By the time the goblins were dispatched, there was a small cluster of healers around me. My leg was now numb midway up my thigh.

  “I think it’s dead.” Said Ayerelia, much to the horror of the other healers. Looking at their faces, it wasn’t so much that they disagreed with her, diagnosis it was that they disagreed with her bed side manner.

  “Ok,” I looked up at her. “So do your healy thing and bring it back to life.”

  She rolled her eyes at me. “I can’t heal something that is dead. To heal you need something alive.”

  Oh. That had a kind of logic to it. And it would explain why non of the healers had been able to do much for my leg. Shit was I going to die like this? Not even in battle. Just because some shaman’s staff spat on me. Whoa that was something I shouldn’t say out loud near Kevin.

  At least I was in no pain. I poked experimentally at my leg to see where the line was. Still right below my hip. The healers moved off to other people that still had living tissue they could repair.

  Rose came up to talk to me, and stopped looking stricken. “Elizabeth!”

  “What?” I looked up still poking my leg.

  “You’ve been hit with a necrosis spell!”

  “Huh, is that what this is?”

  “This is going to kill you!”

  “I figured that.” I sighed.

  “If you die in here you can’t get back in.”

  “If I die I am going to come back so far away it wouldn’t matter if I would be allowed back in. The event will be long over.” I looked up at her.

  She looked very sad. More so than I was. I didn’t want to die and have to do this all over again, but I had gone far longer this time. I knew far more than I did the last iteration of the game. This was a much better death than the spider death. I was comfortable, I had friends and I wasn’t afraid. Just annoyed.

  Rose’s hands started to glow green.

  “What are you doing?” I asked with genuine curiosity.

  “I can halt the spell by draining it.” She said with a look of concentration. “So shh I need to concentrate. I am trying a loop hole”

  “But I —“

  “Shhh”

  Bemused I stayed quiet. She placed her hands on my leg, one on my thigh and one on my ankle. Her eyes closed and her brows drawn low she murmured something under her breath I couldn’t make out. Then there was a bright green flash that left neon after images on my eyes.

  “A warning would have been nice.” I said my eyes watering.

  “Sorry, I didn’t know it was going to do that.” But she looked pleased. She rested a hand on my thigh, I still couldn’t feel it. “You are no longer infected with necrosis.”

  “Awesome,” I said. I watched her for a few minutes to see if she was going to do anything more. When she didn’t I said, “Ok I don’t to seem ungrateful, but how am I going to walk with a dead leg.”

  She frowned and looked me up and down. “I didn’t think of that,” she addmited. “I just didn’t want you to leave.” She looked away.

  I didn’t want to leave either. However I didn’t want to stay on the floor of the dungeon either.

  Barry came over. “Looks like there is a small room ahead. Are you ok here?” He looked down at me.

  “For some value of ok.” I replied.

  Rose hastily explained about the necrotic spell, dead leg and me still being alive but not moving. He made a face, but told us to sit tight.

  “So what is the normal fix for a necrotic body part. When people aren’t in a dungeon?” I asked.

  “Oh um that.” Rose looked down. “Amputation?”

  “Amputation!?” I yelled at her. Dekka came trotting over and started sniffing the leg with interest.

  “I don’t know of any way of actually reversing something that is dead. I’m really sorry. It’s just that I didn’t want to watch you die.” She wrung her hands.

  “Some necromancer.” I muttered. It would have been better if I had died. I would wake up with all my parts alive and working, if far away and surrounded by lanperanas.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “Look it’s easy to make things dead. We do it all the time.” She said and knelt down beside me. “And while I can control the dead I can’t make the dead actually come back alive.”

  I slumped. “I get it. And it’s ok. You were only trying to save me. Thank you. I am sure we will figure something out.”

  She nodded and we sat there while a scouting team went and investigated the small room. There were some yells and I sat up straighter. Even injured my instinct was to leap into battle. But these were yells of excitement, not fear and I relaxed.

  Opening up my HUD I looked to see if there was any chatter in the group chat. They must have all been talking verbally as the chat was empty.

  {System Error} - Hey guys what’s going on? I can hear some yelling.

  For a minute no one replied.

  {Vampress} - Looks like the small room has a healing ward, which means we can heal everyone back up! And there is a key on a plinth.

  {System Error} - Oh awesome. Someone want to help me get to that room?

  A key on a plinth again? Was it a theme or lazy writing? I waited for a bit then Pallidaddy and Vyper came and hoisting me up between them helped me to the healing area. Both were kind enough to not comment how heavy I was, though I saw Vyper stagger as he took the weight of my injured side.

  I was set down in the room against a wall. The entire room glowed, not with the sickly mushroom glow but with the energy of a healing spell. The glow rippled along the walls of the domed cave like reflections from a pool. I took a deep contented sigh as it washed over me. The room exuded calmness and healing vibes. It was like sitting in the best spa ever. I wiggled my toes to see how the healing was going.

  Only my left toes wiggled.

  Maybe my right ones had and I just couldn’t feel them yet.

  I leaned forward and grabbed the toebox of my boot and tried wiggling my toes. No movement.

  Well shit.

  “I told you. You can’t heal the dead.” Ayerelia said standing above me.

  The best spa would not have staff like her. She was anti-good vibes. Like anti matter but for contentment.

  “It was worth a try!” Rose snapped at her. The elf just shrugged.

  “You are the necromancer.” Ayerelia peered down her nose at the halfling. “Can’t you make her leg undead or something.”

  “That is a really stupid idea.” Rose retorted.

  “Why?” Both Ayerelia and I asked simultaneously.

  Rose opened her mouth, then closed it. Then opened it again and said “I don’t know. It just seems like a really stupid idea.”

  She looked thoughtfully down at my leg then up at me.

  “If you have an idea go for it.” I told her. “Otherwise I am not much use to anyone, including myself in this state.”

  She still looked hesitant.

  “Come on, what is the worst that could happen?” I joked. The leg was already dead. How much deader could it get.

  She looked at me seriously. “I don’t know if your leg will be possessed by a spirit when I resurrect it. Or if I will have to control it directly.”

  I thought about that. What would it be like if my leg was haunted by an evil spirit. Would it attack me constantly, or just trip me at inopportune times? Would it try to kick my dog! If it did that I vowed to chop it off myself. If Rose had to control it would that take all her effort? I pictured myself running around with Rose on my back so she could control my leg.

  By the smirk on Ayerelia’s face, she was having similar thoughts.

  “Go for it.” I told her before I could over think it.

  Rose checked my face to see if I was serious, seeing my resolve she put her hands on my leg. This time when her hands glowed she pushed the glow into my leg. I felt nothing as the necromancer pushed more and more energy into my leg. The glow flooded down to my toes and up to my hip, my leg glowing through my clothing. Creepy.

  Rose sat back, and the three of us watched my leg. Again, I tried to make my toes wiggle. Nothing. I was about to say it didn’t work when all of a sudden my leg gave a jump.

  I hadn’t noticed Garth standing behind me and jumped when he pointed his spear at my leg. Not that I blamed him. If it started jumping around kicking people, I would appreciate some help in subduing it.

  “What now?” I asked Rose when nothing more happened.

  She lifted a shoulder but told me to try standing up.

  It was the oddest sensation. I got smoothly to my feet. The leg worked perfectly but I couldn’t feel it at all. I looked questioningly over at my friend.

  Rose was grinning. “This is good.” She said, craning her neck to look up at me as she examined my thigh. “Your own spirit is animating it.” She poked me hard with a fingertip and watched for a reaction. “Though you will have to be really careful. If it gets hurt, it won’t heal. That won’t matter as much; you won’t feel it. And it will still work if damaged as long as the bone is intact. But it … well, it won’t be pretty.”

  I smiled back. “I am not worried about pretty right now. More interested in functional.” Ayerelia rolled her eyes, but there was a faint smile on her face that wasn’t a sneer.

  I jogged off, testing the leg, to find Barry and report the good news to him. He was skeptical but pleased as I demonstrated my ability to run, dodge and lunge. The door at the entrance had been unlocked. Probably when the key was lifted off its plinth, from what I could tell and knowing how this game worked.

  Our squads assembled back out in the foyer. All the bat corpses, blood, and viscera were gone. That was nice in a way, but I wonder if it meant anything we left behind would be irretrievable. I wondered if I had time to spend that experience point.

  “Are we ready?”

  The crowd roared back, “Ready.”

  “Let’s do this!” Barry took the key and moved towards the middle door.

  We had cleared the room behind the right hand most door. Barry had the key. He tried the middle door, and even from my spot from the middle of the crowd I could tell it wasn’t the right key. That keyhole needed something much larger to unlock it.

  He strode over to the remaining door. It would be a cosmic joke if that key didn’t open the leftmost door. But of course it did. The game dev was sadistic not stupid. If the game didn't follow internal logic it would get bad reviews and they would lose money.

  The door slowly swung open, this time in silence.

  “Alright. Mages light er up!”

  Balls of light floated or shot into the new room.

  “Looks clear, this room looks like a forest. Fighters go first. Let’s try to be more orderly this time! Only go in about 100 feet, or 30 metres for those of you who speak metric.” Satan called out over the crowd. Dekka and I made our way to the front.

  Club in hand I strode into the room. It was a forest, but if it was growing in an Escher painting. I looked up to the ceiling to see more trees and ponds. I was about to stop at the 30 metre mark when I saw movement. One of the bushes was rustling.

  Lifting up my club I prepared for an attack. What felled me came not from the foliage.

  My leg suddenly gave out and I fell over.