Once again I opened my eyes. My body felt better than the day before just some mild pain compared to the day before, if this continues perhaps by tomorrow I will be completely healed. It's weird how I can heal so fast but even so, I feel something is amiss. I didn't notice before but now that the pain is mostly gone that spot I sense in my chest yesterday feels off. I can feel the flow of mana within my own body despite it being an extremely small trace compared to what it was before I entered the dungeon. However that spot feels dense with mana, moreover I can clearly feel it greedily absorbing more of it from my body. Its a strange sensation, and it becomes even weirder when I try to pull the mana out. One would think this strange object would put up an unbelievable resistance against me trying to pull mana out of it, but with a simple thought it complies and I can feel a surge of mana filling my entire body.
After a while of fiddling around with whatever that thing is in my chest I learn a few things and start making a few hypotheses as well. First, whenever I am not consciously controlling it, the thing will start absorbing mana. Second, whatever it is, it can hold far more mana than my own body can, as for its limit I have no idea. The fact that I can control it consciously while it also does its own thing unconsciously leads me to believe it is some kind of new organ I mutated somehow, as for what organ it is, well, the only thing that comes to mind is a magic core but that's a little too far fetched. For starters, only powerful monsters generate cores. The kind of monsters that would need a party of at least four B ranked adventurers alongside an A ranker, simply put, me having a core would entail two things, I am a monster and a powerful one at that so there is no way its that, right?
As of now, I don't know what to think. Either way, I don't have a clear answer and getting one as of now doesn't seem possible so the sensible thing to do right now is to give up on the topic until further evidence that proves or refutes this is acquired.
While I was thinking of all of this how was I supposed to know of the silent storm that was brewing outside this place, or rather in the mind of a certain someone.
As I began my now somewhat usual routine of checking my body's condition I heard to the door of the infirmary open. However, I could tell this time it wasn't Oliver. First, he is usually inside the infirmary, second, he is quiet as a mouse if he were to open the door I bet he wouldn't make a sound or at least not one as loud as this one. The following steps seem to support this since they feel heavier and are a bit noisy, however, I can clearly hear two sets of them were the second is light and barely audible over the aforementioned heavier louder steps.
While wondering who this two might be the curtain that was flung to the side by a large hand. What followed was the sight of a monster, or rather a woman with the physic of one. Behind her a young man smaller than her in what I can only describe as a medieval lab coat. I already had a sneaking suspicion of who this too might be by the sound of their steps, and I am glad I was right. The monster woman is the guild master Dianna and the young man is Oliver. With some difficulty, I offered a smile alongside the usual greetings.
"Hello Amelia, however right now is not a good time for pleasantries, I will get straight to the point. Yesterday Oliver told me about the thing inside your chest that absorbs mana, I was too busy then to check it out, however that doesn't matter, there are only two recorded events in which something like this happens, and both are a death sentence, am sorry."
After that her face became solemn, looking at Oliver his expression was even worse. I don't know what is all of this about. As of now, I feel fine. Hell, I have been feeling better each passing day. Now you come and tell me am about to die!
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"Dianna I don't know what this is but there must be a way out, right"
Shook her head slowly while pondering how to answer, after a while she made her mind.
"The thing is amelia, the possibilities are that of a magic tumour or a magic-core forming on your heart. For the first, there would still be hope if it were to appear on a limb or on a less important organ. It could be removed with surgery. However, we are talking about the heart here, I would dare say even with your enhanced regeneration surviving such a procedure are close to null. As for the second case"
Her words trailed off in that instant. A dangerous glow appearing in her eyes, looking at them made me understand something. She was determined to do whatever she had to, no matter the cost.
"I won't let another such monster roam free. Either way Amelia I hope you will cooperate with the procedure. I will use this magic core to check if you possess one. These things tend to react when near one another, I will only need to hold it close to your chest and depending on its reaction I will know what is inside you"
As she finished my eyes trailed to a crystal she was holding in her left hand. It was a reddish colour, to tell the truth, it resembles a ruby, however, it held a unique difference to a normal ruby. There were cyan lines flowing around inside the core, presumably, this is its mana. Looking at Dianna I understood she wouldn't accept a no as an answer so I nodded my head. Her hand was firm around the thing as it slowly approached my chest. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain as a pulling force was placed on my chest, however, this feeling didn't last. The next second I felt invigorated, like taking a cool shower in a hot day, I soon realised this feeling came from the flowing mana entering my body like a tide as it flowed towards the thing in my chest.
It was for a mere second after the core came in contact with me when I felt a massive pushing force on my chest. Unlike the pulling force that came from the core just a mere second ago, this pushing force inflicted an excruciating pain all over my body. It took me a second to realize what was going on as the air that was previously inside my lungs now flew out of them with blood as a companion. My ribs broke under the pressure and the many splinters punctured my internal organs. I remember how I died the first time, compared to that this was worse, Hell if someone were to tell me I tried to kiss a moving bullet train I would believe them.
I landed or rather crashed against the wall. The few beds and curtains I crashed into along the way worked to cushion the impact a little. The pain was truly maddening at this point and then I lost it. I understood that Dianna had punched me with everything she had the moment I began absorbing the mana within the magic core. I instantly remembered her determined gaze a moment after and came to the realisation she was trying to kill me. Fueled by the pain an unbound rage grew within me. I was tired of the pain, I had felt it for a week non-stop while in the dungeon and here in the infirmary, the recovery process was also painful. I was finally starting to feel better and now this happens! I couldn't take it any more, and I didn't feel like trying to. In an instant I began pumping mana from what I can only assume is a magic core withing me into my body. My wounded organs and ribs healed in an instant but just healing wasn't enough.
"You f*king b*tch"
As those words left my mouth I lunged forward at top speed flinging a punch with all my might at Dianna's chest. The whole me flying away and back only took about a second or two so she had no time to react moreover, by her expression she didn't expect me to survive that first blow. Well too bad, not only did I survive, but now I am pissed out of my mind! The blow connected and just like I did before she was sent flying with an absurd force. This time something slightly odd happened, I was ready for the pain coming from the broken bones in my right arm to appear at any time however such event didn't happen. Looking at my arm it had a slight blue glow and cyan coloured streaks that behaved as electricity ionising air flew by from time to time. Whatever this is, I like it, it looks cool but right now I have no time for that. Right now I need to fight this monster women for my life and to relieve some of my accumulated stress too.