The Lone Healer-Chapter 220: The Aftermath, Part Four

{Elena}

In a dark, blood-soaked alley, a 16-year-old girl with ashen silver hair, wearing a blood-covered suit of iron armor, tried to stay quiet, but her sobs kept threatening to squeeze past her tightened throat.

In the distance, the sounds of roars, cries, and frantic yelling rang out. Elena hoped the sounds would get farther away, but they never did.

In her arms was the boy whom the blood on Elena’s suit belonged to. Her little brother, an archer-class player who’d been stabbed in the gut a few minutes earlier.

Elena had tried to prevent that from happening. She’d tried to take the attention away from him like a tank should, but there were just too many monsters flooding the streets for Elena to keep track of.

Ultimately, she’d failed.

"Stay with me, Elias," Elena pleaded to her brother as tears ran down her face, falling in his hair. "Stay with me!"

Of course, Elena hadn’t been expecting to succeed.

As the monster outbreaks grew in intensity, with the creatures becoming more numerous and far stronger, a small part of Elena knew it was only a matter of time before it was all over.

She had hoped that her brother would be able to make it, though. That she’d be able to pass her off to someone, stand before him, and secure his escape.

Life didn’t quite turn out that way, though.

Now, she was sitting at a dead-end, watching as a monster appeared, stumbling around the corner.

An abomination with a hound’s head, saliva dripping from dozens of thin fangs, and a bony, skeletal body that walked toward Elena with murderous intentions.

Level 40

MP: 300/300

Elena herself was only level 12.

The tank player quickly understood that she’d soon be joining her brother, who had long since turned cold in her arms.

As the monster crept toward her, snarling lowly, Elena gently set her brother on the ground.

She stood up, pulling out her Lesser-tier Iron Greatsword, and held it up.

With those tears still dripping from her cheeks, she got ready to make her last stand.

She figured that if she was going to die, she might as well do so on her feet.

The monster finally lost its patience.

It charged at her, closing the gap so quickly that even if she’d miraculously begun her swing in time, she wouldn’t have even gotten halfway through before the enemy reached her.

Elena closed her eyes.

But, the bite to rip out her throat never arrived.

Eventually, Elena dared to open her eyes.

There was nothing there.

"... What?"

---

{A Few Days Later}

Admittedly, Elena wasn’t sure she’d made the right call by switching classes.

But, after that voice in everyone’s heads presented the offer, Elena tried to picture herself facing off against any enemies.

And, she was sure that if she ever had to stand face to face with another monster, she wouldn’t have the courage to raise a weapon.

So, Elena took Tamira’s offer and chose to become a Scout.

Scouts were a Support class under the Assassin path, one that, according to its description, would allow Elena to help teammates from afar, where the mere sight of another monster would not petrify her.

The class came with one Technique, and one Spell.

Elena Harris

Level 1

MP: 10/10

AP: 0

EXP: 0/10

WST: 780

---

Endurance: 1

Speed: 1

Precision: 1

Strength: 1

Arcane: 1

---

Spells:

Lesser Aura Detection - 10 MP

{Mark enemies around you. If an enemy is marked like this before they detect you or your allies, the first attack you or your allies land on them will deal 25% bonus damage. This ability can detect enemies through walls.}

Techniques:

Analysis - CD: 30 sec.

{Observe an enemy from afar. If your line of sight is not broken for five seconds, that enemy’s weak points will glow.}

Elena looked at the abilities that were available to her, while she sat at a bus stop in the morning. Once, these streets used to be packed at this hour. Now, there was no one around. Nothing but the corpses of monsters that hadn’t been cleaned yet.

[This should be enough to be an active player without fighting... Right?]

She’d find out soon, as Elena was about to go apply for every guild she could.

She hadn’t done so already for one simple reason. Her brother had been too young. If one was part of a guild, normally, there were mandatory dungeons they’d have to clear. That meant Elena would be separated from her brother, Elias, and that meant Elias would be in danger.

Now, however...

Well, she didn’t have to worry about that anymore.

The thought alone was enough to make tears pop up in her eyes. It had only been a few days, of course, so she wasn’t exactly over it yet.

But, life went on. Even though the AP quota had been paused, thankfully as this meant that doing dungeons was now fully voluntary, Elena still needed money. She still needed tokens to buy food. She still needed an income.

And, as a girl who hadn’t even yet graduated from high school, risking her life in dungeons as part of a guild was the quickest way to make that happen.

"... Just try," Elena told herself. "Just try."

Trying got her nowhere, though, as each and every guild she applied for ended up rejecting her.

By the time 5 pm rolled around, there were only two she hadn’t applied to.

The Bloodletters and the Pillars of Unity.

The Bloodletters, because they had a reputation of being shady, and the Pillars of Unity because...

Well... Because their founder rubbed Elena the wrong way.

Honestly, she wasn’t sure what it was. Maybe it was just the contrarian in her rising up from her heart upon hearing such unanimous praise raining down on one person, but while she was undeniably powerful, Elena doubted that healer was as benevolent as everyone pretended.

Now, however, she had to hope that she was, as hers was the next guild Elena was going to apply to.

[Where’s the guild hall again?]

A quick search online pointed her in the direction of an old, abandoned school. Maybe this was that healer’s own school, as she was apparently just 3 years older than Elena.

Elena arrived covered in sweat, wearing the leather set of armor that had replaced her iron plate.

[... Here goes nothing.]

Both hopeful and reluctant, Elena walked in, following a sizeable crowd of players just like her.

Unsurprisingly, most of these players were also level 1, as many of them had likely become Support-class players specifically to join this guild.

The line of players slowly funneled into the school, all walking through the halls and heading down the stairs, before they ended up in some old basketball court. Here, by the bleachers, sat the woman herself, Neve Stephens, with some others beside her, all behind some desks.

Elena crossed her arms, standing by as the last of the players came in.

As soon as the influx of potential new guild members stopped a lady standing next to Neve with short pink hair and a stereotypical office outfit called out:

"One by one, step forward and grab these," she said, holding up some papers.

The players did so. Elena was along the last of them.

As she grabbed her sheet, she looked down at it and found 3 questions with ample space beneath each to answer them. Before she could read them out, that same lady said:

"There are 2 tests you will need to pass in order to join the guild. One written and one practical. Please, take your written test and fill it out. If you pass, then you’ll be hearing from us."

[Hm... Okay.]

Elena grabbed her test and walked over to the far end of the bleachers, where she sat down and tried to focus.

[Name, Elena Harris. Date of birth, May 21, 2008. Phone number, da-da-da... Class: Scout]

With an old pencil in her hands, she glanced down at the first line that read:

[Please, answer in full sentences.]

Then, went to the first question which asked:

1. If you and an ally were fighting a monster that was particularly powerful and both of you had taken significant damage but you had a Medium Healing Potion, would you drink it yourself or give it to your ally?

Elena put her chin on her hand, humming a little as he tried to envision the situation.

She’d been in this situation a couple of times already. As a tank, she’d answer that she should be given the potion. Now that she was a support, she figured the answer wouldn’t change.

[I’d give it to my ally,] Elena wrote down. [I’m not the focal point of the group. It would be wasted on me.]

Deciding that was a good enough response, Elena went on with the others.

She was done in less than a minute.

Elena was the first to stand up from where she sat and walk over to Neve’s table.

She approached with her paper in hand and placed it in front of her.

The healer’s eyes, glowing slightly with raw magical power, were fixed on her with some curiosity.

[... She looks a lot scarier than I thought she would.]

"You’re done?" Neve asked.

"Yeah," Elena responded. "I’m done. Uhm, thank you for the opportunity."

Neve looked down at the paper and then back up at her.

"Alright then."

Just like that, Elena turned around and walked away, feeling the weight of every pair of eyes on that basketball court on her back the entire time.