For a moment, none of it seemed real.
Kaelen and Liora had only been looking at the box. They had not touched it. They had not opened it. They had not even done anything that should have counted as dangerous.
And yet Kaelen now had an arrow buried in his side.
Liora had one lodged in her neck.
Worse still, Kaelen was their primary healer.
Aiden's mind flashed back to the Blood Trent, when Kaelen had to slap him to get him moving. For one terrifying second, Aiden feared he was going to freeze again.
"Thalia, grab them! Selene, get them back to the barricade!"
The voice was familiar.
It took Aiden a moment to realize it was his own.
It was not perfect. It had taken him a second. His voice had cracked at the edges. His heart was trying to punch its way out of his chest.
But he had taken charge.
Thalia and Selene moved immediately.
Thalia's strings snapped out, wrapping around Kaelen and Liora. She yanked them back, and Selene caught both unconscious party members before carrying them toward the barricade.
Everyone rushed back to the fortified room.
They vaulted over the makeshift barricade, and Aiden dropped to his knees beside Kaelen and Liora. He yanked two healing potions from his bag, pulled the arrows free, and applied the potions as quickly as he could.
As he worked, his eyes flicked to the System windows.
He was more worried about the poison than the wounds.
You have used item Basic Healing Potion (E) x2.
Party member Kaelen is poisoned.
Healing effectiveness reduced by 50%.
Party member Liora is poisoned.
Healing effectiveness reduced by 50%.
Party member Liora has healed 9 through your meticulous application.
Party member Kaelen has healed 5 through your meticulous application.
Damn it.
Aiden knew the poison was going to be trouble.
Liora's eyes snapped open.
She started writhing and flailing weakly, one hand twitching toward the wound in her neck. The injury was mostly closed now, but sickly green lines spread out from it like veins filled with swamp water.
"W-what?" she rasped.
Even speaking made her wince.
"You were shot with a poisoned arrow," Aiden said, already grabbing his notebook. "I'm preparing an antidote."
He flipped through the pages as fast as he could even as Liora seemed to sink back into uncontiousness.
Party member Kaelen's bleeding slows down.
Party member Kaelen takes 4 damage from poisoning.
WARNING. WARNING. WARNING.
Party member Kaelen is fading fast.
WARNING. WARNING. WARNING.
Party member Liora is unconscious.
Aiden found the section on basic antidotes.
Panic rose in his chest.
His hands shook as he reached for two empty vials to fill with Liquid Crystal. One slipped from his fingers and shattered against the floor.
Aiden bit his tongue.
He tried desperately to calm his nerves, but the red warning windows hovering in front of him made it feel like the dungeon itself was screaming that his friends were dying.
Thalia ran to his side from where she had been standing ready to assist Jax and Selene if another attack came.
"Focus on filling the vials," Thalia said, throwing open his bag. "What herbs do you need?"
Aiden forced himself to breathe.
"Six alkanet stalks and two milort leaves. Three-to-one ratio in two vials."
Thalia started pulling jars from his bag.
Aiden grabbed two more healing potions and applied them to Kaelen and Liora.
You have used item Basic Healing Potion (E) x2.
Party member Kaelen is poisoned.
Healing effectiveness reduced by 50%.
Party member Liora is poisoned.
Healing effectiveness reduced by 50%.
Party member Liora has healed 6 through your meticulous application.
Party member Kaelen has healed 8 through your meticulous application.
Liora's eyes opened again.
She flailed slightly, but it was weaker this time. She looked confused and in pain, like her body could not decide whether to fight or collapse.
Aiden turned to Kaelen.
He was still unconscious.
Aiden's mind raced, repeating the next steps again and again so he would not lose them.
Thalia held out the prepared vials.
Aiden held his hands over them and focused. Sparkling clear liquid began to gather at his fingertips and pour into the glass.
"You need to process the ingredients first, right?" Thalia asked.
Her normally calm, stoic tone had cracked.
Only slightly.
But from Thalia, that might as well have been screaming.
"Normally, yes," Aiden said, shaking the vials hard. "But we don't have time!"
You have used skill Liquid Crystal Consolidation (E) x2.
You have created two vials worth of Liquid Crystal.
You quickly process the makeshift potions using skill Quick Brew (E).
You have made Basic Antidote (E) x2.
Due to rushed creation, Basic Antidote (E) has lost its lingering poison resistance effect.
Good enough.
Aiden poured the antidotes into Kaelen's and Liora's mouths.
Thalia grabbed two more healing potions and applied them.
You have used item Basic Antidote (E) x2.
Party member Liora has had their poisoning cured.
Party member Kaelen has had their poisoning cured.
Temp party member Thalia has used item Basic Healing Potion (E) x2.
Party member Liora has healed 19 through Temp party member Thalia's meticulous application.
Party member Kaelen has healed 12 through Temp party member Thalia's meticulous application.
Kaelen's eyes finally opened.
He started thrashing, pushing at the air and clutching at his side like he could still feel something slithering under his robes.
Aiden grabbed his arms and held him steady.
"Kaelen. Kaelen! Breathe. You're okay."
It took a moment, but Kaelen's breathing slowly returned to normal.
The situation was no longer dire.
Which meant Aiden's legs immediately decided they had no interest in supporting his weight.
He stayed seated on the floor as the entire group let out a collective sigh of relief.
Kaelen looked down at the mostly healed wound in his side. Only a faint mark remained.
Jax and Selene walked over and sat beside them.
"Yikes," Jax said. "That was close. Also, did you see the System window? I think we found the boss of the dungeon."
Aiden thought back to the room.
The setup was obvious now.
The son probably saw the ornate box and approached it, expecting treasure. Maybe even the dungeon item. Maybe something that would let him leave victorious.
Instead, he got shot in the neck and stumbled away before bleeding out on the cold stone floor.
Aiden was not sure how the father had been hit. Maybe an arrow. Maybe the zombies from before. Maybe something worse.
Either way, the picture in his head was not a pleasant one.
Selene looked over the group. She took a steadying breath before asking,
"W-what do we do about the archer? He was shooting from a thin hallway, so even if we rush him, we'll take several arrows before getting to him. Those arrows can take out everyone but Jax and m-me in one shot."
"Worse news," Thalia said, shaking an empty jar as if to demonstrate. "We ran out of ingredients for antidotes."
Everyone sat in silence.
Then Liora spoke.
Her voice was soft.
Oddly somber.
"I… I think this dungeon raid is a failure."
Jax jumped to his feet and started pacing.
For a moment, Aiden could practically see ideas rushing through his head, each one trying to throw itself in front of the others.
"What if we grab a table and use it as a makeshift shield?" Jax asked. "We can let it take the arrows and push forward!"
"I only have two healing potions left and no more antidotes," Aiden said, starting to place the hastily pulled-out equipment back into his bag. "Even if we win the fight, the chance someone dies from poison is practically guaranteed."
"Then we make makeshift armor out of the stuff around here. Plus, we can—"
"JAX!"
Aiden's shout echoed through the room.
Jax froze.
Everyone looked at him.
Aiden was surprised too.
In the month and a half they had known each other, he had never yelled at Jax. Not like that.
But there was something boiling in his chest now. Maybe it was fear. Maybe it was anger. Maybe it was the lingering panic of having two party members almost die in front of him.
Whatever it was, it kept talking.
"Look around you. Nobody is in top shape anymore, and two of your party members just almost died. Even if we were at full strength, that boss has positioning, strategy, and weapons we cannot handle."
Aiden's hands tightened around the strap of his bag.
"Face it. We are not winning that fight."
Jax stared at him.
For once, he did not have a joke.
He looked down at the ground, his mind clearly still racing, trying to find some way to make it work.
Kaelen turned to Thalia.
"Can you use your strings to grab the two bodies? Let's at least take them back to their home."
Thalia nodded.
She walked to the edge of the dark room and let her strings snake inside. A moment later, the two bodies were dragged out.
Selene picked them up, using an extra blanket as a barrier between herself and the rotting flesh.
Kaelen and Liora led the way out of the dungeon. Both vanished in sparks of light.
Selene went next, carrying the bodies.
Jax followed after her.
His usual bubbly attitude was gone, replaced by somber silence. His head hung low as he walked.
Aiden started to follow.
Then a System notification appeared.
Temp party member Thalia has swiped one of the dungeon items.
Item: Ring of Mana Storing (E).
Captain Pices feels his item being taken and orders his soldiers to charge.
For a single second, Aiden stared at the window.
Then the silent dungeon erupted.
The sound of rushing feet, scraping armor, and distant rattling weapons filled the air.
Thalia sprinted past him.
In her hands was the ornate box.
Aiden did not bother looking back to see what was coming.
He ran.
Both of them reached the ladder and vanished into sparks of light just as the dungeon behind them filled with the sound of charging soldiers.