Chapter 125 - Sharing pain together (Patreon)

She then doesn't say anything and only stares at me. The others are already gone and now there is only this girl, a head and something shorter than me. Her small face is framed by black hair and a tiny nose rests in the middle of it.

Ehm? Please say something.

She does not. Her eyes are piercing me as she grabs my left hand, the one she sacrificed her own left arm to restore. It's still pale, hairless, and both wounded all over.

Without uttering a word, she sends her mana inside it. That warm mana of hers, feeling like a nice breeze in the hot summer. My arm starts itching immediately and I can feel it healing bit by bit along with my body.

Finally, she lowers her gaze and focuses a bit more on what she does, and I breathe out in relief.

It takes 10 more minutes and Lily stops only when she is totally out of mana, even I can feel that. There is barely any mana left in her body. The mana she could use to continue to restore her left arm.

When she looks up at me her bangs are sticking to her forehead that is wet from the effort she put in. And it was worth it, my body is better now. Not nearly close to being fully healed but I don't feel like I'll drop dead the second I stop focusing on my skills.

“You are so stupid,” she says.

The heck?! “You are stupid,” I say in defense. Who is more stupid? Someone that fights to survive or someone that sacrifices their own arm?

Yeah, I thought so. Stupid girl.

“You are stupid or I will not heal you anymore,” she says sharply.

“I'm stupid,” I say.

“Louder.”

“I am stupid!” I say loud enough so everyone in the room can hear it and the girl finally smiles at me. A small, tired smile. Her petite body moves and she gives me a short hug and then she leaves, running back to the others.

Silly girl.

***

This is the first time I see Sophie cry as she hugs and holds Isabella, constantly apologizing to her. The little girl cries too and both sisters then spend another hour sitting in the corner whispering something to each other, still in a hug.

After a while, Sophie stands up and comes up to me, her eyes still slightly red and her nose bloodied and still broken as Lily is out of mana.

She opens her mouth to say something and then pauses, going with a shorter version “I owe you,” she says simply, to which I only nod shortly.

She then leaves to rejoin Isabella who smiles and waves at me, holding poor Biscuit in her arms. The best doggo on the third floor already gave up on his fate and just lays there, to be used as a toy by a little girl.

“Well, that was unexpected, “ says Tess, who is sitting near me, her javelin resting against the wall behind her.

Kind of? But yeah, I still don't trust her fully.

“Still, be careful around her,” I say to her and Tess nods to that.

“Obviously, I'll be,” her eyes then check my state again and she asks, “How long do you think it will take you to heal?”

“Around two days if Lily only heals me and every time she gets some mana back? But you shouldn't wait for me. Go out and hunt, natives have some trap that they use to catch sparrows, they also know where to find a bit of water. A jerk named Cipher will tell you more, he did spend some time with them.”

I continue to tell all the info I collected up until now and she listens carefully, only here and there asking a few questions.

“I'll try to hunt these sparrows with my skills, maybe my ranged attacks will be able to do it,” as she says so, I can hear some hint of pride she has in her own skill.

Yet, remembering the sparrow I tried to hunt, I can't help but smirk inside. She will be so surprised.

“Yeah, you can try that. It might work with you,” I say out loud.

Suffer, suffer the same way I did. Be beaten to the pulp by pigeon-sized sparrows and then come back, ashamed and with a broken spirit.

You will share my pain!

***

Three hours later, after talking with Cipher and others and leaving for the hunt, Tess returns, her hands empty.

She doesn't even look at me and only moves to her spot, putting her javelin against the wall behind her.

I then watch her open and clench her fist while dozens of small stones start to float around her as she practices.

Welcome to the club.

***

After Lily heals me for the second time and just straight up refuses to fix Sophie's nose before I'm fully healed, I go to Kim, while leaving the girls to deal with it between the two of them under the watchful eyes of Tess.

Cipher and the icy guy and Goldie are spending most of the time with natives who seem to be close to worshiping Cipher, who is able to create water from the air.

Well, it's not like they are fully within his grasp, no no. The divine beast hasn't given up yet!

I don't know what that silly corgi did but it must have been something amazing as they still keep coming to him and share food with him every time they catch something.

Basking in the glory of our group member we - members of the tutorial are getting something as well. The meat from sparrows seems to be highly caloric but it's not nearly enough.

Not for us. The natives always eat only a few bites and it seems to be enough for them. They are all thin and also barely drink some water - even if they have weaker bodies than us from the tutorial they seem to be much better adapted.

I pause the thought as I stop in front of Kim, and the boy who is sitting on the ground lifts up his head and looks at me, Aaron is near him.

Not wanting to make it more annoying I just say, “Thanks for taking care of Lily.”

I know how hard it must have been for him, fighting all the monsters while taking care of an unconscious girl. I also know how he feels about her, probably not fully forgetting about what happened to his friend Kevin.

So yeah, I appreciate that as I owe Lily and now I also owe Kim as well. It's annoying but it feels right.

What appears in his eyes is somewhat of a surprise as he stares at me wordlessly for a bit, only after a while realizing what's happening and nodding his head.

“Good job,” I add and before I leave I notice that these two words surprised him even more. As if he didn't expect them at all. But even though his eyes are wetter now he doesn't seem to hate it and I leave.

***

One day and something passes in the darkness of the hideout. The entire time I do not leave it and barely train my body, I only move my mana, getting used to my new skill and observing my constructs. I also plan and examine my body and continue to watch the way Lily heals me.

Natives and even members of our group keep moving in and out of the hideout. Hunting monsters, hunting food, helping Cipher level up his skill that is currently the main source of water for us.

We also find the temporal spring natives did talk about. It appears in the tunnels not that far from our hideout and it only lasts for one minute and they bring back the water. They are happy with the amount but in my eyes its so little and the others agree.

It's already decided that we move further inside the city. To hunt. To find more resources and to finally start doing something about our Floor Quest.

It will be dangerous, but we don't have a choice. As always the system continues to force us to move where it wants us to go.

“Status,” I whisper, saying it out loud for the first time after a long time.

[Name: Nathaniel Gwyn]
Difficulty: Hell
Floor: 3 - Saint's Eternal Bastion
Time left until forced return: 4y 266d 21h 31m 36s
Traits (1/3): Mana Circuit (Passive)

Lvl 91
Strength: 25
Dexterity: 27
Constitution: 86
Mana: 265

[Primary Class: Mana Channeler]
[Sub-class: Unavailable]

Active skills:
Focus (Dual Focus) - Lvl 31
Mana Manipulation (Advanced Mana Manipulation) - Lvl 32
Perception - Lvl 25
Oscillation - Lvl 23
Redistribution (Symbiotic Transference) - Lvl 22
Armament - Lvl 27
Mana Surge - Lvl 18
Disruption - Lvl 18
Mana Infusion - Lvl 8

Constructs:
Reinforcement (Construct)
Kinetic Mana Heart (Construct)
Mana Regulator (Construct)

Passive skills:
Mana Flow (rare)
Cerebral Harmony (rare)

[Upgrade token: 1]
[Difficulty change token: 1]

My first goal is to finally reach level 100 and finish the side quest that will reward me with a body part upgrade token. The next step is to get [Armament] to level 30 and complete the second side quest that will reward me with a skill upgrade token.

I also need to level up Lily a bit and my body is already itching to finally test out my new construct.

There is so much to do.

***

Savant (Hell, Alone) - Hey Noname, guess who is already level 100?

***

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