Jisseppi scrambled to his feet. For a moment his mind is clouded, unable to focus, he’s lost on what to do. If he rushes too much the extra heart rate will make him bleed out well before he gets to safety.
The moment he realizes that he inhales deeply trying to ground himself. “Whooo. Okay. I can do this. Slow and steady”. He avoids looking at the wound. A mix of foolishness and penurious he doesn’t have anything to really help stanch the egregious wound looking will only cause him to freak out.
He glances at the leather pouch hoping whatever reward it contained was worth all the fuss it caused.
He wishes more than anything he could just ignore them and keep going, but he can’t. He knows he can’t. If he goes back home with an injury like and no money, he won’t be able to get healed. He won’t be able to heal his mother. His brother will starve to death. He’ll never get the chance to go back to his old peaceful life.
He kneels down. The open wound throbs causing the two entirely separated flaps of skin to flail about. Desperately, he paws at the leather bag in front of him.
For a moment he’s discouraged this measly sum won’t even be enough to pay for the healing he’s definitely going to need. Then he shakes his head *No! Don't be like that. I got experience both from the system, but also the valuable experience of combat. This can be a beneficial experience. I need to stay positive to get through this.*
He slips the coins in his pocket as the pouch disappears. On the ground in front of him all that remains of the harrowing experience is a small puddle of his blood with small white particulates of bone. The stone here isn’t too absorbent so when blood spills it tends to pool.
The sight sends a shiver down his spine and briefly reminds him of his mortality.
He gathers himself then sets out. The pain is immense. At first he managed by distracting himself. He used the techniques his mom taught him when he was little. He had no intention of being a hunter like her, but she still gave him advice when he needed a tooth pulled, or fell when playing.
“Sing a song of ho--oo-ope.”His throat was coarse and his mind too frayed to think of anything more than the repetitive chorus that he was supposed to structure the distraction around. He just kept singing that same lyric over and over mindlessly. The path back home while not ingrained through years of repetition was fully in him
Now almost paper white with a tinge of green his lime green skin grew paler by the minute. Small droplets of blood collected on the back of his neck. His vision was growing dim and he couldn’t tell that day was waning.
With a blink he loses his footing and nearly falls to a knee. The fall was pretty bad, but the relative pain makes it unnoticeable. Jisseppi stops singing, struggling for a moment to catch his breath.
This moment is pure bliss. It’s so peaceful his eyelids become heavy. His head begins to falter and pain fades. He’s forced awake as vision is filled with a terrifying sight.
A bright orange chitinous body a little over a foot and a half long with 46 legs. Each of those 23 pairs of bright yellow legs contrast heavily with the dark coloring of its black head plates. A slightly larger than ordinarily possible centipede sees the falling knee as a vile predator and it’s poised to fight.
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Typically these aren't a threat even for a normal goblin. Jisseppi even trained from level 0 to 2 on them when his mother first got injured, so he’s killed enough of them to even fall victim to the experience penalty. However, weakened and hardly conscious, he fails to dodge the lunging attack.
One venomous bite later and Jisseppi jumps to his feet. His foot raises and in an instant he slaughters the monster.
*You have defeated a level 0 . You have gained XP*
Unlike with monsters animals don’t drop any look instead they leave behind their bodies.
“No! No! NO! This isn’t happening. I’m gonna die. Even if I do get back to the village I can’t fucking afford the healing. I’m fucked! I’m dead! I’m fucked!”
His screams grow louder until he stirs the attention of another, more frightening foe.
A comparatively massive evolved troglodyte of some unknown variety and likely subclass. Much like the hulking variant every muscle on this thing is chiseled and it can best be described as vascular. It also has massive spikes on its knees and poking out of the top of its feet.
In a whispered whine “Nooo. Please! I don’t want to die” With every ounce of willpower Jisseppi can muster he forces himself to stay away. To ignore the skin rending pain. He casts stealth
******
Glish wakes up like most mornings to the smell of a fresh meal being prepared. Her soft silk sheets and ultra plush form fitting bed hold her tight. Reluctantly she gets out of bed. Greeting her servants Gilda and Gruss she makes her way to the dining room table. On the table is a fresh pastry for her to snack on while she waits for her meal.
Gilda stands at attention near the entrance to the kitchen. Her uniform neatly pressed and cleansed with magic to help her maintain the standard of luxury and air of superiority.
“Huh. Alright Gilda make it quick, has anyone stopped by to schedule an appointment this morning.” She says between sips of tea.
“No mam. We’ve had a quiet morning, nothing to report. Harkell went through with his idea and took his group on a trip to the deep dungeon though and reserved 50% of your mana tomorrow afternoon.” The servant responds with a clear disciplined tone. No needless information is shared and none of Glish’s “very precious” time wasted.
“Very well” Glish responds before dainty taking a single nibble from her morning pastry.
Together they wait in near absolute silence for Gruss to bring in her breakfast. The tranquility only broken by the occasional much.
Soon a large bald goblin with numerous scars dotting his face, but a suit that looks brand new brings in a simple meal. He places it on the table, then continues walking forward until he reaches the door on the opposite end of where he came. There he stands, un-talking and unmoving
Glish has a nice set up worked out for herself. It’s not exactly a scam and she definitely isn’t a villain; but being the sole healer in a tribe definitely has some major benefits. She also knows how to stretch those benefits. He knows how to make the most out of his time and skills without letting the masses die. Her reasons for not letting the masses die aren’t exactly selfless, she just doesn’t want to be hated.
She meticulously keeps track of each potion of mana he spends and how she spends it through a week. Not a single drop of mana leaves her body without her getting paid for it. She will never have full mana and ensure that he casts his spells in the proper order to maximize the number of spells she can cast.
For the rate of 12 copper per cast you can schedule a heal. She takes these bookings a full week out. Many of the local hunters will plan out all of their delves with her several days before they leave and always schedule at least 1 heal. If their hunts are successful and they don’t need healing they can return to him for a silver refund. She keeps the 2 copper difference and the excess mana is funneled to his other endeavors. She will always keep enough mana to cast an extra heal if a hunter needs an extra cast.
Another significant portion of her mana is scheduled away as well. People with specific conditions, or hunters trying to recover from major injuries. Depending on what type of healing they need, how much they need and how regularly, she will work at a specific rate for them.
Of the many ways for her to sell her excess mana, her least profitable and most time consuming is the auctions. Unless there is some kind of incident or someone wealthy is paying for some long term treatment, this is where the bulk of her daily manna goes. She gathers a waiting list of customers who are in need of healing, or curing, but can’t pay the full fee. The longer you’ve been on the list the higher your name goes.
When Glish’s mana is about to fill, or a hunter cancels their healing; the top 10 names on the list are able to bid for his mana. Rarely does such an event occur as usually the hunters return needing at least one extra heal. She usually ends up selling the cast for way less than usually around 4 copper, but that’s still much more preferable to her than letting it go to waste.
The final part, a small portion of his mana, 10, is sectioned off only to be used in case of extreme emergency. 10 mana gives her the exact amount to cast a difficult to master healing spell known as. Preserve. The spell is a general full body heal that focuses on the most immediately life-threatening wounds and only heals them to the point of life preservation. It will leave paper thin scabs that only barely stop bleeding. It has no practical use in combat since the newly healed area would immediately deteriorate under any stress. In a non combat situation it's the quintessential spell for any clinic. It does the bare minimum to give time for other spells to be cast and first aid to be done. She charges the exuberant rate of 6 silvers for a single cast if she is ever forced to use it.
The moment Glish’s utensils hit the table signaling the end of her meal both servants move in unison towards the table. Within seconds Gilda stands before her mistress, both arms raised, she chants “Cleanse”. Removing all traces of the meal from the edges of Glish’s lips. At the same time Gruss has picked up every dirty piece of cutlery from the table, including madames' used napkins and by the time the light of the spell clears he’s taken the tainted items out of her view.
“I have some extra mana this morning. Gather the first 8 names, if they can’t arrive within the next 2, tell them not to bother and bring the next person down.”
