A deep breath, fluttering eyes, and a sense of disorientation. Those were the things that hit Aura as consciousness finally returned to her. She did not know where she was, other than that it was somewhere pitch black. The only thing she could really see was the somewhat transparent window hovering in her vision. Somehow lit up and visible despite not providing any light.

  As she took in the window, the memories of what had happened hit her. The fight against Maul, how brutal it had been. Her health had been reduced to single digits by the end of it, but she had won in the end. Sadly though, there is no time for celebration. As with her consciousness gradually coming back fully, so too does the pain.

  “AAAHHHHH!”

  It was a gradual build up, starting off as a dull throb before eventually feeling like her whole body is being compressed. Even though she had felt it during the fight, the adrenaline of it all helped to keep it suppressed. So, with her being in a state of calm right now, all the pain was able to be felt in full. And it was a pain so much worse than anything she had felt before.

  “Aura, Aura! Calm down, you are safe right now.”

  “She’s screaming out of pain, not fear. Aura, if you can hear me take some deep breaths alright. In and out. In and out.”

  Through her own screams of pain, somewhat muted due to something compressing her chest, Aura could make out two voices, familiar ones at that. The first is feminine while the second is masculine. Listening to the instructions of the second voice she does her best to take calm breaths. As she does so, it helps her calm down a little bit, though it doesn’t dull her pain. She is at least able to realize that the voices had brought some light with them, and she can make out the familiar sight of Jackie and Kaelen standing over her.

  “What… Where…”

  The fact that speaking was difficult, but screaming was not, did cause a brief pang of frustration to course through her. And a bit of amusement for the two standing above her as well if the small smile that grew on their faces was anything to judge by. Jackie though, is the one that answers.

  “After your spar with that ass Maul, you kind of passed out when we were taking you to get treated. As for where, we are at the Herbalist place.”

  The girl’s face takes on a bit of a nasty look as she mentions where exactly they were. A look of confusion must have pushed through the pain Aura was feeling, as Kaelen noticed and spoke up then.

  “It’s… kind of complicated. See, as we were bringing you here other soldiers began to follow us. Some of them were offering to take you off our hands to treat you themselves. They obviously did not have the best intentions in mind, so we didn’t humor them. But when we brought you here- “

  “When we brought you here some older guy pushed aside the women that were coming to help and insisted on treating you himself! I tried to say that a woman treating you would be better, but he claimed that he had the most experience or some crap. The other soldiers that were still following us vouched for him, and he started to get to work on you. Aura… I’m sorry but we couldn’t stop him from stripping your top off. He and all those asses that followed us saw you.”

  The explanation for the frustration causes a chill to run down Aura’s spine. Straining through the pain, she glances down and in fact sees that she is not wearing that loose padded cloth top anymore. Instead, her torso is barely being concealed by strips of cloth. That is already confirmation of what was said, but the fact that the strips of cloth hug her figure and leave little to the imagination causes a hot flash of embarrassment to flow through her.

  Logically speaking, she knew the chances of maintaining her modesty were quite low. Even though she had only been in this place for two days, it had become apparent that women were looked at and treated differently. The warning from the Herbalists after the first monster hunt had served as a warning that not even being cared for would be safe. Still, she could not help but be both angry and embarrassed that she had been seen in such a state. Any respect she may have gained from fighting with Maul for so long was probably gone now.

  “It’s… not fine. But… I’ll get over it.”

  Speaking, and breathing, were slowly becoming easier at least. She was of course still in a fair bit of pain, but it was more of the kind of pain that comes from an injury being healed. Rather than the pain that comes from one being inflicted. With the pain being pushed back, more of her awareness started to come forwards as well. Looking towards both Jackie and Kaelen, she was able to tell a couple of things.

  Firstly, both looked rather tired, which made sense if they had been waiting up for her. Then there was the fact that Kaelen’s gaze was not focused on her to much, but away from her. Perhaps out of some kind of desire to help her maintain some bit of modesty, which was sweet. The final thing of note though, was the source of light that they had. Rather than a candle, or even a torch, it was a stone the size of a fist. A sort of off-white color, it was glowing and providing a good bit of illumination. And with that illumination, she was able to confirm that she was in the herbalists building from before. Only right now it was empty.

  “You shouldn’t have to get over it. I swear, this whole place is a cesspool. We need to get out of here as soon as we can.”

  It seemed like Jackie though, was not as quick to let this all go. The heated look on her face pushed back the exhaustion that looked to be there. Kaelen meanwhile looked to be a bit heated as well, though also was directing some concerned looks her way.

  “I’m sure we will get out of here, but we need to be smart about it. As much as I don’t like to say it, we are all pretty weak right now. I don’t know if they’d chase us if we tried to run, but I don’t want to risk it.”

  That, put a bit of a damper on the rising anger Jackie looked to be going through. Aura meanwhile could not help but agree with him, slowly sitting up. The action itself is anything but pleasant, more pain coursing through her. As she does so, her gaze flickers to the still blinking exclamation mark in the corner of her vision. And on doing so, a pair of windows appears before her.

  That there were not one, but two of these notifications was interesting to see. More than that though whether it was a placebo from seeing the notification or was something that only occurred now that she acknowledged it, some of the pain Aura was feeling began to fade away. Her breathing became steadier, and she was able to sit up fully.

  “Whoa, whoa. Take it easy there. You were in pretty bad shape just from how you looked. How low of health did you get to anyways?”

  The mention of health from Jackie did have Aura lifting her hand to access her menu. Navigating to her character sheet, she was able to check her status. Her HP was currently sitting at [59/100] but she did not seem to have any effects. Whether that meant she was fine internally or not she was not sure, but it would not hurt to share.

  “If my math is right… I was reduced to four HP by the end of it all-.”

  “Four HP?! Are you crazy?!”

  “Oh god, I knew I should have stepped in and stopped it.”

  Both Jackie and Kaelen have differing reactions, the former being rather explosive and scolding while the latter is more concerned and defeatist. Hearing it out loud did have Aura wondering herself if the fact that she would go so far was something to be concerned about. But such thoughts would have to wait for later.

  “Look, it’s fine. I took a gamble, and it paid off in the end. I completed the quest, and I even gained a new skill from it all. Plus, I’m at fifty-nine hp now.”

  “Wait, fifty-nine? That perv of an herbalist said that the poultice would only heal forty.”

  “Yeah, but he did mention that she still had some on her side as well that he wasn’t going to remove.”

  While there is some relief at hearing how healthy she was now, there was some confusion as well it seems. Hearing from Jackie that these poultices would only heal forty hp caused a chill to run down Aura’s spine. There was a very real possibility of getting to injured to be healable in time. What Kaelen said meanwhile, had her touching her side slightly. If memory had served, that ram to her side by the Giant Spider had taken out a quarter of her HP. So, there still being some power left in that poultice was a good thing. And while she was a little disappointed that they were not talking about her admissions of becoming stronger, it was easy enough to ignore that feeling.

  At that point though, a growling sound cuts through the silence that followed. Magical healing through strange poultices or not, it seemed that the body still did need energy to heal up. Which meant that Aura was quite hungry right now. And as things became clearer, a small odor cut through the smell of the poultices that seemed to fill the room.

  “Look, we can talk about this more later. Right now, I think I need to get something to eat. Am I all good to leave this place? Because I do not want to meet this perverted herbalist.”

  “Huh? Yeah, I’m betting you will be fine. He was convinced that you weren’t going to wake up until morning. But some other people did come by injured while you were out. As soon as they were better, they could just walk out.”

  Jackie’s answer has Aura nodding, before swinging her legs over the edge of the table that she had been laying on. Both of her friends, as what else could they be but that for sticking by her side, made move to help her. But a raised hand stopped them in their tracks.

  “I’ll be fine. I’m hurting a bit, but I will get over it. By the way, where is my top? I don’t really want to walk around like this.”

  “Oh, I’ve got it. I was… actually going to ask if you wanted me to take it in tomorrow to be better fitted. I noticed how big it was on you during your fight.”

  A little curious about the matter, Aura decides that it is best to not take her armored top from Kaelen right now. Instead, accessing her inventory and taking out the plain cloth one, she soon begins to make her way out of the herbalist building. All the while trying to get a little more information on what Kaelen was talking about as they walk.

  It is thus a little surprise to both her and Jackie when he admits that his second innate skill, [Game Hunter] gives him increased drops from anything he kills. And that because of it he had gotten an additional drop from the Giant Spiders. Him breaking off from the group to talk more with Cody was him asking what could be done with the bit of chitin he had gotten. Their squad senior had offered to take it off Kaelen’s hands and gave him a few other essence crystals in trade. Which meant that he had more resources than any of them at that point.

  Deciding to share a bit as well, Jackie reveals her second innate skill as they walk. [Body Refinement] was why she was in such a good shape after her own hunt. It paired well with her other innate skill and allowed her to increase her physicality with some mana. Though, the girl did reveal that the idea initially came from something called xianxia and that this was as good as she could get it.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Not wanting to be left out, Aura did decide to share her own second innate skill. Informing the two of them about the level it gained as well as her new skill flowed naturally as well. It was not like they had to be cautious as they spoke either. When they stepped outside the darkness inside the building was easily explained, as it was the depths of night right now. Nobody else was wandering the streets of Fortress, and only the light of the moon and stars guided them.

  While it was perhaps not the most intimate things to share between each other, doing so at least further solidified something to Aura. These two, Jackie and Kaelen, were people she could consider to be friends. Their personalities were different to her own, but even outside of these circumstances she felt like she could get along with them. Given how the two of them relaxed a bit as well as they walked and talked, they probably felt the same.

  “So, you mentioned that you had finished the quest. Have you decided on where you are putting those spare points?”

  After talking a little bit, Jackie brings up what Aura had mentioned before. The quest she had been given to fight against Maul, and the reward that it offered. A bit of the fatigue that had been starting to set in is wiped away from the three of them as it is brought up. Kaelen looks more curious than anything, having the least amount of context in the matter. Though, he offers his opinion.

  “From what I saw during your fight, you looked like you figured out how to move quickly enough. So, AGI probably doesn’t need to be worked on. Maybe you should put it in one of your higher skills?”

  “It did work pretty well, but it didn’t stop you from taking a beating. Aura, you looked terrible by the end of that fight. Sure, you’ve got that new skill, and your innate one leveled up. Maybe you should put those points into your VIT.”

  With Jackie jumping in with a suggestion as well, Aura was left to her own thoughts on the matter. When it came to that spar, the whole thing was easy enough to replay in her head. Every swing, every movement, every hit was as clear as day. And while thinking about it did cause her still probably bruised body to hurt, it helped her think more on the matter.

  They both have good points. If I strengthen what I am good at, or my defenses, then it should compensate for what I am lacking. But in that fight… there were times when I could have easily missed. I might be stronger and tougher than before, but I’m slower and more clumsy as well. That fight could have been a complete loss if I missed even one attack.

  “I think… I’m going to sleep on it a little bit. Even though I just woke up, I am hungry, exhausted, and still hurting. Hopefully a little bit of rest will help me make up my mind.”

  While she did her best, a little frustration did leak into her voice. Which seemed to be enough for Jackie and Kaelen, who dropped the subject for the time being. The rest of the walk back to the barracks is held in a comfortable silence. On making it back, Jackie quietly bids Aura and Kaelen a good night before heading to her squad’s room. Heading into their own shortly after, it is somewhat blindly that the two make it to the empty bedrolls before falling asleep themselves.

  When the next day dawned, the rest of Aura’s squad is briefly surprised to see that she had made it back sometime in the night. The sight of Kaelen there as well, and the lack of him the night prior, dispels the question of how she got there at least. It is the muttering from them that ends up waking her up. As she does, the looks that most of the squad are sending her way causes a flash of discomfort and shame to go through her, but she is able to keep her composure at least. Through it, her gaze landed on Maul, and she watched as the man gave her a firm nod.

  Ignoring the muttering, she waits for the rest of her squad to leave before finally changing out of the padded pants. Having been worn for the past two days, and into a couple of combat situations, she did want to check something. Storing them away in her inventory, there is some relief as she sees that the durability of them is intact. Telling her that it will probably take some direct hits there before she needs to worry about the matter. Setting them with her bedroll so they can hopefully be cleaned, she finally heads out to get some food.

  Breakfast is the same as it was the day before, though Violet is not there as a Runner this time. While a little worrisome, Aura must trust that the other girl is fine. Eating slowly, both due to the lingering pain still in her stomach as well as being lost in thought for what to do today, Maul’s approach caught her off guard.

  “Aura, meet me at the training ground when you are done. I told you I’d teach you if you won, and I will keep my word.”

  While there is respect in his eyes as he says it, most of the other guys do not seem to share the opinion. She had already been getting some looks from the other squads and had noticed Jackie seeming to get more annoyed. But that statement seems to have set them off fresh. The thing about such gossiping that Aura had learned about in high school, was that it was better to ignore gossip rather than acknowledge it.

  “Alright, I’ll be there.”

  A short reply given, Maul nods briefly before beginning to head out himself. Finishing up her meal, both Kaelen and Jackie approach as Aura begins to make her way out of the barracks and to outside.

  “Are you sure about this Aura? I mean, even if he said he’d do this he did make his intentions clear yesterday. Plus, how much can he really know if he just Awakened the other day?”

  “More than that, you are still injured and could get hurt worse. Just ignore that ass and run with me.”

  Both tried to reason with her, to make her ignore Maul and his offer. With a determined look and a firm shake of the head, Aura sets them straight.

  “No, I need to do this. Yes, he has made it clear what he wants from me. And yes, I am still hurt. But thinking about it, during that fight with him yesterday I saw something else. I… I know that he will be keeping his word. And helping me learn how to use a club as a weapon. He has that innate skill of his too, so maybe he has some extra knowledge on how to use blunt weapons or something? Either way, I’m going to do this. I’ll catch up with you two later.”

  Brushing off their concerns, and laying out her own justifications for it, she headed for the training grounds to meet up with Maul. Some of the older soldiers are starting to gather as well, and while they do send looks and murmurs her way it is easy to ignore. She doesn’t know them after all, and things would have been worse had she lost. Finding Maul is at least easy enough, as he is standing about where the two of them had fought yesterday. Much like herself, he was dressed in his casual clothing, though his stone club is in hand.

  The two exchange looks for a moment, both having a bit of cautious respect for the other. For Maul, this is clearly a situation he had not anticipated encountering. Having likely been taught by the culture of Fortress, and maybe even his father, of how strength meant everything. And even in this world, it seemed that women were not looked upon as that strong. But then Aura came along and upended that world view. Going so far as to risk her life to beat him in a fight.

  For Aura, despite what she had told Jackie and Kaelen, she was a little wary. While she was more of a gamer than anything, she had watched the occasional anime. She would not put it past Maul to try and grope her or something as an excuse to ‘correct her form.’ But she did remember the look in his eyes yesterday, and the respect he seemed to give her. So, for the time being she would put her suspicions aside.

  “So then, how do we start?”

  “Right. Take out your club and we can begin.”

  What followed was, surprisingly enough, a genuine lesson. While he clearly did not have any experience teaching, Aura could tell that Maul was putting the effort in. They started out with some basic things, such as how to properly hold her club, stances she could take in fights, and so on. It was not the most complicated of lessons but having him point out the errors in her grip or form did seem to be helping.

  While she would not say she was proficient by the time they were done, she certainly did feel more comfortable. At least a couple of hours must have passed like this, with Jackie and Kaelen passing by occasionally as if to look out for her. But really, there were no complaints as far as the lesson went. While she was able to push through the lingering pain through it, she did not keep the pained expressions off her face. So, when Maul called the lesson for the day, with a promise to resume tomorrow, she did not complain.

  Thanking him, Aura did briefly catch up with Jackie as the girl ran around the training grounds. After confirming that the lesson went well enough, she begged off exercising with the girl due to her pain. No, instead she decided it was time to practice something else instead. So, on finding an empty stretch of the training ground, the time to train her magic had begun.

  As far as spells went, she could not help but think back to her fight against the Giant Spider. Her first attack had missed badly, though her second had done as much damage as one swing. With Natural Body having leveled up due to usage, using Mana Bolt could well get it a level as well. She did have a limited number of shots for it, being ten, but it was something she needed to do. Plus, the thought of practicing magic further did brighten her mood with some childlike joy. And so, that is what she would spend the next hour doing. Taking careful aim at stretches of the training grounds and firing off her spell.

  She did make a discovery doing this as well, that being that reaching zero mana would provide a debuff. [Mana Deficiency] was what it was called, and it reduced her ATU by 50% until she recovered somewhat. Only, outside of some slight head pain joining the rest of her body she did not feel the effects of it all that much. Just another example of her [Natural Body] skill helping her out. Still, with her being out she could not really practice anymore. And while further training did sound good, she decided to spend the rest of her day wandering around Fortress. If she was going to be here for a while, she may as well get the lay of the land.

  And it was like that the rest of the day would pass, as well as the following couple of days. While it had only been a couple of days, Aura had developed a bit of a routine. Training with Maul, training her magic, wandering Fortress, and interacting with her friends. Talking Jackie or Kaelen into wandering Fortress as well was a bit of a challenge, but after finding out a bit more about Violet’s schedule Jackie was easy to convince. Which made hanging out with Violet somewhat easy as well. As for Kaelen, he seemed a bit wary of Jackie at first. But eventually warmed up to the more brash girl.

  Over the course of the next couple of days, Aura experiences some growth as well. When Kaelen returned her padded cloth top, she did her best to figure out how exactly Light Armored Combatant worked. Wearing all her armor while training with Maul did not seem to gain any benefits, though he seemed to have some insight. Apparently, the skill was only gained after taking one hundred points of damage. So, most everyone would get it eventually, she just got a head start on it. It also would only grow stronger from taking more damage while armored up, meaning it was not something Aura could reasonably train. After all, apparently sleeping did not seem to help her injuries heal any faster. Which boded ill for the next monster hunt.

  What did not bode ill though, was the progress with Mana Bolt. The most pressing issue that she had found, was that her aim was not easily fixed. She just could not keep her hand steady while casting and only had success on targets that were close. It was a bit of an issue that she had with some of Maul’s training as well, and it was time she did something about it. So, taking those five stat points she had earned she put them into her DEX and brought it up to ten. Doing that helped her aim improve tremendously, and she could feel her handling of the club to come easier as well.

  And while the improved aim was something, the fact that Mana Bolt leveled up from use was the more exciting thing. Over the course of the next five days of training before the next monster hunt, it leveled up not once, but twice.

  While the cost of the spell did not change, nor did the description of it, Aura could tell that the spell was stronger. Having chosen a bit more of an isolated area of the training yard, there were some pockmarks in the ground from her casting. And there was a noticeable difference in the size of the marks left behind by the spell as it grew stronger. Besides that, it was not like she was expecting too much to change with the spell. It was as basic as it came, and she did not see how it could really change.

  Despite the positives, a few negatives followed her through the week. Most of the other soldiers, primarily the ones in her barracks, kept sending her suggestive looks. Jackie had told her that many had come to the herbalists and watched her being healed, so it was kind of expected. It still made her face burn with shame and anger every time she caught them doing so. That, though, was not the worst of it.

  A couple of days into things, one of the Runners that brought their breakfast approached her and asked for the cloth that had been used to keep the poultice in place. Apparently, they did not have enough for people to just take it as they pleased. The herbalist that had treated her apparently wanted her to come in to make sure that they were properly removed. Luckily, her firefighter training gave her some medical knowledge. So, removing the cloth was easy enough. Though the poultice left a sticky residue which she needed to clean off. And as far as cleaning oneself went, the only real place to do that was the river.

  Even when she went after nightfall, some other soldiers were there and watching. Keeping a lid on her anger and humiliation was tough, but there were a couple of things that kept her from blowing up at them. The first was that when she took her shirt off, some of them gagged and left. As good as her figure and face were, her whole torso being one giant bruise was far from attractive. Then there was the fact that sometime into it, the sound of Maul’s voice could be heard. What he said was unclear, but it served to cause more of them to leave.

  Beyond those negatives, she only had one real regret over the week, was that she did not get the chance to train up Wound Closure. She spoke with Violet about the matter, and the girl did admit that she had been able to train it up at least. Though, she did also get a little bit nervous and flighty at any inquiries as to how that training was happening. While Aura and Jackie did have some suspicions, they let the matter drop to not scare Violet. At the very least, the guy turned girl was seeming to adapt to the change. She even received some sympathy and bonding from Kaelen, who bonded with her when it was revealed to him.

  Violet did also relate that she had managed to track down Calen. His DEX was his highest skill, so he was among the general labor that did most of the mundane tasks in Fortress. After speaking with him, she managed to convince him of what Aura, Jackie, and herself had discussed before. That all the players needed to have some kind of meeting to figure out what they were going to do. They had not worked out a when just yet, but it was sure to be soon.

  So overall, the week was productive enough for Aura. None of her friends managed to level their skills, though they did mention how they would be trying in the monster hunt the following day. And while she was nervous going into the hunt at less than full HP, she was confident enough that she could handle another Giant Spider if that is what it came to. Plus, she could use the essence crystal it dropped to get some more poultice and get up to full health. Laying her head down with anticipation for the following day, it did not take her long to fall asleep.

  While she tried to blink when her vision came to, Aura found herself unable to do so. Trying to turn her head to look around failed as well, as she was completely immobile. While her sleep this past week had not been dreamless, none had ever come on so suddenly or been so strange. She was in what could only be described as an amphitheater of some sort.

  Grand in design, she could not get the greatest look around due to not being able to move. From what she could see of the seats in front of her though, wispy humanoid figures filled the seats. The only other things of note though, was the closed curtain on the stage in front of her, and the fact that more of the empty seats gradually were filled by more of the wispy figures.

  What… what kind of dream is this?