The shadows seemed to flow up and over him. Blaze had expected it to feel cool, but it was comfortable.

He’d also expected it to be dark. Everything around him was, but he could clearly see that he was standing on a badly injured human. The man was covered by something that almost looked like mold or fungus, but it seemed to be in a constant battle with something in this dark space.

Death Affinity. It had to be. He’d wondered when he saw it, but Death Affinity actually made sense if it was trying to combat a raging infection. Death Affinity was excellent against diseases and infections of many different types. That probably also explained the intelligence of the cocoon; it needed to be smart enough to kill everything harmful without killing the patient or any symbiotic creatures.

Blaze wondered why whoever created the cocoon hadn’t included a healing affinity as well; Death and Stasis were a major Affinity and a high-end spell. It should have been easier to add Healing. There was probably a reason; it wasn’t like Blaze made items. Or perhaps creatures?

Blaze knelt back down and touched the man; he needed to at least see how hurt he was. For this scenario, he wasn’t on a strict time limit; people would be arriving regularly for at least the next two weeks, and they’d stay until they met the exit conditions. For most, that would be relatively quick, but some would be here far longer.

Blaze’s magic spread through the man and he winced. Blighted was accurate; there was an inimical energy creating the fungus-growth Blaze could see. After a moment, he realized there was a small patch deep in the man’s body that was free of the inimical energy. He was badly hurt and the area was dying; Blaze pushed some healing into it and felt it stabilize. The area free of inimical energy spread and Blaze patched it together as well.

It wasn’t long before Blaze was certain that he wasn’t seeing something accidental. This was absolutely deliberate and it was strangely familiar.

How could a cocoon learn advanced Death-magic healing?

Yet at the same time, how else would it heal with Death magic? Someone must have taught it.

Blaze fell into the rhythm. Unfortunately, less than an hour later he simply ran out of mana.

A cramp ran through Blaze’s body; he knew better than to let himself run dry, but he’d done it before and he was certain he would again. It wouldn’t be long until he regained enough mana to stop feeling the symptoms.

//??//

The thought was far more noticeable now, probably because he was enshrouded in the cocoon himself.

“I’m out of mana. I need to recover; I’ll be back as soon as I can. Put him back in stasis; we can finish up when I have the mana.” The cocoon deserved a polite explanation; it was a surprisingly good healer itself, even if it was limited to Death and Stasis.

Theoretically, he could use a potion to recover his mana, but Blaze didn’t like using potions when he didn’t have to. It never felt right and Blaze wasn’t sure he healed as well using that sort of mana. Far more importantly, mana potions were actually a mild poison.

It was actually possible to kill or cripple oneself with too many mana potions in too short a time. The residue could accumulate in the body, too; while the body could clean most of it out, it would eventually build up to bad consequences if you used them long enough, even if you used them rarely.

Blaze didn’t use them if it wasn’t urgent, and this wasn’t. Not with a stasis cocoon on hand.

If there were another healer available, he’d have gotten that person - but that wasn’t this scenario. He knew that when he talked to everyone who wasn’t in the scenario, they’d have been in their own, which might be quite different.

//give mana//

…What?

Giving mana wasn’t that unusual between people, despite the mana that was lost each time, but it certainly wasn’t something he’d expected the cocoon to know how to do. More importantly, did it have the mana to spare?

“Did you just offer to give me mana?”

//yes. pure//

“Do you have enough? If you run out, it’ll be even worse than me not healing for a while.”

//lots. ley line//

Blaze shook his head. This got stranger and stranger. Unlike most Tutorials, there was a ley line in this one - four, in fact - and one did run through Arrival Square. There were some missions that were based around that “coincidence”.

“You can use ley line mana?” Blaze couldn’t; he didn’t know anyone who could. That was almost exclusively the province of items, though he’d heard that there were a few outliers and high-Tier people who specialized in ley line magic.

//delicious//

An item that knew what food was? No, this was definitely a creature. It was probably modified from a beast or monster that ate ley line magic; that was probably a reasonable place to start. As long as you picked your location correctly, you’d never have to feed it, after all.

Getting back to healing faster would be a blessing, and sharing magic didn’t have the same downsides as drinking a potion. “Go ahead, then.”

It wasn’t the gentle flow of strange-feeling mana Blaze expected. Instead, mana gushed past him. It was like trying to drink from a fire hose, but what mana he did get didn’t feel strange at all; it felt like his. It stopped after a moment.

//slow//

It was far faster than natural regeneration, but Blaze had to agree; it wasn’t nearly as fast as it should have been with that much mana.

//bad link//

//push//

That was all the warning Blaze had before the firehose of mana was directed directly at him. It was surprising, but once he adjusted, it felt strange but good, sort of like standing in a strong shower. It didn’t take long before he was nearly full. “That’s-”

The mana passed his limit before he could finish the sentence. For a moment, it hurt with a blinding level of pain, but the mana flow stopped quickly and was followed by something else. Blaze didn’t hurt, though something felt strange.

//contrition//

Blaze examined himself. As far as he could tell, nothing was damaged at all. He hadn’t realized you could force in more mana than someone could normally hold, but with that level of pain he definitely wouldn’t recommend it. He pulled up his status to see if his mana pool was full; it felt full, but it was handy to check visually.

Blaze stared at the number. There was no way that was correct; his mana pool didn’t hold that much mana.

A look at his maximum mana told him that apparently it did, now. His mana pool size seemed to be larger than his Mind attribute could explain. “Did you just increase my mana pool?”

//contrition//

“You don’t need to apologize. I don’t know how you did it, but it’s not bad.” Blaze wasn’t sure where to go with this, so he turned back to what he did know. “We have a patient to heal; I have enough mana now, so let’s get started.”

The cocoon had to refill Blaze’s mana three more times before they were done. After the incident the first time, it managed the mana transfer smoothly.

The second time, Blaze noticed that it was somehow also washing away a lot of his fatigue. It wasn’t just a stamina refill, but that was most of it. The cocoon didn’t seem to understand the question when he asked what it was doing. Blaze assumed it had something to do with its purpose as a medical cocoon and went back to healing the victim.

Josaiah hadn’t expected to wake up.

Even if he did, he didn’t expect to feel fine, but he felt better than fine; in fact, he felt positively spectacular. He felt better than he could remember feeling in years.

Josaiah opened his eyes, expecting to see either his familiar bedroom or the Afterlife, whatever it was like. It was dark all around him, other than a small glowing figure that seemed to be sitting on him.

Was it really glowing or was it just that it was the only thing Josaiah could see? He couldn’t be certain. If it was glowing, it wasn’t much. He looked down at himself and decided that unless he was also glowing, the figure wasn’t.

This wasn’t like the Afterlife he’d been told to expect. “Are you an angel?”

The figure was tiny, with butterfly wings as large as it was, but other than that it looked like a miniature person. It was dressed in what Josaiah could only think of as bright clothes - deep purple pants and a loose, flowing dark green buttoned shirt. There was a tiny sword strapped to its belt, as well. It didn’t look like an angel, but Josaiah couldn’t imagine a devil looking like that either.

“No. I’m a sprite. More importantly, I’m a healer. How do you feel?” The sprite’s voice was far deeper than he’d expected, almost as deep as a normal man’s voice. For some reason, he’d expected it to sound like a child.

That also wasn’t a question he’d expect to get in the Afterlife. “Am I alive? I feel fine, but … I thought I was dying?”

Josaiah was pretty sure he should be panicking, but this was so strange it felt like a dream. That had to be why he wasn’t more upset. Wasn’t it?

[Active and successful defense against a possessing spirit has been Noticed]

[Quest complete]

[Choose your reward:

Armor

Weapon

Companion]

[Your reward will be yours for the duration of the event but may not be removed from the event]

“You were. You were lucky to get here in time. I don’t think you’d have survived without healing. Why don’t you come into the Hall with me? We can talk over a meal.” The sprite didn’t seem to react to the words floating between them.

Josaiah sat up. The words seemed to float forward, and the sprite jumped and flew a small distance away before landing. “Why are there words in front of me? What quest?”

The sprite froze and turned back towards Josaiah. “What do they say?”

After Josaiah read them to the sprite, the sprite grinned and clapped. “Well, that’s lucky. Your first quest is already completed! That’ll give you a head start on the Grand Quest! Go ahead and pick your reward; I’m sure whatever you get will be useful!”

None of this made sense. At least he probably wasn’t dead. Maybe this was the Tutorial thing? It didn’t sound like what he’d heard, but he couldn’t think of anything more likely. Josaiah blinked again.

The quest choices didn’t tell him more, so he shrugged to himself. He’d read a bit on the Tutorial, and the one thing he knew he’d heard was that it was pretty easy to get weapons and armor if you were willing to put the effort in. Josaiah was certainly willing; it couldn’t be any worse than some of the work he’d done in the past.

This was a quest reward, so it was either going to be cheap and useless, handed to everyone, or it would be the best thing he’d find in the “event”. The weapon was the most tempting choice; it would probably be far better than anything that would be provided free if it was worth anything at all. He skipped over the thought of armor; the Tutorial wasn’t supposed to be that dangerous, so whatever was easy to get would be good enough.

He’d never heard of anyone getting an individual companion. That meant it was probably something he simply couldn’t get otherwise. Josaiah looked at the “Weapon” option regretfully before selecting “Companion”.

The darkness faded into the ordinary darkness of night. He was sitting on a floor of packed earth, in the middle of an open area. The sprite was still there, but was harder to see.

The only other creature near him was a … what was that? It sort of looked like a Pokemon, only more real. It was hard to see in the poor light, but it had both feathered bird’s wings and an oddly reptile-like snout. Even while he was seated, its head barely reached his shoulder.

“What just happened?” Josaiah wouldn’t have believed it if anyone asked him, but the words clearly came from the creature’s mouth. Was this his companion?