~~~Lee~~~

"I want to chop off the end of my pinky," Lee said, holding up his left hand. "But I don't want you to heal it."

The reaction was... not what he'd expected. Saira only studied his hand with a thoughtful expression before asking, "Why?"

"To see if it grows back." Lee was pretty sure it would. The way he healed from so many injuries without even a scar was something beyond regeneration. It was magical. He'd healed multiple organs, lots of muscles, and even some broken bones. What he hadn't done yet was regrow a missing limb. The only concern he had was that Mar hadn't gotten her arm back despite being healed. It was just a stump. Which was obviously why he was starting with a pinky.

"It is not worth the..."

"I need to know," Lee cut off her protest. "It is definitely worth the potential loss." Then he stopped and finally questioned why the woman was kneeling in mud. "What are you doing?"

Saira stared at his hand for a few more moments, then glanced behind him at Maria. "I am growing vegetables." She placed her hands back in the mud and Lee saw her mana flowing down into... seeds? Even as he watched, they sprouted and grew quickly, bursting from the soil into small sprouts before slowing to a stop.

Lee figured it out before she explained. "I can send mana back to the plants rather than only take it away."

That was... useful, if you liked vegetables. "Great..." Lee had another thought. "Are you growing any potatoes?"

Saira stood. "Yes, just over there." She waved at another patch of mud with more green sprouts as she walked into the garage. "Now why is this necessary, and why did you come to me? My healing did not restore Mar..." She trailed off without finishing the statement.

Buff: [Building 3]

Lee followed her inside, now much more interested in her gardening and ignoring the awkward topic of Mar's arm by bringing up his own idea. "I'll try my regeneration first. If that works, I'll want to try your healing, too. See if it changes the result. Oh, and also, Maria insisted I involve you." Sure, Mar was standing right there... but then she rarely left her mother's side anymore.

Saira sat on the floor, Mar standing invisibly beside her. "Very well. Once my mana is restored we can begin."

Maria took it upon herself to cut off his finger. Just the tip. Lee might have lost some of the trust in his stability with his idea today, and she had hesitated to give him his knife back. Something he was okay with, since he had until later to get his rune game on. Also, assuming his plan worked, which he desperately hoped... "Ow! Fuck!"

Lee had tried not to look, but his Mana Mind made that impossible. Maria was prepared for his flinch and kept his hand still. Ruthless, considering she'd been against the idea... though maybe she didn't want it to take any longer. Then she swatted him in the back of the head. "No curse!"

Really? She cut off his finger and told him not to curse? Psycho... Oh, that's interesting. Lee once again didn't require his eyes to see what was happening. He watched the mana swirling out from… everywhere. It didn’t come from his mana pool like the runes did, and it wasn’t the heavy liquid mana his core was full of. It was instead the mana that already saturated his body.

It was something he’d noticed before, every time he was injured in fact. The mana would surge like a rising tide to gather at the injury, which this time was the stub of his pinky where the last knuckle was missing. Well, not missing. It was in Maria's hand...

Seeing it like that, a little piece of himself cut off, was so much worse than seeing his blood everywhere. Maybe even worse than seeing his skin half-melted... though it hurt less this time.

The pain diminished fast, and Lee's smile grew as it fled. His finger was growing back, bone and all! He cackled when even the fingernail reappeared.

"Good," Maria said, handing the fingertip to Saira. "For plants." Then she retreated to her children.

Saira took it absently as she stared at Lee's fully healed hand. "How did you do that?" Then she finally noticed the amputated finger in her hand, grimacing and dropping it in the dirt. Her disgust was short-lived, and a heartbeat later she'd pulled out her own knife. "Let me try!"

"Wait!" Lee exclaimed, a heartbeat too slow. The woman didn't even hesitate! "God damn it!"

He saw Maria's mana latch onto him and knew what was coming, but the pain distracted him too much to break her skill in time.

Smack. Why did she even bring the kids out here? Only, he knew why she kept them close. Though at least she wasn't letting them watch.

Saira didn't let him suffer. Not more than a moment after mutilating him, she funneled her healing into this hand. This time, the finger healed even faster.

"Okay. It works! So now..."

"Please wait!" Saira said, not letting go of his hand, the knife still precariously close to his poor pinky. "I saw something!" Lee saw the look in her eyes and had a sinking feeling in his chest. "Let me keep trying, please. I think I can heal Mar... if you will let me study this."

There it was.

"Oh, son of a..." Lee tore Maria's skill apart before it could latch on. "...bitch!" Then turned to glare at her. "There's going to be a lot more of that, Maria." She narrowed her eyes at him and moved to hand Anita off to Alejandro beside her. "I'll start screaming every foul thing I can think of," Lee said, and took a deep breath as she took a step toward him.

"Come, Mi Amor." Alejandro pulled her back into a side hug with his free hand. "I will walk with you today." Maria relented, and Lee caught another glimpse of her soft side as she gazed at Alejandro before they turned away. They only paused long enough for Alejandro to call back, "Stay near the building!"

That was sound advice, especially if their tank was leaving, and they all moved near a door with bushes nearby. "Mar, will you keep watch?" Saira said, and didn't wait for the nod she wouldn't see, or the faintly whispered agreement from the girl before bringing out her inner sadist.

"Fuck!" Lee didn't scream it, but he wanted to. Instead, he focused on drawing out a symbol with his right hand against his leg. Not with any mana, but as practice. He wouldn't be able to look at what he was doing when the time came to actually make the rune... "God damn it!"

Either Saira wasn't that smart, or what she was trying to do was harder than she'd thought, because she didn't figure it out after ten pinky fingers. She still didn't get it after twenty pinkies, and Lee bemoaned his newfound friends as the day went on. He couldn't remember any friends from before the mountains, and he'd had none since. But he really thought it would be more pleasant...

...

The sun was past its zenith when Lee got to see Mar, fully visible, and staring at her newly restored right arm with tears in her eyes. Then mother and daughter embraced, and the crying really took off after that.

Lee tried to escape before anyone got any more brilliant ideas, and was cruelly ambushed in a two on one attack when Saira dragged him into the hug. "Thank you! Thank you so much!"

"Thank you!" Mar agreed, still crying, but hugging him just as tightly as Saira did.

Even though his finger felt... raw, Lee returned the hugs, and it was... nice. Maybe this is what it's supposed to feel like? I could get used to this.

Mar pulled away first as her hysterical joy turned more embarrassed, and Lee saw her bright red face before she vanished again. Saira didn't let him go until Lee finally had to push her back. Then she kissed him full on the mouth.

It wasn't that he didn't enjoy it, but... her daughter was right there! Also, Lee hadn't had this kind of contact since... well, since he could remember. So what felt like his whole life...

Lee and Stanley had found enough pictures and talked to enough former friends to know that there had been relationships in the past. Including one that hadn't yet passed... It ended shortly after Lee knew it was even a thing. Completely forgetting someone in a life-altering event was reason enough to break it off, and Lee didn't blame her. He didn't even know her...

"My apologies Mr Lee. I don't know what came over me." It was a relief to see a blush on her cheeks, because Lee knew he probably looked like a tomato himself.

"Ahem... Yes. I mean, it's fine." Lee floundered for a moment and almost turned to leave before remembering why he'd started this shitshow in the first place. "Right. Well... I want to enchant my bones. If you're free later..."

That sufficiently altered the mood, and Saira froze, staring at him. "Your... bones?"

"It worked!?" Alejandro walked out the door, his and Maria's walk long over by now. He pounded Lee on the back, and Lee wasn't fast enough to pull a Jake. "This is great! You did a good thing, Lee, and you too, Saira."

Saira stood up straighter and pressed her hands flat together and bowed slightly toward Lee. "Thank you, Mr Lee. I will never forget the sacrifice you made for me today. Now, how may I assist you with your... bone enchanting?"

"That's why you wanted to do all this?" Alejandro asked, staring at Lee. "That's... can you do it? Make your bones like the shields?"

"I want my machete back after this," Lee grumbled, and then nodded. "I think so. But, just in case, I wanted to make sure I could regenerate bones before I tried..." In case they exploded… and before they'd roped him in as a guinea pig.

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Unfortunately, he still had a couple hours until the debuff ended. One reason he'd put up with being tortured for so long. But first... "I want something to eat," Lee said. "I'll explain after." He stopped in the doorway and pointed at Saira. "I want first dibs on the potatoes."

She smiled and nodded. "You will have them."

Lee rubbed his aching pinky and headed for Jamaal's. The things I do for a friend. But he couldn't help the small smile on his lips. Yeah, his finger hurt. The damned woman didn't want to switch it up to a different finger and risk losing progress. But it felt good every time he remembered the looks on their faces. Damn their sneaky manipulations!

Jamaal was also long past his evolution by then and more excited than ever to tell everyone about it. Apparently, he'd gotten something good that synergized with his class, and likely because he'd cooked a 'Serpent King'. Lee said nothing, but caught a few looks coming his way. Not that it was hard to guess what he could possibly be talking about...

Saira didn't join them right away, but when she showed up, she brought potatoes. Lee hadn't meant she needed to grow them right now... but he didn't complain. In fact, he praised her growing skills to high heaven after the first bite. The meat was good, fantastic even, but adding some home fries to the mix... Lee decided having his finger chopped off repeatedly was well worth it. He even forgot about the timer—it was so good.

Debuff Removed: [Mana Burn]

Lee resisted the urge to draw out a rune then and there. He hadn't even noticed the steadily fading burn, especially considering the... other pains Saira had subjected him to. Instead, he told everyone there what he was planning, which meant Saira, Mar, Jamaal, and Alejandro.

They hadn't seen Jake all day... which meant he was probably out farming cores with Sandy. Or solo. Hell, the guy was probably past F-grade by now.

Of course, Maria ended up with the knife. Alejandro said she worked in a hospital... which didn't mean squat. She might have been a janitor for all he knew! The only upside was Maria was definitely no nonsense. If he wanted someone to do it and do it fast, she was a good choice.

It all led to Lee dropping his pants in front of more people than he'd expected. But how do you tell someone to go away because you don't want them to see your boxers? He hadn't gotten a real shower in... too long, and now... "Holy fucking shit!"

Maria smacked him. Not for cursing this time, and not too hard either, just enough to get his attention. "Hurry. Heal too fast."

Lee grit his teeth and focused, reaching down to his split open leg. His finger touched bone, and he gagged. That was just so wrong!

"Focus, Mr Lee," Saira chimed in.

"Oh, fuck me!" Lee cursed vehemently and started channeling the mana as he blindly drew out a rune onto the big bone, whatever it was called. Only, it wasn't blind, because he had Mana Mind. It was also the first time he got to see a rune creation with the skill.

He may have groaned the entire time. Primarily from the sensation of someone physically pulling his flesh apart to expose the bone... but he drew the rune.

It stuck to the bone as he'd hoped. Unfortunately, it only stuck to one bone. No matter how hard he begged it to spread.

His body was full of far too many tiny bones that were all too small to draw a rune onto. He needed it to spread like it had in the building...

The wonder and joy of doing magic was lost in the pain of what he was doing. Then Maria let go and Saira funneled her magic into him, ending the pain. The physical pain, at least. Lee hid his face in the dirt and let silent tears flow for a few moments before he had the guts to do what he needed to. "I need to reach my hip," he said, voice cracking as he pointed. It was the next bone, and one with a large surface area...

Maria pulled his boxers down and stabbed him in the ass. Then she started carving.

Lee screamed into the dirt, almost grateful for the pain as it distracted him from the fact that Mana Mind could see four people staring at his bare-naked ass. If you fucking die on me after this, Stanley... I'll fucking kill you!

He held onto that thought as Maria grabbed his hand and pressed his finger to the bone. I have to survive! I have to live! The practice he'd gotten all day paid off, and Lee drew the rune on his hip. Fucking merge!

It stuck to his hip... but didn't merge. He only enchanted another single bone.

Saira's magic flooded him and Lee kept his face in the dirt as the pain faded. The embarrassment didn't fade, but it was minor compared to his disappointment. He was missing something. A different rune, or a combination. There had to be a way to make this work. But he wouldn't get it today. At least, he didn't think he could keep doing this anymore... not today. "It didn't work."

The failure might be a good thing. He didn't know for sure if there wouldn’t be side effects. He didn’t think it would be a problem, not after the runes went onto the bones easily enough… but who knew?

Bones made blood, he’d heard that somewhere. The runes might fuck with that process… or they might not. It was magic, and despite it being his own class, Lee knew next to nothing about how it actually worked. Like… it made things indestructible, but did that mean unchanging? Permanent? There had to be cells in there doing stuff. Splitting. Dividing. Growing? Would that all stop if he stuck a rune on them? He had no clue.

On that note, he pulled dirty pants over bloody but undamaged flesh, and went back inside.

They followed him at a distance, trying to be sneaky, but still within Mana Mind range. Lee didn't care until Mar sprinted ahead of them to slip through his door before it closed. It was almost impressive. She made no sound and didn't touch him or the door. He likely wouldn't have noticed if not for the glaringly obvious hole she left in the mana. A hole that was distinctly her own. Where everyone else left a fuzzy and shifting gap, Mar's outline was sharp.

Lee was grouchy after the day he'd had, and that it looked like everyone still didn't trust him to be alone. So he lashed out at the smooth shell of mana around the girl with his Mana Mind.

Skill Level Up: Mana Mind

It earned him a headache, as expected, but it also left Mar staring wide-eyed at him in plain view. She looked scared and vanished again immediately.

Lee felt bad for attacking her and considered apologizing... but she had come in uninvited. Instead, he turned away and sat on the floor below the Well. His right hand traced the glowing symbol into the cement while his left reached up closer to the Well. He knew he could draw the mana without touching it, at least from this distance, but it was easier this way. He also went straight to enchanting the entire building this time. It was impulsive and ambitious, but his evolution to F-grade should make it doable without too much pain... It was the same rune he'd placed on his bones, so he had no trouble tracing the lines properly, and it stuck easily enough... with only a little heat.

Only, this time, he noticed some differences from the first night. The same as before, his rune claimed the walls, ceilings, and floors. Unlike the first time, it didn't claim any doors or windows. He didn't know why it had worked that way then and still didn't know now.

Was it because he'd put runes on his front door before doing the building? He knew he was missing something again, and his thoughts went back to the class description. Primarily, the part where it mentioned the runes being different for each runic because of their soul. He knew nothing about his soul, other than how to use it with the Rune Scribe skill...

He pulled the rune back out of the building, and, only after doing so, realized it was more mana than he could hold. Luckily, once his mana was full, there was a stretching sensation from his core that was entirely unpleasant, but he didn't burst. It felt like he might, though...

So he quickly redrew the rune, dumping the excess mana quickly and this time focusing on how he wanted it to claim the doors. He threw the windows in for good measure.

No dice.

Lee pulled it back again. He was still missing something.

It made no sense. He'd done it before, with less knowledge and a lot more struggle... Someone stepped up to his door and hesitated briefly before knocking. Lee couldn't tell who it was, other than they didn't carry any runed gear.

Lee stared at the general area of Mar's head and then looked at the door. If she was going to be spying on him, then she might as well be useful. While she headed that way, he quickly touched the Well and was immensely gratified when it let him dump the excess mana back inside. That had been way too uncomfortable.

Bradley blinked at Lee when the door opened, his gaze jumping from the door and back. Then Mar appeared with a quick, "Hi."

The flinch and loud yelp should have been funny, but it wasn't. There were good reasons to be afraid now. Mar must have understood, because she ducked her head. "Sorry..."

"I... Um..." Bradley looked back and forth, blushing slightly and clutching his chest as he caught his breath. Finally, he settled on Lee. "I... Maria told me that the blue glow was from... you?"

"Probably," Lee said.

"I... um... can't fix the holes with your... magic doing... that."

"Really? What does it do?" Lee was curious now.

"Well, it doesn't let me fuse my stone into the wall. It's like there's a... wall." He blushed. Lee saw his eyes dart to Mar and then away. "I'm almost done! If you just... wait..."

Lee waved him away. "Go ahead. I need to figure something out, anyway. Just let me know when we're good."

"Okay, man. Um... thanks. It won't take long." He kept shooting glances at Mar, and his face was red as he practically fled back out the door.

Mar vanished again as she shut the door, and Lee lay back on the floor. The light coming in the windows was fading toward darkness and noticing it got him moving again to enchant the glass. He enjoyed having windows and didn't want to lose them. It was a miracle they hadn't broken while he was waiting on the debuff.

"I'm sorry your plan didn't work," Mar said, startling Lee. He'd sorta forgotten she was in the room... "But I'm really glad to have my arm back... so, thanks." She said all this while invisible and facing away from him.

"It's fine," Lee said. "It almost worked... I just can't figure out why not." He enchanted the two front windows and then the bedroom.

Mar followed him, stopping in the doorway. "You have crazy good regeneration. It was a good plan... Um, you know you have a tub full of water, right?"

Lee finished the rune and thought about it. He hadn't known. He could see the mana in the tub, but it didn't tell him it was water… actually, it did. That was water aspect mana in there, he just hadn’t learned all the aspects on sight yet… and he hadn't thought about it until she said something. Wait a minute... "How bad do I smell?"

She turned away. "Not... that bad."

Right... Lee grabbed all the glass bottles still left in his apartment and filled them from the tub. Enchanting all of them for good measure. Then stopped to look at Mar. "You're not spying on me in there."

"Of course not!" she shrieked, and Lee was tempted to break her invisibility to see how red her face was... but he didn't.

Instead, he hid his smile and went looking for some soap. He knew it was here somewhere. Probably. He really should have unpacked by now... He gave up on the soap and started in on finding clean clothes. "Mar, can you go ask around for some soap? Or I can go with you if you're supposed to watch me."

"I'll go." She stopped at the door. "I didn't want to spy on you. but Alejandro..."

"Yea, yea," Lee said. "The guy is a bit... aggressively nice?"

Mar laughed, a quick sharp sound. "That sounds like him. I think he's just really worried about you." Then she left, and he was alone.

"I know... I worry about me too," Lee whispered. And Stanley. He was really worried about Stanley. "Hang in there, Stan. I'll find you... or you'll find me. Don't give up."

Mar brought soap, and Lee splurged by having a bath in the limited water. Mar even brought a fresh bucket later, and Lee enjoyed the most pleasant evening he could remember in what felt like forever.

By the time he laid down to sleep, he was feeling much better about the future. Tomorrow he could hunt again. He would have enchanted gear. He would make enchanted gear for others and sell it to them for cores.

Alejandro had already been spreading the word and showing off the machete. He assured Lee that people would be more than willing to shell out for an enchanted blade, and once armor was more common, they'd pay to enchant that as well.

Despite some rough patches, there was hope. He could do this.