Chapter 8 – Loot that body

“What can we do to save Tracy?” John asked, sitting down beside Luke. There was plenty of space to either side of him.

Nobody wanted to be near him.

Even Edgar, who seemed to think highly of his performance, wasn’t making any attempt to get closer to him.

Luke crossed his arms and turned his head down just enough that his hood shadowed the upper part of his face.

“I don’t know,” Alice said, staring at her stained hands. “I’m not a doctor, not a nurse, I don’t even like watching medical dramas!”

“Maybe it’s an embolism?” Janet offered. She winced as she spoke, a hastily tied bandage made of cloth torn from her jacket tied to her head. “I took a few classes when I was in college,” she said to the surprised looks. “Sometimes when you lose a limb, there’s a clot that forms and it breaks loose, then causes trouble further up. If we could break up the clot…” She seemed to realize what she was suggesting and shut up.

“Yeah, we don’t have any modern medicine,” Dexter said. “We can’t just let her die, though.”

All heads turned toward the slumbering Gladiator. Tracy Beckman worked in the same office suite but was part of a different team. Though Luke had only seen her once or twice, she was about the furthest thing from a tank that he could imagine.

And while he hated to be critical, the way she had handled herself in battle was clearly the fault for her injuries. She had nearly gotten him killed in the first few moments of the chaos. He could only imagine what happened after he was gone.

“What about alchemy?” John asked. “That’s a thing, right?” For some reason, he was looking at Luke. “I know you play these games, Luke. You were awfully quiet before when Mister Tate was speaking, but now we really need to pull together and huddle up. Let’s not hold anything back.”

Luke tried not to shrink into his black cloak. He kept his head down and didn’t say anything. He didn’t like being at the center of attention on his best days, and this was anything but that.

“So that’s why you were so into it,” Edgar said, a strange light in his eyes. “You’re a gamer!”

“My little brother plays those games,” Janet offered. “He talks about them all the time.” She sighed. “I hope he’s okay. I hope he’s somewhere safe.”

“We’ll see them again,” John promised her. “For now, we need to survive long enough to be reunited with our family and friends. Come on people, what are our options? What tools are we working with here?”

Alice looked up. “I only have the one skill that lets me heal people if I put my hands on them. It takes a large amount of this mana stuff and makes me feel woozy, like I’m having a blood sugar crash if I get too low.”

“It also seems to heal the whole body rather than just the wounds,” Janet observed.

“Don’t push yourself too far, Alice,” Luke finally spoke up, and immediately regretted it. “We need you.”

Alice gave him a strained smile, but the other looks he got ranged from doubtful to outright hostility.

He sighed inwardly.

Okay, he thought, message received. Shut up. There were several things he could think of, but it wouldn’t matter what he had to say. They likely wouldn’t listen to him.

“Janet’s right,” Alice continued. “My healing doesn’t seem to be prioritizing the worst of the wounds. If you also have a head cold, it’ll probably try to heal that at the same rate as the hole in your stomach. Thus our problem with Tracy.”

“Luke?” John asked.

“What?” he asked, trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice.

“Alchemy is like fantasy medicine, right? What can we do?”

Luke seethed. Now that he could offer something, they all turned to him, looking hopeful, as if they hadn’t just sneered at him a moment ago when he was trying to be sincere?

That awkward teenage version of himself deep inside wanted to throw up his hands and stalk out. But that was a death sentence.

He needed them. For now.

“I don’t know,” he said truthfully. “Likely. Alchemy is usually for making potions. I’m guessing that’s how those potions are made. We all have health potions, right? Why not give her one?”

The guarded looks on everybody’s face suggested that he had hit upon something.

Suppressing a malicious grin, Luke added, “I believe my on boarder told me that every class gets at least one health potion. So unless one of you wants to use yours…” He looked up meaningfully to the floor above.

That earned him the scowls he was expecting. But most of the looks were haunted, as if they hadn’t even considered it, and yet were relieved at the same time that they didn’t have to give up one of their precious potions.

“We’ve never…” John started and then swallowed. “I mean to say… uh, could you show us how it’s done?”

Luke kept his face a smooth blank. “Do… what?”

John got up and motioned for Luke to join him on the stairs. “Maybe we should discuss this–”

“No, John. You’re going to need to say it. Tell me what you want plainly, and I’ll gladly help. Even though each of you looked at me as if I was some sort of monster, like I had killed Jeff with my own two hands.”

“Luke… don’t be like this,” Alice said, her voice quavering.

Sighing, Luke unfolded smoothly, far more smoothly than he ever could back on Earth. Maybe that was a bit too much.

He realized, as he walked silently toward the stairs, that he felt like he was floating. His dress shoes barely touched the ground as he almost sauntered over on the silent balls of his feet without any effort whatsoever.

If this was what 20 Dexterity felt like, what would 50 Dexterity? Or a 100? He keenly wanted to know, to live long enough to find out.

“I’ll just…” John cleared his throat and followed Luke up top.

What greeted the pair wasn’t exactly unexpected, but Luke couldn’t suppress his anger any longer.

He snarled and whipped out his scimitar from over his shoulder, his other hand going to his belt of knives. Two dark streaks leapt into the air before he was halfway to the trio of dire bats feasting on the dead bodies.

Just as he feared, the bodies had indeed attracted monsters.

John reacted much slower. By the time Luke had dispatched the first pair over the Warrior’s body, John was nocking and firing his first arrow.

It streaked through the air just as Luke whipped out two more throwing knives, aiming for the bat’s shoulder joint.

Even wrapped in the fury of battle, the life and death struggle, he was amazed at his accuracy. Both dark knives struck the joint and burrowed deep, making the dire bat’s wing completely useless.

It was over in under two minutes.

You have defeated [Dire Bat - Level 2]. Extra experience gained for slaying an enemy above your level. 2 LP obtained.

You have defeated [Dire Bat - Level 2]. Extra experience gained for slaying an enemy above your level. 2 LP obtained.

Level Up! Your [Rogue] Class has reached Level 4.

Stat points earned: +2 Strength, +3 Dexterity, +1 Perception, +1 Free Point.

Level Up! Your [Human (G-Grade)] Race has reached Level 2.

Stat points earned: +1 All Stats, +1 Fate, +1 Free Point.

You have defeated [Dire Bat - Level 2]. Bonus experience split between party members for group combat. Experience gained. 1 LP obtained.

Luke wiped the monsters’ blood staining his sword on their leathery wings, tapping each and looting their simple monster meat. The level up soothed his anger, but only just.

He noticed that only the red-eyed dire bat’s meat had the special property of restoring health.

Which was too bad, since it would be useful to have more. If he had to choose between bleeding out on the stones or eating some of that healing red-eyed monster meat, he’d choose the latter any day.

These also didn’t drop any monster cores, a unique drop from the red-eyed variety or something else?

John shouldered his bow and staggered toward him. Luke was already looking with dismay at the bodies. They were barely distinguishable anymore. Anything they might have had on them was most assuredly ruined.

Alden’s bronze breastplate had been cracked open like a crab’s shell, and the Warrior wasn’t worth mentioning.

“Are… are they?” John said softly, then turned to the side and lost his lunch.

Luke waited him out, knowing that even if he looted the bodies, their twisted poses would stay emblazoned on the back of his eyes for a long, long time.

I could have given them a better send off, he told himself. If not for the others’ idiocy, we’d have their items, their equipment, and their potions. Not to mention sending them to their rest whole.

“There isn’t anything left,” Luke told him tightly. Anger from the grim turn of events flared in his chest. He didn’t want this to happen. “I’m sorry John.”

The senior developer turned Archer wiped his mouth with the back of his arm and nodded, avoiding looking at the bodies. He seemed to age ten years at that moment. “You did warn me. This is my fault.”

Luke knew he was right, but didn’t see the reason to rub it in his face. They both knew the score, but that didn’t fix the problem ahead of them. “I guess it’s time to see which of our righteous workmates will do the right thing and give up their potion.”

“No.” John shook his head. “Without Tate here to guide us, I’m technically the next most senior leader. I’ll… I’ll give up my potion.” He looked at Luke. “Are you sure it’ll work?”

“No,” Luke answered truthfully. “But what choice do we have? Either we wait it out and see if she survives, put her out of her misery, or roll the dice and see if the potion fixes her up. If it works like Alice’s magic, maybe it’ll do the trick. I don’t know, John.”

“But don’t you–”

“John. This isn’t a video game. This isn’t a tabletop session where I have a handy player handbook! This is real and I don’t know what the rules are. Nobody has a manual. The little bit that we’ve managed to find out is what a few stats do and that we get new skills every 5 levels. That’s not much to go on, and nobody’s confirmed the skill thing yet.”

John nodded, scrubbed a hand over his five o’clock shadow, and straightened up. Once more the confident, middle-aged golden boy of the business.

He headed toward the stairs, then looked back at the bodies. The piteous look he gave Luke was worse than a puppy’s. “Could you…?”

Dammit. “Yeah, I’ll take care of it.” Luke waved him away as he went over to the first body and looted it. As he suspected, there was nothing. Just the colorful, sparkling smoke that vanished the body.

The process was at least somewhat cathartic for Luke. It felt like the right thing to do, even if it still wasn’t good enough. His simmering anger cooled slightly.

It did nothing for the stains on the stone, and it wouldn’t take a forensic genius to tell what had happened. At least their bodies were put to rest and no more creatures would be drawn to them.

There was still one more body missing, but it had fallen below. The other Rogue had been dropped to the ground multiple stories down. Was that meant to be his fate except for an odd stroke of luck? Both Rogues had been targeted first. Perhaps there was a reason for that.

Luke figured there might be more potions somewhere else, perhaps on a lower floor of the tower or out in the ruins, but there was no evidence of that thus far. Venturing further would risk combat with more monsters, and their Healer was already strained to her limits.

So far, potions were only given out during the onboarding process. It was possible the Company Shop might have some, but there was no telling how much LP they would cost, or if the Gladiator would even make it that long.

The looting done, Luke turned to the stairs and made his way down, thinking of the next step towards survival.