“Are we really going to eat that?” Ander asked, wiping sleep from his eyes and looking at the slab of meat sagging over Kal hand.

Kal chuckled, he had to admit his cooking method didn’t do wonders for the meat’s appeal but at least it was cooked. He doubted either of them would eat it raw like had done a few times now.

“Yeah, it really isn’t that bad. It actually tastes pretty normal if a little tough. Once you remove the foreign mana at least,” Kal said as he extinguished the crimson flame.

Ander shrugged,” Whatever. I’m starving, is it ready now?”

Kal chuckled again. Ander’s sleep did wonders for his mood, he seemed more accustomed to the idea than Nyx already.

Nyx looked slightly annoyed when Kal dodged her statement about his skills but of course, she then latched onto the foreign mana, “How will you cleanse the meat? Another skill?”

Kal shook his head,” Not anything you haven’t already seen. I will cleanse it the same way I removed the abyssal mana from each of you. Well, sort of anyway. Give me a second.”

Kal didn’t get into his meditation position but still focused his mind on the meat to prepare a forging. Honestly, it ended up being pretty easy. After everything he had learned since the first time he had eaten demon flesh, it was almost too easy.

He didn’t bother with the sphere of physical energy to contain the mana, instead, he did the reverse and infused it with his own physical energy. The reaction was interesting and actually better than he had hoped.

Just like when he was injected with shadow mana the energies within were pushed away and since the demon was dead the remaining energy had no driving force behind it so it simply leaked out of the meat.

Kal’s studies while in The Place Between had helped him understand the makeup shells somewhat and it was only then that he realized that it was likely that the “mana” leaking from the meat was actually just leftover vital, or physical energy.

It explained why even though Kal was essentially immune to abyssal mana due to his ability to convert it to wrath and yet the meat still poisoned him. It was abyssal attuned vital, and physical energy. Either because of abyssal mana or whatever it was that fueled the generation of the energies.

In the process of cleansing the meat, Kal got an idea. Nyx’s wounds would be a problem. No doubt she would heal in time without help but they were severe enough that any real fighting would be difficult. Kal also just felt bad about it. If he burned her it was only right to try and heal her, even if she was a cultist.

The idea came to him when he infused the meat with his physical energy. Doing so was easy enough all it took was a quick channel of will that focused his stamina into the meat. What if he could infuse it with vitality?

The problem with healing himself was that he had to produce vitality from physical energy. At least with his method, it was definitely not even close to a one-for-one exchange. But if he could spend vitality or his health directly he was sure it would be more worthwhile.

The experience would probably suck for him but for the person getting the vitality it should be fine.

“An idea has just occurred to me,” Kal tore the slabs into three pieces and handed them out to Nyx and Ander, ”Nyx don’t get too full.

Ander and practically salivated as he was handed a slab of meat the size of his head but Nyx shivered, “Little chance of that.”

Kal didn’t pay much attention after that and instead dove back into his thoughts on how to proceed. He didn’t think simply injecting the meat with a shit load of vitality was a good idea. He didn’t want the meat to heal but he did want to use it as a transfer method. Kal supposed he could just infuse Nyx with his vitality but it was possible since both would be connected to a living source it might act in a similar way to the foreign mana.

It had to be usable by Nyx even though she lacked a healing skill. Her vitality would already be working slowly to heal the burns he just needed the vital energy that he gave her to follow along with her vital energy.

Kal could only think of one way to pull that off and it was to use an imprinting construct. Forging that was simple enough but the mental strain really was starting to add up. He had so many constructs within his body along with Nyx and Ander’s lifelines that he didn’t think he would be able to do much more than this.

So he had to go with the simple method in the end. Infuse the meat with as much vital energy as he could without it leaking away and hope it played along with Nyx’s body. Kal tapped the vital energy flowing from his heart but only so a trickle escaped its normal flow and fed into through the implanting construct and into the meat.

He was right. It sucked.

The instant the vital energy left his body he felt himself pale as his health dropped surprisingly quickly. He was glad he was sitting down when a wave of dizziness and nausea struck him. Meanwhile, the meat in his hand barely reacted at all and even after his health was at fifty percent Kal could barely see the vital energy within it.

Nyx shot to her feet, ”Kalum?! What’s wrong?!”

Kal opened his eyes and saw that she was about to knock the meat from his hand but she stopped when she noticed his gaze.

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“I’m fine. I figured it would be painful,” Kal took a breath as the sickness faded, ”Here eat this.”

Nyx looked confused but took the chunk of meat from Kal’s hand and ate it without a fuss. Kal was pretty sure she only didn’t because of the whole “lord” thing because Kal sure as shit wouldn’t have eaten it.

Health:

2097/4190

Stamina:

7960/7960

Wrath:

7632

Kal activated his Wrathful Regeneration and his health quickly began to climb as it burned through his well over the limit wrath pool.

Nyx’s eyes widened after a moment and a bit of color returned to her features. Kal couldn’t watch vital energy after he had stopped infusing but apparently, it was having some kind of effect. Some of the redness faded from her burns and some of the most severe sections regenerated a small amount of skin.

“How?” Nyx said her voice was quieter than it was before.

Kal shrugged. It was basically pointless to hide so he just told her, ”I infused it with my vital energy. How much health did it regenerate?”

“I don’t understand- oh, uh, two hundred,” Nyx replied looking up from her status.

Kal winced,” It's more efficient than I thought it would be but not by much.”

“Efficient? I don’t understand your meaning,” Nyx asked her face a mix of relief and confusion.

Kal sighed, “I spent just over two thousand health or vital energy to infuse the meat.”

Both Nyx and Ander looked shocked but Nyx spoke up first, “You have more than two thousand health?!”

That surprised Kal a bit, vitality was his lowest attribute by quite a margin. Surely it wasn’t that high compared to other warrior or vitality-focused people, “Is that a lot?”

“Yes. I only have a max of one-thousand-three-hundred and eighty and that's with me spending many of my free points in vitality,” Nyx replied, “Is it one of your class’s focus attributes? Wait. you don’t have to tell me.”

Kal shrugged, “It is,” Kal wasn’t about to tell her that it was his lowest attribute and despite being a focus attribute he had barely spent any free points on it.

Kal almost laughed when Nyx’s face only became more confused but he held it back, “Look never mind that. I’m going to do it a few more times and see if I can’t heal you the rest of the way.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want you to weaken yourself on my account,” Nyx asked earnestly.

Kal nodded, “It’s fine I can heal myself easier than you can so just relax alright.”

Ander continued gnawing on his remaining chunk of meat and watched Kal as he began to siphon to bring his wrath up a bit so he could heal immediately after infusing the meat. The last thing he needed was to be ambushed while weakened again. He had dealt with that more than enough for his liking.

Kal repeated the process two more times, each time improving on the technique slightly. With his mental strength so close to its limit the amount he couldn’t change much but by focusing his will tendrils around the meat he could more accurately focus the vital energy.

It still took nearly two-thousand health for him to get a reasonable amount of it to stay inside the meat but when he was done the meat held significantly more vital energy. Nyx’s burns were gone before the second chunk’s vitality was completely spent and even the scars that remained faded significantly by the end.

Nyx sighed with relief as the last of her burns faded away and she inspected the new minimally scarred skin,” Thank you Kalum. I held a brave face but the pain was starting to get to me.”

“You’re welcome. I’m sorry you received the burns in the first place,” Kal’s gaze passed over the new skin but stopped as he realized just how much skin was actually showing now that the burns were gone. Her modesty was intact but not by much.

“Uh-” Kal opened his amulet and withdrew a few tunics, ”Here. I doubt they will fit but you might be able to do something with them.”

Nyx smirked at Kal’s sudden awkwardness, ”Thanks, but I wanted to ask. Do you plan on doing anything with the demon’s scales?”

“Not really, why?”

“I may be able to make use of it to replace my armor. It won’t be anything special but it would be better than nothing,” Nyx said as she climbed to her feet and stretched to either side, focusing on her now healed side.

Kal couldn’t help but be reminded of his sorry attempt at crafting back when he killed his first dark serpent. Ander would probably do a better job than him so he had no doubt someone with a skill could make use of it.

“Sure. I don’t need it. If you can manage it, you should make something for Ander as well,” Kal said as he dumped the body of the hydra onto the ground.

Nyx smiled,” My thoughts as well. I hope he won’t need it but any armor is better than none.”

Kal moved a bit deeper into the cave before dumping the huge corpse of the demon onto the ground. Since Nyx would likely be working on it for a while Kal figured now would be a good time to try and repair his Wrath Incarnate skill if possible but he should probably also scout the area and make sure no demon hordes had decided to track them down.

“You see what you can do with this. I’m going to go take a look around and test the range of channels between us.”

Nyx nodded but Ander spoke up,” Awww, can’t I come with you?”

Kal chuckled, “Gods no,” was what Kal thought but instead he said, ”Sorry Ander, I need to test the range of the cleansing skill protecting you both.”

Ander was obviously disappointed but he sat down next to Nyx who had already drawn a skinning knife Kal hadn’t noticed from behind her back.

With that Kal left the cave and the blue light of the plane's strange star washed over him. A quick hunt would be perfect before he had to sit down and soul forge again. He had done far too much of that lately.