Morning broke with my expectations completely upended. I had expected a cough, but my lungs were clear for the first time in days. I had expected aches and pains, but I moved as if I had rested for days. I had expected the dull thunks of wood pickaxes striking stone, but instead, shouts echoed out from the tunnel. And unlike the soft words that had rung like chimes in my head, the words that reached my ears carried an ominous weight.

  Why can’t I catch a real break?

  I gave another silent thanks to Kyria Rhaptis for the potion she gave me last night as I broke out in a run after catching wind of the shouting. The furtive glances down the tunnel from the normally impassive Volkski guards only sped my legs. I didn’t slow until I approached the entrance to our mining site. There, the sounds had resolved into individual shouts.

  I cursed. Dorian…

  For a guy his size, Dorian had a set of lungs. Even without his voice amplified by the echoing off the cavern walls, his yells easily matched the Verndari. No matter where it had started, the argument had moved beyond a verbal altercation to a full-on row. They had to be minutes—seconds?—from coming to blows.

  I walked into the cavern to find Dorian, face red and hands balled into fists. If the Verndari felt the same way, he didn’t show it. He maintained a cool countenance, though his tolerance was wearing thin. A heavy scowl had replaced his typical arrogant smirk.

  “You forget your place, Oresian.” The Verndari’s threat rumbled throughout the cavern.

  Fitting in a way. It had become a common refrain for the ?ttar when talking with Dorian. The flat dismissal was small-minded, but also understandable in a way. While Dorian brought up good points each time, he did so with little tact. Hierarchies mattered, some in more places than others.

  How can Dorian think this is a good idea, and who is he that he thinks he can publicly berate his boss?

  The entrance cavern in our section was less populated than normal for this time of day, but some ?ttir lined the cavern walls, watching the spectacle. Some held their pickaxes a bit too tightly. This place was a powder keg, a few wrong words could set this place off.

  Dorian didn’t seem to notice. “My place? Half the reason I am here is to give you advice. And I am telling you that we are not ready. We don’t have supplies. It takes one bad injury, and you’ll lose a man.“

  The Verndari’s lip curled. “You think only Oresiani can mine? We choose not to crawl inside the Mother and steal her bounties. We’d rather ride amongst the great seas of grass, and you know what we slay to stay safe. In a year, my men have slain more monsters than you’ve seen in your brief lifetime. We’re more than capable of handling a seam this large. Your continued handwringing borders on insulting our honor. We will be opening that seam today. If you’re too frightened to take part, you are welcome to babysit your Human friend.”

  Dorian turned to follow the Verndari’s gaze. When he turned his head in my direction, he stiffened, and I caught a look of surprise and…embarrassment? Dorian’s head whipped back in the Verndari’s direction, but the ?ttar had said his peace. The Verndari had turned and headed for the tunnel with the seam that needed unearthing.

  Dorian stood fuming as the group’s head walked away, but at least he didn’t lash out. I hurried over to him, not missing that a few ?ttir lingered. They cast looks between Dorian and their Verndari. A division? In his current mental state, Dorian probably missed that too, but without realizing it, he must have given voice to similar concerns held by other ?ttir. They were brave and “honorable,” but they weren’t stupid. We were down on supplies. It wouldn’t take much for something to go wrong.

  Of course, they didn’t say a word. I doubt many could stand up to the wrath of the Verndari. The fact that Dorian showed no hesitation to do so raised some questions. Putting that aside for the moment, if those cracks in the ?ttir could widen…

  I stopped next to the enraged Oresian. “Dorian.” His jaw clenched tight; he didn’t spare me a look. His eyes remained fixed on the Verndari’s back. Whatever flash of embarrassment I had caught had receded. I could almost see him working to another verbal tussle.

  He is going to screw this up.

  I put an arm on his shoulder. “Dorian, I have great news. Let’s get back to our work, and I can tell it to you.”

  He didn’t shift his gaze from the Verndari, but then my words—and the excitement that went with them—sank in. His scowl receded, and he turned to face me. He froze, studying me for a bit.

  “You look better.”

  “I feel better, and...” I trailed off, second-guessing my enthusiasm. Truthfully, what I had to tell him wasn’t that exciting. He and everyone else in this world had all experienced it before, but I couldn’t hide my excitement nor my—

  “You leveled!” His smile widened. As if my words had flipped a switch, any hint of his previous anger disappeared.

  “That obvious?”

  “Not much else will cause such a change. Everyone always feels better after gaining a level. Level 3?”

  I shook my head. “Level 4, actually.”

  “No wonder you feel so good. One level is great. Two or more is even better. You needed it.” Then his eyes narrowed. “What did you do to get that much experience?”

  “I made inroads with a few ?ttir.”

  His eyebrows raised in surprise. “Did you now?”

  It was true, but it was also a dodge. The latest beating and the extra healing potion that Kyria Rhaptis had let me use must have led to the surge in levels. He gave me another look but didn’t push me, which was good. As much as I wanted to keep him out of my mess, I would have struggled to hold back even despite Kyria Rhaptis’ implied threats.

  “Well, gaining four levels in a few weeks isn’t bad for your tier and your inability to dedicate yourself to your class.” He looked me over again. “Though you look too good even with getting two new levels. Which of your new skills is helping you out?”

  “How did you know I got more than one?”

  He looked at me like I was an idiot, which was probably true in this regard, but proceeded to explain anyway. “You will get a skill at each level in the first tier. You may even get more than one. So, was I right about you getting a beneficial skill?”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  I couldn’t help but smile at the complete lack of reluctance he now exhibited when asking me about skill. Before answering, I called up a memory of the words I had woken up to:

  [New Level Obtained: Physician Level 3]

  [Skill Gained: Suppress Growth]

  [New Level Obtained: Physician Level 4]

  [Skill Gained: Disease Resistance]

  Even though they had faded away like a dream, I could neither forget them nor their significance. It was like they unlocked another part of me.

  “Yes, I would say it was beneficial. One of the skills was [Disease Resistance], and I haven’t felt this good in ages.” Really weeks, but each day here had felt like a year.

  “You were sick?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “If it got worse, I would have.” Not a total lie. I would have asked if I couldn’t get help from the Vísir or Esper. He gave me a long, hard look, and I relented. “Fine. It was a bit of a risk—“

  “Yeah, no kidding.”

  I ignored his interruption. “But I knew the issue. I just need to push through to build up immunity.”

  “That was quite a gamble, hoping for a useful skill. That strategy can backfire, though [Disease Resistance] will be helpful in your line of work.”

  That wasn’t the immunity I was referring to. I got sick because of too many novel microbes here. However, his comment did open up a whole potential avenue of research. How much protection did [Disease Resistance] provide me? Could a skill-based immune system be robust enough to rival a natural one? If so, did it supplement my biological one or work independently?

  “I had the skill to keep the infection—disease—controlled, and as of this morning, I now have the Skill too. Look, I would have gone to the Vísir if I needed to, but I don’t want to owe her more. Also, I don’t know about you, but I still have doubts about my safety with her. Thankfully, I don’t have to find out. In the end, I came out with two new skills that solved my problems.”

  “What’s the other one?”

  ”[Suppress Growth]. You know, it was really weird to wake up this morning with this…knowledge. It took everything I had been doing and crystalized it.” He just snorted as if it was so commonplace that my reaction was amusing. “I won’t complain. It made it possible for me to clear out the disease. Without [Suppress Growth] carrying so much cognitive load, I would never have been able to increase the potency of [Disease Resistance].”

  He gave me a quizzical look, and I explained the process, though I did leave out the details regarding my interactions with the Volki. While I had woken up feeling better than I had in days because of the potion Kyria Rhaptis had given me, the potion and leveling had not rid me of my pneumonia. That feat had taken another sip of potion and fiddling with [Disease Resistance]. On its own, the skill probably had some effect on the pneumonia. I could tell that it “ran” in the background. When I had focused on the infection, I could sense something fighting it. The pace, however, had underwhelmed me. I would have needed weeks to fight off the infection. So, I had experimented.

  I had first used [Suppress Growth] on its own. That had taken some work. [Disease Resistance] hadn’t just shut off at my whim. Like moving a limb that had fallen asleep, each failed attempt had sent mild shocks through my system. Over time the clumsiness faded until I finally had managed to shut off the skill. When it disappeared, my body had crackled with Energy—brief, electric—before it faded, leaving an acrid tang in the back of my throat in its wake.

  That let me determine that [Suppress Growth] had only slightly added to the baseline effect of [Disease Resistance]. Instead of having taken weeks to fight off the infection, I probably would have needed a week. In truth, not a surprising outcome.

  Upon gaining the skills, I had acquired not only an intuitive understanding of their actions but also context. The skill had meshed with my medical knowledge, letting me come up with an apt analogy for [Suppress Growth]’s effects: bactericidal versus bacteriostatic antibiotics. Like bacteriostatic antibiotics, [Suppress Growth] didn’t kill the bacteria, it just held it at bay even when I fed it more Energy. Maybe I would get a skill that was more bactericidal in function, but for now, the person’s immune system had to do work. I could see how some would consider it a middling skill, but it corrected a couple of the biggest weaknesses with how I now practiced medicine. Healing potions, though wonderful, acted as a supercharged growth medium. Since most wounds were fresh, this skill eliminated one of the major risks. Even when they weren’t, it still increased the time window in which I could intervene. Though I didn’t have a wound to test it, it likely would allow me to be more selective with targeting the potion’s effect. After all, the body needed to grow to regenerate. Nothing said this skill only had to work on microbes.

  Unable to keep my curiosity checked, I had tested how [Suppress Growth] interacted with [Disease Resistance]. Again as expected, the infection hadn’t grown—even when I took another sip of potion. It only had held constant but also had receded—not much, but enough that I had noticed. With both going, I hadn’t been able to differentiate the efficacy of each. [Suppress Growth] may have done the majority of the work, but I had played a hunch: Since people here got sick, they probably had an immune system.

  I had started by gathering evidence to support my hypothesis that my immune system worked similarly to the one I had back home. While I couldn’t pick out individual white blood cells, the perimeter of the infection should have had a high concentration of them. With my sip of potion, I had targeted the areas with good vascular access with [Enhanced Medicinal] and then overlaid [Suppress Growth]. With the combination, the infection had receded at an increased rate—a welcome result and one that had supported my hypothesis. Sure, I couldn’t publish with this level of evidence, but I had experienced enough biopsies for the month. Empirical evidence would suffice for now—thank you very much.

  As I had lain in bed pondering the result, I also had realized another benefit of [Suppress Growth]. It had eliminated much of the mental fatigue that I had experienced when dampening the potion. I could keep going for some time. Therefore, because I could, I had doubled down. I had tried pushing Energy into [Disease Resistance], postulating that the skill worked on the immune system. That hadn’t seemed like much of a stretch—and my intuition supported it. Sure enough, the effect of [Enhance Medicinal], [Suppress Growth], and [Disease Resistance] had been multiplicative. In the face of repeated applications, the infection had practically melted away before my senses, leaving me lungs that didn’t wheeze with a deep breath and ridding me of a malaise I hadn’t realized had been afflicting me.

  Dorian cut off my long explanation with a hurried question. “Wait, you took a freshly gained passive skill, empowered it, and then combined with a new active skill?” I nodded, unsure of the issue. “And it worked?”

  “Umm…yeah?”

  His jaw went slack. “You…” He darted around the cavern before leaning in, his voice dropping to a whisper. “You need to keep this quiet. You shouldn’t be able to do that. If the wrong person found out...you may not even realize your mistake before it’s too late.”

  “What? Why all this worry? Because I empowered a…passive skill?”

  “Yes—I mean no. “ He made a fist and brought it to his forehead. “It isn’t that you empowered it. It is just how much and when you did. I know you have been hiding how bad you have been feeling—and don’t think I didn’t notice how you changed the subject—I just didn’t realize that it was an illness. I had thought it was other things…” I didn’t dare give credence to those other concerns. He scowled but didn’t push. “It had to be bad with the way you have been looking for the last few days. Still, [Disease Resistance] is a fresh Tier-I skill, and yet you don’t look like you poured all your Energy into it to get those results.”

  “I mean, a potion helped.” I had used more than one sip after I got the hang of it. Actually sensing my body fighting the infection had been intoxicating. The three skills had strained me, but ridding myself of the remaining flu-like symptoms plaguing me? Worth it.

  “I don’t see how.” He shook his head. “But somehow you did it. And just a few hours into a new passive skill. What are your Perception and Processing again?” I started to answer that I didn’t know, but he silenced me with a motion of his hand. “Don’t answer that. It is better that I don’t know, but they have to be high for you not to damage your Mark by pouring Energy into freshly gained skills.” He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “It is like you’re a kid playing with fire. You know nothing of the dangers, but somehow you don’t get burnt.”

  “I am open to learning.” I didn’t bother hiding my sheepish grin. “You can give me a primer while we wait for the tests on the stone from today’s mining.”