Kalliphae sat on the lone couch in the tiny room that was more of a booth. I was suddenly nervous to be alone with her. Wendy’s words echoed in my ears. Tell her how you feel. Girls like to hear things like that.

I sighed and sat at the edge of the couch. Kalli scooted closer to me. What’s wrong with you? You’re acting weird.

Nothing. I was just thinking.

She sniffed. About Wendy?

Was Kalli jealous? I was in uncharted water.

No. I was nervous because this feels like a date.

Kalli fidgeted. Oh.

Desperate to change the subject, I reached into my fanny pack and pulled out the bowl of ramen that I had saved for her.

Try this. It’s delicious.

The pyromancer looked at the bowl and asked, Did you use your mana on this?

No. This is a fresh bowl.

Kalli looked up at me. Show me what you do with your mana. I want to know.

Don’t you want to taste it first?

She shook her head. You tasted my mana. I want to know how yours tastes.

My brain suddenly began to melt. If there was an appropriate response to her suggestion, I didn’t know what it was. Was this the point where I was supposed to tell her that I liked her? I thought about asking Wendy for advice but that felt like it would be a betrayal of both girls if I did. I was on my own in uncharted waters. Coming up with nothing, I asked a question.

Are you sure?

Kalli had a determined look on her face, handing me a spoon and sending the thought. Show me.

I accepted the spoon and swallowed hard. I felt incredibly self-conscious. Kalli was watching closely as I pushed my mana through my channels toward the spoon in my hand. This time, when the mana leaked through my fingers and down the spoon, the goal wasn’t just to keep a firm grip on the utensil.

My mana had the same effect on the broth as it had the previous time. The liquid became so clear that we could see the noodles at the bottom of the bowl. Kalliphae watched wordlessly as I worked. Then she reached out and gently took the spoon from my hand and dipped it in the broth.

I held my breath as she slowly brought the spoon to her lips. It felt like an eternity before it went into her mouth. I wanted to ask what she thought but she closed her eyes and put the spoon back in the bowl. I nearly jumped out of my skin when she announced. It’s sweet.

I groaned.

I know. That’s weird, isn’t it?

Kalli smiled at me. No, I like it. The flavor of your mana reminds me of you.

A sudden wave of inspiration came over me.

I have an idea. Infuse the broth with your mana. I want to try it with both of our mana together.

She looked up at me, confused. But, it’s already hot Mel.

I shook my head and held out the spoon to her.

No. Not like that. Infuse it the same that way I did.

Kalli hesitantly took the spoon and looked a little uneasy. I don’t know how to do what you did. Can you teach me?

My blood thundered in my veins as I inched closer to Kalliphae.

I am going to focus on our connection to see how I can help you. Is that okay?

She smiled nervously at me. Thank you for asking. Do what you need to.

I turned my full attention to Kalli through our bonded connection. The first thing I felt was her pain. Kalli was very sore after her workout. I was surprised she could even walk.

Her pain made me wonder if my regeneration trait would work on her muscles the same way that it did for injuries and hitpoints. Somewhere along the line, I had stopped buffing her. It must have been when I left the group. It only took a small tweak to apply the buff to her.

Enhanced Regeneration: (Buffed)[Mate]

The sigh of pleasure that slipped out of Kalli’s lips told me that the buff had taken effect. What did you just do? That felt so good.

I just gave you a buff to help your legs heal.

She flashed me a smile and hugged me. Thank you. I didn’t want to say anything but my whole body aches.

I know. I can feel it.

She felt bad about that. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cause you pain.

Her gratitude made me uneasy.

It’s fine. I think I might be able to help a bit more.

Kalli yelped at first when I scooped her legs off of the floor and stretched them across my lap.

Sorry.

She sent me reassurance. It’s okay. I was just startled.

I could feel Kalli’s mana burning through her channels just below the surface of her skin. She was becoming quite adept at moving her mana throughout her body. However, her mana was a blazing fire that wanted to raze everything that it touched. It was the opposite of what was needed.

Since I wasn’t sure what my white mana would do to her aching body, I decided to try water. I debated giving myself a trait to boost my affinity to the element but Ki had warned me about adding too many traits. The cool sensation of water surged along both of my palms as I formed swirling balls of water to infuse my mana on each hand.

When I pushed the mana through it I felt a cool liquid wash over my outstretched hands that I had to repeatedly tell myself wasn’t sweat. I contained the liquid mana into a ball in both hands and informed Kalli.

This might be a little cold.

She watched anxiously as I pressed the balls of water into her calves. I let the mana flow over her skin and draw the heat out from both her damaged muscles and the flame that raged within her mana ducts.

So far, in my experiments, I had pushed mana into both my blood and its natural mana channels. This time I worked the mana into Kalli’s leg, avoiding both her blood and her mana. The goal was to permeate her soft tissue and her muscles with what I hoped would be soothing relief.

Kalliphae shuddered and the fire racing through her system surged to compensate. I focused my attack on her calf muscles, willing my mana to rejuvenate the muscle. To my surprise, my mana seemed to have a mind of its own and wanted to return to its natural form.

Unsure of what was happening, I allowed the water filter in my palm to dissipate. Kalliphae’s eyes snapped open the second the new mana penetrated her leg. What did you do? Something feels different.

I stopped using water. This is my natural mana.

She cooed at me. That feels so good. Keep doing that.

The mana slipped quietly under the skin and calmed the fire within Kalli as it passed by. I could feel her apprehension as her body interacted with my invading mana.

When it got to the worn-out muscle my mana wasted no time infusing itself directly into the troubled area. Before it dissipated, I felt my mana rejuvenating the muscle that it touched. A few seconds later, she had absorbed the mana then it was gone.

I looked up to see Kalliphae looking at her leg. I don’t know what you did, but it doesn’t hurt at all now. It actually feels good. Really good.

After that first muscle, Kalli made me do her entire body while happily pointing out, You know, I think you might be some kind of a healer.

I feel more like a masseuse.

She giggled. A what?

Someone who gives massages.

As I was working on her back, Kalli craned her neck to look up at me. Does this world have a class like that?

Yup.

She returned her head to the pillow and thought dreamily. You would be good at it.

Imbuing mana was a lot of work. By the time I finished, an hour had gone by and I was exhausted. Kalli sat up next to me and stretched. Wow. I can’t believe how good I feel. Can you do that to me every day?

I slumped next to her. Even though I was drenched in sweat, I was pleased that I had been able to do something nice for Kalli. It felt like I had won a few bonus points over her new friend Alex.

Sure. I’ll do that any time you need me to.

Was it possible that Kalli’s smile was just a little bit bigger than usual? Was now a good time to tell her how I felt? She interrupted my thought. That took a lot out of you, huh? I guess it’s my turn to take care of you.

I was about to ask her what she meant when Kalliphae pushed me down and hovered over me.

“Pvruzth”

I could feel the added control she had over the flames with her newly utilized mana channels. Her fire-fueled mana washed over me with even more precision than I was used to. Of course, I might have had something to do with the fact that I was now experiencing Kalli’s mana from her perspective as well.

Her flame cleaned me as usual, but I was surprised when I felt pressure against my body.

Are you massaging me with your flames?

Kalliphae giggled and nodded. I can’t push it inside like you can but I can at least do this much. I sometimes use it on myself to…well I can work out stress when I’m tired.

I grunted in satisfaction to show my pleasure. By the time she was done, Kalli had massaged me from head to toe and we were nearly out of time in the karaoke room.

She looked down at the now cold bowl of ramen. Oops, we forgot to add my mana.

Oh, right. We still have time.

When I focused on Kalli through our bond, I could tell that she was no longer in any pain. I smiled and focused on the mana flowing through her body. I placed the spoon in her hand and wrapped my hand around hers.

Feel what I’m about to do. Focus on my mana through the bond.

When I felt her mind focus on my body, I allowed my mana to flow through my channel down to my hand and let it wash over Kalliphae’s hand. She shuddered when she felt my invisible mana pass over her skin on the way to the spoon. Then I allowed the mana to coat the spoon until it connected to us through the mana.

Do you understand how I did that?

Kalli nodded at me, so I removed my mana and took my hand away from hers. The girl brought the spoon up to her mouth and licked it, smiling at me. Hey, there was leftover mana on the spoon. Occasionally, when I lived in the monastery, I was asked to do chores at the noble’s house. One time they asked me to do dishes and there was a spoon with something sweet on it. Your mana reminds me of that.

Great. My mana has diabetes.

She took the spoon out of her mouth and looked puzzled. What’s diabetes?

Something you get when you eat too much sugar.

Kalliphae beamed at me. I want diabetes.

Trust me. You don’t. It’s a sickness.

She was suddenly concerned. Are you sick?

No. I’m fine. It’s just a coincidence that my mana tastes that way.

The answer seemed to appease Kalli. She scrunched up her face and focused on the spoon. Her hand erupted into fire similar to what happened when she cast her Pvruzth spell. She frowned at me in confusion.

That was a good start. You can control where it goes even after it leaves your body. If it helps, don’t think of it as mana. Think of it as fire and make it flow around the spoon the same way as your spell.

Kalliphae started to sweat as she struggled to control her mana. The spoon blazed for a few seconds and started to glow orange. I wrapped my hands around Kalli’s and pushed my own mana out, allowing it to flow over hers.

The flames of Kalli’s mana turned a brilliant blue color as it mixed with mine. I combined my will with hers and coated the spoon with our newly mixed mana. Then I guided her to lower the spoon into the bowl of ramen.

The broth began to bubble and swirl in the bowl. We held our hands there for longer than I had intended. When I cut off my mana flow, Kalli noticed and mimicked my actions.

The result of our combined mana was mesmerizing. The broth had taken on a murky blue color. However, beneath the liquid, we could see glowing golden noodles. I hadn’t noticed anything special about them when I tried it earlier.

I have to try some of this.

Kalliphae stuck her tongue out at me and dipped her spoon into the bowl. Ladies first.

I grabbed a nearby fork and started twirling noodles around it while Kalli brought the spoon to her mouth. Melvin. You have to try this. It’s so good.

She didn’t wait for me to confirm and plunged another spoonful into my mouth. The warm syrupy liquid coated my tongue with a spicy flavor that danced playfully with the sweet texture from my own mana. Somewhere in the middle was the original flavor of the ramen.

Wow, we could open our own restaurant.

Kalli giggled. Yeah. We taste good.

I didn’t disagree. If our mana tasted good separately, it was twice as good together. When I swallowed the broth it coated my stomach in a layer of warmth. I pulled my fork out of the bowl, revealing golden noodles that glowed in the semi-darkness or the karaoke room.

Kalliphae opened her mouth to blow on the steaming noodles and I stuffed the fork into her mouth. She spluttered and then giggled and closed her mouth around the food. She only made one sound as she chewed. “Mmmmm”

Not wanting to miss the experience, I twirled some more noodles around the fork and plunged them into my mouth. The explosion of flavor didn’t remotely remind me of ramen anymore. The mana infused into the noodles satisfied me in a way that no food ever had. I could taste our combined mana in the noodles that melted in my mouth.

There was something more though. The noodles were saturated with mana and that was infusing itself into my body as I consumed it. The rush of raw energy that flooded into me made me feel like I couldn’t run out of mana even if I tried the summoning ritual again.

Kalli noticed it too. My mana is surging after I ate those noodles.

Its Ambrosia.

She swallowed and looked at me. What is that?

The food of the gods.

Kalliphae blushed and laughed nervously. I don’t think our mana is that good.

I wonder how much mana we can infuse into food. For that matter, did somebody tell you that it’s gross to eat someone else’s mana, or is that something that you just assumed?

The girl cringed and looked down. Yes. The other kids at the orphanage used to make fun of me for cooking my own food when I first awakened. They said that eating my mana was gross. That’s why I was nervous when you first did it.

Your mana tastes great. I bet we could market food like these noodles as either a mana potion. We might be able to earn some gold that way.

Kalli took another bite as she thought about it. I was suddenly distracted when Wendy’s voice came out of nowhere. Melvin, I’m sorry for interrupting you two but this isn’t working. My mana is just making a mess. When you are done with your date, can you show me how you did it?

I turned to Kalli and asked her a question.

Hey Kalli, did you mind if we go help Wendy with her mana? I know I promised that it would just be the two of us tonight but she can’t figure out how to infuse her ramen with mana either.

Kalliphae raised an eyebrow at me. Melvin Murphy. Are you in a group with Wendy?