Chapter 30
Nick woke up from someone entering the hut, quickly getting his bearings he opened his eyes and saw Linella. To do this he had to quickly turn his head, which caused him to be momentarily lost in pain.
Damn, when will this stop?!
"Good morning Dylan, I brought you some food. I hope you have an appetite." She said with a sweet smile.
"Good morning, although I wouldn't call it good considering everything, but I wouldn't mind some food." Linella walked over to his bed and placed the plate of food on the floor.
"Mmm, great. Hold on, this is going to hurt."
She took him by the shoulders and lifted him upright so he could lean against the wall. Nick gritted his teeth against the pain and was able barely to endure it.
"For breakfast today we have fried meat along with the porridge that we were given in our rations."
"To be honest, I don't care, the main thing is to eat to get better faster."
"That's right, eat a lot and you'll grow up big and strong." She said with a laugh, which managed to bring a weak smile to Dylan's face.
Linella cut up pieces of meat in a wooden plate and put one in Dylan's mouth. Having eaten it, he appreciated that it was very good, the next thing fed him was something lthere was porridge, it was just tasteless, it seemed strange to him, but because of the taste of the meat everything was fine. Linella fed him with pleasure and occasionally they exchanged short phrases about something interesting in the camp.
"Your condition has caused a great deal of unrest in the camp. You were already ranked among the top five, and considering that the two of us almost lost to the monster, it has caused a great deal of panic, and now few people want to leave the camp. The prince is trying to calm people down, but when I left, he wasn't very successful."
"Mmm, let's hope people have the courage. If they don't, we'll all lose the test."
"That's if you think about the fact that we really have to go through it. I think we'll be here either until we lose or until we get rid of all the dangerous monsters in this area. For example, the Orc Leader."
"Yes, you're right, but it could take us years."
"Considering that we are a special class, and that each of us will live more than 150 years, this will not be a problem for teachers."
"Damn, I don't want to be here for that long."
"I don't want to either, but if you'll occasionally brighten up my days, I might agree." Lynella winked lewdly, but Nick pretended not to notice. He wasn't in the mood for it.
The rest of the breakfast was spent in silence. When Linella had fed him, she said that she needed to collect mana and left. Nick was not at all against this, he himself should take up meditation. Without wasting time, he began to collect mana and surround his core with it; unfortunately, he did not have the strength to properly use meditation and get more mana.
While Nick was meditating, Liam came into his house, he looked good as always, but his face was sad because of the state Nick was in.
"Hi Dylan, how are you feeling? I couldn't come to see you yesterday, I was in meditation and only heard what happened to you when you were already asleep. I decided not to disturb you at night. How did this happen?"
Nick recounted the entire story of the battle with the monster again, while Liam listened with interest.
"That was to be expected, of course, the forest is really full of dangers. I can't imagine what would have happened if the teachers hadn't cleared it of monsters that we had no chance against." Liam said, to which Nick nodded.
"I think they specially prepared this place with monsters that we would be weak against on our own. I'm sure there will be a lot more trouble."
"Mmm, that's right. Right now the main problem is that you overloaded your body with technique to win, when you can heal is still unknown."
"Alas, but I had no choice, let's not talk about sad things. Instead, tell me how your progress in magic is going. I never had time to ask you about it." Liam smiled and told about his success.
"I managed to create a spell that performs hydro-abrasive cutting. The spell turned out to be level 4, its cost at close range is not great, but the greater the distance, the weaker the spell."
"That sounds powerful, what name did you give this spell?" Nick asked with interest.
"I haven't decided what to name it yet."
"I see, then tell me how well it cuts stone?"
"Stone is not a problem for this spell at all, when I trained with my parents, this spell cut through enchanted armor made of mana steel [Rare]. But it only worked at a very close range, of course, to do this you need a lot of concentration and a lot of mana. But the point is that I most likely have the strongest spell out of the whole group." Liam said proudly.
"I wouldn't agree yet, Cassandra also has some very powerful spells. And her stats are higher than yours."
"Yes, but my spell is much stronger than the penetrating ability."
Nick continued talking with Liam and arguing about different things, despite the severe pain in his body he was very happy to talk to his old friend.
***
Three people who were supposed to gather provisions for the camp were walking through the forest in search of possible food. It consisted of three Weapon Adepts. Group were lucky to see a flock of wild boars in the distance, who were going to drink. Carefully surrounding them, they attacked simultaneously. The first adept was lucky to pierce the head of a boar with a spear and kill the next one before the flock reacted, the second sword adept quickly cut through the throat of another boar, the third adept was able to catch the fleeing boar by surprise and also cut its neck. The boars quickly ran away in fear and did not even think about revenge. The people were happy with such a large amount of meat. They did not even notice how a couple of insects crawled out of the nearest bush, the insects looked like worms with a long chitinous proboscis and ten legs like arthropods. One of them crawled onto a dead boar and when one of the adepts approached it, it quickly pierced his hand with its sharp proboscis. The sword adept got angry and slapped the bug before he could assess it, the others paid no attention to this. Taking the carcasses of the animals, they skinned them on the spot and dragged the meat to the camp.
Race: Triatom Plague Carrier [Common] Lvl 7
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***
Nick spent the whole day in meditation, occasionally Linella came to him to feed him and examine his wounds. He had plans for the next few days to get the skill [Healing Magic], for this he of course needed a lot of mana, he meditated for 15 hours and was pleased with the result.
Health 1463/1630 HP 2.445 HP/hour
Mana 447/2590 MP 2.43 MP/hour
Endurance 1126/1870 ST 7 ST/hour 28.5 ST/hour
Not bad, I don't regret investing stat points into mana regeneration at all. But it still takes too long, what the hell?
Nick didn't have time to complain too much about the unfairness of this world, as the prince walked in. He looked surprisingly good for a man who was stuck with a bunch of idiots in the middle of a magical forest, Nick chuckled internally at his joke and regretted it, as the slightest spasm caused agony.
"How are you feeling Dylan?"
"Like shit Evander, I'm sorry you're a prince... I feel bad." Evander laughed lightly at his joke.
"Don't worry, in our circumstances we don't have to mince words. And if you had followed etiquette, I would have gone for a healer."
"Haha, oh damn, that hurts. Did you want something, or did you just come to chat? Why didn't anyone come to see me today except Linella, and Liam?"
"Everyone is busy patrolling the area and collecting resources. Today we collected a lot of meat and even found a couple of [Common] level medicinal herbs, they won't help you of course, but they will be very useful for other people."
"I'm happy for you, what else is interesting?"
"Someone tried to fish in the river today, but they didn't succeed. Which I honestly find strange, the river is not very big, only 30 meters wide, but there should be fish here."
"If you think I know anything about fishing, you're asking the wrong person."
"Okay, Alistair was able to make a few knives from the monster you killed, he should finish the cursed weapon soon, so you need to recover faster, you're first in line to use it in action."
"Mmm, thanks, but I'll refuse. Better give it to someone it will really help. It's obviously not you, not me, and not Cassandra, but there's still a big choice."
"Okay, I won't force you. The healers are slowly restoring your mana, but I'm afraid it will take them about 8 days to fully restore it, I'm sorry I can't help you with that."
"I'm not offended Evander, so don't worry. Instead of them healing me, I would have asked them to teach me proper healing magic. It would be much faster than relying on them completely." The prince's face changed from sad to happy in just an instant.
"That's right, you're an [Arcane Mage], your healing spells may not be that good, but it would help everyone a lot if you mastered that magic. I honestly hadn't thought about that. I will ask the healers to teach you magic."
"Yes, yes. Sorry Evander, but I'd like to sleep."
"Yeah, right, sorry. I'll try to come earlier tomorrow. Good night." Evander left the hut, and Nick thought about how unpleasant it is to talk to a person when you are lying down.
Of course, try to focus your eyes on him, how hard life is.
After a series of unpleasant thoughts, Nick quickly fell asleep.
***
The next day in the camp, the man who had been bitten by the insect started to have a slight cough. These were all his symptoms and he didn't pay any attention to it at all. It was rare for people with a tall constitution to get sick, and even if they did get sick, the illness did not show strong symptoms and went away on its own after a few days. This man was used to living in a society where every [Disease Mage] was killed on the spot, where healers in all cities made sure that there were no advanced diseases, and when they were found, the entire city was quarantined. Therefore, it did not occur to him that this could be dangerous, not only for him, but also for all the people who came into contact with him.
***
Nick woke up to the healers coming in with his food. He was almost not happy that Lynella hadn't come to feed him in the morning, but he quickly pulled himself together. Thinking about how he hadn't gone to the bathroom in a long time, Max interrupted his thought process with a conversation.
"Hi Dylan, how are you feeling?"
Nick rolled his eyes and wanted to make a sarcastic remark about how bad it was, but after thinking for a bit, he decided to make a sarcastic remark anyway. He knew he was a bastard and he didn't care.
"I haven't been able to get out of bed for three days now and I'm sick of this question, I can't answer it other than bad, or that I feel like shit, I'm sick of it. Now I'll think about how to explain to people that I feel like a bag of bones, but only in other words." His answer was completely ignored and Nick can't blame them. Max continued as if he hadn't heard anything.
"I hope you're feeling better, we came to feed you and show you our healing spells, so I suggest you be more polite." Nick didn't miss the Half-Elf's subtext and nodded.
Max began to demonstrate his life magic healing spell. Now that Nick knew what to look for, he could tell that the Half-Elf's mana core was attuned to life mana. He was turned into a sitting position and while Max explained the spell, Kaeti Mercer fed him.
"This is a tier 1 spell, "Accelerated Healing", it's not very strong at all, its main function will be to slightly stimulate your natural healing." Max changed the spell form and began a new explanation.
"This is a construction of mana conversion into life mana, I hope you put a lot of characteristics into wisdom, we have no place to write down our spells. So you will have to learn them from us quickly."
"Fine."
Nick expanded his aura and covered Max's spell with it, he did not try to influence it in any way, but only to see it better. The aura enhanced his mana manipulation skills and mana senses. The spell that was sewn from countless threads resembled a ball that rotated inside itself, Nick found it strange, but very beautiful. Having examined the spell more closely, he saw that part of its design was created from life mana, but upon closer inspection he noticed that it was not life mana, but life force. Such a design fell under a minimum level 3 spell. Now he knew exactly why the [Life Mage][Rare] class gave +40 stat points per level. Thanks to this school of magic, he will be able to add the [Life Force Manipulation] skill to the [Mage of Arcane Will] class, although the [Healing Magic] skill may be enough for him to do this.
Having seen the spell well enough, he tried to create it. Nick turned on the [Parallel Thinking] skill and the [Accelerated Perception] skill, this was necessary for better control of mana and life force. He pulled out the life force and mana from his body and began to create a spell, but no matter how hard he tried to create it on the first try, it did not work. The spell dissipated into thin air, he managed to retain all of his mana, but his life force was completely dissipated and he was unable to retain it, he was sorry to lose even these 50 HP. Seeing his failure, Kaeti hit Max on the head with her palm.
"I told you he wouldn't be able to cast that spell on the first try, he needs to conserve all the life force he has, and you're making him waste it. Dylan, don't listen to that idiot, he's had life mana freely available his whole life. It's better to start with arcane spells, watch this carefully." After Kaeti hit Max, he didn't look guilty at all, ignoring her blow, he stood there as if it never happened.
Kaeti began to create a level 2 spell "Directed Healing" between her hands. Nick was able to make a spell during the fight that was much stronger than this and heal himself better, but he did not receive the skill [Healing Magic] since formally his spell falls under level 1, he just made it so strong that its effect could be comparable to level 3. Nick had not previously devoted much of his time to healing magic, since he always had a large number of different healing potions in his ring, he had not seen the point in it before.
The spell was much easier than the life mana conversion construct and he was able to easily create it on the first try and cast it on his right hand, he put 100 mana into the spell and hoped for a noticeable effect. A blue glow of mana spread across his right hand and he felt a good reduction in the pain in his limb, but he did not notice anything else. Turning his attention to the new notification, Nick smiled.
Congratulations you have acquired a new skill [Healing Magic] [Common] Lvl 1
Congratulations you have acquired a new skill [Healing Magic] [Common] Lvl 1