“Now let’s talk about how I’m still alive.” Alice asked seriously.
“Don’t you remember what happened Alice?” Elric replied with a question to know how much she recalls from the incident.
“I remember hearing both of your screams, especially yours, Elric. You were telling me to stay awake and when you place my head down and put your hands on my neck, I felt a very warm sensation. I knew you did something to save me, so after I saw your face smile, it was a signal for me that it was safe, so I instantly fell asleep." Alice told the story from her perspective.
“I didn’t even know that Elric was doing something.” Klein voiced out which made them chuckle.
"I just healed you, Alice. It seems to be one of the things I can do now." Elric explained plainly.
“How can you say that so casually? What do you mean you just healed me? From what I heard, healing is supposed to be rare even among the Casters.” She argued as Alice thought that Elric was making light of the situation.
"I'm not casual about any of it, Alice. To be honest, I'm really scared about having all these abilities. What if I stop being me in the future? What if this is just the beginning and that I'll slowly start to not be myself?" Elric confessed.
"It was you who saved me, Elric. It was you who made the impossible happen and used abilities that you shouldn’t have and you did that because you are you. So don’t be scared and embrace it.” Alice affirmed Elric’s as he doubted himself.
“Well as you can see from my state. Healing a fatal wound took a toll on my body, I can't move my body since every muscle in my body was sucked dry of energy.” He explained.
Alice felt guilty as she felt her neck with his hands, trying to feel the wound that wasn't there.
"Come to think of it, did you drag us back here Klein?" Elric asked Klein about the process of his lone trudge back to their cave.
“Dragged? I carried you both on my back. I dragged those back here while carrying you guys." Klein said as he pointed to a corner of the cave.
Elric and Alice both turned to see where Klein was pointing to and saw the four Onyx wolves piled up at the corner of the cave.
"Klein, can you do me a favor and drag one of them near me so I can touch it.” Elric requested. He had the idea of absorbing the wolf's Enliven since he was close to being depleted.
After dragging the wolf near Elric, he struggled to put his hand on the dead animal.
The Enliven that was floating around the body quickly got absorbed into Elric’s hand and a familiar message popped into view once again.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
[Enliven Assimilation Complete]
Almost instantly, Elric began to feel his strength come back by just an amount.
He then thought of another idea that might work and benefit them.
“Klein, can you bring another one over here and crouch down with me.” Elric asked once more while propped himself to sit against the wall.
After dragging another one, Elric motioned for Klein to crouch down.
“Can you put your hand on it, please?" Elric requested which Klein curiously obeyed.
However, it did not get absorbed into Klein’s hand.
“You told me that you don’t see it but can you feel it?” Elric asked.
Klein’s face was a bit confused about what Elric was asking until he felt something like a slimy texture hovering over his hand.
"Oh! Yes, I can feel it, Elric! What is that? It feels unnatural? Klein panicked as he felt the sensation of Enliven hovering around his hand.
"It's the most natural thing, Klein. Can you try and focus and imagine absorbing it into your body?
“Okay, I’ll try.” Klein said with a distorted smile on his face. It was a mixture of fear and excitement.
“Nothing’s happening Elric.” He said with his eyes closed.
“Keep concentrating and imagine that slimy texture around your hand being absorbed into you.” Elric instructed as well as he could.
And by his instructions, the Enliven began to swirl around his hand and was slowly being sucked inside Klein’s hand.
Klein began to sweat and strain his body.
It was like he was forcing it into his hand until he exhaled loudly and fell back on his back, breathing heavily.
“How does it feel?” Elric asked.
“It was hard to do and almost felt tiring but as soon as I took my hand off it stopped. I felt something different. I feel more energy inside me right now.” Klein tried to describe as best as he could.
Elric noticed that there was Enliven left on the Onyx wolf, he asked Klein once more.
“Can you do it again?”
“I don’t think I can, Elric. I don’t know how to describe it but I feel that if I absorb more of it, I’ll explode.” Klein was holding his stomach while describing what he felt so Elric thought that maybe it was a feeling of being full, similar to having too much food.
[Name: Klein Steele][Race: Human]
[Job: Apprentice Miner][Age: 12]
[Class: Transmuter][Stage: Light Blue]
[Status: Normal]
[Physical]
Strength – 10
Agility – 6
Vitality – 15/15
Dexterity – 8
[Mental]
Intelligence – 6
Wisdom – 4
Charisma – 5
Sense – 8
[Skills]
[Rock Absorption]
[Rock Coating]
[Rock Shield]
‘Klein’s training seemed to have paid off but it seems like absorbing Enliven also has its limits' Elric thought after he checked Klein’s status.
After Alice’s attempt at absorbing Enliven, it seemed like it was the same for her as well. She finished the remaining energy, which was left by Klein, and absorbed barely half of the third wolf's Enliven.
[Name: Alice Cornflower][Race: Human]
[Job: Apprentice Miner][Age: 12]
[Class: Transmuter][Stage: Light Blue]
[Status: Normal]
[Physical]
Strength – 8
Agility – 10
Vitality – 10/10
Dexterity – 11
[Mental]
Intelligence – 10
Wisdom – 8
Charisma – 2
Sense – 8
[Skills]
[Rock Absorption]
[Rock Coating]
[Rock Daggers]
Elric absorbed all that both of them could no longer take and felt more of his strength come back to him.
His muscles seemed to have restored their vigor and enabled him to stand up and move around.
The three of them skinned the wolves and prepped them for dinner since they haven’t eaten since the incident. They drained the meat with blood and stored most of it to dry it in the sun when morning comes.
Elric gathered his thought while they did their parts of the work and uttered no words even while they ate.
He concluded that the limit of how much one person can store Enliven varied depending on the individual.
He wondered if he too had this limit and wanted to test it out, so he proposed another plan.
“Let’s keep training in the woods.” He suggested.
“What!? Are you serious? After everything that happened today, you still want to continue? Alice disagreed with Elric’s suggestion.
"I understand that you went through a life and death situation but for us to get stronger and prevent that from happening again, is to train.
Sooner or later we would have to face what's down there too and if we're not strong enough we will be overwhelmed and chased out or even killed by them.” Elric argued his point about the larger cave deeper in the mountain.
“I agree with Elric. I know I let you down and failed but I want to be stronger and make it up to you both." Klein agreed.
Alice sighed and conceded but requested a condition.
"Can we at least push it to a later date and rest for a couple of days? I mean, I thought that I was going to die earlier, so can we take a bit of a break, please?”
“That’s a deal then Alice.” Elric agreed with the condition.
After months of perfecting their formation and strategies with countless battles with various wild animals present in Teal forest, lessons in hunting and foraging, also improving their Enliven absorption in terms of speed and quantity.
They had finally decided to descend once more deep inside the mountain.