'What the hell? You're telling me now?'
[User, please remain calm. Anger will not help in this situation, I believe you are more than capable of escaping this situation alive.]
'Oh thanks.'
David's response with dripping with sarcasm.
'So you're going to put me in a crap situation, where I might die. Not tell me anything. And then tell me it's all fine.'
David was ranting at the system, he knew that it didn't care, but he was so angry that it didn't matter.
"Bait! Come on! Let's go." Bubbly yelled out to David. With a sigh, David started to make his way back to the lava pool.
Again and again, David baited more geckos to the mutants, his mana reserves becoming lower and lower. The less mana he had, the less of a chance he felt he had to win against them.
But David didn't give up, there was no way he was going to die here, not to these slimeballs. He had so much left to do.
Gradually, a plan formed in his mind.
-----
"Not many left! We can head home soon!" Bron yelled out, to one side, hidden behind some rocks, was a large pile of gecko corpses, blood leaking onto the ground.
"Off you go bait!"
As David headed to bring more geckos, the three mutants started arguing again.
"Look how well he's doing, wouldn't it make more sense to recruit it permanently." Dean said from where he was hidden.
"Dean. Don't be an idiot. You think he'll trust us after we've forced him to risk his life, over and over?" Bron replied.
"Forget that. Can we trust him, won't he want revenge?" Dean shivered as Bubbly yelled out.
"Anyway, didn't you see his features, with that eye color, he probably has some rare bloodline! He'll sell for a decent amount." Bubbly giggled with greed.
"Why does it have to be like this?" Dean had started to cry, faint sobs heaving from his chest.
"You soft little-" Bubbly spat, but Bron interrupted her.
"Guys! Quiet, he's heading back."
The three of them got their weapons ready. Up ahead, David was sprinting, three geckos hot on his tail. Bursts of flame chased came from the geckos mouths.
It was clear that David was fatigued, the geckos were far closer than when he had started, there were even tiny flames burning on his cloak.
"No!" Dean cried out, as he David stumbled, a large flame engulfing his left leg.
The geckos, for a moment, turned their attention to the unknown sound.
"AHHHHHHHHH!" David screamed in pain, his leg was a bundlge of hot, fiery pain. Had it not been for the pain tolerance he had built thanks to the system, he would have collapsed to the ground right there.
Now limping, David continued to run towards where the mutants were hiding, Dean's yell had bought him enough time.
"Please! Help." David pleaded with them, but none of them jumped out.
Behind one of the rocks, Dean was sobbing, he wanted to leap out and help David, but he knew Bubbly would punish him if he ruined the ambush.
"Now!"
Bron yelled, and the three of them leapt out, as they had many times before, making short work of the geckos.
Off to the side, David had collapsed next to the pile of gecko corpses, breathing in shallow, short gasps.
"I guess it's a done deal now. Wasn't so good was he?" Bubbly's cruel voice teased Dean.
"If he wasn't so tired he would've been fine. I hate this, I hate that we do this."
Dean marched a little bit away, he couldn't bear to see David laying there, his leg charred, his face all twisted in pain.
"Now we won't need to worry about him running off. And he'll sell for more alive." Bubbly didn't care about David learning their true intentions anymore, he was basically crippled.
Bron stepped past David's shaking body, dumping the last gecko carcass next to where lay.
"Come on guys, there's only three left. Let's wrap this up." Bron called out to the other two.
"Ahhhhh." David cried out in pain, thrashing about on the ground, looking through have closed eyes to check if the mutants were facing him.
'Now!'
David called out to the system, and instantly, his leg began regenerating.
Stopping the regeneration had paid off, to the mutants, he was basically dead.
Struggling to his feet, David stumbled over to the nearest gecko, placing on hand on its slimy chest. The moist skin was still hot.
The familiar burning of mana as David used Consume ran down his arm, meanwhile his leg screamed out in pain as it regenerated.
Unlike before, the purple strands didn't return inside David's body, David wasn't done yet.
David scrambled from one dead gecko to another, wanting to pull as much mana as possible from each body.
[User! You body is not yet acclimatized to such high amounts of mana. Please note that you may experience some pain during remodeling.]
"What's. A. Little. More. Pain." David growled out loud, moving on to the next gecko, more and more mana rushing into his body.
The burning sensation that he would feel in his arm when absorbing mana now spread to the rest of his body.
It became difficult for David to even step forward, but he ignored the pain and kept pulling mana from the geckos, the purple tendrils hanging loosely from his fingers.
The system was reconstructing his body as he walked, remodeling it so could withstand the higher concentration of mana.
Usually, this was a process that occurred over months or even years, one of the main limiting factors to any beings mana absorption was allowing the body to acclimatize.
But this didn't apply to David, like a bottomless pit, he absorbed more and more.
With a huge groan of relief, David collapsed next to the last gecko, purple strands disappearing back into his palm.
His trouser leg had been burnt away by the gecko, and where there had been a charred and oozing remnant was replaced by a fully functional leg.
David wiggled his toes, and moved his foot back and forth, until now, this was the most he had regenerated.
'Just like before.' He thought with amazement, then, he walked back over to where he had been laying earlier.
David draped his cloak over his body, to hide his regenerated leg. Under the cloak, his sword was drawn.
'Status!'
David called out.
[
Status
Name: David Marigold
Health: 10/12
Mana: 76/96
Abilities: d*,kNruu's Successor, Consume
]
'Nine stars. That should even the odds.'
David smiled to himself, he couldn't wait to take out these damn mutants.
'Huh? How come my health has increased?'
[User, your body is strengthened as it acclimates to higher mana levels. Though the levels would be higher, if we had more time to restructure your body.]
'Right. That makes sense.'
"Baaaaaaiiiittt! I'm baaaaaack." Hearing Bubbly's sickening voice, reignited the anger he had been feeling, David wanted to leap out from under his cloak, and attack right away.
But he forced himself to lay there, watching their signals on the CoreScanner, as they drew closer and closer to where he lay.