Chapter 70: Fight
It was an odd feeling to be in quiet rooms where nothing happened. It was even odder to consider such rooms as an undeniably good thing. A few months ago, Tulland would have considered something like this to be torture. He would have chosen to literally sweat in discomfort in a class with his teacher, rather than be crammed in a room with nothing to do.
Now, it was one of the few minutes he had in which nothing could kill him, or even try to. There were no angles from which anything could attack, and no place for anything to hide unless it could look exactly like a white brick, down to the very same texture and shade of color.
Tulland would have stayed there for hours if he could have, just breathing in the nothing. As it was, he felt lucky that it stretched on as long as it did. The Dungeon System gave him a full ten minutes of respite from the world, something he hoped the other members of the party were getting as well.
He passed the time playing with his new Clubber Vine, which really did seem to be made of stronger stuff than any briar variants he had been able to get off the ground so far. He commanded it to lightly slap his hand, which wasn’t a bright move and almost shattered the bones under his palm. It was a strong sort of thing, even though he could only carry one.
And thank the soil, it has seeds. I thought we’d get back to the farm before we finished, but it doesn’t matter now. This thing has seed pods integrated with the skin.
While he sat, Tulland carefully cut a slit in one mature-looking pod, finding it was loaded with three round seeds each about the size of a pea. He crammed them into one of the more secure pockets of his Wolfwood pouch, ready to plant once he got back home. The briar remained latched onto his arm, where he absentmindedly pet it like a dog.
When he was finally expelled, he hoped the safe zone would be as true to its name as it had been so far. In a perfect world, he’d have another ten days to grow his farm, to get stronger, and to develop his weapons.
In this world, an arrow was arcing at his head as soon as the universe came into view. It wasn’t exactly the last thing he was expecting to happen, nor was it that surprising that both Necia and Ley were wrapped up in melee combat. It was still a real test of his reflexes, something that he hadn’t known was coming and had nearly no time to react to. He missed the moment. By the time he got his arms moving, they were nowhere near close enough to his head to block the arrow coming towards it.
It was the Clubber Vine that saved him. Still attached to his arm, it whipped up as soon as it sensed motion, connecting with the arrow and breaking the shaft clean in half. It diverted the arrowhead just enough to send it careening across Tulland cheekbone, opening a deep and bloody gash.