"Ai… Ow… Ow…. Why does that fucking hurt…?" I cursed at myself. It was already noon when I woke up. I couldn't walk much last night, my mental burn out affected me faster. At most I traveled a hundred feet before collapsing.
The memories from the night before still were fresh. Thankfully, the pain kept me away from being absorbed. As for today, I have to keep going. I won't be getting back if I keep staying still.
With a slightly energetic "Hyup", I jumped to my feet. As I traversed these grassy lands, I used [palm of flames] to give me a comforting warmth.
Thanks to my continuous use of palm of flames, it reached level three. There was an immediate difference, it spewed out a wider warmth.
During the times I rested, I tested out my skills on whatever I saw. Specifically, fireball, it comes out quick, but what if it could come out faster and stronger?
What if I worked on making it faster and more efficient? To quote James, mana needs a clear route and mind. It comes from your heart. Furthermore it is a lifeblood to mages, if you drain that blood in combat, you're dead.
Many mages practice on making their mana consumption efficient. It takes eons of practice, some never achieving their goal. However, due to my young age, physically I can achieve it before I grey.
At least… that's what he said. I don't know if I have that much time. Yukina, I have a feeling she's alive, just dormant inside this vessel. It's far-fetched, but… it's also a fantasy world.
I keep hearing her voice, it's sorrowful and filled with agony. It keeps me up, and her memories. How could she go through that and stay sane? Just, how did she do it?
A-ah… I lost myself there. Ahem, back to magic. For mana efficiency, I need to control the output then the input. This goes in tandem with mana efficiency passive.
The skill, already mentioned. But actual mana efficiency is different.
With my back straight, legs crossed I took a deep breath in. Activating the flame in my heart, slowly guiding it to my hands. As it pushed against the walls, I held my uninjured arm out.
Slowly, I leaked it into my palm. Heat radiating just in front of it. Just as it reached its hottest, I let go. Closing off the circuit, there was a loud FWOOM!
The fireball flew so far, I watched as it hit its maximum range. Around fifty meters before exploding. I just need to practice more.
Repeating this cycle till I felt my body weigh down, and the urge to vomit I rested and went as my mana reached half way.
"Looks like I'm done…" I muttered, my body was fully drenched in sweat. "Time to get going."
It's really boring being alone, it feels like I am insane. It's extremely boring, and repetitive. Oh, you may be asking me, how am I not hungry? I hunted what I could find, with a lesser powered fireball. It normally cooked them upon impact, but I used palm of flame; dead animals didn't count as living beings.
Whilst they did not taste good, they were what I could find. Squirrels, rabbits, small animals, etcetera. It was by luck, despite how bad mine is. Besides my food, there were no water sources. We're in the middle of a continent that has no name. James had a map that he had packed.
The world was full of continents, vastly larger than Earth. The continent we were on was oval shaped, it was filled with forests. Two major kingdoms were located on the north and east pole. We already know which ones, Mitim, then the kingdom that Melinda came from.
(kingdom name), it's a major power in this world. Interconnected with most other kingdoms, it's a modernized kingdom. Instead of carriages it has old automobiles, paper money instead of coins. In addition to all of these, it's an extremely popular place for all races.
Animalkin, demons, humans, elves, and dwarves, those types of races, it's a harmonized place with some racists. Its history is sort of shrouded in mystery, all that's known is an otherworlder founded it hundreds of years ago. Moreover, it had me question Melinda's and James's decision.
First of all, why move to a less sophisticated place? Their answer was they wanted to get away from politics due to Melinda's position. Second of all, how did they get to the complete opposite pole of the continent? It's hundreds of kilometers in span, that's just a rough estimate. Apparently, teleportation magic. Yep… that's a thing…
It's insanely rare, only major places hold that type of thing. Such as the adventurers' guild, even Untergrant had it. The downside however, was the risk. Every one in twenty teleportations would turn you inside out, one in fifty will send you elsewhere.
Those completely shot me down, I'd definitely hit either of those often, one will just kill me outright. Anyways, the third reason, there were too many hard quests for James. Adventuring was his livelihood, he was running solo as a healer.
That guy sure loves to say his average, honestly. I thought, staring at the sky. James always said his abilities were average, yet, as a healer and a rogue he was immensely skilled. His stats were strong, but apparently they were on par with the rest.
That was enough of my rambling, something was bothering me. Physically at least, mentally… I'd talk about something else to keep it busy. Specifically my arm.
I'm going to have to do something with this… It hurts too much, and it's only a matter of time… My arm was bleeding through my cloak, it'll only be a matter of time before I die.
Fireball would char my arm, most likely kill me. It's pretty strong, killing most of the monsters I face… Wall of flames, it can't shrink that far. The smallest it'll reach is just around me. Yet…
Palm of flames, can I use it on myself? It radiates heat… I never tried against my skin. As far as it said… it can't harm living beings. What if I use my flame manipulation? I never tried it with that skill.
Flame manipulation, I can increase the wall's height with a bit more mana. Or make them not tangible, it becomes solid. In addition… I can make them not harm anything, James tested it and didn't get hurt. It was too risky of an experiment if you ask me though.
I sucked in a large breath, looking at the oozing hole that was in my arm. It hurts, but I need to do something that will hurt more if I want to survive. With my one hand, I activated palm of flames.
As I brought it to my arm, I only felt the warmth radiating from it. It was comforting, it has been keeping me warm for the nights and cold mornings.
I need to do it. I need to be less afraid… C'mon!
I'm terrified, I can't stop shaking. I need to do it, I don't want to die again.
After what felt like forever, I did it. I used fire manipulation, and set palm of flames blazing hot. There was an immediate fire going through my veins. It took only a second, then my arm went numb. My vision was blurring, but I kept it there.
I wanted to scream, yell… But I held my mouth shut, holding in the agonizing shock my body was in. As my vision started to blacken, I pulled the valve off my mana, snapping the stream shut.
The skin around my wound was charred, but the blood had stopped. My body stopped going into shock as my mana stopped moving.
"Thank god… it worked…" I let out in relief, the burning sensation had lessened but it was bearable. "I need to lay down…"
I laid on my back, staring at the sky. My arm was tight to move, but it didn't feel like I was constantly being shot at. My adrenaline was definitely pumping during then… because I felt tired. It felt as if I ran a marathon, or two.
"But… I need to keep going, I want to get back to the group." I kept talking to myself, being alone sent me to some crazy place. In my mind, I write to myself, whilst I talk to myself. Ugh… am I actually going insane? "Gah… whatever, I'm just going to rest here for a little while."
"These past two days have been hell… Hopefully I'm going in the right direction. If that doesn't happen, I'm screwed…"
The grass was really comfortable, it allowed for a soft area for my arm to rest on. As I laid there, staring at the blue sky, I was curious. It's been a month or two since I last checked my status, has anything changed there?
[
Name: Yukina Gabri
Age: 14
Sex: Female
Race: Wolfkin (???)
Status: Cursed
Class: Witch
Lvl: 11
Str: 15 Dex: 7.5 End: 16 Int: 31 Agi: 12 Luck: *
[ Active skills
Palm of flames(3), Fireball(3), Identify(4), Wall of Fire, Cauterize(1), Earth Dart(1).
Passive abilities: Experience Boost: Grants the user a quarter of increased experience from slaying monsters. Bloodlust: ??? Curse of ?@$!: Blessing of the Beastgod: Enhances all senses by many times. Flame Manipulation, Earth manipulation. Mana Efficiency (2), Mana Regeneration(1), Fast Casting(1)
]
My physical state has gotten better… My stats are linear, they don't go up that much from leveling. Normally, Str goes up by 1, but at level ten, it was thirteen. It went up by one from my training, as did my endurance.
I also gained two new skills, from that group of goblins it leveled me up. Cauterize… Well, that's from what I just did. I'll check it out after looking at earth dart.
[Earth Dart: Summon a dart of earth to pierce through your opponent.]
"That's pretty straightforward…" I mumbled. I'll get to test it out if I find more creatures…Other than goblins, please… I sat up, while mimicking a prayer with my arm. My other arm was immoveable, so I was pretty much doing a half prayer. Now for the straightforward name of… well cauterize.
[Cauterize: Allows the user to heal their wounds with their flames. It's extremely painful if used.]
"I really should've figured that…"
There was no use mulling it over, at least I have a healing ability. I decided to use it later, my arm is currently in pain, I'd rather not put it in more fire.
After resting for a small amount of time, I set off on my adventure. Attempting to sleep for the night, the memories of Yukina plaguing my mind. Then before sunrise, I kept going.
It was bound to happen, I found another group of monsters. It was partly filled with goblins, and the rest, green slimes. I managed to kill two of the three goblins in a minute, using wall of flames to scare the other one away.
"Now… It's time for…" My head was light, the lack of sleep was slowing me down. I felt a searing pain on my good hand, there was a green goop sliding off it. "Shit-!"
My confidence dropped, I was brought back to reality and snapped awake. I quickly let a few fireballs out, colliding with the pudgy body of the slimes. They splattered to the ground, their slimy bodies boiling.
Great, great, great! If I keep running into fights, I'll just die before I can get back! Fuck! With my cloak I quickly wiped my hand off. This is going so great…
Once they were all gone, bodies sizzling, I went traveling.
I kept running into more, more monster groups. The goblins in the vanguard, their monster friends supporting them in the back.
My mana was at the half way gauge, the third monster group was down. Moreover… I was accumulating more wounds.
My leg had been cut badly, a goblin pounded on my stomach, bruising it. It was so painful, I wanted to cry, and curl into a ball.
Yet, I kept going. Even when I couldn't feel my legs, even when my body was giving out. Only when I truly felt nothing did I collapse onto the ground.
*******************
Have to keep going… I have to… I can feel my mind slipping. My vision was starting to blur, everything was on fire.
"Y-Yukina!"
I have…
I ha…
Warm… so warm… what's… that sound…?
I kept hearing a thumping in my mind. As my head landed into something soft, I had this uncontrollable urge… I don't know what it was, my body was moving on its own. In the next moment, everything went black, and I fell unconscious.