The [Monster Wave] has concluded.

It took Blair several minutes to notice that the wave had ended. The pain had subsided but there was a slight stinging sensation every time she took a step. One of the temples of her glasses was broken, forcing her to tilt her head to the left to keep it from falling. Keeping it on with her right hand wasn’t an option, as she was using it to press the cloth to the gash on her chest.

The tank-top couldn’t be called much of an article of clothing now, barely concealing the upper part of her torso and her whole back. Anything below her chest was revealed as the cloth was frayed and hung limply to the side.

“That was scary,” said Paula and let out a deep breath.

Blair’s nausea had faded but the moment she let her guard down to look at Joshua’s lifeless body, the imagery of his heart flying out of his chest flashed before her eyes. She stumbled to her knees and emptied the contents of her stomach on the ground, and even when she’d run out of it, the retching didn’t stop for a whole minute.

Without one of its temples to keep it tightly attached to Blair’s head, the glasses fell into the smelly liquid, making her wince —it was disgusting.

With a scrunched nose, she turned her head to the wall and collapsed on the ground, a few inches from her vomit. She was far too tired to even think of moving, but she knew she couldn’t stay here.

Not next to Joshua’s corpse.

Diana was in the same situation, but she wasn’t vomiting everywhere like a drunkard. She stood in a corner next to the door, staring at the corpse on the ground. Her eyes were glazed and Blair could see her slightly trembling.

Meanwhile, Paula didn’t pay any mind to the pool of blood under Joshua and walked over to him. It was perfectly visible from below that she’d cut one side of her skirt to let her legs move freely, exposing her bare thighs. It dragged her attention away from the corpse and she wholeheartedly welcomed it.

That reminded Blair of her own almost naked torso. She had to find something else to wear. Preferably something clean.

“Oooh. Found one,” whistled Paula and the Purple Card shifted its color to become red, which then had its contents embedded. It was Vigor of Ancients —Blair recognized that thanks to the blood drop sign on the front. After standing there for a few seconds, Paula comically slapped her forehead with a palm and slumped. Almost inaudibly, she mumbled, “Maybe I should’ve gotten the rations.”

That Purple Card turned into a Red Card and considering that it came out of Joshua’s body, there was only one reasonable explanation: it was a drop from Joshua. It wasn’t only the Monsters that dropped cards.

They did as well.

The thought of getting the card of a dead person felt wrong, like stealing the smartphone and wallet of a murder victim. It was immoral, and more importantly, it was disgusting. The thought of touching something that was a person’s heart that had been morphed into a card gave Blair shivers.

But that was the only thing that the dead could do for them now —help them get stronger.

Congratulations!

Your Mana has been increased by [1] due to repeated usage of Magical Skills.

Your Stamina has been increased by [1] due to bearing the drain of [Vigor of Ancients] for an extended period of time.

Blair peeled her eyes away from her own body and stared at the notifications. For the first time, her stats increased. It was unclear whether the System was giving it to her or it was simply depicting her growth. It could be either. After all, it gave her the ability to cast Spells.

Her Mana was increased to 35, allowing her to cast 7 Spells before she ran out. On the other hand, her Stamina had increased to 9, allowing her to use her Stamina-draining Skills for up to 9 minutes. If she used both of them together, then she’d be able to fight for roughly 4 minutes.

Blair summoned her Inventory and swiped her Daily Rations card on the ground. Without even taking a look at the soups and bread on the menu, she summoned them and took the canteen. She grabbed her eyeglasses from the edge and while lifting them up an inch from the ground, poured some of the water on top of it. Then she took a sip and rinsed her mouth, then spat it out.

Smelling of blood was one thing but smelling of vomit was unacceptable, even if it meant she’d have to feel the ache of her injured wrist.

She was getting used to the pain now. It was quite similar to a fractured bone, which she was an expert at. It hurt but not enough for her to whimper like a little girl. Even if it was painful, that was nothing to complain about in a world like this.

In a world where they were expected to kill giant wildlife for survival.

“I want pizza,” grumbled Paula nonchalantly, lying on the table without a care in the world.

“Let me see the injury,” said Suzaku and came over to Blair, then knelt down on one knee next to her. He pulled the bandage from her chest and stared at the injury with narrowed eyes, or normal eyes —it was difficult to tell if his eyes were narrowed or not.

Regardless of eye size, it felt uncomfortable.

“It already stopped bleeding. I could do some stitches but it might be unnecessary since you have that recovery Skill. Do you feel tired? Have you checked how much Stamina you have left?” asked Suzaku with a raised eyebrow.

“Lemme do that real quick,” said Blair and summoned her Status Card. The thought of directly showing it to him dawned on her but she remembered the System saying that it was invisible to everyone else.

Name: Blair Corbin

Race: Earthling (Human)

Credits: 15

Strength: 2

Agility: 3

Durability: 2

Perception: 1

Stamina: 5/9 (0.27 per minute)

Mana: 34/35 (1.05 per minute)

Capacity: 35/35 (1.05 per minute)

The details had changed.

Blair wondered how her Mana amount was almost full after she cast two Skills, but then realized that the Mana Regeneration rate was 1 per minute and that around ten minutes had passed since the battle —that meant she’d recovered roughly 9 or 10 Mana Points.

It added up.

Despite the fractions in the regeneration rates, the actual values seemed to be shown in terms of whole numbers. It made it easier to track and was less of a headache, but Blair had grown used to seeing floating points since she entered university.

“I swear it wasn’t there before,” said Blair, eyes narrowed.

“They showed up when I used my Skills after coming back,” said Suzaku and pulled out another roll of bandages. He poured some alcohol over it and covered the gash on her chest, then wrapped it around her entire body. To cover the entire gash, it took the two-inch-wide bandage three adjacent wraps, which was wrapped around the body several times again.

Thankfully, her tattered tank-top and the bandages covered just enough of her body to be considered clothing.

“How much is in there?” she asked.

“Just four bottles of alcohol and six rolls of bandages. Well, were,” said Suzaku and shrugged.

“Sorry. For making you waste a lot of it, I mean,” said Blair and gulped. Wasting a large amount of it on her meant there was less to go around for everyone else.

“It’s fine. They’re meant to treat someone. Once we upgrade to a Town, we can find more of them from the cloned clinics or the other hospitals,” said Suzaku and closed his backpack.

Blair caught a glimpse of scary-looking scissors and knives sticking out of it. They looked like they were from a surgery room. Considering that he was talking about stitches, Blair assumed that he had one of those curved needles too.

“Did that guy’s heart just jump out of his chest, then turn into a card, or did I just imagine that shit?” asked Diana out of nowhere.

“He technically puked it out, but yes, it was real,” said Paula nonchalantly.

“And you just took that card and used it,” she said. Despite her tone brimming with emotions, her expression was blank. Paula gave her a nod as an answer and Diana silently stood there for a few minutes, and loudly mumbled, “Damn, that’s disgusting.”

“He doesn’t need it anymore,” said Paula and pouted her lips.

“So, should we trade the Skills back or-?” asked Blair as she climbed to her feet. The gash on her chest ached and she saw the cloth get stained with her blood.

“I take that back. Maybe you do need stitches,” said Suzaku and opened her bag. That interrupted her sentence.

“No, no. I don’t need it. I insist,” said Blair, the mere thought of having her wound sewn shut sending a shiver up her spine. It was one thing to do it with anesthetics but she doubted they had a shelf life of over two hundred years.

Living in a world like this sucked in more ways than one.

“Yes, but you’ll keep bleeding and that’ll make the bandage dirty. It might infect the injury in the worst-case scenario and you could be bedridden. That’s not something you should want in a situation like this,” said Suzaku, a massive frown on his face.

“Then I’ll go to sleep as soon as possible and the Skill will probably close the wounds like it did before,” said Blair and Suzaku hesitantly nodded after a few seconds of thought.

“Hey, wanna go look for drops?” asked Paula with a big grin. Before Diana could respond, Paula grabbed her wrist and dragged her out of the room. Blair could hear some retorts but their voice faded as they got further away.

“Maybe I do need stitches,” said Blair after looking down at her chest for a while. She felt a slight breeze around her chest thanks to the blood soaking through.

“Great. Lie down there,” said Suzaku and gestured at the table with his head.

“No, no, no. Not yet. We need to find a Mind of Steel first… From the dead people, that is. Drops, did she say?” asked Blair, lips pressed shut.

It felt morally wrong, like stealing the wallet of a dead person. Still, they didn’t need their Skills anymore and someone would take it. Blair preferred that someone be her.

“I hate to stereotype, but you haven’t played many video games, have you?” asked Suzaku, head slightly tilted to the left.

“No?” she said, her tone almost questioning. After humming for a few seconds, she added, “Does playing chess online count?”

“You-” started Suzaku, but stopped himself. He rubbed his forehead and calmly, he continued, “You’re trolling me.”

“No, it’s for real. I couldn’t download anything that wasn’t a document or image on my computer until university. They said that video games are the devil’s handiwork and stuff,” said Blair and a blush made its way on her face.

It was ironic how saying that she never played a video game was more shameful than being almost naked. Maybe the fact that he was a nurse helped. Or maybe the logical side of her understood that it was impossible to buy new clothing in her current situation and went with it, but realized that she didn’t know the first thing about video games despite being in a world that was closer to a game than it was to real life.

“And you had time in university,” said Suzaku, a small smirk on his face.

“Didn’t have time for that. Was too busy trying to graduate in three years,” said Blair.

“So you’re telling me you haven’t played even a single video game? Not even Pokemon or something like that? You must have,” he said.

“Let’s just- let’s just go and find the Skill, okay?” she asked and stormed out of the room, then slowed down her pace almost instantly once the stinging started. Trying to stand upright hurt so she leaned her chest forward, getting a moment’s reprieve.

Each step sent a slight ache across both her wrist and chest but it was manageable.

Mind of Steel would take care of that… hopefully.