When I woke up next, I was alone. Haa, I didn’t stop early enough. After flowing my mana for a bit, I opened the tent to see that it was nearly noon. Yeah, not nearly early enough. I guess I didn’t take into account how tired I was previously.
Or, you know, what time I woke up that night. Yeah, that would have been useful to know. Once again, that’s another thing to remember for next time.
“Caw!” That scared me. I really need to get used to that crow.
The first to arrive this time was Gregory. I think he was already here, considering he greeted me seconds after the crow cawed.
“Hello, Eli, how are you doing?”
“Fine. My soreness and fatigue haven’t gone away yet, though. What about you?”
“I have physically recovered, but as I can not use any magic, I am of no assistance for dealing with the dragon’s remains.”
“How’s that going, by the way?”
“Fairly well, though I doubt they shall be finished any time soon.”
“I see, well, at least I’m not holding everyone back.”
“So, about your condition.” He starts.
“I’ll tell you in a bit, I’d rather explain to everyone at once.”
“Understood.”
Soon, everyone had arrived. “So, how’re you fairing?” The Hero asked.
“Pretty good. I’m pretty sure I know what the glow was now though.”
“Oh? Do tell.”
“So, the glow directly is me releasing my mana, specifically the excess energy inside my mana.” I start.
“You are, instead of calming your mana to relieve it of its excess energy, directly releasing the high energy mana?” Greg asks.
“Yes, that’s probably why I took less time to recover last time, I had to go through less energy.”
“Marvelous. Do you know how you accomplished such a feat?”
“Most likely, first though, the downsides.”
“Ah, of course.”
“The main problem is that The poison’s effect extends beyond what is currently contained in my mana. So, as my mana regenerates, it continuously pumped full of energy, at least until the effect completely wears out. As such, it really tires me out, causing a lot of fatigue. In the end, while the duration of the effect is reduced, the intensity is increased.”
“I see, that makes sense. Still, that leaves some questions. Namely how you accomplished such a feat, and to what extent that it affects your recovery.”
“If I keep up my current pace, I think I will be better sometime tomorrow. At worst, it would probably only last a few more days. As for how, I actually have an idea. The main thing that makes me unique is my hyper aggressive mana. So, it might just be so aggressive that I still retain some control over it, even when poisoned. So, while I don’t know if I can use this to speed up another's recovery, or make a technique for others to use, it has potential.” I explained.
“Marvelous! If you succeed, you could revolutionize how people utilize mana potions. You may even be capable of resolving their greatest hindrance! This is absolutely marvelous!”
“I’m glad to see that you’re excited, but don’t get your hopes up yet, even if such a thing is possible, I don’t really have the time to research it right now.”
“Ah, yes. My apologies, I let my excitement overwhelm me.”
“No problem, I understand how you feel.”
“So, what’s your plan now?” The Hero asks.
“Eat tons of food and remove all of the excess energy my mana has. I want to recover as fast as I can.”
“Good, I’ll make sure your meals give you all the energy you need.”
“I’m looking forward to it!” I cheered.
“I’ll start preparing now then.”
“Are you sure?” Melly asks.
“Yes, Eli’s help will make the entire process far easier, so spending extra time cooking is worth it.”
“Ah, well, even if it wasn’t efficient, I wouldn’t complain.” Melly admits.
“Indeed.” Hansen agreed.
“Oh right! What about the first time?” Rapunzel asks.
“Hmm, what do you mean?” I asked back.
“Why weren’t you tired the first time you glowed, considering that you completely passed out this time.” She explained.
“Huh, that is odd. Well, I guess I did use energy this time.” I guess.
“Though that doesn’t explain why the first time was a light yellow, versus the light blue of recent.”
“Hmm, that is strange… Ah, maybe one of them was more efficient than the other?” I suggested.
“Possibly.” Greg agreed. “Though, that does bring to question which one that was.”
“True. Sadly, I don’t think that’s something I can really experiment with, especially right now.” I quickly answered before anyone could suggest testing it. I was in a, difficult, state at the time. One that I really don’t want to revisit, at least for a while.
“Correct.” The Hero interjected. “So in the meantime, let's eat.”
That ended our conversation, something I was glad for. Though, I did have another idea as to why this time was different, but I don’t have any evidence to support the thought.
Besides, why would the Gods assist me with my mana poisoning but not any other saintesses?
Leaving those thoughts behind, after another excellent meal, I fell asleep again. This time I was lucky enough to wake up at a time where I could actually eat dinner. So, with my belly full and my morale maxed, I went all out removing as much energy as I could, not stopping until I directly passed out.
I obviously then woke up the next day around the same time as before. Haa, going all out was probably a bad idea. I’m really sore as well. And, I still have excess energy in my mana. Haa, might as well deal with that for now.
A few minutes later, I’d dealt with all of the excess energy that built up overnight.
Wait, what? Oh! I dealt with all of it! I guess I just had some remaining in my mana, but I wasn’t generating any more.
“Nice!” I choked out. Haa, sadly everything is sore, especially my eyes which hurt to even open. Well, all the more reason to use magic to increase the rate of my recovery. Sadly, unlike regular soreness, magic can’t actually heal fatigue, only assist its recovery. Well, I could use a spell to ignore my fatigue, but that could be quite dangerous, even for me.
So, I was just stuck waiting as I slowly recovered.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Probably an hour later, Melly entered the tent. “Eli? Are you awake?” She asks. Ah, she’s here to check on me.
“Yeah.” I say.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, just a bit sore and tired. But, ” I then cast a buff on her. “I can use magic again.” I finished with a smile.
“Oh, that’s good!” She congratulated. “Also, lunch is ready, are you able to eat?”
“Yeah.” I said as I slowly sat up. “I’ve been recovering for like an hour now, so while I can’t really do physical labor, I should at least be able to move around. Besides, if I’m having any problems, I can always use a buff to assist me.” Though that might make my soreness last longer.
“Okay, just don’t push yourself.” She advised.
“Don’t worry, I definitely don’t feel like pushing myself.” I said with a smile as we exited the tent.
“Eli, good to have you join us. We missed you during breakfast.” The Hero greeted.
“Yeah, well, I was too busy finally removing all of my excess energy to attend. I will join everyone for tomorrow’s breakfast though.”
“Oh, have you already recovered? That is wonderful. If you would not mind, I would like you to see if you can assist me in increasing my recovery.” Greg asks.
“Sure, just don’t expect much.”
“Just you attempting to help is more than enough.”
After eating, I asked. “Shall I see how the dragon dismantling is going?”
“Sure, but before that, I have to apologize. I’m sorry for using a health potion despite knowing how you felt about them.” The Hero bowed as he apologized.
“Ah, no problem. I know, logically, that there are several situations where a health potion would be useful, but, emotionally, I couldn’t accept them.” I sighed. “Anyway, regardless of my biases, we need to do whatever it takes to deal with the demon lord, petty restrictions will only hinder us.”
“Are you sure?” Melly asks.
“Yeah, all I ask is that you don’t use them unless it’s an emergency or something. Oh, and that you tell me whenever you do so I can deal with the side effects.” I say as I heal the Hero. “If left alone, you could actually develop some serious health problems.”
“Sounds fair, you have yourself a deal.” The Hero agrees as he holds out his hand.
“Yeah, that’s a deal.” I agreed.
“Now, let’s check out the dragon!”
As Melly carried me over to the dragon, I made sure to heal all the hidden injuries everyone likely had. The dragon itself has mostly been cut apart, though it looked like they were trying to separate who gets what instead of actually butchering it. Noticing my confusion, the Hero explained. “We are cutting it into a few pieces so that we can store it in my bag. Once we get to a proper city, we can gate to the capital to properly deal with it.”
“I see, I’ll help however I can.”
“Thanks, this will go a lot easier with a strength buff.”
“How are you able to cut it in the first place, though? You barely could when buffed before?”
“The dragon, like humans, used its mana to reinforce its body. Now that it’s dead, the mana reinforcement is gone. So while it’s still quite tough, it’s manageable. Still, we normally would have needed a few more days, but your help should let us finish today. And, if you’re feeling better, we can even head out tomorrow.”
“Ah, that’d be nice.” I said in relief. “Ah, I can also buff Greg to help him travel as well.” I added as an afterthought.
“Good, we’re going to need it.” He smiled in approval.
Well that doesn’t fill me with confidence. Whatever, it’s not like I can do anything about it. I cast some strength buffs on everyone then sat down to read nearby, ready to refresh their buffs as needed.
It only took a few hours for everyone to finish cutting up and packing away the dragon. It always amazes me how our spacial bags were able to hold so much without increasing in weight. I’ve heard that they work similarly to gates, just smaller and static, but I’m not certain. That’s also part of the reason why you can usually only have one bag per person, as your mana is needed to help stabilize the bag.
Once we returned, the Hero started on an early dinner. Since I was free, I decided to try to assist Greg.
“Hey, Greg, you free?” I asked outside of his tent.
“Yes, come in.” He says. “I take it everyone has finished?”
“Yes, we plan on leaving tomorrow.”
“Ah, I am already dreading the journey.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to buff you up. You won’t have to worry about a thing.”
“I see, thank you.”
“No problem. Now, let’s see about somehow resolving your mana poisoning.”
______
After several different experiments, we’ve gotten some decent results. I first started with just infusing some mana into him. Surprisingly, we got results immediately, as energy was drained during our mana’s battle. Sadly the process was very mana inefficient, and even if it wasn’t, the damage that such a strategy would cause wouldn’t be worth it anyway. Also, that idea relied way too much on me, so it wasn’t replicable.
After a few more failed strategies and buffs, I cast unity and infused it with my mana. That worked far better than anything else so far, but, unlike when I had cast it on Melly, the mana poisoning made the experience a painful affair, as the spell effectively declared war with Greg’s mana. While I can’t test other preMilo spells on Greg for now, I expect similar results.
The final thing that worked was me using my mana to drag his mana outside of his body. While I believe this worked almost as well as it did for me, it was limited to a small portion of his mana. My mana also was fighting with Greg the entire time, which definitely reduced the efficiency of the technique.
Greg did, however, see hope with that third technique, so we are trying to practice with that. We do plan on mainly using unity though, as it’s more important to actually recover than to create a new technique for now.
We kept experimenting until dinner time,after which the Hero made an announcement. “So, since we’ve packed up the dragon, we no longer have a reason to stay here. So, I believe we should leave tomorrow morning after breakfast, thoughts?”
After a moment of silence, Greg said. “That is fine with me, though do not expect much from me.”
“Don’t worry, there shouldn’t be any issues. Also, I plan on holding a proper celebratory feast once we return to the capital.” He announced.
“Well, now we have to hurry. How long do you think it will take us to get there?”
“If we can use the church’s gate, we should be back in around ten days.” He says, looking at me.
“Don’t worry, I can all but guarantee our usage. While commanding them to use it frivolously would get me in trouble, processing a dragon is actually quite important, so I’m willing to force my hand if needed.”
“Wow, Eli! Looking forward to the feast much?” Melly says in shock at how serious I was with that statement.
“While I am looking forward to the feast, that doesn’t even factor into my decision.” I denied. “Processing a dragon, however, is something you hear only about in legends, so I will give the task the respect it deserves.”
“Oh. That’s right, this is a dragon we’re dealing with, the sort of beast legends are made about. Sorry, I guess it just didn’t quite feel real.” Melly apologized, struggling to accept what you only hear about in stories as one of our feats.
“Honestly, I don’t know what’s more impressive sounding. Killing a dragon, or dropping a mountain onto a dragon.” I wondered.
“Yeah, that definitely sounds impressive.” Rapunzel agrees. “Dragon slayers. We are dragon slayers. That’s a title usually second only to hero. We will definitely increase our prestige with this feat. The only thing grander would be killing the demon lord.”
“Man, the kids are going to be so jealous of me.” I bragged.
“I’m going to get a lot more respect from my family, even if we didn’t kill it properly.” Melly declared.
“Indeed.” Hansen adds. “I can likely recruit several more summons by utilizing this feat.”
“Speaking of, how are your summons doing?”
“Good, all three Mud slugs are finalizing their advancement to the next tier. Once they are done, they ask to personally thank you. They have prepared a nice surprise.”
“Ooh, I’m looking forward to it.” I smiled.
“I likely will not have much change for me.” Greg said. “I am already the heir and a member of the Hero’s party. The only change would likely be that they would stop seeing me as an inexperienced prodigy, but as a proper genius. Though helping resolve the issues with mana poisoning would likely bring me more prestige.” He says as he looks at me.
I just shrugged. I have my priorities, and the demon lord is at the top. If the Hero wasn’t so… ambitious, I’d likely be fine with spending some time on that. But the Hero himself has said that he wants to be fast, so that’s what we will be. To a reasonable degree, of course.
“So, since there are no complaints, we shall leave tomorrow. Make sure to get some proper rest tonight.” He says, looking at Greg. “Otherwise, you’re free to do as you wish. I recommend taking one last look at our handiwork.” He finishes, before dealing with the dishes.
“Mmm, yeah, that sounds like a good idea.” I mumbled as I got up to start wandering. Luckily, since I feel a lot better (and have my buffs), I shouldn’t really have any issues traversing the mess. So, I started wandering around aimlessly, reminiscing over how the fight went: how we acted, how the dragon acted, our mistakes, our successes, everything. I got lost in thought, remembering our emotions, determination, our plans and how they changed…
We really fought a dragon. And somehow, we even won.
With that final thought, I finally noticed how late it had gotten. “Wow, I didn’t realize I was thinking for so long.” Let's hurry back before anyone sends out a search party or something.
I’m glad I did this though. I feel better now. Though I wasn’t exactly feeling down before. I just, I was able to accept everything that happened, I guess. I don’t really know what I’m feeling, but it’s nice.
Once I returned to the tent, Melly teased me. “Took you long enough, was it that amazing?”
“In a sense, yeah, it was.”
“Oh, I guess you got more out of it than I did. Well, it’s pretty late, so we should head to sleep for now.”
“Yeah, goodnight.”
My slumber that night was one of the most peaceful I’ve ever had.