“Once the fight started, I got a new [Quest] to win it. I won, and my reward was a [Beast mana-heart].” I say to Merrick, pain billowing in my chest with each word.
“Really?” He asks me with genuine surprise in his voice. “Not many people have one of those. Only a few races besides monsters are born with them, and humans are not one of those. You are a human, right?”
“Yes,” I sigh, causing my whole chest to explode with pain. “Everything hurts so much. I need to rest.”
“Stella might be able to help you a little. I’ve been having her practice her skill on me while you were knocked out.”
I open my eyes for the first time since waking up and notice that it’s already midday. I must have been knocked out for a few hours after the fight. Maybe that guy taking me to the void also had something to do with it.
If Stella can help me, I’d be an idiot to turn it down now.
“Okay, if she can fix me, I’m in.
Merrick has me lie down and stick my arm as far as I can into his cell. Stella does the same, and our hands meet in the middle of Merrick’s cell. It hurts to move so much, but if it gets me back into better shape quicker, then it’s a no-brainer.
“You will feel her mana try to enter your body as she uses her skill. Don’t fight it, obviously.” He tells me before we start.
Stella speaks next, asking me, “I’ll start with your right arm and move up your body from there. Are you ready?”
“Yes, I’m ready.”
Stella squeezes my hand as she activates her skill, sending through a small stream of mana. My [Mana Sense] easily picks up on it as it flows through my palm and into my wrist. I get a feeling that I could gather my own mana to fight it off, but I’d rather get healed, so I don’t.
Her mana feels different than my own, not just that it isn’t my own, but like it has a different purpose entirely. As it moves down to my forearm and elbow, it covers all of the shallow scratches with brand-new pink flesh, causing the scabs that had formed to fall off. It’s a pleasant sensation as it works, like a small tickle under my skin that also slightly warms the area.
Paying attention to the healing itself, I am able to learn almost nothing. The mana seems to just disappear as it turns into new flesh on my arm. Her mana runs out before it reaches my shoulder, and she lets go of my hand.
“Sorry, Ray. That’s all the mana I have for now. I’ll let you know when I am ready again.” Stella says to me with an apologetic voice as she gets up from the ground and dusts herself off.
My right arm is completely healed. It was probably the least damaged part of my body, but it feels like it's in perfect condition now. I wonder how long it will take for her to completely heal me.
“Thank you, Stella! My arm feels new! Now I just need to figure out this [Beast mana-heart] situation and how to make it stop hurting.” I say to both of my fellow captives, hoping the local knows a way to help me.
Merrick sits down next to me and places his hands on my chest without asking. A moment later a small mana pulse flows through my body at speeds so high I can barely notice it.
“You have too much mana floating around in your body. Your weak constitution can’t handle all of it. You need to level up more to permanently fix the issue, but for now just use some mana.” He puts his hand to his chin and stops for a few moments, thinking, before responding with, “A monster is also able to make the size of their [Beast mana-heart] larger somehow. Maybe that could also fix you.”
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So my problem is my heart produces too much mana now? I guess that’s a good problem to have. Well, time to try to fix it.
I look inside my body with [Mana Sense] and notice that there is a huge accumulation of mana in me. It’s constantly pushing out, like a pressure cooker ready to pop. Each wave of mana from my heart makes the situation a little bit worse, so using [Mana Shaping],I feed a steady stream of it into [Space Control], gaining a spatial perception range of nearly fifty feet that I focus into the air above me as to not overload myself again, causing my mana to drain faster than it refills.
It takes nearly ten minutes for my mana to come down to an acceptable level, the mana pressure inside my body dropping every second, granting me sweet relief. It never fully goes away. A small pain still lingers like muscle soreness, but I’m sure that will solve itself, hopefully.
With the increase in mana regeneration, I am forced to keep my spatial senses at fifteen feet at almost all times to avoid another issue.
Now that I am not in excruciating pain and can think somewhat clearly, I notice a loaf of bread sitting in my cell. It’s about a foot long, more than I thought they would give me. I break it into three parts and share with my fellow captives.
Hours pass as Stella heals me every now and again while I try to find a better solution to my new heart than just using more mana. She manages to close all of my open wounds, but some of them still have a lingering pain and soreness. Not that I’m complaining. I see now why Merrick said that healers will always be the most valuable.
How can I fix my heart issue? Would doing what Merrick said, trying to make it larger, even help me? That sounds like it would make things worse. Unless a bigger [Beast mana-heart] is able to store more mana or something. Can I even make it bigger? How would I go about doing that?
I think back and try to remember the formation of the crystal inside my heart after the goblin evolution fight. I could feel the mana compress and condense until it formed a small crystal. Maybe I can do that manually.
I sit up with my back against the cell bars now that I am not in pain from just existing anymore. I take a deep breath and enter the meditative state that helps me with sensing and controlling the mana in my body. I stop feeding mana to [Space Control] and let it start to build up in my body.
After a few minutes, I take control of as much mana as I can and move it all towards my heart, trying to repeat what I saw when the crystal formed. I start by trying to shove it all around the rice-grain-sized crystal in the middle of my heart and compressing it, but that doesn’t work. It just makes my chest feel like it will explode from the pressure. The mana just presses up against the crystal as my heart pumps out more mana with each beat. I can feel a painful pressure in my chest as more and more mana builds up, reminding me that I need to hurry up and figure out a solution.
Next I try moving the mana while compressing it, creating a ‘mana whirlpool’ around my heart. After a few seconds of the mana swirling against the crystal, it slowly starts to deposit little crystals on it. It takes a relatively large amount of mana under a lot of pressure to create just a tiny little crystal, but it works. Small crystal growths are forming on the original in my heart, making it just slightly bigger.
I keep going until my mana runs low by managing to crystallize it faster than my heart can produce it. It takes me maybe an hour and a half of heavily concentrating on my [Mana Shaping] skill to do this, gaining me another level in both mana related skills. The crystal ended up maybe ten percent bigger than it started, and it felt like it was taking more and more mana to add to it. It was like I wasn’t just adding more crystal but also making all of it more dense at the same time.
One slight problem that has come from this is that my heart now produces more mana, which worries me. Now I will either have to periodically drain mana on skills or make the crystal bigger, which in turn makes the problem worse.
At least it’s under control for now. I can leave my mana to regenerate for a few hours before it becomes too much to handle and I have to use it.
As I notice the sun beginning to set, I ask Merrick a question. “You said leveling up would fix me. How?”
“Leveling up does two things,” he says while lying on his back and holding two fingers in the air. “First, it makes your mana-heart produce a little more mana, and with your [Beast mana-heart], I imagine that is exaggerated. The second thing it does is make your body better adapted to mana usage, allowing you to channel and store more mana as you level up.”
“So I just need to get stronger to solve my mana issue?”
“You need to get stronger to solve every issue, my friend.” He says with a signature smile, showing me his black teeth.
I should have expected that. This planet seems to eat the weak.