A day passes, and I remove the rubble from my body, which is now in a better state. However, it still bears plenty of wounds: cracked bones, not fully healed muscles, and a significant chunk of my leg is still missing.

It's raining once again, and I exit the building, letting the deadly rain fall on my skin, disrupting it with my mana.

[Perception] looks around, and I start walking. I do not use anchors, worried they might be tracked, and I use only a little mana, not knowing where the monster is. Just a bit to keep my body strengthened, allowing me to move faster and cross the rooftops.

It takes a bit longer, but I reach the old granny’s place. At first, I pass by it a few times. As wrecked as my body is, I can’t locate the place with the field that surrounds it. It's either that or the granny changed the field a little.

When I finally locate it, I enter the rooftop and, triggering a signal, the old woman comes out of the house. Walking between the flower pots, I stop in front of her, standing on one leg and my mana prosthetic.

She opens her mouth to say something, but that's when my skill activates. [Redistribution] absorbs her kinetic energy and stops her mouth from moving.

"I will be brief," I tell her. "On another day, I wouldn't mind a bit of bickering, but right now, I am in a really bad mood. So now, I will let you go, and you will tell me what you want from me in exchange for healing, or tell me to fuck off."

I let go of her, and she staggers backward. Her expression turning serious, "I will heal you. We can talk about what you did later. If I ask for something annoying, you can refuse."

After that, she heads inside the house, and I follow her. She sends out a pulse of mana, which deactivates the item radiating the tranquilizing field. I sit on the chair as she gestures to me.

Her hands touch my shoulder, and warm mana flows into my body, healing me for the first time.

"What the fuck," she gasps, and I sense her skill observing my body.

She checks the wounds, feels the imbalance between my attributes, and peripherally senses my constant control over my mana.

"WHAT THE FUCK," she repeats, getting a better image of my body before she starts healing me.

I feel my body sway and my mind spin, but I force myself to stay awake and carefully observe the entire process. Ready to react if she tries anything suspicious, I observe the way she moves her mana. Maybe I could learn a thing or two from her; that's what I hope for. But in the end, her healing is similar to Lily's. Yes, weaker and clumsier, but it’s the same at its core.

As she’s healing me, she uses nearly all of her mana. Her healing doesn't restore my leg. Not because she is incapable, but because she heals the other wounds first. My Phoenix Embrace has healed a lot and given enough time, it would heal the rest. But there are advantages to having an active healing skill, even though she is much lower level than I am.

When she is done, she moves back and sits on the couch in the corner, catching her breath. Meanwhile, I start generating thermal energy with my Thermokinetic Mana Heart and sending it to the places where I'm still hurt and towards my leg. It slowly continues to grow with the help of the passive.

The old woman doesn't ask anything or bicker with me. When I look at her, she simply says, "I will ask later."

With a nod, I push myself back onto my feet and turn to leave. Outside of the house, I take a deep breath and jump over the edge of the roof, landing on the road. I absorb the energy of my fall and start running, transferring some of that energy into strengthening.

I head towards the Sanctuary and am close to exiting the city when I feel a signal from Vega. It's a signal I told her to send only if she needed help.

Disregarding the chance that the guardian will track and follow me, I use [Tether] and teleport to the anchor.

Reappearing in our room, I find Vega in the barrier I made for her. She is fine and holding a knife in her hand, the one I created with [Regalia]. Her heart beats, generating kinetic energy that flows through her body.

Slowly, I turn towards the intruders in the room.

“We were worried! We kept calling for you,” Darren says. “You didn't answer for close to two days, and when we tried to open the door, they were blocked, so we got inside. The…”

My skill encompasses them all: Darren, Nina, and a few men with them, too. They all freeze, unable to twitch a finger unlike the Veil Guardian I wasn't able to grasp.

I glance at Vega, scared, in a battle stance in the middle of the barrier and then at the intruders. For a short moment, I fight the urge to release just a bit of my kinetic energy and kill them all. My already terrible mood, which I've been pushing to the back of my mind with [Focus], sours even further at this situation. Especially seeing Vega scared, whom I left alone for so long without saying anything.

A cone of kinetic energy bursts forth, about to tear the group apart, but at the last moment, I redirect it, and it obliterates the wall to their left.

A high pitch reverberates in the air, and the wall turns to dust. “Fuck off,” I tell them and release my hold. Without saying anything, they run away, Darren pulling Nina behind him.

Glancing towards Vega, I cancel the barrier surrounding her. My disciple then carefully puts the dagger away but doesn't relax her body. She looks at me as if expecting to get screamed at or hit.

Instead of saying anything, I just lay on the bed and close my eyes, “I wouldn't hurt you,” I tell her.

“I know, we made a promise,” her tiny voice sounds, and I hear her taking a few steps closer to me. “Something bad happened?” I can almost feel her eyes on my missing leg.

“Yes, a shitty day.”

Not saying anything, she just climbs onto the bed, and I move over as she lays beside me. Understanding me better than most people here, she doesn't say anything. She doesn't offer words of pity, nor does she ask any questions. Vega just lays there, and soon enough, I hear her breathing settle as she falls asleep. Listening to her soft breathing, I synchronize mine with hers.

I wonder if it's my personality causing me to be in such a mood. Knowing myself as well as I do, I think it is. [Focus] probably added to it by weakening most of my useless emotions.

The Initiate of Pride could be at fault as well. No matter how I look at it, I got screwed over by the Veil Guardian. I still don’t think subclasses affect emotions so much as they reflect the personality of their owner. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe one’s subclass does affect their personality causing them to embody the concepts named. I won’t know for sure until a later stage.

Something touches me, and when I look to the side, I realize it's Vega. She’s moved closer to me in her sleep and, curled into a ball, she is touching my side with her back. The little half-demon girl looks better than she did at the start of the floor. She is clean, less thin, and her bruises have all been caused by training. Once again, she is wearing clean clothes I bought for her through the system shop.

She gets excited every time I buy her clothes, and I’ve noticed that she keeps the older ones in a bag. They are dirty, often bloodied and torn, yet she holds onto them as if they are some kind of treasure. The same goes for the dagger I made in the first facility, a trash grade uncommon item. Yet, the dagger has been carefully wrapped in a clean cloth and hidden deep in a bag I also gave her.

Such a silly little creature.

Careful to not release any of the thermal energy I’m using for healing, I continue to lay in the bed while cycling my mana.

 

---

 

It takes a few hours, but Vega slowly wakes up and stretches on the bed like a tiny animal. She then yawns and burrows her face into the sheets before quickly opening her eyes.

Only then does she remember where she is, realizes what she’s resting against, and pulls away.

“I'm sorry,” she quickly blubbers and jumps off the bed.

“That's a great offense. Shall I call you minion for the day?”

“I'm sorry!” she repeats, not understanding the joke.

“I'm joking, you can calm down,” I comfort her in an attempt to avoid some sort of silly trauma.

Examining my face, she accepts it as truth, and in the end, she adds, “Master always calls me minion, so that’s a dumb punishment.” Vega then moves closer again. After noticing that my mood is better, she returns to her normal self.

She is good at reading people’s moods. She had to learn to avoid catching beatings. She also knows that I, like her, prefer when people act honestly rather than pretending.

Her eyes examine my missing leg, “Does it hurt?”

“Not really.”

“Will master have to live without a leg now?”

“It will regrow.”

“Is master a gray lizard?”

“The last time I checked in the mirror, I was not a gray lizard, minion. What even is that?”

Her fingers poke at the skin that has grown over the wound. She looks at me, “It's a monster that lives in the forest near my village. They are said to be really tasty, but they’re fast. They can regrow their legs if they lose them.”

“Do you have healers? There are people with skills that can regrow limbs as well.”

Vega nods, “I only heard from songs. They don't come to the places where people like me live.”

Of course, they don't. Something tells me that there will be much more trouble for Lily.

“Minion, if you find a healer by chance, try to keep them for yourself as much as you can. Learning some healing skills would be good if you get the chance.”

“I'm Vega, but I will master!”

“Good, something tells me you will need a lot of healing, the same as me.”

My minion gives me a confused look but then glances at my leg and probably remembers the wounds she got while training.

Understanding flashes across her face and then determination follows, “Will do!” she repeats but this time more firmly.

Smart girl.

“Did you get beaten up, master?” her question hits me where it hurts, but she asks so innocently that I don't even get too annoyed.

“A bit,” I admit.

She turns around and rushes to her bag, taking out some food and pieces of cloth, “That's okay! Master will surely win the next time. As master said, it's fine to lose, the winner is whoever is alive in the end!”

I have no answer for that and she smiles at me.

After putting two pieces of the cloth on the ground, she turns to me, “Will master eat with me?”

“Gladly.”