Chereads / Esoteric Hunter / Chapter 5 - Chapter 4 - Injured hunters don't exist

Chapter 5 - Chapter 4 - Injured hunters don't exist

A week later Sedia had returned from her manticore hunt, and Magnius was supposed to be back at the training grounds. Sedia called them 'training grounds', but it was actually just her porch. Magnius wasn't on the training grounds.

Just because Sedia had to go on a hunt didn't mean Magnius could get a break. The crazy bitch had instructed him to do 100 sit-ups, 100 push-ups, 100 squats and a 100km run 3 different times every day- after breakfast, after lunch and after dinner. The result was this: Magnius couldn't fucking move. Anything. The training had destroyed his muscles so thoroughly that he couldn't even feel the pain anymore. He was just goddamn paralyzed at this point.

The door to his room burst open and Sedia strode in.

"BAHAHA. Look at you. I didn't think you'd ACTUALLY do it 3 times a day. Mag, you're MENTAL."

Magnius' expression soured as Sedia laughed like a psychopath. The flames in her hair seemed to laugh along with her.

"You're the one who told me to do it."

"Yeah, no sh%t– PFFHAHA." Sedia finally managed to stop laughing hysterically.

"I'm so glad I made you my disciple. I didn't even do it 3 times a day. Honestly, once a day would've been enough."

Magnius was getting incomparably vexed. "Can you get to the point and explain?"

Sedia took a chair and sat next to his paralyzed body.

"Alright, alright you buzzkill. Mag, you ever seen an injured hunter come out of a gate?" Now that magnius taught about it, he had never even heard of an injured hunter.

Sedia removed her leather glove and showed him her hand.

"Look at this. Manticore hit this hand with some corrosive fluid. Burned through the skin and some muscle." Her hand was unblemished, no scars or injuries. Magnius looked at her like she was a nutcase.

"PFFHAHA. Noone has ever looked at me like that before." Sedia grabbed a pocket knife.

"Guess it's better to just show you." Right after she said that she cut across her palm, deeply. Next she wiped away some of the blood on her sleeve.

Magnius just watched her do it all quietly.

"Mag, take a look." Magnius inspected her palm and although it was still stained with blood, there was no sign of injury.

"What the f@%k?" Magnius couldn't keep himself from saying it.

Sedia sat down next to him again.

"Since when do you curse so often?"

The flames at the ends of her hair licked at the bedsheets.

"Well can you blame me? The f@%k is up with your body?"

Sedia grinned at him.

"My body passively takes in mana from my surroundings and circulates it. It makes it… difficult for me to get injured and heals the wound if I do manage it. I don't get tired and my body is way stronger than it usually should be." Magnius thought back to all the times she'd flung his body like a ragdoll during training.

"So what does my body being destroyed have to do with that?"

"I'll be teaching your body how to circulate mana as well. It's like breathing. If you do it once your body will start doing it without thinking. Your body needs to be in a… pliable state for it to learn how to circulate mana. That means this." She motioned to his paralyzed form on the bed.

"Anyway, doing the training once a day would've destroyed your body enough to let you learn it. I wasn't expecting you to do it thrice every day. Well this works out well. It's easier for me to circulate the mana through your body." She placed a palm on his chest. "Ah, before I forget. You weren't hoping to grow any taller were you? This will stop that from happening. Great." She proceeded before he could even answer.

The flames at the ends of her hair grew again, covering all of her hair instead of just the tips. A hot, liquid feeling filled Magnius' chest and spread outward.

It scorched away all of the pain in his body before it radiated off of his body in warm waves, out through his skin. Sedia removed her hand and as soon as she did, Magnius felt like he was imploding.

It didn't hurt, but it felt like his physical body was crumbling. Like there was nothing supporting it from the inside and he was breaking apart like a tower with no supports.

He felt his body start to take in the mana from his surroundings, and the supports were being built. He sat up with renewed energy and felt so much stronger than before. Sedia pulled out the pocket knife and held it out to him.

Magnius dragged the sharp edge across his palm, and sure enough he felt the wound closing shortly after. Sedia smile in satisfaction.

"Nice. Mag, your healing seems even quicker than mine. Your mana capacity seems great. You don't have to worry about losing a finger or two now. That'll grow back in an hour or two. I wouldn't recommend losing an arm though. Doubt that'd heal back too quick."

Magnius kept staring at the palm of his hand before he turned to Sedia as he realized something.

"There's serious issues with having a body like this, isn't there? If I get poisoned there's no way to get the poison out. And what if my bones break in gruesome ways? They'll heal horribly in less than an hour right?" Sedia was a bit impressed by his insight.

"Poison is your greatest enemy from now on. When I get poisoned I have to boil my blood to get rid of it." Magnius looked at flames covering her hair and thought she probably meant that literally.

"Also another issue. If you're in a mana dense environment you won't even have to worry about eating or drinking, but if you're in an area with a lack of mana you can't heal and can barely move in extreme cases. Areas like that are damn rare, but I'd still keep it in mind. If you ever find yourself completely drained of mana you'll be paralyzed." Magnius processed all the information he just received.

"Is there any way to boost my healing?" Sedia grinned. She was pleased since Magnius was asking all the right questions.

"If you want to do that you need to take in more mana. I told you it was like breathing. Your body does it automatically but you can take over control if you want to. You can even stop if you want to. So you just have to 'take a deep breath'."

Magnius tried 'taking a deep breath' to take in more mana from his surroundings. He succeeded and found that it was quite easy to do so, it was an instinctual feeling. Like breathing.

Sedia suddenly grabbed him in a big hug, burying him in her bosom. He couldn't breathe. Even with his newfound strength he didn't manage to break away from her.

"Mag! Such a good pupil! I thought you were gonna be some snotty brat but you're not! You never complain no matter how much I beat you up!" Magnius frowned at the last part of that sentence. Maybe he should start complaining.

Sedia was clearly in a good mood, whether it was from the successful hunt or something else he had no idea.

"Now let's go to the training grounds and get you to pick out your weapons, huh? I wanna see what you can do with that new body of yours."

She stood up and headed towards the door.

"Ah, but first," whe turned around and smiled at him sweetly "you haven't cleaned the house. Do that first."

This damn woman…