Divinity Rescue Corps
89- Saving Your Butt

I ended up using Healer’s Endurance to handle the effects of sleeplessness for the day, and meditated through the night. Now that I could get a Token every three-ish hours when under ideal circumstances, I used the time to grab up two more Tokens by the time the camp roused. This was, sadly, not ideal circumstances. I had a good ten hours between Trent disappearing and the remainder of Blake’s team getting all up in my business, which gave me time to get two Tokens: one of the Physicality I’d used to handle Todd, and one Likability I’d used in bringing Cinzy into the fold.

Meditation specifically told me with window prompts that having my hand tied like this had a negative impact on my ability to meditate, and I wholeheartedly agreed. I had to stand up to get blood flowing to my wrist and hand. Meditation should not be done while standing.

Still, it was the best I could do.

I didn’t have an opportunity to get away according to Trent’s plan for another several days. First, they were taking the loss of Todd quite seriously, and had me on a short leash. Second, now that they knew about my special ability Verdant Rejuvenation, Boss and Blake made sure somebody watched while I planted all the cuttings and gave them some water.

If I watered them later in the day, they’d essentially grow themselves. Beyond that, I couldn’t be sure what else needed doing. Could I just lay them on solid stone and water them there, without shoving the cuttings into soil? Could I do it on the back of Muppin while we traveled? These were the kinds of experiments I wanted to do, not play nurse to a bunch of megalomaniacal gym bros.

This meant we headed down to the lake only briefly, and they used a single Wizard between the four Guardians instead of two. This meant training two of them, while two stayed stuck on my butt like ticks. Imperil the Wizard, save the Wizard, gain experience points.

In those times, I used Beast Talker to engage with any Nakamamon I saw. I was able to befriend a Shrubbet, though the process wasn’t simple.

Any time I took any action, Blake’s Boys would stop me. First I had to Identify a creature, then see if I couldn’t silently beckon it to me. I had to reach out with Affinity and make contact. This meant channeling some mana and drawing it up into my third eye, the place in my forehead where the casting happened. The first time, it was by cooking up what looked like a potion. It was instead a tasty vegetable concoction.

The Shrubbet broke out of its foliage illusion, drawing the leafy parts that were the backs of its enormous ears so it could peek out. It then collapsed back the leaves a second later, and became nothing more than an innocent bush before anyone noticed.

It peeked out several times before taking several hesitant steps forward.

“That’s right,” I breathed. “Good. Gosh you’re cute.”

It was shaped something like a regular rabbit, really big. Nearly three feet high. It had brownish gray skin that mimicked bark, and big amber eyes. The ears had to be at least three feet long… they went up and then down, and when they were draped along its back they looked like a cloak.

It crept forward until it smelled what the Healer was cooking.

“Atta girl.” Identify had told me this one was a female.

“What. In the hell. Is that?”

“It’s a Shrubbet,” I admitted. “Harmless. Don’t kill.”

The mana-infused concoction I had cooked up was nothing more than vegetables in a soup.

The cutesy thing twitched its nose several times, regarding the Guardians. I’d succeeded with a Charm check using Likability, with my Charm skill boosted from zero to five using Beast Talker.

“What’s it doing?”

“Probably wounded,” I lied, and scored 3 successes on a Deceit check using Fierce. I silently thanked Ivy for needing that D, and for giving me the tools to navigate this situation. “It wants some hp back.”

The boiled and mana infused vegetables were only good because creatures liked getting mana. They would, of course, help hp generation along a little, as all food did. Mostly though, it just liked the scents of the herbs I put in, and wanted some carrots, potatoes, and broccoli infused with rosemary and oregano.

“You’re all right,” I told the creature while it ate. The Guardians hadn’t moved, but were instead just watching it in fascination.

Once it finished, I tried to coax it over to me for a pet or two. I wanted to know if the bark looking skin was fuzzy and soft like I hoped, or bark-like and hard, like I suspected. Just as I was succeeding an Animal Handling check, the other two Guardians came thrashing through the brush, up from the lake, holding a Wizard who looked mostly dead.

“You know,” I said, before breathing on him and restoring some hit points right off the bat, “I would be willing to bet those Nakamamon you’re baiting have figured out there’ll be free Wizard on a hook every day about this time. They’re probably not happy about having them snatched away every day.”

“Nakamamon don’t think,” the one retorted. “The ones in the towns are so stupid, can barely build houses, don’t have technology…”

“The ones in that town just walked in, laid down and slept,” another one said. “And the ones behind them didn’t get what was happening, so they did the same thing.”

“Blake and the Wizards had it figured out in minutes,” the third one said.

“Dumb as hammers,” the first one confirmed.

I just shrugged and brewed up another healing potion.

***

The next day wasn’t out to the lake, but a rift in the ground. The Guardian in charge this time was a guy I was coming to think of as number three behind Boss and Blake, one of only two with wiry climbers’ builds instead of hulking rocks with arms and legs. He had a mop of curly light brown hair and a nose with its own elbow. You could call it aquiline, but for followers of Blake I’d call it a camel hump.

This guy’s name was Nate, and he was even worse than Blake and Boss because he was a super bro.

“Yo this is gonna be sick. We’ve never gotten a proper look down in the gorge before, bro.”

I kept my mouth shut, even though I wanted to give a deadpan ‘bro’ and arch an eyebrow in his direction.

The other three Guardians were on his wavelength, chatting excitedly about how lit this was and how sick it was gonna be to see a really massive and dangerous creature.

The Wizard they had with them, I could now identify as Cinzy’s brother. Although he wasn’t nearly as gorgeous as her, I noted the resemblance right away. They had the same color eyes, and an identical face shape.

I was not, right now, being listened to by any of these mammoth idiots. I was also, as a Healer and a decent human being, wary of anything the Guardians were up to because I had a vested interest in keeping the Wizards alive.

Knowing what I now knew, I had a little extra motivation to keep Cinzy’s brother alive. She was known to flip out over these sorts of things, and I sure would’ve flipped out if my sister were about to be dangled in front of lions, only to have him yanked away at the last second.

Or after the last second, when the lions started munching on him.

We arrived at the gorge, a rent in the earth that seemed like a disaster waiting to happen. First of all, it was a good long way down, like thirty to fifty feet. Secondly, I could already see a collection of bones down there. Third, large shapes moved out of sight when the lanterns started floating down.

It seemed to widen out as you went down, so it would be rough to climb up or down. Also, it allowed anything and everything to hide down there in the copious shadows. Worse still, the gorge itself was hardly twenty feet across at the top. They’d be dropping straight down, a long way, and into what? Absolutely no way to know. And almost no way to climb out.

If only Trent were here.

The Guardians, led by head bro Nate, used the light spell from the Wizards, attached to small paper lanterns. These floated slowly downward, illuminating all the handholds and little cavelets in the walls. I had no idea what carved these, but they were jagged in some places, and the mini-caves looked like perfect hiding spots for all sorts of dangerous Nakamamon.

“You’re Chris?” I asked Cinzy’s brother.

His head swiveled over away from the danger toward me. “Huh?”

“Chris, right? That’s your name?”

“Yeah. Yeah. Chris.”

“I’m Fletcher.”

“I know. I’ve seen you around. You’ve been healing the guys up.”

“My name’s also Chris. Christopher.”

He stared at me, but I could tell I wasn’t getting through. He was sickly pale and trembling.

“Yeah well I’m not a fan of Blake or this insane scheme,” I told him. “I’m gonna keep you alive.” A promise I didn’t know if I could make.

“Hey, Healer,” bro Nate called. “You best get some potions and shit ready in advance, yo. This could get pretty ugly.”

“It is so weird,” I muttered under my breath, so only Chris and I could hear, “that Guardians keep failing to do their jobs.” Meanwhile, I cracked open my pack and got to rummaging around for the right ingredients.

“They need greater and greater danger for the same amount of experience,” Chris told me, just as quietly.

I nodded. That would do it.

“It’d be really nice if we could level them up to wherever they want to get before we all die,” he said. The bitterness in his tone made me wince. The Wizard who’d died was undoubtedly his friend.

“I’ve got your back,” I said.

He nodded toward Nate and the Boys. “That should be their job.” Then he blew out air in a sound like ‘pfffffffff.’ I totally got it.

They began by having Chris use a ‘feather’ spell on them, and himself. Chris protested that this would slow them down from coming to his aid if he was attacked, but Nate just stood there, arms crossed. Chris cast the spells.

Afterwards, they took up positions, and Chris was ordered to jump. He locked eyes with me, and I nodded. You got this, I tried to tell him with my gaze.

Then he jumped.

I hadn’t understood until this moment, when the last piece clicked into place. It wouldn’t work if one of Blake’s Boys pushed him. My specific xp triggers worked if I healed somebody. They didn’t work if I made someone sick just to nurse them back to full health. They had to guard him from danger, not place him in the heart of danger. Chris had to jump into the jaws of the beast himself, and then Nate and company needed to wait until he was in real danger before getting him out for the biggest xp gain.

If Chris didn’t jump, they would kick the crap out of him until he agreed. If he was down hit points when he jumped in, that lowered his chances of survival.

It was insane. Blake was insane. All this for level ups?

That said, my body had been largely cured of my shattered legs, growth plate injuries, and the issues that followed, just by grabbing some points of Physicality. Cinzy was practically irresistible. Isabelle and the others had shrugged off terrible injuries with Durability. The attributes just made you better.

Of course Blake wanted what he considered his fair share. He had to watch Wizards research their way to high level, Sorcerers cast their way to high level, and Rangers literally just wander the land their way to high level… and this world didn’t know violence.

Nate and the other three Guardians took up a box formation, ready to get down in the gorge at any angle.

The moment I had my first doses of workable healing potion, the Nakamamon showed itself. I had just taken the mixture off the fire when the earth-rumbling growl drifted up from above.

One of Blake’s Boys swore under his breath and began backing away in fear. Nate was the leader here, and flicked a hand out toward his underling, but the Guardian fled. He noped right out of this bad situation.

“Don’t move, bro. Don’t make a sound,” Nate said quietly.

Chris wasn’t the type of person to freeze in place. He backed away from whatever was down there. It resolved into a huge shape with  three rows of glowing eyes on either side of its blunt head.

Identify gave me some insight.

Ferrosaur

First Stage Nakamamon

Ferrosaur live in underground caverns, gorges, and some river valleys, where they feed on other earth aspect Nakamamon, and veins of metal. These are territorial creatures, and won’t abide their mating or hunting grounds being invaded.

Typical length: 20-40  foot from nose to tail (large)

Typical weight: 1500-4000 pounds

Gender: unknown

Aspect: Draconic/earth

Transformations: unknown -> Ferrosaur -> unknown

Ferrosaur has been added to your Nakamadex.

The creature was built a bit like an alligator, but with more legs. It looked very earthen: craggy and cracked, with sharp ridges of metallic and rocky stuff running down its back. It also had thick, trunk-like legs ending in shining metallic claws easily dagger-sized, possibly longer. It was pretty far away; things always seem smaller from up high.

“Fuuuuuuuuuuck,” one of Nate’s buddies said.

“We need to get down there,” Nate said, and the creature paused at the sounds. I noted that none of them moved. Shocker.

“That thing’s going to bite him in half,” the third Guardian said, like he was just watching an amazing dinosaur movie for the first time. There were only three Guardians now, a fact that didn’t fill me with confidence.

“Get down there,” I urged.

The Ferrosaur took another testing step towards Chris. A long tongue flicked out and tasted the air. None of the Guardians moved.

“Chris!” I called down, and got the attention of the dinosaur made of metal. Several eyes fixed on me, and it made a grating noise like two rocks crunching together. “Does that spell make you jump real high?”

He shook his head.

“Bro, shut up,” Nate hissed. “We’re—”

“But it reduces your weight?”

A tiny nod this time. Chris wasn’t looking at me, but instead was staring at the creature easily the size of two of the world’s biggest crocodiles mushed together side by side.

“Can you run wide—“

I stopped. Another Ferrosaur had just poked its head out into view… behind Chris.

“Aww come on!” I shouted, and immediately grabbed up my backpack. “You fracking cowards, get down there and save him!”

I was gratified to grab a temporary Durability and Physicality Token using Fierce. It had caused a Taunt check, though it still hadn’t caused any of them to grow enough balls to challenge the creatures. The Tokens were very fracking great, because I chose the best point I could, threw some of my Healer paraphernalia at the beasts, and jumped down.

Now… you might say to yourself, what kind of idiot would do such a thing? You’d be right in assuming that. My parents and my sister were looking at me like I’d just transformed into a Ferrosaur before their very eyes.

My aim was to hit the far wall and stop myself. This was a Very Difficult Physicality check, so I immediately burned four of my five Tokens doing that. With muscles bulging, I slammed into a ledge and hung on.

The Healer stuff was having its intended effect. The cook kit, the pot, and the tin cups were all tasty little morsels for the metal and rock dragons. It sniffed at the first pot that landed near it, then gobbled it right up.

“Left, Chris!” I shouted.

He went left, just as the second creature trundled forward after my scattered offerings. Ignoring him completely, thank the gods.

“Okay,” I muttered to myself, and burned another four Tokens getting to the bottom of the gorge. There went my last Physicality Token, along with three of my Free Tokens. One after another they went cla-cling! cla-cling! cla-cling! cla-cling!

Nate and his two remaining friends were having kittens. They were yelling and frantic now that the only Healer in the party had put himself in the lion’s jaws. Blake was going to rip their skin off and wear their faces like a mask, according to Nate’s panicked, swear-filled shouts.

Good. Frack them. They needed to get their butts down here, or better yet, not put innocent and harmless Wizards in these kinds of positions.

“What are you doing down here?” Chris demanded.

“I’m saving your butt, you butt. Obviously.”

This is Fletcher just feet away from the jaws of death.