When I started to get exhausted, and my air mana had been completely changed into fire mana I stopped. My water mana remained in the cleared out portion, but I was only just two thirds of the way through the contamination.

I needed more mana. The only other source of mana was the contamination that I had gathered.

What was its composition? If I could take out what I could actually manipulate, shift that to fire, then I’d be able to continue with this method.

I pulled my hand out of the wound, closed off and moved the tether of the tube to just attach itself to my bow. With both hands on the contamination in the container, I closed my eyes and activated my mana sight.

I didn’t want to take anything into my own mana pathways. It was dangerous to take mana activated by someone else into your pathways. I was already leaning towards mana exhaustion; I didn’t want to accidentally make things worse.

Taking the traits of activated mana into consideration and creating attraction points should help to separate things without much mana expense of my own.

The contamination itself was something that I could see with my own eyes even without touching it. So, thinking about the physical attributes of the substance should give me some clues.

The most obvious thing was that it was liquid in its structure but also quite densely packed. It wasn’t cold so there was probably a mixture of water and earth mana. I didn’t need any more water mana so if I separated it from the blob, I should be able to then convert it to the fire mana I needed.

Though with it being already activated mana, it won’t be a near equivalent exchange. But with how I had already collected, and how much remains it would hopefully just be enough for me to make it through this.

Ugh I wish I had stored some mana stones. Dot just looked so happy having that many to experiment with, I didn’t think I’d need spare mana.

Now I’d have to add another calculation.

I took a point a few finger lengths away from my first one.

Water activated mana as the input, which would not include the structure it’s attached to. A conversion channel and an exhaust point.

From there I could take use of it on my own.

I swiped my finger back across the markings and pulled up a tether. I slipped it into the container and pulled a small exhaust tunnel just behind the spot the tether entered the orb.

The calculations alone took the last bit of my internal air mana and some of the air mana just naturally present.

With my supply sort of reinstated, I got back to work.

The mana exhaustion started to hit me about halfway through the final part. I couldn’t really think about things too much. I just did my best to focus on the fire tendril.

That’s all I need to do.

Luckily, I seemed to be able to flow my own water mana without thinking about it, otherwise I would’ve had to stop and drawn up another calculation. And I don’t think my brain would really be able to think through the calculations properly.

By the end of it my own water mana was barely cycling through, so much of it was just in the channel filing the space previously taken up by the glob thing.

Once the final bit bubbled up and traveled into my container I pulled out of the wound and leaned my hands on the undamaged part of the root.

I don’t think I’ve actually been this exhausted since I was a kid.

Well, the words of my teachers really described it well. My brain felt so much slower than before.

I looked over at the container and saw that the contamination was now a dried up ash like material.

I need to get rid of it, some how.

I looked around. There was a small tunnel directly behind me. It didn’t seem like any of the ones I’d traveled through with the spirits.

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Maybe this was where… where the… things or whatever came in?

The fluffy head entered my line of sight and I just looked wherever he was looking.

He was looking at my orb.

And now there were two spirits. A blue and a near white one.

They both seemed really interested in my orb.

“That’s the… contam… the bad stuff.”

A brown one popped up and together with the blue one the took my orb and the ashy substance.

The attached bits dissolved, and they went down the small tunnel I had noticed.

“What? Wait where?”

The white one floated into my view. It bowed its head before getting really close to me.

Its hand reached up and I felt something touch me. My vision darkened. And along with a very muted version of whatever noises Fluffy was making, I could’ve sworn I heard something else.

A ding, maybe?

But then after a soft burning sensation on my forehead, my body felt light.

The exhaustion was still there. But I didn’t feel as empty.

I opened my eyes to see Fluffy with a worried look on his face instead of the spirit.

“I’m okay buddy, just tired,” I said slowly.

I sat up and collected my bow putting it on my back since it’d fallen of my legs when I seemed to have collapsed.

We were still in the tunnel, so the challenge wasn’t done. I looked around and saw that the spirit was hovering above the wound.

It beckoned me towards it and held out its own hands over it.

Did it want me to copy it?

I turned around and settled back down in front of the wound. I put my hands on it and closed my eyes.

My water mana was still in the gaps. But now, that new feeling in me matched the feeling that the root’s natural state.

Did the sprite give me some new kind of mana?

But now that it was the same kind, I should replace my water mana with this one, I guess. At this point there wasn’t much thinking involved, but it was a slow process since this was my first time manipulating this new type of mana. By the time I felt that I had gotten a good feel of it, I had already finished.

I pulled my hands back and watched the tree root restructure itself. I turned my mana sight on and saw a warm glow that was a more golden light than the red warm glow that fire mana put off.

The spirit returned to my forehead, and I heard a soft voice.

It sounded like ijanoin, but the pronunciation was a bit rougher, and I could only piece together a few words, but even then, I wasn’t sure what it meant.

I felt a wave of mana wash over me though, and the final phrase before the spirit lifted away reminded me of an inscription, I had seen in a book written in archaic ijanoin.

I looked at the spirit and its eyes closed slightly, as if it was a smile.

Then there was a ding.

The spirit disappeared and the banner appeared in front of me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Congratulations!

The floor has been cleared.

Rewards are being calculated and shall be given later.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What’s with all these late rewards?

I mean, like Brick and Lefty I seem to have gotten a new mana type. And by process of elimination, it probably not being earth, and it glowing I think mine is light mana. Which means I can heal things better.

But still, I had to exhaust all of my mana and then convert the contamination to finish the job. I deserve something good on top of the new mana.

I teleported back to the yard of our rest house. And to my surprise I saw the new golden light surrounding Quartz’s freshly cut limbs.

What? Why would there be light mana there?

He’s an aura user they can’t manipulate mana.

Fluffy bounded towards his snack. I didn’t see anything from him. It was just on Quartz.

So, his healing had nothing to do with Fluffy. Just what was it connected to?

“It’s so weird!” Dot complained, “You can touch lava how are you not immune to fire? It makes no sense.”

I looked over to her and saw Brick covered in burn marks.

I scrambled over to him.

“What happened?”

“Something my lava lit on fire fell on me,” he signed.

He was wincing though, since he was moving open wounds to speak.

“Just stop talking, if it hurts, sit still, Dot can you hand me a few mana stones I’m out.”

I whipped my head over to look at her.

“Lava is essentially molten….” She was still in the middle of rambling.

“Here.”

Lefty was next to me and held out a couple stones.

“She’ll be stuck on that for a bit.”

I took the stones he passed me and collected them in one hand hovering my other over Brick’s burns.

I just need to remember how to heal burns.

But my mind was still foggy from the mana exhaustion. I just need to heal him, maybe the light mana? I mean it was healing Quartz…

I just focused on that light feeling and pulled it from the stones and into my other hand. Its more about reverting it to its former state, but my image of human physiology was incomplete, would it be strong enough?

I looked over and watched Quartz’s wound. I watched the mana and tried moving my mana in a similar way. His mana was moving so slowly. No wonder his healing was slow. But after I had seen the full cycle of mana for healing a small chunk of his arm, the flesh slowly being pulled together and gurgling up.

Oh, that’s gross.

I gagged but held it down. This is no time to be disgusted.

With the full cycle movements understood to the best of my foggy brained ability, I mimicked it but faster on Brick.

I’ll have to try this out later on Quartz.

My brain just got foggier, and it took more effort to focus on that movement before I was able to finish.

“That was so cool Paeris!” Dot was now right next to me her face close and looking at Brick’s wounds.

Brick pushed her face away and signed “thanks” and then something I hadn’t seen before.

“Why’d you call him that?” Dodger asked.

“It’s a new name” Brick signed back.

I felt my face heat up.

I stood straight up. That smile he had on his face when he signed the new name was too good.

He signed it again, and asked “what’s wrong?”

“N-nothing! Absolutely nothing!” I looked around, the bloody fuzz, “Fluffy just needs a bath!”