"Oh my gosh, oh my Goddess, I have a mana screen!" Zhu shrieked, all composure shattering as she bounced slightly where she sat, excitement bubbling over despite everything.
Faral sighed.
"Get a grip, girl. This is no time for an unreasonable bout of mania."
Zhu sucked her teeth. Can't a girl have a little joy?
"Have your joy later," Faral replied flatly. "As you can clearly see, you require treatment."
Zhu glanced back at the glaring red alert, then exhaled.
"…Isn't that a regular occurrence?"
"While that may be true," Faral began, his tone slipping into something more measured, "your mana instability now leaves you susceptible to the twisted energy of the Hollowvail Forest. You must stabilize your physical condition before your core can be brought under control."
Zhu frowned, her brows knitting together. "Smaller words, please…"
A brief pause.
Then, flatly "Make paste. Get better. Become stronger."
"…Oh." She nodded, immediate understanding lighting her face. "That makes sense."
Her expression shifted again, curiosity creeping in. "But why am I still injured? Doesn't awakening help with healing?"
"It does," Faral replied, "but your injuries were too severe. To preserve your life, the system forcibly unlocked thirty percent of your maximum output."
"…Thirty percent…"
The number settled heavily in her mind.
She thought back felt it again, faintly. That overwhelming surge. That terrifying, intoxicating power.
Her lips parted, disbelief flickering into something dangerously close to awe.
"Thirty-percent me is amazing."
Faral did not indulge her.
"Your system made a judgment call based on your condition," he said, his voice turning sharp. "Necessary but reckless. A normal body cannot withstand that level of forced output. Not without preparation. Not without mastery."
He continued, relentlessly.
"Your core was stretched too far, too fast. It is fortunate the state lasted only five minutes. Any longer, and the damage would have been… irreversible."
"Yeah, yeah, overworked core, bad," Zhu muttered, waving him off.
But beneath the dismissal, she understood.
She remembered the mist.
Not clearly but enough.
She hadn't stopped because she chose to.
She had stopped because her body had failed.
Shut down completely, forced into unconsciousness to prevent something far worse.
Zhu exhaled slowly, her body easing back against the ground, tension draining from her limbs in quiet surrender.
"So that's why everything hurts…"
Her head throbbed. Her muscles ached. Even breathing felt like effort dragged through broken glass.
"Yes," Faral replied. "You were unconscious for quite some time. I did what I could to stabilize you."
Zhu's gaze drifted upward.
The barrier shimmered faintly above, rippling as a bird struck against it and veered away. The soft distortion of light might have been beautiful if not for everything beneath it.
A small smile touched her lips.
"Thank you, Faral."
She didn't know what would come next.
Likely something painful. Difficult. Possibly life-threatening.
But one thing felt certain.
No matter how much she complained about the "stinky voice" in her head—
She wasn't facing it alone.
"You are welcome. Zhu" Faral accepted her thanks graciously. "Could you perhaps consider… because you are so grateful… as further thanks to stop calling me that name…"
"Nope" Zhu rejected his request in an instance.
"..."
"Wait" Zhu just had a horrible thought "Does that mean I have to go back to get all the ingredients?"
Zhu was highly irritated by the thought.
"Yes," Faral answered, "you are too injured to progress further safely.'
"But couldn't you continue to shield more almighty Faral sir" Zhu complained and pouted.
"No" Faral's rejection was instantaneous.
Zhu gashed dramatically, muttering under her breath, stinky fart.
Faral beseeched the heavens for patience to deal with this unpredictable person that he soul bonded with. "Right now I'm doing my best to help you heal inside and out. Your soul has been deeply injured by the forced increase of your skills"
"But to go back through all those places…" Zhu felt despair, it seemed for every step forward she took three steps back.
"Do not fret even in your berserk state, you had the presence of mind to spear two people. They can help you and also all of the ingredients can be found close by."
"Really?" Zhu perked up.
"Yes" Feral answered "Do you not know many hands make light work"
Zhu rolled her eyes "okay wise and ancient teacher. How do we get them on board with the plan? And what is the plan?"
Faral sighed "Your thinking capacity has clearly demised"
Zhu's mouth dropped open if she didn't punch this stinky fart when she finally got to his destination, her name was not Zhu Lin!
"Just shut up an tell me what you mean Sir farts alot"
Faral ignored the much hated name "There are two survivors one by the tree and another using a skill to hide."
Zhu clapped her hand "Yes I remember the guy with the rainbow outline and the pitiful courtesan"
"Yes, the plan is to offer them safe passage through the forest in exchange for services rendered. Once they agree i'll send them to locate the ingredients while you go and security a safe spot to camp for the night."
"Alright solid plan" Zhu began to get up off the ground "Let's get started. All this blood and gore is making me nauseous."
She got shakily to her feet and held her head to steady it as the world tilted around her. Zhu took a minute to orient herself before she tried to move.
"Rose, Thorn return" As she got up she commanded the cubs to dematerialize on to her arms. She smiled at their comforting presence onto her skin.
Zhu wiped her hands on the edge of her torn sleeve, though it did little to remove the sticky sheen of blood. The metallic scent clung to the air, thick and suffocating. She swallowed hard, steadying her stomach, then forced her expression into something neutral, something that wouldn't send the wrong message.
"Alright Faral, wish me luck" Zhu uttered.
Across the clearing, Mara sat rigidly against the tree Zhu placed her at before the carnage began. Her once-elegant robes darkened with dirt and streaks of red. Her fingers trembled in her lap, knuckles pale. Her eyes, wide and round, darted toward Zhu and then away again, like looking too long might invite something dangerous.
Herkid stood a few paces to the left of her, behind a tent still wrapped in his concealing wind skill. He could see and hear everything clearly but he didn't try to run even when the monster girl was unconscious. From his barrier he could sense some of the things that lurked in the shadows of Hollowvail to be honest he was just too scared to do anything except hide.
She approached the woman slowly, boots crunching against leaves and broken twigs. Not too fast. Not too confident. People like them, cornered, desperate, spooked easily.
"Relax," she said, stopping just outside what she guessed was Mara's striking range. "If I wanted you dead, we wouldn't be talking."
Mara's jaw tightened. "That's… not exactly reassuring."
Zhu shrugged lightly, as if the tension in the air wasn't suffocating. "It's honest."
Mara let out a shaky breath, her voice softer but edged with suspicion. "What do you want?"
There it was. Straight to the point. Zhu liked that.
She crouched, lowering herself to her level. Not looming. Never loom, it made people defensive.
"I want to get out of this forest alive," she said. "Same as you."
Mara barked a short, humorless laugh. "And you think we're useful for that?" Her eyes flicked over Zhu's small frame, blood-splattered, far too calm. "You handled things all on your own, even the hollow beast avoided you."
Zhu tilted her head. "And yet I'm still standing in Hollowveil. That should tell you something."
Silence.
A breeze passed through the clearing, stirring the leaves, and the lingering scent of death. Mara flinched, her fingers tightening in her skirt.
Zhu watched them both carefully, then continued.
"I have a plan," she said. "A real one. Not just wandering until something stronger finds us."
Herkid's eyes narrowed as he listened.
"Safe passage," Zhu said simply. "I can get us through sections of the forest that would kill you both within minutes."
A flicker of anger crossed his face.
Mara's browns lifted "You're assuming a lot—"
"You were harassed by the guards here right now you are tired, hungry and in pain," Zhu cut in, not unkindly, just… factual. "Out there?" She gestured toward the dark tree line. "You won't last a day."
The words landed. Hard. "And you stop playing hide and seek." Zhu turned to where Herkid was hiding. "I know you are there and you can hear me come out lets negation"
Herkid's mouth opened, then closed. The wind around his body sputtered, then vanished entirely. He cautiously walked out from behind the tent.
Mara looked between them, then back at Zhu. "And the cost?" she asked quietly.
Zhu smiled widely. The bait is hooked.
"Services."