Jason, as a rule, enjoyed waking up. He loved the brief hazy momeween dream ay, shrouded in warm, soft bedding. Even awaking in the soft grass of the hedge maze hadn’t been an unpleasant experie was very different fraining sciousness at the bottom of a dark well, soaked in filthy water aangled in the corpse of a dead snake. He ighe ss that had popped-up while he was unscious. They shrank away to hover inspicuously in the periphery of his vision.

  His left arm inned under some rubble, a k of fallen masonry from the well from above. He didn’t feel any pain from it, which was good, then realised he didn’t feel anything at all from it, which was bad. Wheried pulling it free the pain arrived in full force, his screams reverberating up through the well.

  Holding his left arm as still as he could, he rolled the k of masonry off with his right. It wasn’t insurmountably heavy, but he had to hold back more screaming with gritted teeth. He couldn’t examihe freed arm properly in the dark, but it was hot and swollen to the touch. Even probing it gently with the fingers of his good ha ripples of pain radiating through it. He was fident it was broken and started carefully applying all the healing oi he had left. The swelling reduced and the skin cooled, but the arm was still delicate and painful to move. The oi didn’t seem effective on the bone-deep injury it couldn’t reach.

  There was so much of the shat he was ying on its dead body rather thatom of the well. Jerking his foot free of its coils sent fresh pain spiking through his arm. It took multiple attempts tle to his feet, using his good arm to yank himself upright with one of the wall rungs. Each time he achieved some precarious stability, his stomach roiled ahrew up, dropping back to his knees. Vomit spewed out in fits and starts, even as the motion drove new pain into his injured arm.

  He finally made it to his feet, holding himself up, using a rung for support. He drew ragged breaths, exhausted just from the effort of standing up. For the first time since climbing down the well he was grateful for the cold walls, ign the wet as he pressed his bato the cool surface. His head sulse pounding through it like a hammer. His stomach ed with the threat of sedary eruptions.

  It wasn’t the worst he’d ever felt. The worst was after eating one of his Great Aunt Marjory’s casseroles, which led him to taking up residen his parent’s bathroom for ten hours. For all her efforts to push Jason into the waiting arms of the Lord, the closest she came was food poisoning so bad it had him praying for death.

  Jason looked down at the ss incredible length piled up at the bottom of the well. It was big enough that there wasn’t anywhere for Jason to stand except on the sself. The rgest individual piece of shattered masonry had crushed the creature’s head against the bottom of the well. Either the hefty k or the sself could have killed Jason, but wild luck led to one danger handling the other.

  He gnced up at the blue circle of sky, uain of how long he had been unscious. He had to decide between climbing back up the well oing back through the tunnel, her of which seemed easy with a busted arm. He put off the unpleasant choid looked at the windows he had been ign.

  You have defeated [Umbral Mountain Snake].Would you like to loot [Umbral Mountain Snake]?“Sure,” he said wearily, then froze. Betedly remembered that monsters dissolved into stinking smoke when they were looted, but to his relief and surprise, that didn’t happen. All he felt was the snake shift a little under his feet. He looked over the list of items he got from the snake.

  [Night Scale Leather] has been added to your iory.30 [Dark Quintessence Gems (Iron)] have been added to your iory.10 [Bronze Spirit s] have been added to your iory.100 [Iron Spirit s] have been added to your iory.Unlike every other monster Jason killed, the snake didn’t turn into a stench cloud and didn’t produce a monster core.

  “I o learn the rules of this pce.”

  He took a look at the s.

  Quest: [Time to Run]

  Hidden objective discovered: Kill [Umbral Mountain Snake] 0/1.Hidden objective plete: Kill [Umbral Mountain Snake] 1/1.Main objective reward increased from rare magical dagger to epic magical dagger.Objective plete: Escape [Umbral Mountain Snake] 1/1.[Night Fang] has been added to your iory.Quest plete.00 [Bronze Spirit s] have been added to your iory.1000 [Iron Spirit s] have been added to your iory.“Hidden objective? I just fell on it; that seems kind of cheap. Wait, why am I pining? Get it together, Jason.”

  He checked the st window.

  Quest: [Secrets of the Well]

  Bonus objective plete: Don’t die 1/1.[Dark Essence] has been added to your iory.Quest plete.100 [Bronze Spirit s] have been added to your iory.1000 [Iron Spirit s] have been added to your iory.“Well, if you’re only going to plete one quest objective, ‘don’t die’ is a winner.”

  There were ems in his iory, but his only i was in something that could fix his arm. Looking over the is in his iory, nothing stood out. Suddenly Jason remembered the wizard who drank what he called a recovery potion. He looked up at the dder leading out of the well and realised that between his bad arm and what robably a cussion, he was more likely to fall back down than reach the top. A return to the tunnel wasn’t an appealing prospect, but at least he couldn’t fall if he was already on his hand and knees.

  The tunnel proved trickier than he hoped, every nudge sending agony through his cradled arm. He had to stop frequently ahe waves of pain subside before moving on. Finally he reached the wooden walkway, colpsing onto his back. There was light, the mp ying where he had cast it aside in his mad flight from the snake.

  After resting awhile he pushed himself stumblingly upright and started shambling down the walkway, mp in hand. He moved slowly. He’d learned his lesson about the slippery wood, but also it was the top speed he could muster. Eventually, he reached the still-opeal door.

  “How did a s this open?”

  He g the wheel meism oher side. Part of the wheel ith what may have been saliva.

  “Did it use its mouth? No way.”

  Not sparing more than a moment on curiosity, he made his way to the desk he had seen the wizard get the potion from. It wasn’t hard to find, being one of the few pieces of furniture not overturned. Jason’s eyes avoided the body still on the floor as he navigated the debris of the trashed room. The drawer was still open, and inside was a small rack for vials like the one he had seen the wizard drink. Only one vial remained and Jason carefully picked it up.

  Item: [Recovery Potion (bronze)] (bronze rank, rare)

  Potent potable with strong healing and mana recovery effects (able, healing).

  Effect: Recovers health. Effect reduced on silver-rank her individuals.Uses remaining: 1/1.The vial was quite small, about the size of a rifle cartridge. Jason pulled out the stopper and tipped it ba a gulp. It tasted remarkably like strawberry sapps and Jason’s unruly stomach settled the instant the potion arrived.

  “Nice.”

  The stingiion Jason associated with magical healing started seeping into him, especially his head and injured arm. It was worse than what he had experienced before, whether because of the nature of the injuries or the potency of the potion. It didn’t bother him; pared to the pain he was already in, it was nothing more than a tickle.

  You have used a recovery potio health, stamina and mana.Until the remnant magic fully dissipates, ing further health, stamina or mana potions will result in toxic side-effects.By using a potion above your current rank the effect is increased, but the residual magic will take loo dissipate.He y on the floor taking exhausted breaths. His head was still full of cotton wool, but the stant throbbing was gone. His arm didn’t seem to be broken anymore. The pain was gone and mobility was restored, but it still felt delicate and weak. In the periphery of his vision was a trio of small is slowly shading over. When he focused ohey grew rger for him to examihey were all squares with a picture of a potion on each, one red, one yellow and one blue. They were mostly greyed-out, but the grey was slowly dropping off as a timer underh each ted down, with just uen minutes remaining.

  “Cooldown timers. That’s fancy.”

  He pushed himself to his feet, much easier now than ba the well.

  “Alright,” he told himself. “Damaged, but operational. So what ?”

  He shohe light around until he found the dead body of the wizard, walking over to look closer. There was an eerie stillo it that only came from death.

  “I’m sorry,” he told it. “I think you might have had it ing, but I didn’t want it to go that way.”

  He k down and closed its eyes.

  Would you like to loot [Builder Cultist]?“What’s a builder cultist?”