Chapter 36

Chapter 36

Amber had dragged Drew over to the healing area and ran to grab Miranda. His wounds weren't nearly as bad as other peoples' were, but they definitely weren't pretty. To say that he was pretty fucked up would be an understatement. He had several holes in his torso, thighs, and arms from the birds that had rammed into him beak first, pushing two- or three-inches in. He was losing a lot of blood, and it was fairly painful. But he was alive. His stats had allowed him to survive where other people hadn't. He still couldn't move, but he was starting to regain control over his fingers and toes from bottoming out his mana.

He was grateful that he couldn't move though, because if he could, he'd be watching the people gathered nearby that were crying. Crying over the friends and family that they had lost. He didn't know how many they had lost, he hadn't asked. Not yet. He still felt raw, the shock his body was going through was starting to subside slightly, and he could feel the anger and grief coming. The grief over the injured and dead, and the anger that he wasn't strong enough to protect everyone. He had all those stat points, far more than anyone should at his level, but it still wasn't enough to save everyone. Realistically he knew that he couldn't save every single person, but that was a rational thought, and right now emotions were the reigning king.

He still felt some of his minions, Scolder had made it, but he was damaged. He'd lost a couple packmates as well. Even though it was irrational, Drew felt grief from that too. They were undead, they weren't Soulflames, they were just normal minions. Yet, he still felt sad. In his head, he was imagining what Scolder would be feeling, losing members of his family. But Scolder didn't truly feel anything, at least as far as Drew could tell from the mental connection to his pet. His rational mind was conflicting with the emotional mind. He only had enough strength to focus on two rational thoughts.

First, he shouldn't mess with any of his notifications. Not right now, not while he didn't have control over his emotions. He knew he would throw points all over the place without giving it proper thought if he tried to mess with the level-ups that were likely waiting for him. Secondly, he sent Scolder out to retrieve one of the birds that hadn't been turned to ash. He still didn't know what had caused the landscape to change, or the blue fire to kill everything. He remembered feeling things, but when he tried to focus on those feelings, he couldn't determine what had happened fully. He knew he had done something, but he didn't know what. Chances were high that his notifications would tell him, but he was actively repressing the impulse to pull them up.

Miranda still hadn't come by when Scolder returned. That solidified Drew's resolve on his next course of action. He had his pet rip apart the corpse of the bird he found, and then grab the body in its mouth. He sighed internally; he wasn't looking forward to this next part. He sent the command to Scolder to hold the bleeding and torn open body right above Drew's head. He had closed his eyes, this would be gross enough, he didn't want to see what was going to happen.

He felt the blood hit his lips, and he opened his mouth, to let it flow in. It was fucking disgusting, awful, revolting, and nauseating. That's what he wanted to think. That's what every part of him was screaming for him to feel. But it wasn't true. It honestly tasted like chicken broth. Why? Because the integration, or his race's parentage said so. Because fuck logic, that's why. But he forced himself to drink the chicken broth. Miranda hadn't gotten to him yet, which meant other people were likely much worse off than he was and she was busy stabilizing them. That was the only reason he could think of. So he drank the crow's blood to help ease her burden.

His race allowed him to heal more quickly with blood or food, and he didn't have any food in his inventory. Thinking about what he was doing made him feel sick to his stomach, but if it meant Miranda could save her mana to help the others, then he was going to bite the bullet and drink the damn blood. On the plus side, it felt like it was already having an effect, his own bleeding had stopped, which was the most important part. He still hurt, but it was lessening. Scientifically, it made no sense on why drinking blood would heal his body faster, but he threw that thought out the window. It was more System fuckery, and he wasn't going to dwell on it.

The first bird was drained, and Scolder went to grab another, and then another. How big was his stomach that he could put away three eagle's worth of blood? Maybe it was being used as quickly as he drank it? He didn't care, he just focused on drinking the blood, and staying still so he didn't reopen his wounds.

An hour passed, and he was finally able to sit up under his own strength. His mana was slowly regenerating, and he was no longer crumpled on the ground like a Barbie doll thrown into the corner of a room by an angry child. He didn't feel good, but he also didn't feel like he was going to die or pass out. He did however feel bloated. Seven crow's worth of blood, that's how much his stomach could hold. But now it felt like he'd just eaten a Thanksgiving dinner and needed to open the top button of his jeans to ease his bloating. Miranda finally got to him. But it looked like she hadn't slept in days, and her lovely blue scrubs were coated in blood everywhere.

"How bad is it?" Drew asked.

She looked over his wounds.

"Hard to tell with all this magic, you'd be in a hospital bed though. But you look much better than I expected."

She held her hands to his body and began to heal him.

"That's not what I meant. How's everyone else? How many did we lose? You can stop healing me if others need it more than I do."

The glow from her hands stopped, and she sat back for a minute to catch her breath.

"Mark and Robert are okay, the demon guy is fine as well. Spock should be alright after a day of rest and some more healing. Amber needed some work, and your mom broke her ankle, she'll be okay, but she needs to rest and I'll need to heal her several more times. We lost a lot of people though; I don't have a number for you because I haven't had a chance to stop and count."

"Fuck."

"Yeah. We did the best we could, but we need more healers, and we need armor. I could have saved more people if there were more Neophytes, but I'm stretched thin, and my mana is running on fumes."

"Go help the others. I drank a shit-ton of blood; I should heal up given enough time. The others don't have that luxury. Honestly, I'm surprised you're so calm if we lost so many people, because I feel like shit."

"You do this long enough, and you learn to detach yourself from it. The people who can't learn how to do that, don't last long in the medical industry."

"It doesn't bother you? Like... at all?"

"Only when I stop to think about it. Life is a fragile thing, and it balances on a fine line. I concentrate on what I need to do, and I do my best. That's all I can do, that's all anyone can do. When I settle in bed for night, I have a good cry, I think about what I could have done differently to save someone. But there's nothing I can do, other than what I'm already doing. It's not that I grow cold to the loss of life, but numb. I grieve when I can, and I reflect, when possible, but I try to limit those thoughts."

"Why do you limit those thoughts? Because, I feel overwhelmed by them right now."

"They aren't productive. Mentally, you need to be able to grieve, but it's very easy to get pulled down the rabbit hole. If I'm stuck in my own mind with those thoughts, I'm not being productive, I'm not helping the ones who can be saved. Anyways, I've spent enough time here, I need to check on other patients. Try not to move around too suddenly, but you should be able to walk if you take it slow."

Then she left, and he was alone with Scolder again. He knew what she had said was right, but how did she make it look so easy? Maybe there was something productive he could do... if... yeahhhhh. If he had more mana, he might be able to raise some of the people's loved ones as soulflames. They wouldn't be alive... but at least they wouldn't be gone. At least the families could see their loved ones again. The question was, would that be too morbid for people? Maybe he better ask the family members first before doing anything.

Still, it wouldn't solve anything at this exact moment, his mana was still too low, and he had all those notificat...wait... if he leveled up, wouldn't his mana and mana regen increase? It worked when his mana was full previously, when he jumped up in levels. He needed to tell Miranda; she could heal more people then! He got up, slowly, using Scolder's body as a prop for leverage. He scanned his surroundings and saw Miranda's back hunched over healing someone. Using Scolder as a crutch he made his way over to her.

"Miranda! Hey, check your notifications, level up and put points into intelligence! Your remaining mana will grow, the levels give you free mana, it's hard to explain, just do it!" He yelled to her.

She turned to look at him and then nodded. Several seconds later...

"It worked! Thank you!!" She yelled back.

Good. At least he helped, maybe now she could save and heal more people. But now he needed to do his own notifications in order to help those families. He was thinking more clearly now, and even though he was feeling a large amount of guilt, he was no longer being consumed with it, now that he had something to distract him, a way to help others. He sat back down with Scolder's help, and opened up his notifications.

*DING!*

You have slain [Crow (Grade - F) - lvl 7] x1431
You have slain [Crow (Grade - F) - lvl 8] x1309
You have slain [Crow (Grade - F) - lvl 9] x768
You have slain [Crow (Grade - F) - lvl 10] x234
You have slain [Crow (Grade - F) - lvl 11] x176
You have slain [Crow (Grade - F) - lvl 12] x52
Experience earned

Your minion, [Skeletal Minion (Grade - F) - lvl 8] has been slain x7
Your minion, [Skeletal Minion (Grade - F) - lvl 10] has been slain x2

Class: [Caster] has reached level 13

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Class: [Caster] has reached level 22

Profession: [Baleful Warden (Unique)] has reached level 1

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Profession: [Baleful Warden (Unique)] has reached level 16

Race: [Dhampir (Grade - F) ] has reached level 7

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Race: [Dhampir (Grade - F) ] has reached level 19

Title Earned: [Beast Slayer I]
Title Earned: [Beast Slayer II]
Title Earned: [Beast Slayer III]
Title Earned: [Beast Slayer IV]
Title Earned: [Beast Slayer V]

Attribute points allocated - You have 206 Free points available

[Caster] class skill available x2
[Baleful Warden] profession skill available x3

Drew woke up to Miranda and Amber shaking him. Spock and Scolder were also nearby. Did he pass out? What happened?

"Huh? What? Quit shaking me, I'm up damnit!" He grumbled.

"Are you okay sweetie? We found you passed out here next to Scolder." Amber asked with concern.

"Uh, yeah. I think so. I don't know what happened. I was checking my notifications, and then you were shaking me."

"Drew Wright, you likely leveled a great deal. Your body may have shut down to acclimate to the changes if you gained a large amount of attribute points." Spock said.

"Ah. That would do it, I guess. My class, profession, and race all leveled a shit-ton, and I'm sitting on close to two hundred free points."

"Two hundred!?" Miranda's voice cracked slightly.

"Yeah, something like that. I got a bunch of titles for killing those birds. Beast slayer or something. If it's anything like the hunter or monster slayer titles, that's probably where they all came from."

"Indeed, that does seem likely, Drew Wright. Although, such a large increase in attribute points is fairly rare. What profession did you end up choosing?"

"Hmmmm...Baleful Warden, yeah that's it. The Baleful Lady offered it to me when I went to visit her."

"A profession offered by a Primordial... I see. I'm not familiar with it, is it combat-oriented?"

"Yeah, I believe so. It gives a ridiculous number of stat points per level. The grade is unique if I remember correctly."

"It seems your meeting with The Lady of Death was very eventful. A combat profession, and from your heterochromatic glowing eyes, and tattoos on your face, it seems you also carry her Champion Mark." Spock added.

"She said something about being her Champion on Earth, and I had no idea about the glowing eyes or tattoos when I signed up for it, she made it seem like it would be a freckle or something. I talked to her after I got back via some sort of telepathy or prayer, and she seemed just as surprised as I did."

"Indeed? For a Primordial to be surprised... well, I'm sure she has it handled. Although, that certainly explains why we found you lying here unconscious. Such a major increase in your points, in such a short period, overwhelmed your body. You're lucky it shut down, otherwise you would have been in immense pain from the changes. If you're going to assign those Free points, I'd recommend you do it now, while we're nearby so we can watch over you."

"Alright, give me a minute."

Drew pulled up his status.

Status

Name: Drew Wright

Race: Dhampir (Grade - F) - lvl 19

Class: [Caster] – lvl 22

Profession: [Baleful Warden (Unique)] – lvl 16

Health Points (HP): 1120/1420

Mana Points (MP): 836/1280

Stamina: 713/1260

Stats (Attributes)

Strength: 111

Vitality: 142

Endurance: 126

Toughness: 142

Agility: 94

Perception: 95

Intelligence: 128

Wisdom: 102

Willpower: 95

Free Points: 206

Titles
[Progenitor], [Forebearer of The Descent], [The First Necromancer], [Curiosity of the Divine], [Hunter II], [Monster Slayer III], [Cold Blooded], [Auspicious Necrolyte], [Marked for Greatness], [Champion], [Beast Slayer V]

Spock was right, his stats had gone up a lot. Just a few days ago, he had felt proud to have all of his stats at twenty points each, and now most of them were over one hundred. Agility, Perception, and Willpower were all very close to one hundred points, and it wouldn't take much to round them out. Only sixteen points and everything would be in the triple digits. Screw it, he had over two hundred to play with, he'd throw a couple in those to get them past the hump.

Well, he'd round everything up a bit, and then throw all his remaining points into Intelligence and Wisdom. Obviously, the regen from Wisdom would be helpful, but Intelligence would boost his mana point capacity by a large margin... Mana was a major issue in that last fight... yeah, he'd focus more on the mana point capacity for the moment. Drew allocated all his points and double-checked his new status, but filtered the results to leave the titles off.

Status

Name: Drew Wright

Race: Dhampir (Grade - F) - lvl 19

Class: [Caster] – lvl 22

Profession: [Baleful Warden (Unique)] – lvl 16

Health Points (HP): 1272/1500

Mana Points (MP): 1603/2500

Stamina: 736/1300

Stats (Attributes)

Strength: 120

Vitality: 150

Endurance: 130

Toughness: 150

Agility: 100

Perception: 100

Intelligence: 250

Wisdom: 141

Willpower: 100

Free Points: 0

"Much better, all don...." Drew slumped over.