I continue to heal Tiny every few minutes as we sit in the ruins of the lousy spider's web. Every ti I heal him, his health starts to trickle down again a few monts later. Does this poison never run out? What the heck is going with it?! If I had the power of resurrection then I'd bring that stupid spider back just so I could kill it all over again. How dare it do this to my loyal, stupid, hardworking, idiotic, steadfast and stupid pet?!
But after an hour of constantly healing him, my minds are starting to hurt and the slow leak of health out of Tiny is yet to stop. Begrudgingly I spend a Skill point to buy Healing Magic Affinity Level 1. I probably should have bought it ages ago, it's not like it's never going to co in handy, but for so reason I held off. I don't want to be the healer of the party, I want to shove that responsibility to another so I can focus on being badass and annihilating stuff. But if just dumping healing mana into the big ape isn't going to do the job, perhaps the skill will teach so poison removal magic?
Aha!
It's here. I thought as much. The trickling knowledge of healing magic is filling up my brain! Lots of new spell forms and interesting thods are here, including one for the removal of poison. Grumbling at the inconvenience, I whip up the required spell and apply to the ape who still looks like he wants to punch himself in the stomach.
I should let him…
The healing mana settles onto him and sinks into his body whilst I sit back with a sigh. There we go, crises averted.
[Be more careful next ti you moron!] I scold Tiny.
He frowns, his bat ears twitch and he holds his fist up once more.
[NO! I just cured you! Why would you want to punch yourse- …]
His health is still going down…
DAMMIT! Why?! What the heck kind of web-fu did that taratect have going on, huh? Hacks? Is it hacks? So sort of cheat skill?! I never got one of those Gandalf! You bearded moron!
[Crinis! Do you have any idea what is going on? So sort of Shadow poison? Have you seen a skill like that at all?]
[No, I haven't. But I don't think it's poison…]
[What? What do you an?]
[Look closely, Master. You should be able to see it with your mana sense.]
[My mana vision isn't as good as yours…]
I focus on Tiny once more, not with my eyes, but with my mind. Crinis has a huge advantage over here in this departnt, but my skills aren't totally lacking. Letting my mind reach out I examine with minute detail the mana that flows through Tiny's body. His core flares bright in my mind and the energy that ripples through his entire fra is bright and energetic. He seems fine? Wait!
I grasp a sliver of sothing that slips away from . What the heck was that? Determined, I focus harder and strain to grasp what I'd seen. There it is! Roaming through his body like a cunning worm is a slithering shard of shadow mana! It wasn't poison that those webs injected him with, it was a spell!
How insidious! This must be so sort of advanced Skill or technique, it has to be. I get the feeling that spider was quite a high level, grown fat during the wave on the fresh monsters that sward through its tunnel. Now that I can sense what is happening, I can see the harm being done in real ti. Like a dark snake the mana flits throughout Tiny's body, wrecking and damaging everything it cos across, causing his HP to drop. When I heal the damage, his situation doesn't improve as the mana continues its work. The poison removal didn't work, since it's not actually poison that he's infected with!
What the heck are we supposed to do?!
[Alright Tiny. I want to listen carefully.]
A serious expression cos across the bat features of my first pet. He leans forward, attentive, his huge fists curled in his lap.
[You aren't poisoned by the spider. You've been infected with damaging Shadow Mana.]
His eyes steady, Tiny nods slowly. Then, he thunderously punches himself in the stomach. Unable to resist his own colossal strength, he groans and collapses to the tunnel floor.
[… you idiot.]
After I heal him up again, he managed to do quite a lot of damage to himself, I try to use external mana manipulation to dissolve or remove the offending spell but it's too hard for . Either the fact that the mana is trapped within his body, which ans it's more difficult for to effect, or its too elusive and slippery for to take hold of.
And so it cos to this. I decide that we'll continue our delve of the second strata and I'll have to keep healing Tiny as we go. Perhaps if my healing mana gets to a high enough rank I'll be able to cure him, or if my external mana manipulation ranks up, I'll be able to help. Either way, the spell inside him is small enough that he doesn't lose his health super quickly. As long as I keep topping him up, he'll be fine.
Still, it's an inconvenience I'd rather not have to put up with, and the constant threat to my oldest companions life is anxiety inducing. We're off to a poor start here in the second strata. We need to be smarter in our approach. Although, considering the mbership of our group, with leading it, this ss was sowhat predictable. Well the benefit of hindsight is 20-20 as they say. We can only move forward with greater wisdom! Greater enthusiasm!
Whoops! Better heal Tiny again…
I'm going to have to manage my sub-brains, or have them manage each other. They can flip the job of maintaining the construct between them in order to get enough rest. With three of them, it should be fine. By fine, I an I won't have to dedicate my main mind to the job of topping Tiny off. This should help to train my skills quickly as well.
With that renewed spirit we set off once more! I clear out the spider webs and we advance down the side tunnel. There are still small plants cropping up and we take so ti to investigate each one before we continue. Crinis is forced to sacrifice two more tentacles to poison and negative energy as we progress. I'm starting to sense a the in this strata. We co across a few creatures that are easily dispatched, but then we find sothing that really irritates .
Centipedes…. Always with the lousy centipedes.
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