"Ha!" Opening my eyes, I found myself numb, greeted by an unfamiliar white ceiling.
"Huh?" Confused, I asked myself, 'Where and why am I?' After a few seconds of silence, my brain gears started to kick again. 'Oh yes, I lost my consciousness.'
Feeling deja vu, Adam heard a voice. "Finally! You woke up, man." However, this time, the voice was filled with excitement.
"Raven!?" Recognizing the voice, Adam was shocked and confused. "Why are you here?"
"Well, At first I couldn't believe there was someone who got knocked out on his first day. Well, After hearing it was from A7, I guess it would be you," Raven replied, proud of himself.
'So this place, hmm, I am in the hospital again' My face couldn't help but twitch. 'Hell, man, why are you so proud of seeing me hospitalized?'
"So, in other words, me passing out on my first day is famous across the department, right?" I said, massaging my head, feeling a headache as I thought about the potential problem.
"Well, that is not the case. There are very few who pass out too, but in your case, you have been knocked out for 5 hours, plus your reputation in your class is a bit bad," replied Raven with hesitation as he scratched his cheek.
"Wait! 5 hours?" I asked with a surprised look.
"Yes! Haha, hey, you woke up at the right time, or maybe you were faking it to skip classes," Raven said with a grin on his face.
"What do you mean? Right time?" I asked, confused.
Raven replied, hitting my shoulder lightly, "Hmm, seriously, you don't know it's break hour! It is really hard to guess whether you are acting or not."
Before Adam could say something, a woman's voice echoed.
"Ahem, boys! You can catch up later," said an unknown woman with tree-branch-like hair.
"A Silvan!?" I said it in a loud voice, shocked. However, at the same time, Raven exclaimed, "Sister Hana!"
We are both each other. 'He knows her? A ranked one!' I was eager for Raven to introduce me.
"Ah! Adam, she is the nurse of block A5-7, Sister Hana, and she is not a Silvan but a hybrid just like me."
"Oh, Hello!" I greeted Sister Hana and asked Raven, "Hybrid? Your sister?" 'They looked totally different,' I thought.
"No, no! Come on. She isn't my real sister; it's just that we call her sister because she is a nurse," Raven explained.
"Boys! I am here too, and hello, Adam and Raven. It's great to see that you made a friend, Raven, but will you step back? I need to diagnose your friend's condition," the nurse said with a smile. It seemed as if Raven and the nurse were really on good terms.
Adam's guard was up as he saw her up close, her hair really reminded him of his bus event.
Seeing Adam getting tense, she said with a warm tone, "Relax, I won't hurt you."
"Haha, sorry, just your hair..." I said it with embarrassment.
"It's okay, but fear not. If I were one, I could never heal the lowest-rank race," she said, unclear whether she was mocking me or helping me.
'Well, you know what? I was healed by an angel! Angel! You hear!' I replied internally to her mock.
She touched my chest, and I felt a dull green aura enveloping me. It was quite similar to Elsa's but yet felt weaker and unnatural.
A few moments later, she withdrew her hand and said, "You are all fine, ready to go." She paused as she asked me, "Do you know why you fainted?"
I looked toward her and answered, "Hunger?"
"You are half right, but this isn't the main reason. It's your reckless use of the ability. Without any mana in your body, you used your healing ability, which consumed your life force, aging you for six months. Furthermore, your body was already low in energy, which catalyzed the aging factor and worsened your condition, due to which you fainted for 5 hours. So, make sure next time you are careful; if you overdo it, you can die. Understand?" She explained as she warned me about the overuse of the ability.
"Yes, sister, I will be careful next time," I assured her as I got ready to leave the room.
"Good, because next time I will not waste my time healing you again at the same time," she warned me.
Instead of listening to her, I was lost in the labyrinth of my thoughts. 'Mana? What really is this? This isn't the first time I've heard it. Hmm, it seems to be something related to energy. As she said, my low-energy catalyst conditions, well, I'll learn about them later and also need to learn to control my ability. Sigh. Life is hard,' I thought to myself as I sighed.
Hearing my sigh, she got angry. "Why are you sighing at me instead of replying to me?"
"Ah!" Seeing her get angry, I realized that I messed up big time. "No, no, I wasn't sighing at you but at my condition." I hurriedly came up with an excuse.
"Oh yes?" she said as she raised her eyebrow.
"Hm-hm." Before things got out of hand, I hurriedly grabbed Raven's shoulder. "Thank you for the help, but I and Raven have somewhere to go, so bye."
Raven gave me a suspicious look, but he could not say anything. I forcefully grabbed him and moved to the exit.
Escaping successfully, I breathed in relief as I wiped my sweat from my head.
"Hey! What was that? Where were we planning to go?" Raven said, confused.
'Phew, you don't know I wasn't listening. If she asked any questions, I would be busted,' I said internally.
"Ahem, I am too hungry, so I couldn't wait to eat, so I used you to run away," I lied.
"Ah! I see." Raven bought my excuse.
We both stared at each other.
"What?" Raven exclaimed.
"The a place where we eat?" I asked.
"Oh! You mean cafeteria," he said a word whose meaning I did not know.
I nodded, not knowing what the word 'cafeteria' meant. However, my feelings said it was linked to food.
"Guide me to the place called the cafeteria," I said, asking for his help.
"Oh right, you got a weirdly bad sense of direction," Raven said, making fun of mine as he guided me to the cafeteria.