Chapter 424 - Need some healing? (Patreon)

I don't see anything, nor do I send my senses into the area. I just sit on the ground, my leg and arm still missing, and blood seeping out of the wounds.

Not even using thermal energy to power my passive, I can only hear the sounds of battle nearby and feel the air vibrating. The white-haired demon tears through the group, but the point comes where all the sounds and screams stop, the air smelling heavily of blood.

Explosions happen somewhere nearby, Whitey most likely leaving to hunt the running away members, their movement allowing him to locate them. It's a sort of detection that is most likely very difficult to trick, even more than using mana. He can just sense your movements, your heart beating.

He passes through the area where I am multiple times, and even if he gets further away, I do not move. Just a trickle of my mana seeping into the ring I'm powering. The least amount possible; I'm trying to hide as much as I can, my entire attention on this.

It gains me a few notifications as well as the skills level up, but I do not let them distract me. I don't even check the timer to see the amount of time remaining.

Even my thoughts feel sluggish because of the state I'm trying to force myself into. My own heart beats very, very slowly, and I feel cold in my remaining limbs as it's not enough to send blood through them.

The passage of time is something that is hard to estimate, but after what feels like forever, I hear steps near me, the slow, confident steps of someone looking for their prey.

It seems like the group is wiped out already.

I can't stop my heart fully, no matter how much I try. I'm sure Lily would be able to do it, but it's not where my talent lies.

And even that little is enough to detect me, and the presence stops right in front of me. All my effort proven to be useless, even that extremely slowed-down beat of my heart is enough for that demon to find me.

I use [Tether], teleporting to the last of my anchors I have placed so far away. My mana starts radiating from my body, the entirety of my reservoir and body mana seeping out gradually where I use it to stack barriers.

The timer shows 10 seconds remaining until the end of my stay token.

Thermal energy gets redirected out, the flames infused into my barriers instead of healing me.

Not really wanting but given no other option, an orb of black mana forms, and that mana seeps into my body and mind, strengthening both of them after a long time. It's much easier than it used to be, and I feel the addictive power of that mana.

Another black orb forms nearby to be used.

Eight seconds remain, and the building nearby explodes. A building as big as a smaller apartment house is thrown into the air, turned into debris that slows down and stays in the air as if frozen in time. The demon moves through it all, his long white hair floating in the air and red eyes glued on me.

Seven seconds remain, and he is in front of me.

I use the arcane glove, the blood projectiles shooting from me, an even more powerful copy of the skill the leader used before.

They seem laughable as they don't even pierce the skin of the demon.

Six seconds remain, and with a single hit, all of my barriers break. All of them under sheer physical force. No mana, no skills, just a powerful body and kinetic energy.

Five seconds remain, and the flames are blown away with a swing of that arm. It looks so slim, and even so, with the use of kinetic energy, my flames are blown away like a simple candle.

I try to move, but I freeze on the spot. My heart stops, my lungs stop, not a single hair on my skin moves, and it becomes so eerily quiet.

The demon surrounded by all this debris frozen in time takes a step towards me.

Using my mind, I shoot black mana at him, the orb elongating and heading at his head.

He tries but fails to freeze it in the air in the same way he did with other stuff, and the projectile stabs itself into his arm he puts in front of his head.

Four seconds remain, and I extend my domain as far as possible and place another anchor, teleporting away.

Four seconds remain, and he is in front of me.

The mana stabbed in his arm is already gone, thrown somewhere far away and he grabs my arm and pulls it, tearing it from my shoulder.

It is the prosthesis made of mana.

I teleport again.

Three seconds remain, and my heart still hasn't beaten nor did I move since he found me, his skill covers just that big area and stops everything from moving. Everything other than black mana and mana when I use my skills.

Three projectiles made of black mana shoot at him, and this time he dodges each of them extremely easily, but it slows him down at least a little bit. I teleport again, and before I can do it one more time, a stone crashes into my body, bones in my back broken, and my body sent into the building.

Unable to move or even groan in pain, I teleport.

Two seconds remain when he reaches me again.

I strengthen my body with as much black mana as possible, my mind straining even while being strengthened as well. My unique passive activates, [Redistribution] activates as well, and I even lift a damaged arcane claymore to block it. Just for that split second, I move my body against the hold, using all I have.

The punch breaks my arm, shoulder and the sword I used for the block gets pushed, slamming into my body and causing even more damage. The amount of mana that gets sent into the reservoir, kinetic energy transformed into mana, is the highest I've felt so far.

It's all not enough, it's so far from enough to face him.

One second remains when I use the [Tether] the last time.

I'm again unable to move my body as he changes the way he stops me from doing so. I watch as Whitey moves towards me. He bulldozes through the buildings, trees, everything in his way. Every time he does so, the debris is sent into the air where it stops in place.

His steps aren't even tearing the ground apart, they seem so smooth as if he is running on air. All of the kinetic energy is used nearly perfectly, damaging only what he wants to damage.

The way he uses kinetic energy is beautiful.

The time limit on your Stay Token has worn off. You will now be sent out of the Beyond.

You haven't reached the safe zone on the 1st floor, meaning the next time you enter Beyond, you will only be able to appear on the Entrance Floor.

Before Whitey reaches me, the area around me changes, and I find myself in the familiar cold air of the 6th floor, the beautiful stars and nebulas in the sky.

I can move again, but as the black mana strengthening my body wears off, the pain intensifies. So many wounds mark my body. I just continue to lie there, keeping myself conscious and my passive fed by thermal energy, just to get that little bit of healing.

As far as I can sense, there is only one presence nearby. She isn't even trying to hide, and detecting me, it takes her just a few minutes to reach the place where I am. She turns her run into a slow walk when she spots me laying on the ground and slowly reaches where I am.

Lily squats by my side with her knees pulled to her chest and looks at me curiously, “Bad day?”

“It could be worse.”

“I see. Need some healing?”

“Not really, just a few flesh wounds, nothing worth mentioning.”

“That's true, a missing arm, missing leg, broken most of the ribs, three holes through your chest, missing chunk of your other leg, ear is also gone and with it a nice chunk of skin on your face. A bit of internal bleeding, strained brain. Did I miss anything else?”

“Broken nail on my finger.”

“That's true, broken nail as well.” Lily nods seriously.

“My passive will take care of that.”

“Your passive sucks, Nat.”

“It does well for being only epic grade.”

“I could heal better on the 1st floor.”

“Show off. So what are you doing here?”

“Just hunting. Tess said this is probably the place where you entered Beyond from and that you will most likely return here, so I sometimes hunt around here,” she reaches and pokes my body with her finger, and through that, I feel that warm mana of hers flood my body.

I let it happen, and I feel as it starts healing, starting with internal and more serious wounds.

“Any trouble?” I ask.

Lily shakes her head, “Everything is going well, Tess and Sophie decided to take over what remains of Black Tower, and Tess kind of became the new leader of it. She already started threatening other places around. Sophie is something akin to vice leader, and sometimes she does all this stuff so Tess can go and level.”

“Sounds boring.”

“Well, we are quite strong, so Tess spends only a few hours once in a while to deal with these things. Most of the time, we level and train. We are even using information this place has collected to locate more powerful monsters or good hunting spots.”

“Still boring.” I keep laying on the ground and observe my wounds healing and limbs regrowing.

Even after so long, it still annoys me that I'm unable to replicate it.

“How was Beyond?” Lily asks.

“Different than what I expected but not in a bad way. It's just another challenge, and I think you, me, and Tess will be able to meet there.”

“You will have to tell me everything. It won't take that long, and I will be able to do my 3rd trial, just a few months.”

“Don't worry, I will tell you all.”

To that, Lily smiles and pokes me again, another wave of her healing mana flooding my body.

The atmosphere we have currently is so much different from the one with Shayna. With Lily, I notice myself not even keeping my guard up, and there is a realization that if she really wanted, she would be able to kill me easily. I wouldn't even know it happened, just a short burst of that gray mana instead of healing. It would be enough to destroy my chest and my heart with it easily.

“I got four damaged arcane items,” I note and watch her reaction.

Lily giggles, “Maya will be bothering you again, and if you mention it in the Community, Tess will start hoping there is a javelin in between them.”

She then looks at the claymore on the ground and reads the description, and I show her the ring, glove, and piece of clay.

Neither of the items seems to catch her interest, and she returns them to me.

Instead, she pulls a finger bone from her pocket, the one belonging to the Champion from the 5th floor. Nevan's father, who was considered one of the most durable ones.

“I think I came up with a way to make my bones stronger. I started testing it, and if I succeed, I should be able to do it with yours as well. Of course, it hurts terribly, and I find it difficult to block pain receptors, but you can do it! The stone from Savant and from Champion's Tristan's disciple Hella also helps. Oh, and I might have come up with a way to put a mark on you. It could store some of my healing mana, and when activated, it could help you. It might take a few months to make it work, though, and I will need your help with that. Oh, and…” Lily continues to talk excitedly like every time she gets a chance to talk about her experiments, and I listen to her.

With another piece of my mind, I check the two notifications I got from the last fight:

[Mana Manipulation - lvl 51 > Mana Manipulation - lvl 52]

[Focus - lvl 50 > Focus - lvl 51]

Not as many as I would like, but at least I have got items I could experiment with. Together with Flamebearer, it makes 5 damaged arcane items. It's a scary amount, enough for a group of more experienced attendees to risk their lives for. Even a single damaged arcane item makes you interesting in the eyes of some people.

However, I still do not care about them that much. Sure, there is my inner loot goblin that would like more of them. Arcane, epic, all the items. Mostly so I can use them to improve my abilities. Flamebearer, for example, even now keeps helping me to improve my use of thermal energy.

I just don't want to become reliant on items, so no matter how happy I am when I get some, it can't compare to learning something new.

Pushing these thoughts away, I then continue to listen to Lily, who has already started talking about growing wings or a few more arms.

***

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