“This has to be the most awful meal I’ve ever had.” Eshya says, chewing on the raw, spider flesh. After digging about in the guts of one with a sharp piece of metal fashioned into a dagger, we found the most mana dense organs and are now sucking the mana from them.

“Second most awful meal.” I say, spitting out a chunk of mana drained meat.

“What did you eat that’s worse than this?” She asks with a laugh.

“Ah… well…” I think it over, but it’s probably best not to be keeping secrets, and they’re not delicate princesses to be protected from these things. “Remember that big feast we had after the beasts flooded into town?”

“Yeah, that was pretty good though. At least waaay better than this.” Eshya says spitting out a chunk. Unfortunately holding the meat inside is the easiest way to collect the most mana from it. Eating it is still more efficient but…

“Yeah, but it was what we were eating that was bothering me.” I explain, “I… you guys did realize what they did with the dead, right?”

“What does that…? No… no, no, no, no.” Vii says, her eyes open wide as she looks for a lie in my words.

“It makes sense.” I say, “Why let good meat and mana go to waste. You know how desperate they were, it’s exactly the sort of thing they’d do.”

“We ate people?” Eshya screws up her face as she thinks about it.

Nel is quiet beside me, still chewing the mana from her mouthful of spider flesh. From her reaction, I have to guess that she figured it out already.

“Well, okay…” Eshya picks up more spider meat, “Is it strange that I’m not reacting like Vii?”

Vii is fluttering about, spitting up the spider meat and looking between us in growing shock.

“No! That’s ew, and I mean… that’s… What? No!” She shakes her head wildly, as Nel wraps her arms around her to calm her down.

“It’s okay.” She says, petting at her head, “It’s all okay.”

“It… it tasted good.” Vii says, looking through the rock wall and into the distance.

I groan as I step up, giving Vii a reassuring touch on the shoulder, before leaning in and hugging her as well. She starts crying, not weeping, but just standing there and letting tears fall from her eyes.

“I’m fine,” she says, wriggling out from between us and pacing. Nel stays close, watching her as I lower myself beside Eshya, careful not to worsen my injuries. Whether it’s the mana or something else, I feel like they’re closing up faster and better than they would have back on earth.

Eshya’s still chewing on raw flesh with a troubled expression. I take a chunk of meat for myself and lean against her side.

“Does it bother you?” I ask.

“It bothers me that it doesn’t bother me.” She says, with that same troubled expression, “I can’t help but think I might actually be beastly, like everyone thinks…”

“We like you the way you are.” I say, squeezing her shoulder.

“I… thank you,” She says relaxing a little, “Because to me it doesn’t actually seem that bad. I do get why you’re all upset by it, but, I mean, it was just meat by the time it was on the table.”

“It’s all about how you see it.” I say, slowly shifting the meat around my mouth and awkwardly talking around it, “At the time, I was distracting myself, pretty effectively too, but I when I think of that goat girl who died. I can’t help but wonder if that’s who I was eating…”

“Ah, so that’s it.” Eshya nods, much more relaxed as she grabs my hand and squeezes. “I’m sorry that you had to go through that.”

“It’s hardly your fault.”

“No, but I’m pretty good at letting go of thoughts like that. It’s why I’m not having as much trouble with this as the rest of you. A few of my sisters are like you and I always had trouble understanding them until one of my younger sisters explained it to me.

“She said that these thoughts like these are like a bad splinter. You can try your best to ignore it, but it’ll still be there pricking at you, at the edges of your senses. Sometimes you’ll be so busy that you don’t even notice it, but it’ll still be there, and when you go to bed and try to sleep it’ll be impossible to ignore.”

“That’s a pretty good way to describe it.” I admit, “Back then I didn’t quite feel it as bad, but…” I chew on more spider meat, “Honestly, whenever I look at meat now, I think back to that feast. I… I try to figure out which steaks were men, which were women, which beasts, which people.”

Eshya wraps an arm around my shoulder as I realize that I’ve been shivering.

“You don’t have to be strong all of the time, you know.” Eshya says, picking up some more spider meat but refraining, “Too much mana…”

“I need to be strong to get us out of this.” I say, “Not just this situation, but the next one too. If I want to escape the influence of people like Red, of the welfare officers, I’ll need to be strong.”

“Sure, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have nice moments like this, does it?” She says, smiling with spider blood covering her face like sauce after eating ribs.

“Ah yes, what a romantic little picnic we’re having down here.” I say, picking up the meat she left behind. I haven’t been able to fill up my mana since I last used my exploit, which was really only about a day ago.

Time still feels like it’s moving slowly with all that’s going on.

“For our standards it’s pretty romantic. We’re not currently in the act of killing things or training.” She says, moving her hand up my thigh.

I place my hand on hers, both covered in slimy spider juices.

“Eshya, is now really the time? I mean I’m not entirely disinterested, but the spider guts are a bit of a turn off. My stab wounds are another issue. We should spend our time doing something to prepare.”

“Boo.” She pouts, wiping at the blood on her face. I’d at least give her a kiss if our mouths weren’t so freaking filthy. It wouldn’t make either of our mouths any filthier, but I mean, I don’t want to be sharing spider juices with her.

“When we get back, we should take a day off. Do something fun.” Eshya says, “I think that would be good for all of us.”

“Yeah, let’s do that.” I say shaking my head, “I shouldn’t have dragged us down here this morning. It was stupid of me.”

“No stupid was goading the welfare officers. This was the other half of the plan to get you to slow down, and I think it’s worked.” She slaps me on the back. We both panic for a few moments checking that my wounds haven’t started bleeding again, which thankfully they haven’t.

“What have you two been up to?” Nel asks as she comes back over with Vii, who’s calmed down considerably.

“This and that,” Eshya says with a smile.

“We just came to the realization that I’ve been a bit stupid, and that we need some real rest,” I say.

“Oh? Good.” Nel says a little taken aback, “I thought it would still be a few days before you realized.”

“Ouch.” I step back as if injured.

“How are your wounds?” She asks.

“Fine. The bleeding has stopped.” She checks over them anyway. Awkwardly shining her light all around, as she gets a good look all over me.

“Sorry about making a fuss.” Vii says, bowing her head.

“Don’t apologise for stuff like that.” I say firmly, “In fact, it was a very appropriate reaction to learning that you’ve eaten people.”

“I guess so…” She says with a laugh and a sigh, “This is all just so much.”

“It has been from the first day we got on that ship.” I say with a shake of my head, “When we get out of here we’ll take a few days off, do some shopping and, I don’t know, chill out in the baths?”

“Is that your idea of a date?” Vii asks, supressing a laugh before swallowing with a slightly haunted look. She quickly recovers with another smile, this one a little less honest.

“I… uh… Nel, things to do in the academy other than chasing ghosts and studying?” I ask.

“There are a few nice enough places, I suppose. We could visit some when we’re done here.” Nel says thoughtfully as she neatens the makeshift bandages on my wounds.

“Well, back to the now, I guess. Have we had any luck in terms of weapons?” I ask, looking around at the scrap still filling the room.

“I found a sword.” Eshya says, “Or at least the blade of one, but the mana density is a little heavy.”

“Can you still use it?”

“I can make it work.” She says, “But I’ll have to be careful.”

“I’ve found a few shards of metal that I’ve sharpened. I’m thinking of imitating Red’s knife throwing.” Nel says, “Though with them being this mana dense it’ll be difficult to throw them…”

“I’ve got my talons.” Nel says cheerfully, “And my wind magic.”

“How are you able to throw so many spells?” I ask, “Any attack that actually does anything for me wastes so much mana it’s a little ridiculous.”

“Talent.” She says as she waves her wing, “It helps conserve mana, and gives me the instincts to make the casting more efficient.”

“Shouldn’t I have talents too? I mean that’s what the whole, ‘you’re in the combat course’ thing was about, wasn’t it?”

“Yeeeaah, that entire test, and the idea that everyone has a talent, it's all bullshit. True talents are rare.” Vii says, shocking Nel and Eshya more than she does me. I mean it isn’t that much of a surprise, is it?

“What?” Nel asks, “That’s… where are you learning all these things?”

“Ah!” Vii shouts as she looks away.

“I mean that one seemed rather obvious to me, too.” I say, shaking my head, “It’s weirder to me that talents are treated so seriously here.”

“Yes, we already know that you’re from a mana desert.” Eshya says, “Vii’s opinion is more surprising for us who are familiar with magic.”

“Hey, I’m familiar with magic.” I declare. “See my new spell popped this one’s shell open.”

“And how much mana did you waste in it?”

“Only about 40 mana density this time.” I add excitedly.

“That’s… wow…”

“Pretty good, isn’t it?”

“Such a waste of mana…” Eshya says with a shake of the head.

“What? Really?”

“Any of us would suffer mana shock from losing that much of our mana so quickly.” She says, “It’s the reason only Vii is using magic. Her talent makes it workable.”

“Okay, that means I’m pretty impressive, I guess.” I say with a laugh, picking up a small chunk of metal. It is unfortunately sharp, but it tingles on my fingers and is more difficult to lift than Newton could easily explain.

“I… wonder.” I carefully place the metal in my mouth. It tastes just like one would imagine metal to taste like, except extra prickly. The mana in it is a bit more resistant to being drawn out, but I still can absorb it.

“I suppose you are something… special.” Nel says.

“Are you sucking on old shards of metal you picked off of the floor?” Vii asks.

I pluck the metal out of my mouth.

“It tastes bad, but it gives a good hit of mana.” I say placing it back in my mouth.

“That will be dangerous while fighting.” Eshya says, picking through the metal and putting some in her mouth too. After a few seconds she pulls it from her mouth with a foul expression. “The mana friction makes my tongue tingle.”

“It does, it does.” I say around the shard.

“I really must concur with Nel and Vii. There’s something special about you. How quickly you can absorb mana is… incredible.” She shakes her head.

“It might be her mana form.” Vii suggests, far less certain than about other things she’s brought up this morning.

“You think her mana form being unformed might allow her to break down mana easier?”

“Instead, it might be she has a unique mana form, rather than one unformed.” Vii says, “Maybe being exposed to a comparatively high mana environment has allowed her to process mana more easily or…”

As they talk about me, I shove about in the wreckage of Barry’s brothers to find something to snack on. Surely advanced machines would be filled with mana dense thingies and whatnots.

My search turns up many large plates and sharp-edged bits and pieces, but only a few small spherical, crystalline orbs that seem to still have some mana in them. Perhaps I can even store my mana in them a little better than with my food.

With excitement, I start flooding my mana into the orb, hoping for a more efficient form of my exploit. Part way through, my skin starts getting clammy, and I can feel a headache start forming.

I check and find my mana density is around 100 and dropping. When I stop, the symptoms stop progressing, but I still feel my heart beating out of my chest. I press the crystal into my mouth and start sucking up my mana again.

It takes a little more time to draw the mana out of the stone than it would for food, but it’s not too long before I’m feeling better.

“Kyra? I’ve been calling out to you, is something wrong?” Nel asks, rubbing my shoulder.

“Yeah, mostly. I think my mana form has started being a thing. I just tried to empty my mana and started feeling real cold and shit.” I say, “I’m better now, though.”

Nel’s hand clasps harder on my shoulder, “Please don’t be so reckless.”

“Only when necessary.” I say, “I guess my mana exploit is finished. What great timing for it too… At least we’ll be taking a break when we get back up to the surface.”

“Yes, and that break should be quite nice.” Nel says with a long sigh, “Don’t get overstressed about it, there is still plenty of work and training that we can do that won’t be a risk even with Adler watching us.”

“I guess…” I admit, begrudgingly as I watch Eshya training with Barry. Her sword seems a little awkward in her hands, likely because of the mana density issue she was talking about. You would think that the mechanical man would need a sword of his own, but he’s going through the motions with his mechanical imagination alone.

She’s improving at a frightening speed.

Literally.

Each attack is faster, and she’s moving with a speed that I certainly can’t match.

“Faster,” Barry insists, “You must move faster. The sword is shorter than a spear, and has less range than magic and bows, thus you must be faster than your opponents.”

I’d like to practice as well, but my wounds, while no longer bleeding, are still far from healed. Nel and I have to be careful, because with the fight ahead of us, we can’t risk further injury.

“Are those beasts still out there?” I ask Vii who’s standing guard by the door.

“Yep! Still running about, but they haven’t figured out how to open doors yet. Or maybe, the doors won’t open for them. Or maybe, without hands the mana won’t work with the sigil quite right.” She continues to run through possibilities for a while longer.

After a surprisingly short amount of time Eshya is wielding her sword with impressive skill, but she seems to be a little too interested in fighting on until she’s numb and breathless on the ground.

“Okay, listen up.” I gather their attention, “Before we run out of energy, or start dehydrating, let’s work on getting out of here.”

“What’s your plan?” Eshya asks, waving Barry to be quiet.

“Let a few in, close the doors, kill them, and repeat.” I say with a shrug, “They seem dumb enough that it might work.”

“I like it.” She replies with a bright smile, still stained with bug guts.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Stats & Skills

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 224 units

~Mana distribution:

Skin: 21%

Muscle: 7%

Mind: 3%

Cardiovascular: 7%

Misc.: 1%

Efficiency: 39%

~Skills:

-Mana skin

-Mana shield.

-Mana surge strike

-Flame burst

-Fireball

-Infused Delayed Casting