Tale Of A Berserk Healer

Ryth reaches the town gate, and lifted his ID Bracelet to show his status as a First-Stage adventurer {level 1-10}, meaning he had not evolved once, and entered town, walking past herb shops and a group of Mercenary Adventurers on his way to the only building in town above 3 stories tall: the Adventurers Association.

A complex of barracks for guests or town soldiers if necessary, a pub/bar near the front attached to the entrance as the social area, and many offices/storage units led to an area of 3 separate buildings all making up the Adventurers Association, with the center tower standing at 6 floors. The entire building was fortified, with slots for archers on higher floors, stone out walls, and brick buildings. It cut an imposing figure for sure, and then you had in the heavy aura and glimmer of the thousands of enchantments and Magic's sunk into the stone {ooh shiny!} and it would make anyone give respect.

Ryth walked into the central hall, bypassing Smokey's {that would be the nickname of said bar/pub}, and walking up the stairs in the back to the 2nd floor. He headed right for the enchanter offices, and knocked on the door.

"Who is the bloody-f*ck hitting my door at this ungodly hour? Do you want to see the pits of Abbadon?"

"Haha, Fion, it's well past noon, and I got some pretty potent venom from a spider-type magic creature, but maybe I should see an enchanter who doesn't stay up past the 'ungodly hours' trying to calculate the proper mass-power ratio of defensive bracelet enchantments?"

Lots of thumping and crashing could be heard before the wooden door flew open, revealing a hawkishly sharp featured man. With graying hair, and standing well over 6 feet, he towered over Ryth while still putting on his spectacles.

"Shut it Ryth, you know all them other arrogant rune-writers would rip you off. Get in here before the sunlight from those windows blinds my poor soul"

"Old man, sunlight could only help you with whatever sickness is making you that skinny" Ryth replies as he casually entered the familiar cluttered-to-the-roof room. Fion shot him a annoyed expression as he said "the only sickness I fight is insomnia and insufferable brats who call me old!" Ryth lifted his hands in surrender as he shrugged, taking out one of the vials of spider venom for Fion to see.

Fion wordlessly grabbed the vial and went to the one clean surface in the room, an oak desk with various tools laid out neatly, with many scratches upon it as though heavy items were commonly placed on it and dragged around. He casually placed it into a some sort of niche and observed it with a magnifying glass, adjusting the enchantments within said glass to see different views as he tested the venom with different materials, dipping pieces of leather, paper, jerky, metal, etc into the blue toxin.

After observing the reactions he finally asked, with a strange note to his tone, "what did you get this from again?"

Ryth looked at him askance, and asked; "a spider creature? It was pretty weak physically though. Not very good armor, but scary fast."

Fion laughed with an almost bitter edge to it. "Well from what I can tell, that spider was likely in the mid-first stage, about level 5 or 6 maybe, and probably had all its strength placed in its venom cause DAMN is that some potent sh*t. Interested in selling a vial? I could dilute it to only 10% purity and it would still crash a nervous system anywhere in the first-stage!"

Ryth blinked in shock. What the heck? Mid-First-Stage? That spider? And the venom was that good? Wait... wouldn't that mean the energy released on its death that he absorbed to further his level was probably really high?

Ryth hurriedly took out his Adventurers ID and handed it to Fion, saying "hey can you activate the update process so I can see my current exp and level?"

Fion easily went along with the question of the young man, knowing he'd come back to his question once he settled down from the obvious excitement and hope he currently had. He then handed it back after a blue light shone from the card. After Ryth took it, blue light formed words in the air describing his current ability.

***

Ryth-Human Healer

First-Stage Level 2

Power 9 Agility 13

Intelligence 11 Wisdom 18

Durability 6 Charisma 7

Title: Healer of Venom

[Healing Poisons costs Half-Mana]

***

Ryth sighed. Well at least one of his physical stats was above the average of a first-stage? If only increasing Intelligence actually made you proportionally smarter. The scale of how much you gained definitely wasn't proportion to what you started with.

Fion laughed at his bitter expression. "Hey at least you have a title now huh? Slaying a venomous creature multiple levels above you got you a nice ol' title, and you even leveled up! Most Adventurers gotta wait till around level 8 to get their first title, don't go looking down on it!"

"After all, even this old man had to wait till level 12 to get his first title, 'Engraver of Flame'!"

Ryth smiled, showing he understood, and put away his ID to continue discussing the potential sale of the vial. After all, he had a whole other 2 vials to use on the edge of his blades, and if only a tenth the purity still could kill any first-stage creature without poison resistance, he might actually be able to fight goblins without having to wait for them to be half dead after just having fought and been injured!

After arranging to sell the venom for a few silvers, pretty good considering it was only a first-stage venom, he suddenly regarded Fion and asked: "hey did you find any healers or priests willing to give me a few lessons for what I could afford?"

Fion sighed. Like any high-class healer worth learning from would accept your poor prices!

Ryth understood the sigh plenty well, and releasing one of his own, turned and left, bidding Fion a farewell and wishing him a good night, knowing the crazy old man likely would go right back to sleep. Then he headed back to the downstairs front desk, and asked the half-elf, Lela, if she'd heard of level 5 spiders moving into the trees of the nearby forests. Lela was more surprised, with a "huh? Giant spiders the size of a human torso? No, haven't heard anything on that. Is that what's poking outta your bag? Also you look kinda like a zombie considering the uh... blood... coating... *gulp* oh that's gross..." Ryth blinked in surprise, and looked at himself.

Oh. Yeah that was a bit of a mess. He laughed it off, gesturing farewell as he headed out the door, going to the rented stable he currently called home. He used about half the water allotted to him just to get it off his skin, and used the rest to get the blood outta his clothes. By the end he was positively shivering, and on sudden inspiration, tried circulating his mana throughout his body. Sun energy ought to be warm right? It took a bit to get used to how to translate it into soothing warmth, but he eventually got it.

Woohoo! Anti-Frostbite healing spell! Though in this current state, it was perhaps more a "mild warmth spell". Speaking of which, he could do some stamina recovery now!

(Wonder what random thing I'll figure out I can do next... if only all these spells and skills weren't so unique to wield for each person, I could just memorize some instruction or something. Instead I'm stuck puzzling out what exactly I'm currently capable of. Warming cold limbs? Check. Mild healing of wounds? Check. Stamina recovery? Check. Slightly-usable-thanks-to-the-new-title-poison purifying? One big check there.)

Ryth sighed as he settled to sleep, acknowledging a simple fact.

Being a lonesome healer was hard! No matter how lucky one was! Even those two half-dead, injured, and exhausted goblins managed to attempt a few attacks! How in the heck was Ryth ever gonna reliably get any kills, even if he'd reached level 2? Never mind the evolution of his body at the 2nd Stage, that was gonna be a hassle considering the effect depended on what you'd ingested and the surroundings you were accustomed to.

Environmental mana certainly affected ones evolution, but monster meat was a nice way to influence it.

(Crap, I forgot to sell my spider legs didn't I? I'll cook one tomorrow for brunch and sell the other 7 I guess. That's a bit of an oversight.)

Ryth felt once again the annoying disappointment of his recent life, even though his only blame was himself in this moment.

Meanwhile, as Ryth fell into his fitful sleep, a certain Goblin found its outpost, and felt vengeance stirring beneath its small c.h.e.s.t...