Chapter 126 - Don't You Have Anything to Say?
"Here you go."
"Ah, thank you."
Luke took the cup of water passed by Riveria and drank it all in one gulp.
His body was fatigued, his spirit was hazy, and the aftereffects of overusing Prana were faithfully reflected in him.
"How is Ais?"
"She woke up the day after you brought her back."
Mentioning Ais, Riveria frowned and asked Luke in a slightly serious tone, "Don't you have anything else to say?"
Luke was startled by Riveria's question.
He glanced at her and then suddenly realized and thanked her, "Uh, thank you for taking care of me these past few days..."
"That's not what I meant!"
Bang!
A wand as tall as a person slammed heavily onto the ground, and Riveria, somewhat embarrassed and angry, said, "Raul and Aki were the ones taking care of you. You should thank them instead of me."
"Did you think I would personally take care of you!"
However, what Riveria didn't tell him was that she was indeed the one who initially took care of him.
But later on, because she was not very experienced in caring for the injured, leading to some clumsiness, she had no choice but to switch with Raul and Aki.
This incident was even mocked by Loki, Finn, and Gareth for an entire day.
Luke's thanks inadvertently brought back her unpleasant memories of the past few days.
"Eh, was it Raul and Aki?"
"It seems I need to properly thank them later."
"I saw you first when I woke up, so I thought you were definitely the one taking care of me."
Realizing he thanked the wrong person and seemed to upset Riveria, Luke scratched his head awkwardly.
"Never mind, let's talk about the important matter."
Riveria looked at his reaction, sighed, and didn't continue to dwell on it.
"What exactly happened to you and Ais in the dungeon?"
Returning to the serious topic, Riveria's face regained its solemn expression.
"The dungeon? Ais didn't tell you?"
"If that child was willing to speak, would I have specially come to ask you?"
Riveria felt helpless; Ais seemed fine after being brought back from the dungeon by Luke.
However, no matter how Riveria and the others asked, Ais just wouldn't mention anything that happened there.
During this period, she even came to see Luke alone and quietly.
After finding Luke lying motionless on the bed, Ais became even more unwilling to speak, appearing as if she had lost her soul.
This obviously worrying change made Riveria and the others very concerned.
But they couldn't intervene without knowing the reason.
"Our healer guessed that you would probably wake up today, so I came here especially to wait for you to regain your consciousness," Riveria said to Luke with a heavy sense of apology and concern, "I know it's not appropriate to ask these things as soon as you've woken up."
"But Ais's current situation is really worrying."
"If you really know something, please tell me."
This was the first time in three years that Luke saw a haggard expression on Riveria's face.
Since learning about the monster riot, Riveria had been constantly worried about the safety of Luke and Ais.
However, they had finally come back safe and sound, yet one was unconscious, and the other silent.
Luke couldn't imagine how she had been coping these past few days; probably 'mentally exhausted' wasn't enough to describe her current state.
But even so, Luke still had to refuse her.
"Sorry, Riveria, I can't tell you what happened right now."
"I need to talk to Ais first."
"..."
"Now that you say that, I'm somewhat relieved."
After being rejected by Luke, Riveria actually felt a peace of mind.
Just like Luke understood her, Riveria also had enough understanding of Luke over these past three years.
This refusal confirmed to her that Luke definitely knew the reason for Ais's change.
"I'll leave this matter to you."
After saying this, Riveria got up and left the room.
...
After Riveria left, Luke lay on the bed and started checking his own condition.
After three days of recuperation and the enhancement of his 'endurance' attribute, Luke's injuries had mostly healed.
He hadn't suffered much damage in the first place.
It was mainly because of the lack of Prana and the need to protect Ais that he got injured while breaking through the blockade of monsters.
However, the damage caused by the middle floor monsters to Luke's current body was limited, and Finn and others had clearly sought a healer for his treatment.
So, normal activities were not a big problem, just some lingering fatigue.
The more severe issues were mental and prana-related.
The mental aspect was okay; the mental fatigue caused by over activating the sword intent, although requiring rest, would only take a month or two.
Anyway, he didn't need to use sword intent that often, so its impact on Luke's strength was not significant, at most just a slight decline in concentration.
But the Prana issue was a bit more troublesome.
Luke tried to mobilize his Prana several times and felt something was off.
It wasn't that he couldn't use it, but it seemed like Prana flow wasn't as smooth as before.
It somehow felt like Prana was telling him, 'I'm tired, I need to rest'.
Besides, he noticed a significant increase in his personal Prana reserve.
After more trials and a bit of reflection, Luke understood what had happened.
"I didn't expect I would need to refine my Prana specifically one day."
"If senior brother Zhao knew about this, he would definitely nag me to death."
Yes, the reason for this phenomenon is that his Prana is not pure enough.
All along, Luke had been following Fan Xinglu's teachings, focusing on both quality and quantity in improving his Prana.
But this time the situation is a bit special.
In the previous incident, he used tens of times more Prana than his own through the reserves of the Sword Sheath of Tranquility.
Such a huge amount of Prana constantly flowed through his body, besides the part that was wasted, some remained dormant inside him.
At this moment, Luke truly realized Fan Xinglu's care and training for him.
This situation was definitely not an accident.
Usually, the consequence of such an overflow of energy within the body would be, at worst, self-destruction, and at best, crippling injury.
But the Sword Sheath of Tranquility was personally made by Fan Xinglu; how could she leave such a huge hidden danger?
"Is it 'Master'..."
Luke picked up the Sword Sheath of Tranquility from the bedside, looking at the glowing Urm Manadyte crystal, and felt a wave of emotion.
Back in Asterisk City, Luke's Prana reserve was actually not considered huge.
When commenting on him, Fan Xinglu's evaluation has always been excellent, not monstrous.
In plain terms, it was just the level of a common genius.
Not to mention Orphelia's monster level Prana reserve, even compared to the top-level Genestellars like Wu Xiaohui and Ernest Fairclough, he was inferior.
Luke had always thought the storage function of the Sword Sheath of Tranquility was added by Fan Xinglu to make up for his insufficient Prana reserve.
And indeed, that was one of its purposes.
The only difference was, Fan Xinglu never intended for her direct disciple to always rely on external forces.
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