Crystal and Tabs were both furious with Kyto, and he only hoped they calmed down before he returned from the fishing district. He had got a lift into town with them first thing the following day in tense silence. On arriving, he had gone to kiss Tabs, and she had half-heartedly returned it, and he could feel the anger still from her tense body.
They had waited until they had arrived home the previous night before they had ripped into him about healing Frankie. Between the two sisters, he felt as though he had been skinned and flogged by the barrage of abuse that had been hurled at him.
He had not thought about what healing Frankie may do to them, but Crystal had made it as plain to him as she could. Their concern was that now people may hear that her tonic could miraculously fix broken bones, and then when it did not, what the hell would she be able to do?
Kyto had not considered the after-effects at the time, and only when they scolded him had he realised his stupidity. He had just wanted to try his skill out. He had tried to defend himself and justify his actions but to no avail. They squashed his feeling of achievement and progress well and truly.
He knew he could gain healing experience, though he had to think of something. He was walking over to the vehicle yard when an idea suddenly formed. 'What if', he thought.
It was still early, and he knew he had a little time before he needed to meet up with Greg, so he turned and quickly made his way back towards the stall.
On entering, Tabs and Crystal were busy setting up their products.
"Hi," Kyto said cautiously.
"I thought you were heading off." Tabs scowled at him.
"I was, but I just had a thought." He replied.
"And look what trouble your thinking may have caused us already," Crystal glared at him.
"Ok. I have said I am sorry and should have considered it, but that is in the past." He said, immediately realising he had said the wrong thing.
Tab's face flushed with anger. "In the past! We won't know what trouble you have caused us until the stalls open today," she snapped.
Kyto winced. "Let me try something, and I may be able to stop any potential problems." He said.
"What?" Crystal said he could feel her anger burning into him.
"I don't know if it will work, but I have an idea. Can I grab a bottle of your tonic?" he asked.
Tabs roughly placed one on the stall in front of him.
Kyto began to focus on the bottle. He could sense its structure and could see the vague mana essence that inanimate objects contained. He then switched to his healing skill.
Rather than drawing mana from the glass to fill his pool, he tried to push his healing mana towards the liquid in the bottle. His hand was slightly outstretched, not touching the surface but very close.
He could feel the mana strands in his body begin to form, and then, slowly but surely, they started to leave his fingers and move towards the bottle. It was strange because he could sense the difference in the strand types.
When he drew mana, it was thin and wispy like a cloud vapour, but it was a brighter, more refined strand when he pushed healing mana. The mana slowly flowed into the liquid. He had no idea if this would work, but he watched his mana pool decline as he forced the healing mana from his body. Kyto started to see it swirl like a tiny star inside the liquid. His mana pool had reduced to almost half, and as it reached 600, he stopped pushing the bright mana into the bottle.
As soon as he stopped pushing into the bottle, the star began to defuse into the liquid. He watched with anticipation. The colour of the liquid had now been changed from its standard clear liquid to one that, to Kyto's vision, was a yellow colour.
"Can you see it?" He asked excitedly.
"See what?" Crystal asked.
"The colour of the liquid?" He replied.
"It has no colour," Crystal said.
"Really?" Kyto replied.
"No, it is clear." Tabs said.
"Ok. I may have just created a healing tonic." He said.
"What?" Both of them said together.
"I have pushed my healing mana into the liquid, and I can now see the yellow mana glow coming from the bottle. The strands are my healing strands, so I think it is contained." He added.
They both looked at him with a shocked expression. "So we can bottle your healing power?" Tabs asked.
"Looks like it. We won't know for sure until it is tested, though." He said.
"Shit. That could change everything." Crystal said, her eyes open in amazement. "If you can bottle it, and we sell it as our usual tonic containing the healing mana, no one would know the wiser."
"Only someone like me could see the mana, perhaps. Although we do not know if anyone else's system upgraded allows them to see it as well." Kyto said.
Crystal looked at Tabs, and then Tabs nodded to her sister.
Crystal withdrew a knife from her belt and ran its blade across her palm. She was not making a deep cut, but enough to draw a line of blood. She then picked up the tonic bottle Kyto had imbued and took a deep swig.
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All three of them stared in anticipation.
Nothing appeared to happen initially, but then, slowly but surely, Kyto saw the strands of healing mana begin to appear by the wound. They seemed to slither from the cut, taking time to travel through her body to get to the wound. Slowly but surely, he watched as the mana began to knit the wound together. It was like watching someone perform the finest stitching, weaving in and out around the cut as it started to close.
Their faces were all stunned as the wound healed. "Fucking hell," Crystal said in shock.
"You are telling me!" Tabs said.
"Yes," Kyto shouted with a look of glee. "We can make actual healing tonics." His display triggered as the wound finished knitting together, leaving no visible scar.
Hidden quest - Bottled mana 10000 experience gained. Your investigation of your powers has successfully made you attempt to store your mana.
You have healed a torn muscle and a minor cut, and 390 experience gained.
"I had something called a hidden quest, and I also got experience for the healing. Did you have sore muscles somewhere?" He asked Crystal.
"Yes, my calf was sore. Why?" She asked.
"It has healed it." He said.
Crystal flexed her calf muscle on her left leg. "It does not hurt anymore. It seems to be a cure-all."
"There is one thing I need to consider. I am not sure how much mana needs to be pushed for the amount it will be able to heal. When I healed myself, my mana dropped rapidly, practising on all the cuts I have done and the stab wounds."
"Stab wounds." Tabs said, staring at him.
"I had to see how it heals and how my mana was draining as I did." He said sheepishly.
Tabs stared, not saying a word.
"How much did you put in?" Crystal said.
"Half my pot, 600." He said.
"We need to try and work out what this can do," Crystal replied.
"I agree, but when I healed Frankie yesterday, I had to draw extra mana as my pool dropped rapidly; it cost me more than I had available." He stated.
"Well, I only had a swig of that tonic," Crystal said, looking at the innocuous bottle.
"I can still see mana in it but have no idea how much, unfortunately."
The three of them stood in silence, all contemplating what this meant.
"Do you think you could make more?" Tabs asked.
"I can do another at 600 but would need to recharge for anything else," Kyto said.
"What about two at 300?" Crystal asked.
"I can do."
Tabs grabbed two more bottles, and Kyto repeated the process twice more. When he finished, Tabs picked the bottles up and scratched three slight marks on each. "We don't want to mix them up." She said.
"Good idea," Crystal said.
"I better go; I will be back in a few days," Kyto said.
"Be careful." Tabs said, moving around the stall and hugging him before kissing him.
" I will." He said, smiling and turning to leave.
"Wait," Crystal said. She went to the cupboard and lifted down a small crate. "Could you take these with you and fill them while there?" She asked.
"Sure, " he answered, taking the small crate. It contained 16 of the small tonic bottles. "OK, I'll be back soon, " he said, leaving.
Kyto could not believe he had managed to bottle his healing mana. He was buzzing from the opportunities this could bring; knowing it gave him experience was a huge benefit. There were so many unknowns over the amount that could be healed for the mana spend, and he needed to do some research.
He arrived at the yard. A large truck was parked outside the hangar, and some people were loading crates into the back. Kyto recognised the man standing by the rear as Greg.
"Morning." He said to Greg as he approached.
"Hey. You can drop your gear in the cab, bottom sleeper." Greg said.
"Thanks. How long before we leave?" He asked.
"Not long. Only have another dozen crates or so to load." He replied.
"I thought you were doing a collection?." Kyto asked.
"I am. The crates are all empty." He replied, smiling.
"Ha. That makes sense." Kyto replied.
"There is coffee in the office if you want one before we go," Greg said.
"Sure, thanks." Kyto took his bag and crate over to the truck's cab area. It was a massive cab with enough room for four people to sit across the front seat. The back of the cab had two small compartments with thin mattresses. He dropped his backpack and crate on the bottom sleeper and then went to get a coffee.
A short while later, Greg came and grabbed him from the office. "All good." He asked.
"Yeah. Thanks." Kyto replied.
The journey had taken just under two days to reach the fishing district. Kyto had got on with Greg. He was good company, telling tales for nearly all of the journey, making time pass quickly. Kyto had spent the first day's evening filling bottles and decided he would make four 300s. He had been drawing on mana as they had travelled, pulling from their surroundings until his pool had been full again.
It was not very efficient when travelling in the truck as he seemed to have a maximum distance that he could draw from. He thought it was around 15 metres, so anything that he had started to draw from and then moved out of range had stopped. He had tried drawing from more than one area at a time but had not managed to.
What had amazed Kyto about the journey was how well looked after the route was. It must be regularly maintained after Kyto had seen the various locations where trees had been cut down. The asphalt surface had some holes roughly filled with small stones showing repairs. It was probably the best route he had ever travelled. The truck was slow, though, nowhere near as fast as the small truck he had stolen at the factory.
As TJ had mentioned, the fishing district was not much of a district. A few houses were sparsely dotted around the area, which looked like they may be lived in, and then the harbour area itself.
The harbour was surrounded by the standard stockade, but it also had many sharp poles planted around its base and a moat filled with lake water, making it appear more like a fortified small island. Guard towers on the two inland corners looked out over the area's woodland.
"Why is it so well protected?" Kyto asked.
"Wild Ones," Greg answered.
"There are that many here?"
"Because of the fish they catch and store, the smell attracts them."
As they drove closer to the entrance, they saw visible signs of marks on the outside of the stockade, where it appeared large claws had scratched into the wood, and what looked like blood stains on a couple of the spiked poles.
"What Wild Ones would do damage like that?" He asked in surprise when he saw the damage.
"Grylack, Spylore, Jatbear's, and I believe once they had Stompers try and break in," Greg answered.
"What is a Stomper? I have never heard of those." He said.
"Imagine a Keefir, then triple its size and add horns," Greg replied.
Keefir were the world's milk providers and were very large, sedentary Wild Ones which fed on plants and grasses. Kyto could not imagine something three times their size with horns.
"I am not sure I ever want to meet one of those," Kyto replied.
"I have never seen one myself. They apparently travel in small herds but will eat anything. They aren't predators; they are not easy to prevent if they want to reach a food source," he said.
A man waved at Greg as he brought the truck to a stop at the entrance, and the gates were being opened.
"Hi, Paul," Greg called to the man.
The man nodded and ushered them in, keeping a watchful eye behind the truck the whole time. The gates were shut once they had driven into the compound, and the man came to see Greg.
"Hi Greg, sorry about that. We have had a couple of Grylacks in the area. Need to be extra vigilant at the moment."
"No problem, Paul. Is Carl at the office?"
"Yeah. He is speaking to that new guard supervisor from town." He replied.
"OK. Thanks. Come with me, and I'll introduce you," Greg said to Kyto.
They climbed down from the truck, and Kyto followed Greg to a building with its back built up to the edge of the stockade.
The inside of the fortified structure housed a warehouse area and then had mooring places for four large fishing vessels. There was only one moored up currently. Kyto had never seen a fishing vessel before and hoped he might get a chance to go onboard one while he was here. He would love to be able to find out how they operated.