Chương 55: Chapter Fifty-Five: Tempered

FIFTY-FIVE Mana was without a doubt, the weirdest thing he'd ever experienced. There was a crackle of lightning to it, the feeling of static building up inside of him. There was also heat, fire, scouring, cleansing heat that burned through him as he pushed the mana toward where he felt hurt. The soles of his feet, half healed scratches, exhausted muscle fibers, and any of the other small ailments that hurt. As it passed there was a chill. A frozen sense of loss that soothed the burns and eased the ache away.

A firming of who he was as the freight train of power coursed through him. Roan struggled to maintain his breathing while focusing on the pain of pushing mana through himself. Already he could feel it growing stagnant again, resistance forming as the elixir lost some of its medicinal energy." Second potion." With a single thought, the potion appeared in his hand and he tilted it to his numb lips. It wasn't even a mouthful, hardly any liquid in the small container as Roan dribbled it out.

Where the first had been a burst of icy energy that had launched through him, this one was heat. Fire scorched his tongue and mouth, scoured his lungs and hit his stomach like a bomb. Moments before his mana had been slowly tracing through him, an icy deluge that had dragged itself forward. With the explosion of raw energy behind it the thin traces of energy began to accelerate. Roan groaned as he felt an itch on his skin, a push from the interior outward that stretched his body.

Roan groaned in pain even as he took the third and final potion of the first round of cleansing. There was almost no effect as he drank the potion, but he felt the relief instantly. His skin relaxed as the pressure eased. Instantly a rank odor filled the room and invaded his nose. Roan gagged and fought to maintain his breathing even as his mind was assaulted by the stench. He cracked an eye open and saw a thin, greasy film on his skin. Already the power of the potions were wearing out.

Now that he knew how to look inward, at how the mana was supposed to circulate through him, Roan couldn't unfeel it. How it started to stagnate already, slowing down as the potions energy was expended. A prick of heat touched his chest, below the hollow of his neck." The amulet!" The thought was loud as his heart rate spiked and he lost control of his burgeoning mana circulation. Energy hit his body and started to ease the strain, a vitality that filled him with energy." Keep going.

Regain your breath and start round two." Roan was able to find his balance faster this time, breathing in cleanly and ignoring the stench that pervaded his mouth and nostrils. He began the second round again, a thimble of potion appearing in his hand as he drank it to restart the process. Round and round he went, each time finished the three potion cycle another wave of excess exuded from his pores. By the fourth time he was coated head to toe in filth, it leaked down from his hair over his eyes and nose.

Roan tried to wipe it away, but it refused to move, smearing over his skin. The stench built until it was suffocating. It invaded and assaulted him, threatened to tear away his breathing exercises and the clarity of his mind. Again and again Roan nearly lost control of the flow of mana as he directed it around his body, infused with the purified vitality energy stored in his amulet. On the eighth circuit a bit of the filth touched his tongue and he vomited.

A single drop of the black ooze was enough to turn his entire body into a wracked convulsion. Over and over his body refused to obey, throwing up nothing but thin streams of stomach acid. When he finished he was pleased to find that while he had lost control of his breathing, the feel of mana had never left. Regaining his state of mind was the work of a moment and he continued forward. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. He finished the last of the first set of cleansing potions.

The small glass vial tumbled from his finger and he weathered out the last bout of the cleansing. Roan sat and felt himself tremble, body exhausted, but what little mana his body contained ran through him smoothly. His amulet's heat had faded away at some point, the energy stored in drained before he'd finished the cleansing. SKILL LEARNED BODY TEMPERING TIER: 1 PURIFY AND STRENGTHEN YOUR BODY WITH MANA ALL PHYSICAL STATS HAVE BEEN INCREASED YOU WILL NEED LESS SLEEP. YOU WILL RECOVER AND HEAL FASTER.

MANA RICH FOODS WILL BE NECESSARY THE FURTHER YOU TEMPER YOUR BODY. SKILL LEARNED MENTAL RESISTANCE TIER: 1 RESIST PASSIVE MENTAL ATTACKS AND INCREASES WILLPOWER SKILL LEARNED PASSIVE RECOVERY TIER: 1 MANA FLOW WILL INCREASE YOUR PHYSICAL RECOVERY BY 10% SYNERGY FOUND WITH BODY TEMPERING SKILL SHAPING PROGRESS: 36/65 LEARN TIER: 2 PRACTICE AND INCREASES IN MENTAL BASE STATS HAS INCREASED LEARNS TIER.

CURRENT EFFICIENCY INCREASE: 20% ROAN STRENGTH: 17 ENDURANCE: 18 SPEED: 14 DEXTERITY: 16 PERCEPTION: 12 INTELLIGENCE: 10 KNOWLEDGE: 14 MANA CORE: N/A SOUL TEMPERING: N/A BLOODLINE: N/A Roan felt his jaw fall slightly as he stared at the numbers. It had been awhile since he'd checked his physical stats, before the final fight on the first level, but the increases were massive. He unfolded his legs and stood up, searching for his canteen which he'd put somewhere.

With the gunk covering his face he couldn't open his eyes, forcing him to blindly search for the fresh water. It took a second but washing his face was a struggle. The greasy excess refused to part without vigorous scrubbing which left his canteen nearly empty by the time he could peel his eyes open.

"That's gross," Roan muttered as he stared down at himself. There was a thick layer of it on him, he looked like he'd been dunked in a oil tank. Where he'd been sitting was stained with filth. A beep warned him and he looked with a thought toward the timer, accessing the market to buy another set of fresh robes. He used his old clothes to careful put his new clothes in the backpack and covered up his nudity with the stained robes, walking barefoot out of the temporal chamber just as his time expired.

The door cracked open and a flood of fresh air battled with the stagnant waste of the interior room. Faces peered at him as he slung his backpack over his shoulder, goop dripping from his bare feet.

"Oh god," someone gasped and there was a sound of retching into the bushes that lined the idyllic homes. Roan pushed the door open wide and reveled in the fresh smell of air. Distantly he noticed he was breathing in the proper pattern for his mental resistance skill, the thrum of his limited mana active in his veins.

"You look a miracle," Taoya said from across the lane. The big man had his nose pinched between both fingers as he made a waving motion with his hand.

"Thanks," Roan said as carefully handed the big man his pack, not wanting to put his grimy fingers on the manuals he'd borrowed.

"It's what friends do. Now, if you'll excuse me, a bunch of us are going to go and use one," Taoya said as a small knot of somewhat familiar faces clustered around him.

"Sharing funds to buy time. Shit, should have thought of that," Roan muttered and Taoya nodded at him.

"Lone wolfing doesn't work forever friend. Remember, I'm still here waiting and there's good folk here. Our goals are the same," Taoya said nasally, refusing to take his fingers off his nose.

"I'll think on it," Roan answered honestly. Hana's revelations had changed a lot for him and he wasn't as averse to what the Pact offered.

"Go shower before you make someone pass out. Darren and a few others went out to do bounties. Its how we're paying for the temporal chambers," Taoya said with a wave. Roan nodded and thought of how much he owed the association, he hadn't been paying his cut into it and he doubted Darren would let that slide.

"Deal with that next. Shower first and then some bounties." Roan's stomach grumbled and he rubbed it and thought of the resauruant he saw earlier.

"Shower, food, then Darren."