**[Aiden]**

Pain coursed through him as a sudden flash lit up the tunnel and blinded him. He pulled away to protect himself from whatever caused the light and screamed out horsley when a sudden sharp heat hit his knee and foot. Years of working in a kitchen had his body rolling on the ground before his mind could process past the pain it was experiencing. When it didn’t seem to help the burning, he started scrubbing grit from the floor at his damaged leg. This finally got it to stop, and he laid back against the wall in exhaustion. His eyes were in shock from the light. He could not see the monster, but something did come into his vision that did not require typical sight.

Encounter Complete! Your party has successfully defeated [Unknown Monster]. Analyze for more information on your foe. As this creature was four times higher in level than anyone in your team, all skills used in this encounter will receive twice the growth. Happy hunting, Adventurer!

Level Up!

1 stat points to distribute

Minor wounds healed

Skill increase Knife Proficiency: 4 ->5

Bonus achieved: “Clean Cut”: When cutting meat, muscles/sinew slices easier allowing for better cuts of meat with worse knives

Skill gained: Field Medicine

He tried to laugh but instead ended up coughing up some suspiciously metallic tasting phlegm. He tried not to think about what that might mean and instead tried to appreciate the irony of him getting a healing skill only after almost dying. If he would have known setting himself on fire was the answer to his problems, he might have tried it earlier. Luckily, he had known what to do because skills only increase when they are needed, so he would have been injured further had he done nothing. The level up helped dull some of the pain as it sent energy into his body, yet he must have had a serious injury or two since it only managed to take the edge off his agony. Knowing he needed to distribute his point to get the full benefit, Aiden took a look at his stat sheet to decide where to place it. Adding to physical stats like strength, dexterity, or agility would heal his body more as it adjusted his muscles to fit the change, so he knew he needed to place it there as mental stats would not provide as big a benefit. He was briefly conflicted between strength and dexterity but ultimately chose strength.

Aiden William Sayler

Level: 3

Age: 12

Faction: Branch

Class: ----

Status: Lame

Traits:

People Person

Good Intentions

Lucky Ducky

Stats:

Strength: 6 -> 7

Dexterity:7

Agility:6

Charisma: 10*

Intelligence: 5

Wisdom: 3*

Luck: 9*

He knew he should get up but decided to wait a few minutes more to let his body rest and heal. The strength addition was immediately apparent to him as vitality surged through his tired body, and he felt his frame lose body mass in exchange for new muscles. It gave him the needed motivation to rise slowly and blink his eyes to regain his vision. The dim light of the tunnel made him aware of the scorched remains of something near him. Scooting forward and resting on his heels, he felt at the mass to see if it was the creature. Gagging at the smell and the sensation of raw meat under his fingertips, his butcher skill came to the sad conclusion that it was human meat before him, not animal. A skill had never been hated more at that moment, and he was only grateful his gut told him not to eat it instead of giving him an idea of how best to prepare it.

Looking around closer to try and determine if the source of this flesh was still alive and whether Rita had run or not, he was able to locate a larger mass a few feet away and a darker patch of something farther on in the tunnel. Choosing to start at the closer lump, he shuffled closer. Nothing was moving, so he bent down to look and got confirmation that it was Horace. He flipped the mangled boy over to reveal his uninjured side and looked to see if there were any signs of life. A slight rising of his chest was the only indicator. There was no moving, crying, or even audible breathing to let him know the boy remained among the living. Horace was out cold. His arm, on the other hand, was red hot, quite literally. Aiden repeated what he had done with his leg and scrubbed sand into it, taking care to use fabric to do so instead of his bare hand. The burns from rubbing his own superheated skin had healed with the level up, but his leg remained stiff and sore. In the dark, it was hard to see what the exact appearance of either wound was beyond the slight glint of blood in the dim light. Horace’s shoulder was the worst area by far, and Aiden spent a couple of minutes cooling it down.

It disturbed him how little of the arm remained. Only a couple of loose tendons and an inch of flesh after the shoulder was left. Hoping the other boy would be okay, he moved on to check out the dark patch. As he moved closer, he could tell it was Rita by the bright green ribbon that flashed muted color at him from the top of her head. Placing his hand there to move her instead of the chest like with Horace, he tilted her to face him. She was feverishly warm under his hand, and he could feel her body moving some as if sleeping restlessly, so he felt better about her condition. Past her, he could see the body of the dungeon monster, nearly unrecognizable from the beast that he had been fighting. Squinting at it, he tried to see what it truly was.

[Immature Drop Claw]

Level: 8

Status: Deceased

Special abilities: Heat sense, dismember, and camouflage

Weaknesses: Light sensitivity

It was bad that they had failed to reveal a major weakness in the fight. If anyone of them had accidentally hit it or done something it was vulnerable towards; then it would show up. Rita must have been able to blind it with her magic when she attacked. That explained why it hadn't been able to finish Horace off when he was incapacitated. He was also concerned by the immature rating on its name. It didn’t surprise him since this was a rank three dungeon with creatures running an average of level twenty, but it did make him thankful to their luck that this was the first they encountered even if it had almost killed them single-handedly. The cause of death for the drop claw was easily apparent from the melted-out forehead and scorched body. The bright light must have been Rita’s magic, finally activating. He wished it had hit only the monster, but he knew they'd be dead without it.

Reaching down again, he began to shake Rita to try and rouse her. Their fight had been loud, and he would like to get them away before something came to see who one. However, a curious, clinking sound stopped his hand after the third shake. Right in front of his eyes, he watched the corpse of the creature melt into the ground, and two small daggers made from its claws appeared in its stead. Aiden quickly picked up the knives and resumed his attempts to wake Rita. She groaned and tried to move away from him, so he started to drag her back towards Horace to see if he could wake two kids in one shake.

Rita responded and slowly began to be more vocal about her pain, while Horace did not react. He was concerned but figured once Rita was up, he could drag Horace. Without the arm, he would be lighter at least.

****

“Faster Aiden!” Rita scowled as they hurried back down the tunnel. Horace was heavy, and Aiden resented her for rushing him when he wasn’t helping carry anything. His hurt leg made moving hard, so they could only go at a fast walk. After he had woken Rita, they had begun to hear sounds echoing through the tunnels. The only way they knew was probably safe was the path they had already traveled, and that was why Rita had been leading them back. At the junction, he wondered what her plan was and nearly stopped breathing when he saw that the floor looked whole once more. Rita’s grin flashed at him, and she said, “I thought this might happen! The dungeon repairs traps while we are in here. This might just save us.” Then without hesitation, she took a dagger and stabbed it straight through the ground in front of them. The sharpened point caused a small hole to appear in the ground, and she slowly enlarged it without triggering the whole trap.

He stared in complete confusion as she continued working. After the hole was large enough, a rope appeared from the bag, and she took his sword from his waist. He had no idea what she was planning to do. Rita seemed to have a plan, and she confidently removed her jerkin, wrapped it around the sword. She then used the rope to tie the bundle to her ankles. He tried to say something but was too perplexed to figure out what to say, and he could only gasp when she jumped in. He peered over and watched as the sword wrapped bundle broke the tip off the spikes directly under where she had fallen. She looked up at him, triumphantly and whispered, “You coming?”