Aureus whimpered but was still holding me tight, “Stop, you need to get it.” he cried, “Go back and grab the staff. Reid can do it.”
“Rei-” I started, but the monsters in the area took our moment of weakness as their chance and rained down projectiles. One caught my already throbbing shoulder, a few more hit my legs, and others hit Aureus. In an instinctual rage I created an earthen dome over the two of us. “Agh…” I groaned as I pried a particularly strong and stubborn Aureus from me.
He protested, “No. You got hurt. No. Stop, I need… You should…” He muttered some other things but I couldn’t make them out. Once I finally got a hold of him I finally got a good sense of the damage. He had several broken ribs, a shattered leg and was even hotter than when I’d left him. His eyes wouldn’t focus on me and lacked that gorgeous and mystical swirling silver. Instead they looked like one homogeneous color of a dull lusterless gray. He had already dipped well below half of his health and it was dropping faster than before. Every few seconds it ticked down.
I stared down at him for a few seconds, my hands hovered over his chest, unsure of whether or not I should touch him, “I, I, I, I…” I trailed off. If you see someone who’s injured you should try to stop the bleeding if they have any but never move the body unless you absolutely have to. My mom’s voice echoed through my mind. I examined him for any bleeding wounds, I couldn’t tell, it was too dark. There was a large object sitting just to the side of his broken leg, it was bigger than a bowling ball and the ground underneath where it and our legs used to be was caved in as evidence of its force.
“Jesus, that could’ve killed us.” I stared at it wondering what it was and what happened.
~~*~~
Bungum Seed
Description: Seed of the Bungum tree, they are often dropped by the Bungum tree on perceived threats. After crushing the threat it uses the nutrients from it to assist in growth.
~~*~~
I didn’t have the habit of looking at anything and everything with the intent to view their system windows yet, I didn’t even think that everything would. I zoned out for a moment just staring through the window trying to process what was happening and what to do next. My chest ached with sorrow.
“What am I supposed to do now?” I squeaked out. I wanted to gather him up in my arms, to squeeze him and love on him. I angrily wiped at the tears flowing down my face and the snot that came with them. They just kept coming.
“Master? Is it bedtime? It’s dark…” He muttered and snuggled up into my lap, his small hand clutching at my clothes.
A feeble sad smile crept its way onto my face, Just rest for now darling. I pet his head and gritted my teeth failing to trap a wail, I hadn''t cried out loud since I was a child. I didn’t even cry this pitifully when I lost my mom. I couldn’t force myself to tell him sweet words, I failed to force out something to assure him. Clutching at my aching chest I started trying to reign myself in, ugly loud sobs quieted just a bit.
Don’t be sad, Master.
My head fell back and I stared up at where the sky would be if we weren''t beneath my earthen dome that shielded us from the constant thuds of projectiles. “Please… Please…” I got out, but I didn’t know what else to say. After I saw the GGC earlier and opened the shop I thought that maybe I should ask them for help, but I still didn’t want to at the time. I was still being petty about losing my childhood home, and I had rationalized that he had more time. I thought I might be able to resolve it somehow, but Aureus popped up and threw himself in more harms way trying to protect me. A quiet sour chuckle escaped with several more tears.
“I’m such a fool.” I spat bitterly.
Master is not… Master is the best.
I caressed him, “I can’t be the best! Aureus is the best!” I was attempting a chipper tone, but my face was contorted with sorrow, my smile was screwed up and my tone wavered and cracked due to my tears.
I was putting off opening the GGC, I didn’t want to. Fear was delaying the inevitable, I had to open it. To talk to them. I needed them and they’d always been there for me before. What if they didn’t want to help? What if they were mad? So many ‘what if''s'' plagued me.
[ “Traveling Spring Painter” has sponsored you. ]
~~*~~
Yarrue Peony
Description: A flower with strong healing and detoxification properties. Less effective when eaten raw, but will remove all [Poisoned] debuffs unless the user is poisoned by something possessing ????????????????.
~~*~~
My heart leapt into my throat and I immediately snatched the glowing flower from the air in front of me. My quick hands slowed as I started pulling petals from it. I should be careful. Don’t fuck this up Mia. I crushed a petal in my hand and pushed it gently into his mouth. Then carefully lifted his head up to feed him water and wash it down. I waited a beat and then started crushing another petal. I wanted to use that one on his hand where he got attacked or maybe on his leg.
While I was turning it into a paste I took a quick peek at his status, 62/200. It wasn’t going down every few seconds anymore. That had to be a- 68/200. It… it went up! There I was, crying again. 74/200. 89/200. 105/200. 121/200. 147/200. I looked back at Aureus, he was glowing slightly and his bones were making an ungodly noise as they were healing. I looked down at the mangled flower in my hands dumbfounded. I shoved the remainder of the flower and the mush into my inventory out of habit while my mind reeled.
“Ha! Hahahahaha!” I lost myself in relieved laughter for a while, “Thank you. Thank you so much. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”
“Master? Why are you sorry? Don’t cry! Master!” Aureus was quite distressed. I must’ve looked like a mad woman. He was quickly pulled into my embrace, I squeezed him tight as if he might vanish if I didn’t.
“It’s okay. Everything is okay. You’re okay.” My face already started to hurt from how much I was smiling, well that and the dramatic shifts between emotions. I kissed the top of his head and rested there for a while. Just crying and saying that over and over again. After longer than I’d like to admit I released Aureus from my grasp. It looked like he was still trying to figure out exactly what happened.
“Where are we?” Aureus asked while gawking at my hasty defensive measures. Portions of two tree trunks were within the dome as well as my makeshift trail marker and the Bungum seed. He summoned a small flame to light up the surroundings.
“Oh… uh…” I started. Why hadn’t I thought of that?
“Wow, you made this dome thick! What were… Ahem. As expected of my Master.” He seemed a little anxious.
I ruffled his hair with a small smile, “Don’t worry about anything, I’ve got to talk to the gods now so give me a minute okay?”
“Okay…” He gave me a side eye like I was acting strangely, “OMG! What happened to your leg?!”
“Oh… Huh. I didn’t think it’d broken.” I muttered as I looked down at the leg that’d been struck by the Bungum seed. The bones in my calf had snapped and my foot was sitting at a rather grotesque angle. Weirdly enough I didn''t feel anything, I had to suppress the urge to move it or touch it as I expected that not feeling the injury wouldn''t last long.
“Broken?! It’s basically backwards!” Aureus screamed.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I just smiled at him, “Yes, yes. It does look a bit funny. Maybe I’ll learn how to walk backwards from now on then?”
“What!” He screeched.
I just laughed and leaned on his shoulder, it was completely uncomfortable, my back injury panged as I bent down to his height. I’ll be feeling that bruise in the morning. Finally I opened the GGC, fully ready to be chastised for being an idiot. And boy did they.
[ “Lazily Reaping Souls” snorts and says that a Tralin is smarter than you. ]
[ “Unbottled Lightning” asks if he should sponsor you as well since you’ve put on such a fun show. ]
[ “Abandoned Bloodied Sword” is rummaging through her things looking for a gift. ]
[ “Reflection of an Empty Throne” states that you might be the stupidest human he’s ever seen. ]
[ “Abandoned Bloodied Sword” tells him to shut up and throws rejected gifts at him. ]
[ “Reflection of an Empty Throne” defends himself and yells that you have no common sense and are much too full of yourself while laughing hysterically. ]
[ “Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” is quite satisfied with how things unfolded. ]
[ “Golden Light that Shines On All” sighs and mutters that humans are too easily corrupted with pride. ]
[ “Traveling Spring Painter” huffs and says that the others are too harsh. ]
[ “Explorer of Lost Things” chuckles and wonders why “Seeker of Magic and Knowledge” is interested in such a dumb human. ]
[ “Seeker of Magic and Knowledge” begins to stack up notebooks of his findings and begins to drone on about how despite you lacking in basic things you’re quite an interesting subject. ]
[“Traveling Spring Painter” implores the others to consider that you are still learning your strengths and weaknesses since you have grown fast and not had many chances to learn.]
[“Divine Hammer of Blessings” agrees with her and states that you’ve rarely had a chance to battle since you’ve been protecting his contractor and many others.]
I interjected because the chat was whizzing by too quickly and I didn’t want them to keep shitting on me much longer, “Thank you so much Traveling Spring Painter, I really really appreciate it. I know I’ve been ignoring everyone for a while. I’m sorry. I’m a bit dumb I know…”
[ “Traveling Spring Painter” sighs and assures you that it is alright. ]
[ “Seeker of Magic and Knowledge” states that it was a minor inconvenience. ]
[ “Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” sniffs and says that they won’t forgive you just yet. ]
A few more gods chimed in about how they felt about my protest, most of them didn’t care much but it seemed like it might be a while before the Playwright was happy with me again. After what happened with Aureus the incident with my house felt like nothing. Even if I didn’t like them, I needed them, so I couldn’t let that show or at the very least I shouldn’t ignore them. I shouldn’t ever expect anything from them. They created this game and I was just a source of entertainment for them. Suck it up Mia.
I took some time to scroll through the older messages, most of them were various gods I wasn’t familiar with laughing at how I was panicking. They offered various obvious solutions like asking them for help, though they didn’t say it so nicely. They told me to beg. They suggested I ask my friends or go to the shop or just to look around. I wasn’t sure what that meant. Some of them encouraged me to go back and fight the ‘Cerapin’? I assumed that’s what the triceratops thing was. They made fun of me for going to the center of the forest and not progressing through it naturally like it was meant to. The comments that surprised me the most were that I don’t know how items work and that I lacked the ability to figure anything out on my own unless by accident.
“What do you mean I don’t know how items work?”
[ “Reflection of an Empty Throne” laughs and asks why you think you know how they work. ]
[ “Seeker of Magic and Knowledge” agrees and states that you haven’t really done any experiments with anything really. ]
[ “Traveling Spring Painter” reluctantly agrees. ]
[ “Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” says you wouldn’t understand something unless it smacked you in the face. ]
“Ouch. Okay, then I’ll try to do better from now on… In more ways than one.” I rubbed at the back of my neck, I was embarrassed. What even was I doing running around like a headless chicken instead of calmly thinking about what to do?
“Master? Will you take care of your leg now? It’s starting to turn weird colors…” Aureus asked and lightly poked my cheek to get my attention.
“Oh yeah… it’s so gross! Hahaha. Oh god that hurts so much all of the sudden why?!” I groaned, either I was blocking out the pain or the adrenaline just wore off because my mangled leg was absolutely killing me now. Oh! Maybe I still have some of that peony mush on my hands? I glanced down and realized my hands were pretty filthy, but I didn’t care. Just one petal was enough to restore almost 140 HP. I didn''t want to waste it. I cringed but still planned to lick my hands to get the precious material off.
“Hold on Master.” Aureus said and grabbed both of my wrists. Slowly his mana coated my hands and the dirt started to gather into the air above them. It collected into about the size of a marble and then fell to the ground.
“Thanks.” I smiled and instinctively reached out to pet him, but froze. Ah shit, I must’ve rubbed some of it on him earlier. That sucks, maybe I’ll still have some left though? I licked my fingers clean and the center of the palm I rolled the petal in.
Aureus looked up at me with expectant eyes, I smiled sadly. It didn’t feel any different. “Ah ew! Oh, nice.” my bones started to shift and twist into the correct position. It was gross and uncomfortable. Thankfully, the sounds weren’t as disturbing as when Aureus was healing.
“Doesn’t that hurt?!” Aureus asked, seeming distressed by the horror scene that was my healing leg.
“Actually it feels a lot better now, surprisingly. A little uncomfy but better.” I stretched my back, the aching had dissipated almost completely.
I flopped back and the small space between the obelisk and trunk made me uncomfortable. Aureus got rid of it before I even thought to ask. I stretched out on the ground and sighed. Barely any time passed but so much happened. I pulled a few strands of rough feeling grass from the ground next to me and focused on it.
~~*~~
Sorthle Grass
Description: A common grass found in poison rich environments. It utilizes poison from sources in its environment to strengthen itself and grow. Its poison causes mild itching and swelling around the eyes.
~~*~~
“Huh.” I never thought to do that before. I had opened status windows for monsters I’d fought but didn’t pull up item windows unless I was already aware that they were items. Not even when I’d put them in my inventory. “Wait…” I popped out what I’d had in my inventory one by one.
~~*~~
Under Rat Meat
Description: A gamey tasting meat. Safe to eat if cooked.
Freshness: 35%
~~*~~
~~*~~
Bone Dagger
Description: Dagger created by sharpening bones and wrapping a strip of leather around the handle.
Durability: 60%
Damage: 4
~~*~~
~~*~~
Patchwork Fur Blanket
Description: Blanket created by sewing together a few different fur pelts.
Durability: 85%
~~*~~
~~*~~
Plum Tato
Description: Deep purple root vegetable that tastes very similar to a potato, but slightly sweeter.
Freshness: 90%
~~*~~
~~*~~
Yarrue Peony Petal Paste
Description: Paste created from the petal of a Yarrue Peony.
Buffs: Poison detoxification of all poisons outside of those with ????????????????.
+500 HP
~~*~~
I didn’t check all of the items, but the fact that the Painter gave me such a potent healing item really punched me in the gut. I knew that the Painter and the Playwright at least cared about me… Probably. The Seeker though, I wasn’t not completely sure he cared about me. Maybe he just found me interesting, I wasn’t positive he understood emotions at all. On several occasions he would ask basic questions about them and write notes about the various emotional interactions that happened to or around me.
“Can we leave now?” Aureus’ tail was smacking into the dome as he flicked it around in annoyance.
“Ah, is our baby cramped in here?” I laughed as I ruffled his hair. “Alright, but there might be some monsters out there. We should head back.”
Once we were both fully healed, Aureus used elemental manipulation to open the top of the dome and shoot us clear of the canopy quickly. Thankfully neither of us got hit during the process and we were able to return to the plains and breathe easier.
“So I guess we should go back and try to conquer that forest properly?” I mused as I deployed the camper yet again to take a much needed shower.
“What?!” Aureus yelled from behind me.
“Well we can’t have such a blatant weakness sitting right next to us, what happens when the next wave comes? We just fly and avoid them? That might work but there isn’t a guarantee.”
“Oh… as usual Master sees things deeper than I do.” Aureus muttered under his breath.
“Then it’s settled! We’ll set out on an adventure after a good shower, nap and I wanna get some more potatoes.”