The skill started and he instantly started to feel his energy recover. That was expected. However, he couldn’t limit his skill. Even with Priscilla’s efforts, she couldn’t stop the skill from taking effect. His body was healing, and he could feel his disordered thoughts disappearing. They didn’t vanish from his memories, but just kind of fixed themselves into a place. The confusion and conflict he had been feeling were somehow less now. Some of his hesitation and doubt about the current plan diminished. His current course of action felt more set in stone, but he tried to resist it. This was not the only thing that had led him down his path, but he knew that it had a big impact. The skill was forcibly building his own resolve.

He never would’ve imagined a healing effect to be a cost of using a skill. The way it helped clear his mind of doubts and reestablish his norm was disturbing now. The bigger problem was that the skill was too necessary to ignore. Unlike the others who had enough wisdom to rely on natural regeneration to recover their mana, Mash had too much energy. His wisdom was simply too low to overcome the necessity of this skill. He wanted to stop it from influencing his mind though.

[Try injuring yourself. Perhaps it won’t heal both things.]

Mash didn’t waver and immediately stabbed his thigh with his right hand. His fingers sharpened into claws as he dug into the leg. He had to stop his meditation to do so but started again right away. This time the healing did work slower. Or rather it was focused on restoring his leg first. It significantly slowed his energy recovery but did seem to halt his mental one. It worked but he knew that it was a poor method.

“What are you doing?”

Luke bent over to heal Mash. His hand immediately went to Mash’s leg. Mash had to rush to get his words out, otherwise Luke would’ve healed the wound completely.

“Stop! No, don’t heal me. I’m trying to control the skill.”

Seeing Luke stop, Mash returned to the matter at hand. This method was flawed in that it reduced his energy recovery too much. Plus, he would need to regularly injure himself to even recover a third of his energy.

[Priscilla, try to stop any magic from going to my head.]

She could do some things independent of him, and he hoped that she could use anti-magic to stop his own skill. Even if other aspects of his body were magical, this was a risk he was willing to take. Especially since Luke was literally standing mere inches from him. Even if something went wrong, he wasn’t alone this time.

[Yes. I will tell the others of your plan as well.]

Mash gave her a mental nod and continued using his meditation skill. He focused on the skill and tried to mold it around his head. It was a function of energy, and he should be able to manipulate it. He knew that skills could change, and he was hoping to do exactly that. He wanted to be able to alter the skill and make it leave his mind alone. Even if the skill became weaker for it.

Mash felt when Priscilla’s anti-magic started. It felt like someone had dunked his head in ice water. A shiver ran down his entire body, and his vision blurred. His mind grew dizzy like someone had spun him around a dozen times. What was happening? He was trying to figure out what was causing such a reaction but maintained his skill. He could feel that his energy was recovering, and he knew that the plan was working. Well, it was kind of working. His energy recovery was fine, and his mental state wasn’t healing but there was a consequence. It felt like he was doing damage to his mind in the process. It seemed like he was reliant on his energy to maintain his normal behavior. Even beyond that, he needed energy to even see properly at this point.

That probably meant that there was a constant drain on his energy, but it was normally so insignificant that he wouldn’t notice. Now that he had stopped any energy from reaching his mind, he realized that he couldn’t survive without it. Energy might as well be considered life at this point. Still, he held on. Only once his energy was fully restored did he let the skill end. He let out a long sigh and saw Luke looking at him anxiously. His friends were all watching very carefully. Priscilla had told them about what he was doing, but that didn’t mean that they would just relax because they knew though. Seeing their faces, he knew he needed to respond.

“I think it worked?”

Mash phrased it more like a question than he meant, but he wasn’t certain either. Red spoke up, her words reminding Mash of something obvious.

“Check your status. How many times are you going to need a reminder?”

Her tone told him just how tired she was of reminding him of that. She wasn’t the only one. Mash tended to try and use his domain or Priscilla to check his condition. He didn’t really know why either, but actually checking his status was something he only ever did when he leveled. He did it now though.

Inhuman Hibernation (Broken): You have stolen the techniques of mages and monks to form an artificial technique, your inhuman body morphing it to fit your corrupted nature. Hibernating will increase the rate at which your body recovers, healing only physical wounds.

Current Rate: +200% recovery

Mash’s mouth fell open as he saw the changes. It was worse than he expected. The skill lost its capacity to heal him outside of physical injury. That was bad. He was already resistant to physical wounds. It was usually attacks on his soul or something that was really problematic. His skill had helped him recover when he damaged his core too, and now it wouldn’t do that either. It was arrogance. So far, all the changes to his skills had been positive, and he had become complacent. He expected a change to the skill would mean an improvement. He shut his eyes, to try and avoid the faces of his friends. He started telling them of the change but didn’t want to see their reactions. He couldn’t hide from them with his domain. It showed him everything, even if he didn’t want to see it.

“I messed up. The skill says it's broken now, and it will only heal physical injuries.”

Even with his eyes shut, he saw the confusion on their faces. Their disoriented eyes focused and their reactions varied. Red was definitely looking at him like he was an idiot. Jill frowned deeply, but it was Luke’s reaction that was most surprising. His breathing quickened, and he started muttering something loudly.

“Mash, you needed that skill. You were the only one who could heal yourself. You barely take physical damage. You also get hit a lot. How are you going to deal with that? Unlike Jill, you can’t just teleport to me if you need heals. What is your plan now?”

Luke was speaking quickly, though he wasn’t really seeking a response. It felt like he was venting his thoughts as if he was releasing more than just his concern for this moment. Red was nodding along with everything Luke was saying. Mash was still seated on the ground, and Luke was looming over him as he spoke. Mash wanted to stand and meet Luke’s eyes. He needed to calm Luke down, but he didn’t get the chance as the Kishiv started moving. The large group of people began entering the portal, and Mash was distracted as several Elders were walking toward them. Thinking quickly, he grabbed Luke’s shoulder and shook him roughly while mouthing the word later. He turned Luke a little so that he could see the elders. Thankfully, that was enough to calm him down.

“We do need to figure something out.”

Red added before the elders had come into earshot. Mash caught Jill rolling her eyes and receiving a glare from Red in return. It seemed like Jill wasn’t very worried. She would probably say something later. Now, they had something else to deal with. All of them waited for the elders to start speaking and just waved at them. There were four elders total, though Mash only recognized SerJi and AvJi. The other two elders wore different colors too. SerJi and Avji wore their suits, while these two wore pink robes. They were bright and made for an interesting contrast with their bone white skin and pitch-black teeth. Those teeth would never seem natural. Elder SerJi started to say something when he got close.

“We have begun the Great Transfer.”

Mash choked on nothing and cleared his throat. The noise was more intimidating than he intended, and the two elders who had seen his battle with the wyvern flinched. The two new elders seemed much older and more confident. They had noticeable wrinkles around the eyes, and Mash wondered how old they were. He knew that SerJi was several hundred years old, and he still didn’t have any signs of great age.

His body tensed when the elders stopped. Mash expected one of them to blame him, to demand something that he couldn’t do. Neither did though, instead, they both bowed to Mash. He reacted quickly placing one hand on each of their shoulders and he pulled them up. The movement was too quick, and their eyes opened wider. However, Mash didn’t want them to bow. That was not something he wanted from any of them. All he was doing was making reparations for his mistakes. If anything, he should be the one bowing his head. He was about to do just that but was stopped as one of the new elders started speaking.

“Hello, I am Elder SerVi. My brother has told me much about your world. I am excited to explore it.

The elder who had spoken indicated toward SerJi. Mash couldn’t really tell that they were siblings. With how all of them had matching skin and hair colors, which made it difficult to discern any differences among them. The relation didn’t really matter much, he was more curious about what they had said prior.

“What do you mean by Great Transfer?”

He didn’t like how grandiose they were making this sound. It sounded like the kind of thing people would attribute to a god or prophet. He did not want to be treated as anything special. In his mind, all he was doing was correcting his mistakes.

“Regardless of the cause, this day will have great significance to our people for the foreseeable future. It is appropriate to give it an appropriate name.”

The elder’s response made sense, and Mash could tell that it was already too late to change it. It had clearly already been spread, and nothing he could do would change it. The elders spoke of their plans while they waited for all of the people to pass through the portal.

These four elders would begin to organize the people and start the construction of several cities. Mash took this opportunity to say that he would prefer more normal cities, rather than this blocky structure. He didn’t have a great reason for it, but they didn’t ask him for one. They agreed but mentioned they would need more space. Mash happily granted them whatever space they wanted. Even if they took up twice as much space there would still be plenty left over. His world was large, even bigger than he could picture. The elders had done something to estimate the size and implied that there should be several other continents outside of the one he opened a portal to. Eventually, he would fly around his world, but it would take too long for him to do it now.