Beneath the Dragoneye Moons

I woke up hating life. My head was murdering me, and a quick check through [Medicine] told me that I had a hangover, and that none of my skills were hangover cures. Dehydration. I needed to let Julius know that dehydration was a weakness of mine.

I groaned, head pounding, as I rolled over on the floor of the wagon. Water. Must find water. The door flung open, the light burning my eyes, as Artemis, with a fake-cheery voice designed to cruelly torture me said.

“Rise and shine! Time for our meeting!”

I felt – and probably looked and smelled – like death warmed over. But I was a Ranger now. Me! A Ranger! I gotta show up. I gotta prove I’m worthy of this.

But doing it all with a hangover? Oh, kill me now. Artemis passed me a waterskin, which I greedily guzzled

With a groan, I dragged myself out, following Artemis to where the meeting was. I wasn’t quite sure, my lack of social graces combined with a hangover interfering with everything fuzzed things – [Centered Mind] had nothing for hangovers apparently – but I’m sure there were a bunch of glances and secret smiles directly towards me. Something something look at the poor hungover girl.

[Healing Aura] was helping though, along with the water, and I was perking up as the meeting began.

“Alright everyone.” Julius started. “What went well, what didn’t go well. Origen, you start.”

Origen shrugged and gave a thumbs up. Julius rolled his eyes, trying to mimic his words non-verbally like Origen did.

“Maximus?” Julius asked.

“Double-headed spear did fine. I’d want to look into something like that to stake down flippers in future fights – it worked amazingly well.”

“Elaine?”

“I froze. I need to practice not freezing, and moving the moment there’s a problem. In a perfect world, I’d know ahead of time, and start moving before anyone’s hurt.” A lot of words for someone who’d just woken up, but I had spent a good amount of yesterday analyzing and planning.

We kept going around, discussing what went well, what failed.

“Hey Artemis,” I said, remembering something I’d thought of when I saw last night’s demonstration. “I thought of a non-lethal skill for you, might have helped in the fight. You needing to knock the monster off-track made me think of it.”

“Oh?” Artemis and Maximus asked in tandem, leaning forward to hear me better.

“Yeah, a flash-bang! Big burst of light, loud clap of thunder, and you can really disorient someone. It’s a non-lethal way to disabling someone. Should be doable with Lightning, but what do I know?”

Artemis and Julius both looked interested, glancing at each other.

“You do need a way to take someone down besides sticking them in a stone box.” Julius pointed out.

“That is a lot of mana. Let me see if I can make something work with just my manipulation skill. I’ll see if I get offered something when I next level up.” Artemis looked thoughtful, but blessedly didn’t start experimenting during the meeting.

“Origen. Elaine. Class-up?” We both nodded our head, a look of surprise on my face that Julius was tracking us so closely. Well, more that somehow, he knew Origen was ready to class up.

“Let us know when you’re ready, we’ll guard you while you class up.” That was a nice offer, and I had a better understanding of why that was the case now. You were completely and totally helpless and vulnerable while classing up, and it was obvious what was happening. It was rare, but not impossible, for someone to go “missing” during their class up. Some thieves and gangs just couldn’t resist someone with an almost literal glowing neon sign of “I can’t resist and won’t do anything for several hours.” I had more to worry about than Origen, but even he wouldn’t like waking up naked with no clothes.

Artemis, as always, had great advice for me. “You should talk with Maximus.” Well, less advice, and more where to get the best advice. I bristled at the thought that I wouldn’t think of that myself, but breathed, letting the hot anger leave me, the cool rational stay behind.

I hunted down Maximus, and asked for his advice. Naturally, the first thing he asked for was a full breakdown of all my stats, skills, and levels.


[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 14]

[Mana: 2470/2470]

[Mana Regen: 5536]

Stats

[Free Stats: 22]

[Strength: 20]

[Dexterity: 20]

[Vitality: 41]

[Speed: 32]

[Mana: 247]

[Mana Regeneration: 695]

[Magic Power: 243]

[Magic Control: 773]

[Class 1: [Light of Hope - Light: Lv 128]+]

[Light Affinity: 128]

[Calming Aura: 109]

[Medicine: 111]

[Healing Aura: 108]

[Detailed Restoration: 103]

[Flashlight: 93]

[Greater Invigorate: 101]

[Centered Mind: 100]

[Class 2: [Shadow Healer - Dark: Lv 91]]

[Dark Affinity: 91]

[Deaden Pain: 75]

[Surgeon's Scalpel: 78]

[Attack Bacteria: 69]

[Parasitic Remover: 36]

[Tissue Removal: 76]

[Cure Toxin: 82]

[Privacy: 68]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 71]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 72]

[Pretty: 96]

[Vigilant: 104]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 105]

[Ranger’s Lore: 1]

[Running: 70]

[Learning: 100]