Lifestealer: Cursed Healer [A LITRPG Isekai Survival]

The way Symon saw things, they had a simple choice to make — go left, or go right. Going forward into the forest was too dangerous, while going back and up the cave wall had its own problems. The main one was that he needed a continual source of vitality to heal, especially to regrow his missing foot. It would also be a very poor battlefield for both of them, especially if he had to try and climb with three limbs and his still lingering general injuries. He'd healed everything just enough that he wasn't going to fall apart after a few steps, but climbing was strenuous in the way the shuffling hop he was capable of wasn't.

Finally, they'd just attracted a lot of attention to the area. To be fair to his elven companion, it was mostly Symon taking a very visible tumble down the cliff, but the important part was that monsters would be drawn to the fighting. It would be an opportunity for them to pick off a weakened foe and receive double the reward.

He'd already seen how well the higher Steps could track him, so a hundred metres up the wall wasn't nearly far enough to escape being found, and that was assuming nothing saw him climbing up and knocked him back down again.

It was a wonder nothing had shown up already, but that only meant they couldn't delay any further. The issue was, they still had to pick which direction. Luckily, Symon had a bit of Earth knowledge applicable to his situation.

While he wouldn't describe himself as a gamer, he'd played more than a few while laid up in the hospital. It was common practice to do all the side quests before the final boss, and the introductory message he'd received had stated that their only escape was through defeating a so-called 'Crystal Architect.' With that in mind, the choice was clear.

"I vote we go in the opposite direction of the crystal forest. We can hug the wall away from here, I'll drain the plants along the edge to fix myself, then we can find a cave to hide in."

Entisse nodded immediately. "Anywhere but here; we have tarried long enough."

"Agreed." Symon looked down at the empty stump of his leg. Wherever the missing part had landed, it was nowhere visible, though his bloody boot had landed nearby. He wasn't sure if the fact that it didn't contain his severed foot was a good or bad thing. "Uh, could I get a little help walking?"

The pair made fast progress, the worry of a Second Step monster finding them nipped at their heels — or singular heel, in Symon's case — and propelled them forward with haste.

The haste was relative, of course. Even with Entisse helping him hop along, it wasn't the fastest form of movement. He was dedicating all his vitality to regrowing the bottom quarter of his leg, but it was still the largest regrowth he'd ever performed at once.

Having a missing limb regrow in a matter of minutes was miraculous even by the standards of Cathar, but it didn't feel that fast in the moment. He hopped along like a madman, quickly leaving behind the spider's squelched corpse. He'd tried not to look at it much, largely because the already horrifying monster looked even worse after being turned into so much minced meat.

Entisse knew where its core had been, but had decided to leave it there as a distraction. They'd hoped that the monsters that stumbled across the impact site would fight each other over the core of a Second Step monster instead of chasing after two First Steps. Judging by the still audible crashing and growling, her plan had been effective.

They hadn't seen more than the occasional bird from their previous vantage point up the cavern wall, but it was clear that the dense canopy had been hiding plenty of vicious creatures, judging by the slowly receding sounds of battle.

Nothing ended up interrupting their retreat, and Symon let out a blissful sigh as his freshly regrown foot touched down on the grassy soil. He put his shoe back on, leaving him with his only remaining clothing being his boots pants. At least the temperature was surprisingly pleasant, being neither too hot nor too cold, though there was no breeze.

The true relief came from finally fully fixing his ribs, allowing him to take a deep breath without pain. On top of that, all the various annoying but not debilitating wounds finally faded away now that he finally had the vitality to spare.

It also allowed them to pick up the pace, as Entisse no longer needed to support him. He wasn't sure how far they had gone when the sounds of violence were no longer perceptible, but they could move quickly when they had to. They'd elected to forgo stealth as Symon was nowhere near sneaky enough to avoid Second Steps, so their run along the base of the cavern wall took them several kilometres away before they came to a stop.

A group of small, rodent-like creatures blocked their way, or at least that's what Symon thought at first. When they got a good look at Symon, all the smaller ones began running into the forest, while the largest one squared up and squeaked threateningly at them.

"Well, it's nice to know not every creature in the forest can kill us," Symon said as he drew to a halt, only slightly out of breath from the run.

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"Indeed. We should grant them their lives; the sound of battle, even as poor as it would be, would draw stronger foes," his companion replied.

"Yeah, no point to it. Plus, they're kinda cute in a weird mole-creature kinda way, you know?"

Entisse frowned, the slightly dried blood around her face cracking in places. Their frenzied sprint away from danger had solidified some of the mess, though Symon couldn't muster the energy to be disgusted considering he was almost as coated in the red fluid as she was. "I do not understand how this… cute concept is applicable. Their weak forms are shrunken and shrivelled," she said with a dismissive hand wave at the mole creature.

It squeaked in a panic at her sudden movement and ran off into the forest, following after the smaller ones of its kind. Children, presumably.

When she said 'cute', she used the Common word he'd spoken instead of her native Elvish. It was the first time he'd heard her properly attempt to speak in Common, and she pronounced it more like 'vute'. It was probably worth it to teach her the language so they didn't have to rely on the translation ring, but he had other priorities.

Explaining how things could be ugly-cute wasn't one of them, so he also tabled that for later. "How about we find somewhere safe-ish to hide out first, then I can tell you all about pugs."

"A wise choice," she hissed. Symon couldn't tell if it was sarcastic or not. "We now possess these creatures' homes by right of conquest."

The homes in question were tiny tunnels dotting the wall. The mole things had only gone up to his knee, so he'd have to belly crawl to fit through the openings they'd used, and that was only possible for the largest ones. Entisse had slimmer shoulders, but even she could only contort herself so far.

She'd also spent virtually her entire life underground, so he deferred to her judgment. He spared a quick glance over his shoulder first, but the forest was as still as it always seemed. An occasional distant screech or roar made its way to his ears, but he didn't see anything. "Which one should we hide in? A bit of space to move around in would be nice, but I'll take anything that more giant spiders can't reach into."

"That one," she answered instantly, pointing to one a little above head height. "The small creatures would choose the lower ones first, so there is less chance of them leaving waste behind."

"Oh, good idea." Symon hadn't even thought about how bad a tunnel a bunch of rodents had been living in could smell. Maybe he'd been trying to block out the traumatic memory of the spider's acid vomit.

Hopefully Smell Resistance exists…

Not wanting to waste any more time, Entisse hoisted herself up and peered deeper into the tiny cave. "I do not sense any blood, fresh or old, in there, but we must not rely on magical senses."

"Right," Symon said. Keelgrave's magical perception had been muted, too. He wasn't sure if that was a general dungeon thing or something specific about this one. "Want me to go in first?"

"No, your blindness is a liability. I will lead, and you will heal me if I encounter a foe," she ordered. Her blunt words didn't cause any offence — not being able to see in the dark like she could was a big disadvantage. It was also kind of creepy, so he wouldn't complain about going second.

Symon nodded, and the two scurried into the cave in the agreed-upon order. Earlier, they'd also considered laying a fake trail to throw off any monsters tracking them, but he decided the risk of staying outside longer didn't outweigh the risk of something tracking them.

Entisse climbed up in a flash, while Symon took longer to haul himself in. It was awkward to go headfirst into something he had to climb to reach, but he eventually managed to squeeze in.

He fit, though it wasn't a pleasant process, and not just because of the size. It was a roughly cylindrical tunnel, with no flat part on the bottom, so he had to uncomfortably brace his knees and arms against the sides and wriggle forward.

This cumbersome movement continued onward, his thread reaching out past them, ready to respond to anything as soon as it attacked Entisse. The darkness closed in quickly, though he could hear the soft scraping of her claws and knew she was going slow enough not to pull too far ahead of him.

It was a claustrophobic experience, more because he was worried about something sneaking up behind him in this largely defenceless position than because he was worried about getting stuck, but his fears wound up being unfounded.

The tunnel went surprisingly deep, and, to his immense relief, opened up at the very end. It was large enough that he could stand up straight in — at least in the middle — and wide enough that he could lie down in, although the curved floor wouldn't exactly be the most comfortable thing to sleep on.

It was as safe as they could reasonably get, though. It was small enough that only smaller monsters would fit, and there were enough twists and turns that nothing larger would be able to reach all the way to the end, like the giant spider had almost been able to do in that other cave.

Small monsters could be plenty dangerous, but if the only choice he had was between fighting something a quarter his height or four times his height, he knew what he'd be picking.

Entisse seemed to agree, as he heard her settle down with a gentle hiss. "I must meditate and restore enough mana to fight. The currents are thick here, but it will take time to return to full strength."

"Oh, sure. I have a full vessel, though, so we can do that blood to mana thing."

She must have shaken her head before remembering he couldn't see her, because her response came slower than usual. "It would be best not to. There is a strain to its overuse that affects the soul, something even you would not be able to fix."

"Oh, shit, you didn't mention that before. Straining your soul sounds bad."

"Indeed. Our survival is now linked, so there is little purpose to maintaining secrecy. It would recede eventually, but I would prefer not to incur the debilitation when simple time and meditation will suffice."

"Makes sense, better to save it for an emergency. Well, I'll keep an eye out while you do your thing," Symon offered. He doubted he'd be able to relax, and he wasn't sleepy. It wouldn't even be noon if he'd still been outside the dungeon.

They were safe, for now, but they couldn't stay in here forever. He needed to be stronger, and fast, but the monsters in the dungeon were so far above him that he couldn't just throw himself into combat. He probably would have done it if the dungeon was just a little bit more his tier, but he also couldn't sit around forever; the longer he was stuck in here, the worse the chances of his friends on the outside became.

Now he just had to figure out how to get enough power to survive in the dungeon, escape, and free his allies from a thousand-strong army with Third Steps…