‘She seems a bit weird..’ Michael walked in the very front with her behind him.
It seems like she had observed the whole fight and had a pretty casual reaction to his abilities.
“Astr-” Michael turned back to her but immediately stopped talking, her eyes were once again unfocused.
‘…’ He decided to continue walking, whatever was happening, he couldn’t do anything about it.
The best he can do is be himself, she is asking more questions now after all, even if they were vague, it was progress.
Michael could tell that a small piece of her memories started returning, same with his, however, he hadn’t really gotten any new ones ever since the last time.
Though even if there were no new memories, the ones he could remember had become clearer, and the surroundings had even become more vivid.
And they were strange to say the least, he could see the sky, yet they were not on the ground, it was an odd place.
There were a couple more people there, but he couldn’t see their faces, he couldn’t even properly judge their height or appearance, it seemed to be morphing.
However, Astraea was still standing there, looking at the almost empty sky, there was a single golden star there.
That was where his memories ended, him looking at her and her staring at the golden star above.
He couldn’t comprehend these memories, they were not like those of his trials, they did not tell a story.
Just a simple fragmented memory meaning nothing, but at the same time meaning everything.
They remained walking in silence until they finally arrived back at the cave with Orin still sleeping soundly.
It did not seem like much time had passed, yet the sun was beginning to come up, a small light shining down into the cave.
Yet what caught his eyes the most was Astraea, particularly her silver eyes, which were still directly staring at him.
‘She is so confusing..’ Michael scratched his head and picked up the last piece of the pig monster he had left, chopping it up and cooking it.
By the time he was finished, the sun managed to come up to a decent point in the sky.
However, he was not excited, because he knew what awaited him.
Don’t worry, you still have an hour or two left before that. Enjoy your little moment of peace.
‘No need to sound like some sort of supervillain…’ Michael took a few bites out of the pig’s leg, he had already split the rest with Astraea and Orin.
But it did not seem like Orin wanted to wake up, he was just rolling around in the makeshift leaf bed that did not seem comfortable at all.
Michael assumed that he just enjoyed the feeling of nature, who knows what a kid who had never seen the outside world could be thinking.
They all finished eating and Michael took a glance at his map, making sure that there were no abnormalities this time around.
Right after that, he went ahead and told the others to not bother him for a little while.
Michael couldn’t think of any excuses for Astraea who had been looking at him suspiciously, but in the end, she gave in, taking Orin outside into the forest.
It seemed like he wanted to walk around a bit, he was still not talking to anyone though.
‘Are you sure I can’t just go outside..?’ Michael asked the system and stood in front of the beam of light in the very back of the cave.
Last time it was moonlight, now it’s sunlight.
It’s convenient, plus I doubt you would want the others to hear you scream.
‘Scream? You think I will scream?’ Michael tilted his head and sat down, under the light.
You seem to regard yourself rather highly for someone who had to use cheap tricks to win against a mere vampire.
Michael shrugged ‘Cheap tricks? They are a part of my abilities, if anything, the vampire used his frenzy as an unfair trick, I just made the fight more fair.’
Right.
Just as the system’s disapproving voice rang out, his body began heating up rapidly, with sweat already trickling down as if it were raining.
‘Isn’t this a bit too fast?’ Michael asked as he felt like the cold was way more bearable at the start than the heat.
Added to the fact that it was increasing almost exponentially with each moment that passed, did not give him much confidence.
“Krhh” A small groan escaped his mouth as the temperature began getting a little unbearable for him.
It’s been 12 seconds, you will be at this for at least 4 hours, why are you already groaning?
Michael’s eyes widened at the system’s remark, there was no way he could last that long.
However, just as he was about to complain, the temperature once again increased, making it hard to breathe.
‘System, heal me now’ Michael said in a serious tone while looking at his status.
His HP was decreasing at an extremely rapid pace, so much so that if a few more seconds passed, he would most certainly die.
Hold on a little longer. You have to make the best use of this situation.
‘Fuck your situation, heal me or I am going to die!’ He was starting to slightly panic as his health was close to single digits.
Yet even as it went down to 8%, 6%, 3%, and 2%, Michael did not feel like he was about to get healed.
However, the moment his HP touched upon the 1% threshold, it suddenly shot back up to 31% causing him to regain some of his fading senses.
‘Are you fucking crazy?’ Michael exclaimed at the system, he almost died just now.
If only he could cast a heal by himself, however, due to his senses becoming extremely sensitive, he was not able to properly control his mana.
Relax, I won’t let you die. Plus, look at the progress, your mana purity went up a little bit, and your Mana Core progress has almost increased by 1%. A few more hours of this and you will have gained a lot.
‘Fuck you, I am not doing this for hours, I will run out of mana in less than an hour.
Due to the system not being able to utilize his mana to the fullest, the consumption of his heal was 6% MP, whereas if he were to use it himself, it would only be 1.5%.
Meaning, the system used 4 times more MP than he does, it’s not very efficient.
So what? The more you do this, the more immunity you will build up to it. I believe you can last a full minute this time.
‘I hate you..’ Michael exclaimed and began feeling the heat all over his body again.
This time, however, it wasn’t as severe, it felt bearable.
Or so he thought, but after 20 seconds, he began feeling suffocated and his HP began plummeting once again, reaching single digits before he was healed again.
33 seconds, not bad.
Michael snickered and took this time to heal himself back to full HP, 31% did not feel great.
He went again and this time, he definitely lasted longer.
However, the system’s next words made his expression sour.
39 seconds, a small improvement.
‘How is that even possible? Didn’t I start from full HP?’
The heat does not stop increasing just because your HP is higher, you would have lasted 35 seconds had you not healed yourself back to full. Now stop wasting your mana and go again.
‘…’ Michael took a deep, exhausted breath and continued this tortur-training until eventually, a familiar sound resounded in his ears.
-Ding
[New Skill Generated]
Heat Resistance [Basic] [Passive]
# You take 15% less damage from anything related to heat.
