The Magic Spring, and then...? Chapter 28
Author's Note: Uuuu, so busy lately. T-T
With the request 'save my daughter' from the NPC woman, I hefted Agatha onto my back and we got going. Of course, a pair of beautiful twin girls carrying an NPC somehow managed to draw even more attention to us than we usually received, but it didn't last very long. We were already near the edge of the town, so we headed right out before swinging around and moving toward the mountains.
While we had said we knew the spring, in fact neither of us knew where it was exactly. We just knew the general direction was toward the mountains, somewhere in these many square kilometers of forest. Of course, we had our secret weapon, my sister, so it wasn't nearly as much of a worry as it would be for anyone else. While walking, I thought, if this was anyone else, they would need to know exactly where the spring was beforehand to make it there in the strict one hour time limit.
That brought one more thing to mind. If a bunch of people had been doing the quest to get medicine for this sick little girl, what about now? The little girl wasn't there anymore, so would her mother continue asking players to go get medicine? Had this disruption stopped the chance for others to begin the quest? For that matter, this quest now had them taking Agatha to a spring to recover. That was definitely a one-time thing. It's not like they would bring her back and she would immediately fall ill again and it would all start over again, right? If that was the case, no one would be able to do the quest to get the medicine ever again. Wasn't that bad? I didn't know what kind of reward the quest gave, but hoped it wouldn't be missed by all the players that could no longer complete it.
It had taken us close to ten minutes to go from the demon's house to the village, but that was at a breakneck sprinting pace. I didn't want to even come close to the time limit on this quest, so I got Keiko to pick up the pace a little more. All around, I saw nothing but trees going off into the distance. In every direction, the forest appeared unchanging. It really was a miracle that Keiko was leading, or we really wouldn't get to the spring, not just within an hour, but at all.
It had been nearly forty minutes when we suddenly broke out of the forest and were standing immediately before our destination, the spring.
Standing even closer than the spring was a pack of wolves. The stared at us, as if they were surprised, before baring their teeth with wicked sounding snarls. My eyes ran over the group quickly and I counted ten. The odds were pretty bad, but somehow, the wolves didn't give off the same feeling as before. They didn't feel like powerful, giant monsters. They seemed more like, well, wolves. I looked them over and my suspicions were confirmed. While their name hadn't changed, these 『Deep Forest Wolves』only had one health bar, instead of three.
As such, they probably wouldn't give the same crazy amounts of exp as before. The thought almost made me frown, except that even we wouldn't have stood much of a chance against ten of those wolves from before. These weak looking ones? Probably not too bad. As I moved to draw my sword, small arms tightened around my throat. "No, I'm scared," Agatha's weak words were mumbled into my right ear.
"I can put you down then," I suggested, but felt her head swinging back and forth quickly as her arms tightened again. I sighed. "Looks like I have to sit this one out, Keiko. Be careful."
My sister had a wry grin for a moment, watching the little girl clinging to me. Then, she turned to face the wolves and drew her sword. They seemed unable to decide whether to attack, though I'm not really sure why. Maybe our levels were so high that these new, weaker wolves didn't attack on sight? No, from what I'd heard, all the monsters in this game would attack, no matter what.
Taking the initiative, Keiko brought her glowing sword up and launched straight into the group most dispersed around her, but the one she aimed for jumped forward, jaws opening for a bite. With a flash, she brought her blade down, straight through the monster's head and it shattered into oblivion instantly. Landing a moment later, Keiko was surrounded. As the wolves darted in to attack one after another, she stood her ground, her blade darting this way and that, parrying and striking back at her attackers without pause.
While watching from the side, I realized this was my first time actually watching Keiko fight. Before now, I'd always been focused on my own actions, or we would be fighting in unison. Only now could I see how she normally fought in this world.
It didn't take long, only a minute or two before she dispatched the last wolf. While she had fought them off easily enough, she had taken a few glancing blows herself, indicated by the bit of her hp bar that was now missing. It was only about 10% but she took out a small potion and drank it anyway.
We had a spare fifteen minutes still. I knelt down and Agatha climbed off of my back just a few steps from the spring. I took a step back to stand next to Keiko while the little girl smiled at us. I nodded, indicating that she should go ahead. Agatha knelt down and began taking off her little white pajama gown— I spun around when I realized this and stood facing the other way while Keiko put a hand to her lips and let out a small giggle. After a few tens of seconds, I heard a small splash.
"IIYYEEII" a screech and the sound of splashing water. I spun around to see what was wrong, to find Agatha huddled down, shivering uncontrollably at the side of the little pool.
"I,i,i,it's,s,s,s s,s,s,s,s,sooooo c,c,c,c,c,cooolllld,d,d,d,d,d," I could hardly even understand what she said through the chattering of her teeth and the uncontrolled, stuttered words.
Keiko quickly moved to the little girl and wrapped her arms around, saying, "Onii-chan, come here! She's like ice." Agatha clung to my sister, holding herself close as I moved in as well. I touched the small girl's bare shoulder and a shiver went up my back. Her skin really felt like ice.
It must have been exaggerated by the system, there's no way a human's skin could really get this cold—
While that thought went through my mind, I quickly hugged my arms around her, pressing myself against her back to share my own body heat and try to warm her up again.
"What do we do? She needs to bathe in the spring to get better, but if it's that cold..." I thought for a minute. Bringing up the quest screen again, I checked our remaining time. Just twelve minutes.
I sighed deeply. "Self-sacrifice time." I switched back to the character menu and held my hand out, pausing with my finger over the button. I gulped, this was not going to be pleasant.
I hit the 『Remove all Equipment』 button, then again when it changed to 『Remove Underwear』. I gasped when the the cool feeling coming through my clothes changed to ice, pressed against the bare skin of the whole front of my body. I grit my teeth after a moment.
"The plan is this: we keep her warm until she's cured." Keiko hesitated for only a moment. She knew that meant we had to go back into that terrifyingly cold water. The last time, it had felt like forever, but was only a couple minutes of time. Who knew how long it would take this time? Keiko nodded and repeated my action of removed in all her clothes.
"Ok Agatha, we're going to keep you warm while you go in, so you don't have to worry." Together, we held the little girl while we shuffled sideways a step into the water.
My foot froze, as did my little sister's. It was on a whole different level than when we bathed in it before. The water was clearly far below zero degrees. If this was the real world, not only the top, but the whole spring would be frozen solid. There was no way we could slide into this water. There was no easing into something like this. "All at once," we said together. After a moment, we jumped, up into the air for a moment, then down into the water.
I don't actually remember landing in the water, probably because I blacked out. Though it shouldn't exactly be possible, I definitely lost consciousness for a moment. From the shock of the water.
The next thing I knew, I was standing (my feet could just touch the bottom) neck deep with Agatha clutched between my sister and my arms. It didn't even feel like my skin was cold anymore, it actually seemed like it was burning. And it was painful. Actually painful, in this world where there shouldn't have been pain. I saw a small message that seemed as if it mirrored my thoughts.
『ERROR』
『Pain Dampener error』
『resetting...』
『ERROR』
『Pain Dampener Reset error』
『Recalibrating...』
I don't know how to describe what happened next. It was like my body suddenly became numb. Then, I was washed over with heat, then cold. An uncomfortable feeling followed, then my vision went white with pain. In a moment it was gone, followed by a strange sensation I could only describe as some sort of humming, then an itching for an instant, and bliss, back to nothing, and more pain. This went on for only few moments before a new message appeared.
『ERROR』
『Abnormal Status found』
『Reverting to default set』
In a moment, the burning cold of the spring attacked me again. But, it was worse, so much worse. The defaults of the pain dampening were probably a lot less lenient than the regular ones designed for the players of the game. As the cold and pain washed over me, a small, calm part of my mind realized it was a good thing I didn't have to breath in this world, because I couldn't do it if I tried.
As my glazed eyes wandered around, I finally managed to focus on Keiko's face across from me. When our eyes met, I finally felt what I'd missed up to now. Of course, the same thing had happened to her.
Meanwhile, Agatha was staying unmoving between us. I just let my mind blank out for the rest of the time until she finally raised her head and said that she felt better. I managed to move my feet, agonizing with every step, toward the bank. We finally reached the grass and collapsed, side-by-side. I stared up at the sky, or rather, the floor above. The sun was just peeking into the gap between this floor and the next.
For some time, I couldn't manage to move. Agatha redressed herself and sat down near us. I was reminded that she was an NPC when she just sat there idly, waiting for us to make the next move. I finally rolled back up into a sitting position. I looked at Agatha, who was still pretty scrawny, but definitely with more life in her. She certainly had recovered. The next words out of her mouth were both surprising and confusing.
"Now that I'm better, I want to go see Onii-chan!"
