Chapter 61: Chapter 53 – Branching Out

The Stitched Horror actually blew up upon death! This necromantic dungeon core is an asshole! I shut all the notifications down congratulating me and opened my eyes expecting to see a devastated landscape. Except, the landscape was fine. If anything, the trees looked a bit thicker. The only indication of the explosion was Bill’s tattered form lying a few feet from the now defeated horror. ‘I have to save Bill,’ I thought as I rushed over to check on him.

Other than the heavy plates of his armor being bent where he had taken hits he looked normal. Well, other than his skin turning grey and a bright neon green light traveling along his veins. As the timer in my head counted down the light corrupted more of his veins while his skin began to fade from gray to white. Was he turning into an undead? It sure looked that way. As if to verify that, a dungeon message appeared, *Corruption of Warrior of group three 25%*. Was he considered dead? If so I could use ‘Death is a Friend of Mine’ to revive him. ‘Come on Bill! Fight it!’ I thought as I touched his skin.

There was a soft ding from my closed display and his skin changed were I touched. It turned back, changing back from the pallid white to his normal sun-kissed bronze. It was just a patch no bigger than the palm of my hand but it gave me hope. I could save him. I heard people moving behind me. Looking  back i saw James and Frigus looking at Bill and me. James had a worried look on his face while Frigus had a look of awe and wonder. I rested my hand on his cheek. That was about the only place he wasn’t armored. My hand felt warm and I saw golden light begin to fuse into his capillaries; a stark contrast to the neon green they had become. It wasn’t quick but the timer also slowed down. The golden light would move forward an inch only to be pushed back a half-inch. Slowly, a handprint was left where I had rested my hand. The golden light stopped moving and only resumed when I moved my hand to a new location.

Testing my theory, I placed my hand in a new location, his other cheek, and watched as my hand worked like magic. ‘Come on Bill! You need to survive. I don’t want to lose a friend.’ A drop of water landed on his face. “Quick help me remove his armor,” I said. While the timer had slowed down it had not stopped. I needed their help if I was going to save him. James didn’t hesitate and quickly moved. He took off Bill’s armor much quicker than I ever could. The buckles and straps that held it in place were more complex than I was use to and while I could have gotten it off it would have taken me longer.

Instead, I let James remove it and as soon as I could access Bill’s skin, I ran my hands along it. Arms, legs, chest… damn what I would have done to have those muscles in my last life. Well except the exercise. It was just too much work. I ran my hands along his body until I came to a certain place. I paused. Should I just stab him and then bring him back? That wouldn’t work either. I can’t kill people. Maybe I can have James stab him? Doubtful, gritting my teeth and closing my eyes, I moved my hand inside his underwear. I never ever thought I would be feeling up a guy but it is to save his life. Every time I paused the contamination would begin to spread.

I kept repeating in my head that in this world I was a doctor of sorts and doctors had to ignore genders and just save lives. I had to make sure everything was ‘touched’ and by the time a notification popped up showing he was cured my face was as red as a tomato. In a shaky voice, I said to James, “We never speak of this.” Then removed my hand and wiped the wetness from my eyes. He was alive. I didn’t lose another person.

It took Bill a few minutes to get up. He looked at me and then looked away. I did not know what he was thinking and probably didn’t want to. I closed my eyes and looked at the notifications.

*Congratulations for reaching Level 8*

*Choose your advantage* and underneath the notification there were hundreds of choices but most did not actually give me an advantage. Like ‘Spice of life’ where it added healing effects to anything I cooked. While it sounded nice, they’d have to actually eat it. For whatever reason nobody ever wanted to eat my cooking. While I admit Lilly cooked better than me, mine was still edible. Well, nobody ever died from it. I looked through the list and narrowed it down to my top ten that I thought could help me the most.

*The Sky’s the Limit - Increased flight speed and maneuverability

*Resistance is Futile - Removes enemies’ resistances to magic within casters aura

*All In - Put all your mana into just one spell amplifying it

*Skin Deep - Perfect control of your aura to the point where it can sit below your skin

*The Missing Link - Leave out one item while crafting or cooking and get the same results

*The Magic Touch - Any spell cast at touch will double in strength along with any other multiplier

*Peace of Mind - (Aura) protects the minds of anybody under the casters aura from mental attacks

*Never without my Permission - No deaths can happen within casters aura (time limit) *Requirement: Death is a Friend of Mine*

*Death Waits for No Man - siphon life energy of anyone *Requirement: Death is a Friend of Mine*

*Branching Out - Caster can access another magical class at master level

Each had their own appeal from extra healing, extra protection, better flight but I kept coming back to ‘Branching Out’. Another magic discipline would give me more versatility. The appeal of an extra god’s blessing was too much and after thinking about it for less than a minute I selected it. Another list of choices appeared of all the magic disciplines in this world. I have gone through them before when I visited the temples and finally chose Annos, God of Summons. Because of that I already had a narrow list of what I wanted; teleportation, body enhancement, divination, time manipulation, charm and druidic magic.

Charm was out. While it was high on my list before, it now creeped me out too much to even think of using it on another person. Teleportation and time manipulation were fantastic mainline powers but they used up too much energy so unless that was all I wanted to do in a fight both of those were also out. That left druidic, body enhancement and divination. Of those, druidic magic was based off charisma, divination was linked to both perception and wisdom, and body enhancement was, based off one of my worse stats, stamina. I really liked the idea of making myself super strong or super nimble but at the moment I would be mediocre at best in it. More to the point, I felt I needed information. I kept feeling I was missing things like ‘who was watching me?’, ‘What was the prince up to?’ and so on so the last two could help with that. Divination being the obvious choice but because of that there were more counters created against it.

But after hanging out with the druidic doctor at the medical center, I noticed something. He could talk with plants. I already knew they could talk to animals but plants? That amazed me and seriously who guards against a flower ratting you out? Then there was those stones he carved. They could store magical spells. Generally, he’d have to leave them in the forest for months to collect energy after assigning the spell but my ‘Healing Light’ spell charges them without the wait. So I could prep a few to use when I am running low on energy. The only limit would be weight. I also think, but am not certain that their herbalism and alchemy skills get a boost but that is more my guess than actual knowledge. They just all seem to know those skills. The down side to this choice was it was another medical class. They did tend to be a bit more versatile with some defensive, offensive and had a couple of nature based summonables but in the end, their main focus was healing over time. They could imbue magical salves, ointments and drinks to speed up natural healing that could last a few days based off the casters level.

The fact that I could prep the stones and healing salves beforehand would save me a lot of mana cost in the dungeons, allowing me to get the most use out of it. With that thought in mind, I selected druid magic. Perhaps the Gods knew I would since they named it ‘Branching Out’. Once I selected it, information flooded into my mind. It was not my first time experiencing this type of information dump so I knew what to expect. While it still sucked, as I felt my brain was trying to explode inside my skull, I was ready for it.

What I wasn't expecting was the pain in my lower abdomen. It was like two red hot pokers were stabbing into my ovaries. I soon forgot about the pain in my head as I doubled over with a groan. The pain pulsed and throbbed and then spread out like a river of fire that was slowly moving within my body. It moved up and down. I focused more on the downward movement because it hurt a hell of a lot more. I gave a soft whimper before biting my lip to keep from making any more noise.

All I could focus on was the pain and I lost track of the outside world. It wasn't until the pain faded that I became aware of a soft hand resting on my shoulder; unsure of how long it had been there or how long the pain lasted. The pain faded just as quickly as it started and I just felt spent. Soaked in sweat, I looked into Frigus' emotionless eyes, patted her hand and thanked her for her concern. At least, I think she was trying to comfort me. I couldn’t be sure since she wasn't the best at showing her emotions.

I pulled up my information and saw new spells had appeared along with some new skills. Something called ‘affinities’ also appeared and was linked to animal types but at the moment was blank. I suppose those would be the types of animals that liked me the most. I will go through all this new info when we camp.

I then moved onto the next notification *Activation of Compassionate Touch*. It was the second to last one followed by it announcing that it shut off a few minutes ago. That must have been the skill that saved Bill and I gave a silent ‘Thank you’ to whichever God gave me it. Anything that could save my friends was worth a thanks or two. I then noted that I got another forty-five skill points when I reached level eight. That brought me to sixty five points that I could spend but I put that on the back burner for now since I have been sitting here with my eyes closed as if I was in shock. I opened my eyes after closing everything back down. I heard Bill laugh at something so I figured he was feeling better. James was next to him but looking at me, a quizzical look in his eyes. We needed to rest. We were all exhausted, our magic depleted. “Should we camp?” I asked. I was going to push for it but didn’t have to as both men just nodded. The location wasn’t the best since we were on a path and not a clearing but on this level there weren’t really any better locations to camp.

So at their nods, I expanded my aura and cast ‘sanctuary’. As the shaft of light descended, I heard whispers coming from around me. “Where’d they go?”, “Missing?”, “look, look, look”, “Can’t live, can’t die, forever tormented, what’s the point” and so on. They sounded like old men and women. I looked around but didn’t see anything other than the trees along the path. Was it them? I waited and watched. It did seem to be the trees. Was that how the dungeon kept track of us? Probably not since some dungeons didn’t have any plants.

I settled down and began to set up camp and soon the others pitched in to help. Well, except for Frigus. Frigus was only following me as I worked while Bill and James were breaking down the undead for their materials. Neither of them said anything about Frigus not lending a hand and, since she was here as a courtesy, I also didn’t say anything. It took an hour for us to finish. I plopped down and ate some of my rations. I was too tired to cook. The adrenaline had worn off and all that was left was exhaustion. James must have noticed it because he volunteered to take first watch without me asking.

I moved over to the half person high partition to wipe down and change into my oversized shirt I slept in. It was then that I noticed I had tattoos?! There were two trees that were leaning together, intertwined and became one near the top. It had only one tree crown but two separate budding flowers that rested right below my navel. Their trunks spread out a little before the roots coiled and twined together, going lower and lower until they finally formed a heart on my naughty bits. Then a few offshoots branched out from the heart and trailed along my upper thighs. It was vivid. So life like that the trees looked like they would sway if there was a breeze and the roots dug into my skin as if I was the earth. It was in the shape of a diamond if you took the whole thing in. The crown at the top, the heart at the bottom and each base of a tree ended close to where my ovaries were.

I didn't know what it meant, why it appeared or, I suppose more importantly, where did the soft fuzzy hair that was growing down there go. Actually, all the hair on my body except for what was on my head was gone. My skin was now soft and smooth and a little darker, like I got a slight suntan. It was so weird. Did every druid lose their hair and get these tattoos? I imagined how I would even ask to find out. Like, "Hi my name is Alice, do you happen to have a tattoo on your..." I snorted at the absurdity of it before pulling on my oversized shirt; very glad that it hung to my knees because it completely covered the new tattoos, happy that I splurged and paid more for the darker color. My paranoia of it getting wet at some point paid off because the colors of the tattoo would’ve shown through most of the lighter fabrics. I went to lay down on my thin blanket to sleep. It did not take long for me to fall asleep. The smell of the dirt from the road and fauna nearby was oddly comforting and made me feel safer.

***

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“Five more minutes,” I groaned out. Whoever was shaking me awake wasn’t giving in though and I opened my eyes to see James looking into the forest while he continued shaking me to wake me up. “I’m up. I’m up. What’s going on?” I whispered. I looked around. Bill was already up, armored, and looking around trying to spot something. He seemed way more awake than me. It felt like I just closed my eyes.

James whispered back, “movement in the woods” and I checked my notifications to see what was ordered here to attack us. Nothing, instead it seems that group two’s assassin had appeared in our area. The mist obscured any chance I might have had spotting him but a tree was complaining about how it never got respect and how kids just climbed on him willy-nilly anymore. I turned toward the complaining tree and tried to spot the assassin without any luck. “He’s part of another group and not a dungeon mob.” I said. Then added as an afterthought, “probably there” pointing at the tree. What? I was tired and non-flesh eating humans weren’t top on my threat list. They should probably be number one on it but my head was foggy. I cast ‘Revitalize’ to wake up a bit more. I felt a flood of energy as my coffee spell kicked in.

It was about this time I realized that casting a spell while pointing at an assassin was probably not my finest idea. I heard an “Oh, good he left” from the tree before I felt somebody stumble into me and then a blade rested on my neck.

“I’m not your enemy.” I hear in my ear. He sounded like a kid trying to make his voice sound manlier.

‘Great, I’m going to die to a tall, lanky pre-teen’ I thought. I made sure not to make any big movements and as calmly as I could said, “Co…” And before I could say the rest of ‘could you remove your dagger from my neck?’ His knife pressed harder into my neck. I shut up as the sharp blade nicked into my skin. I could feel a trickle of something wet running down my neck and into my shirt. I waited. I wasn’t as helpless as I appeared. The reason why he had his dagger on my throat was because most casters needed to speak to cast. I didn’t once I mastered a spell. So I could sneak attack but did not want to take the risk. He could have easily slashed my throat instead of just holding me hostage.

While it seemed aggressive. I could kind of see where he was coming from. His party was mostly dead, now he was alone and met a strange group of adventurers. Before he could figure out if he should approach or run, a girl began casting while pointing at his hidden location. It was commonly known that adventuring parties weren’t always on the up and up. Killing other groups for their items wasn’t an uncommon event. Not to mention that, judging from size and voice, he had to be young. As I waited, I ran through spells that might save me. I really need to up my attack spells!

James and Bill had moved to positions that would allow for them to get to us quickly but had not moved any closer. I finally settled on ‘Bind’. It was not a fantastic spell but probably the best one I had. As long as he didn’t kill me outright, I could fix any damage he did to me. I looked at James since he was in front of me. I couldn’t see Bill at the moment since he circled behind the assassin. I was waiting for a “get’m signal” when I felt the knife being moved away from my neck.

“I’m not an enemy. Sorry I panicked. I’ll leave.” He kept saying short sentences as if he was trying to pick the right words. I looked over my shoulder and saw a pair of brown eyes darting around. Probably looking for an escape route.

“I’m going to cast a heal on myself,” I said. He seemed a bit flighty but he’s been on the run for a day, facing god knows what so I was going to spell out what I was going to do so that I didn’t get shivved by accident. Once I was sure he understood I cast a light heal and looked at my now stained shirt. That was not going to come out. Lucky that it was at least a darker color so it hid it a bit, I sighed and turned around. “Hi, I’m Alice that is James, the big guy behind you is Bill and the quiet girl over there is Frigus. You are?” I asked. I was just going off a feeling but for an assassin he had a gentle look. I expected a more jaded look from him. One that spoke of countless killings and not one you’d get from the boy next door. Either way he seemed ok, short of the knife to the neck incident.

“My name is Nic… I mean Phantom Blade… I mean my team called me Phantom Blade.” He seemed flustered but settled down by the time he told us his team name. Something that some people liked to do to keep their private lives private after they were done with the job. The adventurer’s guild didn’t care what your name was as long as you weren’t on the wanted list and it took a lot to make it onto one. A lot of identification magic was needed to catch those criminals. “Could you share some food? My team mates were carrying…” he stopped, sniffed and my image of assassins fell apart.

“Sure.” I pulled out some more rations. I looked at my still warm blanket forlornly. I would have to wait until the spell wore off before I could sleep again. “So umm phantom, what’s your plan? Are you trying to leave?”

“I’ve been trying to find my friends but so far all I’ve found is monsters. I’m out of food but Slasher and Ravine are still out there somewhere. I don’t want to leave them if I can help it.” He stopped and looked at the mist filled woods that seemed to come out of a horror movie.

I filled in the gap by asking, “Your mage was called Ravine?” He looked at me and nodded. I sighed and continued, “He was killed earlier. Your berserker friend is still alive though.” I wanted to tell him the bad news fast and then give him better news to blunt it.

“How do you know? He can’t be dead! His family…” His voice lost the fakeness for a second and it hit a higher note before he collected himself and continued in that fake voice, “… but Slasher is still alive? They still have him to help support the girls.” His voice held a little bit of hope.

“Hold on, let me check something,” I said and closed my eyes. I pulled up the message log and started scrolling back trying to find the group twos berserker. I finally found his location near where group one was heading. With a bit of luck and if they both continued to move in the direction they had been going, that group would end up meeting him in about a half-hour. I quickly filled him in while he ate.

He had lowered a flap on his head covering to eat and I finally got a look at his face. It was not too obvious because she, yea she, was younger but I was pretty sure she was a girl. That was why she was making her voice deeper. Her height was taller than average and she was flat chested so either she was a girl or a very feminine looking man. Is it a girl pretending to be a boy or not? I wasn’t a hundred percent sure but it was not my concern. I didn’t say anything or ask about it since it changed nothing.

“It should be the group we met before. If so, that group won’t go downward,” Phantom said, “but they will take him out for some of his loot.” She paused and then asked, “Are you going down? Can I tag along? I.. I want to help destroy this dungeon. It killed my friends.”

I looked at Bill and then James. James just shrugged and Bill said, “I’m just observing. This is your party to control.”

“I see. Well, I am going to continue. I think the dungeon has been weakened with the death of the Stitch Horror so this is an opportunity for us. Phantom Blade, if you wish to join us you can but it might be dangerous doing so. I should have enough…” I paused as I did the mental calculation of how much of my food was left. I tended to pack extra food but feeding two would depend on how long we took. I then looked at Frigus. I never seen her eat anything. Her stick like figure told me she needed a few good meals though. “Frigus, did you bring food?” I needed to know. If I had to feed her too there was no way to continue.

“My god provides for my needs. I do not require anything.” I looked at her hollowed cheeks and skinny frame and thought her god may want to up her meal plan. Should I would risk it? How much could she eat? I'll at least take a look at the next level before making the decision. 

I would need Bill and James' help as well. Bill couldn't bluntly say he was going to help but when he said he was just an observer he winked at me. I was assuming that meant he was going to lend a hand. If I was wrong, this was going to be the shortest excursion ever.

“Well, sleep if you need to. I’m too awake to fall back asleep so I will keep watch.” checking the time, we were just at the start of the second watch so I could sleep on third watch. I didn't want to overtly rely on 'rejuvenate' since, while it woke you up for a time, it couldn't replace the need for real sleep.

After everybody fell asleep, I purified my sweaty armor and then assigned my attribute numbers. I was going to up my Charisma, Wisdom and Dexterity by one. I needed a bigger magical energy capacity. I had not taken into account long drawn out fights or overwhelming numbers. I needed to be able to outlast them. Upping dexterity allowed me to dodge better while increasing my health a bit more. I made my choices and watched as my magic capacity go from 1,080 to 1,896 with the all-natural boon. I noticed that more of the blue wisps of energy that floated in the mist moved in my direction once my selections were done.

After that I tried to figure out what was wrong with my link with James' display but couldn’t find anything. It had to be something James had on him that was messing with my magic. I was just killing time. The trees grumbled from time to time but other than that nothing happened. The dungeon was oddly quiet and the only notifications I got was from it earning DP or the group one moving toward the exit with Slasher. Apparently they did make a deal after meeting. Although I was off on the time of their meeting. They kept backtracking then going forward. That area probably had a lot of dead end paths causing it.

I shook Bill awake. When I woke him up he just stared at me a bit too long before asking, “Were your eyes always green?” My ‘Coffee’ spell was fading and I just wanted to crawl into my blanket bed so I ignored him. They were blue. It was weird enough that he was dreaming about me, the least he could do is get the color right. I made sure he was awake. He seemed to be absentminded so I made sure before I finally closed my eyes to get some much needed sleep.

***

We headed out after third watch was over. I made sure to attach Phantom Blade into my display and was shocked that he actually showed up as a guy. He was prettier than a lot of the girls in my village. I tried to keep the shock from my face but I am pretty sure I failed. Before we left I made sure to ask him about what he could do. Long story short, he could do short range teleports but tended to be off by an inch or two causing him to sometimes miss his target or stumble. He seemed apologetic about it. He didn’t have the oomph to move anybody other than himself and light equipment. Anything more was too draining.

We moved down the pathway and I heard a soft voice groan, “finally free” and when I turned back a tree was rapidly withering. Frigus was calmly walking away with her hand lightly trailing along its bark as she did. Ok, what the hell was that? Never mind, I probably didn’t want to ask because she would just give me a weird answer. I turned back around and continued to walk down the path. It branched a bunch of times but the giant footprints made it easy for us to find the entrance to the third level. It was an old fashioned inn. Well, to me anyway. It was probably a new inn for this time period. Dense fog surrounded it with only the doorway and the upper parts of the building being clear of it. A wooden signboard, with the name ‘The Great Folly Inn’ carved into it, swung above the door. A green nimbus surrounded the door indicating it as the entrance to the level. The color was just the type of energy the dungeon used and was not an important indicator since we already knew it was using necromancy.

Bill and James went in first followed by me. Frigus and Phantom followed after me. We ended up in a spacious entranceway that led to a reception desk. There were paintings hanging on the walls. A smiling man and lady stood in one while another showed a girl playing in a field. To the right of us was a dining hall and bar that had a fireplace big enough that I could stand in it without hunching over. A roaring fire crackled happily within it, warming the room. Behind the reception desk were slotted boxes about a foot wide and high. As we got closer I could see that some had keys inside them. The numbers stamped into the slot matched a wooden tag attached to the key. They were probably room keys. The empty boxes didn’t have numbers. They instead had symbols of a hand, an eye, a ball or globe, a cleaver, and reins in place of the numbers.

I was gawking around. I never had the opportunity to see such a luxurious inn. Everything seemed to be of high quality. The place seemed empty until I heard a door close on the floor above us. I turned to look for the stairway up when I heard a voice behind me. “Greetings…”

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