Chapter 01

“Why don’t you explain what happened,” Garmar said. He bade Pelle to stand and address us all.

I was perturbed to find that some healers had not returned after winter break. I didn’t know who the missing adventurers were. All I knew was that there were more empty seats. It couldn't have been my imagination. There were in fact fewer healers present. I hoped it was of their own volition and not from death.

A massive hearth held a great expanse of leaping flames behind Garmar. The heat radiated up the amphitheater style seating and firelight danced on our faces. Faces that seemed so unfamiliar to me. Older. More experienced. There was less naivety in the faces of my peers, and more of a serious focus on what Garmar had to teach us next.

Currently our focus was on Pelle who stood and smoothed out her thick velvet blue robes. She was perhaps more changed than others.

“We were dungeon crawling through a level 3 dungeon. There were seven of us. Unfortunately we didn’t have a rogue with us. Ironically, we really needed one as the dungeon was riddled with traps.”

A lot of healers shifted in their seats, giving Pelle their full attention. I’m not sure that anyone else but Garmar, Pelle, and I knew her whole story and circumstance. All anyone else had seen was a visit from demi-deity Allastrella.

“I stepped on a switch and a bolt through my eye and skull,” Pelle continued. “It was the most pain I’d ever been through. What’s worse is that it wouldn’t heal. There was an affliction over my health bar. A symbol I’d never seen before.”

Pelle paused, wrung her hands, and looked to Garmar for advice.

“What did the affliction symbol look like?” He said.

“A drop of blood with a barbed slash through it.”

“Since then, you’ve learned what the affliction was. Will you please share that with everyone?”

“Yes. It was a deep wound affliction.”

“Thank you Pelle,” Garmar said and took over the rest of the day’s lesson.

“For the rest of winter,” he began, “we will be going over a number of things. We will talk more about afflictions. Deep wound afflictions begin at level 3 dungeons so it is important that we prepare you for that. Then we will move onto other common ones. In the meanwhile, you will prepare for your first dungeon chain.”

Dungeon chains had become increasingly popular lately, according to statistics the guild had managed to get their hands on. Garmar had mixed feelings sharing that statistic, as though he didn’t quite believe it or had an addendum.

The first time I'd heard of a dungeon chain was from a cartographer at the Klayvale Trading post. He’d been selling dungeon chain maps for adventurers looking for rare or legendary items. Higher level items.

The second time I’d heard of Dungeon chains was from Boera. Boera, deity of mana regeneration, was one of my alliances. She’d mentioned that I would be called upon one day to conquer a dungeon chain in order to fetch Boera’s Ladle and return the missing artifact for her.

A dungeon chain involved defeating a series of dungeons in a specific order. Often, each dungeon offered loot that was crucial to moving forward along the following one.

“At the very last dungeon, you will have about a twenty-five percent chance to be rewarded with one specific high level loot,” Garmar said. ”This high level loot has a further chance of being rare, or legendary. Dungeons spawn these items at the end of dungeon chains to hide them from adventurers. Dungeons reduce the chances of losing high level loot. This behavior keeps a dungeon’s power from diminishing. For the next few weeks, you will be completing a four chain dungeon. Four dungeons in a specific order. There are a number of chains available that you will pick from after you’ve assembled your party.”

“Pardon me,” someone from the back of the student body said, “but if we’re going through the dungeon chain one time, that means we’ll only get one coveted item. How does the rest of the party get one too?”

Garmar’s face lit with a wicked grin. For a moment he gathered himself, as though trying to step out of a suit of mischief.

“That is one of the biggest challenges you’ll face,” our trainer said. “How do you deal with who gets the higher level item? That’s something I’m sure you will all constantly face from beginning to end.”

“That doesn’t seem fair,” someone said.

“Then make it fair,” Garmar said.

His response was a bit flippant, but it was hard to argue with it. It’s not the trainers who set up dungeons to work this way. This was just how dungeons worked. Nothing we could really do about it. Our only option was negotiating with our teammates.

“I will leave a book of afflictions in the commons of your lodge,” Garmar went on. “It will be set on a pedestal for all to share and study between lessons. Remember, we are here to help you. The guild post is here to help you. You are here to help each other learn, progress, and keep each other alive.”

Keeping our comrades alive was our purpose as healers. That’s what we trained for, and something nagged at the back of my mind about that. I wanted to do more than just heal adventurers on quests. I wanted to bring healing to those without it. Healing wasn’t relegated to just our comrades in battle. For now, I had to focus solely on those comrades. Comrades that were now congregating at the guild post.

To celebrate our return, Magic & Lance had turned the entire guild post into a buffet at their own expense. Simple foods were laid out in piles across a snaking row of tables. Food and drink and cheer were plenty.

I was thrilled to run into Arris, whose eyes were half filled with molasses creamed ale. Pelle and I had come over together, then lost each other in the crowd. Her presence had been quickly replaced with Arris.

“I’m glad you made it,” I said.

“Made it?” Arris said.

“Some of the healers didn’t return. I’m afraid it wasn’t by choice.”

“You think they died?”

“No. I’m just afraid they did. I have no idea what to think. My mind just jumps to the most awful reasoning.”

“Must be a healer thing,” Arris said. “I’m sure students are still arriving. It’s not exactly the easiest time of year for travel.”

“I guess we’ll find out in time.”

“Why are you worried? You have some friends you're expecting but haven’t showed up?”

“No, no one. I just—I don’t know—I just hope everyone’s alive and well.”

The grim possibilities of missing students aside, for the rest of the night, we were all merry. We ran into Lep and he joined us to reminisce over slices of cured ham and fresh fruit.

The ale flowed without rest. Our spirits were buoyed on the pleasures of reunion and sharing tales of adventure. Breathless laughter filled us as though we were sails and on that momentum, we navigated through half the night.

Lep left us to retire early since he’d pretty much just arrived as was beyond exhausted. That left Arris and I to get to know each other a bit better. To reconnect.

“I spent most of my time helping a group of adventurers hunt down wild monsters,” Arris said. “There is a legendary dungeon about one hundred kilometers from my hometown. Monsters were spotted coming near, so I joined a group of thirteen to hunt them down.”

“Thirteen? That’s quite a party,” I said.

“Perhaps a little overkill, but we didn’t know what we would encounter. You have an idea of what you’re up against when you enter a dungeon. You choose the dungeon level, right? Well when it comes to legendary dungeons, all manner of monsters and vermin escape. You have no idea what level they’re at. They could be level 1 monsters. They could be massive level 100 abominations. You never know.”

“I take it you didn’t run into level 100 dragons?”

“Ha! Nothin higher than a level 4… I don’t know what to call it. None of us did. Imagine a human climbing out of the split open body of an elephant. It was something like that. That was the highest level monster we fought. I was with quite a few high level adventurers, so it wasn’t at all a challenge.”

“How do you fare?” I said.

“Enh, I didn’t really get a hit in, but that’s alright, I was able to take down other lower level monsters.”

“Why? Why not dungeon crawl instead? Didn’t you miss out on loot?”

“It was a city sponsored quest, so it paid quite nicely. 40 gold between all of us, so I walked away with 3 gold. It also gave me plenty of resources for my Ancienne’s Nature bar. Next Full moon, I’m going to try and level my Orb Weaver Spider.”

“I completely forgot!” I said. “You must have leveled it up already! Last I saw, it was a Garden Spider conjuring.”

“Oh yea, that’s right. Well now it’s an Orb Weaver. By the next full moon, I’m hoping to level it to a Spiny Orb Weaver.”

“What level is it at right now?”

“Level 39.”

“That’s incredible!”

“I’ve got a few more tricks up my sleeve too. What about you? You still waving your clothesline around?”

“Pshh—Clothesline? Yea. Yea, I’m still waving it around. It’s currently level 32, but I plan on leveling it quite a bit. I’ve got a couple tricks up my sleeve as well.”

“How about this,” Arris said, changing his tone to be a bit more serious. “We’ve fought beside each other before. Let’s team up for the dungeon chain. We can see if Pelle wants to join? Maybe Lep again? He was pretty cool. Maybe some of the other warriors we’ve crawled with.”

“I’m down. I think we’ll fare much better if we’re working alongside adventurers we already know. So we’ve got you and I, possibly Pelle, and Lep. That’s four. Let’s get at least one of each class with us. We’ll need a rogue and a warrior now.”

“So with a Rogue and a Warrior, that’ll bring our party to six. Will that be enough? What level will the dungeons be?”

It was counterintuitive to try and put together a party before even knowing what we were up against. It was clear we were eager to adventure forth, but we needed to temper ourselves and wait to act upon receiving more information.

In the meantime, I enjoyed one more tankard of creamed ale. Arris enjoyed one more molasses creamed ale. With half eyes, we meandered back to the ancienne’s lodge for no reason other than company. I was half listening to what Arris had to say, and he was likely half listening to what I had to say.

It was comforting to return to the familiar sights of the beginner’s guild. The opulent buildings. The splendor of architecture. The vast knowledge that awaited my eagerness. Ah yes, knowledge. I’ve been craving a visit to the Owl’s Nest. I’d been studying Axthose Gourd Master lore.

There was now a lot of lore I needed to catch up on. I needed to study more on the alignments I’d subscribed myself to these last couple of months. I still knew the least about Ghospo, and my cathartic experience at her temple haunted my mind. I remembered weeping on honey molten stone that was as green as sea moss encased in emeralds. I’d shouted something about fountains of healing.

Wouldn’t that be something? To conjure fountains of healing for passersby?

Of course then there was Boera, Zekaidean, Gryf, and many more healers. All of whom I looked up to with tremendous respect and profound awe.

What I would do to be among legendary healers like them.