Without a physical clock or any way to determine the time, Aoni had no considerable way of decerning how long he was subjected to the never-ending waves of pain and agony.
Seconds?
Minutes?
Hours?
He had no idea, and frankly, his mental state wasn't such that Aoni could do anything more than thrash and scream as endless cracks, bone fractures, and cuts filled his body up one after another before rapidly healing.
And since the damage extended to his eyes, the lad was robbed of sight as well; honestly, it was horrifying.
As if to add more fire to the flames of seemingly never-ending agony, his nervous system was shot, so subconsciously, Aoni knew the pain was probably amplified to a certain extent.
That is until a sudden cool wave started taking over and dulling his agonized senses. It was quite strange and out of place, but it began with Aoni's arms, then hands, and soon even his face was covered in the cooling remedy.
Having no idea what it was, the lad welcomed it with open arms because it was a light at the end of the tunnel, one he never expected, and it was through this cooling sensation that Aoni finally lost consciousness and obtained a release from the unending misery.
---
When he awoke, the first thing Aoni noticed was the chill prevailing through the cave, and that alone was more than enough to inform him of how long he'd been unconscious.
Slowly opening his eyes, Aoni's vision was blurry as if he needed glasses or something, but that soon cleared up, and he took note of the condition of the Tinder kit in the fireplace.
It was practically gone now and reduced to cinders, indicating his first 24 hours in Genovia had come to an end while having been rendered unconscious by the Upgrade.
"gaaooo…" using a soft tone, filled with concern, Glacia, who had apparently been curled up beside him on the floor, cooed, instinctually triggering the response of reaching over to pet her…but that was when Aoni noticed that he was covered in a layer of blood, and a strange, unrecognizable substance, one similar to a bright purple jelly.
"Sorry to have worried you, Glacia…" Aoni mumbled with a soft voice as the small creature looked up at him with worried emerald eyes.
Giving her a reassuring smile, he closed his eyes for a moment and took a mental inventory of his physical condition.
However, unlike with the increase in the attack stat, which left the lad feeling physically stronger, it was difficult to judge what being more "sturdy" felt like.
What Aoni did notice, though, was that although the temperature in the cave had rapidly dropped without the fire active, It didn't affect him as much as before, which was a good sign and exactly what he was aiming for to begin with.
While being lost in thought, Aoni then noticed a strange object cradled in Glacia's arms, causing him to tilt his head to the side, partially because he didn't recognize it and partially because he knew the underlying meaning behind its presence.
"Glacia…that fruit…did you leave the cave?" There was a slight confusion in the lad's voice, along with something else, which may have been a combination of fear and concern.
"OooO?" Sitting up and holding the hollowed-out fruit, Glacia looked down at it, then up at her Lord, then back down to it.
"Yes that, where did you get it from?" Aoni asked, this time being a bit more gentle because he understood through the LoS that Glacia was feeling guilty and still shaken up by what happened.
Unfortunately, it didn't take long for Aoni to realize his fears, which were confirmed because she held up the fruit with one hand and then pointed at the mouth of the cave with the other.
Carefully watching the small fluff ball's actions, a million thoughts ran through Aoni's mind: gratefulness that she had the will to venture into the unknown to protect him, disappointment that she had left, which was replaced quickly because, technically, he had never forbidden his summon from doing that in the first place.
And most prevalent was the confusion as to how she knew this fruit could help. According to the curriculum taught at the Academies, Summons were blank slates, at least low-grade Summons were, which the fluff ball could definitely be considered.
There were billions of cases where three-star or higher summons kept some of their memories, but Glacia was an Infant, not even a year old; the amount of knowledge she should have access to would be nothing more than instincts at best.
Mulling over that question, Aoni stared hard at the fruit in an attempt to figure out what it was but came up short because he had never read or been taught about the weird spikey object, which resembled some type of strange purple and blue egg.
'No…it can't be an egg, right? That is very much a fruit of some type…then again, what the hell do I know? Genovian Fauna is always weird to begin with.' Shaking his head, Aoni slowly sat up completely, feeling his skin pull and crack as flakes of dried blood fell off, making him feel like some kind of reptile shedding its skin.
"Can I see that, Glacia?" extending his hand down toward her, Aoni waited and watched as she seemed to cycle through thoughts before finally reaching up and dropping the small object no bigger than a cell phone into her Lord's outstretched palm.
The moment it came in contact with his skin, Aoni felt a biting cold sting, but since it was tolerable, he ignored the pain and examined the hollowed-out fruit thoroughly.
'Springy texture, sweet scent, there was clearly a core originally in the center, but there's no telling what Glacia did with it…' Pushing his right index finger into the center of the fruit, Aoni noticed a familiar cooling sensation, causing his face to light up with understanding and realization as he began building a narrative.
'Seeing me in that state must have triggered some natural instinct in her, to the point that she left the safety of the cave looking for something that could help. I don't know how far down the mountain she had to go, but since she's adapted to the environment, for all I know, it could have been some distance…all to help me.'
Coming out of his thoughts, Aoni glanced down at the Summon, who was staring at her legs as if ashamed, and he shook his head before smiling down at her.
"Thank you, Glacia. I know you were scared, but see, I'm fine, and I have you to thank for that. This fruit really helped me a lot," these words weren't hollow either because it was only after the relief brought about by the fruit hit Aoni's system that he finally passed out and missed the remainder of the agony created by the Upgrade.
In a sense, you could say that while Glacia couldn't help his physical state much, she had no doubt Protected Aoni's mind from shattering.