Chapter 19: Mana Supply
"Saintess..." Oathran’s plea was impossibly soft. "Here. Fix my birthday cane. Add whatever you want. Do whatever you want." He placed the elegant wood on her lap and had to physically stop himself from kneeling beside the bed like a supplicant, forcing his body back into the chair.
"But I still can’t fix my body yet," he continued, his voice earnest. "I don’t have enough mana. It will need two or three weeks more to regenerate fully. I had intended to save for three or four months, as I calculated the imnse amount needed to replace your heart. See? What I need for my flesh is nothing compared to what you require for your life."
He laid his justification bare before her.
Cecilia turned to him, and her sea-glass eyes made his very soul tremble. Thanks to the new Sense Sharing bond between them, she could feel it. He was telling the truth. He was too sincere.
"What if I give you enough mana?" Her eyelids fluttered down, then back up to et his gaze.
Oathran raised his eyebrows. "Ah?"
Cecilia had rolled 70 tis that morning. And while she hadn’t gotten the Heavenly Elixir, she got 7 new four star items. The gacha’s rules had delivered a guaranteed four-star item every ten pulls. She had acquired a new hoard of her own.
[Inventory:]
[1500 Achievent Points]
[You can convert Achievent Love Points to Affinity Points and Love Points. 100 Achievent Points will give you 100 Affinity Points and 10 Love Points]
[25190 G]
[Four Stars Mana Stone x3]
[Four Stars Mana Potion x2]
[Four Stars Primordial Cloud Sword]
[Four Stars Blank Magic Scroll]
[Three Stars Magic Stone x28]
[Three Star Frost Steel Spear x3]
[Three Star Frost Steel Staff x7]
[Three Star Deep Iron Sword x3]
[Three Star Bright Steel Claymore x2]
[Three Star Bright Steel Sword]
[Three Star teor Iron Staff]
[Money Pouch (100 G) x16]
Quite a haul.
Without another word, she concentrated, beginning to pull out all the mana potions and mana stones from her spatial inventory.
The mana potions, he could drink. And the mana stones, though typically used to power magical devices, were no obstacle for a being like Oathran, who casually condensed his own mana into stones. Extracting raw power from them would be trivial.
But when she opened her eyes, she was t with a sight that shocked her into stillness.
There were two beautiful glass vials of shimring mana potion...
...twenty-eight three-star mana stones, each the size of a large, clenched fist...
...three four-star mana stones, each the size of a human head—
And Oathran’s mangled jaw dropped open.
The man had to consciously rember to close his mouth and swallow, his brain struggling to process the mountain of condensed power now piled on and around the bed. "Saintess..." he breathed. "Could it be... you’re a goddess?"
"I don’t know! I’m not sure anymore!" Cecilia panicked, her eyes wide.
For reference, the high-quality, thumb-sized mana stones Oathran had produced to buy their clothes and food were each worth a common person’s three-month salary.
The twenty-eight stones now littering the blankets were each the size of a fist.
A big fist.
And the three four-star stones... were the size of human heads.
Human. Head. Sized. Each one.
"They looked so small in the inventory icon pictures..." Cecilia whispered.
"Pfff—" Oathran’s laugh stuttered— "BWAHAWHAHWHAHAHAHHAHAH!"
This man... this man and his deeply attractive, unrestrained belly laugh...
"Inventory icon pictures...? What in the na of the First Dragon even is that? BWAHHAHWAHHAH—you thought they were small? AHWHAHAHAHHAH—"
The man was overco, clutching his forehead as he doubled over, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes.
"If you possess such vast resources and are still unable to restore your heart, I must conclude that even if I saved my mana for you, it would still be insufficient," Oathran finally conceded, surrendering rationally. He took a deep breath and nodded. "I understand now. You must require sothing even rarer, more potent, to accomplish such a feat."
Cecilia imdiately flushed red. Yes, she needed sothing rarer like the Heavenly Elixir but only because she lacked the imnse, innate skill to reconstruct a heart from pure mana alone!
This man... he overestimates
too much...
She wasn’t an ancient dragon, a being of near-limitless power and regeneration! She was just a clever human with a cursed luck and a bizarre system!
"Since you insist on giving
more before accepting what you wanted from ," Oathran continued, his voice pulling her from her thoughts, "then I will use... so of these... resources... to restore myself to my pri. The rest, I will ask you to take back."
Cecilia nodded eagerly and grabbed the two shimring mana potions, thrusting them toward him. But the man gently refused.
"These seem far easier for you to utilize, should the need arise. I will use the stones," Oathran drew the line, his tone leaving no room for argunt. "And do not forget," he teasingly added, "you still wish to enchant my cane further. That is your part of our bargain."
Seeing him finally compromise, she sighed in relief and nodded. "Okay. But tell
if you need more. I can get more of them, I’m serious."
"Oh?" Oathran blinked in awe. "You can acquire more? Right now?"
"Yes," Cecilia answered steadily and truthfully. "I can get even more."
Oathran humd. The last of his reservations seed to vanish. "Alright then, Saintess. In that case, I will not hold back."
The man didn’t even bother to gather the pile of stones from the bed. He simply leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and his breathing slowed.
CRACKLE—
Cecilia watched, srized, as one of the fist-sized three-star mana stones on the quilt began to spiderweb with light.
CRASH!
It shattered into a thousand glowing fragnts, and a stream of pure, incandescent dust spiraled through the air, drawn into Oathran’s body like iron to a magnet.
CRACKLE—! CRACKLE—!
Soon, three, four, five more stones followed suit, erupting into clouds of brilliant energy that flowed into him. The mangled flesh of his jaw and cheek began to glow, the tissue knitting itself back together. Then, his broken horn crackled and fell away, landing softly in his lap, before a new, perfect horn grew in its place, a mirror image of its twin.
Next was his leg. The exposed bone shimred, crackling as it seamlessly reconnected. Muscles and tendons wove themselves back into existence, weaving a complex lattice before being enveloped by smooth, unblemished skin.
Ten... twenty, all twenty-eight of the three-star stones broke and were absorbed, their power fueling the magnificent restoration.
Lastly, his right arm. His limb began to solidify, bone extending from the shoulder, followed by muscle, sinew, and finally, the shape of a hand, fingers slowly curling into a fist as the process completed.
But then, sothing shifted. The energy in the room intensified, pulling her gaze to the foot of the bed. One of the four-star magic stones, the human-head-sized ones, began to pulse with an unstable, brilliant light.
CRACKLE!
BLAST!
Cecilia flinched back from the sudden release of power. As the colossal stone shattered and its essence was violently drawn into him, the final transformation occurred.
The lingering pallor of his skin vanished, replaced by a healthy, sun-kissed warmth. His long, misty white hair seed to drink the light, becoming thicker, more lustrous. His fra, already formidable, now subtly expanded, muscle layering with more density and power.
The man opened his eyes.
The full, devastating beauty of the Dragon Lord Oathran Alicei was restored.
He turned and caught his reflection in the vanity mirror. His hand rose to touch his jaw and cheek, now smooth and unmarred. He gave a slow, satisfied nod. The image staring back was the sa man who had climbed the altar steps seventeen years ago.
"It’s quite refreshing. The mana was exceptionally pure," he comnted. He turned his gaze fully upon her. "Saintess. Thank you very much."
Cecilia froze in place, her breath catching in her throat. The man before her now... he was no longer just Oathran, her companion in death and rebirth. Now, he carried too much mory and nostalgia.
He was the majestic, intimidating figure who had first acknowledged her. The one whose satisfied departure from the temple had cented her fraudulent title in the eyes of the world.
He was the beginning of her identity.
The first bearer of the fake saintess’s prophecy.
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