“So what did you want to talk about,” said Lula.

“I’m thinking of leaving the resistance,” I said.

“What!” she exclaimed. “Why?”

“You know how hard this is for me,” I said. “There’s nothing for me to gain by being here,” I began. “I’m tired of being mistreated, I don’t know exactly where I’m going or what my goal is but I have to get away from here.”

She stood silent, taking it all in. After a while, she nodded.

“I understand, it was onesided of me to expect you to stay for any amount of time,”

I looked her in the eyes.

“You are one of the only people who has genuinely been kind to me since I got here,” I said. I stepped forward and embraced her. “I just wanted to thank you for everything, this would have been a lot harder without you.”

“It's easy to be kind when everyone treats you so badly,” she said jokingly hugging me back. “I’ll miss you too,” she said in a shaky voice.

“I’ve been meaning to ask,” she began wiping away a tear from her eye. “ What happened to the armour thing you got from Blacksmith Tom,”

“Huh,” I said tilting my head. She must have been talking about the carapace. I had completely forgotten about that. It had practically gotten blown off when I fought the ogre back with Olivere. All that remained since then were some of the bolts and pins in my back.

“I visited him a couple of times and he remarked on how you wouldn’t be able to get the device off by yourself,” said Lula.

I hit my fist into my hand. “I see, I’ ’ll do that then before I go,” I said.

“I have some time to spare, let’s go together,” suggested Lula.

“Sure, let’s go,” I said.

“We walked through the various tents that had been set up to the northern quarter where thick smoke rose into the air. The clanging sound of hammering metal echoing from inside the tent felt surprisingly nostalgic to my ears. Tom was the same as usual, hammering away at a piece of red-hot metal on the anvil. The muscles on his arms rippled with every strike of his hammer.

Lula cupped her hands over her mouth.

“Tom, Tom!” shouted Lula over the sound of metal against metal. “Sebastian’s here!”

Tom stopped his hammering for a second to glance at us. His face was unreadable.

“I’ll be done in a second,” he said turning back.

“You’ll have to forgive him, “ said Lula smiling at me. “He can be shy,”

Shy? It didn’t seem so but perhaps Lula could read him better than I could.

“How has the carapace been,” said Tom when he was finished.

“Isn’t it great that Sebastians here!” exclaimed Lula. “ You haven’t met since he went missing, right!”

“I knew he wasn’t dead,” said Tom. “Besides you told me he was alive after he came back, so what more was there for me to do.”

“Aw shucks,” said Lula, Punching his arm playfully, “ You could just say that you missed him.”

I cleared my throat.

“ Anyways, I did have to see you concerning the carapace,” I said. “How do I say this …” I said hesitantly. “It kind of got destroyed,” I paused waiting for his reaction but there was none.

I continued on. “ I had a fight and it got very damaged and sort of … fell off after that, it might be easier for me to show you,” I said. I took off my shirt.

“I think most of it fell off, but I think it was effective, I do feel stronger now and I regained my magic,”

“I see,” said Tom inspecting my back. “The outer layer is all but removed but much of the internal structure remains,”

“What does that mean?” I said.

“You regained your mana but the carapace is essentially still in full effect, the central junction points of your mana nodes are undamaged,”

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“But my mana output was reduced when I put on the carapace. How much was it again? Was it by 50%, I’m not quite sure?” I said scratching my chin.

“It was by 90%,” corrected Tom.

“But the fact that you have the ability to use mana while using the carapace is still a mystery. To my knowledge, no similar cases have ever been documented. Only the gods know what would happen, this is unprecedented.”

Tom retrieved a heavy toolbox from one of the shelves in his tent and plonked it down onto a bench. “Before I get started I must warn you, this is gonna hurt, maybe more so than putting this on, it wouldn’t be unlike pulling out a blade that your flesh has already healed around,”

“You can do it!” said Lula encouragingly.

“Yeah,” I said weakly. More pain, what a surprise, Let’s just get this over with.

“I’m ready,” I said.

Tom rumbled around in the toolbox and pulled out a set of rusty pliers. I couldn’t help but wince at the sight of them. They looked like they hadn’t been used in centuries.

“Unfortunately these don’t get used very often so they aren’t well maintained,”

Well maintained? That was the understatement of the century.

“That better not give me tetanus,”

“What’s tetanus?” said Tom plunging the rusty plier into my back.

I shouted in pain.

“Don’t tense your muscles,” warned Tom, “It’ll make this take even longer,”

It felt like he was ripping out my spine piece by piece.

“Is there any way for this to be less painful!” I screamed.

“You’ll just have to deal with it,” said Tom.

“If it’s any reassurance, I’m halfway done,”

“Halfway done!”

“Hang in there!” said Lula encouragingly patting me on the head.

“Thanks, Lula,” I said through gritted teeth.

No problem,” she chirped.

“We just have your collarbones and thighs left,” said Tom reassuringly.

I did not feel reassured.

“It sounds like you’re a butcher or something!” I retorted.

I could feel the metal pin side out of the outside of my thigh. The edges of my vision darkened with each convulsion of my flesh.

“Careful, don’t black out now!” said Tom.

He moved onto my shoulders. He placed the pliers slightly above my collarbone and dug in with the tip.

White-hot pain ran through my body. The tip wiggled inside me. In one movement the pin was pulled out.

“Final one now,” stated Tom.

It felt like a hot iron was being stabbed into my body. The hard pin plummeted me further into the depths of pain every time my muscles contracted.

“I don’t think I can do this anymore,” I said, “I think I’m gonna throw up,”

“Almost done, one more second,” said Tom.

Another wave of pain wracked my body.

“I can’t do this any-”

“And …. done,”

The final pin clonked to the ground.

I gasped for breath collapsing to my knees.

“There, There,” said Lula.

“I’m gonna throw up,” I said weakly.

“You won’t,” said Tom, and to my surprise, I didn’t. The nausea subsided as fast as it had appeared. I sprung to my feet.

“I feel surprisingly fine,” I said.

“Well, removing the pins after this long of a time must have relieved a lot of tension within your body, “ Tom scratched his beard.

“More importantly, how are you feeling? you should be feeling a massive surge of mana returning.”

I opened and closed my hands. “I don’t really feel any different,”

“Hmmm …” said Tom.

“Well I don’t think it matters,” I replied. I rolled my shoulders. “I can still definitely feel a difference within my body, I feel more flexible and my muscles are more relaxed.”

Tom didn’t seem quite content with the outcome.

“Well this area is out of my expertise, there is nothing that we can do about it,” said Tom finally.

Tom put back the toolbox along with the horrifying pliers. He came back carrying a long and thin wooden box.

“I was planning to give this to you earlier, but here,” he said giving it to me.

I removed the lid revealing a sword. Its dark blade glistened in the light, swirling patterns of once-flowing metal marked its length. The handle was simple yet elegant with a dark wooden handle and leather strips binded around its circumference to increase the grip.

“Thank you so much!” I exclaimed.

Tom shrugged. “You said you wanted a sword, I felt partially responsible when you disappeared that day, tracks of a jade beast had been found around the area you had been. I wasn’t sure if you would come back and maybe if you had a sword you wouldn’t have gone missing.”

“I’ll cherish this with my life,” I said, my vision blurred slightly.

“I appreciate it but not with your life, what use is a sword to survive when its wielder perishes,” said Tom.

I nodded in agreement. “You’re right.”

“Here’s the sheath,” said Tom giving me a similarly dark, etched sheath. “There are simple incantations in it to protect the blade from weathering.

“Thanks again,” I said gladly receiving it.

I took one last look around the tent. This would probably be the last time I saw it.

“Well, I best get going,” I said walking to the exit.

“Don’t die easily, you’ll sully the maker of your sword,” said Tom.

I chuckled. “I’ll keep that in mind,”

It was with heavy steps that I went back to collect my belongings.

I didn’t have much. I didn’t even have the old clothes I had worn when I got summoned to this world. I looked around the storage tent that I had been sleeping in. Nothing belonged to me.

I slung the sack I had gotten from Olivere over my shoulder. Now that I thought about it I had nothing to pack because I hadn’t gotten a single thing since getting here.

“Thank the gods you haven’t left yet,” said a voice behind me. It was Lula breathing heavily and clutching a bag.

“Here,” she said giving me the bag.

“Thank you,” I said taking it. I opened it up. Various foods were inside, cheese, bread, some bottles.

“What’s all this?” I said.

“Just things for you to take with you,” she replied. She reached behind me and grabbed a leg of smoked pork. She promptly stuffed it into the bag.

“Oh and you might as well take that as well,” she added. “It’s the least you’re owed.”

“Thank you for helping me one last time,” I said smiling.

“I try,” she said.

She walked with me to the perimeter fence that surrounded the dungeon. Tree trunks had been debranched and sharpened to build a tall wall to keep both monsters and bandits alike out.

“Aren’t you supposed to be leaving?” asked Lula in a confused voice. “The gate isn’t this way.”

“I know,” I said.

She smiled.

“Well, I guess this is it,” I said turning to her.

Lula seemed flustered. Her cheeks were red and she looked at the ground nervously.

She leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek. My cheeks burned.

“Goodbye,” she said in a soft voice.

I crouched down and jumped high. I cleared the fence with room to spare and landed softly on the other side. I could still sense Lula as easily as if she were right in front of me. She hadn’t moved yet. I walked away from the perimeter. As I did I could sense fluctuations by Lula’s eyes.