Chapter 291 - In really bad mood (Patreon)

A day passes, and I remove the rubble from my body, which is now in a better state. However, it still bears plenty of wounds: cracked bones, not fully healed muscles, and a significant chunk of my leg missing.

It's raining once again, and I exit the building, letting the dangerous rain fall on my skin, where it gets disrupted by my mana.

[Perception] looks around, and I start walking. I do not use anchors, worried they might be tracked, and I use only a little mana, not knowing where the monster is. Just a bit to keep my body strengthened, allowing me to move faster and get on top of the rooftops.

It takes a while longer, but I reach the place of the old granny. At first, I pass by it a few times. As wrecked as my body is, I don't locate the place due to the field that surrounds it. It's either that or the granny changed the field a little.

When I finally locate it, I enter the rooftop and, triggering a signal, the old woman comes out of the house. Walking between the flower pots, I stop in front of her, standing on one leg and the other one made of mana. She notices it as well as the state I'm in.

She opens her mouth to say something, but that's when my skill activates. [Redistribution] absorbs her kinetic energy and stops her mouth from moving.

"I will be brief," I tell her. "On another day, I wouldn't mind a bit of bickering, but right now, I am in a really bad mood. So now, I will let you go, and you will tell me what you want from me in exchange for healing, or tell me to fuck off."

I let go of her, and she staggers backward. Her expression turning serious, "I will heal you. We can talk about what you do later. If I ask for something annoying, you can refuse."

After that, she heads inside the house, and I follow her. She uses a pulse of her mana, and the item that radiates the field that puts people to sleep is deactivated. I sit on the chair as she gestures to me.

Her hands touch my shoulder, and warm mana flows into my body, healing me for the first time.

"What the fuck," she gasps, and I sense her skill observing my body.

She checks the wounds, feels the imbalance between my attributes, and peripherally senses me constantly controlling my mana.

"WHAT THE FUCK," she repeats, getting a better image of my body, and right after, she starts healing me.

I feel my body sway and my mind dizzy, but I force myself to stay awake and carefully observe the entire process. Ready to react if she tries anything suspicious, I observe the way she moves her mana. Maybe I could learn a thing or two from her; that's what I hope for. But in the end, her healing is similar to that of Lily's. Yes, weaker and somewhat clumsy, but working with the same base.

While healing me, she uses nearly all of her mana. Her healing doesn't restore my leg. Not because she is incapable of that, but because of the other wounds she heals. My Phoenix Embrace healed a lot and given enough time, it would heal the rest. But there are advantages to having an active healing skill, even though she is much lower level than I am.

When she is done, she moves back and sits on the couch in the corner, catching her breath. Meanwhile, I start generating thermal energy with my Thermokinetic Mana Heart and sending it near the places where I'm still hurt and towards my leg. It slowly continues to grow with the help of the passive.

The old woman doesn't ask anything or bicker with me. When I look at her, she simply says, "I will ask later."

With a nod, I push myself back onto my feet and turn to leave. Outside of the house, I take a deep breath and jump over the edge of the roof, landing on the road. I absorb the movement of my fall and start running, transferring some of that energy into strengthening.

I head towards the Sanctuary and am close to exiting the city when I feel a signal from Vega. It's a signal I told her to send only if she needed help.

Disregarding the chance that the guardian will track and follow me, I use [Tether] and teleport towards the anchor.

Reappearing in our room, I find Vega in the barrier I made for her. She is fine and holding a knife in her hand, the one I created with [Regalia]. Her heart beats, generating kinetic energy that flows through her body.

Slowly, I turn towards the intruders in the room.

“We were worried! We kept calling for you,” Darren says. “You didn't answer for close to two days, and when we tried to open the door, they were blocked, so we got inside. The…”

My skill encompasses them all: Darren, Nina, and a few men with them, too. They all freeze, unable to twitch a finger, and I disrupt their mana.

I glance at scared Vega in a battle stance in the middle of the barrier and then at the intruders. For a short moment, I fight the urge to release just a bit of my kinetic energy and kill them off. My already terrible mood, which I'm pushing to the back of my mind with [Focus], sours even more at this situation. Especially seeing scared Vega, whom I left alone for so long without saying anything.

A cone of kinetic energy bursts forth, about to tear the group apart, but at the last moment, I redirect it, and it obliterates the wall to their left.

A high pitch stays behind, and the wall turns to dust. “Fuck off,” I tell them and release my hold. Without saying anything, they run away, Darren pulling Nina.

Glancing towards Vega, I cancel the barrier around her. My disciple then carefully puts the dagger away but doesn't relax her body. She looks at me as if expecting to get screamed at or hit.

Instead of saying anything, I just lay on the bed and close my eyes, “I wouldn't hurt you,” I tell her.

“I know, we made a promise,” her tiny voice sounds, and I hear her taking a few steps closer to me. “Something bad happened?” I can almost feel her eyes on my missing leg.

“Yes, a shitty day.”

Not saying anything, she just climbs onto the bed, and I move a bit as she also lays there. Understanding me better than most people here, she doesn't say anything. She doesn't offer words of pity, nor does she ask the question.

Vega just lays there, and soon enough, I can hear her breathing calm down as she falls asleep. Listening to her soft breathing, I synchronize mine with hers.

I wonder if it's my personality causing me to be like this. Knowing myself as well as I do, I think yes. [Focus] probably added to it by partially weakening most useless emotions.

The Initiate of Pride could be at work too. No matter how I look at it, I got screwed over by the Veil Guardian. I still think subclasses don't affect emotions but are probably a good show of the personality of their owner. Or I'm wrong, and the subclass does affect personality and brings out an emotion they name. I will know for sure at later stages of it.

Something touches me, and when I look to the side, I notice it's Vega. In her sleep, she moved closer to me and, curled into a ball, she is touching my side with her back. The little half-demon girl now looks better than at the start of the floor. She is clean, not as thin, and the bruises on her are only caused by her training. Once again, she is wearing clean clothes I bought for her through the system shop.

Every time I buy her clothes, she is extremely happy, and I even noticed that she keeps the older ones in a bag. They are dirty, often bloodied and torn, yet she still holds them as some treasure. The same goes for the dagger I made in the first facility, a trash-like uncommon-rated item. Yet, the dagger is carefully held in a clean cloth and hidden deep in the bag I also gave her.

Such a silly little creature.

Careful to not release any thermal energy I use for healing, I continue to lay in the bed while also cycling my mana.

***

It takes a few hours, but Vega slowly wakes up and stretches on the bed like a tiny animal. She then yawns and burrows her face into the sheets before quickly opening her eyes.

Only then does she remember where she is and realizes that she is resting against me and pulls away.

“I'm sorry,” she quickly blubbers and jumps off the bed.

“That's a great offense, minion. For a day, I will call you minion only?”

“I'm sorry!” she repeats, not understanding the joke.

“I'm joking, you can calm down,” I comfort her to not cause her some sort of silly trauma.

Examining my face, she accepts it as truth, and in the end, she still adds, “Master always calls me minion, so it's a dumb punishment.” Vega then moves closer again. After noticing that my mood is better, she becomes her usual self.

She is good at reading the moods of people. Something she had to learn to avoid getting hit. She also knows that, same as her, I prefer people just acting honestly instead of pretending.

Her eyes examine my leg with a chunk missing from under my knee, “Does it hurt?”

“Not really.”

“Will master be without a leg now?”

“It will regrow.”

“Is master a gray lizard?”

“The last time I checked in the mirror, I was not a gray lizard, minion. What is it even?”

Her fingers poke a skin that had grown over the wound. She looks at me, “It's a monster that lives in the forest near the village where I live. They are said to be really tasty, but fast. They can regrow their legs when cut off.”

“Do you have healers? There are people with skills that can regrow limbs as well.”

Vega nods, “I only heard from songs. They don't come to places like where I live.”

Of course they don't. Something tells me that there will be much more trouble to be had with Lily.

“Minion, if you find a healer by chance, try to keep them for yourself as much as you can. Maybe also try learning some healing skills, would be good if you could.”

“I'm Vega, but I will do so, master!”

“Good, something tells me you will need a lot of healing, the same as me.”

My minion gives me a confused look but then glances at my leg and probably remembers the wounds she got while training.

An understanding flashes across her face and then determination follows, “Will do so!” she repeats but this time more firmly.

Smart girl.

“Did you get beaten up, master?” her question hits me where it hurts, but she asks so innocently that I don't even get too annoyed.

“A bit,” I admit.

She turns around and rushes to her bag, taking out some food and pieces of cloth, “That's okay! Master will surely win the next time. As master said, it's fine to lose, the winner is who is alive in the end!”

For that, I have no answer and she smiles at me.

After putting two pieces of the cloth on the ground, she turns to me, “Will master eat with me?”

“Gladly.”

***

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