Chương 7: 1-6 Just eat it

Josef was getting really submerged in the magical puzzle that mana poisoning was. As he quickly figured out, directing a healing spell to fix it wasn't possible. With that approach, his magic simply refused to interact with the mana inside Coco's body at all. He suspected that mana itself isn't something that a body can be healed from, further supporting his theory that healing magic wasn't meant to enact harm on another living being.

That's why Josef was currently deeply immersed in concentration, as he tried a more manual way of interacting with mana. Slowly and steadily, he had pushed a tiny sliver of it beyond the confines of his hand and into his patient. After an initial confirmation by Coco, he had learned that this alone didn't cause any pain to her. If his own mana was a lazy trickle while idle, then hers was more of a wet suggestion that fell into a riverbed. Except when it wasn't.

Occasionally, a small splash of the magic juice would suddenly rush through Coco's channels. Those didn't do anything on their own, but whenever they met his own mana, the resulting clash would cause some amount of discomfort for the little girl. Unfortunately, this was his only option to get closer to where hers was stored, as attempting to move outside of her channels either caused his own to quickly disperse or started to create a new one, which definitely hurt her. He wouldn't try that one again.

At least his prior attempts helped him get closer to the origin of her mana. Unlike his own magic container, which was his literal heart, hers was much further down, in the stomach region. That was an interesting fact he needed to remember if he didn't want to accidentally reveal his own peculiarity. It took Josef a lot of focus not to be visibly surprised once he found the exact location. There was a pebble nestled in the intestines, well behind the girl's bellybutton.

He had already heard about the existence of class-stones during Cana's story the day before, but he had figured that, just like his own heart, stones were an artificial addition to people's bodies. Apparently, that was wrong, as he just found out. In a world of magic, everyone grew a stone in their bodies, or so it seemed. Some stones were just more special than others. With his latest attempt, Josef pushed through the shortest possible route and reached the pebble, or magic core as he decided to call it.

Dizzy's metaphor suddenly made a lot more sense. It did feel like a pot boiling over, the lid sometimes springing up and sending out liquid. The description was surprisingly on point if he imagined the bad mana like a piece of hot coal someone had dropped into the container, causing the temperature to go out of whack. Only this hot bit of carbon barely lost any heat and instead needed to be poured out.

Having no other avenue of progress, he pushed his tendril of mana against the core and, the moment it opened again, inside of it. As the proverbial lid got jammed open, mana was slowly pouring out of it Coco let out a whimper but otherwise endured. Clearly, she was forcing herself to stay quiet, as she couldn't suppress the trembling of her body. Josef wanted to compliment her on her courage and tell her she was doing great, but he feared his magic line would snap if he lost focus for even a moment.

He wished he could speed up the process. Sucking out the mana, like using a hose to empty an aquarium. Like a hose. Suction. Pull. As his thoughts formed, something snapped into place. Mana was rushing out of the core at a much faster pace than before, but didn't simply spill and run off like before. Instead, it was sliding along his own mana, following it like a trail that led straight back to him. He could feel the clumps that were rushing out as well, mana that felt very different from the rest of Coco's.

That's what it was, a clump of foreign mana that interacted badly with the body's own reserves. He had figured out mana poisoning. Was it concerning that these clumps were now rushing towards his own heart? Kind of. But at least he knew how to deal with that. It wouldn't be the first time he emptied his magic reservoir. As several seconds passed and no new clumps joined the magical ride, Josef pulled back and let it all come back to him. He didn't want to drain the kid completely if he didn't need to.

When everything started pouring into his heart, he realized one minor fact he had missed. It wasn't only the clumps he should be worried about. All of that mana was foreign to him. A sense of pressure was building in his chest. He felt bloated and pain was setting in. Have I messed u- Josef felt something like a crunch in his chest, as if his heart had just bitten down on a dry biscuit. With that sensation, the pressure disappeared. Clearly, his heart-stomach was made of sterner stuff.

With his concentration finally freed up, it was time to acknowledge not one, but three system notifications. ☆ Mana Syphon (Inferior) To take mana from another is often frowned upon, but sometimes necessary. Use your own mana to pull from the reserves of someone else after invading their channels. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. That rank could literally not go any lower, but Josef knew it was deserved.

It had only taken him absolute concentration across several minutes to take mana from a defenseless child with no control over their own magic. That one was definitely not suited for combat. At least not in its current shape and without massive amounts of training. The second message was more of a surprise. ☆☆ Manaheart (Advanced) -> (Exceptional) Mana is a type of energy naturally occurring on Aurum, unaspected fuel for all magic.

A manaheart allows natural accumulation and distribution of mana within the body in an efficient manner. Your heart has started on a more predatory path. Surely Josef didn't need to be concerned at all about that upgrade, though if it was going to help him get more mana in the future, then he wouldn't complain about it. Sucking resources out of monsters to keep the engine running sounded like his kind of approach to an RPG build. Level 5 -> 6 1 Free attribute point.

1 Intelligence gained And another level for the pile. He was somewhat surprised to gain another one so soon, but maybe there was some kind of bonus for the first successful treatment of any kind. Or healing Coco was that large an accomplishment. Either was fine for him. As he had theorized before, there was no skill choice this time, though there was a free attribute point. Giving his status sheet a quick glance, he couldn't suppress a smile.

The only attribute increased this time around was Intelligence, but that put him at a solid 10. Combined with his free point, he could push that to an 11. That in turn meant he would get another increase to Dexterity. Sweet. 1 Intelligence gained Even so, he wondered how the extra Intelligence would be affecting him. So far he didn't really feel any smarter. Maybe the effects weren't quite so direct? Or maybe the actual effect was just on a much smaller scale, needing a larger increase to be noticed.

"I-is it over?" Cana's voice pulled him out of his thoughts. It was clear that she was hopeful, especially with Josef suddenly smiling, but the last bout of pain her daughter suffered had clearly affected her. Josef nodded.

"She's fully healed. Probably gonna need more rest and food, as magic can't just replace everything it seems."

"I owe you the greatest of debts. Thank you, truly." Cana pulled him into a quick hug before her attention was back on her daughter.

"I'm just glad I could help her. And hopefully, she won't be the only one."

"She won't, but it will probably take a couple of days to get everything ready." Zassa reminded him.

"I know this is not what you would want to hear, but do try to keep a low profile until then. You really don't want Sanctum to find out about you." She was right, even though Josef didn't like hearing it, but "I get it, no healing random strangers on the street." As much as it would pain him to just walk past someone in need of healing, he understood that not doing so would only get him caught, or worse, before he could make a sizable difference. No, he needed to be smarter than that.

"Oh right. Since we're on the matter of me going out, I want to go buy some stuff. Also, is there a library in town? I want to do some reading," Josef asked.

"A library? Sure, I heard the castle has one, but you will need to get a noble title or a personal invitation." Zassa snorted.

"Those elven pricks aren't keen on sharing any of their precious things with lowlifes and animals. You know, like us." She rolled her eyes as she finished. Josef could have smacked himself. Of course, knowledge was being limited by the upper crust of society.

"There's a bookstore at the market near Sanctum, though," Cana brought up helpfully.

"It's mostly propaganda from them that even most elves don't care about, but I think they got some normal books in there too. Looked like that from the window at least, not that they'd let one like me in to browse. If you wanna, I could give you a tour, least I could-""No!" Zassa cut her off sharply.

"You better lie low for a while, dear. There is only so much a cowl can do for you when they are actively searching."

"Yeah, no," Josef agreed.

"Don't put yourself in danger like that. Just spend some time with your daughter. I can go explore just fine, not like anyone has their eyes on me. Just give me some pointers and I'll be off." Cana sneered before she agreed.

"Fine, guess I'll take it easy… for today." The last part came out as almost a whisper. With that, both women gave him tips and directions on what places he could visit. The one they were most insistent on was a clothing store.

"Gotta get you out of that dress before someone gets weird ideas." Cana reasoned.

"What weird ideas? Also, that's a robe, the kinda stuff a 'distinguished' caster is supposed to wear." Josef put his hands on his hips in refutal.

"Believe me, that's no robe. A lady knows her garments. Paired with that long blond hair of yours, you are presenting quite the image." Zassa was shaking her head in disbelief.

"Shame about your face, though."

"I resent that!" Josef pouted. He definitely needed to fix that and get a band to tie his hair up. The image of running around the city while everyone stares at him like- "Oh…"

"No worry," Dizzy cackled at the kitchen counter, "No elf kiss nose that short!" After everyone got their laughs, they continued giving him advice where to visit. There were several large plazas across Highsend, with the best shops lined up alongside them. While most would be unwelcoming or downright hostile towards non-elves, that didn't include Josef, as long as he didn't give himself away.

"Just keep those ears covered and the cussing to a minimum." Cana had advised him. Other than some prominent shops, there was also the adventuring guild at the northwest plaza. There were great shops for adventuring gear near it, though they advised him against joining the guild itself. While it was undoubtedly a good place to earn some coin, even for the less favored populace, they would use magic to scan any new members' affinities, something he couldn't allow to happen. Josef had to sigh at that.

There went his childish dream of signing up as an adventurer for nothing but shit and giggles. And fame. At least he didn't have to be an official member to go and visit the local dungeon, and wasn't that a nice thing to know. Unfortunately, they didn't tell him the how and where of that, expecting him to do something stupid by himself. That would have to wait until Cana was heading back out. They also warned him away from the southwest of the town, a market located between the harbor and the upper district.

Mentioning that place made Josef's hosts visibly upset. Cana in particular, was trembling.

"What's there?" He probed.

"The dragons-damned slave market." Dizzy's usual manner of speech was clearly not enough to carry all the disgust she held for that place. As Josef got ready and headed out, he knew exactly where he wouldn't be going today.