Accidental Healer

Sadie had been driving when it happened.

One second, she was gripping the wheel, rehearsing how she’d break up with her boyfriend.

The next—poof. The tutorial had ripped her away mid-thought, dropping her into a nightmare.

But that wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was what came after.

Sadie wasn’t placed back in Basin City when the tutorial ended.

Nooo instead, she reappeared in the middle of a forest, surrounded by nearly a hundred strangers. Most were from the Pacific Northwest, though there was one guy all the way from Phoenix.

A group quickly formed. Some clung to logic, denying the reality in front of them. Others, like Greg, tried to take charge.

“I’m not going into that trial dungeon,” Greg said on the first day. “You’d have to be crazy. I don’t know what’s actually going on, but I’m walking back to Seattle.”

Sadie stared at him, dumbfounded.

After everything? The tutorial, the monsters, the system messages—how could he still believe this was anything but real?

“Greg, how else do you explain all of this?” she demanded.

To prove her point, she cast her spell.

A small rock formed in her palm, growing rapidly. She shot it skyward—it streaked into the sky like a bullet.

Murmurs rippled through the crowd. Some looked convinced. Greg wasn’t.

“I don’t care,” he said, shaking his head. “We have no food. No shelter. I’d rather worry about real human problems than play some messed-up game.”

He turned and left. Half the group followed.

The rest stayed, splitting into two factions—those willing to try the trial dungeon and those who still hoped civilization would come find them.

For four days, Sadie tried to convince the others.

She failed.

When the deadline ran out, only thirty entered the trial.

The forty others stayed behind.

The dungeon wasn’t easy, but with their numbers, they fought their way through without losing a single person.

Sadie felt invincible. She leveled up, honed her magic, and for the first time since being dropped in the middle of nowhere, she felt exhilarated.

That was how she felt anyway–it all changed once she stepped out of the portal…

She saw the first body. Or what was left of it. She stopped breathing.

Corpses littered the forest floor. Ripped apart. Scattered. Unrecognizable.

The people who refused to enter the trial had been forced into it anyway–alone. The Chaos Spawn had slaughtered them.

Once she stopped vomiting, her and the rest buried what was left of the bodies.

As she shoveled dirt over the ruined remains, she decided she would do everything she could never to become like these people.

After the funeral, Sadie noticed a flashing notification on her screen. She read the new objectives then she explained them to the survivors. She expressed her desire to tackle the objectives.

After seeing how the system handled people who didn’t play along? No one argued.

They wouldn’t make the same mistake as the people they just burried.

Moving quickly, not wasting any time, they found and cleared the first dungeon–it was level 5.

Then they found another. Sadie stood before the portal, reading the system prompt. Level 9.

Xander, the weird guy from Phoenix, spoke up. “Sadie… you’re only level 7. We all are. We should find the third dungeon first.”

Sadie hesitated. The logic made sense. But then she pictured the bodies she helped bury.

And she made her choice.

“No,” she said, steel in her voice. “We can do this.”

And they entered.

The moment they arrived, the system warning appeared.

[System Notification:

You have entered a Level 9 Dungeon.

Objective: Eliminate Dungeon Occupants.

Warning: The defending faction has multiple success conditions, including capture and enslavement as an acceptable completion scenario.]

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Sadie barely glanced at it. She should have. Because the lizards were already looking at them.

No walls. No defenses.

Just a village of purple-scaled humanoids. Tall, robed figures with staffs and books. Others with long, jagged spears.

They weren’t surprised. They were waiting. Sadie panicked.

She raised her hands, summoning baseball-sized rocks and launched them at the nearest target.

The stones exploded harmlessly against an invisible barrier. Sadie’s stomach dropped.

Her group followed her lead—arrows, spells, everything they had.

Nothing worked.

The lizards watched the attack's landing. Then they returned fire. A barrage of spells erupted.

Seven melee fighters charged the enemy—they all died in an instant.

Sadie froze in horror. Xander was the only one spared—but only because he was slower than the others.

His right arm caught fire. He collapsed, rolling in the dirt, screaming.

Sadie wanted to run. Instead, she stood paralyzed, watching a lizard approach Xander, step onto his chest, and hold him there.

In its left hand, a blue orb hovered. In its right, flames sparked from its fingers.

It was going to burn him alive. Sadie couldn’t move. She saw the fear in Xander’s eyes.

She saw the amusement in the lizard’s face. She had led them into a massacre.

And there was only one way out. Her hands shook as she raised them—

A sign of surrender. Weapons clattered as the rest of her group did the same.

The lizard grinned. It had won.

And Sadie realized her fate was no longer in her hands.

-

Sadie sat at the edge of the cage, her back against the wooden bars. The damp earth was cool beneath her, a contrast to the warm, stagnant air inside their prison. The lizards hadn’t fed them yet today—not that she had much of an appetite anymore.

She stared at the guards, two purple-scaled slavers standing just outside the entrance, chatting idly in their strange, guttural language. Their spears rested casually in their hands, their postures relaxed.

They weren’t afraid.

Sadie hated that.

She clenched her fists, the metal cuffs around her wrists digging into her skin. The dull weight of them was a constant reminder of how weak she had become. The chains dampened her stats. She wasn’t sure how, but she could feel it. Casting even the simplest spell had become impossible.

She glanced around at the others in the cage. Most were slumped in defeat, their spirits long since broken. Xander sat nearby, staring blankly at the ground. He hadn't spoken much in weeks.

Most of her time was spent watching the Lizard men face strange waves of creatures that appeared regularly. The monsters were crude looking amalgamations of animals or just random constructs. As the Lizard men fought, they grew stronger and leveled.

Sadie used to imagine methods of escape. The truth was there really wasn’t even a need for the cage. Even if they did manage to break free, she would still be locked away in the dungeon. On top of that, the longer she was locked up the greater the level gap between her and her captors grew.

She had lost all hope long ago.

But then—Something changed. As she was sitting in her cage drawing strange pictures in the dirt. She thought she caught a motion at the corner of her eye.

More creatures to help these damned lizards grow.

Whatever it was–it was fast. A black blur, there and then gone. She blinked.

One of the guards twitched—just slightly—as if sensing something.

And then—It was over.

A black mass slammed into both guards at once, a blur of claws and fangs tearing through them like paper. One slaver didn’t even have time to open its mouth before massive jaws clamped over its head and ripped. A sickening crunch filled the air.

Sadie’s breath hitched. Her body locked up. Her mind refused to process what she had just seen.

The lizards—the ones that had stood unchallenged for months—were dead.

And the monster that had killed them? It wasn’t leaving.

Sadie’s entire body trembled as the black-furred beast casually dragged the corpses aside and settled onto its haunches, curling its long tail around its body.

It was huge.

More massive than any predator she had ever seen, its sleek black fur shimmered like liquid shadow. Amber eyes flicked lazily toward her.

Sadie couldn’t move.

Her breath came in short, ragged bursts. She didn’t even realize she was shaking until her teeth started chattering.

A monster. A real, living nightmare.

And yet—it wasn’t attacking. No. It was waiting.

For what?

Then, a voice. Clear. Deep. Inside her head.

"You’ll be released soon. I’m here to keep you safe while my friend has all the fun."

Sadie flinched. Her hands flew to her ears—but the voice hadn’t come from outside. It was inside her mind.

Slowly, carefully, she looked at the cat.

“…Excuse me?” she whispered.

The beast’s ears twitched.

"Who else would it be?"

Sadie felt her stomach twist.

The monster was speaking to her. How?

Her breath quickened. “What—who are you?”

"Not important."

Its tail flicked. Casual. Indifferent.

"Stay quiet. He’ll be here soon."

Sadie’s mind swam. The "he" it mentioned—who was it talking about? A dungeon boss? Another monster?

Something worse?

"Let us out," she tried. Her voice was hoarse, but she pushed through. "We can fight. Just—just let us help."

The massive cat turned its head slightly appraising her with a single eye.

"You wouldn’t be any help. Stay in the cage."

Sadie bristled. A spark of anger cut through the fear. Who the hell did this thing think it was?

Before she could snap back, the creature’s ears twitched, its head tilting slightly.

The air shifted slightly. The energy. Sadie’s skin prickled.

Shouting erupted from the village. Panic.

She whipped her head around. Several lizards had stopped what they were doing and were now pointing, their slitted eyes going wide.

Then, fire.

Bright orange flames burst across the village street, twisting into a wall of heat and light.

The slavers sprang into action, their previous laziness gone. They launched spells at something just beyond the flame. Fire, ice, lightning—a frenzy of magic hurled into a single point.

A battle. Someone was fighting them. Sadie strained to see—but the fire obscured everything.

Then, she heard it. A whooshing noise.

And then—a blade of energy cut through the flames, slamming into one of the lizards' shields.

More spells followed. More attacks.

Sadie’s breath caught. What—what was out there?

Then, for the first time, she saw him. A figure burst through the fire.

The flames licked at his cloak but did not burn.

His blade shimmered. And then—he moved. Sadie couldn’t track it.

One moment he stood there. The next—a lizard fell, its body split clean in two.

Another died. Then another. And another.

The lizards—the ones who had imprisoned her for months—were being slaughtered.

But then—he stopped. Three lizards remained. And he waited.

Why? Why wasn’t he finishing it? Sadie frowned, watching.

Then—the cat beside her stood. It stretched lazily before prowling forward.

The lizards saw it. They froze. For a moment, there was only silence.

Then—the strongest of the remaining lizards, the one with the strange glowing orb, staggered backward.

It stared at the man. Then at the cat.

And then—it screamed. The main lizard and his companions turned to run.

Sadie had no idea what had just happened. But she knew one thing for sure.

Whatever that lizard had just realized? It was already too late.