James was biting his shirt to stop himself from howling. Lunaris’s intense healing was regrowing parts of his dissolved flesh, but unfortunately, regrowing flesh hurts worse than even being dissolved.
“My healing isn’t enough, we’ll have to get you healed up by a pro when we’re back at Hedonia.” Lunaris said as she was watching his flesh very slowly being reconstructed under her hands. “But look whom I’m telling this to, the hospital’s number one customer! I bet you already know all the healers by name, don’t you?” She chuckled.
Lunaris didn’t usually have such a sarcastic tone. Even though she decided not to nag him anymore, she thought maybe she’d get the crazy bastard to be more careful in the future if she gave him a little attitude.
“You know, just because you can casually walk into a hospital and heal pretty much any wound that isn’t fatal, it doesn’t mean you should be so nonchalant about getting wounded. Every wound takes its toll, and plenty of people don’t even make it to the hospital before they succumb to them.” Helios added. They were both tough men, but not even Helios was as insane and willing to get wounded as James.
“I know, and you’re absolutely right. And I know we keep having the same conversation, and I keep promising that I’ll do better. But think about it, I am actually doing better each and every time. My defenses get exponentially better, the only problem is that the foes get much stronger as well. No worries though, I’ll just have to get yet another layer of defense. Nothing will be able to touch me.” James laughed.
“Getting your flesh dissolved by jumping into what is essentially a vat of acid isn’t exactly something done by a person who promised to be more careful.” Lunaris said. She tried hard not to nag, but some things just had to be said. She then intensified the healing, making James scream from the pain of regrowth. “See what happens when you’re so reckless?” There was no other way of getting through to him, so Lunaris was giving him some tough love to get his head straight.
“That’s true too. And I won’t do something like that again, that’s for sure.” James answered with an awkward smile.
But suddenly, his smile turned a lot more genuine and excited, to the point he almost seemed to be forgetting the pain. “But it was worth it. You can feel it too, don’t you?”
Lunaris and Helios looked at James, then at each other. They could see the shock in each others’ eyes. James had been out of the Bloodwell for a while now, and yet they were still shocked.
Denmac was just staring at James with his mouth agape again, unable to make a sound.
“Aye, we feel it.” Helios replied. He wanted to say and ask so much more, but he couldn’t get the right words out.
The aura and power coming emanating from James made it feel like he was an entirely different being. It was night and day. If James’s aura was like that of a tree before, now it was like that of a forest.
They didn’t want to encourage his reckless behavior. They’d hate to see him do things like that again. But they couldn’t deny that James had gained a lot through his insane gamble.
Lunaris was still healing him. With her hands on his body, she could feel the changes in his mana even more intensely.
“What happened? I know there was a lot of energy within the Bloodwell, but this seems … impossible.” She asked.
“Well, luckily for us, it is possible.” James smiled happily. “I’ve also unlocked a trait, apparently. ‘Embodiment of Mana’ it’s called. Haven’t had the chance to see what it does, but I can feel the power coursing through my veins. Even my mana feels different.” Despite the pain from his dissolved flesh, James could clearly feel the smooth and calming flow of his mana throughout his body. It didn’t even feel at all like the mana he remembered, it’s like he was in a different body. “What’s a trait though?”
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“It’s basically a passive skill, but they’re even harder to get, requiring special circumstances.” Helios replied. “They’re hard to replicate, some of them are even unique. What does the system say, is there a description?”
“Nope, no description.” James replied as he checked.
“Should be pretty easy to figure out what it does. Check your mana stats.” Lunaris said.
[Anomaly detected. You have: ???? mana. Your mana regeneration rate is: ????]
“What?!” Lunaris said in shock.
“Impossible!” Helios shouted.
Denmac’s jaw seemed to drop even lower. He wanted to scream but he couldn’t produce any sounds.
“The system can display mana even in the trillions and more!” Helios yelled out. “What does that mean, that you have even more mana than that? And that your regeneration rate is just as big?”
Helios was in a total state of shock, but Lunaris was quiet as a mouse, thinking.
“Not necessarily. It may mean that the shift in his mana was qualitative, in a way that made it hard to quantify.” Lunaris theorized.
“You mean he has infinite mana or something?” Helios asked.
“No, no. Of course not.” Lunaris shook her head. “Something like that would make him a god. And while he is much stronger than before, he’s obviously not a god. But there was a shift in the nature of his mana. I guess there’s no way to tell right now without experimentation. We should probably get back to Hedonia for that. There’s one last thing we need to do here though.”
Lunaris looked at Denmac, who didn’t react. His mouth was still agape. The more he found out about these people, the more shocked he was. Especially James, he had shocked him enough before, and yet just a short while later, he did it again in an even more spectacular fashion.
It took a few minutes before Denmac noticed that everybody was watching him.
“R-r-right. The divination!” Denmac knew what they wanted right away.
His mana and powers had completely recovered by now, so Denmac was ready to fulfill one of his main duties on this mission.
They had to extract information from the agent. Of course, agents don’t exactly volunteer their information, so they had to extract it using different means. Luckily, those means didn’t require them to be alive.
Denmac started with the neophytes. Although through the mess of limbs and blood that remained of them it was hard to make out who was who, it didn’t take long until he completed his divinations on them.
“These guys didn’t know anything.” He said. “Just a bunch of murderous monsters and little else.”
“He definitely knows something though.” Helios pointed toward the dead agent.
Denmac began performing his divinations on the agent. But unlike the neophytes, the agent’s memories were guarded much better.
He tried for minutes, but he couldn’t break through. Every memory he saw was clouded in Darkness, making it almost impossible to make out what was happening.
“I’m sorry guys, but it seems like I need a lot more power. The agents know of our methods so they developed ways to protect their information even beyond death. Nothing that can’t be beaten, of course. It’s not like he’s still here to fight me. But I just don’t have enough power to break through the defenses.” Denmac sighed.
“I might have something.” Helios announced. He then rummaged through his storage.
“I was planning on giving you this when we returned, as a sort of thank you for accompanying us. In addition to the usual payment, of course. But it seems like we have a need for it now.” Helios revealed an exquisite bottle of wine, even more enchanting than the one he gave him before. The aura it was giving off was enough to make Denmac’s knees wobble.
Denmac’s jaw dropped again.
“This is too much! It would be such a waste to open it!” He exclaimed.
But even though he was reluctant to waste even a drop of this treasure, he obviously had no choice. He couldn’t think of any other way to extract the information.
Denmac opened the bottle and took just a small sip. He quickly closed it back up again, not wanting to waste a whiff more than it was necessary.
The effects were immediate. Denmac’s cheeks turned red, and his mana skyrocketed. His eyes had a golden glow, and even as he closed them in order to focus on the divination, the golden glow could be seen through his closed eyelids.
Denmac faced the defenses of the agent’s memories, but this time they felt a lot weaker. His golden gaze seemed to penetrate through them effortlessly, revealing the memories hidden underneath.
What he saw made him turn pale. Everyone could see the mixed emotions on his face. On the one hand, he seemed relieved that he had finally cracked the defenses. On the other hand, whatever he discovered struck a kind of fear into him that he couldn’t hide.
“I think I have the information we’ve been looking for.”