Last Words chapter 39 (Patreon)

The mana in the Moonfire Mango Nectar was still just as potent as the last time. It felt like a tide of lunar cataclysm rampaging through my veins, churning my blood like the moon churns the night tides. The power was building, endlessly building, and I could feel the swell coming, about to break and unleash…something into my bloodstream.

When it finally broke, it was like someone blew the cork off a bottle of soda they’d been shaking for an hour. Heat erupted through my blood, swirling through me like a crimson tsunami, and I realized almost too late what was coming. I rolled off the bed, thumping to the floor, and started clawing at my clothes to get them off as the heat poured into my guts, condensing into a tiny sun.

I’d felt this before, the first time I’d eaten a mana fruit, when I became an initiate. Sure enough, once enough of the heat collected into that star of power, it BURST, and an echoing roar of energy burst across my body, washing through every single cell. Wave after wave radiated out, and my muscles cramped and seized as they were wrung dry of every speck of dirt and impurity, even grain of filth.

Muscles, bones, hair, eyes, organs, the energy poured through me, forcing it outwards, radiating from the core of my being and carrying the corruption inherent to my mortal form out of my body on strange tides.

Thick, sticky, tarlike muck began to spill from my pores, slopping forth in great gouts as it covered the floor around me, soaked into the wood and pooled beneath me, washing across the floor as wave after wave continued to expunge whatever all this was from my body.

It lasted an hour. Or maybe a second. It was hard to tell. It was agonizing, and the pain was the most comforting and pleasurable thing I’d ever experienced. When it finally ended, I lay on the floor, twitching and shaking, my eyes glazed over with pain and confusing for minutes before I finally rebooted my brain.

It took only a thought to sell off all the muck. I got nothing for it, only seven dollars, but it cleaned the room up so I wasn’t sitting in a sewage treatment plant anymore. The STENCH of the impurities that had been purged from my body was so cloying and horrible it had a physical presence. I felt like I had just thrown a blanket off me by getting rid of it. I groaned, and a squeak alerted me to someone else in the room. I squinted at the wriggling mouse peeking out of my clothes. “Ambrose?” I asked groggily. “I didn’t realize you were here. Sorry about the smell.”

My mouse buddy had mostly taken to lurking around the camp these days, and I hadn’t seen him in a while. I supposed he’d slipped into my pockets when I came through the door. I groaned, noting the alerts at the corner of my eye. I supposed I’d better check on what had actually happened.

Speaker - Tin Rank. Verbosity: 25/100

Skills: 

Purchase- Level 7: Pay a commensurate amount of money for things of value.

Sell- Level 8: Exchange goods for currency.

Contract- Level 10: Form an agreement with another party, involving compensation for a specific task.

Perks: 

Tier 1 Contract perk-Empathic read: Discern the basic emotions and intentions of the target of a negotiation.

Tier 1 Mana Body perk-Mana touched: Double mana regeneration.

Unaffiliated Skills: Beginner Mana Body- Level 10: A body imbued with a wisp of mana, minorly increased strength, speed, and endurance. Natural mana generation.

Mana: 1/1

I grinned. Double mana regeneration. That was a big deal. Not now, really. Double mana regen meant that it would take me half as long to refill my ONE point of mana, but I had no idea how long that would have taken in the first place.

No, that was a big deal for the FUTURE. Beginner Mana Body had only a single mana point, but my next rank of that skill would have ten, then a hundred, then a thousand. The stronger I got, the more having mana that regenerated twice as fast was going to help me. More than that, it was just a tier one perk, and it proved what I had already known. The perks for mana body would be staggeringly useful to me as I grew stronger.

I was kind of surprised it was still reading as level ten though. I had expected it to reset, but thinking about it, my next perk was at level twenty five. I should reach the next rank at level twenty, if the pattern held, which meant it would be five levels beyond even THAT.

Still, I could worry about that later. For now, my skin was humming with power, my blood singing through my veins. I pushed off the ground and popped up to my toes like an olympic athlete, bouncing in place as I felt the surge of quicksilver strength whirl through my body. I felt so different. So strong. Felt like so much more than I had ever been before.

I brought my fists up, throwing a couple of quick jabs just to test the feel of the power running through me. My fists cut the air like the whisper of swinging blades. It was fantastic.

Unfortunately, whatever I’d just done hadn’t been quiet or pleasant. Even if they hadn’t smelled it (which I was deeply hopeful for), I was sure I’d been screaming for at least part of that process. Full body muscle cramps were NOT pleasant, nor were teeth cracking seizures that rippled through your whole body. Whatever the case, it had drawn attention, as evidenced by the knock on my room door.

Stumbling over to the bed, I wriggled into my clothes before hopping to the door and whipping it open with a frazzled smile. “Hello!” I said cheerfully to the people on the other side. “What can I do for you?”

Esther, Bran, and even Lily, one of the serving girls, stared at me suspiciously as I hung in the doorway, an overlarge smile that I was absolutely feeling pasted across my face.

“You’re ok?” Esther asked worriedly. “That’s not…I thought you would be in danger. Or in pain. You were screaming rather forcefully. Did you break through? Where are your impurities? I've seen breakthroughs before, they’re almost universally a huge mess.”

 I looked back at the room with a grimace. I hadn’t actually considered how to explain that. I was just exhausted and annoyed and wanted to be clean. I decided not to bother. These were friends, so I didn’t need to lie, even if I ALSO didn’t need to tell the truth. “Cleaned it up,” I said bluntly. “Just a trick I know.”

She raised an eyebrow at me, but finally just sighed and nodded. “So…you’re a Beginner now,” she said, giving me a once over. “I admit, I expected that nectar to put you over, but I didn’t expect it to happen QUITE so fast.”

“What can I say?” I asked wryly. “I’m not a patient person. Do you guys…want to come in? I mean the room is empty and there’s nothing to do, but it seems rude to keep you waiting outside. We could play cards or something? I don’t honestly know. Though now that I think about it food might be nice. I’m weirdly hungry.”

“That’s not weird,” Esther sighed. “It’s expected. Breakthroughs drain your body of more than just impurities. The evolution to a higher state requires fuel, after all. I would imagine during your initial breakthrough it was barely noticeable, but Beginner is the first real step on the path of mana, and it takes a lot out of you. Come on, we’ll get you some stew. It’s perfect for replenishing energy after a rank up.”

She gestured for us to follow, and I did, shutting my door behind me and locking it before scurrying down the hall. “So…how do you know so much about mana bodies?” I asked her. “Because you aren’t one, right? Or at least you never mentioned. But with the whole stew thing and all your knowledge, you must have known more than a few.”

Her face clouded. “I was married to a mana touched,” she said quietly. “A long time ago. He…passed away.”

I winced at the desolate tone of her voice. “Oh, shit, I’m sorry Esther, I didn’t mean to-”

She waved me off. “None of that. He’s been gone a long time. The grieving darkness that shrouded those memories has long since faded, and all I remember of him is blissful light.” She smiled wistfully. “I wish you two had been able to meet. He’d have liked you. You remind me a bit of him. You both have a sort of…lightness about you. Like you’re untouched by the concerns that plague the rest of us.”

I chuckled uncomfortably, knowing where that impression came from, but followed her downstairs to the counter anyway. We all sat across from her and she filled three heaping bowls of stew, and I started downing the food with the starving intensity of a rabid wolf in a meat factory.

Esther watched us all eat with a warm smile. Once I finished a bowl, she had another waiting immediately, and I gorged myself on stew one after the other, eating far more than my body should have been able to hold.

When I finished the last bowl, it was immediately replaced with a new plate, this one containing a pie made with some kind of apple like fruit I’d never had before. It was dark purple and had a kind of sweet tangy flavor, like a mix between a pineapple and a grapefruit. It was shockingly good, and I went through three pieces of the pie and four scoops of ice cream before finally crashing headfirst into the physical limits of my digestion.

My head thumped down on the bar. “Ow,” I groaned, clutching my gut as I rode out the pain. “Why does it hurt so much?”

“You ate three gallons of stew and nearly an entire pie,” Esther said dryly. 

“You kept FEEDING me,” I moaned pitifully. “And you said I needed a lot of food! I thought this was normal.” I actually COULD feel my body burning the food for power, but the rate it was being digested wasn’t nearly fast enough to offset the sheer amount of sustenance I had consumed. I made a note to hold back next time no matter how hungry I got.

She burst out laughing, picking up a glass and pouring out a measure of some kind of milky purple liquid. “Drink this,” she said with an eyeroll. I looked at it warily, unwilling to ingest any more substances, possibly for the rest of my life. She huffed out a laugh. “Telvarin extract, it’s a digestif. Help break down some of that food. Honestly, I fed you because you kept asking, it’s not like I can see into your stomach. You’re a grown man, don’t even know when to stop eating?”

I whimpered slightly, but nodded anyway, taking it from her and tossing it back all at once to try to bypass my gag reflex. It worked. Barely. Then I spent the next ten minutes curled up in a ball as an explosion of fire in my belly ground the food I had eaten into a fine paste so I could digest it faster. Not literally, but it sure felt that way.

“Wow, you certainly look like shit,” came a familiar voice. I grimaced, looking up to find Ridley, of the Silent Pond, sitting casually next to me at the bar, grinning from ear to ear. “You have time for that job we talked about?” I glared at him, but I didn’t say no. I was mostly fine at this point, and I’d been waiting for contact from the Pond.