Chapter 291 (2/2)
“...I’m Simon, by the way…” Simon offered, in a small voice.
The man didn’t straighten, but looked up at him from where he was lying. There seemed to be something of an ironic smile on his face.
Finally he spoke. “...David.”
“Nice to meet you David,” Simon said meekly. “It takes a lot of Mana, but… I’ll make you some more of that fluid when I can....”
The man’s eyes brightened at that, and he waved a hand. Abruptly, Simon realized that the man had an interspatial ring. A Classer for sure, then. Watching carefully, Simon’s mouth dropped. For the man had removed around 20 Mana potions, out of the blue, without a thought. Then the man collapsed, returning to fitful sleep.
Simon almost dropped David’s potions when he picked them up, because they restored over 100 Mana per consumption.
“Holy fuck.” Simon whispered. But again, that small spark of desire that had been smothered inside of him at the arrival of the man flared back to life. If this was the power of the equipment available to Classers…. Simon had to leave this place, no matter how scared he was.
****
Randidly groaned, taking stock of himself. It wasn’t good, but he was beginning to cope with the worst of the effects.
When Randidly had used his skill, and that Aegiant fellow had struck back at his image, Aegiant had forcibly shattered it. Not just the image itself, but the flow of Aether inside Randidly’s soul that channeled and produced it. Literally, the skill construct inside of him had been blown to smithereens, hundreds of small pieces of Aether scattering inside of him.
Which normally would be fine, because the pain only came when the broken skill was activated. But these small bits had flown into other skill structures, becoming lodged in them. And every time he activated a skill with a bit inside of it, there was a resonance with the broken skill, which caused the pain to spike precipitously.
Additionally, it kept him from concentrating hard enough to see his notifications, or bringing up his menus. All in all, Randidly was basically just a person before the System now, who didn’t dare use his Skills for fear of that vicious mental agony, far worse than anything he had ever experienced.
The active skills were easy, but the reason the pain had been so bad initially was probably because Bacterial Regeneration was working overtime while Randidly was out, remaking his body. Thankfully, this kid had a strange elixir that helped ease the pain and heal the wound, but…
It would take time. Randidly experimented briefly while he lay there for the next hour or so, carefully touching a fragment of the destroyed skill in Bacterial Regeneration. The pain immediately flared to life, but it was at a manageable level, rather than the strange resonance pain.
Slowly, ponderously, he pressed it, moving it, careful not to jostle it too much, spiking the pain. Of course, it was still miserable, but…
It would move.
Randidly collapsed, exhausted. Well, it would move slowly, but giving him access to that skill would probably take him 8 hours of concerted agony, slowly moving the bits out of the way, into the empty space inside of him. And Bacterial Regeneration was towards the outside, with some of the fewest pieces inside of it. Some of the others....
A long, slow recovery, Randidly thought grimly. Which was why he had lied about his name to Simon, although the kid seemed nice enough. Although he had his high stats, Randidly didn’t have access to skills, or even his menu at the moment. Best to be safe.
Especially if his vision about Lyra and the Creature was true…
In addition, Randidly wanted to determine what was going on within the Zone before he did anything else. There had been other villages, and he wanted to check on how they were developing.
If anything, being dropped away from Donnyton like this was a blessing. Less a chance that someone recognizes him here, while he needed time to recuperate. Sighing, Randidly lay back and let himself drift off to sleep.