Casey approached Devin with a red-tinted vial in each hand. One of them was plain glass, and the other was painted with copper-colored skulls.

  “That looks ominous,” Devin said.

  She held up the plain red vial. “Did the potion you were given before look like this?”

  “It was empty when I saw it, but yes,” Devin said. “The kid said it was left over from when his mother had a baby.”

  Casey nodded. “That was one of my ‘Weak Healing Potions. I make them for midwives in the area, including the one who serves Pitmerden. They’re safe for unenhanced patients.” She shook her head. “Sometimes people only use a little bit of the potions I give them. They save the rest for family emergencies. I understand it, but sometimes people die because half the treatment is withheld.”

  “In this case, someone lived because they did it,” Devin said. “Me.”

  Casey nodded. “You’re lucky there was enough left to stabilize you.” She held up the vial with the copper-colored skulls. “This one is a ‘Copper Healing Potion.’ It’s made for Copper level enhanced like me. It can heal about a fifth of your Silver-level health pool. It’s the strongest potion I can make right now. These don't keep once they’re opened, so make sure you drink the whole thing.”

  “Uh, where I come from, you don’t drink things with skulls on them,” Devin said.

  “This potion would kill an unenhanced,” Casey said “Red potions are healing, and the color of the skulls will tell you which level it’s safe to drink them at. Don’t drink any potions that have Gold or Platinum skulls on them. Also, you have to wait 24 hours after you drink a healing potion to drink another or it won’t work.”

  Devin shot Milo a look. “Healing potions have a 24-hour cooldown? That’s brutal.”

  “I’m not responsible for the basic rules of reality,” Milo said. “If you have complaints, I suggest you open a help ticket with the gods.”

  Devin opened his mouth to respond, then noticed Casey’s head turning to stare at each of them in turn. It was hard to tell what she was thinking because she didn’t have eyes, and her mouth was ... Devin had to repress a shudder as soon as he started thinking about it. He looked at the floor.

  “I’m from another world,” he said. “You probably won’t get most of my ... uh ... references.” He blinked and looked back at Milo. “Or does the translation fix that?”

  “People on Senarci lack the context to understand many of the activities and traditions from your world,” Milo said. “Trust me when I say the translator is having trouble making you sound ... sane.”

  “Was it OK to tell her that I’m from another world? I didn’t break any rules, did I?”

  “There is no rule against running your mouth like an idiot,” Milo said. “But I’m sure Priestess Casey can be trusted.”

  Devin frowned and turned back to Casey. “I don’t know how much you know about people from other worlds. Is that a common thing here?”

  “Not common,” Casey said. “I’ve heard stories about such things."

  “Interesting.” Devin kept his gaze locked on Milo. “Stories about people from other worlds. That seems like something my Guide would have mentioned.”

  Milo padded towards Devin and stopped a few feet away. His puppy dog eyes looked up at him with cat condescension.

  “Perhaps I haven’t been clear enough,” Milo said. “I’m not here to hold your hand. I’m not here to tell you who to fight or when to fight them. And I’m not here to answer questions that you can’t be bothered to ask. If the people who brought you here had wanted you to have a wind-up toy, they would have given you a wind-up toy.”

  Devin’s eyes narrowed. He turned to Casey. “Sorry for the rude interruption. You were saying?”

  “This is for you.” She handed him the red potion with the skulls. As soon as he touched it, text popped up above it.

  Copper Healing Potion - A healing potion brewed for Copper-level enhanced. Based on your enhancement level and current Endurance modifier, this potion will heal approximately 20% of your health pool. This potion shares a one-day cooldown with all magical healing consumables.

  Devin blinked and looked at Milo.

  Milo – Fascinating. It appears that one of the abilities the party shares is potion identification. It’ll be interesting to see if that extends to other magical items, as well. Priestess Casey, please continue with the conversation as if you did not see these messages.

  Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

  Casey put the plain red potion into her bag and took out a small blue one.

  “This is a quenching potion,” she said. “It’s always good to have one handy. They put out small fires.”

  “Cool!” Devin said. “How can something this small douse a whole fire?”

  “It doesn’t have to douse the fire,” Casey said. “Just make sure the liquid touches the flames, and the magic does the rest. It’s reliable against normal fires but limited against magical fires.”

  Lesser Potion of Quenching - A simple quenching potion. This single-use potion will extinguish up to 10 contiguous cubic meters of non-magical fire that it comes into contact with.

  Devin thought of something. “Wait, how do you drink potions?” he said. “I mean, with your mouth ...” He winced. “Sorry! I …”

  “It’s all right,” Casey said. “I’m aware of my condition. I can’t drink potions, but there are other types of consumables with different delivery methods.”

  She dug into her pack and held up a metallic red cylinder about the size of a stick of lip balm. It even had tiny Copper skulls on it.

  “This is called a ‘snapstick,” Casey said. “You break it under a patient’s nose and let them breathe it in. “They’re weaker than potions, and they’re harder to make, but sometimes patients are in no condition to drink.”

  She rifled around in the supply closet and found a stack of small pouches lined with cotton cushioning. She slipped the snapstick into one, then handed it to Devin.

  “Please be careful with that,” Casey said. “I have a very limited supply.”

  Devin nodded. He put the snapstick in one of his pouches.

  “There are also salves,” Casey said. She held up a squat cylindrical jar. “They concentrate more of the healing power into one location. You don’t have to use the whole jar, just apply until the wound looks healed. They’re better for large external wounds, but if you don’t have potions or snapsticks handy, they are better than nothing for internal injuries."

  “Salves for cuts and scrapes, snapsticks for unconscious people, and potions for everything else,” Devin said. “Got it.”

  Casey pulled on her backpack and tightened the straps. “Lesson finished. I’m ready when you are.”

  Devin nodded, then paused. He turned to Milo. “Hey. I’m sorry if I was a dick just now. Are we good?”

  “I am quite good,” Milo said. “I cannot speak for your condition. Before we move on, I suspect it may set your mind to rest to know that only healing potions share the one-day cooldown. Many potions don’t have cooldowns at all.”

  "That does make me feel better, actually,” Devin said. “Thanks.”

  “I hope you remember that I shared this with you, despite the fact that you didn’t even think to ask,” Milo said. He sniffed and walked down the hall with his tail held high.

  Devin rolled his eyes and followed. He checked his character sheet for progress as they moved towards the exit and was happy to see a brief summary of what he'd gained from the fight.

  You gained 8 Agility points, 2 Intuition points, 8 Might points, 6 Reaction points, and 2 Deftness points from abilities in the last fight.

  Agility was now his highest modified Attribute at 68. According to Milo, unenhanced people could go no higher than 20 in any Attribute. That meant Devin was more than three times as agile as the most agile person who ever lived. His Might wasn’t far behind at 66.

  His short sword ability relied on Agility and Might along with Reaction. Since his dagger ability used Reaction and Deftness, he decided his best bet would still be using a short sword and a dagger. He’d rather use a club – or even better, a baseball bat – but he knew anything made of wood would break on the first swing. If he found a metal club, he might use it.

  In the meantime, dual wielding the short-sword-and dagger-combo would allow him to increase 4 of his 6 physical attributes while using his best Attributes. If he alternated that with his unarmed combat ability - which used Endurance – he could increase five of his six physical Attributes through combat alone.

  That left Speed. That Attribute was going to be a problem since he didn’t have any combat abilities associated with it. Maybe he could do wind sprints every day or run everywhere he went. Thankfully, it wasn’t a primary Attribute, so he didn’t need as many points to bring it to Gold.

  He’d worry about the mental Attributes if he survived long enough.

  Devin heard what sounded like a gathering of people outside. It grew louder as they approached the front door of the manor.

  "It’s the townspeople,” Milo said.

  “What are they doing?” Devin said.

  “I don’t know,” Milo said. “But I don’t think we can get out of here without them seeing us.”

  “Do we need to hide from them?” Devin said. “Why do they even care if we exist?”

  “Again, I don’t know.”

  “If it comes to it, you’d better do the talking, Casey,” Devin said. “I don’t know anything about anything, and I’ll probably screw it all up.”

  Casey pulled up her hood. “I have a plan,” she said. “Do your best and I’ll come in when the time is right.”

  Devin missed a step. “But …” Casey kept walking, and he moved to keep up with her.

  They strode out the front door into the light of torches. At least thirty men ringed the entrance. They all held clubs or tools, and none of them looked happy. Behind them stood an even larger crowd including women and children.

  Devin scanned the crowd. He felt ridiculous in his fancy clothes.

  “We don’t want any trouble,” he said. “Casey and I are leaving.”

  People shuffled around. A huge man stepped forward. He was a head taller than Devin and ripped, with biceps the size of most men’s thighs. He wore a gray tunic stained black in places and held a hammer almost two meters long. His skin was the darkest Devin had seen since he’d arrived on this world.

  “You must be the mayor,” Devin said, taking a wild guess.

  “Blacksmith,” the man said. “Wouldn’t be the mayor for anything. Grigor Hemming’s the name.”

  “That’s the biggest smithing hammer I’ve ever seen,” Devin said.

  “This isn’t my smithing hammer,” Grigor said. "This is my negotiating hammer.”

  “Are you planning to negotiate with me?” Devin said.

  “That depends on if you try to leave with the healer,” Grigor said.

  His tone was even, like he was commenting on the weather or this year’s harvest.

  “Then we may have a problem, Mr. Hemming,” Devin said. “Because I’m leaving, and Casey’s coming with me.”

  The blacksmith glanced over his shoulder and sighed. “Alright then.” He raised his hammer into a guard position. “Time to ... negotiate.”