Chapter 16: You owe me now
The girl blinked at him as if snapping out of a daze. She nodded slowly, then furiously, her messy ponytail bouncing with the motion. "Y-yeah. I mean... no. I mean—thank you!" she stammered, clutching her satchel tighter like it was a shield. "I thought I was dead for sure. Those snakes—ugh! I hate snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?!"
Damon chuckled. "Could've been worse. Could've been spiders." That earned a sharp gasp from her, and he smirked. "Name's Blood God. You?"
Her eyes widened. For a moment, he thought she was going to laugh at his face, but the girl looked impressed instead. "N-nice name." She nodded quickly. "I am Arya."
Damon smiled. She looked like a good girl and was very timid. There was no way she could be that Arya. "Alright. Nice meeting you. You should get out of here. Level up a little bit and then come back, maybe."
He did not have all day to waste on a random stranger, so he decided to get back to his business. A couple feet away from him, he spotted the first Mistleaf and instantly turned his attention to it.
The silvery-blue herb shimmered faintly in the dim light filtering through the canopy—delicate, feathered leaves curled in on themselves as if shy. Damon crouched beside it and carefully plucked the herb, making sure not to damage the roots.
Another notification pinged softly in the corner of his vision.
[Ding! You have acquired Mistleaf (Unprocessed).]
"Perfect," he muttered. "One step closer to that regen potion recipe." His mind was already calculating how many of each herb he'd need.