Kayne wakes to Byron shouting. A blinding bright flash displaces the darkness, severely disorientating him. Seared and blackened, a charcoal plant lifeform lies on the stone ground. Kayne hears the whistling of air as a very fast object approaches the epicenter of his chest. Rolling, he is nicked by a blast of high pressure water, shallowly slicing into his arm. Kayne takes a moment to situate himself, analyzing the circumstances he was abruptly thrown into.
'So… there's small human-like flowers and about twelve of 'em.'
Kayne summons a chain, whipping it to the closest flower monster. The little flower creature explodes, sending splinters and blood red petals into the air. A faint sweet smell infiltrates the air. Jessica expeditiously incinerates two more. Readying itself, a beast's flower-like head swelters under the high pressure needed to formulate a shot. There are eyes placed where a flower's anther normally is supposed to be. The petals are all curling inward and the stigma is bulging, the monster is ready to attack. Targeting Jessica, the flower hunches over and aims at her body. Byron notices what is about to happen from his peripheral vision and shoulder charges the monster. It is staggered and gives, sending it falling to the ground. To take advantage of the moment, Kayne releases his second chain. The chain is instructed to thrust towards the stunned monster. It connects and impales the monster's head leaving it limp, flowerless, and a green stem-like corpse. Water sprays disorderly and condenses into a small puddle around the dead plant. Outside the concentrated warrior's tunnel vision, another water bullet flies. The bullet tears into Kayne's thigh. Pain explodes from the wound sending him reeling:
"Shit."
Kneeling, he commands his chain to slash the plant that shot him. The creature's woven stem-like belly bursts open against the impact, a golden nectar seeps to the ground. Another monster falls to the floor convulsing, before finally developing into stillness.
'Weird, how did that one die? In any case, we only have a few more.'
In the meantime, Jessica has charred two more, each accompanied by a somewhat disruptive white outburst. The companions make simple work of the remaining invaders. Each of them are beginning to adapt to each other's aspects and combat tendencies. No more plant monsters remain. Soon after, Byron is diving into his bag, trying to find something. After locating it, he pulls out an empty glass jar. Ignoring the obliterated corpses from Jessica, Byron grabs a corpse and wrings it out into the jar. The jar is filled with golden nectar, it is beautiful to look at. Byron dips two fingers into the jar, covering them in the liquid. He stands up and walks toward Kayne, who is clutching his bleeding leg wound. Kayne's cut arm has already begun to close up, the essence his body contains has obviously enhanced all of his biological processes.
"I'm sorry you got hit, let me put this on you. trust me, my parents are both aspects and they had a saying for plant nectar found in similar places. The saying goes: if it's gold, it's good. I was taught that it can be used as a crude topical healing potion."
"Alllright." Kayne sighs, reluctant to embrace the pain for any longer than necessary.
The nectar quickly infuses with the skin, closing up the wound completely and leaves behind no scar tissue. It was as if Kayne was never hurt in the first place. Byron stands up, looks around, and announces:
"I have only one jar and I just filled it completely with this plant nectar. I think it will be vital to us to stay healthy, that is unless we want to go back to the pool. We have to ration this carefully."
Suddenly, a notification appears in everyone's mind.
[ Congratulations! You've defeated a party of Spitting Kruks. You've earned the first reward of the Trials. ]
The stones near their feet shift, creaking as they open up. Three stone platforms rise, each possessing a wooden chest. The chests have stone locks with rune engravings along with each of their names. When Jessica walks near her chest, the lock responds to the presence of her essence and unlatches. Inside, she finds a small tile with some more runes etched into the surface. Touching the tile, the runes glow red and then dissipate into lifelessness.
"I just got a new ability!"
Excited, Kayne asks:
"Wha? Really? That's awesome."
Jessica:
"Yes! I can make a javelin out of light. It costs a lot of essence though."
The javelin is powerful, casting the new spell materializes the weapon closely above her. All Jess needs to do is to order it to launch and just like light, it'll beam in a straight path towards the target. It is capable of vaporizing weak defenses and smiting the target.
Byron greedily walks over to his chest. Inside lies a weathered manuscript written in ruins. Again, the ruins glow then fade. Byron attempts at a straight face but he can't force away a small smile. He stops and contemplates for a moment before giving in and announces what he got:
"I got an alchemy ability. I can make weak health potions. I can even create all the processed ingredients that are necessary."
Being able to make a potion is already rare, only about one in one-hundred aspects get an alchemy ability. It is also exceptional to be able to make all the necessary special ingredients. Oftentimes alchemists have to barter with other alchemists to get the ingredients for their potions. That, or buy the ingredients from aspects who are specialized in botany or butchery. Despite the name "weak health potion," no health potions are weak. A weak health potion can cure most flesh wounds, mend small fractures, cure any small infections, and remove some chronic conditions. Due to this, making one isn't necessarily an easy task, alchemists have to collect a long list of raw materials and convert them into processed ingredients. After the conversion, an alchemist would have to mend them together using their essence. The cost is high, even for the weakest of potions, but the value is much higher.
Inside Kayne's chest is a yellow jewel. Holding the jewel up, he can notice a golden, perhaps divine glint.
[ You've been gifted a heartstone. It belongs to your friend, Christina. She was the only one we could bring back, decay got to the others too quickly. A powerful healer will be able to restore her. Keep it from danger, the monsters fiend for its energy. You've grown a little more powerful, with some intense concentration you may be capable of storing the jewel isolated within. ]
'You've got to be kidding me. Christina, she– she can live again. She's not dead.'
And with those words, "she's not dead," it's as if he himself spoke her life into existence. Kayne covers his eyes and fails to contain a few tears. Still covering his eyes, he sits down and sobs. Curiously, Byron and Christina glance at him and then to each other. Unspoken words were said and they allowed Kayne to have a moment to himself. They don't know what's causing him the emotional pain, but they understand that he needs some time. For Kayne, it's the first conscious instance where he truly allowed himself to feel the weight of his loss. Complex feelings overwhelm him, not ready to face them all he utilizes apathy and calms down. New determination is sowed inside, he won't just survive, but save who he loves. Kayne remembers what the system said to him and stares at the heartstone with heavy concentration. A small portal, similar to the ones that appear on his back when he commands a chain, opens up in his hand. The stone falls into some familiar place. Kayne can feel that the stone remains with him, but he is unsure of where exactly. It is certainly not his soul, it is somewhere that is far more vast.
"Alright guys, I'm fine, you can quit silently checking in on me."
Jessica is heard yawning, neither Kayne nor Jess got complete rest. They take a moment to harvest the monster cores and crush them, releasing the essence and allowing the aspect holder's to absorb some of it and grow stronger. Done with that duty, Jessica and Kayne lay back down at camp and go to sleep.