Watcher's Test

by Sean Oswald

  Dave watched in horror as the boar gored Jackson, and then hope swelled within him as he saw Emily’s bold attack. While closing the final feet and watching the dagger pulled beyond Emily’s grasp, Dave cast the second of his spells, Assess Enemy. The magic surged, just slightly different from the Identify spell and much faster with less drain upon his mana. The boar took on a red aura in his sight, telling that it was a deadly threat. If he had had the time, he probably would have laughed. Boars were the easy targets for noobs in many games, but then again, he was a noob in Eloria. His spell also revealed that the oversized porkchop had 250 health but had taken (42) points of damage. Its level was shown to be 8, and in the back of his mind, Dave thought, “We are so dead, two level 1s against a level 8 monster.”

  Just as the boar tried to turn toward Emily, Dave was upon it. Casting his third spell, Sure Strike, with one hand even as he pulled back his blade for a slashing attack. He felt the greater amount of mana surge out of him, but combat slowed down for a split second and an obvious target presented itself to him. He knew that thrusting was a surer way to kill the boar, but it also carried with it the danger of his weapon being stuck in the boar and pulled away from him as Emily’s had been. He couldn’t risk that, but his spell revealed the best place to slash against the boar’s neck. The strike didn’t land for a critical hit as he had been hoping, but it still slashed a three-inch gash deep into the side of the boar’s neck. The boar tried to turn to face him, but Emily’s blade stuck in his shoulder seemed to be slowing its turning considerably.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Dave saw that Emily had already raced over to the prone body of their son and was undoubtedly trying to do a nursing assessment to figure out how best to help him. He didn’t think she would see this situation in game terms and remembering what she had said about her abilities, he yelled at her, “Heal him.” Seeing that she didn’t understand what he meant he added, “Use your healing spell.”

  That moment of distraction cost him dearly though as even slowed the pig was able to turn and slash at his leg with its curled tusk. The metal plates and leather base of his greave tried to resist the harden ivory tusk of the boar driven by its massive weight and lost. Dave grunted in pain as he felt a shallow gash into the meat of his right thigh. His armor didn’t stop the blow entirely, but it had certainly saved him from a broken leg or worse just as Jackson’s earlier mace blow had saved him. Turning his entire focus upon his porky foe, Dave slashed again with the longsword. Scoring another shallow blow for a mere 8 points of damage, Dave felt disheartened. He could do the math. The boar could hit much harder than he could and already had more health than its human opponent. In a war of attrition by sword and tusk slashes, it was Dave who would come out on the losing side every time. He had to figure out a way to change the way this battle was going.

  After thrusting her dagger into the boar’s shoulder, a strangely satisfying sensation Emily thought, she rolled with a grace born of her new body and sprung up to her feet as she rushed toward Jackson. Her son lay there on the ground only a few feet away, writhing in agony with blood pulsing out of his leg far faster than was healthy. The nurse in her drew a number of conclusions immediately, first was that thankfully, it appeared that the boar’s tusk has not severed the femoral artery otherwise the blood would be spurting out and there would be next to nothing that she could do for Jackson. The second assessment was that it was likely that significant damage had been done and maybe the artery had been nicked just slightly because the flow of blood was too great for a simple stab wound. Jackson’s cries of pain threatened to push Emily into a paralyzed state of panic for her son, but just as moments ago she had gone full momma bear on her son’s attacker, she now was able to hold the panic at bay if only barely by going into full out trauma nurse mode. The ER had never been her thing, but she was grateful for the time she had spent covering there when they had nursing shortages. She had to think of this as just another stab wound, and she had to handle it clinically. She couldn’t afford to be distracted by the pleas of her son for his mother to save him.

  Dropping to her knees next to Jackson, she immediately identified the wound in his thigh. The boar’s tusk had torn open his body-fitting leathers and had gone straight into the meaty portion of his thigh through the quadriceps muscles. She immediately applied pressure, while racking her brain for how to stop the bleeding. If only she was in the ER back home, she would have had access to all the equipment she needed, but here… She tried to think of how she could use the supplies they had in the backpacks, but none of it seemed appropriate for closing this wound. Then, she heard Dave yelling something to her.

  “Heal him!” She didn’t have time for Dave or anyone else stating the obvious. What did he think she was trying to do?

  Then an instant later the rest of what Dave had yelled sunk in. “Use your healing spell.” She didn’t know what to think about magic or this world in general, but she couldn't deny that Dave had been able to use magic and that Watcher whoever, or whatever that was, had indicated that she had magic, specifically healing magic. Oh well, time for a leap of faith. Not much else I can do.

  With that, Emily looked into her heart, tried to focus on her healing spell: Minor Healing and with a cry of desperation called out, “God, whatever you ask of me, I will do. Just save my son.” In that instant, it was as if time stood still. Emily turned her head left to see Dave and the boar both seemingly frozen mid-action. Looking over toward the loot chest, she saw Mira holding Sara with her face buried against her older sister’s chest, both seemingly frozen like statues.

  As quickly as she recognized this, she heard a voice speaking to her as if speaking into her very soul and spirit. It wasn’t loud, but it was insistent and full of power. “Is your oath freely given?”

  She paused, unsure what exactly the voice meant, and in the same breath, her confusion cleared, and she understood she was being asked if her promise to do whatever was asked of her if her son was saved was genuine. Wait, was God actually speaking to her? Was this something out of the Sunday School lessons she taught or was her mind finally cracking under the strain of what had just happened? Having nothing to lose, she called out to the sky, “Yes!”

  In that moment, she felt as if every inch of her was on fire, she would have cried out in pain, but her body was frozen by the intensity of it. It was as though she was being scoured from top to bottom, but just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped, and she was left with a feeling of calm.

  “You have chosen to serve and called upon the Creator as you know Him. In Eloria, the Creator takes three aspects: Mishpat, Lord of Justice; Shanelle, Mother of Redemption; and Karbanot, the Living Sacrifice. Which aspect do you choose to follow?”

  Stunned, Emily wasn’t sure how to respond. Three gods? Or was that Gods? This didn’t mesh with her expectations at all. To be honest, dying and waking up in Eloria with a new body, heck, a new race, had pretty much pushed her beyond all her Sunday School lessons. So, what did she have to lose? She was like a blind woman choosing colors, and so she chose the aspect which she felt best fit her with the limited bit that she understood. “I choose the Mother of Redemption.”

  The god or angel or whatever was making that voice must have understood her uncertainty. “Are you certain, daughter?”

  There was nothing for it but to answer with a meek, “Yes.”

  “You have been weighed. You have much to learn daughter, but your service is accepted. Walk forth as My servant, Daughter of Redemption. Redeem the lost, heal the sick, serve all people.”

  With that simple proclamation, a column of light shot down from impossibly high above, beyond the sight of mortal eyes and bathed her in a halo of light. The light was bright enough to be seen from miles away and felt even further away by others. No matter how bright, the light eventually faded but it left behind changes in Emily. All of the aura around her condensed down into the shape of a star with a tail in the palm of her right hand. This tattoo or marking was silver i
n color and felt just the slightest bit funny. Emily also got a notification:

  Hidden Quest Found: Class Determination - you have found and met the qualifications to receive a class. In Eloria, classes are not easily earned, all have significant benefits and equally weighty requirements. Each class has seven ranks known as tiers.

  Congratulations!

  XP gained: 1000

  Ding!

  Levels gained: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

  Stat points gained: 12. Character points gained: 50.

  Class Obtained: Daughter of Redemption- Tier 1. (Rare)

  Class Benefits: +50% to base and level effects for all healing, curing, restoration, and blessing spells of the essence magic school. +20% to Wisdom and Charisma. Access to all temples of Shanelle with tier appropriate income and resources. Others: unknown.

  Class Restrictions: Tell no lie. Never turn your back on those whom you could have rendered aid. Kill no being with a spirit if at all possible. Obey all Sons and Daughters of Redemption of a higher tier. Others: unknown.

  Class Purpose: Redeem lost spirits, both those living and undead.

  Class Advancement Requirements: unknown.

  Life is conflict and redemption is a core conflict waged within the souls of men.

  Just as soon as she had finished reading the notification, time seemed to spring back into play, and the sounds of conflict and the crying of her son once again assailed her. She was more confident that this magic thing would work now. As far as this whole class thing or aspects of the Creator thing, she wasn’t as sure. None of it fit into her understanding of how things worked.

  Still, philosophy and theology could wait for another time, and she placed her hand over the ragged tear in Jackson’s thigh. She spoke clearly the words of magic that had been loaded into her mind and groaned as she felt the rush of mana leaving her center and pouring into her hand as a pleasant warmth spread from her hand into Jackson’s wound. Before her very eyes, she watched the flesh under her hand knit itself back together as it was suffused in golden light and heat. Jackson’s cries of pain stopped almost immediately. After two seconds, Emily pulled her hand back to better inspect the condition of Jackson’s leg. The leathers were still torn and there was still blood everywhere, but look as hard as she could, she couldn’t find so much as a scratch. No scarring, no stitches, not even any discoloration or bruising of his skin was present. As far as Emily could tell, his leg was completely healed.

  “How do you feel, Jackson?” A motherly tone of worry crept into her voice, concerned about internal injuries she couldn’t detect.

  As an answer, Jackson stood up and jumped high into the air before landing on his formerly wounded leg without any sign of a grimace. “It feels great, Mom. Whatever you did completely fixed it.” Then a grim look came over Jackson’s face, and once again Emily feared something was wrong before she saw that his eyes weren’t looking at her, but past her to where Dave was fighting the boar.

  Crap, how had she forgotten about Dave? She spun around with her newfound agility, fearing the worst as she looked to see how Dave was faring. It looked like he had been giving as good as he was getting as the boar was covered in a number of slowly bleeding wounds, but no matter how good he had been doing, it appeared that he was now in trouble. The boar had apparently knocked him to the ground, and Dave appeared to be desperately trying to fend it off with stabs of his sword.

  “We have to help Dad.” Jackson started to walk toward his father, bending over to pick up his mace off the ground where it had fallen next to a large tree stump.

  “You have to go over to your sisters. Help Mira protect Sara. I will help your father.” Emily spoke with more confidence than she felt, but Jackson heard the parental authority in her voice all the same, and no matter how much he wanted to help his dad, the giant boar terrified him. So with reluctance, he obeyed his mother and started to trot over to where his sisters huddled by the loot chest.

  Emily saw that Dave’s armor appeared to have held up better than Jackson’s leathers against the boar’s wicked tusks. Still, she could see that he was bruised and battered and obviously in a bad condition. She had no weapon, her dagger still stuck in the boar’s shoulder. So she did the only thing that she could think of; she raised her hand and reached out toward Dave and cast first Minor Healing and then Minor Blessing aimed at him. She only hoped this would give him the strength to prevail. She knew that Dave might be ready to give up his life for his family, but she wasn’t ready for him to do so. As the mana surged out of her in one golden glow after another, she felt drained and received a notification that her mana had hit zero.

  Dave had been dancing back and forth as well as he could, thankful for the dagger in its shoulder that was so badly slowing the boar. After his first Sure Strike guided blow, his sword blows seemed to be more and more ineffectual. The boar’s hide was incredibly tough and while his sword made cuts, they were shallow and didn’t seem to inflict much health damage on the snorting fiend. The boar was still sitting at over half health (131). He was trying to position himself for an attack to the uninjured shoulder when he saw a burst of light out of the corner of his eyes and looked over to see Emily kneeling over Jackson with glowing light on her hands right over his injured leg. The momentary distraction was all that was required for the boar to close the distance with Dave and hit his legs. Even though the splint mail held, Dave’s legs were seriously bruised, and he felt he might have torn something in his knee. The boar attempted to press his advantage and was only held back by an awkward thrust from Dave’s sword as he fell. In moments like this, while time doesn’t actually stand still, the mind races along flashing all sorts of images and thoughts. Dave only hoped that Emily had been able to heal Jackson and that she and the kids could escape. Now that he was knocked flat, he didn’t see how he would be able to win this. His only advantage so far had been the reduction in mobility that Emily’s dagger was causing and now sitting on his backside he had lost even that. He was covered in bruises and felt that he might have cracked some ribs, but what was bothering him the most was the sharp pain in his left knee. He could only hope that he would still be able to delay the boar long enough for his family to escape. A stray thought slipped through his litany of self-sacrifice as he lamented that he was finally living the dream he and friends had talked about since high school of being sucked into a game world, and it was all gonna end for him with his first monster.

  As these morbid thoughts competed for his attention with the four hundred pounds of red-eyed boar looming over him intent on his death, he suddenly felt a surge of energy and noticed a faint golden glow around his body. Instantly he felt his strength restored, his bruises healed, his cracked ribs seemed to pop back, and even the pain in his knee went to a dull ache. This gave him the strength to thrust out at the face of the boar with his sword, buying himself enough time to roll sideways and then get to his feet. As he got to his feet, he felt another spell land on him and he got a notice that he had received the buff: Minor Blessing, granting him 7 bonus health points and +9% to atk and dodge chances. That dodge chance seemed to come into play almost immediately as the boar charged at him, closing the little space he had been able to put between it and himself. He found he was able to sidestep more easily and even lash out with his sword, scoring a weak hit.

  Dave realized that the healing and even the buff had only bought him some reprieve. He needed to change the way this battle was going, and he thought he might have an idea about how to do that. He realized that his Unarmed Combat score was much higher than his skill with the longsword. So, he prepared to take a gamble and wove back and forth with the boar until he had positioned himself on the side of its wounded shoulder. Dave had begun to realize that while it made him more comfortable to step back and create space between himself and the boar, that was actually playing to the boar’s strengths. Every time he created more than two or three feet of space between them, he allowed the boar to charge and utilize its superior strength and weight agains
t him. That was what had resulted in him being flat on his tail on the ground and nearly dead but for the healing from Emily. This time, as he slashed with his sword and sidestepped backward, he did so with a purpose. Instead of coming to a stop four or five feet away from the boar and awaiting its charge, he allowed his momentum to turn into a spin and as the boar charged forward, he launched his foot in a spinning kick into the dagger stuck in the boar’s shoulder. The combination of the kick and the boar’s forward motion forced the magically enhanced blade so deeply into the shoulder that even the hilt was buried. He was rewarded with a message of a critical hit (54) and a burst of blood shooting out of the boar’s mouth. Hopefully, he had punctured a lung with that move, and he chuckled about all the years that his karate friends had ridiculed him about his taekwondo spinning kicks. He’d love to see their faces now.

  Not wanting to waste this opportunity, Dave immediately stepped to the boar’s other side. He took a wild tusk slash against his greaves and cast Sure Strike with one hand while slashing at the side of the boar’s neck. The magic took hold and Dave immediately saw the best way to strike. The slash he had attempted many times before finally landed as he had intended in a critical strike (45). Now at barely over 10% health, the boar’s fury was overcome by its self-preservation urge and it began trying to move away, but it was clearly struggling to breathe and was clearly bleeding significantly both from the dagger buried in its shoulder and the wide slash in its neck. As it turned, it looked less like a fiendish beast and more like a hurt animal, but Dave couldn’t afford any mercy. Even if he wasn’t eager to get the XP from killing his first monster, he couldn’t let it get away with Emily’s dagger. Now, however, in its weakened condition, it was a simple matter for Dave to slash at a back leg, forcing the grievously wounded beast to the ground and allowing a final coup de grace.