Tiffany's wound was grievous, but he knew how to deal with it. When healing the stab wound through his chest, Luke learned how to affect the physical body with Needle of Life and Threads of Mana. Using that same concept, he lashed a thread of mana around the broken rib that'd punctured Tiffany's lung and heaved. She stirred and grunted in pain as he slid the broken rib out of her lung.

  "What are you doing?" Sean asked.

  "Helping her," Luke said.

  With the rib back in place, he focused on the most critical part of the injury, the lung. Stitching it back together was an exercise in frustration, with the ribs pressing downward again, Luke having to hold them back, and the wall of the lung wriggling when he punched through it with Needle of Life. Still, after a few tries, he got the job done and expelled the blood inside before applying a light touch of mana to the rib fractures, mending them by flooding the cracks and breaks with mana.

  System Message: Boon of Potential grants you an attribute point (+1 Focus).

  Luke was about to withdraw and celebrate finally getting an attribute point when he realized something. Tiffany's heart was slowing, and he didn't have to look long to find out why. Such an obvious thing for him to miss. She didn't have mana. None at all.

  Through his Weaver's Eye and Threads of Mana burrowing through her, he found the metaphysical heart that was supposed to pump mana around her body, similar to how the blood flowed, but it was empty. Not a single speck of mana remained. The meta-heart struggled and without it functioning, the physical heart didn't have the strength to keep going.

  "Mana must be crucial for Integrated," Luke whispered to himself.

  "What was that?" Nate asked, shouting without turning his attention away from the monsters.

  Most of the goblins near the group were dead now. With barriers, they didn't pose much of a threat.

  "Shush," Luke said, without opening his eyes.

  He grabbed a mana potion from his inventory, pried the girl's jaw open as she groaned and struggled on the grass, pouring the blue-tinted liquid down her throat while keeping an eye on her meta-heart. Luke saw it filling with mana. It thudded once, then again, pushing the mana out through her body, but no new mana regenerated. The meta-heart wizened mere seconds later.

  "Shit," Luke cursed.

  Her physical heart was close to giving up, and Luke, without thinking, took his Threads of Mana and affixed them to Needle of Life, using them in conjunction to pierce through the wall of Tiffany's meta-heart. Then he did it again. And again.

  Four threads of mana connected them, and he channeled mana through them while wrapping a fifth thread around the meta-heart. Luke poured mana into her, his own stores diminishing, as he squeezed the girl's meta-heart again and again with the other thread, performing some type of weird mana CPR.

  A bead of sweat ran down the side of his nose, and his breath slowed, a cold sensation spreading through his chest as mana was depleted. Just a little more, a little more.

  Mana bloomed in her meta-heart and the girl gasped and sat up with a start, coughing, groaning as she hugged her bruised chest. "Ow, fuck. My ribs," Tiffany grunted.

  "You OK?" Luke asked.

  "Feels like I’ve been hit by a truck," Tiffany answered, narrowing her eyes. "Who are you?"

  "He's the guy who just saved your life," Sean said, straightening.

  The goblins in their immediate vicinity were dealt with.

  Tiffany stood with some difficulty and nodded. "Thank you, Luke. Appreciate the save."

  "You're welcome," Luke said. "What's an Aurist?"

  "My class uses auras to support others, but I have some offensive ones as well," Tiffany said.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Luke's healing made her health bar tick up, but when she activated an aura that gave her a warm glow, the healing sped up, and her health bar filled at a quicker rate. A small icon appeared by his own health bar, and when he focused on it.

  Inspected Status: Healing Aura: Slowly regenerates health.

  "Wow, it affects me too," Luke said.

  "Sure. Everyone I want to include," Tiffany said, "and it's more effective on party members. Why don't you join us?"

  "Hold on a moment," Daniel said, stepping up to them and turning his back to the melee near the gateway. "Are we sure we want to expand our group?"

  "Are you kidding?" Triss asked. "One more dude who can stick a sword into monsters will be helpful. And who would turn away a proper healer?"

  Sean nodded in agreement. "With Nate, we'll get some much needed offensive power."

  "Come on, big bro," Triss said, punching Daniel in the arm. She winced, as if it'd hurt her hand, then kicked at one of the goblin corpses. "My hexes are useless against these things."

  "You're siblings?" Nate asked.

  "Triss is my sister," Daniel said.

  "I'm not related to them," Sean added.

  "Fine," Daniel said. "You two want to join us? We could use the help."

  Luke and Nate looked at each other and shrugged. "Sure," Luke said. "Do you know what's going on with that gateway?"

  "All these goblins came pouring out of the hole in the air over there. When we got here, people were already fighting, so we figured it was best to help."

  In the distance, a man Luke recognized grew huge, easily three times the size of a normal person, and began swatting goblins away. It was the plated armor man from back at the Goblin Mage cavern. From Luke's right, faint notes floated on the breeze, streaming from a string instrument, and if he wasn't mistaken, wolves were among the goblins, killing them with teeth and claws.

  As they watched the last handful of goblins perish, something big and hulking materialized in front of the gateway. It was a groll, only enormous, towering over them all, tall enough to reach the tops of the trees. Rather than folds of flesh and skin, it had filled out with muscle.

  Inspected Monster: Groll Champion. Level 12.

  "The massive thing is only level 12?" Nate asked, looking at his sword. "How am I supposed to hurt that?"

  System Message: Join Raid?

  "Did you get that message too?" Luke asked.

  They all nodded.

  "Hold on, let me add you to the party first," Daniel said, and that notification jumped to the front. Luke accepted and saw their health bars popping up. They were all full, with a little icon showing the Healing Aura's effect on them. Nate's health bar joined the others.

  "Let's go," Daniel said and set off running.

  System Message: Raid Joined.

  The raid interface didn't add much. Just a long list of scrollable names and their health bars.

  Triss grinned. "Maybe with this thing, my spells will have some use."

  Luke lagged behind for a moment and opened his first corpse. It showed as a fleshy container in his interface, and one of them held something called a Goblin Core, which he looted. Then he put the entire corpse in his inventory, surprised to find it worked. He looted all the corpses. You never knew what might be useful later. With that done, Luke ran after the rest of the group, Nate looking back and urging him on.

  All the humans were converging on the massive Groll. A rain of arrows, the smattering of guns, and countless spells rained down on the gigantic monster as it raised an arm, bent down, and smashed into the ground. Sean grunted, dropped to a knee, and spat blood. Luke saw why. He'd created some sort of barrier under the Groll's arm, protecting those on the ground from that first attack, but it had taken a lot out of him.

  "You okay?" Luke asked, putting a hand on Sean's shoulder, letting threads of mana surge through the Warden in search of something to mend.

  Other than him being low on mana, there wasn't anything wrong, so instead Luke offered his hand, pulling Sean to his feet.

  "I'm fine," Sean said. "This is just how the class works. I have to take some of the brunt of blocking with the barrier. I'll be fine, but I can't do that again for a little while."

  "Useful skill," Luke said, nodding in appreciation.

  Daniel ran in with Nate. They both stopped next to a foot the size of a horse, stabbing and punching at it without doing much. Especially Daniel, who looked frustrated as he found his fists unable to hurt the monster. That was, however, before a deep orange glow spread across his hands, and Luke saw a punch break the skin of the Groll's foot, who winced, and stepped away, kicking at a clump of wolves nipping at its other foot.

  Fire, lightning, and ice crashed into its massive bulk, but it didn't seem bothered by it. A second blow came. This time, an open palm slapped down onto the ground. Several people were caught in it, and Luke ran toward them, only to find all of them dead and gone. There was nothing to heal.

  Tiffany, Triss, and Sean followed him, with Triss focused on the massive Groll Champion, her hands weaving through the air.

  "What sorts of spells do you have?" Luke asked, trying to pull his mind away from the dead and what their demise meant in the Tutorial Dungeon.

  "Damage over time effects and curses," Triss said, a bead of sweat running down the side of her face. "They stack. Each hex does minor damage, but together and over time, I can do quite a lot. See the Groll's health bar? Those reddish-brown icons are mine."

  Luke looked up and saw them among almost a hundred other icons at the Groll's health bar. Its health was ticking down at a good clip, but the damage only seemed to enrage the monster, because it moved faster, slamming the ground again and again, then moving a foot and stomping. Almost twenty people must've died in less than a minute. But not all of them. Some called out for healing.