“First things first, I guess. [[Status]].” Merrick intoned while willing his Status page to appear and display changes from his last viewing.

  [Name: Merrick

  Class: N/A

  Path: Hybrid/Crafting

  Level: 2

  Innate Ability: Systema Coniunctionis Duplicatae Supremum v1.1

  Skill Tier/Type: Unique/Growth

  Resources:

  - Health: 62%

  - Magica: 100%

  - Stamina: 22%

  Innate Skill(s): Merge, Skill Log - BAOD

  Skills:

  - Development: (U) Basic Plant Lore 1

  - Collection: Harvest Herb 2, Sift 3, Mining 1, Field Dressing 1, Fishing 1

  - Combat: Slash 2, Chop 2, Stab 2, Bludgeon 2, Shield Block 3, Dodge 1, (U) True Arrow 1

  - Magic: (U) Channel Magica 2, (U) Meditation 1

  - Production: Blacksmithing 3, Sewing 7, Leatherworking 4, Weaving 4, Butchering 2, Woodworking 3, Fletching 2, (R) Potioneering 11

  - Utility: Toss 4, Jog 5, Sledding 4, (U) Speed Reading 7, (U) Quick Math 5, (U) Stamina Surge 1, (U) Improved Reflexes 2, (U) Haggling 4, (U) Sleight of Hand 8

  Spells: Spark Ember, Condense Water, Lure Fish, Smooth Knot]

  Merrick’s eyes were first drawn to his health, which ticked down by one percent while he watched due to the bleeding in his legs. All three of the resource pools were odd, in Merrick’s experience.

  Health didn’t change when someone caught a fever or food poisoning unless the condition was severe enough to be fatal more often than not. Some people’s Health resource never read 100% either such as people with chronic conditions. Honestly, attempting to decipher what the resource gauge was trying to tell you was frequently an exercise in frustration. Not here though, Merrick was acutely aware that his blood-loss was causing the decline and he'd likely die if he didn’t figure out how to stem the flow.

  He was already feeling a bit lightheaded, if he was being honest with himself. Though, he thought, that was likely due to his severely reduced stamina. He didn’t need the number to know how much of a workout he’d just had, his burning core muscles were more than enough to hint that to him.

  When he saw that his health was holding steady at 62% after watching for a short while, he determined that he had enough time to finish reading his status. He seemed to have leveled up several skills without noticing. He’d even leveled up two of his upgraded skills, [[Quick Math]] and [[Improved Reflexes]], by leaning into them so heavily during his impromptu sledding session.

  Unfortunately, there was no amazing revelation in his status that would miraculously fix his legs. Status check done, Merrick swapped over to do a quick inventory.

  Shoes? Gone.

  Sword? Gone. He’d dropped it back in the room with his friends after the pewlip ambush in order to use his handy backpack-turned-sled as a shield. A pack of many purposes, really.

  Pants? Shorts.

  Shirt? Surprisingly fine.

  Backpack? Torn to shreds like his legs, for the most part. Large patches of the leather reinforced pack were ripped off or dangling by mere threads due to the rough treatment. Even the parts that weren’t ripped right open were mostly threadbare.

  On second look, however, Merrick realized most of the damage had been done to the top of the pack. Since most of his body weight had been focused there, the bottom of the pack had been spared any holes. That meant that most, if not all, of his belongings would still be in the pack since it’d been nowhere close to full.

  He went to open the flap at the top of the bag, just for it to come off in his hand. With a shrug, he set it next to himself and took inventory of the inside. Knife, check. Herb samples, check. Water bottle, check. Half-empty, though. Sample vials, mostly survived the fall. A few of them were crushed into glass though, which he carefully removed from his pack.

  The jade case that Mary had stored his everdew bell had also survived the fall, seemingly unscathed. It must have been made of even higher quality material than he’d thought.

  Always one to try and focus on the positives, Merrick realized that nothing had come to investigate his crash yet and he remained blissfully uneaten. Speaking of which, Merrick scooted over and glanced behind him to observe the bush that had saved his life. He was shocked to see that he recognized it, as well. The mottled-yellow bark was impossible for him to mistake.

  Sure enough, glancing at its boughs he could see that the bush was laden with goodberries. His stomach growled and he scowled at it. For some reason, it refused to get on the same page as his mind. He was supposed to be fasting until after the Nexus Portaling to prevent complications.

  Obviously, he wasn’t allowed to eat the berries no matter how hungry he was or how good the juice he could smell, wafting off his backpack from where he’d crushed a few during his landing, smelled. It could lead to sever food poisoning, cramps, vomiting, diarrhea, and sometimes death. Or so he’d been told.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Merrick stared at the branches for a moment as he tried to lecture his stomach before realizing something about his logic was off. May it be due to the blood loss or low stamina, his thoughts were moving much slower than he was used to. With a face-palm, he realized that he wasn’t going to be making it to any portals in his condition.

  Even if his legs were working, his math told him he was 20 miles beneath the surface as the crow flies, which could easily be three to five times the distance if he had to traverse through the tunnels on foot to find his way out. Which he wasn’t going to be able to do. Because he was going to die in that dungeon. There was no way a level 2, unclassed individual with a utility Innate skill was going to make that journey. His only real hope was waiting for a deep-delving team to stumble upon him.

  That meant he was playing a waiting game. Which meant he needed to eat. Merrick attempted to stand up and grab a berry off the vine nearest to him, excited to taste the delicacy. Unfortunately, his leg buckled the moment he tried to put weight on it.

  “Right, the leg problem. Down to 59% health too.” His stomach growled at him and made him wish he’d harvested some of the glowing yellow mulberries so he’d at least have something to snack on. He’d tried one before, causing his guide at the time to shout at him about not eating the light sources. He’d not needed the warning though, because the berry had been absurdly bitter.

  With a jolt, he realized there was one fruit he’d harvested though. He cracked open the jade case containing his everdew bell and saw the large, mostly round, berry he’d merged sitting next to it in the case where he’d set it. His thought process at the time was that jade cases were supposed to help contain medicinal energy, which Mary had said the berry contained some of. Now, though, he was just glad he’d stuck it in the case. He got to enjoy the experience of eating it instead of having to try and pluck shattered vial glass out of a fruit mushed to the bottom of his pack.

  Merrick’s eyes widened as he had thought. It was a long shot, but Mary had said that the upgraded version of the fruit had healing properties. Merrick shot up a prayer to Nophase, the Catch-all God of Generalizations, before taking a large bite of the gooderberry. He was careful not to let the juice dribble down his chin, sucking even as he bit to make sure he pulled all the liquid into his gullet.

  The consistency reminded him largely of a peach, but without the weird furry texture that he hated so much. It was extremely sweet and a little tangy. More importantly, though, was that after the first bite his body became screaming at him to keep eating.

  After eating the entire orange-sized berry in only a few bites, Merrick closed his eyes and leaned backwards in contentment. He imagined he could feel the food traveling down his throat and dissolving in his stomach, causing a warmth to spread out in a pulse through his whole body. Said pulse seemed to reach his skin and bounce back to his stomach, after which another pulse of heat traveled back down to his leg and back.

  It almost reminded Merrick of how an ant colony would behave, the heat spreading out in search of injury like an army of ant scouts looking for food. After a couple of weak pulses of heat traveling to his legs and back, Merrick’s stomach started cramping. It almost felt like someone was grabbing his stomach and wringing it out.

  Although he didn’t have enough time to fully register the pain before it stopped, he did sit up just in time for the soothing pulses of heat to start again. This time, however, it felt like they had purpose. With wide eyes, he watched the skin on his legs start growing at a visible rate. Dirt and debris seemed to be pushed to the surface of his flesh before skin grew out from beneath it. As much as he would have enjoyed watching the process, however, he was busy trying to stop himself from tearing his legs open again.

  “Itchy! It’s so freaking itchy! Why!” Merrick had never felt such an irritating sensation as his skin growing back over his legs. Trying to distract himself, he pulled out his experiment log and tried to write down what he remembered of his two merge attempts with goodberries.

  Luckily he was able to pull up his [Skill Log] and read the output again, but he still wanted to take notes on the sensations he felt while he did, which meant fresh notes were better. His handwriting was much worse than normal, due to the itching causing his hands to tremble, but he was able to finish writing.

  He also grabbed his journal to jot down the potions he’d used so far and made a note to himself to refill his bandolier before his next trip outside the workshop. He tapped his pen on the paper a few times trying to ignore his itching legs as his mind tried to tell him something, causing a different sort of itch.

  Careful not to injure himself further, Merrick facepalmed as hard as he was willing to risk as a punishment to himself. Afterwards, he slowly reached down to his bandolier and verified that all the potions he had stashed there had survived the fall. Most importantly, he grabbed one of his rejuvenation potions from the first slot and quaffed it. The potion immediately been working in tandem with the goodberry energy, increasing his blood production and stamina restoration. It might have been a placebo effect, but he would have sworn the itching also subsided slightly afterwards.

  With a deep sigh, Merrick relaxed for a couple minutes as his legs finished fixing themselves. He even felt like the bruising around his ribs was partially relieved, though still particularly tender.

  He very carefully attempted to stand once more and though his legs were a little more wobbly than normal, he was able to keep his legs beneath him.

  Merrick then squinted at the bush he’d destroyed almost a quarter of with his fall, counting several berries that looked ripe. Looking down at his feet, he was able to see were the soil was slightly discolored from overly ripe berries falling off the bush in the past and decomposing. Even his now-bare feet’s freshly grown, pale, skin were already starting to get discolored.

  The young, displaced potioneer rolled his shoulder and decided it was time to put his newly leveled [[Harvest Herb]] skill to the test and get to berry picking. He may not be hungry anymore, but he’d be a fool not to [[Merge]] up some more miracle berries while the opportunity was presenting itself to him so.