Chapter 10: Broken Bones and Claustrophobia

Chapter 10: Broken Bones and Claustrophobia

Jack awoke sometime later. He couldn’t tell how long he was unconscious. The only thing he was sure of was that it was pitch black where he was, and he was in more pain than he had ever been in before. Jack tried to move, but the pain was too much. It was a struggle just to breathe. Focusing on his hit-points, a new panic set in.

Health 6/360…

Health 5/360…

Health 4/360…

Jack struggled against the pain. He had never seen his Health so low, and it was dropping fast. With as much breath as he could muster, he cast his Heal spell. Immediately, Jack watched his Health increase, and some of the pain lessened. The spell only brought his Health score up by ten, but it was still dropping. Over and over again, Jack cast the spell, slowly regaining his lost Health points. He felt better with each cast, and he even felt bone moving back to their normal location, and open wounds stitch themselves back close as his Health improved.

Once he raised his Health points over a hundred, Jack noticed that it finally stopped decreasing. He let out a sigh of relief. He was still in a lot of pain, but at least he didn’t think he was about to die anymore. Still, he kept casting the spell every time he could, until he ran out of Mana.

Health 195/360

The pain was manageable now, and Jack was able to pull himself up. He moved himself until he was resting against what felt like a large rock. It was too dark to see for certain what was around him, and there wasn’t much he could do until his Mana regenerated. He could still feel the broken ribs and he was certain he had a broken arm and foot now that he had yet to fully mend. His spell was showing its limit, and while it was good at closing wounds, broken bones were not as easy to fix. He was sure it would be in time, having felt the change already, but time wasn’t something he wanted to rely on having. He needed to improve this spell or find something better in the future.

While he waited, he brought up all his most recent System Notifications, mostly to distract himself from the pain and claustrophobia setting in.

*You have been struck by Wenduag*

*You have gained status effect: Broken ribs*

-Difficulty breathing

*You have been struck by Colossal Shadow Viper (adult)*

*You are unconscious*

*You have fallen*

*You have gained status effect: Broken bones*

-Impaired Movement

*You have gained status effect: Bleeding*

-1 Health per second

From there the messages were a string of losing health. Now Jack was still losing Health, but it was only one per every thirty seconds. Much easier to handle provided he was able to continue to heal himself, but something didn’t make sense. Doing some quick math, if he was losing one health per second until just now, then it must have been less than four minutes since he hit the ground. But it was pitch black where Jack was. It couldn’t be night already. Not enough time could have passed.

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Reaching out with his hand, Jack felt around him. At first, he only found a lot of dirt and empty air. Reaching above him though he touched something hard and scaly. A jolt of fear hit him when he realized that it had to be the snake that collided with him when he fell. It didn’t react when he touched it though and Jack wasn’t in shape to do much about anything right now.

Jack continued to cast his Heal spell whenever he had the Mana to do so, listening for sounds of a moving snake above him. It took another six times to stop the bleeding. Once the bleeding stopped, the healing aspect of his spell improved, bringing him up to max Health once again. Unfortunately, as he had feared, his Heal spell wasn’t enough to fix his broken bones completely, and he had a lot of broken bones right now.

Tentatively, Jack reached out and focused on the broken bone in his right leg. He cast the spell again, this time focusing on the spot where the bone was broken directly and trying to force his will to fix the bone into his cast. As the healing energy entered his body, Jack focused on directing the energy to the broken bone, not letting any of it spread throughout his body as it normally did.

*Spell upgrade: Heal (Beginner) has changed to Mend (Beginner)*

*Your understanding and use of this spell has resulted in a Skill advancement*

This was the second time Jack had seen this. Jack had seen the skill upgrade message before, but that was unintentional. This time it felt like the spell upgrade responded to Jack’s desire. Vaguely, Jack wondered if every skill had the possibility to advance like this and if it was a good idea to continue to upgrade the skills this way as well. There had to be a reason that the skill was upgrading instead of increasing rank like his Stealth skill had. The new spell didn’t have much information showing for it, like all his spells, Jack hoped he hadn’t upgraded the spell into something highly specific. Jack had gotten used to being able to cast Heal mid combat and on any injury. Given the recent experience, he wouldn’t last long if he could continue to do that.

The pain from his still broken bones brought Jack back to the current situation. His ability with the spell right now wasn’t enough to help him and he wouldn’t get any further if something didn’t change. Hopefully, this change would be enough. With a thought he tried to pull up more information on the new spell.

*Spell: Mend (Beginner)*

*Water and Light spell from the Restoration domain. Used to restore Health and fix physical Injuries. Effective on curing bleeding, broken bones, and reattaching limbs*

Jack sighed in relief. It looked like a straight-up upgrade from the original, perhaps they always were. He went to cast Mend right away but found that he couldn’t. Mend required more Mana to cast than Heal, a lot more. He wouldn’t be able to use this spell as often. This worried him, as he had gotten used to casting Heal mid-combat regularly and he wasn’t sure if he would be able to do so with this new skill. Still, there was little he could do now, and he needed a stronger healing spell.

Once Jack had enough Mana, he tried to cast it again. This time it worked, and cool, soothing energy flowed into him. The energy didn’t settle and dissipate as it did when Jack cast Heal. Instead, it moved through him, looking for Jack’s injuries and broken bones and settled into them. Jack felt his bones strengthen and move until they were back in their proper position. Jack cast the spell a few more times, as his bones continued to move and heal. The whole experience was uncomfortable, and he hoped he would not have to experience it too much, but within a few minutes the lingering pain and discomfort he was feeling disappeared. It felt almost like he had never been hurt to begin with, but the memory was too fresh for that thought to hold much weight. Testing his body again, Jack pulled himself up and out of the dirt he was lying in.

There wasn’t enough space to stand in the immediate area, but as Jack moved, he could feel the area around him start to open more. He was in some kind of cave. He followed it until the ground changed from soft dirt to hard stone. Casting his Flame spell, Jack was able to use it like a torch to look around the area. The light wasn’t much but it was more than enough for the pitch-black cave.

Jack was in a cave system as he had originally thought. At least he had come from one. The fall must have resulted in him breaking through to this cavern. It was almost fortunate, as the snake was currently serving to hide the entrance. He doubted that the Wenduags would find him right away down here. Still, he didn’t want to take any chances.

The area before him opened into a stone cavern. The hole Jack fell into was a large open cavern and was empty of life from what Jack could see. Looking around,, Jack could only see one tunnel leading deeper into the mountain. He glanced back at the cavern with the snake and Wenduags and then the cave system before him. He made his decision and started walking deeper into the mountain.