STAND AND FIGHT EVEN IF THE GODS ABOVE HAVE FORSAKEN YOU....I WILL NOT
The first thing I felt across my body is this heavy and thick blanket draping around my body.
The sharp smell of herbs and the smokey incense and the faint hum of voices around me told me I wasn't in the dungeon anymore.
I forced my eyes open, blinking against the dim light that filtered through the room.
[Huh?]
White curtains swayed gently near a small window to my right, sunlight peeked through and casted a warm glow over the clean, tiled floors and rows of empty beds. I was in the guild's hospital wing, it seems.
Did I fainted? I asked myself as my eyes panned across the room, observing everything around me. One thing's for sure though, I am alive. Thank the gods above...
I tried to sit upright but the pain flared through my body as I shifted, a dull ache radiating from my arms to my chest.
[Ow...] I grunted. My limbs are bandaged, and my leg had a splint in it.
The memory of the dungeon came rushing back—the stampede of monsters, my hopeless fireball, and then... that surge of power, the firebolt that had burst from my staff with impossible strength.
My hand reached instinctively to my side, searching for my staff but it wasn't there.
[Oh, good, you're awake! Thank goodness!] (Kiria)
I turned my head toward the familiar voice. A healer, dressed in the pale green robes of the guild's medical team, entered the room and goes beside the bed with a relieved smile.
She looked young, maybe just a few years older than me, with kind eyes and a gentle touch as she adjusted my blanket. I knew her very well. She's an acquaintance of mine.
[You gave us quite a scare] (Kiria) She said. Her voice soft while checking the bandages on my body.
[You were brought in unconscious here by the survey team, covered in burns and dirt. I don't know how you survived down there] (Kiria) She shook her head, as if even now it was hard to believe.
[But you're healing well. You just have a lot of sustained injuries that is why we also had to cover you in medicinal herbs and bandage. Other than that, you are prohibited for entering the dungeon since you are not in good condition. Understood?] (Kiria) I nodded.
I swallowed, the dryness in my throat making it hard to speak.
[*Cough* How… how long have I been out?]
[Just three days. You were extremely lucky] (Kiria) Her eyes grew serious.
[The survey team found you at the dungeon entrance. They said the lower floors were practically unrecognizable—burned and destroyed beyond recognition. They almost didn't believe it when they saw you lying there unconscious but alive] (Kiria)
She poured a glass of water and handed it to me. I drank, my mind spinning with fragments of the battle, of the explosion that had torn through the dungeon.
I remembered the flames, the monsters' shrieks, and that voice that had echoed inside my mind who's urging me to fight.
She must have noticed my confusion because she offered a sympathetic smile.
[You don't have to think about it all at once. It's common for adventurers to struggle after near-death experiences] (Kiria) I nodded, too stunned to respond.
Right....I just had a near-death experience.
Part of me wanted to tell her everything, but who would believe me? Even I could barely believe it. I wasn't strong. I was talentless. Yet something deep inside me had woken up, something powerful and strange.
[Listen-] (Kiria) She continued.
[the guild master wants to speak with you when you're feeling better. She heard about… whatever happened down there. People are calling it a miracle-] (Kiria) She paused, her eyes scanning my face.
[You're lucky to be alive, you know] (Kiria)
[Yeah] I murmured, more to myself than to her.
Lucky. Lucky to be alive, lucky to have unleashed that power. But if that power hadn't been mine, then… whose was it? And why had it come to me at the brink of death?
After the healer left, I lay in the quiet room, the sunlight now shifting with the hours, watching shadows stretch across the walls.
My heart still pounded with the memory of that voice, those words that had forced me to my feet when all hope seemed lost.
Stand and fight
As the afternoon slipped away, I found myself more restless than ever. The idea of waiting here, powerless and alone with these questions, gnawed at me. But there was no one to answer them, not yet.
The guildmaster wanted to see me—and perhaps she'd have some answers. Or at least, she'd tell me if I was truly the one who'd caused that destruction.
Eventually, a knock sounded on the door, and I sat up, readying myself. This was just the beginning. If that power was mine, then I'd find a way to unlock it. But if it wasn't… I'd find out whose it was and why they'd given it to me.
Maybe--just maybe, I wasn't as talentless as I'd thought I had been.
I was still exhausted, so I lay back to the bed and closed my eyes albeit for a moment until the guild master arrives for some questions.