"It means you are dead."
These words struck Min Jun's heart like a jolt of lightning. Its intensity was huge.
"I'm dead, what do you mean? See, I'm breathing in flesh, standing and talking!
Min Jun knows that even though he possesses Darin's body, death and body possession are totally different things.
Faelynn didn't smile. She spoke with a tone of confusion and a little sadness, "Yeah, kid. That's the confusing part, the only time I have seen black colour is from the reanimated corpses raised by a necromancer as undead, thus I said you are dead. Even the necromancers have violet, not black."
"So that means I'm an undead?"
"No, of course not, undead are way different, they reek and have a foul smell like an abandoned morgue".
"I see," he took a deep breath and sighed." Is that... bad?"
"Honestly? I don't know," Faelynn admitted. "I've never seen a living person with a dead mana core. But I might know a person who can help with that."
Darain understood that her answer was honest, and she wasn't hiding anything. Min Jun's mind flooded with questions needs to what happened to Darian's soul before I possessed it? And why his mana is black, but he, too, knows that even a person like Faelynn couldn't answer them.
"So," Darian asked, eager to move on. "Can I use the Mana Gaze?"
"Yeah," Faelynn nodded, her moody face became lit again. "But maybe a different ability than mine."
"What does that mean?" Darian asked with a puzzled expression.
"Since mine is green, I not only sense mana flow, but I can feel Nature talking," she explained.
"Talking with eyes? That makes no sense at all !"
"Yeah. Like, I can read what the plants and animals say. It's not words, exactly, it's more like a feeling."
What will mine be, Darian thought to himself.
"Okay, what do I need to learn Mana Gaze in general?" He asked with an adept look in his curious eyes.
She smiles and answers Darian's question, "Before that, you need to awaken your heart with Mana."
"Huh?"
"Normally, a healthy person would have awakened it just by eating mana-rich food or drinking potions, and use various techniques and training to open it gradually over the years. Since your body was weak and unhealthy, we will try something more effective and faster ".
Darian's face smiled, hearing the word faster, faster, oh god! That's better than waiting for years, and training may be its true cheat method.d
Faelynn continues, "but there's a catch, it's painful than the normal methods."
"I don't mind a little pain," Darian replied, bracing himself. A little pain might be better than waiting for li.fe
"Great." Faelynn stepped closer. "Close your eyes."
"Okay?" Darian closed his eyes and waited for Faelynn's instructions.
Faelynn moved behind him. Darian felt her hand press firmly against his back, directly over where his heart would be on the left side.
"What should I do?" he asked, feeling a sudden spike of anxiety and excitement.
"Kid, I'm gonna pump mana directly into your heart," she whispered, her voice serious. "Try to hold it. Okay?"
"How do I do that?"
"Find out yourself."
Before Darian could open his mouth to protest, a surge of energy struck his heart. It was like a high jolt of lightning, his heart started to beat like crazy, and he could feel his heart getting ripped by the surge in energy. It was intense, agonising, and painful.
"Ahhhhhhh fuck!"
Darian screamed, his knees buckling. It felt like his heart was going to explode. Blood started to gush out from his nostrils.
"Kid! Now control the mana!" Faelynn shouted over his screams.
"How do I do that?!" Darian gasped, his eyes started to turn red, and he looked like blood was about to burst out from his eyes.
"It's your heart, idiot! Use your heart!"
Use my heart? What does that even mean?!
He used his black mana to obstruct the foreign mana from bursting his heart.
"cmoonnnnnnnnn.......,fuck "
He forced his own mana to wrap around his heart, compressing it.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
His mana is absorbing the foreign mana and making it into his colour. Darian's heart started to slow down, and the chaotic rhythm started to slow down to normal. The pressure is relieved, and Darian collapsed face-first into the dirt.
"Good job, kid," Faelynn's voice sounded distant, impressed. "You didn't die ."
"You fu..." Darkness clouded his vision before he could curse her.
Darian woke up with the smell of meat getting roasted over the wood, and he could feel his head on top of something soft. When he opened his eyes, the sky seemed turned to orange, and beside the sky, his vision of the sky was blocked by something familiar. Seeing them, he realized the soft thing he was lying on was her lap. Seeing Darian open his eyesshe talks.
"Oh, good morning," she teased, looking down at him with a grin.
"Huh? You stupid elf... ouch!"
Darian tried to sit up, but a sharp, reflex pain shot through his chest, forcing him back down.
"Relax, kid. Don't push yourself," she giggled, poking his forehead.
Darian lay back, breathing heavily. His body felt like it had been torn into a thousand pieces and stitched together in an instant. When he focused on his chest. There was a new sensation around his heart. A dense, heavy warmth surging with q strange feeling.
"Oh, you can feel it, isn't it?" Faelynn asked softly.
"Yeah," Darian whispered, placing a hand over his chest. "What is it?"
"It's called a Mana Heart."