Soon a girl appeared in front of the prison bars. She had pale
blonde hair which flowed down till her back. It was frizzy,
indicating that it wasn't taken care of properly.
The loose, baggy
robe she had worn didn't highlight her body at all. A peach-like
complexion and deep set eyes which resembled the colour of
teak wood.
Just like many others held in captivity, her oval face had
smudges of dirt on it. But her neck had two collars instead of
one.
She approached the half-dead battered Mino and knelt down by
him. After observing him for a moment, she said,
"Goddamn! What the fuck did he do, Sir Iso? Isn't he the
newcomer?"
The purple wolf-eared, who was just addressed as 'Sir Iso'
simply nodded and muttered, "He defied Zay."
The girl's eyes widened, her lips parting as she grinned widely.
Then again, her face got cloudy.
"He's grievously injured. I can't heal him when we are separated by these fucking bars."
"Makes sense. I am placing Doro here. He will take him back
after you finish healing. Oh yes I almost forgot..."
Iso fished out a band like thing which had many crystals
embedded in it, which resembled the crystals present in the
mana-binding collar.
Tapping one, the glow in the girl's mana
binding collar's crystal faded. Iso gave the band and the keys to
the man standing near him and walked off.
The man put Mino inside the room, by no means gently.
"So, let's get down to healing." the girl took in a deep breath to
stabilize herself and her mana flow.
Then, she spoke out,
"O' Light. Bless us with your radiance, show us the path... damn
I'm annoyed with this clichéd chant. Fucking light, just obey my
command and heal him!"
A ball of light which had converged over the white circle on her
palm stopped spinning and went over to Mino.
The girl skilfully
divided the ball into fragments of light and made them hover
over the injuries.
Some entered Mino's body too.
After about twenty minutes later,
"Fwooo...his injuries were worse than it looked."
The girl let out a sigh, sweat drops on her forehead. The man
standing outside re-activated the collar.
Some other girls had also gathered around the unconscious
Mino, clearly confused as to why a boy was present in the girls'
'dorm' when they had a separate place for themselves.
Finally Mino opened his eyes. The instant he opened his eyes,
he noticed a girl looking at him. This time, he had clear memory
of what had happened though. Clenching his fists tightly, he
looked around him to find girls staring at him curiously.
"So, why am I here?"
Mino decided to make his queries first.
"I healed you. You were half dead after you took that rhino's
trashing."
The word rhino made Mino curious, but he put it in the back
burner for now.
"Is this a place made for girls to stay, just like there's one for
boys?"
"Exactly so."
"I give you my thanks for healing me."
Mino flashed a nervous smile as he heaved himself up
somewhat groggily.
"I don't take thanks. Collect my share of herbs tomorrow, that
will do."
the girl replied straightforwardly while looking at Mino in
the eye.
[Herbs? Damn... the number of questions I need to ask is rapidly
increasing... but Arron really mentioned something about menial
tasks, so I guess that's it.]
"Who are you?"
Mino tried to propel the conversation by introductions...
"I'm the healer."
...but it seemed like it won't work. But Mino didn't give up.
"Well, what's your name?"
"Healer."
"So you don't wanna give me your name? You should've just
said that honestly..."
Mino said this while lightly patting his tunic
to get rid of the dust clinging to it. He noticed his tunic was
stained with drops of blood.
"You wanna know my name?"
Surprisingly, the conversation wasn't over yet.
"Yeah."
"Why may I know?"
"I don't know anything, so I wanna talk with everyone possible.
Knowing each other's name would be beneficial."
Finishing the sentence, Mino instantly facepalmed himself,
"Oops, my bad. I'm Mino Clair."
As soon as he declared that, another girl dashed and went
beside her. They looked quite similar, but had a lot of
differences if observed closely. The eye and hair colour was
same, they had the same size and height.
But the main
differences lay in their faces.
"Hey sis, he introduced himself, so you can't say no to him now!
Go! Introduce yourself!"
She flashed a thousand-watt smile at Mino which didn't suit the
dull and drab surroundings at all.
The healer girl smiled wryly and started, "I am Calibri and this is my
sister Caladea."
Mino instantly regretted asking that question. Eyes bursting out
of his sockets, he instantly clapped both of his hands to his
mouth and tried to stifle his laughter.
Body rocking with irregular
shakes, he finally couldn't hold it in and burst out in laughter.
"Pfffffftttt! Heh, fuuuuu Hahahahaha! God i'm so
gonna die! Please help me, I can't stop laughing! Fufufufufufu!
Now who? A 'Times New Roman'?!"
He was rolling on the floor like a madman, the girls watching
him with weird expressions on their faces.
Calibri was annoyed,
but Caladea was simply curious.
Finally after a minute of maniacal laughter Mino abruptly
stopped. He got up robotically, not a bit of the previous joyful
expression on his face. Surely, all the girls were surprised by
the sudden change in attitude, even the two sisters.
[What am I doing... I need to find a way to get stronger...at least
build my muscles up! I can't stay a weakling like this! What if I
can't use mana! I will still get strong enough to defend myself!]
"Hey Mino."
A domineering voice sounded from some distance, Mino
couldn't help but jerk his head towards that.
Golden hair, much more vibrant than Calibri's pale blonde. Icy
blue eyes looking right into Mino's. Exuding an aura of majesty,
the mature girl declared, "How's the other world like?"
Mino visibly recoiled, and other girls didn't miss that. If they had
the slightest doubts regarding that girl's words, then Mino's
reaction was a dead giveaway.
"No introduction?"
Mino tried to sound as casual as possible, even though inwardly
he was panicking as hell, as for why, he had no idea.
"My bad. Erudin, an elf."
She declared while brushing her hair, revealing the pointy ears,
as white as milk, like the rest of her skin. They suited her
dimpled face very well, and they should, since she claimed to
be an elf.
Mino was flabbergasted! [The heck! An elf here... wait, Arron
indirectly mentioned this!!]
The tunic was loose, so it wasn't
supposed to highlight her figure. She must have wrapped the
tunic close to her body to make it cling snugly, and as a result,
Mino was presented with the side view of her curvy plump butt.
She lacked in the chest area though, unlike Calibri and
Caladea. Despite that, her beauty was top-class, and it made it
difficult for Mino to look her into the eye. He blushed
involuntarily and decided to answer Erudin's question.
"Well, there's a lot to describe. I'll answer sometime later, but I
surely will! First, I have a question to ask regarding this world."
The moment Mino said this, the blush which had spread across
his face retreated. His visage turned stone-cold.
"Do you know any cure to damaged Mana-Meridians?"
"Huh, why would you ask such-"
Erudin stopped before finishing the question. It was crystal clear
to her. Mino could hear hushed whispers, gasps and even
snickers around him.
"I'm sorry I don't." she admitted, then she said in a knowing
glance,
"But I can provide you some important info."
"Please do."
"Under what obligation?" Erudin smirked.
"Out of pity, perhaps?" Raising his left eyebrow, Mino tilted his
head towards Erudin, accurately copying "The Rock"'s famous
posture.
"Pffffftttt... now it's my turn to laugh. You should be happy that
you even got to talk to me. Now shoo!! As if I would bother
talking to a cripple. I felt curious when I saw you not having a
collar, but guess my excitement was for naught." she flicked her
hand, making such a face as if Mino was some stray pig or dog.
Other girls could only watch helplessly, since their boss was just
like that.
[Man, I can't believe I blushed on seeing that bitch and thought
her to be helpful.]
Mino felt disgusted at himself more than at Erudin.As he neared the exit, Mino thought he heard a voice
calling out to him. It was followed by shocked gasps from the
girls. But this time he decided not to pay any attention. That was
until he heard the contents.
"Your Mana-meridians are damaged. But that doesn't
necessarily mean you can't wield Mana. You can wield it,
control it with a lot of practise. And you won't be able to store
more than a minuscule amount of Mana in your body. It will take
more time to regain mana compared to others. You may not be
able to use complex mana techniques or magic for now, but you can control
Mana just like any other person. Try to feel it."
Mino went back to the boys' room. Since he had already exited
by the time he heard the voice, Doro wouldn't allow him to go in
again. The girls' room had turned chaotic because of
something.
And amidst that chaos, Mino felt a pair of eyes staring at him.
He had a lot to think about. Opening his status screen, he was
shocked to see a development:
Exp: 854 ------> 1220
PDEF: 28 ------> 31
VIT: 60 ------> 64
[I guess I'll ask some of the boys about this...]
Mino had bigger fish to fry. He didn't know whether those
hopeful words were true or not, but had only one option, to try
them out.