Eliona's War 1: Hesitant Healer

Chapter 61

Welcome, Severance! You have successfully loaded into the World.

Time remaining: 03:59:57

You have unassigned skills.

Severance stood on the platform, feeling like everything was muted around him. The sun shone, but he couldn't feel its warmth. The pale skies looked more gray than blue, and the buildings and bridges overhead felt constrictive rather than welcoming.

He felt exhausted and numb, but here he was anyway. It was better than sitting in his empty apartment watching the time slowly go by.

He left the platform and wandered over to a nearby stone bench. It was placed against a building, and was mostly in the shade. He sank onto it with a weary sigh.

The first thing to do was to let Awesome Dude know he was on. He felt bad about ditching his friend two nights ago and he could only hope that Awesome Dude wasn't too mad.

"Hey," he said, once he had the System window open. "I just logged on in Two Bridges. If you're not busy, maybe we can meet up? I'm ah, sorry for leaving last time. Some stuff happened, and yeah. Sorry."

Message sent.

Severance exhaled. There. That was done. Now to sit and wait and hope that his only friend was online.

His gaze went to the notification about unassigned skills. It appeared every minute or so, blinking in insistent reminder.

"System, Skills."

Unassigned Skills

Level 26 Skills – Choose one

Skyfall –Melee skill. Deal 5 consecutive strikes, each increasing in potency. Affected by Dance.

Flutterstep – an evasive maneuver. Cooldown: 1 minutes

Severance read it over. And then he read it again. He sat back on the bench, a wrinkle forming in his brow. What was this?

Where were the healing skills? Where was Purify?

These new skills weren't what he was expecting to see. He'd made the assumption that he'd get to choose from the same pool each time, but apparently that was wrong.

"Crap," he muttered.

He really could have used that healing skill. Instead, what he got was an evasion ability and some kind of melee skill.

Severance scratched the side of his jaw, trying to figure out what to do now. Obviously, he was going to have to be a lot more careful about how he chose his next skill. Just because they were there, it didn't mean they'd be there next time.

He reluctantly considered the two options he did have. Flutterstep sounded useful since it would help him survive, but that wasn't exactly what he needed at the moment. He needed more healing power. That left Skyfall, which sounded strange the more he read it. A melee skill for a healer?

But it's affected by Dance. That meant if he used it in Earth Dance, there had to be some kind of healing capability there, right? He had no idea how that would work, but it was the best option he had. He selected the skill.

You have learned the skill: Skyfall

He'd just have to make do with what he had. It wasn't like he had any other choice.

Shwoom! A player appeared on the platform. It was a familiar figure, and when Severance recognized who it was, he almost managed a smile.

"Sev!" Awesome Dude noticed him immediately, and all but sprinted off the platform. Within the span of a single second, he was in Severance's face, bursting with endless questions. "What happened? Where did you go? Are you okay? I thought you weren't coming back! It feels like you were gone for a week!"