All around the cavern, half-sunken in pits of filth and moss, lay the females. Blubbery masses of flesh with long, spindly, useless limbs and blank, slack faces. A dozen of them. Their eyes didn’t even track us. They just… stared, empty and extinguished, like no one had ever given them permission to think.

  Their existence was a sentence, not a life.

  Alya swallowed hard. “We need to end their… this…” Words failed her.

  Mary nodded, face pale. “This is no way to live…”

  I gave a slow nod. “Let’s make it quick.”

  Alya and Jack stepped forward. Quinn hesitated only a second before joining. Marcus tightened his grip on the club he’d stolen, jaw set. I lifted my hand and fired two arcane darts. They punched through the closest breeders’ skulls with a clean crack.

  Two small notifications flashed at the edge of my sight.

  The others moved fast. There was hesitation, but no cruelty. Just mercy delivered as swiftly as we could give it. One by one the breeders fell, until the only sounds left were our own heavy breaths.

  It was done.

  We spread out to search the surroundings next. A task that proved depressingly futile.

  A mountain of nothing greeted us. Bones piled high enough to form a macabre hill. Furs so rancid even Marcus stepped around them. Weapons so badly made the term “weapon” offended us on principle.

  Marcus was the only one who got anything remotely useful; the man spent quite a bit of effort dismantling the chieftain's leg, harvesting tendons and its giant femur bone. Probably to craft them into some kind of weapon later on.

  Alya still clutched her stolen axe like it was a newborn puppy. Quinn recovered the knives he’d thrown. Jack kicked at a rusted blade, and the blade snapped under his boot.

  I picked up my shield from where I dropped it earlier. The curse in it hummed faintly, a familiar vibration under my fingers. After a thought, I turned and handed it to Jack.

  “Take it. I’ll remove the curse once we’re back at camp.”

  He blinked at me. “You sure?”

  “You need it more than me,” I said. “Also, it protects against magic. The curse just… makes your ears ring so much it deafens you when it blocks something.”

  Jack nodded vigorously. “Yeah, I’m not using it until you fix that. But thank you.”

  Then I went to the leader’s massive stone club. I pressed my hand to the cold surface and cast the spell. The heavy curse I’d forced into it earlier slithered free and flowed back into my mace with startling ease. Almost… relieved.

  Like it wanted to come home.

  The cavern felt even colder when we finally regrouped. All of us stood facing the single spot with even a hint of life: the twisted little tree in the centre of the chamber.

  Its roots curled like claws around a bed of pale soil. Its branches were warped, like they’d grown under constant strain. And hanging from it, glowing faintly in the gloom, were a handful of luminous fruits.

  Mary whispered, “Are… those safe?”

  Alya tilted her head. “Magical fruit in a cave. That’s either really good or really bad.”

  Marcus grunted. “Looks like the kind of thing you eat once.”

  Quinn squinted. “Elias? You’re the magic guy. Thoughts?”

  I stepped closer, the faint radiance brushing my fingers. My arcane sense prickled like static.

  “I have no idea,” I admitted. “They are magical. Quite strongly too. But I can’t really know if that means helpful or deadly.”

  Jack sighed. “So… we might eat them and gain power? Or eat them and explode?”

  “I have a feeling,” Quinn said. “Logically we are being set up in a tutorial; if there should be some kind of reward in a place like this, a magic fruit that makes you stronger makes sense.”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Alya deadpanned. “Do you really think that game logic has a place here?”

  Quinn eyed her. “I do; just look at your status.”

  Jack crossed his arms. “Look, we’ve already fought a zombie giant, dismantled it limb by limb and massacred the breeders. At this point? I vote we try one.”

  They all looked at me.

  Apparently I’d become the designated magic guinea pig.

  Quinn came closer and started his spiel. “C’mon man, you drank like a dozen cursed potions, and you are still fine! Better than fine, actually. Did you become more handsome since then? I’m jealous. No, I mean, the fruits are probably what made the gorg so resistant too, right? It makes total sense! Probably…”

  Honestly it was what I thought too, but I didn’t want to be the one to test the theory. Why the hell the system didn’t give any kind of prompt for items I had no idea. Maybe we need a skill… Anyway, I looked at the fruits; there were many. The tree was no taller than me, but it still carried at least 40 or so fruits.

  I took one in my hand; it really looked like a plum, orange-coloured and glowing faintly. After having felt the curse in the bead and having dealt with that kind of negative energy, this seemed to pulse with a kind of warmth. I was convinced that it was safe; if it wasn’t, I had a lot of stats now and a healer at hand.

  Without any more stalling, I took a bite out of it, then another; I chewed, and then I finished the fruit. Its taste was nice; it was a plum in the end, but the feeling I got when it flowed down my throat was really of pure warmth, like sitting in front of the fire after working a day in the snow. When the warmth reached my stomach, I felt it expand and reach my whole body. I could feel a bit of the tension in every part of me melt away; the feeling was extremely pleasurable.

  Ding.

  “Well guys…” I said after taking another one and biting into it, “Apparently Quinn was right. They boost vitality.” I took another one and threw it at the kid.

  Quinn looked at me with a slightly shocked expression. “I was right? O-of course I was right! It makes just that much sense, no?” He said after eating his own.

  A pleasant hush fell over the group as everyone stared at the plums, then at me, then back at the tree. The little plums swayed like they were inviting us to commit a harmless sin.

  Jack grinned first. “If these things make us tankier, I’m stuffing my pockets.”

  Mary didn’t even pretend to resist. “For once, something in this cursed place is actually helpful.” She plucked one delicately, but the moment she bit into it, her eyes widened in a slow, dreamy bloom. “Warm… that’s unfairly good.”

  Alya grabbed two at once. “If Quinn’s right, I’m eating these until I burst.”

  Marcus snorted. “Same. If it puts meat back on my bones after getting tossed around like a toy, I’ll eat the bark too.”

  The air filled with soft crunches and slow, involuntary sighs as one by one they devoured the glowing fruits. Each plum pulsed with quiet life when touched, leaking that gentle warmth into palms before even being bitten.

  By the time most of us were on our fourth or fifth, Quinn suddenly straightened like someone tugged an invisible cord tied to his spine.

  “I—hey! I got another message!”

  Everyone froze, half-chewed fruit still in mouths.

  Quinn swallowed dramatically. “Plus five again! But also… listen to this: ‘Your blood has reached saturation. Vital Surge achieved. Vitality permanently increased by five percent.’”

  Jack whooped loud enough to echo. “You’re kidding me!”

  Marcus grabbed Quinn by the shoulders and shook him. “Are you serious?”

  Quinn puffed up like a smug bird. “Yes, a permanent percentage increase.”

  The cave trembled with a burst of shared adrenaline. Even Mary—sweet, patient Mary—hugged her fruit like a treasured relic before eating it.

  I finished my fifth, swallowing that last wave of golden warmth as it washed through me. The notification chimed, identical to Quinn’s.

  Then a second one slid in:

  Fair enough. I’d already made off like a bandit. I have achieved more accomplishments, gained more vitality, increased power, and improved my ability to survive.

  New class evolutions. New traits humming through my magical senses. Skill choices waiting like unopened books.

  Level nineteen.

  A sack full of hard-earned experience. And we took all the remaining fruits with us; who knows, maybe we can sell them or at least give them to others. Keeping the seeds and replanting them was not out of the question either. The possibilities were many, and our mood was high.

  The curse… quiet, almost pleased, and another one curled in its orbed cage in my pocket.

  We were alive. Stronger. Ready to go back, wherever that ended up being now.

  But first…

  I pulled up my status screen, eager and a little nervous to see just how much I’d changed.

  Holy fucking shit!

  20 chapters ahead!