I awoke, being jostled back and forth padded from hard wooden planks by blankets below and on my side. Everything was hurting and my vision was still blurred. Seeing twinkles of light playing across the sky, I was not sure if they were stars or little fairies coming to take me away. I hoped for the fairies, considering the pain coursing through my body. Not remembering how I came to be in such a state, I asked Mia. “Mia, why do I hurt?” And then it hit me. “Mia! Where are you!?” I started screaming as I tried and failed to sit up. With my arms lighting up my vision from the pain, my mind started to fade back into unconsciousness just before I felt something soft touch my face and the sound of a murmur as the day faded away.
I next awoke to sunlight burning through my eyelids. As I fluttered my eyes open to adjust, I was greeted by Mia, with her hands bandaged. As tears started to fall from her eyes she let out what seemed like a lot of pent up worry.
“What happened, why do I hurt so much?” I asked, not quite remembering what happened.
“You were hit by a boss monster. Do you not remember? I almost died myself, but luckily the guard arrived from the city to clear up the local farms for novices. They barely saved us, and thankfully, had a healer with them to get you stabilized. They even got Rumble patched up and soaking up the sun in another room. You both were put to sleep in order to recover.” Mia recounted.
“I’m glad we all made it through, talk about luck. I just wonder how much I will owe from all of these medical bills…”
“Don’t worry too much about that, I covered most of them from the funds we got selling all the loot you acquired while I came to town the other day. Add in the fact that we are growing some herbs for the healer, and the bills are paid for. We will be growing her herbs for the rest of this season and the next, but it all worked out money wise.” she explained.
“What do you mean by ‘the other day’?” I asked.
“She means that you have been in a skill induced coma for the past week while I’ve been taking care of you.” a young red haired woman explained while approaching. “Hi, my name is Melissa. I am one of the new apprentices here, working for Healer Trent. We just gave you the antidote for the coma today and had asked Mia to be here when you woke up.”
“I’ve been in a coma!? How bad was I?” I asked with a hesitant voice.
“You were barely alive.” Melissa explained. “You had cracked ribs, broken arms, and legs. Honestly you wouldn’t have made it here without the guards help stabilizing you. Even then, I heard that~~”
“The only thing that matters is that you are okay. You’ve left me with the farm and all the work.” Mia said. “When you feel better, I will come to pick you up and take you back home to the farm. Our first batch of beans and strawberries will be ready soon!”
“Really? Man, I can believe that I have pretty much been unconscious for most of my time being here and that I haven’t even been around to grow my own crops…” I sighed.
“It's fine, you and Rumble can take a break for a few more days ,then we can discuss the plan moving forward when you get back to feeling okay.” Mia told me.
After a bit more back and forth between Mia and I, she was sent on her way back to the farm in order to get there before night came. With a glance back at me, she strode from the room and out of the building.
“You two sure do make a nice couple.” Melissa said.
“What!?” I exclaimed. “We are not a couple! We are business partners, but definitely not a couple. What made you think that!?”
“Oh, I just thought she might be because of her being the one that rode in with you. She had also said that you two lived together on your farm.”
“That's because we started a business together. We are trying to combine our skills together for our first season in order to maximize profits so that when we each go solo, we won’t be struggling.” I explained.
“That's kind of a relief to be honest. I thought she… nevermind. So, not to change the subject too much, but why do you have a plant as a familiar? Are you some rare variant of farmer?” Melissa asked sweetly.
“Uh, I guess you could say that. I have had him from the beginning. I see that his health is back to full, was he put in a coma too?”
“No, that little guy was mostly back to full health by the time you got here. I don’t think he would’ve left your side at all if not for Mia. He mostly spends his days soaking up sunlight, but he does come to check up on you several times a day. I must say that he drinks up water like you wouldn’t believe.” She said jokingly.
“That’s good to hear, I don’t think we could’ve survived until the guards got there without him.” I said thoughtfully.
“So he held off the boss?” Melissa asked cautiously to avoid disrupting my thoughts.
“Ya, he’s pretty tough. He pretty much spent his entire first three days at the farm just killing monsters for me.” I said thinking about how helpful he had been.
“So he’s a combat familiar? I mean he must be if he can fight that well.” She stated as matter of factly.
“Ya, he~~” I said before trailing off. I had said too much.
Seeing the slip Melissa moved quick to reassuringly say: “Don’t worry, I won’t tell! I just wanted to make sure before talking to you about something.
“Talk about what?” I asked cautiously.
“Well, I’m a healer and alchemist. I can level up working in the clinic, but it will be much faster if I can find a party to hunt in the dungeon with. I don’t plan on becoming an adventurer, but a few trips down into it would make for great leveling opportunities . I would be happy to have such a tough combat pet and its master with me.” Melissa said sweetly
“Well, I don’t really want to become an adventurer either. I honestly just want to live a peaceful and relaxing life for a while. I just got here, I don’t want to run off already. Besides, I have a company with Mia. I have responsibilities to keep up with and running off so soon would not be a great option.”
“‘Golden Tree’ isn’t really requiring both of you is it? I mean Mia has been running it by herself for most of its existence.” Melissa said.
“What is ‘Golden Tree’?” I asked while already knowing the answer.
“It's your company’s name…. Did you not know?” She asked incredulously.
“We hadn’t really come up with one before the incident.” I stated with my thoughts racing.
“Well not to get in the middle of things, but my offer still stands. She is doing well solo so far, finish up the season while I find a few more members and then we will go dungeon diving during the summer.” Melissa offered. “You don’t want to end up here again, do you? Put on a few levels next season and come back strong.”
“Let me think about it. I’ve barely been awake for a few hours at this point, so it's a lot to take in.”
And not a moment later the door swung open to admit a new guest, Rumble. Within seconds of him seeing me, I had a large chunk of wood flying down the rows of beds in the infirmary towards me. Stopping just shy of leaping onto me, Rumble snuggled up to my arm. With a smiling emoji he looked towards me and gave what I assumed was a thumbs up made of his roots..
“He sure is a large familiar, I would love for both of you to join my team. It doesn’t hurt that he is as cute as his master.” She remarked before flashing a smile and walking off.
“Rumble, I’m confused as to what is happening right now. I wake up to find myself in the hospital being taken care of by a cute nurse offering to take me out on adventures and my business partner has apparently carried on without me and has even named the business in my absence. On one hand I want to continue farming, but on the other I do agree that we need to level up some first. Right now we are at the mercy of chance and bad luck. If we got caught by another boss, I doubt we would survive.”
Rumble flashed me a question mark emoji and one of him shrugging.
“Well, I guess I have a few days before heading back out to the farm in order to think on it. For now, I’m going back to sleep. Wake me up when lunch comes, okay?”
