Event Skill Gained: Reckless Hero
Event Skill Gained: Navigator
The wooden ceiling in front—above—you isn't the inn's. Is this the Mu clan's household? Something moves at your feet, and a ball of black fur jumps at you angrily, covering your face in soft licks.
You try to say his name, to call out, but your mouth doesn't seem to move properly. You try to lift an arm to pet him, but your hands are a mass of bandages.
"He hasn't left your side all week. Neither of them has." You don't think you've ever heard Winter Breeze that quiet, or that caring. It's not a reassuring sound.
Soft green vines stretch out around you, hugging you close as happy flowers smother what parts of your face Autumn isn't hogging.
"You were the most injured. Your vine was almost recovered by the time we got it back to the inn, and Autumn Shade's injuries could be treated with simple healing skills. The adventurer girl seems to be recovering as well, though it may take some time before..."
There's something you have to say to Winter Breeze, but no matter how much you move your mouth, you can't seem to make anything more than a faint wheezing sound. Your lungs burn. She's saying something, but you can't quite make it what it is. Autumn looks worried.
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It's dark and Autumn's snoring at your side the next time you open your eyes. You raise a hand, slowly, to pet the kitten, to make sure he's alive and wince at at a pain that feels like serrated needles being hammered through your bones.
"You'll only hurt yourself if you try to move." the voice is light and airy and utterly inhuman. Whoever it is is standing past the head of your bed, somewhere you couldn't see without rolling over or sitting up and turning.
"You shattered almost every bone in your right hand. It looks like you kept trying to cut it even after it was already turned to stone petrified it. You weren't hitting quite so strongly with the left, so the damage could be treated normally. You also swallowed a substantial amount of smoke from the beast's fire. Your lungs aren't expected to recover naturally, and your vocal cords are burned well past the range you could use them normally. On the other hand, transforming your hair, as much as your body couldn't afford to lose the energy elsewhere, did allow it to grow out nicely."
You try to say something rude, but all you manage is an agonized rasp.
"Those are the relatively easy injuries to treat."
You try to stretch a leg out, to push yourself around, but the limb in question only twitches weakly. The voice continues.
"It's a pretty interesting case though. Have you ever wondered how you acquire skills? There's no skill that lets you do so. You have no ability that allows you to see your own status, yet everyone learns eventually, even if they never get analyzed. Reading and writing creates an events skill, but speaking does not. You don't need a skill to digest food. It's something of a contradiction."
You want to tell him to get to the point, but you can't even move enough for a rude gesture. Desperately you turn to Autumn, trying to nudge the cat.
"They won't wake up until I allow it to be so. I suppose what I'm saying is that after base skills, studied skills, supplemental, event and personal skills there's still another hidden category. Perhaps you could call them fundamental skills or hidden skills, or simply innate potential below that of skills, I don't particularly care."
You don't need the lecture. You need to move, to be told that it's all going to be okay and you're going to be talking and laughing and playing with Autumn again, lecturing Mountain Peak for sneaking sips of your blood even if you're always going to cave to him.
"In this case, that fundamental potential is what pushed you past your limits. It's not like it's a power that came out of nowhere, just another mystery in the A ranked street rat. For whatever reason, you acquired skills you shouldn't have normally been able to acquire, you pushed yourself well beyond your limits, evolved faster than you built up the support to evolve yourself, and you're paying the price. You've spread yourself too thin, weakened the fundamentals of your body beyond their ability to recover with ordinary help."
No, no. This isn't happening. It's not! Still, a part of you's happy to pay this price if it means that Autumn and Peak made it out okay.
"Eventually, with basic treatment, you may be able to move again, to walk with a cane. Running is probably impossible, much less combat."
No, the voice wants something. It's not some mysterious stranger here to taunt you for no reason. There's an out, there has to be.
"It's nothing worth taking pride in, but the resources I can bring to bear, the resources this little clan of mine can pull aren't anything you could call ordinary or basic though. If I decide to do so, a complete recovery wouldn't be difficult, but that's honestly a bit boring. I mean, if you're going to fix something you should at least make it better then before. Strengthening your body so the next time you have no choice but to push past every sane limit, past the limits of even your massive potential, you'll be able to recover on your own, that could be fine. However..."
There's a but there. You can hear the playful hesitation in the voice. What's the cost? As long as it doesn't hurt Autumn, doesn't hurt Blossom, you'll pay it.
"However, we're talking about making you a real monster you know. Is that really what you want?"
Yes, of course it is. What could you need more than the ability to take care of yourself, to protect your family.
"Monsters fight. They're attacked. It's not that monsters happen to be those that triumph over impossible odds, but that impossible challenges come about because people are scared of monsters. You want to be stronger to protect the things precious to you? That's a joke. Being strong just creates more risk. If you want to protect, to have a nice life, a quiet peaceful fun life, then it's no trouble at all to set you up in a quiet little mansion somewhere, give you staff to push you around. You'll never lack for anything, never have a single responsibility you don't take for yourself. The Mu clan will hide you away, use your name to scare a few people into line, hold you up as a bluff every now and then, and no one will ever find you. You'll be free to take in strays and raise them happily, learn a craft or an art, to fill your days peacefully and happily with your family. That's probably the better path. It's the nicer path really."
You want to shout no, to turn it down, but you can hear the kindness in this strange voice now. This isn't a hypocritical offer, not some trick to make you scared, no test. It's a way out, a way to get past your talent, to know that those close to you won't get hurt again because you're not strong enough to face the problems you make. It's tempting.
"Actually, umm, hmm... phrasing it that way, I kinda want to go cripple myself now. I mean, all these 'go to this parade' 'help fight off an army' things are kind of troublesome. I never wanted to get strong! I mean, seriously, you desert the army, because you just want to go off on your own and see the world, run around for a while and have all kinds of fun little adventures that just happen to make you a tiny little bit stronger and then happen to come back in time to kill one little dragon and suddenly you're everyone's hero and... Err, can we just pretend I never got sidetracked here? This isn't meant to be about my trauma." the voice coughs.
You really really want to react to that, to shout at him to get back on track.
"Anyway, I'm offering you a choice. I'll heal your left arm enough so you can write, and you'll be able to write it out. I don't want an easy answer here, a yes or a no. I have no right to talk whatsoever about leaping into things, but I want to know your reasons. And then you need to choose. Do you want a quiet little country mansion, enough healing that you'll be able to talk a little if not shout? Or should I help turn you into a real monster, even though it's a path where someone close to you will die, where you won't be able to save everyone. Both decisions could be kind of fun you know. They'll give you a brush and some paper, so think about it and write."
You wait for the voice to say anything else; but, silence is your only companion for the rest of the night.
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Autumn crawling up your chest manages to wake you this time. It hurts, but you're still too happy he's fine to hold anything against the kitten. Looking out the only window you can see, it looks like it's early afternoon.
You lift your unbandaged left hand, roll onto your side and awkwardly at the brush left just in reach. Then you think, long and hard. You're still not great at writing, and using the wrong hand makes it come out even worse, but you give the stranger an answer before sleep can claim you again.
Well
[ ] Peace Weakness Safety
[ ] Strength Loss Adventure
Why?
[ ] Write-in
