Healing Incorporated

He couldn’t read any information about the skill, Barbarian's Rage, but he didn’t need to. From the intense, murderous look on her face, he could tell it was some sort of berserker skill. Charlotte flung herself at the enemy again and again, no longer caring about protecting herself. The zombies kept digging their nails into her, and one even bit down on her upper left arm. Eli healed her. He hoped these zombies didn't infect people like in the movies. Dealing with a zombiefied Barbarian would not be a fun way to end their first day.

Keeping her alive like this wouldn’t be sustainable for long. Eli slammed another mana potion, ignoring the flashing notifications in his peripheral vision. This was not the time to read. With his mana full, he healed her again. Everyone in the group finally leveled up, which restored all his mana.

Ding! You have reached level 7.

Zombies were coming after him too, and he had to keep moving. Thankfully, they weren’t quick on their feet, but they just kept coming. The Barbarian’s Rage status flickered and disappeared as another ailment took its place. Confusion, the same one that had affected Zack. Eli cured Charlotte, then grabbed one of the leather straps she used to hold her sword and pulled as hard as he could, screaming, "Charlotte, we have to get out of here now!"

Zack was tossing explosion potions at the groups that weren’t close enough to hurt Charlotte, but the throng was getting too large. Charlotte turned to face Eli again, her face, arms, and torso covered in blood and gore. Some of it was likely her own. Now, her eyes shone with fear.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Let’s just go!" Eli shouted.

Finally, Charlotte moved her massive bulk toward the entrance. More skeletons were coming too, blocking the path by the gate. Eli had enough mana to kill one, but not both, and still had six seconds before he could drink another mana potion.

"You have to kill it!" Eli barked, pushing the terrified Charlotte to the front.

"I... I can’t!" she stammered as a skeleton leapt for her, slashing wildly. Its small dagger sliced into Charlotte’s flesh. She screamed in pain and terror, dropping her sword to the ground with a thud.

Not sure what else to do, Eli grabbed and pulled it to the side and away from Charlotte. It was surprisingly strong, but he got it off-balance. Finally, he was able to drink another mana potion, and he healed Charlotte while pulling her out of the graveyard. He slammed the entrance shut behind them. It didn’t take long for a huge number of zombies and skeletons to mass at the gate. Thankfully, it held, and the dumb monsters didn’t know how to open it.

"Oh, thank God," Eli said, falling back into the grass, trying to shut out the sounds of moaning zombies and rattling skeletons.

"Please tell me what’s happening! Are you okay?" Amy shouted, on the verge of breaking down.

"We're OK!" Eli shouted, sitting up. Another pop-up appeared, an interesting one.

New skill learned:

Meditation - Sitting or lying down increases mana regeneration by 300% after 5 seconds.

"Useful," he muttered, seeing the skill activate and his MP going up much faster than before.

Not wanting to wait, he stood and walked over to Amy before sitting back down beside her. "We're fine, Amy. Charlotte rushed in through the gate and was in trouble, so I had to follow and help."

"I can sense a lot of them nearby," she said, her voice small.

"Sense?"

"I'm not sure how it works, but I don't like it."

"Guys?" Zack said.

Eli turned around to look and saw the gate bulging outward in a disconcerting way.

"Amy, you have to get up," Eli said urgently.

"Why?"

"The gate is going to break! We have to go!"

Rufus pulled Amy along once she got to her feet. They slowly backed away. Meanwhile, Zack emptied his stash of explosion potions into the crowd, damaging small clusters of zombies, with Eli finishing off the wounded.

Ding! You have reached level 8.

They leveled up again, but Eli didn’t have a chance to look at his status screen before the gate burst open, torn apart by the immense pressure from the throng of the walking dead.

"Run!" Eli shouted, and they ran. Amy kept an admirable pace with assistance from Rufus, and they set off across the grassy field, looking over their shoulders again and again. Thankfully, the undead lost interest once they'd made it far enough.

Eli looked up at the church. That strange symbol looked like it was following them with its inanimate gaze.

The trek back didn’t take long, and they were greeted by the guards at the front.

"Another group returning," the guards said.

"More people have gone out?" Eli asked.

"Sure. Three more groups, four in total. With you back, that only leaves one still out there. Management is not pleased," Daniel the Spearman replied.

"They can’t just expect us to sit on our asses!" Charlotte growled, making the guards cower.

"Sorry," she muttered. She had been quiet since the attack, and Eli thought it best to leave her alone with her thoughts. Charlotte would need to get over the fear she’d shown in that last fight, or she would be far too unreliable to hunt with. Yes, a Barbarian was supposed to be somewhat unreliable and impulsive, but the way Charlotte acted out there was not due to her class, Eli thought. No, it was all Charlotte. And he couldn’t blame her, really. Standing face-to-face with those monsters made his stomach flutter, too. She’d do better next time. They all would.

If nothing else, they had improved a lot during that short time. The number of monsters in the graveyard was overwhelming, but if they could get those explosion potions a little stronger and turn Charlotte into a killing machine, the experience from that place would be almost endless.

The thought of growing stronger made Eli grin and almost start rubbing his hands together in excitement. It had been quite a rush, he admitted to himself. He wanted to see how far he could take this, how strong he could get in this new world of classes and monsters, goblins and quests.

The thought of quests made him glance at his quest list, and he saw that he'd received a new one. When he read the description, he realized it must have shown up when they discovered the graveyard.

Destroy the Corrupted Lord in his lair and uncover his secrets.

That sounded ominous.

"You coming, Eli?" Amy asked, standing by the door to the stairs.

"Yeah, sorry," he said, hurrying to catch up.

There was a lot to go through, but the pop-up would have to wait a little longer. They still needed to conquer all those sets of stairs again. On a whim, he checked the office on the second floor, and found it empty.

"Maybe we should move in here?" Eli asked, nodding to the deserted place. "I wouldn’t mind skipping all these stairs."

"Depends on what Jimbob and The Dragon have to say on the subject," Amy responded.

"Yeah," Eli said, considering. Infinite Innovation Solutions was a massive company with several hundred employees. Was management really up to the task of navigating this new world while taking care of everyone? If people just sat on their asses in the offices, they'd soon starve before the goblins even showed up. Everyone would have to improve and grow stronger if they wanted to find their way back home.

It was finally getting dark outside and the open doors to the different floors didn't allow much light to flow into the staircase to begin with. So, Eli cast Light in The Dark. An orb of light almost blinded them all, and he dimmed the brightness so they, at least, could see where they placed their feet.

Zack had been fidgeting ever since entering the building, and he kept glancing over at Eli like he wanted to ask something.

"What is it?" Eli finally asked, unable to take the sidelong glances anymore.

"Sorry," Zack said, "but I’m feeling a little anxious."

"What do you mean?" Amy asked.

He squeezed his own forearm, his hands shaking. "Told you I’m not good with people. It's tough."

"Can we make it easier for you somehow?" Eli asked.

"I don’t think so. Just... I’m gonna stay on a different floor. Not the one where I used to work, okay? If people don’t know me as well—you know, my barista self—then I think that’s better."

"Sure," Eli said.

A new window appeared, along with a text message.

Charlotte: We can send messages to each other.

Eli instinctively put it on the bottom left, near his status bar.

Eli: That's neat.

Amy: This is amazing!

Amy: Now we can chat without phones and computers.

"I’m going to turn in here," Charlotte said aloud, heading through a door on the eighth floor.

Zack: Oh, this is actually helps a lot. I'll take the ninth floor.

"Talk to you later," Eli said.

Zack kept his eyes on the floor and left.

A different message appeared, this one in a different color. The party chat was blue, but this message came in pink.

Amy: You can whisper to people too, like in an MMO.

"Cool," Eli mused. "I wonder if there’s a way to message all of Infinite Innovation Solutions."

"You would probably have to get a thousand gold coins for the guild for that," Amy said, her voice echoing slightly in the empty stairwell.

"Oh no!" Eli said, suddenly remembering. "The loot! We didn’t get any of the loot from the zombies!"

"Damn, you're right. At least we got a ton of levels, right?"

"That we did," Eli agreed, "and I got a new skill!"

"Oh? What skill?"

"Meditation! I regenerate mana much quicker when I sit down."

"Oh, I have that too."

"Hey, you should’ve told me," Eli said, smiling.

"Maybe you should sit down more," Amy teased.

"Hey, listen," Eli said after they ascended a few more flights of stairs, panting. "I’m sorry about today."

"No, I'm sorry. I was useless," Amy interrupted. "Maybe I should have picked Beastmaster after all, but I couldn’t bear the thought of Rufus turning into some disgusting creature."

"No, I should apologize," Eli said. "Charlotte needed help and I couldn’t let her just die on one of our first outings, but I could've kept you updated better."

"There’s nothing to apologize for," Amy insisted. "It’s me who’s the burden."

Eli was about to protest, but Amy held up a hand after putting the shepherd’s crook into her inventory.

"I was a burden today, and that’s okay. Well, it’s not okay, but you know what I mean. I’m going to get stronger. I can see the Animal Taming formula improving my chances every time I level up. I just have to find the right animals. Stronger animals, I mean."

She corrected herself quickly after hearing the rat army's squeaks of protest a few steps down.

"The rats were great and stealthy, but I need something vicious. Like a bear, or a pack of wolves, or something."

"Maybe a dragon?" Eli suggested with a laugh.

"A dragon? Be real," Amy said.

Eli raised an eyebrow and nodded to the side, as if telling her to consider the sort of place they'd landed in.

"Okay, maybe dragons do exist here," Amy said. "But maybe we should take it in smaller steps for now."

"Sounds like a plan!"

Amy beamed up at him. "Great! Will you come with me to the forest then? To find more animals, I mean."

"Sure," Eli agreed. "First thing tomorrow. By the way, did you get the quest too?"

"From the graveyard?"

He nodded.

"Yeah, I got it," Amy said

Eli scratched at his nose. "I don’t know how we’re going to break through all the zombies. Fighting a boss sounds scary."

"Yeah," Amy said. "I think we just need to level up a bit more."

"Hopefully that'll be enough."

They resumed their walk up the stairs and Amy soon stopped on her floor.

"Well, this is me. See you tomorrow?" she asked.

"Tomorrow," Eli agreed, waving as she entered her room.

Zack: A bunch of people keep giving me ingredients.

Zack: I'll be able to make a lot of potions for tomorrow.

Charlotte: We’re not going back to the graveyard tomorrow, right?

Eli: I think we're going into the forest to find some better pets for Amy.

Zack: Amy, can you control those rats any way you want?

Amy: Sure. Why?

Zack: No reason.

It was comforting having everyone nearby, in the back of his mind. Eli let his focus drift when no new messages arrived. He entered his floor to find torches merrily burning all over the place along the walls. No, not torches. Small fires burned, floating in the air.

The Dragon roared. "I need you in my office, now!"

The fire shuddered with each word coming out of his boss's mouth, as if the flames were afraid.