Glade felt the golden light of Riya’s magic call to him from the blessed darkness of sleep, and for once, he didn’t want to answer. The visions he was immersed in while wrapped in the heavenly embrace of celestial magic brought him peace as he relived his greatest memories.

“Is he going to be, ok?” he heard Kedryn ask in the lilting tones of elvish amidst a backdrop of picks and shovels striking rock. Glade was touched. There was real concern in the Kids voice.

“For the last time, I don’t know!” Riya hissed, the girls exhausted panic drawing Glade further from his reverie. She sounded scared. And tired.

“Do you think with enough exposure to celestial magic that he’ll be alright?” Kedryn asked.

“It isn’t working!” She snapped; her usually cool voice strained to the point of breaking. “I’ve been at this for hours now with no change! I barely know what I’m doing as it is, let alone able to perform something as intricate as channel repair! I’ve never met anyone stupid enough to actually allow their mana channels to be torn open before, let alone learn how to heal them. I’m keeping his health up, but my abilities can’t do anything about the mana poisoning!”

Glade tried opening his mouth to reassure the two he was going to be fine. Except, his body refused to cooperate.

He would have panicked, but the golden light from Riya’s magic kept his mind clear and the pain at bay.

Instead, Glade did the only thing he could. He opened his notifications to figure out what had happened and if there was a way to fix it.

You have defeated 2 x level 2 Gnoll Slavers and have been awarded 22 XP (87 XP/ 4)

You have defeated a level 3 Warg and have been awarded 9 XP (176 XP x .2 / 4)

Note: Using a forbidden item within Veil causes the user to suffer an 80% penalty in experience gains and 0% growth in skill development.

You have defeated 1 x level 3 and 2 x level 5 Gnoll Slavers and have been awarded 47 XP (941 XP x .2 / 4)

Note: Using a forbidden item within Veil causes the user to suffer an 80% penalty in experience gains and 0% growth in skill development.

You have defeated 2 x level 5 Gnoll Slavers and have been awarded 160 XP (640 XP / 4)

You have defeated a level 11 Corrupted Gnoll Shaman and have been awarded 610 XP (2440 / 4).

It was easy enough to see how the system had broken down their latest kills. The two lower leveled Gnolls were the ones Riya and Bragden had dispatched on their way up the tunnel. He didn’t fully understand why the experience was divided into their group of four, but he would ask Riya about it later. The others were broken down between those that had been killed with his pistol and those that had been killed within normal means.

Stolen novel; please report.

A twinge of sadness pushed through the calming effects of Riya’s magic as Glade thought of his trusty side arm. It had given them the tactical advantage of superior weaponry and had saved their lives countless times. Hopefully, it was still salvageable, but he doubted it. Last he had seen the weapon, it had been bathed in the corrupting flames of abyssal magic.

With that less than stellar reminder, Glade moved onto the next prompts.

Warning! You are attempting to connect to an abyssally chained creature telepathically! Exposure to abyssal magic through this medium will double all debuffs, curses, and negative status effects!

If Glade could sigh, he would. Knowledge like that would have been tremendously helpful to have known beforehand.

Warning! Why do we even bother? It’s not like you have shown any proclivity to adhere to any advice provided in the past. But since we are obligated to provide these warnings, here you go. You are attempting to cast Mana Manipulation while your Astral channels are already filled to capacity because of using your Telepathy skill. Now pay attention so you can actually learn something - normally, this wouldn’t be possible as casting more than one spell can only be accomplished when all mana requirements equal less than, or equal to, the maximum amount of mana your mana channels can tolerate. Your Astral channels remain at level 1, which means the maximum you can cast is 10 mana.

However, if channels are torn, said individual can push more mana through the already maxed out mana channels. However, only idiots would do that as the act would drastically tear their channels further.

In case you can’t pick up on context clues, you are an idiot.

Glade tried rolling his eyes but failed miserably as he was still paralyzed. The Eight, or whomever wrote these notifications, was really getting on his nerves. How was he supposed to read the warnings when they didn’t come until he was in the middle of a crisis?

Warning! Because you delayed in reading these warnings, like always, this is where we get to tell you where you screwed up instead of just heeding warnings like a normal person. And yes, this is your fault as you have yet to learn the basics of information management. Don’t know what we’re talking about? Ask your guide. Or your bonded. Both know significantly more than you.

Let’s break this down so you even you can understand. You, yes you, cast a mana intensive level 1 spell while actively using a mana intensive skill. Because of your continued refusal to heed advice, or lack of any sense of basic self-preservation, the damage to your Astral mana channels has increased from minor to major. Why the huge leap? You were also connected to an abyssally chained creature, effectively doubling the damage caused to your channels. You are now experiencing mana hemorrhaging.

Note: You can no longer use any spell or skill associated within the Astral Sphere of magic until your torn channels are healed. Your body is currently 20% mana saturated with an expected increase of 1% every 10 minutes. At this level of saturation, you will experience +20% heightened awareness, +20% gain in stamina regeneration, and -20 HPs every hour.

Glade’s gut began to churn as the implications of his actions began to set in.

A blinking symbol flashed on the notification, which he selected.

Update (5 minutes 23 seconds ago): Your body is above 50% mana saturation. You are paralyzed. Your body is currently 52% mana saturated with an expected increase of 1% every 10 minutes. At this level of saturation, you will experience +52% heightened awareness, +52% gain in stamina regeneration, and -52 HPs every hour.

Glade stared at the notification as reality came crashing in on him.

If he didn’t receive constant healing from Riya, he would be dead in little more than two hours.