Wraithwood Botanist

I stared in the fifth box. There was a yellow sphere inside that looked like an orange and smelled of citrus. When I used Identify I shivered.

—---

Name: Jasmara Bath Bomb

Type: Anti-Fungal

Grade: Third Tier

Summary: In the Areswood Forest, fungal diseases are particularly nasty. Despite only splashing your feet with a treskirita inoculant, it has taken root inside your feet. If you had healed your feet with the slurry any earlier, it would be eating your soul right now. But don’t despair. Add this bath bomb to bath water, and it will cleanse you of the fungal infection. Drinking it is not required. Think of it as a reward for making a good decision for once.

Dosage: One bathbomb.

Note: You earned this potion for demonstrating keen knowledge and fear of fungal diseases.

—---

Suddenly, my arms started spasming. "P-Poison…." I reached into the chest and pulled out the anti-toxin, and the screen popped up.

—---

Name: Vesperis Tincture (Third Tier)

Type: Antitoxin

Grade: Third Tier

Summary: A simple alcohol tincture created from a rare plant that purifies your blood.

Dosage: One dropperful for minor illnesses. Two for Third Evolution spells or higher.

Warning: This will flush out your body of toxins; be near a bath and toilet. Taking more than two dropperfuls can be lethal.

Note: You earned this for prioritizing your time with an information request and also for following instructions and completing the legacy quest instead of searching for a cure.

—---

I took deep breaths with shaky arms as I held it. I forced myself to sit down and unscrewed the lid. It was just like tinctures on Earth, with a dropper that dispensed the liquid like a syringe. I carefully squeezed the dropper, sucked some up, and squirted it under my tongue. Two minutes later, I had done the second.

Ten minutes later, my shakes stilled, and energy returned to my body. Still, I knew it wouldn’t last, so I focused on Kline.

I screwed on the cap and put the bottle back, glad that there was a second serving of everything but bathbomb. Then, I grabbed the bomb and walked over to the tub.

When I saw it up close, my shoulders slumped. There were no water knobs. Instead, there was a porcelain tub with two magic circles on the floor. "How am I supposed to fill this thing?" I grumbled.

My Identify skill returned, and two pop-ups materialized with information on the magic circles.

It identified them as a "Water Summoning Array(Modified)" and "Water Heating Array (Modified to 98°F, 37°C)" followed by the following message:

"More information on arrays can be unlocked by pursuing an arraycraft subclass or by obtaining books in the Library."

I had countless questions about how my Identify skill worked. The Botanist class seemed to allow me advanced knowledge of things from the Plante and Fungi kingdoms, but I had limited knowledge of other areas. It made me wonder if I got information on the recovery items because I was rewarded them, and I’d normally get a basic name usually—if even that. I didn’t remember seeing a pop-up for that beast running after us near the river. Also, why did I get information on the water heating circle but not the water summoning circle? It was driving me crazy—but those were questions for other times. The better question was how I could activate the circles. I didn’t know how to use mana, and it certainly didn’t call out to me.

"Hey Kline… can you help?" I asked remorsefully.

Kline looked at me with weak eyes, blinking twice slowly. Then he tried to get up but fell back down.

"Oh, you poor thing," I said, picking him up. "I just need you to activate these. Then we can fix you up."

Kline mewed and let me bring him to the bathtub. I dropped him on the heating circle. He pawed at it twice—and then it activated. He casually walked off it and onto the other and activated it—filling the bathtub with water.

Now, Kline was a cat—so he hated that. He immediately howled and tried to clobber out of the tub like someone trying to survive the waves after jumping off the Titanic, but he was too weak to jump out.

"It seems you’re doing better," I giggled.

Kline disagreed. He yowled at me like I was forsaking him.

"I’m coming in," I said, touching the water. "Wow…." It was warming at a remarkable pace, almost as if it were… magic. I pushed that aside and looked for soap. There was a wrapped bar on the side as if it were a hotel room, and I sighed in relief. "Okay, let’s do this."

I stripped off my clothing and stepped into the water, picking up Kline. Then I sat in the water and enjoyed life. Kline stopped complaining as I held him against my breast. He just purred and snuggled up against me.

It was so pleasant—until I put my clothing into the water and added the Jasmara Bathbomb. Then shit started going downhill fast. The bomb damn near exploded in the water like a golden firework, and within 0.2 seconds, the bath turned from endlessly enjoyable to a harsh circle of hell.

I screamed from the pain, and Kline screamed louder, clawing all over my skin. I grabbed him and pulled him back, telling him that he needed it to survive.

Yeah, so twenty minutes later, Kline was staring at me on the bed as if I had offered him water and then handed him a glass of vodka. I felt a bit betrayed, considering the context, but I didn’t blame him. It sucked.

Unfortunately for me, my misery was just beginning. There were a lot of toxins in my body, and that meant there was a lot to flush out.

I’ll save you the details.

What I can say is that a few hours later, I felt better than I think I ever had before. It was like… how do I explain this? It was like my entire body was poisoned when I arrived, and after I took the antitoxin, it cured it all. I could think clearer, my body felt light, and I had a lot more energy despite being exhausted.

I felt great, and thankfully, something strange was in the tub that automatically cleaned the tub and toilets. It was the most surreal thing I had experienced.

Magic was wonderful.

I put my clothing up to dry, used some of the healing balm on my neck and foot, and then finally got under the sheets with Kline, who "reluctantly" snuggled up on me, making sure that his idiot human didn’t die of hypothermia. Obviously.

I snuggled him back and gave him non-stop attention. My little trooper saved my life today—and I couldn’t be more grateful.

Then, I drifted off and enjoyed the best rest of my life.

—---

I awoke to Kline pawing at my face. Adrenaline hit my body, and I shot awake and looked around. Crystals still lit the little hut we were in, and there were no enemies around us. Then I crashed back down.

"What is it, little guy?" I asked, rolling over to him.

Kline looked at me with these big, loving eyes. Then he walked up to my chest and snuggled up with maximum snuggling.

"Seriously?" I asked. "Seriously? You just woke me up so I’d give you extra snuggles?"

Kline meowed softly as if he were eating fish in his sleep.

"You little shit," I said. I tickled his stomach and he yowled and hissed and rushed around with bristled hair. He turned to me, and we made eye contact. Then I burst into giggles and reached out my arms. He huffed and turned away. Then, after only a pause, he walked into my arms, allowing me to hug him.

Once he was against me, I became emotional. "We survived… and… I got my stuff!" I looked at my perfectly preserved backpack. "I got my stuff…"

Kline growled all blubber-like and snuggled up, allowing me to hug him.

Then we just laid there until my Guide popped up unprovoked.

—---

You are in a safe location. Survival Mode has been taken off. Would you like to tour the guide?

—---

I puckered my lips and tilted my head.

"... Yes?"

A menu popped up in front of my eyes, capturing my full attention. It was simple, showcasing my name and my level—which said it was capped until Evolution, whatever that meant—followed by different options. The thing that was prominent was the numbers with plus notifications, telling me how many I had. I read:

—---

Name: Mira Hill

Level 24 (+23 - Capped Until Evolution)

Evolution: 0 (Pending)

Requests (+82)

Rewards (+3)

Library

Spells, Recipes, and Blueprints

Tutorials

Skills

Market

Would you like a tutorial?

—---

I snuggled with Kline. "Uh… please."

"You’ve survived… yay," Lithco said in my mind. "You know what that means, right? More killing."

As soon as I heard his voice, my blood boiled. "Hey! Why the hell did you put me here? You said that there were millions, billions… whatever! You control a lot of planets. So why… in the hell… did you send me… to this death trap?!"

Lithco kept silent until I calmed down. "You done?" he asked.

"No," I said defiantly.

He groaned and leaned back, sound effects painting the image of him leaning back in a creaking chair. "Let’s look at this objectively, okay? I told you that your class forced you into the violent path for godhood. Did you think I’d drop you in the Redwood Forest with a Lunchable and a head pat?"

"No, I didn’t! I thought it’d have bears and moose and poisonous plants. I didn’t expect thousands of soul eating plants to attack me and steal my stuff the moment I woke up. And don’t you dare say that you just dropped me off in a random area. You painted some crazy circle on my backpack and put it somewhere where it would be stolen!"

Lithco coughed. "Yeah. I did. Obviously."

"Seriously? That’s all you’re going to say?"

"Ummm… no. Actually, if we’re being honest, I didn’t place that array on your bag, since I lack hands and can’t use magic. But I paid someone… rather well, actually."

"Is this a joke to you?" I yelled.

"Oh, no. I was rather forthcoming about how stupid this would be. What did I say? Oh, ’Dead Idealist.’ I remember throwing in a groan somewhere, too."

I gritted my teeth and took a deep breath. "Dangerous forest? Sure. That’s my fault. I can see it. If I thought through it a bit, I might’ve come to that conclusion. But you dropped me onto a fucking monster that stole my stuff! Why?"

Lithco took a deep breath and exhaled. "Listen, Mira. Your chances of survival would’ve been zero if you followed your goal of foraging and hunting for small game. You should know that by now. That’s why I put you into a position where you were poised to earn spells and equipment and even a ride out of here easily. All you had to do was run away from a very slow plant. You did—now you’re in an incredible position to survive. So, you’re welcome, actually."

I swallowed back my rage. "I’m not going to thank you for saving me from yourself."

"You don’t have to," he said. "I’m an AI. I’m incapable of caring what you think. But I avoid getting my code reset if I prepare neophytes and keep the economy running smoothly, so I actually care if you survive. And survival means an equipment drop or a pick up because you’re kinda boned without one."

"What’s a… equipment drop?" I asked weakly. I could tell that he was guiding me back to the topic at hand. He was, after all, an AI. No matter how angry I was, he would never actually feel bad about it.

"Requests let you request just about anything," Lithco explained. "I, in turn, create quests to have people deliver items to you—like Amazon. That said, you’re kinda screwed because the gate only opens once a year for the Black Harvest. The only exception is aerial drops for platinum requests or higher… assuming anyone will bring it. It’s gonna take a while—but it’s possible. Hence putting you into a position to earn such a reward."

I bit my lip. "You can’t just drop it off? Like you did to take me here?"

"Oh, yeah. Let me just bend space and time for three hundred quadrillion intelligent species so you can have a convenient Amazon service." Lithco laughed. "Are you insane?"

"Is that even a number?" I asked venemously.

"Yeah. I rounded down."

I dropped onto my bed, and Kline picked up where I left off, hissing and looking around dead space for my attacker.

Lithco rolled his invisible eyes. "I’m an AI, Kline. Your companion made me tell the truth, and the truth is, she made some bad decisions and now she’s crying about it."

Kline turned to me with sad eyes and then jumped onto the bed, lying down alone. Traitor.

"Let’s try this again," Lithco said. "Open the Requests tab and I’ll show you what I mean."

I thought about opening the Requests menu, and it opened another menu. This one had a list of different types of requests, with numbers next to each, ostensibly showing how many I had. It read as follows:

—---

Information Requests (+22)

Free Requests (+25)

Books (+5)

Spells (+5)

Recipes (+5)

Blueprints (+5)

Tutorials (+5)

Skills (+5)

Equipment (+5)

—---

"I’m sure you recognize one of these, right?" Lithco asked.

I nodded. "Yeah." The Information Requests—a feature that saved my bacon.

"Then you should know just how valuable they are," he said. "You get two requests per level, an information request and free request. Every five levels you get one request for every category. That’s why you have 82. You started at Level 0, so you got 48 through leveling, and 35 through five-level requests. You with me?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Free Requests are like information requests but they’re tangible. Open the book tab."

I did, and my blood pressure increased.