I landed in a clear area surrounded by the odd glass looking grass. I laid down, and winced as the pain flared up again. I'd already healed the actual wounds, but the residual pain was still enough to make me wince. I probably should have waited to do that until I was already on the ground. The rate that I regenerated mana seemed to increase every time my mana level increased.
Mana regeneration was rather slow though. Now that my reserve was growing so large it was hard to fill that empty reserve. I stood up slowly after two or three hours of rest. I was still tired deep in my bones. I started sprinting as fast as I possibly could.
Killing anything that dared to try attacking me. Taking their crystals with me. I kept collecting them along the way. I kept on running until my limbs burned. Taking a quick break before turning around, and running the other way.
Heading back the direction of the patch where I'd been resting until just recently. Hoping that I would manage to get another stat point in agility or stamina. Either one was fine by me. The more I had to work with. The more I'd be able to do with it.
After that I just focused on working out. Trying to hit every single muscle, and work them until they were raw. I ended up passing out in the field since I didn't stop for a break. By the time I woke up it was dark already. I stood up, and looked around. Shaking off the exhaustion, and checking the system to see if my reserve was full.
I pulled out the phone that was hidden away in the bag. My big claws were to awkward for me properly type on the damn thing so I switched forms. Taking my human form, and looking down at the little glass device. Phones were rare things nowadays. You could use a net watch to contact people at anytime.
They were always connected to the net no matter where you were as long as you were within range of any one of the many towers. Phones were different. They were made specifically for calling people. They didn't need a tower. As long as their was a single settlement on the entire planet then you'd have a signal.
I dialed up one of the only two numbers saved to the device. Samson picked up on the second ring.
"Wyatt Nix," He sighed into the phone, "Ready to send the cores over?"
"You will do what I asked with them right?" I sat down in the grass.
"I can handle that," he replied.
"I'm opening the portal now," I clicked end on the call, and tossed the phone back in the bag.
I focused on a spot directly ahead of me. I didn't need to open a big portal, but this one was opening over a distance further than I'd ever opened a portal before. I kept the energy focused on a single focal point as it left my body. The small portal that boomed into existence cost me nearly half my mana just to open it. Thankfully I still had the other half a reserve to maintain the portal with.
It wouldn't last very long though. I kept working on it all carefully. I could hear someone shuffling around in the room on the other side of the portal. I tossed the storage crystals through the small portal. Only keeping the one that wasn't full.
All I had to do now was keep the portal intact long enough for them to send them back through. I saw the man on the other side of the portal working away. Placing the crystals in the center of the circle one by one as the energy was expelled. Tossing the empty one back through while the next drained. I was still in my human form so I wasn't regenerating mana as fast as I wanted to.
I needed to get out of my human form to properly regenerate mana. I only had a few more seconds left before I ran out of mana.
"Move it man," I shouted, "I'm almost out of mana."
He tossed the last crystal back through the portal to me. I ran out of mana, and was forced back into my true form. I couldn't let it take a week to fill them all. I needed to up my natural mana generation. I also needed to up my affinity with the space element.
That would help with the mana cost of creating portals. I frowned to myself as deep seated exhaustion soaked into me. I jumped into the air, and let my tired wings carry me back to the settlement. Taking my bag of goodies with me. I landed clumsily outside of the warehouse before walking in the open doors about the time that the sun rose.
Closing them behind me before collapsing on the pavement. Too exhausted to do anymore real work. Too exhausted to do much of anything for now. Ethan knew why I was so exhausted so he told them not to bother me for now. My mana reserve was practically screaming about how empty it was.
I didn't know how long it would take for me to reach a full reserve. If my recharge rate was going to follow the same pattern as before than I'd regenerate about forty mana a minute. That gave me about two hours until my mana was regenerated properly. I guess I had some time to sleep. The only thing I could do right now was sleep.
I didn't like that I'd pushed myself so far. I didn't like that I needed to push myself so far. I wanted to keep getting stronger. I needed to keep getting stronger. I allowed myself to sit there, and relax.
Savannah was making sure that Calen was kept an eye on. I wanted to know who was planning on hurting him. I didn't know how long he was going to last with the threat of death over his head or how my system knew about it. My wings twitched as I dozed off slowly. Lazily sleeping over the map that I was carving into the floor of the warehouse.