"Keep going!" Sarke pushed.

"I'm already as deep as I can go!" sounded Lim's muffled reply. "Do you have any idea how much shit is crawling all over me right now?"

"And if you don't keep your mouth shut, it will only be worse."

There was a moment of delay.

"I thought the mask was supposed to protect me…" came Lim's pitiful voice.

"You never know… Some of these bugs can be very persistent," Sarke said, mercilessly. "So grab that weed, and we'll pull you out quicker!"

There was no reply from the marksman this time around, and Nar, himself buried deep within a similarly decaying log, pushed himself not to think about all the things he felt crawling all over him, nor how persistent they would be in their attempts at getting inside through the mask, his suit, and inside his very body in order to achieve all sort of nasty, unspeakable things.

Like laying eggs in me, he was unable to not think about it, remembering the hideous bug that had attached itself to Tuk's but.

Groaning, Nar managed to edge himself that little bit forward, and pulled back another fistful of the slimy, brown and thick plant. Its leaves were more akin to thin strands than any leaf he had ever seen before, and they looked almost hair-like individually. According to Sarke, for people desperate to find food, those very same nasty weeds, once washed and boiled, would make for a very nutritional soup, even not the most palatable, as she had put it, leaving no room for illusion as to what sort of meals they should be looking forward too once they ran out of rations.

Nar didn't have many issues with that, but he did wish that the damned things weren't nicknamed crawler's hair, for all the undesirables that loved to make the plant their home.

Ugh! He thought, freezing as something long and many legged crawled past his back and down his thigh. Why am I even doing this? I'm not a gatherer!

Though given how Jul had yet to complain even once, plus Tys' demands for no more complaints, plus his master's, plus the fact that he would be eating the damned crawler's hairs soon enough, and he had so far swallowed every bit of the raging disgust that swirled within him.

Come to think about it, why can't I complain? He muttered inwardly. As if to punish him, the long insect came back up his leg, and seemed to decide to settle there.

Nar sighed heavily enough to let a chunk of his soul leak out, and pushed away the thought of pincers, and eggs, and of many other such things. A few moments later, he touched the solidish dead end of that rotten log, and began shimmying himself backwards.

"Ow!" he cried.

"You okay?" Cen asked, her tone laced with worry.

"No! Something bit me!" Nar growled.

He managed to get himself bit twice more on his way out of that log, and when he stood, the world swam before him. The jungle was a lot darker now, and the glowing flora around them only continued to dim by the second in preparation for nightfall. Soon, it would be fully dark, but Sarke had spotted the plant, and since they still hadn't found anything edible for the auramancers, they had stayed back to gather it.

"Poison," Jasphaer said, eyeing him with his [Aura Sight] and wincing. "I can't heal you, can I?"

Nar sighed again. He cycled his aura down to his leg, which had been bitten twice, and to his lower back as well, and felt a little better as the burning sensation spreading over his flesh and blood receded as his aura quickly devoured and burned through it.

"That's really neat," Leon said, nodding approvingly. "Can't wait to gain that. It's insane that you guys get to sort of use a skill without having to unlock it first. What a blessing!"

Nar shot the clean looking paladin a glare. He wasn't feeling very blessed right there and then, but the fact that the aethermancers had no one to heal them from poisonous bites had been enough of a compelling argument to get Nar to go in the damned log. Plus, it was his food!

Lim and Jul also pulled out, and Jasphaer rushed over to heal their bites and clear the poison from them, and the speed with which the [Poisoned] status disappeared from their statuses was more than a little jealousy inducing.

It will be worth it, Nar told himself. It will all be…

"Ow! For fuck's sakes!" he shouted.

He shook himself in mad rage and a number of bugs dropped on the ground. Amongst them was particularly fat, glowing orange nasty something that skittered away, and that had likely been the culprit of his searing pain.

Sighing once more, Nar cycled some more aura to heal himself.

"Alright, let's head back," Sarke said. "Before it gets fully dark out."

**********

Once everybody got cleaned and dry at last, dinner unfolded in a joyous affair.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Laughter and jokes echoed within the stuffy tend, and stories of the day were traded around through excited, chewing mouths.

Row and Tun's party, who had stayed at camp after lunch, had found themselves forced to fend off a bunch of harmless vedars. While herbivores, in their curiosity and drive to find sources of sustenance, the small beasts had tried to chew and claw through the tent, and the delvers had been forced to kill a few of them to scare the herd away.

However, it had ended up being a lucky incident for the aethermancers, as vedars were not only edible, but actually quite tasty, so their flesh was harvested and stored for when they ran out of rations.

Also thankfully, Row and Tun's team had a lot more luck than Leon and Calli's that morning, and they had been quite successful in harvesting the glowing yellow mushrooms that Leon and Calli's team had been forced to abandon by the presence of the groundlings. They would concentrate their efforts on that grove of mushrooms in the morning again, and make sure to leave a wide distance between them and the groundlings that had claimed the other one.

Now, Kur, Row and Calli were excitedly discussing their battle with the boars, and Calli was currently going over some sort of elaborate process of tagging and something she called target cycling and prioritizing. Nar though, was tired, especially after his dive into the rotten log, and had made sure to stay well away from any leadership gatherings that evening.

He had only been marginally successful, however, as Leon had dropped beside him and had continued to pester him above his class and path, and that despite him telling his sister to leave him alone. But Nar, in all honesty, didn't mind sharing the knowledge of the public bits of it, and in return, he gained a better understanding of Leon's tanking, though he made sure not to ask any questions regarding the demands of his spirit patron.

"So, when you do good deeds, you get instances of [Deeds of Selflessness]," Nar reiterated, to make sure he had gotten it right. "Which you then spend on your skills, alongside aether and stamina?"

This was another type of counter that the paladin could accumulate, alongside the [Liturgical Mark of Devotion] that Calli had told Nar about, and it increasingly looked as though Leon's core mechanic was essentially praying, being good, and obeying his spirit.

"That's it exactly! It's just like any other resource!" Leon said. "Just like my [Liturgical Mark of Devotion], or rage for Mul!"

"Wow… And what counts to trigger it?" Nar asked, searching for the bag they had been using to toss away their trash. If they left it in the jungle, the domain made it disappear within seconds.

Leon reached behind him and handed the bag over to him.

"Thanks. What?"

Leon grinned in response.

"You're joking… That counts?" Nar asked, flabbergasted.

"In fairness, his spirit is very generous with him," Eum said, shaking his head. "Very. Most aren't like that. Mine sure as the Abyss is not."

"So, if you hold the tent door for me… Or pass me some water… Or if you…"

Leon nodded along every single example, his grin only growing stupider and more pleased with himself.

"The trick is, he needs to do it before anyone asks him for it," Eum revealed. "That's why I always ask for everything before he can do it! It fucking gets on my nerves…"

"It does," Nar said, glaring at the paladin. "I'll make sure to ask for everything from now on."

"Hey come on, guys! I need those to fight!"

"Earn them, damn it!" Eum threw at him, and Nar nodded effusively.

"Whatever… I'm using them to protect you guys," Leon mumbled, eliciting laughter from Jasphaer, the last member of their little dinner sub-circle.

"Don't mind them. It was so cool to watch!" Jasphaer said, his eyes shining. "Awe inspiring, really. I still can't believe that I get to see a paladin in real life!"

Leon grimaced. "Ah, please… Everything is so exaggerated in the 2NET."

Eum struck a dramatic pose, folding his muscular bare arms.

"Fear not, for the heroes of justice will always stand…"

Leon tutted and swatted at the tygaris. "I knew you were going to do that!"

"Hey, I used to watch that when I was kid!" the healer said, laughing. "I loved that show!"

"Whatever. We're just normal combat classes," Leon said, eying between Jasphaer and Nar. "It just so happens that we make vows in service of the Radiants and the Holy Church to defend the Nexus."

"Very strict vows," Eum said, leaning back on his hands.

"No more than you have to," Leon said, rolling his eyes.

"Hey, I like fighting!"

"And I like praying and being useful!" the paladin retorted.

Nar and Jasphaer could only laugh at their antics.

"I almost forget that you guys are family," Jasphaer said.

"I wish," the tygaris muttered.

Leon shot him a glare.

"You guys are kind of similar to be honest," Eum said, looking around the tent. "Rather than a party, there's a real feeling of closeness between you guys… Each individual party is tighter of course, like a family, but it's like the other party is like cousins or something."

"Right? I thought the same!" Leon said. "It's like you guys have been delving together for years!"

"We have been through a lot," Nar said, eyeing the people eating and laughing around him. "So they are family to me."

He noticed Jasphaer nodding slowly, and tapped the healer's leg.

"Don't worry. You're family too," Nar said, smiling at the healer. "And there's plenty of shit for us to go through together still."

Jasphaer snorted. "Not sure how I feel about that last part, but thanks. I appreciate it."

"It's good to be like that," Leon said. "But don't forget that life always has different plans. You never know if you'll be together in the future or not."

"True, but there's no point in thinking about that," Nar said. "For now, we're together, and that's what matters."

"Spoken like a wizened old tygaris!" Eum said, throwing a hand around Nar's shoulders. "And no depressing talk tonight! We have no booze for it!"

"Sorry," Leon said.

"Ah, no worries," Nar said.

But sudden clapping interrupted Leon's follow up words.

"Right so, we've decided that tonight is for auramancy training," Kur said, standing up to speak to the whole party. "So, keep all aether tech safely stored away, and aura lights only today. For that reason, the aethermancers get to sleep the first turn."

"Booo!" Eum shouted. "Why do you say it like it's a privilege? Waking up earlier for the last watch is the worst!"

Laughter filled the tent, temporarily bloating out the downpour still crashing outside.

"Well, tomorrow we'll swap," Kur said, grinning at the tygaris. "Alright, people, disperse! You all got skills to train or pathways to work on, so get to it!"

With some grumbling, people started moving, and Nar took his queue to stand up and stretch. He considered the outside, and the thought of all that rain and mud, and of the need to put on his jungle suit and have Jasphaer or Leta inspect him again when he was done, and of then having to wash himself up again before bed dissuaded from heading out to train his [Aura Blade].

Tomorrow morning, bright and early, he vowed. Tonight, let's get some pathways work done.

And with his pain chosen for the night, he sat down besides Viy and Rel to get started.

He sighed as agony rippled through him as he pushed the gathered ball of aura down his right leg, carving his pathway wider and deeper with each, slow, measured passage.

Step by step, tonight's pain would be tomorrow's gains.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.