The Bad News.

LEVEL UP!

LEVEL UP!

Mub Chuk has used Form Of The Beast!

Mub’s health is rapidly deteriorating!

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LEVEL UP!

Infused Strike has leveled up!

The pop-ups continued appearing over John’s head even after he had collapsed. The sounds of explosions gradually faded along with the ringing in his head, but it wasn’t replaced with other noises. He could feel his body being shaken like the explosions were still happening and his form was being dragged across the ground… but he didn’t hear anything. He didn’t dream. He just… experienced moments where he would notice when something or someone was touching him, where he felt weightless as if his body had been hoisted up off the ground, or groan and wince whenever he felt something sharp stabbing into him.

Eventually though, it all stopped. His body stopped shaking and moving around. The ground stopped shaking beneath him when he was finally put back down on it. His hearing slowly came back, though all the loud noise was no longer there to shake him back into complete consciousness, and the feeling of ash falling on his face like snow finally disappeared. The last thing was something that John barely even noticed. He hadn’t remembered observing it happening early with everything that was going on, but when it finally stopped he recognized it because it left him completely in peace for a time.

There were no gods, goddesses, undead, or Cabalists to fight him. There were no problems. For once, he fell into a refreshing, long sleep, so deep that he could practically feel the darkness he saw in his eyelids covering him like a blanket. Unlike all of the sleep he had gotten since he first received his powers, John’s rest didn’t have visions or end in what seemed like a heartbeat. It was long, so long that his eyelids still felt heavy when he finally started to awaken, like he was trying to blink melted wax out of his eyes.

As unpleasant as that was… it was even worse for John when he woke up to find the purple glow still hanging in the air around him. The smell of smoke, rotting flesh, and… mint filled John’s nose when he found himself staring at the wooden ceiling above him, a scent that he quickly tried to expel from his body through a series of horrible coughing fits. He shot up into a sitting position… and then immediately turned to puke over the side of the table he was lying on while a sharp, nearly inaudible gasp cut through the air from somewhere behind him. His heart raced and slowed in sporadic patterns, charging him up with adrenaline and then calming him like his system was just now trying to adjust to the fact that he was no longer in combat. He turned his head to look at the person in the room with him… but before he could even find them, John found his gaze pulled to the muddy patch that had been smeared across his chest. He recognized it for what it was almost immediately. The bits of greenery and the dizzy feeling he got hinted at the fact that a poultice of some kind had been applied to his wounds, something with a narcotic that had seeped into his body… but he didn’t need it with his Gamer’s Body, so he ripped it off his torso as quickly as he could. In a way, it was like peeling dried clay off his skin. The poultices had already set so taking them off wasn’t as simple as wiping himself clean. They stuck to him… and left little chunks of dirt behind amidst all the dried blood and made him yearn for a hot bath.

There were no wounds beneath the medieval bandages that had been applied to John’s form. He didn’t know how long he had been sleeping for, but by the time he woke up, they were all healed. There were no scars again, aside from the ones he had already had before he got his powers and the branding. He was just... spotless again, despite the loss he had just suffered.

“They said they would have used healing magic, but… your body was too different from what the standard human form should have been for them to trust their own work this time. They had to use that, but thankfully it did the trick just fine,” the person who had gasped in the room with John spoke up… and John whirled around when he heard Dofi’s voice. The little Gnome was still just as naked as the last time he had seen her, but her body was covered in just as much mud and viscera as his was. She kept her hands tucked together between both of her soft thighs, hiding them from sight as she stared down at the ground and hid her face behind a curtain of stringy red and pink hair.

“Th-they said you were lucky to be alive…” Dofi murmured softly, and then her voice cracked. “... but those-those things weren’t trying to kill you, were they?” she asked, and John, despite how unsteady he felt, stood up to go over to her. Thankfully, she didn’t retreat away when he got near. She let him put his hands on her knee and her shoulder before she looked up at him to reveal the pale streaks that ran down the front of her face where her tears had run so freely that they cleaned up some of the blood on her face. She didn’t retreat when he pulled her into a hug, in fact, she hugged him back. The tone of her voice just left John feeling weak. She didn’t speak with certainty or sadness. Aside from the one crack in her tone when she tried to ask John a question, her voice just sounded… empty.

“Yeah… They wanted to learn how I cast spells,” he answered after a long moment… and squeezed her tightly. She didn’t speak any differently with the comfort, but she certainly embraced it all the same and clung to him like her life depended on it. When she finally seemed to relax and pull back from him slightly, John also retreated enough to look down at the Gnome. He didn’t bother asking her if she was okay or not, the answer to that was simple. Instead, he had a few other questions. “Mub?” he asked, but the rest of his question didn’t need to be said. The Orc was a warrior, born and raised; if he died in the battle, John was sure there was no other way that he would have wanted to go out.

“He’s… alive…” Dofi murmured again, and despite how much he had instinctively prepared himself for the answer, John felt like a physical weight had been lifted off his heart when he heard the ex-alpha was still kicking. Comfortingly, John rubbed his hand across her back, then the bad news came. “... but last I heard, he hadn’t woken up either.”

“U-Urga?” his voice got stuck in his throat when he tried to ask it. He didn’t really need the answer. He had seen her go down, but he tried to be hopeful anyways. He tried to ask at least. When Dofi answered, her voice got stuck in her throat as well. She stuttered and lowered her head further, refusing to meet John’s gaze.

“Y-you should talk to Mub.” she mumbled… and John immediately dropped to his knees. Whatever strength he had left in them simply vanished, and he let it. He almost opened his mouth to cry out, but his voice failed him too. “She’s alive…” John felt his heart stop. “She’s getting medical attention, but I didn’t see what happened. Mub… Mub should have seen it. Mub would know. You should t-talk to Mub i-if he wakes up.” Finally, she looked up to meet his gaze and found it hardened suddenly… like he was angry. The Gnome let out a little peep as John cocked an eyebrow at her, and slowly, John took the **** by her hand.

“If he wakes up?” John asked, and then gave Dofi what might have been the weakest smile he had ever had. Strangely, she smiled back… though her own expression was doubtful.