For the first time that Aarav could remember, he did not wake up from Strong Consolidate feeling refreshed. There was a weird amalgamation of tastes and smells assaulting him at once. The pool of liquid swirling above him was quickly and efficiently absorbed. Health, Mana, and Stamina did not require flooded into him, leaving him feeling bloated. Then a few moments later, it settled, and he realised he was in a bucket. “Why…?” A few seconds passed before he remembered what had happened before he collapsed. “How…?”

On top of that, there was the whole error situation. Also, ninety per cent of the gains from Strong Consolidate basically going to waste. Still, he should probably be thankful that he didn’t blow up with the way he had gone out and instead got significantly reduced gains. He really did need to better understand how the stat points were calculated for when he did Strong Consolidate successfully. Right now, though, his primary concern was informing everyone else that he was fine and not dead. “Well, at least I’m not dead!”

“Aarav!? Is that you? You okay?” Who was that? Was that Boren? Aarav could only guess; his hearing was not fully back yet. His eyes, ears, nose, and mouth formed again a few seconds later. He needed to get out of the bucket, and then he could reform. Another few seconds passed, and he could tip the bucket over and slide out, reconstituting as the fairy he was before. He hadn’t increased in size much since the morning when all this kicked off, but it was better to have lost three days than his life. Still, three days wasted, he could only mourn the loss and pull up his proverbial socks and get to work again.

“Boren, Haemish and Marasa? What are all of you doing here? And actually, where are we? And why does everything taste like potions?” Aarav rapid fired questions, not sure which he wanted to be answered first. Haemish saved him the effort by just answering everything in one go.

“You are in the Marasa’s clinic. We have been here for the last couple of days trying to revive you when we thought you had died. All of us have been extremely concerned, and when you just collapsed in the lab, we brought you in a bucket straight here. You were in a pool…it was the strangest thing I have ever seen. Some staff thought we had brought a half bucket of high-density water here. Oh, also, we dumped potions on you thinking it might help. Obviously, it didn’t, but it was the only thing we could think of as we watched you deteriorate.” The massive relief on each of their faces warmed Aarav. He had suspected that these people saw him as more than an experiment or a means to an end, but here was the proof. “What in the hells happened to you?”

Haemish had to have been holding that one in for a while. Now, his most poignant question burst forth like a gas pipe exploding. Aarav grinned at him. “Couldn’t hold it in any longer, huh?”

“Well, you are obviously doing well enough to be snarky about it. Come one, out with it. The rest of us have been wondering about what happened!” Marasa and Boren nodded emphatically along with his words. It was also evident in Marasa’s posture that she fully expected him to keel over any second. And likely die for real this time.

“Marasa, Boren, Haemish, I assure you I am fine. Just became a victim of my own carelessness, nothing more.” Aarav said.

“That really isn’t a good enough explanation. Do you have any idea what we went through in the last two days? We are just glad you came back before you withered away to nothing!” Haemish said, a slight irritation now colouring his voice.

“Okay, I understand and am sorry for worrying you, but it is a skill I have. It keeps me from getting overwhelmingly big and allows me to keep moving around freely.” Aarav said.

“That seems like more of a handicap, you are not exactly big now, and you were not big when you collapsed,” Haemish said.

“Call it a protection mechanism; otherwise, I would not be able to move around properly. You saw how wobbly I was toward the end of the day; now look at me!” For emphasis, Aarav ran in a circle and then did a backflip, to everyone’s surprise. It was more of an attempt at a backflip as he promptly landed on his back instead of his feet. “Oompf, anyway, you get the point.” Aarav rasped. Boren and Marasa couldn’t hide their laughter, and Haemish’s following words seemed suspiciously light.

“Well, thank you for that. Still, I would like to understand how that skill of yours works. The better we understand it, the more we can do with it!” Haemish seemed to feel the conversation was over at that point, so he decided to start moving. “Well, are you two coming with me or not? I recall we were doing some critical work before all this happened. Let’s get to it! Marasa, thank you very much for your help with this ungrateful student!” Then he smiled at her and Aarav taking the edge from his words.

With that, he left, not waiting for either of them to follow. It was morning now, and the whole day was open to them. Aarav wanted to bulk up again but would be careful about going above 10 kg for now. Still, even if he hadn’t received all the stat gains, it was invaluable to understand his limits. His Supreme Consume had improved by leaps and bounds so had Intense Consume. The names of the Skills still bothered Aarav, though. It was the most boring naming system he had ever seen…but then wasn’t that his fault?

Haemish had said that many of the system elements were down to intent and desire on the user's part. So that meant that he had a dull naming sense. Maybe he could try to think of some more exciting options for the future? Worth a try. If nothing else, it would give him a chance to play around with what was possible and what was not.

“See you later, Marasa!” Boren called with Aarav’s echo far behind. They both quickly followed their mentor to make up for the lost time.

And so, Marasa was left all alone for the first time in almost forty-eight hours. “I need to go home.” She finally said with a sigh and started to pack up, intent on doing just that.

Meanwhile, Aarav and Boren were back in the Alchemical Lab. Boren tried to explain to Lori and Baldwin why he should be skipping another training session and working on his Alchemical projects. Needless to say, they were having none of it and soon, Borne was on his way out of the lab, leaving Haemish and Aarav alone to ponder.

“Where are the others anyway? I haven’t seen much of them since the trip back to the palace.” Aarav asked. “Taler, Marteen and Rion?” Just in case it wasn’t already obvious who Aarav was talking about.

“Oh, Rion and Marteen were with me as a special request. They are not primarily Alchemists. Marteen does some blacksmithing in the city, and Rion works more at the Academy. He is a Bodyguard most of the time to this guy called Fenwin. You will probably meet him sometime. I believe he also does some Alchemy work on the side. It is mostly weapons training for some students when not with Fenwin.” Haemish said succinctly. “Taler is actually out on another assignment to Dakir, east of Darf. Most of that border is taken up by the Pleutr Forest, but there is a well-established trading route to their capital city. It should be easy travelling for him. Now that Taler is comfortable on a Gryphon. Haha.”

“Anyway, Ummm. I could really use something to eat….” Haemish’s shock was priceless.