Even though he was submerged within a well, James didn’t even lack air. It wasn’t that hard to conjure oxygen when you had mana. Oxygen was simplicity itself compared to some of the other stuff he had been conjuring.

And with his cells coated in a thick layer of mana, which at this point expanded even way beyond his body, James was finally safe within the Bloodwell. He could stay there for as long as he wanted, provided he kept fueling his mana coating that is.

Without being in a rush anymore, he could absorb as much energy as he wanted. And he planned on taking every single ounce of it.

Seeing as the Prongs were doing their job well, James kept spawning as many of them as he could.

And yet, the Bloodwell had such an unimaginable mass of energy that there was still just too much left. He needed a lot more Prongs.

Even though he wasn’t actively consumed by the Bloodwell anymore, he didn’t feel like spending any more time than necessary. A lot of his flesh all over his arms, legs and torso had been partially dissolved. He needed to get back to Lunaris and get some healing as soon as possible.

But the fact that he wasn’t being dissolved anymore gave him an idea. He was spawning them quickly, and they were quite resistant by now. And yet, he was still losing a lot of Prongs to the Bloodwell.

However, if he could stop himself from being dissolved, then that certainly could be done for the Prongs as well.

Luckily, he could freely spend as much mana as he wanted. Just because he spent mana, that didn’t mean it was wasted. By the time it was converted into mana he could use, he had already benefited from it. The main effect of the energies of the Bloodwell was the transformation of his body, mana pool, mana recovery rate and even his magic power. The extra mana he had to spare was just a temporary bonus.

Without hesitation, James sacrificed an entire half of the mana he was getting from the Prongs every second. Instead of the Prongs transferring that mana into him, the Prongs would diffuse the mana around themselves.

The resulting coating wouldn’t be as efficient as the one he was applying on himself, since he was sacrificing a whole lot of mana on his own coating, a lot more mana than a single Prong could provide. But this measure would still significantly slow down the dissolving process for each Prong.

Even though he basically halved down the mana he had available, James was happy with the trade-off. The Prongs were visibly much less affected by the Bloodwell.

And now, any Prongs he summoned would last much longer. However, James didn’t slow down on conjuring Prongs at all.

His mana pool had become gargantuan, to the point he wasn’t even noticing the mana expenditure of the Prongs. And due to his vastly increased magic power, with each wave he was creating more Prongs than the wave before, to the point he was now creating hundreds of Prongs with a single wave of his hand.

Naturally, he couldn’t exactly move one of his hands due to the effects [Split Mind], not that moving the stump of what was left of that hand would be of much use. But he was still able to conjure magic with it. So even though he was only ‘waving’ his hand in his mind, hundreds of Prongs were being spawned nonetheless.

Because the Prongs were now more durable, it didn’t take long until James had found himself surrounded by several thousand Prongs.

He finally reached a point where the Bloodwell was visibly being drained.

But even through his [Split Mind], all the pain from his dissolved flesh was becoming impossible to tolerate. Even though the Prongs he had already were probably enough to suck the Bloodwell dry eventually, James didn’t want to be here for a second more than he absolutely had to.

So he kept throwing out Prongs like a madman. Not long after, what must’ve been at least ten thousand Prongs were draining the Bloodwell, but James still wasn’t stopping. Ten thousand, twenty thousand, thirty thousand. Only when James had around forty thousand Prongs he finally stopped.

At this point he couldn’t see anything but Prongs. The Bloodwell was enormous and unfathomably deep, but it would have to be infinite to resist being drained by this many Prongs.

James was perfectly safe, and the small amount of healing he was capable of had stopped most of his bleeding. Even though his body was in dire straits, he wasn’t in danger of dying right away.

And yet, he was drifting in and out of consciousness.

There was just too much energy in the Bloodwell. Even though his Prongs were accomplishing the seemingly impossible feat of draining this immense quantity of energy, actually absorbing it was too much for his mind, body and soul to handle.

James tried to fight it, but the energy was overwhelming. He could just stop absorbing it, but he needed every ounce of power he could get. A real man didn’t give up this easily, not when there was so much to gain.

Throwing all caution to the wind, James kept absorbing. But while his body and soul were still enduring, it was too much for his mind to handle. Despite his best efforts, he passed out.

He was in a deep slumber, but a sliver of his subconscious could still feel his surroundings. He could feel the energies congregating within his body and soul, expanding them, transforming them, molding them.

But he could also feel a hostile entity trying to infiltrate him along with the energies.

And it succeeded.

It entered his mind and soul almost effortlessly.

But to its surprise, James was aware of it. Inside the void within James’s mind, they were staring at each other.

The blood-soaked entity trembled. It obviously didn’t expect James to notice it, much less be so fully aware of its existence.

James smiled at the creature for a brief second. He looked around and inspected his mind’s space. Besides the entity, he could see the scars of the many other attempts at his mind. The attempts of the agents and of the Darkness itself had left their traces.

He could even see someone that looked like himself in this space. A dark and distorted version of him, much bigger than his real self. But it was chained and wounded, unresponsive.

It didn’t take long for him to figure out that this was his demon side. It had grown so much when he was new to this world, but it had been locked away after he had been cursed.

He then turned back to the entity, which was staring at him in shock. The blood-soaked creature was a grotesque amalgam of countless eyes and limbs, all staring and pointing at James.

But James wasn’t afraid. He wasn’t worried at all. Looking around his mind space, other people might have panicked. But James felt triumphant. All of these were reminders of his mind’s victories over those who tried to take over it. Even while looking at his demon self, he only felt proud of what he had become without it. All the energy and power that emanated from it paled in comparison to his powers now. Although he still had use for it.

And now, this grotesque specimen that was staring at him would just be the most recent of the additions to his collection.

James pointed a finger at it, and it was immediately pulled towards him. This was his mind’s space, and he was God within it. This creature thought it could hijack it, and it would pay the price for its transgression.

James opened his mouth wide. It expanded until it was twice the size of the creature. It was James that looked like the monster now.

With no hesitation, he swallowed the creature whole.

And just like that, it was gone.

As if the two events were linked, his body had simultaneously finished absorbing the Bloodwell. Even from the safety of his mind space, the power he was feeling was overwhelming. He had no real lungs in the mind space, and yet he felt like he was suffocating from the sheer amount of power radiating from his own body.

His eyes shot open immediately.

He found himself surrounded by his friends. Lunaris was in tears, healing him frantically.

Seeing as he was finally awake, they immediately sighed in relief.

Lunaris was about to say something, but hugged her preemptively. Even though his wounds made it hard to even speak, that didn’t matter to him right now.

“I know, I know. I’m sorry. It was a horrible thing to put you through, you must’ve been so worried. But I had to do it. I’m sorry, and I can’t promise that I won’t have to do such stupid things again in the future. But what I can promise is that everything I do, I do it for you guys.”

This time around, Lunaris chose to not lecture him. He knew how stupid it was, and yet he did it anyway. She could only hope that he would be more careful in the future.

She knew he didn’t do these kinds of things for himself, so she chose not to nag him anymore. Besides, she couldn’t help but notice the air of maturity around him. Even his apology seemed a lot more mature and level-headed.

James turned around to Helios, giving him a salute and shaking his hand. Helios smiled and gave him an approving nod, though James could notice the stress and worry in his face.

Not long after battling the agent, which was stressful enough, James had jumped into the Bloodwell. He knew he’d make his friends worry, and he hated that, but he needed that power for their sake.

James really hated that he had put his friends through such things. He really wanted to make it up to them, and so he decided that he’d definitely have to do something extra nice for them. Although he already made this same promise to himself at least a hundred times.

Still, the crazy endeavor had been worth it.

He could feel it. It was subtle, and he was too wounded to analyze the feeling. But the world definitely felt different. It was like a new realm had opened up, and he was seeing the world through new eyes.

[Trait unlocked: Embodiment of Mana]