Chapter 347 Volume V - Chapter 65: Slowly Forward
After a couple of hours, we decided to take a break again. Even though we still had a long way to go to get out of the plain, we had made much progress. I even thought we would take a break earlier. But there was also an important side to this break.
The night was approaching again. We had almost two hours to go. And I... I wanted to concentrate on what could be our ticket out of here.
The place we chose to rest was nothing special. We simply collapsed where we were. Lucia and Sue stood off to one side, while I sat cross-legged in a spot slightly away from them and closed my eyes.
First, I called out to my mind.
'Lithoa, I'm going to try using ordea.'
A being whose presence and absence in my mind were one and the same suddenly surfaced. An old voice I was used to hearing echoed.
'Go ahead, don't pay much attention to me. I'll just observe.'
I nodded, then completely absorbed in what was in my mind.
First, I slowed down my breathing, rhythmically regulating it. Then I began to dull my senses. The howling of the wind, which I could only hear in fragments, slowly ceased, and the slight warmth against my skin began to fade.
I didn't do anything different from before, I was just... more concentrated this time. Again, I imagined good things, I offered them to the energy of the order called ordea, and then I asked for it gently.
My body slowly began to warm up. A relaxing feeling came over me. Then the world behind my eyelids simply turned slightly blue. Ordea was enveloping my body.
I couldn't help frowning slightly, because, despite the peace I felt, I couldn't help being surprised.
The last time it had been quite a challenge... I had to make a claim for it to even answer my simple wish. Why is it so... simple now?
I focused on the ordea, the blue-colored energy. I had given my all to healing the previous time, so I hadn't had a chance to examine this new power, this new energy that I was able to use. But it was different this time.
And so the first thing I realized was that the ordea, as easy as it was to use, was a bit... weaker than before.
Is that why I could reach it more easily this time? Or was it because I won the bet with it...? After all, I told it never to leave my side if I won the bet.
Well, I think the answer is both...
I quickly regained my focus and asked the ordea to slowly spread throughout my body, to start healing me, and the comforting warmth and peace I could feel suddenly increased. The world behind my eyelids became bluer.
As my body was slowly healing, step by step, I continued to study the ordea with great curiosity. For example, I focused on how it healed me. And what can I say...
the energy of order... it really deserved its name.
It wasn't healing, what it was doing. I mean, from the outside, it looked like that indeed... but when I looked specifically at what it was doing, what I saw and felt was very different. Ordea... was literally reconstructing damaged areas.
I recall that what is called 'healing' is basically divided into three categories, or at least that's how it's supposed to be, as I remember from the academy.
Simple healing works directly by abnormally increasing the rate at which cells regenerate. This causes the healed person to get hungry and tired more quickly. However, since it is based on simple cell regeneration, things like healing broken bones or regenerating severed limbs with this method are just dreams.
In advanced healing, mana is involved rather than accelerating cell regeneration. Mana is an energy that can mimic anything, and advanced healing techniques take advantage of this feature. With this method, broken bones can be healed, and wounds that would normally leave scars can be removed as if they never existed. But it is still not a cure for severed limbs.
The last category of healing is called straightforward Regeneration. In this method, cell regeneration is completely irrelevant. Flesh, bone, blood... they are formed directly under the person's own control. In this way, even severed limbs can be regenerated. But there are very few people who can heal at this level. Like the girl I met when I went to Lithoa's family. Her name was... Claire? The healing method she used was regeneration.
But ordea... it's something else. It doesn't heal me. It's like... it puts my body back into the form it was originally meant to be in. It's not just copying my flesh and blood from existing ones, it's... redesigning and rebuilding them from nothing.
It makes my body conform to the order.
And so, time continued to pass. And ordea continued to do its work, even though it felt much weaker than before. I studied it further, but this time, I found nothing different that interested me. It was simply... a mysterious energy.
*******
The green of the sky slowly gave way to darkness. As always, the ground trembled, the mana in the atmosphere slowly awakened.
It was something I was getting used to. So I didn't pay much attention, I did what I always do. I protected myself from the dizzying effect of the awakened mana and looked at the person sitting cross-legged not far from me.
There was that blue glow around his body again. A glow that was comforting but at the same time... strange.
Adrian's eyes were closed, but it was clear that he was not asleep but wide awake. His features were sharp, not relaxed. It was only as night began to fall after he had been standing still for almost two hours, that he finally stirred.
First, his emerald green eyes, which he had kept closed, opened, and then he turned them up to the sky, which was giving way to darkness. Slowly rising from the floor, he finally took a deep breath and turned toward Sue and me. He moved his lips without giving us a chance to speak.
"There's nothing to worry about, I'm fine. I can fight. In fact... we don't even have to be afraid of wolves anymore, I guess. Unless they choose to abandon their 'traditions' and descend upon us, of course."
Sue swallowed behind me, and I could only nod in agreement as I studied his body.
It didn't look any better than before, actually. If he really had found a way to heal himself, I could tell that he hadn't noticeably recovered from the two hours he'd spent today just sitting cross-legged. But... he looked more relaxed than he ever had before.
So... he must be fine, right? If he's really that confident... I hope he knows what he's doing.
I curled my lips up slightly and gave a thumbs up.
"We trust you."
Adrian smiled back, then his expression turned slightly serious and he took his eyes off us. The wolves started howling, one by one, at this very moment. Then they surrounded us as they had done on previous occasions.
I couldn't help sighing deeply when I realized that I wasn't as filled with fear as before, that I was looking at the wolves as if they were ordinary creatures.
Adrian will win, I trust him, so when I think that the wolves won't attack us... I seem to be getting comfortable with them.
I closed my eyes, and let myself fall to the ground. Sue didn't move, she just kept watching. Adrian started walking in front of the wolves. I could hear his footsteps.
I didn't care, instead, I slowly detached myself from the outside world, turning off my senses one by one. I continued to strengthen my body using the awakened mana as I had done for many nights, nothing different would happen today.
Adrian will win, I will recover, I will support and strengthen myself with mana throughout the night, then the night will end and we will do what we have been doing. That's how our days will go until we get out of this plain... at least that's what I imagine.
And... that's what happened.
Adrian must have really recovered, because this time, he simply defeated the wolf he was facing. Then the wolves disappeared again into the darkness. I spent the first half of the night training, slept the other half, and when I woke up the next morning, we kept moving forward.
Another day-night cycle ended as it was.
And then another.
And another one...
Adrian kept tending to that blue, soothing energy he was just now able to use. I continued to heal, to get stronger, and Sue... as always, followed us. She took care of things like the food, and our general condition.
Sue was definitely the one I thought about and worried about the most. But... she seemed to be okay for now. She was just doing her best to survive. It didn't look like she had any serious problems yet. So I didn't do much more than watch her.
So... time just kept going.
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