Uhhh fuck.... Im in so much fucking pain. Its not half as bad as it was previously but my whole body is aching terribly.... not to mention my fucking head. After opening my eyes I come to see im lying a bed in a room I dont recognize. Facing away from me sat at a desk is a young elven woman, she doesn't look to be any older than her early 20, however with elves that just means that shes still under the age of 100. As I try to sit up in the bed I let out an audible groan which seems to have caught her attention, since she turns around and walks over to me.
"So.... what happened?" I ask her a bit mythed at my current situation. The last thing that I can remember is collapsing on a road after hearing Katia shout after me. And that does not at all explain how are where I currently am.
With a light smile and a soft voice she spoke, "well from what I can gather you slaughter a Gnoll king sustaining heavy injuries, your nice friend Katia then found you as you collapsed on a road and then got the guild master to send me for your treatment..... I've never seen someone survive excess injuries before."
"Huh.... I did get.... Pretty banged up.... didn't I?" I replied looking down at my wounds. They've all been closed up, however as I touch them there still extremely tender meaning the internal damage hasn't fully repaired yet. "Don't worry though.... I'll be out of you hair.... By the end of the day"
"Im afraid I can't allow that, your wounds haven't healed properly yet and your mana exhaustion is so bad that you can barely speak properly." Her face turned from warm to stern while saying that. Well she's not wrong about the mana exhaustion, Im stuttering most of my words and have to pause for deep breaths every few words.
"listen.... my wounds will heal themselves..... as I'm sure..... you've noticed.... And I just need to meditate.... for the mana exhaustion". Speaking is fucking hard, My head is pounded horribly and I can barely think of the words that I'm trying to form. It's safe to say that the elf was not happy about this but then her expression shifted from a frown to a mildly sadistic grin.
"Fine I will let you go..... Under 1 of 2 circumstances. You either need to be able to force your way past me, which you can't. Or you have to meditate enough that you can cast a spell without passing out from mana exhaustion." She then went over to a bag in the corner of the room. "If you choose the second one Ill give you this to help, your friend gave it to me to help bribe you." She finished pulling out a bottle of my one weakness, Dwarven whisky. And I could seriously use a drink right now.
After staring at her for about a minute weighing up my options, I finally caved. "Alright then... Give it here.... and..... I'll start my.... meditation." which she did and I can only describe the feeling of drinking it as heavenly. "Oh yeah.... wheres katia?.... and how long.... was.... I out?"
"She should be arriving back fairly soon, she went to loot the Gnoll camp and collect the proof needed for the reward. Also you where out for nearly a full 24 hours. At first you where fading in and out of consciousness but where not at all lucid, so I gave you some anesthetic to remedy that." After explaining this she turned back to what ever she was doing at her desk and I began to meditate not long after.
Repeating the same process that I normally do, I once again began to observe my mana pool. Just how bad of a state it was in shocked me a little, I really over did it on the spells didn't I. The ball of mana threads was still convulsing but in a much more sporadic fashion than usual. At least its still moving and I didn't experience mana death (mana death is where you put far to much strain on your mana pool and it shuts down effectively dying. This is a defense mechanism that your body employs similar to putting you in a coma when you are to hurt and It results in the recipient not being able to use magic again for as long as decades.) The best way to describe the vision that great me would be a ball of frayed yarn that was frozen over and crackling with electricity as well as surrounded by a sinister dark mist. These effects showed the affinities of the recent spells that I had used.
To begin the repair process of my mana pool, I began in-taking small amounts of mana from the surrounding atmosphere and injecting it into my mana pool, re-invigorating the mana threads which had become frayed. This is a very delicate process that if done wrong can cause for your mana exhaustion to become worse causing longer lasting damage. I continued this process for about 6 hours which was seriously fucking boring, however I snapped out of it with a light shake causing for my concentration to break and brought me back to reality. The elf woman was standing in front of me again and I raised a questioning eye brow.
she rolled her eyes and said" Im going to collect some food, do you want anything picked up?".
"No im just about finished here.... so Ill go and get some.... from Claudia's" I replied still finding it hard to speak but it was much better than when I first awoke.
"Oh is that right? colour me impressed, 6 hours of meditation and you've managed to repair your mana pool already? do show me wont you". Her tone was extremely mocking as she clearly didn't believe me.
However I did not care about that, I was getting out of here now and that was that. I began generating the imagery of my hand sparking with lightning as it had done when I finished the Gnoll king off. The shear concentration was making my head throb but I was unfazed by this. I began injecting mana into the image and it came to fruition, my hand was sparking with with electricity. The act of doing this alone made me feel like I was dying, I was on the brink of throwing up and my head was splitting but I powered through it like a champ.
The look on the face of the elven woman shifted quite quickly from that over mocking me to being shocked. "well.... I wasn't expecting that. I guess your free to go then since a deal is a deal. However I want you to come back here in a week for a check up and your also taking this" she pulled out a vial of a white liquid. "This is an opioid and will help reduce pain, I also suggest that you spend the majority of your time resting and dont get into any fights for a long while".
"Yeah yeah.... I know" I took the vial from her hand and began getting out of bed. The second I stood up though my body was racked with a fresh sense of pain and I had to grab her shoulder and the bed post to stop myself from collapsing.
"Now might be a good time to take some" she sated bluntly whilst pointing at the vial in my hand. which I obliged to and took a large gulp. Within about 30 seconds I could feel the crippling pain begin to subside slightly and was once again able to support my own weight. Looking down I noticed that I was as naked as the day I was born. looking back at the elf I asked where my clothes are and she motioned to the corner, "They were covered in blood so I asked one of the maids to clean them for you, they are just folded up over there."
With that out of the way I got dressed back into my family leather armour and grey simple clothing and began slowly walking out of the room. Passing through the building that I was in I realized that it was actually the guild hall. When I reached the main lobby there where a few of the more experienced hunters around and about. When they saw me they had surprised looks on their faces, as it was evident that I had been carried through here on the brink of death. But none approached me as it was evident that I wasn't in the best mood. With being uninterrupted I left he guild hall behind me and slowly limped and shuffled my way to Claudia's, The mile long walk was not going to be fun.