Eugh… 

Everything is awful. I slowly open my eyes to see the moon lazily hanging over the lake in the starlit sky. 

After a minute of starting my mind, the hunger strikes me. Oh god, I’m hungry. I don’t even stop to feel my mana before I access my inventory. The first fish tastes heavenly, the next three tastes almost as good. By the time I have scarfed them down, I realize that my stomach is full. I’m still hungry though. It’s like my body hasn't acknowledged the food. Powering through, I drink some of the water from a bottle, and just as I’m about to bite into a piece of deer, I feel the hunger abate.

For a few more minutes I just sit there holding the piece of flesh and savoring the relief. Then I stow away the food, and concentrate on my mana. It’s almost full and recovering faster than before I fell asleep, but still a fair bit slower than before this whole dying business, which I can wholeheartedly recommend you avoid. 

Feeling slightly better, but still far from perfect, I curl up in my bed, and go back to sleep.

“Baaaah” I hear, as I rouse from sleep. It takes a moment to register, but I’m feeling much better.

The sun is shining, and there is a herd of goats roaming around the clearing. Why is there a herd of goats? I’m not sure why it feels so weird, but something is off. Only a moment later, I realize what is feeling so off. The ever present crackling of lightning around me is absent. They felt so good to have though, hopefully they will be back as I heal. In the meantime I have to make do with the second rate crackling from the largest goat in the herd. The lightning bolts going between its horns isn’t particularly impressive, and I don’t feel any mana from it.

As I sit there observing the herd, they seem to notice me and freeze for a moment, before the smaller ones retreat behind the leader. The leader then lowers its head, whilst stomping on the ground, preparing to charge at me.

“Don’t you dare break my bed!” I yell as the goat starts its charge, before jumping out of my bed meeting its charge. I’m moving considerably faster than it and simply run up and grab its horns. Then I simply force its head into the ground while feeling the pleasant tickle of electricity.

It thinks it has power over electricity, now? I simply pump MORE electricity into its horns, and it starts to spasm. A moment later, its horn cracks along its length, and I release it, letting it limply fall over on its side.

The rest of the herd started to run into the forest while I was electrocuting the electric goat, and is now mostly out of sight. Is it worth it to hunt them down? Feeling the chunk of mana I used on the goat regenerate too slowly for my liking, makes me let them go. Besides, the only one threatening to break my stuff was this big one.

Now, what to do with it? Looking over at my butcher's table, I find that the rain cleansed it of blood, but slightly melted and deformed from my misuse of mana. I need to fix that, as well as the canopy. Luckily my bed was fine. In the end I just stuffed the goat into my inventory whole, before doing the same with my butcher’s table. I would fix the table and canopy now, but I’ll wait until I can regenerate my mana at a decent rate. At least it seems to improve over time, so I won’t have to grind again.

Then I clean up the rest of my stuff, which is mostly left over crafting materials, and the abominite. I hesitate with the large crystal though. It killed me once, and it could theoretically do it again, though stowing it into inventory has been fine so far.

After that I just lay down on my bed, waiting for my mana to replenish, which is kinda boring.

In my boredom, I take out my mirror, but find that I struggle to feed the hovering enchantment, causing it to move unsteadily. In the end, I just set it on the edge of the bed, leaning against one of the legs of the canopy.

Seeing the state of my body is kinda depressing. Burn marks all over me, with the fur on those spots having melted and have started falling out. The good point is that the wounds underneath seem to have healed pretty well. I probably need to take a bath to properly clean the rest of my fur, since it has gotten dirty, despite its dirt resistance.

Sigh

Stella said I absorbed too much mana, but how much was that? I got the same feeling as when I obliterated the abomination for a while, before it suddenly started to go away. Is that the indication for when I take in too much? Or was it because I held it in and not channeling it into a spell? I don’t know. Maybe it even was because it was the abominations mana, and not mine. I should have let it suffer more, rather than quickly finishing it off after it dealt with the copper golem.

I could ask Danievil or Stella through a prayer, but I would prefer to avoid the discomfort of their telepathic answers. Maybe I should just ask Danievil to come over.

In the end I decide against it and start to fiddle with a piece of copper, while humming a nondescript tune.

After a while, the boredom gets to me, and I ask Danievil to keep me company, which to my disappointment, she answers telepathically that she is busy at the moment, but will come in a bit.

I sigh and just let myself fall over backwards. Maybe I should just pack up and keep moving, but where to go though? Honestly, just running would be better than sitting still, so I pack up the rest of my stuff, and run along the lakeside, weaving between trees and jumping streams.

My mood improves as it’s far more enjoyable than sitting still, though I do limit my use of mana… for the most part. I also learn how much my fur protects me from the wrath of stray branches. Having them hit me on the furless spots is quite unpleasant and deserving of punishment. Luckily for the trees, the punishment is limited to the offending branch, at least for the trees that are large enough. Smaller trees and bushes may have had to contend with being uprooted. The punishing is more than enough to keep my mood high as I run around.

After what probably is a few hours, I find a particularly large river flowing out of the lake. In the shadow of one of the larger trees that grows right on its edge, even leaning slightly over it, stands a familiar demon, looking out over the river. This is a great chance to spook her! I run as quietly as I can manage, which is fairly quiet without the crackling, and jump up on her back, giving her a hug.

“Seems you are recovering well.” she says, and I can hear the smile in the otherwise regal voice.

Instead of answering, I climb further up on her, and sit myself down on her shoulders, using two of her horns as handles.

“Most people would treat deities with a bit more reverence than this.” she says while chuckling.

I smile and pat her on the head and say “There, there.” causing her to laugh for a bit.

“There are a few things I’m wondering about after this whole dying thing went down.” I say. “Is Stella that much more powerful than you? And how exactly did that crystal kill me?”

In response she takes on a more serious demeanor, and lifts me off her shoulders, putting me down onto the ground.

“For the first one, no, not really. It’s just that she doesn’t hold back the fact that she is no longer mortal, unlike me and the rest. According to her it has many advantages, but no real increase in power. I think the main one is that she can be in multiple places. The second one is fairly simple, you had too much mana in your body, that was not your own, and thus you couldn’t control it.” 

That makes sense, and also it probably means that once I fill it with my own mana, it will be less of an issue. Gonna have to be careful with that though.

“But she kept you out of the afterlife?” I ask, remembering Stella’s words.

“There’s a simple reason for that. She built that realm herself without the help from the rest of us, so she has more influence there, and as such we respect her will on the matter. It’s like she built her own house and kept the door closed, not even locked, just closed. Could I just open the door and walk in? Yes, but it would be impolite, and she might have tried to kick me back out.” she answers, revealing a bit of how they interact with each other.

I nod as she answers and then continue on to the next question on my mind, which is “Why am I not generating mana as fast as I used to?”

“Because your body is still recovering. Should be back to normal tomorrow or the day after.”

After alleviating my fears, we just hung out for a bit. I offered her my cushion while I sat on my bed, but she decided to manifest her own chair, or maybe throne would be a better fit. We then played a few tabletop games that she produced on my wooden table. She won most games though, but it was close! The dice must have been working against me! Soon enough it was evening, and I fell asleep on the bed after she left.

Kamba

alternatie title: charging a goat

goats aren't rechargeable, so be kind and don't treat them as such.