The next couple days went by slowly. Griff and Fergus reluctantly went and did the requests that were allotted to them with Shadow and Malachite. Gaia sent the two with them and told them to listen to the guys. They listened but weren’t happy to leave her alone while she was hurt. She practiced with her mana influence and shaping the first day to pass the time. The next day Stephanie came by the inn to talk to her.
“So, I may have found a way to make a prosthetic work, but it’ll be a bit weird.” She stated.
“What do you mean?” Gaia asked suspiciously.
“Well, we’d remove your leg like I said. Then we’d basically fuse it with the prosthetic. It’s almost completely made up of magic like the rest of your body so it would be easy to do. We’d be molding the magic that composes it into the prosthetic we make. The only issue is that we’d also be needing to remold that part of your spirit into it. That’s going to be the hard part.” She explained.
“I’m guessing it’ll be painful?” Gaia asked.
“Extremely. But it wouldn’t just be regular pain it would be pain directly through your spirit. I can guess you take such damage regularly, from how you are though.” Stephanie stated.
“Yeah. I’ll deal with it. When do you want to do it?” She asked.
“I just need to make the prosthetic which requires measurements. My mom will be there to mold the magic and heal. She’ll also help bind the prosthetic since it’ll become a part of you. You’ll be able to feel everything through it like you can now. It’ll just need to be upgraded when you rank up. I’ll also be making a kind of armor for your other leg to balance the stat increase.”
“Ok. Measure for now. I didn’t understand a bit of that, but I’ll trust you. You’ve been nothing but nice and helpful.” Gaia stated.
“I’ll measure then. We can probably start the ritual or whatever you want to call it in around three or four days. It’ll take me a while to create everything and enchant them.” She stated.
“Thanks. I hope we can party up for a few requests after I get accustomed to it.” Gaia said as Stephanie finished measuring.
“Happy to help. If you have any questions, feel free to stop by my workshop. I’ll be at this pretty much all day, every day until it’s time.” Stephanie stated as she left.
Gaia sat there for a while and thought about everything Stephanie had told her. She wasn’t looking forward to truly losing the leg and the upcoming pain, but knew there wasn’t much she could do about it. Unless she wanted to have Liv walk for her which she didn’t want to burden Liv with.
After thinking it all over for a while she went back to practicing with her skills. She made some headway in understanding them better and controlling them easier. By the time she’d made most of the webs she could create woven together from multiple strands she heard a knock at her door and the rest of her party came in.
“How’s it been here?” Griff asked as Shadow ran in and jumped on the bed and started licking Gaia’s face.
“It’s. Been. Alright.” She mustered through her bond’s affection.
“Stephanie came by and figured out what she could do about my leg. It’ll be a few days, but she should be ready by then.” Gaia finally managed after Shadow stopped.
“Good. Let us know when. We’ll go with you when it’s time.” Fergus said.
“You guys just keep doing requests. I’ll go and when you get back that day it should be done.” She replied.
“Nope. Not gonna happen we’re going with you.” Both of them said.
Gaia let it go for now and they told her about the requests they’d taken. The first was for a group of termite type monsters. They had been attacking a village a short way into the forest. The second request was for a Weeping Whipper. It was a tree monster, that was similar to a weeping willow tree from how they described it, which used the branches like whips and its leaves were razor sharp. Both weren’t too bad but Shadow was extremely helpful in the first by guarding them whenever one got close. Malachite was the most useful for the second as he kept most of the monster’s whips aimed at him while they whittled the monster's health down.
She showed them the extent of her practice which felt very lack luster compared to their day. They were both interested since it meant they could improve their skills abilities by practicing with them. They’d never done so as they thought skills were set and they didn’t have an analyzing ability like Gaia’s to give them a detailed description.
The party got dinner and relaxed for a while. The group had started getting into the habit of telling stories to each other whenever they were done for the day. This night Griff was telling them a bit about his childhood while Gaia and Fergus shamelessly snuggled on a small couch in the guy's room. Malachite was in his small form on her lap, Liv was on the back of the couch top, and Shadow was sprawled out on the floor getting belly scratches from Griff. He was telling them about when he got his Mana Circulator title.
It had happened on his tenth birthday. He’d gone out to play with a couple friends he had in his hometown which was somewhere in the Kingdom proper. They’d gone out to play while his parents went to work and get him some gifts. They’d gone into the forest against the warnings of their parents and had found a small cave. Its entrance was just big enough for them to crawl through and they found a small pond of iridescent liquid. It looked like water, and they didn’t think much of it outside of its color. They were arguing about what to do when one of his friends got angry and pushed Griff in. He fell into the pond and discovered it was much deeper than they thought as he couldn’t swim and started to sink. The other two got scared and ran out of the cave.
Griff was sinking further and further into the water which was multicolored and shining with light as he continued to sink. He was holding his breath as best he could and eventually ran out of air. He honestly thought he was going to drown and he gulped in the water. That’s when he realized it wasn’t water or even liquid at all. It was a pool of heavily condensed mana. It was hard to breathe and felt like he couldn’t take in a deep breath but wasn’t in danger of suffocating.
He still sunk though as it had the consistency of a liquid. He slowly breathed as he continued to sink to the bottom which was around a hundred feet below the surface. He got up and walked around the mesmerizing environment. It was a large vaguely spherical crevice with just the single opening in which he’d fallen into. He walked around the area and tried to climb out but was unable to when the ceiling curved inward.
Instead, he sat at the bottom of the pool and just breathed. Eventually, he ended up in a meditative like state. His parents had taught him to meditate since they were both magical classes and meditating was a good way to feel mana and recover. He had never really been able to enter one as he was always interrupted by friends or noises from outside. In the pool there wasn’t any sound aside from his slow slightly ragged breathing.
He continued like that for a long period of time. He didn’t know how long he’d meditated but when he opened his eyes again the pool had noticeably shrunk. It went from a hundred feet deep to around seventy-five during that time. He still couldn’t really see anything outside of the condensed liquid mana and went back to meditating. After another round of meditating, he found the mana flowing through him. He didn’t understand it yet but thought it was normal for people who used mana.
He continued to meditate until he felt the liquid mana drop below his head. He opened his eyes and saw that the pool was almost completely empty and now just reached is chin while he sat. He could also breathe a bit easier, but the air was stale as it only had the little opening he and his friends had crawled through to circulate it. He continued meditating until the pool was completely empty. It seemed that after it dropped below his head, he absorbed it through his skin.
When it was completely empty, he sat in the now deep dry crevice wondering how long he’d been there. It was a day or two after that he heard people yelling from somewhere. He stood and yelled out to tell them he was there. He heard something hard striking the stone that made the cave until he saw his dad’s face look down from the edge of the crevice.
“You okay Griff?” He yelled down.
“I think so. How long have I been down here exactly?” Griff yelled back.
“About three days.” His dad yelled down as he lowered a rope for Griff to tie around himself.
He was pulled up and out of the crevice and cave within a couple minutes. Once outside his parents hugged him tightly and cried. They’d been looking for him for a few days before his friends had spilled the beans about what happened. As soon as they knew they ran out and started digging into the cave using magic and pickaxes alike until they found him.
When he got home that night his family celebrated his birthday and were just happy he was alright. He checked his status when his parents suggested it after he explained what had happened. That’s when he discovered the title and that he had mana circulating through his body.
“So, it all boiled down to me falling into a pool of condensed mana for three days. Now I only age about one year for every ten that pass. Which sucks by the way.” He finished.
“Really? I didn’t know stuff like that existed or could even happen.” Fergus said incredulously.
“Neither did I until it happened.” Griff replied.
Gaia liked hearing about their lives and interesting things that were in the world. It made her remember how different her life was on earth. The guys liked it when she told them about earth. They were especially surprised by the technology and that there was no magic or mana at all. She’d only told a few stories from her life, but told them about earth whenever she told them stories. Fergus told them stories of how he would sneak out of the mansion when he was younger, which were mostly funny as they often ended with him failing before leaving the gardens.
They all relaxed for a while after Griff’s story and Gaia went to her room to sleep. The next few days went by slowly as Gaia practiced her skills while the others went out on requests. She hadn’t realized it at first but even when she wasn’t close to her bonds that went hunting, she still received some souls from their hunts. Not as much as if she was there with them but she and Liv still got some during her recovery.
They always told her about the requests they did when they returned. They’d done a couple requests every day and always stated they felt like something was missing whenever they did one without her. That made her feel good because that meant she actually helped, but bad because it meant they weren’t as strong until she could rejoin them. She was ready for the next day as that was when Stephanie said everything would be ready.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
They slept and woke up early the next morning. They went to breakfast and once they’d finished eating, she finally told them.
“Well, today’s the day I’ll get my prosthetic.” She stated.
“What?” They both asked as they turned to her.
“Yep.” She said.
“You’re just telling us this now?” They both asked incredulously.
“Yeah. I’m heading over now.” She said as she grabbed her crutch and started to slowly make her way out.
“What the hell, Gaia.” Fergus said as he quickly got up to follow her.
“Honestly, you never cease to worry us.” Griff mumbled as he did the same.
They followed her as she slowly hobbled to Stephanie’s shop. The trip took a nearly an hour and a half until they reached the door. Gaia went to knock but the door opened, and a tired looking Stephanie looked at the group.
“Welcome. Come on in. I’ll take ya back to the room.” She said to Gaia.
“You two stay out of the way. I’m guessing you two insisted on coming.” She stated looking at Griff and Fergus.
“Yeah.” Griff stated.
“Fine. Both of you can’t be in the room though.” Stephanie said.
“Wait, why?” They both asked.
“I’m working on her legs. She ain’t going to have anything on.” She stated exasperated.
The two took a moment to realize and nodded in understanding.
“Honestly, it may be better to go do something. It’ll take a while to finish.” She finished.
They both were adamant about staying and were shown to the backyard where they were told they could do whatever, but couldn’t go into the main workshop room. They agreed and Gaia was brought into the room.
“Alright before we begin, I’ll let you feel the prosthetic. Also, my mom will explain the ritual to you.” Stephanie told her as something was placed in her hands.
It was heavy. Just under two feet long and made from some kind of metal. It was oddly flexible like her leg was now. It was solid metal but had a section around where a knee should be that was completely empty and open air, aside from a joint on each side. It allowed the prosthetic to bend like her leg. When she felt the foot, it was almost exactly like hers in which she realized Stephanie had done the measurements to ensure it was as close to her leg and foot as possible. When she felt the upper edge, she noticed there were some small spikes on the inside which she assumed would help hold it in place.
After she finished feeling the prosthetic she heard someone walk in and heard Fern’s voice.
“Ah, good you’re here. Are you ready to hear about what will be happening?” Fern asked.
“As ready as I will be.” Gaia replied.
Fern went on to explain what would be happening. Firstly, Stephanie would cut off the leg from the top of the wound. Then Fern would use her mana to heal the cut while molding the mana that made up the removed appendage into the prosthetic. While this happened Stephanie would be attaching the prosthetic which would connect through Gaia’s mana allowing her to have feeling through it. Fern would then merge the prosthetic and Gaia’s molded mana into the prosthetic.
Gaia was told it would likely be extremely painful when the leg was removed, and the prosthetic attached since when the leg was removed the part of her spirit merged with it would be disconnected until it was merged into the completed prosthetic. It would hurt when it was attached because it would be forcing her mana into it to create a connection. When Fern merged the mana back at the end the pain would likely spike for a moment as the missing spirit reattached.
They also explained that there was sadly nothing they could do about the pain since it was due to her spirit being partially merged with her physical body. There wasn’t an anesthetic for spiritual pain. Gaia understood that and expected it but asked Stephanie to warn her bonds and her party before starting.
Gaia’s party was outside in the backyard of Stephanie’s workshop. Malachite and Shadow were by Fergus who was comforting them. Shadow was whining while Malachite stared at the workshop and seemed worried about Gaia. Liv was by Griff who was sitting by her as she made small golems and was mesmerized by how she wove her mana to create them. Fern and Stephanie walked out and told them it would be painful, and they might hear her but that it would be fine in the end. This made them more worried but understood there wasn’t much anyone could do for it.
A few minutes later Gaia was laying on a flat metal table in the workshops main room with her armor retracted. She was naked as she couldn’t really put anything on due to the pain of moving the leg. Stephanie and Fern were already back and were waiting for Gaia to give them the go ahead. They’d given her a thick piece of leather for her bite onto to help muffle any screams and so she didn’t bite her tongue. She steadied her breathing for a bit before giving them a nod.
The next second, she felt an extreme pain from her leg Her spirit felt like it was being torn asunder and immediately after she had the feeling of loss from a part of her spirit being detached. She let out a muffled scream as her vision almost went black. She barely managed to stay conscious. She looked down to see Stephanie had used a hammer and chisel to remove her leg. She heard Fern chanting something while Stephanie pulled the prosthetic into place.
The entire time she had pain shooting up her body. She felt something clamp around the stump of her thigh and heard some machinery whirring. Then some punctures and cutting as she felt the spikes from the inside of the prosthetic grow and dig into her body, she also felt something come up and burrow into her leg. She once again screamed from the pain as what was happening reminded her of the vines taking root and growing through her muscles. Suddenly she could feel air blowing over the prosthetic.
She was sweating profusely from the pain and exertion of keeping herself awake. Fern finally finished chanting and suddenly she felt a searing pain shoot up and down her new leg from the knee. The only way she could describe the pain later on was like having a sun shoved into your body. She felt her body burn and her spirit felt like it was being torn and repaired all at once. It took a few hours for her spirit to completely reattach itself and the pain to end. Gaia had blacked out for a while but had a dream during it.
In the dream she stood in the middle of a small room. Her mana was flowing out like her mana influence, but she could actually see everything. It all had a green tint, but she could see the contours of everything within the small room. It was an area around thirty feet wide and long with pillars along the walls. There were eight pillars in total and only three had anything on them. All the others were perfectly smooth and identical.
The first one had a pattern along the entire length of it that reminded her of Malachite’s shell and when she touched it, it was hard and smooth. The second looked to be made of some kind of cloth but was hard as stone while being soft to touch. The third was dark and was blinking in and out of existence like it was both there and not. It was soft when there but when it disappeared her hand passed straight through it.
As she looked around the area, she also noticed that the room had many tears and holes in it. The walls had some marring where it looked like a wound had closed and was healed. The areas that were healed appeared to be made from a hard stone while everywhere else looked like a regular wooden room. When she looked at the ceiling, she noticed it had a massive hole in the middle that appeared to slowly be stitching back together but when she focused on it, she could feel something dark and malicious within. She quickly tried to change her focus but could feel whatever was beyond the void was using her attention to try and drag itself into the room.
She tried desperately to avert her attention but felt like nothing could help her do so. When the being in the void got close enough, she could see an extremely large vaguely humanoid being with body parts made from different creatures. It looked like a chimera given human form and she was horrified by its visage. Its body fluctuated as if made from every living things body part at once. One moment it was a human with the wings of a bird, claws of a tiger, and legs of a spider. The next it was made up of different creatures.
She was terrified by what this being was and why it was trying to enter the room she was in. As it got closer the hole in the ceiling slowly closed up until its face was the only thing visible just beyond the small hole. This was when she heard the amalgamation speak.
“Ah. I finally found the one. I hope we meet on better terms next time. For now, take this.” The being said in an extremely pleasant understanding voice.
Just before the hole closed Gaia saw something fall from it. When she approached it, she was horrified to see it was a small wormlike creature. When she got within ten feet of it, it sprang up like it was shot out of a cannon. It launched onto her hand and attached itself to her finger. It wrapped itself around and hardened into a metal-like substance that felt like it had a heartbeat of its own.
She fell to the ground as she tried to pry the creature free from her finger but couldn’t get it off. Eventually she looked around the room again and found a door on one side that had an exit sign above it. She went over and opened it to find a bright white light beyond it. She took a step into it and woke up back on the table after the ritual of binding her new leg.
She awoke with a start remembering everything that happened in the dream to find herself in pain from the sudden movement after the ordeal she’d just finished. She grunted as she laid back down with Stephanie’s help. Stephanie and Fern had been startled when she suddenly sat bolt upright after being unconscious. After checking on her to make sure she was alright the two went out to get her party members.
As Gaia laid there, she activated her armor which turned into her usual dress and felt her right middle finger where the creature had wrapped itself around in her dream. She could feel the warm slightly pulsating metal ring. She immediately screamed.
Griff and Fergus had been sparring throughout the day as they tried to comfort Gaia’s bonds while trying to keep their own worries in check. Every time they heard a muffled scream Griff had to stop Fergus from running inside. He wanted to do the same but knew that if they interrupted it could cause more problems. They’d been there since around ten that morning and it was now just about sunset. They’d been constantly worried and were relieved to see Stephanie and Fern come out.
“She’s alright.” Fern said.
“Yeah. She’s laying on the table in there. Feel free to go on in.” Stephanie stated just before they all heard Gaia’s terrified scream.
Everyone sprinted inside to find Gaia sitting hyperventilating and desperately trying to remove a ring from her right hand. She had a look of sheer horror on her face which startled everyone. She hadn’t heard any of them run in and instead they all heard her talking to herself.
“No. No. No. What is this. That can’t have been real, but it was. Get this thing off me. Please. What did it give me. What even was it?” She was almost hysterical by the end.
The group was just stunned by what they were seeing and hearing. It took them a minute to regain their composure as Gaia continued to talk about something they didn’t understand. Fergus was the first to go up to her and he just hugged her seeing she was overall alright outside of what was on her mind.
“What’s the matter?” He asked.
“This thing on my finger!” She screamed motioning to the metal ring.
“What about it?”
“I don’t know what it is.” She cried.
This got everyone to stop and stare at her for a bit before Stephanie realized that it hadn’t been there until almost the end of the ritual. She realized that it had just appeared a couple moments before she woke up again. When she explained this to everyone, they all went quiet. No one understood what it was or where it came from aside from possibly Gaia who was terrified of whatever it was. This made everyone extremely worried. No one wanted to ask about it especially after going through the ritual and all the pain that she’d endured.
They instead waited for her to calm down which took an hour before she tired herself out from trying to remove the ring. After that Stephanie had Gaia try to walk which took her a bit to do comfortably. She had changed her armor to shorts so Stephanie could get a good look at the leg. This was when Griff and Fergus got a good look at her new leg. It was made from a metal that looked to be sturdy but flexible and had a color that perfectly matched her skin tone. The knee was an open area aside from some braces along each side that met in a joint. In the middle of the knee section was an orb of greenish yellow light that had a dim glow.
When Gaia walked it made nearly no noise outside of the normal sound of her foot hitting the ground. When Gaia felt her other leg, she realized that Stephanie had already attached the brace to compensate for her speed enchantment from the prosthetic. The brace was extremely thin and was mainly just a couple bars down the sides of her leg that attached at the hip and ankle. It felt like it wasn’t there unless she purposely put her hand on it.
“Everything looks alright. Both the new leg and the brace seem to have connected perfectly. If you have any problems let me know as soon as possible and I’ll try and fix it. For now, I say we celebrate.” Stephanie said.
The entire group walked back to the Inn. Gaia was actually a bit faster than before. She could actually keep up with everyone’s natural pace. She’d known Griff and Fergus slowed down for her whenever they walked, and she wasn’t on Malachite’s back. She still preferred riding on his shell in her chair but reveled in her pain free movement. She almost ran but nearly went face-first into a wall when she tried since she wasn’t used to her new speed.
They arrived at the inn a half hour after leaving Stephanie’s workshop and walked in to find the party Flora celebrating a good hunt. They all looked over to see the group walk in and were surprised when they saw Gaia. The group went over, and Fergus explained which led to everyone celebrating Gaia’s recovery and the party’s good hunt. They enjoyed the celebration late into the night and had to help Titania and Francois to their rooms as they got very drunk before heading to their own.
Griff and Fergus both hugged Gaia as they were happy the ritual went well and that she was somewhat recovered now. The only thing left to do was get used to the increased speed. The party went back to their rooms and Gaia fell asleep almost immediately when her head hit the pillow.