Chapter 304: Day ??? – Waking Up

I let out a groan as I woke up. Everything hurt. I began to cough, blood and spit came up. I could tell by the taste. I tried to open my eyes…eye, but I couldn’t. My hands moved down my body and I felt a flask. It was a monumental effort to get it free and open. I stuck a finger inside. The crystals inside the flask broke down.

I then began to quickly pour the water over my face. I aimed for my mouth and eyes, but it went everywhere, and I didn’t mind. I swallowed a bit, and my breathing came easier. The pain diminished and I was able to open my eye. I dropped the empty flask to the ground and my arm collapsed to my side.

I saw the sky and the ground. Also, trees, so I was in a forest, a level 1 zone. I was alive. That was good news at the very least. I had no idea how long I had been unconscious for. “Champion Michael?” I heard someone ask. My head tilted and my eye turned towards the voice.

There was a woman, but I didn’t know her. “Yes,” I said softly, my throat hurt. Everything still hurt. She came over.

“Um, well, we aren’t sure what happened. There was a golden light and the city disappeared. There was a huge pit. No one knows what is going on.” I closed my eye and managed my breathing. Lady, I am barely alive. Priorities. Also, what was I supposed to say. Your life didn’t matter and two heavy weights beyond even me threw down in Purgatory.

“Our camp is nearby, but we didn’t dare move you. Or know how to treat your injuries. We were hoping you would wake up,” the lady said.

“City?” I asked softly.

“We haven’t gone back in that direction after finding the pit. Um, that was two days ago.” That meant today was day 678. That was both good and bad. I was unconscious for at least a full day. “We don’t have supplies, but we don’t know what to do.”

Lady, you have problems. My left knee is shattered. My left eye is missing. I have a hastily repaired hole in my chest. I have been burnt to a crisp. To top it all off, I fell from a great height without cushioning my landing. So lots of broken bones and internal injuries to top things off.

The fact I was alive, awake, and able to think was a testament to my stats. The first thing I needed was a restoration. “Cart?” I asked.

“Um, no. We don’t have a cart or anything besides our weapons.” I noticed her gray clothing. She was a new arrival. Completely useless. I couldn’t afford to waste my last flask of water and crystals. I tried to move my other arm and it refused to move. My legs also weren’t working. The fact I had a working arm was a miracle.

I would have to drag myself to get a restoration. “Where are we?” I asked quietly.

“Um, Southwest of Purgatory, the boarder to the swamp and deadlands with the black pigs isn’t far,” the woman said. That meant about 20 miles or about 32 kilometers back to Purgatory. But it was gone. So that meant Neo Brasilia.

That would be closer to 50 miles or about 80 kilometers of dragging myself. Neither sounded fun or appealing right now. One eye, one barely working hand, and a massive distance. “Describe my injuries,” I said quietly.

“Well, everything is blackened. You have a hole in your armor and the flesh I can see is blackened. You are, um, missing your left eye. Your left leg is bent the wrong way at the knee. Your face is a bit better, but you have no hair,” the woman said nervously.

The left leg was the bad news. I moved up my working right arm and dug my hand into the ground. I used it to try and lever myself to a sitting position. Nope, that wasn’t happening. I could barely think through the pain I felt. Like my insides were grinding against each other.

“Your name?” I asked with barely a whisper.

“Hope,” she said, and I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry at that.

“Well Hope, you have two options. You either leave me here to die and run off. Or help me to Neo Brasilia’s plaza, to the South,” I said. My good eye looked at her worried face as she wrung her hands. She was probably only 20 years old if I had to guess.

“But, how? With your armor, and everything? We can’t move you,” the young woman said.

“How many other people,” I asked quietly.

“None, they all left this morning and haven’t come back,” Hope replied, and she seemed to be on the verge of tears.

“What supplies do you have besides weapons?” I asked.

“Just a flask of water to drink. I am pretty low and ate the rations already,” she said.

“Hunting camp?” I asked.

“They aren’t there anymore, at least I don’t think so. And I didn’t want to leave you,” she replied. That was nice. Far too nice for this place. I needed to move. I didn’t know if the Divine Empress had survived, but I needed to make tracks as quickly as possible.

“Get the flask from my side and put it in my hand,” I said. Hope reached over and got the flask free and put it in my working hand. I unscrewed the top with my fingers. I then dipped a finger into the water. After that I quickly drank as much as I could.

My throat hurt and burned, but about half of it went down inside of me. I was finally breaking my no crystal powder rule. It just took the Divine Empress yeeting me into the stratosphere for it to happen. I was not ready to think about the Astrologer just yet. Too many complex feelings there and I had other things to worry about.

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I dropped the flask once it was empty, and my farm fell to my side. My breathing came much easier now and my throat wasn’t sore. The fog that had been clouding my head was slowly lifting. I felt pain and tingles across my body.

The crafting crystals were doing something to help me, but it wasn’t a miracle fix unfortunately. I took a deep breath. It came easily. I reached out again and slowly levered myself up to a sitting position with my good hand. The pain was bad, but not crippling like before.

My left hand only twitched slightly when I tried to move it. Well, that was not going to be any use any time soon unfortunately. One scared young woman, one broken body, and one long way to go to get healed up. My legs were definitely not working and without Body stats, no way this woman could carry me.

Even if I pulled off the armor seared into my flesh, I would still be too heavy. “Alright then Hope. We are going for Neo Brasilia. Keep a look out for any monsters,” I said with a heavy tone. This was going to suck. An industrial strength vacuum would not suck as much as what was about to happen.

“But I can’t carry you? It is a level 2 area?!” Hope said with worry in her voice.

“I will kill monsters. Just point them out as soon as you see them. If there are other people let me know and let me do the talking. Also keep an eye that I am headed in the right direction,” I said.

“Alright, but how will you-“ I swung out my right arm and my hand dug into the ground. I pulled myself forward about an arm’s length. I dragged myself directly South. For once the swamp terrain was going to come in handy.

I pulled my hand free of the ground and swung it back around in front of me. I pushed my hand into the ground and pulled myself forward with a grunt. I dragged myself along the ground with one good hand. My teeth were clenched in pain and my one eye was watering in pain.

“But-“

“Hope. We need to make it to Neo Brasilia. You can either help. Keep a lookout and kill the level 1 monsters,” I said.

“Got it. Got it,” she hurriedly said. I kept pulling myself forward. My body was a wreck. While I was alive right now, I didn’t trust things to remain stable long term with all the injuries I had sustained. I needed a restoration as quickly as possible.

After an hour of dragging, Hope spoke up. “The swamp is just ahead,” she said.

“Alright. We need to head due South. Just the spiders. Stand clear of the tree. Don’t worry if it falls on me,” I said and Hope put some distance between us. “Acid Shot. Acid Shot. Acid Shot.” I melted my way through the base. It then began to fall.

It was falling towards me. Hope let out a scream. I merely raised an arm. The trunk slammed into my arm and was a bit heavy but not that bad. I knew how much trees weighed after working with them to make canoes. I pushed the tree to the side and it hit the ground with a thud.

I began to use my hand to scrape off a flat platform on one side of the trunk. I then slowly pushed my hand through the rest of the trunk of have a chunk of the trunk. I then slowly made the top platform bigger. I then flipped the trunk on the flat side once I was done and shaped the bottom slightly so it wouldn’t flip.

I then began to push the raft and myself towards the Swamp. I was not dying. After all the nonsense, I was not dying no matter what. The ground turned soggy and then there was swamp water. Once the water was at the depth of my head, I pulled myself on top of my makeshift raft.

I was angled slightly like a beach chair, so I could look upwards and ahead for spiders. Speak of the monster and it appears. “Acid Shot.” It died and dusted. Hope was out of screams apparently since she only let out a squeak.

“You will need to push the raft. Keep heading South. You won’t survive the white moths to the West. Hope. Hope!”

“Yes. Uh, yes Champion Michael.”

“Pay attention. You need to stay behind my raft and push it. Keep heading South. I can keep an eye out for monsters. Directly South. Don’t veer. You go West, you will die. You go East, then we have a chance of running into leeches, which will be hard for me to spot. You will probably die if that happens. South. Use the light source in the sky. Keep it directly to your right. Got it?” I asked.

“Yes. Yes,” she said.

“You can start pushing the raft now,” I said with a slight sigh.

“Oh, yes. Sorry.” She began to push it. Thankfully I had a stick to help get us started and in case she died. I began to float my way towards Neo Brasilia. It was going to be tight to make it to the level 1 zone around the city before nightfall, but we should be able to do it.

Hope kind of swam and kind of kicked off the ground. I had to correct her orientation a couple of times, before she got the hang of heading South. Still, I kept my eye peeled for monsters and our direction. I killed anything that close easily enough.

My insides were hurting worse and worse. I needed to hurry, but Hope could only push the raft so fast. If I survived this, she was getting two million points. A day of grinding to me, but a huge boost for her. I coughed out some blood and breathing deep was getting harder again. That wasn’t good.

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