lina hesitated for only a second. Only for a brief did she wonder whether she should get involved. The next mont, she was already by Leon's side.
"Put on a hard surface like a table and make sure nobody else enters the room!" lina instructed.
The adventurers looked confused at first, seeing her suddenly take charge of the situation.
"It's an order! Lay him on a table and get everyone who can't help out!" Alistair commanded.
Guildmaster asked in confusion. "W-What are two–?"
"I'll explain later! Every second counts if we want to save him," lina said, running after the adventurers who carried him into a separate infirmary room. It had what looked like an operating table on which they laid down the convulsing mage.
lina hurriedly took a feyfruit out of her and gave it to Sienna to eat. She had packed it along with a few other treats, expecting the wyrm to be exhausted after the fight. Sienna swallowed it almost instantly.
"I'm going to need your mana, my friend," lina whispered to the wyrm, giving her a feyfruit tart next. It was a good thing she could eat so many tarts in such a short amount of ti.
"We've laid him down," the adventurers.
"Everyone, besides Alistair and the Guildmaster—out!" lina commanded.
"You heard her! Get lost. Make sure nobody cos into this room!" Arianne reiterated sternly.
With them gone, lina hurried up to Leon and grabbed his hand to feel his mana flow. She nearly recoiled, feeling his mana roil within his body, going completely berserk. "How many mana potions did he drink?!"
"Six, I believe…" Alistair replied.
"SIX?!" lina screeched.
It was a miracle that he was still alive after drinking so many. For beginner mages like Leon, who do not yet understand the mana flow within their body, drinking as much as three mana potions in quick succession could already be dangerous. Anything over that could lead to mana poisoning and eventual corruption.
Leon convulsed on the table as the mana raged within him, the blackness spreading from his limbs up to his torso.
"Dammit! Corruption is already setting in," lina cursed and grabbed Leon's hand, holding it firmly. She took a deep breath and using Sienna's mana, gently probed into the mage's mana flow.
Normally such action would be highly invasive, but his mana was already so jumbled, it would hardly make any impact. lina closed her eyes, and set to work. She slowly siphoned Sienna's mana into Leon's body, spreading it through every limb and body part.
The mage scread out, nearly jumping upright. Alistair managed to grab him and push him back down.
"Hold him down!" lina commanded.
Alistair grabbed the mage from one side, while Arianne held the other side.
"It hurts!" Leon scread.
"I know. I know it hurts. I'll sort it out," lina soothed the mage.
Just like she had with the portal, lina took hold of Leon's mana, forcing it back into correct flow. The mage scread, the process was very painful. But it was the only way of saving the man at this stage. Sienna let out a disgruntled chitter—the process wasn't pleasant for her either.
"Bear with for a mont, Sienna. We need to endure this," lina said, sweat beading on her forehead. She moved and circled the mana. The raging energy tried to break free, to burn and destroy. But lina didn't let it—she forced it back into the proper flow.
"Make it stop! Make it stop! It hurts too much," Leon bellowed.
"Don't give up, you fool!" Arianne reprimanded.
"Pain is good," lina said calmly, her eyes closed. "Pain is healing. Let it guide you."
She grabbed more of rogue mana and guided it into the right path. Leon scread. This process continued for a long ti. Leon scread and trashed around at first, but soon he ran out of strength, rely whimpering as lina circled the mana into its right flow.
But it was working. The dark aura surrounding Leon's limbs slowly settled down and the darkness receded. But lina knew she couldn't give up. One slip up could cause the mana to go berserk again, causing instant organ failure. So she kept fighting for the mage's life, guiding his mana back into the right place, calming its flow, setting it right.
lina didn't know how much ti passed. She felt utterly exhausted for a long ti. But the blackness had left Leon's limbs completely so she released the hold on his mana and slowly withdrew. When the mage remained calm, lina exhaled in relief.
"He'll be fine now," she muttered, barely able to hold her eyes open.
"H-How did you even— You know what, it doesn't matter," the Guildmaster said, and bowed to lina. "Thank you so much for saving him."
"It's the least I could do," lina nodded and tried to take a step forward, only to stagger and nearly fall to the ground.
"Are you alright, lina?" Alistair asked nervously, holding her up by her hand.
"I'm alright, but I think I need to rest now," she muttered. Sienna looked equally exhausted, laying limply on lina's shoulder.
"Take these both back ho. We'll discuss exactly what happened in the Monster Realm tomorrow," Arianne commanded.
lina didn't catch much of what happened afterwards. Alistair gently guided her out of the Guild, but her eyelid grew heavy and her limbs gave out. By the ti she ca to, she was already back in her bed.
She got up slowly, her body felt quite pained after guiding all of that rogue mana away from Leon. Sienna was sleeping right next to her, looking rather haggard and tired.
"How you holding up, Sienna?" lina asked, gently picking up the wyrm.
Sienna let out a long, tired yawn and slowly stretched out her body. Once done, she looked up at lina and let out a tired chitter.
"It was a hard day yesterday. How about so hearty breakfast?"
Much to lina's surprise when she went down into the kitchen, she saw Arianne chatting with Master Gilbert and eating bacon and eggs.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not ant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"Good morning?" lina greeted cautiously as she walked into the kitchen.
"Morning," Gilbert grumbled.
"Good morning," Arianne said cheerfully. It was an odd sight, seeing the Guildmaster so happy. The woman usually had a grumpy expression that could rival Gilbert's.
"May I ask why are you here first thing in the morning, Guildmaster?" lina asked, as she sat down at the table.
Gilbert scooped so still warm bacon and eggs from the pan and set it in front of her, then set another plate for Sienna. The wyrm dug into her al without hesitation crunching at the bacon with great enthusiasm.
"To celebrate, of course!" Arianne announced, take a bite from the bacon. "Thanks to your wyrm, my adventurers managed to take down a cragjaw drake. A cragjaw! Imagine all the money we're going to gain from the teeth alone, not even talking about the scales or claws. We're basically rich!"
Gilbert rolled his eyes dramatically. "I swear, in so regards you haven't grown at all. Still the sa reckless girl."
"Master, I'm thinking about the well-being of the whole town here. With that much money, we'll be able to get the best equipnt. Heck, we could even hire more adventurers, entice them to co to Sunglow. Wouldn't that be sothing?"
Arianne continued her happy chatter for a while, talking about possible growth prospects of the town. lina was skeptical at first, but soon joined her, also thinking of various ways of improving Sunglow. They talked about how it would be nice to have a carpenter and perhaps another inn and more specialized start. It was a fun little debate.
But lina also felt that she was missing sothing. She doubted the Guildmaster had co here so early in the morning just for a friendly chat.
"Alright, Arianne, enough. Tell us why you're here already," Gilbert muttered angrily.
Guildmaster's expression beca serious again. "To be honest, I wanted to thank lina. Without you we without a doubt would have lost Leon to corruption."
"You already thanked . There's no need to go out of your way to co here."
"I just wanted to show how truly grateful I am. Quite honestly your arrival has been a blessing upon our town, but…"
I knew there was more to it. Without a doubt she'll ask for an explanation.
"I cannot help but wonder how you managed to save Leon. From my understanding only soone highly skilled in magic could do that. I asked Heilia and she confird that no healing magic would be able to stop mana from corrupting."
lina looked anxiously at Gilbert. How could she explain this? She was tired of telling lies at this point, and it wasn't that she didn't trust the Guildmaster. If Gilbert trusted her, then lina was willing to believe that she really was trustworthy. But how much of the truth could accept?
"Just tell her, lass. I think it's best if sobody in Sunglow understands your situation properly. There is nobody better to trust with your secret than Arianne," Gilbert assured.
"So there's more secrets? Are you actually a [Mage] class?" Arianne questioned.
"No, not anymore," lina said.
"Not anymore? Can classes be changed?"
lina took a deep breath and then explained to her how she had actually lived as an [Archmage] before. She didn't admit that she was the one who rewound ti—that information was far too dangerous to spread around. But she did tell that she had extensive experience in magic before and could still manipulate mana with Sienna's help, even if she had none herself.
"I swear, our town has so curse set upon it to always attract the weirdest and most powerful people. First, the [Holy Knight] prodigy who establishes the Guild and next his apprentice is a ti travelling [Archmage]. Not to ntion all the elves and the nobleman with the System."
"You don't seem very upset about it," lina noted.
Arianne smiled. "Why would I be? I have a town full of the most talented people. Don't worry, lina, your secret is safe. In return, I ask that you keep making your magical pastries. And don't you hold back on us. I want you to show us the extent of your abilities."
"I'm quite honestly not sure of them myself. I've been trying to lay low."
"That was you trying to lay low? System, I can't wait to see what you're going to accomplish once you go all out," Arianne said, looking very pleased. "With your help we're going to turn Sunglow into a force to be reckoned with. Not even the Church will be able to ss with us anymore."
lina liked that thought very much. Increasing Sunglow's strength and prosperity could greatly improve lina's own chances of peaceful life. After all, when a strong town sides with her against the Church, they'd have to think twice before doing anything to her.
"I'll do my best," lina said, her voice filled with determination.
"Excellent. Start with the festival. My people brought back so Zephyr Root and Scorchvine Peppers. Use those to blow people away!"
Sienna wiggled her tail excitedly at the ntion of peppers, tapping her little feet on the table.
"Yes, yes, you can have so too," Arianne nodded, at which the wyrm let out a happy chitter.
"I'm not sure how I could use peppers, but the root is already giving so good ideas," lina confird.
"Good. Thank you for the breakfast, Master. I'll be going to work now. Have a ton of paperwork to sort out after that mission," Arianne said, not at all dismayed by the work ahead of her. "Oh, but if you have a mont to spare, do stop by the Guild. Leon wanted to talk to you."
"I will," lina confird and watched the woman leave.
"I do have to admire how you manage to make a splash everywhere you go. I expected that nothing could happen if you waited at the Guild, but here you go with your miracles again," Gilbert noted.
"I couldn't just let Leon die," lina countered, narrowing her eyes. "Besides, didn't you make quite the splash yourself when you arrived in Sunglow."
"So I did. We're more alike than I thought," Gilbert noted with a warm sort of smile.
lina took a step back. All the grumpy people were smiling this morning. She pinched herself to check whether she was having so fever dream from exhaustion.
"What are you doing?" The old baker raised his eyebrow.
"Nothing. I'll go stop by the Guild real quick and then return to start working on those pastries for the festival," she said and darted out of the door, after Arianne.
The two ended up walking to the Guild together, chatting along the way. Arianne told her about the other useful materials they found in the Monster Realm—naly Glittershale bark and Silkglass fibers. lina explained the possible applications of the two.
In the end, Arianne decided to entrust the Silkglass to Etrian, hoping to create sturdier clothing for the warriors. The Glittershale bark, however, was a problem. They had no dedicated carpenter to give it to, so for the ti being, they'd keep it and hope to find sobody who'd be willing to utilize it for Sunglow's sake.
lina enjoyed brainstorming with the Guildmaster. She was an intelligent woman and they were on the sa wavelength—thinking of how to improve Sunglow. Perhaps, it was also easier to speak with Arianne because lina had been around the sa age as her before the ti rewind.
Once they arrived at the Guild, Arianne showed where Leon was staying. He was in a private room for a ti. The Guildmaster had decided that it was for the best if people didn't know what happened yesterday. The official story would be that he was healed with the combination of Heilia's healing magic and lina's pastries. But the mage himself, of course, knew the truth.
As lina walked up the room, her heart beat nervously. She never thought it would happen because of Leon of all people. But once again she was faced with the dilemma of how much to reveal. The man wasn't exactly good at holding his tongue.
It's okay, I'll think of sothing.
lina knocked on the door.
"Co in," resounded the rather weak voice of the mage.
lina stepped into the room, seeing Leon gaze out of the window as he laid in bed looking haggard. His eyes had deep rings underneath them and he looked pale. But given the situation he was in yesterday, his condition could be classified as great.
"How are you feeling?" lina asked.
Leon turned towards her, his eyes lighting up in an instant. "Miss lina! Oh, forgive my appearance! I should greet you properly."
The man tried to get up to a sitting position.
"No, don't get up! You must be feeling tired. Stay in bed. I don't mind really," she said hurriedly.
Leon slumped back, but still looked at her eagerly. "I should be grovelling beneath your feet. You saved my life!"
"It's nothing really. I just did what I could to help," she replied nervously.
"No, I believe you always go above and beyond to help others, Miss lina. Yesterday, in the Monster Realm, I did my best to help others but I realized how utterly helpless I am. I had to chug six mana potions just to move a little bit of water to a different location…"
"That was very reckless. You could have died," lina chastised.
"I understand that. But you know… I want to actually be helpful. I call myself a mage but I barely know anything…" Leon said, his eyes downcast. "I want to be stronger. To actually be worthy of being called a mage."
Suddenly he looked up, staring at lina with determination. "Miss lina, please teach magic!"
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