[Drink and eat. As you have seen mana deprivation leaves me tired and irritable. You do not have the mana pool to support our connection yet. The pain is at a level I can not stand any longer. I am going to rest. Wake me if any of those monsters come back.] Zander communicated this quickly, clearly excited to crawl into a comfortable position wrapped around the back of Auron's neck like a tired feline.

Unable to come up with any reason not to, Auron decided to listen. Careful not to disturb Zander he crawled over to the water and cupped his hands again. He allowed the now blue looking water to pool there. Once brought up to his lips it was as if his body tore control from his mind.

He swallowed the water with such speed and voracity Auron spent half of his time choking it back up after he accidentally breathed it in. The cool water that ran down his throat was beyond anything he had ever tasted in his life. In the strangest way, even the fluid he took into his lungs felt amazing. Shoving his head in to gulp more was the only way he could down it fast enough. The water made every pore in his face feel purified in a way he was not expecting. He carelessly shrugged Zander off his shoulders and he threw himself into the center of the stream at its deepest about waist high.

“What in all the God's names is going on with this water.” He says the words between bouts of laughter, everything below his neck submerged in the crystalline water.

[That would be called mana. You have been nearly empty of it.] Zander shot back clearly annoyed at his abrupt flight into the water and subsequent wake up from its cool embrace.

“Sorry about flinging you. My body must have known how much I needed this.”

[Hmm. Try eating the algae now.] Zander sent mentally. Raising the area above his eye where one would assume his eyebrow would be.

As he reached down to grab a fistful of the glowing seaweed Auron smelled the slimy substance before taking a bite. “No scent to it. The system says it is edible. When I was younger I tried these dehydrated seaweed snacks. They were terrible. Well if it is half as good as this water I’m game. Here goes nothing” Auron says, the distraction of current events making him fail to notice that memory disappeared from his mind entirely.

He picked some of the mushy plants out of his palm and into his mouth. Auron then took his first tentative swallow. Ingesting the moss, he felt a rushing sensation as it flowed down his esophagus. Auron started to feel better, strangely better, it was almost eerie. This feeling from flowed down and seemed to split, forcibly opening a path into several different areas around his sternum. Like water, through a rusty pipe, several channels of something now were open inside of him.

A warmth wrapped around him reminding him of his mother's hugs for some reason. At the end of every nightmare he had as a child, he would wake up to her calming him down. As the feeling started to abate Auron ate more. The tasteless algae were satisfying a need he never knew existed. Never before had he felt full or satisfied in the way this bland meal nourished him.

After several minutes of gorging himself with this natural buffet, Auron crawled/swam through the shallow water to the bank Zander was currently resting on. He pushed himself out of the water feeling like a completely different person. His once ashy dry skin and cracked lips were now practically glowing with health. He was still gaunt, but his ribs were not as prominent and his muscles were slightly more robust looking.

“This is fantastic.” Auron hooted and threw his fists in the air. “What do you think of my improved physique Zander?” He said doing his best attempt at a strongman flex while wiggling his eyebrows.

[Funny, I barely see a difference.] Zander said sarcastically. [Now that you have a mana reservoir I need to return to that summon point on your shoulder and recharge. That way I can get rid of this massive headache from our current imbalance.]

“Fine, I liked you better when you weren't hangry anyways. What am I going to do if those rats come back though? I can't fight them.” Auron said attempting and failing to keep his terror from his voice as he brushes his fingers over the green outline the shape of Zander tattooed on his shoulder.

[If you get into the water and stay as still as possible they won't find you. Each of those rats is blind. They appear to rely on some sort of echolocation to see in this dark. The noise of the water will help. While I am resting try and access your wind magic. It may be easier when I am resting.] Zander responded. His words were becoming slow and he was exasperated.

“Alright, but if you are wrong and they come after me I am calling you right back.” Auron took one more look around the cavern and then picked Zander up. On some instinctual level from their bond, he knew all he had to do was place him near the tattoo outline and think “Return”. With a flash of green Auron was now alone in the dungeon. He could still feel his connection to Zander, but it seemed distant.

As soon as Zander was gone, Auron noticed a tingle running from his resting place. As if connecting by a string of energy inside his body Zander seemed to be pulling and pushing something into a place in his chest.

Feeling slightly sick after focusing on the sensation Auron looked for a distraction.

Status

Auron thought the word and his screen instantly brought up the information he was looking for. Peering around the room fearfully he settled down and looked at his stats.

Auron's thoughts cycle quickly as he moved down the screen forcing himself to keep the thoughts in his mind and not babbling out of his mouth like the stream in front of him.

He noted that everything that changed was now underlined. Having a level up, but no class made him slightly confused. The leveling system must be independent of the class system. Auron's jaw dropped when he saw the fifty percent penalty from starvation. He has always struggled to keep on weight for as long as he could remember. After the loss of his mom, it became worse. Without knowing what mental starvation was. One of his only options was to keep eating, and drinking.

Auron was confused about many things in this new world. All he knew now was that it was time for another swim.

Auron walked back into the waist-deep water and sat down, the cool water a welcome reprieve from the dry cave air. Continuing to inspect his stats he ate the algae and drank the water occasionally.

He figured he might as well try and use his healing wind to bring his health up to its maximum. Healing wind. Auron attempted to think the words and bring the magic into existence only, nothing happened. After several tries, he slapped his hands into the water frustrated.

“I really could use a guide book or manual right about now. Come on Zander you could have told me something before your nap.” Auron growled to himself finding the silence of the room slightly unsettling, but not daring to speak at more than a whisper. 

Even though this all felt like a game, he was alive in this world, flesh, and blood. When his inspection skill activated, he only had to focus on his eyes and that rush feeling happened from his chest. Pausing he tried to remember what that feeling is like.

After a moment of thinking and taking a seat at the edge of the water, he realizes he does not know where to focus the energy. As he left everything below his waist submerged, he swayed his hands through the cool water as he felt the gentle current roll by. 

Moving his hands out of the water up to rub his temples he noticed the slight resistance the water gave and it reminded him of something. A memory that was cemented into his mind.

A young Auron was sitting in the backseat of his mother's jeep. The Windows were down as she blasted Shania twain. Just barely he was able to reach his hand out and pretend it was a dragon flying up and down. The current of air pushed his hand up and he forced it back down. The constant stream pushed his fingers apart, and he giggled as he played. 

As he held on to the thought of that feeling and pushed aside the bittersweet feeling of nostalgia Auron brought the magic to his mind once again.

Healing wind.

A pressure released in his chest, an almost familiar feeling crept through his body toward his outstretched fingers. A soft green lit up the cave this time rather than Zander, it originated from Auron. Once there he felt that wind as if he was back in his memory. Concentrating as much as he could he then pictured how Zander's wind seemed to be almost alive as he moved the wind slowly around him.

“I did magic!” Auron whisper shouted to himself, still wary of monsters, but so elated he could not help but celebrate. He looked to his HP gauge and watched it slowly fill to the maximum. Then he released the magic. His mana gauge was now around 75%. Auron spent the next few minutes staring at his hands in amazement. He had done magic. Of all of the messed up things that had lead to this moment in his life, he had the power to call on the wind. A single tear of joy ran down his face. He needed something to go right for once. This victory may not be groundbreaking in this world, but the repeated emotional, and physical beatings Auron had taken over the course of his life had culminated in a way that left him less of a man than he should have been. 

Feeling blessed for this Auron was reminded that he had a literal blessing that he never checked out. With a bop to his head, he pulled up his stat screen.

“1000%” Auron whispers in amazement. Auron was confused by the seemingly ridiculous number. Either the drops in this universe are abysmal, or he had the potential to be very wealthy here. Auron rubbed his thumb and pointer fingers in a mock greedy gesture. Now knowing that drops were a thing Auron hastily ran out of the water toward where the dead monster remained. Oddly enough the creature seemed to be dissolving into the ground. In its center, there was a shining clear orb. 

He held it up, using the glow from the closest algae to look into it. The orb appeared to be glass, but it felt durable. The weight of it made him feel that even if he threw it on the ground it would not break. He wondered why the system told him it was not edible. Of course, he would not try to eat that. With nothing else to do with it, for now, Auron slipped the stone into his pocket.

Clicking, interspaced by the sound of dragging flesh, broke his concentration and he sprinted back to the edge of the water. He eased himself in toward the center where the flow was deepest. He Submerged everything from his chin down to his eyes, which now darted toward the opening in the wall. The sounds were echoing off the walls, but they were unmistakably growing closer.