I grabbed the jugs and put them side by side on the rocks beside me.
I kneeled and took one in my hands, sadly they didn't have any handles sadly. They were more like water bottles and not like a real water jug which typically had a handle.
I filled them up quickly, the water was honestly quite nice, I didn't drink any, but just having my skin touch it felt refreshing.
It didn't take long to bring back the jugs back where I left the rest of my equipment.
At the same time, I also decided that I would go for a nice swim after I put everything away. I was starting to feel quite sweaty, and I could take the chance to at least rinse off some of my clothes.
I didn't really enjoy the felling of dirt and sweat on my entire body and clothes.
As I was organising a few of the other things I had I could feel my mind getting a bit blurrier.
- Seems like I haven't drunk something in too long huh… I'm even getting dizzy right now…
I went and got one of the jugs and started drinking from it.
It felt amazing, I had never felt something so refreshing before, it felt like it was washing everything from within me.
My assumption from earlier, it must have been true, my entire body felt invigorated felt as if nothing had happened in the last few days.
My internal injuries and everything down to my hygiene seemed to heal perfectly.
- Man… had I known I would feel like this I would of drank some yester…
My vision went withing a second, I started to vomit profusely.
** What… what was happening to me??
It felt horrible, as if every vein in my body was about to burst. My head felt like it was burning.
My stomach was the worst of them all, if the rest of my body felt like it was going to burst, my stomach already had burst.
The agony I felt… it was unimaginable, I had never experienced anything of the sort in my life. It was horrible, I couldn't even gasp for air.
Moving but an inch would cause me extreme pain, but I couldn't cry out for help… It hurt too much to do that on top of everything.
I don't know how much time went by since I was on the ground, but it felt like a never ending nightmare. The pain was killing me and it was growing by the second.
I kept surviving in pain, but slowly it took me away… my mind wait blank for half a second and then… it was gone… the pain was gone.
Don't get me wrong, the problem was still there, I could feel it, but it didn't hurt as it did before…
I sighed for a quick second… It seemed like the endorphins were finally being produced.
Endorphins are a chemical compound that the brain produces in extreme situations to block out the pain signals that the brain receives. With that, even though I could still feel everything was wrong, I would finally be able to think straight and find out what went wrong…
I opened my eyes back up and got the scare of my life, for the second time in a single day.
Right in front of my eyes was a long steel blade, sitting but a few inches above my eyes.
Although I could think properly now, I still couldn't move my body easily.
I could faintly hear words and people shooting around me, but I could not tell what it was that they were talking about.
I looked around, there was a man, a woman and a child. Seems like I was found by a small family.
Thank god… maybe they could save me from this situation…
*********************************************************************************************************
Julian stopped just a few inches from the teenager in front of him.
Even if his son screamed at him to stop, it didn't mean he would let his guard down.
Afterall, he was most likely from his wife's family and they were not polite enough to not use trickery to get to them.
- Dad…?
Nikki was scared, he did not understand what was happening to his dad. Why did he lash out after the boy when he needed help?
- Is… is everything alright?
Julian finally took a deep breath and looked around him for a few seconds.
Around, there was equipment scattered around. There was a large backpack, a bag with food and water jugs…
This was not the kind of equipment a spy/assassin would bring… there was too much. The bag was too big, there was too much food and the equipment was too big to be nibble…
The kid in front of him was innocent, did he really panic this much because of one kid?
No… now wasn't the time to think about that, he had to help him.
The teens face was turning blue slowly, blood was running out of his mouth and his ears.
Julian threw his axe to the side and turned around quickly towards his wife and kid.
- Sofia!! The kid touched the water!! Help him stabilise it if possible!!
- Wait what…?
- He has mana poisoning, we need to try and help him if possible!!
Sofia's mind was in chaos, how did things change so quickly. One second, they were going to kill the person, and the next save them?
And what if he was from her family, if he made a dumb mistake like that one, should they not be happy about it? Instead, they were going to save him?
But if Sofia had one thing she believed in, it was her husband. She would always listen to what he said, maybe he knew something she did not, maybe the kid was not evil.
Sofia jogged over slowly, she was still a bit worried, but as soon as she saw the state of the person in question, she knew her husband was right and she was wrong.
He was in terrible shape, but if she wanted to help him, she had to know how much water he had been in contact with.
Her eyes darted around the area. If he had gotten this far from the shore, it meant that he had not swam, had he gotten some water on himself by accident? No… he wouldn't be bleeding internally if that was the case. It meant water was engulfed.
There! That's what it was, out of the few jugs around, only one was empty. Thanks to her affinity, she could tell that it wasn't empty before, so he had drunken from it.
- Julian… I'm sorry…
Julian was kneeling over the teenage boy, he had removed his shirt already.
Although he wasn't a mage himself, he knew that if his wife was going to be able to help him survive the ordeal, she had to be in direct contact with his body to calm down the mana within his body.
He turned around towards his wife… it couldn't be good news…
- What's happening? Is it bad?
- … Yes… He ingested a jug full of water…
Julian went pale… Just touching the water could be fatal, but ingesting it was a death sentence… With the amount of mana that flowed through his body, it would not take long for his organs to stop working from a mana overload.
They both lowered they're heads in defeat… they could not do anything for the kid… it was a unfortunate end…
- Mom…? Dad…?
*********************************************************************************************************
A lot happened in a few seconds, but it was all a bit fuzzy… Seems that even with the endorphins I couldn't keep my thoughts one hundred percent clear.
The man that was holding the blade screamed a few things around and the woman looked around before saying a few things and standing still.
They both stopped and looked defeated…
I thought they could help me… can they not? Was it a mistake to drink that water?
No… I was given a new chance at life… I can not simply lay down and give up.
What was the reason I was in this condition? I had to think about it rationally if I wanted to survive, I had to come up with a plan of action quickly.
The problem was most likely an over saturation of mana within my body, since I was not a mage, even a tiny amount of mana circulating within my body could be bad for a child.
In my case, since I was a little older, I was a bit safer.
Still, I took in a significant amount at once, even if I was more protected, I wasn't immune to it by any means.
Now, I had to find a way to deal with it. I had to remove mana from my body…
I unconsciously closed my eyes while thinking… I had to remember what it felt like when I first drank the water…
Where did it hurt… where was the problem.
The veins… that's where mana traveled. What felt like bursting within me were my veins, every little thread felt like popping…
Maybe… maybe if mana worked symbiotically with the cardiovascular system (the heart and blood) maybe it filters the mana at the same rate…
So… if I could get rid of some blood, maybe I could get rid of some mana…
I opened my eyes back up, luckily for me, the two adults were now kneeling beside me.
Although I didn't have much strength, I could at least muster some words…
- S…ss…
The two adults turned around me, they had worried expressions on they're faces… I must have had a gruesome expression on my face…
But they seemed to be attentive to what I was saying.
- Sli…slit my… my wri… st… ne… need to remove… remo… remove mana…