Where am I? What do you mean I should say ‘unfamiliar ceiling’? A ceiling is not going to tell me where I am.
My eyes are fuzzy. My head is spinning. I feel something cool traveling across my body. A wave of water? But I’m in a building, right? Or perhaps I’m in something like a boat shack. No. I’m clearly lying on a bed. Who would put a bed in water?
The waves rolling on my body disappear and a bit later, something damp is placed on my forehead. A wet towel? Am I in a sick ward? What happened? I remember we were taking the wyverns down. The armored guards appeared. I think I was talking with Christina, and then, nothing. That’s it.
(Laura?) I called out in my head.
I heard no response. What? Where is she?
(Laura? Where are you Laura?)
“Lau,ra?” A weak sound comes out of my mouth.
“Oh, you are awake?” I heard a female voice say. I recognize that voice. But who does it belong to? “Please just try to stay still. You’re not ready to get up yet.” She told me.
Rest? In this situation? Well, maybe I should, but I don’t know if I can.
“ca,n’t.” I try to tell her.
“Oh, I’ll help you fall back to sleep then.” She said to me. How will she do that?
I can feel the wave of something cool going around my body again.
“I’ll give you a little prick now.” The female voice said. Seriously, why can’t I remember who that voice belongs to?
I feel a little pain in my left wrist, just below the founder’s terminal. Did she inject some sort of sleeping drug into me? Am I back on Earth? In a hospital? Waking up from a coma I spent dreaming of another world?
No. That can’t be right. How would I recognize the voice of a random nurse? And I have my founder’s terminal.
And the lights are all wrong. I might not be able to see clearly, but I can tell that the light comes from the walls. Not ceiling mounted lights. Any hospital on Earth would have ceiling mounted lights. At least any that I would have been taken to.
I feel something flowing into me from the point I was pricked at. The sleeping drug? Well, better just to rest like the nurse told me to.
— ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ N0veI.Fiɾe.net
I was walking through town with my mother. We were making our way to the adventurer’s guild. Brian was there. We both wanted to see him. After all, he did save this town from wyverns. Without him, this town would have suffered massive damage. It could have even been completely destroyed. If B-rank wyverns can threaten this town so much, I wonder how we are ever supposed to deal with a lesser behemoth.
It’s been a day since the wyvern attack. At the end of it, Brian passed out with an extremely high fever. He was taken care of in the guild medbay. That was also the only hospital in our small town. We had a private sick room at the estate, but we would just have a doctor come over from the guild, so mother said it would be better if we left Brian at the guild.
According to the doctor, he wasn’t sick. He was going through something called ‘level up growth’ or ‘level up sickness’. It happens when you level up too many times in succession.
I also had a mild case of ‘level up sickness’. I did gain six levels from that one wyvern. I can only imagine how many levels Brian got. His summons took care of four or five of the wyverns. He could have leveled up over twenty times.
At breakfast I told mother and father that I wanted to visit Brian at the guild. Father was against it, saying things like ‘you didn’t practice yesterday’ and ‘it’s dangerous to go alone’. Thankfully, mother put him in his place, reminding him that I leveled up a lot thanks to Brian. She also reminded father that Brian saved the town.
In the end, father was still against it, until mother said she would come with me. Father didn’t exactly agree, but he let us go all the same.
Father also had to prepare for his trip to visit my grandfather. After an attack by monsters, like the wyverns, a lord should make a report to his superior noble, after all. It’s just too bad he was leaving tomorrow morning and not today. He didn’t even let me take part in the street celebration that happened yesterday. Even though I was part of the fighting force.
We make our way to the guild and enter the guild’s medbay. The one looking after the patients at the moment is Lucia, a member of the party that came with us to activate the dungeon.
She is great at both water and blood magic. To the point where she has been recognized as a witch. To get recognized as a witch or a wizard, you have to take a difficult magic exam. Almost all who partake in the exam, fail. But she succeeded. And her access to the vampire’s blood magic makes her amazing. Blood magic is not unique to vampires, but vampires and dhampirs get a natural boost with it. You can even imitate blood magic with water magic, but it lacks precision.
Other than Brian, there were few other patients. One was a guard that got stabbed by a wyvern’s tail. Thankfully I didn’t see it in the midst of combat. I definitely would have thrown up if I saw it. He was still paralyzed by the wyvern poison. We do have plenty of wyvern poison to use for an antidote, but there isn’t anyone in town who can mix it. Father sent a horse to get someone from Sawyer city, mother’s hometown. But the trip there is a full day by carriage, so they have not gotten back yet. I think they also used the guild communication tool to request for one to be waiting. Why does the guild have that kind of tool, when Father doesn’t?
“How is he?” Mother asked Lucia.
“He is getting better.” She answered. “I’ve gotten his temperature under control, and he was half awake a bit earlier. By the doctor’s orders, I put him back to sleep with blood magic.”
“Did he say anything? You know, while he was awake?” I asked.
“He was muttering about Laura.” She answered. His system support? Why would he?
“I see. Can we stay for a bit?” She asked.
“Don’t bother the others.” Lucia told us. “And if his temperature rises again, tell me.”
We stayed there for a bit. I was holding Brian’s hand. I hope he won’t mind. I think he won’t. He didn’t get mad at me when I snuck into his bed after all.
In the yard of the manor, I was practicing magic with Mana. This is what I know, so I want to do it. Now that my level is a little higher, and now that I gained the dark magic skill, I could go on for longer than I could before.
But Mana was also more strict as a teacher. She would punish me when I made a mistake and make me repeat the exercise until I got it right. This was especially tough as Mana began to teach me other spells.
She was now teaching me ‘Dark Bind’, a spell to, well, bind my enemy with. Mana said it makes a good combo with that ‘Dark Press’ spell. She also said the spell her teacher used to hold down the wyverns yesterday was a combination of these two spells.
I got the concept of the spell, but I just couldn’t do it. She really needs to teach me these spells with chants. Doing it with ‘quick chant’ is too difficult. The mana control becomes so much more challenging with ‘quick chant’.
In the end, I couldn’t do it successfully before Mana’s time was up. I was both happy and sad as I let her go. I hope tomorrow’s training will go better.
I feel like I can’t focus as well as I should be able to. Is Brian’s situation really weighing on my mind that heavily? It makes no sense. I just met him. But then again, I’ve gained so much thanks to him. I don’t know what to do. I ate my dinner with my mother and father and went to bed with my head filled with thoughts and worries.
What if Brian won’t wake up? What if the behemoth attacks while he is still sleeping? Will I ever be strong enough to go against a lesser behemoth? Will I ever even have to?