NOVEL NEXT Ch. 51: Rest and Recover
Alyx stumbled as she spoke. Cass scurried to her side, slipping her shoulder under the other woman’s arm and catching her before she fell.
“Woah! You okay?” Cass asked, not waiting for Salos to help with translating. It wasn’t a sentence that needed an exact translation, the concern in her voice should have been more than enough to convey her point.
Alyx took a steadying breath before pushing herself off Cass. She shook her head and said something. Her tone was bitter.
She says she can take care of herself, Salos explained.
Cass frowned but took a step back.
Fair enough, she supposed. They didn’t know each other. Who wanted strange women touching them?
There were better ways to help anyway. Cass was injured. Alyx was injured. It was time to set camp.
Cass looked around the room again, taking stock of the chamber. There were only two doors, one from which she had come from and one leading deeper into the temple. There was a pool in the center, connected out of the room to the door leading deeper into the temple by a shallow channel. The spider’s carcass lay beside the pool. There weren’t any other materials besides the cold stone walls, floors, and pillars.
Not the greatest campsite for sure, but she’d make do.
First thing first, she needed to secure the room. The last thing she needed was another spider wandering in while they were resting.
She glanced over her Focus.
29/225
Well, that explained the mounting headache.
Never mind the securing the room business, apparently. She had a little bit that she could use to make a campfire and that was about it.
She picked a spot away from the spider’s corpse and the water and dropped a handful of Flintshrooms on the ground to start a fire. She would have liked to make a proper fire ring, but between the endless stone halls and the plethora of water, Cass thought it was unlikely it would spread beyond where she wanted it and she just didn’t have the Focus budget for nonessential steps. She just needed something to make it clear they were camping for her skill.
One Elemental Manipulation later and 20 Focus expended for a summoned flame, Cass had a cheery little fire and a killer Focus depletion headache. Immediately, the area felt safer. The warmth of the flames wrapped her like a blanket, a comfortable weight settling on her shoulders. Things would be alright.
While Cass set camp, Alyx looked over the spider’s corpse. She nudged it with her boot, a contemplative frown on her lips.
She yelled something across the room at Cass.
Salos? Cass asked.
She is asking if you defeated the spider alone.
Cass nodded. “Yep.”
Alyx looked between the spider and Cass again. Then between Cass and the campfire. Then the campfire and the middle distance in between.
She seems to be checking you with Identify, Salos said.
You can use that on people? Cass asked. She felt dumb the moment the thought crossed her mind. Was that not the single most obvious use?
And, that’s not rude or something? Cass asked.
Why would it be?
Cass pursed her lips. If Salos said so. She cast it on Alyx.
Human Warrior
Lvl 20
[Humans are a versatile lot, able to adapt to any environment though specializing in nothing. Warriors are much the same, able to handle a wide array of combat situations with flexibility in method and means.]
Oh, that’s more general than I was expecting, Cass said. For some reason she’d half-expected Identify to tell her Alyx’s full name and list her innermost secrets. She shuddered a little at the thought. How terrifying if you could get that much information just by looking at them.
Alyx walked over to Cass and her fire. Every step was accompanied by a grimace of pain. She lowered her head and said something. The words were gruff but were still a softer tone than Cass had heard from the woman yet.
She’s thanking you for rescuing her and asking if she can share your fire to recover, Salos explained.
Cass nodded and gestured to the area beside her. “Sure, sit."
Alyx did, sitting to Cass’s right, angled just so both doors were in sight.
Cass leaned against the pillar behind her, soaking in the warmth of her little fire and the ethereal warmth Beacon of Hearth and Home filled her with.
God, she was tired.
How much further to the boss room? She asked Salos.
Hard to say, but we’re probably most of the way there.
Cass nodded to herself. Her eyes flickered closed.
***
When Cass’s eyes opened again her head felt much clearer. She blinked blearily. Oh. She’d fallen asleep.
“Uh, how long was I asleep?” Cass muttered to Salos as she pushed herself up. She was stiff everywhere and sore everywhere else. She’d pushed herself too far in that last fight.
A few hours, Salos said. You needed it.
Cass glanced around the room. Nothing had changed in that time. No new enemies lurked in the corners or the doorways. The spider corpse was unmoved from the gooey mass beside the pool. Alyx still sat against her pillar beside Cass, apparently still awake.
Has she been awake this whole time? Cass asked.
I doubt she’s trusting enough to just fall asleep beside a stranger. Not everyone is as carefree as you.
Hey! Cass scowled.
He ignored her outburst. Even without sleep, she will have recovered quite a bit because of your camping skill. Don’t worry about her.
Cass’s scowl didn’t lessen. But she’s injured.
And how is that your concern?
I don’t know, Cass pushed herself up and walked across the room to the edge of the pool. I guess I just have basic human decency and empathy for the injured.
Contrary to her expectations, the water ran silently from the doorway into the pool. Which meant it must drain somewhere down there. She peered down into the pool but couldn’t see the bottom.
Maybe it wasn’t a pool then, but a shaft. Perhaps it was even how the spider got into the labyrinth.
Those things nearly got you killed just now, Salos said.
Cass glared at the water in place of Salos. You seemed pleased enough with my decisions when I was killing the spider.
Salos didn’t have a retort. He just huffed to himself quietly.
Cass ignored him.
She looked between the water and her gut and blood-covered clothing, weighing her options with distaste, debating a quick dip to clean off. On one hand, she was filthy. On the other hand, that had become such a constant background fact she barely noticed anymore. Though, that had been when there hadn’t been anyone else around her—not that cleanliness was a virtue only in the company of others. She also hadn’t been covered in spider guts previously. Cockroach guts and boar blood though, which objectively wasn’t better.
More to the point, taking a dunk now would leave her with soaking wet clothing with only her tiny mushroom fire to dry them with. Maybe she could bend the water out of her clothes with Elemental Manipulation or maybe that would drain more Focus than she could afford right now.
There was also the concern there was something down there. Something hungry and/or malicious. Something like another spider. Or eel. Or big fish. Or octopus. Or… She was letting her imagination get away from her again. Still, Atmospheric Sense couldn’t tell her what was down there and it didn’t need to be magically inclined enough to be sensed by Mana Sense for it to be a threat.
She shook her head. No, it wasn’t worth it. No bath right now…
She could at least wash her face in the shallow channel though.
She did. The cold water felt good on her face. Technically, she could summon water to wash up with, and she should consider it in the future, but for the moment this was a better use of her resources.
She paused by the channel, glancing back at the other woman still sitting by her pillar, still completely covered in dried blood. On a whim, Cass Elemental Manipulated a deep bowl out of the nearby stone and filled it with water from the channel.
Alyx eyed it with surprise as Cass brought it over to her. Cass set it beside her and mimed splashing herself with the bowl’s contents. Alyx said something, her tone softer than Cass had yet heard her speak.
She’s thanking you, Salos said.
Cass smiled in response with a nod. She asked Salos, How do I tell her to take her time washing up and then get some rest?
You aren’t going to leave yet? Salos groaned.
Cass bit her lip. She hadn’t even thought about that yet. With Alyx still so obviously injured and tired, it seemed wrong to just leave already, not that Salos cared. He only cared about her condition which was—Actually, what were her stats looking like?
Stamina: 51/51
Focus: 138/225
Health: 29/40
My Focus is only at half. It wasn’t even an excuse. I should let that recover the rest of the way. So, while I’m still recovering, Alyx might as well get comfortable.
Fine, Salos grumbled. I suppose that makes sense. This is how you say that…
Cass repeated him carefully, doing her very best to not only repeat him but also remember the phrases. She needed to learn this language as quickly as she could.
She trusted Salos. She really did. Or, she wanted to anyway.
But it bothered her that she could only rely on him to translate for her. It would be too easy for him to lie to her about the words of others or make her say something she would otherwise regret. Plus it was annoying.
Alyx started cleaning her face with the bowl of water Cass brought over, rubbing away the caked-on blood with her hands. In no time, the water was beyond gross.
Cass scooped it up and replaced it for her, rinsing the bowl out before filling it and returning it to her. Alyx had called out to protest, Cass hadn’t needed Salos’s translation to understand that much. She’d ignored the calls. This was easy enough and obviously, the other woman was still in quite a bit of pain when she tried to move.
Alyx thanked Cass again as she placed the bowl beside her again. Cass recognized the tone of gratitude this time if not the words.
Yet, as Alyx cupped a palmful of water and brought it to her lips, Cass slapped the water down.
“Woah! No! Don’t drink that!” Cass yelled, not waiting for Salos to translate, not caring that the specifics of her words weren’t going to be understood.
That water wasn’t clean. At all.
Setting aside the bowl had just held blood and dirt, who knew where the water was coming from.
There was no reason to drink that when she had a safer option. She held her hand out and Elemental Manipulated a cup out of the floor tile. She glared at it. In retrospect, random stone wasn’t that clean either. She considered the issue for a second, well aware that Alyx was staring at her.
Hell with it, she’d just blast it with a palm of fire to sterilize it before she filled it with water. Cass wasn’t quite sure how hot she could make her fire with Elemental Manipulation, but at the end of the day, heat was just another attribute of the summoned material, wasn’t it? There wasn’t any reason she couldn’t make it hotter than a normal fire, was there?
Well, besides the extreme discomfort of having such a fire near her exposed skin and the higher Focus cost than she’d been expecting, she discovered. Either way, a moment later she was holding a slightly warm stone cup filled with clean water out to the other woman. Alyx took it, sipping it carefully.
She frowned and looked at Cass again. She said something, confusion heavy in her voice.
She is asking who you are again, Salos said.
Cass cocked her head to one side in what she hoped was the universal sign of confusion.
The woman gestured at the cup and said something.
“You’re a mage capable of handling three distinct domains of magic,” Salos translated. “With no command words or reagents. And you are wandering the—“ Salos paused, interjecting a disapproving or perhaps confused hmmm into his translation before continuing, “—Demon God’s Temple alone.”
Do skills usually need command words? Or reagents? Cass asked Salos.
I think she’s confused you for a wizard rather than the sorcerer you are.
There are multiple ways to do magic? Cass asked.
Sure, just like there are multiple ways to wield a sword or multiple ways to build a house. You primarily rely on Skills to directly perform the magic you want, hence Sorcerer. Wizards use skills to indirectly perform magic.
What does that mean? Cass asked.
Mmm, Salos paused, looking for an analogy. A moment later he said, imagine you want to make a ceramic pot. A Sorcerer-esque craftsman could use a skill to make the raw clay form up and harden into the pot they want on the spot. Similar to how you make dishware from stone with Elemental Manipulation. A wizard-esque craftsman would likely have quite a few skills as well, but they would be guidance skills instead. It would be Clay Shaping Mastery and Kiln Management and Eye for Glaze or something. None of the skills directly affect the clay, they all help the craftsman with the craft rather than replacing it.
He continued: A Sorcerer has a skill called Fireball. A wizard has a skill called Invocation and has memorized the chant to manifest fire.
I thought I understood the first analogy, Cass said, but you lost me with the second. She was pretty sure she understood the difference he was trying to explain between the two, but she wasn’t entirely convinced Elemental Manipulation was a sorcerer skill as he claimed.
Elemental Manipulation was a skill to summon and manipulate an element after all. It was open-ended and flexible. Wasn’t it closer to his example of Invocation rather than Fireball?
But, setting that aside for now, what was that about a ‘Demon God’s Temple’?
I have no idea, Salos said. I’ve never even heard of a demon god. Much less the Temple of the Deep called such a thing.
Alyx was still staring at Cass, her question still unanswered.
Cass just shrugged. It wasn’t an answer, but Cass didn’t have an answer.
Alyx’s eyes narrowed but she sipped her water without further questions.