Helis Roadgray POV:
Shock.
It wasn't a word appropriate enough to portray what I was feeling when Soo-Bin charred every bat-spiders' body with Rising Burn.
"How?!" I heard Sean gasp by my side.
"Aaa!" I screamed, startled by him and now sliding down the crater.
"Shit… Sorry, my friend!" He bowed with a mischievous grin.
"Oof!" The back of my head made contact with the solid ground.
"Who's there?" Mai's tone was heard, full of suspicion as she made her way toward me.
"Hello there," I waved elegantly towards her with a wink, not taking an effort to correct my posture, that is to say, still laying upside down on my scalp.
"Helis," She called my name while tilting her head to the side.
"Pfft… What's with you, what a weird one you are, haha…" She laughed at me.
The next breath, a thud was heard.
"Ah, Soo-Bin!" Haruka called out to the companion that had just awakened earlier.
"Yep, it was bound to happen." I sighed while correcting my form and standing up, "Are you not curious as to what happened earlier, Mai?" I scanned her. Droplets of blood layered her face and her clothes were all tattered.
"Huh? She used… magic, right?" Her tone got higher by the end of her sentence, clearly portraying her unsettled emotions.
"Hmph," I scoffed, "And how do you know she used magic?" I asked her with a low tone.
"I heard her chanting earlier… After she said the spell's name, immediately after, fire rose from the monsters' bodies."
"And?" I sighed an exasperated question.
"And?" She tilted her head even more to the right.
"You don't find this weird?!" I yelled, "A person in the middle of Earth, well not really, it's this dungeon, but you get what I'm saying– is using magic! Don't you find that weird?"
"Ah, wait a minute… That's totally weird, isn't it?!" She said with a gasp as if realizing what truly happened. "Isn't that suspicious?"
"No! You're the most suspicious one here!" I retorted and bonked her head with a karate chop.
Sigh. She seems to be an airhead too.
***
Soon after we also met with Luke, who was lost and wandering on the floor.
We took Soo-Bin to the camp and treated her. She was feverish after using this much mana for her first spell ever.
"H-Hah…" She scrunched her face while panting because of the pain she was feeling.
***
After she calmed down and was sleeping properly, I held a secret meeting with Sean.
"Sean," I called out to him, only to be interrupted.
"Yes, I know. She awakened naturally, right? Could it be because the dungeon is so rich with mana that it formed her core already?" He asked.
"That could be it," I murmured while rubbing my upper lip unconsciously. "But it shouldn't be."
"May I ask why?" Sean lifted his brows.
"It is only the second day since we entered the dungeon. We're soon about to enter the third."
"And?" Sean continued staring at me with that dumb look etched on his face, "Oh, shit! A Mana Core takes three years minimally to be made when you're exposed to atmosphere mana…" He trailed off with information known all around Crisyes.
"Exactly, three years to form the core and over five overall to assimilate and be able to cast spells." I whipped my index finger up and down, calling up this information ingrained in my brain.
Could it be because she was injured near her heart?
"Hmm, could it be because she was injured near her heart?" Sean voiced out the exact same thoughts I had.
"Yes, I was thinking that too," a smile made its way onto my face, "Since the mana core is located in between our lungs, after all."
"And because you healed her with magic, more mana got consumed into her body and near her core, resulting in a much faster mana core formation."
"Precisely." I bobbed my head up and down, proud of how smart my disciple truly is, and continued, "But, there's one more thing amiss to this whole matter…" I trailed off.
"The assimilation process," he muttered quietly, focusing on a shining crystal while thinking intently about this whole matter.
"I am really craving a banana right now…" He muttered dead serious.
Eh, this guy is so random at times, "You want a banana right here? Heh," I joked around with a mischievous grin while pointing under my belt.
"Come here, boy!" He continued the charade.
***
We chatted around a little more after that and went back to the base. Soo-Bin was now awake and sipping at what little soup she had in a wooden bowl.
Slouched and covered with a blanket she was, but why did she seem so… miserable? I wondered to myself.
"Hey," I greeted her, "Good job out there, you protected everyone." I smiled gently.
"I… did, didn't I? I did not fail this time…" She whispered.
"Did not fail?" I asked as I tilted my head while looking at her, she slowly gulped a little more of the soup.
"Ah, some stuff happened a while ago, I totally had forgotten about it, but when we were facing all those monsters– when I saw Mai rushing in my place, memories of that moment vividly came back to me." She sniffed.
I sat close to the campfire, just across from her. I couldn't see anyone else here.
I guess they left us to talk in peace.
"May I ask you about it? Or do you want to keep it to yourself?" I asked, the cracklings of the flaring woods making the tension more awkward-less.
"No, it's alright if you ask about it. I wanted to share this story with someone, after all." Her gaze was still down-casted, staring at the flame.
"So, what were those memories about? What did remind you of them?" I asked with a calm tone, eyeing the fire which was in constant motion too.
"I… When I was young, you can say in the third grade of my elementary school, I had a so-called best friend."
"Oh, I see. Where is she now?" I asked.
"She isn't anywhere… She's dead, she died protecting me…"
Oops… I asked quite a dumb question, didn't I?
"Ah, is that so? Can I ask how she passed away?" I asked awkwardly while rubbing my neck.
"She… jumped in front of a truck. Basically, I was walking across the road while fidgeting with a toy I had just gotten from a vending machine. Then, she pulled me from my neckband, trying her best to save both me and herself…" She took a slight pause there.
"I was sitting on the ground, and I still remember vividly how she was demolished in front of me. Her brains sputtering through the ground, limbs all distorted, her ribs protruding through her skin and being visible to the bare eye…" Tears were running through her face as she sniffed.
"I still remember vividly… How her warm blood reached out to me too… Bluergh—" And she was now puking. I went next to her and patted her back.
"You've had it rough, haven't you?" I consoled with a gentle tone.
"Take your time, you may also consider yourself a mage now, from now on you will be able to protect that which you wish."
From tomorrow on, I will also train Soo-Bin while journeying through this horrible dungeon.