A flaring spark of panic was seen in Leo’s eyes. From what he was told, he didn’t think anything good would come from spitting up blood during a breakthrough. Anything coming to mind caused it to fill him with unease. Unusually so, since currently what he was feeling was a burst of mana coming from Jessica. It wasn’t so much to say she was releasing mana, no, in another way. It would be better to say that she was the center of a large funnel.

Mana from the dungeon was filling her to the point that she became a large mass of mana. Strangely enough, he started to pay more attention. As he realized it wasn’t as he initially believed. She looked far more healthy than she did before she spat up that blood. Since she had been hurrying, there was no easy way to say it. Quite honestly, looked like shit.

In terms of appearance, it was almost younger than she actually was. A woman with large dark circles under her eyes. A common face, causing everyone to pay attention to it, as the color of her hair was blue. It was more normal for people of this world, as the amount of looks received weren’t nearly as much as he would have expected. Skinny with a bit of meat to just barely look a slight standard above malnourished.

Leo knew this wasn’t really the truth. In all honesty, she was rather athletically built. Only her body type and the way she carried herself, with slumped shoulders and just loose enough to hide what was her and what was something under her clothes. Combined this with the way she talked, in all circles from just appearance and a short meeting she wasn’t much to look at.

For this world, that was a good thing. Great or outstanding looks always drew attention. With law of the jungle, that could be very detrimental. Even he believed she wasn’t much to look at. Over time, he found this difficult to understand. He might have been envious of attractive people and the way people gathered around such people. Getting older, he couldn’t help but start to cared more about character than appearance. Which he wasn’t of the soundest mind.

Character alone, she wasn’t anything to snuff at. Down to earth, easy going, and yet inside was calculating and introvert. She showed signs that showed Jessica was used to being anything she needed to be. Only after months was he starting to find the little bits that snuck through her exterior, showing her true character. Even that was hard to do, as she had small shifts of different characteristics around different ideas she portrayed. Everything he knew came from the seal, as he started to use the common tongues of this world. He found it more difficult to see what he had come to know from this new person.

Every single one of them was her. Only a very little bit. It was likely she had been doing it for so long, even she wasn’t sure what parts were her, and parts she played as a character. Combine all of this on top of her background atmosphere. She had mastered the side-character persona. Personable enough not to be remembered, while not standing out as strange or weird. Best way to describe her was, easy come, easy go. Seen but masterfully forgotten.

It was akin to seeing a bug inside a jar you might find in the hands of a child. It was there but easily forgotten, likely dead and forgotten the next morning. As if she was different from others. Making it very hard to care. Even when you cared, he found himself, hard-pressed to understand this distance he found himself at. Standing two feet away, she was somehow out of reach.

From the beginning to end, everything seemed fine until Jessica started to absorb the crystal. Her face strained. He could see her face twist in pain. This didn’t get wiped away, even when there was starting to become hints of desperation. He could faintly see traces of red on the bottom of her mouth, showing on her teeth, in between times she was gritting her teeth and panting for breath in pain.

Starting to become worried, he saw a release of all tension. Desolate and weary. It was clear she failed her breakthrough. With a sigh, he wasn’t sure what to say. He never really had people care for him, even if he did, he couldn’t remember what to say in a situation that might resemble this. As her eyes opened, he went to say something. Only with bulging lashes and open maw, a large amount of blood seem to spew from her mouth.

Leo wasn’t the only one that panicked. Jessica, too, felt unease. Only after she spat that blood out, she could feel herself relax greatly. A smooth sheen seemingly washing her insides. This gentle wave of mana was very easy to understand. This was mana, not Grade F, no, this was Grade E mana. Inside her core, she felt all her mana that filled the top portion of the cup didn’t completely fill the bottom. This mana could probably only fill the bottom layer.

Part of this was that her mana didn’t instantaneously fall. As the first segment met the second. They were both round and orblike. In between the meeting of the two spheres, there was a magical connection to the two. Distinguishable to her breakthrough into Grade F. The tiny bits of mana she gathered fell straight into the first sphere. Now with the two separate segments there was a change.

As mana traveled into the second segment, it was refined and a single droplet lost a large amount of meat. When the entirety of the mana that filled the first sphere was put into the second. The total went from a full chamber to a small part of the bottom layer. As time went on, she could feel mana seeping into one of the holes in the second sphere. This refined mana was being fed throughout her body. Just a single drop had flushed her insides.

Stolen story; please report.

Removing damaged parts and breaking down parts as she felt it being pushed out of her body. This caused a large amount of blood to spew from her mouth. The blood was rancid in taste and smell. She couldn’t help but contort her face as she desperately reached into her pocket and pulled out one of the last remaining balloons before filling her teeth with mana and chomping down. She needed to desperately remove the taste. Muttering a bunch of cryptic elven words and phrases. The water became cloudy, and soon she stopped making a mess as she stopped chanting and spat the watered down red water onto the ground.

Closing her eyes as she was forced to focus back on the things occurring to her body. She also needed to absorb the mana flowing into her. This continued on for hours. Dungeons weren’t instruments for breakthroughs just because of the dungeon crystal. A breakthrough was a monumental moment when a dungeon was reset. Depending on the type it would become a huge deal, for a low level dungeon, however, nobody but Jessica would see anything. All the rooms were cleared as the mana was fed into the leader’s room.

Depending on the level of technology it was possible for cultivation chambers to notice a strange dip in generated mana, however, it was difficult to determine the reason. Nor was this anything they could do. They might have access to the surplus mana being generated, but the dungeon didn’t belong to anyone. No matter who tried to claim otherwise. Those who did were taught by the Will of the World that it was not something they dared to do twice.

When Jessica finally opened her eyes. They were clear and fluid, filled with a great elation. She had finished absorbing mana and now there was mana in her second chamber. The first hole absorbed enough mana to feed the body. Once this had finished, she now needed time to stabilize her foundation. This took time. Having watched, she couldn’t tell the exact difference inside. She felt stronger, and was sure she was faster. More precise, along with an overhaul of every aspect. Only time could truly tell how big the difference would be.

With one final look, she tried to observe the mana in her core. Unfortunately, besides looking a bit cloudy, the mana was simply just not as clear as before. When she tried to look closer, she could see that, cloudy, wasn’t the best choice of words. Instead, the density was higher. Almost as if in a similar sense to the way heat waves altered the perception of air. There was an undescribable density that caused the water like substance to become hazy. Only, mana wasn’t really like water. Still, there wasn’t much point in paying this attention. Many, many, had tried to study and describe mana. There were many results, many schools of thoughts. If they couldn’t come to a single conclusion, she didn’t really see a need in trying to do what others couldn’t.

Stretching lightly to remove the stiff feeling overcoming her. Standing up with a great amount of energy. Moving out, she wasn’t sure on how long the dungeon would remain empty for, if they didn’t leave now. It was questionable how time-consuming it would become. While Leo appeared to have questions, he didn’t understand enough to really put them into words. Working out for her, Jessica answered vaguely.

A conclusion was something she too wanted. Wanting answers wasn’t something he was alone in. Met with a large, bustling night market, she couldn’t help but laugh heartily. For a few seconds. Getting strange looks caused her to quiet down, only her happiness didn’t last long. Within a few steps, a large furrow could be seen. Brows tightly contracted her forehead. Threatening to meet, she could only helplessly speed through. Moving to an inn she ultimately decided against staying and left the city.

Only after traveling for a good twenty minutes did Jessica finally relax. Standing to her side, “What was all that about?”

Hesitating slightly, a voice filled with exasperation replied, “I don’t know. Only heard bits and pieces. Possible because I dreamed about breaking through after a while hearing about it, would make me feel too many things. Because of this, avoiding such talks became a norm. Long have I forgotten there is supposedly an adjustment period after a breakthrough.”

Seeing her pause, he couldn’t help but ask, “And?”

A bit of a frown, “Nobody ever spoke about the details. My assumption was always that the breakthrough changed your body. There isn’t a huge difference, though there was a pretty big one. In comparison, what came later would really bring out the difference between Grade F and E. This would mean that it would be easy to overdo something. Handshake, grabbing something, or even sparring with someone would be difficult and heavily accident-prone. Never would I have expected that just being near people would be torture. Sight is fine, only hearing, smelling, I could even taste the air. Until I can get my senses under control, I don’t think we can enter a city.”

A bit earlier, a woman left the dungeon. Seeing her caused him to pause slightly, lost in thought. Off to one side was a man having a hand raised and waved in front of him. Only once the hand reached his eyes did he turn to look at the person doing the waving with a questioning gaze.

“Hey, you with us?”

“Ah, yes.” Looking absentmindedly lost in thought.

With a strange look, “You see someone you know?” Asking with a bit of interest. The man before him was a great and amazing mage. Huge boon to have in a party. Yet, strangely enough, never really getting close to anyone. Living with a wall between him and everyone else. Finding some inside information, he couldn’t help but ask.

Looking into the distance, “No, not anyone I know. Just someone I once saw in a different place. They were in rather harsh condition, yet it seemed they just had a breakthrough.” Seeing the man look into the distance, he couldn’t help but laugh, “They’re gone already.”

With a little bit of disappointed look. Next to them was a woman with a red cheeks, “It’s cold! Let’s go inside already.”