"Eimear!" I shouted as I knelt next to her and tried to help her up. I coughed as I breathed the dust in, which drew more into my lungs and I keeled over in a fit. I crawled to the creek and drank in deep to settle my throat.
With one final cough I regained control of my body. I crawled back to Eimear and got an arm underneath her. I couldn't feel a pulse, I needed to get her to Blánaid, surely she had some potions.
"Please. Someone, anyone, help her," I prayed.
Outside I heard a roar and shouting, but no gods answered my prayers.
I hauled Eimear to her feet and tried to walk her to the ladder, but the moment I took my first step, I lost my grip and she fell to her knees. I knelt and tried to princess carry her, but I couldn't lift her. My telekinesis was too weak to carry her either.
I ran to the base of the ladder. "Gormán!" I shouted.
"What?"
"Get down here! Eimear's hurt!"
"Shit." He scrambled down the ladder
"Wait, what?" Blánaid called from above.
"Unconscious," I said, "Please tell me you have a healing potion."
"Uhhhh..." She paused as Gormán hit the bottom of the stairs. "Not a potion, but I have a poultice. Catch!"
I couldn't see anything when I heard a woosh and a plop to my left. I reached down and grabbed a wet bundle of herbs. "What do I do?"
"Put it on her wounds."
"Okay." I ran back to Eimear. Gormán knelt beside her, and I placed the herbs on the side of her head. The blood leaking from her forehead matted her blue hair. I held the herbs in place and prayed. A moment later she coughed.
"Ow," Eimear croaked out.
"Let's get her topside," Gormán said, and we hauled her to the stairs. He climbed up side by side with her while I followed to help make sure her feet got placed on the bars.
The boss scrabbled against the cliffside, causing rocks to clatter, but nothing more. It roared in frustration, then tramped off into the woods.
I latched onto Eimear. "You idiot!" My vision blurred as tears leaked from my eyes. "You could've died."
"Heh," she laughed weakly. "It'll take more than--"
I put a finger on her lips. "No. No bravado. No more idiocy. We can't lose you too."
We locked eyes, but she looked away. "Sorry," she whispered.
I hugged her. "As long as you mean it. We need our Mage-Knight soldier."
Gormán and I helped her to her feet, and we got to work on cleaning up the inside of the grotto. We didn't dare rebuild the entryway with the Boar-hemoth rampaging outside. But we still had dust and debris to sweep up with magic, and clean off of our beds and makeshift workstations.
"Hey, Ashley, you do magic too right? Any chance of enchanting?" It took me a moment to realize Blánaid was talking to me. She had a mischievous grin as she held up a dull bloody rock.
Sure enough, one of my traits, or maybe my archetype, granted me tier one Enchanting. I looked through the knowledge of it in my Neural Annex before I realized what the rock she held was for. It was a monster mana core, one of the fundamental requirements of any enchanting.
"Huh?" I blinked. At tier one, I couldn't yet enchant my own spells onto an object, but I could add some vague general improvements. "Yeah... I think I can. Can I see that?"
She handed over the core, and I cast Identify on it.
[ Chim-fang-zee Wind Core: Tier Two ]
"Where did you get this?"
"Skinned it from the monsters you killed up here."
"Really?"
"Yep. All monsters have a core. What've you been doing with them?"
I blanched. "Throwing them away. I thought they were rocks." My NA required me to actively think about something, but it wouldn't remind me of something I had no idea about.
"Now you know," she said. "I need a never ending font of water. Is that something you can make?"
I gestured to the stream below us.
"No. That's... ugh..." She rolled her eyes. "Listen. I have an ability that lets me turn water into a few basic potions or acids. But I'm going to need a bunch of water if I'm going to keep throwing those out... ya know?"
"Then... I'll turn as much of our wood into vials as I can, so you can bottle it up?"
"Gods. You don't get it do you? I want to be able to--"
"No. I get it." I interrupted her before she could berate me some more. "It would be cool. But is it more important than enchanting weapons and armor?" I tried to think of what to say, saw my focus dip, and my Bargaining skill nudged me to take her hand and look her in the eye. So I did. "I don't know when I'll be able to make something like that, but as soon as I can, I will. Once we have those taken care of, get me a water aligned core, and I can make one for you."
She held on tight to my hand, and her demeanor shifted. "Really? You will? You promise."
We were interrupted as the sun set behind the horizon and our vision was flooded with our daily notifications.
[ System Message: Daily status update.
Stat Increases:
Agility 1->2
Memory 2->3
Skill Increases:
Amplification 1->2
Appraise 1->2
Bravery 1->2
Carrying 1->2
Composure 1->2
Cooking 1->2
Crafting Precision 1->2
Deception 1->2
Earth Mana Control 1->2
Empathy 2->3
Focus Regeneration 1->2
Health Regeneration 1->2
Insight 1->2
Logging 1->2
Mining 0->1
Perception 1->2
Prayer 0->1
Rapport 1->2
Stamina Regeneration 1->2
Stealth 1->2
Survival 1->2
Tracking 1->2
Derived Pool Increases:
Mana 32->34
Stamina: 20->21
New Trait Slot Unlocked (Stat and Skill level total over 100.)
Native Memory Update Progress: 50% ]
I got my usual headache, along with the ever expanding void that I could feel in my soul. Halfway to being a complete native. I still had no idea if that was good or bad.
[ Zone Message: Congratulations on defeating the First of Three bosses of the Seangan Hive Tree dungeon.
Day 3 of 10 of the Native Trials complete.
Evaluation Rankings: Taur-Na-Tastaith Zone-47 is ranked 27/47. You are currently below the acceptable threshold. Finishing below the acceptable threshold will mean zone resources will be repurposed. ]
Defeated a boss? I guessed that the adventuring party had been making good progress. It was a nice reassurance to know that they were still alive, and we got an indication of where we might find them.
[ Admin Message:
Good evening Elves of Erendria,
I'm sure you're starting to get used to your place in this world at this point. We're seeing mixed reactions to the beginning of our verisimilitude enforcement, and we know that this is a difficult change. We have time built in for the adaption, but from our beta trials we've learned that the faster you accept it, the smoother it will go.
It will also go easier if you allow for the Native Memory Update process to happen without resistance. Afterall, you cannot be tempted into sin if you do not know of the sin to begin with. Please embrace this new life that you have all been given, and leave behind that which no longer serves you. This is for your own good and mental wellbeing.
A new change from our beta trials is that those who are proven to be unable to adapt will undergo a monsterification process and lose all ability to communicate. So, if you want to live as a monster and not be able to communicate anymore, then you are free to say what you wish. Otherwise, we ask that you do your best to adapt to the terminology one would expect from a Native of Erendria.
In additional news, we have prematurely weeded out zones that no longer have a chance of making it to the top ten to continue on for our qualifiers for creating the Elven capital city. The biggest indicator of this has been survival rate, with the second being group unification. For those of you in the bottom half, we recommend that you work through your differences if you would like to have a shot at the top ten, and being the seed for the new Elven capital city.
Through adversity and apocalypse, we triumph,
-Elven Native Admin, Cyril ]