Chapter 40: Racing the Clock

Crimson immediately set out to test his theory…or at least he’d tried. Adapting all 10 of those spells had taken a fair bit of time, so Rhea had left to eat lunch, leaving Crimson all by his lonesome.

He hadn’t even noticed her leave.

He scratched his head awkwardly, then decided to use the break for a short run. Rhea took food very seriously, and the quickest way for him to fail the [Quest] would be to bother her while she was eating, then be sent into a coma. Nav had warned him in a low voice several days back that the only time she’d ever bitten him was when he attempted to drag her away from dinner. That was just a few years ago.

That in mind, Crimson elected to run laps around the mountain peak they used for training. It had many stones and awkward angles, so it made for a fun and interesting experience to run on. As he ran, the thing he wanted to test was how effectively he could use his new spell while moving.

If there was an area he was lacking in when it came to using spells, it was multitasking. It took him so much effort to cast even simple spells that he would freeze up to concentrate on it, so other actions were interrupted. However, with [Magic Programming], he figured he’d be able to more easily perform other actions.

…Suffice it to say, he still wasn’t able to multitask. It seemed like it was a long way off still, but because he was now faster at casting spells, the time he’d spent frozen decreased. It was a good sign, and a token of proof that his methodology wasn’t wrong.

Rhea eventually came back holding a basket and he put an end to his run.

“Lunch,” she said.

He thanked her, and took the basket and quickly wolfed it down. He didn’t eat a lot under normal circumstances, but he also hadn’t been able to focus on breakfast that morning, so he devoured it quickly.

It was mid afternoon, probably about 3 or 4pm, his deadline remained tomorrow evening. The [Quest] deadline was in 4 days. …While he’d forgotten until this moment, tonight was actually the celebration for the Coming of Age he’d been hired to scribe for, so he’d probably get another hour to work on Rhea before he was forced to head down.

He set to work as swiftly as possible, and found that his mana…well, previously he’ had to slowly work his way through Rhea and Alois’ mana. Alois’ was denser, so it was harder and took longer, but Rhea’s wasn’t easy either - it just resisted him less. Now, he passed through the [Void] like molten metal through ice. It reacted more violently to him, acting almost like a wounded animal lashing out as it attempted to eat into his [Mana]. It was a fair response, he was trying to destroy it after all.

The [Void] definitely wasn’t sentient, in the same way that a magnet wasn’t sentient, but it exhibited certain behaviors that made it feel that way. It’s nature was to destroy Crimson’s mana, while his nature was to destroy [Void]. They were completely incompatible in every measure.

After Crimson was forced to stop at the hour mark, he did a quick inspection of his work. There was a lot less [Void] than before, but the amount of [Mana] remained the same. To put it in terms of [Affinity], he’d managed to temporarily turn her Rank 7 [Void] into Rank 6. It wouldn’t last long, he could already see it starting to build back up since there wasn’t anything to hold it back, but it was a good sign that he’d be able to treat her.

Worst case scenario, he’d lower her [Affinity] for [Void] without increasing her [Affinity] for [Mana]. Her quality of life would still be heavily impacted, but the severity would be minimal in comparison, so long as he could bring it down to Rank 5. His initial idea was still the best move.

Letting Rhea up, he asked, “How do you feel?”

Rhea stared at her hands for a long moment, then stomped a few times. After a moment of hesitation, she took off in a sprint, following the same route Crimson had taken during his run. She was fast! Faster than he was!

She started moving around like crazy, hopping, zig zagging, running backwards, forward rolling, and even several attempts at cartwheels. It took her a few to nail it.

Crimson smiled fondly, it she was experiencing what he’d felt the first time he’d been able to walk for the first time. His love of running was derived from that selfsame feeling, and it would never change.

Turning, he left her to it. He’d need to hurry, so he sprinted down the peak. The [Healing Orb] he’d created earlier was still attached to him, so while he made a mistake jumping down the cliff again, the damage was healed immediately.

He was also reminded that it was still there. Upon inspection, it was close to falling apart, but it was impressive that it had held this long. He dismissed it intentionally, then continued to run down the mountain. Less than five minutes after he started the run down, he was passed by a streak of grey in the form of Rhea sprinting with wild abandon down the hill.

It seemed that even for wolfkin standards, Rhea had very high stats…at least very high [AGI], though he’d need to arm wrestle her to see if she also had more [STR] than him.

He couldn’t keep up with her, but it was great motivation, so he pushed himself even harder. He only shaved a few minutes off by the time he reached the bottom of the mountain, but considering how incremental progress with running times was, it was a great improvement.

—————

-Exertion: 1 AGI, 1 VIT rewarded!

—————

Rhea was collapsed in a sweaty puddle by the entrance to the switchbacks. He could see a big grin on her face as he passed by, so he paused, then attached a [Healing Orb] to her. It wouldn’t help her stamina, but he could see scratches and bruises from her frolicking that it would help.

He continued, and tried to make his way to the square where the biggest banner was - the one they’d burn - but he was grabbed out of nowhere by the scruff of his neck by his wolfkin guide and dragged off to a fancy looking building he hadn’t visited yet.

It was made of the same stone as everywhere else, but it had several statues on the roof and an extremely large porch. He could probably fit fifty or more people on it with ease. In the middle, there was a few decorated boxes with a blanket placed over the top, and a wolfkin girl with midnight black hair and fur sat cross legged on it. She was trying to put on an air of authority, but it was easy to tell that she felt a bit awkward. There was a large crowd of wolfkin gathered around the porch, waiting.

Wolfkin culture typically had tables and chairs pretty low to the ground, it was common to eat while sitting on the floor on rugs, which made Alois and Rhea’s den the exception. Likely because it would be harder for them to sit and stand than a more ‘traditional’ chair.

Crimson was unceremoniously dragged up onto the porch while wolfkin stared and a few of them laughed, then dropped into a desk that was perpendicular to the ‘throne’ that Tsiva - or at least the girl he assumed was Tsiva - was sitting on. There was a stack of paper, and a host of writing implements. He’d been briefed on this previously, he just needed to record what was being donated and it would later be transferred to more ‘appropriate’ paper.

They didn’t start for another twenty minutes or so, it fortunately wasn’t Crimson that slowed everything down, but he chose to use that time to work on expanding his artificial [Mana Puddle]. By the time they started, he was up to 32 Mana total.

There was an opening speech that he couldn’t be bothered to listen to. Just the typical drivel at events like this, but there were some unusual points. The first was that the one giving the speech was Reah, Rhea’s mom. She was the spitting image of Rhea, though she was a lot taller. She had a noble bearing, and was very popular based on the reactions from the crowd.

The second thing that stood out was that the speech included a howling segment, and the other wolfkin joined in. Crimson had to cover his ears for that one.

After the speech ended, part of the crowd started to form a line in front of the porch, while another part formed a circle and wolfkin of various ages started to wrestle with each other while a few others started to play instruments in the corner.

It didn’t take Crimson long to realize that he was ill suited for parties as he watched all that. Alcohol, food, and blood flowed freely at a wolfkin party.

He didn’t have long to watch, as he was forced to write at lightning speed while the people who’d lined up started presenting gifts that were placed on the porch in a pile. A couple swords here, some money there, and and endless assortment of knickknacks that were useful for combat. Potions, talismans, and the like.

Crimson was forced to move very quickly to keep up with it all, but occasionally a wolfkin would approach that was injured from the festivities. He took it upon himself to offer a [Healing Orb] to everyone who approached in a poor condition. Most accepted, and the one that refused was immediately smacked upside the head by his wife, then accepted it.

Crimson wasn’t a high level [Healer], but [Healing Orb] was derived from a spell that was still useful around Lv.30, so it was pretty effective for most of the wolfkin who approached him.

Eventually, a trio of familiar faces approached the ‘throne’ at the same time. Alois, Reah, and Rhea approached at the same time. They were the last in line. Crimson’s social skills were quite poor as he was all too aware, but even he could tell there was some kind of friction in the mood.

Rhea held food, clearly something she’d cooked herself, and both Alois and Reah had small boxes of unknown contents. Crimson recorded it all, and shot a [Healing Orb] at Rhea without asking if she wanted one. She’d been wrestling, and was sporting both a cheerful grin and a broken nose.

It was difficult to express in words how much it warmed his heart to see her playing like this. Aside from the time he’d gotten to know her from Nav, she had just seemed like an irritable and stand offish person. Now that she was free of her pain, Crimson could only see himself in her. He needed his treatment to both work, and be permanent.

Also…depending on what kind of [Class] she wanted, it might not be a bad idea to invite her to his party once the treatment was done.

Alois had demonstrated how a [Rizvim] could be used as a source of power, and Crimson fully expected Rhea to get one. He had also been noticing the entire time that she was in better shape than her condition should’ve allowed her to be in. She always ran with perfect form, she was extremely skilled with a knife in the kitchen, he’d seen the after effects of her training with Alois, and she’d successfully thrown a knife at his eye from 20 feet. That was all before he’d alleviated her condition to an extent.

Now seeing her run around, he was certain she’d be an excellent ally. Crimson was the DPS of the party, Verity would be the [Healer], and he still needed a tank and a ranged fighter. That was the bare minimum for him to consider his group a balanced party. Preferably, there would be one or two other people, though he had no idea what roles they would play. Maybe a second tank or healer.

If Rhea was interested in any of those things, he would invite her without hesitation.

After Alois, Rhea, and Reah finished giving their gifts, Tsiva got up for the first time from her ‘throne’ and joined in the festivities. Crimson’s job was done. Once they’d burned that massive banner, he’d be able to leave.

He quietly remained at his desk, and kept working over his [Mana Puddle]. Unfortunately, he couldn’t use [Magic Programming] for this, he wasn’t familiar enough with the [Skill] to apply it to pure [Mana], and its intended purpose was to cast magic more easily - he was working with pure [Mana]. There was a big distinction between them.

You can have [Mana] without having magic, but you can’t have magic without [Mana]. So, while he could apply [Magic Programming] to some of his [Mana] use, he lacked the practice to use it for such a delicate task like this.

Crimson was more familiar with the process by this point, and he had a 5 and a 2 left over from his down time, so he quickly made a pair of 1s, then combined them up the chain until he had his second 25.

Combining the two 25s was a lot harder. There were a lot more connections he had to make and he had to hold them all in place individually. Herding cats would’ve been easier, but Crimson was quite experienced at this point. He knew that he could just apply a layer of mana over the finished connections like a bandage to hold them in place.

If the [Mana Puddles] had a physical form, it would’ve looked like a silver-blue fog was slowly spreading between two spheres while they slowly pulled themselves apart.

It took an hour, and at this point the sun was well down, Crimson managed to tie the last little bit together, and fortunately just in time, as someone clapped him on the back and disrupted his focus. If it had just been a few seconds sooner, he might’ve been forced to start over and lose an hour of effort.

Looking back, he saw Nav, who said, “I hear you know magic. Do you happen to know a fire ball spell of some kind?”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Crimson tilted his head for a second, then responded, “Sorta, it doesn’t deal any damage, so I don’t think it’ll be helpful to you.”

“Can it burn things?”

“I think so, it’s similar to the spell [Kindle].”

Nav nodded, then asked, “would you mind lighting the banner? It’s always a fight to get it lit.”

Crimson glanced over and understood why. A couple [Mages] were using magic to suspend the banner in the air high over their heads. It contained all the prayers and wishes of the people, so burning it was necessary to release those wishes to the gods.

There were very few magic users amongst the wolfkin, so it was likely that they always had to go looking for someone to light it, that pair of [Mages] were likely to be the only wolfkin with that [Class]. Crimson wasn’t necessarily the best choice to do this, just the most convenient one.

He nodded at Nav, and they shoved their way through the crows. A large circle had been formed around the area where the banner was floating, and the wolfkin were quietly watching it hang in the sky.

Reaching the group of Rhea, Reah, Alois, and the woman of the hour Tsiva, Crimson cast [Flare], holding the spell in his hand, he said, “Ready.”

After a long moment, Reah turned to him and nodded, so he shot the [Flare] at the banner. It was a good thing it was such a big target, because Crimson had no experience shooting this spell with accuracy. It was even only his second time using it.

He managed to catch some tassels at the bottom, and immediately it went alight. It seemed like they’d coated it in a flammable substance to make the burning easier, which made him very grateful since he was worried that his [Flare] wouldn’t be enough.

While the crowd silently watched it burn up in the air, many of them adopting reverent or prayerful stances, Crimson worked his way back through the crowd. Popping out the other side, he began to jog back up the mountain. This was an event for the wolfkin. His job was done, so he thought it best to excuse himself. Burning the banner was just a bonus action.

Using some [Magic Lights], Crimson climbed back up to the training area on the peak after he’d finished all the switchbacks. He had finished the [Quest], which meant that-

—————

-[Quest] Complete!

-Reward: [Skill: Mana Puddle]

—————

He had a new [Skill] to look at.

He inspected the [Mana Puddle] inside him, and was surprised to see that it was now attached to his [Blessing], but not his [Mana Pool]. The structure of the weave had also changed from what he’d been doing before. It was slight, just a small change, but he could see that it did a few things. The first was that it was now permeable, he could both draw [Mana] from it, and add [Mana] to it. He had to do both manually, but that meant he now essentially had another reserve of [Mana], and one worth 1/5th of his current total [Mana].

A 20% increase was not bad, but he had emptied his [Mana Pool] several times in the process, dealing with the lightheadedness that comes with emptying it like that. So it was an exchange rate of several thousand [Mana] to store 100. The efficiency was horrible, but it was worth it.

The second thing that was important for him to notice was that the change that had been made to the weave was…for lack of a better word, incomplete. It was like seeing a werewolf that had only half transformed. It seemed like the [System] wanted [Mana Puddle] to be designed in a certain way, but the way he’d originally designed it was fundamentally incompatible with how the [System] wanted it to be. This was very important to understand, as it provided hints that pointed to how he could make the [Mana Puddle] differently for Rhea and Alois.

Instead of his method of tying tiny drops together into bigger ones, he now understood how to make a single [Puddle] that could expand. He further understood that he would need to make it so that it attached to the [Mana Pool]. His method required direct control of [Mana], an ability unique to him, so by connecting it to the [Mana Pool] it could pull from that source.

With a flick, he tried casting a [Magic Light] from his new [Mana Puddle]. It didn’t work. After a bit of experimentation, he found that he could pull it out of the [Puddle], then use it normally. It wouldn’t behave like he hoped, but that was likely a result of his own design. He’d make it to expand for Rhea and Alois. Regardless, it would still store extra [Mana], so there was no reason to complain. If he had any issues, he could just improve it over time.

Unfortunately, that left Crimson at a dead end. There was nothing else he could train, no books to read, and no time. He would need to heal Rhea and Alois with just his current set of [Skills], so hopefully they’d be enough.

It would likely be a while before they returned, so Crimson lit up the area around him with [Magic Lights] and grabbed the [Reliable Saber] out of his bag. He needed to train his new [Skills].

[Mikiri] would require an opponent, as would [Parry], but he still had [Sword Armory] to inspect, as well as [Footwork]. Fortunately, [Sword Armory] behaved just as expected and added two slots to his [Inventory] that could only hold swords. If he could point at one expected detail, both storing and retrieving the swords involved a time delay that didn’t exist with his usual [Inventory]. It took him 10 seconds to store a sword, and nearly a minute to retrieve it.

Clearly it was meant to be storage, not a hidden weapon to pull out like an assassin.

—————

-[Skill] Level Up!

-[Advanced Sword Mastery] 1/100 -> 2/100

-[Footwork] 8/10 -> 9/10

-[Sword Armory] 1/10 -> 2/10

—————

Were the results at the end of his training. He wouldn’t be able to train [Footwork] any more after this, or risk losing it to the ‘reward’ of his [Healing the Soul Quest].

Alois came up to check on Crimson sometime after midnight. He’d been quietly staring at the stars for a bit, annoyed that he couldn’t train further to protect his [Footwork] from potential destruction. [Sword Armory] could hold an additional sword now, but it was too early to see if each level would expand it, or have another effect. Nothing to report about the new level of [Advanced Sword Mastery], but he’d need to reach Lv.100 before [Sword Savant] was Lv.25.

Should be manageable.

Crimson turned to Alois, and asked, “How’s your energy level? Can I take another look at you?”

After a moment of hesitation, Alois said, “That…would it be for the best? I’d rather you treat Rhea.”

Crimson nodded, “Yeah, I initially thought that treating you would be harder, but after working on Rhea all day, I expect that it’s the other way around. Your [Mana] will be harder to work with, sure, but I have learned a lot about what I’m doing, so I think you’ll be easier in some ways.”

Alois nodded, then said, “Very well, Rhea has already gone to bed, so I wouldn’t be taking this away from her anyway.”

Crimson gestured to the bedroll, and he got to work. Using the new knowledge he gained from [Mana Puddle], and the new force he could generate behind his [Mana] from [Magic Programming], he managed to carve his way into Alois’s [Void] much easier than in the past, and drag some of his mana out of the [Pool]. He formed a little space to work in, right next to Alois’ blessing and started working on the structure for the [Mana Puddle], he even managed to form it, but the second he relaxed the [Void] rushed in and destroyed it.

While it’s destruction was frustrating, the way it broke down was interesting. It looked like the [Void] had already been eating at it before he finished, so it was weak during every step of the construction. Now that he looked, he could spot little whips of [Void], unnoticed in the sheer volume of the congealed stuff.

Annoyed, he began violently attacking the surrounding [Void], carving it away violently to destroy it. He was dimly aware that he was burning through his [Mana] too quickly by doing this, but his frustration was such that he couldn’t care.

He even emptied the new [Mana Puddle] to eke out every bit of destruction that he could manage.

Despite his rampage, he destroyed maybe 10% of the [Void] build up before he ran out of [Mana] and his influence was ejected from Alois’ body by the opposing natures.

Extremely light headed, Crimson dropped to the ground and clutched his head. A headache was starting to form.

Alois bounded to his feet, seeming stunned by how he felt. He asked, “Did it work, did you manage it?”

Crimson weakly spoke, “No…ran out…of…MP.”

Unfortunately, his [Condition] was also listed as [Depleted] in his [Blessing]. His [Mana] wouldn’t start regenerating again until that [Condition] went away, so he needed to just wait while the headache gnawed at him.

By instinct, he reached for his [Mana] to cast a healing spell to try and alleviate the headache, only to feel like an idiot. Cast a healing spell, with what [Mana]? That was the source of the problem!

“If I got you some [Mana Potions], do you think that you could keep doing what you were doing?” Alois asked.

Crimson thought about it through the haze, then said, “It wouldn’t hurt at the very least. I could make more progress destroying your [Void] build up before it comes back.”

“How much do you think you need?” The wolfkin asked.

“I burned through 600 MP to destroy about 10% of the [Void], so I’ll need at least 5400 MP worth of [Mana Potions], preferably more so I can actually start the treatment. I think…” Crimson groaned, “…I think I’ll try destroying it all if you’re offering [Mana Potions], should make the actual treatment easier.”

Alois nodded, then ran off.

10 minutes later, Crimson still hadn’t lost the [Depleted Condition], so his headache had worsened to the point that it had become a migraine. It was bad enough he couldn’t feel it any more, and the only reason he could tell there was an issue was because his vision seemed to be lagging and he had zero sense of balance.

Alois came running up, and grabbed a box out of his [Inventory] to set on the ground.

“Each [Mana Potion] restores 200 MP, so we should have more than enough,” Alois said.

Crimson dragged himself over to the box with one arm, then heaved himself up to look over the edge. Unlike the typical mental image of a fantasy potion, these were actually quite small bottles. They were tear drop shaped, with the mouth of the bottle being at the fat end of the drop. They were small enough that each bottle looked like it could hold about a shot’s worth of energy.

Crimson didn’t drink, and Verity preferred beers and ales, so he was basing that guess on what he’d seen of other guild members drinking.

He reached out and grabbed one, pulled the cork with his teeth - grimaced at the taste of it - then downed the bottle in one gulp. He immediately felt a lot better. The migraine ceased to exist, and he popped to his feet in one go.

After a few seconds, even his [Depleted Condition] vanished. There was, however, a new problem. He had a condition…one he’d never had before, and one he’d never expect to have [Intoxicated]. Indeed, he felt a bit woozy, and his sense of balance was now disturbed for a different reason. It wasn’t as bad as the [Depleted] status, but it didn’t feel great.

There were a few explanations for why he was now [Intoxicated], and he immediately went to test the most likely possibility, and downed another [Mana Potion]. Between that, and his natural regeneration, he was once more at max MP, but he didn’t feel any more drunk like he expected.

He closed his eyes for a minute and slowly siphoned [Mana] into the [Mana Puddle]. It took about 1 MP/s, so it took him 100 seconds to fill it back up. Crimson boasted an MP regen of 5.5 MP/s, so typically it would only take him about a minute and a half to get from empty to full. [Depleted] was a truly nasty condition.

He glanced in the box, there was about 30 bottles, well, 28 now, so there was enough to treat Alois.

Crimson waved him back onto the bedroll, and staggered his way over to it, box in hand. [Intoxication] didn’t feel great, he’d heard there was euphoria associated with intoxication, but he didn’t feel any of that. Might be the difference between alcohol intoxication and whatever he was experiencing.

He set the box down, and got to work immediately. Fortunately, being [Intoxicated] didn’t impair his [Mana], so he dug in and was annoyed to find that more of his work than he’d like had been undone. Maybe 2% of what he’d destroyed had come back.

He rampaged once more, but this time he paid close attention to the amount of mana he had left, and when he had emptied his [Mana Pool] and had just 10MP left in the [Mana Puddle] he downed another pair of potions.

The [Intoxication] worsened immediately. The first one made it worse, but the second one didn’t, so that meant he was getting drunk off of a sudden influx of [Mana] when he was out. Considering how much of his body was full of [Mana], as well as how much he was used to having, it was a plausible result.

His speech was slurred now though, so hopefully it would wear off soon.

Resuming his work, he chose to drink an MP potion every time he burned through 50% of his [Mana], and that kept the [Intoxication] from getting worse. He worked for hours, and finally, Alois’ body was free of the major [Void] accumulation. It still kept trying to appear as thing wisps of smoky [Void], but that stuff was easy to stamp out - it only took a few MP. Right in time too, as he downed his last MP potion to begin the actual treatment.

Now that he didn’t have to fight through a swamp of coagulated [Void], it was so easy to form a [Mana Puddle] in Alois that it wasn’t even funny. He created it to surround his [Mana Pool] and even attached it to the [Blessing].

Alois informed him that a new [Skill] had appeared in his [Status], one that didn’t have a level: [Protective Mana Seal].

Crimson’s quest progress marked Alois as done. He hadn’t cured the wolfkin, but he had extended his life.

Instead of celebrating with Alois, Crimson elected instead to take over the vacated breadroll…braidboll…bedroll! To deal with the [Intoxication]. Hopefully sleep would fix it. Even his thoughts were muddied by it.

—————

Crimson missed the deadline to leave.

Alois had carried him to his bed in the Den while he was in a drunken stupor. He then proceeded to sleep for 8 hours - an unusually high amount for him - then woke up with a throbbing headache and couldn’t work on Rhea. It was early evening when the headache cleared and Crimson swore off alcohol.

“…”

He wanted to swear off [Mana Potions] too, but they were too useful to do so. They’d have to be an emergency item.

In other news-

—————

-Skill Level Up!

-[Magic Programming] 1/10->4/10

—————

This was a great sign for Rhea’s treatment.

His headache now cleared, he left his room and was about to call for Rhea to go back up to the peak for more treatment, but she was eating, so he chose instead to silently join them. Too dangerous to interrupt her.

After the meal, he and Rhea headed back up to the peak, during the climb, she said, “Whatever you did to me yesterday has worn off. Please redo it today.”

Crimson glanced down at her, making eye contact and nodded. She visibly flinched at the eye contact, but he immediately used a leg to catch under her arm and let her get a new hold. The fall wouldn’t be dangerous from this height for Crimson, but he didn’t know for Rhea.

Finishing the climb, they returned to the bedroll and Crimson got to work.

First thing he realized was that he couldn’t rampage the same way for Rhea. Her [Mana Veins] were still intact, and he would risk damaging them with that kind of brutal assault. He could be a little violent, but rampaging was a no go.

Working efficiently, but methodically, he destroyed all the [Void]. It only took 50MP, compared to Alois she was significantly cheaper to treat…MP wise of course. A big help for that was likely his additional levels in [Magic Programming].

There was a problem he was running into: how to ‘dope’ her. He needed her to have a lot more [Mana] than she currently did, and he needed to keep the amount of [Void] down. He didn’t have a [Blessing] to tie into, so he couldn’t use the [Protective Mana Seal] that Alois had, not even mentioning that it wouldn’t actually cure her, just extend her life like Alois’.

His [Quest] was to cure her.

He sat in thought, occasionally destroying any [Void] that started to reappear. It really like the area around her [Mana Pool], as well as everywhere she had a major joint. Shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, and neck. She’d mentioned joint pain before, so this likely explained it.

After some thought, he came up with a few possibilities, and got to work. Hours passed, and progress went well. He’s passed mana throughout Rhea’s [Mana Veins], and they’d rejuvenated relatively quickly for the severity of the damage. Now that the veins were repaired - and the [Void] was cleared - he found it much easier to bring her [Mana] out of her [Mana Pool] now. What he’d done is use the [Veins] like a highway system and created nodes in each of her joints that would slowly disseminate [Mana] to destroy the [Void] that appeared.

He used his experience from creating [Track] to develop a spell that attracted [Mana] to specific points like a magnet, then slowly sunk it into her body. The body is an absolute territory, what Crimson had done up to this point was subverting that territory, but trying to cast a spell inside another person’s body was like dancing naked into private property with a pair of shotguns. The body tried to do everything it could to reject it, so he wrapped it firmly in his [Mana] to disguise it, then installed the spell on each of the nodes. Rhea’s own [Mana] would act as a battery to keep the spell running, but it wouldn’t last forever. He’d have to do maintenance on it until her birthday, but…

—————

-[Quest] Complete!

-Processing reward…

-Reward: Averia, Goddess of Nature reveals her name to you.

-[Sword Kinship] has been pillaged for its data.

-Removed: [S*0nB 7nsh1p]

—————

All 10 gods curse it, that was the one [Skill] he didn’t want to lose!

—————

-Processing…

-Processing…

-Warning!

-User is about to be granted an [Artifact] type [Skill]! It will persist beyond the User’s death!

-Warning!

-User is about to be bound to a permanent [Skill]. It cannot be fused with other [Skills].

-Warning!

-Admin Averia: Would you quiet down already…

-Admin Averia Override. All warnings have been suppressed. Option for refusal has been removed.

-Reward: [Skill: Blade Spirit]

—————

Never mind. He wasn’t mad anymore.