(Dana)

James sat up suddenly screaming, scaring Dana awake, not that he noticed. The bright light of the sun bore into his eyes and every fibre of his being burned as if over worked.

His previously full stamina bar dropped rapidly, and he fell into a dreamless sleep again.

This left Dana awake and heavily shaken, but relieved nonetheless. She checked his status screen again and saw a big change she hadn't been expecting.

James Lander (Priest of Lucifer):

Level: -

Health: 90/90

Status effects: mana worn (1:20:13), unconscious (11:50)

What the hell had happened to him while he was unconscious for him to apparently be a priest. For the devil.

Dana sighed and dismissed it. It wasn't important right now. After she had healed him of both mana sickness and mana fatigue, his body had glowed blue lightly before his soft regular breathing became deep. The only status effect he had then was unconsciousness which would have lasted for up almost 6 more hours. She took that as a good sign and had slept next to him.

This new status effect seemed to be causing him pain when he was awake. A lot of pain, so she would have to work quickly before he woke up again. The starting stone was understanding what she had to do, so she started with the status effect itself.

Mana Worn (status effect):

After the mana channels in the body are fixed and refilled, they will grow once the body is ready at the cost of comfort.

Effect: max mana will increase while this is present, but will cause severe pain in the hosts entire body.

The good news was that this was something that couldn't kill James, but would help him. The bad news was that she had no idea how to speed the process along. She didn't know how to manipulate Mana channels.

What she did know, however, was that plants often had numbing effects, and she was in a garden of magical plants after all.

Dana ran out of the clearing using analyse on the first few medical looking flowers she could find.

Hp Bloom:

Hp: 5/5

Mp: 0/0

Greater Hp Bloom:

Hp: 9/9

Mp: 1/1

Health Palm:

Hp: 16/16

Mp: 2/4

Every flower that had any visible red that she could find were just health variations of the mana plants she had already used, but the last one might be some help if she used it right.

From what she could understand, the mana channels were where mana and the physical body mixed, so to help them grow, she could up his mana and health regeneration to hopefully reduce the time he would have this.

She carefully tried to drag him under his arms to where the nearest health palm was, and failing that, dragged him by an ankle.

As she neared the health palm, she saw the health regen in the top of her vision increase like it had before and made sure James was in range.

She used Single Mana Boost+ on him a few times but saw no effect. Even through Mana sight, the gathering mana just seemed to wait outside his body and stubbornly refuse to enter his core.

She shut off mana sight and impatiently waited until he woke again. His reaction was the same as the first time but immediately lessened. Seeing how he must be reacting to the increased health regen, she quickly used her spell and he calmed down instantly, collapsing in a sweaty pile.

She used most of her remaining stamina to analyse him again, and saw that Mana Worn was already down from well over an hour to just under. She just had to maintain this for a minute or two to completely heal him. Again.

As he was being helped through what was likely a painful growth spurt, he just lay on the floor, still sweating in pain, and gritting his teeth throughout.

But when it was done, he took a few deep shaky breaths and pushed himself into a sitting position.

His face looked haunted, and Dana had no idea what to say. He must have been through so much.

"What... The hell... was that?" He asked with a weak voice.

He looked at Dana and did the last thing she ever expected of him. He began to cry. Not a scared or a panicky cry, but one of relief. Tears ran down his face but he wasn't upset. She immediately fell to her knees, tears running down her own cheeks, and held him close. His own arms flopped around her back, and she almost laughed at the irony that was his current lack of strength.

"I should be asking you that. What the hell did you do to yourself?"

But before he could muster up the strength to answer, she began to cry harder and continued talking.

"I was so worried. I thought you died. Why? Why would you risk yourself for that stupid box? You can't just leave me behind. I. I can't do this on my own."

James stroked her hair and made calming noises as she let out all her frustrations at him and cried onto his bruised and battered body.

(James)

They sat like that for only a few minutes before James managed to calm Dana enough that she could talk normally to him.

"So what happened while I was out? I was told I was supposed to die and someone healed me. Was that you?"

Dana simply nodded and then recounted the previous evening. James stayed silent while she talked, as he didn't want to interrupt her. Not that he even needed too. She answered a lot of his questions, and he learnt the basics of mana along the way. Once she had caught him up, she immediately asked him how he got 'priest of Lucifer' next to his name.

James was actually shocked at that and quickly checked his status then swore under his breath. James was actually not surprised to see the title of prices next to his name. What surprised him was the onslaught of system messages he received as soon as he opened his status

Mana resistance has been learnt

Mana resistance has leveled up. Mana resistance is now level 2

Mana resistance has leveled up. Mana resistance is now level 3

Mana resistance has leveled up. Mana resistance is now level 4

Mana resistance has leveled up. Mana resistance is now level 5.

INT +1

WIS +1

Mana resistance has leveled up. Mana resistance is now level 6

.

.

.

Mana resistance has levelled up. Mana resistance is now level 25.

INT +1

WIS +1

Mana Resistance is ready to evolve. Evolve skill?

Achievement unlocked: Severe Survival 2

Magic resistance has levelled up. Magic resistance is now level 3.

Magic resistance has levelled up. Magic resistance is now level 4.

Magic resistance has levelled up. Magic resistance is now level 5.

STR +2

INT +2

Magic resistance has leveled up. Magic resistance is now level 6.

Apparently, the mana coursing through him that hadn't killed him had provided a path of growth.

He was now probably really hard to kill using any mana specific spells and had some decent defence against magic in general.

James sighed as he felt the future of being the team tank edging ever nearer.

Dana broke his self-loathing session with some questions of her own.

"So your health and mana pools have increased. Any idea what that's about? And also, why the hell areyou a priest to SATAN HIMSELF!?"

Dana wasn't particularly the most religious person, hence all the premarital debauchery, but she could tell that serving a demon was not a good idea.

James held his composure and calmly explained what he had experienced while his body was being healed.

Once he had caught up to the spine shuddering moments of sheer agony he felt whenever he was conscious with the mana worn effect, Dana just sat there with a disbelieving look on her face.

"That just raises so many more questions."

"And I'll answer them later. Right now though, I feel amazing. Let's see what's in the cache. Did you already look?"

Dana held a smug look on her face and crossed her arms.

"No. I was too busy stopping someone's body from dying under the weight of something irresponsible."

James merely paused as he strode up and offered his hand to her, pulling her up to her feet.

"And I'm sorry for that. And thankful. And guilty. All the above. Because of that, you get first lick- I mean pick."

The playful look in Dana's eyes returned, and she stared at his crotch as they walked, making him self-conscious about the entire situation.

"No take backs. But I will also have the first pick of this cache. You already got to meet a real God."

"Deity." James corrected her quickly. "I don't thing any of them are actual gods. Lucifer just kept calling them deities."

"What's the difference?"

James shrugged as they turned another corner.

"No idea. I'll ask him next time I see him."

Dana elbowed him lightly in the ribs, deliberately getting him just below the defensive plate. He noticed she had taken hers off.

"Where's your armour young lady?"

Dana jumped at the bit and instantly played the part of the edgy teen.

"Ugh. I dunno. I left it wherever. Stupid stuff smells anyway."

James laughed off the casual insult to his work. Feeling only a little harm to his pride.

"Yeah, well so do you."

"Ha. Look who's talking. We've both done so much exercise and not washed since almost two days ago. Man. I want a shower."

"Me too."

As the two reflected on what they would miss most about a lack of electricity, they almost walked on top of the partially destroyed cache.

Looking closely at it, James could see that he had punched clean through the surface and maybe an inch of a material he didn't recognise.

Disregarding it as a piece of divine magic he may never understand, James looked into the hole he had made. Sure there were things glittering inside, but he was still nervous to touch it.

Unfortunately, Dana was watching, and he would be damned if he gave her any more reason to make him owe her.

So he reached inside and grabbed a handful of whatever he could grasp first.

What he held in his hand was a couple of dozen gold coins, with roughly cut diamond shaped gems in the midst of them. The gems shone a light blue, and James could have sworn he saw a mist spinning inside it.

He poured his haul onto the floor at his feet and reached in again. The interior of the cache was way larger than it looked on the outside, and James had to strain to reach some of the furthest back items.

The total haul from the cache, besides the 150 gold coins, and 50 crystals were:

• A white and gold revolver with the numeral 1 carved ornately into its barrel

• A thick gold plated book named: The Seventh Sin, The Last Virtue.

• Another gold-plated book, but with an ivory and rich green spine called: The Witches Wondering Guide.

• Finally, a golden disk with a series of runes inscribed in a spiral on both sides.

"So. What do you want?"

James was honestly amazed at what he had scraped out of the cache. If any one of these items turned out to be as good as it looked, they were set.

Dana was deep in thought, and as he went through the items, he held off on analysing any of them. If he got attached to one and Dana took it, it might cause some friction.

"Well. I think the witches book is perfect for May. I have no idea what this disk is. Even when I analyse it; nothing."

James nodded to himself in agreement. That left the gun and the other book.

"Analysing the book mentions the sin of wrath and its corresponding virtue, patience. I think it's a spell book. I'll have the spell book."

James let go of the breath he didn't know he was holding. He knew that deep down, that gun belonged to him. It almost called out to him.

With Dana's choice confirmed, James carefully picked up the pistol by the grip, and careful to keep his finger well away from the trigger, gave it a once over examination.

In the ammo cylinders, he couldn't see bullets, but instead clear crystals, with a web of golden cracks running through them, in the general shape of a bullet. He hoped that he wouldn't have to make more ammo like this soon, or at all. He had some idea of where to start, but at his level, it would just be a pain.

He analysed the gun, keen to get an understanding of what exactly it was.

Spear Of The First Martyr (legendary) {unbonded}:

"James, son of Zebedee was one of the first to be called for his faith, and so, he was the first to be killed for his faith."

Quality: legendary

Condition: perfect

Attack Rating: A*

Level requirements: (-)

• Level 1: Blade Form

• Level 5: Assisting Mask

• Level 10: Efficient Casting

• Level 25: Rapid Casting

• Level 50: Smite

• Level 100: Spear of the Great

Stats gained: (-)

AGI +16

INT +12

STR +12

DEX +0

The stat gains looked really good, but holding it did nothing for James. Surely he should feel something when his agility essentially doubled.

"HAHA! it is a spell book."

Dana cried triumphantly at the open book in her hands. But her face fell from excited to confused.

"But I can't read it."

"How did you know it was a spell book then?"

Dana stared at him, and for a second, her eyes flashed a bright, almost white, blue. It was a shocking and stark difference from her usual piercing green.

"The book is filled with mana. Like a massive battery. But the mana is all kinds of shapes. Spells."

Her excited visage fell again as she turned to the open pages in her hands.

"But it's like the mana is hidden behind the pages. I can see It, but I can't touch it."

That sounded oddly familiar to James' issue.

"Does it say unbonded in the item title?"

"Yeah. Any idea of how to bond It?"

James actually thought about it for a moment. On a whim, he aimed the pistol away from them towards a bunch of fruit and pulled back the hammer. But he couldn't pull the trigger. It was like it was locked in place.

James let his head droop. Defeated.

"I don't know. Can you use mana force on the mana in the book?"

"No. Mana force only really works on my own Mana and the stuff in the air. Once the mana is in an item or a spell, it has no effect."

"Damn. What if I bleed on It?"

"Are you joking?"

James laughed at her disbelief.

"No. Really. People say stuff like blood bonds and shit when talking about family. Maybe we have to bond to these things before we can use them."

"In a messed up kind of way, that almost makes sense."

"I'll try it. How clean is your spear? Aaaaaand where is It?"

"Dunno," Dana stated simply with a shrug.

"Yeah. I'm not doing that bit again so soon. Can you fire this one? The last thing I want it to risk infection."

Dana was trying to make any sense of her new book, and so held out a finger.

"Say When."

James put the point of his spear in front of it.

"When."

Instantly, a stream of fire passed around the spear, leaving the point red hot.

James waved it about a bit and once he could touch the edge without being sure he would burn himself, he cut open his fingertip, deeper than he had intended to.

-1hp

Blood welled up quickly and he pressed it to the handle of the gun before the 1hp regenerated and he healed.

As soon as he put the cut on the gun, he felt himself weakening, and an odd sensation like the gun was pulling the blood from him, and taking his soul with it.

But a second later, the pulling feel was replaced with an explosive push, and James felt an immense strength flow into him. He felt a great potential too, like for a moment, he was standing in the shadow of his future.

And then it was over. He was still sitting next to Dana in the centre of the garden, breathing heavily.

Soulbonded weapon received: Spear Of The First Martyr

"Did it work?"

Dana distracted him from what might have devolved into a moment of messy pride.

"Uh. Wow. Yeah. Put some blood on it. Just... get ready."