Something was buffeting his face... V's first thoughts upon waking were confused and muddled. He could swear the specters screams echoed through his head even still. V tried to brush whatever was on his face off as he gathered his bearings. Right, he had just collapsed after bleeding out, apparently someone found him. V's eyes snapped open as he remembered the situation. A forest fairy was slowly bonking him in the face as it bounced back and forth on its spherical body. He still was lying near E's body, the mantis cages were open, but the other mantises were nowhere to be seen, the only other living thing in view was the fairy who was still gently smashing its fluffy body into his face. "Stop, stop I’m awake..." his voice was rough, his ears were ringing, he sort of felt like he had a concussion. Perhaps the mental damage from the specter had not entirely healed. On the subject, V supposed that the forest fairy had healed him. "If you fixed me, thanks." V was still unsure how intelligent the fairies were, or if they could understand his words, but it’s not like he had another way to communicate. As he slowly stood up, his status reminded him with an alert that he still needed to choose a reward.

V could put up with the alert for a little while, there were more pressing concerns. The specter for one, the fate of L and Eika for another. V considered simply leaving the forest, as frankly, if the specter was still alive, he would not be able to save them anyway. On the other hand, losing both Eika and L would be a massive blow to his chances of surviving this game that the Gods had thrown him into. As he took a few moments to weigh the options, the fairy bounced off back to the site of the battle. He sighed; despite the risks it was probably best to investigate the situation. As he headed back, he realized that he was not actually very far. When he was crawling after E, head pounding, blood pouring, it felt like he had traveled for miles, but it turned out to be only about thirty yards. With that in mind, he figured that the specter situation had been dealt with in some way or another, or he would still be hearing it screaming.

It would not be an understatement to call what V was seeing a gory nightmare. It appeared as if the majority of the gorillas tore each other to pieces, in a literal sense. The giant gorilla was gone, the only living things in the grove seemed to be L, who was still down, Eika, who was bouncing a fairy in her hands, the fairies, and three gorillas that had fairies riding on them. The gorillas seemed to be helping the fairies clean up the grove, only a small handful of the fairies had arms and legs, and even then, he doubted they could push anything heavier than a fist size rock around. Eika jumped up when she saw V, dropping the fairy, which rolled away toward a gorilla. "Eika thought the crazy man might have gotten you!" She ran over and wrapped her arms around his waist. V awkwardly patted her head, between her ears, "I think the fairies might have healed me. I had taken a lot of damage and I don’t think I would have woken back up otherwise." Eika backed up and pointed to L "L has not gotten up yet... The fairies bounced on her some but I don’t even know if they were trying to help or just bouncing on her..." V walked over to L and crouched down. "I’m no doctor, but I can at-least make sure she is alive." After checking her pulse, he nodded "Well, her heartbeat is steady, I would wager that the specter really messed her head up, we can only wait and see if she wakes up." Eika looked around "Eika certainly does not like all the gorilla parts laying all over the place. I don't think the fairies do either." V ignored her comment, instead asking a somewhat important question "So uh, does anyone know what happened to the specter" V was mostly asking Eika, but spoke loud enough that the fairies could hear him. Eika shook her head "No it was gone when I woke up..." she trailed off as one of the fairies with arms and legs walked up and patted V on his shin, after getting his attention it pointed off into the forest and crossed its arms in an "X" pattern. "Either it’s saying it died in the forest, or it ran off into the forest, and we should not follow it." V nodded, agreeing with Eika's assessment of the fairy’s motions.

Now that the status of Eika, L, and the specter has been ascertained, V looked at his new ability.

┌——————┐
Ability: Master of One
Enables the use of one Ability from another class held by the user.
After choosing an ability, Master of One cannot be used again for thirty minutes.
└——————┘

So... he could use focus slash in Divine Champion form. V was actually a little excited, this was the first time his Divine Class has shown the potential to be used as his "main class," so far it had been more of a supporting role, something to use when he needed speed or strength. However, with this new ability, his class might finally be as good as L's or O's. Now, for the other matter. V brought up the options he had been given upon V's death.

┌——————┐
Please Choose Your Reward!
1) E's Blessing
2) E's Divine Class
3) E's Name, "E"
└——————┘

E's blessing would be useless for him, V immediately discounted that as an option. Fusing people and things together was powerful, but V had neither the expertise nor the will to run hundreds of experiments on them. As for E's class, V had to admit the idea of having a second Divine Class could be really helpful, on the other hand, E's class was based around enslaving things. Having to accept and participate in slavery was different then actively seeking it out. V had little interest in his class from that perspective. It was also unclear if he received the level one version of E's class, or he took E's current class, levels included. The third remaining option was the most unclear. "Thanks for nothing." V casually rolled his eyes at the Gods for the massive lack of information given to him, it’s not like he could offend the Gods any more than "being a rival champion." As V considered the third option, he could vaguely remember that his name was not originally V. The Goddess that sent him here said something about erasing the rest of his name, and replacing it with V. Now that he thought about it, that was sort of a weird rule to implement in their game. Even weirder still was the option to take another champion's name. It was clear that names somehow played a role in the game, but was it a helpful one? V already had mystery upon mystery he needed to figure out: for example, His own blessing, and what the "Vase of Motherhood" even was. On one hand, another mystery was not helpful, on the other, what difference would one more make? And besides, with E's blessing being unusable, and his class being of little interest to V, there was little else to choose.

V drew his sword, because for all he knew, this option would resurrect E, or something equally unappealing.

┌——————┐
Added to Item Storage "E"
└——————┘

That uh, was not what he expected. Of all the things that could happen, V never expected that. He quickly opened his Item Storage.

┌——————┐
Item Storage: Safe House
Shield x 1
Vase of The Mother Goddess x 1
E x 1
└——————┘

V attempted to bring up information on the item "E," If like the vase of motherhood, it read "Has the power of E" or something equally as useless, it would not surprise V, but it would make him extremely aggravated.

┌——————┐
Name: E
Class: Special
Type: Divine
Description: A special component gained by killing a Divine Champion.
Can be used to replace a normal name, or be added to an existing Divine Champion's name.
└——————┘

So, he could use it on someone with a normal name, or use it on himself? Or maybe L... Well V was sure of one thing. He absolutely was not going to add it to his own name without knowing what it did. For all he knew it would give him multiple personality disorder. It obviously had nothing to do with E's class or blessing, otherwise those options would not have even been there. If he added it to L's name and she turned violent or unstable, he was fairly sure he would die quickly... V looked over at Eika as he considered his options. 

"Hay, V, should we uh, go back to town? You can carry L, right?" Eika was setting in a tree, as far away from the bloody grove as she could while still in eyesight. "Humm? Oh right. Yaa. I suppose we should not hang around here. I might be alive, but I’m not sure I could effectively fight even a normal mantis right now. Between the exhaustion, dizziness and pain, I’m not even sure how quickly I can carry L." V walked over and tested his ability to carry L, he had his constitution on A, as the pain reduction and added "health" would help him more than raw strength. As predicted, L was easy to carry with a B strength, but he was unsteady and weak from battle. "Eika, you’re going to have to scout a safe rout out of the forest. Nothing too difficult to traverse either." She nodded and was about to run off when one of the fairies patted her side, gesturing at his companions. The fairies with arms and legs, five in all, had gathered up in one area. The fairies were gesturing for V and Eika to come over to them. Eika looked at V, clearly wanting to go to the fairies. Shrugging, V nodded, it was probably a bad idea to ignore the fairies that saved all of their lives. He put L down and walked over with Eika. The fairies were gesturing at each other as if they were having a conversation. The two of them stood there as the "conversation" continued. After a few moments a soft wind blew through the grove. For the first time since the battle, a pleasant smell wafted through the trees. The pain in V's head lessened slightly.

┌——————┐
Congratulations!
You have gained a new title!
"Friend of the Elgorian Fairies"
└——————┘

Well, that was...cute? V was unsure what to do with this event. It was interesting no doubt, but he was exhausted and this did not seem immediately important. The fairies all clapped, their small fluffy arms making small puffs of white dust. Then just as quickly, the fairies acted as if nothing had happened, and quickly went back to work. Eika's eyes were big and round, "Did you see that! We are the friends of the fairies now! THAT IS THE MOST AWESOME THING EVER!" Eika was jumping up and down "This is Eika's best day ever!" Eika started rambling about fairies and slaves and forests. V gave her a few moments before waving her down "Look we have to get out of the forest. I’m honestly not sure how much longer I’m going to hold out. Exhaustion is threatening to overpower me, and we still have a ways to walk to get out of here." Eika nodded "Right sorry! letsss gooooo!" Eika sprinted off into the forest without V. A few moments later she came back, rubbing the back of her head "Ah..haha... Eika forgot she was supposed to be helping you..."

A while later, V could not really tell how long. It felt like hours, they emerged from the forest. V had never been so happy to see the edge of town before. He had only been this exhausted a few times in his previous life. The fairies had healed him, but the weeks of what was essentially torture, followed up by an absolutely out of control battle, had drained him of all energy, and every reserve of energy he ever had. Once he got to the inn, he suspected he would sleep for days, maybe weeks... You know what, maybe he should just tell Eika to never wake him up. As they trudged to the inn, the Townsfolk gave them concerned looks. V only had his pants and a sword, all three of them were covered in blood, L was unconscious, and V was dragging his feet, no wonder he was getting looks. A few of the Townsfolk offered to help him, which he gladly took them up on. A large man, V realized it was the blacksmith, carried L. Meanwhile, one of the town guard supported V, as his strength had started to give out. Upon entering their room in the inn, V headed directly to bed. The last thing he heard was Eika "Hey wait, don’t you think you should eat something first? Food is impo-"

V jolted awake in a panic before realizing where he was. He shook his head for a moment, he felt like he had heard the specter screaming again. After getting his bearings, he got up, and changed. After his first week in the forest, before buying Eika, V had bought a few extra sets of clothing, the mantis blood and forest debris really needed to be washed out, and he could not go around naked. Judging by the light streaming into the room, it was midday. Neither L nor Eika were in the room. Actually, thinking about it, he did not remember what the townsfolk did with L. He walked downstairs, Eika and L were lounging around at a nearby table, talking to the innkeep. Well, at-least L looked like she recovered. Honestly V was concerned that she might have been brain dead from the specters screaming, after-all she did not even handle the specter well before it started wailing. "Eika did not know people could sleep for two days!" Eika waved at V when she noticed him. L nodded in greeting "Eika gave me the... Eika version of what happened, but I would like to hear your version. I’m also curious as to what E was doing to you." V held up his hand. "Ya I’ll get to that later. Right now, I have to eat something." The innkeeper smiled wryly and went off to the kitchen, bringing back some bread. "The cook will have something hot finished in a little bit."

V tore into the bread like it was the first thing he had eaten in his life. E had obviously fed him and kept him hydrated, but it was not much more than basic subsistence. As V devoured the bread L spoke up "Also, I hear you and Eika are fairy friends now. I suppose it was because you saved a bunch of them?" V had wondered if L received the title as well, but apparently, she did not.  V nodded "Ya I guess." he said between bites. Shortly, a meal of what looked like meatloaf was placed before V. After he started digging into it, he recounted his perspective of the last few weeks to L, who listened stoically. As the Innkeep was listening, he omitted any bits about the Gods or Champions. When V finished his tale, L nodded "Standing up to that level of torture for that long is impressive. You deserve some respect for that. Lesser men would have tried to kill themselves or would have lost their reason long before our plan was ready." L then recounted her version of the month. Eika and her spent some time scouting the forest and gathering information on the number of monsters in the area they guessed V was in. While L prepared her firestorm plan, and recruited townsfolk and gathered supplies, Eika hunted the bird scouts, both inside the town and inside the forest. L omitted most of the minor details, which was not a surprise to V. "You know, a plan like that; I would not have expected something like that out of you. You deserve some praise yourself." V was somewhat impressed, L never felt like the "Clever planning" type of person to him. L crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes, "If you must know, I was trying to imitate you. Despite your lack of martial ability, and the absence of the most basic of admirable character traits, your ability to plan and execute various... schemes is admirable in its own way." V was a little surprised, but it did make him happy that L found at-least a few traits she did not hate him for.