"Ugh, am I dead?"
[Fortunately no, but you've been passed out here for four hours. You're lucky no monsters were in the vicinity.]
Arthur musters the strength to sit up.
"Four hours? Mom must be so worried right now. Ugh, my whole body is killing me. I need to get back." Arthur tries to get up but feels a sharp pain in his thigh, the would he sustained earlier from his fight with the goblin. "Oh God!" He groans in agony. "It still hurts so much, but wasn't this wound deeper?" He looks at the wound, trying to figure out what had happened.
[Thanks to the little amount of magical energy left in your body when you collapsed your body started healing on its own. But it seems you ran out, hence it stopped halfway. But there's a way to replenish it.]
"And which way is that?"
[Absorbing it from the monsters you've killed.]
"Ok, but how exactly do I do that?"
[That dead goblin next to you, place your hand on it.]
"Do I really have to touch it for the absorption to work?" He glances at the goblin corpse in disgust.
[Yes, now stop complaining.]
"Sigh, can this day get any worse?" He proceeds to place his hand on the corpse."Like this?" He asked. Just as he placed his hand the mark on his hand started to glow and the absorption began. "Woah, I can feel my energy coming back and my wounds are hurting less and less."
[Absorbing it also enhances your strength and abilities.]
He finished and finally got the strength to stand, he then repeated this in the other goblin.
[Since your proficiency in using aether is still very low, it's gonna take a few hours before you're completely healed up. So for now maybe cover it up.]
Arthur tears off a piece of his shirt and wraps it around his wounded thigh. He then picks up the swords dropped by the goblins.
"These are definitely gonna come in handy later. Maybe I should give one to mom too just in case." He looks around for anything useful before heading on his way.
•••
An hour passed and he finally reached the cave where his mom rushed to give him a hug.
"You were gone for so many hours! What happened out there, you're so battered up and bruised?" Jane says worryingly.
"Well a lot went down, but I promise I'm alright so please calm down mom, I'll tell you all about it. Oh and I picked up some fruits on the way back since we both haven't eaten the whole day, I'm sure you're hungry."
Arthur's stomach growls and they both laugh. They sat and he told her all about it as they ate the fruits he brought. He even unwrapped the wound he sustained to show her how it's healing.
"Wow, and I thought it couldn't get any weirder." She says.
They continued chatting and hours later Jane decided to lie down and sleep as it was getting very late.
"It's getting late so we should get some rest." Jane says.
"Yeah,I agree. But I'll check outside a bit to see if there's any monsters lurking around." He replied.
"Ok but be careful."
"I will. Good night mom."
"Good night son." Jane says, shutting her eyes.
Arthur makes his was toward the cave entrance, he exits and stand out momentarily, thinking.
"I haven't checked my stats since before the fight. I should check it now that I'm less occupied." He says to himself. "Status window."
Race: Human Level: 2 (100) Strength: 13 / Agility: 12 Stamina: 11 / Health: 20 Magic: 55 /??? > "Woah I leveled up twice and even my stats increased. Now that I think of it my body feels a little bit lighter than usual." [That is the result of your hard work, but this is only the beginning.] "I won't stop here, I'll keep getting stronger so I can protect the people I love." [You need to get some rest now because resting is also part of your training. You can't fight if you're tired.] He goes back into the cave and shuts his eyes, falling a sleep. [END] To be continued…