I can’t leave the room. I tried several times, and nothing works. My magic just bounces right back at me, too.
With nothing else to do, I focus on expanding my Mana Pool, as painful as that’s getting. After lunch, I work on it again, gaining two more points on top of the one I gained initially. After dinner, I manage to gain two more points, but pass out immediately after.
Each of the days through the week, I push through, working as hard as I can to make my Mana denser, not stopping until I hit three new points in the morning, and two in the other two attempts, for a total of seven points each day.
I pass out at the end of the day, despite my attempts to rest as much as possible after each session, and my Mana feels heavy and hard to use. There must be something beyond, though. Something past if I push through.
When I wake up after the seventh day, the barriers preventing me from leaving are gone, but I have a headache so bad, I don’t think I can. Warren’s been trying to get me to stop, saying I should only go for one or two points a day, not three, and most certainly not seven, but there has to be something past this pain, some reward for suffering through it and making my Mana denser, allowing me to hold far more than my capacity should allow.
“Please stop,” Warren says as I try to increase my Mana again, instead of resting. “You’re only going to cripple yourself.”
I tune him out as I continue to make my Mana denser. It’s more and more difficult every time I do it, and this time, it’s even harder to find Mana that’s less-dense, and even harder to make it denser.
But I manage it, gaining another point of Mana, and my head feels like it’s going to burst while also feeling like a knife was run through it, splitting it and me in half, and I scream from the pain that fills me, all the way to my soul.
I can feel Warren’s healing flame run over me, but it doesn’t soothe the pain that fills me. Time passes, the pain only growing worse. Some other sort of healing magic tries to work on me, but nothing happens.
All I can think about is the pain, and how awful it is, and how I should have listened to Warren.
Suddenly, as if a switch was flipped, the pain lessens, but not entirely.
Skill Gained!
Mental Pain Resistance 1/10: Nullifies pain from overexerting any Affinity.
The pain is still agonizing, and it continues to fill me.
Mental Pain Resistance is now Level 2!
Mental Pain Resistance is now Level 3!
Mental Pain Resistance is now Level 4!
Finally, it fades to a manageable level. Once it does, I pass out. When I come to, Warren and Collin are talking, and there’s a man in healers’ robes kneeling beside my bed, hands pressed together in prayer, eyes closed as his lips move.
“I ain’t religious.”
The man’s eyes open, his prayer stopping.
“The magic was to ease your pain and sleep,” he says. “How do you feel?”
“Ready to punch you.”
“You can go,” Collin tells the healer, who nods, then leaves. Collin then looks at me. “Do you have any penalties from whatever you did?”
I scan the messages, dismissing the ones from gaining Mental Resistance and focusing on the remaining messages.
Skill Gained!
Mana Manipulation 1/10: the ability to manipulate the Mana within you
How the fuck did I not already have that, if that’s a Skill?
Title Gained!
Thick Mana: As one who has made their natural Mana far more dense than ordinary in a short period of time, Mana has begun to flow as a part of you.
“No penalties I can see,” I hobble over to him, wincing from the pain still filling me. I’m not sure it’s entirely mental, since my entire body hurts. “But I did gain a new Title.”
I share it with him. It’s Tier I.
“Interesting,” he says. “You now have two Titles, which is more than most Adventurers have when they die. I will admit that I’m sure there are higher Tiers to this, and if you continue to thicken your Mana as you are, you’ll obtain them, but I will also warn you that doing so is dangerous, and could kill you. Imagine the pain you gained just for this one – it’ll be much, much worse. And before you comment about your new Skill – please note that any Skill past Level 5 is harder to Level. Level 10 is very, very difficult to reach for any Skill.”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“I’ve already mastered three Tier I Skills.”
“Resistances are Tier II,” he says. “Even if they only have a single Tier to them. They’re far more difficult, and Resistances are well into that. Get some rest the rest of the day, and do not try to increase your Mana more. Rest. Nothing else. You need it.”
He stands and leaves, and I sit on the edge of the bed, Warren’s emerald gaze not leaving me once. When I realize he isn’t going to let up, I lie down and close my eyes, willing my body to relax, willing the pain to recede.
Pain Resistance is now Level 2!
Huh. So this also counts as physical pain. I wonder why that didn’t go up during those agonizing hours.
“How long was I in pain for?” I ask.
“Two days,” he answers.
Two… days?
“Please tell me you’re joking.”
“I’m not,” he states. “You’ve been out for two days with that pain.”
I groan, pulling up my stats to see what my actual values are for Mana…
And freeze.
LIF: 33.
It was 35 before.
I lost 2 LIF from that.
Ten years. I lost ten years off my life.
There was a penalty.
Before I aim for that much, I am definitely going to make sure I have a lot more LIF built up. Ten years doesn’t sound like a lot when my natural death will be at a hundred and fifty years, but that’s still a good chunk of life.
A very good chunk of life.
If there’s a Tier II to that Title, it might strip me of 5 LIF, or even more. Tier IV might strip me of 20 or 30 LIF.
“What’s wrong?” Warren asks, and I tell him. “Fuck, Gavin. Yeah, you better not try to find the second Tier of that Title, you might lose a lot more LIF than you can afford right now. I’m going to go get you something to eat, don’t try to increase your MNA while I’m gone.”
I close my eyes and listen to him leave, and fall back asleep. The next couple of days, I do little aside from sleep, Warren pretty much babying me the entire time. I can’t imagine he can afford to support me the entire time, and when I ask him about it, he says that Collin’s supplying him with the silver for food and the inn. He’ll give us enough to last a week after I’m recovered, then we’ll have to pay for our own food and room.
Warren watches over me the full week I recover, bringing me food and drink, and making sure I don’t exert myself. He feels like Chief, when I got sick a few years ago. He doesn’t leave my side much, and I have to wonder why.
Why doesn’t he just abandon me? Why doesn’t he want to run away from me? I’m human, after all – we abuse fairies, we manipulate them, we force them to do things for us. Why does he take care of me?
Why did Chief take care of me? Why did he raise me like a son, despite all the problems I caused. I got into so much trouble, and yet he was never too firm with me. He’d punish me, but he’d never beat me or make me stay in the village. He let me have my fun.
Why hasn’t Christopher found me by now? An Archwizard like him should have no issue doing that. Time is probably passing at the same rate there as it is here, so he’s had over a month to come and find me, but he hasn’t.
Why did he just give up on me? Why hasn’t he looked for me?
Why did they give up on Jozan? Why can’t they see that we’ll rebuild it?
We’ll rebuild it, and I’ll make my own Order, since the stupid Ancient Order doesn’t care enough to find me. It’ll be an order that protects the good nations on this world, and not give a damn about that fucking Ancient Order.
System Quest!
Quest: Create Order
Requirements:
1 Member (Minimum of 25 needed)
Establish a headquarters
Establish an emblem
Establish a primary purpose
Time Limit: 5 Years
Reward: 1,000 Experience
Penalty for Failure: -50% Experience and CHA gain for 5 years, CHA is halved
Accept: Y/N?
“Yes,” I say.
“Huh?” Warren asks, and I look at him. “Yes what?”
“System Quest,” I answer. “1,000 Experience for completion, same time limit as the Blood Quest, down to the second, according to their timers. Fuck my old order, I’m making my own damn one. Let’s go kill some shit.”
“Uh…”
“What?” I look at him.
“You switched moods real fast there, Gavin.”
“I do that.”
Warren follows me out of the inn and down to the Dungeon, where Collin is waiting, and it looks like he’s waiting for us.
“Michael popped up about two weeks away from here,” he tells me in Jozan. “As soon as we told him you were here, he said to give him three days, and he’ll be here. We’re not entirely sure how he’s planning on that, though I’m sure it’s because of that thing you told me about.”
“Probably,” I say.
“Are you feeling better?” He asks.
“Yes,” I nod.
“Good,” he says. “Don’t overexert yourself again.”
“There was a penalty.”
“There was?” He asks.
“I lost two LIF,” I nod. “I won’t try to push myself like that again until I have plenty to spare. A century and a half – five times the normal lifespan – isn’t enough for me. I plan on being around for centuries.”
Collin nods, wishes us luck in the Dungeon, then leaves. Warren and I enter the Dungeon and I summon a Magic Bolt.
“Whoa,” Warren says. “The power radiating from that is different than before. It feels… more concentrated.”
“It does,” I nod, sensing the same thing.
Did making my Mana thicker and gaining Mana Manipulation buff my power?
I fire it at a kobold, and it dies instantly, the bolt cutting through its armor and chest, far stronger than the Magic Bolt I had the last time I was in here.
We battle for almost twenty minutes, but retreat before the stronger kobolds came out. I want to get Magic Bolt mastered before then.
With only one Magic Bolt needed to kill a kobold, and sometimes two if I’m lucky, combined with using martial arts, now, I killed over three hundred total kobolds. Human gained a ton of Experience, more than usual. I only need two more to hit Level 7, now. I didn’t gain another Class Level, but I’ll only need another session in there for that.
It isn’t until we’re selling our loot that I realize something.
“Warren,” I say. “Is time moving faster than I think it is, or is my Mana restoring faster?”
“Mana,” he answers. “I thought I was imagining that. It’s only taking around a minute and a half per point.”
Yeah, it is. Is it because I have thicker Mana, now?
-0 INT!
Is it related to my thicker Mana, though?
+0 INT!
Did whatever affects my Mana regeneration get a huge boost from me doing that?
+0 INT!
I feel like the System is really saying ‘you can say that again!’ with that last one.
+0 INT!
It must have been a massive boost, to increase my Mana regeneration from two minutes and eighteen seconds to a minute and thirty-one.
+0 INT!
I can figure out what that was some other time. For now, I’m starving, so I tell Warren we’re going to get dinner.