!]

….

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Ranger’s Lore] has reached level 133!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Vigilant] has reached level 131!]

That was more like it!

"A pair of [Pyromancer] levels. A scattering of general and healing levels." I replied. "Nothing fancy."

"Wouldn’t expect it from goblins, although, you were outnumbered."

We settled in, and the horses started to pull the wagon, Arthur on the reins.

"After action report. Elaine, go. Artemis, I want to hear your take on it after."

We both saluted Julius, then I settled down and began.

"I started off not attacking the goblins directly, instead trying to pick off stragglers. This was correct. My [Oath] skill didn’t let me directly attack them, instead I needed to almost literally tap the goblin on the shoulder first."

That line got a facepalm from Julius, and uproarious laughter from Kallisto and Maximus.

Julius looked towards the ceiling, like he was begging the gods, "Why me." I carried on.

"Ran him through with a spear. That was the correct move, as I was able to dispatch him without a problem."

Except to me, the memory of fists banging on my shield, steadily growing weaker.

"His cries didn’t seem to attract the rest of the goblins, and I kept going. Encountered two more goblins. Burnt one, ended up in a knife fight with the second."

I paused a moment, hesitating.

"Shouldn’t have gotten in the knife fight. Should’ve just burned him like I did the other one."

"The rest of the goblins attacked me then. I let them start to encircle me. Shouldn’t have done that. Broke out, stopped trying to fight physically. Kited and burned them well."

"Then I made a potentially lethal mistake, by not looking behind me as I used a new skill. Brained myself on a tree."

I shuddered at that. If I hadn’t recovered so quickly, if Artemis wasn’t on overwatch, I’d be in a very different position. Hopefully eaten.

"I one part panicked, one part had good reflexes as I came to, burned and stabbed the remaining goblins."

I looked down at the marred, strap-less remains of my armor.

"I might have gone a hair overboard." I said with a straight face.

That got another chuckle out of Kallisto.

"You also completely missed the last goblin." Artemis said. "Anyone else, I’d be dead. Always assume your intel is bad – especially if it comes from Arthur!"

She yelled that last part through the open door.

"Hey!" Arthur yelled back, objecting.

"Your verdict?" Julius asked Artemis.

"Well, she’s puny, she’s scrawny, doesn’t scout well, and can barely handle herself in a fight."

I hung my head at that.

"She passes!"

Twin goddess of the moon dammit all. I should’ve known Artemis was winding me up.

"Right, just a few days to the capital, and a new movement skill. It’ll be invaluable during your training, so we’re going to practice it. Elaine, you’re with me. We’re going to run suicide sprints from here to the capital and back until the Argo arrives. Maximus, refit an armor set for Elaine. You never know."

I groaned loudly.

"Arthur, feel free to drive slowly. Artemis needs to have a nice, slow, triumphant return to retirement."

I almost groaned again, then shut up. Julius would just make the Argo go slower each time. We had vacation time we were burning into!

We packed a lunch, then started running, me practicing [Rapidash] in various ways. On one hand, I had some intrinsic familiarity with the skill, since it was an evolution of [Running], which I’d used for years. On the other, it was a brand-new skill, and I needed to learn the quirks of it, the ins and outs.

It rapidly became clear that I didn’t have a good handle on the skill. After a few aborted moves, after one grab too many where Julius had to yank me, stopping me from running into another traveler, we took a break.

"Elaine, what’s your speed, vitality, and magic power?" Julius said, as we stopped by the side of the road.

"220, 135, and 1506." I quickly rattled off.

Julius rubbed his eyes, doing some math.

"Right, you have effectively around 1700 points of stats dedicated towards moving fast, but only 135 vitality. You need at least an eighth of the stats in vitality that you have towards movement."

I tilted my head at him, brushing some hair out of my eyes.

"Vitality is perception. Right now, your movement stats are outstripping your perception by a solid chunk. You need at least…" Julius trailed off, fingers twitching as he did the math. "216 points in vitality to keep up with yourself."

Ah, made sense. There was no one stat that could be used at the expense of the rest – everything was a balance, and I’d managed to unbalance myself by getting a movement skill that worked off of my power, instead of my speed.

"It might also be useful for you at Academy." Julius said cryptically.

I wasn’t going to pry. Academy info was something of a secret, and the fact that Artemis had let slip in Virinum about Academy training methods was something she got penalized for. Apparently, if you knew too much about Academy, you could target specific skills to help you pass Academy, which did not necessarily translate to being a good Ranger. As a result, there was an information blackout on what was useful or helpful, and getting this much from Julius was enough to get him in serious trouble if I let it slip.

I vowed to never let it slip.

100 points into vitality we go! I kept the rest spare, for use at Academy. I never knew when I’d want a particular stat to help me with a particular problem. I didn’t think I’d get in a situation where it mattered, but I was holding off for now. My life wasn’t under threat.

We started running again, and I could suddenly keep up with my movements again.

As crowded as the roads were, with travelers, merchants, pilgrims, and the occasional immigrant looking to shelter under the walls, we were given no hassle. Mostly because we blazed past too fast for anyone to complain, but also because we just looked like a pair of couriers on delivery.

Actual couriers on delivery passed us regularly, some of them giving us shit for how slow we were. One particularly obnoxious courier –

"Ha! Slowpokes! I can’t believe anyone would give you a delivery so important to have two couriers run it! And who ever heard of a Fire-based courier anyways!" He yelled, flipping us the bird as he passed us."

I looked at Julius, who was all sorts of mad-looking.

"Go. I’ll be fine."

I could see the indecision briefly warring in his head, before he stepped on the gas. I blew [Rapidash] to keep up, hear their conversation.

"Bet you two rods I can make it to the gate before you." Julius yelled at the obnoxious runner.

"Ha! You’re on old man."

Julius stepped on it, and the obnoxious runner cursed as he tried to keep up.

I tried to keep a smirk off my face.

A few hours of running later, and the shining walls of Ariminum came into view.

They were massive. Most of the towns I’d been through had standard, low, "whatever stone is nearby" walls. These were twice as tall, at almost 15 meters high, with regular guard towers along the walls. Guards, the same guards I knew everywhere, patrolled the wall, with the addition of a bow. Perhaps a concession to the shanty town? I didn’t know my stone, but it looked like the entire thing was made out of marble, or some other nice, shining white stone. Perhaps a skill was involved in making them look so nice?

What else was different was a sort of shanty town outside the gates. Clearly, the capital was so secure, that people felt like living just outside the walls was viable. There was still some fear of a monster attack, as we all looked up as a cloud passed over the sun, but it clearly wasn’t so bad that people did anything to live inside the walls – or move.

I twisted and turned my head, trying to absorb all the sights, even though I wasn’t even in the walls yet.

"Elaine! Over here!" Julius said, sporting a huge grin. "Your cut." He said, handing me a few coins.

"Crushed him?" I asked.

"Crushed him. Mostly running backwards. I wish you’d seen the look on his face…" Julius said, trailing off.

"Anyways, back we go!" Julius said, starting to run. Over his shoulder, he yelled.

"And this time, it’s your turn to run backwards! You need the practice!"

I cursed, weaving through the crowd. Damn being short. Damn not being able to see things as well. Damn suicide sprints. Damn suicide sprints while running backwards with unfamiliar skills through a crowd while short and unable to see anything!

A few exhausting days later, the Argo was pulling up to the walls.

"Do Rangers get a special lane for entering the city?" I asked, as we were stuck in mankind’s most hellish invention. Traffic.

"Yes, but it’s an emergency/priority lane. We could take it, but why clog it up when a real emergency could show up?"

Hours of slow waiting later – I’m pretty sure we got cut in line a few times by smaller, more agile individuals – we made it to the gates.

"Name, purpose of visit?" The guards asked, the usual guardy mixture of "extremely professional" and the standard "Bored out of my mind."

Kallisto opened his mouth, but Julius cut him off with his hand, a "I’ve been waiting two years to say this" grin splitting his face.

"Ranger Team 4. Victorious return." He said, pulling out his badge. The rest of us also pulled out our badges, grinning at the look on their face.

We were waved in without further fanfare, although some of the guards and other people at the gate tried to give us trouble of the fangirling variety. Felt nice, although it might get old one day.

"Right, plan for the day." Julius said as we moved through the crowded streets, looking like most other streets in Remus. "Get settled at HQ. Get Elaine settled somewhere. Then I need to report to command, while the rest of you are free. Remember, meeting on the Solstice – don’t miss it!"

I kept craning my head around, trying to see all the sights. The capital was, for lack of a better word, more than the other towns we’d been through. There was more pottery and frescos in the windows than there was in Virinum. There were more dyed clothes than Aquiliea. There were – hang on, mangos!

I quickly hopped off the wagon, and moved over to the vendor, where I’d spotted a few mangos for sale in a tiny, neglected corner. If I was ever queen, mango-neglect on that scale would be a capital punishment. Death would be too good for anyone committing such a heinous crime. No, acquiring more mangos for me would be the penalty. Nobody who committed such abuse should be permitted to keep them.

A short transaction later, made doubly expensive by everything in the capital being more expensive, doubly so at my clear inability to negotiate well, my allergy to social skills and skills like [Bartering] striking again, and doubled again when it was obvious I’d pay any price for them, I had a small stash of mangos again.

Mangos oh mangos, I’d never have to deal without you again.

Transaction complete, I hopped back into the Argo, and we continued on.

To another set of walls.

"Forgive my stupid question." I said, looking at the guards patrolling the wall. "but why are we leaving the city?"

Artemis just chuckled at me.

"We’re not. The city’s been built over centuries, and every time it expands, it keeps the old walls. The city’s a messy patchwork of expansion and segments, with the Senate and most important government buildings being in the central district. The closer you are to central, the more expensive it is.

I looked around in wonder.

"This is the cheapest district?" I asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, pretty much." Artemis replied.

We continued on, passing gate after gate, the buildings becoming larger, fancier. More money used for the construction.

There was one house, small, tiny compared to its neighbors, which had a wide, large courtyard, and was blinding to look at. I squinted, and –

"Is that building made of Arcanite." I said, jaw dropping. I tried briefly to calculate how much that’d cost, and failed when there were too many 0’s.

Julius snorted.

"No, just the walls studded with it. Local guard hates it. People keep trying to steal from it, the inscriptions in the floor activate, makes a huge noise, everyone comes running, it constantly blinds people – it’s a damn pain in the ass, that’s what it is."

We continued on, wonder after wonder. Some peacocks in a yard. An Archaeoceratops on a long leash and brightly colored harness, marking it as tame, looking like a dog. A ferocious, magical, could-eat-a-person dog.

Well, a dino-dog with a Sand affinity, judging by the small dust storm following it around. Scary stuff, dinosaurs that could use magic skills, that didn’t just have a boatload of passives. Glad it was tame, and not, oh, say, a Lava-aligned Abelisaurus, or a Lightning based Serpopard.

I eyed it as we passed.

"And that’s legit?" I said, pointing.

Artemis didn’t even look.

"Yup."

In no time at all, we were at Ranger Headquarters. Alive. In one piece. Only three team members down, and arguably with an extra one added.

The building was massive, and there was a huge gate, five meters tall, two doors a meter and a half wide, marking the grand entrance. The Ranger symbol, golden Eagle in flight against a golden circle, adorned the door, almost as large as it was. A pair of guards were at the door, and with a start, I realized they had a golden Eagle pin on their armor.

Not the leather and batons of the guard. No, they had full combat armor and weapons.

Julius stood forward, presenting his badge.

"Ranger Team 4. We’re home." He said simply.

The guards said nothing. They just smiled, and opened the doors for us.

Home.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 16]

[Mana: 17210/17210]

[Mana Regen: 20721]

Stats

[Free Stats: 62]

[Strength: 118]

[Dexterity: 218]

[Vitality: 235]

[Speed: 220]

[Mana: 1721]

[Mana Regeneration: 2379]

[Magic Power: 1506]

[Magic Control: 2039]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 187]]

[Celestial Affinity: 187]

[Warmth of the Sun: 158]

[Medicine: 184]

[Center of the Galaxy: 160]

[Phases of the Moon: 187]

[Moonlight: 104]

[Veil of the Aurora: 146]

[Vastness of the Stars: 135]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 62]]

[Fire Affinity: 62]

[Fire Resistance: 62]

[Fire Conjuration: 62]

[Fire Manipulation: 62]

[Fuel for the Fire: 62]

[Burn Brightly: 62]

[Rapidash: 62]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 96]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 120]

[Pretty: 120]

[Vigilant: 131]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 167]

[Ranger's Lore: 133]

[: ]

[Learning: 148]

Chapter 95– Minor Interlude – Julius Reports to Command

Julius strode through the hallways of Ranger Headquarters, badge pinned prominently to his uniform, cape billowing behind him. The same cape that meant he wasn’t thinking of fighting. A subtle detail. For every Ranger out in the field, there were two support personnel at HQ, managing money. Politics. Paperwork. Bureaucracy. Quartermasters. Armorers. Inscriptionists. Healers. Alchemists. Dozens of other professions that acted as support. Add in that most Rangers were in the field, and it was a rarity to see actual field Rangers at Headquarters. The badge was useful, clearing a path through the hallways, everyone giving him a clear hallway to walk through.

A slow smile flitted across his face. It was nice to be properly recognized, to be given preferential treatment. Sure, Rangers got preferential treatment in many places, but it was often over the top, as often as it was hostile. Here? Here it was just right. The smile vanished as he remembered that half the reason he was given so much clearance was a number of Rangers were twitchy after spending so much time in the field, and some didn’t have the restraint of Artemis.

There was no use being right if you were dead.

Julius made it to the imposing doors of the Ranger Command, straightened out some non-existent creases in his uniform, and handed off his sword to one of the guards stationed outside the door. He locked eyes with the guard.

"They’re a bit busy right now." The guard said.

Julius nodded, saying nothing, settling into parade rest. Arms at exactly the right position. Legs at exactly the right position. Just clear enough of the door that it’d miss him when it opened.

It was possible command was in a meeting. It was possible they were slacking off. It was possible that whatever Sentinel was acting as the tiebreaker today was delayed.

The Ranger Command had an interesting composition. Two were members sent by the Senate, to oversee the Senate’s interest. In theory, they could be appointed by the Senate. In practice, it was two Senators that were interested in the going-ons of the Rangers. It was relatively dry work, not great for political advantage or maneuverings. Rangers, and Sentinels, stayed neutral, and fought hard to stay that way.

Two members were from the Army. Sure, Rangers were part of the Army, but the Army command proper wanted a voice in what Rangers did. By the same token, there was a ‘former’ Ranger on the Army Command council.

The remaining four slots were all ‘former’ Rangers, which was to say Rangers with enough leadership, foresight, desire, and political savvy to be selected to serve as one of the commanders.

Lastly, a Sentinel, whichever one was really bored, or got caught, listened in on meetings, and acted as a tiebreaker. In theory, they knew things well enough to see the big picture, to properly align everyone’s goals, to see the greater good when the four Rangers clashed with the Army and the Senate. In practice, most of the time they didn’t want to be there, and could break ties in a capricious manner. Personal power didn’t translate well to good leadership, administration, or governance. Strangely enough, that encouraged command to work together, to not be at the mercy of whichever Sentinel was present that day.

Julius wondered who’d be acting as the tiebreaker today. Not Night or Sky. Night was responsible and interested enough, but wasn’t seen during the day, and Sky was too disinterested and too fast to end up as the tiebreaker. It was unlikely to be Acquisition either, since the Senate representatives strongly disliked him being around.

Something about their purses being lighter every time he was around.

Julius had no illusions that he’d ever end up as a Sentinel. Ending up as a member of Command was a distinct possibility, one that could be advanced from today’s meeting – or forever barred to him.

It all depended on one teenage girl. Every round was strange and unusual, interesting events occurring. Every round, Julius thought he’d stop being surprised at what the next one would throw at him.

After an indeterminable, irrelevant length of time, the door opened up, the eight members of command on a high table in a semi-circle, Ocean lounging in the high chair in the middle. There was some shuffling of scrolls, as the Command brought themselves up to speed on Julius and his team. Each person had a slightly different banded set of colors on a scroll, marking who it belonged to. A set of thirty scrolls had the same coloring.

That could only be Artemis’s record.

The council was feeling harmonious today, Julius noted as he looked around. The four Ranger commanders were scattered throughout the seats, instead of being all together on one side. Good, no political undercurrents that could foul him up.

"Julius, welcome, congratulations." One of the Ranger commanders said. "You’re the 3rd team back. Thank you for your time reporting. Let’s hear it."

Julius saluted, perfect to the last inch. A Ranger’s Ranger.

"Sir! Casualty report: Three dead, and one, well, acquisition."

Julius mentally winced at that. First sentence, and it was already going off the rails.

"I’ll go into detail on the acquisition later."

"We started off with our team freshly made two years ago, as is normal. For Artemis, Origen, Arthur, and Maximus, I went and talked with all the former team leads and teammates I could, to get an idea of their capabilities, and any quirks I needed to look out for."

At Artemis’s name, three members of the council made a sympathetic noise. Julius let some of the tension in his chest relax. Sounded like he wouldn’t need to explain Artemis’s antics to Command. Then again, he did have a line in his budget for "Artemis-related incidents", so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

"We performed a series of light operations and sparring against Team 6 to get some idea of teamwork together, then we boarded the ship to the start of our route."

Julius closed his eyes, dreading the next part.

"Alexander let being a Ranger get to his head. Not sure if it was the pressure of training that stopped it from happening earlier, being in a team finally letting a lever go, or something else. Wouldn’t listen to us telling him to relax, to rein it in. From all accounts we can make out, he got drunk on the ship, and decided to test himself against a storm. In full armor. In the middle of the night."

Ocean gave a sardonic laugh at that.

"Hell, I’d only try that sober." He said, waving his hand. "Carry on."

Julius felt tension bleed out of his shoulders, a huge weight lifted from him. If Ocean, the strongest Water-based human in existence, blessed a sea-based loss, Julius was in the clear.

"We traveled down, tackling some lighter problems we normally wouldn’t, to help shore up our teamwork. This is how Icarus fell."

"No matter the fight, no matter what we were against, he insisted on going in first, in diving deep into the fight. He expected us to cover him, made us change our plans around him, forced us to fight badly to try and keep him alive. Kept laughing it off when we told him to knock it off, to fight as a team, with the team."

"Injuries started to pile up on him. I stopped taking low-level fights, to try and preserve him. Origen did his best, some of the healers we saw helped deal with his injuries. Didn’t matter, he refused to stop, even picking fights we had no reason or business to pick. It wasn’t until his accumulated injuries were so bad, where he was constantly waking up in a pool of blood, that he realized he’d gone too far. By that time, no matter how many fields Origen set up, no matter how many of our reserve potions we poured into him, no matter how many villages I checked for a healer, we couldn’t stabilize him. He died of his wounds, after thirty battles." The fact that most of the battles were minor, were unneeded, was left unsaid.

There was a solemn moment as everyone bowed their heads. Icarus had been something of an idiot, but not as bad as Alexander. He’d gone down swinging.

"There were some, shall we say," Julius coughed awkwardly. "low-level Artemis incidents. Nothing worth a major report on, but I was quickly seeing why her file was so thick."

"We arrived at Aquiliea shortly after, and we get to the unusual portion of our round."

One of the Army commanders snorted. "The fact that you only have one ‘unusual’ portion is in itself unusual."

Julius tilted his head in acknowledgement.

"Artemis has some friends close enough she considers family there, and it’s where I met a girl called Elaine, one of Artemis’s friends. Thought nothing of her at first, as she marched up to us and demanded to know where Artemis was, then was off like a shot."

"She showed up again, and we all formally met her, after we heard she’d single-handedly, with all of her physical stats being sub-20, dove into a burning building to rescue a slave. One she had no relationship with."

"Where’s this going?" One of the Senators grumbled. One of the Ranger Commanders shushed him, a gleam of pleasure in his eye.

"Unusual portions of a round often start out mundane." The Commander said.

"After a few days of recovery, it turned out she got, at 14 years of age, [Detailed Restoration]. Managed to completely heal herself from her burns and injuries. Impressive, worth noting that a powerful Light and Dark healer was being developed in Aquiliea, but I still just mentally filed it away as ‘just another thing.’" Julius continued his report, his body perfectly still, head turning to lock eyes with each member of Command one by one.

"We left a few days later to hunt something on the road between Aquiliea and Virinum. Turned out to be a nasty set of bandits, one that the textbook solution was extermination. That was a textbook operation, shock and awe, with Artemis demonstrating why she was so well tolerated. I don’t even think the rest of us were honestly needed, but it made it a bit easier on her."

"This is where I was surprised again. Elaine was present, healing everyone she could. The very people that had held her captive a candle ago, she dove into fire, flames, and lightning to save, even though any errant twitch from either side would end her. Even more impressively, when Kallisto was facing her, trying to execute the bandit leader, she stood up to him, fully knowing what her fate likely was for such a stunt, and said ‘no.’ Long story short, bandit leader died, Elaine lived, and we get to the stranger part of the story."

Julius took a deep breath. This had happened before, he reminded himself. This wasn’t totally unbelievable.

"Icarus’s death fresh in my mind, I offered her some pay to patch everyone up. She’d demonstrated the skills needed, and I wanted to keep everyone in top condition, not being worn down. Kallisto was particularly happy, given that he was not only new, but our only frontliner at this point, with Maximus acting as a secondary. That’s when she dropped her revelation."

"She was god-touched."

A clatter broke out at that, Ocean restoring order with a lazy wave of his hand, power rippling through the room.

"Method of god-touched? And which god?" One of the Ranger Commanders asked.

"Reincarnated from another world. Papilion." Julius said. "A number of technical memories were gone, but all of her knowledge of medicine and biology were intact. Which pushed her down the route to being a healer."

The reincarnated from another world part was practically glossed over. The fact that Papilion, one of the big five, had been the one to touch Elaine? That caused an uproar, that not even Ocean was inclined to stop.

It got so bad that the guards opened the door a crack, peeking in, just to make sure another brawl hadn’t started. Seeing that the excitement was purely verbal, and that fists and skills weren’t being thrown around, they closed the door. Someone standing outside would hear them sigh with relief. Trying to break up a fight that your bosses had started did not encourage a long career, regardless of how right you were.

After a length of time that could only be described as a "short" fight, relative to the occasional week-long brawl that the Command could have, the room settled down again.

"Has she been seen by Priest Demos yet?" One of the Senators asked.

Julius shook his head.

"I wanted to report back first."

There was some quick discussion, followed by a pronouncement.

"She should see Priest Demos as soon as possible for a full debrief."

Julius nodded, not expecting anything different.

"Continuing on. We encountered the standard set of monsters and fights, nothing special, and Elaine started to show some glimmers of being a useful hanger-on, like many teams temporarily pick up and put down. Nothing terribly special, nothing to make any real mention of."

"We arrived at Virinum next, where Elaine immediately proved her worth. We had a nasty, over level 400, dinosaur that was occupying the river, eating the locals, and generally making a standard nuisance of themselves. We hatched a plan, and executed it, nothing special there."

"What was special was after Kallisto took a bad hit, one that would be lethal, Elaine, still with virtually no physical stats to her name, and no real skills to help her stay alive, charged into the fight, within range of the monster, to heal and stabilize Kallisto. It wasn’t that she was suicidal, nor did she have dumb fearlessness. No, she knew what she was doing, she was well aware of the risks, the threat to her life, and ran in anyways."

"Monster was driven off, not quite killed, and Arthur and I harried it to death. Nothing special."

This was it. This was the moment that could make or break him.

"We arrived back, to see everyone patched up, Elaine having worked hard. She ran over to us, and was able to bring Arthur and I back to fully healed. That’s when I saw it, that’s when I decided."

"Elaine would be, without a doubt, the most powerful healer in a generation. And I don’t mean just in her age group. I mean across the entire republic. Heck, as of today, if you told me she had the title already for close-in healing, I’d believe you. Her ranged healing needs work, but she’s getting there."

"Rangers die. Rangers die a lot." Julius said, setting the background, catching himself chewing absent-mindedly on his lower lip. Stopping that. "We’re extremely unattractive for healers to join us, due to the danger, the low pay, the unstable lifestyle, and a dozen other factors."

"You get paid more than enough!" One of the Senators exclaimed. He was quickly shushed by the rest of Command, with Ocean throwing him a dirty look.

"I had a vision. Not a divine one, just a personal one. Healers with Rangers. Keeping us alive. Expanding our ranks. Getting more of us around. Shorter rounds, fewer problems, more of us alive. I took a gamble."

Julius paused taking a deep breath.

"I invited Elaine to be a full Ranger with us. She accepted."

Another argument. More yelling. Much more subdued than the last one, but that was a low bar to clear.

Julius held his hand up futilely, wanting to expand further. Ocean eventually recognized him.

"I’m aware she needs to go through Academy to be polished and fully accepted. She’s also aware of that."

One of the Army commanders snorted.

"We have standards for who can join training. We could maybe, barely stretch to level 170 under ideal conditions."

Julius grinned, a predator who’s seen prey step into his trap.

"In a year, she went from level 100 to level 180. Currently, she’s sitting around level 185 or so. Additionally, she has one of the most absurd boosting skills I’ve ever heard of."

"Like Night?" Ocean asked.

"Yeah, but stronger and narrower. You know how it goes." Julius replied. "She currently enjoys a roughly 9x multiplier to both power and control when healing."

You could hear a pin drop at that. Julius seized the moment.

"Granted, her second class is lagging a hair, so I’d rate her effective healing at ‘only’ around level 350 or so, and she came from a control-healer route, so she’s hands-on right now. Working on a distance skill, and her second class has a lot of room to grow, easily giving her more stats, multiplying her further."

"Now, if I may, I’d like to finish my report." Julius said, none of the internal smugness he was feeling making it to his voice.

He had their full attention now. Oh, sure, it wasn’t like anyone had been slacking off, but he had maybe 90% of their attention, their minds wandering elsewhere at times.

"Further traveling and handling problems occurred as normal, with the only notable incident being an Ornithocheirus attack, which Arthur was able to survive out in the open, more or less solo. Thieves, monsters, dinosaurs, an idiot army recruiter,"

Julius plowed right through the Army Commander’s noise of protest. "and other such problems. Sadly, in the stretch to Perinthus, there was another friend-fire incident involving Artemis."

There was a bunch of groaning at that, and more than a few coins changing hands, one pouch soaring across the room. Julius raised an eyebrow, and Ocean didn’t look too pleased either.

"Fortunately, due to Elaine’s presence, the friendly fire incident was a speedbump, as she was able to almost immediately restore Arthur back to fit fighting shape."

"Then we arrived in Perinthus."

Julius closed his eyes, remembering the rows of bodies, the flies and crows in the air.

"Hang on, you didn’t skip Perinthus?" One of the Ranger Commanders asked.

Julius shook his head.

"No, Elaine was convinced we could make a difference."

"Never heard of her in any of the songs." One of the Senators remarked.

A smile cracked Julius’s face.

"We pissed off the bard something fierce. Not being written into the song seems to be her revenge."

"Elaine was convinced her knowledge of disease and plagues was unmatched in Pallos. From what happened in Perinthus, I’m inclined to believe her. Within a week, while healing from dawn to past dusk every day, the sickest, worst cases, she’d solved the first plague. Three days later, we’d solved the source of the second plague, and nine days later the town was completely purged of disease."

Julius thought a moment and added. "There was an incident with the 3rd, which resulted in an execution. Details in my written report."

"To expand on my prior point. Elaine had knowledge of diseases, and disease reservoirs and sources, and we used that knowledge to work out that bad plumbing was causing the first plague, what we called the Vomiting Plague for its effects. The second plague was much harder, and Elaine kept complaining that it was making no sense how it worked."

He closed his eyes, and leaned forward.

"I doubted her. If I hadn’t, we might’ve figured out it was a Classer causing the plague; that it wasn’t natural. It took him assassinating Origen for us to realize what was going on. We spooked him, both with some side-business we took care of, and Elaine’s speed at solving the first plague."

"The fault is mine."

A respectful moment passed, for a fallen Ranger.

"We came down like the fist of a god on the Classer causing the problem, then organized a full-scale effort to purge the town. I’m pleased to report that the songs are correct, and Perinthus is fully cleansed, and back to functioning properly."

A brief moment of pause, of congratulation.

"The route through the Kadan Jungle was made almost perfunctory, with Elaine being able to handle every problem thrown at us. Snakes didn’t matter. Toads didn’t matter. Vegetation didn’t matter. Serpopards were the only real threat, and without needing to worry about the other problems, we were able to aggressively hunt them down around us."

"That brings us to Massilix, and Arthur’s achievement."

"Sea Serpent, roughly around level 950, was terrorizing the town. We took a look at it, tried to plan, then called for a Sentinel."

Ocean frowned at that, mostly because he would’ve been the Sentinel called in for such a task, but wasn’t.

"I gave Arthur my blessing to try and poison the monster, as he tries to poison most of the problems we encounter, usually to little success."

A heartbeat passed, as the Command started to realize what happened.

"He managed a solo kill on the monster. Over 700 levels above him. Against a monster that, with all due respect, Ocean, I think you might’ve struggled with."

Ocean grimaced, then nodded, recognizing that Julius had been on the scene, and had an evaluation, and that Ocean hadn’t been present.

"As a result, with Arthur’s stealth, his ability to survive in the wilderness alone, his prowess with the bow, and combat capabilities, with slaying the monster being his feat, I’d like to nominate Arthur for Sentinel. Potential title: Poison."

The Command erupted into argument – again. The constant arguments were the norm here, and his news wasn’t actually all that special. Julius wished he’d been sentenced to the colosseum to wrestle a bear, rather than report to Command. The burdens of leadership.

Ocean rolled his eyes, and sent out a pulse of power through the room, cutting the current argument short.

"Discussions of Sentinels and promotions is for a scheduled meeting. Not for a report." One of the Ranger Commanders stated. There was a bunch of nodding around the room, some slower, some faster.

"Continue." A different Ranger Commander stated.

"The rest of the round had nothing particularly noteworthy. Artemis kept her hand in well enough – see scrolls 6 through 11 for full details - Elaine made us look good by opening practically free clinics, Maximus was a blessing who caused no problems, Arthur got a green class out of slaying the monster, and Kallisto managed to keep himself, and the rest of us, alive."

"Let’s go back to Elaine for a moment." One of the Ranger Commanders said. "You said she should go through Academy, to be ratified as a full Ranger. I don’t think this needs to be said, but everyone who goes out in the field needs to be combat capable – even our support personnel. Otherwise, bluntly, we already have all the healers we need at HQ."

Julius nodded. Now wasn’t the time or the place to argue that the rules were wrong, that they needed an overhaul. First, proof of concept that a healer with enough combat capabilities was a massive asset. Then, maybe, an exception could be argued for healers not needing to be fully combat capable before going out into the field.

First things first though – Elaine.

"Elaine is combat-capable, but about as strong as you’d expect out of a typical support or utility class. Her secondary class is now a Fire mage, after her Light and Dark class merged into Celestial. She has an interesting restriction on combat – anything she believes is sentient, she can only defend herself. She can’t attack first. This extends to monsters like goblins, unfortunately."

There was a round of muttering at that.

"If she’s so weak she can’t handle goblins, there’s no way she’s strong enough to be a Ranger, regardless of her healing prowess." One of the Army Commanders frowned.

"True. However, she’s creative, and can work with her restriction. Shortly before the round ended, we discovered a small camp of goblins. We sent her in to exterminate them solo."

Julius shrugged.

"She got 10 out of 11 solo, doing such things as ‘tapping on them’ to get their attention, then running them through when they inevitably attack her. Only goblin she missed was a goblin assassin we didn’t tell her about. Not full marks, but strong enough to qualify as holding her own. She has no problems defending herself when needed, she’s just reluctant to use lethal force when it’s not needed."

Julius paused a heartbeat, letting it sink in.

"Kinda the opposite of Artemis, who keeps getting complaints about using lethal force when it’s not needed." He said pointedly. "Imagine how much skinnier the file would be…"

More rounds of discussion.

"Let’s table this for another day. Julius, from everything we’ve heard, you’ve done an excellent job. Is there anything else you’d like to report, or are you all set?"

Julius paused a few moments, thinking. Thinking very hard.

"Artemis has told me that she’s planning to retire. Will probably need a conversation with you to formalize."

One of the Commanders waved his hand, indicating he was dismissed. Julius got to the doors, opened them. Turned around.

In for a coin, in for a rod. It was the right thing to do.

"One last thing real fast…" Julius said, grabbing everyone’s attention.

Julius dropped the explosive idea, then fled. He heard the room behind him erupt into chaos as he dashed through the halls, glad to be out of there. One of the guards looked after him, open-mouthed, as the other one closed the door of the room.

That’s going to make me or break me. Julius thought, as he slowed his pace down, walking back to his room in HQ normally.

In for a coin, in for a rod.

Chapter 96– Prelude to a meeting

There were a dozen or so temporary rooms at Ranger HQ that Rangers could use when they were in town. Generally, that translated to "when there was the grand meeting of Rangers every two years", which further translated to "First come, first served."

The Ranger lifestyle was nomadic, and most didn’t bother owning a home. There was no point. Those that were brave enough to have families, that had relationships strong enough to survive the distance, who didn’t bring their families with them, had a house in the capital, and much, much nicer accommodations than what we had. Which was almost mandatory, as there weren’t enough rooms to accommodate all the Rangers.

Even when only half of them came back.

I was now in a strange position. I was both a Ranger and not a Ranger, and keeping my head low was the name of the game. Rather, I wasn’t going to be able to enjoy any of the benefits of being a Ranger, while being under all the same restrictions. The worst of both worlds.

The long and the short of it was I was bunking with Artemis, in a small, spartan room. There was a cot and a chest in the small room, and Artemis locating and hauling in a second cot made the room fairly cramped. Budget restrictions resulting in ‘get Rangers out of their room and mingling’. Or training. Or relaxing outside. Or…

I was no logistical and architectural expert. I left that to those smarter than me. Who knows, maybe it was just pure budget.

The day started off with Artemis getting a pair of letters. I don’t think she got them via the standard delivery method. At least, I hoped the standard delivery method wasn’t "throw them from far down the hallway at the door."

I heard a pair of soft thumps on the door, and standing next to the door, I opened it to see a pair of letters on the ground, one half-opened from its flight, as a courier – they had special ones that only handled intra-HQ messages – fled around the corner. One eyebrow went up at that, and as I turned back to bring the letters in, I noticed a red warning signal on Artemis’s door.

Rude. Understandable, but rude.

I handed them to Artemis, noticing that one was banded in fancy colors, and one looked like a normal letter from the courier’s guild.

"What do they say? What do they say?" I asked, watching Artemis’s face do all sorts of interesting moves.

"Well…." Artemis said, drawing it out. "A few things. Most are my business, but some relate to you. Anyways, long story short, morning’s free, we’re meeting with some people for lunch, then we each have different meetings in the afternoon."

"Oh? Who? Who?" I asked, with all the patience of a hyperactive 16-year-old.

"Only one I’ll tell you is I’m meeting with Command this afternoon." Artemis said, sticking her tongue out at me.

She paused a moment, then relented.

"Getting the idea in your head now, so you can get used to it. You’re meeting with Priest Demos this afternoon. He specializes in god or goddess-touched individuals. The Senate insists that everyone powerfully god-touched meet with him, and what’s going on with you is close enough to qualify. He’s really nice, don’t worry."

Well, now I was worrying. Sounded close enough to a government vivisectionist for me to be concerned. Back then I’d been desperate to stick with the Rangers, to do anything to be brought along, to not be sent back. However, now the specter of being captured and interrogated for all my secrets was rearing its head, with the added benefit? Downside? Of completely skipping the ‘captured’ part.

At the same time, the way Artemis was phrasing it made it sound almost routine. "God-Touched in line one. Goddess-Touched in line two. If two or more gods have impacted your life, please fill out form 4-E." It certainly sounded rare from some of the way Artemis was mentioning it – one priest for the entire Republic? The fact that there was a priest, and a process, indicated that it couldn’t be that rare now, could it?

Being real for a moment, what were my options? Trying to bust out of the city on my own – which in practice meant just walking out – and striking out on my own, again? There was a slim, but non-zero chance that I’d get someone sent after me – it was a bad look when you refused a meeting with the government inspectors. It wasn’t impossible, but I had too many roots here. Might as well have that meeting.

"Enough about that! What do you want to do this morning?" Artemis asked enthusiastically.

I patted my set of scrolls, the manuscript of all medical knowledge I knew, starting with [Oath], arranged into eight scrolls. "I’d like to get to a scribe to make a bunch of copies of these, then send them out. Shouldn’t take too long, right?"

Artemis shrugged. "Nope, let’s go!"

Artemis dressed, not to the nines, but more like the sevens. A simple men’s tunic, for the freedom of motion, her cape, and her Ranger’s Badge. I was in a regular tunic, reveling in the ability to pick and wear nice clothes without any concern.

We weren’t just on vacation-but-keeping-an-ear-out. We were on vacation. Crime gets committed? Classer attempts to blow up the city? Slave rebellion breaks out?

For once, not our problem. Not only was there a full Ranger squad – Team 1 – dedicated to nothing but protecting the capital, there was Ranger Team 0, AKA half the Academy Instructors nearby, and Sentinels called the capital home, for a variety of reasons. Close to the Academy, close to the Senate, in the middle of the empire, good living, and more. There was also the Senate guard, the town guard, and personal guards. Any problem would be steadily escalated up the chain, and quite frankly, if the entire chain of problem solvers situated in the capital couldn’t handle the problem, we wouldn’t make a difference.

Hence, actual, real, blessed vacation. Hence the fancy clothes. And spending some time making myself look nice, because I could.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Pretty] has reached level 121!]

We left HQ, and Artemis got directions to one of the best scribes in the city. Which probably translated to one of the best scribes humanity had, barring some amazing scribe deciding to settle with family, away from the heart of the Republic.

"Why the badge, even though we’re on vacation?" I asked Artemis.

"Believe it or not, staves off a lot of harassment. People [Identify] me, they see the badge, the level, and the class, and decide they have better things to do."

Artemis looked at me with a strange expression.

"You’re going to have the opposite problem I’m afraid. The higher level you get tagged as a [Healer], the more persistent people will get."

Blah, that was going to be more than a bit of a pain in the ass. Already I got a low-level background noise of people suggesting I marry their son/brother/nephew/grandchild/friend/distant relative, mixed in with the occasional obscene suggestion or wild proposition. I thought I was already at peak harassment.

Nope! Not according to Artemis.

A problem for future-Elaine. I should get a fake marriage ring to dissuade suitors. Today, I had scrolls to work on!

We were in the innermost district of the Ariminum, and the already-impressive roads that connected all the towns of Remus together were even more impressive. I could see some light, glimmering inscriptions on these roads.

"What do the inscriptions do?" I asked, as we navigated and turned down another road, happily in the white lane. Artemis’s cape and badge had a secondary effect of, while not clearing a path for us, smoothing it along.

Artemis didn’t even look.

"If they’re the same as when I was told about them, skill and stat suppression field. They won’t stop a skill, but they’ll make it harder to get the same effect out of them. A spark, not a bolt. A candle, not a bonfire. They also connect to the walls, and there’s a giant set, layers upon layers of inscriptions, on the walls – mostly defensive - fueled by a massive core of Arcanite located somewhere top-secret."

She shrugged.

"At least that’s what I was told. Ask Bulwark when you’re at Academy. One of his jobs is knowing this, although it’s the Inscription Masters that keep it all running."

We turned, and found ourselves in front of the shop.

What was unique about this store, what I hadn’t seen a single time before in all my time on Pallos, what made it stand out in the most subtle way, was the signage.

It simply said "Scribe", and was made unique by sheer virtue that it was a word, and not a picture of the services. Most scribes used a scroll and quill, but this one was clearly more discerning, only wanting people who could already read to use his services.

We entered, and a little bell went off. More small, fancy things I hadn’t seen anywhere else.

"Welcome. What can we do for you?"

I plonked my scrolls down on the counter.

"I’d like to make as many copies of these as possible, with…" I paused, reaching down to grab my 4 money pouches, the total sum of nearly every spare coin I had.

Wasn’t doing that much else with them.

My hand only found three of my pouches though, and I grimaced at the smooth end of my last pouch string.

"Welp. 12 rod’s worth of coins." I said with a resigned sigh.

Artemis looked down, eyebrow quirking.

"Damn. That’s a good thief. I didn’t even notice him. Or her. Brave to steal under the literal nose of two Rangers."

Artemis quickly checked her own pouch, finding it intact, unmolested.

The scribe said nothing on the matter.

"May I ask as to the nature of the scrolls you’d like duplicated? There are some things I won’t copy." The scribe said, somewhat pompously, but eyeing Artemis’s badge.

"Military documents also have a premium attached to them."

I smiled.

"A medical manuscript, containing the sum of all the medicine I know. Hoping to get as many copies as possible."

"To sell?"

"To give out to other healers. I want to have the knowledge spread far and wide, and I’m willing to fund it myself." I said.

I got a long stare, followed by the scribe opening the scrolls, glancing at a few lines, repeating with the rest of them. Somewhat rude, but I suppose there wasn’t really a way for a scribe to copy the documents without reading them.

"For you, for this. 75 coins for a signature, which will mark you as the owner, creator, originator, etc., of the set. 32 coins per copy for base ink, 48 for moderate, and 64 for fancy ink."

"Is the price for a set, or per scroll?"

I got a long, flat look from the scribe, before he gently shook his head.

"For a set."

Artemis nudged me, encouraging me to take the deal.

"Sounds good! I’ll take the base ink." I said.

The scribe went to the back room, then reappeared with a fancy-looking quill. It glittered and shimmered in a dozen different colors. That didn’t come from a normal bird.

"This is my standard speech I give all customers. Please do not be offended if you are aware of any of this."

"I’m doing a standard mana signature. This will let you, or anyone else, verify that it’s your signature on the document. This helps with authenticating that you are the author. If there’s a dispute over the signature, you can bring it to any scribe, who’ll verify it for a small price. While only one signature is required, I recommend signing in a few different places. It prevents anyone from cutting the portion out."

"Now, if you’ll relax, let me use a skill on you. [Authenticated Signature]."

I relaxed, feeling a skill wash over me. I quickly unrolled the scrolls, signing at the bottom of the scroll, and at the top, right under the title of the scroll.

Elaine.

I kept it short, sweet, simple. I didn’t bother with a title, or anything fancy. Just – Elaine. That was me.

I quickly signed all 8 scrolls, feeling my mana drain somewhat. A brilliant, rainbow-color signature slowly appeared.

I did some quick math. Carry the 3….

"I’d like to get 21 copies please!" I cheerfully said, grabbing my pouch to dump the coins on the counter.

Artemis coughed at me, then leaned over to whisper in my ear.

"Might want to save a few coins to hire couriers to deliver them to all the healers. Saves you the effort of tracking them all down yourself – especially after you’re too busy with Academy."

The scribe helpfully jumped in.

"We do offer a service where we’ll ask the couriers to deliver the scrolls where you’d like it. Unfortunately, I doubt you have enough coin, even after 20 scrolls, to pay the couriers, let alone our modest fee on top."

I gave my best kitten eyes to Artemis, who sighed and pulled out a few coins needed to cover the difference.

Hey, I’d brought more than enough, it wasn’t my fault I’d been robbed halfway!

The scribe brought out eight scrolls, and unrolled them. With a gesture, ink started to flow out of a pot, onto the scrolls, perfectly – and neatly, much more neately than my charcoal scribblings – replicated what I’d written.

Hang on – he hadn’t needed to read my scrolls in the first place!

Within a few minutes, the first set was copied, and he rolled up the originals, handing them back to us.

"To be clear, you’d like a copy delivered to the top 20 healers, right?"

"Right. Can you make sure Markus is on the list? Markus, the Pyronox?" I said, remembering my half-promise to him.

The scribe pursed his lips.

"Fine."

Our business concluded, we left, and Artemis was practically bouncing as we walked down the road. Which was strange – I was usually the jittery, overexcited one.

We exited the central part of down, and moved a few districts down, where the pleasant smell of a dozen types of roasting food met my nose, mixed with the omnipresent scent of the sea.

I looked around. These were, for the first time since coming to Pallos, actual, honest-to-all-the-gods-and-goddesses, restaurants. Not a food stand, not a vendor, not a merchant or farmer selling goods. Restaurants.

We weaved our way through, Artemis having some sort of sense for where we were going, what she wanted. She found a place, and started to enter.

"Halt!" A girl – she couldn’t be more than my age – with pink hair and purple eyes, wearing a rich purple tunic with a minor stain on it, stopped us. How bloody rich do you need to be to let your purple tunic get stained, and not care!?

"I am Cornelia, daughter of General Augustus, Commander of the 2nd legion, Guardian of the Wall, Defender of mankind, Warden of…"

Artemis and I glanced at each other, shrugged, and walked into the restaurant anyways, ignoring Cornelia. A blue fish with a harpoon through it marked the name of the place.

"Any idea who that was?" I asked her, thinking maybe it was someone she was familiar with.

"No idea. Anyone leaning on their parent’s name like that though can be safely ignored. Not attacked, but ignored." Artemis said. "Careful if they have a lover or suitor though, they can be irrational."

I took mental notes. Powerful parent meant a shield, not a sword.

I was too busy looking around the restaurant, thinking on the meeting we just had, and missed Artemis talking quickly with the greeter at the front. She led us through the crowded restaurant to a private room.

The doors opened, and the last people I expected to see were there.

"Mom!? Dad!?"

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 16]

[Mana: 17210/17210]

[Mana Regen: 20721]

Stats

[Free Stats: 62]

[Strength: 118]

[Dexterity: 218]

[Vitality: 235]

[Speed: 220]

[Mana: 1721]

[Mana Regeneration: 2379]

[Magic Power: 1506]

[Magic Control: 2039]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 187]]

[Celestial Affinity: 187]

[Warmth of the Sun: 158]

[Medicine: 184]

[Center of the Galaxy: 160]

[Phases of the Moon: 187]

[Moonlight: 104]

[Veil of the Aurora: 146]

[Vastness of the Stars: 135]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 62]]

[Fire Affinity: 62]

[Fire Resistance: 62]

[Fire Conjuration: 62]

[Fire Manipulation: 62]

[Fuel for the Fire: 62]

[Burn Brightly: 62]

[Rapidash: 62]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 96]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 120]

[Pretty: 121]

[Vigilant: 131]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 167]

[Ranger's Lore: 133]

[: ]

[Learning: 148]

Chapter 97– Reunion

I stood there, stunned at seeing my parents again, heart beating like a galloping horse, frozen, not even able to muster up enough presence of mind to shoot Artemis a betrayed look. They also froze, staring at me, looking me up and down.

The tension is the air was palatable, so thick it could be cut with a knife.

"Wha- how?" I stammered out.

Trust Artemis to crack a joke.

"Elaine, I’d like you to meet my good friends Julia and Elainus. Julia, Elainus, I’d like you to meet Elaine. She’s one of my Ranger teammates, and the best healer I know."

Mom threw a nut at Artemis, and the tension was broken. Slowly, hesitantly, mom got up, while dad stayed seated. She took a nervous half-step towards me, arms opening up.

Tears flowing down my face, I threw myself into mom’s arms, only to feel her crushing hug around me. I nestled in deeper, remembering when I did this so recently, a lifetime ago.

Although mom was shorter than she used to be. No, it wasn’t that she was shorter, it was that I was taller.

"We missed you so much. We were so worried about you." Mom sobbed into my hair, as her arms slowly rubbed my back, forming large, soothing circles. "I’m so glad you’re ok."

"I missed you too." I said, simply hugging mom harder.

I didn’t notice dad getting up, just that suddenly he was hugging both of us, bands of restrained strength around the two of us.

We spent a timeless second together like this, an immortal moment. A time, not seared into my memory like so much blood and violence had been, but gently pressed, like a flower in a picture book.

The moment was shattered as what could only be a waiter entered the room. He quickly apologized and tried to back out, but the moment was gone.

"No, no, come on in." Dad said, beckoning him over as we all sat down around the table.

The waiter told us our options – almost entirely fish-based, no surprise given the picture of the restaurant, that the place was called The Blue Harpoon – and vanished a moment later.

We sat around in silence as the door to the room closed. With the moment of everyone greeting each other over, it was now awkward again. Artemis, bless her treacherous little heart, broke the silence.

"How was the trip?" She asked, popping another nut into her mouth. I eyed the dish she was getting them out of. Looked like it was for four, but at her rate of consumption, and mom throwing them liberally, I wasn’t going to get any. I grabbed a handful, then asked a follow-up.

"How did you even know we were here?" I asked. Sure, I’d sent a trail of letters home, but that didn’t mean they knew where we were, or that we’d be here.

My parents glanced at each other, then looked at Artemis. She leaned back.

"Did you really think you were the only one sending letters back home to Julia and Elainus?" Artemis asked, mostly rhetorically.

"But-" I said. They were my parents!

"But nothing. They’re my friends, I’m allowed to talk with them." Artemis said.

"Why didn’t you mention you were a Ranger!?" Dad said rapidly, with a wide, proud grin on his face.

"Uh- bu – I didn’t want you to worry!" I said, finally getting some words out. I shot Artemis a dark look. Ooooh, she’d pay for telling them. Beetles. I was going to get beetles into her bed.

Although, wait, if I did that, and I was sleeping in the same room, good chance they’d end up on me. I had to re-think this. I had to-

Shit. I was distracting myself from the conversation at hand. With some effort, I realigned myself back to the present, the here and the now.

"We were going to worry anyways!" Mom exclaimed. "Did those adventurers ever catch up to you? I got a bad feeling off of them."

Artemis and I quickly glanced at each other. She subtly tilted her head at me, letting me know the ball was in my court.

"Yes, but no." I said. "They tried, but weren’t particularly good at it."

Dad snapped his fingers together.

"The letter. The one that said Kerberos’s family had hired mercenaries to attack a Ranger. That was you, wasn’t it."

"Yup!" Artemis cheerfully butted in. "What happened?"

Mom and dad glanced at each other.

"I’m not sure." Dad finally admitted. "It would’ve been a bad look for me to march up with the rest of the Guard to their villa, so I was on patrol. All I know is a massive fine was paid, and Kerberos vanished. A few weeks later, Citizen Prasinos swung by, and we agreed to call off the marriage. No sense in having something arranged when neither of you were around. You’re a free woman."

It was like cloudy skies I never knew had broken, like a heavy bag was lifted from my head. I just sat there, jaw open, hardly daring to believe my ears.

Mom artfully leaned over, taking a finger out, and pushing my jaw back together.

"All we ever wanted was for you to be safe and happy, your future secured. We’re not a large, extended family, we have no relatives. This room is the entire family – yes, you as well Artemis. I had honestly believed a marriage to Kerberos – a Citizen, from a wealthy family, from Aquiliea, someone the same age as you, who wouldn’t need you to change your class into something to help the family business, who would somewhat let you be you? We couldn’t see you going down a path of true independence, not with the way Remus insists women are attached to men. I know that’s what you wanted, but it seemed impossible. I did my best to try and get you the best future you could possibly have!"

"Most kids – me included – hate and resent the idea that they’re going to be married. Everyone warned us about it. It’s why we didn’t listen to you. We assumed it was normal teenage rebellion, and that you’d cool off, go with it, and be happy, like so many people – men and women alike – do when they’re being told they’re getting married off. Heck, your father and I liked each other, wanted to be married to each other, and still hated the idea! It’s practically tradition to hate the announcement, and to declare it won’t be you. I’m sorry again for not listening to you." Mom said.

Mom shot Artemis a look, then with a masterstroke, one that with every word had Artemis sinking into her seat, which somehow managed to get her to look like she wished the ground would open up and swallow her whole, with brutal, cruel, unmatched betrayal, threw her under the bus.

"After all, I’d asked Artemis if she was willing to take you under her wing around Remus, as a Ranger tag-along, and she said no."

I shot Artemis a foul look. Seriously? Screw the fact that beetles would end up in my bed. She was getting a pile of them. Maybe I’d see if one of the other Rangers would let me bunk for a night.

Artemis mumbled some half-excuse from under her breath, so faint I couldn’t make out what she said. I was still glaring daggers at her. She seriously was willing to send me to the wolves? Mom had asked her to take me with her?

The food showed up at this point, interrupting the conversation. I took a deep sniff. Heavenly. Thinly sliced mango on top of I-don’t-care-which fish, infusing the soft flesh with eau de mango.

We dug in with gusto.

Oh dear gods, the chef must be over level 250. This was heavenly. This was divine. Energy filled my every limb, each bite lingering with taste in my mouth, changing and morphing with a brilliant aftertaste.

I needed to get rich enough for my own personal chef. New life goal. Money now had meaning.

"What changed your mind?" Dad asked around a mouthful of what he was eating, some massive sea-monster steak by the look of it.

Artemis and I looked at each other.

"I’ve kept this one a secret for you healy-bug. Gotta spill at some point."

Beetles and worms. I can’t exactly keep it a secret if Artemis has said there’s a secret, now could I?

Fine. I faced down charging monsters four times my level. I faced a plague, dinosaurs dive-bombing me from the sky, goblins trying to murder me, and Artemis’s training. I’d survive this.

I wanted to do this anyways, I just hadn’t quite expected for it to be today, now.

I steeled myself, and dropped the reincarnation bombshell.

"I was reborn. I used to live on another world – it was called Earth by the way, that’s why my first class was [Child of Earth] – and somehow, my soul got lost in the void after I died. Papilion found my soul, lost, wandering, and stuck me on Pallos. Hence, I’m here." I said, giving the bare bones in a few sentences.

Mom and dad barely even blinked.

"I’d always wondered what was going on with you." Mom said. "You were too clever, and too smart. Even had a priest once check if you were a changeling or not. Said you were human, you basically never reacted to cold iron, among a dozen other things, and, well, you’re the result of us praying to all the gods for a child."

"Wait, what?" I said, more surprised by mom’s revelation than they were by mine.

Dad snorted at me.

"Did you ever wonder why you were an only child with two healthy, vigorous parents?"

What did he mean – oh no. oh no. Cursed knowledge entered my mind, and I gagged, miming wiping my tongue, the flavor of mango in my mouth souring.

"You’re a blessed child, the result of us praying to the gods – and now we know to thank Papilion - and we weren’t too surprised to see you were likely god-touched. I will say, reincarnated is a new one – our guess had been intelligence and accelerated learning, and that was cemented in our mind when you took [Learning]."

I blinked at that.

"You knew?" I said.

Mom snorted.

"You’re as subtle as a brick, oh daughter mine, and about as good at keeping secrets. We’re your parents. Of course, we knew something was up. Like when you were learning how to read."

"Which we thought was again, due to a learning blessing."

"Or breaking into the library."

Elaine, Master Spy was more like Elaine, the Incredibly Obvious. Right. No secret missions, no spying, no double-crossing, no important secrets, none of that in my future. Unless I got real, solid training in being subtle during Academy.

We continued to chat, opening up to each other in a way we’d never done before.

"Oh, I almost forgot. I’d bought this for you as a ‘congratulations on getting married present’, but I’d understand if you don’t want it." Dad said, pulling out an intricate, beautiful copper bracelet.

"Oh wow, it’s beautiful!" I said, twisting and turning it, seeing how the wave pattern caught the light. "Bakus’s work?" I asked.

"Yup! Glad you like it." Dad said.

I continued my stories, my tales. They were fascinated by tales of Earth, how things were there. Me? I was processing through dozens of emotions as I mechanically answered questions.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Recollection of a Distant Life] has reached level 121!]

First off, and most importantly, what hadn’t really been in doubt but had still kept me up at night, wondering – my parents loved me. Total, unconditional love. They’d been a bit misguided in their attempts to marry me off, but they had honestly believed it was best for me. The reincarnation thing? It was interesting, but it didn’t stop a fundamental truth we all knew to be true – I was their daughter.

Putting myself into their shoes, I could almost see myself making a similar choice. A daughter, growing up. A society that demands everyone is a member of a household, headed by a man. A culture that had no problems marrying 14-years old’s off to 25-year old’s. Where people died, and women were expected to do huge amounts of unpaid, unrecognized work – not only rearing children, not only keeping the house running, but also helping the husband with his job and trade. Kerberos, from many angles, like mom had said, was ideal. In that respect.

What hadn’t been ideal, what mom confessed she completely missed until dad picked it up later, was his poor character. She’d tried to hedge at one point, saying that many teenagers were brats and grew out of it – especially with my guiding hand.

Fat chance. I wasn’t one to be fixing someone up.

Second – they weren’t going to try and control my life anymore. They’d even try to smooth things out for me in the future. However, I was warned – when dad eventually died, I was on my own, in a society that didn’t let women own property, enter contracts, or a dozen other issues.

I’d live. I had enough power as a healer to always make coin, and desperate people had no trouble handing the money over to a woman, although some frowned that there wasn’t a man to pick up the coins.

However, by extension, mom would also be on her own, and we were less sure of her future.

"Although, gods willing, Themis will be old enough by then."

"Themis?" I asked, not placing a face to the name.

"Yeah, Themis. Kid you saved from the fire, the slave boy that was given to us. We adopted him, he’s a member of the family now. His System Day is around the corner. Wants to be a guard, like me." Dad said, pride in his voice. A healing daughter for the healing mom, a guard son for the guard dad. Was anything more perfect?

A face sprang to mind then, memories of flame and blood, the first limb I’d ever restored coming to mind. I smiled at that. One good deed became another, and it sounded like, if heavens blessed it, everything would turn out alright for everyone.

We spent almost another hour chatting – mom being enamored with Earth, and women being nominally equal, although in practice that was… less than reality… when Artemis suddenly sprang up.

"Shit! Elaine! Your meeting at the temple!"

"Fuck! My meeting with Command!" Artemis yelled, throwing some coins on the table and sprinting out the door.

We spent a moment staring after her, then burst into harmonious laughter. A high voice, a low voice, and a third voice, a perfect blend of the first two.

Chapter 98– Government Vivisectionists

We left the restaurant, and I realized to my dismay:

"I have no idea where the temple is."

Most towns had a single, grand, temple, dedicated to all the gods and goddesses. It made numerous aspects of organized religion easy – a donation to one god was a donation to all of them, or so the priests said. If you needed to pray for, say, a healthy child and a good harvest, it meant you didn’t need to bounce around to multiple temples. It also meant that a few priests could service dozens of gods, pooling resources together efficiently. Otherwise some of the less-worshipped gods might not have anything.

We asked for directions, and my parents followed me as we started to head over to the temple.

"I don’t mind, but why are you following me?" I asked them.

"What, we can’t spend time with our daughter?" Mom asked, faux-offended. I rolled my eyes at her.

"Practically speaking, we’re going to the temple to give you a hand." Dad said. "I’m going to open an account with the temple for you."

Oh right. I’d gotten, if not unaware of how Remus worked, complacent at least. Temples acted as an early precursor to banks. There were no banks or bank accounts, you stored your money at the temple. Another benefit to a single, massive temple, as opposed to scattered temples to individual gods – better security on your vault and money.

As a woman though, noooo, I couldn’t possibly open an account. The priest would just tisk me, and tell me to bring my husband to open the family account. From the sound of it, dad was off to open an account for me, mention I was family and could use it, and get the key, or token, or whatever indicated that the account was mine.

I wonder how Artemis pulled it off? My bet was, she went in with thunder and fury, and bowled people over until she had an account, the rules - and law - be damned. Yeah, I could totally see her doing that.

We hurried through the streets at a brisk pace – I was somewhat late for some meeting or another, with a Priest Demos – but we spent as much time as possible catching up.

Which, to my great surprise, was mostly me catching up on what was going on in Aquiliea. I hadn’t imagined that at all. I’d imagined that I’d be telling my parents all about my adventures as a Ranger.

Nope, Artemis, the traitorous toad, had spilled all the beans ahead of time. Including Perinthus. It didn’t mean it had registered.

"Wait, you really were the hero of Perinthus?" Dad asked, for the 6th time.

"Yup. Pissed off Glacia though, she didn’t write me into the song. Just ‘The Rangers.’," I said, skipping down the road, ignoring the foul looks I got. Screw you, I was happy, I wanted to skip.

"But how?" Mom must’ve asked for the 3rd time.

"Knowledge. Knowledge from the other world. There’s no magic there, we had to make do with pure science. They figured out how disease works, and how to beat it. With that knowledge, I get a dramatic boost to how good my healing is, and gave me a rudimentary framework to work off of. Add in the rest of the team, and, well, we did it."

It was fun being able to finally brag and show off. There was no point talking to the random passerby’s on the road, and the rest of the team knew exactly what I’d done. This was my first chance in a year to really brag about my accomplishment, and I was going all-out.

After too much time chatting, we finally made it to the temple doors.

"No, Flavia married Kolius? Really?" I said, two distant faces coming together in my mind."

"Yes really. Expecting their first soon." Mom replied. "We’re here now."

We bowed in unison to the statue of Etalix, surrounded by what could only be lightning bolts – one day I’d figure out the deal with guardians – and entered the temple.

"Hi, I’m here for a meeting with Priest Demos." I said to the acolyte who seemed to be manning the information desk. He had a bored look on his face, which was immediately wiped away, replaced by a look of interest. He eyed me up and down with some curiosity.

"Priest Demos? You’re sure?"

"Yes, I’m sure." I said, trying not to let the impatience color my voice.

"What’s your bestowal? How strong is it? Where –" The acolyte was starting to get going, before cuffed by a passing priest, who looked mad.

"Acolyte Aeschylus. That is wholly inappropriate to ask a petitioner asking after Priest Demos." He hissed at the poor acolyte, while twisting his ear. Aeschylus was making all sorts of pained noises. I felt a little sorry for him.

He turned and bowed towards me.

"Pardon me. Let me lead you to Priest Demos." The priest said.

I turned and hugged my parents, before following him down the hall. I reached over and tapped Aeschylus as I passed him, hitting him with a quick [Phases of the Moon] to top him up.

"What’s Priest Demos like? Are there a lot of people who come talk with him? Does anyone ever, like, not leave after talking with him?" I pestered the priest with those questions and a dozen more as we walked through the hallways of the temple.

This was a big temple. Made sense, since it was the main temple of the main city, nominally servicing hundreds of thousands of people that lived in the city. Practically speaking, the city was large enough to support a few smaller temples, dedicated to specific gods – the one I knew of was Aion, Goddess of Life – but the temple was still massive.

The priest was stoic in the face of my ceaseless barrage of questions, although the lines on his forehead were getting steadily deeper. Finally, at long last, I annoyed him into submission, into giving me the sweet nectar of answers.

"Priest Demos handles all god-touched individuals. We’re instructed not to say much, because it could interfere with his work. Please, we’re almost there." He said, voice warbling slightly.

The priest knocked on the door, a small, light, tip-toeing around the big boss rap, then straightened up, smoothing some non-existent crease in his tunic.

"Come in." A voice far too soft to make it through the door somehow did, and I opened the door, walking into…

I don’t know what I expected, but this wasn’t it. Government vivisectionists, with sharp tools and implements. A gaudy chamber, flaunting the wealth of the big boss of the big temple.

No, what I got was a simple, modest room, a table and two chairs, and a kindly looking priest sitting at one of the chairs, in a simple robe, and a full, neatly trimmed beard. His hair was entirely white, and he had a simple pendant on.

My eyes snapped to the table, where there were two mangos. Someone had dished. Someone had leaked my secrets to him ahead of time, and I was being bribed.

Bribe away!

The door closed behind us, and the priest gave me a smile.

"Hello Elaine. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

I felt warmth and happiness fill the air, I felt myself relax, be calm.

Hang on. That wasn’t right.

I pointed my finger at him, awareness of the aura allowing me to dim the effect on me, but wanting it completely off anyways.

"No auras." I said, completely disregarding the fact that my own [Warmth of the Sun] was operating at full blast.

"Of course, forgive my impudence." He said, and I suddenly felt the warm fuzzy butterflies vanish, the cool air of the temple once again circulating.

"I was told you, ahem, enjoyed mangos. May I ask you to sit with me and chat for some time?" He said, gesturing towards the seat in front of me.

Well, chatting for the price of a mango? Oooh, I’d do so much more than chat for mango. And it wasn’t like I hadn’t spilled all my secrets already.

I sat down with all the grace 218 dexterity afforded me, which was respectably superhuman, if irrelevant against other physical classers at my level.

I promptly chowed down on one mango, while greedily eyeing the second one. I could see Demos’s beard crinkle with a small, hidden smile, as he gestured towards the second one.

"Have both, if it would please you."

I didn’t give him a chance to change his mind as I swiped the second one. I liked this priest.

"I’ve heard, from a little bird, that not only are you god-touched, but a full Ranger to boot! How impressive." He said, still calmly sitting back.

Welp, time to pay the piper. Cheaper than coin for the mangos, but I could make more coin if I was healing. Hang on, this chain of thought bore thinking about. What was the best way to maximize mangos/hour?

I shook my head. Focus. Here and now. Here and Now.

"God-touched is an interesting way to put it." I said, carefully not spraying precious mango everywhere. It’d be a crying shame, nay, nearly criminal, for me to lose mango like that. "There was a god – or goddess, depending on how Papilion is feeling – involved, but it felt more like Papilion was cleaning house, less so than touching me."

"Oh?" The kindly priest asked. "Would you care to elaborate?"

"Sure. One moment I was at home – on Earth, a different world entirely – and the next, I was in the Realm of the Gods, screaming and clutching my head. Papilion said something about a ‘lost soul’ and ‘removing traumatic memories’, so I have no idea what happened to get me there. Next thing I knew, Papilion was talking about reincarnating me as a Golden Crow, and ripping memories deemed ‘too dangerous’ out of my head."

"Like what?" He asked.

I gave him a Look.

"Ahem. Would you happen to have any examples, or knowledge, of what got removed?"

I trawled my mind, suddenly drawing a blank. A blank on blanks. Heh.

"Well…." I said, drawing it out. "Physics. Chemistry."

"What are those?" He asked. I shrugged.

"If I knew, I wouldn’t be mentioning them would I?" I said.

"I do know about glasses. Clear material over your eyes, made your eyesight better."

"How do they work?"

"See, that’s exactly the problem. I know what they are, but when I try to know how they work, I just draw a blank, a nothing."

"Fascinating. What else do you remember?"

"Medicine! Biology. Anatomy." I pulled out the set of scrolls I’d kept with me. "I’ve already written everything I know down, and I’ve asked a scribe to copy and distribute them. They’ve helped me immensely with my healing, and I’ve taken an [Oath], inspired by how medicine is done in my world, to help with healing." I offered the scrolls to him. "Would you like to take a look."

"If it’d be no imposition." Demos said in a stately manner, arching an eyebrow at me. I nodded my head, and he took the scrolls from me, unravelling them, and scanning over them.

His bushy eyebrows went up a half-inch, and I suspected with his many long years of service, and his many encounters with "god-touched" beings, that this was an expression of the greatest surprise.

"Would you mind if I made a copy for the temple?" He eventually asked, after skimming over the 5th scroll.

"Nope! Make a ton. Give ‘em out. I just spent all my money making copies to send to other healers. Oh, and my [Oath]. Should send that to people as well."

"You’ve mentioned that before. Tell me more?"

I found myself opening up to the kindly, grandfatherly man. It became clear to me after some time that this wasn’t just a priest, this was The Priest. And he was a master interrogator. And yet, he was so kind, so polite, so respectful, I couldn’t bring myself to care that I was being subtly manipulated to give him all the knowledge I had, everything I could dredge up.

Cars and trucks, the internet, books, libraries, government structure, literature, politics, wars. A light skimming on all of those, we didn’t have nearly the time for deep, in-depth dives on any of them.

I stoutly refused to give away any knowledge of weapons, both from an ethical and practical standpoint. I refused to give better ways for people to kill other people – even though said weapons would be primarily turned against monsters trying to eat people – and from a practical standpoint, my [Oath] would probably punish me for it, and while I had no way of knowing, I suspected it might be worse for knowingly breaking it.

It was the aspect he was most interested in, the one we spent the most time dancing around. It was becoming clear that, yes, this was still a government vivisectionist, and he was seeing if he could get immediate, practical, military use out of me. There was a war for survival going on, as much as I’d been sheltered from it.

All in all, I was glad for [Oath], giving me an easy excuse to refuse anything weapon or war- related.

No bombs. No napalm. Not even the thing that wiped out an entire city, every detail surrounding it wiped from my memory, so thoroughly cleansed out I didn’t even want to examine it too closely.

Nearly everything else was wrung from me. When Priest Demos realized just how much literature I had in my head, how many stories I could tell, how many tales I could sing, he did something which I suspect he’d never done in all his years of kindly chatting with blessed individuals.

He gave up.

He didn’t plunge the depths of every story, didn’t bother analyzing Star Wars, didn’t care about the plot of Harry Potter. In his own words, "I think we have better things to discuss. You could be famous as a bard if you wanted to."

However, after we were done with our exhausting, marathon-like conversation, I had some sympathy for the poor mangos I ate. This must be what a mango’s like, all wrung out, every little scrap of knowledge scraped from me to be eaten by the priest.

I’d even gotten a bunch of levels!

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Recollection of a Distant Life] has reached level 122!]

….

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Recollection of a Distant Life] has reached level 131!]

I was starting to think the skill was reaching the end of its useful life though.

He did look as pleased as a fox in a henhouse by the end of it though.

"This was a most fruitful discussion." He said, beard twitching slightly.

I groaned at the terrible pun. I have no idea if it was deliberate or not, but with how careful every word was, I believed it was on purpose.

"What happens next?" I asked.

"Well, I get to tell the powers that be that your blessing is in the ‘harmless or useful’ category, and we all go on our way."

The deadly implications of that clicked into place, and I froze up. The fact that "harmless" and "useful" were lumped together implied a gradient composing of "dangerous" and "more dangerous", and "we all go on our way" implied "We don’t go on our way" being the other option.

That might also be why he’d been interested in weapons and other technology surrounding killing others. He might have been testing if I had the potential to kill lots of people with the knowledge I was bringing in, if I was going to be another murderous Hesoid, but with better, stronger methods. If that was the case, the existence of my [Oath] probably helped.

I felt Demos turn his calming aura back on, and I glared at him, throwing up [Veil] briefly to not feel the Aura. I had no illusions that I could stop him if I wanted to – my [Identify] earlier had put him quite a bit over Artemis, like level 340 or so – but it was more so the message. My hackles were up, and after having spent the last two years as a Ranger, they didn’t go back down easily.

I turned it back down, glaring at him.

"I apologize." The Priest said, half-bowing from where he sat. "A habit, a reflex, from so many years teaching Acolytes."

I closed my eyes, breathing in, breathing out, letting it go. We were all good here. Julius was exceedingly unlikely to throw me to the wolves if he thought I’d get harmed. Not unless he thought I was some sort of mass-murderer, which [Oath] neatly neutered.

"Is there any small favor we could do to make up for the ugly misunderstanding at the end?" Demos asked me.

"N- uh, yes!" I said, remembering earlier. "I’d like a small bag of worms and beetles please."

I got the first unrestrained emotion from the priest at that, genuine, taken aback surprise.

"Ok, I’m not one to pry – well, yes I am, but not for this – but whatever for?" He asked.

"Artemis. Sold me out horribly. I’m dumping them in her bed as revenge."

The priest facepalmed.

"The fact that I know who Artemis is scares me the most." He said drily. "Please don’t have me preside over any funerals."

I gave him a flat look.

"Do you even know Artemis?" I asked him, comfortable enough after all our chatting to be a bit sassy.

"Do you?" He shot back.

I had nothing for that. I stuck my tongue out and left.

"Still a kid, even with all those extra years." He whispered to himself as I left.

I patted my carrying pouch. Still had my scrolls, and my sad, deflated money bags. I wonder how the priest knew I was telling the truth. Was it simply the details, the interlocking information, the sheer inability to conjure up all the information at once, like I’d convinced the Rangers? Or was his Divine Bestowal related to truth-detection, something far outside the System, but within the domain of the gods.

I met my parents at the entrance – they looked so bored having spent hours doing nothing but sit while I was chatting – and an acolyte that handed me a slightly squirming bag.

My parents eyed the bag.

"Do we want to know?" My dad asked, with no small amount of trepidation.

"For Artemis!" I cheerfully told them.

Mom facepalmed.

My dad handed me a very fancy key, a long, thick thing made out of metal, with small flecks of gems and Arcanite strategically located, soft lines of inscriptions tracing mystical patterns.

"Your bank key. Use it to access your vault. If you lose it, it can’t be easily replaced, so do not lose it. Understood?"

I nodded my understanding.

"Hang on, let me deposit my scrolls real fast." I said.

A quick deposit later, a whirlwind goodbye with my parents – with promises that we’d meet tomorrow, although "Don’t tell Artemis where", and an escort to Ranger HQ later, and I was carefully sneaking into my – well, Artemis’s – room, with a bag full of bugs. Cackling, I picked up my roll first – gotta get it clear first, wouldn’t want to end up with bugs in my roll– and emptied the bag into her cot. Serves her right, throwing me under the bus like that, giving away that I had a secret, not taking me with her initially, spilling everything to my parents.

Right. Time to find Julius’s room.

After a bunch of navigating around, asking for directions, and twice insisting that no, I was not a prostitute, no matter how it looked that a young woman was hauling around a cot inside of Headquarters, I found Julius’s room.

I knocked, and he opened the door.

"Elaine? Is everything ok?" He said, stepping back, letting me in the room.

I hauled myself in the room, closing the door behind me.

"Yup! But you might want to barricade the door."

"Artemis probably knows to find me here, and she won’t be happy."

Julius paled at that.

Chapter 99– The Grand Ranger Meeting

The Summer Solstice was here, and I woke up bright and early with the sun. Artemis still hadn’t enacted her revenge for the "bugs in the bedroll" stunt, and I knew she wasn’t the type to simply go "oh well, you got me, I deserved it, well done." The suspense was almost worse than any revenge she could enact.

But today was the Solstice, the day of the Grand Ranger Meeting – or so I was mentally calling it.

"Reminder Elaine." Julius said. "Meeting starts right after lunch, in That Room."

‘That Room’ didn’t have a name. It was the only unnamed room in HQ, and arguably, the entire building was built around it. It was a large amphitheater in the center of the building, able to seat hundreds, and the most important part of HQ was located there. The one part of HQ we’d all fight – and die – to defend, before letting it get ruined.

The Indomitable Wall.

Fortunately, that didn’t seem to be a concern today, and I happily skipped off to the baths for a good scrub. I wanted to be, to look, my absolute best today. The event was important enough to warrant it.

Blessedly, the solstice was the longest day of the year, which gave me the most time to get ready, to be prepared. Unfortunately, the rest of the city was also partying, the solstice being the main summer festival.

The long and the short of it was, everything was crowded, and most things were a bit more expensive. At the baths, I wasn’t able to get a little cubby to store my things, so I just brought my tunic with me in the bath, carefully balancing it on my head.

Washing while balancing my tunic, pouch, and more, on my head, was a real challenge. Fortunately, I wasn’t the only one with this problem, and I teamed up with another teenager in the same position to fix the problem. I held both of our stuff while she scrubbed, then we traded, and she held our stuff while I scrubbed.

Perfect!

We left, said goodbye, and I was off through the streets, trying to stay as clean as possible. [Veil of the Aurora] saved me – and a half dozen others – from a cart going a bit too fast down the road, through a cow pat some other animal had left. Thank the goddesses. I did not want to re-do the baths.

There seemed to be a [Beautician] class, or at least a few stores – run by women! Although owned by their husband – dedicated to purely makeup and cosmetics. I’d considered splurging on a session for the upcoming event, but when I saw the "Summer Solstice Spectacular Sale" price, I’d decided to simply buy some makeup and apply it myself. Bonus – I could avoid lead and other metals I remembered were toxic, although I didn’t know all of them. One day I needed to work on being able to cure heavy metal poisoning, else I’d go stark raving mad – literally. I acknowledged I was already a little crazy for doing this Ranger thing. The target audience was the wives and daughters of the richest citizens and senators who had literally millions of coins. The price had been outrageous before I discovered that it was the price measured in rods, not coins. Hence, doing it myself. I had the practice. I was going to look good.

Not perfect. Not bombastic. Not the star of the show or anything. Just – good. [Pretty], not beautiful.

I made it back, got ready. Got my fancy tunic that I could imbue skills into – my flaming dress, I thought of it.

"Hey Artemis," I said, popping into her room, seeing her put on the last pieces of armor, fancy red cape with no helmet. "how do I look?" I gave a short twirl, letting some flames flicker over the dress.

She glanced over at me.

"Wow! You look great healy-bug!" She said, getting up, making a move as if to hug me, then changing her mind. Didn’t want to mess up my outfit, which I appreciated.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Pretty] has reached level 124!]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Pretty] has reached level 125!]

Awww yes. [Pretty] levels.

"What do you think? Ranger Badge or no?" I asked, badge in hand, miming putting it on my chest, over my left breast.

I had no concerns about Artemis getting revenge on me today. It was in good fun at the end of the day, and today was too important, had too much meaning for the two of us, for horseplay. Artemis sucked the air through her teeth.

"In your shoes, I wouldn’t." She held a hand up to forestall any complaints I might have. "You’ve earned it. You deserve it. You have the right to carry it. But you’re going to be in front of everyone today – every Instructor. Every Ranger in Team 0 and Team 1. Every Sentinel. Half the recruits. You’re already going to stand out like a sore thumb – I checked, you’re both the youngest recruit this year by three years, and, no surprise, the only girl. Wearing the badge will only make you stick out more, and people who would otherwise leave you alone might be tempted to measure themselves against you, to ‘prove’ to themselves – or think they’re proving it to others – that either they belong, or you don’t."

"At the same time, some of the Instructors might approve of the gall, of you being unafraid, of proudly flying the flag in face of adversity. It’ll earn you brownie points there."

I frowned. Damnit. Politics of some flavor or another was rearing its ugly head.

I shook my head.

"All the Rangers are wearing the full fancy armor, right?"

"Right."

"Yeah, I’d stick out in a way I don’t like – not wearing the standard uniform. I’m not sure on all the politics and implications, but I don’t see it ending well."

Artemis patted my shoulder.

"Good call."

We had a small lunch – no crumbs, juice, or anything that could possibly make a mess massively restricting what I could eat – then headed off towards That Room.

We entered, and I got another look at the room. I’d taken a peek earlier just to get an idea, so I wouldn’t be overwhelmed and look like a country bumpkin the first time I entered, so I wouldn’t gawk around awkwardly and possibly embarrass the rest of the team. I’d do them proud.

There was a central oval, with the Indomitable‎ Wall against one skinny edge, on a platform. Rows of stone benches filled the rest of the central pit, all facing towards the wall.

Or facing away from the wall, if you were a monster like that.

In circles around the central pit, steadily rising rings of seats were present, like, well, any amphitheater.

There were, appropriately, 24 teams. I imagined there was one team for each skill the average human had access to, although the existence of a team 0 threw that for a loop. There were 16 rows of benches, with an aisle in the middle. 12 rows for the 24 teams, and the remaining 4 rows for command, support, Team 0, and other important VIPs that snagged one of the coveted "central" seats.

The non-central seats were for the legions of support staff. The farrier, the quartermaster, the horse trainer, the armorer, everyone’s favorite person, the paymaster, the janitors, the scribes, the healers, the Inscriptionists, and the legion of other support staff that meant we could roll in, get a full set of food, armor, rations, a wagon, trained horses, pay, not bother with politics, have a route set for us, new, well-trained recruits to join the team, and just go.

Graduates of Ranger Academy, those who’d completed everything, were in the audience as well. Their time would come, their names would be called.

Additionally, people who wanted to, could buy tickets to the event, and from what I’d heard, the tickets were pricey. Anything to up our meager budget, and with not a whole lot of early afternoon events, this was a place for movers and shakers to meet and mingle, usually of the martial type.

Tickets were free for widows, for children whose father’s name was written on the wall.

I was in the row with Team 4. Julius. Artemis. Kallisto. Maximus. Arthur.

A copious gap where Origen should be.

A less-obvious to me, but still present, gap where the two members of the team who’d started off with the Ranger, but had died before I got a chance to meet them, should be. It wasn’t that there wasn’t room for them, less so that they didn’t have a psychic presence in my mind the same way Origen did.

I looked around the room as other people came in. I was an "extra" on Team 4, but I was far from the only extra around. A number of women were scattered through the benches where the teams were located, wives to Rangers. One bench even had three kids, solemnly lined up, with the smallest, cutest little togas on them.

Bold move that. By custom, by tradition, only people who were on the rounds could claim a spot in the lower seats, and the presence of the kids indicated that they were traveling with their dad around Remus.

A few people of all shapes and sizes were scattered around, people the Ranger team had recruited in the field, and had simply never left. Like I was, when I was first picked up by the team. Without a doubt they were all heading to the Academy after, the only difference between us was I’d been offered a position as a full Ranger. I was glad I’d decided to not wear the badge – right now I blended in, wasn’t making a fuss.

There were a few animals scattered around. A hawk, on a Ranger’s shoulder. A bear, fur gleaming metallic, given wide berth – even on his own team’s bench. A protoavis, hopping from foot to foot.

The larger dinosaurs had been left outside, a concession to the size constraints inside the area, their sheer danger level, and the practical fact that they couldn’t fit through the door.

Twenty chairs were present on the stage before the Indomitable Wall, along with a podium. I eyed it, glowing lines of inscriptions all around it.

"Twenty coins says there’s a sound-amplifying enchantment on the podium." I whispered to Maximus, who, while not a betting man, could always be suckered into something System related.

He rolled his eyes at me, but to his credit, didn’t swat at me. My hair was too well done for anyone to mess with it.

"I know it has a sound-amplifying enchantment on it, it’s not my first time here." He drily pointed out.

"Ah, right." With great effort, I suppressed the urge to fidget. This was not the time, and I could not screw up my outfit.

The last of the crowd was shuffling in, and slowly, as the appointed time arrived, a hush fell over the crowd.

A single drumbeat, one stick hitting stretched hide. Bam.

Bam.

Bam – Ba-ba-duh-duh-dum.

The sound of drums slowly came in, more and more of them, beating a solemn beat. Fifteen men filed in, all dressed in the standard Ranger armor, red capes with no helmets. All had the Ranger Eagle on the chest, but in two different ways.

The first eight men had the circle, with a pair of laurels surrounding the circle. The indicator of Ranger Command, the eight men who oversaw the entire operation. Four Rangers, promoted to command. Two sent from the Army, however they saw fit. Two from the Senate, however they worked it out.

Behind them marched another seven men, this time with a sunburst around the Eagle. I recognized Bluebeard marching along.

Arthur whispered in my ear, pointing to them in turn.

"Hunting. Bulwark. Sealing. Sky. Nature. Destruction. Ocean. Magic, Night, Brawling, and Acquisition aren’t here it seems like. Their seat is still open for them if they do make it."

Command marched to the stage, each one stepping in front of a chair, then in a single, smooth, coordinated motion, pivoted and turned around. I raised an eyebrow at that. Even the Senators pulled it off? My bet was ex-military. Could be lots of practice – this was the event for Rangers.

The Sentinels made it to the stage, to their seats, but weren’t as coordinated, simply turning around as they each made it to their spot. Made sense – they were all busy men, and didn’t act as a unit.

One of the Commanders stepped up to the podium.

"Welcome, to the Ranger Convocation!"

A loud cheer broke from the crowd, myself included.

A fairly long speech came from the Commander, followed by three more speeches. Acknowledgements of accomplishments. Thanks. Praise to the Senate. That one I bet was to get more funding, and/or propaganda. I carefully schooled my eyes, not rolling them. No bets on the people on stage having enough vitality boosting their perception to see everything that was going on, and probably taking mental notes.

The speeches were, somehow, incredibly boring, and I somewhat filtered them out. I stayed looking at the stage – it’d be the height of rudeness not to – but I was drifting away.

The speeches were boring.

It was only when the Indomitable Wall was mentioned that I snapped to, paying attention again, checking to see exactly what had just been said.

"… and now, it’s time to carve the names onto the Indomitable Wall."

An old, powerful looking man from one of the VIP seats stood up, and walked to the stage, each step careful, measured. Placed slowly but firmly, exactly where he intended it to go.

The drums started to play again, a slow, solemn, melancholy beat. Each name said here, said now, was a life cut short in defense of Remus, a peak warrior killed. This would be, in many ways, their only remembrance, their only legacy. A name, stated. A phrase, uttered. A carving, in a stone wall.

Then we’d move on. People would frequently visit the wall, but as time went on, fewer and fewer people would come for a specific name. Soon, they’d just be an engraving that eyes would wander over, maybe widening as they noticed they held the same name as a fallen, or in awe at the sheer number of names carved.

It was not a small wall. There was not a lot of spare room.

"Team 2." The Commander announced.

The man, who I could only assume was the leader of Team 2, got up, and with the weight of the world on his shoulders, marched up to the stage, got behind the podium, and faced the crowd.

"Lucius Viducius Draco." He called out.

We bowed our heads, reciting in unison.

"Brave Ranger. Your time to rest has come. May White Dove take you to a better place. Your deeds will not be forgotten. We will remember you."

The man who’d walked up to the stage tapped on the wall, and the name of the Ranger appeared in the next open spot. A powerful, high-level [Stonemason], able to carve names with a tap. The perfect class, the perfect skill, the perfect level, for here and now.

Another name. Another recital.

A pause.

Team 2’s leader got down. Only two dead. A success.

Team 3’s leader went up next. He was young to be a team leader.

Too young.

There was nobody else on the bench.

Seven names were recited. A near-miss from a full team wipe. Given how badly the last man looked, given how he was shaking, the haunted look on his face, the thousand-yard stare in his eyes, for all practical purposes, it was a full team wipe.

Team 4 was called next, and Julius took the stage.

"Alexander." He called out, meeting the eyes of the audience, scanning through each of us, back ramrod straight. Not backing down.

"Brave Ranger. Your time to rest has come. May White Dove take you to a better place. Your deeds will not be forgotten. We will remember you."

"Vel Icarus Aulus."

"Brave Ranger. Your time to rest has come. May White Dove take you to a better place. Your deeds will not be forgotten. We will remember you."

"Publius Origen Cicero."

"Brave Ranger. Your time to rest has come. May White Dove take you to a better place. Your deeds will not be forgotten. We will remember you."

I called it out like I’d called out the rest of them, tears streaming down my face. I thought I’d handled the guilt. No, it was still there, reminding me that Origen had voted against entering the town, that I’d basically dragged him there anyways, and he’d died for it.

Julius came down to the slow beating of the drums, as the remaining teams came up one at a time. His eyes were closed, fists clenched. It couldn’t be any easier for him to go through this, than for anyone else. Harder even. He was the one who made the calls, who was responsible for each and every one of their deaths. Was there something he could’ve done better? Could Investigations have only had three people in it, working as a single unit, to have given Origen backup, so he wouldn’t be traveling solo?

Would that have helped, or would the deadly miasma spewed out by Hesoid have claimed two Rangers, not one?

What if, what if, what if. The curse of command.

Some teams – like Team 0, Team 1, Team 8, Team 14, and Team 17 got off scott-free, not a single casualty.

Team 13 completely wiped, and one of the Commanders read off the list of all their names. It wasn’t mentioned if they had any tagger-ons, if there was a wife or kids who’d died as well.

No mention of how they fell.

Silence followed the last name called out.

There was no need to call for a moment of silence. We gave it naturally; they’d given their lives. The moment stretched into two, into four, into eight moments of silence. Not even the kids made a peep, not even a rustle of cloth.

One of the Commanders got up, and walked to the podium, the moment broken.

"I’d like to congratulate the new Academy graduates. As you hear your name, please approach the stage.

"Trainee Acilius, approach."

A man jumped up from the trainee section, and walked onto the stage. A handshake, a Ranger Badge changing hands, and he held his hands up triumphantly, new badge in hand.

A polite applause met this, and he jumped down, going towards an area that seemed to be marked off for new graduates.

"Trainee Alus, approach."

It rapidly became clear the order was alphabetical, as one name after another was announced.

As names were called, I looked around. There was a whole section dedicated to Academy graduates, but some were getting uglier and uglier looks on their face. I suddenly realized – they weren’t necessarily graduates yet. They were finding out, here and now, in front of everyone, if they passed and were assigned to a team or not.

Ouch. Can’t find a nicer way to tell people they’d washed out?

"Now, it is time to announce the new teams for the following round."

"Team 1. First, I’d like to congratulate Galenus, for his promotion to Team Leader. The remaining members of the team are as follows:"

He read off a list of seven names, a cheer coming from each one, all from the "already a Ranger" section.

Team 1 was the team assigned to the capital, and only the capital after all. It made sense that they were only the best. No raw recruits for them!

Name after name, team after team was announced. Julius was now Team 6, still a team leader. I let out a little sigh I didn’t know I was holding. They weren’t holding me against Julius – yet. Kallisto Team 8. Maximus Team 11.

Most of the time, when someone’s name was called, they yelled out, or raised their hand, so future team mates got an initial impression of them. They’d meet and mingle later, starting to get to know each other. Talk with former teammates. Get a read on the people they’d be spending the next two years with.

In Julius’s case, pay out a bunch of bets that he’d prevent an Artemis friendly-fire incident.

Artemis’s name wasn’t called. Neither was Arthur’s.

"It’s not there. Elaine, it’s not there!" Arthur said to me, growing frantically excited, but subdued, restrained.

"What’s not there?" I hissed to him. He just shook his head, muttering to himself.

The last few names were called. Mine wasn’t among them, not that I’d expected it to be. I had a slim hope that they’d just skip right over making me do Academy, and keep me as a Ranger.

"And now, something special. Ranger Artemis, approach the stage." A different Commander had the podium.

Artemis beamed, and with what could only be described as "maximum non-military grace and decorum", bounded up to the stage.

"Artemis has been with us for 14 years – an amazing 7 rounds. She’s survived every one of them, although, not without a few, ah, incidents."

That got a round of chuckles, and some cheers, hoots, and boos.

"I am pleased to announce that as of today, Artemis is becoming the rarest of Rangers. One retired with distinction. Everyone, please give Artemis a hand."

Thunderous applause. Regardless of her reputation – although from the looks of it, being "twitchy and alive" was well-lauded, compared to "dead and anything else". Then again, a whole 14 years of surviving as a Ranger? Artemis probably had seniority on almost all the other Rangers, and could rival entire teams combined.

And a Ranger, retiring, one taking it with as much grace as Artemis was? Yeah, it made people happy. It gave them hope, a reminder, that one day they too might be on the stage with thunderous applause, retiring happy, instead of being written onto the wall.

I looked at the wall. I looked at the one, only publicly retiring Ranger.

I didn’t like those odds.

Didn’t stop me screaming myself hoarse with cheers for her though. I wanted to be the loudest, damnit! She was my teammate, my mentor!

Team 4 had the blessed distinction of, yes, being the loudest, all of us having fresh memories of Artemis saving our lives. There were a number of scattered Rangers throughout, equally enthusiastic, former teammates of Artemis celebrating her accomplishment.

"Artemis, would you like to say a few words?" The Commander said, giving the stage to her.

"Of course! Thank you everyone!" Artemis said, to more applause.

This was going to take forever.

"I’d like to say it’s been the best time of my life, working with all of you. You gave me a home when I needed it. You gave me direction, and meaning. Thank you."

"I’m pleased to announce that I’m starting up a school for mages, anywhere from just unlocked, to as far as they’ll go. You want your kid to be a mage? You want help becoming a caster? Come to the School of Sorcery and Spellcraft, and learn it all!"

I winced. Advertising? Really? Then again, when else would Artemis have a captive audience of some of the richest members of society, the movers and shakers of the Republic? A good chance to get her name out there.

The rest of the crowd didn’t have such a negative take on it, and her announcement was met with more cheer. I think she could’ve said anything, and been met with thunderous applause.

Artemis waved and jumped down from the stage, striding back over to where we were.

Arthur looked like he was going to have a heart attack. Pale and sweaty, hands trembling. I touched him, pulsing [Phases of the Moon] through him just in case.

Did they forget about him or something? Was he being fired?

Was he currently having a heart attack or something?

"Lastly, Ranger Arthur, please approach the stage."

All the Sentinels got up at that. While they hadn’t been lounging – they were the pictures of military perfection – they hadn’t exactly been cheering and making a bunch of noise otherwise.

"Go on Arthur, you can do this." I whispered to him, giving him some support. He’d paste me if he leaned too hard.

He took a deep breath, and with perfect, military precision, the type that would bring a tear to a drill instructor’s eye at it’s sheer correctness, he marched up to the stage.

"A Ranger. At least one round. The undisputed best in his field. A grand feat. An open seat. The ability to survive on your own. Powerful combat prowess. Able to move through Remus, solving problems."

"Arthur, you’re a master of all types of poisons, and your classes, skills, and fighting style reflect it. You single-handedly slew a monster over level 1000, you can survive an Ornithocheirus attack in the open, have masterful stealth abilities, and are one of the best [Rangers] we know."

I mentally snorted at the blatant propaganda, inflating the monster’s level.

"Arthur. We hereby name you, The Toxic Sentinel." The Commander said, pinning a badge, with an eagle inside a starburst onto his chest.

A roar came up from the crowd, the sound of it making a physical, pressing thing.

I didn’t care all that much – I was screaming myself hoarse with the rest of them.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Ranger’s Lore] has reached level 134!]

…

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Ranger’s Lore] has reached level 140!]

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 16]

[Mana: 17210/17210]

[Mana Regen: 20721]

Stats

[Free Stats: 62]

[Strength: 118]

[Dexterity: 218]

[Vitality: 235]

[Speed: 220]

[Mana: 1721]

[Mana Regeneration: 2379]

[Magic Power: 1506]

[Magic Control: 2039]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 187]]

[Celestial Affinity: 187]

[Warmth of the Sun: 158]

[Medicine: 184]

[Center of the Galaxy: 160]

[Phases of the Moon: 187]

[Moonlight: 104]

[Veil of the Aurora: 146]

[Vastness of the Stars: 135]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 62]]

[Fire Affinity: 62]

[Fire Resistance: 62]

[Fire Conjuration: 62]

[Fire Manipulation: 62]

[Fuel for the Fire: 62]

[Burn Brightly: 62]

[Rapidash: 62]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 96]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 131]

[Pretty: 125]

[Vigilant: 131]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 167]

[Ranger's Lore: 140]

[: ]

[Learning: 148]

Chapter 100– Major Interlude – Iona – The Tunnel to Terrabethia

Iona got out of bed with all the fury and joy of an 8-year-old.

An 8-year-old on her birthday.

An 8-year-old on her Unlocking Day!!!

The rest of her family groaned in the small hut they called home as Iona blazed through, and right out the door.

"I unlocked! I unlocked!" She cried out, excitement and joy radiating from every fiber of her being.

She ran past the longhouse that dominated the center of the village, the traveling skald sleeping off a hangover on the steps, then skidded to a halt in front of another hut, made out of wood, straw thatch on the roof, dried mud covering the cracks and not letting the chill breeze in. A hut that looked like any other in the village, but was special, not for how it was made, but for who lived in it.

"Lux! Lux! Come out here!" Iona called out. A few of the neighbors, already up and working, chuckled good-naturedly at the whirlwind made flesh excitedly bouncing around, remembering fondly the day when they’d unlocked the System, when magic became real and accessible for each of them.

A very sleepy-looking girl exited the house. Delicate features, mousey brown hair, and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes – it was clear she hadn’t slept a wink last night.

"Iona? Wu?" Lux said.

"I. Unlocked!!!" Iona said, emphasizing each word as carefully as she could. Lux’s eyes widened.

"You unlocked! Hurray! I need to unlock now! Any moment now…"

Lux screwed her eyes up and concentrated, seeing if she could get the last few hours out of the way by sheer force of will.

Nothing. The System wasn’t to be defeated by the mere will of a girl.

Iona rolled her eyes at Lux’s antics. She adored Lux – they were two peas in a pod, cut from the same cloth. Sure, she was distractible, needing Iona’s constant, steady hand to focus and stay on track, and was frankly bananas for bananas, but she provided a spark of curiosity, a burning inquisitive mind, and a creativity that Iona couldn’t match.

In short, they were perfect for each other, they complemented each other, covered each other.

"Anyways, anyways, what did you get? What did you get?" Lux said, having given up on bending the System to her will.

Iona quickly checked over her notifications for the hundredth time this morning.

"[Child of Lithos]!" She happily called out. "Level 7." She said, puffing her chest out. Bow before me, peasant! [Duchess] Iona was here to rule with an iron fist!

"Wow! Did you put points into your stats yet?" Lux asked, wide-eyed.

Iona hesitated, then relented. They had no secrets. Bending over, whispering to her, she said,

"Well, yes. Everyone keeps saying Mana Regeneration is the best stat, and to put everything there. But I put my points into Dexterity and Strength. That way I can fight the people that bully you."

Lux gave her a hug, burying her face in Iona’s shirt.

"You didn’t have to." She said through the cloth.

Iona patted Lux’s back.

"Of course, I did! Come on, let’s go play in Terrabethia!"

That managed to distract Lux, not that it was an accomplishment worth bragging about. A butterfly could distract Lux from… anything really.

"Yeah, let’s go!"

Holding each other’s hand, they sprinted off to Terrabethia, their magical place. Soon to be even more magical with Iona having skills! And levels!

"Are you girls heading off to the old mine again?" The guard at the village exit asked them.

"Yup." Iona said, chin held high, defiantly.

The guard sighed, having lost this very same argument dozens of times already, not wanting to go through the wringer with the pair of scoundrels so early in the morning.

"Please be careful in there. It’s not safe."

Lux stuck her tongue out at the guard.

"Not safe for big fat adults maybe. Safe for quick girls! Come on Iona, let’s goooo!"

As they ran through the woods, up the hill, to the entrance of the old mine, Iona looked over the skills she was offered. Mom and Dad had given her some suggestions yesterday as to what skills she should take, and Iona suspected that once they were awake, they’d dictate what skills she’d take.

However, for a few, brief, glorious hours, Iona was free from parental tyranny, able to grab skills and allocate stats as she saw fit.

[Name: Iona]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 8]

[Mana: 40/40]

[Mana Regen: 33]

Stats

[Free Stats: 0]

[Strength: 20]

[Dexterity: 20]

[Vitality: 7]

[Speed: 11]

[Mana: 4]

[Mana Regeneration: 4]

[Magic Power: 4]

[Magic Control: 4]

Frowning over her offered skills, she started off taking [Analyze], the classic skill for seeing what level someone was. Apparently, everyone had it, and everyone said it was a good idea. Iona was a free spirit, not inclined to listen too much to other people, but when that many people said the same thing? She’d be silly not to take it. It just made sense!

[Cute] was up next, because Iona was as cute as a button. Why not!

[Alert] was good for making sure no monsters or dinosaurs were sneaking up on them in the woods, and Lux would never be [Alert]. One of them had to be on guard for danger, and if it wasn’t going to be Lux, it had to be her.

[Walking] is what Iona spent way too much time doing, and the skill was tantalizing, promising an easier life, a way to get from A to B with less effort, using magic to fuel things. [Walking] away!

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Walking] has reached level 2!]

Levels already! Happy day! Iona jumped as much as she could with Lux holding onto her other hand.

Iona was tough, and [Tough] was an option. It’d help in the inevitable brawl as one of the older kids picked on Lux, and Iona would need to swoop in to save the day.

Speaking of needing to swoop in to save the day, it was inevitable that it’d end up in a bare-knuckle brawl, a hellion fight in the mud between Iona and whoever the most recent tormentor was. The System was a generous god, and had offered her [Brawling].

Yeah! Nobody would ever win against her again!

Although, unlocking marked a rite of passage, and fights between people with their System unlocked and those that hadn’t was strongly discouraged, which would just make life harder. The older, bigger, stronger tormentors might be back to fighting, while the younger ones couldn’t be beaten up anymore.

Lux was a darling, and after each fight, after each black eye, would carefully try to patch Iona up, carefully dabbling some concoction or another on her. Lux kept insisting she wanted to be a [Mage], but Iona couldn’t see it. Lux was 100% becoming a [Healer], or she’d eat her hat.

Why oh why couldn’t Lux be more sociable? She annoyed people by just ignoring them, not really caring for them or wanting to be around them. Other people said something was "off" about Lux, and tried to shun her, cast her out of their social circle. The designated punching bag. Without her, without Iona, she’d be all alone in the world.

It made Iona worry over her, gave her a rare, well, not sleepless night, but a few minutes of worry at night. What would ever happen to Lux if something happened to Iona?

It drove Iona. It made Iona want to be stronger, be able to protect Lux. Nobody else would do it after all.

Two skill slots left. Iona hesitated a moment, then decided to listen to the wild old priestess the town had, that learning and education were the most important things. Any other adult telling her, and Iona would probably bristle, and deliberately not pick it. The old priestess, looking like she’d been alive two hundred years, who always had a kind word, an ear for Iona’s problems, and always had stories about the gods and goddesses? Iona listened to her; in a way she didn’t listen to anyone else. Stories about Lunaris and Selene were her favorites, but Iona wasn’t picky – any story was a good story.

She was starting to get a sneaking suspicion that her parents were feeding lessons into the priestess for her to tell Iona, but, well… Iona hadn’t quite fully made that connection yet.

The long and short of it was, [Education] was the 7th general skill Iona took, and then she paused, as they were nearing the entrance of the mine. This was the last skill, and suddenly the skill restriction mattered.

The entrance of the old mine had a stone monument in front of it, an ancient claim by the Empire of Remus to the mine.

Even the dust of the Empire was gone by now, only a few historical records, and the occasional monument and grave to rob left, marking the existence of humanity’s first civilization. The count ruled the lands now, and there was a dizzying array of nobility involved.

Iona didn’t bother with any of that. She longed for the days of the Remus Empire, where there were no nobles, nobody with that type of privilege, no peerage who could and did crush peasants under their boot.

"Let’s go!" Iona said, eagerly pulling Lux into the mine with her.

Kids would be kids, and Iona and Lux loved to explore the nooks and crannies of the world around them, as limited as it was. There used to be a mine here, a source of precious Arcanite, ancient from the look of it, and each generation had, with slightly better skills, gotten deeper and deeper into the mine, until one day, one of the thousands of support beams had given way, and the whole thing had practically collapsed on itself.

The village was self-sustaining though, and farmers were stubborn people. Generations of farmers had come and gone, and the village had long weaned off of any reliance on the mine. It was a simple, nondescript village now, with nothing particularly special to set it apart.

They had sheep of course, Felix’s impulsive wish reverberating through the eons, his largest embarrassment potentially becoming his greatest fame.

Iona and Lux had spent time playing in the mine together, away from the other village kids that liked to bully Lux.

"It’s dangerous!" The adults kept saying. "Don’t go there!"

They also said pigs, weather, the sun, monsters, travelers, swords, fire, and dinosaurs were dangerous. Some of those were dangerous, yeah, but Iona still didn’t see how the sun was dangerous. She’d made fires, and yeah, if you were dumb they could hurt, maybe be dangerous, but apart from that, they were fine.

She figured the mine was either in the sun category, or the fire category. Probably the sun category. People kept saying it was dangerous, but it wasn’t that dangerous.

"Let’s explore!" Lux said, shooting down a side path. Iona waited, tapping her foot. They’d explored that tunnel at least twenty times, and it was a short dead end.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, Lux came back out, looking sheepish.

"How about Terrabethia?" Iona asked, not waiting for an answer before grabbing Lux’s hand and moving through the tunnels.

Terrabethia was what they’d named a little valley that the mine exited to on the other side. It was their place, their special magical spot, where they could go and nobody could find them. Endless adventures lay in that tiny valley. Castles were built and raided, dinosaurs slain, Kings and Queens rescued, and, at the end of the day, good triumphed while evil was cast down.

Standard kid play.

"Yeah! Yeah! I want to be Chloe!" Lux excitedly said.

Iona got right into it.

"Alright! I’ll be Felix then!"

Felix and Chloe, two of the three names every human knew. They were each responsible for a global +1 to all humanity, the [Knight] and the [Mage], along with the [Grand Hero] Herculix.

After all this time, nobody was quite sure what they had done, just that everyone got a notification about them, and the corresponding bonus. Well, two notifications with Felix. The other one didn’t matter though.

They ran through the tunnels, a path carved into their mind after so many trips down. Over rocks, sliding under fallen timber supports, a short swim, and one wriggle through a narrow crack, and they were out, into the magical valley.

"Yurok! It’s Yurok, the Guardian!" Lux claimed, climbing a tree.

"Forwards Yurok!" She cried out, pointing imperiously into the distance.

The perfectly normal oak, of course, didn’t move, but that didn’t stop their imagination.

"Hiya!" Iona grabbed a branch, fending off hordes of zombies, as Lux pelted magic missiles – acorns – from above.

By the twin goddesses of the moon, stats felt amazing. Iona could feel her arms being stronger, the stick whizzing through the air. A sharp pull back at one point even had a crack go through the stick, as it broke under the forces.

"By the way, why are you Felix today? Why not a [Knight-Errant], like the one that’s in town?"

Iona froze at that, whirling around to see Lux up there in the tree.

"What do you mean?"

"A [Knight-Errant] is visiting! Said she’d be here for a few days. She said she’s one of the va- vala – valk"

"A Valkyrie!?" Iona practically shrieked out. "Why didn’t you tell me!" She demanded.

"I thought you knew!" Lux said, cowering slightly at her friend’s anger. "She rides a triceratops!"

"Come on let’s go let’s go!" Iona said, dropping the broken stick, blitzing back to the entrance of the cave. She paused for a moment, waiting for Lux to catch up, before diving back into the winding maze.

Over the rock. Wriggle through the passageway. Slide under the collapsed beam, impatience written on her face at every step.

But never yelling at Lux, no. She was, in some ways, so very fragile, so reliant on Iona.

Well, it was also somewhat unfair to Lux. She’d unlock later in the day – Iona was the older one. Barely. Same birthday, different time of day, and, well, that’s why Iona was the big sister, the one who needed to protect Lux. Lux didn’t have extra skills yet, extra points in Strength and Dexterity making some of the formerly difficult twists and turns in the tunnel easy.

She tried punching the wall a few times, and got rewarded.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Tough] has reached level 2!]

Ha! Levels! The perfect thing to get while Lux was struggling along. Iona knew Lux didn't want a hand, and especially would resent it today.

Sliding to the side of a rock. Punch the walls. Wait for Lux to catch up.

Swim through a pool of water, the formerly bitingly cold sting somewhat faded – immediate benefits from [Tough]. Shake it off. Punch the walls. Wait for Lux to catch up.

Sprinting down a hallway, reveling in the feel of the air, of her legs being stronger. Punch the walls. Wait for Lux to catch up.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Tough] has reached level 3!]

Yes! I knew this was the right thing to do!

Carefully navigate around some beams, waving her hand – hitting the wall smarted – Iona had an idea.

Why not hit the wooden beam? Softer than the rock-hard wall.

With all the might of 20 Strength, she punched the wooden beam.

Again.

And again.

And –

With a mighty crack, the beam collapsed, a portion of the ceiling falling down. Iona jumped back, the massive part of the mountain narrowly missing her.

"Oh no!" She yelled out. "Lux are you ok?"

"Yeah, I’m fin-" Lux started to say, only to be interrupted by more rumbling.

More rocks falling, crashing down, dust billowing up.

"Lux!" A scream ripped from Iona’s throat, as she backed up, trying to avoid being crushed by the falling rocks.

[*Ding!* You have slain a [Human] (Classless, lv 1)]

[*Ding!* Congratulations! [Child of Lithos - Water] has leveled up to level 8! +2 Free Stats from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Dexterity from your Element!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! You’ve unlocked the General skill [Traps]. Would you like to take this skill? Y/N]

Iona dismissed the notifications, refusing to believe them, trying to move the massive rockslide that now blocked the path.

Nothing. The rocks barely moved.

The Valkyrie. She thought. She can fix this. She can fix anything.

Iona flew out of the mine at max speed, heedless of the scrapes and bruises, the cuts on her arm. She stumbled, falling down the hill, rolling down, more brambles stuck in her blonde hair. Running, screaming, crying, denying reality, wishing she could turn back time to the happy morning.

The Valkyrie will make it right. Was her only thought, her only way forward.

She ran into town, ignoring any other notifications that were occurring.

How had she missed the [Knight-Errant], the Valkyrie, the living embodiment of what Iona wanted to be? The Triceratops was impossible to mistake, the snuffling noise filling the village as it happily chowed down on an entire bale of hay for a meal, the Valkyrie with her winged helmet lounging nearby.

"Excuse me excuse me please help my friend is trapped in the mine." Iona said in a single rush.

She – [Knight-Errants] of the order Valkyrie were all women – glanced at a man, who quickly nodded at her. Iona missed all of her injuries healing up, a warm glow filling her as energy filled her limbs.

"Lead the way." She said, picking Iona up in her arms. Iona pointed, and they were off.

They moved so fast Iona could barely keep track, the Valkyrie stopping now and then for a moment for Iona to re-orient herself, and point again in the direction they needed to go next. They got to the mine, and miracle of miracles, they’d been close enough to the exit that there were no squeezes tight enough for the Valkyrie to get stuck in.

They made it to the pile of rocks, dim light filtering in through holes in the ceiling.

"See, see, she’s stuck behind this. I can’t move it, can you help? Please?" Iona said, tugging on a rock to show the futility of her action.

"You didn’t get a notification, did you?" The Valkyrie asked.

Iona hesitated, then slowly nodded. There had been something like that.

"But but you’re a Valkyrie. You can do anything! It might not even be her. Please, you gotta save her."

Her face fell.

"Oh sweetie, I’m sorry. She’s gone."

"No! Impossible! Fix it, please, I’ll do anything!" Iona yelled and screamed, bashing her fists against her armor, ignoring the damage and bruises to her hands, ignoring the notifications of [Tough] leveling up, cruelly mocking her.

Iona broke down in the cave, crying great big tears.

Telling her parents had been bad. Telling Lux’s parents – even worse. Rubbing salt in, they didn’t blame her, not even when she mentioned that she’d gotten credit for the kill, a triple notification that she had been to blame.

There was no body for the funeral, no need to dig a grave. Just a simple Symbol of the Five Gods on a wooden stick. If Iona was lucky, it’d last three years.

Iona spent the day, the night, and the next day, praying. Begging the gods to return her Lux to her.

"I want to be a Valkyrie. Take me with you." Iona said.

Alruna, the [Knight-Errant], looked down with amusement at Iona. She spent a long time in thought, slowly looking between Iona and the man with her, the boy following him along.

"He has an apprentice; you can have one as well!" Iona said, working on her charm. People had always said she was charming. Drat, why hadn’t she taken [Charming]?

"He’s an Order healer, not a [Knight-Errant]. That’s his apprentice." Alruna said, mouth twisting in a grin.

"Well, fine, you look like you need an apprentice. I can cook! Clean!"

Swallowing her fear, Iona approached Alruna and her steed. She barely came up to the triceratop’s knee. Bundling the loose end of her shirt in her hand, she started to try and polish the leathery skin of the dinosaur.

"See, see, I can be useful!"

"Please, take me with you. I want to be strong. Strong enough to protect people. Strong enough to defend them, even against falling mountains."

Alruna looked with a serious, scary look, pressuring bearing down on Iona.

"Do your parents know about this?"

Iona wanted to say they’d blessed the idea, that they’d let Iona run after Alruna and the triceratops carrying the three of them after they’d left town.

It’d be a lie.

Iona slowly shook her head.

"You sure? This is a hard life, a one-way ticket. The class doesn’t translate well to other walks of life. It’s a lifelong commitment."

Iona nodded furiously.

Alruna shrugged.

"Alright. Why not. You’ll want to take the [Page] class. A quick breakdown of different types of elements, and where they’ll lead you."

"Fire is pure strength, overwhelming people with power."

"Water is delicate, like fencing, hitting where it causes the most damage."

"Earth is stout, all about holding the line, not falling when the time comes."

"Wind is fast, hitting and running before they can hit you back."

"Metal is smart, using a variety of weapons to your benefit, always having the right tool."

"Wood is clever, using nature and beasts around you to your advantage."

"Light is persistent, being able to heal yourself, reinvigorate yourself. Last longest in fights – if you survive."

"Dark is penetration and destruction, going through armor – and bodies."

Iona spent a moment thinking about it, before deciding to be smart about it. Ignoring adults had led to Lux dying, and she wasn’t going to make that particular mistake again, now.

"What do you have?"

"Me? I’m Brilliance and Void – Light and Dark evolved. My blade pierces through all, and I can spend hours – days even – fighting, healing faster, mana giving me energy to keep going."

Iona eyed the weapons on the triceratops’s saddle. Spears, lances, crossbows, swords, dozens of bags.

But the curved, wicked axe with glowing runes called to her, and was a skill she was being offered. The idea had been woodcutting, but the skill should apply anyways.

[Axes] was Iona’s last general skill.

It only took two days of training for all of Iona’s general skills to be maxed, and for her to be ready to class up.

"Ask your guide if you have questions. Best of luck!" Alruna said, cheerfully waving Iona off.

It was amazing how easily Alruna took to having a runaway apprentice, getting barely a raised eyebrow from the healer she was partnered with, but getting grousing from the healer’s apprentice, who felt the time and attention on him was diminished, for an increase in chore load.

Iona closed her eyes, letting herself enter the world of her soul.

A grand temple met Iona’s eyes, as a priestess, dressed in a simple garb, met her.

She was cute as a button, with long, flowing, wavy blonde hair.

"Welcome Iona."

"Thank you!"

"No desire to be a priestess?"

Iona hesitated.

"It calls to me. It speaks to me. I feel, on some level, it’s what I should be."

"But it doesn’t let me protect. It doesn’t let me defend. It won’t let me save the Lux’s of the world, or defend the meek, or anything like that. It won’t let me travel with Alruna. I’ve started down this path. Maybe another day."

Priestess nodded sagely.

"Then let’s find you the best class for what you want. Come on then."

Hours of searching, of looking, of double and triple checking. Of altars to gods interspersed with altars of classing up, prompting Iona to take a break, send a prayer to the gods and goddesses, beseeching them for Lux back, for her Lux to be returned to her.

For a second chance.

After far too much time spent searching, it was the [Page] class in the end, with the only choice being the element.

It boiled down to two in the end - Earth or Light.

Both would help her defend and protect. Both gave her resilience, let her step in front of a blow and take it for another. Alruna was Brilliance, an evolution of Light, but that only factored in slightly.

In the end, the old priestess from her town was the deciding factor, one of her lectures mentioning that Mana Regeneration was the "most powerful stat". Light was associated with, attached to, Mana Regeneration, and Iona felt it was the best choice for her.

[*Ding!* Congratulations! You’ve upgraded your first class – [Page] – Light. +2 Free Stats, +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana Regeneration per level!]

[Brawling] and [Tough] had merged into [Fighting], while [Axes] moved up into her [Page] class, giving her future a vague outline of a shape. [Charming] was picked up, the lesson in convincing other people when you lacked the power yourself engraved into Iona’s mind like a Rune, and [Monster Husbandry] picked to start working on dinosaurs, both to support Alruna’s mount, and to prepare her for one of her own someday.

Iona was determined to make a difference, to swear to protect others. Alruna agreed in principle, but thought it was too early for Iona to swear anything yet. Iona disagreed, arguing that the earlier she got the skill, the sooner, the faster, the higher she could level it. Iona’s dogged determination wore her down, and Alruna relented, helping Iona craft a vow. The healer was one of the Oathbound healers – hence Alruna for protection as they wandered around – and contributed as well, providing his knowledge on how restriction skills worked, what was useful, what wasn’t.

First, defend the weak.

Protection is my art.

I will defend those who cannot defend themselves.

I will seek out and slay those who would prey on those weaker than themselves.

I will not lie.

I will be generous when I can, share my bread with those who have none.

I will fight corruption where I find it.

I will act with honor and with integrity, with temperance and valor.

The last part was half-whispered, never mentioned, never discussed with the others. Was always going to be part of her [Vow].

I will always remember you.

[*ding!* You have made the promise [Vow of Iona to Lux]! Would you like to accept this general skill? WARNING: Vows are binding.]

Iona hit yes without any hesitation.

[Vow of Iona to Lux]: A solemn vow of protection from Iona, to Lux. +3% Strength, Speed, and Dexterity when protecting another. Breaking the Vow has severe consequences.]

A much better reminder of Lux than the [Trap] skill.

This would do.

[Name: Iona]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 8]

[Mana: 40/40]

[Mana Regen: 528]

Stats

[Free Stats: 13]

[Strength: 21]

[Dexterity: 22]

[Vitality: 8]

[Speed: 12]

[Mana: 4]

[Mana Regeneration: 6]

[Magic Power: 4]

[Magic Control: 4]

[Class 1: [Page - Light: Lv 9]]

[Light Affinity: 4]

[Fighting: 9]

[Axes: 9]

[Minor Invigorate: 4]

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[Class 2: Locked]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Analyze: 6]

[Cute: 8]

[Alert: 9]

[Walking: 9]

[Vow of Iona to Lux: 5]

[Charming: 4]

[Education: 9]

[Monster Husbandry: 6]