The next hour proceeded in a blur as the pair of adventurers made their way through myriad tunnels, and caverns. Armed with more experience, Erin managed to avoid panicking again as he had before; using his meager earth magic skills to fling rocks ineffectually at the enemies that ambushed them periodically. Meanwhile, Jode kept him alive; single-handedly killing every enemy they encountered.

Erin wasn’t bothered by his lack of contribution. He may have survived the fight with the giant spider, but his pride hadn’t. Instead he focused on making sure to eke every skill point, and natural skill increase he could get out of each encounter. It still felt strange to him to be investing his skill points solely into defensive stats. As a gamer on earth, he had tended toward a glass-cannon mage type build for his characters. Reality had slapped him in the face though, and he knew that until he could display overwhelming force, it was more important to make sure he could take a hit. To that end he had been alternating putting points into HP and toughness in groups of five.

Erin opened his stat page, and nodded in satisfaction at the difference four hundred skill points had made to his survivability. The extra seven points of earth magic skill that he had gained through practice was also a nice addition.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Skill Points: 13

+HP: 254

+MP: 156

+DP: 10

+Strength: 13

+Endurance: 12

+Agility: 7

+Intelligence: 15

+Toughness: 17

+Recovery: 11

Skills:

General Magic: 20

Fire Magic(Control): 5

Wind Magic(Control): 6

Earth Magic(Control): 12

Water Magic(Creation): 13

Water Magic(Control): 22

Farming: 18

Hand to Hand: 13

Evasion: 10

Language(Almenian): 25

Language(English): 56

Time Compression: 1

Dimensional Storage: 1

Divinity: 1

Walking: 2

Dehydration Resistance: 5

Pain Resistance: 6

Haggling: 3

Other:

Divine Body

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Focus.” Jode whispered as they approached another cavern. Erin wasn’t sure how Jode had known he was distracted by his stat page, but he obligingly turned it off.

Jode brought them to a halt several feet from the cavern entrance. “Up ahead is the boss room. Throw your rocks, but try not to attract attention. I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to rescue you if it decides to focus on you.”

Erin nodded. “What should I expect from it?”

Jode smiled to himself, though Erin wasn’t sure why. “It’s called a grignak spider. If it gets its fangs into you, you’ll start turning into rock so again don’t attract attention. You need an extremely high amount of toughness to survive the poison. Even I probably wouldn’t survive.”

“I don’t suppose you have an antidote.” Erin muttered.

Jode snorted. “Not one that’s worth seven Quinn.”

Erin nodded. He was having difficulty getting a read on Jode. One minute the man seemed like a harsh but fair teacher, the next he seemed more like a dispassionate mercenary.

“Fine, I’ll do my best.” Erin replied.

Jode’s mouth curled into a fraction of a smile. “Are you saying you’re not ready this time?”

Erin rolled his eyes. “Haha, very funny.”

Jode’s smile died, and his eyes became cold and distant. “Let’s go. Once we’re done here, we take the portal back to the entrance. Sorry, but seven Quinn only gets you to the end of the first floor. I’m not going any farther today.”

Erin shrugged. “That’s fine, I’m starting to get tired anyway.”

Jode nodded, and they resumed walking in silence. When they entered the cavern, Erin only gawked for a second before forcing himself to focus. The walls were constructed of rough-hewn, lightly glowing blue crystal, as if someone had mined out a space the size of a football field from a once solid formation. Despite the appearance, and rough texture, it didn’t feel any different than walking on regular stone. Outcroppings of jagged crystal jutted from the ground at random intervals all throughout the cave. Strangely, there appeared to be a pile of more normal stones piled taller than Jode in the center of the cave. Erin didn’t see the spider anywhere, but he took his cues from Jode; glancing around warily to avoid ambush.

Erin was so caught up in looking for danger, that he almost bumped into Jode, who had stopped in front of him. They were standing in front of the pile of rocks, and Jode seemed to be waiting for something; sword out, and held in a ready position. Erin was about to ask what was going on, when the rocks shifted. All at once the pile uncurled into an eight-limbed monstrosity in the vague shape of a spider. Erin backed up swiftly without taking his eyes off the monster. Jode had the opposite reaction; charging towards it with a loud battlecry.

As Erin began pelting the creature with pieces of crystal torn from the cavern floor by magic, Jode’s sword suddenly illuminated the cavern with a blinding white light. He shouted, and struck one of the spider’s legs. The piece of rock was bisected, and slightly melted as if he had cut through putty. The spider made an ear-splitting noise like rocks grinding, and backed away from Jode; all the rocks below the damaged one falling uselessly to the ground. Erin continued pelting the spider ineffectually, watching in awe as Jode ducked, weaved, and parried in a blur of motion that he could barely track.

Finally, another leg was severed by Jode’s shining white blade, eliciting another screech of rock. Though it had no face with which to express itself, Erin could tell that the spider was feeling cornered; desperately trading blows with Jode, but never seeming to land a hit. It had begun using the severed stumps that were once legs as spear, trying to pin Jode, but somehow he always seemed to be one step ahead.

After several minutes of this, the creature screeched, and turned. Jode took this opportunity to liberate another leg, but the spider didn’t seem to care as it charged Erin. Erin shrieked, and began running away; but the spider had vastly superior speed compared to him. After thirty seconds, Erin had reached the end of the cavern; only to find that the exit had been closed off by a pile of rocks. For whatever reason, his earth magic refused to shift the rocks at all. Cursing, Erin tried to erect a wall between him and the spider; but his earth magic skill was too low to move enough crystal quickly enough. The spider stepped over the growing wall, and shot a leg-stump at Erin.

Just before the leg could spear through Erin’s chest, Jode came in from the side like a battering ram; shattering the limb with his raw momentum. The next several seconds were a blur for Erin as the shrapnel from the exploding rocks dazed him. When his focus returned, he watched in horror as the rock-spider stabbed two wet-looking rocks that protruded from it’s torso into Jode’s arm. Erin felt sick as he realized that Jode hadn’t been able to recover from the momentum of his charge quickly enough to dodge the attack.

Before that realization had time to sink in, Jode turned on the spider; plunging his glowing blade directly through its center mass. It went rigid for a full two seconds before collapsing into a pile of rubble. Jode slumped to the floor, breathing heavily as he examined his hand. For the first time, Erin could see fear on the man’s face.

Erin watched in horror as Jode’s fingertips began to turn grey. “I’ll pay the difference if you need me to, but you have an antidote right?” Erin asked hesitantly.

Jode’s face took on a resigned expression. “Price isn’t the issue. There is no antidote for this. Even the thing about having enough toughness was just a rumor I heard once. Other than that, I’ve never heard of anyone who survived the poison.”

“But then what do we do? Should I cut off your arm?” Erin begged.

Jode shook his head. “People have tried that. It doesn’t help. As far as I’m concerned, all that’s left to do is for you to leave.” Jode pointed with his good hand at a glowing circle in the corner of the room. His other was already encased in stone up to his wrist. “That’s the portal out. Go stand in it, and it’ll send you back to the entrance.”

“But-” Erin started before Jode waved him off.

“I told you, there’s nothing you can do. Go.” Jode paused and sighed, before tossing Erin his sword. “Here, hold onto this. It’s just a normal sword. The glowy shit earlier was fire magic. Still, maybe it’ll help keep you alive.”

The stone was at Jode’s elbow now, and Erin moved to grab the sword uncertainly. Jode’s face clouded with rage. “Now go, you idiot! I told you I wouldn’t be the one to get you killed today, and that portal isn’t gonna last forever. If you don’t use it in thirty minutes-” Jode interrupted himself as he began coughing. Chunks of stone fell out of his mouth alongside splashes of blood. Jode’s eyes seemed to be having trouble focusing, and Erin watched in horror as the blood patches solidified.

Jode looked up at Erin, staring him directly in the eyes with a haunted expression before collapsing. He was still breathing erratically, but Erin had no idea how long that would last as he rushed over to Jode’s side. Kneeling over him, Erin was at a loss. Part of him screamed to just leave, but another part insisted that there had to be something he could do. Opening his stat page, Erin looked for anything that might be useful; then he saw it.

Staring down at Jode, Erin placed his hands on his chest, and channeled his newfound divinity. When he first began training his magic, Almera had explained that magic was governed largely by imagination. The skills only served to magnify the impact magic had on the world. Erin hadn’t quite understood the metaphysical explanation she had given for how they functioned, but he understood the point. And so, he channeled his divinity into Jode with a focus on healing him.

Erin dismissed the popup as he struggled to maintain his focus. Magic normally took very little focus as long as you could visualize the desired effect while channeling mana. Something else entirely seemed to be happening while using his divinity. It was taking everything he had to keep the energy on task; as if it wanted to explode into a chaotic shower, and only his will was keeping it contained. As he watched his divine energy counter tick lower, the stone began to recede. When it finally ran out, he had almost completely banished the grey tinge from Jode’s body.

The moment Erin’s divine energy ticked to zero, he collapsed; groaning from the strain. As he sluggishly lifted his head, Erin’s world stopped. A slight tinge of grey stuck to Jode’s fingertips. What’s more, he could see it slowly advancing back up his arm. It was nowhere near as fast as it had been before, but Erin still knew that he had failed. Breathing heavily, he looked at his stat page. Somewhere in the process, his maximum divine power had increased by several points, but he was still at zero. His divinity skill was also now at three, while divine healing was at two. Without having more information on what they actually did though, he didn’t know what to do with that knowledge. After roughly thirty seconds, a single point of DP popped up on his counter. Hurriedly, he channeled that energy into healing Jode again. The grey receded slightly, but the moment his energy ran out again, the invasive presence resumed its conquest of Jode’s arm.

Erin collapsed onto his rear. “Ok, I’ve bought time. Do I have time to wait for my DP to recharge?” He speculated, staring at his menu. He still sat at zero out of fifteen DP. “Alright, I only got one notification about my max DP increasing so either the other four points are two per point of divinity skill, or one per, and one per point of divine healing. If it works like mana, then the higher my maximum, the faster I’ll recharge. At least to some extent. What can I do with this information?”

Erin stared down pensively at Jode while his brain ran in circles. By the time another point of divinity was available, the stone had made it back to Jode’s wrist. “I think I need to know whether his internal organs are good right now, or if I only healed his arm.”

Erin stared sadly at his single point of energy before placing his hand on Jode’s chest. This time he focused on scanning Jode’s body. He could see small patches of stone beginning to form in various locations, but none were near vital organs at that moment. Once he had confirmed that, Erin decided not to waste the point of energy by ending the scan early. Instead, he switched his focus to examining the processes by which the poison formed the stone. An extra point of DP became available while the scan was still active, so Erin was able to watch the effects of the healing. It was then that he realized a critical error.

“I think healing is actually a really inefficient way to use my energy.” Erin muttered out loud; watching as Jode’s body seemed to welcome the changes caused by the poison; even going so far as to fight the healing process. “I think it would be easier if I went the other way, and focused on changing the poison to be less deadly.” Erin’s scan spell ran out a moment later.

“Oh cool, that increased my max DP by a point. I guess any increase in a divine skill will do that.” Erin muttered as he started motioning to dismiss his stat page. His hand stopped mid-motion. “I’m such an idiot! I’m sorry Jode, you were right about me!” Erin exclaimed as he looked at a particular entry on his stat page. Feeling both excited and chagrined, Erin used some of the two hundred skill points he had gained from the death of the spider boss to increase his max DP. The cost to directly increase DP was the same as it was for HP and MP, but instead of ten points, he only received one.

“Maybe it would be more efficient to increase my divine skills instead?” He speculated out loud. He purchased a point in divinity, and found that the actual cost was three times the skill value; a full multiplier more expensive than stat points. The same turned out to be true for divine healing.

“Nope, let’s just increase DP for now.”

With that, Erin brought his maximum DP to thirty. “That should be enough for what I need to do.”

Now armed with both knowledge, and power, Erin turned to kneel over Jode again. Placing his hand on Jode’s chest, Erin focused his divinity on making the poison less harmful to Jode’s body. Luckily, simply knowing the effect he wanted seemed to be enough to bend the divinity to what he wanted, even without a proper understanding of the processes involved. Erin had an epiphany as he channeled the energy; that the divinity he wielded was an energy of raw creation, bound only by his imagination, but before he could complete the thought, he felt something click into place in the magical spectrum.

Performing another scan of Jode’s body, he was confused by what he found. Rather than render the poison inert as he had intended, the divine energy had instead altered Jode’s body to better handle the changes it wrought. Erin was horrified for a brief moment as Jode’s entire body changed to stone; before suddenly returning to normal flesh. Frantically examining his continued scan for information, Erin found that Jode’s body had now fully incorporated the poison. He was still technically human, but Erin could see that there was also something else present now. A new potential.

Erin decided to put that thought out of his mind for the time being, and lifted Jode unsteadily; draping his arm over one shoulder. “Come on, let’s get you back to town.”