It was several hours before Kyle woke up to find that they were out of the forest and about another hour or so from Greenhaven. He was still being carried on the makeshift stretcher that Garvin and the others had made for him and as soon as she noticed that he was awake Fi flew down from overhead where she had been keeping watch to check on him.

“How are you feeling?” she asked as she settled down lightly on his stomach.

“Well my back still hurts, and my foot feels like it’s on fire,” he rasped. But other than that, not as bad as I could be.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Fi sighed. “Unfortunately, you didn’t increase any of your Skills or Master any more spells so there isn’t a lot you can do for now. You did get a significant amount of Experience that brought you up to 36% of the way to your next Level Up.”

“Well that’s too bad,” Kyle sighed sadly. “But I suppose that I shouldn’t be asking for more than what I already got today.”

‘That’s an excellent point,” Fi agreed. “Well I’d better get back to scouting. I know that it’s not likely that we get attacked this closer to Greenhaven but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Especially considering how exhausted we all are.”

Kyle nodded in agreement as Fi too to the air once more and he settled back down and closed his eyes once more with a sigh. Seeing that he was still exhausted the others decided to let him sleep as they continued down the road back towards Greenhaven.

They were all still extremely impressed with what Kyle and FI had managed to accomplish at their low Levels but in many ways Garvin and the other dwarves were just as impressed with Laurence’s Party. Yes, they all had higher Levels than Kyle and Fi, but they didn’t have any of the advantages that Kyle and FI had.

“So, I’m thinking that we should get you three a couple of lessons with a tutor at the Guild when we get back to town,” Gerdan told them as they trudged along. “You all have a lot of potential and I think that you could learn a lot from a tutor if you wanted to give it a go. Don’t worry about the cost, we’ll have a talk with Alistair when we get back. I’m sure you already know this, but he’s known for investing in new talents like yourselves.”

“That would be interesting,” Fervah said excitedly as she looked at the others who all nodded in agreement. A tutorial session obviously wasn’t anywhere near as comprehensive as what Kyle learned at the Adventurer’s School but instead of learning about a bunch of things that they might not be interested in the tutor would focus completely on the things that they wated to learn about and give them advice on how to focus their builds in a way that would make them as strong as possible with the information that they provided.

“I’d appreciate it if that cold be made possible as well,” Findar agreed. The poison that had left him paralysed had faded completely about half an hour ago and was now walking along normally which allowed Gerdan and Laurence to rest instead of carrying him.

“What about Kyle and Fi?” Laurence asked and the others nodded in agreement.

“Well, with his strength he’s probably going to go somewhere else to train,” Garvin replied thoughtfully. “His Level isn’t that high in and of itself but he’s about as strong as the average Adventurer at Level 10 to 12 thanks to his Class and training.”

“So, you don’t think that he’ll want to join our Party?” Carly asked looking disappointedly at the sleeping Kyle.

“Well feel free to ask him but I think that he wants to do some stuff by himself for a while,” Garvin sighed. “Did you hear about what happened to the town of Farholt?”

“Of course,” Laurence nodded. “It’s all people have been talking about the past couple of days. Why?”

“Because Kyle was from there,” Garvin said looking at Kyle sadly. “His parents and almost everyone that he grew up with were either killed or enslaved by the Empire and what’s worse is that he was one of the first people on the scene after Farholt was attacked.”

“That’s terrible!” Carly gasped. “Why was he even there?”

“Because he was one of the people that brought the attack to the Guild’s attention and Galdon insisted that they bring him along,” Garvin replied. “In some ways it was a mistake. But I’d wager that he’s going to become a big asset if we really end up going to war with the Empire in the future as horrible as that sounds.”

“Well I can’t deny that I suppose,” Laurence agreed as he shook his head sadly. “It doesn’t seem fair to Kyle though.”

“Of course, it’s not fair kid, it’s war,” Temdar rumbled from behind them. “We don’t like it any more than you but it’s better than being enslaved or brutally killed by the Imperials which is what awaits our families if we don’t stand up to the Empire.”

“I’m not disagreeing with you,” Laurence sighed as he glanced over at Fervah. “I just wish that it wasn’t necessary.”

“Don’t we all kid,” Gerdan agreed before turning to Garvin. “Let me take over carrying him for a bit.”

It was nearly two hours later when they finally reached the city gates where they were greeted by a figure that Fi was quite familiar with.

“Holy crap, what the hell happened to Kyle?” Revius asked as he jogged towards them with a worried look on his face.

“We encountered something that was on the precipice of becoming a Boss monster,’ Garvin replied. “It hit him with some sort of beam attack that took a chunk out of his foot.”

“And the bandages on his torso?” Revius asked as he glared angrily at Garvin. “How could you let him get this badly injured?”

“He was hit by another of its attacks,” Garvin sighed. “And he managed to save Findar here which we wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.”

“That’s right,” Findar agreed with a sigh as his anger left him in the face of the young man’s earnestness. “Can we please get him to a healer now?”

“Yes, yes of course,” the young Sun Elf replied with a nod as Fi flew down from overhead and he immediately turned his attention to her. “Let me know how it goes.”

“Sure,” Fi nodded as the others headed on in through the gate. “I can do that.”

Several people stopped to watch them carry the still sleeping Kyle down the main street but for the most part people treated this like it was a normal sight. Which in all fairness it actually was thanks to the high numbers of Adventurers in town and soon they arrived at the Guild building.

“Right,” Laurence said. “I’ll go and get the healer on duty.”

“No, we’ll take him to the school,” Fi told him. “Zerah will do a better job of healing him.”

“Okay I guess we’ll see you later then,” Fervah said as she gently pushed Laurence inside the Guild with Carly Gerdan and Findar following them.

“Sure,” fi nodded. “I’ll let Kyle know when he wakes up.”

“I’m actually awake right now,” he groaned as his eyes fluttered open. “You guys have been really noisy since we got to town.”

“Sorry Kyle,” Fi said as she landed on his chest once again. “How are you feeling now?”

“Not much better honestly,” he replied. “But I’m sure that Zerah will be able to patch me up.”

“Alright let’s get going then,” Garvin sighed. “Later kids.”

When they arrived at the Adventurer’s School and made their way inside several of the students went to fetch Zerah and by the time they had made it to the infirmary Zerah and several of Kyles’ friends were waiting for them.

“What the hell have you done to yourself this time young man?’ the diminutive gnome sighed as threads wrapped around his body and manoeuvred him through the door before placing him gently down on one of the beds.

“Got a little over my head,” Kyle chuckled awkwardly.

“No kidding man,” Ulrich sighed as he shook his head at his reckless friend. “It looks like you were lucky to not lose the leg.”

“He was,’ Fi agreed as she landed on one of the chairs next to Kyle’s bed. “Luckily, he managed to partially deflect the attack with one of his new spells which allowed him to get away with much more minor injuries than he would’ve had otherwise.”

“Be that as it may this is going to be a difficult wound to heal,” Zerah sighed as she cut the bandages away to reveal the chunk missing from Kyle’s foot. “In fact, I think that I’m going to need some help. Would one of you go and get Yuliah?”

“Sure,” Resald nodded. “I’ll go and get here.”

“Thank you dear,” Zerah said as he sprinted out of the room.

Zerah then turned and rummaged about in a draw for a few moments before pulling out a small vial of liquid that she uncorked and held up to Kyle’s face.

“Drink this dear,” she said as she gently tipped Kyle’s head forward so that he could do as she asked. “That’s it. You’re not going to want to be awake for this.

Once he had finished drinking the potion Kyle blinked in surprise before his eyes snapped shut as it took effect. The potion was a powerful anaesthetic that Zerah had mixed herself and would put Kyle to sleep until the following morning which would be more than enough time for her and Yuliah to restore his foot and heal the wounds on his back.

“Alright the rest of you should leave now,” Zerah said as she began to usher them from the room. “Fi will let you know when we’re done.”

Once they had left the room Zerah sighed and turned back towards her unconscious patient and his companion who was watching her worriedly.

“IS he really going to be okay?” Fi asked. “That’s a big chunk that’s missing from his foot.”

“Well it’s never going to be perfect again, there’s too much missing but we’ll do our best to make sure that it won’t slow him down,” Zerah replied. “Now help me turn him over so that I can start working on his back.”

Yuliah arrived a few minutes later and gasped in shock when she saw the ruined mess of Kyle’s back.

“Calm down girl!” Zerah snapped. “Just be thankful that he was wearing his jacket. If he wasn’t whatever caused these injuries would’ve killed him.”

“It’s really that bad?” Fi asked worriedly.

“Yes, it’s that bad,’ Zerah sighed. “Thankfully, we should be able to heal the worst of it but he’s going to have some pretty bad scarring on his back for the rest of his life.”

“Won’t that get in the way when he fights?” Fi asked.

“I can make a special ointment that he can use which should allow him to regain his flexibility,” Zerah replied. “I’ll make sure that you have a month’s supply. You just need to make sure that you put it on him every night and he should be fine.”

“Okay,” Fi nodded. “I can do that.”

“Good, now let us get to work,” Zerah said as she turned to Yuliah who had just finished washing her hands and cleansing them with her magic.

Yuliah nodded in agreement and the two got to work while Fi watched on. It was a gruesome but impressive to watch these two professional healers go to work. It was obvious that Zerah was more skilled in that regard, but their magic was different enough that they were performing different roles anyway.

For the injuries on Kyle’s back Zerah had to clean the wound first since they had been caused by magically enhanced spider silk. Then, Yuliah would use her magic to force Kyle’s flesh to start regenerating and then Zerah would start sewing it together with her magical thread as it grew in. The finally Yuliah would heal it again to make sure that there was a little scarring as possible which allowed Zerah to dispel the thread leaving the injury clear of anything that wasn’t supposed to be there.

Just healing Kyle’s back took over an hour but when they were done all that remained of the massive damage was scarring and there was actually less of that than Fi had been afraid of. However, it was the damage to his foot that she was worried about. There was no way that the mana beam that had hit him hadn’t damaged the delicate bones in his foot and sure enough that was what they discovered once they had finished cleaning the wound out.

“Is there anything that you can do?” FI asked.

“Of course,” Zerah said as she started rummaging around through another drawer. “I have another potion that can restore at least some of the missing bone. Just let me find it.”

It took Zerah a couple of minutes of muttered cursing and rummaging around in several different drawers before she finally found the potion that she was looking for. She quickly poured it over Kyle’s foot which immediately started steaming. Not long after that Fi saw bone shift and grow into where the missing chunk of flesh had been.

“Now it’s not going to be perfect,” Zerah said as she checked how the bone was growing. “But he should eventually regain the ability to move his toes. Now then. Yuliah, let’s get to it.”

Yuliah nodded and cast a spell which caused the missing flesh to grow back in which allowed Zerah to start closing the wound up like she had with the wounds on Kyle’s back. Closing the wound didn’t take anywhere as long as the wounds on Kyle’s back did and when they were done Zerah and Yuliah collapsed into their own chairs and sighed as they wiped the sweat from their brows.

“He really needs to be more careful Fi,” Yuliah told the companion quietly. “The next time something like this happens we probably won’t be there to heal him.”

“I know,” Fi nodded as she sighed sadly. “And so does Kyle. I actually tried to stop him this time as well, but he insisted that he wanted to save Findar. Findar is the one who we were sent to save by the way.”

“I see,” Yuliah sighed. “That’s just like Kyle.”

“Yes, it is,” Zerah agreed. “Well, we’ll leave you two now. We have other things to do today. You can stay here and rest if you want.”

“Alright,” Fi nodded. “I think that I’ll do just that.”

The next morning Kyle groaned as he finally came around. He was still sore, but he felt much better than he had yesterday. Feeling a weight pressing down on his chest he glanced down to see that Fi was curled up on him and smiled as he gently moved her so that he could sit up. The companion mumbled sleepily before cracking one of her eyes open and yawning.

“Morning Fi,” he chuckled as Fi blinked up at him. “How are you this morning?”

“Forget me,” Fi mumbled sleepily. “How are you?”

“Much better,” Kyle nodded. “Still not perfect but I feel like I could walk now.”

“Well that’s good because I’m hungry,” Fi said as she sluggishly took to the air. “Come on. Let’s go.”

Kyle groaned loudly as he got up out of the bed. He tried to get to his feet only to gasp in pain as the sudden pressure caused his foot to feel like he had dipped it in molten lead. Thankfully either Zerah or Yuliah had predicted this and had left him a wooden crutch that he could use to get around. Grabbing it he started hobbling out of the room and down the hall towards the cafeteria. It was only when he was about to walk in that he realised that he was no longer a student at the school and probably wasn’t welcome in there anymore.

“What are you doing?’ Fi asked when she noticed him hesitating.

“I’m not a student anymore,” Kyle replied. “The cafeteria is for students.”

“Do you really think that you’re not welcome in there Kyle?” a voice said inside of their heads and Kyle turned around to see a familiar woman who looked like she was made of purple crystal.

“Oh, hey Amy,” he rasped as she floated past him and opened the doors.

“Come on Kyle,” she said with a telepathic sigh. “You need to eat, and everyone is waiting for you.”

“Well, okay then,” Kyle sighed as he followed her inside. “If you say so.”

Once inside the cafeteria he saw that his friends were indeed waiting for him at their usual table and limped over to them. When he sat down Yuliah rushed over to check on him before serving him and Fi some scrambled eggs with bacon and mushrooms mixed through.

“You need the protein after the healing last night,” she told him before returning to the kitchen.

“So, what actually happened?” Amy asked while Kyle and Fi tucked into their respective breakfasts.

“Got sent on an Emergency Quest to save the son of a merchant who got captured by monsters,” Kyle said once he had swallowed his first mouthful. “Pretty sure that the monsters were the left-over remnants of some of the monsters that attacked the town. Turns out that there was a particular one that was a lot stronger than the rest and was starting to form a Zone by killing travellers. I tried to save the Merchant’s son and got injured.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much what happened,” Fi agreed while Kyle resumed eating.

“You should really be more careful Kyle,” Sasha told him. From what I understand you would’ve died if Fi hadn’t cast Mana Shield to protect you.”

“My jacket also helped but yeah,” Kyle sighed as he shook his head sadly. “Not even sure that Zerah can save it this time.”

“Well you’d be wrong,” Fi chuckled once she finished her mouthful, “She said she would have it fixed by midday.”

“Oh, well that’s good,” Kyle said as a relieved look crossed his face briefly. This surprised no one. His jacket was one of the few things that his parents had given him that he still had so it made complete sense for him to want to hang onto it if he could.

“Yeah,” Fi agreed as she smiled at her partner knowingly.

The others still had classes to go to, so they quickly finished their breakfasts and headed on out leaving Fi and Kyle to eat the rest of their breakfast in peace. Once they were done eating, they started to talk about what they were planning to do next.

“Well I’m thinking that we should probably go east to Hardred,” Kyle said causing Fi to sigh irritably. Hardred was another Dungeon town like Greenhaven that was about a week’s journey by horse.

“Do you really want to leave Greenhaven just after being healed?” Fi asked.

“Well I figure that I’ll be mostly healed by the time we get there if we leave now,” Kyle replied causing FI to sigh again and shake her head.

“Actually, Zerah suggested that it would be a month before you recover completely,” Fi told him causing him to groan in irritation. “So why don’t we stick around for another couple of weeks?”

“Yeah, okay that makes sense,” he agreed. “Well, I suppose we should head to the Guild now. Alistair probably wants to talk to us.”

“Yeah,” Fi nodded. “Let’s go.”